Christmas Day Pictures

Here are some pictures of Savannah on Christmas Day.... It seemed at first, that she was more excited over the paper ripping part than the present!

She's opening a gift from her Grandma Wendy, a cute little pink outfit!

Somehow, after opening the first present, she sat down and got the bow stuck on her PJ's-on her bum no less!!

Here she is with Daddy, who's trying to get her interested in the present.

We got home from Granny & Papa's, and started opening stockings.

Christmas Dress

This is the dress she wore to church on the Sunday before Christmas. Since Mandy is in the Primary program in church, and there were a lot of people already gone for the holidays, we didn't go to church with Mandy's parents in Buckeye, like we've done in the past. Maybe next year.

She did have on white tights with her black shoes, but they were taken off, so that she could walk around without slipping and sliding on the tile floors.

Christmas Eve

In Mandy's family, a big family dinner is set for Christmas Eve. When she was growing up, they did name draws for gift exchanges for Christmas Eve, but since the family has grown too big and not everybody is able to come to the dinner (those from far away) it has been done away with. The last couple of years though our cousin has hosted a White Elephant party, separate from Christmas Eve dinner. This year, they weren't able to host a party, so Mandy's brother and sister-in-law, Ralph & Cheryl, hosted the Eve dinner and added White Elephant for the night. It was much fun! There were some pretty good gifts.....Mandy wanted a musical candy dish in the shape of a big Hershey Kiss, but it got stolen from her. Anyway, here are some pictures from that night......Savannah with her Daddy, after the dinner. One of her cousins, A.J., and her Uncle George, are in the background.

Here's Savannah with her 2nd cousin-I think? (it's her cousin, Brian's, baby girl), Caitlin Sedig. It looks like she's ready to run, doesn't it? Caitlin isn't too sure what is going on.

Here's Savannah with Mommy! I think she sees the camera and is trying to reach for it. It's how we got her to start walking, we'd wave the camera from aways and she'd want it....

Christmas Stockings

I am so excited for this Christmas. It's Savannah's first Christmas! Kids bring a special excitement into the festivities and since I haven't been a kid for a good long while, I've missed that excitement.
I also hope that I can focus my festivities on giving and serving, in observance of Christ's birth and life. Christ is a wonderful exemplar of service and love. How grateful we are for His example and Love.

Merry Christmas to YOU!!

This year, I decided that I was gonna be a little homemaker......I made our stockings and bought enough material to make more, for later. I think they turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself. My mom has an embroidery machine and so she was able to put our names on the cuffs.

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. You can see that this even has a lining in it......

I didn't think to have Jason take any pictures while I was cutting out the material and stuff, so I only have this picture of my small sewing station set up in the living room. I had to do this while Savannah was sleeping, or else she'd get into it and I wouldn't get much done. She actually was awake part of the time that I had this out, and she was absolutely curious about it-as I'm sure all babies would be.

And here are the finished products!! Green for the "boys" and Red for the "girls"!

I have lots of memories of my mom making clothes for me and my dolls (including Barbies) and costumes for me, and I think it would be great if I am able to do even half of the things she did, for Savannah.

Another video of Gift Scramble game

Here's a video of Andrew, Steve, and Dave attempting to unwrap this prize.

Other Christmas party pictures

After the Gift Scramble game, and a "Guess the # of Kisses in a Jar" game, we had the traditional White Elephant Exchange as well. Unfortunately, I didn't specify that it was per person, so a few of the couples only brought one gift, instead of 2. Oh well. Next time I'll be sure to specify!
Dan was one of the first ones, and he had called earlier in the day, asking about what kind of gifts to bring, good or not-so-good.....he took the plunge.....that is, he got the toilet plunger! Ugh! He tried to leave it behind when he left, but I kindly reminded him to take it, only to find out the next morning that he put it on the hood of our car with a sticky note (I already forgot what it said!) Anyway, he got the last "word" on that one!
Jessica started out with the Chocolate Dream gift, but she ended up trading for the label maker.
Here's Tiffany giving it a try in the Gift Scramble game. I heard it was a lot of fun. I missed a lot of it, because I had some friends that were having a hard time finding our place, so I was on the phone with them helping them with directions. I felt bad that they missed this game, but they were able to go home with a pretty nice gift, from Costco.

