Firsts

First let's start with the ending. . . Miley passed out before we could even get her to bed. It was a big day for her! Our FIRST Christmas together.
This is Miley's first big Christmas present. She loved it! She loves the freedom of it and that she can jump and jump and jump without wearing out our arms now!Everything on Christmas was a FIRST for Miley, but we had a lot of firsts as a family as well. . .

- first time making Christmas dinner ourselves (after 8 years, it's about time, I know)
- First time fulfilling daddy assembling duties Christmas Eve- First time the dogs didn't get matching collars- First time we watched Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas and not Christmas Eve (I love that movie!)
- First time having fam visit on Christmas Eve (this is sleepy Miley and her Poppy)- First time we've ever opened presents on Christmas Eve (no Tiff, it will not be a new tradition)
- First time since we've been married that we got up (on our own) before 9am to open presents(this present if from Kari, she thought she'd try to embarrass Dave with the packaging)- first time video chatting with fam on Christmas, so FUN
- First and last time that Miley will ever sit on the table for Christmas dinner
- first time that I had only one present to wrap that was under our tree- first time that we opened presents that weren't for us. . . well I guess that's not true, we do get dog presents that we have to open. . . well lets say, open a lot more presents that weren't for us!- First Christmas where it was just us, all day-First time buying three pairs of PJs for Christmas (that weren't all for me that is)- first time not botching a batch of sugar cookies (because we didn't attempt them at all)
- first time that I ordered our photos for the cards instead of printing them myself
- First time doing anything 3-D, and last, sorry guys
- First time we didn't have room for dessert! Sad. We ate it the next day. :)

- First time we'll have a FIRST Christmas like this one!

Miley was really interested in opening gifts and wanted to help. She even loved the toys inside of them. Our dogs love Christmas too, and were quite disappointed that not all the gifts with toys in them were for them. They got plenty though. Spoiled, I know.

It was a very memorable experience. I hope all of yours was too!

Photo Overload

I swear I heard my cameras sigh once I uploaded their hefty load today. . . I know my mom is eager for the cuteness so here are some of my faves. . .

Old and Busted vs. New Hotness

It's here! It turns out Apple loves me, or Santa loves me! Either way, they sent me a new one and it's here early. Way early, since I haven't even sent the busted one back yet. Come by and it looks like an apple store here. Yay!

Randomness

Still no computer, so no place to upload new photos to, sorry. Instead you'll just have to deal with reading this babble.

So my patience has expired, but Dave's has not and so we gave them until Friday to fix our computer or give the busted thing back so I can get a new one from apple. Totally not happy about the whole thing but trying to be zen. I found a quote today that is helping. . .

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many. ~Charles Dickens

We got snow on Monday, definitely not my fave thing, but it only lasted the day and totally made it feel like Christmas time. And to make the snow feel even cheerier we got some packages in the mail from Miley's Great Grandparents (thanks guys) and in one it had the cutest little ice skating snowman toy. Totally appropriate that day. The last leaf has fallen from the tree too. I guess it's officially winter here. That prompted a purchase of a new snuggly blanket. Oh, how I love blankets.

Whooping cough is going around down here. So not fun. Dave got a booster shot since he's in the line of fire for all these wonderful diseases. After seeing how lovely it made him feel I opted to stay quarantined in my house instead. Coward, yes.

We missed Stake Conference because Dave was feeling poorly, well that and it was at 3pm. Ugh. We're paying for our absence though. We got a call the other night setting up a visit with the Stake Pres. for both of us on Sunday. I must have wracked up some serious bad karma because we're paying for it this month.

A question, why is every customer service person foreign? I'm pretty sure I wasn't making any international calls, but every customer service person we've had to deal with lately (and there have been MANY) has had a hard time with the language barrier. Super helpful when we're dealing with problems more complicated then 'how do I track a package', blah blah blah. This is why Dave is in charge of dealing with those people. I'm mean. And I could rant about this one for quite some time. I think I've found where my bad karma is stemming from. Oh well.

Miley actually ate her oatmeal yesterday. There's a headline for ya. ;) Big news at our house. She actually wanted it, and she polished off her serving. She's so big now. No more babies at our house. Well that's not true, today while eating she bonked herself on the head with the bottle (which was almost empty) and in true drama queen fashion pushed out the crocodile tears. Oh boy.

I have photos of Miley using a binky from last week all ready for a post here entitled . . . It's a girl's perogative to change her mind. For a couple of days the binky was her friend and a true pacifier, but it only lasted a few days. So in fitting with the proposed post's title, she wants nothing to do with it now. What a stinker.

Sent out the Christmas cards on Monday, so if you don't get yours until after Christmas. . . sorry. Another customer service nightmare hindered their release.

Oh and our postal carrier is totally stalking us. Spookiness. I don't know if that story can be told here, he's probably reading this right now. . . ummmm, hello sir thank you for delivering our mail.

