Christmas Day

Yes our tree only has lights and ornaments on the top half, and even then we still had a few broken ornaments.

Checking out the stockings

Anna with the gift she "gave" Evie.

This Cinderella doll from Grandpa and Sandy was clearly the highlight of the morning. Anna loved it! Santa gave Anna two puppets: a princess puppet and a monster puppet. With the princess puppet, Anna can change her hair from blond to brown, choose a pink or purple dress, and various accessories. The monster puppet lets her choose what sort of eyes, ears, nose, horns, arms, etc. she wants on him. When she first opened it though, she told us she was afraid of the monster puppet. Oops! Luckily, she now loves the monster which she has named Murray (I suggested it because of Sesame Street). She asked me what the princess was named and I told her she could name her anything, like Anna, Evie, Helga. So Anna picked Helga, but then she also decided to name her Sandy. So the princess is Helga Sandy.

Evie loves the paper more than the toys, which is good because Anna thinks the toys are all hers anyway.

My mom gave Anna one of those dolls that talk. The thing was chattering away while Anna opened the gift. I personally find them to be a little creepy, but Anna loves her. I'm just glad there's an off switch.

We raced down to my parents' house after opening presents at our house, to try and be there when my parents called my brother on his mission. We got to chat with Ryan for just a few minutes and then we spent the rest of the day at my parents' house.

Lauren gave my dad some dart guns. Anna discovered them at the end of the day and had a lot of fun with them, but she liked the point-blank method of shooting. She was nice enough to insist that we hold books in front of our faces, but every now and then she'd peak around the book with the gun.

Christmas Eve

 In the morning Anna and I made sugar cookies to set out for Santa. Anna loved cutting out the cookies and we used colored sugar for decorating--much easier than helping a two-year old frost a cookie.

 Dan thought it was funny that Anna clearly gave me some pats on the back during our cooking.

 After Anna went down for her nap, I couldn't resist making some frosting, but since I wasn't very well prepared, the cookies were very pastel and spring-looking.

We had dinner at my parents' home and afterwards, my dad read the Christmas story to us from the Bible. We dressed Anna up as Mary, but no one else really wanted to dress up. We did talk Dan into being Mary's donkey.

 I think she looks more like a little babushka than Mary, but she had fun.

My parents' dog, Carter, loved Evie and kept trying to lick her face. Poor Evie had a hard time getting away from him, but eventually learned to swat him away.

We got home around nine or so and opened our Christmas Eve present: Christmas pjs for Anna and Evie. We tried to take a picture of them in front of our Christmas tree, but Evie didn't want to hold still despite Anna's efforts.

After setting out Santa's cookies, we put Anna and Evie to bed. Anna had a hard time settling down because she was pretty sure she could hear Santa out in the living room, but eventually she did fall asleep.

Anna's Haircut

Today I took Anna to get her first real hair cut. I've cut her bangs a few times, but this was the first time we actually changed her hairstyle. 

 The before photo--it was hard to get her to hold still for it.

And several photos of her new haircut. I wasn't sure how she'd do, but they put in Toy Story (the original) for her and she held still. In fact, she was so excited to sit in the pink car that I don't think she really gave her actual hair cut much thought. We keep asking her if she likes it and she keeps looking at us like, "what's the big deal?"

After her haircut, she got a balloon, which then floated up to our ceiling. That's why she's looking up.

Back in October, Anna got an orange balloon at the Gardner Village Witch Festival. She had it tied around her wrist while she was out in the backyard with me, but it somehow slipped off and floated away. To try and ease her disappointment, we told her how great it was that she shared her balloon with the angels. We prevented a torrent of tears, but she was clearly still devastated because she talked about sharing her balloon with the angels for weeks afterwards and today when she got to pick a balloon, she picked orange. She didn't panic when it ended up on our ceiling, but she was focused on getting it down, which we did with a long stick and some tape. Then a little while later, she popped it. Oh well. Such is life with a balloon and a toddler.

 She was also eating Goldfish while I was trying to take her photo.

licking those fingers

This is a photo from Christmas Eve last year when her hair was about the same length it is now.

Anna loves to help these days, and I try to be a good sport about letting her help. Last weekend when she asked to help, Dan put her to work dusting off our DVD player and I guess they had a chat about dust bunnies. She's been talking a lot about dust bunnies lately and a few times last week told me she was scared of them. I think she's scared of them because of an Abby Cadabby cartoon on Sesame Street where the dust bunnies wreak havoc in the classroom.

She also got to see Toy Story 3 last week. I think she might be the last kid on the planet to have seen the movie, and we are doing our best to deprive her. She's become a big fan. Yesterday while we were waiting for Anna's friend Ryelle to come over and play, she asked me where Ryelle was. We often play this game. She'll see a dump truck or a bus as we're driving and ask me where they're going. I'll suggest the grocery store, or the school, or running away to join the circus. Anna usually has an opinion on which is the true answer. Ryelle wasn't supposed to arrive until six-thirty and it was about four when Anna asked where she was, so I said she was probably at home. Anna replied, "Or she's at Wal-mart buying Toy Story." I think those are Anna's two loves right now.

