This is SO Super Delayed

Aaaaaaand Christmas pictures

Here's Kennedy in her new ballerina monkey jammies with her new kitchen and shopping cart that she asked for every day for 2 months.  Her biggest present.  She loved it.

I think his face says it all.  My grandparents sent this to Noah, and it was by far his favorite, along with a small stuffed puppy that my mom got him.  He attached to that thing like nobody's business.  He now has to sleep with it, take it in the car, and play with it.  At all times.

He carries it around in the crook of his arm, kind of in a choke hold.  There has been some issue with naming this puppy though.  A friend suggested Spot.  Which Noah pronounced Spock.  So while I was calling him Spock, Brett insisted on Spot.  But then Noah realized that the puppy was wearing a patch just like he has to.  So now there are three names in the running.  But mostly, he just gets called puppy.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year with lots of family and tons of presents. Seriously, they just kept coming. We all got spoiled, but Kennedy really took in a haul. We left probably 97% of what we got in Texas since we'll be back there in 3 weeks anyway. We did get a nice surprise with a white Christmas too! Apparently it's the first one that Plano has had in 80 years. Brett was really mad because he thought that by getting out of Utah we wouldn't have snow. Unfortunately for him, we had about an inch and it was pretty cold. Kennedy woke up around 7:15 that morning and we went to go get her. She slept in her new Christmas jammies that were really cute.

Yes, I look extremely pregnant in that picture, and Kennedy looks very sleepy. When we started opening presents, Kennedy and Wyatt didn't really differentiate between their presents and just played with them all. We had to try and get Kennedy to come back and open presents because she was so interested in what she or Wyatt had opened that she wasn't interested in the next box. Here she is hoarding all of the books that she got - or trying to at least. They wouldn't all fit in her arms.

She ended up getting 3 doodle pads this year, and Wyatt got two. Apparently they weren't enough. She stole Wyatt's pad and had them both going at the same time.

Kennedy and Wyatt both got potato heads to play with, but they weren't satisfied with their own. Here is Kennedy with Mr. Potato Head and Wyatt with Mrs. Potato Head.

My cousin Orion (who is almost 3) and Kennedy both got tents for Christmas. We set up Orion's tent at my grandparent's house and Kennedy refused to come out of it. Wyatt would open the flap and look in and Kennedy would scream and laugh.

Kennedy and Orion kept going inside and playing together, which was really cute. I think Kennedy spent at least 60% of her time in that thing. Good thing we have one too.

We loved Christmas this year and had a wonderful time. We love being with family and are excited for Kennedy to be able to go back and play with Wyatt for a couple of months!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

As you know, we headed down to Texas for Christmas this year. Kennedy and Wyatt took to each other right away and played the whole time we were there.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go down to Grapevine to see the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Texan hotel. Apparently it was supposed to be pretty cool with slides made out of ice and such. It was Grinch themed and you could actually meet the Grinch. The weather was pretty bad (it snowed and we had a white Christmas!), we didn't have a toll tag in Christine's car, and we got lost so it took us an hour to get there. The walk to the exhibit was excruciating in the freezing wind, and when we got there they said it would cost $50 for just us 3 to get in and that their next available time was 2 hours later. Needless to say we did not go in. We just took pictures outside.

Kennedy and Wyatt loved the train they had set up. Kennedy actually cried when we made her get out of it. Then we all decided to pile in. Brett and I barely fit in that little teeny car.

In the lobby of the hotel they had a bunch of Christmas displays set up, including trains, villages, and a life size gingerbread house.

It didn't take us nearly as long to get home, and even though we didn't get to go in and had a huge ordeal in getting there it was fun to spend time with family and have some fun taking pictures! More Christmas pictures to come in the next few days!

Must Have Been Old Santa Claus

We had an early Christmas this year because most of Kennedy's presents and a few of Brett's were much to big to lug down to Texas. Brett got a deep fryer, Monopoly and Punch Out for the Wii. I got to open some books that I had asked for and Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. But Kennedy's presents were what really prompted us to do this. So on Friday night we set up all of Kennedy's toys and had her come out to them on Saturday morning. Here's what it looked like before she saw it.

