My Name

I know I have a different name. It's not very common, and it gets mispronounced a lot, and it's not spelled the way everyone else expects it to be spelled (though if you ask me, the way I spell it is correct and everyone else is wrong).
So I am used to my name being butchered. But sometimes, I really just have to scratch my head at what people come up with.

Deljanette?
This is a new one.

Merry Christmas

Just a few days late.
We are busy hanging out with family.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts later.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Isaac and Wayne!

So we've been busy hanging out with you in person and having a fabulous time.
Which is why this blog post might not be so fabulous...
But rest assured that we love you and we hope you had (and have) a great birthday.
(Isaac on the 22nd and Wayne on the 24th).

This is an old picture. But it's the only one I have of the two of you together.
Happy Birthdays to our brother (in-law) and father (in-law)!

Life with a 5-month old.

This morning:
I made 2 kinds of cookies and my kitchen is a disaster.
I let T suck on all my serving spoons so she would be happy while I made cookies and now I have to wash all of them.

T dumped my bowl of cereal all over the carpet.
I spilled Dr. Pepper all over the stove.
I let T play with a colored advertisement so I could eat lunch and this happened:

So now I have to say that her first food was ink.
T broke a mason jar and got glass everywhere.
And she refused to take her morning nap and instead cried all morning.


Is it bedtime yet?

Books: 2011

I read 39 books this year.
I have a goodreads account, but I am not very good about using it.
So since I am always looking for new book recommendations, I thought I would do the same for others. So here is my year of books in review.
Fantastic:
1. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
3-9. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
10. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
11. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
12. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
13-15. The Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien
16. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Great:
17. Emma by Jane Austen
18. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
19. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
20. The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
21. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
22. The Firm by John Grisham
23. The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
24. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
25. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
26. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Good:
27. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
28. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
29. The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
30. You Belong to Me by Mary Higgins Clark
31. Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark
32. All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark
33. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Fine:
34. Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
35. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
36. Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
Meh:
37. Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark
38. Big Fish by Daniel Wallace


I didn't include Husband-Coached Childbirth by Robert A. Bradley since I figured that's a book almost no one will want to read unless you are A. Female B. Pregnant C. Wanting to deliver naturally. If you are interested though, I highly recommend it. It got me through my first 24 hours of labor.
There were also a bunch of books that I started but didn't bother to finish. I didn't write those down this year and don't remember any of them (except Moby Dick) so no "Stay Away From" column. Maybe next year.

Any book recommendations for me?

Five Months

Dear T,
You are now 5 months and 2 days old.

Favorite new activities include: pulling your socks off and sucking on them, clawing at the Church hymnbook on Sundays and ripping apart my (excuse me, your) Reader's Digest.

You also like being thrown up in the air, blowing raspberries with your mouth and having mom and dad clap for you. We think you may be trying to clap yourself but you can't quite get it figured out yet. You like to practice when I'm nursing and can't get away. Thanks for all the new bruises.

You will actually nap for at least an hour (sometimes two, if I am lucky) in the afternoon. I put a black sheet up over the window and I think it helped.

Things you like now that you didn't before: taking a bath and tummy time. You roll over pretty often now, and I was able to capture it on tape once.

You seriously only do it when you think nobody's watching. You did it just now while I was writing this and not watching. You little stinker.

People always comment on your big brown eyes and chubby cheeks. I didn't realize this would be a perk of being a mom, but I love love love getting compliments about you. You hair is growing, slowly but surely and maybe some day you will have enough for me to put in a ponytail.

(Your dad wants to photoshop this picture into you being a ninja...)

Your favorite place to be is sitting in your bumbo on top of the dryer while I do laundry. I don't know why.

We love you.

Toys

Today I put T in her bumbo and surrounded her with all her favorite toys.

And when I turned around, she was playing with her sock.
I don't even know why I bother to spend money on baby toys for her.
Also, I thought placing her with her back to the tree would prevent any mischief.

Wrong. These pictures were taken just after I ripped an ornament out of her mouth and placed it higher on the tree.

And I thought I would only have to worry about her messing with the tree starting next year.

Back From the Dead

Today I am finally feeling better. Though I still have a bit of a pesky cough. And T I think is starting to show signs of sickness again....sigh.
Anyway. In celebration of at least Seth and I being healthy I made an advent calender.

Ignore the fact that I didn't get it up until the 10th.

