Merry Christmas 2010

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!  Molly was so excited to finally get to open the presents.  It was fun to watch her eyes light up after each surprise.

 Opening a gift

 Hurray!

Trying to sit in Dolly's stroller

Little Birds

Molly's sheet has little birds on it and this morning when I went into her room she was lying on her stomach pointing at them and saying "twee", twee".  How cute is that!

Happy Birthday A Day Late...

Our internet was down all day yesterday so I didn't get the chance to wish my wonderful and handsome husband a happy birthday in a somewhat public manner...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANE!! 

I love you!!! 

 Molly love you!!!

P.O.M.

xoxo

15 Months Old

Our little one is 15 months old and more independent than ever!  Her newest trick is climbing into and onto whatever she can, it's pretty cute! She likes to carry the step stool into the middle of the room, climb onto it, and then give a speech full of lots of gibberish, smiles and giggles. I wish I knew what she was saying!

Sitting in a storage cube

She even climbed into this shelf that Shane was putting together

November 2010

You might be thinking that we've given up on our blog.  Not True.  We've had major issues with our camera and ultimately had to send it away to that place where cameras go after they have given there all and captured as many memories as possible.  Farewell dear friend... you have served us well.

Because it was so close to black Friday when this great loss occurred we decided to wait it out and get ourselves a deal on a new camera.  Which we did.  Happy day!  Now here's a recap of the part of November that we were able to get on film.

 We took a little road trip up to Utah to drop Molly off with our fabulous parents so that we could go on a 7 day cruise.  Molly had a blast playing with her cousins and spending time with her grandparents.  Shane and I missed Molly like crazy but were still able to have  a marvelous time on our cruise!

 24 hour self serve ice cream machine.  Need I say more? (yes, that's 3 cones)

 

Formal night on the cruise. I can still taste the chocolate melting cake, mmm...

 Ancient Ruins at Tulum in Cozumel

(And then the camera died so no more cruise pictures)

 

While we were in Utah Molly got to open a few Christmas gifts.  I love her technique of standing on the gift so that she can really get in there and rip off the wrapping paper!

 

Another little gift.  Her very own ruby slippers!

 The BYU Crew!  

I was wearing my NAVY shirt so I was dubbed photographer during the BYU vs Utah game

 Our little cheerleaders had naptime during the game.  I bet that's why BYU lost

 So sweet!

 Molly loves grandma and grandpa's rocking horse!

GOOOOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!!

Molly and I have been practicing our "cheerleading" moves in preparation for the BYU vs. Utah football game this coming Saturday. GOOOOOOOO COUGARS!!!

"Look Mom, No Hands!"

I had my back to Molly and turned around to find her climbing onto this plastic box.  My heart skipped a beat when I thought of her slipping and hitting her head on the tile floor, but she was just so proud of herself I had to run for my camera instead of snatching her off.

 "Look Mom!"

 

Shane's Dad was here for a few days helping with some projects around the house.  Great job on the pictures boys!

Happy Halloween 2010!

 Our little cheerleader!  We had a neighborhood Halloween party last night at the park (yes, it's warm enough to hang out at the park).  Molly had a blast watching all the kids and being in the kids parade, but the big bowl of strawberry ice cream she got was the highlight! 

Love the ponytail!

Self Feeding: An Experiment of Patience and Humor

Molly is so determined to feed herself these days and she does a pretty good job.  Yogurt is one of the few foods that I've kept in the "mom's going to feed you this 'cuz it's so messy" category.  Today after several failed attempts by me to get the yogurt into Molly's mouth before she grabbed the spoon away from me, I decided it was time for her to give it a try. 

She tried with the spoon.  She tried with each of her hands.  She even tried to drink, slurp, and use her tongue to get the yogurt out of the container.  She got about half of the yogurt into her cute belly.  And the other half?  I've heard it makes a nice moisturizer!

So Sweet...

Doesn't she just melt your heart?  This little one is such a blessing in our lives!  Molly's been our little helper this week as we've been unpacking boxes and trying to make our house in AZ a home.  She follows us around the house mimicking our actions.  If I pull something out of the cupboard, then she pulls something out.  If I wash off the table she wants the wash cloth so that she can wash the table too.  It's so cute! 

