You shall wait no longer.

I almost forgot... I can finally post our first family pictures! =D  And pictures of Kayden of course.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

This cute little squirt loves this toy!  Her faces are priceless...all the time!  It's great!

It actually freakin snowed (and by snowed I mean it was all gone in 4 minutes, of course.  I wouldn't expect anything different.  God forbid I get to make chocolate snow...ever!  Ugh! ;-) ) in Albuquerque so I had to document it.  They're funny, sometimes (the seldom times that we get snow or rain or anything!) they love it and play, and sometimes they're not so fond, and hurry to potty.  This day was a day that Riley was on a mission.  When she finished I was waiting towel in hand at the back door.  They are fully aware that they're supposed to stop there, and let each paw be thoroughly cleaned before they stinkin jet through the house, usually to the guest bed pillows.  That is their favvvorite spot.  Anyway, there I stand waiting, as she decides to fly past and run straight through the entire house and lay in front of the heater so it could blast in her face.  That little punk.  Now I had a 30 foot trail of little mud paw prints, and Dozer was finishing up quickly. 

Luckily, he's a good boy ;-), and waited outside like I said.  He decided this would be a good time to catch/eat some snowflakes.  Silly guy.

The other day she somehow got like this, and was loving it.  She was cracking me up.  Those are my new radical pj's from Dominic for Christmas. =)

She was so happy.  It didn't look very cumfy...

"Happy New Year" =).  They...didn't work out how I planned.  They're supposed to be little party hats, but that didn't work.  And the colors meshed together, which didn't work either.  And now after continuously forgetting to take them over to Grandpa and Grandma Kitt's house, and having people over last night that didn't know they were there, they now sit on the counter, stale.  Sad day.

However, I think these party hats came out super cute.  =)  Molly and I did a little craft sesh yesterday creating our festive homemade hats.   A mixture of Happy New Year, 2011, Party on Dude, and 2 Beer Pong Champs hats included.  They were a hit, whew!

And Kayden's little "handprint" ornament.  We'll try again next year.

 We got her this for Christmas and I don't think she understands that this one is a lookie toy, not a chewie toy. ;-)

We were lucky and got to go on a hot date last night and have some friends over to celebrate the New Year.  I read this little fun thing on Dating Divas blog.  (Check the blog all you people in relationships, it's pretty cool, and gives me lots of fun ideas, like the Christmas cards for each day of December for Dominic, and all kinds of stuff.)  Anyways, I got this little idea from there, and he was nice enough to play along.  We seperated before getting ready, got ready at opposite ends of the house, and he went outside and "came to the door to pick me up".  =) (This was extra nice of him because it was absolutely freezing outside!)  So that was fun.  We went to Bravo, a new place (to us, not to..the land of enchantment haha).  And then had some friends over.  It was great.  We had so much fun, and I'm looking forward to the new year!

And these...are some pictures of a calender I made my mama.  The cover is a mosaic of our family photos, and a picture that I took off the coast of San Francisco on a boat.  I just picked this picture randomly because I think it's pretty cool, and I liked the color of the water, that I also used for the font for their name.  Anyway, everyone keeps saying I should make this a little business so I suppose I'll just throw it out there, and see how it goes haha.  Mine took about a week to come in.. and I'm aware that it is already January soo..sorry that if you choose to do this it will be a week or two into the year...buuuut they're very cool!  I want to make one for us!  You can choose any photos, and any number of photos between 12-74.  And $35.  Soo..if anyone is interested (even for next year) please let me know.  We could use the extra cash, and I'm telling ya, they're super cool haha.  Ask my mom. ;-)

This is just an example, and my Aunt Misty is on her birthday.  You can put any picture in any boxes as well, which I suppose would make you be able to use more pictures than 74...

And here are a couple other mosaics that I've made in past years.  A mosaic isn't a must, I just think they make cool covers.  I can do it with any picture really.

Sooo yup.  Anyway--if anyone is interested please let me know! =)  I think I am friends with most of you who I think read this on Facebook, or my email is kayla_conn@yahoo.com.

Our New Years Resolutions:

Dominic "I need to get into better shape so I can play with Kayden forever, cause whoof, Dad's gettin chunky."

Mine:  Haha, I second that.  And I'm working on my patience.  I need more of that.  And also being able to handle crazy places (like Santa at the Mall lol). 

We'll see how that goes lol.

And yes this is the first time I've tried to use the links, and I'm going a little link crazy ok.

Before I forget...

I've been thinking of a lot of things I love lately.

• When Kayden is in her bouncer across the living room, and I am writing a blog, and I talk and wave to her, and she gets so excited and bounces extra high.

• When Kayden is so amazed by the pups, and they are so amazed by her.

• When Dominic sings to her and she sometimes stares, which is adorable.  And sometimes smiles, which is adorable.

• When she grabs her froggy down from her hanging carseat, and gets the foot in her mouth, then lets go and the foot vibrates her whole mouth.

• When she lays her head on my chest, which is getting more and more seldom =(.

• When she giggles when you blow in or kiss her neck or tummy.

• When she talks to me.  Or Dominic.  Or Anyone.  Or her toys.

• When her whole face lights up when you go to get her from a nap.

• That she is starting to love to touch things.

• When she surprises herself.

• When she starts to cry(not this part) while she's napping, and you go in to put her suckie back in, and she says (this part) nom..nom...nom nom nom om nom om om nom... noooom  om noom.

• How she can roll over now.

• How she looks up at you when she's on your chest, in her bed, laying down, anywhere.

• How she enjoys doing things with me. (This may just be my imagination but oh well.  No one else likes to spend 2 hours in Hobby Lobby, and then 2 more at Michaels with me.  Kayden does.  As long as she can grab 8475 things.)

