As you may have read previously, we had our washing machine break on Christmas Eve. It's ironic because our refrigerator broke on Thanksgiving. We're keeping a close eye on other appliances for New Years. After dishing out a few hundred dollars to fix the fridge fiasco, we did not want to do the same for our washing machine. So the handy-man in Morgan came rising to the surface. He got his tools out and had the thing taken apart in no time at all.  With a little help from Google, he found out what was wrong, bought the replacement part, and had it put back together in no time! The part only cost $12 (it's a Christmas miracle!). The picture is of the broken piece.

For Baby Girl this week has been the Week O' Ornery. I can only assume she's teething, but that tooth hasn't broke the surface yet. She's whiny, clingy, ornery, snotty, and is not sleeping very well. Life has been a bit harder for little Miss Frame the last few days. She seems so old to be just getting her teeth. She's 15 months and she only has 5 teeth. It's about time! Hopefully, the teeth will help her chew things a little better. In the meantime, we'll just ride it out.

Last night for dinner, we had macaroni and cheese (yes, it was instant from a box) which happens to be Baby Girl's FAVORITE meal. She usually eats more than I do. After getting cheese up to her elbows, and from ear to ear, and all over her hair - we threw her in the tub. She loves bath time. She would stay in there and play forever if I let her. We had to get a picture of her mo-hawk. Her hair was getting too long to stand straight up. I love her blue eyes! 

This year we had our Frame family Christmas party a little earlier than in years past, but it was good none the less. My parents stopped by on the way up to drop off some gifts for Baby Girl, Jen and I. Baby Girl got a wonderful moving gear magnet set. They are gears that stick to the refrigerator via magnets and one of the gears has a battery in it and spins. You can configure the gears in different configurations and watch it come to life with the flick of a button. Daddy also loves to play with this toy. Grandma and Grandpa also got Baby Girl a wooden animal puzzle and a nice outfit.

After opening presents, we all headed up to Great Grandma Frame's house for our annual post-Christmas party. Jen made a wonderful Christmas tree cupcake cake with caramel as the trunk, it was absolutely delicious. All the cousins, aunts and uncles get together to eat, play the left-right game, visit, and open presents. The left-right game consists of everyone getting in a circle and grabbing a present. Aunt Christine reads a story that contains the words left and right in it. Whenever a right command is read we all pass our present to the right, whenever a left command is read we pass our present to the left until the entire story is done. Jen and I thought it would be so funny to wrap up a little book entitled Nursing The First Two Months, so we did. Well it ended up that a 6 year old boy got the book -- not so funny, I guess, as it was pretty inappropriate for a 6 year old boy. Jen ended up with a kids movie and I got a big afro wig. I was so excited about my gift I wore it home, click here to see -- Photoshop may have been used in the production of this image.

Afterwards we came home, put Baby Girl to bed and spent the rest of the night talking about how much we ate, and how we needed to get more exercise. Thinking about it for a while made us tired so we turned on the TV and just vegged out, a nice ending to a holiday weekend.

We had a wonderful and glorious Christmas. I love Christmas time, and I loved it even more having Baby Girl here to enjoy it with us. We told her all about Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus. She points to our nativity on the mantle when we ask her where the Baby Jesus is. That's about as far as her understanding goes. We also told her all about Santa - that she better be good, and not pout or cry, if she wants Santa to bring her a present. She didn't care and continued to cry and throw fits. Maybe next year she'll understand a little more. On Christmas Eve, before bed time, we let Baby Girl open up one present. She really got into opening the presents - she ripped open the paper. It was a pair of new pajamas, so she didn't care too much about the present. She just wanted to open all of the presents under the tree. We had to tell her no, that she had to wait till morning. We explained to her that Santa couldn't come if she was still awake. Her response: blank stare and eye rubbing. The good news was that she was in bed at 6:15 and slept for the next 13 hours. This gave Santa ample time to come, deliver and assemble Baby Girl's present. It's a good thing Santa has helpers, because this present took 2 hours to put together. I was so excited for Christmas morning.

I was up and ready to open presents at 6:00, but Baby Girl and Morgan were still sleeping away. So, I tried to go back to sleep and wait for my family to wake up. Baby Girl finally woke up at 7:15! The suspense was killing me. After a quick diaper change, and allowing Morgan to get the camera ready, we brought Baby Girl into our living room. She was a little excited and confused with she saw a brand spanking new kitchen for her to play with. She was super excited and ran half way to the kitchen - then just stopped dead in her tracks. I think she was trying to decide if it was okay for her to play with it. After a very little persuading, she ran the rest of the distance and starting playing with her kitchen. She LOVED it. She loves opening the cupboards and the oven. She has little pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and glasses that she plays with. After a few moments of sheer excitement, Baby Girl noticed all the presents under the tree and wanted to open them. So we opened presents. For the next 2 hours, Baby Girl could not be pulled away from her Christmas presents. She kept rotating through all of her new presents and squeals of excitement and joy could be heard the entire time.

