What Kind of Name is Yukon Cornelious Anyway?

Tori LOVES watching Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, just like her dad! I, on the other hand, think claymation is kind of weird and never really have been a fan. Every year Shawn and I have debates over watching it (it's still his fav), but there is nothing cuter than walking in your front room and seeing your baby girl and her daddy watching Rudolph together! Tori will sit through the whole thing and even make excited shreeks during happy parts, like Rudolph leading the sleigh team! She loved the extra feature of Destiny's Child (claymation of course) singing Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. The first time she watched it, being the protective mother that I am, I skipped over the Abominable Snowman parts because I thought they would be too scary for her (I know I'm a little over the top sometimes)! Although Rudolph's claymation version is not my favorite, I find it quite comical...especially when Shawn immitates the Abominable Snowman! Best line from the movie? "How do you like that? Even among misfits you're misfits!" -Yukon Cornelious. Best scene from the movie? When the Abominable Snowman discovers his teeth have been pulled out! ha ha  

Here Comes Santa Claus

(In Daddy's arms)

Saturday night we had our Church/Ward Christmas Party. Because I work with the Young Women in our ward, I had to help plate up individual dinner plates for every one at the party with the Young Men and Young Women. It was SO much fun. These kids are so funny and it's such a pleasure to be around them! I fit in pretty well with the youth in our ward, of course some of the other adults, who hadn't officially met me yet, thought that I was one of the young women (ages 12-17)...It happens quite often, and it's still funny to see the awkward look on the person's face when they realize I am married, have a baby, and am not one of the teens!

Victoria met Santa for the first time at the party and oh how cute it was to see her in his arms!

                                                              Waiting for the Big Guy

                                 Had enough of Santa. I love the way Santa is looking at her!

*Thanks Monica for the cute headband and flower clips!

ElliptiCOOL!!!

  Finally after more than a month of waiting, it is here! My Christmas present...the NordictrackSpace-Saver Elliptical!! YES! We can't afford a gym membership here in Maryland, and there is just NO way I would be able to have time to go workout at a gym with a new baby anyway...so Shawn bought me this awesome Elliptical! We got an unbelievable deal (Shawn has connections at Icon Health and Fitness in Logan)! We ordered it back in October, but because it was on backorder we wouldn't get it until a couple of weeks into November. well, we got our elliptical and Shawn unpacked it and started putting it together only to find a main metal piece BENT! Apparently the truck driver thought he was "Mr Tough Guy" and tried to lift the 200 pound box by himself, when clearly it is written on the box to "team lift". I was pretty bummed that we would have to wait for another one. We called, and they told us another one would be here in 7-10 days...14 days later we had our Elliptical!

*click to read captions

Where do we have room for an elliptical? We don't actually, so it sits in my kitchen. It's now theElliptiKITCHEN...I know, enough with the elliptiWORDS. When I'm ready to workout I just pull this sucker out a little ways from the wall fold out the base, attach the legs and it's ready!

Thanks Shawn for theElliptiCHRISTMAS (okay it's not funny any more)!

*note to Jessica: Shawn just brought me a frosted star shaped sugar cookie, that he made. He'sgivin' your "cookie boy" a run for his money!

Just a little treat for the Grandmas

          Little Tori all dressed up for church. Yes, we had to take six pictures of the same outfit!

Uh, Will this come out??

I don't even know why I bother using diapers sometimes. I got pooped on today...and so did Victoria. What a MESS! It was IMPOSSIBLE to get this off of Tori with out getting poop all over her...even though it was already half way up her back anyway, poor thing. So as I am trying to wipe her off enough so that I can pick her up to take to her bath, she pees...no diaper on of course(at least we saved a diaper!)! She thought it was pretty funny though... lil' stinker!
Just thought I'd throw in theses other two pictures of her with her little "ugg" boots on! :)

