She's Crawling!

She's been working on it for a while, but this afternoon she finally figured out how to get all four extremities moving at the same time in a forward motion. Here is a video of her that I took tonight...

Tonight she's been crawling to me almost as soon as I put her down. I might not be able to escape her as easily now if she can follow me around easier and faster now. We're going to have to do more baby-proofing!

8 Months Old

Look at our cute little girl! She is getting so big! I can't believe she is 8 months old now. She is getting to be so fun and full of personality. And she is learning more and more each day. Here's a little about what she is up to lately...

Leah loves to be on the move. I used to be able to sit her down and she would be stuck in one place to play unless she fell over. Now, when I put her down, she has figured out how to get onto her stomach and starts rolling all over to get to where she wants to be. Don't let this innocent little face fool you. She has already figured out how to get into things she is not supposed to. I caught her one day last week getting into the entertainment center. I thought it was fun to watch her figure this out, so I had to get some pictures. This actually wasn't her first time. You can see a pillow in the lower left side of the picture. I had put the pillow in front of the doors to keep her from trying to open the doors, but obviously it didn't deter her very well. She just moved it out of the way. I have since found something more sturdy to place in front of the doors to keep her out. She isn't quite crawling yet, but she is getting really close. So far all of her crawling is done in reverse, which really frustrates her. It is kind of funny to watch her moving backwards and then fuss because it is not getting her where she wants to be. I probably shouldn't laugh, but I do. She also does this funny thing where she arches herself up on her hands and toes. I took this picture of her doing it, but it looks more like she is doing push ups. Ross was saying tonight that it always amazes him to watch her develop and just naturally move from stage to stage as she figures how to do things. Isn't wonderful to watch these little ones grow up!Our little one doesn't have any teeth yet. She loves to chomp on my fingers lately and I keep expecting them to pop in any day now, but nothing yet. However, since I'm still nursing her, I'm not too sad that she doesn't have teeth. They will come when they come. Leah is such a happy girl who smiles a lot. Socially, she is a lot like Ross and I. When we take her out where there are a lot of people, she's usually quiet and just watches everyone and takes it all in. Once she feels comfortable, she will start to play more and make more noise.

But when we are home, it is a different story. This girl loves to hear her own voice. She loves to scream and squeal as loud as she can, just to hear herself do it. She loves to see herself in mirrors and look at pictures of herself on our phones and lap top. Some times she gets all hyper and silly. The other night she discoverd the joy of really splashing in the tub. She was really getting into it. When she's in these kinds of moods, Ross and I will often call her "Crazy Baby." Such a cutie!

Leah loves to eat and so far is a really good eater. Her newest trick is that she likes to drink water from a cup after she eats. Here she is playing with her sippy cup. But don't let this picture fool you. She really is just playing. So far she will only drink if I help her do it with out the lid on.

Another name we have for her is "Our Fuzzy Hair Baby." Her hair is just long enough that it will stick up all over if we don't wet it down (several times a day). Here is a fun picture I took of her crazy hair after she had her coat on. Funny!

This girl will grab just about anything she can get her hands on. One of her funny fetishes is that she loves tags. If something has a tag on it, she will find it and usually ends up with it in her mouth. I don't know what it is, but she loves them.

One more fun thing about Leah...She likes to watch Elmo. So one day I was looking for videos of him online for her to watch and came across this video of the Elmo Duck Song. When I played it for her, she loved it! So I have since added it to my list of "Favorites" so I can find it easily since she probably watches it nearly everyday. She knows it when it comes on and she gets all excited and smiles and laughs. If you're an Elmo fan, here's the link...otherwise, don't worry about watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LEYwoooVfw

She is definitely our little Princess. We love her SO much!!

Saying Goodbye

January started out on a bit of a sad note for us. Ross's younger brother, Kyle has decided to go back to school at LSU. So the night before they left, we went to his Mom's house for a farewell dinner.

It has been so fun for us to have Kyle, Amy and Jackson so close! Ross and Kyle have been able to do so much together. We've also done a lot of fun things as couples. Amy and I get along together really well and have been able to bond as we have gone through our pregnancies and had babies so close together. And it has been so fun to see Leah and Jackson grow and interact together.

