Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! It was mine and Mitchell's first Christmas on our own without traveling to be with family. It was a little sad because we definitely miss being near our families but it was a neat experience to put in place our own holiday traditions. It was exciting that this year is Audrey's first Christmas! Mitchell and I didn't think she would get it at all, we pretty much thought Christmas would be like any other day to her. We were pleasantly surprised that she was extra excited that day! Here's how it all happened. Christmas Day Mitchell and I woke up about 7:45. We were SO excited to take Audrey to the living room to see what Santa brought! She normally wakes up between 7:00 and 7:30 so we didn't think she would sleep much longer. We waited and waited. We even went into her room and watched her sleep thinking that for sure she would stir and we could go open presents! No...she slept in until after 9 that day!! We probably should have taken advantage of the opportunity to sleep in on Christmas morning, I'm sure there will come a time when that is a luxury not to be had. I heard that my 9 year old cousin set his alarm for 5:00am this year! Anyway, Audrey was so cute and excited about all of the new toys and books! By the time we were done opening presents the living room floor was covered with fun new things for her to explore! She crawled from one toy to another playing with them and squealing with delight! She circled the living room playing non-stop until noon which was WAY past time that she should have had a nap. She wanted to play so badly that she was crying from exhaustion as she crawled from toy to toy! After a nap though, she was right back at it for the rest of the day! I think Christmas is made for kids. Seeing Audrey so delighted was definitely a highlight of the weekend!

Here's Audrey's haul! She was definitely spoiled on her 1st Christmas!

Later in the afternoon we decided to walk across the street to the big park nearby. There were TONS of people out sledding! We don't have a sled so we tried to improvise by using the lids from plastic storage bins. It was a fail. Bummer.

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCHELL!!~

Sunday was Mitchell's birthday! And not just any birthday either, it was his GOLDEN birthday! We of course went to church in the morning then we had the missionaries and our friends Andy and Lynn over to celebrate! I made Mitchell's favorite meal of Chicken Curry Pasta Primavera and we had a yummy chocolate cake with lemon curd fulling. I attempted to get fancy and pipe 'Happy Birthday' with melted chocolate to make a 3D decoration on the cake but it was a fail. That's why the cake has a very crooked 'Birthday Happy' on top. ;)

Audrey loves company and is quite the little social flirt. She sat at the head of the table in her high chair for an hour entertaining herself and us. That earned her a little taste of birthday cake!

As seen in the last post Audrey figured out how to pull herself up on the furniture last week. Apparently she is very proud of herself for figuring that out because now all she wants to do all day is climb! She climbs on the couch, the fireplace, chairs, people, toys, her crib...basically anything she can access she wants to climb! She also thinks she can walk even though she really can't. She gets herself standing up then she lets go and tries to walk off. Of course she promptly falls flat on her face. I wonder how long it will take her to figure it out? It's very fun but I am nervous that she will fall and dislocate her shoulder or break her arm or something. Well, gone are the days of getting anything done during the day. Nap times are all the more precious now! I am so happy to get to be home with her though, I wouldn't trade this time! Another silly thing that she has started doing lately is fake coughing. She coughs all the time. I think she does it for attention, or maybe just to experiment with sounds.

This Baby Doesn't Want to be a Baby

I simply cannot believe how fast it seems that Audrey is growing up! She wants to do all things adult. She hates to be treated like a baby. Part of me is so proud of her for learning so quickly and so well but part of me would rather her stay my little snuggler forever! The one baby-like thing she still embraces without a hint of discontent is nursing. She will nurse as often as it's offered (even if she's not hungry) and she's really not that interested in solid food. She will, however, eat food if it comes from my plate on my fork! Haha, silly girl!

Yesterday she pulled herself up on a box and today she pulled herself up to the standing position on the chair. Doesn't she look so big!?!

In the evenings when Mitchell gets home from work the 2 loves of my life have play time together. I guess they were cold the other day because I found them having quiet activity time in bed. Audrey was trying to copy Daddy by examining her toy quietly next to him. I love to see them together!

