Birthday cake, new teeth, the zoo, and some visitors from England!

BFF's Georgie and Poppy playing as usual

Poppy made a friend at the zoo

Awwwww

A cold day at the zoo, with a little rain & snow = not very crowded :)

Loving this new toothy grin

I am proud to say I actually made this cake! The theme was Baby Einstein. I used a Wilton sports ball pan, 3 different flavors of cake mixes, Wilton food coloring to create the brightly colored frosting, and licorice and suckers to create the face & antennae, with cupcakes for feet. Tasted great, too! (word to the wise: lemon cake does not set up very well in cake molds!!)

giving loves to one of the baby dolls she got for her birthday

Starting to get tired of all the present unwrapping...

Enjoying her birthday pizza

Just talkin' on the phone!

This purple frosting took forever to clean up!!

Playing with the toy giraffe from the zoo

Chasing the boys

Here are a few pics from the fun little party we had for Poppy on the Saturday after her birthday, as well as some pics from the zoo trip we took on her actual birthday. Paul's dad and stepmom were here in town to celebrate, so she had lots of fun getting reacquainted (she was only 2 months old last time they came over!). They helped us out babysitting, and a huge thank you for the handy repairs Dave made around our house as well as the lovely meals they cooked (yorkshire pudding with roast beef & roasted potatoes, Sue's chili con carne and Dave's famous spaghetti, mmmmmm...) and the toys & clothes they brought over for Poppy!
Poppy's stats at her one-year doctor's appointment were right in line with what they've always been: average height and weight, and above-average head size, hee hee! She is healthy as ever, and cuter by the day, although she seems to be losing her baby cheeks & baby fat already. We were comparing her teeth now to her teeth in the previous post, and boy what a difference a month makes! She has 6 full teeth now, and yesterday we noticed another one has popped through on the bottom (explains a lot...)! She chatters incessantly, claps and points at everything, and can even say certain things, like "Jaja" (Georgie), "Mama", "Dada", and can bark like a dog if you point to one in a book (doesn't sound much like a dog, but it's really cute)!
She loves the the baby dolls and books she got for her birthday, as well as some new shoes, sunglasses, toothbrush and ladybug suitcase she got from grandma & grandpa, aunts & uncles and cousins. Cousin Maia helped her open most of her gifts (let's be honest, does Poppy really care at this point?), and Edison and Cullen just enjoyed playing with each other! She also got a little car/bike thing that Paul's dad & stepmom gave her on her birthday that she LOVES, which is both good and bad. Good because it is our new anti-crying tool, bad because if we leave it in the living room she is constantly trying to climb onto the thing. So far her favorite thing to do is chase Georgie in it. Surprisingly, even Georgie seems to enjoy this game.
All in all, a fun birthday month!!

Happy 1st Birthday Poppy!

Happy Birthday to our special little girl!

Paul, the responsible citizen

Watch Paul on the news helping do free taxes at the Financial Fitness Fair last week!

A New Year, and Our Baby is Growing Up!

Miss Poppy pulls herself up to everything now! Her favorite spot? The entertainment center, where she can get the best view, of course!

Like father, like daughter!

Giving kisses to her baby doll

Just chillin' on Christmas Day

Brrrr!! Snow and wind doesn't stop us from taking our walks!

6 choppers!

Meal time is our favorite time (after all, she is Paul's daughter)!

