merry christmas (eve)!

Santa came early in St. George.

And he brought a puppy.

 Which may save her dad from having 

to buy the real thing for at least another year.

Merry Christmas!

May opening your presents be as fun as this girl makes it!

while we were out

So listen. I customarily dream up random Christmas projects every year. And it's not unusual for me to push my projects to the very last minute because I pretty much thrive on procrastination. Ask any of my employers: there is nothing like a deadline to get me to produce the most excellent work ever. 

The problem this year was (actually "the problem IS" seeing as how I still have a few more unfinished - seriously?) that along with these projects, I have a Little Miss, who is growing up. And doing it fast. Gone are the one word pointing gestures of yester year. We're working on counting (one! two! teeeee! then ten!), she decided she'd go ahead and learn M and O to go with A and Y (these are always random, and a product of her alphabet puzzle, totally swear by it), and she's decided sentences are fun: "I lub ewe!" (I love you!), "I did eet!" (I did it!), "I got eet!" (I got it), "Dad, woke? Come back?" (Dad's at work? He'll come back?). I wish I could complain that my baby is growing up, but really, it's a total joy to be a part of her life. Even if my projects don't get done and my blog gets totally ignored, my Belle makes my day, every day.

Oh, and she's totally dressing herself these days. Don't be jeal. Her outfits are sweeeet.

 And listen, don't even try to pretend you haven't had an itch before...

random

1. I've been going through old photos. I miss the above "concentrating face" more than you can possibly imagine. 

2. I have only one real complaint about this wintery weather. It makes it nearly impossible to voluntarily crawl out of my warm bed and drive through the icy tundra land to a spin class at 5:45 a.m. Impossible really. I got busted for my no-shows today. Ooooops.
3. Belle had a pooper of a virus for a few days. It was good times. Blow outs a plenty. Stinky good times. She now waves her hands frantically whenever I change her diaper and yells, "Stinky! Stinky!"
4. I still have a smidgen of thread in my neck. It won't dissolve. I want to get tweezers and yank it out. But then I'm afraid what's left of my thyroid will come out with it.
5. We saw a house today that had a hot tub in the sunroom. Even better than that, you had to go through the sunroom to get to the basement. One of the strangest layouts we've seen so far. And trust me, we've seen plenty. The other house we saw had a mold factory in one of the bathrooms. We're having really good luck, let me tell you what.
6. Annabelle routinely (at least 500 times a day) asks to watch "Hot Choc?! Hot Choc?!" In other words, I want to kill the Polar Express, particularly the hot chocolate scene as once is never enough, "'Gain? 'Gain?"
7. On that note, she's been obsessed with Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" for as long as I can remember. She completely rocks out to it and it's her all time favorite song. Let's just say I'm over it. Over and over and over it.
8. Belle knows the letter "A" and the letter "Y." However, she also calls "T" "Y."
9. Today we had some time to kill before our house showing, so we went to PetCo. Holy heaven. She was so happy. "Ah-mulls! Ah-mulls!" She particularly loved the "neows" (cats) and wanted to know why they were "stuck"??
10. I think I could eat Mel's Tuscan Macaroni and Cheese Bake (my sister and I totally call her by her first name, as though we know her personally) every single day of my life. No lie.