December

Baby L had some big doctor appointments this month. The first ones were for OT and PT. OT said that her torticollis has cleared up, and she's eating great so they released her. PT did a thorough evaluation on her. The results said that she is developing normally. He taught us a few things to do to help her learn to sit up. We'll keep seeing him monthly through the big milestones (sitting, crawling, walking).

She also saw cardiology. The VSD (small hole in her heart) has not continued to close but doesn't seem to be causing any problems so they are just going to continue to watch it. She did a great job with the EKG. Brave little girl!

Hematology: They drew her blood, she's pretty chubby so they had a hard time finding a vein. They had to use the light. Gratefully her blood came back clear (they're watching for leukemia) except for slightly low vitamin D, which we are giving her drops for.

Comprehensive Care (Pediatrician): They were very pleased with how well she eats. In fact they said she could lay off the milk a little, ha! They were thrilled with how she is developing and released us to the pediatrician in our city. Yay!

Little A's birth family got her and Baby L matching shirts for their favorite college team. Little A was so excited to match her sister!

Baby L started eating baby food. She loves peas and green beans, and tolerates sweet potatoes. She hates fruit. She's loved that she can eat something when we eat. She also loves to move in circles and pushes herself backwards a little too.

Little A is an awesome big sister. She is very conscientious about including Baby L in everything we do. She loves to show "her baby" to everyone we meet. The other day Allan and the girls were playing Connect Four. Little A tried to help Baby L play too by giving her a token and then guiding her hand to where she needed to put the piece in. Baby L dropped the piece long before they got there. Little A gave her a perplexed look, but she continued trying to help her play the game. Little A never gives up on Baby L. I think this is going to be such a help in the future!

We visited Allan's family for their Christmas party. It is always so much fun! We love being with all of them. The girls had a ball playing with cousins and spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa gave us a tent, camping stove, tarp, and dishes. We are excited to go camping this summer! There are some great places around where we live.

We took the girls to the High School play, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It was Baby L's first show! She slept through most of it. :)  Little A loved the songs, but got bored with the dialogue. The students did a great job! I was so bummed that I wasn't able to work with them this year. Hopefully next year.

I got to go to one of my mission friends family sealing! (I served in the Illinois Chicago North mission for my church in 2004-2006.) They have been waiting for this day for SO long! It was such a beautiful ceremony. I am so, SO thrilled for them! Seeing their girls all in white made me think of when we can have Baby L sealed to us. We are really looking forward to that day! I also got to catch up a bit with many other friends from the mission. It was so good to see all of them!

Because we haven't been able to finalize Baby L's adoption yet we have a social worker come to our home monthly to check on her. Little A adores this social worker! She gets so excited every time we tell her she's coming and doesn't want her to leave when she is here, lol! She really is the nicest person. We've loved getting to know her a little better.

One evening Baby L was just exhausted. Allan lay her down to swaddle her. She lifted her legs up to play with her toes,

then rolled over, lifted up on her hands, looked around (well moved her head around because her eyes were closed), and then lay down and continued sleeping! It was darling. Babies are so funny!

Christmas was so much fun! We had my family over for our traditional Christmas crepes. We taught Uncle L the best way to eat them, ha!

We prepared for Christmas by making Grandma's sugar cookies (I made 8 batches of these things!),

Making matching Christmas ornaments for Little A and AG,

and making snowman ornaments for cousin P and Little A's bestie, C.

Christmas Eve we let the girls open one gift, a Christmas ornament from Mama and Daddy. I've been handing my ornaments down to the girls. Little A got my wire and bead doll, and Baby L got my last porcelain baby doll (Little A has the other one).

We read stories and got Santa's treats all ready. Little A was super excited to give Santa and the reindeer their treats.

The next morning Little A woke us up around 6. We fed Baby L and then went to see what Santa had left for us. Little A saw Baby L's gifts first and thought they were hers. She had a hard time letting go of the pull toy phone that Santa left Baby L. Eventually we got her to see her gifts though. She was thrilled with the Play Doh, stamp set, miniature books, and treats that Santa left her. Baby L had the pull toy, a teething ring, and miniature books as well. There was also some oranges for all of us. Little A called them balls and rolled/threw them across the floor, lol!

We then moved on to the gifts under the tree. Daddy and Grandpa made little A a doll cradle. She loved putting her grandma and grandpa dolls in it and rocking them.

She also got a lot of books (Mama and Santa went way overboard on the books this year....oops....), a skills board puzzle, Headband children's game, a fidget toy, a Doc McStuffins doctor kit (from Grandma and Grandpa), an adorable hat and window stickers from Great Gram, a floor piano and outfit from Nana and Pops,

a reindeer to build with Daddy from Grandad and Grandma Heather,

a book and doll from cousin P and family, a book and treat from K6 and family, a beautiful dress and adorable stuffed snail from Baby L's birth family, and a Princess Elsa dress and dress shoes and a floor piano that plays games from AG and her birth grandparents. She was thrilled with all of her gifts! She loved building the deer with Daddy and is so proud of it! Her favorite thing to do is wear her Elsa dress and play with her pianos! We also do play doh and stamps daily.

Baby L got books, a shape sorter, a Squish rattle, teethers, a Baby doll from Little A,

some musical toys from Grandma and Grandpa, a musical toy and outfit from Nana and Pops, a book and doll from cousin P and family, a book from K6 and family, hat and window stickers from Great Gram, a Giraffe rattle from Little A's birth family, an adorable wooden shape sorter pull toy from her birth family (Ava loves it and barely lets L even touch it; we're working on that), and the hematology clinic gave out gifts to all of their patients: teether, rattle, hat and booties, snuggle blanket, car rattle.

She loves all of her musical toys! She is pretty good at pushing the shapes into the shape sorters if you set them in for her. Her favorite thing though is the doll that Little A got for her!

We were also gifted a trip to a children's museum from Uncle SB! We're very excited to go!

Allan made me shelves for the toy room! Yay!

He also got me some Norwex cleaning cloths and a roaster oven that I am dying to use! Little A picked out some cookie sheets to give me from her and Baby L. Nana and Pops gave us a gift card to Applebee's and some ingredients to a delicious meal. It seriously was SOOO good! Later that day Little A came running up to me all wrapped up in wrapping paper. When they were out shopping for my Christmas present Allan asked her what she wanted to give mommy for Christmas and she said "You!" and patted her chest. (It's her way of saying "me"). So, that day Allan wrapped her up so they could give Mama her "best present"! Awww. Melted my heart.

I surprised Allan with a router and a scroll saw! My Dad had recently picked up a nice router at a garage sale for a really good price and sold it to me. That enabled me to get him a scroll saw too! Little A had a ball drawing things for Daddy to cut out with his saw! She was so excited. She would have me help her draw something, then run it out to the garage and give it to Allan only to come right back to draw more! Ha! The girls got him a locking plier set and an adjustable wrench set.

Allan had almost two full weeks of work off at the end of the year! We were thrilled to have him at home with us! We had such a fun time being together playing with our new toys!

K3 had to have a surgery on her wrist. We went up to help and took the girls to Burger King to they could have an indoor place to run around and get some energy out.

They loved wearing the crowns, but neither of them would go on the play place, ha! They had a fun time playing together. We had planned on going up a lot more, however we ended up getting a crazy amount of snow. There were avalanches in the canyon that separates us that closed the canyon for a while!

Three little cousins in Allan's truck!

One day while Baby L was sleeping we all snuck outside to play in the snow. It was a blast! Little A still mostly loves to eat the snow.