100th post, Christmas post, 8-month post

Yes, it's true. This post is triple fold. First, let us celebrate the 100th post of this blog. Now, in order to make this easier for myself, I'm just going to caption each picture in the order they uploaded. So if things seem out of order, that's because they are.


We spent Christmas with my entire family in SLC. We took some family pictures and had this one of all the babies born in 2008. So here is Bria (April 25), Abby (September 28), Cameron (September 2), and Stone (April 1). Yes, Bria is huge.

Sam thought it would be great fun to make the dads of the '08 babies refuse to smile. Needless to say, my mom was not thrilled with their pact.

We took this family picture just outside my parents' house.


My two oldest nieces' Christmas presents were getting their ears pierced. So we all went for moral support (mostly for my sister), and Sam thought it would be cute to dress Bria up in Hannah Montana gear while we waited. I'm not so sure what I think about that, but I took a picture anyway.

On Sunday night, my sister Amy, her three girls Lindsay, Lucy, and Sophie, and my sister Whitney and I went to see the lights at temple square. There weren't as many lights this year, but I'm glad the church is recognizing the cost and effect of using so much electricity!


Ah, back to family pictures. This is Bria's incredibly happy face. Adam and Kathleen, do you think she looks a little Lena-esque here?


On the 26th, all the girls went to lunch at Market Street Grill. YUM! We talked about things that were hard and things that were happy this year. Then I made us all divulge on our celebrity old-man crushes (young-guy crush for my mom). S0 here we have Whitney (Brad Pitt), my mom (Matt Damon), me (Colin Firth), Lindsay (George Clooney), Amy (Harrison Ford), and Rachel (George Clooney).


We didn't take a ton of pictures on Christmas morning, but here is Bria with her Santa gifts, including some cute clips to put in her hair. That should help more people know she's a girl. (She's also wearing her traditional Christmas Eve pajamas). This will also work for our 8-month picture, since Bria turned eight months old on Christmas Day. I can't believe how big she is! She has crawled a few crawls with her belly off the floor, but mostly she just scoots around (with incredible speed).


Sam, Bria, and I each opened a present on Christmas Eve earlier in the day. I had to work on Christmas Eve, so by the time I got home, it was a whirlwind to throw our stuff in the car and start driving to Salt Lake. We opened out presents and Bria got these little barnyard animals, which are a hit, to say the least.


Last but not least, we got a new kitchen table! My sister Lindsay was letting us borrow theirs while they have been living with my parents. Now they are moving into their own place and need theirs back. So we were searching KSL Classifieds and Craigslist (as well as Target and IKEA) for a while. The other day, Sam saw this table for $25! We called right away and Sam left to pick it up within 15 minutes of our talking about it. When he was almost there to pick it up (in West Valley). The guy called and said that he had moved the table, and while doing so, cracked the corner, and if we still wanted it, we could have it for free! So, the crack wasn't too bad, so we got this free table! It is pretty nice, and we are really excited about it. Sam fixed the crack with some wood glue, and you can barely tell. So here's Bria enjoying the new table.

So there you go. The marathon post. We hope you all had a lovely Christmas! We are home in Provo now, and it feels really nice to be home. I am now hammering out some details of my New Year's Resolutions, so I'm sure I'll post about those next year in a couple days. Until then, I will just enjoy these last few days of '08. It was a good year.

Christmas is in one week!

The calendar might not say it, but it is definitely winter in Provo. It has been snowing a ton, and I'll admit, I'm so over it. I think I'd like to move to California right about now. Oh well. Bria is rather interested in the snow, however, so I guess we'll make the best of it. Here is a picture of Bria in the Snug-a-Bug clothes we won last week.Later that day, I let her chew on an apple. This was right as she started getting big chunks in her mouth, and I had to take it away. Try to notice how soaked her clothes are from drool. She loved that apple.

Bria has become quite the scooting pro. I am trying to rework how things go around here, because it seems the second I turn my head, she is playing with a cord or licking the wheel on her stroller or gnawing on a small piece of paper. I'll get this babyproofing thing down soon, I'm sure. But it's definitely added an interesting element to my life.

