An Oldie but a Goodie

This picture is from a couple of months ago, but I thought it was worth posting. My Parents and two youngest sisters came out to visit in October and while they were here we decided to do a touristy picture. Teya was almost not included, as she was sleeping quite soundly at the time of the picture and we were afraid to wake her up. We decided to give it a try and when we did there were a lot of tears. She fussed and cried when we put the dress on her, and we were about to say forget it when my sister produced a bag of chocolate candies. Suddenly she was in a much better mood, and even let us put that cute little bonnet on her. I'm very glad my sister had that candy because I think she adds quite a bit to the picture with her precious "old fashion baby" face.

Perspective

Sundays can be challenging when you're trying to get a 2 year old to sit still for an hour in sacrament meeting. We bring treats, coloring books, toys, you name it, and still we wrestle the entire hour with our feisty toddler, trying to keep her volume at a decent level so those around us can enjoy the service. We are never very successful, and since she's learned to talk, she's louder than ever, shouting out an ongoing narrative of what's happening.

The chorister gets up to lead the hymn and she shouts "Moo-sic! Song!"
The song ends and she claps her hands loudly, "Yeah!"
Someone goes to give a prayer and she calls out "Payer!"
The deacons stand up to pass the sacrament and her volume increases, "BREAD! BREAD! WA-ER! BREAD!"

We try to hush her, our faces red as we shove fruit snacks and cheerios in her mouth trying to distract her, still she yells, "I want Bread! Bread Peeeze!"

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we didn't sit near the front, but at that point I feel like every eye in the chapel is burning a hole in my back, probably thinking, "Why can't that woman get her child under control?" I feel ashamed, my child is ruining the sacrament for our whole congregation, why did I even come?

And then when it's all over, a woman comes up to me and says, "I just want you to know that your daughter is the highlight of our sacrament meeting. Every Sunday we can't wait to see her walk in, shouting "Daddy! Daddy!" (Taber gets there early for meetings) "She keeps us entertained the whole time by her boisterous personality and little comments, I'm just so glad you guys are a part of our ward"

That's when I realize maybe Teya isn't that bad, maybe she's not ruining everyone's experience, maybe she's just making it more fun, and maybe I should relax and just laugh with them. I guess sometimes it helps to see things from someone else's perspective.

Homemade Oreo's

So today I was craving chocolate sweetness and when I raided my cupboards to see what was available all I could find was some chocolate cake mix. I wasn't really in the mood for cake, so I called my sister to see what I could make and she gave me this YUMM-A-LICIOUS homemade Oreo recipe that you make with cake mix! The recipe is super easy and so so tasty! I made it when Teya was sleeping but it would be a really fun recipe to make with kids because you roll the dough into little balls and it feels like rolling play-doh, plus, you get to frost the middle and what kid wouldn't love that? So anyway, here is a link to the recipe. My sister makes them with German Chocolate cake mix and she swears by that, this recipe calls for Devils food cake but I just had regular chocolate cake mix and they came out awesome. I think basically any chocolate cake mix will do the trick. Anyways, I'm off to go indulge in more Oreo heaven! Mmmmm....so good!

Double Duty

I'm going to be watching a little girl Teya's age in my home full time, 5 days a week, and today was my first day. Teya already knows the little girl from church and really likes her, so I wasn't worried about them getting along. I was a little worried about what it would be like having "twins" more or less. I was worried about double diapers, double tantrums, double messes, etc...

However, I found to my great delight, that the only thing we really doubled up on was FUN! Teya had such a good time with her little friend around and I felt like it totally brought out the best in her. She was sharing, playing nice, and being such a little sweetheart. I think she liked the fact that she was on her own turf so she could show her little friend around and be the "big man on campus." It was really cute to see her give a tour of all her toys and show Anna how to jump off the stairs, roll play-dough, push the right buttons on her toys, and all the other essentials to playing at Teya's house.

Teya also ate better and napped better with Anna around. I think she saw Anna gobbling down her food and it brought out her competitive side, so she started gobbling away too. Then when I put Anna down for a nap, Teya, not wanting to miss out on anything Anna was doing, said, "I tired, I night night." So day one was a big success and I think we're going to have a lot of fun having a permanent play-date buddy!

