Our Christmas Adventures

We were lucky enough to travel to California for Christmas for 2 whole weeks! We were so glad we went because we had an amazing time. It was very hard to come back to Virginia.

In our two weeks we:

Celebrated Macy's birthday (see previous post)

Celebrated Christmas Eve with my Seymour side of the family.

Celebrated Christmas morning with Greg, Dorothy, and Darin by getting up early and making breakfast then opening more presents.

Celebrated Christmas afternoon with my parents and siblings.

We celebrated Christmas evening with my Francis side of the family. Since all the cousins were there (minus Josh) we took a cousin picture. 

Rode bikes in Newport. My mom, sister Stacie, sister Jill, Macy, and I went to Newport Beach to rent bikes to ride along the boardwalk. It was so much fun and I can't believe that was the first time I've ever done that! I've really been missing out. Macy hated being strapped into the trailer at first but then fell asleep. After she woke up she was happier. When we stopped riding she was on all fours inside that thing, somehow still strapped in. It was a beautiful winter day at the beach.

Had a root beer taste test. New Year's Eve was celebrated at the DeVore home with our annual root beer taste test. Fitz's was the winner for it's overall good creamy taste. Here is Macy's cousin Charlie who is only 5 months old but weighs the same as her.  Macy is tiny!

We also spent a lot of time playing Wii Party (great game) and Just Dance. 

Macy greatly enjoyed playing Granny Dot's real piano.

Jonathan and Darin also spent time playing frisbee golf. Macy and I were their caddies. She did a great job. Macy would copy them by holding her arm out as if she just threw a frisbee. She would also give out a little groan because that's what Jonathan and Darin would do after throwing their frisbee.

Jonathan and I even got to go on a date to a USC Basketball game. Someone in the ward gave us the tickets. Even though we didn't really care about either team it was still fun to go. 

There was also other visits from Grandparents and family which added to the greatness of the trip. We even went swimming! Macy loved all the attention and all the space to run around. In fact, she really started walking when we got to California. I guess in our little apartment she didn't see the need to walk much, but in a big house she had tons of space to walk. Macy also got her first tooth while in California. Apparently all that walking and tooth growing wore her out because she slept better there than she does at home. That was the icing on our cake and made the whole vacation wonderful.

Macy's 1st Birthday

Our family was nice enough to come celebrate for yet another party for Macy on the 23rd. She received tons of presents and eventually understood that she could rip the paper off the boxes. (The next day on Christmas Eve she really understood and walked around to whoever had a present and wanted to unwrap it.)

My sister-in-law Holly made this birthday hat for Macy. You can she how much she loved it.

Yummy dinner. Macy is hiding behind her cup.

Aunt Jill was helping Macy eat her dinner.

Macy liked her presents but had some fun with the box.

 She looked soooo cute in this hat but wouldn't keep it on.

Macy's cake. It was chocolate so it would show up on her face better.

 She slowly started to pick up the cupcake.

The proud parents. FYI: most of the mess on Macy's face was done by her dad.

But she did make a good mess of the cupcake. I don't think she ate too much.

Macy got so many presents! We are so grateful for her loving family!

Macy dancing

I'm sorry Greg for posting this video, but Macy is so cute dancing in it! She's the little pink and blue thing right against the TV. She will soon be beating me at the Just Dance game. I'm so sad I cut her off at the end. Brigham's fancy dance moves had be otherwise distracted.

Macy going for a ride

Macy's cousin Caleb was nice enough to take her for a ride around their house. He was very safe and gentle with her. If he did bump into something he would say, "Sorry Macy!" I loved watching her as she nonchalantly watches the things go past her and pat the side of the truck like she's having a great time. The best part was when Caleb decided he was done pushing. He just left her in a room with no one and walked away. Macy eventually started crying and we found her alone. I'm pretty sure she could go for a ride again though if Caleb offered.

I just want to cuddle!

We now have good proof that Macy has turned into a cuddler. 

Evidence #1: Her first victim: cousin Lily.

Lily was on the floor minding her own biz, when over crawls Macy. After many attempts at poking Lily's eyes out Macy begins to put her head on Lily's stomach. The parents rush in to save Lily's little organs. 

Then Macy tries the same move again. With close supervision the parents allow Macy to continue her move out of their own curiosity. Turns out all Macy wanted to do was cuddle next to cute Lily.

Evidence #2: Cuddling with the Dad

At first it didn't appear Macy was in the cuddling mood; she was a little wired and crazy.

Then she slowly starting showing signs of tiredness. The binkie entered the scene and sped up the process.

 The scene eventually turned into a full cuddling session with daddy.

Evidence #3: This time no binkie required.

This time Macy is more experienced in the art of the cuddle so it doesn't take long and it doesn't take a binkie. All she needed the perfect timing and the perfect arm to lean on. Oh, and a good candy cane to suck on.

Evidence #4: She even likes to cuddle with boys.

Macy first attempts to play with Grant's luscious locks as a hint. Grant, however, is the typical boy and can't read the signs that Macy was trying to cuddle with him. After this attempt at cuddling it may take Macy a few days to get the confidence to cuddle again. She felt rejected.

In case you were ever doubting Macy's cuteness here is good solid evidence that she is super cute.

Macy turns One..

In only 6 days! It's amazing how one year can fly by. Even though she is getting cuter by the day, it still breaks my heart that she won't be a baby for much longer! Because she is so cute and funny I wanted to post a few things about her:

• she loves to take baths
• she loves to play with the faucet and hot and cold handles while in the bath. 
• she also loves to suck the water out of her wash cloth while in the bath
• she loves to hold the wash cloth that is full of water of the edge of the tub getting me all wet
• she loves to eat finger food and won't eat much out of the jar (since she doesn't have teeth yet the food has to be easily gummed)
• she is starting to like books and will sit in my lap and "read' with me for a minute or two at a time
• she also likes to cuddle now, if only for a minute at a time (it sure melts my heart when she does)
• still likes to suck on things (as evidenced by sucking on the shampoo bottle in the bath)
• her hair is growing even though she still looks semi-bald
• she loves our piano and points and says "uh! uh!" until we let her play
• she loves to dances and dances any time she hears music (this morning someone was hammering downstairs and she even started dancing to that)
• she still loves her binkie
• she knows that her night light gets plugged into the wall and will try to plug it in herself
• she is pretty good about getting all dressed up to go out in the cold weather
• she is taking steps on her own if we help her off
• her favorite toys are ones that light up and play music
• she loves to push all sorts of buttons
• she is beginning to love her dad more and want to play with him more rather than just me
• she is social and loves to play and watch other kids
• she points at things that she wants and says "uh, uh" until we get them for her
• she loves to "flip" her binkie. This is especially funny because her binkie doesn't have a right or wrong way. Her dad also did this when he was a baby.

I could go on and on about cute little Macy, but I figure that's a good list to get me started. I'm so grateful to have her and she gives my life purpose, love, and happiness.

Here is another picture to make you smile.

Another Macy Movie

This one has some pretty exciting footage at the end for you grandparents. You can check the movie out by clicking here. The movie is called "December Doings."

New Macy Movie!

We finally have November's movie out. It is my first movie made all by myself so hopefully it's not too bad. You can find the movie here on our Web Gallery. It's titled "November in a Nutshell."

PwC Company Party

Last night was Jonathan's company party in New York! 

Not really, but it was still fun. Whoever plans company parties sure is talented. They had four main rooms: New York (with hot dog stands, pop corn, etc), Las Vegas (with gambling fake money, food buffets), Los Angeles (dancing, appetizers, drinking), and Miami (tacos, salsa dancing). Of course each room had enough alcohol to last for decades. It was very classy and very well done.

We were able to meet up with some work friends and had a great night eating too much food, gambling fake money, and drinking Shirley Temples. We found out that Jonathan has pretty good luck at Roulette and more than doubled his winnings.

Advent Calendar

Jonathan expressed his desire for an advent calendar. His only specification was that it was one that didn't just have cheap chocolate inside. The next day I was at Trader Joe's and saw advent calendars for 99 cents. Perfect, but it had cheap chocolate inside. I was out of luck.

A few days later friend told me about an advent calendar on the blog Homemade By Jill. It's amazing and beautiful but a little out of my league. I don't have those kind of sewing skills. I love making things with my hands, and especially love things I can make with cute paper, so I knew I wanted to make an advent calendar. I searched Etsy for ideas and I found one that looked very doable and cute. I enlisted two of my friends to make them with me this past Saturday. Not only was it a great day cutting and gluing, but our husbands were good sports about it and watched the babies.

Can I say I LOVE my advent calendar?! I am extremely happy with it. I couldn't have done it without the Cricut machine and without Jonathan's help with Macy. I worked on it pretty much all day Saturday and a little bit on Sunday. I wanted it to be perfect so I would want to keep it for a long time.

And here it is in all it's glory...

It's a mini muffin tin with magnet covering the holes. I plan to place candy, scriptures, stories, etc. inside.

I can't pick a favorite number, I love them all, but these two are Jonathan's favorite.

I love, love, love it!

In other news, Macy has discovered how fun Facebook is. So make sure your posts are Macy appropriate!