Christmas Morning

Claire tries out her new Rody, the first thing she saw.
This picture sums up Paige's reaction to pretty much every present she opened.

This picture is to show Sparkles, Paige's pink and purple unicorn pillow-pet.
It's her favorite gift. Also, it's the only picture I'm in.

Daddy helping Claire open one of her gifts.
I recall she was saying, "Ooooooooooooo."

Claire and Juliette enjoying the Rodys

Cute babies!
It was a very merry Christmas morning followed by a delicious brunch of (among other things) oranges off of Grandma's tree, avocado on sourdough toast, and the most delicious orange rolls you can imagine. And brunch was followed by a lot of lounging about reading, talking, and playing with our new toys. A great end to a great year.

Christmas Eve

Like many families on Christmas Eve we have a reading (by Grandma) from the bible of Jesus' birth and this year was no exception. However we were a little lame this year as far as participation and costumes go. Claire was not too thrilled about being baby Jesus. Paige was ecstatic to be a cow in the manger (really she was), and Ben was happy to be one of only two wise men.


After the nativity, Honey read aloud 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and we all recited the poem right along with her.

Then the kids got to open their first gift (pajamas, always pajamas), everyone changed, and we sang Christmas carols.


I LOVE these traditions we've done since I was tiny.

Somewhere there's a picture of me, my siblings and cousins in our
pajamas on these same stairs from every Christmas we were growing up.

The only cousins not pictured are William - he was already in bed,
and Allie - she had to be responsible and go back home for work.

Disneyland!

We had Christmas with my grandparents in California this year along with my parents, every single one of my siblings, the spouses, and all of our kids. It was so fun!

The Wednesday before Christmas Honey & Papa (my parents) treated us all to Disneyland. I think there were 28 of us, and it was super crowded since it was the first day of sunshine after almost a week of rain in southern California, but

We had a blast!

I don't have too many pictures, but here are the best of what I took. I remember to take my camera everywhere, I just forget to use it.

Paige, Anna, & Maggie - the 3-4 yr old girls - in their matching outfits.

Paige coming through the turnstile, upright this time.

Our little family out front. Can you believe we didn't try to get a picture of all 28 of us?

We were able to ride almost every ride we wanted to without having to wait long at all thanks to some very serious planning. And Paige rode the Matterhorn! She said she liked it and that it wasn't scary, but when I asked if she wanted to ride again with Dad (we were using the rider switch passes) she said, "No, it was a little bit scary."

Here's a video of us waiting in line for the Matterhorn.

We also had great curbside seats to watch the Christmas Parade. I really liked the toy soldiers, the kids were enthralled with all of it (including Santa at the end) and we all agreed that it was well worth the wait!previous picture downloaded from the internet here

Honey & Papa let each of the grandkids pick one souvenir. Paige choose a Rapunzel doll (we saw the movie just the day before) and ohmygosh, the hair is INSANE. You know how awesome barbie doll hair looks after not too long? Imagine 17" of it. Tangled is accurate, but maybe not a strong enough word.
And I chose this on Claire's behalf. I love Silhouettes.

On our way out of the park we stopped to take a few final pictures in front of Disneyland's tree:

Maggie and Paige with Honey & Papa

We had been there longer than 10 hours and still had huge smiles on our faces!

Thank you Honey & Papa!

They're Home!

My parents came home from their mission to South Carolina at the beginning of December. We all congregated in St. George to welcome them back, hear their homecoming talks, and decorate gingerbread houses. It was so good to be together again!

Honey with Paige and Miller. Miller was born while Honey & Papa were away.

Helping P with her house.

Paige with her gingerbread house. She sat and decorated that house for a long time - as long as any of the adults. And she was very proud of it.

Me and Claire with mine. Claire is eating a slice of cheese. She wasn't feeling well that weekend and since Ben didn't come with me
(he had to stay home for drill and finals) I had to hold her the entire time.

