Happy Birthday Kyle!

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First Snowy Day

Megan was playing by me this morning when she heard a new song and couldn't help but get moving - she loves to sing and dance, especially to fun Christmas music! We woke up this morning to our first snowfall of the season. Megan ran to the window and started singing "once there was a snowman"! It was so cute. She could not wait to go outside and build a snowman. However, once we got bundled up she decided she didn't really like the snow. She wouldn't step on it or touch it and the only thing I could get her to do was to kick a snowball around on the dry sidewalk. I managed to get a good-sized ball rolling, but she started crying and so I decided it was naptime...maybe her daddy can convince her of the fun later when he is home.

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Gifts from the Grandparents

Megan's grandparents love her and miss her very much and so have been sending her gifts. Grandma Baird made a Sing-Along DVD of herself so Megan can sing songs with her and listen to her and Grandpa Baird read stories. Megan asks for "the gramma show" at least twice a day. Grandma and Grandpa Robinette knew that Megan loves to help in the kitchen and so, as an early Christmas present, they sent her a cute "My First Kitchen" set. She was so excited to start cooking!

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La La La La Megan's Song

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So, Kyle is now back at school after a wonderful week off. We cannot believe how fast time has flown by. He is already halfway through his first year of medical school! He is really doing well and loves his classes. I love it when he is home studying and I am reading by him and he interupts me with "Did you know...?" I used to know, but now he is learning far more advanced things than I ever did, so I guess I am learning new things vicariously...hahaha

Megan entertains us by learning new sentences every day. Her latest are "dat's funny!" and "OK mommy". Sometimes she randomly says "soddy, my fott" (sorry, my fault) but we don't really know why. She is now learning how to count. She knows "2" because that is how many gummy vitamins she gets every day. So far she can count (with mommy's help) to 10! She knows her colors very well and is also working on shapes (she knows circle and square).

Meg still loves to sing and dance. Her favorite "foodies" right now are "the gramma show" (Mom, did you know you are her favorite movie star?) and "Bolt", though she still loves all the Disney movies and, if she could have it her way, she would watch all of them all at once every day, making me change the DVD after the first 10 minutes of each one...we're not that desperate for entertainment yet though. We recently borrowed some Thomas the Train Engine movies from the library and she loves to watch "the Tommy show". I guess it sounds like she watches a lot of t.v., but actually it's usually just background noise while she plays with her piggie and serves cups of "tea".

I am happy to report that I am DONE with Christmas shopping! I did alot of it online and it just saves so much time and frustration when you don't have to go to the store. I am just working on making more hair bows for Megan to go with her new clothes, then I'll put them in her stocking. She loves "pwitty bows" in her hair. Now I just have to finish all my baking and my Christmas cards!

One of Kyle's good friends from school brought us some Amish Friendship bread and the diet-butchering stuff has been growing in plastic bags all over my kitchen. I finally baked it all up and now we just have to get rid of it! That stuff is (sadly) sooooo good! I plan to make my gingerbread drop cookies and chocolate chip/peanut butter chip cookies for our ward nativity next weekend. I think the next 2 weeks are going to fly by with all the holiday stuff going on.

Well, that's about it for this week...more to come...love&miss you all!

Thanksgiving in Chicago

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This year we stayed home and had our own family Thanksgiving. We are very grateful for all our blessings and for each other.

Wonderful Weekend

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My Krystal came to visit me in Chicago!! We had a lot of fun catching up and spending time together. We had such a great time and I cannot wait for her to come back and visit again!

Megan in November

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Our Primary President gave Megan a little tea set for her birthday, complete with a picnic blanket and bag so she could take it anywhere. We have made such great friends here. Megan enjoys the playground at our apartment complex and we took full advantage of it on some very nice Fall days.

Megan loves to sing songs...

...and to go down the slide...

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Here it is! The much-anticipated birthday pictures! She had a wonderful day - thanks again to everyone who sent her gifts/cards and who came to her party!

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There are only 3 pages of pictures...I can't figure out how to make the program not show the pages I didn't use. Enjoy!

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So, I decided to get more interested in "digital scrapbooking" as it has some advantages - less cost, saves paper and trees, more room for creativity, and it's faster and easier than hauling out all my stuff after Megan has gone to bed so she won't get into anything. Let me know what you think!

The Many Moods of Megan

I made these orange and black ribbons in Meg's hair after my new friend Ashley taught me how. October was a very fun month for Megan with her second birthday and then Halloween!

You can almost tell in this picture that Meg's hair is getting a little longer. It's seems to be getting a little thicker too, but maybe that is wishful thinking! She is usually grinning like this and has always been such a happy girl.

Megan has been in the habit of using my dish towels as blankets for her baby dolls (even though her dolls have some very cute blankies of their own). She also uses the dish towels as little kerchiefs for her own head. I am not sure where this game came from, but she's really funny when she does it.