Christmas Party

We had a Christmas Party with some of our friends and played the Gift Scramble. It was a fun game that Jason found on the internet. A "Prize" is wrapped in a small box, which is then wrapped in a bigger box, which is also wrapped in a bigger box. We had our prize wrapped in 10 boxes, each individually wrapped! A pair of dice is being rolled by each person, when 7 was rolled, it was time to switch out. Jason got some videos of it, and I got some pictures as well. The following video is of Brenda at her turn at trying to open the gift with oven mitts and then Felice getting her turn too.

M&M's

I don't know when kids should start having candy/chocolate, but I don't think 11 months is the age to start. However, Savannah seems to think differently!
Anybody who knows me, knows I LOVE chocolate (though I'm not that different from many females, I'm sure) but I'm especially fond of the m&m candies!! I had a little ziploc baggie of some m&m's for a snack while we were out for a walk. We couldn't go today, due to rainy day, so I brought everything back in and knew she would like to play with the diaper bag. (She has this thing about taking things out of purses, bags, boxes, canisters and putting them back in-I think this is normal?) I made sure I took out the little baggie of m&m's so she wouldn't get into it. Apparently, I didn't put them far enough out of her reach, because the next thing I know, I look over and she has found the baggie and the m&m's are in her lap, bursting out of the bag and she's chomping away, with some blue color around her mouth! Luckily I dug it out before it "melts" in her mouth. However, when I gathered the m&m's, she watching me, and as I walked away with the bag, she realized she wasn't getting anymore and proceeded to cry, I mean really cry. She's never done that before when we've had to take something away. She was not happy!

Sleepless Nights

Yes, she's 11 months old now, but there are still many nights that I have to get up with her. But a couple of nights ago, she was up every hour from 12:30 pm until 3:30 and then she stayed awake until 5:30!!! I finally got to lay down, tired, crying, and irritated, only to be awakened 30 min. later by a demanding Savannah! This time, Jason, sweet and patient that he is, let me get some sleep as he tried to get her down. She didn't go back down until close to 9 am and even then she only slept for 45 minutes. At this time, I decided she was ready to be fed, so I nursed her in bed and she slept for another 2.5 hours in bed with us! My oh my, was I a cranky mama for the rest if the day! When I laid her down for sleep that night, I hoped she would be good and tired to sleep-but an hour later, she was awake and it was enough to bring me to tears, dreading a repeated sleepless night. She did go down though and slept soundly this time for a good many hours. I was very relieved.
My little Savannah loves to be held and cradled to sleep, I think that's part of the culprit. I guess this is the price I pay for wanting to hold her so much, especially while she's sleeping-during the day!

Halloween--Bumble Bee

I know, I'm so behind in posting our happenings.... I still haven't even finished about our UTAH trip back in October!!!

The weeke before Halloween we went to our friends' Halloween Party out in Queen Creek. It was great to see them and their family!

Then on Halloween night, our ward had a Halloween party, Harry Potter theme! It was great, they did a wonderful job on recreating Diagon Alley.

Vannah was a little Bumble Bee Stinger, I was a Witch, and Jason was Robin Hood.

Watch out, here she comes!

On Thanksgiving night, we were able to help her gain confidence and start walking back and forth between us. The next day, she realized it was a fun game and once she got to "mom", she'd immediately turn around and head back to "dad"-all on her own, without any coaxing!
Without further ado, here she is........drumroll please..............

Almost Walking!!!

