A few gift opening shots

Christmas morning was very fun. Etta had no idea what was going on. When going through her stocking she only wanted to play with whatever just came out. No going back for more.

I love that.

I will admit, it was a bit frustrating at the time, but I would rather have that than a child who tears through everything demanding, "More! More! More!" I am hoping that next year we can enjoy the same experience.

Another quirky habit she had was while opening presents. She would tear off a little piece of wrapping paper and then have to take it to Baba to put in the garbage bag. We are talking about a piece of paper about as big as a dollar bill. Wouldn't that have taken awhile? While she was making her trip to the garbage I would tear off big chunks for her to haul over. Again, this is a habit that I wouldn't mind seeing her keep.

The third super cute story involves opening gifts at Steve and Cathy's. Each time I would open a box (after she had disposed of all of the wrapping paper...) Etta would say, "Niiiiiiiiice!" A perfect mimic of what she was hearing others say all day.

A bonus of the day? She didn't wake up until 8:00. That meant that we ALL got to sleep in. I'm sure that is one thing that will definitely be changing as she grows up!!

One strip at a time. There's no hurry mommy.



Waiting to go through the stockings. Hanging with Eek-Eek.



Dude. What are you doing?



New bear from Howard and Leah (people from church). I think that she likes it!

Baba Squared

It's a great Christmas when you get to play with TWO Baba's all week!

For you Baba, I will take a bite.



But you may have to fly it in.



Am I on candid camera?



We must play with the bus *this* way Baba.

Waitin'

Just waitin'. For? Whatever. When you are little it doesn't really matter, you pretty much have to wait for everything.

Kitchen!

Etta has been wanting to help mommy in the kitchen for ages. This summer we saw a kitchen at Art in the Park at Summer Celebration. Montana Gram being Montana Gram (thanks!) got Etta the kitchen for Christmas. I supplied the food, Aunt Molly supplied the pots, pans and baking set. Three aprons and we are ready to cook!

Pants optional



Checking out the burners



Apron #1



Let's cook!



Cheese! (Can't you just read it on her lips?)



A feast. With a double shot.



Apron #2 - Thanks Aunt Molly!



Etta actually slept in until almost 8:00 on Christmas morning. Amazing since she went to bed at 7:15 on Christmas Eve! We ate breakfast, did stockings and she got to open her presents. But then she was getting tired - although she was denying it!

"No no ni-night! Mo' play!" But she did sleep for about an hour.

After more play after lunch - "No no ni-night! Coo'! Coo'!" "Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Insert temper tantrum here.

But I would have to admit. I would have wanted to stay up on play more too.

Family

Baba, Gama, Eek-Eek (or Boy).

Does Christmas really get much better than this?

Christmas Cooking

As I was doing some Christmas cleaning on Friday Etta was doing some Christmas cooking. I am so excited for her to get her presents on Thursday!

Just getting out some supplies.



Add some flour.



What else do I need?

Fast Food Friday

Can someone explain to me why when I have nothing that MUST be done (like yesterday) I have a ton of time at my fingertips and even find myself wasting time. But when I have an entire LIST of things to get done (today) I can't seem to find time to do even half of it? Very frustrating.

Overall it was a pretty good day. Etta's imagination is exploding. We played, she played, we read, she "cooked", she napped, we ran errands, went to pilates, had a pretty good time. Until about 4:30. She woke up from her afternoon nap dry. Yay! But then had TWO accidents in less than an hour. I know, I know, "She's still little". But I think that she knows. After Bob got home she had ZERO accidents. But overall it was a great day.

Another epiphany that I had today. The things that I make for "Fast Food Friday" are not usually "fast" foods to make. That is probably why people order them from a restaurant...I got in my head about a week ago that I wanted to try making calzones. Have pepperoni in the freezer and mozzarella in the fridge. Why not just make a pizza? That's what I normally do. But hey, I also like "variety". (Ask my bro...)

Looked up calzones online. How hard could it be, really? Aren't they just folded pizza? Well, basically, yes. But found an interesting fact that "real" calzones don't have sauce IN-side. You serve the sauce on the side. Okay, easy enough.

Made a batch of my favorite pizza dough in the bread machine. For the filling I sauteed onion, garlic and green pepper. Browned ground sausage with some garlic pepper, dried basil, dried oregano and dried red pepper flakes. Layered that in with mushrooms, pepperoni and mozzarella. Folded them up and an hour later...



After putting in that much prep time I decided that they needed to be really really good or else we would go back to straight up pizza. But after they were baked...



And then cut into...



And finally, a taste? They were SO good. And different from pizza. I've used those exact same things as toppings before, but this was different. Not necessarily better, but worth the trouble.

And the rest of date night? We took Etta to Locomotive Park to enjoy the "ights". Always a good time.

Daddy!

One of Etta's favorite things to do now is to find anything of Bob's, put it on and walk around saying, "Dada, dada". The other day she took off her shoes and socks (for the first time ever - really!) and tried to put on a pair of his tall athletic socks.

She makes a pretty cute Bob.

Is it me?



Don't forget the hat!



Look at me! I'm ready to go. My name is Daddy!

Decorating

Lights are Etta's favorite. She would have been happy just having lights on the Christmas tree. Who needs ornaments when you have "IGHTS!"? But we did get out some kid friendly ornaments to decorate the little tree in her room.

Let's hang Santa!



There it is!

Snow!

We finally have snow!

[Although it is supposed to warm up and rain later this week...Hoping for safe driving conditions for my family on Saturday and then a white Christmas!]

When I got Etta up yesterday morning and took her to the window her face lit up and her mouth opened wide. I'm sure that she doesn't remember snow from last year, but was very pleased with what she saw.

After leaving the gym I let Etta walk in the snow to the car. We then drove to Albertson's. I carried her in and was going to carry her out...As we got to the door Etta says, clear as a bell, "Walk!"

I said, "Do you want to walk?"

"YES!"

I then had to say, "Well, too bad because we are going across the parking lot."

But before you call me a grinch...

I can't put my arms down!



That's a lot of snow! It goes clear up to my knees.



I love the snow, mommy.



Off to explore.



[And it was a good thing that I had her so bundled. She was a little turtle. I was shoveling while she was playing and a couple of times when I looked over I saw her basically like a tripod with her face in the snow. Mommy to the rescue. And when she would fall down she really thrashed around trying to get up!]

Dude

Grey's hat, Porter's backpack, Etta's style - All her own.





Oh, and a beer holder thingy too. Can't forget that when you are accessorizing.

Family Fun Night

Two Fridays ago (Yikes! I meant to post this much sooner!) we headed up to the Festival of the Trees Family Night at the fair grounds. Etta was a little young for most of the activities, but we did our best...

Driving the fire truck - she liked this A LOT. Probably would have sat there a lot longer than we were going to let her...



Getting a finger cast



Last touches...She sat very still and didn't even fidget while the nurse was applying the "cast". But as soon as Bob turned away from the table she pulled it off!



Nurse Bob



Making a Christmas card



It seemed as if all of the activities either required that she were BIGGER or that she had better fine motor skills. The student volunteers were very nice and allowed us to accommodate to our level.

"Toss" a present



Where did it go? And now what do I do?



Oooooo, a weapon!



She did knock a few pins down!!



Going for the spare.