Santa Clause

All Season Annika has been telling me how she is a big girl now, and she can sit on Santa's lap all by herself. She would say "I can help Ady because I am bigger!"

Well... It was Thursday December 23rd and we still had not been to see Santa yet. Brian's vacation started and I told him that we really needed to take Annika to see Santa. So we headed out. First we stopped at Costco. I think everyone in Utah Valley was at Costco. We made it out of there, and we were going to go down to University Mall to see Santa. I knew that there would probably be alot of people there (because it was 2 days until Christmas.) but we still went. We headed out of the Costco parking lot, and the roads were packed, so we went a different way. We were driving and ended up in highland. we keep driving on the road and there is the mouth of American fork canyon. I think that I am very good at directions, but I still can not figure out how we ended up so far north. So we start heading south, we get on state street and it is stop and go traffic. They were fixing pot holes on the freeway stopping traffic, so there was tons of people on state street, and then there was a fed ex truck stuck in one of the lanes. So it was down to one lane traffic.

Ok, we get past all that, we get to the mall, and Santa's line is all the way around his little north pole area. Ok. Ady was sleeping, so Brian and Annika went to do a little shopping and I waited in line. So a while later Brian and Annika come back. They stand in line with me for a minute, and we are like 10 feet away from the entrance into the north pole, and Annika starts crying. I ask her what's wrong and she says I want to go home. Seriously? Well she kept crying, so I took her out of the line, got her a better look at other kids sitting on santa's lap, and she kept crying. She didn't want to sit on his lap. I wasn't going to make her So... I told her to stand by the presents in his North pole, and I took her picture. I think it is a hilarious picture because she is totally crying, but trying to smile for the picture.



So we left the line, and came home. 3 hours later, we had gone on our own little Christmas Adventure! The sad thing is that I didn't even take a picture of sleeping Ady or give her the chance to sit on his lap! Sorry Ady. I will make sure you get the chance next year!

Christmas

On Christmas Eve we went up to Brian's parents house for the evening. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, decorated some cookies for Santa. We sang some hymns, played some chimes, and watched a church movie on the birth of Christ. It was a wonderful laid back evening. We came home and headed to bed. Adalyn and I got up around 7:30, and Annika and Brian slept until about 8:30. When Annika finally woke up she said "we gotta go see if Santa came" she started heading down the stairs and saw her big barbie house and said " I got what I wanted!"



I think she was still trying to wake up because she just stood on the stairs for a while. We walked down stairs and she looked in her stocking, she got a Pez, which she was very happy about and just wanted me to put some candy in it. After she got her Pez figured out, she walked around the living room examining everyone's presents. I really think she just didn't know what to do. So we told her she could open the first present.

After that she caught on really fast, and she was getting presents for everyone else to open. Ady was fun to watch, and it was cute to watch Annika help Ady open her presents. Ady loves the leap frog table that she got. She thinks that she needs to be standing all of the time. And Annika took her unicorn pillow pet with her everywhere. We opened up all of our presents and then we had time to hang out and play.



Brian's family came down to see what the girls got, and then we left and headed up to my grandma's Christmas party. All of the great grand-kids did a nativity. It was fun to watch. After the party there, we headed back to my parents house.

We didn't get back there until about 10pm but we still exchanged family gifts. It was a lot of fun! Christmas was a long day. On Sunday we stayed at my parents house, and made a quick trip in to Logan to visit Brian's grandparents. Then headed back to my parents house to play games, eat lunch, and watch some movies. On Monday we went bowling and gathered everything up and headed home. It was a great Christmas!

Annika turns 3!

Annika turned 3 on Tuesday December 14th! To Celebrate she got to have 3 different parties. She definitely got spoiled.



The first party was on December 5th. All of the Jarrett family came down to go to the Christmas Devotional so we had a party before! Here are some pictures. My parents gave her a tea party set, and we have sat down and enjoyed some tea every day since.



The second party was on December 12th. We went up and enjoyed dinner with the LeBarons. Annika and her aunt Heidi have Birthdays a day apart so we had a joint party for them. Brian's mom made her an adorable backpack, and Aunt Heidi and Uncle Eric gave her a pack of all the Disney Princess Barbies.