My sister Noelle and I carpooled down there and back with our kids. We stopped somewhere at a McDonald's on the way home where they have the tiniest little kids cones. Paige didn't want hers and Claire was happy to take it off her hands. Here's a video of Claire eating her first ice cream cone and cousin Miller is next to her eating his very first french fry.

Happy 34th!

To celebrate Ben's birthday we had a yummy breakfast at home this morning after he opened his gift. Paige kept telling me he needed more - one gift is not enough, and where we're all his balloons? She must have told him "happy birthday" at least twenty times today, followed quickly by "I love you" and a hug. She was also so excited to surprise him with a cake-plate full of cupcakes when he got home from class. This evening we left the girls at home with a sitter and went out to dinner by ourselves. That feels like such a luxury these days, and so much fun to spend some time together - just the two of us.
Happy Birthday, Ben!

Kids Village Christmas Party

Paige's preschool held their annual Christmas in the Village open house tonight. I have to say I was very impressed. We had a great time eating yummy food, meeting Santa, making a special snack for the reindeer for Christmas Eve (which Paige already ate herself), and listening to the children sing. On our way out the door we were also given a little present from our child's class. Paige's class made cookbooks.

Here's a video of Claire and Paige with Santa. This was Claire's first time meeting Santa. I was surprised she didn't cry. This was the first time Paige was excited to see him.



This is an excerpt of the kids' performance. The cute blond next to Paige is her cousin, Anna. I like the beginning when Paige is trying to keep a littler kid from leaving the stage and the end where Paige looks very concerned when a much bigger kid stands right in front of her. Paige cooperated with the performance much better this time. I was happy not to have a repeat of Halloween.



And here is Paige's entry in the class cookbook. So cute.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Have you read this book to your baby?

I read it to Claire tonight before bed, and by the third page (when the turkey is wearing his pants on his head) she was laughing hysterically - like I've never heard her laugh before. By the time I finished the book we both had tears running down our cheeks from laughing so hard. She was literally gasping for breath - which made me laugh all the harder. Ben came in to see what was so funny.

Claire made me read it four more times, chuckling all the while. Who would have thought a 12 month old would get it?

AGH!

Paige just found half of her Christmas presents! What do I do now?

12 Months

Length: 29 1/2 inches (75th%ile)
Weight: 19 lbs 8 oz (25th%ile)
Head Circ: 47 cm (95th%ile)


Some things about Claire:

She loves fresh pear slices, yogurt, soggy Life cereal, avocado on sourdough toast, string cheese, and drinking out of a straw.

Most days I have to go back into her room after putting her down for a nap because she stands up in the crib, throws her binky over the side, and yells until I come to retrieve it for her. What she really wants is an extra cuddle. So we snuggle for another minute or two and then she's good. It only takes once!

She LOVES to cuddle. And she makes the cutest little sighing sounds.

She loves the sound velcro makes so we have a problem keeping shoes on her feet.

She made up a "sign" for when she wants me to sing the itsy bitsy spider. She grabs her wrist with one hand, spreads out the fingers on her other, and holds it out in front of her and waves. She gets really excited when we sing songs.

She likes to wrestle and gets pretty feisty. Her idea of wrestling is crawling all over you. It's hilarious when she comes after Paige.

She loves to wave and say hi. She gets excited when Ben comes home in the evening (usually when I'm finishing up cooking dinner) and says, "hi, Dada" repeatedly until he picks her up.

She's still a mama's girl but is getting better at letting other people hold her.

Her sleep schedule is finally pretty predictable. She's always been a good sleeper, I could just never tell when or how long she was going to nap. The last few weeks she's been consistently sleeping 12 hours at night (7pm to 7am), taking a 1 1/2 hour nap in the morning at around 8:30am and a 2 hour nap at around 2:30pm.

She's cruising around everywhere, but not walking on her own yet.

She seems to be fascinated with the cords plugged into electrical outlets and she likes to pull them out. She also likes to get into the lowest drawer in the upstairs bathroom which contains all my hair product.

When she wants to crawl extra fast she tucks her head and charges.

She loves to rip apart paper and suck on it. I had a bunch of magazines that are now in shreds.

