December 2013

First off, I need to highlight one of Mark's sunrise pictures at Bryce Canyon.  He has become quite the photographer!  This is gorgeous!  

 Second, I need to start off December with some highlights on Landon.

 Landon has never been the best sleeper because of his reflux.  Poor little guy! There were times in the beginning where I would be so exhausted and the only way to get a little nap here and there was to hold him so we could both sleep. The positive side of this was that I got lots of cuddle time though!

Look at these yummy cheeks!

:)

Despite his reflux, Landon still managed to produce smile after smile when awake!

 

I love this next sequence of "Landon expressions" that Mark took.  Landon is the only person I know who can make a perfect frown like a sad clown when crying.

We had lots of fun preparing for Christmas during this time.  One of the things Lucy and I took care of was delivering hot cocoa mixes to our neighbors.  She remembered trick or treating very well as we went to each house.  After we knocked she would say "Merry Christmas!" really loud  like Mark taught her to do with the phrase "trick or treat".  She was funny though because when each neighbor opened the door she would look down and not make a peep.
This was such a great memory to do this with her because she was SO excited and I loved hearing her make conversation with me.  At one time she said, "It smells stinky out here!" :)  Something I must have said once at another time??  Who knows but the randomness was so cute. :)

Lucy prepared for Christmas by wrapping up normal household items over and over with this cellophane wrap and giving them to me.  Every time she would watch for my excited reaction and wait for me to give her a big thank you hug. She still gets joy out of this sometimes and it is 7 months later.

Speaking of joy, I got SO much joy out of this cute thing she did.  We have a tiny house that lights up for a Christmas decoration.  One night she sincerely asked me if she could go inside.  When I told her she was too big she went and brought me a couple of different little items so they could go inside--one of which was this Fisher Price person.  I realized she wasn't grasping that it wasn't going to work so I finally told her the door was locked so no one can go in. :)

This Rudolph doll became part of the family during Christmas.  She carried him around in the bjorn, held him up too see himself in the mirror while I did the same with Landon,

and put shoes on him among many other things.

We had a good time doing some family Christmas shopping in St. George. Here we are a Barnes and Noble where Lucy met a new friend...Angry Bird! 

Lucy loved this thing.  She treated it like a person all the way to the end including telling it goodbye when we left.



Christmas finally came! We celebrated Christmas Eve morning at our house by opening presents under the tree. 

 

After we opened presents we headed up to my mom's house to stay the holiday.

We spent Christmas Eve with Mark's parents then got ready for Santa to come. Lucy wrote a note for Santa, left him a cookie, and Rudolph a carrot. Lucy couldn't believe the next morning that Rudolph had eaten almost all the carrot!! She kept saying, "Rudolph took a bite!" 

 

 

 Here we are waiting to see what Santa brought. 

  

Lucy's dreams came true when she found the same cat that she had loved a couple of weeks before while shopping.



Like usual, we loved sharing Christmas morning with Ang, my mom, and my dad. 

We had a Caldwell Christmas party that night.  The bigger our family gets, the "livelier" it also gets but it was great to get together.

We stayed a couple of extra days after Christmas so we got to keep the family fun going a little bit longer.  Mark had a good time spending the afternoon at the planetarium with his family.

The climax of the fun for me was meeting my new nephew Jake three days after Christmas! It was such a great finale!

November 2013

Highlights from November 2013:

One thing we hadn't done in Cedar City was check out the volcanic rock formations in Three Peaks Recreation park.  It was a blustery day but I am glad we went before it got too cold and we lost our chance.

All the Cedar wind made for a lot of work raking up leaves in our backyard--(especially since it was obvious that it didn't get done the year before with the last owners). It was a lot of work but Lucy did have a great time jumping in our leaf piles.

By the time Thanksgiving approached, we got one of our first big snow storms. That same day our TMC dental school friends, Sean and Amy visited as they were driving through.  It was great to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since graduation.  

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend with Mark's family and stayed the weekend at my parents'.

One of the things Lucy loves about Grandma's house is the room of stuffed animals in her basement.  This bunny she is swaddling was the stuffed animal winner this trip.

Another favorite was also this cow.  I was worried about Lucy still fitting in a pack and play but I shouldn't have been because Lucy didn't mind her lack of space. :)

Landon even got in on some of the action as I caught him snuggling with a nearby stuffed animal in his pack and play.

We also did a little Christmas shopping during this time.  While in the toy aisle, Lucy found this stuffed kitty cat.  She would not put it down so we let her hold it while we finished our other shopping.  It took forever to go anywhere after that because she walked around slowly cradling it like a little baby.  It was so sweet!



The rest of these pictures from November just represent some of the normal goodness of enjoying these kids during the month.

 

This one is Lucy showing me how pony was riding her tricycle.

I thoroughly enjoyed this moment.  Lucy came into my room in the morning after I woke up, held her hands like this, and said something like, "Come on Mama.  Get up.  I'll catch you."  :) I love that little one!