Merry Christmas!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures this year. Our camera batteries died when we started opening presents. Then after we got more, our camera card was full. Oh well! So I only have a couple that were taken after we got back home. Our festivities starting the morning of Christmas Eve. We let Kalianna open all her presents from us that morning, and Matt and I also exchanged gifts. Matt got me these really cute boots and I got him a new headset/microphone for his computer. Not a terribly exciting gift year, but we were both happy.

Kalianna LOVED opening presents! She was really good at tearing all the paper off, and she got excited about each thing for about a minute. Then she was ready for the next one! She loves to pull/push things right now, so Matt and I got her a little cow on wheels that moos when you pull it. We put a little leash around his neck and she has been taking him for "walks" ever since. She also got some little cars (this girl loves cars!), some snow boots, a puppy stuffed animal and a few other little things. After her nap that afternoon (in which she insisted on sleeping with her "Moo") we headed down to Sandy to spend Christmas with my family. It was my parent's turn this year. We had our traditional Chinese dinner and stayed up playing games and stuff. Kalianna also opened her new PJ's that night, and after all the kids were in bed, we exchanged our sibling gifts. It's tradition to do it Christmas Eve with my family.

Christmas morning we were up bright and early. It was fun having all my siblings stay the night at my parent's again, but it definitely gets more and more crowded every time. I think this was our last year of being able to do that. Our family is just getting too big! My parents bought Kalianna a trampoline for Christmas. You have never seen a happier girl in your life! She is obsessed with jumping, and spent a good portion of the day on it.

This is how Kalianna smiles nowadays. Open mouth.

Is this not the coolest toy you've ever seen?

I have been wanting a nice Kitchenaid mixer forever, but we've never had the money for it. So this year, my sweet, sweet husband went to my parents and asked them to combine his Christmas money with mine so I could get one. So he got one gift card for Christmas and I got a big, nice mixer. It's pretty and red and the best Christmas present ever! I have the best husband in the world! We spent Christmas Day mostly playing with new toys and hanging out. We stopped by Matt's parent's briefly to exchange gifts. They got Kalianna a cute kitchen to play with and her aunt and uncle gave her a stroller for baby dolls. She loves to push the stroller around! It's very cute! Matt and I both got a lot of gift cards this year for restaurants. Yay for date night!

That night we had a nice Christmas dinner with my family and my grandparents came over too. Then we played games until it was time for Kalianna to go to bed and we came home. We had to borrow my parent's suburban just to get all her loot home! She was very spoiled this year! But she has been enjoying all her new toys ever since!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas as well!

Animal Kingdom

According to Kalianna...

Who needs sleep?

Kalianna has decided she's done sleeping. I think it's too boring for her. There are many other things she'd much rather be doing. Twenty months seems early to me to stop napping, especially because there are some days I know she needs it, but she's done. She still has "quiet time" in her room. But she simply sits in bed and talks to herself for a couple hours a day. No sleeping. She has taken one nap in the last two weeks. But now it's also creeping into bedtime. Last night we put her to bed at 9:00, as usual. She didn't fall asleep until after 11:00pm. I'm not sure how she does it! I need sleep! But she seems perfectly happy to go for days with no naps and going to bed super late. Silly girl!

Chocolate Handprint

There is a little chocolate handprint on my bathroom wall. Just below where the bath towels hang down, beside the bathtub. Every time I use the restroom, I can see the little brown fingers waving at me. I know I need to clean it. It's chocolate. On my wall. But I just don't have the heart to clean it up yet. Every time I look at that brown little handprint, I can't help but smile. It makes me think back to last night. Kalianna's big grin as she pushed the kitchen chair over by my side and climbed up on it. She helped me stir, and dump ingredients into the pan, as we watched the brownies come together. Then, as I poured the batter into the pan, her little fingers reached out, ever so cautiously, under the waterfall of chocolate and came back covered in warm, gooey batter. One lick and she got the biggest smile on her face I've ever seen! She reached both hands into the pan and began scooping handfuls of batter into her very happy mouth. Once the brownies were finally safely in the oven, I carefully scooped up my little chocolate baby and brought her in the bathroom. There I tried, without success, to keep her little hands from touching things as I readied the tub. Toys, towels, and the side of the tub were soon layered in a thin coat of brownie batter. Once in the tub, and brownie free, I scrubbed the side of the tub and carefully cleaned each bath toy that had been touched. It wasn't until she was tucked in bed that night that I went back into the bathroom and noticed the missed little handprint. Just barely peeking out from under the towels. So I know I need to just take a clorox wipe and clean the silly thing off. But I just don't have the heart to do it. Not yet. It's her own little mark left on my wall, just like the images from last night that she left in my heart. Smiling at me as if to say "Kalianna was here".

Big Helper

Kalianna helped me make brownies tonight:

It's a Girl!!

Yup. We found out today that we are having another little girl. We are SO EXCITED!!! Matt and I obviously would have been happy with a boy, but we were both really hoping for another girl. We think it will be so fun for Kalianna to have a little sister. And since she will also be born in April, we already have all the right size clothing for the right season. It's perfect!

One of the best parts about being pregnant is my sister is due the same week I am. It's been so fun! We are going through much of the same things at the same time, so it's really awesome! Since our kids are going to be so close, we thought it would be fun to have the same thing. But she is having a boy. Her third boy. And we are having our second girl. Funny how things work out! It will still be super fun to watch the two of them grow up together though. Who knows? Maybe they will even have the same birthday!

And the winner is...

Theresa Howell!! Thank you everyone for participating in my book contest! I know I was supposed to make the announcement yesterday, but we were out of town. So tonight, I put all the names of the participants in a bowl and let Kalianna draw out the winner. Congratulations Theresa! And thanks for helping to spread the word about my book!