Yes, she is a spoiled only child. I came out and started the Mickey Mouse train going so that she would come to investigate. Sure enough she didn't know where to start. She just kept yelling out random things like, "Mickey!", "Bear!", "Ball!", and "Choo choo!"

She absolutely loves the little couch we got her that turns into a bed with a built in sleeping bag. She changes it from couch to bed all day long and loves to sit in it.

We also got her a jumbo Mr. Potato Head pack that has over 50 parts. It's really messy. She likes to try and dress in all of the hats and such that it came with. She did this one all by herself.

She was so overwhelmed! Little does she know that she gets to have another Christmas, although it will be smaller, on Friday. It was so much more fun to see her have a great time with her presents this year than it was to see her open them last year. She didn't care nearly as much. It was so fun to set everything up and watch her face when she came in the front room in the morning.

Later that morning we went to go see Santa at the mall. Last year we got really lucky and were just able to walk right up to him. This year however, we waited in line for an hour to see him. Lately, very much out of character, Kennedy has had random bouts of clinginess. If we start holding her, she all of a sudden doesn't want to leave us, and she freaks out for the first 5 minutes that we leave her to go anywhere. Unfortunately, one of these bouts happened right before we got to Santa.

I guess we have to have some pictures of her freaking out. It's just classic. Santa was a good sport and we snapped pictures as fast as we could.

She was seriously struggling to get away. She kept talking about Santa all day long as if nothing had happened. Brett told her it was a good thing he'd already come, because after the way she had acted he probably wouldn't have brought her anything. Later that night Brett and I went up to Salt Lake to the This is the Place Heritage Park for their Christmas festivities. It was really fun! They have an entire village of old buildings (some relocated and some replicated) and they were all dolled up for Christmas. We watched a puppet show, saw some people making candles, and did some square dancing. We spent a great day together and really had a blast!

Lucky Stocking

Brett's work had a competition last week for the best homemade stocking. That morning, Brett decided that he wanted to enter and improvised. He grabbed a company shirt, scissors and some present tags and went to work. He sent me this picture later that day. He stapled the shirt together and folded a sleeve over for the top. The company logo is in the middle. For a shirt, staples and 15 minutes I thought it turned out pretty well. And so did the rest of the company! Brett won first prize which was a $50 gift card to Cheesecake Factory! I was so excited. Brett is ridiculously lucky when it comes to contests, and I'm really glad he won this one.

O Tannenbaum

Despite the fact that I couldn't keep anything down until about 1:00 yesterday, we went out and got our Christmas tree. We found a beautiful grand fir at Lowe's and had a great time decorating it. It's so puffy! It looks huge in our apartment and I love it. Brett's sister Jamie went with us and got a tree as well. They decided to attach it to her car by roping it through the windows without realizing that she wouldn't be able to get into her car afterward. So poor Jamie was getting shoved in and out of her car through the window. We now have a house decorated for Christmas and are ready for that holiday cheer!

A Very Merry Christmas

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We certainly did.  This year we were in Santaquin with Brett's family.  We stayed the night on Christmas Eve so that we could be there bright and early with everyone to open some presents and see what Santa brought.  Everyone came over for dinner on Christmas Eve when we ate all kinds of treats and good soup.  Our niece Kasia was the resident Who from Whoville.

You should click on the picture to really see how cool her hair looked.  We played a lot of games and had a good time with everyone.  And Kennedy looked great in her Santa hat.

We had a bit of a rough night because we had to stay up for Santa when we had already had a long day.  Kennedy woke up at about midnight when I was the only one (other than the kids) in bed.  She had a little bit of trouble going down again, but eventually she did, only to wake up again at 4:00.  That wouldn't normally have been too weird considering the big day we had, but she decided that she was awake at that time and wanted all of her presents.  Brett was up with her for about an hour before she finally got tired again.  And she was up bright and early (well, 7:45) with us again to open her presents.

Kennedy is sporting the cute Christmas jammies, courtesy of Grandpa Pitt, that she got to open on Christmas Eve.  Santa (Grandma Pitt) got her this fun little piano that she has had a blast with.  It plays all kinds of music, counts, and does a bunch of other fun things too.  Santa also brought her some mega lego blocks, a picture of Jesus, and a stuffed Eeyore.

