My Tiny Professor

So today was finally the day that I had to face the fact that Bailey is going to wear glasses. Her glasses came in this morning and I picked them up at 6:00. The second eye doctor that we went to, told us that she only has to wear them when she's doing things that are close up--reading, coloring, puzzles,etc.. When we came home, Bailey wanted to color so it was time for the first test. I put them on and she colored away with her glasses on the entire time. I could tell that she thought it was weird because she'd look around every now and then and shake her head. All of her doctors said that since she really does need them, that she wouldn't want to take them off. I guess those doctors really do know what they're talking about! I know I might be jinxing myself by saying that she absolutely loves them and will wear them without a fight, but the first try went pretty smoothly. She did take them off when Brian came home because she fell and couldn't wipe the tears from her eyes (that was very sad to watch). When I gave them back to her to put on, she said, "Mama's glasses." I think I need to go get a fake pair of glasses to wear with her. Look at how happy she is! She's probably thinking, man I'm so glad I can relax my eyes a little now. She can see everything perfectly clearly without the glasses, but her eyes have to work so much harder. When the eyes have to work so hard, sometimes the eyes can turn in. So the glasses are to prevent her eyes from turning not necessarily to help her see clearly.

Here's her sexy look: looking above her glasses. Or just something I'll have to watch out for now when I take pictures.

I know that I'm just being shallow and worrying over nothing, but when I put them on her I just wanted to cry. Yes, she does look adorable and still as cute as ever, but I just wish she didn't have to wear them now. I just know that everyone is going say, what cute glasses and not notice her for a while. I know that in a while, I won't even notice them so I guess it will just take some time. Right now my first thought is, what a cute, tiny professor I have. I know that for all of the things that could have gone wrong with Bailey, glasses is such a minor thing that I shouldn't be complaining. It's just hard for me to think that all of her pictures from now on will have her glasses in them. I really hope that she likes the pair that I picked out for her. Enough complaining for now--I just had to let it all out.

Crayons, Frogs, and Fun

For about the past month, Bailey's latest hobby has been coloring--or attempting to color. Any time that she sees crayons, she starts to throw a fit until I let her hold all of them. She would then try to break all of the crayons and rip the paper off. Coloring with Bailey was never much fun, until the discovery of washable crayons! She wants to color as soon as she comes downstairs in the morning, and I think she would color all night long if I let her. With the washable crayons, I no longer have to worry about her coloring on the table or her clothes. When her delicate strokes take her coloring off the edge of the paper, I can simply wipe it off with my fingers. So yeah to the person who invented these beauties so Bailey can color to her little heart's content.Here you can see the master at work. Her coloring strategy of choice is the back and forth lines.

Now that she's coloring all the time, we've also been working on learning the colors. In this picture I asked her what color the crayon was. Her response, "Blue." Blue is typically her first guess at any color; I guess becuase it's the easiest to say. Once she gets going with the colors, her accuracy with guessing does improve a little :)

On Friday I bought some of those magical growing capsules in the dollar spot at Target. I loved these things when I was little! It always amazed me how they could squeeze all of those cool shaped sponges into the tiny capsule. This weekend I let Bailey experience the magic for herself. She didn't want to let the process happen without her assistance, but once she got the animal shapes out she loved it!

After the bath was done, I wrapped her up in her froggy towel. Since I had my camera handy, I decided I should get a picture of my tiny frog. I couldn't get her to stand up during picture time, but she was making cute faces and smiling for me. Once she stood up, I then realized why she was squatting--she was peeing! From experience I have learned that Bailey does like to go to the bathroom once she's out of the bath, but this was a world record time. At least it was just a carpet that I can wash--and isn't it a cute picture?
This weekend Kyle, Sam, Kate, and Owen came down for a quick visit and to watch BYU beat SDSU in basketball (the game was awesome and it's always fun to win!). When the cousins are here, it means it's time to party. The kids played all weekend long. Since we had a slight break in the rain on Saturday, Tera took all of the kids out to race in the yard. Bailey always took off before the others, but always finished last because she liked to watch Kate and Owen run in front of her to the finish.

The picture is slightly blurry because of their lightning fast pace!

This is just a cute picture from today. It was our first day in our new ward at church; it was also Bailey's best day in sacrament meeting. She lasted the entire time without having to go out in the lobby. If this is a sign of things to come in this ward, then I think we're off to a great start.

What to Do on a Rainy Day

The best thing to do on a rainy day is to put on an extremely cute rain outfit and go jumping in the puddles! I have wanted rainboots for Bailey for a really long time; I've been on the hunt but could never find a pair that I truly loved. Last week, Toni bought some adorable rain boots for Bailey. On Friday, I had to follow up and buy the matching rain jacket. With all of the rain today, it looks like we got the whole outfit just in time!

The first thing to do on a rainy day is to go outside and pose for cute pictures in the rain outfit (this is prerain of course):

This picture just proves that she is my daughter--it's the pose. I always took pictures of my sisters growing up and it usually involved a pose very similar to this.