The end of the year flew by, and it's hard to believe, but our little Popsicle will be turning 1 next week! The last few weeks we've started to slowly realize that Poppy is looking less like a baby and more like a little girl. Which is exciting and sad at the same time. She's learning new things constantly and amazes us daily. The separation anxiety seems to have worsened recently, with Mummy and Daddy both frustrated because Daddy wants to hold Poppy and she won't let him, and Mummy wants to rest her arms at the grocery store but Poppy doesn't want to be put in the cart or stroller. The irony to all this dependence on Mummy is that she is also beginning to be quite the stubborn, defiant and independent little girl in other ways: she doesn't want anyone else putting the spoon in her mouth, brushing her teeth, putting the binki in her mouth, etc...
Poppy's favorite things of late: letting Daddy tickle her, pulling herself up on the recently installed baby gate and shaking it as loudly as she possibly can, playing and laughing with her cousins, throwing her food down to Georgie, playing the bedtime game with Mummy where Mummy throws the blanket down to Poppy and Poppy grabs it and laughs uncontrollably, kissing her dollies, and grapes. Yes, grapes. That one is added to the list because even if she sees the grapes (i.e. the fridge is opened; walking by the grapes in the produce section at the store), she will start to cry if she is not immediately offered one. Her favorite toys are her baby dolls, a set of drum sticks in her play music band set, and a play plastic banana that she carries around with her nonstop. I guess that's appropriate because of her love of bananas.
As for Mummy and Daddy, nothing much is happening out of the ordinary. In October, Paul was made the Associate Director at work. We are really proud of him, and happy that he travels less during tax season. He's probably excited to not be driving to all of the po-dunk areas of Utah as well. Mummy turns 30 this year and is feeling really old (but not too old)! We are looking forward to celebrating Poppy's 1st birthday, and upcoming visits from Paul's parents.

Merry Christmas!!!

We wish all of our wonderful friends and family a happy and peaceful Christmas, and best wishes for a successful and blessed new year 2010!
As 2009 comes to a close, we can honestly say that this year has been our most "successful" and happiest yet - because we were finally blessed with our beautiful, sweet little girl. And while there are many measures of success, having Poppy trumps any material achievement we've ever accomplished! The Lord has truly blessed us.
Here we are, on Christmas Eve, enjoying the warm fire and reading stories about Jesus. We just finished a particularly lovely book called "God Bless Your Way" about an old man named Micah who traveled to Bethlehem the same time as Mary and Joseph - also weary with no place to stay. After some kind strangers bestow bread and a blanket upon him, Micah finds Mary and Joseph in the stable, after Mary has given birth, and he decides to give his bread and blanket to the new family, and wishes them "Good luck on your journey and God bless your way".
May each of us do all we can to follow Christ's example - and no matter the obstacles we may face, with sacrifice comes blessings. Merry Christmas 2009 and may 2010 bring even greater blessings for you and your families. Good luck on your journey and God bless your way.

Poppy wearing her Christmas dress last Sunday

Our little present

Poppy the expert crawler

It's the Most Wonderful (and Poopy) Time of the Year!

I thought we'd try to break our habit of waiting a whole month to update the blog again! So here we are, getting excited for Poppy to experience her first Christmas. Admittedly, Poppy has no idea what's happening, and we're way more excited about it than she is, but no matter! Paul hung my old childhood stocking up in Poppy's bedroom, and it's her favorite thing to look at. She waves at it every morning when she gets out of bed!
We'll be posting lots of pictures of Poppy opening presents, visiting the lights at temple square, and maybe even opening a cracker at new year's so that Paul can start teaching her to keep to her British traditions. I can already picture her in my head, in elementary school, trying to explain to the other children about boxing day, and Christmas pudding & mince pies, pantomimes, etc...
Here's a brief explanation of what Poppy's been doing: her favorite toys these days are her toothbrush and hair brush. A few times we've made the mistake of taking them away, which we immediately regretted!
She got some fun toys recently from Nannie Sue, which she loves. And the most exciting news of all - drumroll - she crawls! She still doesn't seem to care much for it; she kind of just does it randomly. I thought once she figured it out, she wouldn't be able to get enough of it. Now I'm thinking that she kind of knew how to do it before, but couldn't be bothered. Paul says that sounds like me. See what I have to put up with! (He's right, though.) Also, she pulls herself up to stuff now, mostly her leapfrog activity table, which she also loves. One day Paul and I looked over and she was just standing there, staring down at the table. It was pretty funny.
And last but not least - another poo story! The last couple of pictures features one of Poppy's worst blowouts ever. Paul and I were heading out the door to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, and were delayed 15 minutes because Poopy Poppy had to go in the bath. Warning: these pictures are not for the faint of heart!
Anyway, have a great Christmas, boxing day, and new year!!

Paul's favorite photo - she loves her Mummy! (and still cries when I leave the room. It gets old, but I have to say, I love that she loves me so much!)

Note the annoying RC Willey ad on the TV behind us!

How in the world does this even happen!?!?!

Cheeky Monkey!