8 Months, First Tooth, oh yea..... GO UTES!!!

Yea the UTES won!!!
Tyler began the day with pre-game chalk decorating of the driveway and car windows...
.. belonging to our neighbor BYU fans, of course!
Now we are glad to report that they are decorated appropriately.
We all dressed up and went to a friend's house to watch the show with a crowd.  For an un-eventful game, it sure had a great ending.

Niki is EIGHT MONTHS OLD as of yesterday.  I can't believe it!  She's a crazy girl.  Unlike our careful Lily, she's not afraid to do something dangerous (like crawl head first of the bed, climb on the fireplace, or pinch her hands in the cupboard doors) over and over again.  She has more bumps and bruises right now than Lily's had her entire life.

I was fishing a whole baby dill pickle out of Niki's mouth today (yes, she loved it instead of spitting it out like we thought she would) and I felt, her first tooth!!! on the bottom right.  Yea.  A big excitement for the baby that wants to eat everything we are eating.  I bought a hand crank food grinder to make baby food for her last week.  Every time she sees me get it out she gets so excited and starts salivating over the thought of "real food."  Soon she'll be able to grind those foods all by herself.

Next to Elmo, Niki really loves Baby Doll.  Lily is quite protective of her dolls so Niki rarely gets a chance to play with them.  Nevertheless, she is persistant.  Niki grabs a hold of Baby Doll's hand and takes her along as she plays.  Niki's favorite place to play is the fireplace.  Something about that step is just the perfect height for standing up against.  Anyways, it's funny to see how hard Niki concentrates on pulling Baby Doll up to see the fireplace too.  She'll start out, baby in hand, get half-way to standing, let go so she can use her hand to balance herself, get up and realize she droped the doll, then try hard to bend back down to pick it up only to fall back onto her bottom and start over again.  It cracks me up.

Sea World

We took a day trip to San Antonio and Sea World. It was so much fun!!! Thanks to the military, we only spent $15 (for parking) on the entire day. It was the first day of their Christmas celebration. It was so nice to have gentle Christmas music in the background and relaxing in the evening to see the lights. We were having such a nice time, we even stayed for 2 more shows after dark.

Niki's favorite was Elmo at the Sesame Street show. She just went crazy and kept waving and lauging at him. Lily says she like the dolphins best. They didn't do a show, but she was close enough to pet them (still too scared to pet them though). Niki didn't like them seeing as they splashed her right in the face as we were leaving. Tyler and I liked the Steel Eel roller coaster. I had so much fun, I went twice!


Niki is getting so smart!
She's figured out how to do several signs:

Eat, Sleep, and Play(clapping) are old hat, but latley she's added

Terminado (spanish for done),

Milk/Leche,

Potty (I'm still not sure how she figured that one out),

Bye-bye/Adios/Hi/Hola

She definatley knows what she's trying to say. The hard part is trying to tell the signs apart. She doesn't have the finger cordination to differentiate the hand signals yet.

She's even tried saying words when she can. Of course, she only knows how to repeat the "k" sound, but I've heard her try to say "Coo"(cool, her favorite) and "ku"(stuck) and "k"(milk) repeatedly 'till I figure out what's wrong with her. I can't believe she really understands that much already! It makes me wonder what she would say if she only could.

New Camera!!!

Well, we ordered and received our 3rd pentax water camera this week. Yea! This time, I'm taking better care of it. I've made a PADDED case for it and I'm going to haul the old broken one around everyday and save the nice one for sure-to-be picture trips.

Tyler, thanks so much for letting me have my B-day present early!!! I love it.

Picture Orders Anyone?

Hey Grandmas-
We got the pictures that we ordered.  I can get any of the following in any size (wallet, 4x6, 5x7), courtesy of WalMart.  Let me know what you want ASAP and I'll get them made.

Out of Focus

Yesterday I grabbed my camera because the girls were having so much fun.  I didn't get very far however. 

My camera screen is broken!!!

Here are some pictures I've taken since.  Even though it is still taking pictures, I can't see what it's taking.  So these are a little out of focus.  Sorry.  Does anyone have a camera to recommend that I can get for <$100?

Elmo and the Clean Freak

Niki has been watching Sesame Street with Lily in the mornings.  She's kind of entertained by it.  UNTIL... Elmo's World, then she's glued to it.  She stares and giggles everytime she sees Elmo.  There's something about the red fur and google eyes that kids just love.

Anyways, We went home teaching to "Grandma Latsha's" house last week.  We took the girls because they love to look at all the stuff she has collected there.  Half way through, Niki just started laughing.  She had noticed the Elmo doll sitting on the couch.  I've never seen her laugh and giggle so much over a toy.  She just loved it!  Sis. Latsha was so amused by her obsession that she insisted we take it home with us.  

I thought Niki would get bored with it, but she's played with Elmo every day since.  She drags him around with her as she crawls to new toys.  She smiles every morning when she sees him.  Just like Lily and her baby doll, Elmo is Niki's best friend.  Too funny!!!


Lily is a total clean freak!

One day Lily came up to me and said "Mom, I made a mess."  "Oh great" I thought.  Let's go see what happened. 
She smells like sunscreen.  "Lily did you get the sunscreen"   "Yes.  I rubbed it"  Her hands and arms were greasy.
There's the bottle, Oh good it's on the tile floor.  Nothing on the floor.  Hmm.  Nothing under the shoes.  "Lily where did you make a mess?"  "Right there"  That's wierd.  No mess.  Oh here's a little spot in dad's flip-flop.  "Lily, I don't see a mess.  Where's the mess?"  by this time my mind was racing to all the places in the house that she could have smeared it.
"I cleaned it up.  With my rag"  "With your rag?  What rag?"  "My little rag in the kitchen"  "Where's the rag?  What did you do with it?"  "I put it back in the sink.  I cleaned it with my little rag and put it away in the kitchen."  Sure enough.  That's what she had done. 

Well, how could I complain about that?!?

"Ok Lily.  Thank you for telling me you made a mess.  Next time ask me and I will help you put on the sunscreen."  "Ok Mom.  I love you"  and off she went to play.

Halloween Activities

Here's what we did for Halloween.  Our ward Trunk-Or-Treat, our halloween pajamas, our pumpkin, and our spider (he was the favorite all month long).

Professional Pictures and Projects

I took Niki to get her "6 month" (she's 7mos) pictures today. Despite my planning to have her happy, fed, and napped, she was so grumpy and clingy. Oh well. Good thing Nicole was great at capturing when she did smile. We both had to laugh at the full out cry picture she took. I ordered the last 3 and managed to pay only $6.50 I'm a real fan of the Supersaver plan and military discounts!

Niki is such a cutie.

Projecting...

... as we call it at our house.  That's what I've been up to. 

The bibs were a copy from a lady in our ward.  I love them!  They actually cover everything and they fit no matter how many times they go through the wash.  Everyone should have these kind!

My purse was finished a month ago, but here's a picture for those who heard about it.  It has tons of pockets and they fit the things I have.  I really love that it used Tyler's old uniform.  I had fun making up the pattern, but next time I think I need to make it fatter to account for all the things I usually stuff into it.

The shelves in the living room were a long time coming.  I've been looking for something with cupboards on the bottom.  I finally gave up and realized I will have to make the doors myself.  Finally, we unpacked the last boxes!