Sophie Jane, 4 months

Sophie is now 4 months and at her appointment this week we found out she is

14.8 pounds

25 inches and doesn't have to take her medicine all of the time anymore!

She did get 4 shots, Lia got upset again but lucky for me Billy was there to help. Then the poor girl had a bad reaction to the shots and had a tempature of 103.2 and was miserable for about 24 hours! The poor thing, it truly broke our hearts! She screamed so hard for so long that now her throat is raw and she makes funny noises.

(On a side note, Lia had to get a flu shot that day and I had Billy hold her down when they gave it to her.... ummmm, yeah.... SHE DIDN'T EVEN CRY! I'm still mad about that, this is the first time he's ever been there for shots and she didn't even cry!)

The table that Bampa built.

Here is the table that Bill made for the Grandkids. Its very cute and Lia loved having a table her size.... she just hated sitting by herself so this lasted about 30 seconds.

So sad......

I'm the worst!

Everyone always sleeps better than I do on Christmas Eve, I get so excited making sure everything is ready for Santa and for breakfast in the morning, I go to bed super late then don't sleep for more than 2 or 3 hours. Then I go out in the living room and wait until 6:30 and turn on Polar Express loud enough to wake everyone up. Its truly pathetic!

Santa was good to everyone in our house, he got me more Wicked tickets and the i-pod I wanted!

And he left LOTS of good toys...... Lia is still not sure why I woke her up early... or why she was able to finally touch the boxes under the tree.... or why we were so excited about the bike that Santa brought her...
One minute Sophie is with us....

Next minute she's gone....
She loves the whole gift thing... but still not so sure why.... Rudolph and the elephant!
Finally relaxing.

Christmas Eve

I think I enjoy Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day! I'm always with my mom, sister and brothers family. This year all of my cousins came and so did my Grandma and Aunt. I think I enjoy it more because the Christmas Spirit is there, but the gift giving isn't weighing on everyone's mind. We had such a wonderful evening!
Here is a picture of the flowers my Grandma and Aunt had sent to the house. This is my best friend since kindergarten, Heather. She came down from Monterey and I think she looks the best I've ever seen her, this is her meeting my Sophie for the first time.
In her last letter to me she wrote "Be sure to send her to kindergarten to find a best friend for life" ... loved it!

We opened Geoff and Missy's gifts. Billy is the new champ at opening dolls and all of the junk that accompanies them.
We couldn't find Lia for a while. Billy found her behind my brothers wheelchair feeding her doll. We could not ask for a sweeter little girl!

This is what my cousin Adam gave me. He was in Germany and picked this up at the Christmas Market, it is called the Silent Night Chapel. It is where Silent Night was played for the first time. (Its a candle holder and a music box too, guess what song it plays)

Getting ready!

Here are the girls in the dresses they wore to church, and this is by far my favorite picture of them together! I was trying to lay them on their stomachs but Lia got so excited she grabbed Sophie. Now if only I could get Sophie to smile for the camera..... My hands were full of stuff to mail off so Lia decided to fill her hands up for the post office too. (just in case you were wondering, yes it is every Disney character she owns and a sippy cup)
Our new Santa. I bought this big guy the morning of Christmas Eve. I parked in the garden section so I could sneak in and out of the store easily. Not so much.... all of their stuff was on sale, he was the last one in the far far back of the shelf and for 75% off, I could not help myself! I surprised Lia with him all blown up the the front yard. When she saw it she ran outside, jumped on the reindeer, said "Hi Doggies" then ran over to Santa said "Ho Ho" and gave him a high five then ran over and hugged me for a few minutes straight. It was worth every penny! Even if they are kind of obnoxious and funky looking.
Sophie helped me with the laundry.
And she worked up a sweat so she had to take a bath!! Nama thinks she's is the most beautiful bunny ever!

It all started with the Merrill's

On the Friday before Christmas we went and spent the evening with the Merrill's. Lia loves going there! In fact love might be an understatement (huhh Valerie?!!) Hairclips were lost in all of the fun and Austen became the photographer.

I don't know what happened to her tights! And Sophie and Lee just kicked back....

I don't know what happened to all of my pictures but Lia could not get enough of Hunter! She would jump on him and do anything she could to drive him crazy. I/we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends! We love you guys!

Christmas Craziness!

We went to Disneyland for our anniversary, where we saw the most amazing Santa float EVER! Lia flipped out! She LOVED the parade. At first I didn't know if she would like it but as soon as she noticed Donald Duck she screamed "DAAAAAAAAAHHHHH-KIE" and it was all fun from there. Goofy was next and she got so excited all she could do was kiss my head! She's a funny kid!
It was the coldest rainiest night we could have gone, but we had the best time... of course! (because it was raining so hard I couldn't get any pictures of it, but we bought Lia a poncho to wear and I thought she looked like E.T. when he was dressed up like a ghost for Halloween, don't fret, I'll get pictures of it I'm sure!)
Because we don't have a chimney I had my friend make me this sign to hang our stockings on, that way Santa knows EXACTLY who's stocking is who's.
I also had her make me this sign for our front door.... she does such a good job! I LOVE this one.