Next subject. CK gave me the greatest idea for scrapbooking next year. . . Project 365. I'll let you know more on that later.

Ok, you've been thoroughly updated on our super exciting week. Happy Wednesday to you. See you on Friday, with (fingers crossed) good news.

wordle

Kid's asleep, avoiding work, making word art. . . try it for yourself at wordle. (oops I put the wrong link on there before, but now it's fixed)

It took the words from my blog posts and these are the ones I used most often.

Day 5 without Pretty

I think that's her name. . . Pretty. It is a girl, my G4 was a boy and the iMac is too sleek to be manly. . . .
Anyway, our separation continues. :(

Replacement part number one. . . DOA.
Confidence in Apple. . . shaken again.
Replacement part number two. . . to be determined.
Confidence in Apple after call of complaint. . . slightly better with a discount on our computer.

You know how those squeaky wheels work. . .

Oh, and Adobe sent my Photoshop to Reno, Nevada. . . this Christmas is riddled with issues for me.

Hope all of yours has less drama. . . Happy Holidays!

shiny and defective

The view of my Christmas. . .
The view my computer has. . .

It's so shiny and pretty. My precious. I have a love of apple, but today I am disgruntled which may be sacrilege to speak of, but here it is. . . they sent me a disabled iMac. I have to take it to the doctor today to fix the optical drive. They said it wasn't a big deal at all, but it does mean that apple betrayed my trust in their perfection and also that I will be separated from the prettiness for maybe a couple of days. Sad.

Oh and to those of you who believe I've broken the rules and used my Christmas present early, no worries, I wrapped up the box so we can have staged pics for Christmas. That totally works, right? There's no way I could have my precious in a box for weeks. It would be sad in there. It's too shiny to be hidden away. Which goes for jewelry too, but this year it is all about the apple. Actually, I don't think I ever get jewelry. . . hmmm. Oh well, another apple please.

FOOD!

Her first attempt at solid? food. . . and it was ok. She thought the best part was spitting it back out. That was pretty funny to her. She ate a few bites and then decided that it tasted a lot like thick air and wanted to play with it instead. . . or fake gag. . . what a drama queen.
Here are the pics. . .

Dave trying to keep her hands out of the mess. . . unsuccessfully.

Happy messy baby.

Ready to be done with this whole charade.

Miley's shots went well. She puked in the office and told the nurse off afterward. She's been fine since, yay! She's now 14 lbs. 13 oz. and 25 1/2 inches long. That puts her in the 75 percentile for weight and the 90th for height. She's in a hurry to reach her full height of 5'1". . . ;)
Who knows, she could be freakishly tall. ;)

a pirate in the house

I don't know where she learned it, maybe the dogs, though I think it sounds more pirate-ish than dog, but Miley has mastered her 'arrrrrr'. Maybe a little more guttural. . . arrrrrgh. It's so funny, and she can even do it with a hand in her mouth. I'll have to try and get it on video. Meanwhile our little munchkin is FOUR months old, so here are some pics and tidbits. . .


Everything goes in the mouth, and until now only her fingers stayed there, but recently she's acquired a taste for my hair. Yuck. Keeping her hands out of my hair is practically impossible, so the best I can do is make sure it doesn't reach the face.


She's a rolly-polly bug now and I never know where I'll find her in her crib in the morning.


Still super smiley, and loves to laugh. She's pretty shy around people, but at home with us she's a squawker. Very loud. I think she's trying to sing. ;)


I can't get enough of these faces. She has the cutest expressions and they are just getting better and better.

I love those big eyes, they are a mystery colorwise. Some days they look blue, green, hazel, still baby gray. One day she'll make up her mind, until then I'll take bunches of pictures of them. I have a problem when I edit her photos too. . . I want to keep them all. She's too adorable to me to delete anything.

Miley reaches for everything now. Camera strap included. . . and Nilla, which is why in the next pic she's keeping her distance.


She loves Nilla. She's fascinated by Nilla. It used to be Mocha, but now Nilla holds her attention indefinitely. She is the coolest and funniest thing ever.

Miley tries to hold her own bottle, or more like tries to sneak her fingers into her mouth while she's eating under the ruse of being a big kid.

I can't believe it's been four months. She's so different now. It's amazing to experience all of this with her.

p.s. Santa. . .

just one more thing. . . please. . .
You have to check these out. . . Amazing! What good would a brand new photoshop be without these totally rad actions? Did I mention that I've been really good this year?

spoiled

This pic is pretty much the sum up of our Thanksgiving. . . little bug was the center of attention, which would have been painful except that Miley had a breakthrough. . . new people aren't so scary!

After she decided they weren't actually trying to eat her, she turned on the charm and had everyone at her beck and call.


