Decorating for Christmas

We decorated for Christmas last weekend, and Leah has been having so much fun discovering all of the new "toys" around the house. She's actually been pretty good about leaving the tree alone- her favorite decoration is the baby Jesus from our nativity (as seen below). To paraphrase the words of Gloria Estefan (or Amy Grant?), it is so neat seeing Christmas for the first time through Leah's eyes. She isn't really interested in shopping or presents, but she loves looking at the nativity and the star on top of the tree. Knowing that has made it easier to remember what Christmas is really all about.

We enjoyed a surprise visit from Grandma Morales last weekend. She was here to help us set up the tree and listen to us argue about whether the lights should be strung from the top of the tree to the bottom or vice versa, and whether the star goes on first or last. It's our fifth Christmas together, and we're still merging traditions!

It's Christmas Time!

We put up our tree this weekend (our first real one!), and I thought I'd start out the holiday posts by comparing this year's Christmas tree photo to last year's... Amazing, I'd say. This year, the tree grew and I shrunk, thankfully!

How's this for a festive holiday face?

Happy Thanksgiving Back

A few highlights from our wonderful Thanksgiving break... We had a great time at my parents house eating tons of food, battling on the Wii, and visiting with family.Leah loved her first Thanksgiving dinner. Jason had the camera in hand all day, which explains why I am in so many of the pictures, instead of behind the camera as usual.
Mom, I love your earrings! Can I try them on?

By the way, the title of this post is a classic line from "You've Got Mail". Gotta love Rose!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a special Thanksgiving Family Home Evening on Monday night where we made "thankful" turkeys. We have so much to be thankful for- I'm always grateful for the chance to reflect on all that we have been blessed with.

Bed Time

A nice relaxing bath and a good book before bed...

Snack Time

Ever since Leah discovered the refrigerator, she is constantly in it trying to get something to eat!

Best Buddies

Leah has really enjoyed spending time with Jason lately. She will now hop out of my arms to get into his. And with a Dad that's this much fun, who can blame her?

7 Random Things

1. I make Jason tuck me into bed every night, and then I come up with excuses to make him stay by my side longer. Last night I had a headache and told him I was having a "brain bleed" (I was too tired to remember the word aneurysm). That bought me a good extra 15 minutes!

2. When Leah falls asleep in my arms at night, I hold her and smell her breath for a minute before I lay her down. I love it- it's the sweetest smell!

3. I am incapable of driving in a car for longer than 8 hours without having a major meltdown. One time on the way to Denver we got stuck in a blizzard in Wyoming, and I was sobbing by the time we pulled into Jason's family's driveway. And that was before we had Leah! This year, we're flying for Christmas.

Self portrait entitled "I hate long roadtrips"

4. I was born in Alabama. I was raised in the military and moved 11 times before I settled down in good ol' Provo. Every spring I have to resist the urge to pack up my entire house and move to another state.

5. Jason is my best friend. I know that's the way it's supposed to be, but lately I'm really feeling it. After he leaves in the morning, I put Leah down for a nap and then get online to chat with him while he's starting up his lab... It sounds weird, I know, but I think it's pretty fun! It's a great way to connect with each other without worrying about housework or bills or kids.

6. When I was in high school, I was in an a capella singing group that won a national competition in New York City. I was the person that blows the pitchpipe and signals the start of the group with a little nod of my head.

7. I am addicted to M&M's (plain). I have a huge bowl full of them in my kitchen that I routinely visit throughout the day. Mmm... I think I'll go get some right now!

I couldn't find the little red guy, so this one stood in for him.
And I guess I'm supposed to tag others now, so here goes: Ashley C., Kristin K., Heather M., Kirsten H., Taralyn, Stefanie E., and Kathryn C.- let's hear what you've got!

Off and running

We tried out a little walker/ride on toy at a friend's house the other day, and Leah seemed pretty interested in it, so we bought one for her. After putting it together, I thought we'd need to give Leah a few lessons in how to get it going, but she just grabbed the thing and practically ran across the living room with it. She can't navigate turns yet, but I am amazed at how confident she is walking with it. We even took it outside today for a longer stretch of a straight path, and she did great. I have a feeling she'll be walking without it before her birthday! I think she knows she'll be able to catch up with me faster this way if I dare try to leave the room without her. Watch out!

And for anyone that might be interested, Leah slept for 12 hours straight last night! Thanks for your thoughts- we're putting the plan in motion!

A cry for help

I usually try to save this kind of introspection for my journal, but today is an exception for me. Leah has never been a good sleeper, so I won't say that I'm desperate, but I'm getting there. At 10 months, she is old enough to make it through the night without nursing and this doesn't seem to bother her. But she still wakes up in the middle of the night and cries and cries and cries until we turn on the lights and then she stops and smiles at us. This can go on for hours- last night was 1:00 to 4:30. Every night we try to figure out what we can do that we haven't done before- catching her before she gets really worked up, leaving her even if she's really worked up, Tylenol, a night light, a drink of water, lullabies, putting her in bed with us, putting her to bed earlier, keeping her up later... and nothing seems to be the magic ticket. Crying it out doesn't work for Leah, and I'm pretty sure our neighbors are about to sue.

I know (I hope!) that there are other moms out there that have been though the same thing. If so, let me know what worked for you. Hopefully I'll have good news soon!

And to brighten things up, here is a picture of Leah helping me clean out the fridge yesterday.

$1 Sanity Saver

I was cleaning the bathroom yesterday, and Leah was being so helpful (read: trying to climb up onto the toilet while I was scrubbing it- don't worry, I didn't let her). As soon as she found the paper towel roll, she was blissfully engaged for a good ten minutes while I finished up. This was the end result. Oh! Did I do that?
Revisiting the war zone.
Seriously, who needs toys with entertainment like this?

We had a great Halloween. Jason took Leah trick-or-treating with her cousins, and got lots of candy (I'm still not sure why). The first piece of candy she got was a Starburst, and she held onto it for the rest of the night. Now, four days later, she is still carrying it around the house.

Trick-or-treat! The original Starburst photo.

This wrapper tastes so great!

No Grandpa, I'm no sharing it with you!

Look what I've got, Mom!