Little A's First Christmas!

By the time Christmas came little A was very excited about the presents.  She'd been so good about not touching them that I didn't think she'd care, but on Christmas Eve we let her open a present and that got her very excited.

We started out Christmas Eve with our traditional Christmas crepe dinner.  So yummy!  A wanted some pretty bad; we gave her some of the fruit, but that's all she got.  Next year.  (Ava says, "That's what they tell me about everything")

Allan cooking the crepes

Instead, she had Chicken and Stars for dinner, which we discovered she hates.

A wearing the Christmas bib I made her.

After dinner we got little A ready for bed and read the Christmas Story.  A couple years ago I made a book with all the parts of the Christmas story put together so we don't have to skip around the Bible and Book of Mormon finding everything.  We've been reading that for a few days now.  Then we let little A open a gift from me.

Opening her first Christmas present.

It was an ornament that was given to me on my first Christmas.  It's a little porcelain baby doll tucked in a pink bed.  The bed says "Baby's First Christmas" on it.  The arms and legs on the doll move and you can take the bonnet on and off.  It's always been my favorite ornament, and I've been so excited to give it to her.  A loved it!  She smiled and cooed at it and loved taking the hat off.  I helped her hang it on the tree.  A little bit later Allan picked her up and was walking by the tree when A saw it and lunged for it, grunting in excitement.  So Allan stopped, and they stood there and looked at it for a while.

A reaching for the ornament I gave her.

After we put A to bed Allan and I played Mexican Train and skyped with his family.  They were skyping his sister, SG, who is serving a mission in the Philippines.  His parents had SG, us, and Allan's sister P and brother-in-law R on computers.  It was hilarious to watch Allan's brother D hold up one computer in front of another one so SG could skype with everybody.  If you look closely at the picture you can see D holding up the computer P and R are on so that SG can see them, lol!  Too funny!  It was a lot of fun to skype with them and talk to SG for a minute.  There was a bad glare so we didn't really see her, and D had to translate a little now and then, but it was still fun!

In case you were wondering, Allan beat me the first game, and then I beat him the next two games! Ha!

The next morning Allan and I got the finishing touches ready for little A and then went to get her for Christmas.  She greeted us with a great big smile!

She walked into the living room; we stopped at the advent calendar to bring baby Jesus out to the manger and talked about how Jesus was born.  Then we walked out to the tree.  She was super excited.  It was time for her to eat breakfast so I fed her while Allan separated all the presents.

We checked out the empty plate of cookies and mug of cocoa that Santa ate and drank.

Little A wasn't sure what to think of all her gifts.  The pile was bigger than she is.

We got all the gifts from her stocking first (puffs, yogurt bites, and waffles).  She was so interested in the puffs that she didn't care about any of her other gifts.  We let her play with them while we opened some of our gifts.

She got into the unwrapping after I showed her what to do and succeeded in unwrapping one of her gifts.  It was a set of blocks from Allan and I.  After that she wasn't very interested in opening the gifts, but she liked to play with them as soon as they were opened.  We would have her open one or two, and then we'd each open one so she could have a chance to play with each gift.

I put this bow on her head and somehow she got it off and stuck it on her belly, lol!

Notice the bow on her belly.

I changed little A into her Christmas outfit.  I tried to find one that said my 1st Christmas but our Walmart only had one 12 month onesie.  It says Daddy's Little Sweetie.  It's pretty cute and I surprised Allan with it.

Daddy's Little Sweetie :)

Little A got a ton of presents.  She's played with and enjoyed all of them.

Outfit, puzzles, blocks, and two ornaments from Mom and Dad

Clothes, ornament, and activity block from Nana and Pops

Car from Grandma and Grandpa Hepworth

Puzzle from Aunt K6 and cousin P

Cheer Bear with DVD from Aunt K3 and Uncle C

Momo the Monkey, ornament, and Fisher Price Nativity from AG and her family

Sing to Jesus book from Grandma H and Grandad

The loot.

She was so excited about all of her presents that she didn't want to take a nap.  We let her play an extra 30 minutes, and then she broke down into tears so we put her to bed.

Playing with her new toys.

Reading the book from Grandma H and Grandad the next day.

