Christmas Lights at Temple Square

We spent Thanksgiving down in Utah with the Hansens, and since we were in the area we decided to take the girls up to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. Lily was so excited to see more Christmas lights. Earlier in the week I had taken the girls to the tree lighting at the capital and Lily was in awe of the big tree and the lights, so I knew that she would love going to Temple Square.

Charlotte was wide-eyed most of the time, it was cold, but she was happy.
Finally, a picture of all four of us. We don't have many of these, and even fewer pictures where Tyson smiles. I love this one!
Lily was so happy! She spent most of the time on Grandpa's shoulders points at the lights and yelling "Christmas!" over and over again.
I love how magical this season is for my little girls.
The lights were just beautiful, as always.

....Nine Months....

Yesterday our little Lottie turned 9 months old. We were away from home so the pictures had to wait until today.

Charlotte is getting so big! We are packing away for 9 months clothes and pulling out the 12 months wardrobe. She is such a good eater! She has decided that baby food is lame and has insisted on feeding herself so we have moved on to soft, simple table foods. She eats everything that I give her, it's amazing! Charlotte is also into everything, all of the time. This girl does not sit still, not for a second. She's cruising along everything and has started letting go and standing up on her own for a few seconds at a time.

Here's our sweet little girl in her monthly onesie.

Charlotte and her piggy
We struggled to get pictures of her this morning, because every time we sat her in the chair, she whirled around and climbed up the back.
My sweet girl! She is such a squirmer, it takes a lot of effort to get this little thing dressed.
We purchased a Little People nativity set over the weekend and the girls are loving it (and I'm hoping this will keep them from playing with my nice one). Charlotte got to play with it all on her own this afternoon while Lily napped.
I can't believe that we are 3/4 of the way through her first year!

Blah...gging

I've been a slacking about blogging this month. We've just been in our routine, no big events or anything, just life as normal in the Hansen home. I've been a slacking about uploading my photos as well so while uploading a months worth of pictures (which is a lot around here) I selected a few from the month to show what we have been up to.

Of course the fall weather is here, and it has been really cold. We had a warm day last week though so Lily and I went out to play in the leaves while Charlotte napped.

It didn't take long for her to become completely enamored with them, she was very sad to have to go back into the house.

Lily is always up to something. Last week I came home from my morning jog to find this. She is obsessed with coloring lately and takes it very seriously.
My girls are become best friends. Lily loves to help Charlotte and Charlotte always wants to be wherever Lily is. Here are my girls enjoying snack time together. Lily loves to share her snacks with her sister. Charlotte has inherited my goofy grin apparently.
Another snack time sharing a banana.
My girls love to torment the dog, all of the time. Don't be fooled though, Oscar loves the attention.
Lily likes to dress herself up. here she has on daddy's work boots, my ear warmer, a necklace, and she is using a knitting needle as a wand.
Another day she insisted on wearing my boots. They were not as easy to walk in as she had anticipated.
Charlotte is growing like a weed and her 5th and 6th teeth have popped through. She has also managed to chip one of her front teeth. No idea how that happened, but the chip is small.
She loves to do what she sees Lily do and tries to copy her when playing.
She is cruising along everything these days and will even let go of everything and stand on her own for a bit. Not okay, she needs to wait a few more months before she starts walking.
Here are a few silly video clips of my girls being, well, sill as usual.

Such a Smart Little Thing

Lily amazes me sometimes. For so long she was way behind, she wouldn't speak, not for anything. A few months ago she started speaking and now she seems to be learning new things everyday. She has mastered the alphabet, she knows her numbers from 1-10, and this last week has been asking about colors. She has also learned a lot of shapes. It amazes me because just a few months ago I was begging her to say ANYTHING and now she is just off and running. Today, she even spelled her name all on her own. She asks me to write her name all of the time and I have taken to asking her what letters I need to write. Today she told me all four letters, in the right order 3 times.

She potty trained herself essentially overnight. For several days I'd been trying, but she refused to use the potty and would wait to go until nap time or bedtime when I would put a pull-up on her. After a few days of that, on afternoon, she just said "potty," I took her, she went and has only had a few accidents since, and it has been over a month.

This last week she has also started putting herself down for a nap. Once lunch is over I tell her nap time and she goes downstairs, shuts her door, climbs in bed, pulls up the covers, and flips through a book for a while. I was shocked the first time that she did it, but she keeps doing it.

I love this little girl, she is such a sweetheart, so loving, and the best big sister.