Christmas adventures

We've been in Arizona for a whole week now.  We are having a great time! I wanted to post a blog real quick and get some new pics out there for Grandma Layton :)  Hopefully I'll have time to get all of them together eventually. 

Harmony did great on her first flight out here.  We were on the plane an hour longer than we origionaly should have been (4 hours), but she hung in there and even managed to be smiley and cute! She earned her wings from the pilot too.  

Harmony has met so many new people this week. It's so cute when she sees my nieces and my nephew.  Sometimes she makes the funniest faces! Her eyes get big and wide, and she mostly just stares around the room.  She's been doing wonderful with all the new people and new surroundings.   

Sawyer is absolutely adorable around Harmony.  He likes to point to her and say BABY, and loves to give her kisses.  My nieces are the cutest, and they love to hold Harmony! Especially Taylor, who would hold her non-stop if we didn't pry Harmony out of her arms :)  I'll post videos of them with her if I am able to. 

Ben's sister Becky and her husband Jared were able to stop by my brother Tracey's house last night.  We didn't get any pictures of them though...what the heck?! So we'll definitely have to meet up with them again!

Here is Harmony in her new Sunday dress 

Grandma Layton made for her.  

My camera is not the best, to say the least.  

So, the pics are the best we could get! 

Sleeping soundly in her pack and play!

Wearing a Santa Hat that's just her size

At Uncle Tracey's and Aunt Darci's

"No more search engine hits title change"

Christmas is on it's way! We got into the holiday spirit and put up our Christmas tree last week. We even found the perfect star!

We took a couple more family pictures last weekend, and some of them turned out. I have a bunch of family pics from over Thanksgiving weekend. I'm posting some of the larger Layton family. The only one I'm posting of our small Layton family is the one that turned out the best. Sort of. This was the only pic that our faces all looked decent..but the only pic that turned out blurry for some reason! Who knows. Maybe we're just not meant to have a great family pic. 

Harmony is enjoying a new toy a little early for Christmas. We got a good deal on an exersaucer from KSL.com. She's always straightening her legs and wanting things to do. I figured, she may as well have it now, since she is so eager to be standing all the time ( and my arms get tired of holding her up!) and it looks a little too difficult to wrap...or fit under the tree! 

We're looking forward to traveling to Arizona next week! I'm really excited to see my family, and have several of my and Ben's family memebers meet Harmony for the first time! Becky, I hope we can meet up with you down there, so give us a call!

Tonight is Ben's company's annual Christmas party in SLC. They give out pretty sweet gifts to the employee's. Supposedly Ben should get an even better one than last year's gift since he's moved up a tier (they put you in gift tiers depending on how long you've been there). So we'll see. He also made the company slide show, and short movie (with the help of his brothers!). So he's quite the man this year. Hopefully we'll have a good time, and it'll be worth leaving my sweet little lady for five hours! And also hopefully we won't get stuck driving home in a huge snow storm like we did last year!

This video was taken yesterday while Harmony was expressing her displeasure for the camera being there.  Notice the cute bow on her head. It was one of many adorable bows made by my cousin Elisa. If you want to get some you can check 'em out at her blog here.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had our Thanksgiving feast at Ben's parents house. The feast was wonderful, and the entertainment even better. Well, the entertianment for Harmony was for sure! She had lots of new people to play with her. Her Aunt Becky was a real sport for carrying her around the house and keeping her occupied! Uncle Sam and Aunt Jenn and their son Cameron were there too! Harmony definitely noticed Cameron, although I'm not quite sure if she knew what to make of him. Did she know that he was a little baby like her? Does she even know she is a baby? Who knows! But we got some pictures of them all the same!

Harmony talked all day and night, especially for Daddy. I fianlly got a pretty decent video of her conversation with Ben. Also, here is a link to the pictures from the weekend.

Click HERE for the pictures!

Family for Thanksgiving

This past weekend was a fun one! My dad came to visit us for the weekend, and got to see how much Harmony has grown.  We had fun relaxing, and spending time together.   I'm really glad he had time to stay on his way home from his business trip.  

Our sister-in-law Jenn came in from Colorado for an extended visit before Thanksgiving. Her husband (Ben's brother) Sam will be joining us Wednesday.  Jenn came by our house and introduced us to her beautiful son, Cameron! He is definately a cutie, and he sure does look like Harmony's cousin! I guess those kids have a lotta Layton in them :)  We miss Jenn and Sam, and are so happy to spend time with them!

