Christmas in Pictures

Sorry to anyone with slow internet, 'cause here's a TON of our Christmas pictures.

Here's our house two days before the holidays. But thanks to Star and Rachel coming over for the whole day on the 23rd, all these boxes were cleared out in time for company!

Morning of the 24th - Annie was having a blast 'helping' Mommy make dessert for that night's traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my Grandma's house. Chocolate pudding mix ended up EVERYWHERE!
My Mom decided that this year we would open presents at her house on Christmas Eve, instead of the traditional 'open one present Christmas Eve, the rest in the morning' thing. It was against tradition and chaotic, and will probably be vetoed by the family if she dares raise the suggestion again next year. But, here's my girls and I looking pretty excited about present-opening that night . . . it's hard to be upset about bucking years of tradition in the moment someone's handing you lots of presents to open!
My kid cannot seem to keep that tongue of hers in her mouth! Thus the poor little chapped cheeks and chin in our holiday pictures. She also had a horribly runny nose, thus the chapped little nose. Poor kid, no matter how much vaseline we slather on her face, she still looks horribly sunburned or raw.
I love this one of Hollywood-Annie with her Aunt Lacy . . . you kinda lose track of which blond curl belongs to which person in this picture. Which probably has a lot to do with complete strangers always thinking my daughter belongs to Lacy when we're out in public together.
Annie loving her new baby doll from Grandma Karine and Grandpa Robert.

Now it's Christmas morning, and Ellie is looking pretty thrilled with the ribbons that came on the jewelry box Daddy surprised Mom with under the tree.
Annie and Grandma Karine.
Rachel and Jovanny
Annie and Aunt Star hugging after one gift exchange.
Aunt Talina, Mommy and Ellie (chewing on her new rubber duckie) in front of Annie's new kitchen set.
My family's fairly successful attempt at using the timer button on my camera.
Talina, David, Star, Ellie, Me, Greg, Cody
Rachel, Jovanny, Lacy, Annie, Mom & Dad
Aunt Lacy and Annie hiding in the box that Santa carelessly left behind from Annie's kitchen.
Now we're over at Greg's parents house. Annie got a chest of princess dress up clothes from Grandma Ruth and Grandpa K.C. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of Annie changing in and out of various gowns.
Annie rockin' the purple princess dress.
Ellie & Greg
Grandma Ruth and Princess Annie
Aunt Andrea helping Annie get out of this cumbersome purple gown so she can change into the blue one. Again.
"Listen here my subjects!" And Grandpa K.C.
When we came home we were greeted by an impassable driveway. Just to prove I wasn't exaggerating.
Back at home, Ellie chilling with Greg, eating her hand. I don't know exactly why I included this picture, except that I thought she was cute here.
The next day we went and visited Great Grandma Verla. Annie & Ellie had fun playing with Grandma, and Ellie looks adorable in her new outfit from Aunt Andrea.

OK, so that was a TON of pictures, but considering I'd cut it down from the 298 I downloaded from my camera this morning, I'm pretty impressed.

Shape Guru

For Christmas Annie got (way too many) cute Melissa and Doug wood toys. One of which is the Pattern Blocks shape set. It's a little bit too advanced for Annie, as her two year old fine motor skills tend to knock the shapes around the board a bit much, making it hard to match the pattern on the board exactly. But, she's getting better, learning to slowly slide pieces into place using her finger rather than slamming her whole little hand down on the board. It'll be good for her. She loves the shapes and colors, and insists on sorting all of the shapes into piles before we get started on our patterns.


My favorite part of playing with it tonight was when she looked over at me and said, "Oh Mommy, you are doing so good on your train! Choo choo! Could you please hand me two hexagons for my butterfly?" Hexagons (I had to double check with Greg when we first got started that that's what they were called). We're working on trapezoids next!

All Kinds of Randomness (And, I HATE the Snow)

So, we're driving, and have been for awhile since all roads in the Salt Lake Valley are covered in deep, deep snow, and apparently all the snow plows are only doing WalMart parking lots or something, 'cause they didn't seem to be shoveling any of the actual roads I've been on the last two days. Not that I'm bitter. Anyway, back to the driving. Annie is in the backseat, chatting with her favorite conversationalist, herself, when I hear this odd 'exchange':
(Oh, and as a refresher, Doh-doo is Annie's imaginary friend she frequently mentions, and Iah is her lesser imaginary friend . . . it's more like Iah is Doh-doo's friend, that he just brings along.)

"Ewww! That's gross!" Annie says, horrified sounding. "Doh-doo licked me!!"
Um, OK.
"Doh-doo," she chastises, "Don't lick me. I like you, we are friends. Don't lick me."
Um, OK.
"Plus, Doh-doo, you are married to Iah!"
Ohhhh-kay. That's just odd. I told Greg, "At least we don't have to worry about her hooking up with this Doh-doo guy," to which Greg responded, "I'm MORE worried now! He's MARRIED!"

