Christmas Part 1

I should start with Christmas Eve....Santa and Mrs. Clause came to visit Gma and Gpa's house for Karyl. At first she was a little scared with all the bells and noise, but then Santa had a "present" for her and that seemed to make him suddenly an OK guy!! Grandma had given Santa beforehand some PJs and books to give to her...she was so excited and even gave Santa a hug on her own!!

OK, so I have been lazy and not posted about Christmas yet...and I still have pictures on the other camera that I need to download and go through, so I'm just going to call this post "Part 1."
Anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas. We opened presents in the morning at our house and then headed out to Orange County to visit my mom and Greg's parents. Karyl got lots of fun things from Santa including a tricycle (see pics below) and a few other presents...she has enough toys to keep her busy until she's 5!!

Those bikes are more complicated than you'd think...here's Greg helping Santa put Karyl's bike together Christmas Eve.
And here's daddy helping Karyl unwrap some presents...don't they look cute together??
And I think Greg would be upset if I didn't include this picture for our kids to see years from now when this blog is in book form....

Now, let me preface this moment by saying that I had just opened up a box with a new purse from Greg (I was already super excited to see the purse)...and then I opened up the purse to see what the inside looked like and this moment came after seeing what was inside....which is below...

Notice Karyl is already attracted to that Tiffany Blue Box!!

So, that's it for Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning...I will post the rest (visiting the grandparents) in the next post...maybe later tonight...maybe tomorrow...soon though!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...until the next post!!

Happy Holidays!!

Sorry, I'm too lazy to wait and put any pictures on here, but I did want to make a quick few notes before the craziness of Christmas and the New Year hits...

This year has been especially wonderful in many ways...some of which I'm sure we don't even fully understand. We truly have so much to be thankful for and are just enjoying this festive time of year.

We got a tree about a week ago and decorated it with all the ornaments we had that were unbreakable. Greg also came up with the BRILLIANT idea to get a bunch of wooden ornaments for the extended family to color and sign on the back with the year to put on the tree so it looks more decorated, but Karyl can't break them. In fact, she kind of enjoys re-arranging them when I'm not looking!!

We're trying to just slow down and enjoy the rest of this year because once 2009 starts up, we might as well just fast forward to the end of summer because with Freddie coming the beginning of March and Wild Rivers the first 3/4 of the year are as good as gone!! We are so thankful to be adding another member to our family and are super excited that it is a boy...and we have lots of new (and old) friends that are having babies within a few weeks of us so he will have lots of friends (as does Karyl now too!). On that note, we even discovered that a friend of ours that was in Greg's ward growing up and went to seminary with me in High School lives RIGHT down the street from us!! We have had lots of chances to catch up with her and she has a little girl due like 3 weeks before us, so we are enjoying getting to know each other again and reminiscing over all the crazy stuff we went through in our teenage years!

So, with so many things to be thankful for this Holiday Season....health, happiness, a new home and wonderful family and friends...we want to wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!!

BATH TIME!!!

So, this morning I realized that we were going to the ward Christmas party, and Karyl hadn't had a bath in a few days....and her hair looked like it!! So, I decided that there was no way I was taking her to the party without being cleaned off, and with that, I was on a mission this morning.

We got up, ate breakfast, and then I struck. I told her we needed to take a bath and I let her look at it for a minute and we talked about it. She seemed ok with it, but I allowed for some resistance...I let her watch cartoons while I filled it up because it's really noisy when it's filling up and that seemed to scare her. So, the tub was filled a few inches, the toys were in and now it was go time. I brought her in and she started whining. I explained to her that she was going to take a bath either way and took her to pick a cup to play with. She picked a Spongebob cup and we headed back. She reached in and touched the warm water and suddenly it was like the light went on "this is just like my other bathtub at Grandpa's..."...

So I took her clothes off, diaper and put her in...no whining, no fighting. We played with the foam letters and stuck them to the walls, we threw the Spongebob squish balls Greg had put in there, and then we got clean!! She said she had fun and actually didn't want to get out...so we spent about 5 minutes putting all her letters back in the bag while singing the clean up song from Primary. We then watched the water drain, bundled up in a big towel and now she's watching cartoons and I'm back to work.

I've attached a few pictures for your enjoyment...I also attached some pictures of her helping me make peppermint bark last night and pictures of her with Greg's Goofy Ears Santa hat that he gave her to play with while he "babysat" last night and I went to the Relief Society Gift Exchange (which was a wonderful treat!).

Hopefully this can become part of our bedtime routine....but I'm happy that she'll get in now without a fight...I'll take that for now!

I know you probably can't tell, but her hair was so messy!! It needed a good washing!!

This is something I never thought I'd see...a HAPPY baby in the big bathtub!!

Greg and Karyl came in the house last night from the garage with these on...I couldn't help but laugh..and then grab the camera!!

I am learning to let her help in any way possible, even if it means slowing down my progress a little...I don't think she crushed a single peppermint, but she sure had fun trying!!

Cuteness and Mommy's new addiction....

Some more fun pics...

Karyl wearing daddy's Angel's visor...he's been wearing it under his rain jacket at work the past few days and when he comes home she wants to wear it.

Yesterday we went shopping at our new local mall and we visited the Disney Store...we got a pair of slightly too large mittens for Karyl (they were only $3!!).


OK, I know you can only see the feet, but that big red ball is a large Santa plushy toy that Greg brought in last night from the garage to show to Karyl...she LOVED it!!

