Saylor Update

I know I put TONS of pics of Saylor on my blog all the time but I feel like it's been a really long time since I've given an update on just Saylor. Since she has gotten too old for her baby book I need to document a little on her life as a 16 month old. Since we've moved to Kirksville Saylor has started talking LOTS. In certain moods she will repeat almost anything you say but these are the words she says most frequently...

Daddy

Mommy

Binky

Grandma (sounds more like mama)

Nana (banana)

Juice

Please

(Say is getting pretty good at saying "Peese" when she wants something)

Thank You

Hot Dog

Mimi (Minnie)

Wow

Cheese

Sorry

(I make her say sorry after she pulls my hair!)

Teeth

Nose

Eyes

Shoes

Bath (LOVES her baths)

Puppy (still loves dogs and all animals)

Happy

Mail

(Say gets so excited to go get the mail everday!)

Buh-bye

Baby

Beep (she loves to pretend she is driving a car)

Nuh-night

Yummy

Yes

Uh-oh

Hello (sounds more like he-woah)

Hi

No no

Popcorn

Maddie

Love you

(She doesn't say this a lot but when she does it melts my heart!)

One

(If I ask Saylor, how old are you? she says, "One!" and holds up her finger)

Two

(I'm trying to teach her how to count to 5 but one, two is as far as we've gotten)

Me

You

Cookie

Read

Poo poo

Pee pee

(I know it sounds kind of gross but she tells us which one she did in her diaper)

Reed

Beau

Jess

Erica

Saylor

(Once in a while she will say Saylor if you ask her what her name is, most of the time she just points to her self)

I'm sure there's more...but that's all I can think of right now.

Saylor can also make the animal noises for a tiger, cow, sheep, puppy, cat and she makes a fish face when you ask what a fish says. Say can point to her eyes, nose, ears, hair, tongue, teeth, neck, tummy and toes. She is really good at giving hugs and kisses, blowing kisses and waving bye-bye. (She's been doing a lot of these things for a while) Saylor is great at giving fives and pounds and when she does it to one person, she wants to do it to every person in the room. We also taught Saylor popcorn popping and she can do all the actions!

Saylor is still busy as can be. She has never been one to like to sit down and watch movies or tv but she has a new obcession with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That is why hot dog is one of the things she says most, she'll say hot dog, hot dog when she wants to watch it. (If you've never seen it, they do the hot dog dance at the end which is her favorite part!) Saylor is seriously mesmorized by it and will sit down and watch a whole episode. I don't know, maybe that's normal for other kids but to see Saylor sit still for that long is a miracle.

Saylor is so motherly, she was pushing her Minnie around on her airplane

Saylor loves to play with babies, her kitchen, books and especially her baby Minnie. Say still LOVES to dance and listen to music. She's definitely got some sweet moves! She will always pick up my phone and start pumping her arm when she wants me to turn music on. Saylor loves being tickled and chased especially by her Daddy. Say loves to go to the park to go down the slide and swing. We've been loving our free pass to the aquatic center where we've been doing mommy and me swim lessons and going during the day to just play and swim with other kids.

Saylor is still an amazing sleeper. We put her to bed at 10pm and she usually gets up around 9am. She takes two naps, usually two hours each. She loves to go to bed, when she is tired she will lay on the floor or try to climb in her crib and say nuh-night, it is so cute. We lay her down in her crib with a binky and she puts her self to sleep. She still loves her binky but only gets it at bedtime and sometimes in the car.

Her favorite food is still bananas but she also loves cheese, watermelon and pretty much any other fruits and vegetables. Saylor guzzles down apple juice like crazy, she drinks SO much of it.

Saylor is so very close to being able to go to nursery, she's been a few times and has loved it. When she doesn't go, church is basically me or Ty chasing her around for 3 hours. Since we've moved to Kirksville Saylor has been super friendly to all the women. She's always been friendly but she will reach for people and want to sit on their laps and give them hugs all the time. I think it's funny but I decided its because she misses her Grandmas, aunts and cousins so much:)

So that's Saylor, our adorable little girl that we love more than anything, keeps us laughing all the time, and makes our lives the best ever:)

Alabama?

So we recently got this cool little thing on the side of our blog that shows who visits it everyday. I can usually figure out who it is by the location but we keep getting a visitor from Daphne, Alabama and I just have no idea who it is. Who are you Daphne, Alabama? I am just really curious!

Nemo Fair

Not much goes on here in our little town of Kirksville so when I found out there was a fair I was pretty excited!

Saylor and I riding the train with Maddie and Gavin
Saylor loved these little bunnies

So happy to be at the fair!