Annie amused me endlessly on our hellish drive down Bangerter though. She talked on the phone with her Aunt Talina for a little bit, and her side of the conversation had me cracking up. (Greg was less amused.)
"Yeah, we got stuck. Like three times."
"I think it was Daddy's fault."
"Yeah, our car was stuck in the snow."
"Daddy got our car stuck. We couldn't go."
"Yeah, he's crazy!"
Greg grumbled, "She never mentions the part where Daddy got us out of it!"

Awhile later she suddenly shouted out, "We on babeiter!"
"What, baby?" I asked, confused by the new, incomprenhsible word.
"Babe-it-er! We on babeiter!"
"What are you saying sweetheart?"
"BABEITER!"
"Um, OK. Yeah, you're right."
About 15 seconds later . . . "OH! On BANGERTER! We're driving on Bangerter! That's right!"
The fact my two year old recognizes stretches of road, and can name them, kinda blows me away.

Towards the beginning of our drive, we'd stopped to fill our gas tank (pretty much because after it had taken us like 7 or 8 minutes just to turn out of my parent's neighborhood, I was now pretty paranoid that we were gonna end up in a ditch, run out of gas and freeze to death (despite spending the majority of our drive on a major highway with countless other vehicles; but none of them were going to stop for us, you stop on these kinda roads, and you might never get going again!) So, anyway, I wanted a full tank for the drive.) Once we were within a few blocks of our house, we stopped off at another gas station to fill up a small gas can for Greg's new snow blower (more on that in a second). As soon as we pulled up, Annie, confused and thinking we are most definitely idiots said, "You guys! We JUST got gas! We don't need more yet!"

In addition to filling up gas multiple times on one car trip, we are also doing other things to help stimulate the economy. We are the proud new owners of a snow blower. It was our one big purchase the day after Christmas (it wasn't even on sale though, so I found it very unsatisfying!) After everyone getting stuck, repeatedly, in our driveway on Christmas, plus the nearly two feet of snow we still needed to tackle on our sidewalks, and after Greg spent 45 minutes digging out our gutter (since there was like three feet of snow the plows had pushed up, leaving our car out in the narrowly plowed streets until he nearly killed his back moving chunks of ice around), Greg woke up first thing this morning, drove to Home Depot and bought us snow blower. A really nice one. Not quite the cadillac of snow blowers, but it's up there. Once we got home tonight (luckily in one piece, no thanks to Bangerter Highway and it's several attempts to kill us . . . Greg'll say I'm being overly dramatic, but I think not), Greg got to work on our walks and the new snow fall on our driveway (since it's NEVER going to END!) He came in after about an hour and said, "There's a problem with the snow blower." My heart sank, this thing cost more than three or four of the small home improvement projects I wanted done! He then broke into a grin, "I ran out of snow!" He was like a kid at Christmas (or adult male with a cool new toy on the day after Christmas in this case) . . . I'm really surprised he's not out there right now finding people who haven't shoveled to dig out. Except that now he's downstairs making fudge with his cool new saucier pan and candy thermometer he got for Christmas, so the big toy'll wait 'til tomorrow. We'll most likely have more snow to plow then.

Oh, and to end things, here's an excerpt from Annie's prayer tonight (which she said all on her own, completely unprompted, 'cause that's how she rolls these days):
"Thank you for this fun day. Thank you that we got to see family, and play with my kitchen set, and see Karine and Robert (that's my parents first names, she's big into everyone's first names right now, even saying, "Hey Hilary, can I have some of your water," the other day.) Thank you we go to see Grandma Verla. Thank you we got to go to the hospital. [LONG pause, scrunched up look on face. Realization dawns]. Oh wait. That wasn't today. We didn't go to the hospital. That was something else." Maybe you had to be there for it, but that totally cracked me up.

Christmas Eve Day

'Twas the day before Christmas
And all through our new house
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse.

Why, the quiet and stillness you ask?
'Cause we're not home, we're at InstaCare, of course!

I decided the best Christmas gift I could give my insurance company was to squeeze in one last co-pay for the year this festive Christmas Eve Day (at least it better be the last!). Turns out Ellie is just fine. Her hands keep turning purple just 'cause of baby circulation issues, and not because her horrible cold is affecting her breathing/oxygenation. So, all is well in our family. We're just out another fifteen bucks. Good news though, my little chunker is over 14 lbs now! It was almost worth the co-pay just to see her weighing in at 14.6 pounds (fully dressed though). That means she's gained about three-quarters of a pound in the last month. And while that's not quite the 4 ounces a week they say she 'should' gain, it's by far good enough from me. It's even pushed her up from probably about the 2nd percentile to about the 5th or so. Not huge jumps, but hey, she's a little baby just like her big sister was . . . if she gained a ton really fast, another baby would have to lose a bunch to fill her spot on the chart! :-) This weight gain made me ridiculously happy. I can't wait to go see our doctor on Monday (for a non-copay follow up, since we're getting the second half of her flu shot and weighing her in to make sure she 'passes' this month) and show him my ever-increasing baby and be all, "Look she gained! And I didn't even start her on formula like you were so convinced I needed to or she'd waste away to nothing! My kid is perfectly healthy, just a little small!" I'm telling you, it may be weird, but that weight gain was like my Christmas miracle.

