Pretty, Pretty Princess

12.28.2010

Our beautiful Princess!

Needless to say, Hallie's dress-ups have been well used and well loved. We've already have to make a few repairs to them, because Hallie lives in them, leaving a fine shower of sparkles behind her wherever she goes.

Big Girl Bed

12.30.2010

Well, seeing that our little princess will be two and a half very soon, we decided that she probably does not, need to be in her crib anymore. She never climbed out of it or anything, we just decided it was time to convert her crib into a toddler bed.

So Daddy and the Princess went to work.

Ta-dah! Here it is...a big girl bed for a big girl.

That night we snuggled this little monkey into her big girl bed and she was thrilled.

Surprisingly that first night she went right to sleep and didn't even get out of bed. She changed that very quickly and now is still in and out of bed all night long! If you ask her if she likes her big girl bed, she will very quickly tell you that she doesn't like it. But when we ask her if we should make it back into a crib, she doesn't like that idea too much either. :)

Adventures of Christmas Afternoon

12.25.2010
Well, like I said, Christmas afternoon was not quite as wonderful as Christmas morning. After a wonderful breakfast at my parents, we took a VERY tired little girl back home for a nap. Hallie went right to sleep and I laid down for a nap too. Not too long after falling asleep I woke up very suddenly to Hallie screaming the loudest and saddest cry I think I've ever heard from her, which is saying something. Eric ran in and grabbed her and brought her into our room after he couldn't get her to calm down. We very quickly realized that she couldn't talk very well because her tongue was swollen and her lips were starting to swell as well. So without much discussion we put her straight into the car and drove very quickly to the ER at UVRMC.

As we walked through the door we got the nurses attention very quickly and they took us right back. It didn't take long for them to get some epinephrine and benedryl in her, and things quickly improved. Still very scary, and we definitely still had a very unhappy camper that wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything besides being held by mom, which was questionable at times too. After receiving the treatment, we had to hang out in the room for a few more hours to make sure it was working.

But the nursing staff was so great to help her try to be happy. They babied her to death, they got her a doll to hold, bubbles to play with, made her a couple different princess crowns, gave her a new sippy cup with apple juice in it, and stickers. I think we left the hospital with more things than Santa brought! :) But it was so nice to have them working as hard as I was to help her feel better and be happy.

All we know is that she had an allergic reaction of some sort, but to what we have no idea. But we haven't had a problem since, and lets hope we keep it that way.

After leaving the hospital four or five hours later, we thought that the drama was over for the night, but oh it wasn't. The doctor at the ER had prescribed some medicine to keep the reaction from rebounding. So we went and dropped the prescription off at Walgreen's, because they were the only pharmacy open on Christmas Day. They said it would be about 20 minutes before it was ready, so we decided we'd go grab something to take home and eat. Well, that was an adventure in and of itself, cause no where was open which was understandable, so we ended up getting Beto's and heading back to pick up the prescription.

We pulled up and saw that the drive through lanes were packed so I just ran into the store to pick up the medicine. After waiting forever, it was my turn. The guy searched and searched for it, only to come back and tell me that they were completely out of the medicine the doctor had prescribed! I asked him if another store would have it and he said that everywhere else was closed and the closest store open on Christmas was in Draper. I seriously just about broke down and cried right there.

After buying the benedryl off the shelf I needed I went back to the car, angry at this point. We went home and in a mad fury started calling every possible pharmacy possible to see if anyone happen to be open. No luck. I tried the hospital to see if there was some way we could buy it from the inpatient pharmacy...nope. So I made Eric call Walgreen's back and ask what they would propose doing, because she needed the medicine to get through the night. Luckily they took pity on us and made it happen. They called the ER doctor and had him prescribe something else. Yes, it was that simple. But we were so grateful.

Luckily the drama ended there, and we still manage to say that we had a good Christmas. But was a crazy one, not soon to be forgotten for sure.

Christmas Morning 2010

12.25.2010

Hallie fell asleep almost instantly when we got home on Christmas Eve, but she was excited to see what Santa brought in the morning. It is so fun to get to see the magic of Christmas! :)

Good morning!

Santa came!
Not the best quality picture in the world, but I just love that little face. She was SO happy!

Santa brought dress-ups! An instant favorite!

The other favorite...a stick horse!

Eric got Cinderella Man, one he's wanted for a long time.

Santa of course brought me chocolate! And in the process created a little chocoholic...and Im'm not talking about me. For the days after Christmas Hallie kept stealing my chocolate, because she loves it. But can you blame her?

Opening presents

New books!

Pretty Princesses

A new dress, because all of Hallie's all of a sudden were not eve close to being long enough

Eric duct taped my presents. :( He thought he was oh so funny...until I made hime get it off.

