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.

Little A is 10 Months Old!

Little A is getting so big! I can't believe it's already been 10 months!

She loves to walk in her walker and has finally started to try to crawl!  She gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth.  The first time she did it she moved her right hand forward and then belly flopped, planting her face in the carpet.  She wasn't a big fan of that and hasn't tried to move her hands since. 

She still sleeps 10-12 hours at night.  We had a rough week where she was rearranging her nap schedule, but other than that one week she's been a great sleeper.

She still won't feed herself.  The idea of it still disgusts her, lol.  She's a really good eater if we feed her though.  She still loves green beans, peas, and squash.  She really likes the foods with beef in them but doesn't like chicken or turkey and won't eat the food if it is chunky.

Little A loves to stand and walk while holding onto hands.  Her favorite toys right now are the little sponge Noah's ark animals that we bought for her to play with in the tub.  She's never actually played with them in the tub, but she loves to sit and chew on them. 

She weighs about 17lbs 10 oz.  Between teething and a couple colds she's had a hard time eating lately so her weight gain has been slow.  I don't know how long she is.

Little A's Sealing

Finally a forever family!

The day after little A's adoption was finalized, 27 July, we went to the Temple to be sealed as a family.  It was such a wonderful day!  We arrived at the Salt Lake Temple at about 9:10am.  The first thing they asked was if I had a wedding dress they needed to take for me.  The rest of the day we were telling people we weren't there to be married, lol.  We went through all of the paper work and then took little A down to the nursery to check her in.  The temple nursery is very cozy.  Little A loved all of the sweet grandmas that were there to take care of her.  They didn't really want her to leave.  I'm so glad that she is such a friendly baby.  They fed her, played with her, and got her all dressed up in her white dress.

This is the same dress that my mom made for my sisters and I.  All 6 of us and A's cousin P were blessed in it. It is a gorgeous dress! It was made for a newborn so she just barely fit in it. I was extremely relieved that she did.

After we got A settled we went and got ready.  I didn't realize that I would be in the brides room with all of the brides.  Allan and I were married here 5 years ago.  It was fun to remember that day.  I was asked several times if I had a dress, if I needed help, etc. I was also asked if I was excited to be married today, and other things about getting married, lol.  I eventually met Allan in the Celestial Room of the Temple.  We have been there together so many times.  It was nice to have a little time to be together and think about the miracle we've been given.  We had quite a long time to wait though so eventually we got up and started walking around the room.  

If you are in the temple to be married or sealed, they assign you a couch to sit on so they can find you easily.  They really prefer that you stay seated on your couch.  When we started walking around the room they got really nervous.  Poor ladies. We didn't mean to stress them out, but eventually you just have to move a little.  

At 10:40 we walked into the sealing room.  Before they brought little A up the sealer warned us that she might start crying, most babies do, and if she does he wasn't going to stop anything.  We would continue to the end, at which point we could comfort her.  Allan and I weren't too worried about her crying because she is generally a very happy and friendly little girl. They brought little A up in the cutest pram.  She was having the time of her life in that pram.  The woman who was pushing it would do a little wheelie to turn it around the corners and A would just laugh and laugh.  She was absolutely thrilled.

She was a little angel during the sealing.  Allan's mom held her, and Allan, little A, and I all held hands.  When the sealer began talking she stared and smiled at him like he was telling her the most amazing story.  It was so sweet.  

The Spirit was very strong and I remember feeling so much peace, and being so, so happy.  I looked in the mirror afterward to see my sweet forever family.  That is a memory I'll always cherish.  Allan, Little A, and I dressed in white, smiling and filled with the Spirit.

This is what Allan had to say about that wonderful day: When the sealing was done we got to hug and kiss our daughter that is now ours forever.  I cannot explain the joy that filled my heart, and the excitement that I could hardly contain.  Life is just so much better now.  The sealing power is real, and I can feel how it has brought us closer together as a family.

Most of our family was there so they all congratulated us and then we had a brief moment together before they took little A back down.  I wish we'd had a little longer but that's okay.  Little A giggled all the way back to the nursery and stole everyone's hearts.  I seriously wish I had a pram, it would make for endless hours of enjoyment for her, lol!

We went and got our sweet girl from the nursery so we could go and take some pictures. 

Allan, Little A, and I

AG was there too and we were SO happy that she was able to come.  This never would have happened without her, and we will be forever grateful.  She is such a special part of our lives, and we love sharing events like this with her.  Little A loves her.  We got some cute pictures of them together.

My family

Allan's family

Our cutie pie.  Look at those sweet cheeks!

Hooray!

After some pictures we headed back to Allan's parents home to bless little A and have a family luncheon. 

Allan's dad, my dad, and Allan's brothers B, A1, M1, and D, and Allan's parents' Bishop were in the circle.  Allan gave her a wonderful blessing.  I'm so grateful that we could share this sacred day with all of our family, and so grateful for the priesthood of God that blesses our lives daily.

Merry Christmas!

Love, 

Allan, Kami, and Little A