Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. It was a magical holiday for Allie since it was the first year that she really could understand anything about Santa. She was so excited for Santa to come. She loved the Christmas music, decorating the tree, putting up the stockings, and the anticipation of opening her presents. It was also special because it was Rachel's first Christmas.

When we pulled out the Christmas decorations, we came across our baby Santa hat. You can't see the hat very well in this picture, but Rachel looked so cute in it.

Allie loved wearing a Santa hat, too. Here she is in front of our little tree and stockings.

Here's a picture of what the girls saw Christmas morning after Santa had come, minus Allie's gift from Santa, which was just to the right of where the picture ends.

Santa brought Allie two Zhu Zhu pet hamsters with a little habitat, including a wheel and a boat. She wasn't sure about them when first seeing them, but she grew to enjoy them quickly. They move around and make noises, mostly funny ones like a motorcycle sound or a cow's moo. Here she is right after waking up and sitting down by them to check them out.

Santa brought Rachel a little stuffed giraffe and a new snuggly bear. She was happy and very cute with both.

The girls then looked in their stockings to find more goodies.

Santa left Allie her own Santa hat, which she didn't really understand for awhile. She kept on saying she needed to give it back. It may be because we have a book in which Santa leaves his hat and the little kid wants to put it somewhere he'll find it. But she was still very happy with it, as well as the other things she found inside.

Santa left Rachel some fun goodies, too, including some squeaky teething toys. Her favorite was probably the little sea horse pictured below. It is made so that it easily squeaks when she chews on it. Sadly, we have actually lost this in the last few months. I think it fell out of the car seat somewhere. We got an orange fish that is made by the same company to replace it, but the sea horse is definitely missed by all.

We had a Secret Santa this year, who dropped some gifts off by our door and ran after knocking. It was so sweet. It was exciting to have some gifts under the tree that were a surprise to everyone. Allie got a cute baby doll from our Secret Santa. It was cute to see her cuddle it and feed it right away.

Both girls got books from Grandma Terri. They both love books, so it was great.

Rachel also got some pajamas from Grandma Terri. They are super soft and cute. Rachel has gotten to wear them a lot.

And, of course, Rachel loved the wrapping paper. It is always one of the favorite parts of Christmas for babies. It was no different for Rachel. She actually did pretty well ripping some of it off to open presents.

Rachel got some soft blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie. Two of them make crinkly noises, and two have little bells inside. Rachel has enjoyed them quite a bit.

Both girls got ornaments this year. We try to pick one out that relates to the previous year. For Allie, we chose an ice cream cone ornament for a couple of reasons. The first is that it has been a great motivator for potty training, especially at the beginning. It kind of represents the progress made in that area. Also, we discovered her love of ice cream. Who doesn't love ice cream, right? But not all little girls yell at their cousins over ice cream like Allie did last May when we visited Washington. You don't come between Allie and ice cream. She loved the ornament, too.

Rachel's ornament was a baby's first ornament. It is a baby snowman in a buggy. We got it because her stocking has a snowman on it, and we thought it would be cute for them to go together. It is a little hard to see in the picture below. We wish they had had a pink option, but they only had blue.

The girls got gifts from each other. We let Allie pick out Rachel's gift at the store, and we chose one of the gifts we had purchased to be from Rachel. They have both loved the gifts from each other. The video below shows them getting their gifts from each other. Allie got a little Santa toy. It is actually an ornament, but Allie doesn't know the difference. She loves playing with it. Rachel got a teething rattle toy.

Another little video, which shows Allie with a glow baby that sings from Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie. Rachel is trying to eat one of her presents.

We got Allie some Hello Kitty boots at a consignment sale. She was excited to put them on and immediately wanted to go outside.

We knew that Grandma Terri and Grandpa Carpenter were getting Allie a Radio Flyer horse. There was no doubt that Allie would be so excited about it. We figured we would save it for last so that she would open all her other gifts. The next few videos show her excitement as she opened it, wanted us to set it up, and rode it for the first time.

When riding Blaze the first time, she was a little hesitant, but it didn't take long for her to start riding him really fast and doing tricks on him.

We really had a wonderful Christmas. We were grateful for the love and generosity of friends and family. It was really such a special time. And Allie still talks about what Santa brought her, though she now tends to say that everything was from him, even toys she has had for a long time. She keeps asking for Christmas again. 

Bella's 8th Birthday and Baptism

As was mentioned in the previous post, we celebrated Bella's 8th birthday when my parents were here. My sister had Tiger Safari come out to the house. Because they were going to be going to another event after the party, they brought more animals than they normally do for a birthday party. It was a lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed the animals, and the man who runs it does a good job of making it fun and educational.

He started out by passing around a ferret. The are small, fuzzy, and cute, so they don't scare kids too much. Allie wanted to hold it, too.

The birthday girl actually got to hold each animal first. Bella was brave and held every animal that was brought out, except for the baby porcupine (I'm pretty sure it was a porcupine and not a hedgehog, but I could be wrong).

They brought a Sulcata tortoise that was big enough for the kids to sit on, as well as a baby one that could be held in the hand.

Bella sitting on one tortoise while holding the other

Allie was really excited to sit on the turtle. I like her smile in this picture.

"I sit on the turtle."

Rachel taking her turn on the tortoise.
The kids helped keep her facing the camera.

Cute baby porcupine was not held by anyone, except the man with a glove.

Such a brave girl! With a smile even.

