Our long and last post of the year!

I wanted to do 3 more posts in December before the end of the year. I have been busy the last couple of days and when I looked at the date, I was like "I can't believe it is the last day of the year! I better post what I want so that it could be on my 2008 blog." So I am putting all 3 posts together. 

First things first-Ayla turned 10 months on Christmas. I can't believe that less than 2 months and my little sweetie will be 1. Where has the time gone? Anyways, Ayla has grown a half of an inch since last month so she is 28 inches long and she weighs 16 lbs. She lost 2 pounds. I guess it is because she is all over the place getting exercise. 

I want to document some of her achievements this last month. She has mastered pulling herself up onto her feet and walking around, holding onto the furniture. She has stood up on her own a few times. I have started to feed her table foods, only in little tiny bits though. She has become quite the little dancer too. She loves music. She is a blast!!!

Now for our next part of the post. I wanted to document what we gave for Christmas because I made most of the presents.

One we gave to all was this collage I put together in Photoshop with our family pictures. It took me about 2 tries to get it right and about 4 hours. I am grateful for all the cute pictures Kandis took. 

We gave this picture with all of our Christmas cards and I had some printed out at Inkley's and I framed them for our immediate family.

I gave this out to my close friends. It is a Smuckers jam jar filled with Hershey's Kisses. I made up a tag that says "Smucker up and share lots of kisses this Christmas season." I thought they turned out just darling.

This is what we gave out the most of. I made 45 bags of this yummy peppermint bark. Leah gave me this idea when we visited her and her family in November. Thanks Leah. It was a hit.

I also made 3 simple cakes for my siblings.

I made this shirt for my mother because she loves to wear shirts with her kids and grand kids on them. I took the picture and then photo-shopped it, printed it out on iron-on paper and then ironed it onto the shirt. I think it turned out cute.

And last but not least, the inevitable sock dolls that took me 3 weeks. It was worth every minute of it because I know now that my nieces and my little one have something I made them.

I don't think I will be making things for Christmas again unless they are done by the end of November. It just was too much to do, in so little time. I will be making the bark though. It was the easiest thing I made. One more shout out to Leah, thanks!!

Now I want to show some of the things we got for Christmas. I didn't show everything and I didn't show it if I had ever posted about it before. Let's just say we were spoiled and loved.

Grandma and Grandpa Perry gave most of these books to Ayla for Christmas. Thanks for our new library. I love it.

Grandma and Grandpa Perry also got this tunnel. It came with a Disney Princess castle tent too. Ayla loves to crawl through it and we love to play with her by hiding on either end of the tunnel.

Aunt Marion gave Ayla this bopping ball toy. I love it. I think I play with it more than Ayla does. LOL!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Wiechert gave Ayla this little barn. Notice the cow in her right hand. She carries this cow all over the place. It is so funny. I will put her in her high-chair and sure enough she has her little cow.

Guess what Kurt got? Yes, he got a wanna-be Gazelle. 

It was a late Christmas present because he didn't know he wanted it until he got on Marion's. So we got it on Monday. He also got 2 white T-shirts from me. He is wearing one of them in the picture and he got the movie Toy Story 2 from Ayla.

My friend Melissa gave me this one. The Twilight soundtrack and I love it. I listen to Bella's lullaby over and over on a loop and I think I am driving Kurt crazy with it. I love the song though. It is so beautiful and my favorite instrument to listen to is the piano.

This is what I got from Kurt. I was spoiled. He gave me 6 of the white hand towels I wanted. 

He also gave me the Dvd I wanted of President Monsen, "On the Lords Errand." It is a wonderful dvd of stories of President Monsen and what he has done in his life to serve the lord. It is very touching and I know he has only shared a few of his stories because I know they are sacred to him. He is truly an inspired man. I love him. 

Kurt also gave me three books about being a mother. They are all so thoughtful because they are filled with quotes about being a mother. He also gave me the "Willow Tree" statue and it is called "The Guardian" and she is holding a infant in her arms as if she is guarding the precious little one. I love it.

This is what we got from Kurt's sister Suz and her family. It is a genealogy picture of the males on the Perry side of the family. It starts out with Kurt and goes up to our Great, Great, Great grandfather and it goes up to Ayla's Great, Great, Great, Great grandfather. I love it.

This was something I received and I thought it was so thoughtful and meaningful. I had given a talk in church about a month ago and I had mentioned The hymn, "Where can I turn for Peace" in my talk because I love that hymn. It has given me such peace in my life. Well, the sister service missionary in our ward heard this in my talk and for Christmas, she printed out the words to the song and she had it signed by the author for me. It was such a simple present but it meant the world to me. 

One of my favorite gifts we got for Christmas was being able to spend time with family.

But the best gift was the birth of our Savior. It was so wonderful to feel his spirit during the holiday. 

I hope you enjoyed the long and last post. I know I could have done 3  posts but I didn't want to. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!!

Happy New Year!!!