Uh Oh!!!

Sydney has been finding lots of new places to play and things to play with. Which has caused a lot of closed doors, things on higher shelves, etc. We have a NEVER-ENDING problem, because there are just not enough high shelves to put things on. I guess we'll just have to teach Sydney not to touch things, instead of avoid the problem! Several months ago we had to cover up the computer on/off switch, because Sydney loves buttons...

...and this is what I found a few days ago...

I can't really tape the lid shut! Hopefully it was a one time thing!

We've Got a Climber!

It has been so much fun watching Sydney explore the world around her the past couple of months! She just seems to love life and love learning. She keeps growing- but hasn't gained much weight because of walking and getting sick. However, she is a teeth-growing machine! She now has 8 full teeth and 2 MOLARS on the way. She has learned so much since turning one- it is amazing! Here are a few of Sydney's favorite things:

1. Baths! Her new favorite thing is to lay down in the bath tub...

2. Copying- Sydney will try to copy anything other people are doing. She tries to put people's shoes on, vacuum, feed or put clothes on her dolls, and play with purses...

3. Reading (still)...


4. Coloring! We don't bust out the crayons very often, but anytime she can get her hand on a pen and paper she tries!

5. Getting into cupboards, drawers, closets, etc... and smiling about the messes she makes! Sometimes she sits in the cupboard, closes the door, and plays peek-a-boo! She also likes to shut herself in the closet and play with mom's shoes!


6. Boxes! At Christmastime we got several packages, and every time we got one Sydney would immediately climb onto the top of the box when I would bring it in. Then, when the contents were out of the box, she would climb on inside. Who needs toys?


7. Playing! Sydney plays by herself a lot! Many times she ends up in her room, with the door closed, playing with her toys. Here she is inside her basket-which brings us to her ultimate favorite thing...


8. CLIMBING! Sydney climbs onto or into ANYTHING she can. (As evidence from the pictures)

Sydney's First Popsicle

Sydney is just getting over her first, real, take her to the doctor, sickness. A couple weeks ago it all started with diarrhea, which led to a severe diaper rash, and eventually a loss of appetite. The Sunday we went to the Draper Temple, Sydney would not eat or drink ANYTHING. She had not had any wet diapers all day, and we were planning on taking her to get an IV after the temple. Luckily while we were at the temple she finally drank some Pedialyte, so we didn't need to take her in. She kind of started getting better over the next few days, but after her first real meal, she threw up. She continued throwing up the rest of that night. She had been sick for so long at this point that we called the on-call doctor. He suggested that we give her popsicles, because they provide small amounts of sugar and water, without overwhelming her stomach. So here is Sydney's first popiscle in JANUARY! We took her to the doctor the next morning and he said it seemed like a stomach bug- she still isn't back to her normal self, but is about there!

Draper Temple

Last Sunday we had a chance to go on a private tour of the new Draper Temple. I have been excited for this temple to get here for quite a while. When my dad was on the high council in Draper our stake president told him of a neat experience concerning it. Draper was growing like a weed, and they needed to split the stake. So they had a general authority come to the stake conference meetings. Our stake president took the general authority up to the site where they were planning on building a new stake center and the general authority told him that it was the site of a new temple. A few years later, President Hinckley announced that a new temple would be built in Draper! We don't live in Draper anymore, but many times when we have been in the area, we drive up to the temple site to see how it is going. It has been so exciting to see the progress of the temple, and it feels like it has been a slow process. I can't even imagine being one of the pioneers, watching and helping build the Salt Lake Temple! It was so fun to go through the open house with all of my family and see the beautiful architecture of this building. We told Sydney how lucky she was to be going through Jesus's temple, and showed her all the pictures of Jesus, which she loved! Now I am just excited to attend a session there! We are truly blessed to have so many temples around us. There was a map of all the temples around the world, with the majority of them being in the United States. Utah had to have its own map, because there are so many temples here. But, temples are starting to dot the globe. It is so neat to see the prophesies of the prophets come to pass. I can't help but think of the primary song...I Love to See the Temple- it is so true!

Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas...

