Mo Tab, here Esther comes

Esther not only loves dancing to music, but she loves leading music as well. Any time there is music playing she will stop whatever she is doing to wave her arms and bounce with her legs. It is adorable. Here is a video of her leading Handel's Messiah. She's a talented little squirt ;)

Oh tannenbaum, oh tannenbaum....

Last year finances kept us from getting a real tree for Christmas (my sister Megs let us borrow a spare fake tree that she had). This year, thanks to perfect timing for Jack's Christmas bonus, we were able to do the much preferred buying of a real tree. I love the smell of pine and there was just something about having a real tree for baby girl's first Christmas that seemed the better route. We went to the same tree lot where we bought our Christmas tree our first year of marriage to pick out our tree.

It isn't a big tree (in fact, a little girl that I babysit a few days a week was pretty adamant last week that we'd be much happier on Christmas if we had chosen a larger tree) but we like it. And surprisingly Esther has been pretty good about not tugging at the branches or going for the decorations (mostly because she is more interested in the presents piled in the corner).

As a side note, we have a tradition of celebrating St. Nick's Day in my family. My mom served her mission in Germany and decided to pass the tradition along to her kids. Well, we faithfully left our shoes out on the evening of Dec. 5th and that good ole St. Nick left us some treats to wake up to the next morning. Esther was thoroughly excited to find a book and some bath toys jammed into her little boot and I'd say Jack was equally as excited to find himself a new shirt. I on the other hand...St. Nick (that good hearted man) thought I was skinnier than I am. I had to take my elf crafted skirt back to Santa's workshop to get a bigger size. It is a tradition that I have always loved! But who wouldn't love a Christmas morning teaser 3 weeks early?

Too good not to share...

For any of you who may not have seen this on facebook, I feel it is necessary to give you the opportunity to do so.
While removing all of the dvds from our entertainment center (which is by the way Esther's new favorite game) she decided to plaster her face against the glass. What can I say? She most definitely is her mother's daughter.

Private

Hi all. Our blog is going private. If you'd like to be able to access it still, leave your email for me. Thanks friends!

Pictures

An old friend of mine took some pictures for us a few weeks ago. You can check out her blog at www.bekahloss.blogspot.com. Here are just a few of the pics. I definitely have some favorites posted, do you?

(What you don't see in this picture is what happened next. Do you see that fist full of leaves? She very much enjoyed eating them directly after this picture was taken.)

New toys

We had a very good Halloween here. Esther's first, you know. We wanted to make sure she got the most out of her costume so we made Esther wear her costume while we ran errands during the day. Despite the fact that the head was a little baggy and it was making her sweat like crazy, she loved it! Grandma Karrie got some really great pictures of her, but until I get copies the above picture of the sleepy giraffe will have to do.

We like to keep things simple. Esther wasn't extremely excited by what came in the box shown above, but she has really enjoyed the box.

Here I am modeling my new boots as Esther attempts to stand in her new wagon. As long as the wagon keeps moving she stays seated. But the minute the wagon stops she wants to stand.

Here is a better shot of Esther in her new wagon from Papa and Vicki. Thanks again! She loves it!

And just for fun, here is another shot of my birthday present. Yeah for boots! Good job Jackie!

President Packer's Talk

Loved reading this man's perspective on President Packer's talk.

http://gaymormonguy.blogspot.com/2010/10/president-packers-talk-from-gay-mormon.html?spref=fb