Christmas 2011

Every year I think I blog about Christmas over a month after the fact. Moving on New Years Eve is a pretty good excuse for this year though. I feel a need to document so here are the main events.

The week before Christmas we moved in with my parents so we weren't living in a moving-zone throughout the holiday.  It was so nice to have a break from the move and just hang out with family. One day we went to the city with the Leinfam. We took the ferry in and went ice skating at the Embarcadero. We did this last year too and I hope it will continue to be a tradition because we had a great time. Lucy loved being with her cousins all day.

It was an Anderson Christmas this year so as is tradition on Christmas Eve we started the evening at my Grandma Joyce's house.  We acted out the nativity with Lucy as Mary, Katy as Gabriel and me as a multitude of heavenly hosts (I just talked very loud:).

We also played the Toy Symphony, carols and the Christmas Concerto as a family. This is a big tradition and something Grandma loves. Lucy loved seeing me play my violin and I loved seeing my Dad play his viola.  Lucy played the toy trumpet during the toy symphony, which is the same instrument I always played for that piece. She loved it. This year I played the water whistle during that piece and let me tell you-it was intense.

We went home to my parent's house to enjoy other traditions like singing "Hang up the Baby Stocking" and watching a Muppet's Christmas Carol. I wish I knew how to use my camera because this would have a been a super cute shot of Lydia:

On Christmas morning we all managed to stay asleep until 7 AM. We let Joyce stay asleep and went down to see what Santa brought us. Santa brought Lucy a new singing Rapunzel doll. Santa learned from his mistakes and braided Rapunzel's hair this year.

Lydia and Joyce got this new play stand from Santa and loved it.

 We opened presents for awhile, had a wonderful breakfast with Grandma Joyce, and went to church. After church we continued opening and playing with our presents. This time Joyce got into the wrapping a bit.

I was very spoiled this year. I got a whole winter wardrobe from my parents, a new diaper bag from the Leiningers, two awesome shirts from Becca and a tripod from Danny.  Katy gave me some increidbly thoughtful gifts: she made this plaque:

  and she shadowboxed these jammies.

Isn't she thoughtful? I cried.
We had a fantastic Christmas.  We loved spending quality time with our families, especially knowing we'd be leaving so soon. Okay, gonna cry if I keep typing. The end.

8/9 months

I missed posting about the babies at eight months due to Christmas/moving and now they are nine months. I would skip it altogether, but they have changed a TON these last two months.

At eight months both girls started to crawl. Joyce was first and Lydia started shortly after. Joyce is a bit more coordinated about it, Lydia still has a, shall we say, unique crawl. Both girls have gotten very fast. Lydia was the first to pull herself up to stand and now they both stand and shuffle along the furniture. Their favorite thing is to pull themselves up on me or on each other. Pulling yourself up using an unstable baby as your base is never a good idea:) (sorry about all the iphone pictures, I haven't gotten out my camera ever since i got it)

This month I stopped nursing them.  I'm a little sad about it but it was definitely time. Starting in December I started supplementing more and pumping for feedings because they were getting too big to tandem feed.  I still tandem fed them at 5AM so they would sleep in, but with the move I often wasn't home/didn't have time to pump, so my supply slowly dwindled. By the time we got here I was pumping once at night and breastfeeding them in the morning.  With the stairs I decided to finally drop that morning feeding and then stopped pumping when I just wasn't producing enough to make it worth it. I am amazed how much formula I go through now! Both girls can hold their own bottles which makes life a lot easier.

When we moved to UT I also started feeding them three meals a day. Joyce is definitely more picky and will refuse some foods, but Lydia will eat anything:) I haven't been making my own purees since we got here because we don't have a microwave yet. We left ours in CA because we thought there was one in the house already, but there isn't and I'm too lazy and cheap to go buy another one-so we're just doing without right now, which is surprisingly easy.  Neither baby has mastered the pincer grip yet but they do eat some finger foods like graham crackers, puffs, yogurt melt and banana.
We went to the Dr for well checks yesterday and I learned that both babies are 50% for both head and length and only 5% for weight. The Dr wasn't worried because they were both light and had steady weight gain-but they both weigh only about 17 lbs! I thought they were tiny! 