We spend most of Christmas Eve day with Matt's extended family. We started out the day by making sack lunches for the Salvation Army and delivering them. Then we ate lunch ourselves. Later, we had dinner (scones!) and had a little family Christmas Eve party. There was a small talent show, a reading of the Christmas story, singing, and of course present opening. It was fun to spend time with them and participate in some of their traditions. Matt's family always opened all of their presents on Christmas Eve, so to compromise we opened a few up- Sydney wasn't really in the mood because she was pretty tired, but she opened up new Christmas pajamas and a book about the first Christmas.

Our stockings hung with care...
Our tree!

Christmas Day!

This was our first Christmas that we haven't slept at either one of our parent's houses. It was weird to actually set up Christmas and to not be with family in the morning, but we all enjoyed having Christmas with our little family of 3. Because we spent Christmas Eve with Matt's family, we were going to my family's house for breakfast at 10, and had to be ready for the day when we left. So we decided to wake up early in order to get everything done that we needed to. We went in Sydney's room to wake her up at 6:30, and she was furious. Really, she just kept yelling at us (normally she sleeps till about 9). So, we got her calmed down with a bottle and got ready to go see if Santa had come. We sent Sydney walking down the hall, unsuspecting of anything different. When she walked into the family room this is what the couch looked like...


Sydney looked at the couch, looked at me, walked closer to the couch, looked at me, and finally reached out and touched one of her toys with one finger, then looked at me as if to make sure it was ok. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. She really didn't know what to do! This is not the greatest picture since we don't have very good lighting in our apartment, but you can kind of see her smiling under her binky, just standing there looking at her toys...

After we opened the packaging on all of the presents Santa brought, we started opening up the presents that were from eachother, wrapped under the tree. Matt had the best Christmas he will probably ever have for the rest of our lives, because he got his much anticipated Wii.

Sydney got daddy a new book called Daddy Hugs 1-2-3 for him to read to her, and she colored him a card...


Sydney's stocking stuffers- spoons, applesauce, an orange, baby soap, and a rolo...

She loved the rolo...

Pictures of Sydney enjoying her presents! A Little People airplane & boat, a Cabbage Patch doll (which she LOVES) a stroller, and new bath toys. Grandma and Grandpa Page and family sent some puzzles, jammies, a new dress, and a few other toys. And Chris and Lisa gave her a new adorable book! Thanks for a great Christmas!


Sydney has been into pushing things around lately. Like at my family's house, she pushes around their bar stools. So now, she has a stroller to push her baby around in. She likes to walk around pushing it...

Since my mom knows how much Sydney likes to push stuff around, my family gave her this shopping cart, and a couple of cute new outfits... now she has a few new things that move a lot better than bar stools!

At the beginning of December we got our bathtub/shower redone for the 3rd time. It has been awful since we moved in (over a year and a half ago)! I have always worn flip flops in the shower, and Sydney has had to bathe in her little baby tub every day. The paint was always peeling off, so it wasn't a good idea to bathe her in the big tub, even though she had long outgrown her infant tub. Every time they re-did the tub, it seemed to get worse. With each re-do we could not use the tub or shower for a week, we had to leave the windows open because of severe fumes, in the middle of freezing cold winter, and we had to redust the entire apartment because it left paint dust all over, and even ruined some of our clothes. We threatened moving out, and giving bad references, and told management what a pain it has been. They assured us that this time, the tub would be better because they got a new company to re-do them. Putting my trust in that, we agreed to re-do the tub again. The day they were supposed to come, we prepared the apartment by putting towels under all the doors, and making sure all cracks were covered so the dust wouldn't ruin more of our stuff. We opened the windows, and I spent the day at my mom's to not have to breathe fumes all day. When we got home that night, they hadn't even done the tub! I was furious! Luckily, Matt talked me into being patient for one more day. The re-did the tub the next morning and it has been bliss! I have loved not having to wear flip flops when I shower. Sydney has LOVED her baths in the big bath tub. Which is why I am even telling this long story in my Christmas post.... she has been so excited to take baths every day that we decided to buy her new bath toys for Christmas. She loves baths even more with her new toys. When I start the water running, she runs in, giggling, and tries to get in with pajamas on and all. It has been fun to give her baths, and I am glad we finally have a decent bath tub. Now I will always be grateful to have a good bath tub! Here's Sydney on Christmas morning!