The story with the duct tape...a few days before Christmas I went to get the mail, and there was an envelope addressed to Eric & Kylie Patterson, so I opened it. Only natural right? But upon opening it I found tickets to go see Noteworthy in concert, which in fact was a gift Eric had gotten for me. Oops! So supossedly the duct tape was payback for that. But it's kind of his fault if you ask me. :)

Pushing her baby doll in her new stroller

12.28.2010

A few days after Christmas Hallie got to go spend the money Grandma Shawna had sent her for Christmas. She got a fun new puzzle, a dress up bear puzzle, and play-doh! She was one happy camper.

And Chad and LaLa got a princess couch for our little princess

Needless to say, we were all spoiled rotten....but the littlest one most of all :)

Christmas morning was fabulous, after opening presents we made our way back to my parents for the traditional Christmas breakfast. It was very mellow, and relaxing, just as it should be.

Christmas afternoon...well that's a different story. We'll get to that later.

Just Comparing...

I was just comparing this picture taken on Christmas Eve 2007 to this past year, it's amazing how quickly everyone changes.

Christmas Eve 2010

12.24.2010

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite part about Christmas in our family. We all get together and attend a Christmas program, have a great dinner, read our annual story book, get Christmas jammies, and have all sorts of treats. It is always so fun to be all together, and I LOVE seeing all my nieces and nephews together and feeling their excitement for Christmas, it truly is so fun.

Christmas Eve was a little crazy this year, and we were running around getting things done until the very last second, but once they were done it was very nice to sit back and enjoy.

Patterson Family

Hallie did not want to cooperate, so this is the best we got
Audrey taking her turn reading our new Christmas book.

Stacie and Taylor

Whitney and Audrey sang the cutest song about hot cocoa!

The passing out of the jammies

Happy Zack

Hallie giving Emi her gift from us

Hallie LOVES her Grandpa!

I made these cute dolls for the Hall girls, I wasn't sure they were going to get finished but they did just in time. :)

All 11 Peterson Grandchildren

Such a great night, as always!

A Christmas Eve Movie

12.24.2010

Eric's students were so kind and generous and gave Eric movie tickets for the whole family for Christmas, so we decided to use them to see Tangled on Christmas Eve. Tangled is such a fabulous movie! We all LOVED it! Including Eric. :)

Hallie got to give her ticket to the man at the door. She thought that was pretty great.

Waiting for the movie to start

(and yes, Eric is wearing shorts on Christmas Eve, the crazy boy!)
All of us.

Slippery Fish

12.22.2010

Three of Hallie's favorite things...

Daddy, finger puppets, and singing Slippery Fish

(in no particular order)

Crayon?

12.22.2010

I think Hallie shoved all of her crayons from the entire house in her pocket...at least she was willing to share. :)

Dance

12.22.2010

These darling girls have been taking dance classes and invited us up to see their "work in progress" performance.
It was so fun to watch them dance! They know so much, and do such a great job!

Hallie wanted to be right out there with them. She kept saying "I go sit by Emi kay?", or "I can jump!", or "I go hold hands too." She hasn't stopped since then either. At least twice a day Hallie will ask me if she can go dance with Emi and Lizzie, or she will put on one of her princess dress-ups and tell me she is ready to go dance with them. So I think we may have a little dancer on our hands!

After it was over, Hallie just couldn't stand still, she wanted to dance, and run around. I think she ran a loop around the studio at least fifteen times.

So I stole a picture from Kelsie, of Hallie with Emi and Lizzie in their pretty dancing dresses.

Thanks for inviting us! We all loved it!

Once There Was a Snowman

12.21.2010

We got a HUGE snowstorm! So big that some school districts even got a snow day. In all my years at school in Utah I never had a snow day. Which was fine, they take snow days out of Spring Break, so it was fine. But all day after this massive storm Hallie kept asking if she could go outside. Well, I am not such a huge fan of the snow. It is pretty to look at, from the inside of a warm place, and it is always nice to have a white Christmas, but that is my extent of liking the snow. So I kept telling her, "when Daddy gets home maybe he could take you outside and build a snowman," which satisfied her, but she kept reminding me of that. Well by the time Eric got home, and we got a few things done and helped my aunt shovel her driveway it was getting pretty dark, but Hallie was still convinced that she needed to build a snowman. So we got her all bundled up and went outside.

Hallie showing her teeth, she wouldn't smile. :)

Here they are out in the freezing cold, in the dark!
I had no intentions of being out there much longer than to take a few pictures, but I was told I needed to help.

Hallie's hat is a bit too big and it kept sliding over her eyes. But here is the final product! A snowman just Hallie's size.

We all had a fun time, even though I wasn't sure that I would ever get warm again. :)