15 Month Stats

Sadie had her 15 month appointment today and she is doing very well. She was unable to get her required vaccinations because she was running a little fever, so we will have to go back for those. Dr. Later was impressed with how bright she is and was especially impressed that she knew so many animal sounds. She now knows what the kitty, dog, snake and cow all say....very impressive if I do say so myself. She continues to be an angel and joy to have around, we couldn't ask for a better little girl with a cuter personality. She has everyone she meets wrapped around her little finger in seconds. She is very social and says "hi" to anyone who passes her way. We have gone on lots of walks the last couple of weeks and she says "hi" to anyone and anything...she even says "hi" to the cats and dogs we see along the way.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 25.68 lbs (87%)

Height: 32.05 in (92%)

Head: 19.5 in (99%)

Big Sister!

Yes that's right! Sadie is going to be a big sister in July! I am due on July 22nd which makes me a little over 16 weeks pregnant. This hopefully explains why I have been so behind on blogging. I have been more sick this time than I was with Sadie but considering I just started my second trimester, I have high hopes that I will start feeling better soon.
Sadie has no idea what is going on yet, but we are excited for the new addition even if I panic a little bit when I really think about it. They will be 20 months apart! What were we thinking? I know we have an eventful summer ahead of us. Wish us luck!

Sadie was playing with Dad's safety glasses and it was so cute I had to put it on here.

Christmas Morning!

Christmas day was fun and very relaxing. Sadie must have been good because Santa brought her lots of fun things. She got a new baby doll, a grocery cart with lots of food to put in it, a Magna Doodle for church, bath toys and lots of cute outfits from Santa, Grandma Karen and Grandma and Grandpa King. She had a fun day playing with all her new things!

Santa made it!

Sadie is slowly but surely figuring out what she's supposed to do with wrapped presents!

Feeding her new baby doll that Santa brought her

Kisses for baby! What a good mommy!

The responsibilities of a mom are never done...off to the grocery store!

This is the cute little outfit that Grandma and Grandpa King got her for Christmas. She's reading one of the books that Uncle Alan, Aunt Dianne and the girls gave her for Christmas. Thank you!

"I'm gonna get you!"

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve was at Grandma Karen's this year. Everyone was there which was nice, usually we always have one family missing. We had a great time. We ate wonderful food and then went down stairs and played chimes. We all got a chime with a number on it that corresponded with music of Christmas carols. I think everyone enjoyed it. Then we had Grandma open her presents, watched a movie on Christ and all shared our favorite Christmas memories. It was a fun night.

Lovely girls! Jessica, Madison, Whitney and Chelsey
Sadie playing the chimes with Cameron

Jen leading the music! Ha!Ha!

Our little elf!

Temple Square Trip

This year instead of my mom buying everyone individual Christmas presents, she treated the whole family to an overnight trip up to Salt Lake. We had such a fun time despite the cold weather. We stayed at the Marriott, went to see the lights at Temple Square, had a fabulous prime rib dinner, and then the kids spent hours at the hotel pool. It was fun to spend that time together as a family! Thanks Moms!!! We Love You!

I think we picked the coldest weekend to go - all of us had to bundle up good to keep warm when we went to see the lights. Sadie was especially bundled up and I thnk she stayed pretty warm.

The whole gang! Jennifer is in a wheelchair because she had surgery on her leg the day before.

Just our little family!

Mike got this beautiful shot of the temple! It's so nice with all the snow.

Like I said...I think Sadie stayed pretty warm. She fell asleep despite how cold it was!

Dinner - it was so good, Sadie even enjoyed it, her favorite part was probably the roll.

Deck the Halls!

I LOVE decorating for the holidays! I love to put on the Christmas music and just spend the day decorating the house. I always hate to see the holidays end because once you take down all the decorations our house seems so bare and it is kind of depressing.

Mike picked out our tree this year all by himself because mom and Sadie weren't cooperating too well in the cold. He did a fabulous job!
I haven't been able to put out my village for the last two years, but thanks to some generous Christmas elves last year I now have the perfect spot. It was fun having it out again and Sadie loved looking at it!

Tag...Christmas

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate; although I like Egg Nog too

2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was a child Santa always just set them out for us. So far, in my home, he has wrapped them.

3. Red or white lights? I have white lights on our tree. We don't have lights on the outside of our house yet but I'm sure they will be colored.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving unless I get antsy.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Wow, that is hard. I like Christmas dinner better than Thanksgiving. I like it all…the ham, the potatoes, my mom’s ROLLS, the cheeseball and above all the Shrimp Dip! (Recipe below)

1/4 Cup milk
1 T. Mayonnaise
2 T. Lemon Juice
-Beat the above ingredients into 8 ounces of soft cream cheese
Add:
2 T. Finely Minced Onion
2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Dill Weed
1/2 tsp. Soy Sauce
1 Cup Chopped Shrimp

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? I have so many. My mom always went out of her way to make Christmas special for us. Now that I’m an adult with my own family I am in awe at how she made Christmas so special each year. She is amazing! We had/have the tradition of having a Christmas Eve party at our house and Grandma and Grandpa from both sides would come over. We would eat and open presents and I just remember LOVING that night! I remember my Grandma Zobell would make us pajamas every year.
Unfortunately my favorite childhood memories revolve around “stuff” because as a kid that is what it’s all about. I fondly remember the Christmas I got my Cabbage Patch Kid. I remember being told MANY times that Santa was having a hard time finding Cabbage Patch Kids for everyone that wanted them and I could very well not end up with one on Christmas morning. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to one! I was elated!

