we wish you a merry christmas

ho ho horrible

we took niya to the mall to meet santa for the first time. i honestly thought she would be fine. she really has no stranger anxiety at all. apparently santa is beyond stranger status

she HATED every second of santa

christmas jammies

i love them

give thanks

thanksgiving was fantastic as usual. 

it was our year to be with the quists, so we stayed in town. it was nice to get up, and be home for a good part of the day, just enjoying the holiday

my day started bright, and early, making  lots, and lots of these.

drews started bright, and early on the ski slopes

  

later the quist family all gathered at scott and lisas

niya was showered with attention....as usual

it was fun to be together as a family

especially since baby brother was on break from syracuse

lisa made the turkey, gravy, and the stuffing. soooo good. i really love her stuffing

amanda made an absurd amount of home made cranberry sauce.

yum

i made grams's rolls, and a home made apple pie. i love grams's rolls,

they so remind me of her

we ate, and ate, and sat around chit chatting

drew and jason love to chit chat

thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays.

even if i do eat myself sick

saylors family fun

we spent a few days in california with my family before thanksgiving

there's never a dull moment

funky town

i have to say niya's first birthday party was pretty freakin awesome. since its a couple days before halloween, naturally we had to have a costume party. what better than to do a disco theme. its no secret that i  kind of love costumes, and dressing up. this couldn't have been more fun!

me and drews costumes came from the thrift store

i made niyas jumpsuit out of a nasty polyester dress from the thrift store. its not easy to find disco costumes for babies. her shoes also came from the thrift store spruced up with a little spray paint. for the belt i hot glued mardi gras beads on some felt

voila!

 we had lots of friends and family show up.

i couldn't have been more impressed with the costume efforts

way to go people!!

that morning me and my mom spent hours making cup cakes. they turned out really cute and really pretty yummy

 i had been working on teaching niya how to blow so that she could blow out her first candle. she

learned how to blow but got nervous with the crowd watching her so she crumbled under pressure

she did, however, love eating the cake

she got so many cute presents! and she actually loved sitting there opening every single one

she especially loved the shopping cart that grandma lisa gave her

i worked really hard making all the party decor. the pictures don't really do it justice

the birthday banner i made out of 12 old records. on every record was a picture for every month of her life

i also glued every stinkin sequin on that disco ball

i thought all my hard work paid off. the party was a huge success 

it was so worth it

niya should have been born in the 70's. 

she looks pretty awesome with an afro

from zero, to one, in a flash

as usual im behind on my blogging blah blah blah

but...

the cutest baby in the world turned one last month! its not even funny how fast this year went. i think im in constant denial that niya is practically a toddler. she is changing so fast, and doing so much. i swear every day its a new trick!

one day after her birthday she started walking, she weighs 20 pounds , she now has 5 and a half teeth, her first word was eye (i know totally random) she also says mama, kitty, duck, fish and more. she knows that dogs say woo woo and im sure she says a hundred other words that only she, and other babies understand. she feeds herself. eats really well. LOVES sweets (just like her mama) drinks regular milk, goes up and down the stairs all by herself, dances to anything that has a beat, likes sesame street, jumps up and down on anything bouncy, tries to run away from me when im trying to take something from her, shakes her head no when she's doing something bad, opens all the cupboards and drawers and pulls EVERYTHING out, laughs when i laugh, smiles all the time, and is just such a happy baby....how could i not be such a happy mama

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

we love you more than words can express

"what's a pumpkin patch?"

i was excited to take niya to the pumpkin patch, since this halloween she was not only like 2 seconds old. i wanted to go sit her in the pumpkins, and take a million pictures, just like i remember doing my entire childhood. my mom, and dad were coming for  niyas first birthday, so i thought it would be fun to do with them.  when drew got home later that evening, i told him we went to the pumpkin patch with niya. this is how the conversation went

drew: how was your day? what did you guys do?

me: it was really fun, my parents, and i took niya to the pumpkin patch, and took pictures

drew: what do you mean?

me: what do you mean what do i mean. we took pictures at the pumpkin patch

drew: whats a pumpkin patch?

me: what?? are you kidding me? its a big farm where you go, and pick out pumpkins. didn't you do that as a kid?

drew: no we just got ours at the grocery store

i couldn't fathom that he didn't go have photo shoots at the pumpkin patch, and then pick the perfect pumpkin out of rows, and rows, and rows of pumpkins!

its funny the things you just assume everyone does, and so surprising when you find out they don't

niya will always know about photo shoots at the pumpkin patch, and its a good thing because she looked so cute in them

New York

our final stop on our eastern tour was Syracuse new york to see adam. it was great to see the city he lives in, the school he goes to, and his apartment. i didn't really get any pictures there. i don't know why! 

we happened to be there over my birthday so they planned a dinner and cakes after

the sunday that we were leaving we drove to Palmyra to visit the sacred grove and hill cumorah 

i was excited to go because its something we hear about over, and over in our church. it was very special  to actually be there and feel the spirit that was there

the smith farm was really pretty

we walked around the grounds before we entered the grove

inside the grove it felt so crisp, and cool, and peaceful. i had to just stop and think about what it really meant to me. 

my favorite thing was looking up through the trees and seeing the light peak through i couldn't help but hum to myself "oh how lovely was the morning....."

niya was happy to be there. i think she sensed it was special

adam is lucky to live so close

we kept trying to get a self timer shot of all of us. i have to say it was over all unsuccessful. this was the best we got

grandma and grandpa with niya

as everyone walked out of the grove i just kind of lagged behind and tried to soak up the spirit that was there

from the farm you could see the top of the temple through the trees

after the sacred grove we went to hill cumorah. it was neat to be there and see the monument that symbolizes where the golden plates were buried

this was our last stop before we headed to the airport. what a great way to end a really fun trip!

vermont

Vermont was where the nalc convention was, so here we met up with scott, and lisa. normally lisa and i hang out while drew and scott go to meetings. we get to see a lot of cool places and do a lot of fun things.

in case you didn't know. Vermont is the home of the original ben and jerry's factory

so of course we took a tour

scott loves ice cream soooo much that he decided to skip the meetings and go with us.... OK that's not entirely true. he had mallet finger from putting on his shoes too hard, so he couldn't go to the "golfing meeting" with the rest of the business people

we were happy to have him with us! especially since he's the one holding niya up in this picture.

don't we totally look like ben and jerry?

statue of cows, because cows make milk, and milk makes ice cream

at the end of the tour we got a free sample

it was mint chip. ben and jerrys really is good

after the meetings were over drew got to join us. we went to the ski resort and took the gondola

grandma and niya taking in the spectacular view

we hiked (OK walked) to a little waterfall

Vermont was really lush and beautiful. and the fall colors were amazing.

next stop Syracuse to see baby brother