Happy Holidays

I keep putting off blogging because we're still in Utah and I don't have access to all my pictures and that puts me off kilter and out of order. I want to write about Christmas and being here, but I don't know where to start.

So, Christmas was great! Both girls slept in until 8:45 out of exhaustion from fun family parties for a few nights prior. We were all just kind of standing around waiting for them and then we just shrugged and went off to shower while we continued waiting. Christmas win #1 - even though my hair was wet, I was dressed and looked much more together in jeans and a shirt than I would have in my paisley pajamas.

We really haven't talked Santa up to Willa that much. This first child thing is kind of hard that way for me. She never knew to ask for presents and it wasn't until Christmas Eve (after watching the stop motion Rudoloph to introduce her to the idea of reindeer and sleighs and the misfit toys) that I explained to her about setting out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for Rudolph.

When Willa woke up, we thought she would have forgotten about everything and that we could eat breakfast before heading into the living room. The first words out of her mouth were asking if Santa ate the cookies, though, so that was Christmas win #2. We went straight into the living room to discover and play with the Santa toys. Then we had breakfast and headed back in to open presents.

Christmas win #3 - the look when Willa unwrapped this giant Costco princess art set. There was a sharp intake of breath and she could just not believe what she was looking at. This was followed by lots of whining to open the art set during the rest of the present unwrapping.

Christmas win #4 - we didn't get June any presents, but some of her aunts and uncles did. Mostly she played with wrapping paper and I pulled wet pieces of it out of her mouth the entire morning. BUT. But, there was one glorious moment when I unwrapped her present from Adam and Amanda. It was a Minnie Mouse and she literally squealed and started laughing. I kept tickling her with it and she kept squealing and laughing. It was about the most adorable thing ever.

Christmas win #5 - This actually happened the day after Christmas. One of Willa's Santa presents was a little tent to play in. The day after Christmas she wanted to play with it, so we went into the living room. She stood by the little opening and said, "Welcome to my castle, that Santa gave me," and then she gave a little bow. I did a double take. It was so hilarious. I've been wracking my brains to figure out where she learned that. I think it must have come from an episode of Daniel Tiger when he goes fruit picking at the castle and meets King Friday (obviously, I have all these episodes memorized). I seem to talk a lot about the t.v. that we watch. Really, we don't watch that much. Okay, some days we do, but other days we hardly watch any. If someone has a better idea about how to entertain a toddler on Sunday with 1:30 pm church when a nap is missed, you're welcome to write it in the comments :).

Finally, the pictures. Knoles Family Christmas Nativity on the 20th. Starring June Daniels (youngest baby present) as the Reason for the Season. June stole the show by sitting up in the manager and sucking on her pacifier like Maggie Simpson. Various cousins in mangering and wising garb.

Photo from Hogle Zoo yesterday. Love the zoo, but hate the crowds? Might I recommend going when it's 20 degrees outside? We nearly had the place to ourselves. You can see by the unflattering photo of everyone but Ryan, that it was chilly. June was a little snow queen in her cream snowsuit. Despite a grumpy beginning (photo obviously taken at the beginning), Willa ended up having a blast and when she got in the car she kept saying, "Mommy/Daddy, thanks for a great day." That was a sweet and adorable phrase to end the trip and helped me be a little more patient when she immediately started whining for a snack after. The cherry on top? Both girls stayed awake in the car and then crashed for long naps when we got home. Saweet!

Ryan drove back to Las Vegas this morning to get back to everything. I'm staying an extra week for Dr. Alyson's bridal shower that my mom is throwing. That's right! My favorite pediatrician, Hot Lips, MD is getting married. We are so happy for her and I'm so excited to be in town to help with shower.

June 9 Months!

I'd say that this darling girl is overdue for a nine month update. Also, probably better to have a new post on top of that last rather icky one.

I mean, could this baby be any cuter? I posted one of these on FB already, but they were just all so cute, I needed to put them on the blog for forever.

June could not be any cuter, but she could definitely be a little sweeter. She is so sweet to me, but she has developed a real antipathy towards being held by Ryan most of the time. She'll go in spurts when it's okay, but lately it seems she is getting worse. Or, maybe her temper is just increasing? Her screams are shrill and you can tell very much that she is ANGRY, not sad, tired, sick, etc. She's mad, MAD! So even though I love all the sweet little cuddles she gives me and how she lays her head on my shoulder and sighs and murmurs with contentment, sometimes I wish she could share a little love with her daddy. At first I thought maybe it was just all strangers, but then she has gravitated towards and allowed herself to be held by some women at church, Rebecca, and a few others. Ryan and I wonder if she's just starting to dislike men! The women she allows to hold her all have dark brown hair too, so I wonder if that is comforting to her because it looks more like me. I don't know, all I know is that she is so adorable, but a real stinker-pants sometimes.

June also gets very MAD in the middle of the night if she doesn't get picked up when she wants to. We go through good spurts of 1-2 weeks of solid 10-12 hour sleep at night. Then she'll get sick or something and she gets off. Then we have to start the sleep training all over. Ear plugs are my new best friend because most of the time she will go back to sleep for several more hours. Call me a bad mother.

She still very much loves Willa and has lots of laughs and smiles for her. They are starting to get along a little better now and it's very cute. Most of the time, though, when she smiles at Willa, Willa responds by grunting and yelling, "That makes me so ANGRY!!!" I'm so glad that Daniel Tiger has given her the appropriate words to express her feelings :).