Thanksgiving Feast, Friends, and a Christmas Tree

We spent Thanksgiving day with friends from the same program Shawn is in, whom we met in Texarkana, and are now living in Virgina. It was a ton of fun with a TON of good cookin! It was great to meet up with part of "the gang", but missed the ones that now live in other far away places! Us girls (Rebecca, Carin, and Aubrey) went to CVS/pharmacy to MAKE some money and walk away with some free stuff. Thanks to Rebecca and Aubrey for showing me the ropes on how to do some serious money saving shopping! I bought about $25 worth of stuff and only paid about $6..plus walked out with $6 to use on a future purchase at CVS! Not bad for a beginner! Good times! *Click on the collages to make them bigger and easier to read to captions 
Before we had been invited to the Cook's for Thanksgiving, we had bought our own Thanksgiving feast...so I cooked it on Friday and we had our third Thanksgiving feast this year!...not to mention the left overs, which we are still eating! After dinner we set up the tree...Trixie's favorite thing to destroy! You can see in the pictures how high she climbs up in it, we can't keep her away! Victoria LOVES to look at the tree and gets so excited! I love our Christmas tree and how each ornament tells it's own story!

I had to Post a large picture of Tori putting her very own Christmas ornament on the tree...it's Rudolph and has "Victoria" printed on his red bow! Too cute!

Our Little Munchkin

 We think our little Tori is pretty darn cute and so fun with all the new things she's doing and getting better at! Tori is 10 weeks today, just over two months!  She is smiling a ton more now and "talking", laughing..or at least it seems like it, and you can tell she recognizes our faces! She loves batting at her jungle gym toys...one of the toys that hangs above her (on her little Jungle gym) is a tiger holding a ball, and when the ball spins it will play a little song...she hits it a ton now (even though she is probably doing it by accident she is learning)! She has discovered her cute little hands and will twirl them around while she looks at them. You will see in one of the videos where she shows you her hand..she loves to do that little thing with her thumb and pointer finger..it reminds me of the ultra sound picture we have of her hand with her pointer and thumb in an "L" shape...so cute! Her tummy time is going great...although she kind of has the rolling back over onto her back figured out and sometimes wont stay on her belly for that long!

Yesterday I went in her room to check on her during her nap, and when I looked in the crib she was awake, looked up at me and smiled a huge smile....my heart just melted! later that day I was rocking her to sleep with the pacifier in her mouth and I hear what sounded like a little laugh, I took her paci out and she smiled her gummy smile and laughed! It was too cute! She thinks her dad is pretty funny too! Shawn is teaching her how to stick her tongue out. He will stick his tongue out at her and she thinks its so funny and smiles a ton and then tries it herself!

She has definitely learned how to get attention and her own way..she's even pulled a couple fake coughs! She is just so sweet, I could go on forever about her, but I will let you get to the videos! (I've been trying to get some good ones of her talking and smiling, but of course as soon as the camera comes on she stops doing it..so these aren't the best videos of her doing what she normally does, but they work!)

I Think We Might Be Living With A Ghost

Okay I've been putting off posting about these little mysteries going on around our house, but after finding our Thermostat mysteriously set at 62 degrees for the second time since we've moved in here I am feeling like there might be a ghost in our townhome! ...A few times I have noticed wall decor around our place that is slightly tilted or crooked all of the sudden. And as I mentioned before I have found our Thermostat set at 62 degrees twice! And Shawn didn't do it, and it's way to high for Trixie, our cat to reach (she has been known to turn on our TV and watch the news in the middle of the night)! We usually set the temp to stay around 72..62 is just way to cold, but ghosts like it cold right? There are constant unexplainable noises and we constantly have things to blame "the ghost" on. And I sometimes see things out of the corner of my eye. Shawn makes fun of me for it, especially when he comes home to find that I have locked myself, the baby, and the cat in our bedroom (it happened once when he was gone at night to  a meeting... okay and there was that one other time he left at night for priesthood session and I called him crying because I was so scared and asked him to come home-BUT that was when we had JUST moved in to an unfamiliar place ha ha). Maybe I will just say it's a Christmas elf..they like it cold too right? because of the North Pole?