Allan got me one of the Willow Tree Nativity sets.  We'll add on to it next year.  I love it! I've been wanting it for years, but we could never afford until this year.  He also got me a collection of old movies to watch while I run on the treadmill and iron, some thread, and made me a wonderful book.  He does something hand-made every year, and it's always my favorite!  He also stuffed my stocking with Smarties and Turtles, my favorite candy.

I made myself a stocking this year and gave my stocking to Little A.

I got Allan some tools he wanted, a book, an excavator ornament, and an expansion pack to Settlers of Cataan.  I also stuffed his stocking with Butterfingers, Starbursts, and jerky.

Our parents gave us some really nice hiking backpacks and sleeping bags, a survival kit, some cash, and some hand-made soaps and lotions.  M1 and H gave us a set of Elizabeth Gaskell movies (we started watching Cranford, and it is absolutely hilarious!) K3 and C gave us the Awkward Family Photos game. And our family gift was the book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries", we are excited to read it.

Allan had fun trying out the sleeping bags.  They are really nice!

We cooked a delicious Christmas dinner: Ham with pineapple, potatoes and gravy, salad, steamed veggies, and cheese sauce.  So yummy! We made a cheeseball on Christmas Eve, but somehow it didn't last until Christmas dinner.

Little A has had so much fun with all of her new toys.  She loves to push all the musical buttons on her car and dance to the music.  She pushes herself around really well.  She doesn't walk with it yet, but she's enjoyed standing.

Her favorite new toy is definitely the hammer that goes with her activity block.  She loves to bang it and especially to chew on it.  She will sit contentedly and chew on that hammer forever, lol!

Allan had Christmas and the 2 days after Christmas off.  We've loved having the extra family time together.  Little A has especially loved to have her daddy home for several days in a row.  Her bond to him has grown stronger the last few days.  I've loved watching them together.

Thank you all for your generous gifts! We love you and hope you had a great Christmas too!

Preparing for Christmas

We started out the month of December by putting up our Christmas Tree!  Last year we moved right before Christmas and never put our tree up, so we were very excited to do it this year.

Allan decorating the tree

Little A investigating the tree and ornaments.

Little A goes to bed so early she didn't get to help with the tree.  She loves it though! I was hoping that it might inspire her to crawl a little, but no such luck.  She's been really good about leaving it alone - which is nice.  The most she did to it was run into it with her walker (but gently enough that it never moved), and play with a couple of ornaments.  She was really good about finding something else to do when we told her no and sent her rolling away from the tree. :)

It's been really nice lately so we spent a lot of time outside.  She loves to sit and play outside and feel the wind in her hair.

She's giving you a thumbs up!

We were really on top of things this year as far as wrapping gifts goes.  We had everything done long before Christmas.  And because A is such a good girl we put all the gifts under the tree.  She tried to run over them with her walker a couple of times but otherwise left them alone.

Playing with daddy.

This is my favorite winter outfit she has. It cracks me up.  (She doesn't have very many winter clothes)

A loves to giggle while she eats :)

We took little A to see her first play.  The children's theatre put on "The Wizard of Oz".  It was adorable as always.  A LOVED it!  She especially loved when the children sang and danced.  She would move along to the music and grunt happily.  She was so interested in it that she refused to drink her bottle because it got in the way of her view.  We sat next to an older man and before the show started she was very intent on getting his hat.  He had just come from working at a worm farm though so he kindly kept it from her. We usually go and support our friends' little girls, but we weren't able to make it to their night this time.  We were thrilled to discover that some other friends' little girl was in the show we made it to.  She did a great job, said her line clear and loud, and was an adorable little bunny!

A and I at the theatre

Because the weather is so nice here they always have a light parade.  It's a lot of fun to go to.  Everyone always goes all out with their floats, and they are beautiful.  We got all bundled up (because it was a little cold to stand outside for a long period of time) and took A to the parade.  She ended up being more interested in the children around her than the lights.  She had fun though.

Allan and Little A. Every time she wears this hat people stop us to comment on how cute she and the hat are.  I have to agree.  Good job Aunties!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Semi.

Nativity Scene

Fire truck

Little A loves to get the mail. Our mailbox is down the street a bit; it's a good walk for someone so little.  We always wave at our shadows and giggle at the dogs barking on our way there.  I usually have to carry her back so I can get the mail, but if there isn't any mail she gets to walk back too.  She's always disappointed when we get back to the house, lol.
 