In another vein completely, I came into the bathroom yesterday to find Annie sitting on her little potty. Surprised to find her there, I asked, "What are you doing baby?" To which she responded, "Just sittin' here. Peeing . . .poopin' . . . farting." I guess I asked.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

We don't have the internet set up yet . . . so Greg's being kind enough to take a text file into work, copy and paste it into blogger, and make it available to all you good people!

Anyway, so, we're into our house. For some reason, only made possibly by insane troll logic, I had somehow convinced myself we'd get all the boxes in, start unpacking, and everything would come together in time for Christmas. I mean, obviously my food storage wouldn't be sorted by expiration date quite yet (OK, so it never has been . . . Liz keeps threatening, but it hasn't happened yet . . . ), but I was thinking the main livable parts of the house would be, well, livable. Yeah right, crack smoker. I just found our first fork this afternoon. Greg spread peanut butter on Annie's toast yesterday with a toddler spoon. We've had Little Caesar's pizza THREE times in as many days (and we didn't get any on Sunday, when we went and mooched off of extended family, so that would be pizza for lunch AND dinner today.) But, slowly it's coming together. My parents even came by tonight, with my Mom helping me get the front room set up, and my Dad entertaining Annie so that anything else was possible.

The Good
Oh, my master suite. How I love thee. I keep referring to my walk-in closet as "the other room." "Greg, should we put our dresser in our room, or in the other room?" "Hey Greg, do you think we should keep these baskets in our room, or in the other room?" "Greg, when we have another baby, can we just put them in the other room, so we don't have to walk across the hall to pick up a screaming baby?" Seriously, it is THAT big. And Annie and I can't get enough of the big ol' tub . . . we won't need to go to a pool all summer, we'll just chill out in there. Annie was in there for a two hour bath this morning. I was uber-jeolous, as I was just sorting boxes in the bathroom the whole time, but that'll be me as soon as we are done with the unpacking!
For those of you who've bought a home before, or I'm sure the same could be said for those who've picked an apartment or whatever, but you know how when you walk through beforehand you're trying to keep both eyes wide open and notice EVERYTHING. Then you move in and you think, "Holy cow, how'd I not notice that?!" Good thing, very few of my "How'd I miss that?!" moments have been negative (more paint that needs touching up than I'd remember, but all in all, it's in such great shape), and my "Wow, that's awesome, did you see that before Greg?!" moments have been made me very happy. My kitchen cabinets, while not overly impressive from the outside (nicely done, but plain) are AWESOME inside . . . the shelves slide out like drawers, and there's a big ol' lazy susan in the corner. How did I not notice this when we looked at the house the first three times before we bought it?!
The best part. People must really like us, 'cause we had lots of family and friends help us out in one way or another with our move. From the packing up, moving it the first time, cleaning the new house, moving everything in, to organizing and unpacking, I feel pretty spoiled. Thanks to everyone who helped out. We also have VERY cool neighbors, as people stopped by in the morning when we were getting the first stuff in, and one neighbor was even scrapping the ice from the sidewalks and driveway. Anyone who scrapes ice for me can easily be called one of my best friends. I pretty much decided to marry Greg one winter morning when I came outside and found that he'd dug my car out of the snow and scraped my windows so that I wouldn't have to before work.

The Bad
We got my Christmas tree up tonight. Which would be awesome news, if it wasn't for the fact that my incredibly beautiful, intensely lit tree that I've cherished for several years now, chose this year to die. Plugged it in and about three random strands of lights work, out of about the 12 strands I have on it. I knew this day was coming, as we've enjoyed this tree since we got married, but did it have to be this year!? The year we plug it in just three days before Christmas!? Oh well, due to our incredibly crappy economy, my Mom was telling me that Kohls already has their Christmas trees on like 70% off (and we have an extra 20% off coupon . . . anyone around here have one of the 30%s?!) So, I may just go out and get a new one so that we have something to make it feel like Christmas around here!
My washer and dryer are on the top floor (and thanks to my very talented husband and my Dad, my gas dryer is even hooked up and running now!) I LOVED this when we first walked through. But do you know how much harder it is to fall asleep when a washing machine is bouncing around right outside your bedroom door? (Editorial comment from Greg: The washer just needs to be leveled. That will make the bouncing stop.). And do you know how often I start laundry at the end of the day as an afterthought? Crap, this is gonna take some reorganization of my time management.
Oh, and the bathrooms have no medicine cabinets . . . which for some reason bugs me beyond reason.
And Annie has decided that she is 'too little' for just about everything. She's 'too little' to play outside in the snow. She's 'too little' to go and get me a diaper for Ellie. And the big one, she's 'too little' for the new 'big girl bed' we set up in her bedroom. So, that first night, after lots of tears (mostly hers), Greg and I were up late setting up a small toddler bed right next to the horribly awful, terribly offensive, big bed. So now her small room houses two beds, and a large pile of unsorted toys. It's not a pretty sight, and there's not a lot of room left.