*Pictures were re-created 

Not Forgotten

I thought I would do a little tribute to Trixie...our baby before Victoria came along. Trixie has been so good around the baby! For the longest time she just sort of ignored Tori (maybe that was her way of coping with the change). Trixie still acts like she owns the house though and will occasionally sniff Tori's head or play with Tori's feet when she kicks them! Since we've moved into the townhouse, Trixie has lost a little weight from having more room to run and she loves the stairs...I think she just likes hearing herself sprint up and down them! For those of you who don't know our kitty Trixie, you're missing out...she's not your typical cat, and has quite the personality!! Some of her favorite things are ice cream, yogurt, apple sauce, playing hide-n-seek, letting everyone know she owns everything in the house, and a recently added favorite...Ranch dressing! We love Trixie, and I am still so grateful for that day when I finally got Shawn to agree to get a kitten (only because he thought the kitten would make me less baby hungry) and we rescued her from that cold garage...actually I think it was a hot garage because we got her in the middle of summer. Anyway here are a few pictures of our baby kitty! The little video is a short film Shawn put together when we were in Texas (make sure you pause the music on my blog before playing the video) Enjoy!

If Babies Could Talk...

As I sit down to blog after putting Tori down for a nap...she wakes up...of course. And if she could talk I swear she would say "Put this in your blog" and poops right after! Good thing she has her dad to say it for her...but of course he says it in one long burp. ::sigh:: but I love my life!

Lets see... there are a few things I wanted to catch you blog readers up on, and I guess I will do it in the form of a few pictures again...

The Bloods (Jon, Megan, and Baby seth) invited us and the Oliveras (Marley and Carlos) over for an early Thanksgiving feast last Saturday. We all brought a little something and the meal turned out fabulous! Jon carved the turkey while watching a "how to" video online (I thought it was funny), Carlos ate a HUGE piece of key lime pie (wish I got a picture of that one), and we all had a great time!

Here is Victoria all dressed up for our Thanksgiving feast with friends. This was one of the cute dresses Shawn picked out at Baby Gap right after we found out we were having a girl (or they were pretty sure we were having a girl). We LOVE Baby Gap!

A story for tori...She loves to be read to...as long as it doesn't take too long! Please excuse the messy bed, but that's life with a two month old, and I'm okay with that!
The other day we had a bit of a snow day...just a little, but it was beautiful and brought that winter/Christmas feeling with it! I hope it snows more!

We Are Grateful For...Victoria Rose...

There's Just Something About This Time of Year...

As we enter the holiday season and the weather gets colder, the coats and scarves come out, and heaters turn on, the same feeling comes every year...and I love it. As winter nears I am reminded of the moments Shawn and I spent together during our year and 4 months of dating. It's this time of year that memories come flooding in... Shawn on the other hand is usually preoccupied with ski thoughts! I thought I would share a few fun, brief facts and memories that you may not have known ... You can read the story of how Shawn and I met on the right side of our blog...

Our first date: Shawn took me out to Formosa, a Chinese restaurant in Logan, UT. After dinner we went to see Ladder 49...I think Shawn was a little nervous in the theatre because I am pretty sure he kept his puffy coat on during the movie (it was the middle of winter, but we were inside). Shawn was the one to hold my hand first, but I did help him out. I remember reading somewhere about "how to let someone know you want them to hold your hand" type thing ( I know, lame) but I kept my hand out and visible :) Our first date didn't end until 4am...I guess we both just didn't want it to end!

I made the first "move": That's right, I kissed Shawn first, but he definitely kissed back! (and that was on our first date :-/ while watching Napoleon Dynamite.

We've danced in the rain. Just the two of us, late at night, outside of Merrill Hall (where I was living on campus at USU).

I once told Shawn...and I still feel bad about this...that "I just don't see us getting married"...boy was I wrong, and I realized how wrong I was shortly after I had said it, when I looked up and saw the look on his face.

Shawn and I "broke up" or "took breaks to date other people" a number of times for a number of reasons. I would drive around in my car listening to the CD mix of "our songs" that Shawn had made me, and cry. It got to the point that the last couple of times we did take breaks, I would laugh a little because I knew we would be texting later that night, and back together within a few days...we couldn't live without each other and we both knew it!

We went "ring shopping" 5 months into the game (May of 2005) I was planning on an October wedding (I really wanted those cool looking Cinderella pumpkins for decor at the reception...) But Shawn didn't pop the question until January of 2006 and we were married in April. It couldn't have been more perfect.