We are eagerly getting ready for Christmas around here! We are just almost finished shopping, and my family will start getting in to town soon! I took some pictures of Bria today by our tree-- which I may regret now, because now she is fascinated with the tree and all the presents.
Now I am just analyzing this year's resolutions from January and trying to think of what resolve I want for 2009. Hmm . . . maybe I should just take the year off.

Scooting

Within the last three days, Bria has learned to move forward. She has pretty much mastered the army crawl and is finding all sorts of ways to get into trouble. I have this video I took the first day she started to scoot around, and as you can see, I like to lure her with plastic bags. Today I got her to scoot all the way from our bedroom to the front room by wiggling a plastic bag in front of her. Why do babies always go for the dangerous toys? We may never know.
So here she is, folks . . . The newly-mobile Bria! (oh and don't mind the camera shaking-- that's me laughing. and don't mind my shrill voice either-- that's just the way I sound.)

This is my favorite week.

I was going to post yesterday about my great day, but I'm glad I waited because it looks like this is going to be a great week!

Before the clock struck nine o'clock in the morning yesterday, I feasted on homemade-bread-toast for breakfast, I had a nice phone conversation with my old roommate Alexandra, and I found out that I won $100 of Snug-a-Bug baby clothes from Your Heart Out. Can you believe it? I am not one of those people who just wins stuff. The last thing I won was the 5th grade spelling bee. (actually, I did win a drawing at my first college job [Western Wats] for a $15 gift card to Media Play. maybe I do win stuff!) So, the day got better and better when I went to Costco and got to sample a cream puff (what, did you think I'd win something there too?). And then we had some friends over and I ate little smokies wrapped in bacon with brown sugar. Holy deliciousness.

I thought all my luck would end when I went to bed last night, but then . . . Bria slept in until 8:45 this morning! And THEN, I got a call from work saying we had won some Thanksgiving competition and I get a free griddle pan (calphalon, I think).

And lastly, just before I took Sam to work, I discovered that Bria's hair is long enough to turn her into a Who (see below). Christmas has come early this year, my friends.

Video, finally

I finally got that video to work! So here you can see the way Bria gets around these days. Also, don't miss the post from yesterday with the recipe for the famous cranberry pear cake.

This recipe is just too good not to share.

Cranberry Pear Cake
2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 t baking soda
1 large can pears, with juice, mashed
1 bag cranberries

Combine all ingredients. I like to add everything except the cranberries and then use my hand mixer, which effectively mashes the pears, then add the cranberries. Pour the batter into a greased 9x13. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 40 minutes. (My mom swears hers bakes in 40 minutes, but mine always takes infinitely longer.) Do a toothpick test to be certain it is done.

Sauce:
3/4 c cream
1 c sugar
3/4 c butter
1 t vanilla

Combine in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Drizzle over individual pieces of cake and top with a hefty dollop of whipped cream.

You will die of culinary delight.

Thanksgiving on Hands and Knees

We had Thanksgiving with my parents, my sister Whitney, my grandma, and my dad's brother. We had all the classics, and then I made some new dishes: butternut squash in brown butter, brussels sprouts with vinegar glazed onions, and green beans with bacon and almonds. I also made a pumpkin cheesecake and a apple cranberry pie. It was a great meal! Here is Bria watching us eat.

Also, that morning my sister lindsay and I ran a 5K.

Hanging out at my parents' house this weekend:


Just over the weekend, Bria has started expressing interest in crawling-- much to my dismay. It is very cute, but I'm not excited to babyproof the apartment. She is just getting up on her knees, so I figure I still have a couple weeks before she really takes off. Here is a video of her newly-found talent and a showcase of how she currently moves (the tummy pivot). Forgive her outfit-- she was just about to take a bath due to a messy prune dinner a few minutes earlier (pictured below).
The video is taking WAY too long to update. I'll try to do it again later.