The Ugly
I still have other people's toilet seats on my toilets. The previous owners of our home were awesome, and clean; I think she must've scrubbed out every single drawer and shelf in the place before we moved in, and for that she will forever be endeared to me - and maybe make me feel a little inadequate as a home seller, since I merely vacuumed out drawers haphazourdly and thought, "Your problem now suckers!" (I'm kidding. Kinda.) One of the things that we first noticed about this house was its cleanliness (compared to all 10-15 other houses we looked at, when as soon as we walked in I'd turn to Greg and say, "We'd need new carpet and we'll need to paint." Not one, but TWO houses we looked at had animal droppings and urine in the basement.) But still. Toilet seats that belonged to someone else. Just wrong.
And Greg's back is so sore that I think he will be able to do nothing but sleep (and possibly take long baths in our cool new tub) during his entire time off for the holidays.
And my beautiful toddler is becoming increasingly difficult day by day. I know all this upheaval can't be easy (it stresses me out), but there are times during the day I just stare at her in wonder and think, "How does one find a Catholic Priest who can perform an exorcism in this small dominantly Mormon community?" I try to take a little time each day and just hold her and talk, or read books or something, but it's not enough, and I can't blame her for that, I just wish she understood that Mommy really has to get some of these boxes put away before she loses her mind, and possibly will to live. She does still do and say a million things a day that crack me up though. And she seems at least a little more understanding about Mom's split focus than Ellie does. She thinks I'm just mean. I think that if she REALLY loved me, she'd take longer naps than the three 20 minutes ones she's doing a day now. And she'd sleep for more than two and a half hours at a stretch at night. We're not seeing things eye to eye right now though.

Anyway, I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas. Working tree or not, I can't help but feel incredibly blessed this holiday season in our new home, surrounded by family and friends who never fail us, my wonderful husband and my two beautiful reminders of all that is right and beautiful about this world. And it makes me smile when my two year old, staring up with wonder at the Nativity Set I just got up, says, "Look Mom, it's baby Jesus. And Mary and Joseph. I hope He has a good birthday this year." Merry Christmas everyone!

Moving Day

So, tomorrow morning, bright and early we're taking every last thing we own, gathering it from all the different places we've stashed it this last month, and asking our friends and family to carry it all into our new house. I'm so not looking forward to this. My throat hurts, my body aches, I have an asthma attack just from carrying Ellie in from the car. I'm miserable and I don't want to do this tomorrow. Seriously, I was thinking today, "It would be worth just staying here in the basement for another few days just to avoid moving . . . " I would be sick during the move. This is even worse than sick at Christmas.
And it's nine thirty and my two year old has been screaming for a solid hour about not wanting to go to sleep, about her bed being uncomfortable, needing a drink, wanting a tissue, about how mean her Mom is, not wanting to sleep . . . and we get to drag her and the poor sick seven month old out bright and early to stand by as we lug boxes around. Sigh. I have no right to feel sorry for myself when we're moving into a beautiful new home, but man I'm not looking forward to this.
It'll be over soon though. And all worth it.

P.S. As soon as I'm done here, I'm turning off the computer, packing it up and getting it ready to move. My internet at the new house isn't up until Christmas Eve day ('cause I'm not all that bright, and despite knowing exactly when we were moving into the new house for a solid month now, it didn't dawn on me to set up water, internet, home phone or cable until, oh, yesterday.) So, Merry Christmas y'all!

Merry Christmas . . . and to All a Good Night!

So, we were at the mall. Annie wanted to sit on Santa's lap, I figured 'why not?', I love watching them trying to decipher Annie's pronunciation of 'kitchen set' for a few awkward seconds before I repeat it aloud to alleviate their discomfort. Annie was adorable, talking to Santa like he was her new best friend. But then a miracle happened. Santa held Ellie. And she didn't cry. "Take the picture!" I cried out at the man who I'd just told 30 seconds before we weren't at all interested in his photography services. Basically, that's how I blew twenty bucks at the mall the other day.

