2011 Holiday Bucket Listing :: Grandma's Cookie Bake

Hands down, one of the most anticipated parties of the year and the invite that we all watch and wait for... Grandma's Cookie Bake!

Leah and I got to go down a day early and have a sleep-over to help with all of the hustle and bustle of the preparations. She loves being at Grandma's house, where she is spoiled rotten, gets loads of attention, doesn't have to take naps and gets to stay up past her bed-time!

She also got to take her first organ lesson from Grandpa. I'm not sure he knows what he's in for now that she knows what that fun toy can do!

We also got to help Auntie Jo-Jo make caramel popcorn

... and play with cousins...

And that was all before the main event even started!!

My amazing mom made over 450 delicious-from scratch sugar cookies. Did you read that 450+!!

Unbelievable!

There's a whole new crop of littles that got very into it this year...

...though the goal for them looked to be "the more frosting and sprinkles, the better"...

And some of the not-so-littles anymore got just as into it and produced some pretty amazing results:

 Leah pretty much LOVED everything about it and couldn't get enough of the cookies.... 

YUM!

  

Even CJ got into the decorating this year. Can you tell which plate is his and which is mine?

Hmmmm... just take a guess:

All in all... it was, per usual, a huge smashing success!!

You can read about past cookie bakes here and here. 

I love being able to share such a special tradition and memory with Leah. I love that it was Grandma Leah who started this tradition. I love that it was one of my favorite parties growing up. And I love that my mom has kept the tradition alive for a whole new generation and beyond.

She is seriously amazing!! 

2011 Holiday Bucket Listing :: Live Nativity

We have been thoughtfully working through our 2011 Holiday Bucket List and one of the things that I was most looking forward to was the Live Nativity in the Glen and it did not disappoint. It's an amazing multi-denominational event put on each year, right here in our neck of the woods...nestled in a gulley made to perfectly resemble that Holy Night. It is definitely a tradition that we will look forward to for many years to come!

 It was a freezing night and the lines were so long, but Leah was a good sport as we stood and waited to enter the gates of Bethlehem.

We wandered through the town, listening to the beautiful choir, enjoying our figs and pita bread, and taking it all in as we followed the star to the stable...

...and we were once again gently reminded of the real reason we celebrate this holiday season.

It was a perfect night, indeed.

littlemiss 14 month old (photodump and such)

How is it even possible that she is already 14 months old? No longer a baby, but a little person... a person with a mind of her own, an opinion about most things, an abundance of curiosity, a stubborn & feisty streak, but oh such a sweet, sweet side.

I miss the adorable monthly onesies that gave me reason to diligently document the monthly minutia of this little miracle girl. Since it's been a couple of months.... here's a little bit of what she's up to and a few photos to prove it.

She is such a happy content thing. Her countenance is just happy and charming. She loves to chat and jabber and tell me secrets. She talks and chats and laughs at herself almost non-stop. Seeing her personality develop is one of the most awesome things I've ever known. She loves to be on the go and is such a fun little sidekick. I love having a little built in best friend!

This girl LOVES music! First thing in the morning as we head into the kitchen, she points to the stereo and grunts for me to turn it on. She ALWAYS wants to have music playing regardless of what we are doing, needless to say we have lots of favorite playlists, cds and fun music that she can't get enough of. If she knows that something can play music and isn't, she wants it to.... no matter what it is. Grandma has lots of musical holiday decorations and Leah is obsessed with them. She has a huge musical nutcracker that Leah loves so much. anytime that it stops playing, she grunts and points until you wind it up again. It is about as excited as I ever see her get.

All that being said, it is no surprise that she loves her weekly kindermusik class. Our teacher is amazing and we love the weekly playdate with our buddy Sawyer and his mama!

She is still not walking, though after long believing that she may never walk, I now believe that she is getting much, much closer. She finally has a desire to be vertical and loves standing up and getting into things that were just recently out of reach. She is climbing stairs, walking along furniture and getting braver and more confident all the time. I think my guess of 15 months is going to be pretty close!

She is so curious and such a busy body. I literally can't leave her alone for a minute or she finds something new to get into. I don't think she's naughty by nature, but her curiosity and independence is getting her into more and more trouble all the time. She is opening cabinets and drawers and can empty them faster than I can say uncle, she loves to pull things down from shelves and has recently discovered how fun a roll of toilet paper can be while mama's in the shower.

But look at this face.... it's impossible to get mad at that sweet little face:

In addition to getting into a bit more trouble these days, she is also so much more fun and playful and she's learning new tricks all the time. She loves peek-a-boo and is getting so good at it and sneakier about her reveals, she blows kisses, gives amazing real kisses (though only sparingly), mimics tons of sounds and noises, can point to her nose, eyes, ears, mouth and teeth, loves to dance, loves to do somersaults (with help) and loves to rough-house. She is a total thrill seeker and loves to be thrown in the air, held upside down, thrown onto the bed, etc. I love that we can play and communicate now. Although she still doesn't say a ton of real words, she can tell me what she wants and how she feels and I actually understand. I love it!

