Christmas Fun

Last week, we finally got our Christmas tree. Bailey was already asleep, but we went anyway knowing that if we didn't go that night we probably wouldn't go at all. Once we got to the Christmas tree place, she woke up ready to select our tree. The tree we picked, was the first tree in the first aisle in the lot so it was meant to be.

I'm with Bailey on this one--flocked trees are very scary! Who even buys trees like this? But Bailey did think it was real snow, so that explains the tears. Here she is seconds after she was strapped in her car seat; she was exhausted.

This past weekend, Kyle, Sam, and the twins came down to celebrate Christmas early. On Saturday night, we took the kids to the amazing house in San Marcos that has more than 80,000 lights. The other fun part is that on the weekend they have Santa there for the kids; when Santa is there, that means mini candy canes which is Bailey's highlight of the season!

Bailey is totally mesmerized by Christmas lights and loves to look at them.

Here she is with Santa right after he gave her a candy cane, so she is so excited. It's so funny that she has no fear and will walk up to complete strangers dressed in red, just becuase she knows she'll get a candy cane. Once the kids all had their mouths filled with candy, we could get them to pose for as many pictures as we wanted. Bailey and Kate were the most obedient, holding hands the entire time. I'm not sure they were aware that they were holding hands, but were sure loving their candy canes.

Now compare the above picture with the ones below from last year's trip to see the Christmas lights. It's so amazing how all three of them have grown! They are 11 months apart, so it's great to watch the twins and see what Bailey will be like in a year.

Christmas Lights 2008

Here's our family:

We also had a fun family Christmas party complete with games, prizes, food, presents, and a fun family gift exchange. I think we might start a new family tradition because it was so much fun! We made beautiful graham cracker houses in teams of two (one person was the eyes, the other was the hands), Brian made yummy food, Aaron introduced us to a new Christmas game, and then had our Golden Partridge gift exchange (not a white elephant gift, but a real Christmasy gift--hence the name).

Here's the whole family--Merry Christmas 2009!

This picture of the girls is symbolic of the night--Kate: cute and angelic, Bailey: about to lose her mind from all of the excitment.

By the end of the night, Bailey had completely gone nuts--but in a good way. Her smile is one of sheer joy and craziness!

The Worst Holiday Tradition Ever!

This Christmas will be the fifth Christmas that Brian and I have spent together since we were married. Three out of the past five holiday seasons, our family has had the flu (and one I was pregnant and felt like throwing up)! Being sick during the holidays is the absolute worst tradition ever--I do not recommend it to anyone!

This is a picture of Bailey in her sick nest that she spent a lot of time in on Sunday.

Last Friday Bailey came down with the flu, so all weekend we were on puke patrol. Sunday was my field hockey banquet, so luckily I wasn't sick on Sunday. But because I had been dealing with sick baby all weekend, I was very under prepared. Monday Brian stayed home with Bailey just in case she was still sick. It was her first day with no puke and she actually ate a few bites of applesauce, so we thought she was done. Early, early Tuesday I got the flu and stayed home. Brian took Bailey to daycare and we thought all was well--boy were we wrong. Around noon on Tuesday, Brian called to tell me that he was coming home because he was now sick too! Tuesday around 4:00, I got a call that Bailey had gotten sick again at Christy's house, so puke patrol back on :( Thank goodness my family is around because they went and picked up Bailey and kept her Tuesday night while Brian and I laid around in misery together. But that was not rock bottom--Tuesday night around 8:00 Doby, my dog, got sick! At that point it felt like someone was playing a terrible joke or that my family had been cursed.

Brian went back to work today and Bailey was able to make it daycare without getting sick, but I stayed home today bedridden again. So that is what my life has been like the past six days--filled with sickness and not holiday cheer.

Now here are some pictures of some good holiday traditions:

Coronado Christmas:

One Sunday in December, we always go down to Coronado with Brian's family. We go to the Hotel Del and look at their beautiful Christmas tree and then eat lunch on the beach. Roxann always makes delicious food and it's usually still nice weather. The tree this year was decorated with red and white snowmen and santas; it was my favorite tree that I've ever seen. Our lunch on the beach was fun, despite being attacked by a flock of seagulls and the slight winter breeze.

Here is Roxann with both of the girls:

Here are some pictures of the whole family:

While down on the beach, Bailey was either yelling at the birds or making California "snow" angels.

