Santa was here! Santa was here!

Well, Carmen was a very good girl this year...and Santa Claus spoiled her. He even visited her at our house, grammy & papo's house and grandma carlie & papo jerry's house. Here are the wonder gifts he left:

christmas baking

there's nothing like doing a little baking to get you into the christmas spirit. that's exactly what we did this weekend. carmen helped out a little too. mostly with taking bites of dough.
here are some of our treats:

carmen's new things this week

I swear it feels like Carmen is growing and changing at a lightning pace. Her sentences are getting more sophisticated, as well as her dance moves. We thought we'd share a few of the new things she's doing like:

Bossing us around. She tells us when she wants us to dance with her, to play games with her and lay down with her. And it's not just sweet little requests...it's, "mommy, dance." she then points to the floor beside her.

Shaking her hips. 

that girl knows how to shake it. It's like she was born to dance. This week, she is putting more flare on her hip shakin'.

More articulate.

This week she's had another ear infection. This time around she can tell me, "mommy, medicine make it better." and then points to her ears. 

It's all to crazy how fast she's growing and we really wish she'd just stop for a while.

Carmen's First Christmas Concert

So, Friday was Carmen's first christmas concert. She was slated to sing Blue Christmas with her preschool. We didn't know what to expect. Was Carmen actually going to sing? Was she going to cry? What would she do? Well, I must say, it. was. awesome. She was practically the only one in her class dancing. She was a natural performer. She totally had the audience in the palm of her hand and worked the crowd the way any good performer does. We even had a few other parents compliment us on how great she was. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing our little miss shine and afterward were beaming with true parent pride.

Here is a video of the performance. It's not the greatest as we were so taken by how cute she was and kept moving to see her. Next time we'll bring a tripod so little is left to human err :)

Decorating the Tree

So, we finally got around to getting a tree and decorating it! Carmen had a good time trying to place ornaments on the tree. She mostly just set the ornaments on top of branches and then I fastened them on so they'd stay. But it was good times. Afterward we tried to take a family picture by the tree, however, it was getting close to carmen's bedtime and she was not about to pose for anything. we managed to squeak one semi-decent picture. I'll try to get a better one before the season's done. We had a good time.

I'm excited for this Christmas, because Carmen is starting to really understand things and she's so much fun. I can't wait to see her open up presents. We've been teaching Carmen Christmas songs and she's been doing a good job singing them. This friday, she has a Christmas Concert with her pre-school. i'm anxious to see if she actually preforms it. Stay tuned, maybe we'll have some video this weekend.

Family Christmas picture take 1:



Take 2:



Take 3:



Carmen loves her auntie:

the sweetest things

I can not explain the joy that comes from having a child, but every parent knows how sweet and wonderful it is. Every time, I hear Carmen say, in her sweet little voice, "I love you, mama." my heart just melts. It is the most amazing experience being her mom. Each day is better than the last and it is so fascinating to see how she will change from day to day. I love it and can not possibly imagine my life without her.

From last year, but she'll always look this way to me.

To get Carmen excited about going to bed, I started telling her that when she goes to bed, the fairies come and sprinkle magic fairy dust on her and take her away to dreamland. I've been telling her this for about a month now, and tonight, she asked me to go to dreamland. Never fully grow up, Carmen! Always remember dreamland. Follow your dreams and never, ever forget them. Do I sound like Peter Pan? What can I say? After having been reacquainted with Peter Pan, and also observing my sweet little miss, I realize how amazing the concept of being a child forever is. There is something to be said about childlike wonder and the ability to attack life with the prospect of playful adventure. Life is truly an adventure and what a joy it is to see that through Carmen's eyes. I love the childish sparkle in her eye. I love it when she dances and sings. I love her giggles and i LOVE her sass. It's hard not to laugh when she sasses me or commands me to dance NOW or asks me for more cheese for the 10th time that day. What can I say. Carmen is the sweetest thing.

Advanced Design Group

We launched a new site. Check it:

yearbook yourself

this little site called yearbookyourself.com is. awesome.

we've been having fun the past couple of days going back in time.

funny face

here is carmen's new face:



She is a little ham and has been making these funny faces all night.

Some other new things she has been doing are:

Neatly feeding herself with a fork or spoon

Saying sentences like, "mommy, I want some cheese."

Tricking us by asking for us to hold her and then tickling us after we pick her up

Expanding her movie choices to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Making her bouncy seat a slide.
That's right, her bouncy seat from when she was a baby. It resurfaced when we moved and she put it next to our ottoman and started sliding down it. She has also made it her easy chair and maxes and relaxes in it while watching tv, or tb, as she calls it.

She's so fun and spunky. We just love her.

elegant images

Hey there!

Shay and I have launched another site! It has been a project we've been working on for the past few months for Elegant Images, also known as Candace Simpson. Candace was the photographer at our wedding and she is amazing. Check it:



elegantimages.com

halloween time!

we had a very excellent halloween. Carmen was a very cute bumble bee this year. She pretty much fit the character by buzzing around everywhere she went. She also went trick-or-treating for the first time. She was totally into it and didn't want anyone to touch her CANDY! It was cute. We had a blast.









carmen trick-r-treating:



carmen defending her candy:



Shay's parents were also in town this weekend and we all had a good time seeing carmen start to get excited about halloween. We went to a persian restaurant for Fred's birthday and Carmen had a good time dancing and watching the belly dancers. She picked up a few new dance moves too!

the next generation

it's fun and weird and cool that most all my friends have kids. and it's really awesome to get together with them and well, just see them all together and hope our kids will grow up together and be as close as I am with all their parents. Good Times!

Carmen with Bella, Sophie (Sam's daughter) and Mateo (Chrissy's son) they were in a "band" and had practice and then showed us their grand finale:



Carmen with Kai (Adie's son) at Auntie Roxy's 30th birthday. Carmen figured out how to get the doggies out of their kennels:



Carmen with Garret and Amanda (Carrie's kids):

a retrospective

We have a camera that we've been taking tons of pictures on and until recently, could not find the cord to download a whole bunch of gems. Finally, I have downloaded them. It is always fun, and sad, to see how much carmen has changed. So, of course, I'm posting some of my favs. It's so hard to believe how much she's growing and changing.



In Utah in February:



march:



completely terrified at the beach in march:


asleep with grammy in may:



looking pretty in june:



looking pretty in august:



working with mom in september:



Currently, her favorite movie is Annie. We watch it at least twice a day.
She loves to give big hugs.
She loves, loves, loves her auntie "janny" and calls her "my janny".
She likes to sing and dance and count, she can count to 15.
She's just a whole lot of fun. I think we'll keep her.