Riding the Bear Affair with Deidre, Jake and Tristan

After being at the fair a little over an hour, it started to rain. When it rains here its not just a light sprinkle, it POURS. We were soaked in a matter of minutes and took cover under this tent. Saylor was happy as can be sitting next to her favorite person Maddie. Saylor got so excited when she saw her at church yesterday, she started yelling Ma-ee, Ma-ee in the middle of sacrament meeting. Kind of embarassing, but super cute!

After going home for a bit so Saylor could take a quick nap we came back for the demolition derby! Sadly, the rain never let up and we sat in it for 4 hours but it was kind of part of the fun being out there in the rain.

This was my first demolition derby and it was insane! Like real live bumper cars smashing into each other in the mud. It was very exciting and enertaining!
Say loved all the action of coarse...

Saylor hanging out with our new friends from Kirksville, Erica and Reed

I think Saylor likes Reed... and it looks like he likes her back!

Soaking wet but still having fun!

After the derby we had time for one more ride!

We came home soaked, muddy, and tired, but all and all it was a good day at the fair!

My Mom Came to Visit!

After getting to Missouri and dealing with the whole house situation me and Ty both thought, we want our moms! Since Ty's mom is already coming in August, we talked my mom into flying out to come help us get settled in. I feel bad for complaining so much about the house in my last post. Yes, our first impression was pretty terrible but there are tons of good things about the house. Like the fact that its WAY bigger than we're used to, we have a dishwasher, washer/dryer, a huge kitchen and Saylor now has her own room.
A hard thing about Kirksville is that its so small that the nearest main airport is almost 3 hours away. But we were more than happy to drive it to go pick up my mom. It just felt good to have my mom come and see where I am living now. After we picked her up in Kansas City we decided to go check out the mall there. They had a big clifford play place that Saylor loved.

On our way home from Kansas City we stopped at Liberty Jail. I thought it would make me really sad to see it but it was more of a good feeling knowing Joseph Smith was there and received revelation from God at that very spot.

About 5 minutes out of town Kirksville has a lake that is really pretty because its surrounded by tons of trees. We took my mom there and went on a little hike.

Since my mom came all the way to Missouri it was a great excuse to go to Nauvoo for our 1st time! I still can't believe that we are in the Nauvoo stake. It's our one claim to fame all the way out here in the middle of nowhere!

Saylor playing in the little pioneer house

Saylor in a little pioneer bonnet

We all tried to walk on the pioneer stilts...

It's a lot harder than it looks!

My mom actually turned out to be the best at it!

Saylor atthe Woman's Garden at the Nauvoo Visitor Center

Saylor was hugging the little girl statue

Inside the visitor center they have a big statue of Jesus with his arms spread out. Saylor kept going up to it with her arms out like she wanted to give him a hug...so sweet.

Walking around the streets of Old Nauvoo, it was hard to listen to the presentations because Say is such a wiggle worm but it was still cool to see everything. There is such a special spirit in Nauvoo, it was such a testimony builder to see how the pioneers made a life in Nauvoo.

The Nauvoo temple was absolutely breathtaking. We didn't get to go inside this time but just walking around it I could feel such a strong spirit there. I couldn't stop staring at how beautiful it was, I can't believe the pioneers were able to build such an amazing structure all the way back then, what a sacrifice.

We sat and listened to these bag pipers for a while...they sounded awesome.

Saylor loved them too! Here's a video of her dancing. (sorry it starts out sideways)

All during the month of July they put on the Nauvoo pagaent every night. It was AWESOME! The Nauvoo temple made the perfect backdrop. Coming from Utah we got so used to being surrounded by Mormons all the time. It was nice to come to Nauvoo and feel that again all the way out here.

My moms visit came to an end all too fast. Sometimes I don't know how I got so lucky to have her as a mom. She is so amazing! She sets such an incredible example for me and I hope someday I can be like her even just a little bit. We were so productive the whole time she was here. She helped me hang up all my pictures in the house, bought me new curtains for my sliding door and even sewed curtains for the rest of the living room windows. She bought us groceries and other odds and ends of things we needed to get the house organized. She even helped me make some fresh strawberry jam which Ty is especially greatful for! With all that she was doing she found time to play with Saylor tons too and Say loved all the extra attention! We love you so much Mom and are missing you already! Please come again soon!

The BIG Move

So we made it! Ty drove all 16 1/2 hours, he was a trooper!

The one who deserves the real award though is Saylor. She did AMAZING in the car! Like seriously maybe only cried once for the whole two days of driving. The poor little girl was crammed in the back of the car with all our stuff but she was happy! I know this is a way random picture but I thought it was so strange that the stop lights were sideways in Nebraska...wierd
We made it to Missouri! The drive was not even that bad. I only broke down once when I saw a moving truck pass us.