Tonight Greg had been struggling to get Annie down for bed for a good two hours. Nothing was working. (I was wrapping presents in my nearly useless state . . . I'm pretty much suffering from the worst cold in human history . . . body aches, sore throat, runny nose, severe grouchiness. Ellie has it too. Poor Annie's stuck with the two of us all day.) At one point, Greg brings Annie into our room to talk to me. She mumbles something about why she can't sleep. Greg (much like Santa), stares at her blankly for a second, then asks, "Your hair is in a ball?" She stares at him like he's crazy. "Your bed is full?" "Your pillow took a fall?" Annie, suddenly (as if she'd been saying it this clearly all along, which I'm here to vouch for Greg, she hadn't been) states, "My bed is not berry com-per-tah-bull." I laughed out loud. Greg looked at her for a second and said, "It's been plenty comfortable for the last four weeks, it's comfortable enough for these last two nights." It's 9:45. She finally fell asleep. I had to go lay down with her in her apparently uncompertahbull bed, which was suddenly the coziest place on earth. I laid there 'til she'd been asleep long enough that I could lay there and enjoy her little toddler snoring. Annie has only recently (like in the last two weeks, so VERY recently) allowed us to be present when she falls asleep. I think thus far she's wanted to keep up the appearance that she never slept, so as long as someone else is around, she was wide awake no matter how tired she was. But this last week especially, she's been requesting one of us to lay down with her in bed for awhile and cuddle until she falls asleep. Probably not the best habit to get into, but man, when you've had a kid who hasn't fallen asleep in your arms since 2006, you're a complete sucker for bedtime cuddling! Anyway, when I was sure she was sufficiently asleep to allow for maternal extraction, I eased out of bed. Annie's eyes flew open for a split second, she called out, "Are you just going for a little bit?" then she was completely out again. So cute. I should be asleep too actually . . . so, good night!

Ewwwww. Eww Eww Ewwwwww.

So, Annie's pretty much obsessed with eating snow right now. Loves it. Her little hands are pretty much constantly frozen and red because of her snow eating addiction. I personally am down with a little snow eating . . . even indulge myself, from time to time. We're working on the 'clean snow vs. dirty snow' concept with Annie. Apparently we have a lot more work to do, since as we were walking back to our car in the Deseret Book parking lot, Annie let go of my hand, and before I could stop her, grabbed a little fistful of black slush and shoved it in her mouth. Ewwwwww. Ewwww. Kinda threw up a little in my mouth just thinking about it again! I guess it could've been worse.

Vampire Love

Eric D. Snider's Rejected Twilight Screenplay made me laugh out loud. Check it out.
Thanks Shannon for pointing it out! I used to read Snider's stuff religiously (like back when I had a job and was up to a computer all day), but most likely would've missed this if you hadn't linked to it!

Annie, Go Pick Mama Up a Pair of Those Red Shoes . . .

So, Greg and I are driving, listening to Christmas music ('cause that's what one does this time of year . . . unless you're my Dad, then you probably started annoying coworkers months ago playing the stuff since like July or something. Just one of the many reasons he's one of my heroes.) On comes the song "The Christmas Shoes" . . . you know the one, right? Well, Greg didn't. I was all, "You know, the song, about the kid, trying to buy some shoes for his dying Mother." Greg's staring at me blankly. "You know, he needs to get the shoes right away, 'cause she's going to die soon, and he wants her to look pretty for Jesus if she goes to meet him tonight." Now he's just looking at me like I'm crazy. And I'm starting to tear up a little, maybe a little more than a little. Blatant emotional manipulation through song story telling should only exist in country music, not on my Christmas stations!

But how can one picture a small, dirty, poorly dressed child saying stuff like . . .

Sir, I want to buy these shoes for my Mama, please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry, sir, Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes would make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight

. . . and not get a little teary. Heart of stone I tell you, only way to avoid it. Mom meeting Jesus on Christmas Eve . . . I could barely recount the story to Greg without pondering my maternal role and mortality and imagining my two beautiful daughters growing up without their own Mother. Barely keeping it together.

At this point Greg is still staring at me like I'm crazy. And I'm trying hard to wipe away tears casually, when it suddenly hits me . . .

"Wait a second? So, this kid's Mom is dying. On Christmas Eve. And he's at the mall?!" This struck me as wrong in so many ways. His Mom is dying and he's away from home, all alone? Are there other siblings gathered around their Mother's bed? Does nobody notice his absence? How'd he get to the mall? Plus, the practical part of me was all, "Why does she need new shoes if she's going to be dead in the next 24 hours?! What a horrible waste of money when this family is obviously struggling." I told Greg if I'm dying he is not allowed to buy me any fancy new red shoes, that money goes towards our kids' college funds!

Not surprisingly, at this point, Greg is still staring like the crazies have taken up permanent residence in his wife's head.

Something's not adding up. Did they not notice the kid leaving? Are they now all freaking out at home, watching Mom die, and calling the police to help find their 7 year old, 'cause that would be like the worst Christmas Eve ever. Or, do they know where the kid is at? "Hopefully he'll be back from the mall soon . . . don't know how much longer we have and Mom's still waiting on those shoes." Shouldn't they have sent him with an adult chaperon. Possibly one with enough money to purchase said shoes? And time is short, shouldn't the family be all gathered together. Or is the father so distraught by losing his wife that he isn't even aware of the the missing child? And the kid is dirty and unkempt . . . obviously the father isn't able to handle all the stress in his life, but isn't their a grandparent, neighbor or something that can make sure this kid is fed and bathed regularly? And not wandering off to malls with potentially bad timing?

