It was a white 29th of December! We got a bit of the snow storm that blew through this neck of the woods. It was truly delightful! It is the first snow I have seen that actually stayed around more than 30 minutes!
Erik took Alyssa outside for just a second, and they brought me back some snow. Before I knew it we were all outside building snowmen together! Alyssa and I built a little one and Erik built one as tall as himself...until it fell over. The snow was perfect. We had so much fun! I am grateful for those little moments we have together! I am also grateful for the beauty of snow in small, delightfully fluffy quantities.
Unfortunately Alyssa does not wear her mittens. She doesn't seem to mind though, and we did not stay out for too long.
Our Rastafarian snowman. (Hat courtesy of Ben's Hat Making Skills)
I add this picture for my blog-to-book ambition. I want to remember what my "titles" were. Giving your blog a make over is like rearranging the furniture in your house. Maybe you don't do it very often. I sure can't anymore, but when I had my own room I rearranged my furniture probably once a month. This is pretty difficult to do when your bedroom is as big 10' X 8'. It was easier when I had a twin bed, but when I upgraded to a full...whoo. I remember finding myself surrounded by a huge mess and wondering how I was going to get out of the room since the dresser was in front of the door. (Thanks Mom and Dad for taking the carpet out of my room!) And when I had a twin bed, it was a day bed, the kind with 3 headboards so when I wanted to put my bed in the middle of the room I had to take of the long headboard. But I loved doing it. It was the only true way to clean my room. REARRANGEMENT! It felt so fresh when all was said and done and it allowed my chi to find new paths, to grow and expand! That's also what giving your blog a makeover feels like. So fresh. Go chi.
How was your Christmas? Ours was fantastic. We had a jolly time. Alyssa didn't wake up early enough, so I had to go help her along around 8:30 AM. She was super impressed with her stroller and she likes her chair. She received many wonderful gifts and we are having so much fun playing with them!
Taking advantage of our Delawarian position we drove to Washington's Crossing, PA and saw a "reenactment" of Washington crossing the Delaware. I just have to say that the actors' gumption wasn't quite what it would have been for Washington and his men. They didn't quite make it across the river as in they didn't cross at all because the current was too strong. But it was a moment to add to our eternity. Alyssa saw some white, curly-haired dogs and thought they were sheep. So we petted the sheep.
Those boats weigh 6000 lbs!
After WC we talked to Elder Nelsen on google+. It was really fun to see him and hear about his adventures. He is doing really well. Time sure has flown by, but he still has so long. Yet, it will fly still.
It was fun being in charge of our own Christmas. We opened a present on Christmas Eve because we wanted to and we ate lots of sugar. Our house was an utter disaster...packing peanuts everywhere (which turned out to be Alyssa's first favorite toy). But we had fun and joy and we were so blessed to be able to still see our families despite the miles that separate us.
Thank you to everyone who helped make our Christmas so merry this year!
We took a little travel over to Philadelphia and went to the Christmas light show in Macy's on Market Street. Julie Andrews was the narrator, which makes all things splendid. Alyssa really enjoyed it. There was a big tree in the middle of this light show that had different colored lights and then fun little lights lit up here and there, all around the square as a story was told.
We also walked through Dicken's Village and we were reminded of the tale of A Christmas Carol. A very good book. It gets me in the right ol' mood for the holidays by reminding me that I shan't be a Scrooge, but she rather try to be a Tiny Tim.
I am grateful Erik and I have so much time with Alyssa. We are learning every day how to be better parents. There are some really challenging moments, but they all seem so small compared to the good times. Erik, in particular, is very good at playing with Alyssa. I had no idea that I picked such a great father for my children when I married him. I knew he would be good, but I didn't know he would be this good. I am grateful for all he does for myself and mostly for Alyssa.
After writing about my predicament, I thought maybe I should try uploading pictures again and check on my allotted amount of pictures space. And miracle of miracles, they increased my storage to 5 GB since last time I posted pictures!!! Maybe they saw my sincere effort to delete all unnecessary pictures and gave me a gift for those efforts.
