Niki standing

Yep. It's offical. Niki can stand up. And she LOVES it.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

Niki's Walker and our Anniversary


Trip to see the Lights


A Break at the Park


Christmas Wreath Snacks

From the home of the Invilids...

So we've been sick since Thanksgiving.  Colds, pink eye, antibiotics, and phenylephrine HCL have become our houshold topics of conversation.  The worst day thus far happened on Wednesday the 8th, yes my birthday.  Lily was in pain from her ear infection and it turned her into a kicking, screaming, whining, disobedient, tantrum throwing stinker!  To top it off, Tyler was finally able to meet with a surgeon about his hernia (he's been seeing doctors since early November) and, da da da, congratulations, how about surgery tomorrow?  I'm so tired and I'm tired of us all being sick.  Needless to say, I really really really enjoyed the fact that Tyler took us all out to dinner that night and I didn't have to do anything.  I got a camera, YEA, and a much desired electric blanket for my birthday.  It turned out to be a very happy birthday after all.  If anything, we have learned this holiday season just how grateful we are for our usual health.


Lily's Laundry
   One morning as Tyler was saying his usual good bye he informed me that his shirt on the top of his laundry basket was completely soaked.  "I think it might be pee" he said.  Great.  Later when Lily woke up I asked her if she knew how dad's shirt got wet.
  "Mmm.  Maybe in the washing machine." she stated.  Good thinking Lily, but I don't think so.  I checked out the shirt again and it was definitely completely soaked uniformly, not just a spot job.  Plus I didn't think it smelled like pee.
  I asked her again a while later and again she insisted it was the washing machine.  She then proceeded to show and tell me how she opened it up, put dad's shirt in, and pushed the buttons.  "Then I put it in the dryer" she said "and I put it in dad's laundry (meaning his basket) and folded it", just like I do with his clothes.
  I guess my current laundry routine of every-other-week isn't sufficient for Lily and she took matters into her own hands.

Bye Bye Baby
  Over the last few weeks Niki has outgrown being a baby.  She's into playing and making messes just like Lily now.  After I feed them, they both take off with a mission, usually to the play room.  I'm no longer needed as Niki's constant companion.  It's just play, play, play and then come cry to mom only when needed.  She's just like Lily now except she can't communicate as well.  I love watching her play and figure things out, but I wish she hadn't grown up quite so fast, she was such a cute and cuddly little baby.

Play Skills
Lily was given a bag of blocks for Christmas last year.  All year she's ignored them, 'till we got out the Christmas decorations.  Lily wants a vaccum for Christmas and we keep explaining how Santa will bring it to her if she is good.  Well, she discovered that she can build vaccums with her blocks and then put them under the Christmas tree as presents.  Now she builds with the blocks every day and her towers are getting more complex.  The funny part is, they are always symetrical.  I've even seen her reject pieces because they don't make the tower even.  Silly girl.

Niki is crazy coordinated.  She moves and gets places like I can't believe.  She can walk along with us if we hold her hands.  Unlike most babies who stomp or drag their feet, she's actually walking one foot then another.  I'm excited to see what she can do as she gets older.

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!

Spider, Cat, Ghost, and Sparkle Witch

This isn't the best display picture, but since we were in them, I thought we should at least get one picture. Tyler had a haunted house at work that we went to and helped out with. More to come next week.

I need a break ...

Tyler has been working serious overtime this month. I'm alone with the kids all day every day and it's starting to drive me crazy! At first I thought what I really need is to take a break from them more often, but now I realized I need to take a break WITH them more often. So today we went swimming. We invited our friends (whose dad is deploied) since I figured their mom could also use a break with her kids!
We're going to keep going more often through out the winter.

Gone and Back again

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted for so long, it's not because the girls are any less cute. We've just been BUSY!!!
We were home one week, just to unpack. Then off we went again to California to visit cousins and grandma for the weekend. Now we're home again and I think I might get caught up with things after another week or two if I'm lucky. Whew!

First Hair Cut
It's official. Lily's hair was finally long enough to merrit a trim. A package of fruit snacks and one inch later, her little curls look so much better! I just can't believe how long it took to grow.


My Bed!
Like always, the girls were so happy to see their beds when we got home. Niki goes for the railing everytime I put her in the crib. She loves to climb on anything she can.