She started on Thursday 11/20 to take some steps on her own!!! We are so excited! For the past couple of months, she's been holding our hands to go walking. The last few weeks though, she started to reach for and grab our fingers and start going, actually pulling-like she won't even try to walk unless she's got somebody's finger to hold! Well, on Thursday (11/20) we just got done with some family pictures that were being taken at the Mesa Temple. We went inside the Visitor Center, I had to use the bathroom while J and Savannah waited for me. When I came out, Savannah was leaning against a bench facing outward (like she's leanig against the couch in the previous video I posted). When she saw me, she got excited and then, on her own, she leaned forward and actually took 2 steps OF HER OWN FREE WILL. In the past, when we try to get her to walk between the two of us, she won't let go of our hand, or if we do, she immediately sits down, or if she knows we're letting go, she'll lean forward and practically fall on her face to get to whoever is there to "catch" her.
Anyway, later in the day, we were at Best Buy in the DVD section while Jason used the bathroom(Jason wanted to show me the camera that he wants to get-a Cannon 990is or something like that) and Savannah was playing with the DVDs in the aisle and she let go of my hand and took 3 steps toward me!! Yay!

Tonight (Wed 11/26), we were at our friends' house playing BINGO and Savannah was standing next to their fridge with no hands, occupied with a letter magnet, for a really long time-the longest she's EVER stood by herself! And throughout the night, she was taking a lot of steps back and forth to people. I think it'll only be days until she's really walking on her own (am I being too confident in my daughter's skills?)
I don't have any pictures/video of her yet on this, but hope to post some soon.

Silly Savannah

She was happily playing by herself and I hear her squealing and I look over and this is what she's doing:

Sleeping Cutey

We went to do some errands this afternoon, after Savannah's morning nap. We went to Home Depot, Stapley's, (these first two, we stayed in the car while Daddy went in), Target, Fry's Grocery and lastly, Costco. By the time we got done with Costco, we had just enough time to grab some fast food and drop Jason off to work. Savannah ended up falling asleep before we made it home. I got the wagon out so that I could make one trip from the car to the house and I found a way to put Savannah in it, for the ride home-sleeping!! Above: Savannah sleeping in the wagon with the groceries and other shopping items. The box of Krispy Kremes even fell onto her legs and she didn't even flinch!

Below: Here are a couple of close-ups of her

Aren't babies just the cutest (and quietest) when they are sleeping?!

Below: She stayed asleep even as I unloaded the wagon!!

Thanks to Grandma Wendy, for letting us use this wagon-it's really come in handy!!

I was afraid that when I finally picked her up to put her in her crib, that she might wake up, but she went down just fine-though it was for only another 25 minutes.

Oct 23rd--Daddy got me to Laugh!!

We thoroughly LOVE to hear Savannah laugh and giggle (who doesn't like to hear children's laughter though?) so we videoed it and wanted to share this with you as well!
This isn't her 1st time laughing, but we were able to get it on video (unlike one of the first attempts-as you can see in the previous video I shared below).
Savannah and I had gone to the Phx Zoo earlier in the day with our Playgroup, and she took a nap when we got home, so when she woke up, Jason wanted to spend some time with her and this is what came to be.....

June 29th-Almost laughing

Back in June, Daddy was playing with Savannah and was making her laugh, but by the time I got the camera to video it, she wasn't gonna laugh anymore, she'd just smile real big! Oh well!

Sept 15th Standing Up Video

Here's Savannah shortly after she's started crawling, but she'd been pulling herself up for a little bit and doing rasphberries too!!

