Copy Cat

No pictures this time, sorry Mom. It seems that I have a copy cat in the house. And I don't mean Ryan, though he is such a stinker sometimes, you would think that is who I am talking about. He's always the one to be looking to make jokes, tease, or generally cause trouble. Jacie, or better now known as Boogers, and I have been sick this whole week. So....we've spent a whole lot of time sitting on our bums in front of the tv watching Cinderella. I didn't think I would ever say I was sick of that show, seeing that its my favorite cartoon, but after watching it non stop day and night (yes, night too), I think I am getting sick of it! Ryan and I can recite pretty much any part at any time of day. Back to Boogers. She is a mimic! While feeding her this week, she would squint her eyes sometimes when she would swallow, and then cry, so it seemed that her throat must hurt. To try and cheer her up, I started to squint back. Well...she is doing it for fun now! I will squint my eyes at her and she will squeeze them shut super tight, then open them up and look to see what I am doing. Suddenly, she started squinting (shrugging) her shoulders instead, and I couldn't figure out why. Finally, it dawned on me that I squint (shrug) my shoulders when I squint my eyes. She is also working on getting out that "Bw" sound. That is the beginning of lots of her words these days. Even with Boogers being sick, she is still a delight!

Another video

There is nothing very exciting to say about this post, other than it cracks me up the way she will sit there and play while she spins around in circles. She does it all day long. Crazy Girl.

My First Little Pony

The other day, I was watching Oliver and Violet (i've posted about those two little tykes before), and I was doing Violets hair. Well, I decided that while I was at it, I would do Jacies too. THis is the result. It lasted for about 5 minutes, but I think if I put it in just a tad bit tighter next time, it would stay. I couldn't get a picture without the fingers in the mouth...she woke up super early that day and was a week bit tired.

At least in this picture, she is smiling through her fingers. Super cuty patooty.

Shopping Spree!!

Have you ever heard of The Children's Place? Well, it is one of my most favorite places to shop for Jacie, but it can be super expensive, so we only shop there when they have their big sales. The other day I was wandering through the mall looking for a replacement Christmas gift for Ryan. I wanted to buy him a new bag for work, and thought something a bit more professional would do the trick, so Jacie and I headed to the mall. We were walking by The Children's Place, and I though...'lets just drop in, see what they have'. Boy am I glad I did!! They were having their 50% off clearance prices!! Jacie got a snow suit for this year, a coat for next year, and tons of clothes for next winter as well. Her coat was only $10, the snowsuit $8.50! The rest of the stuff was super cheap, too. The only problem is the store in the mall is 1/4 of the size of the one 30 minutes south from us, so after BJ's nap, I loaded her into the car and we headed out again. I got some t-shirts for $2 each, and dresses super cheap. I now know why Nana can't pass up those good deals at work! Along with those fabulous buys, I got her a halloween costume! Well, I bought two, because they were onyl $1.50 each! Holy cow, I thought. Gotta get them. I think that the smaller of the two (the Skunk) will still fit her this year, and the Chick might fit her next yar. She is just a little tyke.She really enjoyed the Chick outfit, but not the skunk nearly as much.
Is she not the cutest skunk ever??

Child Proofing

We have learned what it means and doesn't mean to child proof or be child proofed. This litlte angel can whip something out of anywhere in a millisecond. This time, she found the snack cupboard. It occupied her for quite some time while she smashed every single Sunchip into crumbs. I'm sur Ryan will enjoy having those in his lunches.

Happy Girl

This post was supposed to be able to show you the wicked bed head she gets sometimes, but really all it hows is her very happy self. She is a super happy morning peson (I am beginning to doubt I birthed her). In fact, she has turned into a super happy giggly baby that loves to play with other people. She has done remarkably well with her sitters this semester. So much so that I am going to go ahead and apply to the grad program. She plays really well with all of them, and this makes me feel so much better! As for new developments, she started clapping her hands the other day when she is happy. Very cute! Last night we were at the Higbee's house for dinner (totally yummy, by the way), and their little girl Brinley said "no, no" to Jacie and the next sound out of Jacie's mouth was "no, no". Brinley looked at me and said, "she said no, no!" with a huge grin on her face. She also said Daddy the other day. Not sure she meant to say it, but Ryan sure was happy! She said it right to him. I'm feeling a little left out, where is the love, Baby Girl??

