What happened to Summer?

Seriously, it's already half way through September? What the heck happened to August? I guess we were just so busy going to the pool, going on walks and going on other outdoor adventures that I was too tuckered out to blog. Ha! A lot has happened since July, so I'm gonna split up my posts/pictures so as not to overwhelm myself and all of you devoted readers of the Bell Blog.
I really wanted to make it out to Thanksgiving Point to have lunch outside and walk through the gardens before Summer was over. So with one week left before school started again for my mom and sister, and before dance started up again at Prodigy, we made it down and only paid $2.00 to walk through the beautiful gardens. What a deal!

We saw some fun fishies.

Alli and Jayda played in the fountains.

And I re-enacted one of my bridal pictures. Probably my favorite picture in my wedding dress was right there on that bench. Awe. Many of you have probably seen it in my house. That was a fun day. Very different from an average day now. :)

We were able to do some more swimming with one of my good friends, Sheena, and her little girl, Violet. Sheena and I went to college together, Sheena and Clark went to high school together, Sheena teaches at Prodigy with me, and our little girls are just a week apart. Obviously, we are connected in several ways and it is so fun to get together and watch our girls play!

Look at those cute little bums.

We do Sunday dinner every other week with Clark's family, but one week we decided to mix it up a little and went up Millcreek Canyon to have a picnic. Well, it was pretty crowded that day and there weren't any picnic tables available. So we decided to park by a stream and eat dinner in the back of our car and truck. It was a fun little family outing.

Our friends, the Stringham's, have a family cabin up in Bear Lake and we were lucky to go up there for a day of boating. It was Jayda's first time and she was a little scared at first, but enjoyed the movement so much that she fell asleep pretty quick. I quite enjoyed my cuddling time on the boat too!

I'll update you on the rest of what's been going on in our lives soon, but until then, just know that Jayda has taken her first steps! I seriously can't believe how big she's getting and it's so fun to see all the new things she can do. For those of you interested, here's a quick video of her taking up to 5 steps. It gets a little shaky because I'm holding the camera and Jayda just loves me so much that she wouldn't let go of my arm for a minute. This was right after my sister's shower at my house so that's why there's gifts and extra chairs in the room. You'll also notice how much Jayda enjoys being the center of attention and showing off. Anyway, enjoy in our joy!

July 4th to the 24th!

We celebrated the 4th, the 24th and played a lot in between. We went to the Stadium of Fire with my family and had a lot of fun watching Carrie Underwood and the awesome fireworks. Jayda looks kinda funny in this picture, but hey, it's a family picture.

We hung out with Clark's family and had a great BBQ's! Here's Jayda in her festive outfit from Grammy Tammy.

I recently discovered the "fireworks" setting on my camera. It is awesome. Clark's cousins and I had a lot of fun with some sparklers. It says U of U, if you can't tell. How cool! :)

Jayda is pulling herself up onto everything. She is quick too and loves to be standing! She is getting stronger every day and I'm pretty sure walking is just around the corner for her. She is getting so big, but oh so fun.

My mom had her 50th birthday! Being the wonderful daughter that I am, I planned a little surprise birthday lunch, with the help of my sisters. I had to plan where we would eat in advance and then somehow convince my mom that it was her idea to eat at Mimi's Cafe. I thought I did a good job of this, but my mom told her friend the night before that she was a little bugged that she didn't even get to choose where she had her own birthday lunch, but she was pleasantly surprised to find all of her close friends at the restaurant supporting her in her youth. Here's the girls, minus Jayda.

We have been going swimming at least once a week and are loving being outside in the sun. Since my sister lives in Saratoga Springs, we headed down to Lehi Rec Center and it is pretty cool. It's very kid friendly and Jayda loved hanging out in the water swings.

Rachel made it back to Utah for a few weeks so we have been trying to catch up and get our kids to like each other more. I don't know what Gavin thinks of Jayda, but she sure liked to grab at him. It's been so fun to hang out with her and I wish she still lived here.
My dance studio, Prodigy, performed at Raging Waters and they did such a great job! We have such good dancers! Anyway, we made a day of it and Jayda had fun hanging out in the Lazy River. That was about it. She really liked this tray though!
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We had a family reunion, which is somewhat rare in my family, but it was good to catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time and hear about what my mom's family came from. We've been wanting to get a four generations picture since Jayda was born and finally got one. It's blurry, but it's four generations, which I think is pretty cool.

And we made it to the 24th! We went to see the parade floats at South Towne Expo. If you have kids over 2, this is a really fun thing to do. You get to see all the floats without sitting in the sun, they have performers, face painting and clowns making balloon creatures. My mom loves this kind of stuff and was having so much fun walking around every single float. Jayda liked looking at all the fun colors too.

