Secret Santa

Wow, look at that Secret Santa!

Letter to Santa

This morning we wrote her letter to Santa. She dictated while I wrote and then she got to decorate the letter. I had considered telling her to only ask for one thing, but since she only wants two things, I didn't think asking for both would be so bad. She's excited. She even told me "I like Santa now." We'll see about that tonight when Santa comes to our ward Christmas dinner. I'm also excited. I know Santa won't have any trouble finding a star for our Christmas tree, but I am a little nervous about the ornament. Grandma gave it to her 3 years ago for her first Christmas. The other night she wanted to see it and while she was holding it the handle broke and the rest of the ornament fell to the ground and shattered. She was upset about it that night and the next morning. We finally had to hide the remains so she would stop being reminded of it.

pregnant

I'm pregnant.
26 weeks pregnant.
Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant.
That is, until I get kicked,
have acid reflux,
try to find something to wear,
can't button up my coat,
see my refection in the mirror.
This last week we had the big ultrasound.
We could have found out if it was a boy or a girl,
but, we didn't.
The baby moves a lot.
Especially when It's big sister sings to it or gives it kisses.
I scheduled It's birthday.

Still makes me cry, but I need to get over it.

The date is so easy to remember.
I'm so excited to another girl,
but, I'm just as excited to have a boy.
Does anyone want to start betting?

nursery talk

November 15, 2009

She gave her first talk in nursery this Sunday. Each kid has been taking turns and this week it was hers. She talked on what she was thankful for. I will have to go back and look at the video but I think she once again said she was thankful for dogs, butterflies, and cats. She did a really good job speaking loud, clear, and even saying a few lines without being promoted.

After her talk she brought "hangabers" for snack. At Halloween, Grandpa loaded her up with mini gummy hamburgers, so we saved them for her snack turn. She has been asking for months to bring "hangabers" and we finally got to do it.

Christmas pajamas and other stuff

I love the idea of new Christmas pajamas. Usually they are opened on Christmas Eve, but I decided in our family they would get them right after Thanksgiving. The set she got last year have been well used. She still wears them and still prefers them to all her other pj's, but they are a little small. Since she loved her previous Christmas pajamas so much I wasn't sure how accepting she would be of her new pair, but she loves them. "Oh, thank you, you got those for me? How fun!"

This particular morning she is feeding her baby. She started this about 3 weeks ago. One night at dinner she told her dad "just a minute, I need to feed my baby" and did this. How, oh, how did she figure out this one? Julie, I think it might be you.

We are entertained everyday by her quick wit...
Last week I asked her, "what do you want for breakfast?"
"My two front teeth."

While watching the program video she asked us "is this the 1 e + a 2 song" (that's how the songs counted)

One afternoon I told her we needed to put away her toys.
She replied, "for girls and boys?" (T'was the Night Before Christmas song)

One of her prayers
"I am thankful for dogs, butterflies and cats. I am thankful I can have a baby and hopefully it's a baby girl and she can have clothes and socks and shoes."

Things I hear everyday...
Oh, the baby is crying, she wants you
The monsters are coming
Can I have mouthwash?

poison oak

As I mentioned, all of us (except our babe, oh thank heavens) got poison oak. I've never had poison oak before. I spent my childhood recklessly roaming in the wilderness, tromping through bushes and overgrown plants and never ever got it. I've always felt a little special because "I don't get poison oak." Even after a few days when my in-laws and my husband were complaining of their mysteriously gotten poison oak, I was still feeling lucky. Then, the itching started. I didn't just have a little, I had a lot of it. It started around my ankles, spread up my legs, and over the next 3 weeks it spread to my arms and my face. I have to admit, I was miserable. I've never itched so bad. I tried everything topical we could buy (we ended up spending over $120 on ointments and such). My legs oozed, swelled and bleed. On top of that, I ended up with a chemical burn on my legs from some of the ointments. I didn't sleep well for weeks because my legs and arms itched so bad. For a few days I limped around because of the pressure from the swelling was so uncomfortable. When I took this picture I thought my legs couldn't look any worse. I was wrong. I'm now disappointed I don't have a picture of the true nastiness. Some people get poison oak rashes and others are allergic, really allergic to poison oak. While my husband and father-in-law weren't comfortable with their little spots, the woman (my mother-in-law and myself) were miserable. Well...it finally went away...I finally got to shave my legs after 4 weeks (I have NEVER NEVER NEVER been more than few days without shaving my legs, I can't stand it. Even when I was swimming I couldn't grow out my leg hair, yuck)... I don't have endless loads of laundry to wash in hot water...and I don't have to do yard work until the spring.

backyard

October 23 and 26

We have a BIG backyard. We have a very BIG backyard and very little in it. (We also have a very small front yard with no landscaping). Our favorite local nursery was having their annual

%40 off sale so on the first morning of the sale I awoke bright and early, drove over my dad's truck, and was surprised to see the street lined with cars. Luckily, I got everything I wanted, plus a little more. My in-laws were super duper nice to come over one weekend and help us plant 9 redwood trees and 8 plants, rake the whole yard (it hadn't been raked in years) and de-clutter and de-weed the whole yard. What once looked like a hopeless array of random fruit trees and shrubs, now looks like our own little park. Our babe had a great time playing on the Razor and making sure we bought lots of good food from her snack store. We got so much done! We got dirty! We got allergies! We got POISON OAK! What we thought was only overgrown berry bushes turned out to be leafless poison oak. Well, that's the only explanation because we never saw it, but it saw us!