New Toy and Cutest Bum

jacie has a new sitter this semester, so we got some fun toys to store at her house. This little number if from a second hand store and she loves it! She plays and plays and plays with it. Hopefully she still likes it at the sitters house.
Her new thing is steps. She goes over to the step, stands herself up and shouts down the hall, thinking someone will come if she hollers. Wouldn't it be great if we all looked that cute in sweats? Look out Eva Longoria (or whatever your new name is), here comes competition!

Littlest Football fan

This really is Ryan's child. If you had doubts after seeing her face, you will no longer doubt. She sat at this little table and watched the game on TV with her dear old Dad. She was even telling them what she thought, just like dad!

Tubby

Jacie is now a tub roamer! She graduated from the tub seat to just the tub and thinks its the coolest thing ever. Nice thing for us is it takes less water. She played in the tub last night for 30 minutes. She crawls from one end to the other and loves it. She figured out if she moves her legs like a pin ball machine, the water is a whole lot more fun! Did you notice she doesn't play with her "toys", but with the bottles instead?

The Crawl

This video is relatively old. She is a beginner crawler in the video, but since I was having trouble with blogger, it took me a long time to post it. She gets herself everywhere she wants to be and plenty of places I don't want her to be! Its so funny because sometimes she will be crawling along and then veer to the left or right. I know to get up off my duff and beat her to whatever she saw before she puts it into her mouth. She's also started doing the psycho spin thing where she will sit on her bum and use the heel of her foot to scoot herself in a circle. It reminds me of that Chucky doll whose head spins around. It's cute, but kinda freaky.

Walk 'n Ride

This is one of Jacie girls new Christmas presents. I just put it together for her and she loved it! She refused to push it, but was more than happy to sit on it and play with all the gadgets! She is so much closer to walking now, that I think she will be more likely to want to push it now. SHe still needs our help, but such a great toy!

Temple Square

The threat of a blizzard drove us out of Idaho a day sooner than we planned, so we spent the time in Salt Lake at a friends house (Thanks, Rachel and Justin!!). We drove down Saturday night and got in late, but really wanted to see the lights at temple square. I’d never seen them, and Jacie had never seen them, so Ryan went along for the ride to see them for the zillionth time in his life. They were so amazing! I wonder just how long it takes them to put up all of those lights. If you have never been, and even if you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you should see these lights! They are up from after thanksgiving until New Years. Totally awesome, and no picture could ever do them justice…unless of course your name is Robin Leonard and you are a stellar photographer!!
Under my coat, I have my purse, a camera bag, sweatshirt and sippycup. I look like I am 9 months pregnant! In the background, you can see Kendall with Amelia. Really fun trip.

Leonard Bash

Ryan’s cousins have a party every year for New Years Eve, This year, it was a bit early and we were able to attend! Yippee!! Jacie met even more family, and had a good time…until the meltdown started. Too much attention and too much action for this little girl that lives a quiet life at home. This picture is of Uncle Craiger, the ever big kid helper and goof ball extraordinaire. In the background is Grandma Leonard.
Uncle Kendall, Uncle Craig, and Jacie enjoying cake. Yummm....
Again, goofball, Dad and Jacie. I could just call Ryan and Craig goofball 1 and 2. She is not wearing her shirt because she was so hot.

Nana's House

There is always something fun to do at Nana’s. For example, playing the Wii! Ryan and Jace has a great time playing it…well, Jacie had a fun time watching Daddy play it! She also had 13 cousins to play with! She was loved on quite a lot form those cousins, and spent loads of time moving around from place to place and toy to toy.Dad and daughter on the Wii together.
Jacie loves to point to everything she is talking about. She especially loves it if you point right back at her. I know, I am teaching my daughter bad manners, but its a fun game. This little cutie pie is her cousin Eliza. They are about 5 months apart. The only other cousin closer to Jacie in age is Camren, and he is just 2 months older.

This is Eliza's sister, Amelia. They were playing with cars together. I had no idea cars would be so fun for Jacie, but she loves them. Everywhere we go that has cars, she just has to have her hands on them.

