Finding Ways to Stay Entertained

Amelia has this down. She can be entertained by anything. She'll lay on her back and kick her legs as fast as she can. She seriously gets out of breath, and when I ask her what she's doing, she just laughs and keeps going.

Her latest, the door. It doesn't stay open, it hinges halfway closed. And Amelia is not having it. She will spend up to 10 minutes pushing that door open, only to have it swing back at her. It's quite fun to watch, especially when she gets really enthusiastic and pushes the door real hard, only to have it fly back at her with equal gusto. And that is how I stay entertained.

Yesterday we had a glimpse of the outside world. Amelia had forgotten about the swing. Although she very quickly warmed up to it again and would not let me take her out. She loved the geese and would wave to them as they flew away. It felt good to get some fresh air.

My baby crawls

Within the last couple of weeks, Amelia has become a professional crawler. She is all over the place. She no longer sits still and cries when I leave the room, she zooms right after me. She is hilariously tiny to be moving so quickly in my opinion. And she just loves it.

Amelia is ready to learn. She picked up on leading the music this sunday, and she would sing also. We had Family Home Evening that night with my brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. We sang a lot of songs and she just sat in the middle and alternated between waving, leading the music, singing, clapping, crawling, scrunching her nose, and grinning from ear to ear. She was the little entertainer.

She has recently started giving kisses, well just leaning in so I can kiss her, she doesn't pucker her lips. But she only does it when I'm down on the ground with her. I'll be doing sit ups and she crawls over and leans to give me kisses. It is the cutest thing. 

Juan has a busy semester, we didn't see him until 9 yesterday. Thank goodness I had The Bachelor on tv to keep me company. Love the drama, love the crazies. I am stepping out of 'hermit mode' into motivation mode now, but with Juan gone so much, I have time for both! Best of both worlds, exercise, clean, cook during the days, lounge and read and watch tv in the evenings. I just wish he were here beside me for those last things.

We'll leave you with a scrunched-nose, toothless smile. I'll miss that smile when she finally gets teeth.

Picture our Christmas

The whole family meets together on the 23rd for our combined Christmas Eve traditions. Amelia debuted as Baby Jesus this year in our Nativity. She was calm and reverent the whole time. Our little actress.

We exchanged our cousin gifts and sibling gifts. Just had to show off these cute boots from cousin Carley and Aunt Kelly. They are so Amelia.

Christmas morning. Amelia amongst all the presents. Not all hers, thank goodness. There were 8 of us there Christmas morning.

Classic Christmas morning family picture. I am determined to never have a shower or even comb my hair on Christmas morning. No one in my family will be allowed. I did brush my teeth.

Amelia loving the orange most of all.

She was so excited opening presents. Here she is about to open her cabbage patch doll from Grandma Rose.

Here she is squealing as she opens her Little People dollhouse from us. 

Amelia and all her loot. Yes she was quite spoiled between us and both sets of grandparents. It was so fun to see her excited and happy that morning.

We headed out to East Canyon next, our annual family vacation. Here she is playing with Grandma.

She went sledding with dad. It was freezing, I only let her out for 10 minutes.

She loved to sled. She just kind of yelled the whole way down. Ha ha, it was the best.

Amelia and cousin Benjamin.

Amelia and Griffin. They were all trying to get her to crawl. She knew how and would do a few crawl-steps every now and then, but she doesn't like to show off.

This is one of her 'faces' these days. It's like a "I'm just chillin" kind of look.

We celebrated New Years all weekend with family. Played games, ate good food, had a blast.

And now I am falling into what I call hermit mode. I enjoy family and all the festivities, but now I'm ready to enjoy being at home with my little girl and getting back into our routine.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe holidays!

Until next year

Merry Christmas from our family. See you in 2011.

She's cool like that

This little girl sat on Santa's lap like it was no big thing. Sure she looked at him like, who is this guy? But when I called her name for a picture, I got her classic look. Isn't she sweet?

We celebrated St. Nick's on December 5. We each got a new ornament from Santa in our stockings.

The opening of her first present. She preferred to gum it, no teeth yet, pretty impressive.

We headed down to Salt Lake to see the tree at Gateway and the lights at Temple Square. Amelia's favorite was the water show. But I'm pretty sure she loved it all, considering she's looking at anything but the camera in every picture we took that night.

Amele is 9 months now. She weighs 18 lbs and 6 oz. She is 29 inches. She is getting her knees up, she kind of rocks on her knees and elbows. Ha ha, she may be going for a low crawl. She also bounces her bum to music, any music. My phone plays the theme from How I Met Your Mother (naturally) whenever I get a text. She dances to it every time. And as I speak she is pulling all her toys and books off the bottom shelf. She's not a baby anymore.

We love you Amelia.

Our Big News

Juan has been offered a job.

We have accepted.

We will be building our post-student life in the same state that Juan's dad grew up.

It is a 21 hour drive from Utah.

We will know 2 couple friends in the area, and a dear friend from freshman year that lives 4 hours away. That makes 5 people. Total.

It is currently 60 degrees there, in December.

That's all I've got. I know nothing about this place, but I know it's right for us. 

Oh wait, I do know one more thing.

The stars at night...

Apparently they're Big and Bright.

Clap clap clap clap

Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Juan has accepted a job with Dell right outside of Austin, Texas. 

After much prayer and research, we will be headed there September 2011.

So I've got 9 months to soak up my dear Utah. This holiday season is quite special knowing it's the last I'm here for all of my childhood traditions.

I'm thrilled. I'm scared. I'm SUPER excited actually. And most of all, I'm grateful that we have a job come graduation. What a blessing.

Please share any Austin, Texas tidbits with me in the comments. And I mean ANY.

Our Thanksgiving

Amelia's first Thanksgiving was spent at my parent's house (upstairs) with just 11 of us total. Smallest Thanksgiving I've attended in years. Juan and Amelia helped me make the Sweet Potatoes which let me tell you, I don't usually like, but I woke up from my after-turkey nap craving those Sweet Potatoes. Yum.

In the kitchen, helping me cook.

Our Thanksgiving table picture, with my mom's beautiful tree in the background.

 She knows how to do the actions to the whole Patty-Cake song now. She claps, rolls, and throws. She was doing it with us all day, but when I went that night to get it on video, I got this face:

Not a chance, mom.

 She does not do the actions with us often. She sometimes will skip to throwing, and does that action the whole song. Yesterday my mom was trying a few times to get her to clap and roll. She would not cooperate, and then later when I was changing her diaper with just the 2 of us, she did all 3 actions in perfect timing with the song. She likes to prove she can do things, just not in front of others.

And this is her season, folks.

 Doesn't she just look like she belongs in Who-ville? Knocking on Cindy Lou Who's door asking if she can come out to play? 

Happy Holidays!