Hot Chocolate

I threw a baby shower for a friend this weekend. It was so fun to do. Little A had a blast with everyone that came. She kept going over to the table, getting a plate of food, and then bringing it to someone. Then she'd leave only to come back a little later and eat the food on the plate she'd given to them. She did this over and over again, lol!

Our friend brought little A a gift as a thank you. It is the cutest crocheted bassinet and doll. It came with several different outfits, a diaper bag, and bedding - all of which are crocheted. Her mom made it! It's beautiful, and we love it! Little A has played with it all day. I asked her what she wanted to name her new baby, and she said, "Dolly". Ha! We don't have a dolly named dolly yet, so that works.

At church today little A tripped and fell. She hit her forehead and nose pretty hard. Her nose bled a little, and she has some big bruises. Poor thing. We had such a fun night together as a family though. She loves to play "Here we go round the mulberry bush". We played that over and over in the kitchen while dinner was cooking. Then we did some flannel board scripture stories and played with her Noah's ark while we sang the "Follow the Prophet" song. We also wrestled and played peek-a-boo, her favorites! We love to hear her cute giggles! The dress she's wearing in this picture is from her birth cousin. It is SO cute! Little A loves to have snacks at her little table and loves to use her play kitchen plates to have her snack.

It's been really cold this week. We went on a walk and splashed in some puddles one day. When we came in I gave little A her first hot chocolate. As you can see in this picture she is a fan!

Little A is having so much fun in dance class. She's starting to pick up on the movement more and more, and the movement is becoming clearer. 

They did some bar work this week. This is pretty much what little A did. When she wasn't doing this she was turned around facing the opposite direction of everyone else, lol!

We read a general conference talk every Sunday. Little A loves to find the pictures of the prophets and apostles and look at them. She'll jabber at them, laugh hysterically and then give them kisses! Ha!  I pulled one out so I can get it laminated so she can play with it without destroying it.

Little A has started really enjoying being read to again. She went through a phase where she wouldn't sit down to read unless she was completely exhausted, but now she'll stop playing throughout the day and want to read stories. I love it! We've been having a lot of fun reading some of my favorite fairy tales. A's favorite are the books about Biscuit the dog. We read from the children's scriptures every night.

We got our first snow! Little A was devastated when I wouldn't let her go out and play in it because she didn't have snow boots. Daddy took her out later in the day when it had warmed up a bit. She loved it! We went and got her some snow boots and a new coat (she grew out of her cute pea coat) later in the week. Now we're all ready for it to snow again!

We went and got some frozen yogurt when we went shopping. Little A loves waffle cones, but she eats them upside down. So to try and avoid a mess we put only a little strawberry froyo at the bottom and then she chose some toppings: M and M's, swedish fish, gummy worm, and sour gummy worm. She ate the toppings and some of the cone. It was a lot less messy than usual, which was nice! She was so tired when we were finished that she fell asleep as soon as the car started moving. At one point she lost her binky and couldn't figure out how to put it back in. Allan and I were laughing so hard! Don't worry, we did eventually help her, lol!

Family Pictures

Here are some of our family pictures. Taken by the awesome H! Thank you H! We love them!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween this year we dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood, Granny, and the Woodcutter/Hunter. We threw Allan's costume together as we were going out the door to the trunk-or-treat.

Little A was really excited about going to get candy until she saw all the people, then she got pretty nervous. We got her through the trunk-or-treat pretty well. She actually had a pretty good time there.

Then we headed over to the assisted living center. As soon as we got in the door she said "No!" and refused to budge. I went over to talk to some of the Grandmas hoping that would calm her down a little, but she was not convinced. I carried her through it.

We headed home. Allan had planned on taking her to some of our neighbors, but she was very insistent that I go with her so he stayed to hand out candy. We got about halfway down the sidewalk in front of our house when she suddenly stopped and turned around. She ran back to the house yelling "No! No!" the whole way, with her little red cape blowing in the wind behind her. I really wish I had a video of it!

Someone at the trunk-or-treat gave out little coloring books. Little A sat at the table coloring and eating some of her candy. She also got a little Frankenstein with a parachute (like those parachute soldiers). She and Allan had a lot of fun throwing Frankenstein down the stairs Sunday evening.

We went to an adoption conference the day before Halloween. There was some great information there as always! Allan's brother, A1, and his boss created a networking site for special needs adoptions called Sapphire's Dream. They recently got some good funding. It was fun to see them at the conference! Here is a link to their site - http://www.sapphiresdream.org/

We also visited our family for Aunt SG's bridal shower. While we were shopping for a gift for her I asked Little A what we should get for Aunt SG. She answered, "Doggy! Doggy!" Dogs are one of Aunt SG's favorite things ever so I'm sure that she would have been thrilled if we'd gotten her a dog. However, we just settled on letting Little A pick out a cake mix for her. She picked strawberry. Strawberries are Little A's favorite!

Little A made a ghost at the library story time this week. She loved learning how to make the noise to fly it around. She'll hold it and wave it back and forth saying "ooooo, shooooo". She was also thrilled with the sparkly purple ghost sticker and the cup of Halloween candy!

She had a blast in dance class this week. They had their little Halloween party. She's getting better and better at doing the dance moves. This week she balanced on one foot (while holding my hand, ha) marched, kicked, turned, ran, and did passe jumps.

We took advantage of a warm afternoon and played in the backyard. She discovered that she could crawl under her slide. She thought it was the funniest thing ever!

 

We went to the store to get a few snacks for our trip. I didn't get a basket since we only needed a few small things. Little A found a basket in the back of the store and put our things in it. She carried (drug) the basket through the store. She was so proud! She loves the cashier and enjoyed showing her all the things in her basket. I love that we know all the cashiers, and they are so patient with and interested in Little A.

For family night this Monday we carved a pumpkin, as per tradition. Little A wanted a doggy, so we obliged. She actually stuck her hand in this time and tried to help.

 She thought it was really gross and refused to touch it again, ha!

She enjoyed watching Daddy do it though.

 It turned out pretty cute.

Little A and I went to Parent Teacher Conference this week. Random, I know. I needed to meet with one of the teacher's who is in charge of the high school musical. So, we wandered around talking to people and looking at the book sale while we waited to talk with her. It took a lot longer than we had planned, but it was a good visit, and necessary. It's been a lot of fun to be involved in Theatre and dance again!