Baby Jesus:

Bailey is completely obsessed with baby Jesus. Last year my mom got us a Little People nativity set for Christmas and this year Bailey loves it! She plays with it all the time, which is a good thing to distract her from my nativity set that my mom gave to me. If Bailey is missing and quiet for even a couple of minutes, I know she's down playing with the nativity. She's actually really good about just looking at them and talking to them, but one day she decided she wanted to kiss all of the animals. She can name all of the animals and the people and the star; I know she's going to be really sad when it's time to put them away. It feels funny to ask her if she wants to play with the baby Jesus because that's something I never imagined myself saying.

Here's Bailey playing with my nativity set, talking to all of the animals and the baby:

Here she is giving the camel a kiss:

Just for fun, I french braided Bailey's hair and I couldn't resist a picture:

Here's Bailey in some Christmas PJs that came complete with a tutu!

Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving week, just might be my favorite week of the year. There's not a lot of hustle and bustle yet, and all you have to think about is eating turkey on Thursday. I had the whole week off and we played every day. Tuesday we went to the Wild Animal Park. Bailey is old enough now that she notices the animals and can say their names and sounds. Her two favorite parts were the Lorakeet Landing and the Petting Corral place. In the Lorakeet Landing, she just followed the birds around shreeking just like them. She did not get the whole concept of holding the little cups of juice out so the birds would come to her; she followed them around, tipping her cup out on the floor for them to eat. At one point, she even tasted the bird juice and liked it!

Here she's so excited she couldn't contain herself.

Grandma was completely covered by birds because she was holding all of the bird juice. Bailey thought this was hilarious!

Here she is at first sight of all the deer.

In this video she says hello to the Bambi deer. She has absolutely no fear!

On Wednesday, Toni and I took her to Sea World--her favorite place to be. This time she loved the penguins and actually sat through the Polar Express mini movie and got it. They were in the midst of decorating for Christmas, so we got a little preview of all the Christmas stuff. We were able to ride the few small rides in Sesame Street land that didn't make me or Toni sick. It was another great day!

When you walk out of the penguin exhibit, there is a penguin store so your kids can whine and cry that they want a penguin now! Bailey wanted to hug all of the penguins, so we put her in the shelf surrounded by them. Those huge ones on either side of her are just about the same size as she is. She found a tiny penguin that she loved, so I think I might be looking for a penguin for Christmas.

Bailey sat and watched the Polar Express movie, but she refused to wear the glasses.
We fed the flamingoes for a long time because Bailey only gave them one, tiny pellet at a time. They were coming right up to the fence to get their food.

This year for Thanksgiving, we went up to my Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a lot of fun to have most of the family together. Keri, Kyle, Sam, and the kids were up at Sam's sister's house in Utah. We ate a lot of yummy food and had a wonderful day.

Sassy Santa?

Today I was changing Bailey's diaper before nap time, and we had a really funny conversation. Strangely, during diaper changing time Bailey likes to talk a lot. She will lots of times chant Doby or Daddy and other times just have a complete conversation. Today she started out talking really quietly. I thought she was saying "paci" (her new favorite word of the month for her pacifier), but it sounded like she was saying "sassy." I know that she didn't mean to say sassy, but I could not guess at what she was trying to say. I kept listening really carefully to hear any other clues about what she might say, then she stopped. She stared at me for a while and then said, "Ho, ho, ho!" I just started laughing. I asked her if she was talking about Santa, and she said yes--Santa! I'm still not sure what she was saying but we ended up talking about sassy Santa.

I have this entire week off for Thanksgiving!! I thought that I would do something fun everyday to truly take adavantage of my break. On Monday we went to get her picture taken with Santa--I figured why wait a month and have to wait in line. There was nobody in line and she got to spend a lot of time with the jolly, old elf. From now on, we'll be taking pictures with Santa in November. We walked right up and she even got three candy canes. Bribing her with candy canes was the only way that she would talk to him. She wasn't crying or screaming, but very, very hesitant. She would give him high fives and point at his pretty outfit, but no hugs. I put her on his lap and she just sat there--no smiles or frowns, just there. The picture is funny, but her outfit is completely adorable. I bought these cute stripy tights that are green and red and she looks like a cute Christmas elf!

