A Couple of Christmas Advent Highlights

We finally got around to getting a tree with less than two weeks until Christmas.

Her face here says it all. We had to wake her up that morning for our ward Christmas party and then she had to be chased and corralled for two hours during the party. She wasn't really feeling it. We let her choose whatever tree she wanted. And she picked this little darling. I loved it so much!

This was supposed to be a trip to This is the Place park to see the reindeer. But I neglected to look it up and it turns out the reindeer are only out at night. But we had a great time at the zoo, it was probably the least crowded place in the valley on the last Saturday before Christmas.

Merry Christmas 2009

Macy's Musings

Macy and I were walking into our room and I told her to say good morning and wake up JD. She came up with her own way to wake him up. She marched into the room, squeezed her own nose and let out a loud honk. She now continues to do this anytime one of us pretends to be asleep.

Macy loves to stack toys, blocks, and puzzle pieces. She calls it "making a rhombus." (For any Curious George fans, this comes from the episode where George helps in the chocolate store.) And if there is any sort of tapering at the top, she deems it a temple.

She calls all heart-shaped items "loves" and it's so adorable that I don't think we'll ever correct her.

The other day she was really pushing on the top of her head and becoming very frustrated. JD asked her what was wrong she said, "it won't go inside like a turtle".

For dinner the other night, I got out the block of cheese and put it on the table before I grated it. Macy was thrilled and called out "muh cheese, muh favorite cheese" and then took several bites out it. She has the tiniest teeth, so it looks like a mouse got ahold of it.

Meeting Mr. Claus 2009

I made the mistake of getting out the framed photos of Macy's two past meetings with Mr. Claus with my Christmas decorations. Macy was convinced by last year's picture that Santa was scary. In anticipation of Santa visiting JD's work tonight, we hyped the excitement of seeing Santa all week, so today she told me she would not cry but she wanted her own chair.

In the end, she sat on his lap but refused to look at him. Fair enough.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am grateful for so many things and these two are at the top of the list.  I am blessed.

Somehow

Macy has really been cracking us up around here lately. Some of our favorite quotes are "it's awfully dark in here" and "put your hands away," which she said to JD when he was tickling her back. For months, she has been asking us "is that crazy?" or "is that silly?" about a hundred times a day. 

She also loves to role play. She will announce who she is and who we (her supporting cast) are. The most common is Macy as Mike Wazowski, JD as Sully, me as Celia, and her favorite stuffed hippo as Boo. She is also commonly "Georgio" (Curious George), JD as The Man in the Yellow Hat (which was first shortened to just "Yellow Hat" but has now changed to "Man"), and me as Professor Wiseman. The latter is our favorite because she sounds like a little hippie calling JD "Man" at the end of every sentence. 

She is very strict about staying in character and does not forget or use the wrong name. She is not happy when we call her Macy if she is in character. Rosie came to play the other day and Macy said "I'm Mike" about 250 times as Rosie kept calling her Macy. Then they would both laugh and laugh.

Her latest this week is adding the word "somehow" to the end of almost everything she says. It makes for some very funny statements.

At each stage of Macy's development I think that I want to freeze her there, yet each new stage is just as fun and wonderful.  And each day we love her even more, somehow.

Happy Halloween

"I'm Making a Big Mess"

I hear this several times a day, and she is not bluffing!

But some "messes" are great ways to occupy her while I am making dinner. She loves to take her colored hair elastics and accessorize each kitchen cabinet. I am fascinated by the things her little brain comes up with.

Peace Field

JD is currently reading a biography on John Adams. John Adams had a cabin he would retreat to when life was crazy and he called it "Peace Field". Our Peace Field is my parents' home in St. George. We retreated to St. George for almost a week in early October. We had such a great time swimming, going on walks, playing at the park, and relaxing. We, meaning Macy and me. JD had to work the majority of the time but made sure to make time for lizard catching.

The best part was Corey, Sara, Brady and Abby joined us for the weekend and Jono, Jenn, Bud, Rosie and Coleman for one night.

Macy does not do bedtime away from home very well. The night the Oettlis stayed, Rosie was the one to get her to sleep.

As a side note, later in John Adams's life, when he considered himself a realist, he renamed Peacefield "Stony Field." This name also really struck a chord with JD as he has chronic kidney stones and St. George has seen many of his worst moments of pain.

Plan B

We headed out yesterday as a family to go to the zoo. Unfortunately, so did the rest of Utah and half of Idaho. With no parking to be found from Sunnyside to Emigration Canyon, we defaulted to plan B. We diverted to Tracy Aviary.

Before we visited the birds, Macy got to ride the very charming rides at Liberty Park. They are very old and all squeaky metal. I had no idea how many fun things were at the park. We will definitely go back to explore the rest.

Macy was so excited to give them her tickets each time.

She loved the ferris wheel and really wanted to go back today.  

Side note: I think I have roughly 600 pictures of various carousel rides. I always feel compelled to take a picture each time she comes around just in case it captures the perfect expression. It is really ridiculous. Three hundred and eighty six of those pictures are from the Summerhays family trip to the zoo right before my parents left on their mission.  

This was her favorite part of the Aviary: A little building that I called the school. Macy knows that her cousins go to school and she was so happy to play student herself.

It turned out to be a nearly perfect day (you understand the "nearly" part if you saw the BYU game and/or the Utah game).

Cousin Time

We love it when Katie and Kiara come to town because we spend lots of time with the Ashby family. With so many little ones, we always have fun and it's always crazy.  And I usually forget to take pictures but I did manage to get a few at the beginning of September.

Being temporarily insane or brave, we went to lunch at Gardner Village. When we told them we needed a table for five adults and eight kids, they very wisely banished us to the basement by ourselves! It was great.

But that didn't stop the little ones from trying to escape.

Can you believe I got a picture with all of them looking? Miracle.

Macy's first pony ride without us walking alongside. She loves to do everything "by self."

Is Less Really More?: A Lesson on Accessorizing

This is Kiara and Macy ready to hit Costco with me. Hilarious!

We Love Uncle Jonny

Who else will mow your lawn and babysit at the same time?!