Snow Day

The Tuesday before Christmas, we got a great snow storm. In our neighborhood it didn't last until Christmas, so it wasn't a white Christmas at our house, but we had a good time playing in the snow while it lasted.

 Anna loves to shovel snow. Usually she picks some up from where our lawn is and dumps it on the sidewalk or the driveway in front of me. I'm sure she's thinking that she's helping me out by putting snow in my path so that I don't have to walk over to it.

 Evie was a pretty good sport about watching us shovel. Then it was time for lunch and a nap, so we took her inside.

 The snow kept falling though so we came back outside after Evie's nap and did some more shoveling.

 Anna thought Evie might enjoy actually touching the snow, so she dumped some on Evie's head. I think Evie had already pulled her hat off. Evie was a pretty good sport about it. She didn't cry, but I think it startled her a bit.

If I remember right, we were pretty busy that day running errands and doing Christmas shopping, so we didn't actually get to play in the snow until the next day. By then the snow was great for making a snow man, so of course we did.

Celebrating Christmas with Evie's Birth Family

The Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 18), we got together with Evie's birth family, Heather, Tamara, and Kelly, to exchange Christmas gifts. We met up at the Rio Grande Cafe, a place Dan and I used to go to several years ago. We've missed it. The food was great even if some of the other patrons weren't too excited about our present-opening extravaganza. We had a good time.

Tamara wrestles with Evie

Evie spent only a little time in her high chair, eating some refried beans that I fed her. Most of the time, she was being held and she did not want to hold still. This girl is always on the go.

 Anna was a pretty good sport, especially when she realized that some of the presents were for her.

 Of course Evie enjoyed playing with the bow almost as much as she enjoyed the actual presents.

 Heather gave Evie and Anna a Little People Zoo to share. Of course, in Anna's mind this toy never belonged to Evie and she has completely commandeered it. But for  Evie got to push the box around the house a few moments before we opened it.

 Heather and her parents also gave the girls matching pjs. The zoo is a huge hit, along with the books they gave Anna and Evie too. It took a few days, but Anna is starting to share the animals with Evie.

This photo really has nothing to do with getting together with Evie's birth family, but that same night my sister Katie brought Anna her Christmas present since Anna wasn't at the family Christmas party. So I guess there was a present for her to open at that party after all. Katie gave Anna a Disney Princess Memory game and of course Anna loves it. The cards have been scattered all over our house, but I think we've managed to gather them all up again. Anna also got a Cinderella doll for Christmas and the other day I caught her holding her Cinderella doll, pointing to Cinderella on the cover of her Memory game and saying, "That's you!"

Evie at Eleven Months

Dec. 21, 2010

Normally I shovel snow when Evie's taking her nap, but this time we decided to take Evie out with us. She seemed to enjoy being outside and watching Anna play in the snow.

I'm always so behind on my blog even though I have good intentions and I mean to write something about Evie each month on her "birthday." We've hit the stage of reading stories where Evie likes to turn the pages, sometimes faster than I can read them. She also seems really interested in some of the illustrations. She'll rub her finger across the page instead of trying to turn it and she often points at circles. When I read Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton to her, she makes a hissing laugh sound whenever I say "oops!"

These days she loves the game of dropping stuff on the floor so that mom will retrieve it. She'll often fling the item to the ground and laugh when it hits. We think she's developing a good sense of humor. She loves emptying out a drawer full of clothes too and she'll fling the clothes out like she's searching for treasure at the bottom of the drawer.

She's been cruizing along the furniture for awhile now and in the past few weeks she's started to stand on her own for a few seconds before she squats down to the safety of the ground. I think it's possible that she could be walking by her first birthday, but it will probably be a little after that.

She continues to love Anna and will follow her all over the house. Whenever we put Evie down for a nap, Anna likes to say, "good night sweet princess." She probably picked that up from me even though I never recall saying it.

Evie's a pretty good sport about taking a nap on the go or squeezing it in when we get home, but she will often cry herself to sleep and she can scream for a good ten minutes before she passes out. She's still waking up at night and doesn't like to go back to bed. I keep hoping that once winter is over, the ear infections and the teething will be done. These days when she wakes up at night, we usually have to give her some pain killers and then hold her for thirty minutes or more before she'll let us put her back into her crib and even then she usually wails for a few minutes before giving up.

Evie certainly is a sweet, cute baby and we love her and her chubby cheeks!

Family Christmas Party

We got together with my side of the family to exchange presents with those who would be out of town for Christmas. Katie and Jack drove up from Las Vegas and braved a winter storm, just barely making it. We took Anna to a friend's house to play since there wouldn't be any presents for her--she had to wait until Christmas for her presents. I think we brought Evie with us because she had been sick, but she sure didn't look sick. She was the star of the party.                   

We started a round of stomach flu in our family. Evie gave it to my mom and to Erica (she likes to stick her hands in peoples' mouths). My mom passed it on to my dad and Lauren, who was pretty much over it by the time we got together, but still telling stories about being sick. I guess those stories were freaking Jack out, so he decided to take precautions, but that only lasted for a few minutes.