Birthday Girls

Scott, Brielle and I arrived back in Utah on December 28. We made it just in time to spend a few days with the Buchanan family. They were all in Utah for Christmas while we were in California. It was fun for everyone to be together.

Our first day together we let the kids play and then we all went to The Pizza Factory for dinner. They have the best bread sticks! After dinner we went back to Papa and Grandma's house for Brie and Abby's first birthday party. Abby was due to be born a couple weeks before Brielle last year, but because Brie came early and Abby came late . . . . Brie is a couple weeks older than Abby. They are both celebrating first birthdays, so we had a party for them both.

Grandma Rama made a pink cake and they each got a #1 candle. Brie pounded on the high chair tray while we sang because the metal tray makes such good noise.

Abby and Brie shared cake. Abby really liked the cake on Brie's tray better than her own. It was very funny.Here are all of their cousins shouting "Number 1, Number 1, Number 1", in honor of the girls turning one. I'm sure Papa Fred was loving that.After cake was over and presents were unwrapped, Brie had a little dance party of her own on the kitchen table. The toy Rama gave her sings a song when you put the puzzle pieces in correctly. When the song started she started bouncing and spinning on the table. She had a great time.Brielle's birthday present from us is a pink stuffed hippo chair. She was absolutely thrilled about it. Obviously. She hugged it and kissed it and loves playing on it. Maybe one day she will sit still long enough to actually stay sitting in it.

The Beach

Nothing is as fantastic as sitting at the beach the day after Christmas. On December 26, the whole family drove to Pismo Beach. My Mom and Dad were so good to us. We each had a room at a very nice hotel right on the beach. Mine and Scott's room had big windows looking right out over the ocean. We slept to the sound of waves and a rain storm. This was the view from our room. When we arrived, Scott and Brielle took naps in the room while the rest of us went for a walk on the pier and let the boys play wave tag. It was a gorgeous day at the beach.I bought a shell for Jacob on the pier and told him if he listens closely to it he could hear the ocean. It worked quite well considering he was standing right in front of the ocean! Hooray for Aunt Alicia. Krista, Bryce, Jessica and Tawna posing. The night at the hotel was spent playing games - Settlers, Pick and Ticket to Ride. A good time was had by all. The next day we had breakfast and then drove a little way up the coast to Morro Bay. We stopped to find some tide pools, but unfortunately they were covered in MONSTER waves. It was SOOOOOOO windy and the waves were huge and ferocious. We took cover on a rock that blocked all the wind. After a very nice seafood dinner we all drove back to Bakersfield. It was the perfect Christmas family outing.

Brielle's Birthday Bash

Brielle's birthday is on Christmas day. It was a very special day last year when she was born on Christmas. We opened presents in the delivery room. We called our families to say "Merry Christmas" and "We're having a baby!". I felt like it was so special to be having our precious baby on the same day we were celebrating Christ's birth. It was wonderful. Celebrating her first birthday on Christmas was just as great.

We finished with all of the Christmas festivities by noon and that evening we got to start with birthday festivities. How fun is it that Brie got to be with my whole entire family on her birthday!

Scott and I made homemade Macaroni and Cheese. Mac n' Cheese is the only food that Brie LOVES and will shovel in her mouth as fast as she can. She really loves it. So we found a good recipe and made it for everyone for birthday dinner.
(Yes that is a huge red mark on her eye that turned into a bruise from a fall right before dinner started. Brie got bumped around a bit trying to walk in the middle of all those people, but she is stronger for it I'm sure.)

After dinner, we had cake and presents. Brielle had her own cake, the kids had cup cakes and I made a candy cane cake for the adults. Brie really dove into the cake - literally. She also clapped when we sang her Happy Birthday. When it was all done and over she got a birthday bath.

Christmas Morning

Finally, Christmas morning arrived! It was so fun! We woke up at Laura and Brian's and headed over to Mom and Dad's house in our pajamas. We walked in and the first thing Brielle saw was her baby cradle from Santa Claus. I think I was more excited about it than she was, but she really did seem to like it . . . . along with liking all of the other cousins toys also.

Brielle and her new doll cradle. It has a matching high chair that we set up when we got home.
Brielle helping Aiden figure out his new stacking toy from Santa.In our house we open presents one by one so that everyone can see what the other person got. I think this is exciting because I love seeing the people I bought/made presents for open what I've given them. This year, my sister Teresa told me about a qoute that she loved. She asked me to do something with it and this is what I made for her. Because the one by one process took about 3 hours with that many people opening presents, we stopped half way through for the traditional Christmas quiche breakfast. My mom makes this every year and only on Christmas morning. It was delicious!
All the presents were unwrapped and the excitment was dying down. Grandpa and the kids laid back and relaxed in the middle of the aftermath. Notice Brie's new Red Sox t-shirt and her new doll that she LOVES.