It was really sad to see them go, but we are glad that their little family gets to go on to such a fun new adventure together. We miss you guys!!!

Of course we had to get some pictures before they left. Here's the mommies and the babies...and the daddies and the babies...
Such cute little babies. Look, they're holding hands!
And here's the babies and the Grandma...
It took them about a week to drive all the way to Baton Rouge Louisiana. But we hear they had a pretty good trip. Ross's mom went with them to help out. And Jackson did pretty good for being in the car so much each day. They traveled through five states, visited five national parks, and got to stop and visit with their sister, Kaye, and her family along the way. All of their stuff arrived ok also and they were able to get it all moved in. We hope they have a lot of fun in Louisiana! And good luck with school, Kyle! Come back and visit soon.

Christmas Break

This Christmas break was the best one that I've had in a long time! I didn't have to work. Ross didn't have to work. And we were able to spend a lot of time sleeping in and spending time together and with family and friends.

The first surprise of the break came on Tuesday the 21st of December when I woke up around 9:30 am surprised to see Ross standing in our bedroom. There had been a snow storm that hit the area pretty hard and the district had decided to cancel school for the day, so Ross got to start his Christmas break a day early.

The next big surprise came a couple days later when an old friend of mine, Mandy, showed up unexpectedly at our house. Mandy and I know each other from our CEU days. She and Lesley played basketball together for CEU, plus Mandy and I were in the same student ward (she was also my very first visiting teaching companion). Anyway, we had lost touch for the past few years and were able to connect again recently via email. She was in town for the Christmas break and decided to make a visit. I'm so glad she did! On the Monday after Christmas Mandy, Lesley and I were able to meet up and go to lunch together. It was so fun to get together again like old times! Here is a picture of us at he Thai restaurant that we ended up eating at.

During the week after Christmas we decided to go spend a couple days at my parents house. It snowed most of the time we were there so we didn't end up doing as much as we thought we would, but it was still fun.

On Thursday, Ross met up with his brothers for a "guy's day" since Kyle would be moving to Louisiana soon. They ate lunch at Tucano's and then when to see "True Grit" - a lunch full of meats and a remake of a John Wayne movie, what can be more manly than that?

One of the nights we were at my parents' house my brother took his wife out for her birthday, so my parents kept their kids overnight. So Leah got to have a slumber party with her cousins. Here she is with the other two babies that were born in 2010.The four kids just before bed time (actually this was probably taken well past bed time).

We also got to visit with the Turner's one evening during the break. We really enjoyed being able to spend some time with them. Being back in their home during the holidays felt just like old times.

Here are a couple of pictures we got of Hannah and Leah together while we were there. A couple of cuties.

It was so fun to have Lesley, Brian and Hannah back in town for the holidays. We didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked to, but we were still able to treasure the time we did have together. Hannah really liked Leah, whenever she saw her she would point to her and say, "Baby, Baby." Hopefully next time they are together Leah will be better at playing with her.

For New Year's Eve we were supposed to have dinner with Lesley's siblings, but the snow storms made the roads too dangerous to travel to her sister's house. So we missed out on spending time with them. We did go to Ross's mom's house to spend New Year's Eve with her, Kyle, Amy and Jackson. We ate pizza, played some games and went to bed right after midnight. The next day, more family members arrived so we could have the Leslie's traditional New Year's grilled salmon dinner (and steak for those of us who don't eat fish).

On the Monday after New Year's we went to say goodbye to Lesley, Brian and Hannah since they would be flying back to San Jose the next day. It was sad to have them leave again, but so nice to have them here for a little while. Here's some pictures we took that night...

But like all good things, this Christmas break went way too fast and now we are adjusting back to real life in 2011. I hope this year is as good for our family as 2010 was!

