AI Tonight!

Season 9 Is Coming Soon - Auditions

American Idol starts again tonight! Woo-hoo! I'm excited to see how Ellen will change the show. Its going to be a whole new dynamic. Plus it gives me an excuse to have a weekly girl's night!

Heber Cabin

We went with our friends, Brian and Anna, to their cabin in Heber over the weekend. We had lots of fun! Kalianna got to experience her first time tubing (down a teeny hill) and her first time on a four-wheeler (going a whole 2 miles per hour). Mostly she enjoyed watching us get thrown around on tubes though. One person would drive the four-wheeler and pull another person on the tube behind it. The video doesn't look like we're going all that fast, but when you're the one on the tube, trust me. Its fast!

Kalianna Crawling

The beautiful huntress spots her prey. She goes in for the kill and then...oh wait...she spots mommy with the camera. Never mind! I tried to get a video of Kalianna crawling, but then she saw me and got a little camera shy. It turned out cute though, so I thought I'd post it anyway.

Here it is! Take two. I was able to get a little bit of Kalianna crawling. Apparently she will crawl as long as it is towards mommy and the camera.

9 Months!

I was wanting to do this post sooner, but I thought I would wait until after Kalianna's 9 month check-up so I could give her stats as well. She is now a little over 29 inches tall (95%) and she weighs 19.5 pounds (58%). My little girl is wearing 18 month clothes! Can you believe it?! She is just so tall! Kalianna has had a rough month, but all infections are gone and now she is back to her happy, healthy self again. She has two teeth and it looks like her top two will be making an appearance in the next few months or so. She is also crawling now! After weeks and weeks of trying, she finally figured it out and crawled for the first time on Saturday. It is so cute to watch! She is so happy that she can actually go after the things she sees and has been exploring every room since. And, of course, Sobaka and Kutse are now terrified. She can chase them! She continues to talk and giggle like crazy. She also is trying more new foods and we've discovered a love for pasta. Kalianna has also decided she is done with headbands and hair bows. I'm amazed she kept it on this long for the pictures! If you notice from her pictures, we can no longer put her and the bear on the rocking chair. She just wants to go-go-go! So after we took her 9 month pictures, she attacked the bear and then headed toward daddy and the camera. Then she saw Kutse with her rope, and crawled over to play. So I thought I would include all those pictures too. Kutse has been so cute with her! With Matt and I, she will pull our arm out of the socket playing tug-o-war. But with Kalianna, she just laid there and chewed on the rope and gently pulled it out of her hands. Then when Kalianna grabbed the rope again, she would move it again. They played like this for a long time. It was so funny to watch!

Kalianna's 1st Christmas

Christmas this year was...well...interesting. Yeah, we'll go with interesting. Let's just say I'm glad this was Kalianna's first Christmas, cause she probably won't remember it. Everything turned out fine, things just didn't exactly go as...planned.

We switch off every other year having Christmas with my family, then Matt's family. This year was with Matt's family. So we had this nice Christmas Eve dinner planned. We were all going to dress up and eat a nice meal and everything, then perhaps watch a Christmas movie before returning home. Then we planned to go back the next morning for presents, and breakfast, and visiting family, etc. Well, Matt's dad was really sick during the week and had to have a couple trips to the hospital, so his mom didn't have time to plan the dinner and it got canceled. His sister, Miranda, and I decided to make the dinner ourselves and surprise his mom with it. So Christmas Eve was back on. We got to their house around 6:00pm and enjoyed a super yummy meal together. Then we started to watch Elf, but Kalianna was pretty fussy (double ear infection) and tired, so we headed home. Around 1:00am, Kalianna started making some really strange wheezing sounds. I went in to check on her and after a couple minutes, it was obvious she was struggling breathing. She's been really sick and the doctor had told us to watch for this. So we called the on-call doctor to see what we should do. She suggested we wake Kalianna and let her catch her breath, then try putting her back to sleep and see if she regains control. If not, we were going to have to take her to the emergency room. So we woke up our poor baby who, of course, screamed and screamed. Until we called Sobaka (the miracle dog) and he kissed her better and she stopped. But then she thought it was time to play! After a little while playing with her puppies, she started breathing better. Then we snuggled in the rocking chair for awhile until she fell back asleep. Thankfully her breathing was better after that. She wheezed a couple times, but then seemed to sleep well after that. Needless to say, we got to bed REALLY late that night (or morning, rather). Then after...oh...three hours of sleep or so, I woke up to the sound of my husband puking in the bathroom. Perfect! He had food poisoning and spent the next 12 hours puking his guts out. Didn't sleep much that night. But Kalianna thankfully slept in until 8:45 because of her rough night. We called Matt's parents and told them we wouldn't be making it Christmas morning, but we'd try and get there by the afternoon sometime. We ended up opening presents around 10:30, and just waited patiently every time Matt had to run to the bathroom to "relieve" himself. We spent most of the day on our bed watching movies; both my babies sick. Kalianna's ears were really bothering her, so she was grumpy a lot of the day. She did seem to like her new toys though! By afternoon Matt was definitely not feeling up to a car ride to Salt Lake, so we called our families and let them know we wouldn't be making it for Christmas. My parents came up and visited us around 7:00 that evening, bringing dinner from my grandparent's party. That was really nice! Christmas didn't really feel much like Christmas this year. It was a pretty sad couple of days. Today, however, Matt felt fine. So we made it down to Salt Lake to open presents with his family and spend time with both our parents. Today felt a lot more like Christmas than yesterday!

