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.