She is silly and giggly and wild around people she knows and in situations she is comfortable in... but very cautious and serious around strangers or in new situations. She takes a bit of time to warm up to people in new situations.

She is especially snugly when she is tired. She loves to snuggle with her Elle-Elephant the very most, but I like to think that I'm a close second. She loves to lay on my chest while I tickle her back. She gets especially ticklish and giggly when she's tired and when I tickle the small of her back she arches and does the sweetest tired laugh and then waits for me to do it again. Our pre-naptime rituals are some of my favorite times of the day.

She now has 9 teeth and the 10th will be through literally any day. The most recent molars have been a little rough, but for the most part she has been a trooper.

She is still a great sleeper for the most part and sleeps 12-13 hours a night. We are currently transitioning from 2 naps to 1, so our days are not always super predictable. She doesn't want 2 naps anymore, but often times one just isn't enough... so we've been rotating.

She is getting pickier and pickier with what she eats... I think mostly just because she can. Some days she is a fantastic eater and other days, she flexes her independent muscles a little more and it's a battle. Some current favorites are grapes, hummus, applesauce, pasta of any kind, pears and quesadillas. She LOVES water and I have a hard time getting her to drink anything else.

Her hair is getting wilder and wilder by the day. She has the craziest cowlicks making her hair literally grow in every direction. The longer it gets, the more it sticks up. It's a bit of a process to get her presentable every day! :)

I have never loved the holidays more than this year. Leah is fascinated with the tree and all of the glittery decorations and twinkling lights. We made a holiday bucket list to ensure that we made the most of the season and although CJ may or may not have rolled his eyes, so far it has been a smashing success. 

I was so worried about her yanking on the tree and grabbing for ornaments, so I got a cheap red wire basket from the dollar store and filled it with plastic, non-breakable ornaments and jingle bells (also from the dollar store) and set it next to the tree for her to play with. I tell you what... I'm brilliant. She loves it and it's the first thing that she goes for and it keeps her entertained for long periods of time. She either dumps them out or takes them out one by one, studies them, shakes them, rolls them, bounces them and then puts them all back to start over again. She loves having something that she can get into without being scolded and I love that it has so far kept her distracted enough from disturbing anything else!! 

Honestly, we just plain couldn't be any more smitten by her. I am quite certain that she hung the moon!

"Children's faces looking up, Holding wonder like a cup"

Everysinglething about my world is better and more magical with her in it.

twenty-one years...

...and counting.

Nothing beats a weekend with your besties.

Best. Tradition. Ever.

Holidays 2011 - Take One

Ahhh, how I love this time of year! So many traditions, so much joy and so many reasons to celebrate!

We had a wonderful, simple Thanksgiving spent just being thankful for one another and all that we have. We enjoyed a small, dinner with Chris' family, though I forgot to take my camera. Although it was lovely, we missed being with lots of family from both sides as many were travelling and away this year. Leah actually got to enjoy the feast this year and was particularly fond of the mashed potatoes, the fresh cranberry salad and the real maple whipped cream! yum.
Truly, the best part of the weekend was just having Daddy around so much! We love long weekends when he gets to stay home with us!! We finished most of our "tree trimming and hall decking" last weekend, so we've been enjoying it all week long. It makes for the perfect spot to read bedtime stories and scriptures each night. I'm anxiously looking forward to a whole month of that and we have some fantastic new Christmas books in the line-up!

Along with several new books for Christmas Tree Storytime, I have feverishly been working on our C*K*J Holiday To-Do List, (a Christmas Bucketlist of sorts) with all of the things that I want to do with our little family this year. Last year Leah was a little too tiny and new to really get out and enjoy the Holidays much.... so we have a lot of making up to do!

Last night seemed the perfect night to get to work crossing things off our list! Any Family Date Night that starts out with dinner and tasty treats at Gourmandise is a bound to be a great night in my book. Once we were sufficiently stuffed full of cozy, warm yummy food... we were off to the enjoy possibly the most basic and sweetest of holiday traditions on our list... the lights at Temple Square.

We bundled Leah up like crazy and I'm not sure that I've ever seen her more content or still. I'm really not sure if it was because a) she couldn't move if she wanted to in her puffy coat b) she couldn't get her hands to work with those silly thumbless mittens on.... or c) she really is the best baby in the whole universe. No matter the reason... she was angelic and delightful and I loved every single minute of sharing this holiday tradition with her. She was so good and so mesmerized by the lights, the people and quite frankly the whole atmosphere, and so was I.

{beautiful backdrop}

{fantastic company}

We convinced some of our besties to join us for the frigid fun! We definitely love us some duncanfamily.

{breathtaking sites}

{humbling reminders}

{and my most precious loves}

All things needed for a great, successful holiday fun-night!? Check!

witches, pumpkins, flappers and things...

