GENIUS PROOF

About two weeks ago Brent was home alone with Stella. He put her on her tummy and gave her one of her toys to reach for. He walked away, and when he came back she had the toy in her hands. He wondered how she got it since he put it out of her reach. So he tried it again, and was able to witness (drumroll) Stella, the baby genius. Since she can't crawl or scoot to the toy yet, Stella grabbed the blanket and pulled it to her...making the toy come to her! I thought this might be a one time thing, but it isn't...she is really determined to get those toys time and time again! Here is the process for you:

Step 1: Baby spots toy, but it is out of reach:
Step 2: Baby pulls blanket to make toy move to her:

Step 3: Baby's heart rate rises now since she almost has toy:

Step 4: Baby now has toy and puts it in her mouth as a sign of victory:

Note: There have been no doctoring or "momming" of photographs. Pictures taken are of actual baby-induced events. Baby's mom did not move toy or blanket to prove her baby is a genius, baby just happens to have reached genius status on her own.

THE STAIRS

Last night as we were taking Stella up for her bedtime routine, Brent tried putting her on the stairs. To our surprise...she could hold her little self up. It was super cute, and a little sad...because as you can see...it makes her look pretty big. She seemed rather tickled by the fact that she could hold her little body up all by herself!

By the way, Brent thought Stella looked like a farmer in this outfit. I hope someone out there disagrees!

ACCEPTANCE OF THE TREE

You may have been wondering why you didn't see any pictures of Stella the night we decorated the Christmas tree. Well she was asleep during the affair, and when we showed it to her all decorated she seemed sort of interested in the glowing lights. She reached for a dangling fruit...and as she tried to grab it, the fruit flew in the air attacking her. Of course she started crying. After she calmed down we tried to get her close to the tree again, and again...shrieks of fear. (Perhaps she was angry that it was not a "real" tree as she imagined.)

She seems to have accepted the intruder, and I have tried to get some pictures of her when I get home from work. But with the low light causing my shutter to be slow, all I get is a blurry baby face. Today I took the day off and finally got a chance to take a picture of the best Christmas gift ever, Stella Bella with our first ever tree that I bought in honor of her impending arrival.

PHOTO SHOOT INTERUPTION

While in the midst of our Christmas tree photo shoot Stella grabbed the camera strap for the first time. I can only imagine the numerous times that thing has been dangling in her face and she thought: "If only I could reach out and grab that thing!" Well it appears that now she can. Congratulations Stella on reaching this milestone!

CHRISTMAS WANTS

When I was in about first grade or Kindergarten we had a Christmas concert and we performed the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." The kids that were actually missing their two front teeth had a special part where they got to sing the words "Then I could wish you Merry Christmas!" at the end of the song. Being the singing and performing fanatic I was at that young age (watch out Annie, here I come!) I was so jealous of the kids that were actually missing their two front teeth.

This year in 2008 Cy Gummow is one of those lucky kids who is missing his two front teeth. I took him outside for a quick chance to document the momentous occasion. What a cutie!

FAKE PLASTIC TREES

Introducing the first ever Sallay family Christmas tree! When it comes to Christmas it is always about two things for me: my Christmas cards, and my collection of Santas in a star shape. I bought this tree after Christmas last year at Big Lots for half off, and I have been worried that I would be a dud with broken lights this whole year. But no need to worry because our adorable pre-lit fake tree is a winner. While Brent was putting it together, I asked him if he was glad that he married someone who has no interest in hunting down and setting up a real tree. He of course said an enthusiastic "yes."

You see, my childhood tree hunting memories are a disaster. Every year my parents would fight over which tree to buy, and the fight continued as it was set up and decorated. When my mom finally realized my dad hates Christmas and bought a fake tree, peace was restored to the Evans home. So now I am all about the fakies, especially the ones with the lights already on them...GENIUS!

While the Gummows were here for a short visit I had the boys help me decorate the tree. They did a great job and I got some great pictures. I love these fruit ornaments. I bought them about 6 years ago to decorate Salt Lake Antiques with the intention of eventually using them to decorate my tree. The look so cute all together it kills me!

GOBBLE

Spoiler Alert for people who don't want to know how easy it is to make cranberries.