It is going to take me a while to catch up on all of the events, parties, dinners, presents etc... that have happened, I think I'm hungover and I don't drink!

We had an amazing holiday season, filled with family, love, good food, sweet treats, amazing friends and most of all the Spirit of Christ! What more could you want?

3 years ago.... yesterday

Billy and I were married three years ago, yesterday. It was, is and always be the best day of my life. I love looking at the pictures, it always reminds me..... Here are some of my favorites.

He loved me first.... My new brother in law... he's stinkin' funny! We were cuttin' a rug during this pic.
I really am this content... still.

Our wedding was the 113th wedding the cake topper was used on. Its been used in every wedding on my dads side.

Fresh out of the temple..... I LOVE my roses, the florist did an amazing job! Oh wait...

Here's to forever Billy!

Thanks Ellen!

My mom, sister, a family friend and I went to the Ellen Show yesterday and got lots and lots of goodies! It was the 12 days of give aways. I had been to the show about a year ago and got a free pair of gold converse and was excited for that. I love going, she is such a great person and its a really fun experience.
The first big thing we got was a sweet little HP 8 mega pixel camera... Then a photo printer to print our pictures on....
Or if we wanted to, we could put them on to our new digital frame.....
and this could all be hooked up to our new LAP TOP!!!!!!!
Its AMAZING!!! Billy is very impressed.
Needless to say if we had been pulled over it would have looked like we robbed a Circut City or something.
This couldn't come at a better time. We have been looking into schools for me to finish my degree and this will come in so handy. I am so happy to have it and was fortuante enough to have made it to Ellen's show... THANKS ELLEN!

The Littlest Angel of All.....

Lia and Sophie were in the live Creche during the Creche Festival last week. Sophie was the Baby Jesus and Lia was an angel. While they were on stage the Bing Crosby song "Littlest Angel of All" played through my head.

The chorus goes like this:

His gifts were so meager and bare,

just a butterfly with golden wings,

a little piece of a hollow log

two shiny stones from the river bed

and a worn out scrap of his faithful doll.....

And this was the present that the angel gave the Christ Child, and it was the gift that was chosen to be the "Heavenly star up above"

To see both of my babies up there was the greatest gift I could ever receive. Lia waved at me the whole time and was trying to talk to everyone, so we gave her a binki.

(the group that followed us on stage was looking on from the side of the stage and commented on how cute our baby Jesus was, then we heard a little shriek and a girl said "Oh my gosh! it blinked, its a real baby!"... classic)

I know, I know another post.....

I am the first to admit that I am the furthest thing from being the perfect mom, but I really do try to be a good mom. Sometimes I feel like people are looking for me to mess up. I have never taken so much pride in anything I have ever done before. I first try to be the best wife I can be because I feel that if I'm being a good wife it makes it that much easier to be a good mom.
That being said, I couldn't find a babysitter this afternoon so I had to take both girls with me to a hair appointment. I knew Sophie would be no trouble at all, I just had to make sure her little tummy was full and she'd fall asleep in the car on the way there. I was really freakin' out about Lia though. I knew it would be an exciting place with lots of people and fun stuff to get into. Anyway, I walk into the salon, set her up on the bench behind Carrie's station with crayons, coloring books, her favorite sea life book, goldfish and a sippy cup. I then said a little prayer and crossed my fingers that she would be ok.
SHE WAS AN ANGEL!!! She sat there the whole time, she would talk to people about the fishies and turtles in her book, she colored pictures for everyone, she made people laugh but never once did she get off that bench and go crazy. When Carrie was finishing up I checked on Lia for the last time and saw her sweet little face carefully studying her book and I teared up. I felt kind of guilty for not having enough faith in her, then it turned into pride. She is an amazing little girl and I just adore her. Carrie told me to not be so surprised... and that I was doing a good job. I could not stop hugging and kissing her when I was done, and Carrie rewarded her with licorice! It was a great day!

Mrs. Claus

Last Saturday (Dec. 1st) while my sweet hubby took me to see Wicked (which is by far the greatest, most enjoyable, highly entertaining musical I've ever seen! I cannot wait to take my daughters someday! I'm still sad its over and I can't wait to go back, but that's already in the works!!!) Lia was Mrs. Claus on the City of Redlands parade float. She of course looked totally adorable! We were afraid she wouldn't be warm enough, lucky for her she had Elise. But I guess she was the funniest thing ever! They used my brother Geoff's truck and trailer, and on the trailer they had Christmas trees down the middle with the "elves" lining both sides and Lia ran around in circles giving everyone high 5's to get them pumped for the parade. She danced and danced the ENTIRE time. She loved every second of it. And thanks to Grandpa Bill I have the pictures! The only picture that he could not get was the one my sister gave me, I guess as they were taking off and she saw all of the people, Lia got so excited she didn't know what else to do so she pulled her dress up over her head and was screaming!!! I'll have to scan it and put it on here. Its seriously the funniest picture ever!!!

And as you can tell Sophie had the time of her life!

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, I don't know how much I'll get to write because its going to be one crazy month! But I'll definitely have to post what I score at the Ellen Show next week, woo hoo!