Joyce:
My Joyce is adorable. She is very adventurous and likes to explore. She shows her affection by crawling up to you and bumping her head against you. You know she loves you if you get a forehead bump. She has been sick lately and the Dr confirmed she has a double ear infection. This has made her pretty cranky for awhile so she usually gets held more than Lydia. When she is miserable and feeling sick she will put her head on my chest and shake it back and forth. It is sad but I frequently love it too. She laughs a lot more than Lyd, usually at something Lucy does. She has three teeth-- two bottom teeth and a canine on top.  I hadn't noticed the canine until a nurse pointed it out yesterday-it has been their awhile too!  Her smile is precious and we see it a lot more often then we used to.  She is a momma's girl-she has a definite preference for me and gets very excited when I come to get her-either from bed or from her dad:)

Lydia:
My Lydia is adorable too. She has an incredibly cute groggy face when she first wakes up in the morning and it always reminds me of Katy. We have a picture of Katy as a baby with the exact same groggy look- I swear they could be twins:) Lydia is a bit more self sufficient then her sister-by which I mean she can go play without checking in with me and if I am sitting somewhere she doesn't need to be on top of me-although she frequently likes to be.  She is a very good at pulling herself up and prefers to stand rather than sit or crawl. I love her grin. She loves her binkie. I typically only give them to the girls when they're in bed or in the stroller/car seat. She gets excited when she sees one and will grab it incredibly fast. She loves to steal one out of her sisters mouth as well. My favorite thing is when I catch her with a binkie in each hand and she alternates which one she sucks on. 

groggy:)

Happy

Right now Lucy is playing at a friend's house, both babies are asleep and I have a whole hour to myself.  Life is good. Here is what I'm happy about at this moment:
*We are really liking our new house, ward and state ( not to stay though Mom). 
*We had an awesome weekend visiting Matt and Lillian at their home, hanging out with Jared and Nisha, watching the 49er game with Blodgetts, and staying warm inside while we watched the snow fall. 
*Our ward is incredibly nice and we really like walking one block over to our ward building. 
*Lucy is loving preschool and I'm loving that it is three days a week. 
*It feels so good to be fully moved in.  I am on my computer less because its in the basement-which I like, but I have my new iPhone and Instagram and that keeps my tech needs satisfied.
*I love seeing Becca and Ruby once a week-if not more:)
* Lindsay gave me eyelash extensions which make me look like a whole other person-like someone who really tries! They kind of freak me out, but I like them.
*I am looking forward to our annual trip to Zions where we will see Grandma, Grandpa and Katy -February can't come fast enough!

A Long Month

It has been exactly a month since I blogged last and today I finally have the internet again. December was crazy. We found out we were moving, the babies started teething and crawling, we celebrated Chrsitmas with out families, all got a horrible cold that lasted at least three weeks (and is still in Danny and Joycies' chests, moved 1/4 of our stuff to a storage unit, moved the rest to a moving van, said goodbye to our CA house and drove to Utah.  We got here on New Years Eve and have been slowly settling in ever since. My parents and Katy drove with us up here and spent a fun week feeding and playing with us, so I am only barely getting in to real life.

Both Lucy and Danny started school on Monday. Danny at the U studying real estate development and Lucy at Ms. Wendy's preschool. Both really like it:)

Next posts need to document: babies at eight months, Christmas, Ruby (aka-the reason Lucy is happy in UT)

The Long Vacation

Well, we're moving to Utah.

I know this is shocking (to me too:) Let me explain. 