On her actual Birthday we hung out at home. Then later in the afternoon, we got a hold of some of the neighbor kids, and went to a place in Lehi called Monkey Island. It is a big room filled with inflatable slides and bouncy houses. They all got to run around and get out some energy. Brian stopped on his way home and got to watch for a while. On the way home we picked up dinner. For dinner Annika picked out Sausage pizza and broccoli. So that is what we had. We came home and while dinner was baking we opened presents. She got a train set, and never really sat down for dinner. She just kind of wandered back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. Eating a bite of pizza then going back in to drive her train. The night before her birthday we took her to the store and let her pick out the kind of cake pan for the cake she wanted. I thought I had talked her into Tinkerbell but when we got there she just wanted a monkey. So after dinner, we had monkey cake and chocolate ice cream.


I hope she had a great birthday!




Things about our Annika:
-She is such a sweet little girl. The other day we were waiting somewhere, and she leaned over and kissed by arm. Didn't say anything just kissed me. Brian gets little kisses like this all of the time.
-She is such a good big sister. She is always so willing to get me a diaper or toys for Ady. If she hears Ady crying she will say "Oh no she needs a toy" and jump down and get her one. Or "Mom I think that she is hungry." On Saturday morning Ady woke up, then you hear Annika run over to her crib and start talking to her. Then Annika comes running into our room and says in a normal voice... "Dad I need to tell you a secret.... Ady's awake." What a funny girl!
-She makes us laugh all the time.
-She is so smart!
-She is such a great part of our family.

I took Annika in for her 3 year check up and just for my records here are her stats:
-She weighs 35 lbs (89%)
-She is 38.25 inches tall (83%)

Things Annika says

The other night we were down on the couch watching tv, and Annika was sitting next to me, and Brian was laying on the other side. I moved over to cuddle with Brian, when Annika gets this sad face and says, "now who's going to keep me warm?". Oh she made me so sad. So I moved back over and cuddled with her.

Ady had taken my wax paper out of the cupboard and kindly unrolled it all. Annika ran over and grabbed the cardboard tube. She jumped up on the chair and put the tube up to her eye. She said look mom I have a telescope. She sat there for a minute and said "I can see for miles". Then she said hey there are mountains over there. Then she said "mom come take a look".

I was playing a game on my phone and she was watching me play... then she looks at me and says "Can I have a go?"

This story isn't about Annika but I don't want to forget it. on May 15 Annika and Brian were up playing in her room. Then there was crying, I figured the playing had ended. They stayed up there and played for a minute, and then Annika came downstairs and said where is dad? I just assumed that he had gone to the bathroom. So Annika came down and played downstairs while I was doing the dishes. Then I took Annika and Ady outside, and I came back in to do the dishes. Then the girls started fighting outside, and I thought to my self. really I am doing the dishes and babysitting the kids, while Brian sits upstairs. I brought the girls in, and put ady to sleep. I was taking ady up to put her in her bed, and I open the door and I hear snoring. Seriously... Brian had climbed under Annika's bed trying to play hide and seek and fallen asleep under there! Ha ha :) It was hilarious! I tried to take a picture but he woke up!

Thanksgiving in Seattle

On Thanksgiving morning we left our house at 6:00 am and headed to the airport. In the car on the way there, Annika was looking out her window and finding planes. Then she would make the comment maybe that's our plane. She was so giddy she was laughing at everything. Once we got to the airport we parked, and then hurried to get on the shuttle. As the shuttle was pulling away I asked Brian if he locked the car. He said no, so he pulled the keys out and was trying to lock it as we pulled away. (It didn't work!).
We made it to the terminal and got our bags checked, then we were getting ready for security. I was nervous Annika was going to freak out. One security dude directed us to a different line, and we walked right up to the front. We got up there and we were not ready. We had missed all of the signs that you normally get to read while waiting, so we had nothing ready when we got to the front. We got through there, and then we only had to walk through the metal detector. But I had packed Chocolate milk, which had to be scanned twice. I think everyone felt bad for us, carrying two little girls through the airport. So none of us had to get frisked which was nice.
Then we walked right to our gate and waited.


Brian and Ady on the plane.

Once we got on the plane, Annika sat by the window, and was really excited. We sat and watched the bags load onto the plane. It was great. We started moving and Annika loved it, she even loved takeoff. And then we got up in the air and she was looking down at everything. Then she read the flight instruction book from the back of the seat, and saw a picture of an airplane in water. Then she started crying and told me she wanted to stop. I told her that we couldn't stop and she was still crying. We moved her to the middle seat and she asked me if we were going to fall. Poor girl. She is to smart. Well the rest of the trip was good. She colored and was a lot happier, she even used the bathroom in the airplane.