Coloring on Teya's new easel we got off craigslist (I love that site!)

This is the face Teya had on pretty much all day long : )

Look What I Can Do!!

As Teya is just 2 months shy of her 2nd birthday she amazes me everyday with the things she's able to do. Recently she has started counting to 10, which is funny because I've never really counted past 5 with her. I mean, I read her books with counting and I'm sure she hears counting on TV but it kind of blew me away when the other day we got to 5 and she just kept going till 10! She's also getting pretty good with her colors. She can now identify, red, yellow, pink, blue, orange, and white. I think she knows what green is too but struggles to say it. Anyway, here is a little clip of her counting and doing her colors. She kind of forgets the number 2, but it's still cute. Also I threw in a little snip at the end of her jumping off the stairs because she just learned how to land on her feet instead of her bum. ; )

Big, Medium, Small

Teya has really been talking a lot lately, and it's a lot of fun to get a peek into her world just by the way she describes things. Something I've really gotten a kick out of is the way she tells you if something is big, medium, or small. Big things are "daddy" medium things are "mommy" and small things are "baby." So today we were playing with play-doh and we were rolling it into balls and the first ball I made was really small so of course she said, "baby!" Then she ripped off a bigger piece and handed it to me and said, "I wan mommy" Meaning, "make me a mommy size ball" So I made her a mommy ball and then just to see if what she would say, I made an even bigger ball and sure enough, when I finished she pronounced it, "daddy!" I'm trying to teach her the real words to talk about sizes, but in the mean time I guess I'm just glad she doesn't call the biggest one "Mommy" : )

Class of '99!

One of the highlights of our trip was getting together with some of my old friends from high school. Claire and Phil were in town from California and dropped by with their 3 adorable children. Scott and Mandy came too with their handsome little guy Seth (who Teya already has dibs on) and Joseph was there, although Melinda wasn't able to make it because she was feeling under the weather. It's funny how even after 9 years, when we get together it just feels like old times again. Joseph and Scott are still ridiculously funny with their witty banter and animated body language. Claire is ever the wonder woman chatter box with her big vocabulary and special "Clairisms" And I still just like to sit and laugh as everyone entertains me with their big personalities. We played an intense game of Catch Phrase, which sadly, the boys won. It was still lots of fun, although Melinda was sorely missed since she is my favorite Catch Phrase player of all time. Thanks to everyone for stopping by! I miss you all already!

Class of '99 alum (and Daniel)

Teya and her boyfriend Seth

Joseph and Scott being Joseph and Scott

White Christmas

Another benefit of coming home for the holidays was that Teya got to have a white Christmas, something that wouldn't have happened had we stayed in Tennessee. After opening presents Teya and Taber went out in the backyard to enjoy the snow while the girls went to work getting everything ready for Christmas dinner. Teya was so facinated by it, Taber said she could've stayed out there for hours, but eventually, the cold brought them back inside.

Christmas Morning

It's nice that Teya is still young enough that she doesn't wake us up at 5 in the morning to open presents. In fact, thanks to the fact that she was sleeping in a very dark closet, she slept in till 9:30 on Christmas morning! It was so nice sleeping in and being able to start the morning right with hot waffles for breakfast. Teya was still excited about opening presents and took her time to play with each thing that she opened. She was really in no hurry at all, and at one point, left her unopened presents to go back to her little table and eat some more waffles. She got lots of fun toys, books, and clothes, thanks to all her Grandparents, cousins, aunties and uncles. Thank you everybody!

I got a lot of cool things too, but I put up the picture of me opening up High School Musical 2 because as you can see from my face, that got me pretty excited! I also put in the picture of Taber with the frame that my sister's husband Kevin made for his MBA diploma. He did such a beautiful job, it was Taber's favorite present. Also in the running for favorite present, my little sister Liz got us gift certificates for 1 hour hot stone body massages at a spa in Provo with a coupon for babysitting so we could go together. We totally took adantage of that and it was AWESOME! Thanks again to the Uda family for having us out for a wonderful Christmas! We love you guys!