Another Catch Up Blog

My kids have the funniest dynamic right now. Basically, Eli wants to come up with everything himself. If you ask him to do something and he doesn't want to do it (or you can't make him think it's his idea) he pouts. So, I said, hey Eli, let's get a shot of you in your doctor shirt. He didn't want to, but DORA wanted a photo. She hopped in right next to sad sack Eli with a happy look. Here was that first photo. I only threw it in because you can see how tall Eli is! (And Dora too, for that matter).

Dora then tried to cheer him up by snuggling on him... FUNNY!

Here she is trying to give him a kiss!! Hahaha. He wasn't having any of it.

Finally, unable to cheer him up, she got sad too.

Two Sundays back Dora wore a dress my grandma made for me years ago. I thought to snap a photo of it before we left for church. (Ignore that bandaid on her head! She was dancing and fell and hit the bottom of the desk chair! It swelled up like a marble was under there! I felt so bad for her, but the bandaid was in her hair so it stayed for a LONG time!)

Eli wanted in on the photo action, too.

Here are some shots of them after Dora's nap. She woke up grumpy so we watched a show and both kids climbed up right next to me. That doesn't happen a lot, mostly because I'm usually doing something if there's a show on--so I had Whit document me and my two angels.

One of their favorite things right now is to make their blankets into capes. I love that they are really smiling here.

For Valentine's Day cards, I took some snapshots--and these were the rejects.

If I ask them to smile or say cheese, this is the terrifying result. Annoying! Why can't my kids smile on demand??

This one is ALMOST like the one I picked. Just a TINY bit different.

Here's my happy little baby man.

Finally, Dora got a big girl bed! She loves it. Seriously, from the time it was dropped off and set up, she just climbed in, said "Night night" and went to sleep. She has trouble keeping it toy free at nap time, though... She still sleeps on a nest of blankets too. One thing at a time, right?

It's a girl!

For photos, check out this site. (Whitney's blog) He blogs from his phone and he's super fast--had it up minutes after our ultrasound. He had done an ultrasound a month back and said it was a girl but it was nice to have it confirmed. HOORAY! Another girl--YIPPEE! Eli's the only one who's bummed about it.

Catch Up

We went to Vegas without the kids on a trip! It was great... we went on a helicopter ride of the strip...

We also went to two Cirque du Soliel shows while we were there-Ka (fighting) and Mystere. They were really fun, but I didn't take photos of that...

Here's Whit in front of the Excalibur. We spent a lot of time in there since we were in the Luxor (next door) and the food was better at Excalibur!

The coolest looking one (according to me) was the New York NY. I think that's where we'll stay if we go again.
I also got to see two of my old BYU friends!! This is Erika--just as beautiful as she was in college. Ignore the chubby girl in purple. Haha. I TOTALLY spaced on getting a photo of Maren on Monday when we went to dinner. And I feel doubly bad because Maren was like Super Friend. She picked us up from the airport, got us the Cirque tickets (for the local price) picked them up for us, took us to dinner THEN took us to the show and dropped us off. OH yeah, then she dropped our bags at our hotel. Yeah, she should get an award. Whit was really impressed. I explained it was because I was such a great friend in college that she felt she owed me (yeah right!)

Also, I should note that it was probably for the best (for my self esteem) that I didn't take photos with Maren. She and Erika both look way better than me. Super depressing! :-)

On the last day there, Whitney and I test drove some mini coopers. We ended up buying one! A turbo convertible! We drove it home! It was fun, but paying MORE to stay at a crappy Ramada in Tonopah? Not the Best part of the trip, I'll admit...

Here's Whit in his car. It was nice that day in Vegas so we had the top down and seat heaters on (Sport and cold weather package!) but when we headed up North, you better believe we put the top back up!
Jealous?

It had like 20 miles on it when we bought it, some of which we put on it during our test drive, but I totally forgot to take a photo until 41 miles. Ooops.

The kids were delighted to see us when we came home. Dora has been waging war on me though--we took her bottles away (for good this time, Really!!)

