Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. We are having a great time at my parent's house. Laneah loves being around grandma, grandpa, her aunt, and all her uncles. My dad got a kitten (named him Jack Bauer) for Christmas, and Laneah has so much fun playing with him. Laneah enjoyed opening presents, but got easily distracted, especially by toys that had already been opened. It was a wonderful day!

We took Laneah to the mall last week to get pictures with Santa. We all thought that she would scream her head off, but she did great! She didn't even pout:) They took about three pictures and she didn't smile. The photograper showed me the ones that she took and asked if they were ok. I asked if we could try one more to see if she would smile. The photographer was so nice, and said that would be fine. I played peek-a-boo with Laneah and she smiled! I was so happy!
Merry Christmas!

One year ago today.....

One year ago today, our lives were changed forever. We were given the most precious gift that one could give; a beautiful baby. After years of heart ache and longing, our hearts were filled with love and joy as we held our precious baby girl in our arms for the first time. This year has been the best year of our lives.

To Laneah's birth mother: We are so grateful to you for your selflessness and love. We think of you often and pray for you daily. We will make sure that Laneah knows what a beautiful and amazing person you are. We hope that this anniversary becomes a joyful memory for you knowing that you made our dreams of a family possible.

Night in Bethlehem

Whew! It is done! I am the activities chairman in our ward and I had to put together our Christmas party. Thanks to my committee, the party was a real success. We decided to do a Night in Bethlehem. If you aren't familiar with this activity, you re-enact the time/night of Christ's birth. We started in the chapel to start out on a spiritual note and then headed to the cultural hall to be taxed (non perishable food item that is donated to a food bank). Each person had to sign the census and then were given a money bag. People were to use their money to buy food and gifts from the different booths. There were seven booths in the room with different kinds of food, drinks, toys and gifts. I had each person on my committee in charge of a different booth to make each booth unique. I was very impressed to see people's creativity at work. We strung white Christmas lights on the ceiling so when it was time for the program to start, we turned off all the lights and it looked like you were sitting under the stars. The program was sweet and spiritual (Basically Luke's account of Christ's birth). People really seemed to enjoy themselves. It turned out great but I am glad it's over:)

Little Miss Attitude

Laneah is all sugar and spice lately; nothing in between. She is either defiant and demanding, or sweet and cuddly. On her defiant side, she sees "no" as a challenge, as in how many times can I do this before mom gives in? On her sweet side, she is giving kisses. I love her sweet, but very slobbery kisses. This video captures her giving me a couple of dirty looks, it is hilarious. I crack up every time I watch it.



Also she took her first steps yesterday. She did 4 steps and then got up and did 3 more. She walked a little today too, but I haven't been able to get a good video of it yet because every time she sees the camera she gets excited and crawls to me as fast as she can to get to the camera:) But I will get a video and post it soon! We leave to visit my parents in a week and we are so excited! Happy Holidays!