In early November Danny started talking about going back to school to get a masters degree in real estate development. At first he was talking about finding an online program so we could stay where we are and he could continue working for Walnut Creek.  After some family encouragement and looking into some programs he decided to apply to the University of Utah's RED degree.  The deadline had already passed for the "spring" term, but he called and they said they were accepting late applications if we got it in fast.  He applied quickly and I tried to forget about it.  He told me ge didn't have either of the pre-requisites reqired, so he would probably reapply for next fall. When I asked when Spring term started he looked it up--January 9th. Let me just say, January in Utah does not qualify as spring.

Well, you guessed it, he got in.  He is really excited about the program and I am excited he's excited.  The program is only a year which is wonderful.  We've decided to think of it as a long vacation. We will love being in Utah where we'll see lots of family and eat Bajio as often as we can.  Then, we can come home just as its getting really cold next winter.  Sounds perfect right?

All this does mean I have to pack and move with two crawling babies. It is going to be wild-but I'm kind of excited too. We plan on bringing only the essentials with us and leaving lots of our stuff here-so it will be fun to sort everything out. I'm going to try and get as much as I can done this week so we can enjoy Christmas with our family.  In the mean time we're trying to find a place to live and figuring out all the details of the move. Wish me luck!

PS: if you see either of our moms, give them a squeeze. They'll be lonely without their babies!

Seven Months

Officially the girls are seven months and two weeks...I'm a bit late this month. Here is a quick update on the kiddos so I remember life at seven months.

This stage is pretty awesome. Both girls can sit up unassisted and can roll and army crawl around (until yesterday when Joyce started seriously crawling around).  They eat solids twice a day and take two naps. I'm still breastfeeding them, but am pumping more and more often because they are so feisty! Joyce will nurse for about two minuted before rolling off the pillow and looking for something else to do. Today I had to put up a barrier with my hands while nursing because each girl was trying to scratch/grab the others' head. It was wild.
 (these pics come from a two trips to the park over the last two weeks)

Joyce is adorable. She is a bit heavier then her sister and is a bit more mobile. She is incredibly active-she always wants to be on the move. She wakes up a bit more at night and has begun to want me ALL THE TIME. That said, she smiles at her Dad like he is the greatest thing in the world. She adores him. She is starting to get more hair and it is soft and sticks straight up. So cute:) She continues to have very dry, eczema-prone skin that I have to lotion constantly.

Lydia is adorable. She is on the slighter side, so I'm trying to feed her as much as her sister (who eats a bit more). Lydia has great laugh and loves to laugh at Lucy.  She still smiles at everything and everybody.  She is a good sleeper and will take slightly longer naps then her sister. She has slightly darker hair than Joyce but it doesn't stick up in the same way.

There is way more to these babies-I'll have to be better at documenting:)

Fun Wednesday

Wednesday is the hardest day of the week. It is smack in the middle of preschool days, which makes it lame because preschool days are the best days (in Lucy's opinion).  There are no shows on the DVR because the good shows come on Wed. and Thurs. (especially sad without my guilty pleasure show Ringer on until mid January).  It feels like days until the weekend, etc. etc. After some Wednesdays with nothing to look forward to I decided Wednesday would be our fun day.  By fun I mean a trip to Target or maybe the park (those activities used to happen a lot more often before I had to haul two car seats in and out of the car). 

Awhile ago I finally logged on to my local library website and signed up for Discover&Go-a long list of museums and activities that you can get free tickets for with your library card.  Several weeks ago we went to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum and had an awesome time. Today we went to the Oakland Zoo.  We haven't been to the zoo for ages and had a really fun time.

Looking for lions.

 Here is Lucy with her preschool mascot, Eddie the Elephant. He is visiting our house for few days and was lucky enough to see his cousins at the zoo!

 Grooming the goats. Lucy was pretty fearless! here is proof I was willing to try it too.

 

 The best part was that Aunt Katy came with us, even when my free pass didn't cover her. Lucy has her wrapped around her little finger because she carried Lucy whenever Lucy asked.

see her touching Katy's hair?-another generation Bec:)

I realized in the bathroom there that I put on no makeup today. That is yesterday's mascara.

Next week we're off to the Discovery museum-Wednesdays are awesome!