Circles

M got a video of L spinning in circles. Said she just started spinning on her own so he got out the video camera. Such a cute little video, if I do say so myself:)

A New Sensation

So L has been walking for about 2 months now, but this is the first time we have put shoes on her. She had the hardest time trying to walk in them. I am guessing it felt weird having things on her feet. I can understand, our family is a primarily no shoes, maybe socks, kind of family. It didn't take her too long to figure out how to walk, just 10 minutes or so. Here are the pictures of her trying to walk and falling down. At the end is a video of her when she was finally pretty stable. She still has a hard time when we first put her shoes on to go places, but she is getting pretty good now.

Resolutions

It is a New Year and with that comes the privilege of starting over with a clean slate. A chance to make new resolutions to be a better, more improved you.

This year I want to ENJOY things more; live in the moment instead of worrying about the future. I want to be more PATIENT; with my children, my husband, my calling, myself. I want to ACCEPT the things that happen in my life and not stress out about the things that are out of my control. I want to EXPERIENCE more with my family. Do more activities with the kids and go to more interesting places with the family. I want to LEARN new things to better myself and my family. Finally, I want HEALTH. I want to exercise more and eat better. Work on taking better care of myself so that in turn I can take better care of my family.

I know these are lofty goals, but I also know that I will have the support of my wonderful husband, family and dear friends to help me along the way.

I hope this year is wonderful for you and your family. That you will be able to accomplish goals set for yourself and that Heavenly Father will send many blessings your way.
Happy New Year, my friends!

Sk8r Grrrl

M's work had a Christmas Party for the kids at the local skate rink. They rented the rink for 2 hours and brought in pizza for everyone to eat. Santa even came and handed out gift certificates to Fred Meyers. It took us a while to convince K to put on skates, but once I told her I would put them on too, she was more willing to try. Here is a video of her after she had the skates on for 20 minutes. I think she was getting the hang of moving her feet by this time. If I can get M to go with us again, I don't think it would take long for her to skate on her own.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

We went to the Christmas tree farm Saturday to pick out our tree. We decided to get a smaller one and put it up on a table so L wouldn't pull it down or break ornaments. We have high ceilings so we were able to still get a 6 foot tree. On Monday we decorated the tree for Family Home Evening. K did a wonderful job placing ornaments this year. She clumped them a little bit, but she did it in different places on the tree instead of in one spot. She also helped me put the lights on the tree and did a pretty good job.

Our tree.
K and me putting on the lights.

K placing ornaments.

Even M got in on the fun:)

Daddy helped K put on the Angel topper.

Our beautiful Christmas Tree.

The Real Deal

She did it! She took several deliberate steps to get to Daddy.

Family Portrait

Every year we get a family portrait done at Christmas so we can send updated pictures to our extended families. We also got a very cute picture of the girls together. They did a great job.

Ten Months Already...

I can't believe my little baby is already 10 months old. Where has the time gone?

Giving Thanks

We had our families down for Thanksgiving this year. M and I spent the few weeks before Thanksgiving getting our house all decorated and in order for the big day. Then we spent Wednesday and Thursday cooking dinner for everyone. It was a lot of fun. We had turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, tex mex corn, regular corn, stuffing, dressing, green beans, cranberry sauce, cranberry jelly, and homemade rolls. We made everything from scratch and it was delicious. My mother-in-law brought 2 apple pies and 2 pumpkin pies which were also yummy. We all had a very enjoyable thanksgiving. My family especially had much to be thankful for this holiday. We have truly been blessed this year.

Great Grandma with L.

Aunt Karen, Grandma, K, and Great Grandma.

Aunt Kendra, Grandpa, and Uncle Mark.

Uncle Luke, Cousin Mika, and L.

Sitting around the dinner table right before it was ready.

Cousin Mika, Uncle Mark, and Cousin Nathan.

M and N.

No Longer My Baby

I forgot you can't rotate videos like you can pictures; so the video is sideways, sorry. But here is L standing without support.

Here is L taking her first unassisted steps. I am sure it is because she was trying to keep from falling, but we were still very excited about.