Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so fun! Rick, Kimbri and I got to spend the whole day together! We got up and had breakfast and just lounged around together. We did have to get a little bit of laundry done but other than that, we spent the whole morning hanging out together. Kimbri took a nap mid-morning and Rick and I just played games together. Since Rick got done with finals we've had way more time to play some games. We've probably played Phase 10 the most. It goes a lot faster with 2 people and is still really fun. In between Kimbri's naps we decided to make Christmas sugar cookies. So we did that and made cookies into Christmas trees, stockings, candy canes, snowmen, and a few stars and frosted them different colors. Kimbri sure enjoyed taste-testing the cookie dough, frosting and the final cookie when they were done!

The beginning of a ton of snow just in time for Christmas!!

Lunch time on Christmas Eve plus Kimbri's silly faces.

We also had to finish up gathering up and wrapping a few presents for each of our sibling exchanges, so we made a quick stop at Sam's Club and at the mall. On my side we had Nolan's name and on Rick's side we had Levi's name. We got Nolan a Red Robin gift card so he could take his girlfriend, Brooke, out on a free date. Rick and I have always enjoyed gift cards that we've been given because then we can go out to eat and have a free date together! So hopefully they enjoy that :) Then for Levi's gift, we got him what I think is called a capo, for his ukelele. We sure hope he enjoys that as well!

Olivia had Rick and I for the sibling gift exchange...and she went way too all out with it and got all the members of our family something! Even Garrett who isn't even born yet! That was really thoughtful of her and we appreciate it a ton! She gave us a baby gate. And that is something that we have really been wanting for when Garrett is born. Attached to it was a Cafe Rio gift card! I'm soooo excited for that:) She also got Kimbri as couple of cute outfits; one is purple and dark blue. The shirt has polka dots and a pink flower and the other one is a onsie with cute flower pants. And then she got Garrett a little red and black flannel sleeper that is so soft! I can't wait to dress him in it! On Rick's side of the sibling exchange, his sister Mindy had us. She got us a movie gift card!! We are SO excited for that! We usually just wait til it's in Red Box or sometimes we'll splurge and go to the dollar theater. Haha :-) So we are really excited to go to the 'real' movie theater together!

So this year we were going to spend the main part of Christmas Eve with my family and then drop in at the Stone's to visit them after that since last year we were at the Stone's house most of the night and then dropped in at my family's to say hi. Well, it turned out that several people were sick at the Stone's and we didn't want to risk getting sick, especially since I could be having the baby any time now. So we were just at my family's house for the night.

Things started around 6pm. Camille and Tim plus their son, Jake, spent Christmas in Utah, from Colorado, this year, so they were there along with my Grandma and Grandpa Haycock. Two of my aunts on my mom's side, Donna and Delicia and their families were in town too! So that was fun, but they ended up having to split time with other family around this area too. But it was soooo fun to see them since we didn't get to go to Louisiana for the big family get together for Thanksgiving!

We had our yearly Christmas Eve 'dinner' which was super yummy. It's not your typical dinner but more of snack-type foods. My favorite are my dad's homemade taquitos with salsa!! Yuuummmm!!!! I probably ate way too many. But it's one of the Christmas Eve favorites, in my opinion:) There was also my Grandma's homemade rolls with turkey and ham meat and cheese to make little sandwiches. And a whole lot of other types of food. Different kinds of chips and dip, mini pickles, another of my favorites, a huge variety of cookies and of course the tradition of a sherbet and sprite slushy drink! It was really yummy.

Later in the evening we did our little "Gift to the Savior" show. It is a time where you can present something you've been working on or share a an experience, etc... but mostly it is sharing our talents. For example, several people played Christmas songs, or other songs, on the piano. My little cousin, Jake played a song, Zach played one and so did Wyatt. Enoch performed a dance that Olivia had helped him learn. Rick played a song on the piano. My dad wanted me to play a Christmas hymn. And then everyone finally got my dad to sing a song, along with Wyatt and Rick. It wasn't really Christmas related or anything but rather a fun random tradition of me playing Phantom of the Opera songs and the boys all singing along. They belt it out and sing along and it's really funny! And they're actually quite good.

The rest of the evening was spent just hanging out and relaxing, spending time with family and just lounging around together. We also played a round of Tommy Right & Tommy Left. Rick got a box of popcorn and I got two Christmas dish towels. That game is a Christmas tradition that I want to continue on with our family! It was really fun to spend time with family and to get to visit with family from out of town that we don't get to see very often!

Here are a few more snapshots of Christmas Eve I took at my parents house.

Kimbri opening a present from her Uncle Zach.