Ben's sister Becky also came to Utah from Texas.   Harmony has really taken well to her!  She loves Becky to carry her around and hang out with her. The first nightBecky was here, Harmony fell right to sleep in her arms! I'll post some more pics of her with us as soon as I get them! We're happy she's here!

Harmony has begun "talking" to us more and more lately.  She has little conversations with us with her own words.  It's so fun to see the expressions on her face, and to be able to connect with her while she tells us about her day.  She laughs and giggles so much now.  I love her smile, and how her face lights up when she takes notice of you. 

This video is of her being silly with her daddy.  You can hear a little of her "eagle powers." That's what her aunts and uncle call her squeals (they get that term from Nacho Libre).  She loves to laugh and squeal and it is SO CUTE.  If I ever succeed at getting a good video of it all, I'll post it!

Just Videos

We take a lot of videos of Harmony around here.  They aren't always exciting or excellent quality, but I think they capture her real cuteness pretty well.   I try and post them pretty frequently because I know that my parents (especially my mom) watch them several times a day.  I can't blame them of course, since I am lucky enough to be with Harmony all day.  So, here's some new material for today.   I'm going to try out the media player my friend Ashley uses on her blog, let me know if you like it! 

This is Harmony waking up in the morning.  She is always very smiley in the morning. The video is not great quality since it's from my cell phone. 

This elephant toy is her favorite.  She suddenly started talking to it, so we had to get a video.

We played a video on the computer of Harmony for Harmony. We didn't realize how much she would enjoy watching herself.   It's pretty dark, but, maybe you'll be able to make it out.  

I miss the weekend

Not too much has happened since Friday- We've had a great time with Harmony.  She started drooling and making spit bubbles one day a few weeks ago.  Since then, she successfully soaks her shirts pretty good every day!  It's looking as though she's started to discover her hands. She's begun to suck on anything that she can lean close enough to...mostly our fingers or her own hands.  She's not great with hand-mouth coordination yet, though.  She will sometimes put her fist so far into her mouth that she'll start to gag!  We also learned that she loves to watch videos of herself.  She'll giggle and smile the whole time.  I'll try posting the video we have of it if Ben gets some time to lighten it up a little.  Here's some pics from this weekend. 

On Sunday in her Pooh Bear dress with some pink tights from her cousins!

Daddy can make her smile pretty easily.  Her eyes closes because of the flash though. 

If you look closely, you can see the shiny drool all over her chin :)

And of course, a video.  It's not a great angle.  I'm trying to holdthe camera off to the side while looking at her. 

Happy Birthday Cameron Layton!!

Congratulations to Jenn and Sam! Their baby boy was born today! We're excited for them to have their first baby, and that we have another cute little baby to cuddle and spoil! Harmony is happy to have a new cousin! Here she is saying, "Hi Cameron!"    ( You might notice, Harmony's ears are starting to pop out a bit like her mom's!   I've tried hard to avoid calling her by my brother's nickname for me when I was a baby ... "Yoda." )

I took some videos of her today.  Lately I've been having trouble getting videos of her smiling, because she has caught on to the whole camera thing, and must be camera shy, because she stops smiling as soon as she sees it! So if I want some of her happy, I have to be more descrete.     

Here is one of her during "tummy time" which she doesn't really like doing. 

This is an example of her noticing the camera and giving it a bad look!

Sorry that it's pretty hard to see. 

 I tacked on this short clip from a few days ago of her

 playing with Ben too, just so you can see her laugh.  

Halloween weekend

We had a lot of fun this weekend with Halloween and all.  We dressed Harmony as a pumpkin, using black tights, a jack o lantern onsie and a little Pumpkin top hat that Ben's mom made for her.   That was pretty much the best thing we could come up with considering she is so small she would drown in a store bought costume!  Tara, of course wore her favorite ghost costume,  and Ben went as an Internet Pirate.  

We haven't got the pictures of us from that night yet, but we have a couple cute ones of Harmony off of our camera.  

Also, I'm adding a video of Harmony having a "tantrum" since most of you never see this side of her! Hah.  Well, it's not really a meltdown or anything, she's just getting tired. So, since she's even cute when she's crying I guess it's ok to put it up.   We think it's cute that she'll actually kind of yell-talk at us when she's angry but not reallycrying . . . just like "hey! this sucks!" So, here ya go...