Christmas Day

I think we had a pretty successful 1st Christmas for our little Leah. It was so fun buying stuff for a little baby this year. She is still too little to really understand what's going on, but it was fun for Ross and I to help her open presents. She wasn't really into opening the gifts. We tried to show her how to rip and tear the paper, but she mostly wanted to just eat it. She was good at playing with things after they were opened though.Before going to bed on Christmas Eve we read "The Animals' Christmas Eve" and "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." A sister in our ward had shared her tradition of getting a family Christmas book to read together each year. We decided we would start that too. We ended up with two books this year, but that's OK! We also read the account of Christ's birth in "The Book of Mormon."

We have been fortunate to be able to enjoy Christmas morning at our own house each year since we've been married. This is something we really enjoy - being able to relax and enjoy the morning in our own home doing things at our own pace, plus we don't have to haul presents all over. After a yummy Christmas breakfast and a nap for me and Leah, we did go up to my parents' house in the afternoon so that we could enjoy some of the day with them too. Here's Daddy and Baby with their presents...

Overall we had a pretty simple Christmas, but that kept it from being too stressful. I like it that way. Here we are after opening our presents...

As you can see, Leah got a high chair and an Exersaucer for Christmas. I think these gifts have been for Ross and I as much as they were for her. Having a high chair has made feeding her and dinnertime for us SO much easier! And the Exersauser has been WONDERFUL! She loves to play in it and it helps keep her entertained while we try to get stuff done. Both have been great investments already.

Look at this huge smile! This gift was definitely a winner!!!

We actually put this Exersaucer together on the 23rd of December because we knew we would be gone most of the day on the 24th and we didn't want to be up all night putting it together for Christmas. So we let her try it out after we got it together. Here is a great video of her reaction that night...

Leah at 7 Months

On Christmas Day our little Leah turned 7 months old. She seems to be getting more and more personality every day!

Here's what she's up to:

- eats rice cereal and baby food for dinner and loves it!

- a pretty steady sitter

- rolls all the way over (but still just in one direction)

- grabs everything she can get her hands on

- loves playing in her new Exersaucer (jumper)
- smiles a lot

- her hair is long enough now that it likes to get fuzzy and stand straight up all the time

Here's a few more pictures of our little cutie!

Family Christmas Parties

We had a few more family Christmas parties in December. First was the Tucker Christmas party with my Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins and their kids. It's always crazy when we all get together but I think a pretty good time was had by all. My family was in charge this year and we decided to bring back our Nativity tradition with the great-grandkids. I thought they did pretty good for their first time. Afterwards we opened some presents from Grandma and then played some "Minute To Win It" games. I was organizing the games and running the timer so I didn't get any pictures with our camera, darn it. But if I had there would have been some good pictures of some crazy antics. We ended the night playing a blindfolded tag game. That was pretty crazy too!

The Sunday before Christmas we had a family party at my parents' house with my siblings. We had a great dinner (as usual) and then exchanged gifts. My parents always put together a special gift for each of us to open. This year they gave each of us (including the babies) a copy of "The Book of Mormon" with their testimony in it. They also gave us bookmarks that looked like round-trip train tickets back to our Heavenly Father that reminded us to "Believe" (kind of like in "The Polar Express" but this was to believe in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ). They also gave each of us bells like the one in "The Polar Express" to remind us to believe in our Heavenly Father. Leah loves her bell and shakes it all over when we let her play with it. I'm surprised she hasn't whacked herself in the head with it yet! Lyndsee was able to get each of the kids a pair of sunglasses. Here is Leah sporting hers...

We tried to get all of the kids to wear theirs together for a picture. With the little babies constantly trying to take theirs off, this is the best we could do. But Kaylynn's smile is so cute here that it makes up for her taking off her glasses just before the picture was taken!

On Christmas Eve we went to Ross's mom's house for a Leslie family party with his siblings. After a yummy Italian themed dinner, we did the Nativity and then exchanged gifts. Tamaran's family even joined us on the computer via Skype for the gift exchange. It was fun to be able to see and talk with them.

The battery on our camera died during our reenactment of the Nativity, so here are the pictures I was able to get...

Mary, Joseph and a very handsome Innkeeper...

The Shepherds, including a cute little pink lamb...

The Angel announcing the birth...

And a very cute and happy Baby Jesus...

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the Wise Men in their pimpin' costumes! There's nothing quite like seeing Kyle and Don sporting their pink and purple robes!