So all day Monday, to prep her for the picture, we were talking about Santa and what Santa says--that's how we got the sassy Santa conversation. It also shows how much she remembers these days. She's growing up so quickly I can't believe it. I know at any moment she's just going to start talking up a storm (one that we can understand). She repeats a lot of words and picks up on everything that she hears. Last week in car we were driving home around 4:00 and the sun was in her eyes. She was whining and fussing and then she said, "Sunshine!" I had never specifically asked her to say sunshine, she just had heard it somewhere and then recognized it! I think she might be a baby genius :)

Since I can't load the Santa picture, here are some of her field hockey pictures this year:

My mom made her field hockey kilt and matching headband from an old kilt. I put a longhorn sticker on her shirt, put her stick in her hand, and she was set.

She had so much fun running around during team pictures.

Here's my entire team--the 2009 Palomar League Champs!! We had such an amazing season and so much fun. We won our league, were seeded 5th in San Diego for all Division I schools, and made it to the semifinals where we lost to San Pasqual (who ended up winning the entire thing) 2-0. It was a great year! I also just love that Bailey is in our team picture :)

Happy Halloween!

This year Bailey was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. My mom made her an adorable little skirt, we bought her some ears at Disneyland, and red sparkly shoes because I couldn't resist. She loved it! She even wore her ears all day long.

We went to a Halloween party in the afternoon and it was really hot outside, so she kind of melted. As a Halloween bonus, she took a four hour nap after the party! That was defnitely a world record for her. Once she was up, we went to our ward's trunk or treat. Bailey was so ready for all of it! She did not want to sit still to get a picture with me her hippie mom, but she did hold my hand all night as we walked around the party.

She really just marched around all night holding on to her bucket in one hand and taking it all in. In the gym, there was a cake walk, a fishing pond, face painting, and a popcorn table. We walked one round in the cake walk and that was enough. She didn't want to fish, but she did want to eat a bag of popcorn. Then we just walked around and looked at all of the decorations and other kids' costumes. I thought she might be scared by everything, but she was just fascinated. She really liked these two giant pumpkins that were on the stage.
When we went outside to walk around to the cars to get candy, she was ready. We would walk up to a car and say, "Treat?" Once she got the candy she would squeak out, "Thank you," (it was really just two syllables that kind of sounded like it, but everyone understood). She would have been fine after the first car because she just wanted to stop and hold the one piece of candy from her bucket. We convinced her to keep going, but she would stop and examine the candy after each car. She even tasted each piece of candy with the wrapper on and declared each piece as "nummy!" I had to take the pixie sticks out of her mouth quickly before the wrapper disinigrated, but she kept the Three Muskateers in for a while.

At one car she got a tootsie roll sucker and she was set. We took the wrapper off and she just strolled around the rest of the night and the entire way home with her sucker in her mouth.

By the time we got home, she was covered in sticky sucker slobber, but she was happy. She ended up eating the entire thing--tootsie roll center and all!

I made her a tutu to wear Friday to Trisha's house. It ended up being adorable, but she did not want to get her picture taken in the morning before we dropped her off. I thought she should wear a costume since I wore one to school too.

The month of Rocktober!

I have decided that October is one of the best months of the year. Not only is it my birthday month, but it's still great weather and there's always lots to do. There's been something going on every weekend this month. First, my birthday, then the BYU football game, then pumpkins, and Sea World.

Kyle, Sam, Kate, and Owen came down for the BYU vs. SDSU football game. Sam and her family are die hard cougar fans; her dad even flew down just for the day to watch the game. Of course BYU beat the Aztecs; I always feel like a good alumni when I go to BYU sporting events!

In addition to going to the game, Bailey was able to play with her cousins for the weekend. It was the second weekend in a row that she was able to play with them, so she loved it. She can say both of their names really well and they are all just going to be best friends when they grow up (that's what Sam and I keep telling ourselves). I dressed Bailey up in a dress that's almost too small and some adorable boots that are still way too big. The boots had to quickly come off, but the fun lasted all weekend with the cousins. We put Kate in her princess dress that Toni bought for $1 and she loved it. She felt like such a little lady; look at her face! Then the two of them read a book together. I just love these pictures!



It's a tradition to go to Bate's Nut Farm (or Nate's Butt Farm as my family calls it) to pick out our pumpkin for Halloween. Last year I put Bailey in a cute Halloween outfit and posed her with the pumpkins, this year it was hot and the posing didn't go all so smoothly. All Bailey wanted to do was to try to pick up every single pumpkin that she saw; it was hilarious! When she wasn't picking up pumpkins, she was walking around pointing out everything that she thought was, "Ewww!" That is Bailey's latest favorite word. I did get a few cute posed shots, but posed shots with a walker doesn't always go as planned.