She LOVES the soft purple blanket he gave her! 

Thanks Uncle Zach!

Timber & Koda's Puppy

I'm a little behind on posting to my blog. Of course it's been a little crazy because of the holidays but I definitely want to catch up on a few posts because baby Garrett could come any day now! We are really anxious and excited and I just cannot wait until he makes his arrival. I'm anxiously waiting, minute by minute:)

Anyway, a while back Zach's dogs, Timber and Koda, had puppies, and one day when we were down in Spanish Fork, before Christmas, Zach had just bathed one of the puppies that was about to leave to go to another home. Kimbri had quite a lot of fun with the little puppy. She kept trying to get the blanket and put it on top of the puppy. Then a little while later they were sitting side by side and the puppy kept leaning over and sniffing Kimbri and she would try and lean over away from him and she was just making the funniest faces! It was really cute.

Also, Stacie and the kids visited from Nebraska and I wish I would've taken more pictures! I took some of Luke on my phone but I still need to figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer.... Anyway, so here is Oaklee and Kimbri sitting on the couch together. I couldn't get Kimbri to smile, haha.

Our Little Cowgirl ~ Almost 17 Months Old

Kimbri found this cowgirl hat on the bottom shelf in our bedroom closet a while back, and now she always goes to there and gets it and likes to wear it around. 

Some other things that Kimbri does lately (at almost 17 months old):

-When her food is all gone she raises one hand way in the air and spreads her fingers all apart, motioning that "it's all gone gone". Haha.

-She randomly walks on her tip-toes around the house. 

-When we turn on the Christmas tree lights and the lights on top of the piano, she says, "ooooo" - but in a super high pitched girly voice. I can't describe how cute and funny it is with words.

-Kimbri has always loved to "read" books. When she was younger she wouldn't really let me read the books to her, she just wanted to flip through the pages and look. But now she loves to bring me one book at a time from off the book shelf and we read them! She's a little bookworm! I love sitting down and reading with her. Lately, however, there has become less and less room on my lap due to my ever-growing belly. Baby Garrett needs to hurry up and make his debut! 

-Whenever something is baking in the oven, I'll turn on the oven light and she loves to look through the oven window and see what's in there. I think she knows now that whatever is in the oven eventually comes out and she gets to eat it! 

-Her favorite food is probably bananas. She absolutely positively LOVES bananas. Some other foods that she likes are oranges/clementines, apple slices, grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pasta with red sauce! -Just to name a few. She won't really eat chicken. I guess it's maybe the texture? If I discreetly mix it in with a bite of mashed potatoes or something then sometimes she'll eat it, but not always.  And of course, she loves cookies! She usually gets spoiled and Grandma's house with those :)

-Kimbri has always been a pretty good sleeper. She is almost 17 months now and she usually goes to bed around 6:30pm (sometimes sooner and sometimes later), and sleeps anywhere from 12 to 14 hours... which is great! But she only takes usually one nap during the day. And it totally varies, sometimes only 45 minutes and sometimes 2 hours!

-She loves to wear her "prettys'" a.k.a. any sort of necklace or bracelet. I used to keep my jewelry box on a lower shelf but recently Kimbri has discovered it and can open the drawers and get things out. She would always go straight for the drawer with my bracelets in it and put them on her arms and show me.  I had to move the box to a higher shelf but I got our a couple bracelets for her to have and play with. She also loves to put on all the beaded Mardi Gras necklaces at Grandma Haycock's house!

-For some reason Kimbri loves to put things in and out of boxes, tupperware, bags, etc... Lately she has had so much fun with these little colorful bear figurines that go with a book that my mom gave her. She loves putting all the bears in any sort of container and then getting them out, and repeating the process over and over! 

-And of course Kimbri loves to go visit Grandma's house in Spanish Fork and Salem! Along with all of her many aunts and uncles! Kimbri, you are loved by SO many people! And we all love you so SO much!!! 

Our little girl is growing up so fast! I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I love you Kimbri with all my heart! 

Hand-Me-Down Christmas Jammies

I'm not sure who all wore these Christmas pajamas among my siblings or other family members, but they were in a box of clothes my mom gave me. The pants are a little small and somehow made their way off Kimbri's little legs by morning time, but we had to take some pictures of her in them for documentations sake! Haha. Maybe I'll find a picture some day of me in them...who knows? 

Sick

I haven't updated the blog in a while... probably because we've all just been sick and I've had no energy to do anything lately :(  I guess being sick, taking care of a sick baby, and being huge pregnant all at the same time is hard...at least for me it is.