• How she gets a kick out of "boo".

• How her face goes "oahhhoo" when you pour water on her belly in the bath.

• How anything is fun if we do it as a family.  Even just laying on the floor.  Who woulda thunk?

• How I have a delish man who cooks delish dinner.

• How Dominic will put Kayden up to his mouth and "eat her like corn on the cob" and she lauuuuughs!  And he says "ommm nom nom, Kayden on da cob Kayden on da cob!"

I'll keep thinking...always.

Christmas with Gpa & Gma Conn.

It's always so good to get to see Kourt again when she comes down.

Grandpa Conn couldn't wait to give her a present either.

Help from Grandma Conn.

Lauuuughing with Grandpa Conn, he was blowing on her tum tum.

Kayden and Grandma Ree.

Deeeeeeply concentrating on their game lol.

 

 Kayden found a mirror while I was putting her in her carseat.  We don't have any mirrors that she can touch, only the little one's that are high in the bathroom.  We still hold her up to look into them and try to let her touch them, but it's just not the same I guess.  She was fascinated by this.

Their house is always a fun time.  We enjoyed the mellow day opening presents and relaxing.  Grandma said that when she walked in, they were all asleep on the couch haha.

So we made it through the Christmas weekend alive.  Hopefully we can get up to see the Colorado family soon!  We miss you guys!

Christmas with Gpa & Gma Kitts.

First, another family photo.  It was so nice out on Christmas.  This was even when we were leaving.  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, it's quite nice to not be freezing, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas without snow.

Grandpa Kitts could hardly wait to give her a present, and she could hardly wait to put the wrapping in her mouth!

All she cares about is the present haha.  She's caught on.

Playing with Grandma Kitts.

Haha, this face is great.  Having a blast with Uncle Josh.

 These goofballs.  Jordan, Alec, and their Grandma.

They got Bezzerwizzer, which we just so happen to buy a couple weeks ago, and happens to also be our new favorite game.  It's a toughy I tell you!  Not easy questions, seriously.  This is also, only like half of that family.  We're missing a few here, I think next Christmas they need a bigger table lol.

Steve and Annette also got a Wii for Christmas, so it was the hit of the day.  Lots of Mario Cart battles going on.

Their house is always full of good food, great people, and lots of noise, laughter, bets, battles, challenges, competitions, and memories.  It was a great Christmas spent doing the norm over there; eating, playing, and laughing.


After their house we went to Dominic's Mom's side of the family.  They had an open house at their Auntie Sharons.  It was super busy and crazy, which is a little overwhelming to me, but at the same time, very exciting and always new.  I'm glad we made it.  =)  Sadly, I didn't get many pictures, because I was a little overwhelmed, but hopefully I will get to steal some off of Facebook or something soon. =)  Thank you for having us over Auntie Sharon, it was a great time!

Christmas day was great.  I'm glad we got to spend it here with Dominic's family, although I missed my family a lot.  I suppose that's the beauty of combining families and making a new family.  Compromise, compromise, compromise.  It was wonderful to see him happy though, and I was happy as long as I was with him and Kayden, so it all worked out. =)

Christmas Eve with the Kitts/Conns.

Ah.  Christmas Eve.  It was full of many things.  We had decided, long ago, that Christmas Eve would be OUR family day, because we knew the rest of the weekend would be craziness.  So that's what we did, and I'm so glad.  =)  We, of course, put off/were too busy until then to make the Christmas goodies we gave to our family down here.  So, we were super busy running around all day for; last minute ingredients, candles for luminarias, gifts, etc.  Lesson learned, it is wayyy too crazy out there.  We won't be doing that again.

After all the goodies were finished, we got to business--of enjoying our family day.  We set up luminarias together.  Dominic on the roof, I around the driveway and sidewalk, and Kayden on the porch in her new bouncer from Grandma Kreisher for Christmas. =)  It was such a great day out, but started getting a little chilly as we went along, so Kayden got to wear this great hat.

After we got them all set up, we drove around to look at all the lights with our homemade caramel apple cider.  As you can tell, Kayden really payed attention.

Came home to our pretty house.

With our pretty tree.

Kayden finally woke up from her nap, after much anticipation on our parts haha, and opened her first present ever =D  I don't know what she's looking at here, but she was too funny.  All she wanted to do was stuff allllll the wrapping in her mouth.

We got her a cool thing that projects a little movie on the ceiling for when she's going to sleep.  Now that I think about it, I think it's kind of a present to us haha.  (Dominic picked that out, haha.  ;-)  The present I picked out was from Santa.  Just kidding, but seriously.)

I looove these adorable little santa and reindeer pants!

It's your First Christmas?? You don't say...

Dominic...I mean Santa... filled our stockings.  Big bones for the dogs, formula for Kayden, and candy for us. =)

And just a shot of little missy hanging out in her great cradle while we were getting ready for the wild day of Christmas.

Christmas Eve was great.  We decided that we are going to make it a tradition to hang out all day together, look at lights, and open our family presents together on Christmas Eve.  We also are planning on giving her an ornament each year, and when she moves out she will have her own collection started.  =D  This year her ornament is her own "handprint" that we tried to make, but turned out more as a blob. She tried to grab the ornament instead of stamp her hand, but it was hilarious.  And I think is even better than if she had really stamped it haha.  We went to get family photos taken together, and more pictures of her (duh.), but some family members haven't gotten theirs in the mail yet (haha sorry. i'm a slacker, i know.) so I'll have to wait to post those. =)

I love that I have my own family now, and we can choose anything and everything.  We can choose our traditions, our plans, our outfits for family pictures ;-).  It's great.  I am so glad and grateful I have my great little family (including the dogs) and we could all spend Christmas Eve together as a family.  I hope we have many more of these.