But now, just so you see she recovers well...a cute little snippet.

More to come later once we have our Halloween pics!

Tara's Birthday

     Yesterday was a great day! It was my 28th birthday (ew I'm never typing that out again), so I wanted to post some pictures from last night. Ben was able to get the day off of work to spend it with me.  He had told me that he had to go to a meeting in the afternoon though.  However, he later called me during his "meeting" to let me know that he might be a while, because he was getting my car windows re-tinted and it was going to take forever! I was SO surprised!  That's exactly what I've been waiting all year for my birthday to do (my car's tint had turned kind of purple a while ago, and it drove me crazy every time I drove!).  I had pretty much given up doing that though because I haven't had time to research or plan it since I've been so preoccupied with the baby.  BUT my thoughtful husband LIED to me about having a meeting so he could surprise me :) 

     That evening, we went over to Ben's parent's house so they could babysit Harmony while we went to dinner. Ben took me to one of my favorite places, Red Robin, and I even got a free birthday dessert! After that we went back to the Layton's for MORE really tasty cake that his mom made.  Since going to dinner AND a movie is pretty hard to do these days, we decided that watching a movie in the Layton's awesome media room (with a 90 inch projector screen and a soundproof room and comfy recliners!!) would be just as good, if not better! So, that's what we did. 

     Harmony must have known it was my birthday, because she was on her extra best behavior all day! She was a perfect angel and barely fussed at all! She even slept well thru the night for me. :)  Thanks to everyone who called and wished me a happy birthday! It means a lot to be remembered, and of course I love hearing from every one! 

So, Here are a couple photos from the evening. . .

Harmony also wore a dress for the festivities! 

Size 3 mos is still a little big for her, but she's still cute!

Two Months

So, we haven't done much in the way of videos this week. However, I did take two this morning. This week Harmony had her two month doctor's appointment, which means, she had to get a few vaccinations. She did pretty good with the shots. She only cried really hard until they were over with, and then settled down once she was held again. ( One of these days I'm going to post a video of her crying, which she does most of the time, so that you can get a feel for it all!) She weighs exactly 10 lbs and is 21 3/4 inches long. She is growing well even though she is on the petite side (who would have guessed?).

The first video... I'll have to try later, since blogger won't seem to upload it. :(

The next video is of her in the swing. It has these little stuffed fish on a mobile that spins above her head. We think it's funny because she will watch one fish until it is practically completely behind her, and then she'll switch to the next one up, and do the same thing...she'll keep doing it over and over and over. So, here ya go!

Smiles

Harmony has been talking and smiling a lot more lately.  Her favorite words are "wow" and "oh." She also likes "I love you." We finally caught a good video of it all.  This is from tonight.

Hound Dog

Ok. So, before you watch this video, you need to know that it was inspired by Harmony's jumpsuit collar. Ben thought that her fashion statement was similar to that of the late Elvis Presley. So knowing that, and knowing of Ben's favorite entertainment with Harmony- we hope you enjoy this as much as we do. Great-Grandma Rose, this one's for you.

A few fun things

I took some pictures this week to put up for the blog.  Fall is here, which means its freezing for me,  however, Ben is very excited for the weather change.  My favorite thing about the end of the year is the month of October!  So, I wanted to show off Harmony's new onsies! Her Grandma Layton got them for her. 

She has been using her "words" lately.  Here she is in her cradle talking to her bumpers. 

She's learning to bat at her toys in her rocker


We sure are enjoying watching how she grows and develops everyday.  Her reflux seems to be getting better, and she is starting to sleep better at night now! We are working on starting a new bedtime schedule for her, which has been hard to do due to her reflux.  The problem is mostly because it is so difficult to have her lie down with out spitting up constantly.  Well, that's all for this week.  Off to battle the cold days ahead!

Week 6 activities

A picture of Harmony taking a nap on daddy.  This is the first time

that she actually stayed sleeping while laying on her back like that. 

She's actually starting to like it more now.  

I love daddy

Daddy helping her show off some sweet dance moves.  It's pretty much Ben's favorite thing to do with her :) And yeah, it's pretty funny. 
Here's a video of Harmony from today.  We think she looks pretty cute when Ben holds her like this...and she seems to love it too. 