Jayda is now 9 months and is becoming even more of a mover, if that's possible! She weighs 16.1 pounds (8th percentile) and is in the 12th percentile for height. With Clark and my genes our kids are just destined to be small. Jayda says dadadadada and mamamama and waves bye to everyone, even cars that drive by our street. She likes to sit in the grass and eat leaves. Clark's sister found out she's having another girl, which will give Jayda 3 girl cousins and 0 boys! I love it!

Vegas Baby!

This baby went on her first vacation... to Vegas!

Our first stop was a night in St. George. We went to Tuacahn to see "Tarzan." It was a blustery night, but Jayda did great and wasn't too distracting to the people around us (yeah right! I think the old lady next to me wanted to move the second we sat down. Oh well). She loved the flying monkeys and the fun music and lights. What a cute little family we are!

We made it to Vegas and had to unload all our STUFF! Geez, we had a lot of freaking stuff! I had never packed for a baby before and may have over packed, just a little, but I didn't know what to expect. We traveled with our friends, The Stringham's, who had almost as much stuff as we did!

We stayed at Excalibur because they are one of the cheapest and have a great pool! Since we don't gamble, we swim instead and spent a lot of time at the pool. Cute dad and Jayda Bear.

The kids schedules pretty much went down the drain the first night when we were at Tarzan until 11 PM so we ventured out a little later in Vegas and stopped by The Coke Factory. It's just one of those places you go every time you're there. Well, I do anyway.

We, of course, ate out a lot and it was awesome! Us Bells love to go out to eat, even Jayda! Although by the end of the trip she was pretty sick of sitting in her car seat, stroller and random high chairs.

We hit up The Cheesecake Factory and did some good shopping too (I love H & M!). Jayda is a good baby, but a full day of shopping is not exactly her favorite thing to do. When Jayda gets a little whinny, our trick is to put her on Dad's shoulders. She loves it up there and it gets a smile every time. Clark also loves getting his hair pulled out!

One thing I really wanted to do was see the fountain show at Bellagio because I've missed it the last couple time I was there. So we made the trek there, in the 99 degree heat, only to see the last 30 seconds of a show! The next one didn't start for another 25 minutes and with the babes, we weren't about to just sit and wait for it. So we took a picture with just the hotel in the background and went on our way. Dang.

We stayed one more night in St. George. It was nice to break up the drive a little for the little ones. We had such a good time that Jayda apparently wanted to go back. She has been crawling everywhere and has recently discovered climbing. She climbs up my legs, up the stairs, up her crib (which scares the crap out of me) and is now attempting up the wall!

I made it back from Vegas just in time to go to girls camp for two days, which was so much fun. Then made it home from camp just in time to go to the most awesome concert with my sister, Alli. Here we are before the show, getting really excited. What concert was this, you might be wondering...?

That's right: "Backstreet's Back Alright!" This had to have been one of the funnest concerts I've been to! I knew every single song and sang my little heart out. The dancing was awful and I don't think they have changed any of the choreography since 1998, but that's what made it so awesome! Backstreet Boys will always hold a special place in my junior high heart.

"Tell me why (ain't nothin but a heart ache), Tell me why (ain't nothin but a miiistake), Tell me why (I never want to hear you say), that I want it that way!" Yes!

A Blue So Blue

We have been busy little bees lately. Obviously too busy to blog in over a month! Geez. Well, I made it through my second concert as Artistic Director of Prodigy Dance Studio! The year end Spring concert is a lot of work and a lot of stress, but always worth it in the end. Preparations for the show pretty much consumed my life for all of May, but now I'm free, well at least a little more relaxed, for the Summer and Jayda and I are ready to play. Since I don't know how to make those smaller picture montages, you get all the pictures separately. Someone (Rachel) should teach me how to do that :) Here's what we (and when I say we, I mean Jayda) have been up to lately:

Making cute faces and sitting up so tall in her high chair,

Getting our 6 month pictures taken in a green outfit,

a pink outfit

a green outfit

and a pink outfit, showing off her chubby cheekers.

We've been eating out with friends. Here's Jayda and her little buddy Ryker eating dinner together at Salt City Burger (delicious!). She's such a flirt.

We've been to the zoo twice to see the baby elephant. So cute! This day, the mama elephant took a big old poo while we were watching and what did that funny baby do... walked right over and ate it! Sick!

I love this picture. Here's Jayda with her one and only cousin, Audrie (although Jayda has two cousins on the way). Jayda looks so big standing up like that!

We've been to birthday parties for friends Kohen and Landon. This lemonade can kept Jayda entertained for about an hour and while she was sucking Rachelle caught this picture of those oh so blue eyes. Love.

