Happy New Year!

 What a fun last couple of weeks we had. Kyla's second Christmas was just as fun (maybe even more!) than her first. We visited Santa again this year, and--even more so than last year--Kyla was just a tad afraid. She clung to Mamma like her life depended on it. No smiles for the photos, but at least we'll have a funny picture to remember.


We also drove through a neighborhood that was very well decorated. Kyla enjoyed looking at the lights, saying "cool" and "wow" on occasion. Sometimes she would also point out what she saw, like Santa or a snowman. After driving through the neighborhood we stopped for Chickfila--maybe this will become a tradition!

On Christmas Eve morning we visited Jermaine's family, where Kyla opened lots of fun gifts and got to play with some of her cousins. Some of her gifts included a LeapPad, a Minnie Mouse boat, and a baby doll. We had a good time eating breakfast and hanging out with everyone.

Later that day we went to our church's family Christmas Eve service. We enjoyed the time to focus on the Lord, and Kyla made it through the 45-minute service (thanks to her ability to scroll through pictures on our phone--what did parents do with their toddlers before the invention of the smartphone?!). We then met up with GranDad and GranJan and Uncle B and Auntie C for a festive Mexican-food dinner. Kyla was excited to see family, and was allowed to open up one gift for Christmas Eve--a Winnie the Pooh DVD!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Kyla didn't understand the anticipation of the morning, but she sure enjoyed pulling out tissue paper from the bags an dripping off wrapping paper. She first got to see and play with her big gift from us: a play kitchen. She seemed to really enjoy it and has played with it a lot since then. then we started the hours-long process of opening all of the gifts. We took our time, stopping for a yummy brunch in the middle, and just enjoyed time with family.After New Year's we had Christmas with Grams and G-Dad and Aunt Casey and Uncle David, and it was just as fun! Kyla enjoyed the attention and we relished in all our time with family! Kyla enjoyed all of her gifts, including some baby dolls, a play vacuum, books, puzzles, a new backpack and a grocery cart with play food.

Kyla's vocabulary continues to expand daily (and is too large to count!) and her understanding of everything around her is a bit scary at times. She really seems to comprehend everything she hears and repeats pretty much anything you say and do! We often here her saying "cool", "wow", "okay" and any number of things that indicates what she wants or that she wants to do it herself. Her sentences are getting longer and her pronunciation is very good. We are just astounded at how grown up she is already!