Ava Potata

Ava Potata has been showing us some new tricks in the past couple days.

1. She started laughing on Sunday! With two days practice, she now can get a really good belly laugh out. I came in the door last night from shopping and heard her laughing at Scott. There is honestly not a better sound in this world. I love it.

2. She rolled herself over. She went from her back to her stomach and then her arm was pinned and she couldn't get it out. But, she's now attempting the roll over. No more leaving her on the couch or bed.

3. She is stays asleep all through the night. She does get up to eat twice (only once last night), but goes right back to sleep and sleeps in her own bed until 8am!!! Yahoo.

We love, love, love this beautiful and happy girl.

Lights on Temple Square

Scott, Brie and I went to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square for FHE last night. We dropped part of our family (Ava) off in a nice warm house with Grandma and Papa. The three of us went to the Joseph Smith Memorial building for dinner and then out into the cold to see all the lights.

Here is Brie meeting Joseph for the first time. She now refers to Joseph Smith as "Big White Joseph".
And here she is with the Christmas tree. Gorgeous!
The lights were spectacular as always. We walked through all of the lights, stomped on snow, watched the nativity, listened to the songs and went to see the Christus.
I love this picture of Scott explaining to Brielle about the statue of Christ. I don't know what he said, but today when she saw the picture she was saying, "Jesus eyes. Arms. Hold me.".All the kids immediately took a seat right up front and stared up at Jesus. Brie joined them.After a good dinner and seeing all the lights, this was actually Brie's favorite part of the night - over and over again.

Mary Did You Know?

that your baby boy had Cinderella as his dental hygienist?


Brielle has a new Cinderella toothbrush. She loves it and plays with it as much as Scott will let her. She spent some time brushing baby Jesus teeth in her nativity the other morning. I heard her saying, "Say ahhhhhhh. Open up. Get the back ones. All Clean." Then Cinderella was displayed as one of admirers who came to see the new baby Jesus, right along with the wisemen and shepherds. Who knew?

Santa

We went to visit Santa at the mall for the first (and probably the last) time. Brielle has been soooooooo excited about Santa. She is well aware of the fact that he will be bringing new toys and new baby dolls. We had our ward Christmas breakfast on Saturday and Santa was coming to it. She was all excited to sit in his lap and tell him what she wanted him to bring. Well, they announced at the end of the party that Santa never showed! Just great!

So, we went to the mall to see Santa. Who knew when we got in line that the low quality pictures with Santa were so stinkin pricey! We got the cheapest, smallest picture and Brielle was happy that she got to sit on Santa's lap and have a good chat with him. They said that most kids her age are too scared to sit with Santa, but we could hardly tear her away. It was fun to see both the girls with Santa. What made the trip to the mall even better was that Scott found a 20 dollar bill that no one claimed! Yahoo! Our pictures with Santa were paid for!

Double Date

This weekend Scott and I had date night - TWICE! Yep. We went out both Friday and Saturday night. What fun.

The story goes - I planned a date night for us. I bought tickets to a Christmas concert, got a babysitter, planned dinner, etc. Five minutes before the babysitter was going to show up at our door I checked the tickets and said, "Today is December 8, right?". Nope. It was the 7th. So the babysitter came and played with Brie and put her to bed and we took Ava out Christmas shopping for our date.

The next night a different babysitter came, played with Brie and put her to bed while we went out to dinner and the concert (with Ava). It was such a fun time to just be with Scooter Pie. We had a delicious dinner at a cool Australian restaurant. (It wasn't exactly like old dating times because I did have to nurse Ava in a bathroom stall. That didn't used to happen on dates.) Then we went to an AWESOME concert. I loved it!! It was Christmas music by some of my favorite local artists. There were guitars, fiddles, banjos, pianos, bass and good male voices. The performers were:

Peter Breinholt (Of course.)

Ryan Shupe & The Rubber Band
Sam Payne (a new favorite)What a great time. I like those kind of double dates.

In The Spirit

Christmas time is so much more exciting and fun with a child that kind of gets it. I am thrilled that we get to do Christmassy things with Brie and she is excited about them and kind of understands them. She knows Santa (she saw him at the mall) is coming and that he is bringing new toys. She says, "New toys! So excited!". She is very happy to get a piece of candy out of our German advent calendar each day counting down to Christmas. She greets the Christmas tree and the snow each morning by saying, "Hi Christmas tree. Hi snow." . She is excited to take Christmas cookies to Grandma and Papa. I CAN NOT wait to see how she reacts to it all on Christmas morning! And then she gets even more presents and more celebration with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents on Christmas evening for her birthday! Talk about a good day.

One day this week we did some fun things to prepare for Christmas:

We decorated our tree:

Then we went to play (march around in) in the snow:
After her nap we made Christmas sugar cookies:These pictures are for Laura. We accidentally bought bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. I called Laura to ask what it would do. She didn't know for sure, so we tried it. I wouldn't suggest it.

This is how the cookies went in the oven in their nice Christmas shapes:

This is how they came out: (still delicious!)After dinner (sugar cookies) we spread out the blanket on the floor and watched "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" on TV until Scott came home from his late night. We are definitely enjoying the Christmas spirit around here. I am so glad to share it with my Brie-Brie.

Hats

We received an exciting package from my sister Teresa! She sent us the cutest baby gift for Ava. She sent a pink shirt and brown and pink tights and an adorable hat that her friend made! Ava also received a tomato hat from some friends. Here is baby Ava in her new hats! She is 3 months old today! What a cutie!

Buchanan Elves

You have to see this. I am cracking up laughing watching it. Heeeee-larious!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1171320888

Family Wall

Well, the family picture wall is finished. We had our pictures taken about a month ago. I wanted family pictures in the fall leaves and we got them. I loved how they turned out. I got the prints back and then matted and framed them. They are now hung on the wall and the family wall is complete. I put vinyl lettering right onto the wall that says "FAMILY The ones you live with, laugh with and love."

Winter Wonderland

December was kicked off right around here! We woke up yesterday morning (December 1) to so much snow! It snowed all through the night, so when we opened our windows we saw a beautiful blanket of glistening untouched snow. It was beautiful. It continued to snow throughout the whole day.

Growing up in Bakersfield, CA made me not a lover of snow. I have now spent 14 winters in snowy cities and I can honestly say that I love the snow. Maybe because these days I don't have to go anywhere in it. I can just stay warm inside with my girlies and watch the snow through the window. It is definitely lovely to watch. It means winter and Christmas and warm blankets and hot chocolate and hats and gloves and fires. Talk to me again in March about the snow and I'll have another story. For now, I'm glad it's December and I'm glad December looks like this.

Here is Brielle in the ensemble she put together to go out and play in the snow.
Ava was a little more ready to brave the cold. (Thank you Tim and Becky.)
For all my family that was so afraid to come to our house for Thanksgiving because it might snow: