A Christmas Letter

I sent this by email, but we wanted to make sure we wished everyone a Merry Christmas, just in case we missed you. ;)

  

Merry Christmas!

What we’ve been up to lately:

*March 8 - Sarah Allison Saunders was born: sweet, beautiful, and such a joy.

*June 4 - Emily Rae turns 2...and TOTALLY acts her age: independent, smart, curious, and dramatic, with a generous helping of imagination mixed in!

*Jared’s been working hard at everything - work at America First Credit Union as a branch manager, finishing up a bachelor’s degree in business management at the University of Utah, starting to apply to master’s programs, serving as the ward Elder’s Quorum President, and being a wonderful husband and father throughout it all. 

* Megan loves being at home covering the full-time job of mom and wife, and serving in the primary presidency,

We love you all, and hope the love and joy of our Savior Jesus Christ fills your hearts and homes always!

Love,

The Saunders Family

It's beginning to look a lot like...well, you know

Thanksgiving evening after setting up the tree at Grandma and Grandpa's house

 Mouse has this Fisher Price Nativity set, and plays with it EVERY DAY.  One night as I was picking things up after the girls were in bed, I noticed the pieces set up like this:

 And, the first snow of the season.  We made sure the snow suit still fit from last year (supposedly a size 12-month?!?), and then had to try it out a little bit.  Mouse is now very much looking forward to more snow (please!)

Aawww!

(Thanks to Uncle Tay for this darling photo.  Classic Meimei!)

"I need to take a test, Mommy"

The Journey

Mouse is potty-trained!  YAY! I made it through!  Ha ha, yes, I think it's been a much harder journey for me than for her, but we're into the second week, and she's doing pretty well.  Honestly it hasn't been too bad.  But my stress level does goes down a little bit more every day further into it; it's the new "norm," and the new "norm" is good.

Whew.

Halloween Fun!

Pretty

Gotta love Thanksgiving Point Gardens. 

Something's missing...

Diaper, shirt, pants...but where did Mouse go?!?

Now that a few of her friends are potty trained, this is not such an unusual find around here. I think it might be time to start thinking about trying this whole thing again.

I did it.

Oh, I have butterflies in my tummy.

And my heart won't stop pounding.

Sigh.

I gave in.

I finally did it.

Eep!

I created a facebook account. 


(Why? The biggest factor?  I'm tired of being the last one to know anything!  And of course I want to keep in touch with all of you and more - I just thought I could do it without facebook.  But I guess it's not just a fad that will go away.  And I guess I'm in control of how much time I want to spend online; I don't have to be sucked in to this vortex all day, everyday.  So here I am.)

Much Ado 3

 Meimei continues to grow.  At six months she still has that same adorable face - now a la solid food!  She LOVES it.

 And then of course we have Mouse's escapades.  She likes stickers.  A lot.

And did I mention markers?  Yes, this would be the permanent kind.  It took some fancy scrubbing on Daddy's part for her face and hands, and Grandpa had to bring out things like turpentine to clean the counter and carpet, but everything came out eventually.  Well, except for her shirt and socks.  I'm afraid those are just paint clothes now.

Ha ha.  Maybe she wants to be a Dalmatian for Halloween...

Much Ado 2

Labor Day Weekend:  A wedding and a funeral

The Happy Couple (and their nieces...)

We definitely enjoyed dancing at the reception.  The next day, as I was getting out this same dress for her to wear at church, Mouse exclaimed, "Pretty dress!  For dancing!"

So, the wedding was on Saturday.  Sunday we relaxed a bit, then on Monday we went to celebrate the life, love, and example of my dear Grandma Holmes.  She was an amazing woman, and I will always look up to her for what she did and who she was in her life.  The funeral was beautiful, filled to the brim with family, and then we had a fun "hamburger night" that night with everyone.  The interment was Tuesday morning, with a smaller gathering there at the cemetery.

What a strong spirit there was that whole weekend.  I love my Grandma and will miss seeing her and giving her hugs, but you know?  I feel her more closely around me now than I ever did before.  I will not miss her presence, because there is nothing to miss; she and Grandpa are here together with me.  I have never felt that so strongly before.  I hope I never forget it; what strength there is when you remember that your loved ones surround you to strengthen and encourage you.  I love you Grandma!  Congratulations on being with Grandpa again after such a long time apart (almost 40 years)!

Much Ado

I finally downloaded the pictures off of my camera, so now I can actually fill you all in on what's been happening in life lately.  Not much, really.  Just a wedding.  And a funeral.  And house renovations.   And of course, adventures with a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old girl.  Goodness.  I almost feel lazy looking at this list...

(BTW, this update will probably take form in a few different posts. I think I'd overload the system if I tried it in just one.)

