End of Year Wrap-Up

 To prepare for Thanksgiving Little A plucked the Turkey's we made. Ha!

We had a fun Thanksgiving with Allan's side of the family. Little A loved playing with her cousins E and T. They are quite a bit older than her, but they were so patient and played with her. E even helped her eat some dinner! When Little A saw E she went right over and sat on his lap and was very content to stay there the rest of the evening!

Grandma had sugar cookies for all of the kids to decorate. Little A mostly just ate the sprinkles. :)

Little A came down with a nasty virus while we were there. We ended up taking her to the ER because her fever was so high. They did a chest x-ray to make sure she didn't have pneumonia. That was horrible! They have this padded bar that they sit the child on, then they pull the child's arms up over her head and strap her into this plastic thing that keeps them from moving so they can get a good shot of the lungs. Poor little A was terrified, and it was all Allan and I could do to not rush over to her and pull her out. Gratefully she didn't have anything serious. She was really clingy for the next week though. She refused to sleep alone so we ended up sleeping with her for a few nights so we could get some sleep. This is what our house looked like the following week. Little A loved having the mattress there. It made a great jumping spot.

While she was sick Allan brought us both home some flowers. I gave little A's to her to look at, and she promptly tore it to pieces. Ha! She sure had a blast doing it.

The following weekend we went to my nephew B's baptism. It's a long drive, so on our way there we stopped to play for a bit. We were going to go to the mall (it's December so we assumed it would be cold outside), but we took a wrong turn and ended up at a fun park. Since it was warm out we had a picnic and played on the playground. Way better than the mall! Little A was thrilled to swing on the swings.

We had a lot of fun visiting with my Dad and step-mom, Gram, and my sisters and their families. B did a great job and we are all so proud of him. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost comparing it to the armor of God. He loved the armor, and it worked really well as an example of how we lose the Holy Ghost when we make bad choices.

Little A also got to play with her cousins for a little bit. Cousin J was very impressed that she wasn't afraid of his skeleton shirt.

Little A also LOVED Grandad's four hound dogs. She spent a lot of time running after them trying to get close enough to pet them.

Little A went to our ward Christmas party. Allan had to be with the scouts that night, so A and I went alone. It was a fun evening. The theme was "The Polar Express", and all the kids wore their pajamas. At the end of the night they read the story, and A had a ball sitting in the group of kids and playing with the older girls' hair. They were so kind and patient to let her.

We also spent a fun afternoon with Nana a couple of weeks before Christmas. They had fun playing with Nana's toys and decorating her Christmas tree. We also went through all of the old family Christmas decorations and got to take some home. Yay!

Grandma sent little A home with some Nativity stickers. She had been too sick to play while we were there, so we did them when she was finally better. She enjoyed the stickers but still hasn't quite figured out how to get them off of her fingers. She also loves sugar cookies. We traveled so much during the holidays that I never got around to making any, but our friends dropped some by and Little A was pleased to eat them. Also, she likes to eat cookies with her feet up, lol!

We decorated our little Christmas tree. Next year we are finally going to have a normal sized tree. I am so, SO happy, because this means I can put all of the ornaments on it. Little A had a great time decorating the tree. She was a very good girl and only played with a couple of the ornaments that I told her were okay to take on and off. There were a couple times that I had to remind her, but she really did very well at not touching the tree. We actually put all of the presents out around it too, and she never touched them!

We made the traditional Christmas crepes. Little A helped us make dinner. She loved helping to use the hand mixer.

She loved the crepes too! Well, the berries. We ended up giving her a corn dog because all she would eat was the fruit, and when she does that she gets a really bad diaper rash.

We read the Christmas story in the Bible and "The Night Before Christmas" as per tradition. Then we got ready for Santa and put little A to bed. Allan and I were pretty much ready for Christmas morning so after a few adjustments with the presents we spent a nice quiet night together.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun! Once Little A realized what was going on she was very excited about everything. We got her a kitchen (from one of my cousins), and she LOVED it! We've played with it every day since then.