Here is the whole group on Christmas morning after all the presents and quiche were done. It was a wonderful morning to be with the Allred fam. My parents are holding a sign that my mom gave my dad that says " All Because Two People Fell In Love".

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always my favorite part of Christmas with my family. We have a traditions that we've been doing for as long as I can remember and I love it all. This year was no exception. It was wonderful to be with my family on Christmas eve.

My Uncle Russ and Aunt Nancy and their family came over to our house for dinner. Grandma Allred was there also. We ate dinner and talked and then went into the living room for "the program". My dad wrote up a script years ago that we follow. We read a part of the Christmas story from the bible while the children act it out. The children used to be us and I remember always wanting to be the angel because I got to wear my mom's wedding dress and stand on a chair declaring good tidings to the shepherds. The kids were dressed as Mary, Joseph, wisemen, shepherds and even a star! We also all sing the hymn that goes along with the part we've read. This continues until the whole story is told. This year we were laughing so hard at the two girl grandkids fighting over the baby Jesus, a very pouty wise man and a very cute star. Afterward, anyone who would like to is invited to share their feelings of the past year and of Christmas and of the Savior.

Here are just a few pictures from our special Christmas Eve night.

Scott playing with the Little People nativity with Brie.
Brie taking care of and having a good talk with the Baby Jesus just before he was to perform in the nativity play.
Mary (Kea), Joseph (Steven) and a gangsta looking wise man (Davin) admiring the Baby Jesus. Kea even gave him her blanket.
Jessica passing on her fabulous (ghetto fabulous) hand made star to poor unsuspecting little Jacob. He loved it.

Christmas Dress

We are back! We were in California with my family for Christmas and we are now back and ready to update the blog. Finally, huh?

We had a marvelous time in California being with all the Allred family again. We also had a really exciting Christmas. It was definitely one of my favorite Christmas' ever! All the excitment that I experienced as a child at Christmas time came back now that I have a child to be excited for. It was so fun.

On Christmas Eve we went to church with my family. Brie wore her Christmas dress. These are the pictures we got of her in the dress. She is not so easily posed anymore. She can get up and walk away too quickly.

A Partridge on a Pear Treat

Our friends gifts are finished and ready for us to deliver tomorrow. Yahoo!

This year we went to the church's Welfare Square cannery. They are always canning or packaging something. LDS church members here in Salt Lake sign up to go volunteer for shifts to work. The food can be purchased by those who help and the rest goes to bishop storehouses for those in need. Scott and I went to the cannery last week and got a case of pear sauce. It is DELICIOUS! (I actually had pear sauce and almonds for dinner tonight. I don't cook anything now that Scott works until 11pm.) The pear sauce tastes just like a really good ripe sweet pear. Yum.

We wrapped the pear sauce in tissue paper and included a small partridge bird and a note that says "To wish you a Merry Christmas, we give to you . . . A partridge on a pear treat". Cute eh? Can't wait to go delivering tomorrow to all our friends and neighbors.

 

Our Christmas Tree

Here is the story of our christmas tree. We have never had many decorations for Christmas, but our tree has been especially lacking. We've had some colored lights and cheapy balls for the past two Christmas'. Our big plan last year was to deal with the cheapy balls through Christmas and then hit all of the after Christmas sales for tree decorations that were clearance prices. Well, much to our surprise, we were in the hospital having a baby on Christmas and therefore missed all of the big sales.

So, this year we got out the same ornaments and lights and I just had to do something. My big idea has always been that I wanted to decorate the tree with Buchanan tartan ribbon. I think it would be a neat tradition to have a "Buchanan Family" tree. So, I checked out prices on ribbon for our tree and the ribbon was going to cost $55. We decided to get a christmas plaid ribbon instead. I really like it. I then got gold and red berry sprays and poinsettas and gold jingle bell balls to finish the tree. The star is a 3D metal red star that I really like (it's important to me to have a star), but I think I'll paint it gold or a darker red. Something else that I've always wanted to do and have started this year is to buy a picture frame ornament. I'll put a picture of our family at Christmas each year in an ornament to hang on the tree.

