Christmas at Our House

Post 100! AND my last post being employed full time :)

Christmas at our house was wonderful. Here is a run down of Christmas Eve:

We took Millie to Temple Square for the first time. I loved it. Walking around those grounds, looking at pictures of Christ, and being together calmly as a family provided a spiritual Christmas Eve for us.

We went around 4 pm to get a good parking spot, so we had plenty of daylight time there.

Buck and Millie in the Joseph Smith Building:

(We love this building, and have fond memories of attending church with my Grandparents there several times)

The South Visitors Center has this wonderful new exhibit of the Salt Lake Temple. This is a replica of the Temple, open in the front so you can see the rooms inside. I've been inside this Temple and some of the rooms were new to me. They also have a TV touch screen explaining each room and a virtual tour (of even walking down the halls).

As you can tell from this nice arm in the lower right corner, this was a very popular sight. We stood there for quite some time and never had it to ourselves to take a good picture.

In honor of Tutu and Rara, we made a special trip to their beloved Beehive House. They were "over" the Beehive house some during their mission to Temple Square.

I tell you those little legs never stop moving!

After a lot of wandering and freezing cold the lights finally came on! I wish I could say Millie loved them, but I think she was too frozen to think much of it all.

Ahh, Christmas Morning!

Bless this baby's heart. I stayed in bed as long as I could, but by 7 AM I couldn't take it any longer. We went and woke Millie up. She typically gets up at 8 AM (we know, we're lucky) so you can imagine her confusion. I turned on the lights on her little tree in her room to keep her from crying. It worked.

We made it to the living room and showed her her stocking. This is the reaction she gave us:

Not much.

We showed her an awesome toy Santa brought her:

What in the world?

We showed her this cute play house Santa brought her:

Still not much.

Then it happened. She figured it out. These things are for her.

One bottle and a diaper change later there was no stopping her!

She was bouncing off the walls, refusing to nap, calling her own shots. It was really, truly Christmas Morning at our house.

We called our families, and skyped with some of them too! All the while Millie was basking in the glory of her "new" (thank you DI!) keyboard and pink beret. All without pants on of course. They hold her back.

We finished off our Christmas Day by having some friends over for dinner.

Millie is giving Mina a tour of our tree.

It was a wonderful Christmas. We were all spoiled rotten by Santa and our families.

We missed our loved ones and wish we could have been there with them, but we will definitely look back on this Christmas as a very special one for The Bagwell Family.

Snow Fun!

This is our 99th post!

With our hometown experience their first White Christmas in 60 years, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you our nearly white Christmas.

On Tuesday we got a massive amount of snow. So much snow that I had to stay home from work since I couldn't get out of my parking spot.

Darn.

We thought it would be a great chance to let Millie play in the snow for the first time.

We put on two pairs of socks and the best fitting boots (her feet are so small) we could find.

We grabbed her snow suit and headed outside!

The snow was so heavy that she barely made an indention when we put her on it. To give you an idea of how deep it was, buck is leaning on his knee below. The rest of his leg is under the snow...so it was up to his knees in this spot!

She couldn't figure out how to move, bless her heart.

Her Dad tried to temp her to eat the snow, but she wasn't sure about this stuff.

Here's a darling video of the whole ordeal.

(YouTube is behaving better than Blogger still)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did. We took loads of pictures too :)

I think it's safe to say our 100th post will be a recap of our awesome Christmas.

Winter Wonderland

What? This isn't where you keep your Wise Men?

I'm almost scared to admit this, but I think I've finally gotten used to the cold weather. It's only taken me four winters here in Utah. I still have a few it's-too-cold-to-go-out days though.

While we're enjoying our Winter Wonderland Millie enjoys:

Snuggling with her Dad decked out in a beautiful Christmas dress

Sneaking away from us to learn crawling up stairs (she's now a pro)

Being carried around bundled up

(actually she really dislikes this cover thing, she's just that good at posing for pictures)

Learning to ride "horses"...

though she prefers to ride them like a lady.