Niki's started trying to 'play' like Lily. She especially likes to watch Lily with her dolls and she really likes it when she gets a chance to play with them herself (Lily's quite protective of her babies). I caught her trying to feed a bottle to the baby the other day, it was so cute!!! Of course, she still likes to feed the bottle to herself and chomp on the babies hands and face too.


Grandma's
Thanks Grandma for inviting us for such a fun trip! We really enjoied spending time together. Lily especially loved the "fluffy bed" comforter and taking pictures of everything in the house.


Cousins!
We had a fun few days with the cousins. They loved each other! We went to the farm, the redwoods, and the beach. It didn't matter where we were, they had so much fun laughing and playing together. I wish we could get together more often. Thanks for the fun trip!


First Plane Ride
Niki's first flight was from Killeen to Dallas to San Jose. She really
didn't get it at all, but the buttons on the arm rests, tray tables, and seat belts were cool! I was nervous about juggling both girls by myself, but the extra seat seamed to be enough to keep the occupied. They had fun and everyone ooo-ed and ah-ed over how cute they were.


First Word!!!
I can't believe it. Niki's figured out how to say a word. "Cool" which sounds more like "Ku". At first I just thought she was making it because it's a neat sound, but nope. She uses it correctly, when she loves a toy or sees something she likes or does something new.

She's got some great new tricks too, which I haven't been able to get pictures of. She claps by smacking her fists together against her belly. She signs "terminado" (done) by puting her hands up by her ears. She pulls herself up onto her knees and sometimes to standing on her feet by pulling on anything she gets a hold of (chairs, her crib, boxes). She rocks on her hands and knees and manuvers all over the place. She'll be crawling any day now. She never stops moving. I just can't keep up with her changes!


Dress Up
Lily's imagination has expanded to dressing up. Here's a few I've captured pictures of. She gets them on all by herself and only has to have help if they get turned inside out.

She really loves being a "Bride" with her "Boy" and getting "Married". It all started when she found the white heals in my closet and called them my married shoes. She dances and kisses and sits with her boy while singing "I love him, I love him..." A combination of ideas from our wedding book, Little Mermaid, and Cinderella I guess.

She finally found cowgirl boots on our vacation. I tried to get her the red ones with black flowers, but Lily had to have PINK. As usual. "Howdy Mom" she says.


Lily's Photography
Lily finally figured out how to aim the camera. For every good pictures seen here, she took 5 that were not aimed right on. Her favorite subjects are her baby and Niki of course.


Cake for Tyler
Tyler asked me to decorate a cake for a guy at work. I guess his was better than I thought. I saved myself the time cruch by buying the base cake from Walmart. It went so much faster that I really enjoied it. Perhaps I'll make them more often now that it is so easy.

Trip Time Ends

Finally, we've arrived
HOME
We are so relieved to be home again.  The girls were so excited to see their beds and their room again.  The next morning we looked outside to discover
A Jungle!
Niki spotted it from her high chair during breakfast and couldn't hold still.  She wanted to get out there.  So out we went and she just laughed delighted for half an hour.  Crazy.


Road Trip - Day 2
Carlsbad Caverns
were awesome.  Well worth the hour and a half we dragged the girls through the cave.  The pictures just don't do it justice.
That night we camped at
Guadalupe National Forest
We got some tent poles so that we could stay in the tent.  Niki's first tent experience went pretty well.  It was a little colder than we were used to so the girls kept waking up, but were easily calmed back to sleep.  We were, however, quite crammed in there.  Tyler and I agree it's time for a bigger, family-sized tent.  Especially if we need to put anything besides our sleeping bags into it with us.


Road Trip - Night 1 we stayed in
El Paso
What a nice hotel.  Too bad we weren't sticking around the next day.  The girls loved the mirrors and laughed for a good hour together on the bed.  On our way out the next morning, we stoped to overlook the urban sprawl that spans the border.  See the HUGE flag in the distance, that's Mexico all right.


Farewell Sierra Vista
And the mountains.  We miss living by the mountains.


We finally made it to the border.  We drove up to the lookout of the Coronado National Monument and hiked to the tip of the hill where we could see...
MEXICO!
Not much different from Sierra Vista, but Lily though it was exciting.