We had the Holmes Family Christmas Party on Christmas Day. It was fun to see all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It is quite the gathering, even with a lot of families out of town. Sydney wasn't intimidated by the large crowd one bit. She loved playing on the floor with Paige and Hannah, who are about 8 months older than her. It is always so fun for me to watch Sydney interact with other kids because the closest thing she gets is Allie. She is very social and always has fun with other kids and babies... Here she is with Paige, playing with a set of manger toys...

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope everyone else did too! Have a happy new year!!!

It's the most wonderful time...

I love Christmas-time! It is always so fun to spend time with family. It does make our lives so busy, but it is totally worth it to spend time with loved ones. We have already had our McEwan and Page family Christmas parties, as well as our ward party, so we are well seasoned party-goers! It is always good to see those family members that we don't get to see often at the Christmas parties. I love the memories that Christmas always brings back. It is so fun to think of years past and the things that we did. I can't help but think of future years as well, as we establish our own family traditions with our children. This is our first Christmas with Sydney, where she actually is somewhat aware of what is going on. So we are excited to watch her open presents. It has been a kick to watch her look at Christmas trees and lights. She always points and says, "oooh!" We bought a real tree this year, our smallest yet, so our apartment smells nice and piney! We had fun decorating it while listening to Christmas music. It has been a stuggle to teach Sydney not to play with the tree, but she is doing pretty well, and is getting used to having it in our house. On Sunday, we also went down town to look at the lights on Temple Square. This really is one of my favorite traditions-that we did not do last year with a newborn. It is always so neat to feel the spirit on temple square and to look at all the happy faces. I love to look around at all the people, and can't help but think how uniting this holiday is. It truly is an honor to Christ, because people care about oneanother more at this time of year. I think my favorite thing about Christmas this year, is teaching Sydney about it. She has no concept of Santa Claus, but she does have a concept of Jesus. She really does know who he is, which has been amazing to me. We have pictures of Christ around our house, and a statue of Him with children in Sydney's room. Every morning when Sydney wakes up, she points to that statue and says in her own language, "Jesus." We ask her, where Jesus is, and she points to the statue or the pictures. It brings tears to my eyes, to think of her innocence. This past week, we put up a manger scene, and we have been teaching Sydney about "baby Jesus." She will pick up the baby and hold it. I hope, that as she gets older, we can continue to teach her about Jesus, and keep the holiday focused on Christ. It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Thanksgiving

We had a special Thanksgiving this year, because we were able to spend time with BOTH of our families! Since the day we were married at least one of our families (and for a majority of the time, both of them) have lived in another state. Which is pretty ironic considering we grew up in the same place. Anyway, we usually have to divide holidays up, and spend them with only one family, so it was fun to spend time with all of our loved ones this year. The only hard part was deciding how to split up our time... We ate dinner with my family, at my parent's house. My grandma and cousins, the Schones, ate with us, and we all stuffed ourselves full! It was delicious! Then, we spent the rest of the day at Matt's grandparent's house, with all of his family, where we had yummy pies! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, because you get to sit around with family all day, and eat good food! It was lovely! (Unfortunately, our camera was almost full because of our trip to CA, so we only got a few pics, and not very many with extended family.)

Sydney's first Thanksgiving dinner! (Turkey sticks, carrots, and peas- which she got to feed herself. She also got to enjoy mashed potatoes, rolls, eclairs, pie, and whipping cream)

One of the highlights for me this Thankgiving was learning how to make my grandma's homemade eclairs! My grandma has made these chocolate eclairs every year for years, excluding the past couple years. Since we have missed them for a while, we asked her how to make them, so we could have them again. She taught us how to make her eclairs the night before Thanksgiving. It was such a special time, to learn something from her, and to just spend time with her! We really enjoyed everything about it- especially the yummy eclairs! Sydney really enjoyed them- and threw a fit (which she sometimes does now) when I wouldn't give her more...