As for Kalianna, she was really cute to watch opening presents! She loved tearing (and eating) the paper! And after a few presents, she seemed to figure out that there was actually something UNDER the wrapping! Super cute! Anyway, to end this post on a more positive note, here are some super cute pics of Kalianna having fun with her first taste (no pun intended) of Christmas. And a video of her playing with her super cool penguin toy from mommy and daddy. (She loves this thing!)

My Poor Sick Baby

Kalianna got her first tooth a few weeks ago, which I'm sure is not a pleasant experience. Especially when you don't understand whats going on! So of course, she had a runny nose and drool galore. Then, right after her tooth came in, we thought Kalianna just had a cold. But after several days of her getting worse instead of better, we took her to the doctor. She had a sinus infection AND an eye infection. Poor thing! So we got some antibiotics and some eye drops. After a few days she started feeling better. And then tooth number two came in, bringing with it more of a runny nose and gunk in her sinuses again. But after her tooth broke through, the symptoms wouldn't go away. She was still super stuffed up and her eyes, nose, and mouth were dripping like a leaky faucet. So yesterday I took her in to the doctor again and now she has an ear infection. In both ears! Basically she has been sick for a month solid with one thing after another causing her pain and discomfort. I feel so bad for her! Maybe that's why I've been so "Bah humbug" about Christmas this year. I've been so busy caring for my sick baby, that I haven't had time to really get into the Christmas spirit or get a lot of things done. I just hope she is feeling better by Friday so she can enjoy her first Christmas!

Serious Misunderstandings

Last year I wrote a somewhat controversial post about Santa Claus. Well, lately I have had some comments made to me regarding Santa that has made me realize one thing...my post was SERIOUSLY misunderstood!! Matt and I NEVER said we want to cut Santa Claus completely out of our Christmas. We NEVER said that we don't like Santa Claus. And we NEVER said we weren't going to do Santa Claus with our kids. I was simply saying that Matt and I haven't decided how we are going to do Santa Claus yet. Talk to your friends and family. Everyone has their own way of doing Santa Claus. Just because Matt and I haven't decided if we are going to try and convince our kids he is real or if we are going to do Santa more like a game in our family, doesn't mean we are going to cut him out of Christmas all together! I actually LOVE Santa Claus stories and Santa decorations! And I think the spirit and magic of Santa (I mean, he spends all year making toys for all the kids in the world! And he gives them to all kids, selflessly. What better message can we give our children?) should not be taken out of Christmas. Santa Claus also inspires imagination and...Hello! I am a writer! Of course I want my kids to have a good and lively imagination!! My beef with these Santa impostors in the mall and at parties is 1. I don't think anyone should be forced to sit on a fat man's lap if they don't feel comfortable doing so and 2. I like leaving things to the imagination! I enjoy thinking of Santa at his workshop in the north pole, but I don't like my image of Santa being determined for me by department store actors. But as I said before, just because I am not comfortable with these fake Santa's doesn't mean I am going to keep my children from him. The day Kalianna asks to sit on Santa's lap and have her picture with him, I will happily drive her to the nearest one and smile as she tells him what she wants for Christmas. But I do think it is extremely mean for parents to take babies and tiny kids to see Santa and watch as they scream bloody murder just so the parents can get a picture. Little kids don't understand who he is yet. So its like sticking your kid on his lap and saying "Here is a large, hairy, scary man you've never met before. Now sit on his lap and smile." Just mean. BUT when your kids get older and know who Santa Claus is and are excited to see him in the mall, by all means, have their picture taken with him! As long as they want to and aren't terrified. I have seen some super cute pictures of happy kids enjoying the magic of Santa Claus. Everyone is entitled to raise their children the way they feel is right. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. These are just mine.