Flavor of the Month...

Noelle has been having fun playing with the window shade since we got home.

 She likes to kick them and grab them and hide behind the shade.

You found me!

Brown Paper Package

We picked up our last bit of luggage this morning.  After Christmas we realized that it would be very difficult to pack and carry everything we had back to Arizona with us, so we mailed ourselves a package.  It was like a late Christmas gift opening it up and remembering all the things we put inside.


We were a little nervous upon receiving the package (the lady at the post office actually told Corey, "I hope you don't have anything fragile in there" while handing him the battered box).


Below you will see why.  Our box sure went through the wringer to get here!  The box had two holes in the top and was ripping at the side (I almost lost my dye pack--part of a sweet gift from my sisters full of random craft stuff) and the brown paper wrapping was in tatters.

It would be fun knowing how this happened...

Thanks to Larry and his bubble wrapping job this ceramic jar (another part of my sister's gift) made it intact.  It's a Christmas miracle!

Moral of the story, if you have something fragile don't use the post office unless you have a skilled bubble wrapper available.

Lessons in Baking

There's a reason they make cupcake pans.


I've been wanting to make cupcakes for a while and decided to try them tonight.  Cake mix and frosting from scratch!


I realized after starting that the recipe needed two cupcake pans and I only had one.  No problem.  I had a small cookie sheet I figured would hold enough.  I tested one to make sure the sides would hold and it seemed pretty sturdy.  I carefully spaced them so they would cook evenly.  


When I pulled them out of the oven I found this:

Oops!

Don't worry.  They still tasted good.

Yum!

Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Utah Christmas.  We were a little starved for winter when we left Arizona and were excited to be greeted with cool air and snow when we stepped off the plane!  


We discovered Noelle's coat was a little too big.

 Noelle met "Gingy"... It's a long story.

She played her first songs on the piano.

Noelle had so much fun with her grandparents and aunts and uncles (and adopted aunts).

Christmas Day was so fun.

We spent the morning at my parents.  We all got lots of goodies and Noelle had fun chewing on toys and garbage.

We spent the evening at Corey's parents' where we ate a delicious dinner and opened more great gifts.

Noelle got some really great gifts from her grandparents.  Karen cross-stitched and sewed each granddaughter a darling stocking and Larry made a beautiful music box for each one too.  Noelle's plays "What Child is This".

We had fun doing regular things, like baths.  She didn't mind the sink as long as she had a toy to play with (in this case a bowl).

 And playing with Dad.

We were so glad we could attend the blessing of our first niece and Noelle's first cousin, Sabrina.  Sabrina was such a good girl for her blessing and looked so cute in her dress.  Noelle was so good during the blessing and church...

And then not so much when we tried to get pictures of the two granddaughters.  She was being so wiggly and grouchy I tried holding her upside down for the picture :) 

Our Christmas vacation went by in a flash, as we knew we would.  We can't wait until next year (ha)! 

Dancing

This week Noelle has started to dance.  Kind of.  We first noticed the dancing when she was playing with her puppy from Grandma Karen.  It sings songs with her name and other favorite things.

We caught a short clip of her dancing the other night:

Hedgehog

Sorry Karen, not that hedgehog. 


To everyone else not in the know, while Karen and Larry were visiting Karen and I drafted a little hedgehog toy and started making it.  We were half way done when they left.  A day or two after they left I started working on it again...and then got stumped.  Maybe we should have made it a few inches longer?  I still have everything so I will fiddle with it some more.


Needless to say I've had a hedgehog toy on my mind and decided to try a different version.  Here's what I came up with: 

I wanted it to have ruffles (the one we were making had raw-edge ruffles down the back), and I used the same nose/eye patch that we made up, since they turned out so well.  I decided to paint on the face to make it easy, and added a little smile just for fun.  It's not perfect, but I thought it turned out cute.  

I haven't sewn up the opening just yet.  I'm trying to decide whether I should stuff something crinkly-sounding in it (like pop-tart wrappers work well I've heard), like other baby toys have.  Decisions, decisions...

Little Shoes

We may have mentioned that Noelle doesn't like shoes much.  Considering she will be in cold weather on Christmas I thought we should "practice" wearing shoes.  Noelle has now decided that wearing shoes is just having a toy stuck to your foot.  A little awkward to work with, but doable.

On Sunday I had her wear shiny black shoes, by the end of church they were matte black shoes.  Her teeth scratched off most of the shine, opps!  Good thing they were super cheap (bought on clearance before she was born).

Noelle is also getting better at standing while you hold her.  Similar to how she curls her toes when she wears shoes, while we're holding her and "walking" she'll curl her little toes and stand on her tip-toes.  Maybe we have a ballerina in the making.