Lastly, June very much wants to crawl, but not enough to actually do it. She'll get up on all fours for quite a while and eventually cry because she's not quite sure how to make it happen. If she put as much effort into crawling as she does into flipping over when I lay her on the changing table, then we'd be in real trouble.

Here's a little video Ryan took when he was getting her out of bed. A rare moment of smile for him, probably because he thought she had just woken up so he went in to get her, but really I had just laid her down. Stinker, got out of that last nap!

Rota wha?

Warning: disgusting bodily functions featured in this post!

I keep meaning to post about June since she is now a big nine month old! However, we've all been taken down by various illnesses.

On Sunday, Ryan woke up not feeling well. He wanted to stay home from church except that we were speaking. He went home right after Sacrament meeting and was looking pretty bad by the time I got home later. On Monday he went to Instacare and got diagnosed with strep. We were pretty sure that was what it was, but the doctor didn't even have to do the lab. He just smelled his breath :)!

Meanwhile, June's poop has been getting runnier and runnier and so I think she's got some sort of rotavirus right now, that she may or may not have passed on to me. It feels kind of like the stomach flu except out the other end. Actually, poor June's has been coming out both ends. She had two baths this morning before 8:00 am. When she woke up she was covered in poop (so sad, she even has a diaper rash all up her tummy from laying in it) and then she vomited all over me and her fresh clean clothes a little while later. Luckily the vomiting has only happened twice and she's a little more cuddly than normal but not horribly sad, so that's good. Solids are out, but breastmilk is in and thankfully she will still nurse a lot.

To top it all off, Willa has a nasty snot nose and until today, hadn't pooped in eight days. What are the odds? One can't keep it in and one can't let it out. After prune juice and lots of apple juice, we resorted to a suppository this afternoon. Usually, those work within minutes with her, but this one took over an hour - that's how bad she was. There were a lot of tears and grabbing of the tummy until she finally worked it out. I think potty training has thrown her bowels for a loop and she hasn't quite figured it out yet so she just holds it, fabulous.

I've been doing laundry like a mad woman and spraying lysol everywhere. Here's to hoping that we don't catch what the other one's got!

Christmas Stockings

Growing up, everyone in my family and extended family had a personal felt stocking that my grandma had made for them from a Bucilla stocking kit. I'm a little sentimental and wanted to keep up the tradition because I loved having my own special stocking and have many fond memories of looking at all the stockings at Christmas time. When my grandma died, my mom found one last finished stocking that was waiting for whatever grandchild would next be born. She gave it to me for Willa, so then of course I made a stocking for Ryan and finally for June.

Ryan's was finished just barely in time for last Christmas and I starting looking for June's almost immediately after. It took me the entire year (minus a few months after having June) to finish it. Granted, most of my sewing happened in 30 minute spurts in the evening after the kids were in bed while we were watching t.v. The stocking patterns have gotten more intricate as the years go by, so June's was actually very time consuming, but I think it's so sweet and cute. I'm not really creative at all, so I like just buying the kit and reading the instructions. Now that it's finished, my hands feel itchy to do something again. It feels strange to sit down in the evening without it. Maybe I'll take up knitting? I need something that requires a medium amount of concentration so that I can still watch my stories in the evening when the kids are in bed.

Thanksgiving and more

So much keeps happening, it's hard to keep everyone updated. We had such a nice Thanksgiving, it was so amazing to us to see so many friend and family in such a short time. The weekend before Thanksgiving my parents drove down to visit so that my dad could see the house. They left on Monday morning. About three hours later, the Thalmans arrived on our doorstep ready to play all day. On Wednesday, Shannon and the O'Kelley clan arrived from Newport beach. Ryan took Willa over to play for a few hours and returned home just as the Rathers were pulling up. They stayed the night with us en route to California. It was so fun to get to know little Mason better and to meet baby Max and just to spend time with good friends.

Thanksgiving Day and the rest of the week were also so nice. We hung out a lot at Rebecca's house with family and ventured to Circus Circus one morning to ride the rides courtesy of Shannon and Graham. Willa loved cousin Claire and really got spoiled having someone to constantly play with her. It was the best kind of holiday time. We all gathered on Saturday morning for a big breakfast before Shannon and Graham headed back to California and Adam and Amanda went back to Utah. There was just enough time to go home and have the kids nap before Ashley and NH were back again! We spent the afternoon and evening together and then after dinner another USC couple who was in town stopped by, the Sperrys. Then it became a late night with a lot of friends and a lot of tired kids playing in the house but it was so worth it. The Rather's left on Sunday morning and then on Monday we got to see the Thalmans one last time before they flew back to Houston.

Ryan and I tried to savor every minute of being with our loved ones. One of the biggest pushes for us to move back was that we felt our life could be so much richer if we lived nearer to family. At least near enough that it was within a reasonable driving distance for an occasional visit instead of a very long and very expensive plane ticket. It's been an answer to prayers and something we really sought for to have this kind of holiday. It was something we could only dream about before and to have it a reality is such a blessing.

We hardly took any pictures of anything, but here are a few I found.

Willa wearing another of my hand-me-downs to church. This one was a Grandma Knoles homemade original.

  

 My mom brought her amazing steamer down and Ryan was busy deep cleaning everything. It was like magic!

 Willa helping my dad make a complete set of outdoor lights. They had two sets that each had missing bulbs, so they had to test each bulb and build one good set. Willa was very helpful and could unscrew the bulbs all by herself!