Oakley Kay

Oakley is growing so fast, I feel like I can hardly keep up with her!  She is so full of energy and wakes up excited and eager to learn everything about the world each morning.  So many people say that 2-year olds are so hard and that they hate the "terrible two's," but I have found that I love having a two year old!  She loves learning, and is SO curious about everything.  It's amazing to see her development and how quickly she picks up on new things.  Her memory is incredible.  Cam and I often joke that she has a photographic memory... but no, really!

Her favorites as of late (they change almost daily) are play dough, carrying a new stuffed animal with her everywhere that she goes, watching disney movies, and helping mom bake/cook in the kitchen.  Anytime that I am making anything, she comes to the edge of the counter saying, "I want to sit right there!!" pointing up on the table where I am cooking.  She likes to always be right where the action is!

One of my favorite things that she says anytime she accomplishes something is, "TA-NA!"  I love how at this age the smallest things are so exciting and I love seeing her proud face when she accomplishes something.  Whenever she references to something, she usually puts "way" before whatever it is.  Such as it's "way fun, way warm, way cute, way silly!"

She loves snacking all day long, and she always makes sure that someone is eating with her.  Whenever she has food she will say, "mommy or daddy have some too!" She loves having someone to snack and share with :)

She is very good at using full and complete sentences, but she still likes to repeat things that other people say.  Whenever I tell her something that I am going to do, she always follows up with, "I want to do ____ too!"  She likes to do things on her own, but isn't afraid to say, "mommy help you!" when she can't quite do something.

Cam has a crazy schedule working nights and sleeping in the days.  On the days that Cam is sleeping, Oakley always will start whispering and tell me, "shh daddy is sleeping.  He is tired!"  The best is on the days that he hasn't worked and doesn't sleep in the day, Oak will always say, "daddy woke up!!"

Oakley is so excited for the holidays to be here.  She tells me daily, "It's almost Christmas time!"  I always tell her that we do Thanksgiving first, and then she will point up on our entertainment center where I have some pilgrim decorations and say, "Right there is Thanksgiving mommy!"  She can hardly wait for everyone to come visit for Christmas.  My parents and Ty are planning on coming for the holidays and Oakley cannot stop talking about it.  She told me the other day that at Christmas time, "Nana, and Papa, and Ty Ty, and.... Corbin" were coming.  I couldn't believe that she remembered about Corb.  She was seriously a baby when he left on his mission.  Even though he won't be home till next year, I thought it was so sweet!

Every day she is teaching me how to love and enjoy the things that really matter in life.  I love you Oakley!  Thanks for letting me be your mommy!



 

Surprise!

Oakley and I decided to make a surprise trip to Utah for Halloween.  It was the best!  Cam wasn't able to go due to work, but he was so sweet and let us make the trip so we could be at home with family for the week.  The only one that knew we were coming was my brother Tyler.  He picked us up from the airport in Salt Lake, and drove us up to Logan to surprise my parents.  It was so fun to see the excitement in Oakley's face when we told her we were going to see cousins and grandparents.  She has this little excited shake she does when she is really anxious for something, and she did it a lot while we were visiting!  My mom thought she saw a ghost when Oakley walked into her house and she let out the loudest scream!  I couldn't believe that I actually kept something from my mom and she legitimately had no idea that we were going to be there.  It was so much fun to surprise everyone. We have missed seeing family and it was really nice to be able to get to spend a week at home.

The three musketeers reunited!

Oakley loved trick-or-treating with Dawson and Desmond, and all of the adults dressed up this year!  Ty and Joseph helped me whip up a unicorn costume, and Oakley dressed up as Ariel from the Little Mermaid.  You can't exactly see her dress since she was all bundled up, but she didn't know the difference!  We couldn't believe how cold it was while we were visiting. 

Cute bundled up trick-or-treaters

Jeffrey's face paint was so spooky.  I couldn't believe that he did it on himself!

