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My Grandma Allen sent the kids $5.00 for Christmas, so we took them to Wal-Mart to find toys to buy. (And boy, it was hard to find toys under $5.00!) We stumbled upon dollar bins. We have been looking for animals for Macey for a while, and they were a hit! We got home, and we found her sitting at the table, with all 4 animals, playing. (I should mention that Macey is now aware of which toys are hers and which toys are Cooper's. These animals, are only Macey's toys.)

Macey loves everything Christmas. She especially loves Christmas music. We have a CD player in the kitchen that is set to a Christmas radio station. She knows exactly how to turn it on. Generally, she turns on the music, and then does this:

Macey's Blankie

Macey's blankies are her favorite things, and they have been since she was really little. We bought these awesome gauze blankets before she was born, and she has slept with them every night since. When I say she has slept with them every night, I mean it! She knows when her "ankie" is not there, and she completely melts down when she realizes it's not.

A couple months ago, I made the mistake of washing both of Macey's remaining blankies at the same time. It came time to sleep, and they were both in the washer. We tried giving Macey one of Cooper's gauze blankets for the night. She started hysterically crying, threw Cooper's blanket on the ground, and insisted that was "Coop's ankie".

We started with four blankies, and over the last couple months, that number has dwindled. In recent weeks, we have had to cut squares and strings from the blankies until now, nothing remains. Seeing this happen (and acknowledging there was no way I was going to pay $30 to buy another package of gauze blankets) we have tried to substitute a sturdier blankie. Last week her last blankie bit the dust. The substitute blankie (in Macey's eyes) is definitely not HER blankie, but we are surviving...sleep to sleep. :)

Cooper's First Cupcake

Before Christmas, on a trip to Wal-Mart we promised Macey, if she was a good girl, she could get a treat. The treat she wanted? Cake. So...we decided on little cupcakes instead! Cooper desperately wanted a cupcake, so I caved in. It was totally worth it. I think his first birthday is going to be a hit! (Oh, and no worries. The horrid green frosting washed out of everything!)

Macey Claire!

Cooper's First Haircut!

Cooper's hair has grown down over his ears, and it has been that way for about a month now. At random points in the day, you could see him rubbing his ears because the hair bothered him so much. On Sunday, I was holding him, and I noticed that, now, the back of his hair hung over the back of his shirt. I decided it was time for a hair cut!

If I thought I was nervous cutting Scott's hair for the first time...you should have seen me cut Cooper's hair! I stripped him down and put him in his high chair. I bribed him with animal crackers while I cut. The one thing I didn't account for was how much at 11 month old moves his head! I danced around him (making nervous noises) the entire time!

The Before:

Obviously, Cooper enjoyed getting his hair cut! (Plus, he was really tired!)

The After:

Snow!

We don't get too much snow in Monroe, but we do get a few good storms each year! (Which...we don't feel bad about! Living in Rexburg for 2 winters...especially one where Scott had to wake up at 5:00 EVERY morning to shovel the sidewalks at our apartment complex...made us wish for less snow the rest of our lives!)

We had a good storm a couple weeks ago that left us with about 6 inches of snow. We waited until Scott got home from work, we bundled up, and we headed outside to play.

Cooper wasn't too sure about the snow, so we headed in after about 15 minutes. Macey and Scott spent a little longer in the snow :) (Oh, and the only downside to it not snowing very much...kids outgrow their winter gear! Poor Macey's hats were so little, we had to keep pulling them down!)

Christmas Festivities!

Macey and I have done a few Christmas crafts to get in the Christmas spirit! Macey loves crafts. We usually wait until Cooper goes down for a nap, so we can craft together and talk. It's been really fun to do!

Macey loves glitter. Loves it! We pulled it out to make this reindeer hat, and I am still finding it...everywhere! We couldn't just stop crafting with the reindeer hat, though! The glitter was too much fun. We made lots of other pictures, as well.

I have been saving my paper towel rolls for a fun project, and I thought this was it! We colored nativity pictures and glued them on to paper towel rolls (that I cut up). We had a good talk about Jesus and His mom and dad. We talked through the nativity story as we colored. Unfortunately, the Little People Nativity won out in the end. After all that work, as soon as we were done, she walked over and got all the people from the nativity and stuck them in the rolls. It was fun while we crafted!

(Back tracking a little bit...)We set up all our Christmas decorations on Saturday, but we decided to wait until Family Home Evening on Sunday to set up our Little People Nativity. We talked about all the people involved, and Obviously, Macey was somewhat listening. After our talk, she sat down and lined the people and animals up to look at Jesus.

Last time Grandma came to visit, she brought Macey window clings. Macey loves anything that sticks (especially anything sticker-like) and she is obsessed with Frosty. This was the perfect combination. She put these on our front window during one of Cooper's nap times!

Visiting Santa

This past weekend we went to Wal-Mart to see Santa. Macey wasn't too sure about him. (It didn't help that the girl before her ran away screaming and crying. Really screaming!) Scott tried to scoot Macey on his lap, and she scooted right back over to Scott's lap! He asked her many questions, and she just stared at him in response. He did give her a candy cane (to which she said "thank you!").

Merry Christmas from the Bagleys, our teenage Santa Clause, and Richfield Wal-Mart! :)

Decorating for Christmas!

I love Christmas. I am one of those annoying people who listen to Christmas music entirely too early, and I decorate for Christmas in a month other than December. I LOVE Christmas. Scott had to adjust to this when we first got married. Each year, in November, he reminds of some holiday that involves a turkey, and I fight through my urges to decorate. I made it two days after Thanksgiving this year (that's the longest I have waited!).

The day we got home from Thanksgiving break, I made Scott go pull out all the decorations! Cooper quickly adjusted to home life:

Cooper is a fast, curious 11 month old! I knew I had to do something to protect the Christmas tree this year! If not, Cooper would have pulled every ornament off, and he probably wouldn't have knocked down our artificial tree. So...we decided to leave out the middle section  of the tree, and we put the tree up on our card table. So far, so good!

Last year, we were cruel parents, and for weeks we tricked Macey into believing that every time we blew at the tree, the lights would come on. (Oh, the joys of a remote that turns on the Christmas tree lights!) This year, we taught her about the remote, and we put it where only mom and dad can reach :) She loves everything Christmas (I wonder where she gets that from!) and the lights on the tree were icing on the Christmas cake!

Macey is still our little organizer! I had a bunch of Christmas magnets that I put on the fridge. I just threw them all up there. Scott and I turned around to see Macey sorting them by type. I couldn't believe it! She is so smart! She loves puzzles and organizing...cute girl!