Then it hit. It's a con. A family of grifters. It's genius. Mommy wants a new pair of some hot red wedges, but there's no money. Dress the kid up just this side of street urchin, have him rummage through his pockets and pull out two bucks and change, turn pathetically to the person behind him in line and tell his sad, sad story. Big wide eyes, one lone tear. Well meaning stranger, on verge of tears ('cause you just said you want Mommy to be pretty when she meets Jesus tonight, how does one's emotional defenses stand a chance?! Especially if the store has Christmas music playing overhead), forks over the money. Kid brings shoes back to Mom and gets to go out for a Happy Meal as a reward for a job well done. Win-win. Sexy new shoes for Mom, or maybe she returns the shoes later, and goes and buys some booze. Whatever the end game, the con is kinda genius.

See if that song can ever makes me cry again!! I've won this round . . .

Greg's staring at me like I'm crazy again.

Favorite Baby Dolls

So, Annie was telling me all about her 'favorites' of her many, many, many baby dolls and stuffed animals she sleeps with. "I love Baby Bear. And Lovebug. And Little Bear and Moo Moo and Baby Sophia and Moo Moo's Dad and Ducky. Um. I don't like Baby Doll. She's pink. And she really ought to be purple. Like Little Bear." She really ought to be purple. Um, oh-kay.

Tonight Greg was cuddling with Annie in bed and she was feebly whining, "Don't leave Dad. Stay here until I'm asleep. You can cuddle up with me right here." After a little bit, she turned to him and said, "OK Dad. I'm asleep now. Go away."

Oh, and on a separate note from the cuteness above, whoever has taken the actual, sweet, affectionate, charming, loving Annie and replaced her today with this evil doppelganger who yells stuff like, "NoNoNoNoNONONONONO!" and said the words "Shut up" for the first time ever, and then repeated them like 12 times, please return my child immediately. I miss her. This one stresses me out far more. And isn't as much fun. (I cannot wait 'til this kid gets over this cough and starts sleeping again!)

On the flip side though, whoever took my fussy six month old who was nearly impossible to please, and replaced her with this constantly laughing, squealing, giggling, nearly seven month old who smiles so much her cheeks must hurt, thanks. I'll consider it an early Christmas present.

Oh, and on yet another unrelated note. I hate the snow. I would usually enjoy it, for it's festive holiday touch on the landscape around me, and for it's endless white wonder and beauty. But dude, I'm currently living on a street that DIDN'T plow, and therefore lost control in my car earlier today, my front passenger side wheel slamming hard into a curb, and now my steering wheel shakes and I need a new wheels and rim or something that I'm letting Greg take care of. Stupid snow.

Sisterly Love and Affection

Annie was sitting by Ellie yesterday, when she turned towards her sister, put her arm around her affectionately, than sweetly reminded, "Ya know Ellie, I really am very nice to you . . . " A minute later, "I share my toys with you . . . I really am very nice." The whole time I was waiting for her to ask Ellie for a favor or something!

Aunt Lacy is back in town, so of course Annie & Lacy were prank calling people last night. Hearing my two year old say, "Is your refrigerator running? You better go catch it," was an odd moment in parenthood. (Does it amuse you? Make you proud? Horrify you? What feelings go with that?) But my favorite part was when Lacy called the cell phone Annie was holding and asked, "Is your refrigerator running?" To which Annie replied, "No. No, it's not." Smart kid, she learns quick.

Ward Christmas Party Pictures

This morning (freakishly early) we had our ward Christmas Party back in my parents ward. We had Annie sleep over at my parents house the night before. My Mom probably thought it had something to do with getting Annie used to being away from Mom & Dad or something, I thought it had everything to do with getting one less kid dressed and ready for a party at 8AM on a Saturday morning. Turns out Annie (who took a ridiculously late nap yesterday) didn't get to bed 'til 11PM last night, then kept everyone up in the house all night with her horrible cough. My Dad says she's never allowed to sleep over again if she's not feeling well. I personally think the whole situation worked out just about perfectly. But that's just me. Annie recently changed her mind on what she wants from Santa. For the longest time she's been asking for a kitchen set. This was great, as I'd already purchased and had shipped a gigantic play kitchen to my parents house. I was surprised the other day though when she was playing with some play food at a toy store when she said, "Mom, look, four kitchen sets! Maybe I can get one for Christmas." The kid's considering the little accessory sets to be "kitchen sets", and she's more than thrilled to get one for Christmas and share it with her little sister (she asks Santa for a "kitchen set for Ellie and me to share!") This kid is going to be so freakishly excited when she sees a whole kitchen by the fireplace Christmas morning! Anyway, but the mind change. So, Annie was playing with a Disney Princess Laptop at a store the other day, and after about the best ten minutes of her entire life, she turned to me and said, "Mom, tell Santa I non't want a kitchen set anymore, I want a 'puter." She has since then walked around telling people Santa is going to bring her a laptop. She was telling my Mom yesterday that she wanted a laptop from Santa. My Mom asked about the kitchen set. Annie stopped and thought about it for a second, then said, "I know. Santa can bring me a laptop. You give me a kitchen set for Christmas." Problem solved. You know, if it wasn't for the fact we already spent $200 on a kitchen and all! Best news I heard all week was when my sister in law told me the other day that she'd already bought Annie a play laptop for Christmas. Then today Annie told Santa at the Ward Christmas party that she wanted a kitchen set. So things may be back on track now.