She's learned a couple new tricks this week, the biggie being the stairs.  Molly's been a great little stair climber for a few months but hasn't mastered coming down by herself.  This week we've been practicing every time we go down the stairs and after a few days she's got it.  She thinks it's so funny to slide down the stairs on her tummy and giggles the whole way down. 

Another cute thing she does is blowing on the stove whenever I put a pan on the burner.  Even if she's across the room, when she sees the pan on the stove she starts blowing.

Moving Out and Moving In

It's official!  All loaded up (including our cars) and ready to make our move out West.  Arizona, here we come!

After a week of hotel living we are eager to get into our home

As we were unpacking the kitchen Shane asked,"do we really need all these dishes!" Of course not, silly. But I WANT to keep them ALL! 

 

More boxes to unpack...

Our Little Helper!  Molly was all to eager to get her hands on the screwdriver after watching Shane's handyman skills in action!

 After a week of unpacking (our stuff arrived in Arizona on Monday) I'm happy to report that I have uncovered the kitchen counters and table.  Hooray for small victories!

Oh that I could go yet stay...

 Oh that I could go yet stay;

have tomorrow, keep today;

treasure hold my yesterday.

My yesterday now treasured dear;

was once tomorrow seen with fear.

I heard this poem in the MTC and wrote it in my scriptures.  It was a fitting description of my feelings as I left the MTC and I find it fitting today as we look toward moving to Arizona yet long to take our dear friends in Illinois with us on our journey.  Our lives have been touched by so many since moving to Illinois and we are sad to say goodbye.  Sweet little Molly has created a bond between us and our ward that will always hold a special place in our hearts.  It was fun to watch her tonight at our farewell open house as she "worked the room" sharing her smile and showing off her tricks to everyone.  By the time we got home she was tuckered out and ready for her blankey.

 I didn't get a post up last week.  We were in Utah over the weekend and had fun visiting with cousins and grandparents.  Molly fell in love with the little rocking chair that was just her size!

Uh Oh!

Yesterday during church Molly dropped her toy then looked at me and said,"uh oh!"  As soon as I picked it up she did it again.  She's continued our new little game today with her raisins, muffin, and binky.  I should probably use this game to dropped the pacifier into the garbage and say,"uh oh" and "bye bye".  I just can't help but wonder if I'm ready to take on a teething baby at 3am without any ammo!

Precious Girl

Our sweet little Molly has given up crawling this week.  She loves being on her own two feet and is finding all sorts of new toys at eye level.

I'm finding it harder to get Molly to pose (the camera is far too enticing) so I've got to take advantage of every shot she gives me!

Even though the cougars are struggling on the football field, we do our part to support and cheer them on.  Luckily we've got another favorite team that's showing us some love.  Go NAVY! (We have shirts for them too!)

Sept 12th Sunday Shot

Molly is growing up so fast, and she is walking full speed ahead through out our house.  After church we set her down in the gym and she really found her wind.  Having such a big room to roam in, she loved marching around.  We also apologize to our fellow ward members for the high pitched squeal in sacrament meeting today...we are still working on our "quiet voice".

Sunday Shot - 1 year

It's hard to believe we've been doing "Sunday Shots" for a year!  Molly now walks as much as she crawls, loves scrambled eggs, drinks whole milk from a sippy cup and says,"ooo! ooo!" when she sees a dog.  Today when she woke from her nap she called out,"Mama!"  And when she peed on the bathroom floor as I was about to put her in the tub I couldn't help laughing and thinking how blessed I am not only be a mom, but to be sweet little Molly's Mama!  I look forward to a lot more firsts in this next year of Molly's life!

Birthday Fun!

Molly had such a fun birthday!  We started off the day opening some presents, which took quite awhile since she wanted to play with what she opened instead of opening more presents.  After Molly's nap we went to the zoo and then we got together with some friends for a birthday celebration.  It was the perfect day!

I had so much fun planning and decorating Molly's cakes for her party!

Molly tried to grab the flame on the candle 

while we were singing to her.

mmmm...cake! YUM!

playing with her new toys

Daddy and his birthday girl!

Taking a break from opening presents to read a story!

Happy Birthday little one!  We love you!