The next thing to do on a rainy day, is walk down to the grove to pick tangerines with Uncle Ty. She loves going out to the grove to pick tangerines and she would probably stay there all day long just picking them off of the trees.

She's waiting for someone to come and join her.

She loves to pick and peel the tangerines, but she does not like to eat them.

Once the rain started coming down, we suited her up and sent her outside to play:
It was only after twenty minutes of playing in the rain, that we learned that her rain jacket isn't really, truly rain proof. Water was definitely leaking in through the seams, but it's way too cute to return.

I'm certain she would've stayed out here all day long and eventually floated down the river that runs along side my parents' driveway.

We ended the day with an adorable photo shoot at JC Penney's in her rain outfit. I'm allowed to buy her totally unnescessary outfits and then take her to get pictures in them because she's my first and right now my only :) The only downside of today is that she might think that all rainy days are this fun! Since it's supposed to rain all week, it could be a really fun week (especially on Friday because I have the day off).

Catching Up with Some Pics

Today I attempted to make delicious homemade pancakes again. This time I followed all directions, not just my mistaken memories, and they were better, but not yet truly delicious. So I'm on a quest for truly delicious restaurant style pancakes (that don't take a really long time to make). Any suggestions?

While I'm up at midnight, here are some fun pictures that I haven't posted:

Bailey got a tea set for Christmas, so now one of our favorite games is Tea Party! Everyone is invited and everyone gets to have cake and tea.

Here the whole gang is lined up and ready to go.

Big Bird is being served his tea.

Once the party is over, the baby has to be fed and put to bed in her shoebox bed.

During most of Christmas break, we watched at least part of Polar Express at night. She loves the choo-choo and the "Hot Chocolate" song. She just also is into movies now that she's so old and wise :)

Then here's what I think is a cool picture of our Christmas tree and Bailey--maybe not so much the tree as Bailey's cute smile!

Last Sea World Trip 2009: We went to Sea World a couple of days before our passes expired for this year. As usual, Bailey loved it! We got to see lots of characters this time and all of the Christmas decorations were still up.

In front of the big Christmas Tree

Cookie Monster

Giving Ernie & Bert a high five!

With Big Bird

We are penguins--can't you tell!

The week after Christmas, we went up to spend the day with my Grandma and Grandpa Mosher. We had a mini Christmas and Bailey loved it so much she opened her presents, my presents, and Brian's presents!

She wrapped herself up in the packages.

Four generations of Mosher/Miller/Bronson girls!

Bailey would not put the Dora book down and still today loves pressing all of the buttons.

The cousins on New Year's Eve (thanks to Sam and her ferocious roar for getting the kids' attention)

On New Year's Day, my mom and dad took all of the kids to see The Princess and the Frog. They were very brave! They said that the kids sat and watched about half of the movie; after that it was dancing in the aisle and playing in the curtains. I secretly wish that I would have gone to the movie, just to watch what the kids did.

Just a Funny Story: Our Breakfast Adventure

Last week I was talking to my friends and the topic of pancakes came up. I love pancakes, but only from restaurants. I'll eat pancakes at home, but only as a last resort. I make them a lot for Bailey becuase they are quick, easy, and you can save the extras for the next morning! I was telling my friends how I hated pancakes from home and they asked me how I made them. Well, the only way to make them of course...Krusteaz! They were shocked and slightly appalled, that I used Krusteaz. They said that the reason why I hate homemade pancakes, is because I'm using the wrong stuff. They convinced me that actually making the pancake batter from scratch was both easy and delicious.

So on Saturday, I was ready to put their method to the test. I also thought that making the batter would be a fun thing for Bailey to help me with. Here's the scene: Bailey on the counter with big bowl, big spoons, big containers of flour and sugar, and of course a cookbook. I distinctly remember that Kim told me equal parts of the main ingredients, so I quickly scanned the recipe and saw that the first ingredients were flour, sugar, and milk. I quickly dumped all three items, one cup of each, into the large bowl, while attempting to keep Bailey happy and our pancake mix off of the floor and counters. I then proceeded down the rest of ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, egg, and oil. After I had added the soda and powder I read the last paragraph that said to omit the soda if making just regularly flavored pancakes. Because I wanted these pancakes to be perfectly delicious, I dumped the bowl of ingredients in the trash. Bailey was confused, but glad to note that we were going to start over--round one done!

I started again from the top: equal parts flour, sugar, and milk (remembering that my friends told me equal parts). The rest of the ingredients went in quickly, minus the baking soda this time. As Bailey was "helping" me stir the batter, she also began to cover herself and the counter with it. Helping time was over! I then had a crying baby in a high chair and a bowl of pancake batter ready to go. The batter looked a little thin, but that's part of what I like about restaurant pancakes so I proceeded as normal. I poured three small scoops of batter onto the pan and they rapidly ran into each other. I was letting them cook for a little bit, while Bailey chanted, "Pancakes, pancakes!" at me when I decided that I should take another closer look at the recipe. Upon closer look, I realized that it was only equal parts flour and milk--and only one tablespoon of sugar!! I was really making some sort of panCAKE because of the amount of sugar I had mixed in. That would explain why the batter was so incredibly thin and that the pan seemed to be coated in a sugary, gooey film every time I flipped a pancake over.