Santa got her some Hot Wheels - Allan's parents have a couple of tubs full of cars and they are little A's favorite thing to play with at their house. Santa thought we'd better have some at our house too. Grandma and Grandpa got her a cell phone,

doll stroller, and a cute book. Nana and Pops made her a tee-pee, blanket, and pillow and got her a doll.

Her cousins got her a set of pots and pans for her kitchen and a pass to a fun children's museum. Her birth family got her a chair, a big Minnie Mouse, and some adorable clothes. She also got some ornaments, of course.

Little A was terrified of the teepee at first. She refused to go in it so I sat in it and pulled her onto my lap. She cried. The day after we got it I climbed in there and played peek-a-boo with her and she quickly fell in love with it. It has become one of her favorite places to play and read stories.

Allan and I were also spoiled rotten. Allan got me some metal buckets for the laundry room, a clock (which I exchanged for a picture frame), a table runner, a shepherdess for my nativity, and a child free shopping trip (yay!)

I got Allan a whole bunch of smaller tools for his garage, a saw, and a year of planned dates (I got the idea for it on this blog: http://www.whatsupfagans.com/2014/02/how-to-make-a-year-of-dates-gift/)

We were also given a large crock pot, some glass Tupperware and mixing bowls, some more tools, a picture frame, a scarf, socks, a canvas print of the Temple, an ancestral history, the book "The Infinite Atonement", and I'm probably missing a few things.

The next day, Allan and little A played kitchen until it was time to drive to Grandad and Grandma H's house.

We really enjoyed our time with Grandad and Grandma H, Gram, and K1 and her family. We celebrated Christmas with them and got thoroughly spoiled again.

Grandad and Grandma H got little A a shopping cart and groceries and a cute sweatshirt. A had a ball going "shopping" around their house. Gram got her a puppy purse, her first porcelain doll, and a princess blanket with a crown. She loves the puppy and had to sleep with it for the first couple of weeks. She also loves the doll and begs me to let her play with it. I let her every now and then when she is in a gentle mood. She has already torn the bow out of the poor dolls hair. Little A really hates bows.

Little A is just like me and LOVED Grandad's motorcycle. I'm not sure how she would feel about it if it had actually been on though.  Another highlight of the trip was going to Home Depot. She absolutely loves the shopping carts with steering wheels. Allan commented that if we had a Home Depot where we live he would just take her there for Daddy Daughter Dates, lol! She always cries when we have to leave.

When we got back from our trip we had cousin P and Aunt K6 over for a play date. They had a lot of fun playing with the kitchen, teepee, and dolls. They also shared Cheetos and watched a little bit of "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood". Little A had never seen this before, and she is now in love with Daniel Tiger.

Little A really loves to choose her own clothes. She almost always matches which I think is pretty cool. She always knows exactly what she wants to wear too. We'll go in and I'll open the drawer for her and she'll either immediately pull out what she wants or dig around until she finds it. She picked two different shoes the other day, and I let her wear them because it was just too funny. :)

She has recently gotten into picking out her own bows too. They don't stay in for too long but it's a step to wearing bows, so I'm pleased. ;)

We recently introduced piggy back rides to little A. She is a big fan!

Allan got called to be Scout Master. One day I came home from running some errands and found this trailer on the side of our house.

I called Allan and asked him if her knew there was a trailer at our house and he had no idea. Later that night we saw that the previous Scout Master sent Allan an email saying that he had dropped it off at our house. Good thing we have a spot for it.

On our way to a family baby blessing we stopped at the children's museum we received a pass for. Little A is a big fan of this place, and I love it too. At first she was overwhelmed with all the kids running around. We took her into the 2 and under area so she could have a quieter place to get oriented.

She really loved this truck, especially turning the steering wheel.

She also enjoyed shopping at the little store and even let the little cashier boy check out her groceries. Although, she had no idea what he was talking about when he asked her for money. She looked at him like he was crazy.

After she shopped she calmly walked over with her groceries to the little house and sat down in this chair. She was so pleased. :)

Her favorite place though was the construction site. She was enthralled with everything that was going on there.

She also really enjoyed the water play, but the construction site won over the water. I was very surprised. I really enjoyed seeing her and Allan playing together.