March Madness

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.