Now, here are some pictures.
I know the lighting is really bad, but Alyssa is HILARIOUS. She just started smiling for pictures again.
Alyssa and were having our normal popcorn snack and Alyssa had gone into the kitchen to get more popcorn. She was taking kind of a long time and being kind of quiet and I went in to find THIS! DUMPING salt on our popcorn. Now, Dad might say she got this from me, but I really did not teach her this! Also, she knows the salt settles to the bottom of the bowl because she wipes her pieces of popcorn along the bottom before eating them. She is a smart, smart girl!
Check out that left over salt!
Here is one of Alyssa's Christmas dresses. She looks so elegant. It's practically like we live the Downton Abbey life. (Ha. Sorry. I just had to put a little plug for that in here because I've been watching it a lot and...stuff.)
Her hair was perfect that day, and I didn't even try. Many people at church were impressed and I was just grateful we made it to church dressed!
In other news, Christmas is coming. If you want to get in to the Christmas spirit, read the Ensign for December...and your heart will be touched. The stories are quite heart wrenching, actually. I shed a few tears.
I had a clever title. But now I can't remember it. I have been playing catch up the last few days and I have a renewed desire to stay caught up. It does not take long to write a little diddy everyday. And when you take almost a picture a day and your daughter is growing every single minute, it is a necessity! With only one daughter this is more of a possibility. I am sure when more kids come it will be much more difficult to keep this going all the time. But for now, I will try.
I love to take snapshots throughout the day to remember the things Alyssa does. On these two days she was doing two of her favorite things:
1. Wearing her tutu and flipping through books
2. Lounging in the chair (which is now covered with her boogies from rubbing her nose on it as she climbs up) with her pretzels and drink (I'm pretty sure she has eaten half of her weight in pretzels.)
We have started Christmas celebrating. I have been struggling a bit with tradition making and finding my perfect Christmas. Thankfully I read last years Christmas Devotional talk by President Uchtdorf today and he reminded me that Christmas need not be perfect. It should be joyous, wonderful, and filled with love. So we are trying.
We went to a little Christmas Fest thing that was kind of a bust if I might be honest. It was in a small store, which I thought it would be outside, that was very crowded and noisy. So, we went over to our friend's yogurt shoppe instead where there was hot cocoa and kids crafts (a planned overflow from the Christmas Fest). Alyssa even wrote her first letter to Santa...that is what she is trying to open in the picture.
We also put up our Christmas tree and some lights. Alyssa loves the lights and wants them plugged in as soon as she wakes up or as soon as we get home and then as soon as I plug them in she says a variation of "oo la la"! It's quite funny and I am always so excited to plug them in for her.
*Note, the video is a little long, but it is part of my new attempt to also have our family videos be accessible. You are witnessing the Archibald Family Journal Project in action, Someday it will get better.*
(Erik preempted me on this post by proof of concept for text blogging. I had already started this post, though.)
Alyssa has taken a liking to the kitchen sink. I think it started with me letting her have a chair in the kitchen which has led to her "helping" a lot more. She stood at the sink for 30 + minutes on Sunday night. She loves the bubbles and filling up measuring cups and pouring them into things. Just watch...and enjoy!
Secondly: The Piano. Our good friends gave us their piano and Alyssa loves to play it! She will sit down and turn the pages and plunk the notes and pat the bench so I can come sit next to her while she plays.
Alyssa loves to play with cups of water in the sink. She dumps water from one thing to another with an unshakeable focus. She also loves bubbles and the soap sponge too. To our chagrin she also occasionally gets herself a drink of dirty water.
How long does it take you to whip up breakfast when a batch of pancakes is in order? Not that long, right? Unless you are privy to this:
PANCAKE CREATIONS!!!!
Our pancakes will never be the same ol' boring circles with Erik in the house. He has mastered the art of pancake cars, buses, fish, cats, hearts, and trees. I thought snowmen and Mickey Mouse was impressive when I was growing up, but I guess I was wrong! Oh, the possibilities are endless!