Man.... how did I get so behind? We've had such a fun (and busy) month... turns out we've been so busy going from one celebration to the next that there has been hardly a minute to document any of it.

So here's nothing more than a quick re-cap and a few pictures to prove ourselves:

Leah and I met my cute niece and her girlies to take in all of the witch-y goodness at Gardner Village. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day, (which was evidenced by the rest of the world having the same idea) and we loved every minute of it!



Our first family pumpkin carve! There was something ridiculously satisfying about growing our very own pumpkins this year and our "big" ones were almost too perfect, I didn't want to carve them.... however, I sort of feel like it's part of my job as a mom to make the most of every holiday, event, season, etc., creating memories and traditions and it's a job that I take pretty seriously. :)

Leah loved playing in the guts.... but after I got the pumpkin all cleaned out, she wanted to put it all back in (she's into that right now, in and out, back and forth, over and over and over). She also served as the model for our pumpkin and her little doppelganger ended up with a matching 5 tooth grin.




And it all led up to this.... Halloween itself. LJ pretty much rocked her flapper costume and looked so ridiculously adorable. She sort of thought the process of getting it on was a cruel torture tactic (turns out that once you sew layers of fringe onto a onesie, it kinda loses it's ability to stretch, oops... I almost thought we were gonna have to break her arm to get her into the costume that I had schemed about for months), but once we got it over her shoulders, it fit perfectly and she LOVED it.... loved the fringe, loved the beads and feathers and loved the attention!

We had a little costume party for kindermusik that day and then we met up with some friends to do a little trick-or-treating at Foothill Village. She was totally overwhelmed by the throngs of sugar-crazed kids and we didn't last very long, which was okay seeing how it was really just a ploy to get some treats for me anyway. She did get a balloon out of it, which seemed to satisfy her completely.

We let the rest of the trick-or-treaters come to us while we stayed at home and feasted on pumpkin soup and hot, fresh doughnuts with some of our besties. I don't think there will be many more years where that will fly, so we took full advantage.

And in between all that we have been busy hosting book club(s), dinner parties, daddy daughter dates and baby showers! Such a fun month of gatherings, celebrations and get-togethers with all of my favorite people.

And to think that the holidays and party-season are only just beginning!!

a week in review...

the good and the very good.

the bad and the very, very bad.

Littlemiss got a nasty stomach bug that worked her over for a few days last week. It was a zero, nada, zilch on the fun-o-meter.

Poor Baby. Poor Mama.

She had 7 baths in a 48 hour period. 4 in one day. Sometimes things are so bad and so nasty that a bath is the only option. I wished for a hazmat suit on more than one occasion.

We did what felt like no less than 43 loads of laundry in that same time period. Pretty sure we used every towel in our whole house to try and curtail some of the damages.

We lost the small bit of progress that we had made on weaning, which suprisingly didn't hurt my feelings. I thought I would be so ready, but the very thought of it has had me ridiculously emotional. I was happy to oblige any chance she was interested.

Sick babies are not fun, however sick babies are especially snuggly... which I didn't mind at all. I forgot how much I missed a naked-diaper only baby snuggled up and sleeping on my chest. I liked that part a lot.

Luckily, the worst of it was over pretty quick and it didn't take long before she was back to playing...

...and looking for trouble.

Turns out, however... these kind of messes are waaaaayyyyy better and easier to clean up, so I was totally okay with it.

***

In much better news... fall is here in all of it's glory and we are totally loving it.

This beautiful tree right outside yard is an epic example of how beautiful things are this time of year.

We took full advantage of better health, beautiful weather and no work and made the most of the fall weekend. We started by sleeping in, staying in our pjs and enjoying pumpkin buttermilk pancakes with fresh maple whipped cream. (and they were not yucky) I wish every day could start out like that.

Then we decided to take a drive up the canyon and do a little hike to enjoy all of the amazing colors. Minus all the burrs we were picking out of our clothes all afternoon, it was perfect, picnic and all!

We live in the best neighborhood in all the world and capped off our Saturday with a good ole' fashioned street party hoe-down... complete with bbq, hayrides, line dancin', cowboys and loads of fun with all of our friends and neighbors. We broke out our denim and plaid, dressing like it was Sadie Hawkins, and loved every minute of the fun!!

As if our weekend wasn't already overloaded with fun... we harvested all of our pumpkins. Yay, us! They are perfect and darling and just LJ's size and we couldn't be any more proud of ourselves.

(and pumpkins aren't the only thing we successfully grew this year. It's been a pretty good harvest season for the rookie gardners around these parts.)

How about finishing off our week of highs and lows with a perfect fall meal, (thank you pinterest) with comfort food written all over it. (We're kinda on a pumpkin kick over here, if you couldn't tell... I didn't even mention the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins we made and devoured on Friday)

Final Review: Good outweighs Bad