We've been growing and getting much more smiley. All you have to do is smile or kiss Jayda and she'll give you a big old smile, along with a shoulder shrug. She is just starting to look so much older. It's a little sad, but she just keeps getting cuter.

We went to Alta graduation to watch my sister, Alli graduate. Wow, can't believe my little sis is off to college, BYU, in the Fall. She had all different colors of cords cuz she's so dang smart and I'm really proud of her. Being at graduation did bring back memories of 8 years ago when we met at Rachelle's house to take group pictures before we piled in the Suburban and drove to the McKay Event Center singing "The Graduation Song" by Vitamin C. Then off to the Pepperwood Party... go BLUE! Good times.

Oh how I love this little baby! She is so much fun and so active right now. She is constantly moving, changing positions, climbing all over me and and scooting (pretty much crawling) everywhere! I am loving every second of watching her grow and love being her mommy!

Kid tested, mother NOT approved

Yesterday, I had a bowl of Kix for breakfast. I just bought them because the pediatrician said that Jayda could start eating them. But silly me, I left them on the table and open. So as I'm putting Jayda in the bumbo she does what she does best and swats at them. This was the result. I guess it's my own fault, but I was still frustrated. And, for the record, she did it again about 20 min later!

This is just a random. I walked in to check on Jayda during her nap and this is what I found. She's on her stomach and somehow the binky is on her back. ???

So last night Jayda was pretty restless so I thought she could just hang out in the baby bjorn until it was time to eat and go to bed. I was just standing, watching TV and Jayda was playing with my cup and straw from Arby's. All the sudden she just starts laughing. This is kind of weird because normally Jayda just squeals, but doesn't laugh. I couldn't help but laugh too so I grabbed the camera so others could join in on the giggle. I know all kids giggle, but of course I think Jayda's is so cute. And don't mind me laughing behind her.


Jayda is now 6 months old weighing in at 13 lbs 10 oz. She is in the 9th percentile for weight, 33rd for length and 23rd for head. She's little, but she sure is active and curious. The pediatrician says she acts more like a nine month old rather than a six month old and that she'll probably crawl early. Great. She already rolls everywhere to get where she wants to go, but I better get those gates up and start baby proofing the house.

Birfday Birfday

It is hard for me to find a quiet moment or a long enough one to actually create a blog post, but here is what we've been up to lately.

Jayda has taken up sucking on her thumb and I think it's so cute. Most of the time it's more like she's chewing on it, but it still looks cute. And if her binky falls out when she's in her crib she can soothe herself to sleep with that little thumb.

We got to go to a U of U basket ball game a while ago and Jayda got to wear her cute cheerleader outfit. What can I say, she wants to be like her mom. We also went to a Utah gymnastics meet. Jayda grabbed Clark's pulled pork sandwich, which was a little warm, so it kind of scared her and made her cry. I'm pretty sure everyone in the surrounding 20 rows heard and looked right at us. It was my first semi-embarrassing, people-think-I'm-a-bad-mom-moment.

Jayda started eating rice cereal, which we all know is a big deal the first few times. Here she is mid bite. Look at that tongue! She also started Sweet potatoes last week and likes that too. She's just getting so big.

We also found out that my sister, Melanie, is pregnant! She is due October 20th, which was my due date, and is really excited. Jayda will have her first cousin on my side and just one year younger. Mel made this cake to announce it to our family. It says "Double your pleasure, double your fun, two grandkids are better than one."

Ok, yes this picture is in our church, and yes it might not be totally appropriate, but we wanted to get a good picture of Jayda in her Easter dress. So here's me and my best little girlfriend together.

Ok everyone, hold your breath... I made a craft. Yes, me, Jamilyn, I made a craft, almost all on my own. I know some of you probably don't even believe me, but here's the proof. They're cute little Spring/Easter puffs and were really pretty easy. They are currently hanging over my kitchen table and I'm quite proud.

I also had a birthday a couple weeks ago and Clark came home with these beautiful pink roses for me. So pretty. We went out to eat with family, shopped in Park City, and ate sushi and ice cream on Main Street. All in all, a pretty good birthday!

Since we missed Christmas pictures with Santa, we headed to the mall to get pictures with the Easter bunny. Our friends, the Stringhams, came too and brought their little one Ryker who's just a couple months older than Jayda. Here they are together and I think we'll continue to have many more pictures of them together as they grow and as us moms hang out more.

And here's Jayda's Easter picture. We did get a few smiles out of her and they turned out pretty cute. Jayda is growing and growing and will be 6 months next week. We are having tons of fun together and loving playing together. Jayda rolls both ways now and rolls all around the room. Gotta keep my eyes on this one. She even pushes her little bum up like she's going to crawl, but then slides back down. Not yet, Jayda!