Pumpkins, Hayrides, and the Best Family Ever!

Fall is my very favorite season.  I love the crispness in the air, the color and crunch of the leaves on the ground, the smell of cider, spices, and all things pumpkin!  And because I do love this season so much, I want to share that love with my daughter.  I want her to crave this season the way that I do and to savor every chilly, soggy moment of it!

This being Ayla's first full fall season and her first ever October, I wanted her pumpkin-hunting experience to be the best.  I would not accept less than the authentic farm experience.  I thought that this would be a little hard in Utah, but I was extremely wrong!  I just typed "Pumpkin patch Utah Valley" into the google machine and I found this wonderful place!

We waited until it was a little closer to Halloween to go pick out our pumpkins.  I really didn't like the idea of visiting a patch in 70 degree weather.  Oh, it was worth the wait.  We were FREEZING and I loved it!  It was the first afternoon that truly felt like full-on fall to me.  I mean we were shivering before 6pm!

This experience was perfect.  It was more than I could have ever hoped for Ayla's first pumpkin picking trick.  Ayla and I are so blessed to have Joseph.  He's such a hands-on daddy.  Ayla adores him and I adore watching their daddy-daughter relationship blossom.  Ayla is a daddy's girl, no question.

So to spare you every wordy detail... Here is our South Ridge Farms Pumpkin Patch Experience in photos!

After our hayride back to the barn we packed up our tired little ice cube of a baby and headed back home.  I could not have asked for a more perfect evening at the farm!



GAP BABY!

I have officially entered Ayla into the Gap Casting Call.  :)

If you have a spare moment please vote for Ayla!

http://www.gapcastingcall.com/GapCastingCall/EntryDetail.html?id=737585

The Shirley Family

It is not often that you meet a friend that you click with instantly.  A friend who you feel at ease with.  A friend that you can laugh with, be serious with, or even just lay around in pajamas all day doing nothing with.  Someone you can tell to shut up if they're being dumb or ask them for their opinion and genuinely care about what they have to offer.  And it's not often that you meet a friend that is there for you no matter what, at any time, completely opening their hearts and their homes to you asking for nothing in return.

Well some time during our pregnancies I met Kaitlin.

I had worked with her husband for quite some time at Pinnacle by the time we were introduced.  I was pregnant with Ayla and she was just barely pregnant with Nina.  We decided that we should hang out.  Well months passed... I had Ayla.  She had Nina.  We still had not really talked other than running into each other at stores/Pinnacle.  FINALLY, we exchanged numbers and decided to REALLY hang out.  We did.  And long story short, Kaitlin in awesome.  We had a lot of fun together and it was surprisingly easy for me to be around her and be comfortable.  I have a problem with being shy and not opening up to people, but this was not the case with Kaito.

Shortly after this fun time with Kaitlin our family moved to St. Louis.  Great, I finally met a friend and I had to leave.  Well thank goodness for facebook!  We were able to stay in touch via stupid conversations on picture comments, of all places.

When we came home from St. Louis we kind of found ourselves between a rock and a hard place.  We were staying with some generous friends but unfortunately we were about 25 mintues from Provo aka work and friends and life in Utah as we know it.  Insert Kaitlin, Geoffrey, and Nina here. 

Kaitlin opened her home up to me letting me come hang out EVERY DAY.  I would show up in the morning after dropping Joseph off at work and some days we'd be there until midnight or later.  Heck, we even slept in their second bedroom a couple of nights!  For a while Kaitlin and I ran all over town visiting malls, target, various food places, etc... but we soon found out that two babies out and around town all day isn't really a fun thing.  Pretty soon we were staying in our jammies lounging on the couch all day watching Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, Bad Girl's Club, and lots of baby shows, of course.  :)  If Kaitlin was ever sick of me being in her house and in her space every day she never showed it and I am so grateful for her being so generous and so selfless.  It was so nice for Ayla and I to have a place to go where we could feel comfortable and relax a little while we didn't have a home of our own.

As luck and fate and all that good stuff would have it, we were able to rent a town home in the same complex as kaitlin and Geoffrey!  Just down the parking lot!  I had so much planned for our neighborly relationship!  Bbq's, dinner parties, babies playing in their first snow, etc... Sadly, pretty much the day that we moved in Kaitlin announced that they were moving to Texas.  And not in the future... but in two weeks!  WHAT?!  We finally have awesome friends that we click so well with!  Not only Kaitlin and me, but Joseph had a great time with Geoffrey.  It is so rare to find good couple friends!  And they have a baby!  Just a couple months younger than Ayla!  They're perfect and we're neighbors and we don't want them to leave!

But they left.  The Shirley's had to follow a great opportunity for their little family.  All the way to Texas.

I miss lounging around with my friend talking about anything and everything.  I miss sitting outside with her and the dogs.  I miss cute little Nina and her tiny little squeals and irressistable smile.  I miss coming home at night and meeting Geoff and Kait outside and chatting away...

Friends like them are so rare.  I really love the friendship that I have with Kaitlin and I hope that we will be able to keep it going even if we're not in the same state.  Thank goodness for facebook and cell phones and video chat (Kaitlin download Skype ASAP!) to help us stay in touch.  We love you Shirley family!

P.S.  VEGAS IN JANUARY!!!

New address :)

I have changed my blogger address from http://josephtonjababy/.... to http://tonjajosephayla.blogspot.com/.  FYI :)

I don't mind Utah...

...when it looks like this:

Provo River (which I live right next to) in Autumn.

And I can't wait until I see this:

Snow on the Mountains! (Timp)

And then this:

I love this season and the next...

One month and one day away!

My baby Tiny will be one year old in one month and one day.  AH!  One year, are you serious?!  It seems like yesterday that I was counting down the weeks and days until I would deliver my sweet little girl.  I remember wondering what she would look like, sound like, act like...  She has exceeded my wildest dreams on every level.  I love this girl more than I could say, write, think... LOVE HER!

Having said that, I can't wait to celebrate her first year in a big way!  I mean BIG!  I want to put everything she loves together and make it so special!  Something that she won't remember, but when she looks back at the bazillion pictures I will sureley take, she will wish that she could remember.  :)

I have big plans and I can't wait to get started on her grand Elmo themed party.  I'm sure every other one-year-old has an Elmo party, but hello, Elmo is so lovable.  Who doesn't love that little red monster?  Ayla is OBSESSED.  I mean, she can spot him from a mile away in any store and she shreiks and screams and lunges for Elmo like mad.  It's not fun calming the tantrums that my girl has when we don't leave the store with her beloved Elmo.  Guess what we're getting her for her birthday?  Haaaa...

Ooooh did I mention I love my Tiny girl?