Alyssa particularly loves them. She likes cars most of all. She's a fine connoisseur of pancakes.
From the University of Delware we can borrow a camera. And when we have this camera we take photo shoots. This shoot is from a day in October. We went to old New Castle and looked at the Delaware river. Alyssa had fun picking up rocks and throwing them and playing in the dirt.
We found some bricks there. Either a ship carrying bricks caught fire and washed up on shore or there was a building made of bricks that fell down along the shore. We haven't solved the mystery but it was cool to see a piece of history. It makes you wonder what happened her so long ago!
I know Halloween has long since come and gone, but I just had to share a little pic or two from it! I wanted to take advantage of Alyssa's red curls for her costume and I decided a lion would do just the trick!
I crocheted the ear head band and make the skirt from elastic and scraps of fabric I had around the house. She was a very cute little lion!
At the last minute Erik and I decided to dress up, too. Dorothy, the Scare Crow, and the Cowardly lion made an appearance at our ward party! We took Alyssa to a few of the cars and she even tried to say trick or treat! She loves candy and Erik is her giver of candy. I'm afraid if I ever give her any she will ask me for it all day everyday!
**This is a long one and mostly for journal-ing purposes! You've been warned. I still need to do Halloween and some other random fun stuff! So much happens but it is so hard to remember to write it all down and do a good job of it, too!
We just go back from the Grand Canyon State. I was going to keep a blog of each day but when we didn't have the internet for the first 4 days, my desire to do so kind of dwindled. Besides, somehow when you are on vacation time just slips away much too fast.
We had another fantastic Archibald vacation. It is one of those things that can really only happen with the Archibald's. Alyssa, Erik, and I flew to Albuquerque, NM last Saturday and met up with Jim, Margaret, Maria, and James Lawrence Archibald II. We drove from Albuquerque to Holbrook, AZ where we stayed the night. We went star gazing to view the Leonid Meteor shower and saw some amazing starts. In the morning we played on the playground and there was a shoe flipping contest from the swings. I'm pretty sure Jim won.
From Holbrook we went to Joseph City, AZ and went to church. There are 3 wards in the city of 1,300. I'm sure it is hard to keep secrets and everyone must be LDS. It was a nice little church. After church, off we went to the Grand Canyon...with a pit stop at Meteor Crater.
And finally the Grand Canyon. That is 400 miles of driving, just in case you were wondering how far it is. It's not a little hop, skip, and a jump from NM. We invested some serious time. But let me tell you, we were traveling in style! We had an RV. And riding in it was like riding in an earthquake. Alyssa really enjoyed it! She got constant entertainment from Aunt Maria and Grandma. Never a dull moment, really.
This is a play by play of Alyssa getting a piece of Grandma's gum. She was so proud! And mischievous!
We arrived in the dark at the Grand Canyon, but I had heard the sunrise was amazing and that was the thing to see. So I got up Monday morning and ran to the rim. I got lost somehow and ran twice as far as I needed to, but I made it! Taylor and Krystalee met up with us at the Grand Canyon. Minus Doug, the family was complete.
That day we went hiking on the South Kaibab trail. Alyssa and Grandma walked the rim trail. We reunited for pizza at "We cook PIZZA and PASTA" and saw the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. The best part of that movie had to be the fight between the caterpillar and the centipede. The sound effects were incredible. See it if you can!
The great thing about being on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the winter is that no matter what time of day you take pictures the sun is always in your eyes when the Grand Canyon is behind you! So bright!
We thought the danger sign was fitting. Don't worry, Mom. She was never too close to the edge unattended.
Tuesday morning was the morning for wild animals. In the middle of the night I heard a coyote howling at the moon and after we were awake Alyssa and I about walked straight into two big elk with big horns! It was one of those moments your heart pounds a little harder because it is exciting and scary all at the same time.