We decided to spend Christmas at home, and not travel to any of our family's homes. I LOVED staying home. Our families all invited us, and they probably don't understand why we wouldn't want to spend the holiday with them, but it was so wonderful to stay in the comfort of our own house. Morgan cooked us a fantastic Christmas feast. We cooked a duck! Isn't that awesome? We've never had duck, and we thought it would be fun to try. So, Morgan prepared a wonderful feast of duck a la orange, rice pilaf and corn bread. It was a fun adventure. Honestly, duck is pretty good. I would probably prefer chicken or turkey, but it was pretty good!

After our Christmas feast and Christmas naps, we decided to go for a drive to get out of the house. We drove up a local canyon to see if there were any pretty views. We saw some frozen waterfalls that were really pretty. We also saw a Mama Moose and it's baby. They were just off the side of the road. We stopped the car and took a couple of pictures. You can't see the baby moose, because it was behind a couple of trees, but they were there just eating. It was really neat.

We came home and ate left overs for dinner and Baby Girl was in bed by 6:30. What a fantastic holiday. We LOVED every moment of it.

A new holiday tradition is making its way in the Frame family household. This year we had our washing machine go out on us Christmas Eve; Thanksgiving our refrigerator went out. Can you see the pattern? We just can't wait until the next holiday so we can replace/fix something else -- Oh well, I guess this is the dark-side of homeownership.

Christmas time is my most favorite holiday of all time. I LOVE Christmas, and everything about it. I usually begin my shopping during the summer months. I would get a gift here or there over several months. This year I started listening to Christmas music during October. It makes me happy. I anxiously wait for mid-November to put up my Christmas tree. There's something about Christmas lights that soothes my soul. We emptied our coat closet of all the gifts we had gotten for family and friends and had them wrapped and under our tree before Thanksgiving. I love gingerbread houses, nativity scenes and Christmas caroling. Every year it comes to an end too soon for me.

With Baby Girl, the Christmas season seems even more magical! I love seeing her eyes light up when we see Christmas trees or Santa Claus. She points to the reindeer and calls them 'doggie'. (we're working on it!) We listen and dance to Christmas music on a daily basis. We went to the mall and saw Santa Claus a couple of weeks ago. We kept a safe distance and just waved to him. I asked her where Santa was and she pointed right to him. I am so excited for Christmas morning when she sees what Santa has brought her, and she gets to open the presents we have gotten for her! Merry Christmas!

I think I am already getting cabin fever. We've only had snow for 3 days, and we've stayed home the last two days. Both Baby Girl and I go crazy in our house all day long. Yesterday I contemplated going somewhere - but then I saw my car covered in several inches of snow and immediately decided to stay home. So, we stayed in our nice warm house and tried to find things to keep us occupied. It was the last hour of the day before Morgan gets home from work - I've heard some moms call this the 'witching hour'. I'm usually trying to get dinner ready. Baby Girl is starting to get a little cranky. Yesterday, dinner was already put together - all I had to do was throw it in the oven. Baby Girl was a little cranky. Instead of watching the clock, we decided to make a fort in our living room. So we moved our Love Sac and recliner apart and added blankets and pillows. We added Baby Girl's babies and a couple of books - and we have ourselves a fort! Baby Girl thought it was the neatest thing. She just had this look on her face that she thought this was the coolest thing in the world. Then I got in the fort with her and she loved it! We read some books and pretended to take a nap and played with some of her toys. I sent a message to Morgan at work and told him that we had built a fort in our living room and asked him if he was jealous. He responded that he was so jealous that he left work early to come play in our fort with us! What a fun day!

I must say that having a toddler is a lot more entertaining than having a baby. Baby Girl is so imaginative in her play. It's so fun to watch her play. I wonder what she's thinking as she's playing. One of her new favorite games is to pretend to take a nap. Too bad she doesn't actually take a nap while she's playing! She has me lay a blanket down on the floor in our living room. Then she has her dolls or stuffed animals lay down next to her on the blanket. Then they take a nap. Sometimes I cover all of them up with another blanket. Baby Girl just says "nap". She usually needs a book to look at or something to play with because she gets bored while she's taking a nap. These pictures are of her taking a nap with her babies. I asked Baby Girl to give her baby a kiss - that is why she is licking the doll's face. She has a massive tongue! That is how she gives kisses! Very slobbery, but she loves to give them! She doesn't let new people (or family for that fact) hold her very often, but she'll usually will give them a kiss on the cheek to say good bye.