Seeing animals up close and personal

Isn't this cow beautiful?

You probably think so now

Let's hope we don't meet too many more cows name Millie. I get so tired of hearing of dogs named Niki.

Did we already mention cuddling with Dad? She loves it.

(Not really something Millie likes to do, but I couldn't resists)

Buck milked a cow!

(All of these outdoor farm-ish pictures were from a birthday party we went to at Thanksgiving Point. I was so fun, and the parents commented on how easy it was. They would recommend it if you are in the area.)

We hope you're keeping warm in your Winter Wonderland.

P.S. We had a snow day this week, so expect another Winter Wonderland post here soon. Millie enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time.

Birthday Cake Take Two

Today my sweet husband turned 25. Finally. He's been giving me a dose of my own medicine with the "Are you sure you want to ask me to do that? On my Birthday month?" Hopefully after today he'll give that line up.

On with the party:

We decided to let Millie try eating Buck's "cake" (chocolate cream pie) a la First Birthday Party style. To be honest, she was a tad boring on her birthday.

Touch.

Taste.

Success.

After that last picture she got so into it we had to get video footage. She couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! I think we've got a chocolate lover on our hands.

By the way, Millie and I both love Buck very much. We are so thankful we got to spend his birthday with him. Millie even started babbling "Dadada" for him.

Don't mention it, but she's been babbling "Mamama" for weeks.

Here Comes Santa Clause

Millie and Santa Christmas 2009

Millie and Santa Christmas 2010

Think we caught Millie and Santa a little off guard?

We're still gearing up for Christmas around here.

Who am I kidding? We're gearing up for Christmas, but we're really gearing up for my retirement.

Only 10 more days of work. I think I can handle that.

Explain Yourself!

For pete's sake! I was trying to add words to that last post but it didn't work out. AND I wanted you to see the inside of the card, but that didn't happen either.

Boo.

My sister was deeply confused by my Shutterfly post, so I thought I better explain myself. Shutterfly has a promotion (you have to pre-sign up, then post before December 15th and order before December 31st) that I posted a link about. Bloggers get 50 free Christmas Cards. I was worried it was going to be the $.30/each glossy photo cards (what I would have ordered if I was paying), but I got the $2/each folding cards! So, I would highly recommend doing it. I did have to pay shipping, but $8 for 50 cards was well worth it.

So there, that should explain my recent excitement for Shutterfly :)

2010 Christmas Card

Color Me Merry Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

A Final Christmas Detail

Have you done your Christmas Cards yet?

Last year we took a picture similar to this:
(I can't find the picture for some reason)

and made some cute little cards on Shutterfly.

If you remember what our life was like this time last year, it's really a miracle we were able to send Christmas cards at all! We just loaded one simple picture onto the website, and visited the Holiday card section (here) to choose one that we liked. It was so easy, and we received our cards in enough time to send them out before Christmas.

Just like many photo printing websites, you can print off a variety of photo gifts and prints. I've used them many times and have been very pleased with the quality. I've used other websites that haven't given me such great results. I'm definitely considering a canvas print (here) from Millie's birthday party pictures. Ashely took some great ones! I've always been a big fan of photo calendars too. (here) Pictures of the birthday boys and girls each month might make it easier to remember them.

This year, thanks to their 50 free Christmas Cards for bloggers and our previous positive experiences, we are planning on using them again.

Oh, and thanks to Ashley for taking this cute family photo.

If you're looking for something cute and easy to do this year, I would definitely recommend Shutterfly. I'm thinking something vintage or bright, and they have plenty of both. They have over 800 to choose from, but have handy tools to narrow down your choices for you so you aren't overwhelmed. I love that you can use several pictures, or just one.

Merry Christmas!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Around here, we're finally in the Christmas Spirit!

It's taken a while...

We started by attending the Gingerbread House Festival a few weeks ago. It is put on by the Boy Scout Council and the Utah PTA.