Today was Stella's first Thanksgiving. However I am not sure she noticed since she is a baby, and Thanksgiving is sort of a man's holiday anyway. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to my candied yams and impressing everyone with my cranberries every year. (Do you all realize how easy real cranberries are? Boil a cup of sugar, a cup of water, a bag of cranberries and stir...so good and almost a sin not to make them.)

This year was kind of different since it was the first Thanksgiving ever that my dad's store was open. He has sold his building and we need to get rid of a lot of stuff in a short amount of time, so we had a television ad running today. I was shocked that he was totally busy this morning (I mean who shops on Thanksgiving Day? And I consider myself a shopper.) I like working there when it is busy so I actually worked for the first time on Thanksgiving. So right now I am terribly exhausted, and wondering to myself why I am thinking I need to write this post. But I guess I figure if I don't do it now, it will never get done.

This year since the numbers were few on both the Evans and Sallay camp we had Thanksgiving together. My sweet grandmother wanted to host again, and it was a lovely time. Oh, and I can't forget to announce that we have a new nephew today born all the way in Qatar. Little Christian, welcome to the world! Note: I bought this Gap outfit last year before I knew whether or not we were having a boy or a girl. Brent gave me a hard time about it, but I told him to get over it since I was sick and pregnant. I deserved it. So Stella was able to show off her Thanksgiving attire, even though it was a tiny bit too big.

RILEY, ASHLEY, & AVA

Yesterday I headed up to the canyon with my niece and her parents to take some family pictures. Brent surprised me when he asked after seeing the pictures, "Are they like, outdoorsy?" I wondered if he knew them at all, and replied, "Remember when Riley moved to Utah to become a ski bum?" Brent only tends to remember people's traits that also apply to him, so perhaps he only thinks Ashley and Riley like movies and The Shield. (To be fair, Riley was watching football when I got to their house, and I forgot that he likes sports.)

I love Ava. There is a joke now about how she looks in pictures. We keep seeing Blue Steel, and we are waiting for Magnum...but I think it was too cold for Magnum. I thought these turned out really nice. As usual, I am sharing my favorites:

ORDER DESSERT FIRST

Last night we had my friend birthday dinner. It was a weekend night and we are a big group so I chose Hire's so we didn't have to fight the crowds. Other than our uninterested waitress that acted as if she hated us, and didn't ever bring Brent his Oreo malt that he had to walk to HER to order, it was a lovely dinner. After we ate we came to our house to watch the ever anticipated Krisi and Eddy wedding video. Which prompted me to pop in our classic homemade films such as "Ricki Lake" and "The Animal Harasser."

My only regret for the evening was not getting a root beer float since I was too full after my ham and cheese. Here is a lesson for us all, if you want dessert...skip dinner. Thank you to my long loving friends that bought me a gift to last a lifetime....a scanner! Yea! No more taking pictures of my pictures! Hooray!

ANOTHER YEAR OLDER x lO

So it is official, I turned 30 yesterday. I was surprised that turning 30 depressed me since I have been practicing for the big day by saying I am 30 the whole of 2008. But I found myself close to tears at 11:50 the night before as I realized that this was the end of my 20s. You know, I really liked my 20s, and I guess it was harder to say goodbye than I anticipated. Here are some pictures of me blowing out the candles. I posted that first picture because my face pretty much sums up how I felt about the day, and Stella looks cute. Well I guess I can't stop getting older just like I can't keep Stella from getting bigger.

I keep thinking about turning 20. That year it was my "magic" birthday because I was turning 20 on the 20th. It was my second year at Ricks College. Heidi made me meet her in the library where her and some of my since-estranged friends came screaming "Happy Birthday" with a wheelchair. Then they drove me all around campus in said wheelchair telling everyone that I was old and it was my birthday. It was quite the non-sensitive-to-the-handicapped parade. They also bought me my favorite meal from Applebee's, which we ate at like 15 times on the trip where we met. Then, my sweet roommates knowing that keeping a secret from me is desperately tricky, threw a non-surprise birthday party for me. What makes me worried I guess is that this day does not feel like a decade ago, but just yesterday.