This is just random cuteness. Silly sleeper!

Looks like I have a very special gift under my tree!

On the Move

Our little girlie has learned how to crawl! In the last week or two she has been getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. Yesterday she actually took her first crawling...steps? I put up several videos, I don't really expect that the casual Audrey fan will watch them all but I do know there are some die hards out there that will. Enjoy!

This is a little plush nativity that my mom sent for Audrey. She loves it!

Watch out world! Here she comes!

Mitchell and I are on the move too. Santa visited our house early this year and brought us a treadmill! Hooray!

Snow Day!

This weekend we are in severe winter weather alert status. It blizzarded (is that a word?) all night and will continue until this evening. We woke up to a TON of snow! As a result church was canceled today. I love church and wouldn't want it to be canceled every week...but this is kind of fun! :) There is a lot of snow and it's pretty cold out there but probably the worst part about blizzards is the wind! We are having winds between 30-45 MPH from the north and it is COLD!! It also blows the snow up into tall banks. I'm glad we have no place to go because I'm sure it would blow our car all over the place on the road. We are sure the winter wonder will wear off after a while but we are enjoying the novelty of December in the midwest.

Meeting Santa

Some kids are afraid of Santa Claus when they meet him. Not Audrey...

Photo Dump

I have a bunch of photos again and not too many stories. Just the way a blog post ought to be!

Audrey's long hair is out of control! She likes to brush it down into her face and it just looks messy a lot. I finally got her some clips and it's helping a lot! I'm impressed that she doesn't just yank them out either!

Audrey has been experimenting with solid foods for about a month now. At first she was leery of the new textures but she was interested in eating like a grown up. After a while the novelty of it must have worn off because she totally lost interest. I was really fine with not feeding her solids for a while because it takes FOREVER but the pediatrician wants us to keep trying. The pediatrician actually wants her eating 3 meals a day but we are just going to start with 1 and see where that goes. (Above) Audrey and Daddy laughing while he attempts to shovel the yogurt and rice cereal in. Every time he got the loaded spoon near her mouth she clamped it shut!

This morning I had given up on trying and just dumped the whole container of yogurt on her tray. I don't think any made it to her mouth but she sure had fun!

The other night I wondered if she would feed herself finger foods. She doesn't really know how to chew yet so it would have to be something that pretty much melts in your mouth. How about grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese? It was a hit!

Here it is again!

For the last month we have known we were living on borrowed time since there was no snow on the ground yet. This is what we woke up to this morning. About 4-5 inches of soft powdery snow. Ahh, oh well, I guess winter has arrived.

In celebration of the season we had 2 other couples over this morning for gingerbread (graham cracker) house making! It was a blast! I should have gotten pictures of the process, it was so messy! We all had a great time though! Mitchell made a graham cracker temple (it's pretty gaudy so we'll call it a non-denominational temple) and I made a nativity scene.

Not For the Weak of Stomach

The other night as I was brushing my teeth something caught my eye. I glimpsed something unfamiliar on the floor behind the toilet so I took a closer look and found that there were MUSHROOMS growing out from under the baseboard! GROSS!!

So I have to admit, I probably haven't been as diligent as I should be at sanitizing the floor behind the toilet all the time but I do clean around here! Mitchell says I'm not completely to blame. Actually when he took a closer look he found a slow leak where the tank sits on the toilet and there has been moisture collecting under there for a while. Mitchell was my hero when he got down there and took care of the unwanted fungi. I was worried about him breathing in unidentified spores so I got him to wear an N-95 mask while he was cleaning up. We are happy to report that our little shroom farm is no more!

Thanksgiving and New Stats!

