Hawaii!!!!!!!!!!

Jenna and I went to Kauai, HI with my parents, Aunt Becky, and sister Wendy. Andrew stayed behind because he had work and school, but let us go for a week. What a guy! :) We were gone 7/1/11-7/9/11. Jenna did SO good on all airplane rides. I was so proud of her. It takes a long time to fly to Hawaii, and she had to wake up SUPER early because we had a really early flight there. ANd we had an overnight flight on the way back. She slept in the stroller during security checks for 1 hour and in my arms for about 5 hours during our first flight on the way back to Utah. She is a big time crib sleeper. So I was stunned and oh so grateful that she slept in my arms during that overnight flight! She turned into a stroller/ sleep in mommy's bed druing the week too. The time change was pretty dramatic, and we were out and about quite a bit but she was so adaptable and did SO good! I have the most amazing little girl! We had a lot of fun! We went to a laua, Wendy and I went on a kayak/ mud hike to some pretty waterfalls. We went to a couple of beaches, on a bike ride, ate good food, snorkeled, and just had a nice time. Jenna loved playing in the water! We were happy to be home and see Daddy again though. We sure missed him!

My Loves

I need to journal/blog a lot more. So many funny, happy, wonderful, cute things happen all the time and I keep thinking I need to catch up on my blog... and then I don't. So, while I have a break from school I am going to catch up a little bit. This post is not about events though, just about my darling daughter and my trophy husband. :) Andrew has been becoming more and more helpful over the past couple of months. (He found out my love language is service) :). We worked really hard together on our back yard and it is looking awesome! I feel so hapy when I am back there because of how much we have accomplished. Andrew has also been helping out with the dishes, taking Jenna when I need to do homework or make dinner, and he has been helping me with handyman things in the house here and there as well. I am not very good at asking for help, but he is really good at recognizing when I need it and stepping in. He is working full time and going to school, but still recognizes and steps up to his role as a good husband and father and I appreciate him VERY much! He let me go out for a girls night the other night and when I came home, he had made zucchini bread with zucchini from our garden, did all of the dishes, scrubbed the sink sparkling white clean, AND hung up my new light fixture I had bought a while ago in the bathroom! I didn't ask him to do any of that. He is my rockstar!!!!! We have been going on more dates lately too since the end of semester began approaching. I am so happy I havfe an outdoorsy husband to hike, rock climb and fish with. :) We share a lot of the same likes, hopes, and dreams. Being married to him is fun! :)

Jenna is growing SO fast! I was looking at a picture of her from a little over a year ago and she looks so different to me! I can't believe my baby is a toddler! And she really is a full blown toddler! I love her so much. Here are some of the things I adore about her:
-She is very cautious, she likes to stay by my side and will not associate with strangers unless she has been around them a lot in a short period of time. I am happy she is cautious.
-She likes to snuggle and gives us lots of big hugs that make us feel loved.
-She says "num num!" (yum yum)
-She says "Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm"
-She repeats whatever we say, and her pronounciation is SO cute! The other day I said "Good girl, Jenna". And she said "Good guhl, Mama. Good guhl, Daddy" hehe
-She has been learning that people have ownership of things. For example, today we were unpacking and she picked up my swimsuit and said "Mama's...dih duit". So cute!
-She is a little too tough when loving on her smaller cousins and friend, Braxton, but she never intentionally squeezes too hard, she is just very loving. She especially loves animals and babies! She calls babies "buddy" and gets really excited when we see one anywhere. :)
-She is really good at saying please, even without prompting, and it's the cutest thing in the world! When she wants us to hold her she will come up to us with her arms reaching up towards us and say "Uh Peas" (Up Please). :)
-She gets into the pantry, grabs a box of cereal, and reaches her hand in there and starts eating. I usually take it away and put some in a bowl for her or something, but I think her budding independence is really funny and cute.
-She reaches for my hand and says "hayn?" so we can hold hand when we are walking together. I love it!
-She is still an awesome sleeper! Which means I am an awesome homework do-er and sleeper too. :)

Easter pics

Easter

We spent the night before Easter and morning at the Hughes house and had Easter dinner at the Dalton's house. We had a pre-Easter BBQ at the Hughes house Saturday night and it was SO good! I am so excited for BBQ season! We also colored Easter eggs and had a good time. On Easter morning, I spread out a bunch of plastic eggs for Jenna to find, and put her basket filled with more eggs, a little plastic flute and her first puzzle on the couch. She was so excited! She immediately ran to her basket and then went around finding eggs to add to her basket. I was impressed with how quickly she caught on. :) She wore a beautiful dress given to her by Grandma Hughes. We had Easter Breakfast rolls and the colored eggs for breakfast. I think I might need to make those rolls for breakfast every Easter, they are really good! We had a really fun, Springtime day.

The Zoo!

Jenna and I went to the zoo with Grandma, Aunt Wendy and cousin Mindy, during Mom and Wendy's Spring Break. IT was a lot of fun! Jenna had been to the zoo a few weeks earlier in San Diego, but she was much more attentive to the animals this time. She had fun pointing at them and making animal noises at them. We had a great time. Wendy and I tried to mimick the Ostrich and Giraffes face expressions and as you can see, we had a fun time trying to master them. :) Jenna was not so keen on being in the stroller, so we let her walk around a bit (while staying very close to mommy of course. We ended the visit with some play time at the zoo playground where Grandma was being eaten by a toy alligator and Jenna came to the rescue. :) The gorilla in the picture totally came into view when he saw us and started posing. :) Good times! Oh yeah, and look how cute Jenna's pigtails are! She took them out soon aftern getting in the car, but they sure were fun while they lasted! :)

San Diego

We went to San Diego over Spring Break with our neighbors, the Fowlers. We went to the zoo, the beach, Old Town, the Temple grounds, shopping, ate alot, and played games. We had a great time!

More

In Februaury, Andrew went to San Diego for a wedding and a mission farewell, both cousins of his. It was a quick trip and we did not want to put Jenna through 2 12 ohur drives just to stay a weekend. So Jenna and I went down to Orem and hung out with the Hughes family. We went to the park to feed the ducks and play on the swing and slides. Jenna LOVES the swing and slides! It is so fun to see her big smile when she is out in a swing!!!

We are doing a lot to our yard this spring and summer. We are making a garden, moving sprinklers, moving and getting rid of the bug zapper, etc. Jenna and I were weeding the flower beds a couple of weeks ago and she loved it!!! Now, whenever we go outside, she wants to play in the dirt! I learned in one of my classes this semester that playing in water, sand, and mud is therapeutic for children, so we have some 'outside' clothes that are ok to get super dirty. :)