This day it was rather cold outside so I bundled her up. Sweat suit, hoodie, moccasins, Cabbage Patch beanie, and pea coat.  She thought it was absolutely hilarious and couldn't stop giggling about it. She laughed all the way there, all the way back, and quite a while when we got back inside.

Coming back from the mailbox with Daddy.

Little A has finally decided that she wants to move!  She discovered that if she rocks hard enough she can move her highchair across the kitchen.  She's enjoyed discovering how far she can get.  And, of course, it cracks her up and she laughs the whole time.

She made it from the sliding glass doors (which are on the side of the table not pictured) all the way to the pantry door.

She also discovered that she can mover her highchair to reach things that she wants.  In the picture below she was up against the wall and wanted the cracker that was sitting on her tray on the table.  She rocked until she got close enough to grab it and then happily ate it while I got her breakfast ready.  She was very proud of herself too.

We took Little A to see Santa at our ward's Christmas party.  It was about an hour and a half past her bedtime so she was REALLY tired.  She didn't cry at all; I was kind of surprised because she really doesn't seem to like beards.  She liked Santa's beard though, and tried to boing his curls, lol!

For one of our family nights we made sugar cookies.  I think we made three batches this year and we should have made at least two more.  I ran out of time and didn't get cookies out to our neighbors. :(  We took some to a party we had with our friends.  We had a lot of fun at the party. Little A really took to one of the men there.  I asked him to grab her for me because she was fussing (I was pinned in on one side of the table and couldn't get out very easily).  He picked her up, and she looked at him, smiled, and gave him a big hug!  She continued to smile and hug him, so he decided to keep her for a while, ha!  She played with his sunglasses and chatted up a storm while he listened politely to her.  She was having the time of her life!

Having a play time right before bed.

Gotta play with Daddy too!

Little A helped Allan and I move Mary and Joseph closer and closer to the stable's every day.  She loved looking at the advent calendar and hearing the nativity story over and over again.  She also loved touching it and trying to move the other pieces on the calendar (they're sewn on).

We had an impromptu play date with our friend H's little ones.  Her son played in the backyard most of the time.  We could hear him talking and singing to himself.  He was having a grand old time.  Her daughter is a couple months younger than little A, and they played really well together.  It took her daughter a little while to warm up, but once she did they had a ball stealing each others toys.  A LOVED having someone to play with and squealed and jabbered at her happily.

Little A discovered how to make a squeaky noise with her pacifier.  She likes to lay down and squeak.

Reading scriptures after a long day at church.

The box my mom sent little A's Christmas gifts in was full of packing peanuts.  I let A play with them while I wrapped some gifts.  She played with them for an hour!  She probably would have played with them longer, but we had to go somewhere so she got interrupted. She loved scraping them with her fingers and hearing the sound that it made.

Little A is 11 Months Old!

We can't believe that she's almost a year! It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  She continues to try to crawl and walk.  She loves to walk around if we hold onto her hands, but she doesn't like to do it any other way. I tried letting go of one hand a few times, and she immediately stops, cries, and looks at me like I have betrayed her.

As far as crawling goes, she moves her arms really well but still won't move her legs.  Eventually her arms and legs get so far apart that she belly flops and then promptly turns over onto her back.  She always looks at me like "how did that happen?" It's too funny.

She finally started feeding herself! She wasn't very successful at actually getting things into her mouth at first.  They tended to fall out before she could get her fingers out of her mouth, lol.  But she's getting the hang of it and eats more and more every day.  She is doing so much better at eating chunky foods too! She really likes Lasagna, spaghetti, and vermicelli soup.  She hates chicken and stars.

She is still sleeping 10-12 hours at night and takes 3 one hour long naps during the day.

Her favorite toy right now is Momo the Monkey, a stuffed monkey that AG gave to her for Christmas.  AG and little A's birth-cousin have the same monkey. :)  Little A loves it when I make monkey sounds and Momo gives her kisses.  She also loves to wrestle Momo.

Little A and Momo supporting the Utah State Aggies.

Little A loves to talk! She jabbers all day long.  When we lay her down for naps or put her to bed for the night she talks herself to sleep.  She'll be all drowsy and half asleep, but as soon as she's in her crib she starts jabbering.  Allan and I love listening to her. 

