need to vent and maybe gather some advise...

I love my daughter.
Any mother knows the love I have for her, because they feel that love for their own children.
Everyday I thank my Heavenly Father for her, and for entrusting me to care for her, to love her, to teach her.
She brings both Lance and I so much joy.
Joy that can't be replaced with any one item or material thing.
She spent her first nights away from us the weekend of our anniversary last month, and it almost killed both of us.
She's the reason for me waking up, making breakfast, getting ready for the day, taking care of our home.
Everything.
But lately,
She's been a terror!
Please, someone, tell me this is a phase.
She throws tantrums, she's bit me a couple times, and in return I bit her and left a mark.
i felt this small and like a horrible mother
She points her finger at me and tells me "No, no mama," when I tell her to do something, or to not do something.
She's ALWAYS running away from me.
She corner's other kids and makes them cry.
Then, I want to cry because every other mother is thinking my child is mean.
But then she'll say, "I sawry Mama," and look at me with her blueish-grayish eyes.
She'll hug my neck so tight, I don't want her to let go.
She'll cuddle me when I don't feel well.
She'll give me the best most juciest kisses ever!
And the first thing she says in the morning, in her little soft voice is..
"Mama, mama, mama..." until I go and get her out of her crib.
And once again, she hugs me, wants me to hold her, kisses me with that dragon breath of hers, and I don't even care cause she's my baby.

Someone please tell me how to handle her little attitude!
I hate spanking her.
She's only 21 months old.
Does she fully understand why she's getting spanked?
Or does she think:
"When I get upset, I can hit too."
She doesn't understand time out.
Although, she hates when I make her sit in her crib.
So maybe I'm doing something by doing that.

Any advise?
This is a phase right?
She'll grow out of it and be my little angel again until her teens, right?

{sigh}

Motherhood...
it's a wonderful thing.

it's creeped up..

I can't believe Halloween is in practically 3 weeks.
I have no costume for Layla.
What kind of mother am I?
I haven't baked one Halloween treat.
Haven't bought any pumpkins.
Or pumpkin to bake with.
Thank goodness for Uncle Greg and Aunt Amanda.
They got Layla her cute skeleton jammies, or she wouldn't have those either.
And they also bought us some candy corn!
My absolute favorite.
A N D
Can you believe how much she's changed in one years time?!

Layla with her friends...

  One of the best things about our new hometown of Hattiesburg, MS is that we have so many friends to play with! Not only Layla, but Lance and I also!

Picayune was a great place for us to start our lives together and to start our family, but both of us just feel so at home here in Hattiesburg. We have such a wonderful, welcoming ward and the funnest friends.

Layla really enjoys little Miss Brooklyn.

She is such a doll.

Her father was actually our realtor and was the one who found us our new home.

Thanks Starling!

Her mother, Wendi, is hilarious. There is never a dull moment with her.

And one thing we have in common is we're both expecting in the Spring of 2011.

So, we get to complain to eachother about how awful and tired we feel, as Layla and Brook-Brook play.

It's great!

Layla's only 5 months older, but Brooklyn is so tiny, she looks a year older.

A fun new place to play...

Diddy Bops!

 Of course, Layla was NOT a fan of the fun slides,

but she did love the balls.

She'd get so frustrated when she couldn't pick them all up at once.

Brooklyn on the other hand was climbing up the huge slides all by herself

and tumbling down them.

It was the funniest thing.

 It was so funny watching them wobble on all the jumpers.

Half the time they were toppling over.

 Layla learned:

It's much easier to just crawl.

 Running from one jumper to the next...

 brooklyn. layla. alayna.

Alayna is Wendi's adorable niece.

I don't ever do these kind of posts..

..but Happy October!

I think everyone in the blog world loves fall. As do I! For now, it's because it's actually been in the high 70's in the south this past week! With NO humidity. Hallelujah.

What I do miss... is the changing colors. You don't really see much of it here because of all the evergreen trees. It's so beautiful this time of the year in my home state of Utah. So if you live there, soak it up for me, PLeaSE!

October is a good month-

::First Dr.'s Apt. on the 14th

::I'll start trimester #2, and hopefully start feeling better

::It's my parents 31 year anniversary

::My mother's birthday

::and my father's birthday

::And of course Halloween, which means it's the start of the Holidays!

So this means I can bake.bake.Bake! Specially with pumpkin! Mmmm
{like i said, i hope i start feeling myself again. this time of the year just can't go without baking}

Happy Fall Yall!

we finally have internet..

..so let's get caught up!

The first thing Lance did the day we moved in was put our beds together.

Well, I thought we should make Layla's crib into a toddler bed and see how she'd do.

She did great the first couple nights.

But then, one morning I could hear her crying and when I went into her room she was no where to be seen.

She was actually underneath the bed, and did it the next morning too.

I'm not sure if she would fall off the bed and roll under or what, but soon after we put the front of the bed back on. She just wasn't ready. 

Soo.. she's still in her crib.

She loves that duck..

I took this pic the morning after we moved in.

It makes me nauseous looking at it, but no worries, it's all clear now.

Labor Day:

Dane and Lacey invited us to their friends' Jared and Katie's.

Who we now consider our friends.

They are great and I just adore their three little boys.

I think they'll take great care of Layla.

Jack and Cooper loved this waterslide..

Layla did not..

It was absolutely hilarious watching her go down the first time.

Lance went with her the second time and she still hated it.

Her face is priceless.

This is Briggs.

Isn't he adorble.

I love his long eye lashes.

Mr. Cooper...

He really does like Layla,

just not so much sportin his ride with him.

I took this so I'd have a memory of what Layla had to eat at before we got our kitchen table delivered, along with her high chair.

She was a sport.

Uncle Greg and Aunt Amanda brought up her sprinker.

She was in Heaven.

The Saints have been playing..

and they're winning!

Who Dat!

She's into "dress up"

Somehow she thought her red tights looked great with this pink onesie.

And still does her tricks.

This one is called "no hands"

We made chocolate chip cookies for our new neighbors...

She's constantly right behind her daddy helping him with his honey do list.

And now we're helping her get used to this concept...

That's right Baby Spiers #2 is on it's way.

April 30, 2011 to be exact.

I'm 8 weeks in and feel miserable.

And let's face it when the big white porcelin bowl in the bathroom get's more hugs than your husband, you just don't feel like going anywhere.

Layla has been such a good sport.

She'll sit with me by the toilet and say,

"I sawry mommy.."

Just breaks my heart.

So, back to not going anywhere, we stay in most of the time and she does stuff like this to entertain herself...

this labor day weekend...

...we'll be moving into our new home!

Thus far, my wonderful sister-in-law Lacey has helped me deep deep clean it and paint a few accent walls.

We both loved how they turned out. Thanks a million Lacey!

Kitchen and Living Room

Before:

After:

Laundry:

I have fun ideas for our small laundry room.

More like laundry closet.

Master bedroom:

 I'm going with this color scheme...

So long for now!
I'm sure it will be a couple weeks before we get our internet connection.
And, a couple weeks before I'll have a little time to sit down and blog again!

Happy Labor Day

he always knows when i need him the most

i know some people think this song is cheesy...
but i love it.

specially since i had never heard it until my amazing husband came home from work a couple days ago, singing it to me. and right then, in that moment i needed to hear these words. i swear listening to it brings back all kinds of Déjà vu.

he's going to kill me when he sees this post.
he's a big, strong man, but he's a hopeless romantic.
and a softy when it comes to lovin his girls.