We went to see Brandon's grandparents last weekend and got to visit with his cousin and new fiance. We're super excited to see her part of our family. And while we were there some friends brought over their 6 month old puppy named Toby. He's the cutest ball of white fluff we've ever seen, and Kayla absolutely adored him. In my mind she viewed him as a moving stuffed animal, and so she treated him like one. The best way to illustrate this is with a video.
This week has been pretty crazy but lots of fun. It was Brandon's birthday on Tuesday. We had some friends offer to babysit Kayla so we could go out which was really nice of them. So we went to PF Changs (yum) and I gave Brandon a fedora to go with his tux he'll be wearing next Friday. Then we came back to have bread pudding and play games with our friends. It was nice and relaxing.
Brandon's grandma went into the hospital for a knee replacement and Brandon's mom and uncle made a surprise visit to see her and help out during the week. That meant that we made every opportunity to go up and see them. Grandma's surgery went pretty well and will be in recovery for the next 8 weeks. Kayla and I went up Thursday and Friday to the hospital and had as much fun as you can at a hospital, but it was good to see all the family.
Saturday Mom and Uncle Damon came down to visit us and Brandon's friend Adam Collet with his wife, Ashley, came down, too and had a BBQ. And of course with most gatherings at our house, it ends with Rock Band.
And today is Easter. We didn't do too much to celebrate but it's been a good Easter. The choir sang a couple songs in Sacrament meeting and the Primary Presidency each spoke and then gave a musical number. It was a lot of fun. I then gave the sharing time lesson and the kids were really good as they listened to the Easter story. I was grateful for that. It's a good and important story.
My mom gave Kayla a dress at Christmas and we thought it would be a good dress for Easter, and I found a cute hat to put her in. Surprisingly, she liked the hat and kept in on most of the day. Let me illustrate.
We gave her a small Easter egg hunt in the afternoon, and I think she had a lot of fun hunting for them. Hopefully we'll be able to do more of that next year. I'm grateful for this holiday we have to remember all that Christ did for us. I'm also grateful that the weather in Utah fit the season for once.
Happy Easter!
I could blame a lot of things for why I haven't posted a blog yet this year: my mom's wedding, work moving locations, Kayla, Brandon's busy movie making, work changing cell phone carriers which I was in charge of, Kayla, a new calling in the Ward, reading the Wheel of Time, Kayla...etc. All those things happened, but they're really just excuses for my laziness. So I feel like I need to apologize for my neglect. I love posting pictures of Kayla and giving everyone updates on the Ho family life. So, I will try to be better. Here we go...
At the beginning of March, it rained one weekend. That one event created what I am going to call Spring Fever and it spread to the Ho household. I believed that since it rained, winter was over. It's time for change and warmth. So, the logical people we are, Brandon and I started working on the front and back yards. I started weeding my tulip garden in the front. It took me three days during Kayla's nap time to get my one section done. Brandon started working on the garden/patio in the back. It's a lot more work than both of us anticipated. Brandon's gotten a lot of help pulling out a tree stump and redoing the patio/fire-pit area. It's morphed into a Ward service project/BBQ scheduled for this Saturday unbeknownst to us until it was announced in Elder's quorum. I thought that was pretty funny, and we love having a party. The more the merrier. Hopefully when it's all done, I'll show before and after pics. I think it's going to turn out well.
Kayla's been growing and learning so much. She hit the 18 month mark in February and she was looking really good and on track developmentally when we had the doctor checkup. She's become Miss Independent. She'll spend 15 minutes trying to get her shoes and socks on herself because she won't let us touch them. It's really cute except when we're trying to go somewhere and need to leave soon... :)
She also believes that the Kindle Fire is HERS. We've got a few games on there she likes to play, and she's getting really good at them. Her favorite game is My Little Pony. She also likes to play Angry Birds but shoots the birds the wrong way. It's pretty funny to watch.
Kayla's also getting her ABCs down really well. She can repeat most of the letters back to us, and she's recognizing letters in the books she "reads" and other various places you see letters. I've been really impressed with how quickly she's learning. It's been a really fun experience watching her grow.
Of the three of us, I think Brandon's been the busiest. Besides working at the LDS Motion Picture studio, he's got several independent projects going. I'll list a few:
- Working with his cousin, Steve James, on some music videos for children
- Finishing the post-production on his short film, Steamed Dumplings
- Starting up a company called Cinema Book Trailer with a couple other guys. As part of an effort to get their names out there, he's doing a book trailer for Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. Here's a link to a book trailer one of the other guys did: The Maze Runner
- Finishing the post-production on his feature film, Missed Connections. We'll go to the Premier showing on April 5th, so everything's gotta be done by then.
That's not everything but just the major ones, I think. He's doing some script work on other projects he has in mind. He's just crazy busy. But what I think the most amazing thing about all this is that he gets of work early so I can go to my meetings for my Ward calling, he's a Webelos leader for the Cub Scouts, and he takes the time to watch Kayla while I work in the mornings. I know Kayla appreciates the time he spends with her. She's a Daddy's Girl and I love that. I'm a Daddy's Girl, too. Daddies are so very important to their little girls; it's a special relationship that everyone should have in their lives.
Now for what everyone's been waiting for: the pictures. I took this one yesterday while Kayla and I were playing in the back yard. It was her idea. Not mine.
The stump came up to my chest and the fence came to somewhere by my head, so that might give you a reference for how far up she is. Silly girl.
Here's one where I got her to look at me and smile. I was impressed that I was able to get the shot. I used my phone (which has a weird delay), and the sun was pretty bright. If that's not adorable, I don't know what is.
More pictures and videos to come, hopefully, soon. :)
Happy Spring.