This morning Greg sent me a text message saying there was ice on the cars...I thought he was kidding....this is just a small piece on the windshield wiper, but there were chunks all over the car!!! Welcome to the Inland Empire!!

And last but not least....a picture of my new addiction!! I picked up a 12-pack at Target the other night and have been drinking ever since!! Luckily it's caffeine free...I had 3 yesterday, and that was with trying NOT to drink too many!! We even put them in the fridge in the garage so it would take more energy to get one...yeah, that worked!!

YUMMY!!!!

PICTURES!!!!

I FOUND OUR CAMERA CORD!!!

So, I'll spare you the long entry and let the pictures do the talking...

Daddy's Little Helper

These are Karyl and Daddy building Mommy's desk....

These are them building the toy "cubby" for her room...Karyl got to "sign" the back of her furniture for future generations to see (if it lasts past her 5th birthday!!).

Front Yard Fun

Random Fun

Karyl after doing her first "Kid's Workshop" at our local Home Depot...she made an easel to put her favorite book on.

Karyl talking on the phone...probably to Grandpa!!

Our pool...covered...it's pretty neat, you can walk on the cover (but the kids don't know that!!).

So there are some pics to get you caught up...enjoy and I'll try and caught caught up some more soon!!

Daddy's helper

So, this morning Karyl came to her door and since Greg was right there he took off the baby gate and let her out and they came to my desk.

The cute part....on the way out she saw that Daddy was working on the desk in the Green Room and the first thing out of her mouth when she saw me was "Mommy, I need to change my diaper so I can help Daddy build your desk."

So we changed her diaper and while we were changing it she heard Greg hammering and she said "Mommy, Daddy is using the hammer, I need to go help!". She didn't even mention breakfast, she went right into the Green Room and sat down with Daddy and wanted to help. So, she helped Daddy build the desk while I fed her bites of oatmeal inbetween hammer hits.

I have some great pics, but again, until we find that camera cord I can't put them on here...eventually!!

Until then, I just wanted to share the story about Daddy's big helper!!

Cravings

OK, so with Karyl I never really had any "weird" cravings, or any normal ones for that matter. With her I had more things that the smell made me want to lose my lunch, like Greg's Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches, and french toast....

But this time around I have actually found that I am SERIOUSLY craving things and as I was making myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich it made me giggle thinking about the randomness...so here are the few things I have been really craving this time around...
* Peanut butter and banana sandwiches (I'm eating one as I type!!).
* Lemonade flavored Crystal Light...I can finish an entire gallon pitcher in 2 days if I'm not careful!!
* Grandpa's chocolate cake (it has a "little" extra frosting).

Funny enough, there is only 1 thing this time that I have found turns my stomach...funny enough...it's brownies. Just plain, non-frosted, brownies....so sad!!

Ewww...GROSS!!!

This morning I was about 3 inches away from stepping on a cricket....in my BARE FEET!!!

After stopping to appreciate the quick miss I grabbed a piece of junk mail and led the little guy out the front door.

Both my mom and Greg's mom have pointed out that a cricket inside is supposed to be a sign of good luck....with as many crickets as I have had to shove back out the door I have decided that Greg and I must be in for some REALLY GOOD LUCK in the future.

Maybe we should buy a lottery ticket??

Update from the IE

Sorry, haven't found the camera cord yet, but we have lots of pictures for you when I finally do!! Just for kicks and giggles, here is a list of things we did finally find (and when) and what we have yet to find...

FOUND:
1 - TODAY!!! Our regular silverware (we have been using a set of dollar clearance silverware...)
2 - Yesterday - our church clothes (see still looking list for a crucial piece of worship wear that we are still looking for...).
3 - Yesterday - the rest of our diapers (we were literally out...).
4 - Yesterday - the checkbook and other important items from Greg's desk that were packed at the very last minute...I think Greg was close to having a heart attack because we hadn't found it yet!!
5 - Yesterday - the tray for Karyl's high chair. We have had to let her eat at the little wood table she plays at in the living room because we couldn't find the tray to set her food on!

STILL LOOKING....:
1 - The camera cord.
2 - Our body pillows (I have had to make do with a few extra pillows sprawled around me, mainly to help prop the ever-growing belly up).
3 - Greg's ties...he had to go to church without one yesterday since we couldn't find them.
4 - The rest of Diana's Maternity clothes...I have one maternity shirt that I have been wearing when we go out for the past 2 weeks....but rest easy, I have been doing laundry!!
5 - The baby monitor...we found the base, but can't find the part that we listen from in our room. Luckily we have only had one mid-sleep crisis and I heard her crying. Luckily the big girl bed thing is working out well!

I'm sure there is more for both of those lists, but as of this minute that was all I could come up with. Overall, things are going smoothly and we are loving our new place. We even found out yesterday that a girl Greg and I knew separately in high school lives just down the street from her mom who lives in our ward! We were both excited to hear that we might actually know ONE person out here in Corona!!

Oh, and for anyone interested, Freddy is doing great! We thought Karyl was active, but he is putting Karyl's in-utero acrobatics to shame!! He is growing just like he should and I am healthier at this point in my pregnancy than I was with Karyl! I have managed to lose some weight and stay under what I was with Karyl, so that's happy news for me (but I have been warned that if I don't gain some weight over the Holiday Season I will be in trouble). He has a strong heart beat and everything via ultrasound looks textbook healthy and perfect!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will keep trying to find the camera cords....Until then, Happy Holidays!