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.

Tubes

At church on Sunday Allan was giving little A the Sacrament water. He usually helps her with it so she doesn't spill it all over her dress. However, this time A was not having it. She did not want any help. She pulled and pulled and as she pulled the cup started slowly slipping out of Allan's hand. He squeezed harder and harder and then the cup slipped and splashed all over A's face! Ha! She was so surprised. We laughed so hard.

Little A got tubes in her ears on Friday. She did a really good job. We were a little worried about the roads being bad because there was a bad storm that came in that night, but they weren't too bad. We left our house at 6 and headed for the hospital (an hour and 10 min away). While Allan got us all checked in and took care of the paperwork A and I walked around the hospital wing and made friends with whoever would pay attention to little A. They gave us all bracelets; A didn't like it.

They came and got us and we then waited in the surgery wing. A colored for about 5 seconds and after that we walked around showing all the nurses and doctors her kicks and jumps. 

She slipped on the floor at one point so they gave her some little yellow socks. She did really good while they took her vitals, didn't cry or anything. Then they came and got her for the surgery. She was really nervous, but didn't cry when they took her.

Allan and I went and waited. It took about 35 minutes before they came and got us. We waited for her in her recovery room for another 15 minutes. She was a screaming, crying mess when the brought her to us. They said that when she woke up she freaked out (understandable) and so they all took turns holding her because she didn't want to be put down. They had put a monitor on her toe and she was extremely upset about that. When they took it off she calmed down a little but it took her a while to actually stop crying and be okay with things. We'd brought Cheer Bear and the blanket I made her and it was a good thing we did. She held on tight to Cheer Bear before the surgery but didn't want anything to do with her after the surgery. As soon as we gave her the blanket she snuggled right in and started to go to sleep. 

After a few minutes she was back to her normal self. We ran around the surgical wing again jumping and kicking until it was time to go home.

We stopped at Panda Express because that is A's favorite place to eat. As soon as we drove into the parking lot she yelled "Oh!Oh! Chicken! Noodles!"  Ha! She ate very exuberantly. (She didn't get her milk or yogurt that morning because of the surgery so she was really hungry.)

We usually just share with her but we got her a kids meal that day. It's a good thing we did because she ate all of hers and then we still shared ours with her! She was especially pleased with the cookie at the end. :)   (Because of her exuberant eating I was covered in noodles and cookie crumbs: clothes, hair, and arms.)

The woman who checked us into the hospital told us that Fred Myer had their winter coats at 50% off. Since I needed a winter coat and little A seemed to be doing well, we headed over there before we went home. A really enjoyed running around the store with Daddy while I tried on coats. We were glad that we stopped there because she pooped twice while we were there!

She was very tired when we were done and slept all the way home. When we got home I took her to bed and she slept for another hour.  She's been doing really well and we've only had to give her medicine a couple of times. We've noticed that she has better balance and when she gets off balance she can actually catch herself instead of falling down. We are also hoping that she won't have any more ear infections. She did have trouble sleeping for a few nights and has been a bit clingy. I really hope we never have to do anything like that ever again.

Little A loves to play with the pictures of her family. This day she was very insistent that they be at the table with her while she ate her lunch. I obliged, and she had lunch with her grandparents and birth family. Ha!

The other day little A was super tired. I think she is going through a growth spurt again. We were eating dinner and she was falling asleep while she was eating. It was so funny to see her taking bites of her food and chewing while nodding off. I eventually started worrying about her choking on her food. We put her to bed early that night.

We played in the snow as a family that day. It was a blast! We tried out A's new boots and snow suit. She was very upset about it until we got outside. When her snow boots first came in the mail I told her they were her new shoes and she looked at me in complete disgust. Then when i put them on her she cried, lol! It was double the insult this day as I got her in her snowsuit.

She was thrilled when we got outside though. The snow was really icy, so we couldn't make a snow man or anything, but A really enjoyed the crunching sound it made when she walked on it.

Later that day Allan smelt something suspicious and asked her "Are you poopy?" She said "No! It's Daddy!" Lol!

For Family Night we made Turkey's and talked about the things we are thankful for. A colored a little bit and then tried to figure out the glue. She mostly enjoyed trying to tear off the turkey's feathers.

She has been really getting into picking out her clothes. She picked out this cute outfit the other day. Complete with matching socks. :)

Wednesday was a terrible, horrible day, that just wanted to never end. It started with pee, everywhere. Little A had leaked through her diaper, in a really bad way. And neither Allan nor I noticed until it was all over me and the couch. Little A fell and hit her head 4 different times that day. I was super nauseated all day. We went to the grocery store but forgot the list. When I got home I discovered that one of our grocery items was never bagged so we had to go back to the store to get it. I had forgotten one thing so we picked that up as well. Then when I was making dinner I burned my finger and dropped half of the dinner into the sink. Bleh. I was really happy when it was bed time.

Allan's family and Little A's birth family came for a visit this weekend. We were so happy to have visitors and had a lot of fun. Little A loved having her grandparents in her home. She also really liked her aunt and uncle, but was unsure about her cousin H. Allan took P and R, their son H and Grandma to the mine for a tour. H was thrilled when he got to get up on one of the big trucks. We had a lot of fun talking with everyone.

Little A loves her birth family. She had a lot of fun playing with them. They brought her her Christmas presents early. She saw the Minnie mouse immediately and really liked it. It's adorable and pretty much the same size as her. Then she noticed the big box but she had no interest in opening it. She just wanted to play shoes with her family, ha!

We finally got her to tear some of the paper off but then she was done. I pulled out the chair for her and sat her in it. It is so cute! She really likes it and especially likes to wrestle it, ha! It is the perfect size for her. She can get in and out of it all by herself. She also likes to use it as a slide and as a way to climb up onto the couch.

Our city had a visit from Santa while they were here so we went to see him. Last year little A didn't really mind Santa. I wouldn't say she liked him, but she didn't mind him. This year she was terrified of him. Poor girl. She did like the candy cane they gave her though.

It was so fun to have them down and we are excited to see them again soon. (Also, she picked out the overalls and shirt she is wearing. Love it!)

Happy International Bible Day!

I love the Bible and I read it every day. I especially love the New Testament chapters that relate the life and teachings of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love to read about his atonement and his compassion for us all. 

One of my favorite scriptures from the Bible is Ecclesiastes 12:13 

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: 

Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

Reading the Bible has strengthened my testimony of my Savior and brings the Spirit into my life and my home. Reading it daily brings strength, peace, and happiness to my family. What a great blessing this book is. It truly is the word of God.

If you want to read the Bible go here.