Here is Annie and Ellie, in the same outfit, at the Christmas parties in 2006 & 2008.
For such freakishly teeny tiny babies, man do they have big ol' cheeks!

I love this one, 'cause this just looks so completely like Ellie to me. Like this is how I picture her in my head. It's a very different look than when she's smiling huge.

Love this Ellie smile.

A very excited Daddy & Ellie. They probably heard Santa Claus was coming.

Me and my girls.

Annie & Ellie with Santa. Look, no tears!!

Annie & Ellie with Santa.

I love the look on Ellie's face.

Annie & me self-portrait. Her teeth are orange here from the orange candy Santa gave her.

Here Annie's teeth are blue due to the blue candy Santa gave her. There was kind of a theme here until she finally ran out of candy.

I don't know what it is about this picture, I just love it. Ellie sitting up, all pleased with herself, looking right at me while Annie and Jovanny are completely ignoring me.

I like this picture 'cause Ellie looks a little funny. Is that bad?

The big snow storm meant that Annie & Uncle Cody got to go outside afterwards and play with the sled.

Feeding Ducks

Annie, Ellie and I headed out to Gardner Village earlier today to swing by my friend Wendi's store Posh Frippery to check out the latest Fancy Nancy books. (Um, yeah, they're pretty much Annie's autobiography or owner's manual or something.) We brought bread with us, 'cause that's what you do when you have a two year old and you're going ANYWHERE there might be ducks. Usually we bring old, crappy, stale, possibly moldy bread with us (since we almost never finish a loaf of bread without it going bad). How glad am I we were using just a plain, ol' normal fresh hoagie bun from Grandma and Grandpa's house when I turned around and saw Annie in the backseat, mouth stuffed impossibly full of bread. I asked her, "Annie, what are you doing? That bread is for the ducks!" She sat there for a second, than with her mouth full she mumbled, "I'm sharing with the ducks, I 'possed to share!" Always so sweet.

The other night we went to my cousin Lance's beautiful wedding reception at Market Street Grill. It was gorgeous and decked out in Christmas decor, and it made me want to plan my own Christmas wedding but Greg says we're not doing all that again. Scrooge, that's what he is. Anyway, this may come as a surprise, but I took some pictures. Although, unfortunately not until we were leaving, so they were kinda rushed, Annie was already in a coat and Ellie was back in a carseat for most of them . . . oh well!

Here's Annie in front of the Market Street Grill Christmas Tree.

Annie and Ellie in front of the tree. With Ellie in her carseat. Classy.

Ellie showing off her holiday spirit!

Aunt Talina, Annie & Aunt Star.

Me with an adorably grinning Ellie.

See, and you were starting to think I may just never blog again . . .

Unrelated, do you know what is seriously fun? Getting together with people you haven't seen forever, and counting how many dozens of kids your friends are capable of having in a matter of a few years! :-) Blows your mind. Of course, I was contributing a couple of my own to the mix!

Wanna Win?

'Cause I love winning stuff, I'm shamelessly linking to Seriously So Blessed! Go over there and leave a comment and win stuff! (Ever since I won something on there, I'm like convinced that someone I know will win something EVERY SINGLE TIME there's another giveaway. It hasn't happened yet. Y'all need to restore my belief in giveaways and get hooked up already!!)

She's a Sweet Kid

So, there was much internal debate about whether or not to blog the funniest thing Annie said today. My Mom has given me her "people blog about inappropriate things too often, because of the anonymity provided by the internet" speech before. But since the story is fundamentally about the workings of Annie's two year old mind, and not my period, I decided to just write it. And there, I already said it, "period". So just delete this email now Dad, it gets worse from here.

I woke up the other morning with the unhappy realization that for the first time since August of 2005, I needed to get my hands on some feminine protection. And it wasn't something I packed with us for the one month stay here at Greg's parents house, since I wasn't really expecting it this early on with the full time nursing and all. Anyway, after a Rite Aid run I was now more prepared, and as I laid out my clothes and whatnot before my shower this morning, Annie noticed my grabbing a pad from the package and placing it on top of my pile of clothes. She looked at it quizzically and asked, "What that Mommy?"

