Alianna's Christmas present

ArJay works swing shift right now and gets home at 4 Sunday morning then gets up for 9 am church and is the ward clerk. Needless to say, the poor guy isn't really coherent and usually has to go to clerk-y things. I have been thinking that I need fun, new, QUIET things for Alianna to do in sacrament, especially since this baby is coming soon and I really only have 2 hands! Flannel board stories, Eureka! I found this cool etsy shop called copycrafts where you but the pattern, print it on iron on transfer paper and iron it to felt. Score, no coloring or laminating! So I went a little crazy adn bought 5 patterns and made them for Christmas as well as a travel flannel board that folds up.
She loves all the animals in Noah's ark. As I was getting it out to take a picture she told me the mommy and daddy were going to ride the rainbow. She is also learning all the animals names and saying "bye gaffe"(giraffe) as she puts them away. Score, learning names and FINALLY getting the concept that you put away one toy before getting out another.
Alianna has gotten a little OCD with the farm and where the animals go. If you put an animal in an improper habitat( gasp!) She will inform you " NO silly mommy. Pig mud not wawa(water)" DOn't you know ArJay has a lot of fun messing with her.
So Alianna HATES facial hair on men. Even her grandpa gets the shaft when he's sporting even 'stace. Needless to say, she is not having any of Santa with his big fluffy white beard.At the ward party she got 20 feet away from him and flipped out" ALL DONE ALL DONE That man!" Since she has played with this set, she has decided santa and his "Say" are "Cute". Maybe next year we'll actually talk to him.

She LOVES this set. At first she didn't think Mary was the mommy because she doesn't look like me. Curiously she agreed that Joseph was the daddy( I'm not sure that ArJay really looks like him but maybe I'm missing something...) "Beby Jesus" is by far her favorite. She actually tried to take him to sleep with her the other night.

Funny story. Alianna loves to count. When she gets bored or is sitting in her carseat, I will just randomly hear this cute little voice "Onee, Twooo, Free, FOur, Fid, sick.." all the way up to fifteen or sixteen. She also loves to ask, "Color's it?" and gets very proud as she tells us the color. Needless to say, these numbers with their colored dots get a lot of mileage at our house.

Also the random turquoise pouch in the picture is the free storage bag pattern that comes with their patterns. They are super cute and easy. As I am trying to get organized inthe new year, I am thinking of all kinds of things to store in these.

So I am pretty proud of them and she loves them. It might not look like it, but it was actually quite a bit of work since I had to cut out every figure, but totally worth it and I'm kind of addicted now. FYI, if you have a child that will be getting a present for us anytime soon, it's a good bet it might be one of these!

Cinderella pumps iron!

ArJay ordered p90x from ebay to stay in shape for work and because I am going to do it after I have the baby( maybe if I publicly decree it it will hold be accountable right?) It arrived yesterday along with the resistance bands and pull up bar we ordered. Arjay was messing around with the bands and Alianna/Cinderella( every time she sees that dress she HAS to wear it) decided that she needed to work out too.
She is saying "pull!Pull!"
Feel the burn!

Oh yeah, feels so good!

December and Christmas

The first week of December we went upto visit Mom Gamble at her condo in Phoenix for a few days. We went to see teh temple lights, but I of course forgot my camera at home. Alianna did not seem to interested while riding in her stroller, which surprised me becuase she loves "preedy lights" but as soo as we got her out in the parking lot she grabbed Mom's hand, said "cmon grammie" and ran back to the lights( which were across the street, another parking lot and on the complete other side of the temple from were we parked) and had a ball walking around up close and personal to the lights. The next night we went to the Phoenix Zoo lights which were amazing but ALianna did not appreciate that the "anmaols" were not out. I think her favortie part was the "round and round" ( carousel) , although since she did it like 12 times in a row at Disneyland, she does not understand why she can't do that on all the carousels.

The second week of December brought my cookie exchange, which was a blast. Again, no pics but I think I counted about 20 women in all and the cool thing was everyone made different cookies( I would have thought we'd have repeats) so we all got a good variety to take home!