Everyone liked the lemur, too.

I think Bella is holding an Argentine Tegu

And we ended with cupcakes, singing, and presents - after everyone washed their hands, of course.

 

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, children can get baptized at the age of eight, which we believe is the age of accountability. Bella was excited about her decision to get baptized and become a member of the Church. It was a beautiful night.

Bella Sargent

Family Picture - the whole group
Trudi Sargent, Jason Sargent, Jared
Sierra Risner, Nathen, Breya, Maria, Nikki, Rachel, Allie, Barbara Alton, Dennis Alton
Kylie Risner, Bella

My sister's beautiful family!

Nathen, Maria
Breya, Bella

I adore this picture of my lovely parents!

The women in our family.

Our little family

Rachel

Then here are just a few pictures from the same day that don't really go with the theme of this post. I uploaded them, though, so I am going to include them.

I had done Allie's and Breya's hair. Who would have thought?

Roxy getting in on the love, too.

Nikki and Rachel

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie Alton

My parents came to Oklahoma early December. They flew into the Dallas airport, rented a car, and then were going to drive up to Oklahoma City. However, just a little after crossing into Oklahoma, a semi truck hit them and ran them off the road. The car they were driving was totaled, but, miraculously, they were able to walk away from the accident without serious injury. They were sore after, but they didn't even have to go to the hospital to be checked out. We are so grateful for them being watched after. It was clear that it wasn't their time to go.

After their eventful trip up, we got to spend a lot of time with them. I went to my sisters house with the girls for a few days without Jared since he needed to study for and take a final. Then after the final, we went home and got him and returned a few days later to spend more time with my parents.

The day after their arrival, we celebrated Bella's 8th birthday. She had a fun party in the morning, and she got baptized in the evening. We'll talk about that more in the next post.

We did some fun things with them, and we also worked with them. My sister's house sold and was set to close on December 22nd, so we helped pack, paint, and clean. It was sort of a working vacation for my parents, but they still had a good time. We just loved having them around. Allie was especially excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie (she still calls my dad Grandpa Bobbie). And they were excited to see her and Rachel, who had changed and grown quite a bit since they were last here after her birth.

Grandpa Bobbie with Rachel and Bella

Grandma Bobbie with Rachel

Allie excited to see her grandparents, standing by Daddy

Since we were at Maria's house so much, Allie had a lot of fun with her cousins. She loves being with them.

Cute picture of Breya, Allie, and Bella 

On the day that we returned to the city with Jared, we went to the Oklahoma Cityscape. We had purchased a group-on that got us in at a great rate. And proceeds went to Oklahoma City Educare, a flagship early childhood education center. It didn't end up being quite how we had envisioned, but it was still pretty cool, and we had a good time. Professional LEGO builders (yes, that job exists) had constructed the Oklahoma City cityscape, the buildings and scenes from downtown, with over 2 million LEGOs. They also had three or four table areas where people could build their own creations. We had a good time talking as we built different things.

Allie enjoyed watching the train go around and around.

Jared and Nathen building their creations.

You can see some of the buildings in the background.

Allie with Grandma Bobbie and Nikki all having fun.

Grandma Bobbie showing Breya LEGO man. 

We were reminded how lucky we are to have such a wonderful baby during the times we were packing, painting, and cleaning. Though I sometimes felt guilty for "abandoning her," we were able to let Rachel sit by herself and play with toys for long stretches of time. She wasn't truly abandoned or alone, either. The cousins loved visiting with her, especially Bella and Nathen.

Rachel, happy just chilling on the floor.

Nathen and Rachel

While packing, some of Maria's holiday decorations were available for little hands to grab. Allie found a black Halloween scaredy cat decoration that she liked to play with. After carrying it around with her for awhile, she discovered that it fit on Kira's back just perfectly. (Kira is a Husky that Maria was dog-sitting. She was so patient and good with the kids.)

The night before my parents left, we went to the mall for the kids to see Santa. Allie was incredibly excited to see Santa. She didn't end up with as big of a smile as we thought she'd have in the picture, but it was still such a cute picture with the cousins and Santa.

Bella, Santa, Allie

Rachel, Breya, Nathen

When we got home, we tried out a gift from my mom, a complete nail kit system. It is simple and makes your nails look so good. I prefer not to have paint on my fingernails, so I like that this makes my nails look healthy and shiny. Breya wanted to treat Jared to a nail treatment, too. He was so good to let her work on his nails and cuticles. I thought these pictures were precious.

Breya giving Jared a manicure

It is always so hard saying goodbye to my parents. We truly enjoyed having them here and look forward to seeing them again, whenever that may be.

A Few Family Photos

A friend of ours took some pictures of us when we were on campus in October. We were grateful for the pictures since we didn't really have any nice family pics, yet. The only one we had up until then was taken shortly after coming home from the hospital and was just an impromptu picture. But here are some of the ones that we like best. Thank you Gargeyi! You'll notice that one of them is now at the top of our blog (and that one was edited by our friend, Eva. Thank you!)

Jared took a picture of me that day, too. It actually didn't turn out too bad.

Rachel's Baby Blessing

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an ordinance is performed for babies in which a name and a blessing is given. If the father holds the Melchizedek, then he gets to perform the blessing. So on November 13, 2011, Jared got to bless Rachel. It was a beautiful blessing, and Rachel was beautiful in her dress.

Auntie Maria, Nathen, Allie, Jared, Nikki, Rachel
Breya, Bella