The hat moves from snowman to snowman each day. I'm planning on getting a mini clothespin to attach it to, but a paper clip will do for now.
I love it!

A Late Thanksgiving Post

I meant to post something last week.
But this is what's been happening for the past three weeks:
Tessa got sick. Then Seth. Then me. Then Tessa. Then Seth. Then me. Then Tessa. Then Seth. Then me.
Currently all three of us are sick and it sucks.

Tessa managed to grab a handful of my mashed potatoes at dinner last night and was upset that I wouldn't allow her to stick them in her mouth. I am blaming the sickness for my slow reflexes. 

So this Thanksgiving I am very grateful for our usually healthy bodies and am praying they come back soon.

Happy Birthday Michelle

Today is my oldest sister's birthday.

She is tough.

And good looking.

And a great aunt.

And despite being the oldest...

...she knows how to have a good time.

Happy Birthday Michelle!

4 Month Old

Technically you were 4 months on Sunday.
But since at least one person in this house has been sick since last week, this post dropped to the back of my to-do list. You are sick for the second time in a week and all of us hate it.

We took you for a check-up at the doctor's office and he said you had the strength and body control of a 5-month old.
You're a buff baby.

You use that strength to grab at anything within reach and shove it in your mouth. New favorite objects for this game include your socks and feet.

Also my kitchen tools. Or really, anything that is not for babies. I found you sucking on an extension cord the other day. Safe Parenting award goes to: your mother.

You've rolled over twice. I suspect that you could do it all day long but you have zero desire to do so. Instead you cry at me to get you up off your stomach. Tummy time is not your favorite.

I sort of have a schedule for you, but you like to thwart my plans as much as possible. You seriously hate taking afternoon naps.
You love to read books with us before bedtime and I am perpetually afraid you are going to rip the pages of the library books I get for you.

You like to laugh and make funny noises. You're happiest when there are lots of people around to entertain you. You are turning into a very social baby. Church is your favorite.
Your mother bores you, often.

It's ok though, because I love you and I'm pretty sure you love me.
Even when I make you take naps.

Road Trippin' Part 1

Last weekend Seth and I took a little trip up to BV to see our niece get blessed.

It is much less stressful to take a road trip with a baby when you have another adult with you.
Especially when that baby starts screaming at the top of her lungs halfway through your drive home.

Oh and the rest of my family was there for the blessing as well.
Including my crazy brother David.

T took this chance to bond with her cousin through a little friendly head-clawing. (An iphone was the only camera quick enough for this, hence the blurriness.)

Don't worry, she's ok.
She is also ridiculously cute.

T is also ridiculously cute.

My father is just ridiculous.

I'm going to estimate we spent about an hour taking family pictures which means I have a bajillion pictures that you will be forced to look at but since this post is long enough I'm saving that for next time.

Don't get too excited.

This little girl...

...has decided the only thing worth doing in life is playing.

Nevermind how stressed her mother is about her lack of eating and sleeping.

All that matters are toys.

And sometimes books.

Happy Halloween

We were pretty lame this year (again). We did absolutely nothing on Halloween. I wore my socks with skulls on them. That's about it.
We did at least go to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat party on Friday, but we didn't bring any candy for the kids. Whoops.
Instead we just thanked all their parents when they exclaimed over how cute T was.

And she is, isn't she?

Here's to hoping we get our act together for next Halloween.

For the grandparents.

We managed to film her laughing.
Proof that she actually does laugh sometimes.
And yes, I am tickling her neck fats. Whatever works, right?

Enjoy.

Today.

Yesterday I looked like this:

Today I look like this:

Tomorrow I'm going to the post office with a package for Locks of Love!

Tool Time

Our Sunday night looks like this:

Seth is starting her out early on the tinkering.

Cousins

Seth went camping last weekend so T and I decided we needed to go see her newest cousin.
So I'm posting a few lot of the 21687216845 pictures we took.

If you're wondering what the daughters of identical twin girls look like, the answer is:

Not identical at all.
It's like they don't even share half their genes!

Ridiculous.

Of course, that in no way deters our plan to take as many "twin" pictures of them as possible.

Napping buddies.

Ladybug buddies.

Uncle David buddies.

Isn't she so cute!?

I like to look at pictures of her and exclaim how cute she is to Seth almost as much as I like doing that with T and her pictures. Almost.

Thanks for letting us crash your house last weekend.
I'm sorry T was such a fussbucket.
(I thought I would be the one with the easier baby. And I was quickly proven wrong.)