A little over one month ago Kimbri came down with the croup. Even though she got the medicine in her fast (they just gave her a shot), the doctor said that she would have the symptoms, a runny nose and cough, for a couple weeks after. So just as she seemed to start getting better I came down with a very sore throat and runny nose. Then Rick got it. And Kimbri just as Kimbri seemed to be getting better her cough suddenly got worse. 

Rick and I both started feeling better and got over the sore throat and runny nose thing. And it seemed like Kimbri was just not able to completely get over it. Just as I would think that her cough would start to sound better, it would just go right back to the way it was before. I kept thinking she would get over it soon and didn't want to be the paranoid mom bringing her kid back in right after taking her in for the croup just a month before. 

But one night that thinking changed. Kimbri sounded so bad during the night. She coughed and coughed and coughed some more. She slept through the night but just kept coughing. I've been a pretty light sleeper ever since becoming a mom, and I heard every time she coughed. And it started to worry me. Because it wasn't just a cough anymore, it was a wheezy, hard to breath sounding cough. 

So we scheduled a doctors appointment for that morning. By that point her oxygen levels were super low. They would rise and then dip and repeat that process, just over and under the borderline for hospitalization. So she had two breathing treatments and then they decided she would be okay to go home but they had a machine sent to us that night so we could do breathing treatments at home. 

The breathing treatments, along with a steroid medicine stuff they gave her, helped a ton! I felt so bad for our little girl. I guess this is the season for this type of thing, unfortunately :(

I'm sure grateful for doctors! And I'm glad that little miss Kimbri is feeling so much better!    

Pots & Pans

I'm not sure if I ever posted these on the blog... so I decided to just do a quick post with them. 

Kimbri totally enjoys taking every pot, pan, skillet, bowl, etc... out of the cupboards while I'm doing dishes or cooking dinner. It keeps her very entertained :)

Cookies

Last week was not a good one around the Stone home. Rick, Kimbri and I were all sick. Ugh. It was not fun. Last Sunday, as in one week and a day ago, not yesterday, we were feeling so yucky and sick that we didn't go to church. And as I slept and slept and slept, and rested on the couch, Rick decided that cookies sounded good. I obviously did not feel like making cookies. And Rick knew it, so HE decided to make cookies! I don't think he's ever made cookies since we've been married! Go Rick! And they turned out really yummy :) Probably not the best thing to eat when you're sick but I had to try a cookie that my hubby made all on his own! 

Here are a couple pictures I snapped to document this awesome event:

Santa

This past weekend I decided to participate in the Spanish Fork and Salem Chamber of Commerce Christmas Fair. Hardly anybody came. So that was kind of a bummer... but on Saturday, Santa Claus was there from 1-3pm. Rick and Kimbri came to visit. As you can see from the pictures, she was terrified! I totally thought she would love sitting on Santa's lap! Obviously I was wrong. Haha. 

However, she loved the candy cane that Santa gave her. It made her tears disappear just like that!  

Decorating for Christmas

Yes. The day after Thanksgiving we did it. We decorated for Christmas!! Last year was so so so crazy and hectic with both Rick and I in school and working, and still adjusting to parenthood, that we didn't even get around to setting up our Christmas tree until it was almost too late! So this year we decided to do it the day after Thanksgiving, while Rick was still on break from school and we had much more time to spend together as a family! The break truly was soooo relaxing. Rick is accepted to medical school and so he didn't have to worry about applications or interviews. He didn't have to worry about school because he had a couple tests and papers due right before the break so it was very enjoyable to just be together as a family! 

Here are some pictures I snapped of Rick and Kimbri decorating. Notice Kimbri's bracelets (which are really my bracelets but she knows where they are at in my room and goes and gets them all the time). She loves wearing her "pretty's". 

Rick fluffing the branches on our tree.

Daddy and Daughter, decorating the tree together:)

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was so great this year! We originally had planned on going to Louisiana but ended up not being able to go. Mostly due to the pregnancy. I kept getting so worried and having nightmares that I would have the baby on the road or while we were gone. Plus, a 24 hour drive would not be very comfortable this far along in my pregnancy.

But it turned out great! We had Thanksgiving with the Stone's. Just Rick's immediate family members. And it was a blast. It was extra special because this is the last year in who knows how long that all of their family members will be around for Thanksgiving. Next year Rick and I will most likely be living out of state and Cosette is due to leave on her mission in February. And Levi will probably be leaving on his mission too, before this time next year. So it was fun to all be together!

Rick, Kimbri and I woke up early on Thanksgiving day and headed down to Spanish Fork to finish making the banana cream pies. Then I made the rolls and got them all rolled out to start rising. While they were rising I whipped up the green bean casserole and then Rick, Kimbri and I all went to the park! There was not a single other person there besides us. And Kimbri had a blast playing on the playground and swinging.

