Lila's New Toy

I saw this online today and just had to get it for Lila. It is on sale at Target for $19.00. I already have her Christmas shopping done, so I thought about saving it for her birthday in March, but you know me. I can't wait for presents and surprises, so I let her have it today. She loves it.

Look at that happy face.

As close to a smile as I could get.

She keeps flipping the page over and over again to hear the music.

Still more flipping the page.

Hopefully this will keep her attention for while and I can catch up on some much needed house cleaning around here.

Blast from the Past

Today we had my Dad's birthday dinner at my parent's house. Some friends from waaayyy back in the day were there. I'll try to explain who they are, but it might come across kinda jumbled. When we lived in Crestview there was a family who also lived there in our ward name the Stapletons. They had 6 (I think) kids. The second to youngest was my age. Anyway, they eventually moved away right before I graduated high school. So, the oldest daughter who is married and lived in Tennessee, just moved to Utah, and she came with her husband and two kids. It's a little strange because I know who she is, but not really because she's a bit older than me -- clear as mud, right?

So, we had the best time. She and her husband were so great, but the best part was their kids. They have a boy who is 4 months older than Jax, and a girl who is 4 months older than Sunny. They were great kids, and hit it off right away with our kids.. I don't think I've ever heard so much laughter. They played together the entire time. Swords, trucks, hide and seek, and the watched the Grinch movie. We will definitely have to do a play date in the future! What a great night.

Sunday Mornings and Santa

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday. Santa is our Bishop's dad. Isn't he awesome!!! I was pleasantly surprised that all the kids sat on his lap and no one cried. It was a success.

So, I forgot our family picture in front of the tree this morning, and even if I had remembered we were running too late to take the time to do it. This will have to do for this week.

The girls sporting their matching polka dot dresses from Aunt Jess and Uncle Josh (thanks guys!). This was before the party.

This is Lila's official picture face. She is so smiley, but when the camera comes out she does this blank stare. Hopefully she'll catch on to the whole posing thing sooner rather than later.

Today she is up to 4 steps at a time.

It is so funny to watch. I remember with my older kids that they were excited to learn to walk b/c it was something they wanted to do, like they realized it would be cool and they could reach more things. They were 12 and 13 months, btw. With Lila, she is walking and grinning and has a look on her face like "What the heck am I doing and why are they clapping for me!?!?!"

First Steps

Lila took a step all by herself today. She 'll be 9 months on Sunday. She is pretty good at balancing, but usually she'll just stand there for a minute and then sit down and crawl. I guess because she knows it is faster. Today I was helping her walk by holding one hand and I let go and she stood there for a minute and then took one step forward before she fell. I tried again and she did it one more time. Yea! She has been walking holding onto furniture for awhile now, but I don't think she says any benefit in walking alone yet. She still thinks crawling is much faster. Either way she is really cute, but a terror!

-An old but cute picture-
(Funny how much longer her hair has gotten. I think this was in Sept.)

Sunday Mornings in December --Dec. 7th

I've decided to take a family picture in front of the tree each Sunday morning in December. Just because, no special reason. (Assuming we are ready early enough to have time to take a picture. So far , so good.)

This is the picture I wanted to use, but it turned out blurry. I have no idea why. We set the camera up and turned on the timer, just like with the other picture and this is how it turned out. Oh well, I just liked how we were sitting better and how it was a little closer.

So, here we are in focus, and just slightly off center. That's what you get with the camera on the piano bench, and 2 minutes to get a picture of 5 people.

Nana

We've had Nana over for dinner a couple of times in the past month. (She's redoing her kitchen and adding a family room on to her house, and it is a huge project with a lot of mess involved). Anyway, the kids have been so excited. They love spending time with her. My kids are 3 of 13 1/2 grand kids on Ryan's side of the family, and it can be hard to get alone time with her with that many cousins around. They love having her over b/c they get her all to themselves.

Playing swords with swords and geo-trax tracks.

Ring Around the Rosie (the extra super fast version)

Sunny and Nana Blair