Month of Love

As I've mentioned approximately 18 thousand times, I LOVE Valentine's Day.  Pink and red and hearts and love and flowers and chocolate, yes please!  In anticipation of my favorite day I have a tradition of wearing pink or red every day for the first 2 weeks in February.  When we were roommates Lisa was an excellent participant in the tradition but Bryan has never been willing to play along with me.  But, this year I have the ultimate buddy in my Valentine's festivities.  I'm pretty sure Jilly doesn't even have an outfit that doesn't include pink.  So, here we go, welcome to the month of love!!

She even has pink blankets and pacifiers! 

Yes, mommy absolutely adore her

Pretty in pink for church

Roly Poly

My baby just rolled over!  I put her down for tummy time and like a pro she whipped herself over, I couldn't believe it.  Here's proof (please ignore my obnoxious voice and the audiobook we're listening to)

I'm ridiculously proud of her accomplishment.  I can only imagine how I'll feel when she wins the spelling bee!

Little Red Riding Hood

 We got this outfit from a friend last week and I love it!  Don't get me wrong, I adore pink, but it's nice to see her wearing a different color for once.

And, look at the cute bum!

I think she likes it too

Chicken Cordon Bleu

For those of you privileged enough to live at DT, you'll fondly remember the Morris Center.  I have good memories of playing the drink game (you put 3 different drinks in a cup, swish it around, and see if another person can guess what they're drinking), making waffles, and balancing a million dishes on my tray and praying that I wouldn't trip as I walked across the room.  But, the food doesn't offer many good memories.  I truly think they invented that place just so we'd learn to appreciate our mothers' cooking.  I dreaded dinner time, except for when I used my blessed dining plus card to take me somewhere exotic like Legends, the MOA Cafe, or Taco Bell.

However, there was one meal that made my heart twitter- Chicken Cordon Bleu.  They had it every other Sunday at the Morris.  My legs would shake and my mouth would water all through church in anticipation of the fine cuisine that awaited me.  I remember one time it was supposed to be CCB day but they served something else- I almost packed my things and left BYU right then.  I LOVED that CCB and in following years proceeded to bug every freshman I knew to let me know when it was being served and to please let me come eat with them.

Because I have such fond memories of this dish, I had not dared to make it on my own.  I was afraid I would ruin this precious Morris Center memory.  But, in the past couple weeks something great has happened at our house- I've started making dinner again- and I decided to go for it.  I used this recipe, and although it did not turn out perfectly and did not hold up to Morris Center standards, it was pretty darn good.  The only thing lacking was some BYU Creamery Cookies and Cream ice cream to finish off the meal.

Oh, the memories...

Sunday Night Blues

This is how we feel about the weekend ending:

The great thing about Jillian's new pouty face is that she's not even sad, she just likes making the face!

Beat This

Thanks to Amazon Mom, a coupon in American Baby, and an Amazon Giftcard, I just bought 224 diapers for $10.  They will arrive at my doorstep in 2 days.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love Amazon right now.

Generations

Jillian is lucky to have 2 grandmas, 2 grandpas, 4 great-grandmas, 3 great-grandpas, and 1 great-great- grandma that are living.  She's been able to meet all of them except for my grandparents on the Anderson side.  Hopefully that will happen soon.

Great-Grandpa Martinez

Great-Grandma Martinez (and baaad hair day for mom)

Five Generations- 

Great-Great Grandma Croshaw, Great-Grandma Griffin, Grandma Martinez, Dad, and little Jilly

I love this picture because we could not get her to stop looking at Jillian and smile for the camera.  Grandma Croshaw was also convinced that Jilly was a boy despite her pink outfit and our continual reminders (she's 98, we'll give her a break.)

Great-Grandpa Rice

For Christmas my grandpa gave everyone a book he had written about his life.  My favorite part was that his sister scolded him because anytime someone would say my mom was a cute baby he would say, "I know."  I liked it because I know the feeling. :)

Great-Grandma Rice, Grandma Anderson, Mom, and Jillian

Four generations of oldest girls- we're pretty good at bossy.  My grandma and mom are also very smart and well-read, and they are excellent hostesses with beautifully decorated homes and a constant stream of delicious food.  I hope that Jilly and I can take after both of them.

two months

In her second month of life Jilly flew across the country, visited 2 states (VA and MD), met lots of family members and friends and was happily passed from one to another, celebrated Christmas, her mom's birthday, and new years, started to smile, laugh, and "talk" (my sister calls it heaven talk),  caught her first cold, saw her first movie (Tangled), went to her first restaurant (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th), and grew A LOT (she's now 12 and a half pounds- what a chunker!)

Happy Two Months!  We love you girlie

Home Again

Jilly and I flew home from Virginia yesterday.  We were so so happy to see Bryan again (he had been home since Jan 2nd.)  When Jilly saw her daddy she gave him the biggest smile, it was very sweet.  For the most part, Jillian was a rockstar on the plane.  We're happy to have survived this trip because we have lots of traveling ahead of us!  Due to the lovely time change Jilly and I have been up since 5am (actually, she's taken a nap since then- lucky.)  You would think in all that time I would have started unpacking but I'm not that responsible.  Welcome back to real life Rachel.

Some great memories from the trip:

It took approximately 1 million tries to get this family picture

And almost as many tries to get a family picture of the 3 of us

Jilly's first snow- We had just come home from church so we just stuffed her dress in the snowsuit so she looks like the kid from A Christmas Story- haha

All my sisters at our Flannel Shirt Breakfast at IHOP 

Katie and Neal got engaged!  Best quote- "I have the worst sisters ever!!!  How did you let me wear my glasses when you knew he was proposing!"

Just a cute one of my girl

Smiles

Jillian has started to really smile and laugh for us.  Needless to say, it brings us immense amounts of joy. 

We love this hoodie on her and she has needed it because it is freezing here in VA!

Thanks to Aunt Katie for Jilly's BYU onesie

2011

Happy New Year!

2010 was a very big year for us- Bryan's graduation, my retirement, moving to CA, having a baby.  We're hoping 2011 is a little more low-key but equally wonderful.  We're mostly excited to watch Miss Jillian grow.  She has a lot to do this year- learn to roll over, sit up, crawl, sleep through the night (fingers crossed!), eat solids, walk, grow some teeth, and say a few words.