Utah Trip Day 4-Oct 4th

General Conference
We had the opportunity to listen to the morning session of General Conference. I realized, with an active 9 month old, that I had a difficult time focusing on the talks! Elder Neil A. Anderson's talk is titled, "You Know Enough" and he shares a time when he gave a blessing and in it he felt impressed to say, "Faith is not only a feeling; it's a decision. He would need to choose faith." I realized more about how agency-the freedom to choose- affects our lives and those around us. How blessed we are to have these teachings to guide us in this adventurous life!
Savannah played and then had a nap, with her Daddy, as you can see in the below picture. He has a way of getting her to go to sleep-on him, so that he can hold her!! He loves it and I think it is so sweet!!
During the Afternoon Session of Conference, we spent some time with Clark again, going to Walmart (Savannah needed some baby food). We ended up walking around and Clark and Savannah got tired out. We took Clark to his home so he could rest for the night and then Jason got dressed and went to the Priesthood session with his Uncle and Cousins. It's tradition in their family that the sons (those that live close by) will join their dad in attending this session while the wives and family come to the house to visit and get dinner ready. Once the men return, then they eat and there's ice cream for dessert. So below, is a picture of Savannah just before her Daddy left to go with Uncle Carl and cousins, Quinton, Tony, and Craig to Priesthood Session.Savannah missed her Daddy and loved being in his arms!

On occasion she would let me hold her too!


She discovered the joy of balloons on this night! She kept chasing after it and pulling on the balloon, thus making that squeaky noise it makes and she LOVED it!! You can see it in the photo below!

Jason's other cousin, Shauna, came over as well-her husband was away on a business trip-with her kids. Needless to say, there was a small crowd at Uncle Carl and Aunt Launa's house with all the cousins and kids! Yet, you could tell that they thoroughly enjoyed having their family around. We enjoyed being there to share in the happiness and visiting with the cousins. I would be thrilled to have my children and grandchildren around me when we are older. How blessed we are to know that Families can be Together Forever. It gives us a much deeper sense of what families mean to us.

Utah Trip Day 3-Oct 3rd

GRANDPA CLARK
Today was the day that Savannah was able to see her Grandpa Clark for the first time! Her grandpa was SOO EXCITED to see her!! In fact, he didn't even know that we were in UT, until Jason called him on this morning and asked if he was working today. Lo and behold, he was off, and we announced that we were in UT and asked if we could come over. He was VERY surprised at this news!

Meeting Grandpa Clark outside his place

MISSION REUNION ACTIVITY

The other part of my Mission Reunion was getting together at a church building to visit with one another. It's always a delight to be among fellow missionaries and especially Pres. and Sis. Andersen. There was not a very big turnout this year, compared to a couple of years ago, but still good to be there.

With Pres. and Sis. Andersen

The Mission Reunion made me reminisce of my mission, the people that I served and got to know, as well as, remembering the times with my companions. What a wonderful people that reside in Hawaii. We never had to worry about being fed, the locals took very good care of us missionaries (many a missionary gained weight while serving-thankfully I wasn't one of them!)

Here is Savannah with her Daddy!! She's the twinkle in his eye!! We marvel that we have been blessed with a happy baby, who loves to smile!

Google Reader for bloggers

Some of you might already know about Google Reader, but there might be some of you who don't use it. So I thought I would post about it for anyone who needs to get with the times.
----------------
All you do is go to www.google.com/reader, click on ADD SUBSCRIPTION, then input all the blogs you love (one at a time).
----------------
It's that easy. Then when you want to check to see if anyone has posted something new all you have to do is go to Google Reader and it tells you who has posted something new on their blog. It saves lots of time, so you don't have to check each blog on your list at a time. Must try it if you are not already addicticed to checking it 5 times a day!!
=====
If you have any websites that you do regular searches for (Craigslist, amazon, for example) then it can give you updates on those searches as well. (be sure to narrow the search, or else you'll have tons of updates to go through each day)
=====
Anyway, I hope this was somewhat helpful to you all!!

