Monday, December 29, 2008

Leiden

Another funny comment from Leiden:
We were singing in the car on the way to great-bapa's on Sunday afternoon, and Leiden wanted 'all three' of I Am a Child of God. We sang the first two verses, and then Leiden says, "Now it's time for the last one--the one that has blessings and a store." (I am a child of God, rich blessings are in store...) Yep. Blessings and a store. What else could you want?

Monday, December 22, 2008

Catch Up

Just so you know, I had a ton of stuff to catch up on today, and I decided to post each 'thing' separately, as it would have been done if I had kept up on the blogging thing. Just keep reading until you get to the end of the date. There are like 8 posts or something. Before you go any further, here is a cheery Christmas wish from Leiden:

Christmas Dresses

12/21/08: Finally the Christmas dresses are done--and in time for the Sunday before Christmas! I didn't get any shots of Leiden standing up, so you lose a bit of the effect, but they are beautiful, if I do say so myself. For those of you who don't know, I sewed them myself. I had the idea a year ago when I saw a little dress on a friend's little girl, and so I hoped to have them done in plenty of time, but of course the ENTIRE day Saturday was spent frantically sewing them to finish in time! Mac has a hard time getting around in hers, and the bottom fringe comes out really easily, but they look good for now! Pretty Christmas girls. We'll go see Santa this week with them on.


I'm not sure what Brad was doing behind me to get their attention, but both girls look a bit perplexed.




This is a great picture, but OF COURSE it's blurry. My camera is just not well suited to photographing children.



Snow Day

12/20/08: So, of course, after Brad got home from snow mountain biking, he took Leiden out to play in the snow. She thought being buried was a great idea until it actually happened.











Mac looked like she wanted to go out. (Sorry, some of the pics had the white balance too high.)







Brad's Winter Escapades

12/20/08: Brad is crazy. He decided to go mountain biking with a friend today. It is snowing and about 10 degrees outside. I was expecting major injuries, but he came out unscathed.






12/19/08: Here is Mac standing with only the rattle Brad's holding for support. She realized it really quickly, but she was doing it for a couple seconds!






More Christmas Packages!

12/18/08: Someone returned them! Sender unknown. Whew!




Eating is Good

12/17-18: Mac often seems happiest when eating.




















I love this face. She has a grin that can just about split her in two!




































Mac does this funny 'peering' thing. You'll notice it in some other pictures, too.




















So big!











Atlanta

12/6 - 12/10: Atlanta! This is out of order, but here nonetheless. While we were in Atlanta, we went on several very long car rides. Hours and hours. The differences in attitude are obvious. (Actually, they both did great. It was just a bad moment.)


Mac loved Tom and Mylene's Christmas tree. She particularly liked a little Santa near the bottom.






When we got back home, she also liked helping unpack the suitcase.

Christmas Packages

12/14/08: If you find these in the mail, please return to sender.



A Fine Spot for Reading on a Snowy Day

12/11/08: I came upstairs the today from a sewing bout, and it was awfully quiet. That's always scary, but this is what I found.

Monday, December 8, 2008

"Daring" Do and Funny Leiden

This was a conversation between Leiden and I after dinner.

"Mommy, can I have some sharks?" (shark fruit snacks that my aunt Mylene has here at her house in Atlanta)

"No, sweetheart. You had a lot of punch with your lunch today, and then a great giant ice cream cone afterwards! No more today."

"Mommy, the ice cream cone wasn't giant. It was tiny."

"Leiden, it was pretty big. I thought it was giant."

"No, no, no, no, no. Mommy, Christmas trees and snowmen and THOSE things are giant. I'm still hungry."

Well, if your scale includes Christmas trees and snowmen, I guess an ice cream cone does seem pretty insignificant. By the way, she is eating a piece of bread right now. No more sharks today.


Mac is so much more daring than Leiden ever was. She will lunge after things, lean right of the bed, grab at anything, and tonight added to the repertoire several scary bathtime things. Since she was big enough to sit in the big tub, she has loved to 'grab' at the water when it's coming in. She loved that it splashed her and thought it was fascinating to keep grasping at. A couple times she has leaned her head so far forward to see where this waterfall was going that her head got in the water, and she would quickly pull it away and keep exploring. Tonight, she fully put her face under the running water. Of course, I grabbed her and breathlessly made sure she wasn't sputtering or going to start screaming and let her go. What does she do? She promptly turns her little head to the sky and sticks her face under the water again. With her mouth wide open in one of her face-splitting-open-mouth smiles. Okay, we're not going to sit so close to the running water, anymore.

Then, we're washing, which is done while she is laying down on her back, and she turns her head really far to the side to look at something, which puts the side of her mouth under the water. I grab her arm to make sure she can breathe and keep washing. "Be careful, sweetie!" What does she immediately do again? Open her mouth with another face-splitting-open-mouth grin, and turn her head all the way to the side. For heaven sake. We finished the bath one handed, while I let the water out, pulling her arm to keep her from inhaling as much water as she could. She will require some watching--and maybe another set of hands at bathtime!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

It's Christmas Time!

I'm already so behind! We're back from SLC, and we spent a wonderful time there. Thanksgiving was great. We did two--one with Brad's family, and then round two with mine. We haven't done that in quite a few years. Lots of food! Mac's first Thanksgiving was fun. She loved the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sweet potatoes. Of course she did. There was a ton of salt in both the turkey and gravy, and a ton of sugar and butter in the sweet potatoes. What's not to like? Both the girls had a great day in their turkey shirts.






On the day after Thanksgiving, Leiden and Mac went with Daddy and Grandma to play at Jungle Jims, and later that night we went to see the lights at Temple Square. As I forgot my camera that night, there are no pics.

Leiden and Mac also got to visit Santa in SLC, where Leiden asked for a bike. Cute little girls, and a great Santa:

At the mall, Leiden got to enjoy an ice cream cone the size of her head. Brad is a smart man--as he was showing me the picture, he instantly told me that he had nothing to do with it!

Mac just liked to look at all the people.
We finally got home on Tuesday, and several hours later, Leiden got sicker than we've ever seen her. She's only thrown up a couple times in her short life, but this was pretty heavy duty. Brad bore the initial onslaught as I went to the Relief Society Christmas Dinner, and it continued for about 8 hours. Yesterday, Leiden spent almost the entire day in bed or laying on the couch, sipping pedialyte, and then she still slept the whole night save a couple drink and potty trips. Whew. I just hope none of the rest of us get it! The incubation period for stomach stuff seems pretty quick--like an hour! So maybe the danger is past for the rest of us. Right?
Brad has to do some work in Atlanta this weekend and beginning of next week, so we thought we'd go down with him and see my aunt and uncle. Should be fun!
Next up, getting Christmas out at the house!