She says Momma and Dad. Those are really the only words she'll say, every now and then she'll spit out something else like "no", or "hi", but I'm never really sure she knows what she's saying.

She understands a ton of things though. When we walk I'll tell her to go to a certain destination (her high chair, her bedroom, the changing table, etc, and she always goes right there.  When she really doesn't want to go to where I tell her to she'll take her sweet time and look around at things while we go, stopping occasionally to look at something in more detail.  Other times, like when she's hungry, she'll run!

She loves to walk to the mailbox to get the mail. We try to walk there every day.  When it's getting later in the day and we haven't gone yet she'll fuss and look at the door very distressed.

A loves to read, sing songs, and dance.  She still plays alone contentedly for long periods of time, but loves to have family plays too.  She loves to be outside and especially loves to feel the wind in her hair, lol!  It makes her giggle!

Since we haven't been to the doctor in a while I don't know how much she weighs or how long she is.  She is wearing 12 month clothes.  They are a little big on her still, but the 9 month clothes are too small.

She has 3 teeth, all on the bottom. There are a couple that keep threatening to break through, but they have yet to truly appear.  Hopefully they'll come soon so she'll stop hurting so bad.

A's First Thanksgiving and other November Happenings

November was kind of a crazy month for us. Which is why I am catching up on the blogging now.

Little A in her Halloween bib. The woman who watches her when we go to the Temple made it for her.  She taught me how to make these bibs (made out of hand towels); they're super easy, and I love them because they cover her clothes and she can't pull them off.

We finally got around to laying the rock down in our yard.  Allan worked really hard on it, and we had some help from some of our neighbors too!  Allan was out working one day when he started getting pretty tired. He prayed that someone would come and help him so that the work would still get done.  Heavenly Father answered his prayer almost immediately when our neighbors came by. They are 10 and 5 but they did a good job helping and kept him going. Another day another neighbor (who is our age) came and helped. We are very grateful for answered prayers and good neighbors.

Allan laying down the cloth.

We marked out a spot for a flower bed in front of the window that will match the one at the front of our yard.  We don't have the flower bed in yet, but the rock looks really good.  I'll have to post a picture later because I forgot to take one.

One family night we had a lesson about Jesus Christ.  We often use the Gospel Art book for our family night lessons. I showed this picture to Little A and bore my testimony to her about the Savior. She was completely engrossed in the picture.  She reverently touched it and smiled her best smile.  She looked at and talked to it for a really long time.  Our girl loves her Savior. :) It was such a sweet moment.

Little A had her teeth brushed for the first time this month.  She LOVED it! She didn't want me to stop, lol! It must have felt really good on her gums. I do it in the bathtub now because drool got everywhere.

Brushing A's teeth.

Little A in one of her adoption shirts. :)

Gotta love those cute booties from Great Aunt K.  She loves to play with the loops.  I love them because she can't pull them off of her feet.

 Little A decided that she wants to crawl!  She loves to get onto her hands and knees and rock back and forth.  I do it with her and try to encourage her to race me by saying "Ready, set, Go!" and then crawling.  So far she just rocks faster and watches me crawl away. Ha!

A caught a cold at the end of October that carried over to November a bit.  I hate it when she's sick because she won't sleep unless one of us holds her. I do love the extra snuggle time though. Allan spent several nights on the couch, and I spent a night on the daybed. Allan is so good to me and sleeps with her so I can get a good nights sleep. It doesn't bother him to sleep on the couch, but I can't sleep on it for some reason. 

Fiesta dress. She's such a cutie. She wasn't the biggest fan of the dress though.

I've loved our schedule this month.  She wakes up at 6:30 and eats and then she'll sit on the couch beside me and play while I eat breakfast, check the emails, and read my scriptures.  Then she goes back to sleep for an hour and a half which gives me time to exercise and shower before she wakes up.

A wrestling the pillow before she goes down for her morning nap.

We took a trip to visit our families the week before Thanksgiving.  We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone.  Little A had a blast playing with her cousin J.  She squealed and laughed and jabbered at him while he stared at her. Too funny.  She was so excited that she scooted forward until she was able to reach him. She even inspired him to stay up on his hands and knees.  They practiced rocking back and forth together, lol!