Last week we had a really nice Thanksgiving! We left Madison on Wednesday after Mitchell got off work and headed north to a little town called Shawano (pronounced "Shaw-no") that's about 40 miles north and west of Green Bay. A wonderful family lives up there that I grew up with in California! The kiddos are all grown up now but I used to babysit them all the time! We had a nice, relaxed and fun weekend with the Easters! Audrey sure enjoyed being the center of attention and I loved the break! Several times I would look around and say- where's my baby? Inevitably she would be off having a great time playing with one of the kids. It was a win-win if you ask me! One of the sweetest things was when John (the 15 year old) got out his most favorite bear from when he was a kid. It is just a small bear but you can tell it was loved. He let Audrey play with it and she must have felt the love in this bear because she took right to it. John ended up giving Audrey the bear and she now cuddles up with him when she sleeps. We call him Easter Bear and it is the first stuffed animal that Audrey has really cuddled up with. So cute!

This was one of those times that I realized I hadn't seen my child in a while. I went down to the basement to find her playing happily with John and a pile of plastic vegetables. (You can see Easter Bear to the left of Audrey's slippers)

We all enjoyed a great game of Ticket to Ride. Jeff and Maddie tied for first! Maddie rocked it without help and did awesome for only being 8 years old!

Kyle was a little shy when the camera came out but we got an awesome showcase of his mad drumming skills! He really is very good!

Maddie got out her old doll house and Audrey loved it!

Audrey went to see the pediatrician yesterday. She is doing great! Here are her latest stats:

Height: 27.5" (93rd percentile)

Weight: 16lb 3oz (44th percentile)

Head Circ.: 41.2cm (11th percentile)

She is growing and getting stronger all the time and doing all the things a 6 month old should do! I can't believe it's been half a year already! Time sure flies! She has really gotten efficient at the army crawl and she motors all around getting in to everything she can reach. A few days ago she pulled one leg up and got one knee involved in the scooting, it's only a matter of time before she crawls on her hands and knees! She babbles all the time and puts some consonants together to say, "mamamama" "yayayaya" "dadadada" or "babababa." She puts everything in her mouth! She loves paper and I try to intercept before she swallows any but when I fail I find it a few hours later...better processed than before. ;) She puts everything in her mouth that is, except food. She doesn't seem to like food too much. She is mostly indifferent and would rather play with the strap on her highchair than anything else. Oh well, we just keep trying.

I took these 2 this morning. She is so stinking cute! I love her silly grin.

In her pretty church dress looking coyly to the side.

Mitchell and I are very pleased and it looks like we moved out of Utah at just the right time! Wisconsin (also known as the forbidden frozen tundra to anyone out west) still doesn't have any snow! We are going to make it to December without seeing ANY snow here in Madison! I think Utah is on their 3rd blizzard of the season... :) We have loved the weather here so far! Summer was warm with lots of lovely humidity to keep our skin and nails looking their best, we had a long fall that was breathtakingly beautiful and so far a mild start to the winter. I'll take it! I do have my plane ticket already purchased to spend a couple of weeks in CA come February though. I am doubting that the mildness will last much longer!

Since it is supposedly going to get ridiculously cold here we decided to do what the locals do and shrink wrap our windows. It helps seal off drafts and also adds a layer of extra insulation on the windows. It's an interesting process that involves double stick tape, thin sheet plastic and a hair dryer.

Adrenalin Junkie

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Sorry. I have been kicking myself for 2 weeks now for not taking ANY pictures of Halloween and I couldn't really bring myself to post anything since. We did dress up for Halloween, even though there isn't any photographic evidence. *kick* Audrey and I were parachuters, she was strapped in her baby carrier as my tendem jumper. We had a dozen helium balloons as our parachute. It was fun and the balloons were a hit at the ward Halloween party. Mitchell made his own costume and went as Hangman. It was awesome! This is Hangman as in the game kids play where they try to guess a word or phrase one letter at a time. Mitchell made a noose that he tied (loosely, it was a kids party) around his neck, and he used blue painter's tape on his clothes to look like a stick figure. It was pretty great. Of course Audrey knew nothing about trick or treating and her parents were too dignified/mature/dumb to take her around to get us some candy so we ended up having to buy Halloween candy on sale the next day.