Her stocking came stuffed with snacks, a toothbrush (for her 2 1/2 teeth), and a toy cell phone.  She likes that one a lot because it beeps when you press the buttons.  I think that's her favorite part about our cell phones too.  Kennedy got completely spoiled by everyone this year.  She has more noisy toys than she can stand, tons of new things to chew on, some new clothes, a CD player with some CDs and a new Baby Einstein DVD.  She got a doll, bath toys, a LeapPad, and a cookie jar shape sorter.  She is going to be well occupied for a long time.  Here she is with her aunt Amanda and the fun stuffed pig she got her.

Brett and I had a wonderful time watching her open her presents.  We don't have more pictures than this because it got to be nap time halfway through the presents and we had to finish opening them while she was asleep.  We did pretty well ourselves as far as gifts go.  I got Ina Garten's new cookbook, a Swivel Sweeper, a cool African necklace from Brett's parents, and a bunch of new movies.  Brett got some Jazz tickets, Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii, and some chickens donated to a family in Africa in his name.  We played with presents and family all day until it was time to have dinner.  We had prime rib, mashed potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and a bunch of other yummy stuff at Brett's brother Chris' house.  After dinner we played ping pong until Kennedy got so zonked that she needed to come home.  We came home, unpacked, put Kennedy to bed, and played a little Smash Brothers before going to bed.  It was a great holiday and we were so excited to see Kennedy have a good time.  I'm loving watching her play with all of her things this morning.  We can't wait until next year when we get to put out cookies for Santa and make some of the yummy recipes I found again!  Don't worry, recipes will follow.  For today, it's nice to have a quiet morning at home with Kennedy and her new toys.

Lovely Weather for a Sleigh Ride Together with You

Dear Snow,

Why are you so uncooperative?  I wanted you to stick on the ground so that I could take some mega cute pictures of Kennedy.  Please stick next time.

Cold Weather Lover

Dear Kennedy,

I am so proud of you!  Sitting up, crawling (albeit slowly), and eating pieces of banana make you such a big girl.  I love you!

Your Mom

Dear Jazz,

I wish that you didn't always feel like you had to have close games and give my husband a heart attack.  Can you please try to really win next time?

Wife of a Jazz Fan

Dear Christmas,

I am so excited for you to come!  Kennedy is already trying to open the presents under our Christmas bush, so you need to come more quickly, or there won't be any left.

Me

Dear Oven,

You treat me well even though I use you way too much.  Thank you for your patience with my baking endeavors during the Christmas season.

Avid Baker

Dear Blog Readers,

As per the post above, I am a baking maniac.  Please help me choose which cookies to make next by voting in my poll!  Thanks!

Ashley

Simple Christmas Pleasures

A while back I did a post on little things that make me happy.  There are so many things around December and Christmas that make me happy that I thought that I should share some of my simple Christmas pleasures with you.

1. Christmas Music: Ok, I'm totally one of those crazy people who starts listening to Christmas music right after Halloween when the radio stations turn it on.  But in December it's pretty much all I ever listen to.  I just love it!  My favorite songs are Harry Connick, Jr's version of Sleigh Ride and Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song.

2. Baking: I think that baking gets turned up a notch around this time of year.  People have their traditions and love to decorate those Christmas sugar cookies.  This year I am having so much fun looking for recipes to be Lee family traditions for Christmas.  So far so good!  As you can see on the sidebar, 2 out of 3 recipes have turned out well.  I am still planning on making Chocolate Snowballs tomorrow and Cranberry Bread probably on Monday.  Then you'll have to help me decide what to make next week when I put up my new poll!

3. Christmas Lights: I love seeing the lights as I'm driving down the highway or just down our street.  I love the lights at Temple Square, and I really hope that I get a chance to see the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo.  Thanksgiving Point apparently has light displays as well.  I also just love Christmas decorations in general.  The trees are always beautiful.

4. Cold Weather: Yes, you may think I'm crazy, but I almost always prefer cool or cold weather to anything that could even remotely be considered hot.  It's not because I like to bundle up, I just love the crisp air.  It smells so good and it doesn't suck away your energy like heat.

5. Snow: Once again, you may think I'm crazy, but I just love when it snows.  Yes, it's scary to drive in, but that doesn't happen that often and it is so beautiful.  I love going out on a white morning when no cars are out.  It's so peaceful.

