Temple Square Lights

CHRISTMAS

PRESENTS
enough said

Lily asked Santa for a vaccum this year. And not just any vaccum, it really works. It's just like one she played with at a friend's house. We were happy to let her have it since it would really help with the chores. She was so excited and happy when she finally got it. She had been talking about it for weeks. The funniest part about it is that she really hates our big vaccum. She runs and hides everytime I get it out. I think she loves her vaccum because it's quiet enough for her to handle. What a funny girl.

Niki would have been happy just playing with the wrapping paper, but she did get excited about her fuzzy gloves. They are the same fabric as her lovey and she was just thrilled.

Lily's first ski trip

On the day before Christmas Eve we had our annual Balling Family ski trip. It snowed all night and looked to be a perfect ski day. We started with aspirations of going to Alta, but after waiting for an hour in traffic before we even reached the canyon, we decided to go up immigration canyon instead. We made a ski run out of the usual tubbing hill and had a great day.

Lily had a great time and really loved going fast on the skis. We had to carry her the entire way because she's not strong enough to maneuver yet, but by the end of the day she was standing up. What a fun day.

On our way to Utah...

We packed up enough for two months and headed to Utah. Both girls were quite excited about the trip. Niki even practiced her new standing tricks as we waited at the airport.

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!