Easter 2013

I got crafty for my nieces and nephews :)

This Easter came and went so quickly it seems!  I am having a hard time catching up since the March Madness (St. Patrick's dinner party, Easter, etc) that we experienced.  Easter was a lot of fun this year.  We Skyped with Aunt Bean, Uncle Chris, Uncle Tim, Belle and Sophia Saturday morning, then spent the afternoon at the Sanders house.  We swam, ate, and hunted for Easter eggs (Bean chose to swim through that part).  

On Sunday, the Easter Bunny brought some goodies for Makaila!  We went up the canyon to see Grandy and Gramps speak in church, then came home, napped, and opened up our Easter baskets.  That evening, we went to dinner at Great-Grammy and Grandpa's house, then managed a quick call with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop before bedtime.  It was a busy, busy day!  

Here are the pics we took:

Having fun at the Sanders.  This is her new smile for the camera

Giving kisses to her book in her Easter dress

Checking out the basket before church

New favorite book

Playing with Daddy

Bean loves her dad.  She especially loves playing with her Daddy.  Here is a cute video we got over President's Day weekend.  I love how she stops to try to love Tigger, then goes right back to it.  Good times :)

Little Mom

Everyone told me that having a girl first was the best.  I was told that girls are much more helpful with siblings than boys.  Since Bean doesn't have any siblings yet, I can't verify these statements, but I suspect they are going to be true.  My little girl has some very cute, interesting, and funny inclinations that make her seem like a little mom.

One thing Makaila does is she meticulously picks up after Jack.  Anytime she sees stuffing or pieces of fur on the floor from his toys, she either picks it up and throws it away, or has me come get it and throw it away.  These "fuzzes" drive her crazy, and she only watched me pick up after Jack once, so I'm not sure why she is so worried about it :)

Another nurturing habit that she has is caring for her stuffed animals.  After Bean's last doctor appointment, I learned that showing her what was going to happen on a stuffed animal made it seem less scary.  So when she didn't want her diaper changed one day, I thought I'd put a diaper on her stuffed bear so she would see that it wasn't so bad.  What a can of worms that turned out to be!  Since then she wants diapers on all of her bears, her elephant, and even her seahorse!  She will even help "wipe" them with wet wipes before putting the diaper on...haha!  This has also evolved to attempted baths for her "babies", though I have yet to find one that can be washed.

Wearing her bear's shirt

Kaila also loves to give her animals rides, and put them in her high chair and feed them cheerios.  She is super sweet with them and will often give them kisses and hugs for no apparent reason.  She gets worried when they fall over and helps them sit back up too.

Yes, I think this little Bean is going to be a great helper to Mommy in the future :)

New Year

A new year and new financial situation.  After months (and years) of hard work, we have finally paid off all of our school loans and what little consumer debt that we had.  We are officially DEBT FREE!  We plan to keep it this way too.  Now on to building up our savings :)

A new year and new resolutions.  Thanks to Trip's bright idea, we are setting goals in quarters this year.  Hopefully, we will be able to stick to them all year this way :)  One of my goals was to workout at least 3 times a week for the next 3 months.  I am hoping to do more than that, but since I am renting DVD's from the library for this purpose I wasn't sure how available they would be.

This week was the first week that I started on my new goal, and man, what a workout!  I am so sore, and I thought that I was doing pretty good at staying in shape through running and Zumba.  I can tell that this is going to be fun and challenging :)

A new year and new work.  Trip is still working for Domo, but has gotten a new position within the company.  It is more inline with what he where he wants his career to go, so we are both happy about it.  

A Look at 2012

2012 has treated this Baker family well.  We have experienced a lot of "firsts" in our family this year.  Makaila grew from this...

...to this.

She went from crawling for the first time,

to taking her first steps.

Kaila ate solid food for the first time,

And said her first words.

Trip ran his first obstacle course race (see this post for more) and got to see two of his young men from Malaysia leave to serve missions, which was a first as well.

I also ran my first race ever (more can be seen here), and attended a mission reunion for the first time in 4 years.  We took Makaila camping at Lake Powell for the first time (more about this to come), and we stopped at Zions Canyon on our way home.

Dan was the first out of my brothers to get married, and that made Alyssa (whom we love!) our first Doxey sister-in-law!

Trip and I went river rafting on Provo River for the first time with Dan and Alyssa this summer (unfortunately we don't have any pictures, just fond memories).  Makaila turned 1!  

She went to the aquarium for the first time...

we went to a pumpkin patch.

 We took family pictures for the first...

January 2012

second (click here to see more)...

April 2012

and third time this year!

November 2012

We sent out our first Christmas cards as a family.

Makaila had her first Easter,

Valentine's Day,

St. Patrick's Day,

Fourth of July,

and Halloween.

Our first nieces were born!  

Bean experienced her first snow.

She will also get to see the lights at Temple Square for the first time this year.

This picture is from Scott Sanders

We have been truly blessed and are forever grateful for the unique experiences, gifts, and love that each and every one of our family members and friends brings into our lives.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

Thanksgiving 2012

Ever since we got married, Trip and I have tried to cook our own Thanksgiving meal, and then meet up with family for dessert (at least when we are in Utah).  Obviously, when we have stayed with others, and when we were in Malaysia, we did things differently.  This Thanksgiving weekend, we were able to enjoy a delicious meal, visit both sets of Great-grandparents, and get our Christmas decorations up.  It was a fun weekend spent enjoying our time together as a family. 

Anxious to eat

Doing prayer hands

Learning bad begging habits from Captain Jack

Wearing Dad's dog-tags after eating Thanksgiving dinner

Cuddling and singing with Dad at Great-grammy's house

Swinging with Gramps

Helping me untangle the lights

One of Makaila's favorite books is "Pat the Bunny", so this ornament was by far her favorite