The third week of December brought our friends the Mowers to stay with us and our anniversary. Needless to say, that was a fun and crazy week.

Finally the week of Christmas arrived. The Gamble's did their Christmas on the 23rd. We had our traditional "fancy" dinner which isnt quite so classy now that the kids are all there, but still super yummy food(ie Prime Rib). Then we exchanged gifts and acted out Luke 2 complete with costumes. Again no pics because the kids were being CRAZY! I think it's safe to say it wasn't the most spiritual Luke 2 reading, maybe next year Mom!

Poor ArJay had teo work swing shift ( 4pm -2 am) Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's day. OBviously, our holidays were a little strange this year. My parents arrived Christmas Eve at about 5pm( ArJay was already gone) and we had an appetizer feast and did the traditional " it's a wonderful life" viewing.

We were expecting ArJay back at about 4-5am and were planning to just let him sleep( for work again that night) and open presents when he woke up at like 10. But I woke up at 6:30 and he was not home yet. I called him and he said he was on his way, it was apparently a crazy night. I believe his exact words were " the world went to heck in a hand basket last night and I was left holding the hand basket". So I woke everyone up and we did presents as soon as he got home at 7 instead.
You probably can't see him, but the whole morning the poor guy was zoning out.
Alianna was hilarious opening presents and became enthralled by the funniest things. Here she is staring at her toothbrush from the stocking. She opened that Minnie first and it probably should have been last because she would NOT put it down. She opened everything one handed as she held it.
Baby Kendall even got presents from both sets of grandparents. Geez the kid is spoiled and he isn't even out of the womb yet! Note: again with the Minnie. At the time I was a little sad because I went thru A LOT of work making a whole flannel board set for her that she didn't even glance at. The next day at church she loved the flannel board stories though so I guess my pride is still intact :)
Grandma Gamble and Weir both got her princess tea sets. I can not tell you how many tea parties we have had since then.
ArJay calls this Alianna's "entourage" who have to come with her everywhere. The entourage grew this Christmas. We already had Mickey and Belle, but Grammie Weir added Minnie and Grammie Gamble added Cinderella. Christmas night we went to Winterhaven which was lots of fun.
By the end of the weekend we were so exhausted that this is the most excitement Mitch and I could muster. I think there is something wrong with us since my parents were still running around having a blast with Alianna, I'm gonna blame it on being 7 months pregnant...yeah we'll go with that.

Thanksgiving

SO I know this is an excuse, but our November and December are CRAZY. Seriously, we have 4 birthdays, our anniversary, 2 thanksgivings, 2 christmases, plus all the holiday craziness and parties. But the importnat ting is that I get it documented even if it is late, right?

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we had the Gamble family Thanksgiving because Mom and Dad Gamble were going to Utah during Thanksgiving to visit Mom's mom.It was a nice relaxing day in which we learned to ALianna can eat her weight in Mom Gamble's rolls.

We left for my parents in New Mexico on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because ArJay has Tuesday-Thursday off every week and we knew we'd have to go back on Friday so we wanted to get as much time as possible.

My mom actually had off on Tuesday so we got to hang out with one of Alianna's favorite people her "grammie" all day. ArJay and I then got a real treat that night and got to go to the movies and see Harry Potter.
Obviously, Mom and Dad still had to work so on Wednesday we went to the "Bouncing Place". It is this indoor playplace that has a bunch of huge bouncing castles and slides and a toddler room with little tykes playhouses and cars and stuff. Needless to say, this is one Alianna's favorite places ever. There was a little playgroup there and Alianna just jumped right in with them like they had all been friends their whole lives. There are no strangers in Alianna's world, only new friends.

On Thanksgiving day, Alianna got to go to the movies for the very first time and see Tangled in 3-D. I thought she would hate the glasses but she was fine and even sat thru 7/8th of the movie and I think she only started moving around because it was nap time. It was an adorable movie and even had all the grownups laughing out loud.

Because we are insane, we went to the Black Friday stuff that night at midnight and then ArJay went again at 5am. Then, because we obviously hate ourselves and/or sleep we drove home that morning so ArJay could get to work.