After a little while at the park we headed back to my parents house to cook the rolls that had been rising and then made our way over to the Stone's. A huge thank you to my parents for letting me use there kitchen and oven while they were gone! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner together and spent the afternoon with family, watching The Incredibles, and playing Ticket to Ride. It was so fun and relaxing! And for some reason Kimbri decided to got to sleep at around 4:30pm and slept the whole night. So we had fun playing games and hanging out with everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Duck Pond Adventure

Kimbri loves the duck pond on the south side of BYU. We go on walks there pretty often. We decided to take daddy with us this time. It was a little bit of a wet and rainy day but it was still really fun to have a whole Saturday together as a family!! So we started out are day eating french toast for breakfast and then taking a walk to the duck pond. 

When we started feeding the ducks, Kimbri decided that she wanted to be fed too:)

The ducks seriously attacked the bread. Probably because they don't get
fed as often when it's cold weather. They sure loved it! 

Daddy feeding the ducks.

Mommy and Kimbri.

It started to sprinkle a little bit so we decided to start walking home. And it got harder right as we were about one block away. So I had Rick run ahead with Kimbri so Kimbri wouldn't get all wet and I tried to waddle my pregnant self home as fast as I could. I'm not so good at running these days... or walking for that matter, haha.

We made it home and had lunch a little while later, after some more lounging around together as a family. I love days that we have to be with each other all day, to just hang out and be together.

Kimbri was acting silly during lunch. Sippy cup in one hand and part of her grilled cheese sandwich in the other. 

Kimbri pulls this kind of face so often now-a-days.
I think it's hilarious! ;-)

That afternoon we ran a few errands in Orem and Springville and then ended up back home to spend the rest of our Saturday at home. I sure was ready to be home after running some errands. It must be the holidays because there were people everywhere. So we spent the rest of the evening together and it was fantastic!

And a beautiful rainbow to end our day right before heading back home for the day.

  

Sailor Dress

This cute little sailor dress is one that I wore when I was little. We tried it on Kimbri this past Sunday. It was a little long but so adorable! I really want to find a picture of me in the same dress from when I was little and post it next to these. We'll see if I ever come by one... 

What a beautiful little girl I have :) And she is going to have the title of "big sister" soon! Hooray!

Diapers

Apparently having a few diapers on your porch is considered a "health hazard". 

We were told today by the mailman that there is one mail lady that refuses to deliver our mail if she sees a diaper on our porch.  He said that he didn't care but that if she's the one that has our route, and there is a diaper there, she will not deliver our mail. 

Wow. Since when is a dirty diaper a health hazard?? Yeah, it's probably not the prettiest sight to see some dirty diapers on the front porch, but really? Everybody uses the restroom. So does that mean if I go into a public bathroom and someone forgot to flush the toilet, that I should consider it a "health hazard" and leave immediately and never return to that store? Yeah. Didn't think so...

Oh well. I just wanted to write about it because I thought it was funny, and somewhat ridiculous. 

Mittens, Cucumbers, & Blankets...

Wow! I can't believe the snow that has piled up outside the last couple days! And it's beautiful, except for when your car gets stuck and sinks down into a bunch of mud and you have to call a tow truck to come and get it un-stuck for you. Luckily it was free because of our insurance! But still.

In celebration, I guess you could say, we whipped out Kimbri's mittens from last year. They actually fit her this year! When we bought them last year we were just trying to find something that we could put over her hands to keep them warm, and they went like half way up her arm. But they fit perfect this year, and for some reason she loves having them on. 

Kimbri enjoying freshly homemade bread. After not having eaten very well while having the croup, when I made bread she ate it up! And tons of it! 

Kimbri also has this recent obsession with the fridge. ANY time the fridge is opened she drops whatever she's doing and runs to try and get to it before I shut the door. One of these days she's going to figure out how to open it herself. She usually goes to the bottom drawers and gets out whatever is there, in this case, it is the cucumbers. :)

Also, the other day, she somehow figured out how to open the bottom drawer to the filing cabinet my dad gave us and somehow got in it all by herself! It's kind of a deep drawer so I was a bit surprised she was able to get in by herself. But that is another funny thing she likes to do...get in and out of boxes and things. 

And just as another little side note... here is a blanket I finished for Garrett. It has puppy paw prints on it. Thanks again to my Grandma for teaching my how to make these! I'm so excited to have a little boy to snuggle up in this blanket and hold! 2 months from today is my due date! Hooray!