Here are some of our favorite houses:
(You can't see the sign, but they give details of how much candy, gingerbread, and frosting they used. It was massive!)

A few scenes from UP!

The Biltmore House

Christmas at Fallingwater

"A Christmas Story" House. You can tell by the leg lamp in the lower right.

My personal favorite. The Pinkalicious house.

We've also got Millie wearing her "holiday" clothes to church.
I've always wanted these darling coats for my future daughter. When I saw the super deal on this one Black Friday I couldn't resist.

Thanks to my great camera skills, you really can't appreciate how cute this dress is!

We decorated our apartment and put some of the presents under the tree. Millie is really only interested in the ribbon.

Told you.

We still need to buy and mail a few more presents, but other than that we are very ready for our first Christmas, just the three of us.

Even though it won't be Millie's first Christmas, it will be her first Christmas at home. To us, that's close enough.

Accomplishments

Millie and her father this time last year.

Here Millie is still recovering from her heart surgery.

For a refresher, you can read the early December posts here and here.

Millie and her father these days!

Millie is so busy learning something new every day. Here are a few of her recent accomplishments:

She finds her own toys. One of her favorites is this DVD case. She even pulls it off the shelf when she wants it.

Thanks to her beautiful new high chair, she has taught herself how to drink her bottle sitting up.

She can put on her own lipstick!

She can carry her own toys to church in her new Hello Kitty backpack.

She helps us get her dressed in her warm clothes.

She can sit up in her snow suit!

Our favorite accomplishment is self feeding! She obviously can't feed herself all the day, but she loves to sit in her high chair trying to feed herself solid foods.

She's tried puffs, sweet potatoes (pictured), eggs, bread, and green beans all on her own.

We are so proud she has started pulling herself up! She's proud, too.

Now that she has discovered "standing" she never wants to lay down! This poses a problem when it comes to changing her diaper, as you can imagine.

I gave y'all the update on her party, but I never told you what the doctor thinks of this one year old!

1. He gave us they okay to switch to whole milk. We're finishing off the can of formula we've opened and moving on! I have to say though, spit up with cows milk is one of the worst smells I've ever smelled. Please forgive us if we sit next to you somewhere.
2. Our doctor said we should have Millie eating a mostly solid diet with a little bit of milk within the next 6-9 months.
3. Millie has no food restrictions! Well, other than choking hazards. Did you know peanut butter was a choking hazard? Apparently 3 of his patients have died from choking on it. So be careful, all you parents out there!
4. Millie weighs 14 lbs 8 oz! Her birth weight was 1 lb 4 oz, and her coming home from the hospital weight was just under 8 pounds. I was expecting her to be bigger, but Dr. Later was pleased with her progress.
5. Millie is 26.75 inches tall. She was 11.5 inches at birth, and 19.5 inches when she left the hospital. Hard to believe she's grown about 7 inches just since we've had her home! Right under our noses...
6. We've received her first synagis shot! Hooray! I have to say though, that I've never seen a shot cause her more pain. Poor baby. It is defiantly worth it though because RSV would be that much worse. She was over the pain after 15-20 mins.

Because of these shots, we will be paying our pediatrician a visit monthly. For different reasons each time, we've gone to the doctors office for the last three weeks in a row. I was starting to worry we were taking up too much time with Dr. Later (he didn't make me feel that way, I just know he has so many patients and he is a wonderful doctor). On his way out of the door this week he shook his head and said "it is such a pleasure for me to see Millie." He's the best! I know it is because she is so healthy and such a miracle. He had just shared with me some of the situations he is in right now with some of his other NICU babies, and I am still in awe that Millie came out so healthy. He had just discharged a patient that went home on a ventilator! Not oxygen, but a ventilator. I can't believe it. AND that baby had been in the NICU since April.

We're so proud of our little baby. You probably already knew that though.

By the way, I put in my notice at work. My last day is December 30th. Now I can spend all my days with this little girl. I can't wait.