A Few More Milestones

So I haven't been blogging lately not because I'm lazy. Our lives have been fairly mundane, so it's a good thing we have Bridget to keep it somewhat interesting. Here's just a few of her recent accomplishments:

• She's finally mastered going down the stairs, and is so good at it that she goes up and down whenever she feels like it, carting all sorts of toys or random objects with her. In fact, we hardly ever shut the baby gate anymore. And one of her favorite things to do is go down one or two steps, sit, and flip through her books. Nate and I are both loving not having to carry her anymore!


• Another one of her new skills I'm loving is her ability to clean up after herself - somewhat. If I tell her to clean something up she usually does especially if I get her started. Our house is nowhere near as tidy as I'd like, but it's a little better.


• Her vocabulary is increasing and she's recently added "baby" and "cougar" or as she says it "ca-ga." I know it's a weird word to pick up on, but she loves the cougar on my BYU sweatshirt and loves trying to repeat it when I say it. Her favorite words are by far "Dada" and "yuck," and both are said more times a day than I can count.


• Currently, she's learning to climb up onto the couch but is only successful part of the time.


• Teething seems to be an almost constant event with her. She just got her 3rd molar and from the way she's been acting today I wouldn't be surprised if the 4th is on its way soon.


• She's also learned how to show people that she's one. If you ask her "how old are you?" she holds up her pointer finger (if she's up to performing and isn't holding something in her hand).

Christmas in Portland

Once again, I'm slow to post, but it's better late than never. We were fortunate to be able to fly to Portland, OR to spend Christmas with my family this year. Even though this is our 3rd Christmas since we've been married, it's the first we've spent with my side of the family. The group included Mark and Mark, Jill, Rob, Elaine, Charlotte, Megan, and us. Unfortunately the weather in Portland was really bad for several days before we were scheduled to leave, and we were very nervous that we might not be able to get there. As luck would have it, the weather was great leaving home early Christmas Eve morning and only snowing slightly when we got to Portland.

Because of the bad weather there, we mostly stayed in the house relaxing, visiting, eating, playing with the kids, watching TV and playing video games. Bridget thought playing with her cousins Charlotte and Elaine was pretty great and also enjoyed the new toys all of them got for Christmas.

As far as Christmas festivities, we had our usual big dinner on Christmas Eve followed by the traditional rice pudding game which my sister, Jill, won.

Before the kids went to bed, they each opened a new pair of PJs from Aunt Megan. Bridget loves to open presents after all the practice she got from her birthday and didn't want to stop at just one.

This is Bridget admiring the Wonder Pets that Elaine got from Santa on Christmas morning. Bridget wasn't enjoying the present opening as much because she was ready for a nap at this point due to the fact that she'd been up since 5 am.

One of her favorite toys was this telephone from Jill and Rob, and she was constantly dragging it around.

While we were there we discovered that Bridget and Charlotte had matching PJs so we just had to get a picture. Jill and I tried our best to get the 3 kiddies to pose for a picture, and this was the best we could do.

This video shows a bit of everyone enjoying Christmas morning. Bridget had great fun for days playing with an empty wrapping paper roll as evidenced here, and the rest of us are enjoying the yummy Crème Brûlée French Toast and bacon in our PJs.