On Tuesday Erik and I walked with Alyssa along the rim, we took some pictures with the family, and then left for Mormon Lake. It turns out that Mormon Lake is not even a lake anymore, but when it is full, it is the largest natural lake in AZ at 12 sq mi. Erik and I were driving by ourselves without a GPS and we weren't following anybody. All we had was a large undetailed map of AZ. We missed the first turn for Mormon Lake near Flagstaff, but determined from the map that we could go down 17 and cut over on a road that apparently existed. Well, that road did not exist in quite the direct manner we expected and we ended up driving 12 mi on unpaved road! It was wild! I was so worried we would reach a sign that would tell us to turn around at mile 11. Thankfully we did not!
Alyssa has a fruit roll up stuck to her left hand. She would occasionally lick it for a nice treat!
Mormon Lake Lodge was fun! We went ATVing. Even Alyssa went -- strapped in her car seat. (It was a 6 person ATV equipped with seat belts.) I went running. It was cold and brisk and I stepped on some ice and cracked it, which I LOVE to do...even if I do fall in a little bit and get my shoe wet! We also saw some buffalo mulling around in their...
The best thing we found on our ATV trip was this pond of sorts. The best part of the trip was SPLASH DOWN! (Going through 4 puddles in a row entirely too fast. JL has the video footage to prove it.)
After Mormon Lodge we headed down to Phoenix! We saw Grandma Johnson and all of the Johnson cousins and aunts and uncles! We are grateful Grandma let us stay with her and we are especially grateful Alyssa had her own room. (Sleeping with her in the RV was a little crowded and resulted in 2 AM parties where all in the RV were invited to attend.)
We celebrated Grandma's birthday with some fun stories about her, chicken broccoli casserole, and cake and ice cream! She told me Erik has always been a quiet boy and she is so glad she came to our wedding! Hahaha. I love Grandma and her stories!
Alyssa had 2!! Thanksgiving outfits! A morning dress and an afternoon shirt!
We had a nice Thanksgiving. We ate delicious breakfast burritos at Aunt Lynette's, which I think must be a Thanksgiving tradition and had a grand meal at the Bales. We played musical chairs (which I still have a bruise from) and the pop the balloon game. Alyssa and I painted our toenails purple together! She's a little girl now!
Friday was particularly wonderful. Aunt Martha and Aunt Maria watched Alyssa while the rest of us dropped off the RV (ughhh cough cough) and went to the temple. I saw Jenica, my freshman roommate and her cute family and then we did sealings.
Inside the temple us women folk were waiting for the men folk when we heart a sickening thud and turned around just in time to see a stiff looking form of an old man fall to the floor. I thought he'd died right there! His ankles were so white. I quickly reminded Margaret that she is a nurse and she ran over to help him! This elderly man tripped over his cane (thank goodness it wasn't a heart attack) and scalped himself on the corner of the wall! (We didn't tell him that of course. Margaret said she could see his skull!) His wife had dropped him off at the temple and gone shopping. (Curse Black Friday). Maybe he should have gone shopping! After the paramedics came we resumed our purpose in attending the temple and went to do sealings!
It felt so good to be there and to do that work. We started the work for many of these people last Christmas when we did baptisms for them in Dallas. It is wonderful to see their work progress from start to finish and I am sure many were happy to finally be done! It was a blessing to be there with all of the Archibald's! I am grateful we are all temple worthy and have a desire to do that work. I love being in the temple and miss living so close to one! But it's ok. I was reminded of the great excitement I feel as I add people to our family and submit their names for temple work! Doing family history is awesome!
Later that day we went to Organ Stop Pizza where this man plays a Wulitzer organ that does all sorts of fun things! I liked his Disney medley, Star Wars, and the train noises he made coming up from his pit. It was fun and Alyssa LOVED it! She kept dancing and clapping her hands. We had a great time.
Our Thanksgiving vacation was finished off with the lights at the Mesa Temple. They have A LOT of lights there! The new LED ones are particularly hard to look at! It was fun though! Definitely different that cold Utah Christmas lights! I am grateful we could go.
We had a fantastic time on this trip! It was a trip you can only experience with the Archibalds...plans changing every few hours, crazy navigation problems, shakey RVs, fun games, and loads of fun!