BY far my favorite Christmas morning was when Jenny and I got the Barbie Dream House. I don’t remember asking for it so it was a shock that “Santa” got it for us. I can honestly say that it provided hours and hours if not years and years of play for me and my friends. I can remember spending from sun up until sun down in the basement playing Barbies! I loved it.

I could go on and on but I will conclude with this one. It is kind of corny. Normally I HATED chores but around Christmas I didn’t mind them so much. I remember usually the day of Christmas Eve we would get up early, put on the Christmas music and start cleaning the house. I can still smell cinnamon and cloves on the stove and hear Andy Williams singing in the background while we dusted, mopped and vacuumed. I can still feel the anticipation of having family over that night while we got the house looking spotless!

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When I was a child we could open our Grandma and Grandpa’s gifts.

9. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I had the MOST fun decorating our tree our first year of marriage. I remember seeing the idea at Robert’s craft around October and starting to think of ideas to make it my own. I took Mike there and showed him what I was thinking and he was immediately ANTI! He did not trust me at all. I ended up making some old fashioned felt ornaments that look like gingerbread and the rest are bulbs and fake old fashioned candy. Colors are red, green and white. When it all came together Mike admitted to me that he thought I was crazy and that we would have the ugliest tree – but he liked it and was very impressed with my vision coming together. He apparently lacked the vision. Last year I made some real gingerbread men to hang on the tree and I intend to do that each year as a tradition.

10. Snow: Love it or hate it? LOVE it until after New Year’s Day. Then it can go away.

11. Can you ice skate? Not very well. Don’t like it too much.

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? Well, you can probably look above and figure out that as a child it was probably my Cabbage Patch Kid and the Barbie Dream House. As an adult….probably my digital piano that Mike got me, it got me playing the piano again which was nice.

13. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Although from all the above statements it doesn’t seem like it – the most important part of the holidays for me is trying to remember and instill around me the reason for the season. I like the focus to be on Christ and family.

14. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Tassies! (Recipe below)

6 ounces of Cream Cheese
2 sticks of Butter
2 Cups Sifted Flour
Cream butter and cheese until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix by hand. Press dough into small tea bisquit pan. Put 1/2 piece of pecan in bottom of shells you have pressed out.
Filling:
3 eggs
1 1/2 C. Brown Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1 1/2 T. melted Butter
3/4 tsp. Vanilla
Beat eggs, add brown sugar, butter and salt. Add vanilla. Pour into pressed out shells over pecan half and sprinkle with chopped pecans. Bake 350 degreees for 17-20 minutes.

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve Party with the family.

16. What is on top of your tree? Star

17. Which do you like best giving or receiving? Giving of course; especially if I feel like I found the “perfect” thing.

18. Christmas Song? I have a ton so I’ll just list some of my favorites.
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” – I cry whenever this one is sung at church!
“Sleigh Ride”
“O Come All Ye Faithful”
“Joy to the World”
“Let it Be Christmas” – Alan Jackson
“Some Children See Him”

19. Do you like candy canes? Not Really.

I tag anyone who feels like doing it!

ER

Last night I was laying in bed around 10:30 and heard what I thought to be our neighbor's dog. He sounded like he was choking on a bone or something and I was getting annoyed because I was trying to get to sleep. Well, after a couple of minutes of hacking I heard crying and realized that this sound was not coming from the neighbor's dog it was my poor Sadie! I ran into her room and she was crying, laboring to breath and burning up! I was in a panic. She had been perfectly fine all day and it came on so quickly. I called the after hours nurse and she told Mike and I to take her to the Emergency Room. Once we were there and after waiting for what seemed like forever they diagnosed her with Croup. Poor thing. They gave her some anti-inflammatory medicine and sent us on her way. We put a humidifier in her room and she slept soundly once we got home. She seemed better today but was still not her old self. The funniest part of the whole thing is that she was fascinated by her raspy voice and pretty much sang all day so she could hear it. Although it was funny, it did about drive me bonkers by the end of the day!

Changes!

As many of you may or may not know, I have changed my work schedule recently. Our devoted babysitter Malissa got offered a job she could not refuse but unfortunately that left us without a babysitter for Sadie. After much stress and prayer we were able to work it out. I am still working at Nu Skin but I went back to my old job at the warehouse and now work nights. I was also able to cut back 10 hours so now I only have to put in 20 a week which has been nice. I work Monday and Wednesday 4-midnight and then I choose either Tuesday, Thursday or Friday to put in my other 4 hours which is normally 6-10. It has been great being home with Sadie during the day and I'm sure once my body adjusts to late nights I will really like this new schedule.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was quite an adventure this year. We went to Arkansas to spend the holiday with Mike's brother Alan. We had the whole King tribe there with Grandma and Grandpa, Alan and Dianne and their daughters Katherine, Stephanie and Kelly. This was the first time Alan and his family had seen Sadie in person. I think the girls had fun with her and I know that Sadie enjoyed all the attention. Despite Sadie not sleeping, getting into everything, getting the stomach flu, and being the worlds worst traveler...I think we had a pretty nice time. Aunt Dianne made a delicious Thanksgiving feast and we appreciated them letting us come and stay with them although I'm pretty sure they were happy to see us leave. We will not be doing this again any time soon, or at least until the kids are older! Here are some of the pictures from the trip.

Sadie playing in the leaves!

Sadie with Katherine, Kelly, and Stephanie

Aunt Dianne is nicer than mom....she let Sadie play in her pantry and mess it all up. She was in heaven!

Playing with Grandma King

Thanksgiving Day playing with Grandma