This is how Saylor looked when we rolled into Kirksville...

The Kirksville Sign

Driving into Kirksville I was super nervous. I had obviously never been there or anywhere near this part of the country but mosty I was nervous about our house. We had only seen pictures so we hoped for the best. When we drove up to our house the grass was way overgrown and the place just looked run-down. They had left pipes and random things in the front yard and bags of sticks and garbage on the side of the house. When we walked in the front door there was a moldy/mildewy type smell which is definitely not how you want the place you're moving into to smell like. They had just put in brand new carpet so that was good but the carpet people had left scraps and remnants of carpet everywhere. The kitchen and bathrooms were absolutely filthy. The floors were covered in dirt and all the cupboards were filled with mice poop. I have never seen a dirtier bath tub in my life and the sides of the tub had exposed dry wall so we couldn't even shower for the first 3 days. There were bugs, spiders and spider webs everywhere in the house. Upon further inspection we found mold growing on one of the walls. We were so concerned. The people had told us it was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house but one of the bedrooms was upstairs, with out a door, stains all over the carpet, the blinds destroyed and the air doesn't work up there so it's like 90 degrees. So basically its unusable. Also our 2nd bathroom had shelves in the shower and was just pretty nasty so we won't really use that either. The acre backyard we were so excited about is on a big hill so you can't really do much back there, it just feels like wasted space. So you can imagine how excited we were about moving to Kirksville after seeing the house we had to live in. To make things worse we went over to both of Ty's friends houses and they both had really clean, nice places. Poor Ty took it the worst. He was honestly ready to get back in the car and drive back to Utah for good. That night we slept on the floor and I had nightmares of mice running over my face.

We called our landlords pretty upset and luckily they were really nice and tried to get as many things fixed as possible. The next day someone came to mow the lawn, an exterminator came to spray for bugs, someone came to inspect and remove the mold and a guy came to fix our bathroom. They also told us to keep track of the time we spent cleaning and the money we spent on cleaning supplies and that we'd be reimbursed. After MANY hours of cleaning we finally were able to start unpacking our stuff. Once we started unpacking our stuff into the house it started to feel more like home. Ty still isn't a fan but the house is really growing on me. It's not so bad.
Here's Ty and Say in front of the house

Wow, sorry this is so long. We've been in Kirksville almost 3 weeks now and it's still hard for me to believe that this place is our home. Here are some interesting things I have noticed about Kirksville:

-They have fireflies! They are so awesome and our yard is packed full of them at night. I love them! They seem like magic to me because they fly around and then they just dissapear!

-They have wild turkeys, possums, frogs and bunnies just running around. It is so strange to me to see a bunny just hopping around in your backyard. And what the turkey?

-When you go to Walmart you always see Amish people, they are everywhere! (I didn't know they were allowed to shop at Walmart)

-Nobody waters their grass here! That is so crazy to me because in Utah if you go one day with out watering, your grass will die. There is enough rain and humidity that no one has sprinklers or ever waters their lawn.

-It is SO HUMID! Just a quick walk down the street and your whole body is drenched in sweat. You can even just be standing outside not doing anything and you just sweat. My hair is always frizzy and my face is always greasy. It doesn't cool off at night either, the air is just so thick ALL the time. Its sad to me that its summer and you can barely go outside to play:(

-The people here really are super nice. The day we moved in like 10 people showed up at our house to help that we had never even met.

Two of Ty's good friends moved to Kirksville at the same time as us and its been such a blessing. I didn't know them that well when we moved but just to know a familiar face is so nice. Me and Ty are used to being out playing with family every night so we've hung out and played games with them a lot. We always apologize to Ty's friend Mike since we go over to his house like everyday.

One of the first few days we were here we went to a concert in the park and had apple pie and ice cream.

We also celebrated Ty's birthday right after we got here! I was worried Ty would have a horrible birthday because he was so homesick but I think he had a great day. We went to the pool, saw a parade (which was actually pretty pathetic) and his friends had a BBQ for him where we had steak and they bought him a bunch of fireworks and they lit them off (everything is legal in Missouri so they were pretty excited)

Saylor at the Parade

Say looked so cute in her 4th of July outfit!

On the actual 4th of July the city had fireworks that were much better than I expected. Since all fireworks are legal people are constantly lighting them off all over the city. I've never seen so many fireworks in my life. If you just go outside, huge fireworks were going off all night long. Say had fun running all over the field where we watched the fireworks.

So that is our life in Kirksville. Ty is loving school so far and its been nice because its pretty laid back in the summer so he's only gone 4-5 hours a day. We miss family a lot but we are excited to be on this adventure together and meet lots of new people!