"Um, that's a pad." Any chance we can leave it at that?

Nope. "What is it for?"

"Well, sometimes Mommy's and other older girls need to wear these inside their underwear, because sometimes they, um, leak." Leak?! That was lame. But probably better than "monthly shed their uterine lining" though, so I figured we'd leave it at that. And Annie seemed cool with it, and went back to watching "Super Why" with no further questions. Maturation discussion 101 was fairly successful, I guess.

About 30 seconds later though, Annie turns to me, and with her warmest, sweetest, most sympathetic smile ever, she says, "It's OK Mommy . . . I wear a diaper too."

The Shopping Season

My inbox was littered with "Savings of a Lifetime" kinda offers from toy stores, department stores, amazon, and so on. So, I checked some of them out and was kinda surprised to see how underwhelmed I felt by the 'bargains'. All I've heard this season, especially from the likes of CNN, MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal, has been that there were going to be more amazing deals out there than we'd know what to do with. And maybe if I'd wanted like a GPS navigator, or a $400 laptop or something, I would've been thrilled the day after Thanksgiving, but when looking at stuff I'm actually interested in, I've been pretty disappointed with all of these "Never Seen Prices Like These Before" sales. My problem is, I'm already a bargain shopper. And looking at an ad full of Toys R Us' 25% off offers was laughable. (Also made me laugh: the picture of the cute little girl surrounded by all pink boxes of games, like Mystery Date and, of course, a very pink, girly Ouija board that is for "the questions girls want to know," that comes with it's own carrying case purse. What about a Ouija board lends itself to needing gender specific boards . . . does this one only reach the spirits of dearly departed divas?) Anyway, I won't buy a toy unless it's at least 50% off, or cannot be found anywhere else, online or in a store, for less. I guess, in the long run, it's better this way though. For me, not the economy. 'Cause we really don't need any more stuff. Especially while living out of boxes in someone's basement. But the shopper in me has been a little disappointed.
Although, I did finally settle on a kitchen for Annie & Ellie from Santa. (Oddly enough, not one of the three I'd posted online before as my top three picks). Shhhh, don't tell 'em. Everytime Annie's seen Santa she's told him she wants a kitchen set for her and Ellie to share. The Santa at the mall told her that the elves LOVE kitchen sets, and make him pretend dinners all the time. Annie thought this was the coolest thing ever, as she's a big fan of making people pretend pizza, and I had to resist the urge to plant a big ol' kiss on the amazing Mall Santa's rosy red cheek. I was happy to find it on sale from the manufacturer $40 cheaper than Toys R Us' sale, and with free shipping and no tax. But still, not the deal of a lifetime.

Trans Siberian Interpretive Dance

Annie's own interpretation of Mom's favorite Trans Siberian Orchestra song.

Festival of Trees: Part Deux

We went to the Festival of Trees again. And took more pictures. Big surprise. We also had a Ward Christmas Party we attended with Greg's parents in the morning. Annie was pretty psyched to see Santa, get a candy cane, and sing "Jingle Bells." All in all it was a good day! I LOVE December!

Here's Annie pre-party, riding the Christmas rocking horse in Grandma & Grandpa's frontroom. It was obviously some serious riding, thus the tongue-of-extreme-concentration!


Ellie in her exersaucer.

Ellie in her carseat on the way to the party.


Ellie with Grandma Ruth. Photographic evidence that Ellie can be nice to her grandparents when she wants to be.


Annie, Greg, Ellie & Grandma at the party. What is it about a Church cultural hall that makes my camera turn everything yellow?! Stupid non-DSLR camera.


Greg and Ellie disappeared from the party. Here's where I found them out in the foyer.


Now we're at the Festival of Trees. Here's Annie using Grandpa KC's head as an armrest.

Ellie & Aunt Star


Again with Aunt Star.


Aunt Star's magic baby-calming touch apparently knocked my kid out cold, 'cause she is just gone in this picture.


"Here, I'll suck on this hand, you get the other Dad."


Uncle David and Annie


I love this picture of Greg and Ellie. She looks pleased.


Ellie, Greg & me


This picture would pack more punch if you could hear my daughter rocking out and making up her own words to Trans Siberian Orchestra music here.

We spent the last little while we were there watching the dancers on stage. Annie LOVED it. She's convinced she wants nothing more in this world than to be a Ballerina when she's bigger. She will take her prized "Baby Bear" and just chuck him up into the air as high as she can and say, "Look, Baby Bear dances too!" When they had the little 2-3 years olds come out and there dance I wanted to take Annie and just go put her on the stage with them. She would've fit right in, and I think got more of the dance moves right than 75% of the kids who were actually in the dance group. As soon as we move, I may need to look into dance classes!