Paint!

This year I decided to be creative and to make most of my Christmas presents. I also wanted to incorporate Lydia into the gifts since she's the first grandchild and, well, I like her. So I ended up using a lot of paint and handprints and footprints. I realized in the middle of my crafting that I choose the wrong age to have her do a hand print because she's old enough to move her hands and play by herself, and too young to understand how to help or hold still when I need her too. Needless to say, after a lot of laughter, paint, and washing, I completed all of the crafts. This picture doesn't even begin to show the amount of paint we had all over us. It was on the carpet, chairs, tables, and our clothes. Lydia decided to suck her hand with paint on it so she had a mouth coated in green (how festive!). She still has green on one of her toenails that I can't seem to get off. Lydi was curious about the whole experience and especially loved when I painted her hands with a paint brush (believe me just dipping her hands in paint did not work, I tried). I don't think I'll use a 9 month old for this again, and word to the wise for moms, I would shoot for younger or older ages for this project, unless you don't mind paint EVERYWHERE. :)

Winter + Christmas= Wonderful

I just love having snow at Christmas time. It makes everything so much better. I don't think I could live in Hawaii and have a green Christmas because I need the snow and ice to add the magic of the season. Here you can see our deck with Christmas lights and snow and ice sickles.
So Christmasy!

And here is the view of our little cute Christmas tree and the outside lights with ice sickles once again. There's just something about bundling up at Christmas time and staying warm together with the lights, happiness, and joy! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights/Christmas Concert

Every year, of course, Temple Square lights are a must. This year we were able to go to a Kurt Bestor Christmas concert as well. These pictures represent our lovely evening.

Putting my photography skills to work (btw, I don't have any photography skills)

The nicest guy said he'd take our picture after he noticed us struggling to do it ourselves.

Doesn't that look cool? Another attempt at photography.

Another attempt at self photography. I wish that guy would have come back to help us.

We had amazing seats at the concert. We were second level but the seats were way better on the second level than the first in my opinion. Kurt Bestor's an amazing musician and it was a great performance.

Baby it's Cold Outside

We've had some frigid temperatures in Utah this month of December. I mean 8 degrees is just not a desirable temperature. My job is to make sure my baby stays warm on our outings and Christmas shopping trips. I think I did a bang up job! :) She even had little booties on that can't be seen under the blanket. As long as you love me so, LET IT SNOW, let it snow, let it snow!

9 Months

This past Sunday Lydia turned 9 months. It's crazy for me to think about her being alive OUTSIDE of me as long as she was alive INSIDE of me. It actually seems like she's been born much much longer than nine months. It's hard to remember life without her and I don't want to. This age is such a fun age with the awareness, games, talking, and adventure that goes on. Sometimes I become really sad because Lydi is really growing up and she's so big now. It's fun and unbelievable at the same time. She climbs all over everything and favors biting, growling, screaming, a super-unfeminine way of clearing her throat, blowing raspberries, clapping, and drumming. She's our adorable little monster. One cute thing she does that I hope lasts awhile is that she cocks her head to the side as though to say "look how adorable I am, don't you love me, awwww" and she does it at such random times it just makes you laugh. It's really hard to get a picture of, so this is the best I can do. Ususally it's without a hand in her mouth with a half smile :) Happy nine months Lydi bug!

BYU vs UTAH 2009

So for Brigham's birthday I got him a ticket to go with me to the BYU/Utah game this year. We had so much fun! BYU won in overtime 26-23 and it was a thrilling final game. It was my last year to buy season passes for awhile so it was really good to have Brigham there for the final game and to beat our rivalry. The crowd was so crazy and so pumped and so fun.


It was really cold at the game. Even with all the jumping around and screaming I did, I still froze to death!
The BYU and Utah marching bands combined to do red/white/and blue like they usually do. It was neat to see and hear.
Because it was our last game for awhile, we rushed the field after BYU won. We got to pat a couple BYU players on the back and tell them good job. It was crazy on the field with everyone pushing each other around. I really enjoyed meeting a couple of the players. I wanted to meet Dennis Pitta (who I fondly call PIZZA! (with my arms making a touchdown signal)) but alas, I did not find him.
Even though my throat was sore for a few days after and I hurt my leg jumping down from the bleachers, it was a blast, I got free awesome BYU stuff, and I sure do love beating the Utes. GO COUGARS!!! :)

Cell Phones!

No other toys are as exciting to Lydia as cell phones are. She loves them. She loves holding them, looking at them, pressing the buttons, and sucking on them. She gets so mad when you take them away and nothing makes her crawl faster than seeing a cell phone laying around. She actually is really smart and will run her fingers over the buttons on the cell phone until it presses down and a number or letter lights up the screen. I don't know why she has such a fascination but I think we are in trouble already! Usually we try to keep her away from them but one night we just decided to let her play with them. You can tell by that grin on her face how happy she is :)