Oak with her "Ty Ty"

Watching our Aggies play!  Oakley loves going to the basketball games.
 I was so happy that we got to see a game while we were in town

Fun with the cousins!

I was so glad we got a chance to meet up with Tanner and
go to lunch while we were visiting.  We are lucky to have him as a friend!

Dawson is Oakley's little protector at the playground.  He made sure that
nobody got in her way on the slide or swings while we were there!  haha

Helping Papa make waffles for breakfast.  Yum!

Cache Valley really is beautiful in the winter.  We lucked out and got to
see the first snow fall!

Fun times shopping at City Creek 

Joseph, Ty, and my mom swimming at the hotel the night before we flew home.  

Love my parents!

Oak playing peek-a-boo!

Ty is the best uncle in the world.  Oakley adores him and
he is so sweet with her.  I love this picture.  It shows their relationship
perfectly.

Eating a yummy breakfast at the Park Cafe before our flight

Ty happened to be flying out to California headed to Disneyland the exact same
time that we were flying home.  It was fun to have him there to see us off at the gate!

Hopefully we will be making many more trips to visit in the future!
It was such a fun week!!

Fall is in the air

The month of October has always been one of my favorite months for many reasons.  I love the crisp fall air, Halloween, and all of the fun festivities that come along with this time of year.  Not to mention that Oakley was born in October!  I was worried that living in Texas would change all of my feelings about Fall with the difference in weather, but so far it has not disappointed :)

Oakley playing with her witch from Nana and Papa

She was determined to wear her Halloween cat shirt all day.  We
were going to go swimming (which she is always anxious to do),
 so I told her we needed to put her suit on. I quickly found that she was
not going to take off that shirt for anything!

Painting pumpkins

Busy at work!

It might be hard to tell in the bottom picture, but Oakley's pumpkin
in the middle seriously looks like it has a face!  She is quite the
little artist!

My baby is two!

Oakley turned two this past weekend, and it was such a fun birthday. My brother Tyler flew in from Salt Lake to visit and help us celebrate. He is our first visitor since we moved! The day that he flew in, it was so rainy and stormy. While driving to pick him up, I seriously thought my car was going to wash away! It has definitely been an adjustment for me learning how to drive in Texas. There is a lot of freeway driving, and most of the streets are "one way." I probably look like a drunk driver half of the time trying to follow my GPS directions. Despite the drive, we were able to pick Ty up and it was so good to see him! Oakley was a little bit shy with him at first, but once she warmed up to him she never stopped talking! We went to Sea World in San Antonio, and then stayed in a hotel that night. Oakley loved the rides and animals at Sea World. She couldn't stop talking about riding the pink horse on the carousel. She loves any type of theme park rides, and kept saying that she wanted to ride the "rower coasters" She has no fear! They also had a lot of Halloween themed houses and mazes at the end of the night. I get really anxious with haunted houses, but Tyler wouldn't let me be a wimp and not go through! He volunteered to watch Oakley while Cam and I went through a "Haunted Forest." I literally made it 10 feet inside the forest and panicked. I came back out, and Ty sent me right back in haha. I love how he can get me to do things that I wouldn't otherwise do. The next day we went to see the Alamo, River walk, and the Chinese Tea Gardens. It was all so neat and very beautiful. It was such a fun little weekend trip. Oakley got a pink trike for her birthday, and got to talk to "Nana and Papa" on Facetime. She was definitely spoiled :) It was so hard taking Ty back to the airport at the end of the weekend, but we were so glad he got to come. I love my brother!

This video shows a little bit of Oakley's excitement for Sea World!

Oakley loves her Daddy

The Alamo

The Chinese Tea Gardens... breathtaking!

Oakley got three bracelets as part of her present from Nana and Papa.  She insisted on wearing all of them!

        We got to eat at Rudy's for Oakley's birthday dinner.    As you can see, she loves it!

Yummy Rudy's sauce!

Oakley loved snuggling lots with Ty!  I was so happy I captured this on camera.   It was so sweet!