September news

Hello again! Our last couple of weeks have been great and not so great. Harmony is doing well and getting bigger everday (and cuter).  Still trying to get the smiling down, but she is starting to "talk" just a little bit.  Her acid reflux problems have been challenging for her (and me). Other than that, she is just perfect.  Here is a video I took of her falling asleep.  She usually makes some pretty interesting faces and tends to do this "exorcist" thing-as we call it- with her eyes.  It's funny.  

She's getting bigger!

Last week, our car was stolen right out of our parking space at home! It was extremely devestating, especially for me since I've spent a good part of my life caring for that car, and hoping to have it another few years.  Luckily the police recovered the car not far from home! However, the JERKS took everything they thought had value to them (including the antenna! and our brand new baby stroller) and it was a very sad sight to see for me since it was pretty torn up. But, it still drove fine   So, we have been focusing on getting the car back to its previous state, even though we grimice at the thought of putting down money for things we once owned that were taken from us.
On a lighter note, Ben was able to take his dad out for a day of fun at a BYU football game.  Courtesy of StoresOnline, Ben and his dad sat pretty dang close at the game, and, got to enjoy some free catered food!  They had a great time and only suffered some minor sunburns :) Oh, and BYU won of course! 

Doesn't Ben look like he's enjoying the football game? 

Nyle is enjoying himself for sure!

And I can't forget to brag that Ben was the overall employee of the month at StoresOnline! He won a 150 "stobucks" and now has enough saved up to buy a Nintendo Wii! woohoo! He also had his picture on the employee of the month wall, among other office perks. 

Do you see Ben's picture in the bottom left? 

The other pictures are for the previous months and last year.

Well that's about it for this time, Here are a few extra pictures of Harmony from this month for you to look at! 
CLICK HERE to see 'em!

One Month Old

Happy one month anniversary to Harmony! She is such a big girl! :) Harmony has had a great first month of life...well, in our opinion at least! 

Since she was born she has definately filled out her newborn onsies, her eyes have become a lighter blue, her cheeks are as chubby as ever, and now she tracks things better and stares into our eyes! She even hints at wanting to smile now and then.  She gives us some big smiles pretty often, but just in her sleep.  Oh, and she is even better at keeping her little hands out of her face all the time (we wondered if we would have to start duct taping them to her sides to keep them down!).

Here are some pictures I took today while her daddy was at work! 

And, here is another short video for your enjoyment.

Live Action Shots

Since many of you have never seen Harmony in real life, (or, miss seeing her in real life) I figured I would post a couple cute, (yet not very exciting) videos of her.  Hope you enjoy them.  We love to sit and watch her, especially when she is awake.  She makes the cutest faces. Our favorite face she makes is when she lifts her head and wrinkles her forehead.  Her "blue steel" face is a favorite too...(if you've ever seen the movie Zoolander, you may know where we get this name from) big round eyes and pursed round lips.  And of course, we're always trying to catch a smile. 

Blessing Day

Last Sunday we had Harmony's baby blessing at our home.  Our families and friends came over to be there while Ben gave Harmony a beautiful blessing.  Thanks to unlce Steve, who recorded the blessing, we will have it forever to show to her later! Her dress was a beautiful gift from Tara's Aunt Lorraine.  Harmony was swimming in it a little bit, but still looked so pretty! Also, we were happy to have Sam and Jenn join us for the blessing from Colorado! Here are a few pictures from the awesome day!

Harmony's Layton uncles and aunts (almost all of them!)

With our Bishop

Her pretty dress!

Grandparents Thomas and Layton

Tara and her parents 

Two Weeks Old

Harmony is two weeks old! The first two weeks have been wonderful. Grandpa Thomas joined us for a visit, and our friend Derek Isbell stopped by during his trip to Utah. Harmony had her two week Doctor's appointment, and she's looking good! She's gained back all but 2 oz of her birth weight, and already grown 2 1/2 inches! She's still very content and peaceful, and we've enjoyed every minute! Bring on the next two weeks!

Here are a few more photos since our last post.

Taking a nap with daddy

With Grandpa and Grandma Thomas

Finally, evidence of Uncle Jon holding her!

Tara, Derek and Harmony

Sharing the love

Here are a few more pictures of family members with Harmony... and a few more cute ones.

Grandma Thomas

Grandpa Layton

Grandma Layton

Aunt Sarah

Uncle Sam & Aunt Jenn

Uncle Matt & Uncle Steve

Grandpa Thomas will arrive later today! Uncle Jon, we need some pictures with you!!