She was trying with all of her might to pick up this pumpkin that probably weighed the same amount as she does.

If you just glance at this picture, it looks like she's sitting in a crate of oranges, but they're just mini pumpkins. She picked out a white one that she likes to walk around the house with all day long. Here's a funny video of what she did for most of the time at the pumpkin patch:

Last week we went to Sea World because we bought passes and we figured we should get some use before they expire. Bailey loves Sea World because it has her favorite character--Elmo. This time we rode the few rides that they have and she loved it. She also fell in love again with Elmo and this time Zoe. She was so excited to see Elmo she didn't really know what to do with herself; she just kind of ran in place and drooled a lot! When she finally got enough courage to go say hi she couldn't contain herself.

She loves Elmo so much! Some days she'll just march around the house chanting, "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!" It can't be annoying because it's so incredibly cute! I know that she is in awe everytime she sees him in real life. She can even kind of sing the lalalala part of Elmo's World song.
It may look like she's running away from Zoe in this picture from fear, but she just kept running back and forth between Zoe and us. She was so excited and she can run quite quickly now.
It was a great day because it wasn't that crowded so Bailey could walk up to the front of everything. As she was pounding the glass to get the polar bears attention, the polar bear decided to walk right by. It was so close to her it was cool! In this same exhibit, they have a polar bear cave that you can explore. We were walking through the cave when the polar bear noises started playing in the cave and Bailey was petrified! She was so scared she started to cry and wanted out, but not before I got a picture of it!

She like to watch the penguins and loved feeling this wall of snow/ice. It was a great day!

The Magic Kingdom

October 10th, is my birthday. Since it conveniently fell on a Saturday this year we went to Disneyland! Kyle, Sam, Kate, Owen, and Ty all came too so it was a really fun day. I was worried about the kids having meltdowns and turning into monsters, but my worries were for nothing. All three of the kids were magically wonderful the entire day--maybe that's why it's called the Magic Kingdom.

Bailey's first ride of the day was Dumbo. Kyle, Sam, Ty, and the kids were right at the front of the line so we handed Bailey over to Ty and off they went. She would alternate each trip around being happy and scared; this picture is kind of in between.

For some reason, our next choice was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I would not recommend this be the second ride of the day for little kids. Kate and Owen were petrified of this ride and let us know how they felt about it. Bailey was pretty neutral to all of the rides; I think she was just amazed at all of the sounds, colors, and flashing lights. Kate and Owen were a little more clued in and knew that some of this stuff was scary. We were trying to get them happy again by driving this car.

After that ride, we went on Small World and that cheered up all the kids. They were really good all day. Bailey and Owen even took about an hour and a half nap. We went on the teacups, jungle boat, Haunted Mansion, the rockets, the choo-choo train, Roger Rabbit's ride, and the carousel numerous times.

I swear that the kids favorite time of day was waiting to get into the Tiki Room. We were outside for about ten minutes waiting for the next show to start. They ran around, looked at the fountains, and then played with these big leaves forever. Really, who needs to spend money to entertain kids when you can just give them a big pile of leaves!

Here are all of us, minus the husbands who get very motion sick, crammed into one tiny teacup. I thought it was hilarious and probably the most people that have ever fit into one teacup.
Here's Bailey and Brian later in the day in a teacup that did not spin:

Ty and I had to take a picture together because his birthday is one week before mine, so it was a birthday celebration for both of us. I thought it was really funny to walk around all day and look at all the people with birthday buttons and realize that they all have a great birthday date--10/10. I've always thought it was a great day for a birthday; I really like things that come in patterns.

I love this picture above because it sums up our day at Disneyland: Bailey had a ton of fun adn we had fun watching her take it all in. We had fun too, but it's way more fun to do something with your kids for the first time and see how they love it.

Before we left we took a classic group shot on the back side of the castle and road the carousel a couple more times. Bailey had so much fun on the carousel, it was hard to get picture of her sitting still and looking at the camera. I didn't want the day to end because we had so much fun. It was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday and I'm so glad that everyone was able to come with us.

By the end of the night, all of the kids were exhausted but still happy. Here's what they looked like: