Ward Christmas Party!

Twas the night before Christmas, well, that was the theme anyways. It was actually twenty nights before Christmas. Everyone in the ward wore their pajamas to the ward party and had breakfast for dinner. It was a fun night for Eleanor, lots of kids present. Sadly, Clayton had a finals review class and couldn't make it. Here are a few pictures.

These are our friends EJay and his daughter Lauren. EJay busted out his footed pajamas.
In a sweet cloud motif to boot. I didn't get a full body shot, but I think it's just as well. Another law student, Dusty, was also sporting a full-zipper, footed pajama. Those boys.

Lauren is such a cutie.
This is Aubrey and her little Cadance. She has the brightest smile! Cadance and Eleanor are hallway buddies. During church meetings we usually end up in the hall so these girls do not disturb the classes. The "under one" set aren't as reverent as you would hope.

Cute Angela and Zach.

And my sweet, standing Eleanor in her Christmas pajamas.

Her favorite part of the night was playing in the back of the room. She would sit and watch the kids running or try to crawl after them. Every few laps a group would stop and talk to her. I love how kids love "babies".

This is her "Scarlett O'Hara at the picnic" moment.

"Now boys, don't you fight over who gets to bring me my brownie."

Mom still a bit of a dork? Check.

More catch up posts if I find the time. We fly to Utah Friday morning, and I have a ton to do. I can't wait to enjoy the holiday season with our family!
(Nothing will derail our Holiday! -That's for Megan and Jenni.)

At What Age Should She Get Her Own Line?

Eleanor is cracking us up yet again. Today she got a hold of my phone and started chatting away. I had no idea she knew this "trick" as we've never let her have either of our phones before. The video at the end of this post is her laberlaberlaberlaberlabering away.

She is picking up new things every day. I need to keep better track of her milestones. Some of our favorite little things of late are:

Shouting, seriously shouting, at the top of her little lungs, to Clayton when he is upstairs studying. She will stand at the baby-gate at the bottom and just holler away. It's so funny to me. Every now and then she will do it when he is gone, and when I tell her he is gone, she will give me the funniest angry, confused look. She is very aware of her daddy.

She can play pattycake. She can't clap yet, but she can kind of roll her arms, which seems harder to me, but whatever. At the end when you throw up your hands, she throws them straight out like a zombie. Cute.

Mimicking different sounds. If she hears something high pitched on tv or in real life she will use her "high" voice to copy it. One time someone on tv started crying and she starts in with her version of it. It sounded like she was mocking them. Can that count as her first cynicism too? Not yet?

She will copy me making animal sounds. For a cow she just hums.

She also likes to sing, but only to certain types of songs. A lot of Christmas songs have been hits with her in the car. She also likes to "sing" a long note if the car goes through a bumpy part of the road. Our car shudders a bit between 43 and 50 MPH (awesome) and she likes to hear her voice vibrate.

Cruising around the house. Along the walls and furniture. This isn't really new. As soon as she could crawl, she could stand up. And like a day later she started moving along whatever she had pulled herself up to. The baby proofing never ends.

She can also climb up a full flight of stairs, (we stand right behind her) but she has no idea how to go over or down a step, so that is a bit of a problem. When on the bed she will just take off over the side with no fear about the outcome.

She will eat anything you give her. She loves goldfish, puffs, cheerios etc... I'm also sorry to say that she really loves french fries. Probably the only thing that she has a problem with is that horrid baby-food meat. Ham in a jar? If it tastes anything like it smells, then I don't blame her. Has any one's kid liked this stuff?

She likes to play with my trims and ribbons. She will sit in front of the full length mirror and pull them over her head and look at herself. Ahh. Vain just like her mommy.

She also tries to put clothes on by pulling them over her head. Over and behind her head, I should clarify. It's really cute.

She loves kids and will stop whatever she is doing if she hears kids on tv. (See Gap ad below.)

She still gives really nice open mouthed kisses, but is getting better, ie: drier.

She can say "Hi" at the appropriate times. She can also say dadda and momma.

She can wave hello or goodbye, just never when you are actually arriving or leaving.

And a whole mess of other things I can't think of right now. Right now she is asleep in her crib. Face down and to the side, knees tucked under and her bum in the air. It's like she took a course on how to be freakishly adorable and aced it.

Here is the video.
P.S. The text was from my niece Megan.

Thanksgiving Was A Long Time Ago

We had a lovely fall here in Michigan. It stayed warm and dry much longer than we could have hoped for. And for that, I am thankful. I have a truckload of pictures, but will edit them down to a few so as not to overload. I've put off posting a bunch of them because I keep meaning to ask my neighbors if I can put pictures of their kids on my blog. I still haven't asked. I'll just throw them up without names and take them down if they refuse when I finally do ask them.
That should work, right?

The first few pictures are from a day of raking leaves. The leaves here in Michigan are crazy! I've never lived anywhere that has a city-wide leaf pickup program. I should also note that I actually didn't rake any, except onto children. That kinda counts. No?

I love how kids will jump in leaf piles and excitedly ask to get "buried". All I can think of is, "Spiders, spiders, spiders." You could not pay me to lie down in a giant pile of leaves.

For Thanksgiving, our awesome neighbors the Oversons hosted a big get together. We have five families on our block that are members of the same ward. None of us went anywhere for the holiday, so we all chipped in and made one incredible feast of food goodness. Two of us made turkeys so we would have lots of left overs. Here I am presenting mine. I was so glad I didn't ruin it or send anyone to the hospital.

Clayton got to carve. Note he grew a "study beard" for a while. He finally just shaved it all off. It was fun for a while to have a mountain-man around. Or maybe more of an indie rock band-man.

Our little family on Thanksgiving. By the way. I need help with my hair. If I'm not really careful, it ends up making me look like Toadette or Jasper from Twilight.
Both are looks I am not going for.

Sweet Eleanor loves the action of a house full of people.

The Johnsons. Two of the happiest people alive. They're like this all the time.

Their littlest one with his Indian head gear. The moms (not me) organized fun Thanksgiving-themed crafts to keep the little ones occupied during the day. Gum-drop turkeys, Indian head gear and vests and pictures to color. With 9 little ones among us, the activities were very helpful.

And the Johnson's other cutie being squooshed by me. It's hard not to squeeze him. He is so adorable and fun.

Clayton loves this guy. He is uber active all the time, which for some reason just cracks us up.

Another cute Indian.

And another. This one loves to hold our Eleanor. We wish she was a bit older so we could pay her to babysit.

This little Indian will have trouble hunting.

A few more little Indians didn't hold still long enough for me to catch them on film, and one was topless, (Guess who, neighbors.) so she didn't make the blog. Oh well.
The food was spectacular and I can't even talk about the pies. After dinner, all the grownups played a game of "Celebrity" while the kids watched a movie. It was a great, great day!

Reminder, Keep Doors Closed

Hey.... Eleanor?Eleanor! *

Yes Mom?

I was on the phone and on the computer (I know, nice.) while Eleanor was a few feet away in the kitchen playing. Or so I thought. Nope. She had made her way into a normally closed bathroom to find a whole new source of fun. One we had been hiding from her. Also, notice the plug in the wall there? It is her job to unplug it. That's probably dangerous or something, but luckily she just knocks it down, then leaves it alone. From the plug, you can tell these pictures are a little out of order. I actually found her before I looked in the bathroom.

It's so tasty. Paper, paper, paper. E loves paper. Kleenex, toilet paper, dad's homework (Not even kidding about that one.) or anything.
Notice the Huggies box she has been chewing on?

Bad baby. Just look at that rebellious expression. Oooh.

Sorry?

Yes. All is forgiven.
* P.S. Our vinyl floors are so dinged up that they never look clean. And I do clean them since Eleanor plays on them a ton. I just need to clear my good name. My good name in cleaning that is, not parenting obviously. Who lets her daughter chow down on toilet paper while finding a camera? Just me.

Video Giggling

Here are some videos I've been meaning to post. This first one is of Eleanor and our neighbor friend Lauren. We love when Lauren and her sister Jasmine come over, as they keep E so entertained. It's like in-house babysitting.

This is E being entertained by my feet. Because we are awesome at the whole parenting bit. I also have to add that the mess of blankets in the background is sadly semi-permanent. They are "hiding" a few cords from Eleanor that she otherwise likes to pull out. I've thought about taping them, but the tape attracts her attention too. Any ideas? Oh, and this was day two of Eleanor's thrush treatment, so her mouth is stained purple from the gentian violet. It totally works by the way.

And last, we have Eleanor's all time favorite commercial. She will stop ANYTHING to watch this. She holds perfectly still, entranced and enchanted until the very end. Once it's over she will bounce and smile. I have to admit, I watch it every time too. Good job Mad Men.(You know, advertising...)

I Know Three of You Will Judge Me

Now I know there are Twilight haters out there, but oh well. I enjoy the books and love the movies. My defense to those who mock is that I realize they aren't Proust. They are meant to be for entertainment, and entertaining they are. And yes, there are hilarious parts that aren't intentional, but that is part of the fun. So judge me if you want, I had fun. Lots of fun.

Some friends and I went to see New Moon on the night it came out. We decided to make shirts, because we enjoy the "cougaresque" feeling of ogling Shark-Boy with his shirt off. No, not really. (Is it just me or does he talk like a valley-girl?) I decided to try my hand at freezer-paper stencils, something I have been dying to do for ages. Here are the results. I also did some onesies for the BYU-U of U game. Go Max Hall! (This might be my most controversial post ever! And if you want take the side of the wounded in that argument, let's talk. Seriously people. Ok, moving on.)

If you don't get the joke there, the love triangle is Edward, Bella and Jacob Black. He figures prominently in this book. I'm not just making racially charged statements.

Here are the friends I went with. Can I just say I love my ward? Coolest chicks ever. From left, Moi, Marissa, Lexie, Aubrey and Jade.

We had such a great time!
I am woefully behind on blogging, so expect a few more "fall" and Thanksgiving posts to follow.