She won't actually kiss me, but she'll make the kissing sound.

She finds animated stuffed animals (like if you move their arms and talk for them) funny and frightening at the same time.

Her dimple still melts my heart.

Happy Birthday, Claire

Our baby is 1 today. Her first year has gone by SO fast. I still can't believe she's not a little infant anymore! We celebrated her birthday yesterday at my sister's house in St. George. Thanks, Jen! Since we were all down there for Halloween anyway all my siblings stuck around Sunday morning for a birthday breakfast. Thanks for being there everyone!

Halloween part 3

Saturday night we, all of my siblings and their families, ate a yummy dinner at my sister Jen's house before heading out for trick-or-treating. Paige, Claire, and the girl cousins were mermaids, the baby boys were lobsters, and Andrew was a pirate -- much to Paige's dismay; she REALLY wanted Andrew to be her Prince Eric.Major props to my little sister Chelsea for the handmaid mermaid and pirate costumes!

Halloween part 2

On Friday we drove down to St. George to spend the weekend with all of my siblings and their families. My friend, Anne, was kind enough to let us stay at her house and her son, Cameron, was sweet enough to give up his room.

Friday night we went to Anne's ward's trunk-or-treat. Paige was a ballerina and Claire was a pig. Anne had the ingenious idea to bring a fire pit and roast s'mores at her car in lieu of passing out candy.


I think it was a hit!

Halloween part 1

We kicked off Halloween with Paige's preschool performance on Thursday. She choose to be Cinderella and was really excited to go to school dressed up.
She reminded us of her performance several times that morning to make sure we'd show up. We arrived at the appointed time. Things started off great.
And then about one and a half songs into it, Paige yells to me from the stage, "Mom, I'm tired of this." And then proceeds to sit down and make this face.
Unfortunately I did not get a shot of when she laid down, rested her head on the kid next to her, and then pretended to sleep.

Claire's Words

I know not everyone will be interested in this, but I realized today that I have very little video of Claire. So I got the flip out this morning and attempted to capture her saying some of the words she can say. She wasn't too cooperative, but I still think it turned out pretty cute. She speaks so softly though that it's kind of hard to hear. Her favorite is "hi", which she says ALL the time (accompanied by vigorous waving), especially when we're out in public. Her most recent word is "Paige". Paige was anxiously awaiting the moment when Claire would say her name; she was elated when it finally happened.

School Pictures

Paige's preschool did pictures last month. I felt like a "real" mom filling out the order form and sending her off with a check in her bag :) She was really excited and practiced poses for me in the driveway before climbing into the car. What a ham!My only hope was that her hair would survive by the time the picture taking rolled around. And it did for the most part, but I really wish I had been there with a comb! Ah well, she still looks adorable!

I love the way she looks in the class photo. Super cheesy! That's our Paige!

Yes, yes i did. . .

Ben loves it.

I had a mini panic attack driving home.

I'll get used to it. I think.

Ben doesn't think it's blog worthy (not that big of a deal).

He may be right.

But, I don't want my family and friends to be too shocked when they first see me like this.

I'm already tired of the extra attention.

Cute Girls

Last week we took yet another trip to Thanksgiving Point. Paige has been begging to go back to the Discovery Gardens, and I figured we'd better go before it's no longer warm enough to splash around Noah's Ark. We invited my friend, Heidi, and her girls, and they brought along their cousin, Stella.

Heidi reminded me a few weeks ago via text that we have been friends for 20 years! Amazing. (We met playing softball in about 4th grade). And now we each have two daughters, the same ages. Also amazing! AND so so SO so much fun!

The three-year-olds courtesy of Heidi's iPhone.
This Picture make me want to be 3. They look so happy!

Paige figured out how to reach the drinking fountain!
I think Mae helped :)

Cute babies' bums/Exploring the water

An attempt to get them all in one picture/Penny stealing the show

Does it get any cuter?!

Agh! Looking at this picture makes me
want to go wake Claire up and squeeze her!

I'm loving all these girls!