Christmas 2013.... better late than never! :)

I am a little behind in my posts but here is a post about our Christmas!

We got to spend two weeks in Utah/ Nevada and was able to get the whole family together on both sides! It was GREAT! We even got to take family pictures with my family and with Sam's family! And they turned out better than expected! Maylee was not very cooperative and by the time we were taking family pictures with my family she had already made up her mind that she didn't like getting family pictures taken! :)

This was Maylee's 2nd Christmas and this year we spent it with the Leatham side of the family! This was also Maylee's first time getting the flu... and it was sadly not just her that got it but basically the entire Leatham family (and then we passed it along to a few people in my family too!) All of the babies got sick at the same time and all of the daddy's got sick a few nights later! It was really sad seeing her that sick and it took her a good 4 days to recover and able to keep anything down! But besides being sick it was really nice to all be together! Maylee loved being with her cousins and it was fun to see them getting to an age where they can actually play together!

After our visit to Logandale we went to St. George to visit with my family! and again it was nice because we were all able to get together! And we finally got to meet little miss Zoey! Maylee was so in love with her! She kissed on her a lot! and after we went home every baby was baby Zoey! : ) And another person she was quite in love with was Grandpa Great! She would get so excited every morning when he got up... so sweet!

After St. George we spent New Year's Eve in Vegas at Logan and Lindsey's new house and then the next day had to fly back to Tennessee! The trip of course went by WAY too quickly but the family time was definitely overdue!

17 and 18 month update :) :) :)

 Ahhhhhhhhh our baby is 18 months old today!! She can officially go to nursery now.... She has been going with me since I teach one of the classes but now she is official! We got a little busy and skipped her 17 month update so I will catch you up on the past 2 months. Maylee has grown up a lot and WAY too fast! She has such a personality now and is able to communicate pretty well with us! She doesn't just grunt and point at things she wants now :)

(a few pictures from family pictures this year. Done by Embody Photography)

We have had a busy few months since our last update when Grandma and Grandpa Leatham got to come visit. In October we had my mom visit and my dad visit! Here are a few pictures from their visit and also our Halloween pictures. We decided to be the Peter Pan gang. Sam- Peter Pan, Me- Wendy, Maylee- Tinker Bell, Nana- Tiger Lily, Grandpa- Captain Hook.

When Grandpa was here we carved pumpkins, went to our ward Halloween party, and went to the Zoo and Discovery Center... Maylee had such a blast with Grandpa and was a little grandpa's girl the whole time he was here visiting.

While Nana was here we went trick or treating at the mall, went hiking (more like a walk), went to the nature center, and went to the zoo (we really like the zoo!) It was so much fun to have my momma here and Maylee was sad to see her go home and whenever we facetime with her Maylee will now yell "NANA!"

A few more pictures of our trip to the zoo with daddy....

Now for a little bit about what Maylee likes to do these days... 

She ABSOLUTELY loves babies and everything to do with babies.. she loves pretending to change their diapers, feed them, sing them rock a bye baby, and put them to sleep. If we see any baby in public she starts to yell baby, baby!! She is such a little mommy already! Santa will probably be bringing her a stroller and more baby stuff for Christmas this year ;). She even pretends to wipe the baby while changing her diaper. She now will come up with wipes and try to change other babies diapers. There was a little boy sitting in front of us at church one week and she walked up behind him with a baby wipe and lifted up his shirt and wiped his back... so funny!

She also loves to pretend to cook in her kitchen. I gave her a bowl of cooked speghetti one night while I was cooking thinking she would like to play with it. Next thing I know she has it in her own kitchen cooking up a storm! She also loves to grab potatoes from the kitchen cupboard and pretend to cook with those! If I am ever missing anything in the kitchen I know just where to look :)

She also loves to color, paint, and especially use markers and is quite the little artist these days.

She spends a few days a week with my friends little boy either at our house or theirs and she LOVES him! They play so well together and whenever I say Cam is coming over she runs to the window to look for him. And she really doesn't mind me going to work anymore and when I drop her off at his house she just gives me a kiss and starts to play. 

Other things she really enjoys doing is building towers (and has gotten really good with her legos), reading books (she loves to have someone ask her where things are in the pictures and her point them out), singing (she has started to sing a few different songs so sweet), taking baths (she could sit in the tub for a half hour each night playing with different toys. She loves loves loves when we put bubbles in the bath for her), making animal noises (her favorite noises to make are probably elephant, bee, gorilla, and cat), dancing (she is an excellent dancer), jumping on the bed with daddy (she loves to jump up and land on her bum. Daddy calls them her butt slams), and going for walks looking for the kitties in the apartment complex (she loves saying here kitty kitty kitty, and so wishes one would let her get close enough to touch!)

