Merry Christmas!

Hooray for Christmas! We spent Christmas at my parent's house in Idaho. We had a great time. We ate, watched movies, hung out with family, and played "Chicktionary". That about sums about the entire week!

Even though she's a little too small to know what is going on this year, Winnie was still really excited when we handed her her stocking.

She immediately loved the paper and boxes. . .


Oh yeah, and the toys, too.

Winnie got a little lion she can push or ride. She hasn't quite figured out how to walk behind it. Right now she pushes it forward without moving her feet and eventually falls to her knees. I'm sure soon enough she'll be running behind it.

And riding. . .


Winnie and Robbie with Great Grandma.

400 E. Center

We drive down Center every day on our way to work/school. Usually Matt is doing the driving and it's a good thing because even though we drive by every day, I could cause an accident with how closely I'm looking at the houses. Last night I dreamt that someone gave us one of these old houses--one that's in bad shape and really needs me. Just as I was trying to figure out what colors to paint the exterior, the alarm went off!

The Van Wagenen house is for sale on Provo's Center Street.

http://www.utahrealestate.com/745603

This house was part of the historic homes tour associated with the Freedom Festival last summer, so I've been in the living and dining rooms. (Sadly, they let you tour less of the house than most other homes one the tour.) At $695,000 it's a little out of our price range right now--and forever for that matter, but you'd be amazed at how much mental effort I expend trying to cook up a scheme that would allow us to buy it! The house is full of gorgeous, unpainted woodwork and original details. I think it's been in the same family for the last hundred years. Anyone need an idea of what to get me for Christmas?

Winnie has started to hold her bottles. It's nice because it frees up some time, but a little sad, too.


We decorated for Christmas on Saturday. I contemplated getting a fake tree this year, but ended up going with our traditional live tree.

Winnie Laughing

Sometimes Winnie laughs so hard I think she's going to hyperventilate! It's not too hard to get her to laugh, but you can depend on her laughing when Matt is playing with her and when she sees a video of herself. While I was taking her picture, she was a little distracted by the camera and quit laughing as hard as she had been, but you get the general idea. Recently, the little ham has figured out how to fake laugh, though I haven't been able to get that one on video yet.

Winnie had pancakes for dinner last night. She loved them, even though more ended up in her lap than her mouth.

Half of our pictures show Winnie in the high chair, but that's where she spends most of her waking time with us!

Winnie has recently decided that applesauce is a little sour for her tastes. I love feeding it to her, though, because she makes the funniest faces! I tried to capture them in pictures--not quite the same, but these give you the general idea.

Before a spoonful of applesauce

After a spoonful of applesauce

Here's a picture of Winnie as she's usually bundled up for a walk with Grandma. You'd never know from this happy face that she had the stomach flu that day.

Halloween

Halloween is Matt's favorite holiday! Unfortunately, our little witch didn't get much trick-or-treating done this year. . . she fell asleep during dinner. She woke up long enough to pose for a few pictures in her cute costume, and then home to bed.

Matt's First Semester

We're now a little more than half way through Matt's first semester of law school and we both feel like it's going well. Matt is, as you might imagine, pretty busy, but he's engaged in whats he's learning. We have interesting discussions about the cases he's studying and I enjoy being involved in a small way. For some reason I was never that interested in what he was doing in Physics--probably because I felt like he was speaking another language when he tried to explain it to me! In two of his classes, Matt is tutoring a judge from Jordan who is an LLM student at the law school. Essentially, Matt is being paid to study! As a bonus, he's learned some interesting things about the different theories behind Islamic and Western laws. My only complaint with law school is that I don't see Matt as much as I would like to, although I suspect this will be true for the next 40 years. You'd think I'd have had enough of that kid by now! :)

Matt has an externship lined up for next summer. He'll be working for the Utah County Public Defender's office. The job fell in his lap before we'd really had time to think much about our summer plans, but we're excited for the opportunity because his career goal is to be a public defender.

We've now entered my favorite time of year--the Christmas shopping season! It combines two of my greatest loves--shopping and giving gifts. I plan Christmas all year, but make myself wait until October to actually begin buying things. My goal is always to have everything wrapped by Thanksgiving and this year I think I might make it. The hardest part is sticking to my list and budget. I can always think of the perfect gifts for people, I just can't always afford them. Some day when Matt and I are filthy rich . . .

Matt and I enjoy Winnie more and more every day. As she gets older, we can see her own little personality as she becomes more able to express herself. She's such a happy little thing--she charms people with well-timed smiles and laughs everywhere we go! I've never been around a baby as much as Winnie, of course, but I think she smiles and laughs more than is common and cries less. How did we get so lucky?

Winnie's new hat and Sunday dress

The Happy Apple is Win's new favorite toy. It was Matt's as a baby.

Matt was dressing Winnie in some new (slightly large) tights I bought her. Dad has a lot to learn about girl clothes.

Teething Time

Winnie's two front teeth poked through today. I've been watching for them for a while, but I was surprised today when Susan told me she could feel them because I hadn't noticed any of the usual teething signs--except for the drooling and chewing on things that Winnie's been doing since about 2 months!

Catching Up

Winnie is 6 months now and we started her on solid food yesterday. She's been fascinated by food for a month or so now, watching every bite we take. She was pretty excited when she realized we were actually going to give her something from a spoon!

We bought Winnie a high chair. I can't believe my baby is big enough for a high chair! Now she can sit at the table with us during dinner. She eats her toys and feel like she's part of the action.

At the end of July we got a chance to see Trinka and Ben when they went to Idaho to bless their baby. Clara and Winnie look about as different as can be. As you can see in their picture, they're destined to be friends. Don't they both look happy? It's always good to see Trinka and Ben, and always our visits are too short. Some day Matt and I are going to take a real vacation and we'll drive out to California for a visit.

Matt finally wrapped up his senior thesis and put physics behind him! Considering how many problems Matt had in plowing through all of the requirements for the thesis, I think he's pretty pleased with the result and the professor he worked with is talking about having it published. It was nice to go out with an A grade!

Matt started law school on the 22nd. While we can already see that he's certain to be very busy, I think we'll fall into a pretty comfortable routine. Winnie is spending her days with Grandma Morrise, who is spoiling us all with her willingness to baby-sit!

Winnie is an absolute pleasure. If I could guarantee that all of our kids would be this easy as babies (and then stay that way) we'd have at least a dozen. Winnie has taken to exploring the world with her tongue lately, earning her a new nickname--"Gene Simmons". She's always trying to sneak a taste of her clothes.

Harry Potter Book 7 Release Party

Here's some pictures of the family at the Morrise siblings' Harry Potter Party. Matt went as Dobby the House Elf (recently liberated), Jo went as Professor McGonagall (in her feline form), an Winnie was a baby mandrake!

Law School

Matt was able to talk to BYU's law school admissions dean on Monday. Dean Hernandez told us that BYU can now guarantee our admission next year, without our having to reapply, if we don't get in this year--though he feels it's still highly likely that Matt will be accepted this year. Matt called Minnesota to tell them we'd decided to go to BYU and since then, he's been getting calls from UMN offering more money, etc. How come we're choosing the school we had to beg to get into v. the school that went out of their way for us? Money, of course.

J. Reuben Clark Building, BYU Walter F. Mondal Hall, UMN

Sleepy Baby

I took this picture on July 10th. Who can resist a sleeping baby?

Story Time

When I came home for lunch today, I found Matt and Winnie reading "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" by Dr. Seuss. We're amazed by how much attention Winnie pays when you read to her--until she sees the camera, that is.