Audrey continues to learn new things all the time! She has definitely perfected the army crawl and it wont be long before she is crawling on her hands and knees! She has started getting up on all fours in the last few days. She has always been really strong in that she developed great head and neck control very young and she will put weight on her legs if you steady her. She likes to stand up and hold my hands for balance and the other day she was doing that and decided she would let go with one hand. She let go then looked up at me grinning as if to say, "see what a daredevil I am!" I guess she likes living on the edge. She did that a few times and then when she let go with both hands she toppled to the floor and laughed. What a silly girl. I wont be surprised if she starts pulling herself up on the furniture in the next few months! Oh dear.

She loves to read! ...or eat the paper

Since Audrey likes standing up and because she is so mobile now I got her a new toy for her sanity and mine! She has a Johnny Jump Up. It is a harness that clips to the door frame and has a spring so she can jump, it also has a little activity center that plays music (so actually it's not really that great for my sanity). It keeps her entertained when I have to do other things that prevent me from monitoring as closely what she is getting in to. She likes it and I love when she spins around on her little toes. Future ballerina?

Does anyone else think she looks like Mitchell?

She has also been dabbling in a few different foods recently. She doesn't seem to really like, or dislike for that matter, eating foods. She is more interested in inspecting the straps on her highchair than anything else. We do give her foods every couple of days though. She has tried, avocado, rice cereal, butternut squash, peas and banana. The reactions are all pretty much the same, doesn't love it, doesn't hate it. Oh well, I'm in no rush. At the rate time is speeding by she'll be eating a steak dinner tomorrow, with a boy on a date! Ahhh!

There was a little piece of apple in the mesh bag and she was having fun licking the juice off. What a ham for the camera! (please excuse the craft mess in the background, Mitchell was traveling and when he is out of town, we don't clean up messes very often!)

As for the star of the show's parents we are staying busy and having fun! Mitchell has traveled a bit in the last couple of months which was fun for him. He got to see his parents in Seattle for a very brief visit between plane flights and enjoyed that very much. Melanie is working on a quilt and is having fun learning through experimentation. Applique isn't nearly as hard as I imagined! We are still blessed with blue skys and sunshine! Everyone is saying we are living on borrowed time though, the snow will come eventually!

Thankful

It is officially November! I can't believe how fast the year has gone by! Later this month we will celebrate Thanksgiving and I am reminded of President Thomas S. Monson's talk from the Sunday morning session of General Conference in October. He talked about the importance and blessings of gratitude. I have come to know that President Monson is God's prophet on the Earth today. I know that He is inspired by the Lord in all that he does to minister to all of Heavenly Father's children and to guide and direct the Church of Jesus Christ. I love him and will endeavor to show more gratitude, not only in November but all throughout the year. I would like to share some highlights from his conference talk and part of my own gratitude list.

In the Book of Mormon we are told to “live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon you.”⁷

Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings.

This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways.

We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”⁸

Some things I am grateful for:

1. A kind, positive and supportive husband who sacrifices many of his own desires to provide for our family and to make me happy.

2. A beautiful and healthy daughter. She brings me such joy!

3. The sunshine!

4. That there is no snow on the ground...yet. :)

5. That I was born in and live in a nation that was founded to protect religious freedom. And that I may worship God as I see fit both in my home and in public.

6. For great friends! Some are next door and some are thousands of miles away but all are wonderful!

7. For technology that allows me to keep in touch with family and friends who fall in to the "thousands of miles away" category.

8. For daily chats with my mom about thoughts, feelings, important things and nonsense and everything in between. I love you Mom!