Being a Mom

I'm surprised at how much I didn't know about being a mom. I figured with babysitting my nieces and nephews, I would have some kind of idea---NNOOOOOO! I was so wrong. It's so much different when it's your very own baby. I was so excited to be a mom, yet I was anxious too. I hope that that was normal? I'm so blessed that Jason and I were able to make it so that I could stay at home and be with her. I would be missing out on so much otherwise and I would be sad about that. Everyday I wake up to a Happy baby, who's usually playing in her crib, talking (babbling) to herself and perfectly content. When I walk into the room to get her, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see the huge smile on her face that lets me know she knows me and is excited and happy to see me! How can life be any sweeter than that?

Here are a few pictures of me with her. There are not very many of me with her when she was younger, probably because I was to tired to get dressed or do my hair and makeup, I didn't look good enough for pictures. : )

1.13.08 Phoenix Indian Medical Center-Savannah's 1 day old!
2.17.08 Taking a nap
4.20.08 Savannah's Baby Blessing

6.7.08 Getting ready to go to shopping-FUN FUN FUN!

7.4.08 Up early for Tempe Ward Independance Day Breakfast and matching!

8.24.08

9.20.08 At Gage and Kalauna's house

10.10.08 Sitting outside under the trees, enjoying the beautiful weather!

Random photos

LOOK AT ME!

9.24.08 She ALWAYS crawled to this place and would play with the VHS tapes (in their sleeves) and started standing up under the desk. This pic is when she decided to lean against the leg and let go of the crate. She thought she was neat stuff and tricky do!!

ROLLING

9.27.08 She is trying to figure out this toy! She loves the roller at the top of it, so she's always playing with that, more than "walking" with the toy.

Stand 9.28.08 The first time she stood all by herself for more than 1 second. I was able to grab the camera and click a picture before she "plopped" down on the floor! You can see how much she's concentrating on this feat!! I was so excited for her!!

Utah Trip Day 2-Oct 2

-PREYED UPON-

We stayed the night with Jason's Aunt Bonnie on Wednesday night. As I was bringing in some luggage (I shoulda had Jason do this....but....) I walked in the door and felt something on my leg, by my left knee, and it kinda scared me. It kinda hurt, but not really bad. I'm not the type of girl that is "afraid" of bugs, so I wasn't freaking out or screaming or anything. I walked downstairs to the bathroom and pulled off my pants. I didn't see any bitemarks or bugs on my leg, so I sighed with relief. I peeked into my pant leg though and lo and behold, a Prey Mantis was in there!!!! That made me start to freak out!! I called out to Jason to rescue me and I stepped out of the bathrOom, while he went to work on taking care of my problem. Wow-I've never had anything like that happen before. Of course in the rush of things, I didn't get any pictures of this tale of mine, so you're gonna have to trust sweet little me that I'm telling the absolute truth of it! : )

-AUNT BONNIE-

We had a wonderful visit with Bonnie and then Christopher showed us all of his music and DVD collections. Bonnie is Jason's aunt on his mom's side.

Here's Savannah with her Great Aunt Bonnie. She does a lot of scrapbooking for her sisters and has kept the family contact list up-to-date, as well as keeping the family history too! Very impressive woman!
Here's Savannah and Dad with cousin Christopher. He was very shy and had to be convinced to be in the picture. Thank you Christopher! He loves music (80's--which is the best kind of course!) and DVD's.

The Mission Reunion consisted of 2 activities. Thursday night was a Temple trip to the Mt Timpanogas Temple. So we headed out to SLC for this and had a late start leaving Washington UT. Savannah slept most of the 4.5 hour trip to Taylorsville. When she was awake though, she was happy!

-TEMPLE TRIP-

I rushed to change my clothes and leave for American Fork. I ended up being too late to do the same session with all the other Elders & Sisters of the Mission, but was able to join in the last part of President's talk he gave in a reserved room. It was wonderful to see the Elders and Sisters, that I recognized, in the Temple. Of course in the rush of things, I was not able to get any pictures while at the Temple either-though I didn't have time anyway. (I just don't think to take pictures)

Jason stayed with Savannah, since she didn't know her Aunt Launa and Uncle Carl, to stay with them by herself.