Here's to a new year!

To complete the saga revolving around our little escape artist, Grace, here is the final story. (Hopefully). As I mentioned in the previous post, our little cooler king has managed to break out of her pack n' play by busting all the safety pins off the blanket that was her "tent." Realizing that we would no longer be able to trap her inside, we decided to do the super nanny thing -- where you put the kid right back in bed every time they get out without talking to them or looking at them, or in any other way giving them attention. Our thinking was that since it worked for Ethan when we moved him to a bed, surely it would work for Grace. Well, let's just say that Grace is amazing. The first night, it took TWO HOURS of her climbing out of her pack n' play (laughing almost the whole time) before she wore herself out enough to fall asleep. And at nap time the next day, you can forget about her ever falling asleep. Despite the fact that she was so tired, she still climbed out of her pack n' play for an hour and a half before I decided that it wasn't worth it anymore, and we'd just put her to bed earlier that night.

Well, the next night only took an hour and a half, but at this point we were questioning at what point we should give up and just buy a real crib tent. Well, we got to that point later that night -- at 2:30 AM to be exact -- when Grace woke up and got out of the pack n' play and decided it was time to party. I woke up when I heard her, and when I went into the living room, she had turned all the lights on and was not excited about going back to bed. Fast forward an hour, and Grace was finally down for good, after crying to me saying that she wanted her "tent." The next day I was more than happy to oblige. After doing my research online the night before, I went to Babies R' Us and forked over $69.99 to buy a crib tent. Expensive, yes. But can you really put a price on a good night's sleep? The answer is NO. It took forever, but we rebuilt the crib and set the crib tent up and by nap time, our sleepy little girl was ready for bed.




All I have to say is we should have just bought this back at the end of the summer when Grace first learned how to climb out of her crib. For any of you out there who have climbing monkeys for children, I would HIGHLY recommend this product. Grace has been sleeping again for her naps, which I was NOT ready for her to give up just yet. Especially since another baby will be on the scene in just 2 months. And she falls asleep quicker at bedtime as well. We're all happy campers, now!

Grace "The Cooler King"
(5 points to those of you who catch the reference)

In other happenings, we've been sledding a few times this last week. Ethan in particular has taken a liking to it. We've had so much snow this year and its been so cold, that Rock Canyon Park was the perfect venue for a little sledding. The first time we went, however, was almost the last. Actually the first run even was almost the last. Scott took Ethan all the way to the top of the hill with Grace following to the base. Before I could get Grace out of the way, Scott started sledding down and coming WAY too fast. Well, he couldn't stop the sled because they were going so fast, and Ethan was so freaked out that he couldn't even scream, that they barreled right over Grace and completely clipped her legs out from under her and she went down hard.

Scott finally convinced them to go down again, but this time he only started a couple feet up the hill. The results were much more satisfactory to the kids. Eventually Grace got tired of slipping on ice, though, and started crying to go home. It was fun while it lasted. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Right before the crash


After picking herself up from the fall


Scott had a few wipe-outs of his own


Enjoying the ride


Finally having fun ...

And ready to go home

We're enjoying the last few days of freedom before starts back up with school next week. I do have to say that there is something to be said for being a student during Christmas time!

Well, I don't really have any other stories to tell, other than I was able to spend time with one of my best friends from college this last week! Natalie and her husband and little boy were in town for the week and we got to see them and hang out like it was old times. And even though I feel like this is a completely unflattering picture of myself, I'm gonna post it anyway!

Here we are. I can hardly believe its been almost 10 years since we were BYU freshman roommates together!

In keeping with this time of year, here are my top 3 New Year's Resolutions (in no particular order):

1. Become better at showing gratitude,
2. Develop more self-discipline, and
3. Finally get back down to my wedding weight (of course I'll have to wait until after baby Sophie makes her appearance!)

Whew! That should keep me busy for a while. Hope everyone had a happy new year's!