6. Kennedy's First Christmas: We're having a great time introducing Kennedy to Christmas.  Taking her to see Santa, writing her a note from Sugar Plum (her Christmas elf, Brett had one when he was little), buying her presents and putting them under the tree.  I am really looking forward to next year when we can put out the milk and cookies for Santa.  Christmas is going to be so much more fun from now on.

Celebrating 100 Posts with Santa!

That's right folks!  This is my 100th post!  And to celebrate I'm going to show you some pictures of Kennedy's first trip to see Santa.  We dressed Kennedy up in her cute new outfit that grandpa got her for Christmas and headed over to the Willowbend Mall to see Santa!

We got there right before his "milk and cookies" break, so there was only one person in line in front of us, which was awesome.  An hour later there was a line of at least 20 people.  The theme was The Polar Express, and we got to walk through the front of the train and pull levers and strings to make noise.  Then we got to walk through a huge snow globe.  I still had snow on me when I went to bed.

Kennedy did very well with Santa, and I wasn't expecting anything less.  She didn't smile, but she certainly wasn't scared.  First thing she did was try to pull on his beard.

Here she is checking out this big red man she's sitting with.

Wyatt went for his first trip to Santa too, and he also did really well!  We were proud of those kids for not freaking out, because the kid who came behind us did.

We then shopped at the mall and Kennedy melted out hearts when we looked down in the stroller and she was just smiling up at Brett for no reason at all.  We're so glad that we got to see Santa this year and start our Christmas traditions!

And now for something completely different, my quest for holiday cookies is going slowly.  Or at least the first attempt was not so great.  The Chewy Ginger Cookies I made last night were decent, but not tradition worthy.  I am bummed, but ready and waiting to make some Frosted Brown Sugar Cookies tonight!

Christmas Time is Here!

I am so excited that I can have the full Christmas spirit now! More music, more cheer, more snow! On December 1st we are going to decorate the house and the baking extravaganza will begin. I'm going to try out new recipes this year because I'm trying to come up with some cookies and other things that will begin to be traditions at our house. What are your traditions? What smell coming from the oven makes you think of Christmas? Our tree will be nothing like this, but isn't the Rockefeller Center tree amazing? Have a great beginning of the Christmas season! (And to those of you who are shopping today, be careful out there! A Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death this morning!)

Kennedy's First Christmas Present

Well, since she's been born anyway.  She got lots of presents last year while she was still in my tummy.  But this year Grandpa Pitt wanted to get her something that would be hard for us to bring back with us from Texas, so he went ahead and shipped it to us early.  It is a Baby Einstein activity center, and it was an instant hit!  We finally have all the pieces put on and this is the finished product.

She loves it because there are so many different things to focus on.  There's a book and a mirror, a puppet that we can control, things that move, things that make noise, and things to chew on.  She can put her feet on the ground and "stand up" while she plays.

When I put her in it this morning she just screamed for joy for a really long time while she played.  She has been in it for a few hours today and she is happy as a clam, as evidenced by the cute smile in this picture.

Thanks Grandpa for the awesome gift!  Hopefully you can see me play in it sometime soon.  On a different note, she started 2nd foods today and she devoured them!  I also had to include this last picture because it was just way too funny to skip.  It looks better when it's big, so you should click on it to get the full effect.

Thanks again Grandpa!  Christmas is already awesome.

Christmas Candies

Ok, I know it's a little preemptive, but there weren't any Thanksgiving molds.  I started thinking that I wanted to try making some candies on Friday.  Brett's mom makes candies and he loves them, so I thought I would try my hand at it.  Considering that this was my first time doing it, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.

They were a little bit time consuming, but I had a great time with them!  That detail work is what I'm good at.  I really needed a more precise brush because the one that came with the pack was a cheap plastic one and the bristles wouldn't stay together.  Some more colors would have been nice, but I made do with what I had.

I got all of the equipment from Michael's, and on recommendation from Maria Manitoken I am going to take the cake decorating class there in December or January.  I'm really excited for that because then I'll be able to make Kennedy an awesome cake for her birthday!

PS - Go vote tomorrow!  I am going early tomorrow morning.  If you are in California or are registered there, vote YES on Proposition 8!