I was so excited when it started to snow. We turned on Christmas music, made cookies, then went out and played in the snow. I love waking up on Christmas morning to a blanket of white. Then I'm ready for spring.


This week we had Russ's mom stay with us. It was a lot of fun and Abbie is close to hero worship for her Gramma Gray. Thanks Laura we had a blast and Abbie definitely misses you.

I am physically unable to keep track of Savannah's socks. She hates them and every time I turn around she is wearing only one. I'm starting to think she eats the other one. The upside is at least she is eating something other than my milk. She is still on a bottle/sippy strike.
The other day after Abbie was in bed she started yelling for us. I came up to see what the problem was. When I got to her she had a long trail of green snot running from her nose to her cheek. She looked at me, very upset and said, "I said 'Bless you.'" (Allie are these quotation marks unnecessary?)

Savannah is a girl on the move. Or at least she wants to be. She spends almost all of her play time on her tummy and often is reaching and stretching to get a toy that she has pushed out of range. I think she will be crawling before long. Great. Just great.

I am slightly ecstatic for Christmas this year. I've started asking Abbie questions like, "Abbie wouldn't it be great if Santa brought you more legos?" or "Would you like a little people airplane for Christmas?"Russ is afraid I'm going to give it away. I just want to ensure that she likes what she gets for Christmas. Me and good old Harold Hill.

Today is Russ's birthday. He is 32 (and starting to look like he is old enough to be an RM). In a true gesture of love I am trying to brag about and embarrass him. First and most obvious is his latest painting, commissioned by a friend of his family. Russ is amazingly creative. He always says his talent is a result of hard work but lets be honest... we know he doesn't work that hard.

When I first met Russ my impression was, "This is a man without any guile." Five years later I do not change that statement. I only add he has iron strong integrity, a generous heart, a goofy sense of humor, killer stamina (He thinks Mt Olympus is a morning hike.), wonderful father, a detirmined work ethic, a powerful testimony, and no body fat.

As I am sitting here typing this..he (on his birthday) is feeding Abbie. So lets be honest...I need to go!

I'm taking a poll?? What is the most annoying Christmas song?

For me it is a tie between "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" and "Last Christmas I Gave You my Heart." Even typing them gives me the shivers..

I - like I'm sure all of us - hate shopping for swimming suits. Well the search is over!


My New Suit highlights my face rather than my body. It It also protects against harmful UV rays
(Make sure you go to the next page for a picture.)


I am sure they have plenty in stock if you are interested!



*I am sorry but I just think these are the most hysterical things I've ever seen

Last night we drove downtown to see the Christmas Lights on Temple Square. As I drove past a gas station I noticed gas was $1.52! I was appalled - such expensive gas! I could get it for $.20 cheaper a gallon around my house. What a rip off.......... :)

At the aforementioned Temple Square Excursion we went in to look at the Christus before we went out to look at lights. As we were looking at the statue I was explaining to Abbie that Jesus loves her so much and that he wants to help her to be happy. She turned, looked at me and said...."Like Super Why?"



Um.....Yeah. Like that.

(For those of you who aren't familiar with the PBS Super Heroes who help children solve problems while learning to read - consider yourselves lucky.)

Lately Abbie has been walking around and saying "Oh, my chinny chin, chin!" (Yet another Super Why reference.)

Oh, Brother!

We took our car into the shop to have an oil leak looked at. It is a fairly new car for us and we weren't expecting any major problems. When the mechanic called to let me know how much it would cost he said, $1,500!!! For an oil leak!!!! Apparently with VW's it is time consuming to get to this particular place that was leaking. I was fairly close to heart failure at that point. Thankfully he went on to recommend that since it quite a small leak we should just put something on the floor of the garage and ignore it. He said if it was his car that is what he would do. Thank heavens for honest people.

I think being Santa is about the most possible fun for a parent to have. I am more excited for Christmas this year than I've been in a long time.

And last a short video to show what our life is often like around these parts.

I will never understand how a baby that is exhausted can fall asleep for ten minutes in a car. Come home, wait up, and then refuse to take a nap for another hour.


Why does Abbie pick the most odd (meaning odd plot and poorly written) of all of the children's books we have as her favorite? The Magic Toybox..It doesn't even live up to the potential in the name.

I was at Target today and fell in love with all of the cute little girl clothes they had. They had hoodies and sweaters, cute tights with funky designs, fun retro shirts, adorable dresses just for Christmas, and oh, the pajamas! The girl who owns all these clothes would be one hip two-year-old. There is never enough money for all the adorable little girl clothes in the world.

I have done most of my shopping online this year to avoid my above mentioned coveting problem. Why are there so many stinkin' cool things for little kids?

Unfortunately those sly online marketers are on to me. Now when I go to Amazon if I even just look at a book, toy or movie. That item - a long with several similar items (based on extensive market research I'm sure) appear on screen every time I return. They will stop at nothing to part me with my money.

The other problem with on-line shopping is that either 1- The UPS man always comes at nap time and rings the doorbell OR 2 - The UPS man doesn't come at nap time and Abbie begs insistently to open the"mail". And if you've ever seen a two-year-old beg you know it is not a pretty sight.

Sunday night we all gathered at my parents house for one last "Hurrah" before my brothers left for opposite ends of the country and we could gather again in a few weeks for Christmas. We had a wonderful time visiting, gorging ourselves on food, and inventing definitions to words like begerbeglic in a game of Balderdash. Abbie loved every minute of it. She thinks being at Grandma and Grandpa's is akin to heaven (only with better toys).

Near the end of the evening my brothers put in a movie for my family to watch. Abbie was in the middle of her brownie (yet another bonus of Grandparents) and was watching as the movie started. First, there were the trailers for upcoming movies. Then a warning from the FBI that I have yet to read. Then the few seconds of black screen before the actual movie began. As we all obediently watched the black screen waiting for our show we heard Abbie yell loudly from the high chair in her raspy two-year-old voice...

"What the heck! It's broken!"






Two thoughts simultaneously went through my mind.

1 - I don't want her to see me laughing my head off so she will repeat that over, and over again. (This by the way was a fruitless effort because my family's reaction was plenty to encourage her.)
2 - I am SO glad that I don't swear.

*The picture is entirely unrelated, however any child that requests that you tie a Wal-Mart bag around her waist so she can run up and down the hall has inborn comedic genius that is only just being tapped.