Baby Pool

Some of you have already made your guesses, but for those who haven't...

The last time I was pregnant, I set up a baby pool. Lillian ended up being so early that even though a winner was declared, everyone's guesses were so far off you couldn't really call it a winner. So I've also set up one for Baby #2, and hopefully a true winner can be announced this time around. I wouldn't be against providing a prize if anyone has any (reasonable) suggestions.

Our ultrasound will be on February 22, so get your gender guesses in now by clicking on the Baby Pool image on the right. Even you sneaky blog stalkers...

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Christmas

I realize this post is a month late, but please don't judge. :)

Christmas this year suddenly seemed to make sense to Lillian. She was constantly noticing the sparkly lights and pretty trees. She was actually WAY too excited about snow for her own good. And most importantly, she understood that Santa was coming. Somehow, though, we managed to completely miss (or forgot - one of the two) taking her to sit on the fat man's lap. Horrible parents, I know, but I swear: we will remember next year.

Since she was so enthralled with all the lights on the houses, we decided to take her down to Temple Square to see some proper lights. Rather than drive, we hooked up with Erik's parents in Roy and rode the Front Runner train. I think, in the end, she was more excited about riding the train than anything else, but as long as she had fun, I guess it doesn't matter. And I have to say, riding the train was the best decision we EVER MADE!!! No parking hassles. No traffic. No worrying about the weather. The worst part was not timing our departure so that we didn't have to wait half an hour on the train before it headed back to Ogden.


Once we got to Salt Lake, we met up with my parents at the Gateway and had dinner before we all headed to Temple Square. Of course we chose the night of the MoTab Christmas concert at the Conference Center as well as a Jazz game, so Salt Lake was swarming with people. Being Utah, everyone was naturally on Mormon Standard Time, so our 7:00 arrival nicely coincided with half the attendees of the concert rushing across the Plaza causing complete chaos and a huge crowd. When you have a toddler with you who is VERY reluctant to hold a hand, this can cause great stress for the parents, but miraculously, she didn't get lost and we were able to see all the lights and have a great time. Whenever we pass the temple in Logan, she still talks about how Grandmas and Grandpas and Addison all went to the temple with her.


On Christmas Eve, Lily helped me make some cookies for Santa. She had blast rolling and cutting them out and (of course) eating the dough. She helped me stir and we had to roll out and cut a shape from every last scrap. We decorated them later that night before bed.



On Christmas morning, we opened presents and had some breakfast. Lily had to examine every present thoroughly before moving on to the next one, which made for a long process, but it was fun to see her get so excited over every item. After breakfast, we headed down to Ogden to make the rounds with the other side of the family and had a great time seeing people we only see a couple times a year.

It was definitely a great Christmas. It's hard to believe that next Christmas, we'll have two munchkins to celebrate with, but I'm looking forward to it!

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My Baby

Yesterday my baby turned 3.

I find this incredibly hard to believe. Where did this year, or the last three for that matter, go?

We survived the first two weeks of her life when she was attached to monitors and being fed with a tube stuck up her nose. (Now those are blackmail baby pictures. Forget the bath pictures.)

Then we survived the first months home when we had NO IDEA what we were doing. (And I'll admit...we still have no idea. Poor kid gets to be our guinea pig.)

We survived the first day at daycare at 6 months old. Although there were many tears on my part all the way to work. She was completely oblivious of course.

We survived the first year, and she finally began to crawl and cut those stupid teeth.

We survived learning to walk without any major bumps or bruises and now she runs everywhere. I don't think "walking" is actually in her vocabulary.


We survived the second year and learned how to see the world through her eyes. Some of the things that made her eyes light up were wonderful. That year also brought the first major sickness that I believe was my official initiation into motherhood. The changes from that second year were just amazing. I didn't think we could ever top the amount of development we witnessed that year.

But now we've officially survived the third year, and I was so wrong. She seemed to develop right in front of me, and I know we're in for a ride with some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth. She is brilliant. And I can say that without bias; I'm her mother.

We survived (if you could call it that) the "terrible twos." There are some days I'm surprised she survived, but we all made it through with minimal damage (at least until she begins therapy and learns how her mother ruined her life). I know there is no magic switch when they turn 3, and she won't suddenly be an angel all the time. But I still feel like we've reached a major milestone.

I'm just so proud of her and the wonderful addition she has been to our family. I know she will be a great big sister, even if she might be slightly disappointed when the baby's name isn't Dora or Boots. I simply can't imagine my life without her.

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It's not Christmas without...

This Christmas (more than others for some reason), I thought about my Christmases as a kid, and I've come to realize that many of the little things I remember most came from my Grandmother Tanner. So I hope you'll bear with me in reminiscing a little.

When my mom moved to Arizona, I went without those little things even though I was perfectly capable of recreating those memories on my own since, for the most part, they revolve around food. (What good holiday memory doesn't, right??)


The one treat I never did pass up, however, was the Danish Butter Cookies. Grandmother always had a HUGE tin of them sitting on her table during the Christmas season. I thought they were such a wonderful extravagance for some reason. Maybe it was the fancy looking tin or the fact that they were packed stacked in those papers. Maybe it was just the fact that Christmas was the only time of year we had them. But once they hit the table, I knew Christmas was coming. They've always been a must for me, and I still enjoy them as much as ever.

This year, Christmas Eve was held at our house with Nana, Grandpa Len, and Uncle Garrik. At Thanksgiving, my mom provided Wassail, and I decided it was high time I made it myself. And it was just right. I filled my crockpot with it that morning and we enjoyed it all day. It wasn't quite the same without the glass globe mugs, but it certainly hit the spot. Why I'd never asked for the recipe before is beyond me, but now I will be making it yearly.

The thing that really made an impact this year, though, was the Applekeg (which I've discovered is actually spelled Aeblekage, but would you have any idea what I had just said if that's all I left you with???). When my mom told me she'd made it, I actually started crying. I had no idea a simple bowl of applesauce, raspberry jam, and graham crackers could cause such an emotional reaction. But if you think that's silly, you should have seen the break down I had when I realized I actually had the Asian Bowls in my possession! (Stupid hormones!!!! ;D) We had applekeg every Christmas without fail. It would "cure" on the windowsill of her bedroom before Christmas and was always topped with just-barely whipped cream. And that's how I have to eat it to this day: no peaks, please.

There was a slight mishap on the way to Logan with a broken trifle bowl and a nice mess in my Mom's car, but she made another one. Unfortunately, we didn't actually eat it while they were here, but I enjoyed some the next day, Asian bowl and all. It was awesome and totally made my Christmas.



I hope that someday Lillian can appreciate the woman she was named after and how much she meant and still means to me. I guess a good start is continuing the traditions that remind me so much of her and make sure Lily knows where they came from.

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