We got to visit AG and her family too! We enjoyed talking and catching up with them.  Little A loves all the attention she gets. She was going through a bad bout of teething though so by the time we left she was very, VERY upset. Poor girl.

We got to visit Nana and Pops as well.  When little A saw Pops she cried and cried.  It was so funny, and so sad.  We think she didn't like his beard.  He took her one morning and spent some time with her alone so they could bond, and after that she was okay with him.  She loved Nana.  She spent a morning with Nana too, and when Nana gave her back to me A told me all about the fun time she had and said "Nana"! Too cute! Of course Nana was thrilled. :)

Playing with Pops.

She caught a virus while we were visiting and the plane ride home was miserable.  She cried while we were waiting to get on the plane.  We relieved when she fell asleep.  She didn't wake up until we were landing.  That was horrible. It probably hurt her ears or something because she screamed and screamed and was completely inconsolable. I felt so bad for her, and for all the people on the plane. 
She was so hungry but couldn't really eat.  I ended up sitting in the back of the car for a while on our drive home to comfort her.  We were all relieved to be home, and A was so happy to be back in her quiet house.  Even though she was sick she still giggled and smiled when we walked into our house.  I'm glad she likes home so much. She had a fever all day until a man in our ward came over and helped Allan give her a blessing. After the blessing, the fever went away. We are grateful for the power of the priesthood.

Allan and little A sleeping at the airport.

A loves to stand up by the couch. I started facing her forward so she can balance by herself. She's had a lot of fun with it and likes to push herself off of the couch with her bum, balance, and then fall forward into my arms.

Little A and I. We have the same blue eyes. :)

A discovered buttons. She loves to play with them and try to eat them, especially if they are on Allan's shirt.  She also discovered pockets. Little A fell asleep holding on to Allans pocket one night. I love this picture. When I was little I would stick my hand in my Poe's pocket and say "Poe, you have a "Poe"-cket". He always got the biggest kick out of it.  I have a similar picture to this of me holding on to Poe's "poe"-cket. 

A loves to be in her walker.  She especially likes to run into things.  She will take off running and then slam into something, turn herself around and then take off running again, all while laughing her head off.  She'll follow me all around the house and watch me work.  When she's done and wants to get out she parks it in it's designated spot and sits there and fusses until I get her out! I did not teach her this. I always put it away in the same spot, she must have noticed because that's where she always puts it too!

She also loves to make messes while she's in the walker.  She'll grab anything she can reach and throw it on the floor.  If its her toy she'll stash it in the seat of her walker, but if it's not then she throws it on the floor and runs over it.

I made little A a bib for Thanksgiving (Allan - and she did a great job too. She is getting skilled on the sewing machine).

We had Thanksgiving with the family that watches A when we go to the Temple.  They are so wonderful and made us feel so comfortable with their family.  They have a big family and almost all of them were there.  It was a lot of fun. Little A ate a ton of mashed potatoes.  We played the newlywed game with their family and tied for first!  The food was delicious!

I love this pic of A because the sun is shining behind her and making her ears glow.  She's got the cutest ears ever! I love how they stick out a little bit and make her look like an little imp.

The next evening we went to Merry Main St (and forgot to take our camera). They lit the town Christmas tree, had Santa and the Grinch there, and a lot of activities for little kids. A lot of the stores were having sales as well.  It was a lot of fun. A loved being out among a lot of people. Everyone thought she was adorable in her Cabbage Patch beanie.

So proud of herself for standing up alone!

We made our own Thanksgiving dinner that Saturday because we love Turkey so much, lol. I was sick so Allan ended up making almost all of the food himself.  It turned out great! (great considering who made it. It would have tasted infinitely better had Kami made it)

A's first Thanksgiving!

We also did almost all of our Christmas shopping over black Friday and cyber Monday.  We didn't go into any stores, we just shopped online.  It was crazy, there were several items that I tried to buy; I put them in my shopping cart and continued shopping and then when I went to check out they were gone because other people had bought them faster them me! I didn't know that could happen! It was nice to get it all done though.  I make a calendar for my parents every year and that took up most of the time. I forgot to ask all my sisters for pictures earlier in the year so I ended up using the pictures they posted on Facebook. They weren't thrilled about that, but it turned out cute.