Here it is (until Dec. 19). It of course looks much prettier with the lights out and the white lights around the tree shining. Use your imagination.
This is Brie escaping with a gold jingle bell from off the tree.
Here she is with penguin enjoying the victory of getting away with the new jingly toy.
 

Girl With A Pearl Earring

I just finished this book last night. It was wonderful. I'm so glad that I got into it and finished reading it. It was one of those books, like Memoirs Of A Geisha, that really takes you away into another place and time. I really enjoyed reading it. The story is a novel about a real painter, Vemeer, and his real paintings. He was Dutch and lived in the 1600s. I now wish I could go see his paintings.

Thanks to Kamber for the recommendation. Now I need another. Anyone have any suggestions for good books?

Discovering Christmas

I was so excited about Christmas this year that on November 30 I decorated the whole house with Christmas decorations, we went and picked our tree and got it up in the front room, and put lights all around our fence. That is the earliest that has ever happened.

I did most of the decorating while Brielle was napping. I was excited to see her reaction to all of the new things around the house, especially the tree. Surprisingly enough, she didn't care much about the tree - she touched it and looked at it and then left it alone. She was very interested in discovering all the other new things though. I filled our Christmas candy dish with her snacks - puffs and fruit snacks. She really liked that.
Scott has a Christmas penguin that his mom gave him. It is big and soft and has become Brie's new best friend. She hugs him, kisses him (open mouth of course), sits with her arm around him and is always excited to see him. This is her and penguin watching Baby Einsteins.

Brielle's New Steps

Brielle turned 11 months on November 25. I can't believe it is only one more month until her first birthday. I know all of you are counting down as well (advent calanders and all), maybe just not for the same celebration on the 25th of December, but we are so excited.

As with every new month, there are big changes. Brie now officially says "Da Da" for Daddy, "Ma Ma" for Mommy and "Ba" for Ball. When I say "officially" I mean that she really knows who Da Da is and who Ma Ma is. It was just noises before. I'll admit that she calls for Da Da a whole lot more than Ma Ma.

Another official announcement is that we are done nursing. She was fighting it more and more. I had planned to nurse until she was a year old, but she decided that is not what she wanted anymore, so we are done.

And the biggest news of all . . . . Brielle is walking. She took her first steps a couple days after she turned 11 months. She has progressively gotten better and better. The day after Thanksgiving we found a little walker at TJ Maxx that we thought might help convince her to try walking instead of crawling. It looks like it is working! It's been hilarious to watch her practice. The funniest was one day last week when I put her down for a nap and I could hear her playing and talking and then a loud thump. I peeked in to see what she was up to and she was practicing walking from one end of the crib to the other. It's hard to walk on a mattress, so she was falling and banging her head on the crib rail with each fall. This is all very exciting for her and for us, but I'm realizing how much harder it could be as well. I just got home from church and am exhausted from chasing after her. She is all over the place - playing up and down the bench and flirting with everyone behind us, climbing on top of other babies, up and down the aisles in R.S. while I am conducting, up and down the hallways, climbing on, in and around other babies car seats, patting people's bums as she stands behind their chairs, strumming on the vents during someone's testimony, etc. etc! Everyone's comment is the same - "You've got a busy one!"

Here are a couple links to short videos from before church and after. They are not the best quality because they are from the camera, sorry. Enjoy.

http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/aliciabuchanan/?action=view&current=MVI_0191-1.flv


http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r136/aliciabuchanan/?action=view&current=MVI_0194.flv

Festival of Trees

This morning we went to the annual Festival of Trees. It was a fun morning. We woke up this morning to a lot of snow. It was beautiful! The trees and ground were covered with fresh, glistening, white powder. It had snowed all night long. This definitely put us in the Christmas mood, so we went to see all of the Christmas trees.

Festival of Trees is put on by the Primary Children's Hospital every year. People decorate (incredibly) a tree and then donate it. It is sold to the highest bidder and all proceeds go to the hospital. It's always fun to stroll through all of the decorated trees and wreaths and gingerbread houses. I should say - it is fun when it is not packed with strollers! This is why we arrived right as it opened at 10:00 am and had a very nice walk through the trees.

Brie was fascinated with the decorations and the lights. It was cute to watch her point at everything that caught her eye.
I told Scott that we each had to choose our favorite tree and take a picture with it. I had many favorites. I took pictures of them all to give me good ideas. This one I really liked.
Scott chose the baseball themed tree as his favorite.
Brie was quite astonished by the whole thing. I think her favorite part though was eating the scone.