Fun Facts about Maylee: 

• Weight:22.7 lbs.
• Height: 32.25 inches
• Favorite foods: breakfast- chocolate chips pancakes and bacon, lunch- peanut butter and honey sandwiches, dinner-  Spaghetti. She also really loves blueberries, peas, broccoli,  and the pouches of baby food still. Dessert- Chocolate pudding.
• Favorite songs: ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Rock a bye baby, Itsy Bitsy Spider, If you're happy and you know it
• Words she can say: any animal sound, please, thank you, bye bye, water "wa wa", Amen, Cam, Hi, Daddy, Momma, Jimmer, Elmo, puppy, cat, Banana "nana", Blueberries "BBs", Ball, truck, WOAH, no, mine (not moms favorite two words), yes "UH UH", etc.
• She loves Elmo and we usually watch elmo on my phone before bed and if we skip that she will point to the rocking chair until we let her watch something with us. 
• Favorite book: Good Night Gorilla, or her scrapbook
• Favorite day: Saturday because Daddy is home :)
• Bedtime: between 7 and 8 and will usually sleep until after 7 in the morning. except when momma works. 
• She loves her paci and needs it the majority of the day, she also has to have her bunny blanky for naptime and bedtime or whenever she is sad or not feeling well.
• She loves to help out around the house she loves to help with dishes and loads/unloads the dishwasher. 
• She is such a girl and loves to try and put on clothes and shoes. but doesn't like any jewelry on her or anything on her head.
• She loves to play with stickers.
• She knows a lot of her body parts. (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly, hands, feet, etc.)
• She is still such a mommy/daddy's girl but warms up to people a lot faster than she used to and loves other kids! 
• She has a lot of energy and loves to play at the park.
• She loves going to the library and checking out books and going to storytimes. 
• Basically she is just amazing and super smart and super cute! (we may be a little biased though :))
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Monthly update... She is 16 months old now :)

Not much has changed with Maylee this past month... Grandma and Grandpa Leatham coming to visit us and Maylee getting hand, foot, and mouth disease are the highlights of this past month :)
Let's start with the things we were able to do while we had family in town!

Grandma and Grandpa got to come visit for a whole week and Maylee absolutely loved having them here! She was so spoiled the entire time! Every night Grandpa made sure she got some pudding and Grandma took her outside whenever she wanted to go!
We got to go swimming, go to the nature center,  go to the aquarium in Chattanooga and also Ruby Falls! We also finally ate at "loveless cafe" and the biscuits were NOT exaggerated! SO GOOD!
Here are a few pictures from their visit...

Maylee had so much fun at the Aquarium she LOVED watching all of the fish and loved chasing the butterflies! But most of all she probably loved splashing the water where we could touch the sting rays.. so easy to please! She fell asleep the moment we got into the car to go to Ruby Falls and slept in my arms part of the way on the walk down into the caves (she was so exhausted but had so much fun)!

Maylee started saying Grandpa and Grandma while they were here. She is starting to recognize and remember family members now so we didn't have to go through her warming up to them  phase  this trip and she was just fine if I left... in fact when I left her to go to work she was busy playing with grandma and just told me "bye mom!"
Also, while we had grandma and grandpa in town me and Sam were able to go on not one but TWO dates! We went and saw "The Way Way Back" and also got to go the Bluebird Cafe (which has been on my to do list since we have been here!!)

We had too much fun with Grandma and Grandpa and it was so sad to see them leave... Christmas just can't come fast enough! 

Now for the not so fun part of our month... Maylee has been super sad the last few days! Poor girl is getting 4 new teeth (3 canines and her last molar) and also got hand, foot, and mouth disease. It has been passed around our ward the last month and now it is Maylee's turn.. She started with just a few dots around her mouth at the beginning of the week and didn't seem too abnormal so i was hoping that was all it was going to be but she was not so lucky.  She got  a fever yesterday and then the rashes started on both arms her legs/feet and her bum. She has only a few sores so far on her hands and inside her mouth but I don't think we on the down slope quite yet. She hasn't been able to sleep well and seems to be in a lot of pain from her teeth! Hopefully those teeth will break through all the way soon and we can get through this sickness in the next few days without anyone else catching it!!

Fun facts about Maylee:

• She says "more" constantly 
• She loves playing with our car alarm on our keys and will set off the alarm, say uh-oh, and then run
• She has gotten pretty good with utensils while eating
• She loves to find her belly button and also ours! and then she tries to give us raspberries like we do to her :)
• She is still so in love with Jimmer and is learning how to be soft with him but he still doesn't trust her. 
• She loves to dance and spin around in circles
• Whenever we go outside at our apartments her new favorite spot is the laundry room so she always heads straight there... I guess the mailboxes got a little boring.
• She loves looking into the sky and pointing at birds, planes, or helicopters 
• She is becoming more and more independent and wants to do EVERYTHING by herself
• She loves trying to put on her clothes and shoes (such a girl)
• She loves to be outside and would spend all day outside if she could.