Annika coloring on the plane.

We landed and Allison was at the airport to pick us up. First thing Annika said to her was we didn't land in water. We rode back to Allison's house, and Annika had decided that she didn't want to get back on a plane.
When we got to Puyallup Allison had the Turkey in the oven and all we had to do was relax. Annika got to play with her cousins. And we all hung out and talked. That after noon we had a great Thanksgiving dinner, and played some games. Then we headed to bed. In the middle of the night, Heidi had Annika out in the hall trying to get her a drink, but she was crying. I brought her into bed with us, and she wouldn't go to sleep. Well then she threw up, all over Allison's sheets. We stripped the bed down and Annika fell asleep. In the morning she threw up again. I didn't know what was wrong with her. In the mean time I had washed Allison's sheets, only to find out the throw up didn't come out. We threw everything in the dryer, because we also needed a blanket to get dry and soon as possible. I went to check on the load in the dryer and the mattress pad had melted all over everything! (I have never had this happen.) So not only did I ruin Allison's sheets I had melted her mattress pad. The day was starting out great.
Brian and the kids at the Science Center

Then we had decided we were going to go to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, so we got up and ready, and got in the car. On our way there I let Annika eat some goldfish. Which later on in the ride came back up. At this point I couldn't decide if we should turn around or keep going. So we kept going. She didn't throw up again, and the Pacific Science Center was so much fun! It was huge. They had so much to do. I would love to go back. Then we left and headed back to Puyallup. Then we just hung out and let the kids play.
good quality cousin time.

On Saturday Heidi and Jeremy went into the city. So We went with Scott, Allison and the Boys to ride on a ferry. We headed to Tacoma and got on the ferry.
Ady and Aunt Allison on the Ferry.

our family on the ferry.

We watched the cars drive on, and rode to an Island. We didn't even get off the boat, we just stayed on and watched the cars drive off and more drive on. We got off and went and looked in the water. It is so cool, we saw 2 star fish and a crab, just hanging out in the water. It is just so cool to see things like that. Then we walked along the shore for a while and let the kids play.

The kids and Allison on our walk along the water.

After our walk we got some lunch and headed home. The kids had naps and the adults talked. Saturday night we left the kids (minus Adalyn) with a babysitter, and the couples went out on a date. We went and ate Thai food (which I didn't know if I was going to like, but it was delicious!).
On Sunday we went to church and had one last night of talking.z
And on Monday We walked Abe to the bus stop that morning, which Annika loved. (She wants to go to school so bad.) Allison, Heidi, and I went and got pedicures. Brian got to Babysit Henry and Annika. After the pedicures we loaded up the car and headed to the airport. The Seattle-Tacoma airport is really cool. Once you get past security you walk into this area that is a huge glass wall and you can sit and eat and watch the planes take off. It was so cool! Annika loved it. She still didn't want to ride home on a blue plane. So we made our way to the gate and we never let Annika look out the window. We told her that the plane was orange and red, and she was good. We flew home and both of the girls were great. When we got back to Salt Lake we got to dig our car out of some snow, but it was good to be home. What a fun trip!

The girls waiting in the airport

Who let the dogs out?

The other day we were driving home and Annika asked me if we could sing the song who let the dogs out, then preceded to sing it for me. I have never listened to this song with her. I don't know where she learned it but it was sure cute!

6 Months

Adalyn is 7 months old now, and we just took her in for her 6 month check up. She is such a good baby.

So here are her stats:
- 17.2 lbs (58%)
- 27.5 inches (89%)
- 16.75 in head circumference (39%)

-She loves to babble. She will talk for hours.
-She loves her older sister. She is always looking for her, and no one can make her laugh more.
-She is sitting up so well.
-She reaches for things and pushes up and gets on her knees and rocks. I think she will be crawling soon. She just hasn't figured out how to move forward, but she scoots backwards and gets stuck in lots of places. (In one of the corners in our kitchen the board under the cupboards is loose, and she pushed herself under the cupboards).
-She is really interested in what we are putting in our mouths, but doesn't really love her baby food.
-She does love Sweet Potatoes.
-She is very curious about everything, and is very fast at grabbing it.
-She is such a good baby, we are so glad she is part of our family!