From day one I never touched a door handle when I was with Shawn. He opened every door for me, even the car door...and still does (now with a baby carrier in hand it gets a Little tricky for him sometimes).

The Newest News

It feels like we've had a ton of stuff happen the last couple of weeks! Halloween has come and gone already and left me no time to really feel the Halloween spirit...maybe because of the move I don't know. We did have fun at our ward's soup and pie/trunk or treat the Tuesday before Halloween...Shawn had signed me up for the pie contest...I was supposed to make a key lime pie, but I didn't have enough time in between taking care of the baby, so of course I was in tears over that. With Shawn's help we managed to pull off a quick Apple Crisp instead, so it worked out just fine.

Anyway... as the week went on we passed out candy to trick-or-treaters, got ready for Shawn's parents to visit, had Victoria's blessing day, spent a couple days in DC again, and experienced how painful it is to watch your baby get shots!  Below are pictures of the past weeks events... (the photo above is Tori on Halloween night)

Our friends from the ward, who are actually from Fellows 06 (the program Shawn is in but class of 2006) Jon, Megan, and baby Seth Blood...we loved their homemade Gingerbread costume!
Our sleepy baby bunny. I made a little bunny costume for our ward's Halloween party...she slept through the whole thing :)

          Victoria meets Grandpa and Grandma Atkinson

November 2nd was a big day..My parents anniversary, along with my brother Kurt's anniversary, and Victoria's blessing day! It was a perfect day! Shawn gave such a beautiful Blessing. Victoria's blessing dress is the same one that my sister and I were both blessed in, that our grandpa had picked out. Before my parents sent it out to me they had embroidered on the bottom of the dress our names (mine, my sister's and Victoria's) and blessing dates...it was so beautiful!

Please excuse my post partum body..in this and the following pictures..no comments please.

Below is a collage of our two day trip to Washington DC. We spent the night at Shawn's cousin's home so we could fit in a few more attractions with Shawn's parents...Thanks Scott and Katie! We spent a lot of time at Mt. Vernon (George Washington's Mansion), it was beautiful and full of history. Shawn's Cousins, Scott and David, took Shawn and his parents on a night tour of all the historical monuments while I stayed back at the house with Katie and the babies. We also had a chance to visit the Arlington Cemetery...incredible, and the fall colors were beautiful. At the Arlington Cemetery we were able to watch the changing of the guards ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown. Last, Katie set us up on a tour of our nations Capitol Building...SO awesome, a must see! I can't believe how much history there is in one place and it's amazing to be so close to it all and be able to stand on grounds where it all took place!

SIDS

A couple of weeks ago my mom called and told me about an article she had read about a new study done on SIDS. For some reason I keep feeling like I should post a little something about it. Some of you may have already heard the article but anyway, the study was of 500 babies and their sleeping conditions...turns out that having a fan in the babies' room to help circulate the air helps reduce the risk of SIDS by 70%!!! Some articles said an open window while they sleep helps as well. The articles explained that some babies don't get enough oxygen when they sleep...or they breath in too much CO2, because of inclosed sleeping areas or blankets too close to their face, etc. My dad had a good way of explaining it... we all breath in Oxygen and out CO2, the bad stuff (which we all know) so it is like dry ice. When you put dry ice in water the fog will spill over the top and all around the ground because it is heavier than air, as is CO2. When you blow into the dry ice it will spread and clear away for a bit. So having a fan to circulate the air in your babies room when sleeping helps them breath better. One article sad that babies are at highest risk for SIDS between the ages of 2-4 months and during the winter months. It makes sense doesn't it... google "SIDS and fans" and read the articles!

Washington DC

A week after arriving in Maryland my older sister, Rose (whom Victoria Rose is named after) came for a little visit to see the babe and make great dinners! While she was visiting we all made a day trip to Washington DC to see some of the sights! We walked all day and saw some amazing history! One day is not nearly enough time to see it all! When we were at the Lincon Memorial we ran into the Cook family (what are the chances of that?!), our friends from Texarkana who are in the same program as Shawn...they now live 25minutes from DC! We were so excited to see them! It was good day and we plan to go back to see more!