To begin with, more pictures from the San Diego trip:

(The only thing we've found so far to tire Mouse out enough to fall asleep en route anywhere: Sea World, I love you!)

 Meimei too fell asleep in unusual places/positions.

 We passed this on the way down to Cali. Hah!

San Diego!

Our family trip this year took us to beautiful San Diego.

We enjoyed a family reunion at the beach, where Mouse turned into a regular beach baby. She loved it! :)

After a long day of fun and sun, this girl still refused to fall asleep in the car (except after SeaWorld, and I'm calling that a fluke...). Thus, to keep her busy in the car on the way back to the hotel, we resorted to making funny faces and taking pictures of them. This one's all her own.
And Meimei was just cute the whole time. She quite enjoys her tongue.
Mouse had more fun feeding Mine than actually eating her lunch at Sea World. It must have been the "big whales! Splash Daddy!" Getting wet makes you hungry, right?
And the finale: ice cream at Farrells. These three "piggies" each finished their own "pig's trough." My bragging rights? Mine finished first and wasn't even sick. :P

Over-all it was a typical, fun (yet exhausting) vacation.

Oh, the Curls!

Mouse loves getting her picture taken. I usually delete most of them, but this one was too darn cute!

A Learning Circle

Our townhome complex has seen a lot of babies in the last year. Seriously, at one point I think there were 10 of us in varying stages of pregnancy. Well, one mom decided that she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and create a "learning circle." The idea comes from a website called The Power of Moms, and it describes a learning circle as "part book group, part girls' night out and part support group." We read a selected article from the website, then get together once a month to discuss it and share our feelings, struggles, successes, etc (while munching on yummy refreshments too, of course).

I've been wanting to get to know these women better, as well as have some close friends nearby that I could talk to and "hang out" with. (As much as you "hang out" with kids, anyway.) Needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard about it.

We had our first meeting last night, and I am amazed at how much better I felt about life afterward. I suspected it would be enlightening, but I did not expect the change of heart and mind that accompanied this experience. I had fun, and I SO needed that support right now in life. I've felt a little buried lately, and then foolishly thought I'd start potty-training Mouse (yeah, that lasted about 32 hours; I found out neither of us are quite ready for that). Anyway, it came as a wonderful tender mercy at just the right time. I highly recommend it for any mom out there. :)

Happy Birthday Mouse!

We celebrated Mouse's second birthday at the beginning of this month. Every day since then she has sung "Happy Birthday" to herself. Some days more than once. I'm pretty sure that means it was a success, despite some more weather woes (our original spot to party was a park; thankfully my parents opened their doors to us at the last minute!)

Weather wishes

What I wish I were singing: "Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo, here comes the sun and I said, it's all right..."

What we're singing instead: "Rain rain (and wind and COLD!) go away..."

(sigh)

At least we're still singing, huh?

Mouse-glish

Mouse has always done things her own creative way. We taught her some sign language first, and she'd do her own version of every sign.

Well, sure enough she does the same thing when she speaks. These are some of my favorites:

inverted sounds -

"Mahgah" - Grandma

"Bahgah or Pahcah" - Grandpa

"top" - pot

"tops" - stop

just plain funny -

"dam" - down

"dum" - done

"dummy" - do it ("Ohney Mommy dummy. Yep.")

"mean" - swing

"cutting" - coloring

"Sahmoo" - Saunders, and sandwich (I have to go by context with this one)

"Sarsha" - Meimei's name

"nike" - night, and next (as in, "sitting next to mommy")

"shoeshie" - horsie

Another thing she does is confirm everything she says to herself. "[Mouse] all dum. Yeah," "sit nike Mommy! Yeah!" Or (at 6:30 in the morning) "[Mouse] eat? Yeah."

Easter and Other Fun

Easter this year was filled with family, egg hunts, easter baskets, and, of course, coloring eggs. Mouse got a kick out of it, and asked to color eggs every day for the next week.

Once was all I could handle. ;)

Another fun part of the time following Easter weekend was Uncle Jordan's visit home, and subsequent engagement! Yay! Since this was the only time he'd be around until the wedding (literally - he's flying in the morning of), the guys spontaneously decided one night to throw him a bachelor party by staying up all night playing Star Craft. (Funny enough, Jordan's the only one not in this picture...)

Meimei's "confinement" also ended just in time to bless her on May 1st. This is the same dress, made by my grandmother (or great-grandmother?), that I was blessed in. Now both my daughters have been blessed in it too. There's also a cute bonnet that goes with it, but my girls' heads were too big; they just have a ton of brains, I guess. ;)

Side note: Grandma also made this adorable dress for Mouse that same week, as she is growing like a weed and didn't fit into her other ones. Thanks Grandma!

"Baby"

(Ha ha, this one's my favorite - wipes, Desitin, and everything!)