So Long Fall... Hello Christmas

We have had a VERY pleasant October and November this year. Megan and I have been able to be outside for much longer than I thought. It was over 65 degrees the Monday before Thanksgiving. I had looked at the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be the last warm day, so I found a pile of leaves for Megan to play in and for me to take pictures of her.

Sadly, that nice, warm, California weather has left us. I think that's why I've been having such a hard time believing that it was Thanksgiving last week. It was just too warm. Normally we have some snow by now and are toting around huge jackets to keep us warm. I know I've been in Utah too long when I think there should be snow around Thanksgiving. I can't believe it's almost December. I have hardly any Christmas shopping done and am blaming it on the weather. It's been too nice to think that Christmas is less than a month away. Now that I have my tree and Christmas decorations up, though, reality has set in and I need to get on the ball. We did take our family Christmas picture, so at least I have that finished. This month has just flown by. I've had company on and off since the 8th, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. It'll be nice to get back to our regular schedule.

The Stairs of Death

At our house, we have what I like to refer to as "The Stairs of Death". They are the tile stairs that go from my kitchen down to the family room. I have on more than one occasions slipped on these stairs and almost killed myself. The stair edges are very sharp and they aren't really long enough for your feet - very awkward and very dangerous. We also have carpeted stairs that lead from the family room down to our basement and for some silly reason, those were the stairs that I was worried Megan would discover and fall down first. We even bought a baby gate to keep her from falling down those stairs. Needless to say, I was wrong. Since she can hear and see me when I'm in the kitchen, she wants to be where I am, and thus goes for The Stairs of Death. The other day I found her on the second stair making her way to me with no fear of all of the potential of death that awaited her. So, I ran over to make sure we didn't have an trip to the ER in the very near future, and then snapped a few pic's of my fearless baby. We have since bought a huge baby gate that will keep her corralled in the family room and far away from The Stairs of Death.

As you can see from the picture, we tried to block off the stairs with the laundry basket and the diaper bag. Megan just moved those aside. Nothing was going to stop her!

Halloween Fun

When I was pregnant last year with Megan I decided that for Megan's first Halloween I wanted to dress up as Cruela de Vil and have Megan be my dalmatian. I already had a black dress and white long coat, so all I needed was read gloves, a wig, and a dalmatian costume for Megan. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, finding a dalmatian costume that was cute and affordable was rather difficult. I started to look in September and wasn't having any luck. I had looked everywhere including eBay, Disney, Target, Walmart, etc. and couldn't find anything. Thanks to my sister, Queen of the Internet Jill, we found one at Kmart. I was stoked that it was cute and only $12. Added bonus that it is a warm costume since it's been known to snow in Utah on Halloween (this year it was unseasonable warm). Megan and I had a fun night stopping by some neighbor's houses to say hi while Eric stayed home to pass out candy. I tried to get him to come around with us, but he insisted that we really needed to get rid of all the candy we bought at Costco, and sadly, he was right. I'm bummed that our ward doesn't do Halloween parties. It was fun to dress up with Megan and now I'm sad that I have to wait a whole year before we can do it again. Overall, a very success first Halloween with our little one.