This is the song that started going through my mind when I achieved a small victory tonight. "What is that victory?", you may ask. Well. My camera. You see, it was sick. It had white lines on the screen and then suddenly it had only a white screen. And so I was taking blind pictures hoping that it was all working out.
Well tonight all that changed! With a little bit of electrical tape, a tiny screw driver and a drill, Erik and I FIXED our camera! Wooo hoo! Go and shout it from the mountain tops! Do you have any idea what this means? More pictures! And no capital investment!! Woooooooooooo hooo!!
Also, I got new jeans from GW for $5.00. And they fit and I feel great in them! Another small victory.
9.21.12. Why haven't you asked me where I am? Why haven't you been begging for details of Alyssa's ever-growing vocabulary? Why haven't you reminded me that you don't know what happened after we left Raleigh?!
It's ok. I'll forgive you. I just had a desire to show you a picture or two. And you will have to come back to see Alyssa in her Halloween costume. I think my desire stems from the fact that my camera screen is completely white and now that I have the bitterness of not taking accurate pictures, I feel the pull to takes pictures even more acutely. Alas, all pictures viewed here today were before the camera accident (whatever that was, because it was working fine just a few days ago) and hopefully one day soon I can resume taking pictures.
So what have we been up to?
:: Moving! So long Village 2 {:( with some sadness}. Hello Our New Place (can't reveal the name just in case someone's creeper stalking us...don't think about that.) We like Our New Place...not as sound proof. But I am grateful that our home is not one of yelling.
Alyssa loves our home...so much cookie dough making!
:: The Famn Damily came to visit and wow! What a week we had! Have you ever tried NYC, Philly, and DC in ONE WEEK? We have! All in all it was quite the enjoyable experience.
We rode the Staten Island Ferry for FREE and saw the Statue of Liberty.
We experienced the {commercialized} New York Stock Exchange (really, ADT?!)
In DC people take Glamour Shots in front of the Capitol Building. So we did too! Don't worry, ladies, Erik is already taken!
Here's a real picture of us. It was sunny. Forgive the squinting.
Jacob. The photographer who added himself into our pictures. Ladies, he is only kind of partially taken, so if you want his number, call him maybe?
So people of the Asian variety LOVE the DC. And they also LOVE Alyssa's hair. So this is a funny picture capturing all these Asian peeps making funny noises at Alyssa so that they can get a good picture of her. I don't know if you can really tell, but the man in the black was waving his hands and doing a little dance. Hilarious! I took a video but they mostly stopped by then. Alyssa wasn't really having it.
The movie is a little long, but I really can't resist sharing. She cracks me up! Alyssa is quite the little helper around the house now. She is good at doing what we ask her to do and kind of sings the "clean-up song" with us!
Alyssa and her "set" table. After this picture was taken she proceeded to take a bite out of all 6 corn bread muffins sitting in the bowl.
The other night Erik got the round ball magnets out. This is what we found after Alyssa had played with them for awhile. Yes, she really did hang her blanket up with magnets all on her own!
Oh my silly Alyssa!
Life is good and fun and busy! We are making many new friends and playing with our old ones! Running is going well. We average 3 times a week. Another 5K will probably be in the near future and I would like to start training for a 10K.
Alyssa is talking talking talking. She recognizes prominent shapes (circles = "balls", kitties, temples, and cars (even cars made out of pancake batter and noodles)), she signs "table" and says it whenever I read her here favorite book about hats and we learn that Walt Whitman had a had, sometimes a makeshift table mat. She loves keys. She has a Little People baby that she always says "shhh" to me when she gets it out because she's sleeping...which has carried over into saying "shhh" when she sees her new friend Baby Hannah. She sings a tune when I sing "I am a Child of God", she loves to clap and roll her hands, and we are starting to get the hand actions for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." She is officially in nursery and Erik and I are officially out of nursery and we are all just rollin' with the punches!
Stay tuned for more exciting news and probably a bunch of short video clips in replacement of pictures for the next little while! And check in next Wednesday to see if we survived Hurricane Sandy!
