I was in Utah four days last week, got home on Friday night and left again Sunday evening and shall return on Friday. After that, the travel should end and become very spotty at best for awhile.

Jina was sick late last week and over the weekend, so mostly I took care of Lyla and Jina got to rest both days I was home. I was so glad to do it…she’s been taking care of everything at home and that can get old, tiresome and boring. Plus when you are sick…it’s brutal.

Lyla is so independent now, so stubborn…she’s a handful when she’s not feeling good or needs extra attention. Sometimes she’ll be on her own for hours, othertimes she demands so much from you. Been loving her temper tantrums of late where she dances for a few seconds before sucking in a ton of air and letting it out in a major crying fit of rage *grin*

But she’s also amazing right now too, this phase of her life is so great. A few weeks ago I taught her how to say “Rain” and now she pretty much knows WHEN to say it too. She brought Jina one of Jina’s slippers from the closet the other day, so Jina asked her to go get the other one. Off she went and returned with the matching slipper! Amazing right?

She can also reach the doorknobs in the house now…and is about an inch away from being able to open them on her own. Yikes.

There is so much more, but no time to write much else. Just a quick update while I’m on break up here in Salt Lake City. Hope you enjoy the pictures below!

This above one was shot on Sunday afternoon a little before I left for the airport. This photo actually made Approver’s Choice on Wunderground.com! Was a fun shot…set the tripod, had 10 seconds to run ahead and pose…also was a bit tricky to get the clouds right. Had to actually combine two layers to get the foreground lit up and the clouds dark and ominous!

This is Lyla’s first time out in the rain on her own. She loves it…she just stood there and laughed a few times. I had to drag her inside from the cold.

Jina bought this tricycle quite a few years before Lyla was even conceived…as something just in case we had a kid someday. A few weekends ago, our friend’s daughter found it and rode around. We put Lyla on it and she loved it. On Sunday, she went out the frontdoor, into the garage and stood right next to it. Hint hint daddy!

As you can see, her feet are nowhere near the pedals…but she likes being pushed around on the thing. It’s amazing to me how old she looks here…growing up so fast.

I’m posting three of my favorites, but go check our her blog post to see the rest.

While the Taylors were here they decided to get their photos taken by Misty Michelle, who did our wonderful shots of Lyla in December.  We couldn’t wait to see how they turned out for them, especially because they’ve never had any pictures like this taken before.

Misty posted the pictures yesterday and I just had to pass on a few of them to you guys. I highly suggest any of you looking for awesome family portraits to check out Misty’s site and set up an appointment. She’s great with kids and makes the whole experience a lot of fun!

Check out the rest over on Misty’s site!

We haven’t really had any portraits or pictures done since our wedding, so for our 9-year anniversary this past June, we decided we should do something.

Anyways, I thought I’d pass along her website and blog, and also some of the shots we did. She basically had us meet in downtown Chandler, where she had never been before, and we walked around taking pictures. Was a crazy experience.

If you guys need photos done, for anything, you should call her…probably will be the best pictures of your life. Take a look at the rest of her blog and her main site.

http://www.melissajill.net/index.cfm?postID=81