Anyhow, she's been so funny, too, though. She (on her own) decided to ride Bullseye! It was really hilarious. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Here's Whitney and his brother Haven. Not sure how these got out of order, but we saw him our last night in Vegas--before we left to drive out. We had dinner and walked around the Ceasar's Palace?? I think. It's whichever one is right next door to the Bellagio. It was fun! There's a huge aquarium.
This is Whitney getting hugged by a scary bear in the lobby of the Ramada in Tonopah on our way home.

Oh and I took a shot of the basket the hospital delivered when we got back. It's a Congrats on the New Baby Basket. I think someone got confused, but I'm not complaining--$100 in gift certificates?? SCORE! So happy that we have our new baby! :P

Playing Around...

Eli got some remote controlled cars. Dora does suprisingly well driving them too. We went outside and drove them around Christmas morning. Dora liked chasing them as much as driving them and Eli liked to get his going from the top of the hill and crash into the side of the culdesac. It's a wonder they're still running!

I love this shot. Whitney is such a hot dad, smiling and playing with his son.

It snowed a lot over the past week--Eli and Dora loved it. It never stayed for very long but they liked to play on our balcony a lot.

Can you tell Dora was getting a bit cold!?

Christmas Day

Wow, you've never seen a more excited kid on Christmas morning than Eli. He exclaimed and screamed and oohed and aaahed over everything. He was super excited about his stocking. He loved his puppets, his wind up toys, his candy, his games, his socks and underwear, and his paint with water book. He still keeps all his toys in a box and won't let anyone else touch them. (A super sharer, this kid).

But most delightful of all, he got the spider man bike and helmet he's been wanting. Don't look too closely--Santa forgot to take the tag off. Oops. That guy must be getting senile.

Hugh handled a lot of the video taping. You can also see their customized pjs in this photo...

Grandma Lila helped Dora with a lot of her presents. You can see Dora had eaten breakfast by this point. We had a pretty full blown breakfast with fancy butcher shop bacon, cinnamon rolls and cheesy eggs.

Eli was so happy about everything. This was a pretty permanent expression.

Dora LOVED these mon-chi chis Santa brought--a mom and baby. How did Santa know how much she loves mom and baby pairs??

Aunt Linsey--Eli loved his spiderman racer. He plays with it a lot.

Nana--he loved Buzz too! He won't let ANYONE else touch him. And they all want to...

Great Grandma gave Dora this doll... It looks SO real!

Lerdle luh and Papa gave Dora lots of food, which she LOVES. She also loves her kitchen, which somehow wasn't captured by photos...

Grandpa Hugh and Grandma Lila had a fun Christmas too.

Whit got some remote control helicopters, and ipad and this apple peeler corer--and a new grill! He did pretty well. Videos of the helicopters later..

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Also, I got a great watch and a beautiful waterfall gallery rose display for above my bed--so I did really smashing too. I just took the photos so I wasn't in any of them.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention... the kids loved the Christmas story. We told it with the nativity often. We also used nativity puppets to tell it on Christmas Eve. Eli and Dora each got really excited about it--but Eli did ask why Jesus is so wonderful. He asked if he was better than spiderman. He didn't get why until Whitney explained that while Spiderman can climb buildings and shoot spiderwebs, Jesus can walk on water and move mountains. He decided Jesus was cooler after all.

Rest assured that we are all very grateful for the sacrifices and example of our Saviour here in the Baker house! What a wonderful time of year, and what a wonderful story to tell, to celebrate the birth of He who saved us all!

Christmas Eve

We had a big Christmas Eve. Whit and I were still sick, but the kids felt great and Hugh and Lila came in that night, right about the time Dad came home from work. We had clam chowder and chili (which we didn't really feel up to eating, but it was good!) and the kids opened two presents each. They got new pajamas (with their names on them) for Christmas, and Dora opened a tiara and earrings from a friend, and Eli opened his battleship (with airplanes, etc) from Papa Don.

The kids were happy to see Hugh and Lila. Dora's not usually really huggy, so I snapped a shot of this.

Eli was giddy about his battleship.

Dora gave each toy her rapt attention.

We couldn't wait for Christmas morning!! I hear Santa was up until like midnight putting finishing touches on Dora's kitchen...