Carter's House

We spent a fun day at The Carter’s House after Christmas. We were lucky enough to be able to see Grandma and Grandpa Wood, along with my Aunt Teresa and Uncle Skip. All of them drove over from Boise just to see Princess Peanut. Sadly, Teresa and Grandpa were sick and the trip ended shortly after it began. On a side note, Mom, Dad and Baby J also had colds, so we were a great big bunch of germs! We had a fabulous Christmas dinner followed by more gifts. Jacie got this awesome book from Grandpa and Grandma Wood that comes with its own puppets! Oh, how she is gonna love that one!

I couldn't resist adding this shot of Ryan being pulled behind the horse and flying off. If only I had the foresight to get video of it!

Even Grandma Darlene got in on the action of sledding!

Christmas Day

After a very looong Christmas eve filled with a very hysterical Jacie, Christmas day finally arrived. Jacie was having a hard time adjusting to being in a house with so many people and a different time zone. We tried nursing her to sleep, holding her, letting her cry it out with Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynette, Daddy rocking, and anything else we could think of. However, it was the Tylenol and hour long drive over the snow covered hill that did it. I had to hold her and rock her in the car while she cried herself to sleep. I could not figure out what was wrong! It was a heart wrenching end to a wonderful day. When Christmas morning finally arrived, Jacie slept through the gift opening extravaganza. I refused to wake the sleeping babe!! However, when she did finally wake up, she enjoyed her fun gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad, and Nana.

She sure seemd to enjoy the opening of the stocking! In her stocking, there was a set of stacker cups, little balls of different textures, a Reese's Peanut Butter Tree, Gerber Graduates Cherry Puffs, and something else I can't recall. Nana had stockings made for all of the kids, and hung them on her chimney. It looked awesome!
These little snacks are her favorite! She loves to pick them up and gobble them, and will cry if you take the container away.
Oh yes, she got a baby orange in her stocking!! I ate that, along with her peanut butter tree for her.
See the Christmas jammies? Nice and toasty...

Christmas Eve at Nana's House

Christmas time finally arrived! We spent a fun-filled day with Nana and all the Leonard cousins! Jacie got along really well with all of the kids, but especially loved the baby Eliza. She wanted to squish and squeeze her like she does her lamb. Christmas eve, we opened the gifts that were traded amongst families and kids (we draw names, so each kid has another kid and each adult couple has another couple). Jacie got a super fun fishbowl that makes noise when you drop the fish in. She especially loves to take things out of the fish bowl, so we fill it up with little balls and things for her to take out. We also opened up our Christmas jammies. It was fun to start a tradition as a family.



This is Jacie's cousin Hayley. Deryk can partially be seen to the left. Hayley was a big helper the week we were home!

Detroit Friends

For Ryan’s birthday, we drove down to Detroit to spend the day with our good friends Dave and Syd Young. They have two adorable kids, too. We had a good time as the kids played with Jacie, and went out to dinner. The next day, we got dressed up and went to church. The Young’s were all dressed to match, and I couldn’t resist a moment to take a picture of the kids! They are all so cute!! After church, they were very kind and drove us to the airport for our flight home. Thank goodness for good friends!
Jacie and Maddy playing together.

Jacie was having a hard time crawling on the wood floor, and slid herlsef into the corner and got stuck.

Here she is in her Christmas dress! She hated it, too fluffy for her liking. See the finger pointing? She just started doing that this last month. She points at everything and babbles. She pointed at a bird last night and said "do-daa". Why should she conform to our language when she has her own?

The Kleenex Box

Why is it that kids love to pull tissues out of the box, pull toilet paper from the roll or anything else they are not supposed to do? Look around her, she has toys, so why the kleenex?? She goes for that box every single time she sees is. I could have saved some money at Christmas and just bought her a box of tissue!

Christmas as a Family

We celebrated Christmas just a tad bit early this year. Since we were headed to Idaho for the big holiday, we decided to open our gifts to each other in Michigan. Jacie got a couple of new fun toys, and Ryan and I each got a cocoa machine. Yep, that’s right, we each bought the other the same gift. Thank goodness for hassle free returns! Jacie bought her Daddy a tie for Christmas…a tradition I think we will continue. It was so much fun watching her open gifts, and enjoying the wrapping paper. I had no idea watching someone else open gifts could be so much fun!

She didn't really care about her gifts, just the paper. She likes to eat it.

The Cocoa machine was really from Jacie.