Now, however, I'm dealing with the consequences of such a successful visit. . . Miley is sooooo spoiled! She learned that smiles and giggles get you anything you want, including all the attention you could ever want. What a cute little stinker.

What I learned this Thanksgiving. . . family pics are ten times harder with a munchkin. Actually, everything is ten times harder. ;) I had plans for Thanksgiving and only some of them came to fruition, including some food items for the big meal, due to time restraints. Oh well. The things we did get to do were enough. Here are the results of our coloring contest. . .


We enjoyed our time with my fam. Thanks for making the trek down here everyone. And to the girls, thanks for tolerating your sleeping quarters and early morning wake up calls. ;) I think Miley, and most definitely, Nilla miss you guys. We'll see you again in FEBRUARY!!

thanks

So I am too GRATEFUL this year and had to write it all down here. . . I'll try to keep it concise. ;)

First. . . Miley. Ok, I'm crying already, this was a bad idea. No, it needs to be said so I'm going to battle through. We love her so much. She has changed our lives and has been such a miracle for us. . . even when she's cranky. She is beautiful and perfect and we are truly blessed to get to share in her life.

Of course we wouldn't have such a blessing if it wasn't for our angel, Kristel. I can't express how much we adore her. It still amazes me to think that she found us, picked us, and after meeting us still liked us enough to trust us with our amazing little girl. I know I've said it a billion times, but we love you and you still amaze me. Thank you. Those words seem too small for all that I'm feeling, maybe if I put them in bold it will help. Thank you. You have a permanent place in my heart and our family.

In the same vein there are many other people that I am grateful for. . . Dave and I so appreciate the support and love that we feel from both Kristel and Justin's families. I know this wasn't an easy thing to do and yet, you've accepted us and supported us so much. Each family has shown us so much kindness we are so lucky, in fact, we probably don't deserve all of you. We were truly blessed this year to add so many wonderful people to our family. We definitely consider you all family. Thank you for giving us that chance. That's the amazing thing about adoption and even though that's FSA's slogan (It's about love), I didn't expect to feel so much of it from so many people. We're overwhelmed with gratitude for such a blessing.

My parents need to be on this big list of gratitude as well. I am grateful that you couldn't contain your excitement all year long, and still can't actually, for our little Miley. I know it seems that I'm only grateful for things pertaining to our adoption, but that's been the center of our universe this year and affected everything we did so thus the common thread. Thank you for sharing in our joy and supporting us in our hardships as well. It has made a world of difference.

A thank you to the Dalbys for kindly taking us in and keeping us sane for that week this year. It really meant so much for us to know that you were watching our girls with so much care. And then providing so much support for us when we were probably the worst company to have around. Thank you for understanding and helping us. It was another one of those things that confirmed to me that this was where we were supposed to be and what we were supposed to be doing. Thank you for that.

A few more adoption related thanks. . . the Lotts, you guys are great and we appreciate you. . . the Bishop and his wife, though they don't read this everyone should know that they are amazing with huge hearts and we love them. . . and Thomas, thank you for believing in us and I loved the bracelet too. ;)

OK, I'm all congested now and I haven't even made a dent in my gratitude list.

We are way too lucky to have too many people in our lives that deserve to be mentioned here. Unfortunately I've reached my crying limit and so to all the rest of you (and you know who you are, and if you don't then you can ask me anytime if you were to be included in this general thanks. . . I'll let you know) thank you for your love this year. It was felt by us in heaping quantities and we want you all to know that we love you and hope you can feel that too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

eight

It's November, so that means four things (that I can think of right now). . .

1. Holding Dave off on the Christmas music and movies until at least the day after Thanksgiving, preferably the 1st of December, but that's a long shot.

2. Planning for Thanksgiving and hosting a house full of crazies. ;) We really are excited to see you guys, and Tiff.

3. Taking family photos because. . .

4. It's our anniversary! . . . and a tradition.

I need to gush for a minute, so if you have a weak constitution feel free to skip the next paragraphs. I'll let you know when it's safe to read again. . .

I love my husband. It's true. He's perfect for me, perfectly annoying, challenging, caring, and balancing for my extreme personality. Thanks baby for picking me. I'm so lucky and these past eight years have been my best, even the hard ones.

An example of his perfectness. . . I was sick for a month recently and couldn't do all the things that in my mind HAVE to get done. I can't stand my house being dirty (ok, it's not always clean and by no means perfect, just a disclaimer) or cluttered, Dave constantly challenges me in the latter, but while I was sick he took up my house chores and kept his clutter to a miraculous minimum. He cleaned, that in itself is amazing enough, but he did it without me asking, that's two miracles. Don't you only need three for sainthood? Well he's my angel and this is just one example.

I love you baby! Happy Anniversary!

Ok, you can read again. . . but now I don't have much else to say. Sorry. Happy November to everyone!