Nance Magic: April 2012

I know, you are shocked. What!?! you are saying She is still catching up?!? Yes. Always catching up. Also my favorite hot dog topping. You know, ketchup. ;) Someday I will be ahead in something in life and probably also no longer eating hot dogs, and will no longer need ketchup. Not today, though, friends...

November 2011. Not a very exciting month for us.

We took half of the rail off of Paul's bed, allowing him to actually climb out of his bed on his own... and fall asleep on the floor. (Yes, his carpet is pink. Lovely, dusty rose pink.)

I got a new haircut, with bangs (sort of). Don't get too used to it, as it's all grown out now and will probably be cut off soon. :)

Mark's sister Dusty took family pictures for us, for our Christmas cards that never happened. Oops. But aren't they cute?

Paul even fell flat on the cement and had a big bluish purple goose egg forming, and Dusty still got him to smile. And also did a great job editing the goose egg out. Anna was just far more interested in the quilt we were sitting on (that was supposed to be the backdrop until the kids didn't cooperate) than anything else going on.

Dusty also did Anna's 3 month pictures, with the quilt I made for her (like we did for Paul. because I have to have at least one matchy-matchy mom thing of my kids, right?). Do I have the best sister-in-law ever or what? (To all of my sisters-in-law reading... yes, of course I mean you...)

And, then we rounded out the month with the annual Turkey Trot. This year we saved some time and money by just doing our own thing [instead of paying someone else $25 to run 3.1 miles around a parking lot after standing in the cold for 30 minutes after the race was supposed to start. But hey, we got hoodies.] Jace, next year, we want some swag. :)

And then in December, I and 4 of my sisters (2 in-laws, if you want to be technical about it) ran the Expedition St. George Relay. We were pretty much the most amazing team there:

Thanks to Rebecca's genius (and my handiwork on the shirts, which I am UBER proud of), we took home the award for the best team name: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Sweaty Pants. Oh, and the back of our shirts says "You've just been pantsed." Yup, we rock. As if you couldn't tell from the picture.

Mark and the kids came down, too and were the best cheering squad ever. Paul had a blast "chasing Mommy" and Mark was sooo patient to deal with my mini-panic attacks about him finding us along the route so that I could nurse Anna.

It was really quite a feat that all of us made it there, actually. The morning before we left, Paul puked. Repeatedly. We still decided to try the trip, with a handy dandy leftover Easter basket (bucket) as the puke bucket in the car. Paul and Anna both traveled great -- Anna slept the entire way there and Paul didn't puke until we pulled into the driveway at my uncle's house where we were sleeping. Then, as Sarah, Greta and Rebecca were driving down, it was pretty much a blizzard. I'm so glad we had fun or it would have been a terrible weekend. :)

Paul still loves Anna as much as ever. Most mornings (even still), I find them like this: Paul hanging over the edge of her crib. Sometimes talking to her, sometimes giving her toys, and, most often, poking her eyes. At the time, the eye-poking had me at my wit's end (which, most days, isn't really that far of a travel from my normal spot). One spanking and a few good solid time outs later, the eye poking is no longer a problem, thankfully.

Even after having her eyes poked, she's still nice and bright-eyed in the mornings :)

Everyone is enjoying Daddy's new (school) iPad. Everything we do on it is purely educational, of course...

Paul (sometimes) loves to hold Anna... but she's big enough now that she pushes him over....

When the weather is clear, we go walking with my mom once a week. Anna finds it quite soothing, and stayed asleep all bundled like this for close to an hour after we returned home one day:

And, no, she isn't cheering for BYU. We have firmly instilled in her a love for the YMCA, and for touchdowns. Go Aggies!

And who doesn't love a frothy-mouthed baby? We thought she had SO much hair, but compared to what she has now, she looks pretty bald in this picture. :)

One of my big projects for December was a Jessie (the cowgirl) dressup for Sofie, my best friend Debra's little girl. Pretty darn proud of it. Although I'd do the hair differently next time.

Christmas Eve, Mark's family has a new-ish tradition of having cereal while watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. We each get our own box of cereal, so we feel pretty darn spoiled.

Paul even got TWO boxes of cereal this year, because Grandma Shelly is just awesome like that.

We decided to join everyone and their dog and have Paul open pajamas on Christmas Eve. (We don't actually have a dog, though, so we can't be like this family or this family yet.) They were Thomas the Tank Engine -- thus the sheer delight on his face. :)

We also gave him a game that we played as a family -- a Thomas matching game. He actually lasted through a whole round, so we consider him advanced for his age since the box says age 3+...

Then, Christmas!!! Paul was SO spoiled this year and we thought he'd be SO excited to open presents, but he just really wanted to get his morning reading in first (see, I told you he is advanced! ;)

Anna liked the wrapping paper, so next year we're just giving her the paper

And Paul, oh my goodness, Paul was completely overwhelmed. This picture was one of the first presents:

And it quickly went downhill from there. By the time we got to the grandparents, he was cranky and done opening presents. Oh well, he loves them all now! And next year, we're doing less. Hopefully. I get a little carried away with online shopping, you know...

We spent one day of Christmas break at the bounce house with cousins. Sorry about the terrible pictures...

Paul was NOT going to jump on that trampoline by himself:

but he was more than happy to do ANYTHING with Daddy. By the time our hour was up, Mark was exhausted and Paul just wanted more, more, more!

We ended 2011 with the annual party at my brother, Chad's. We celebrated with New York at 10 pm, and I believe we will do that every year because everyone was still SO happy and not yet cranky. We all stayed up until midnight here, but the looks were a little more glazed by then: