Look Who's Talking!

Calina has been saying words for a while. She started saying "dog" a few months ago, and can say mama and dada to the right parent. But lately, she has been surprising us with more and more sounds. She says "eep" for sheep (and can even follow it up with a "baa baa"), she can say "at" for cat and meow like a cat, and she even made chicken noises for me once (can you tell she REALLY likes animals?). But I have to say that when she learned "tickle, tickle" it is my favorite!! She got her little pudgy fingers next to Cambrie, and said "tickle, tickle, tickle" just as plain as day as she was squeezing her hand next to Cambrie's back (trying to tickle her). Here is a cute video I got of her later that night:

F-F-O

For those of you who know Cambrie, this story is not shocking in the least. She has always been very interested in letters and numbers and has been able to recognize all her letters and numbers for almost a year now...very smart 3 year old! Anyway, this morning while I was getting Calina ready for the day, she asked me (while she was looking at the humidifier), "Mom, what does F-F-O say?" I was stumped. "Where is she getting that?" I wondered. Then I figured it out. Oh, Cambrie, it's off. O-F-F spells off. So we are officially into the "Mom what does _ _ _ _ spell?" stage.

Winter Hiking

I saw that the weather in St. George was going to be warm and sunny last Saturday. I couldn't pass up the oportunity to bask in the warmth, so we packed up and went on a couple of hikes in Snow Canyon. We brought Zoe along, thinking she could do with some exercise and socialization. She was SOOO EXCITED to be out with her family she literally could not contain herself. She was like a crazy dog running all around, dragging Andy along on the leash. This picture captures exactly how she was the whole first hike we took. You can see she is in hot pursuit of Cambrie:

Here is a picture of Calina hanging out in the backpack:
A cute picture of Cambrie playing at the trailhead while we got ready for the next hike:

The other hike we took was Three Ponds. It was 3.5 miles round trip. In retrospect, 3.5 miles is WAY too long when you have two kids. But we had a really good time, regardless. Here we are about mid-way through the hike, enjoying the shade (can you believe this is JANUARY!):

Calina wanted to stretch her legs, so we let her out of the backpack to walk for a little while: You can see a little bit of snow in the background, evidence of the big snow storm that hit St. George last month. It sure didn't feel cold enough for snow!

What a fun day! It was just what the doctor ordered after all this snowy weather we've had in Cedar City. My parent's were able to come with us, which made the trip all the more fun. We stopped in at In N Out for some burgers where we ate OUTSIDE in the sun before we went back up to the cold. This is one of the best things about living in Cedar City. Only 45 minutes away from the mild winters of St. George!

Birds of a Feather

Another classic Cambrie moment. On Saturday we were riding in the car, and Cambrie asked me where all the birds were. I started explaining, as best I could, about the migratory pattern of birds and how they fly south in the cold winter months and how they come back when it warms up in the spring. So Cambrie thought for a moment, and thoughtfully said, "So, that's when they come back and sit on the bird hanger?"

At first I was slightly confused about what she was talking about, until I realized we were passing a bunch of power lines....

Walking

Calina turned 11 months this week! She has been working on her walking, and she's getting pretty good. She took her first few steps just before Christmas, but it was only 2-3 steps at a time. Slowly she has increased it to about 10 steps at a time, and she's getting better every day!! She brings us so much joy!

Calina, 11 months

A video of Calina walking!

Catching up!

Here are a few posts on December and all of our Christmas festivities.

Christmas at the Crosby's

Christmas was a snowy day. We had been planning to go up to Andy's parent's for weeks, but when the weather said it was supposed to snow, we weren't sure if we were going to go or not. We kept looking and looking at the weather to see when the best time to leave would be if we were even going to go. We started packing and got ready to go, but still weren't sure if we were going to leave. At 1:00 pm, we thought....let's just go. So we left, and it turned out that we left at the perfect time. Right in between the two big storms of the day. We ended up not seeing one snowflake on the way up. Only just a little bit of rain when we hit Santequin. So we were really blessed and made it up in record time!!

The Crosby's Christmas tradition is to have a yummy Mexican meal and have the kids break a pinata. So that's what we did. It was really fun to see Cari and Phil and their kids, Sunny and Josh, Danny, and Grandma Jeri and Granpa Gary. Cambrie and Kelsi had a blast playing all night, and when it was time for Kelsi to go, Cari and I decided that it would be fun for Kelsi to sleep over! It was Cambrie's first sleepover and it was REALLY fun for her! Those girls would NOT go to bed!! I tried and tried to get them to sleep, and the next minute, I would hear more and more giggling! They stayed up till about 10:30! I finally had to lay down by Cambrie and scratch her back until she was asleep, and Kelsi wasn't too far behind. As you can imagine, they were a little grumpy the next day, and didn't play as well together, but they did have a great time in Grandma Jeri's bath!! One of Cambrie's FAVORITE things to do at Grandma Jeri's house is take a bath in her jetted tub, and play with her seashells!

Not many of my pinata pictures turned out, but here are a couple that aren't WAY blury! This is one of Kelsi taking a turn hitting the pinata.

Cambrie taking a turn

All the kids scrambling to get the treats inside!

Calina was quite happy that she scored a packet of fruit snacks. She didn't actually eat them, but had a lot of fun playing with the packet.

Christmas Morning

This was the first year we had our own Christmas Morning at our own house. It was really, REALLY nice!! With two kids it would have been a nightmare to try to move all their stuff!!

Here is the mess!! Our house after all the presents were open.

Cambrie enjoying her new Tag system. She loves that she can read books all by herself. She also loves playing the games in the book and clicking on all the characters and having them say funny things.
Here is a video of Christmas morning, when Cambrie and Calina first saw what Santa left for them. Cambrie was, as you can see, VERY excited about the Barbie cereal she got from Santa, and I guess Santa heard her ask him for a teddy bear, after all! Calina got a little piano that plays classical music and a sit and stand dance toy.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (one of my favorite meals of the year), and to open some gifts. The food was DELICIOUS (Thank you, mom!!!), and the girls had a ton of fun opening their presents.

Here is Calina playing with the ball she got from Colby and Jessica. She loved the ball, and the cool mirror toy she got from Grandma Vicki and Papa. She loves to dance with the mirror toy that also plays music.

Cambrie's reaction when she opened her present from Colby and Jessica was classic. She started giggling and laughing and running all over the room. She was so tickled to get a Barbie coloring book with crayons and a marker! She gave similar (thought not quite as intense) reactions to almost everything she opened, so it was really fun to have her light up the room with each present that was opened. Incidently, after ALL her presents were opened on Christmas morning, she was still playing with that little coloring book and told me it was her FAVORITE gift this year....who would have guessed?!?
After we got home from Grandma and Papa's, we opened our Christmas Eve presents. Cambrie and Calina got a new pair of pajamas from mom and dad, and Santa's Elves left us a Christmas book for us to read on Christmas Eve. It was called Marley's Christmas and it was about a puppy who was trying to help his family, but just ended up making messes all around. It was a cute book. Here is a picture of the girls in their new pajamas. Calina was past tired by this point, so it was not an option for her to pose by herself with Cambrie...

Christmas Eve

Cedar City got a lot of snow around Christmas, but we never got a chance to play in it. Finally, on Christmas Eve, we got out our sled and drove over to Canyon View and went sledding on the hill by the stadium. Here is Cambrie making a Snow Angel:

Andy and Cambrie had fun going down the hill while Calina slept in the car. I snapped this picture and then hurried back to watch her.

Calina finally woke up. This is a face she makes a lot, so it was fun to capture it in a photo.

Cambrie and Calina loved it after we were done sledding and Andy pulled them around on the sled. That is, until the sled tipped and Calina face planted in the snow...nothin like a little white washing on a cold Christmas Eve morning...

A cute picture of Cambrie and Calina in the sled:
A video of Cambrie going down the hill with Andy. Cambrie sure had a great time!!

Our sledding expedition was a really fun activity on Christmas Eve. We got a little cold, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by a little hot chocolate when we got home!!

Children's Parade

Each year, Cedar City puts on a Children's Calvacade Parade with lots of really fun characters and floats all for kids! They have Sesame Street Characters, Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, Disney Princesses, Superheros, and many others walking down Main Street in the parade. Cambrie just loves the parade!! This year, Cedar City bought two balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here is one of them:

This was the other one. This one was so big, they had to lay it down in order to get it under the decorations that we have on Main Street in Cedar City....it was pretty fun to see them.
This was supposed to be a picture of Cambrie with Dora. I had it timed just PERFECTLY, except at the last minute, this crab walked right in fron of Dora....bummer!

So I had Cambrie turn around and got a picture of her and Dora's back...

Of course her favorite was Santa. She was so excited to see him!! I told him to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas, and she softly whispered, "a teddy bear."

There were a few marching bands in the parade. This is movie of Cambrie dancing to Canyon View High School marching band. Cedar High's was better, but I thought Canyon View did a good job, too. At least Cambrie enjoyed the Music. She had to tell daddy about it while he was taking the video by yelling, "Daddy, a BAND!!!"

Little Shiner

Last November, we went to St. George and went to the Boulevard Clearance center on our way back. We were looking at some furniture, and Cambrie was a little excited. She ended up running full boar into the corner of one of the dining tables that was there. This was the result:

Pretty ugly!!

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

So I had to post this funny little story about Cambrie. As a background note, Cambrie rarely gets in trouble at school, and is usually very nice to the other children. So yesterday at lunch a child in her class was bugging her while she was trying to eat. I guess he pushed her to the point where she couldn't take any more because she suddenly yelled out, "YOU ARE MAKING ME MAD!!" and then promptly dumped her cup of milk all over his head.

The teachers had to explain to her (trying hard not to laugh) that it was good that she used her words, but that we don't dump milk on other kids... I guess on the up side, she's not afraid to express herself. :)

New Babies!

I know I'm the biggest blogger slacker in the world because I haven't posted anything about December, but I just HAD to let the world know about the cute new additions to the Crosby family:

On December 27, Sunny had a cute little one named Hailey Jo Heaton. She weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, and was 20 inches long. She is such a cutie and I can't wait to see her in person. For now, all I can do is ooo and ahhh at the pictures that Sunny has up on her blog. I stole this one from her:

Two days later on December 29, Cherish had a little boy named Rylan James Morrell. He wighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz. and was also 20 inches long. He is really cute with TONS of thick dark hair!!! Hair is a very strange thing on any baby in my family, so it's crazy to me how much hair these kids have! I can't wait to meet this little guy too, so for now I just have to be content to stare at Cherish's blog. Here's a picture I stole from her:That makes 15 cute Crosby grandchildren! Incidently, even after these two healthy babies, Cambrie still holds the record for the biggest Crosby baby at 9 lbs. 11 oz. and 21 in. I figure after having a baby that big, I should be able to have some bragging rights, eh?

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my family this year. All of the food was DELICIOUS (Thanks, Mom!!), and we had a great time visiting with family and friends. It was a wonderful, much needed, low key day! Just what the doctor ordered, really. That night Cambrie got to spend the night at Grandma's house. She had a really great time, and it enabled Andy, Calina, and I to venture out to Walmart at 5 AM. Talk about CRAZY!! But we got some really good deals at Walmart, Home Depot, Roberts, Ace, Cal Ranch, and Staples. Plus we were done by 8 AM, just enough time for Andy to make it to work!

Friday was the State Bank Birthday party, so Cambrie, Calina and I met Andy at the bank to get some lunch and have some fun at the party (after Calina got a good nap...the poor thing was up at 4:30AM, after all). After the party we all went home and crashed for a few hours.

Then on Saturday morning, my mom had us come over for family pictures in our pajamas. She got us some pajamas so we could get a cute family picture with all of us by the Christmas tree. Here is the picture:

Then that night Andy and I hosted a fun pizza and game night with everyone plus our good friends Kirk and Bonnie Poulsen. We had a good time vsiting and playing games, something that we don't get to do very often (usually because the kids are running around). So it was really fun. We played Wise and Otherwise and got some good laughs, and then played Rock Band on the X Box. It was really fun to have everyone over.

Crunch Time

That's right, it's crunch time for millions of students all around the country. FINALS!! The joy of finals is just that, an END!! I can see the end in sight, but can I make it? It's been a rough semester, but I have learned a lot and like they say, "That which does not kill you, can only make you stronger!" :) Here's to all the late nights and all nighters studying!! Good luck to all the students preparing for finals!!

Halloween - Evening

On Halloween, I got off of work a few hours early to get the kids ready for the evening in their costumes. It took longer than I expected, so we didn't make it to campus in time to see everyone before they got off of work at 5, but we did manage to make a quick stop at State Bank.

Here is Cambrie all ready to go trick-or-treating!

Calina is all ready to go, but in need of a nap...

Andy dressed up this year!

After 5:00, we did some trick or treating at Juniper Hall on campus. It was kind of strange, so we left and went to Halleluiah night. It's like a carnival that is free to the public. A local church puts it on. It was really fun. Cambrie played lots of fun games and got a bunch of candy for it. It's really a cool idea. I think we'll probably make it a tradition to go to it every year.

After we were done at the carnival, we went to my parent's ward trunk or treat that was out by their house. They had soup and chili for dinner, a halloween parade, and of course trunk or treating. The girls had a lot of fun, and got LOTS of candy!

Here is Calina being oh, so, cute in her bunny outfit at the truck or treat.

Cambrie is hanging out in the back of "Pa-pa's" truck, eating her homemade chicken noodle soup and crackers...yum yum!

Cambrie (witch), Pa-pa, Alex (turtle), Me, and Calina (bunny) in the Halloween Parade at the trunk or treat.

Although she is too young to partake, I had to get a picture of Calina going through the "stash." She was so enjoying all the pretty colors! I was having a hard time keeping her out of it, so I thought, "What's the harm?"

Halloween - Morning

The girls' school let them dress up on Halloween for the first couple of hours of the day. I didn't want Cambrie to wear her "princess witch" costume so she wouldn't get it dirty before trick or treating that evening, so I put this one together last minute from her dress ups...I thought it turned out really cute! Cambrie thought so, too because she told me she didn't want to be a princess witch any more. But she ended up having an accident in this costume, so we wore the princess witch one, anyway.

Cambrie excited to go to her school party.

Discovery Clubhouse Halloween Party

We went to a Halloween Party at the girls school. It was in the evening and a lot of fun. They had games and crafts and lots of candy and treats!!

Here is Cambrie decorating a cookie with some purple frosting....yum.

Andy and Calina looking festive at the party! :)
Cambrie knocked down ALL of the inflatable pins with the inflatable bowling ball! The teacher at this station said Cambrie did the best out of anyone!!

In this room, they had these little pumpkins that were black, but if you rub off the black, there are bright rainbow colors underneath. Cambrie is looking at her wooden stick in this picture, trying to figure out where the colors are coming from....always a scientist!!

Pumpkin Carving

Cambrie and Andy had fun carving this pumpkin while I was doing some homework. I thought the pumpkin turned out really great!!