9. For the beauty of the Earth.

10. That I get to be home with Audrey every day.

11. For my talents.

12. For veterans of war and their brave and valiant service to our country.

13. For my education.

14. That I have had the opportunity to travel to many places in the world.

15. For the selfless sacrifice of my Savior Jesus Christ.

There are so many things for which to be grateful! This is just a start. I encourage you to make your own gratitude list. It is impossible to not feel happier when you 'count your many blessings.'

A blustery day...

Today would definitely qualify as a blustery day! In fact, we are having a severe weather watch and high gusting winds for the next 36 hours! Weather.com says this storm will have stronger winds than the last 4 hurricanes in the Atlantic! I guess I'll be parking the car in the garage today, wouldn't want a tree to get uprooted and scratch my car! I am happy to report that we have excellent windows though. They are dual pane, storm windows and I am not feeling even a slight draft in the house. :) That makes me hopeful for winter.

Also, as promised, here is proof that my baby is now mobile. For the record, I did not teach her this. In fact, I am rather put out that she can move as well as she does, I was sort of hoping for a little more time before I had to start baby proofing!

Mustard Museum

On Saturday we spent the whole day together enjoying family time! Mitchell planned a really fun outing for us too! We visited the National Mustard Museum! I bet you didn't even know there was one! It is basically a mustard store with some mustard obsessed guy's collection of mustards from around the world in the basement. There was quite a lot of information about mustard and I was amazed at how many different flavors of mustards are out there. The coolest thing about the store/museum was that they let you sample any of the mustards they carry, as many as you want! It was pretty fun!...if you like mustard. :) Sorry I forgot my camera so the pictures are from my phone.

This mustard in the squeeze pouch is the same mustard we had on my mission in Argentina!! Brings back memories of the many ways I gained roughly 30 pounds in the southern hemisphere.

ONE of the walls of mustard

Ok this was just funny.

The rest of our fun family day involved a very long Costco trip to finish buying our food storage and get new tires. Then figuring out how to stash all of the food at home and relaxing together. Stay tuned for video of our army crawler. Crazy kid is mobile!

Toto We Aren't in Utah Anymore...

I was somewhat amused today at the funny looks I got as I loaded up a shopping cart FULL of non-perishables at the grocery store. It's time, actually past time, that Mitchell and I got our food storage in order again. If only the disbelieving onlookers knew that I will probably be buying up 2-3 times this amount of food at Costco this weekend. Haha, oh well. I suppose it is a bit unorthodox to buy so much food at once...weirder still to line it all up and take pictures at home. The lengths I will go to to blog about something/someone beside the usual star of the show. :) Speaking of her, here she is!

I walked in to the living room the other evening to find the 2 loves of my life sitting on the couch together reading their books. It was so sweet! Audrey has been enjoying her daddy time a lot lately!

Audrey is getting the hang of eating and she is really starting to love it! She so far devours rice cereal and avocado. Next up butternut squash or peas?

A friend of mine loaned me a book about developing good sleep habits for kids. She swears by it so I decided to start reading it. Audrey has never been a terrible sleeper by any means but I could use some more snooze so I thought I would see what advice the author has to give. One of his main points of emphasis is to put babies to bed very early. Audrey was going to bed about 9:30-10:00 a few weeks ago. As an experiment we started putting Audrey to bed at 8:00 and found that the first few nights she cried for 15-20 minutes or so before falling asleep. After that she cried less and less and gradually over the last couple of weeks she herself has started showing signs of being ready for bed between 7:00-7:30. We just watch for her signals and put her pajamas on and put her in bed. She now goes down really easily and if she fusses at all she stops by the time we leave the room! Not only has this totally changed her attitude in the evening and at night, she is SO much happier and content during the day! She will even go down if Mitchell puts her to bed! In fact, last night I was doing the dishes and he noticed that she was getting tired so he put her pajamas on and sang her some songs and put her down before I even realized what he was up to! That was a great moment in marriage and parenting!

My girl sure loves playing on the floor! Her mouth is open because she was screeching with delight at having sneakily removed her slippers...for the hundredth time yesterday!