At this point, there was no starting over (plus I was almost out of flour and milk) so we ate the sugary, delicious breakfast cakes. I will admit they were like a very thin cake, but they were also secretly delicious. Bailey loved them and ate about four! It's no surprise that she ate so many because the kid is now a sugar addict after Christmas. Our Saturday morning pancake breakfast was truly an adventure, I just hope that this Saturday I can finally make pancakes that I love!

Here's a picture of Bailey eating her sugary meal--no syrup required they were sweet enough by themselves. This was her most favorite breakfast that I've ever cooked.

Here are my beautifully thin, sugary pancakes cooking.

Then while I'm posting here are some fun pictures from the past couple of weeks:

Notice two things in this picture: Bailey's cute boots (thanks Toni!) and her tiny pigtails!!

We took the kids to the park at the beach the Saturday after New Year's day. Kate and Owen spent the entire time running around, on the swings, or on the slide. Bailey just wanted to sit and dig in the sand. When we finally did convince her to go on the slide, she had to bring her bucket and shovel with her.
Bailey is definitely turning two next month because she has a mind of her own and her favorite words right now are: mine, self (for I do it myself), and no! What's happening to my sweet, little baby? I was hoping that the twos wouldn't be so terrible, but I'm thinking that I should just brace myself and be prepared.

Merry Christmas 2009

I was so excited for Christmas this year because I knew that Bailey was going to get it--and I was right! She loved it! Here she is on Christmas morning waking up: She's got her Christmas jammies on and is ready to go. All month we had been talking about Christmas, the baby Jesus, Santa, Christmas trees, the whole thing... The past week we were talking about Santa, and I was asking her what Santa did. Bailey's response was, "Candy!" She saw Santa about five times this month (only once for pictures the rest just random Christmas encounters), and every time she saw him she got a candy cane. So in Bailey's mind Santa = candy canes. Right after I took this picture, we started talking about Christmas and sure enough Santa and candy were on the top of her list. It always amazes me how much she learns and remembers.

We went over to my parents' house for Christmas morning festivities. Bailey loved opening up the presents and played with each one.

She ripped right in with both hands!

My mom and dad gave her a Yo Gabba Gabba microphone that she can sing along with the songs. She likes to sing really close to the mic so we can hear her beautiful voice.

She wanted to skate on Ty's long board--hang ten?
She wanted to feed her baby right away.

She got a baby doll for Christmas and it was quite the success. While we were eating breakfast, Bailey was back in the room playing with her doll in the box she came in. It was really funny; she was just quietly minding her own business.
Preparing for the cold, Christmas winter outside.

This year we picked out "Christmas" jammies to wear on Christmas morning. They weren't really Christmasy, but we all had matching and they were fun to wear. They are slightly on the larger side, but that makes them so comfy!
Here's our gansta Christmas picture. Brian got a do-rag in his stocking (just for fun), so we took a sweet picture with it. Bailey is so embarassed by the whole thing, she can't show her face.
Here's what we really look like Christmas morning.

We always have so much fun on Christmas just being together. Here's a picture of the whole crew--minus mom and dad who are taking the picture and trying to get Bailey's attention.

Here are some other fun pics from the morning:

Keri--who got a sewing machine and is going to be so domestic.

Ty got a laptop so he can keep earning those good grades!
Tera got a new bedspread to redo her bedroom.

Brian got a bunch of DVDs, including season 5 of The Office!

Here's Toni trying to keep Bailey happy with some candy!
My dad got dressed all nice and proper for Christmas this year--probably due to our late 7:30 start.

Bailey wanted to help open all presents--even those that weren't hers.

After our delicious breakfast, we headed over to Christmas Part II. We were all there (minus baby Emma and Vanessa) to celebrate together. I didn't take many pictures because it was at this point that I learned that Christmas can also be a really hard day for kids. Bailey had slept for maybe 15 minutes and was practically refusing to take a nap. She didn't want to miss out on any of the noise, candy, food, or fun, so instead of taking pictures I was doing damage control with Bailey. She really wasn't that bad, but she cried with every piece of candy that she saw that she couldn't eat--and at Roxann's house that is a lot of candy!

Here's Bailey in her cute Christmas candy outfit--which turned out to be an ironic choice for a shirt.
Family Christmas 2009
It was a fun end to the day when the Hamptons came over for dinner; we miss seeing them all the time since they live in Utah now. Bailey loved playing with Carly, Eve, and Benny. I got them all to play the fun game of "Let's pretend to sleep" and pose for a picture.
We attempted to take another family pic at the end of the day, but Bailey was totally done.
This upside down shot is the only attempted smile (even though it's mostly crying) we could get from Bailey at the end of Christmas day.

We are so grateful for everything that we have and all of our wonderful family members that we were able to spend time with during this Christmas season. We love you all and hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas too!