Her Birthday!

On the evening before her birthday we were busy. We had concidered just skipping her nap but the whinning started, mindless whinning, so I decided to hold her on my lap and see if she would fall asleep. I was super surprised when she actaully did fall asleep. Amazing! In the last 2 years that has rarely happened. I was even more surprised when she woke up with a fever. No wonder why she was whinning. She ended up spending the rest of the evening cuddling with me on the couch. I have to admit I was scared. She had the signs of flu. I wasn't sure I could add the flu to my list of things that needed to be done. Before we went home, her dad and granddad gave her a blessing. I am so thankful for the Priesthood! The next morning, she was 92% better. Yeahhhh! Who wants to be sick on their birthday?

Her Birthday Party

For weeks, maybe even months, we knew she wanted a pink car for her birthday (so her cousin could play with it because he didn't have one) and that we were going to Chuck-e-Cheese for her birthday party. She told us she wanted to go to C-e-C for her party and then to Round Table Pizza for her birthday (it's what one of her cousins did). Once, she changed her plans and said she wanted to go to the houseboat (like her other cousin), but we convinced her the original plans would work much better.

We spent all morning making her cake. She got to ice it, put the spice drops on the flowers and then put the flowers on the cake. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind. But, it worked out great! How many 2 year olds get to decorate their own birthday cake?

Our families met us at Chuck-e-Cheese early in the afternoon (the BEST time to go) and the adults talked and the kids played. It turned out great, she loved it and her cousins loved it. Towards the end, the adults even got in on the action playing the basketball game and mindlessly dropping tokens in a silly game, just so we could get more tickets.

it's over!

Wow, life has been non-stop for the last month. The program is done, my house is cleaned and mostly decorated for Christmas, things from the program are mostly cleaned up (sort-up). Once I clean up from the bridal shower I am hosting on Saturday, I will lay down for my long winters nap. Hopefully, I will wake up before Christmas eve, so I can go Christmas shopping. Since I have missed posting so many great events, I need to do a couple a day so I am caught up by the end of December. My Christmas present to myself this year is another blog book. This time, the new one will start January 1st.



So, what brilliant things have I been doing? The program. I've been eating, drinking, sleeping

(well, not really sleeping, I've been up in the wee hours working on the program). To my delight, it was ALL worth it. The Christmas program was a success. I am so grateful it turned out great! We started practicing September 1st, we put a lot of time into it and we sacrificed doing other things because we were working on the program. Now, all those hours and hours of work paid off. I feel like we experienced Grace. We did all we could do and Heavenly Father filled in where we were lacking. If you missed it, come next year. I've already planned most of the program and it should be just as great. For those who came. THANK YOU! Let me know what your favorite part was. Maybe I'll sneak it back into the program for next year.

halloween

pumpkin patch

We spent a very cold, windy, fun morning at the pumpkin patch right before Halloween.

magnetic dolls

Her sweet cousin gave our babe this fun set of magnetic dress-up dolls. I found that she was having a hard time playing on the little lunch pail that stores all the magnetics so I pulled out a cookie sheet. So much better! She loves playing with these dolls.

beauty parlor

After a long and busy Sunday afternoon, we decided to put Her down for a short nap. After an hour of sleeping, our sweetie was impossible to wake up; lights on, doors open, kisses. The only way to get her to wake up was to entice her, "do you want to play beauty parlor and paint mom's and dad's nails?" Her eyes flashed open and she go out of bed. We had such a lovely time at the beauty parlor. We all got our fingernail and our toenails painted. Mom and Dad also got lots of our fingers and toes painted too. Usually, her dad is very quick about getting his polish off. This time, he made sure to get the blue off his fingernails, but kept the red toenails for almost a week. Pretty funny to see my husband walking about with red toenails. He said he was waiting to take a feet picture, I think he just liked it.

new buffet

A couple of weeks ago, I spent all day working on my new buffet. I bought if off Craigs List to go in my dinning room. I loved the color, I loved the size and I didn't like the doors. So I sanded them down and painted them black. Later in the day, I came into the house with my face mask on. She couldn't wait to play with the mask herself.


I took the mask off, left the room and I walked back into the room a couple minutes later to find her like this. If your kids are bored, find them a face mask.

happy birthday, my sweetie

bedtime cookies