Ten Months

My little stinker is getting way to big. Alice can pull herself up on just about anything and is now walking along the couch, chairs, her toys, and anything else she can. I am fairly certain she has started calling me Mama, but Alan is still skeptical. She might have a word for Elsie as well. Every once in a while she will reach her arms out or crawl towards Elsie saying "A-be! A-be!" Alice loves to eat and would eat half of my dinner if I let her. She loved Thanksgiving and probably ate a full adult serving of turkey all by herself. She has the most pitiful cry and will crawl over and collapse at my feet and wail whenever she doesn't get her way. Alice still loves her taggie and sucks her thumb when she is tired or upset. She has the cutest giggle and she thinks the world is hilarious. She has started giving big hugs where she grabs your face and smashes her face on yours.

Thanksgiving Preview

Alan's brother and his little family are in town and we are enjoying lots of playtime, good food, and fun times. We are too busy having fun to make a full post about everything we have been up to, so I'll leave you with a cute pictures of the little ones for now.

No, she is not pretending to be a Nephite...

 Elsie had a little tumble today. We have told her over and over again not to push against the table and lean her chair back... Today she pushed too hard and fell all the way back onto the floor and landed right on the edge of a frisbee. I ran to her and held her head, and when I pulled my hand away, it was covered in blood. I ran her into the bathroom, and after further inspection, she had a long, thin, cut in the shape of a smiley face on the back of her head. It was very shallow, but man, head wounds bleed a lot! She felt better after lots of hugs from Mom and Dad and a nice warm shower to wash the blood away. Now she is sitting on the couch with a scarf tied to her head to hold an ice pack to the nice sized welt that is growing on the back of her head.

 Alice is very sympathetic, as always. She crawls around playing, and every few minutes climbs back up the couch to check on Elsie and bring her something.

I should blog, but I can't think of anything to write about

Do you ever get that feeling? Whenever I let too much time pass in between posts I get this nagging feeling that I need to get on and say something.

Alan and I purchased an early Christmas present for ourselves this past week. Brian Regan is coming in March of next year, and we snagged two tickets in the second row. I saw him live at the University of Utah my sophomore year at BYU, and he is even better live than in his recorded shows. We are pretty stoked about it.

We finally started going out and buying winter clothes. Alan picked out a really nice new jacket. It's one of those with the removable lining so it can either be a heavy coat or a lighter jacket. Plus, he looks really hot in it, so that's an added bonus. Elsie picked out her new long johns, and she chose a pair of plain white ones and   a pair with leopard print. Of course, she calls the leopard spots "hearts"... Either way, she's pretty rockin. Other than getting a nice new pair of gloves, I'm very much lacking in the cold weather clothes department. It is so hard to find a coat/boots/hat that looks nice, is warm enough, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Maybe my expectations are too high.

I bought my first turkey yesterday. This is my first Thanksgiving where I am mostly in charge of making the big meal, and I'm actually kind of excited. Alan's older brother and family are driving in to spend the holiday with us. Yay for Craig and Katie! I'm so excited for them to come over and spend time with us and show them all Wisconsin has to offer (mainly Alan's awesome work place). Elsie is so ready for Lucas to come over and play and keeps asking everyday if Lucas is coming yet. We should have a good time and have enough food to feed a small army. It's going to be awesome.

I should just accept the fact that we live in Wisconsin...

...and living in Wisconsin means there will be snow. My heart sank as the flurries started flying yesterday morning. Elsie was so excited for it. She danced around singing "Snow! Snow! Snowsnowsnowsnow!" and begging me to let her go outside. I remember being a little kid and being so happy when it snowed. Growing up in Oregon meant that it would maybe snow once a year, and then we were lucky if it was deep enough to play in.

 I've really come to hate snow as I've grown up. Actually, I don't think it is the snow's fault. I really just hate being cold. And if there is snow it means it is way too cold outside. *Sigh* I guess I just need to buy some good winter clothes and get over it.

 Anyway, Elsie really wanted to play outside, and I really didn't want to. My compromise was to bundle her up and let her play with the snow that had fallen on our balcony. She thought it was fantastic, so I got to be the Cool Mom and the Lazy Mom at the same time. Sweet deal.

 Elsie thought it was so funny to throw the snow at the window. Alice thought it was so funny to watch her.

 Look how dark it is outside! It was barely five o'clock! I watched, and the street lights came on the other night at 3:40pm. It was a dark and stormy day, but still, 3:40 is way to early for it to be getting dark. When is Winter Solstice again? Can't it come sooner and we can get it over with?

I guess I'll end this whiny post. Most of the snow has melted away, and it doesn't look like it is going to snow again anytime soon. The forecast calls for upper 40's to low 50's the rest of this week. I just need to wrap my head around living with snow...

This photo has not been altered

Yep, Alice is standing. She has pulled herself up on things a few times, and yesterday Alan tried standing her up. She can balance as long as she is not distracted by anything. Alan has already starting trying to bribe her with smarties to get her to walk. The other day he was holding her and he told her he would give her a whole package of smarties if she stood up. He kissed her, set her down, and she promptly pulled herself up on the coffee table for the first time.

"Help! I'm stuck and I can't get out!"

Here is the latest of my little rugrat. Doesn't matter what the obstacle is, she will try and go over it. A lot of times it just leads to situations like this where she will sit and whine until I rescue her.

Maybe it's genetic...

Alice isn't feeling so well. She has had croup for the last week, which means she has been sounding like a combination of an old smoker women and a seal. We went to the doctor today and she seems to be on the downhill slope and feeling better.

Alice, taken a few days ago.

 I only mention it because when Elsie was nine months old, I took her to the doctor for what turned out to be croup. How is it that both sisters contracted croup when they were nine months old?

Elsie, nine months old with croup.

On the upside, Alice's second top tooth finally broke through today (the first one popped out on Halloween). She is a MUCH happier girl now that they are finally out.

One more pumpkin...

I carved this one way too early, and sadly it molded long before the big night. Still, it looked pretty sweet...

Our Halloween Weekend

Our Halloween started on Friday night with our ward party. The Young Women set up this backdrop for family pictures. There was food, costumes, pies, parades, and a trunk or treat to finish off the evening.

 I spent most of Friday afternoon furiously gutting and carving three pumpkins to put outside our trunk. It took some quick carving skills, but I was very happy with the end result.

Everyone seemed to love my Angry Birds pumpkins.

Back at home ready to get in jammies and go to bed.

 But they aren't too tired to sift through their loot first...

 Halloween day. Two little dinosaurs went out to lunch at Daddy's work so he could show them off.

 This next picture is hilarious. Little did we know just how fast Elsie would slide in her pteranadon costume...

 Two little dinosaurs and one big dinosaur. Our local library has a real dinosaur skeleton on display for the next month sponsored by Epic. I thought before we went trick or treating would be the perfect time to check it out. Don't be fooled by the picture, they thought it was pretty cool.

 Finally, we ended the evening with a little trick or treating. It was a little cool, but not bad by Wisconsin standards. Elsie had no fear and ran from house to house. She always took one piece of candy for her bucket and then picked one out for Alice.