This is how Megan loves to spend most of her day - plenty of toys and books within easy access while Elmo DVD's from the library are playing. She has learned to point at signs and letters and she says "a e i e a e", like she is "reading" the letters. She thinks she is so grown up sometimes and, I guess, maybe she is.

White Coat Ceremony

September 25, 2009, was Midwestern University's White Coat ceremony. This is when each of the first-year students are "coated" with a doctor's white lab coat and accepted into the professional community.

Here are the proud wives with their future doctors:

Kyle and Arielle Dillan and Ashley Randy and Tiffany w/ MaddenDuke and CaitlinAndrew and Janelle The Future Looks Bright!

Our Little Model!

We got Megan's picture taken today. She LOVES the fall leaves and has learned the word "pumpkin" and knows that pumpkins are orange, so this backdrop was PERFECT! She had a lot of fun being a little model but it was hard work for both of us...we came home and slept for about 2 hours! Being a natural cutie is so draining! hahaha...

I Must Have Done Something Good

You know on "the Sound of Music" when Maria sings about how great her life is going and that it's because "I must have done something good"...? Well, that's how I feel today. I wonder what I did to deserve such a sweet little girl and a great husband. I also feel like I must be doing something right because today, as I was sitting at my computer, Megan looked up from playing with her toys and looked at the large painting on our wall of the Savior. She pointed at it, got really excited, and squealed out "Jeejee!!" It was so cute! Then she came over to me and said, "ma, wanna Jeejee". So, we pulled out her picture book that has Greg Olson paintings of Jesus and she sat and looked at it and then gave me a hug and a kiss. I wanted to cry. What a sweet girl I've got!

Adventures in Vacuum Cleaning

This morning, like most mornings, I started off with a "to-do" list. Normal things like finish up the dishes, make the bed, return things to the library, etc. I thought I'd start the day with a clean house since that always makes me feel more efficient and motivated. I thought, "I'll just start off with the easiest job - cleaning the living room . All I have to do is pick up Meg's toys and then vacuum. Little did I know that Megan and I were about to embark on one of our greatest challenges yet in our new home.

While Meg was putting her doll to "bed" (the bottom step of our stairs is baby's favorite place to sleep apparently), I gathered up her menagerie of toys and then got the vacuum out of the closet. Now, I had known for a couple of weeks that the "full" indicator was on and that we should go and get more vacuum bags. However, due to a certain birthday girl wanting a night out at a nice restaurant, our funds were a little short this month and so I neglected to buy the necessary bags.

Once again, I noticed the "full" indicator was on and also noticed that this time not much was getting picked up. So, I thought to myself, "I am a resourceful, independent, and savvy woman and I can make this work". I decided to just empty out the bag and put it back in place and re-use it...brilliant! However, when I opened up the vacuum I found that the bag was completely empty. Uh-oh...must be something wound around the roller...this will take a little longer to fix, but I have a tool box and I can do it! I tipped the vacuum over but, after careful inspection, I found that the roller was actually pretty clean.

Oh, no! I would have to take apart the vacuum to see what was going on. Turns out that I had a MASSIVE clog in the vacuum hoses. This started from the take-in point by the roller all through the hose all the way up to the point where the dirt is SUPPOSED to go into the bag. So, I got out the screwdriver and began the demolition process. Megan now thought this was great fun and decided to start "helping". This was bad because she not only lost a couple of screws for me (which I luckily found later) but she also decided that working with tools looked like a lot of fun - she headed straight for the electric outlet with screwdriver in hand!!

NOOOO! I screamed at her frantically just as she was about to insert the screwdriver into the wall socket. Luckily, she decided not to ignore me on this one and came toddling back over to inspect my progress. "Yucky!" she said, pointing at all the dirt, dust, popcorn kernels, and pieces of shredded paper I had thus far managed to pull from the bottom of the vacuum. Luckily she doesn't like getting dirty, so she did manage to stay out of the huge mess and remained content after that to read her dolly a story.

My short fingers could only reach up so far into the machine to get the clog out and I still had about 3 feet of hose to unclog. So, being resourceful, I used a chop stick and the rod that rotates my blinds to pull/push the clog through the hose. About an hour later I had managed to get 3 POUNDS of clogged dirt, carpet fibers, hair, popcorn kernels, and grossness out of my machine.

Now, my vacuum is put back together and works great, my daughter remains un-electrocuted, and I am now sneezing and filthy from all the dust and dirt I had to let out into the air. YUCK! I just hope the rest of my chores today are much less uneventful. Happy house-cleaning!

This is my family! This picture was taken at the Baird Family Reunion in Idaho over Memorial Day weekend. Eric and Quentin are both single...anyone got cute sisters?

You can tell which way the wind is blowing in Chicago by watching Meg's ponytail...hahaha. This was taken at Navy Pier when we first got to Chicago.

This is our little family on the day we visited Far West in Missouri. We had a fun road trip coming across the country to our new home in Westmont, IL and visited church history sites all along the way.

My First Time...

This is my first time "blogging" so there is nothing on here yet...but I hope to figure this all out soon!