Loving the Extra Time with my Baby!

Having this whole week off of work has been fantastic! I love getting to spend all day with the cutest baby in the entire world! Nothing beats being with her and getting some of these precious pictures while I'm at it - talk about a win-win!

Here she is in her signature color - loin cloth style!
I LOVE her smile! (Try as I may, I could not get this picture to rotate correctly for this post, so turn your head sideways and enjoy.)

Oh, how cute!

I sure love that smile!

Celebrating our early Christmas with my parents. That's by far the most presents our tree has seen all season - thanks Mom and Dad!

Libby is showing off her new "brain-squeezer" and rattle from Grammy & Pops - she thoroughly enjoyed the unwrapping experience, too.

Christmas Dresses

Libby must be a first baby! Who else gets TWO Christmas dresses?!? She just looks so darn cute in both of them, I couldn't stand the idea of returning one.

Her first time to wear her Christmas dress from Grandma was at my work party. Believe it or not, it was her first non-angelic moment in her whole life. She's usually a total party animal, but I guess she just wasn't feeling it that night because she was in rare form. We only lasted about 45 minutes at the party and once we got her home she was all smiles - little stinker!
So festive with her cute daddy!

She wore this dress again this week at church and got tons of compliments from everyone. After church I put her in her fake bumbo and the dress was exploding out of it. It was so cute, I had to take more pictures, and boy am I glad I did! I think this one is adorable!

This is Libby's typical picture face. She always looks like this in every picture we take. I swear we don't beat her - the fear is just hilarious though!

This is her other Christmas dress that I had purchased before Diann gave us the other one. We took this for our Christmas card picture and she continued to sport her "picture-face" in almost all of the ones we took then, too!

Libby helped decorate the tree this year. She put up both of her "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments - one from each grandma!

She fell asleep while we were decorating and I got this one of her right after she woke up. Oh my gosh - if that isn't the sweetest face ever, I don't know what is! I love this girl SOOOOOO much!

Shalon's Baby Shower

Today was Shalon's Baby Shower at Sarah's house. She's due to have Baby Boy Crockett on Jan. 22 and is the first of a whole slew of pregnant ladies in our ward. She is looking more darling by the day & we had a great time at the shower.

The guest of honor at the food table.
Nichole, Rachel (with Ty), Cindy, and Courtney

Paige (with Cassidy), Mom (with Libby), and Shalon

Mandy and Rhett

Sara and Kristin Katelyn (with Tessa), Diana, Blaine, and Cindy (with Ty)

Jenny and LeAnn (with Cash)

Mark was a great sport and let us involve him in the shower game. They played a baby version of the newly-wed game we dubbed "Shalon & Mark's Parenting Showdown" and both did a great job! It appears they agree on most things...all but that whole poopy diaper thing, that is!

Best buds: Sarah, Laura, Shalon, and me. We had so much fun throwing the shower for Shalon and can't wait till next month for Laura's turn! Babies, babies everywhere!!!!

San Francisco Day Trip

While in Northern California, we took a day trip to San Francisco. I love the city and we totally scored on the weather - it was perfect! Libby's chalking up more adventures by the minute! ;)

First stop was Pier 39 to check out all of the sea lions. There weren't as many as there have been in years past when we've gone, but it's always fun to watch and listen to them (not so fun to smell them, though - YUCK!).
You can see what a gorgeous day it was. We were tempted to try to get a last minute Alcatraz tour, but it was a no-go. Oh, well - that gives us something to go back for!
The whole gang in front of the Christmas tree at Pier 39. This was right after we dined on some famous SF clam chowder in a sourdough breadbowl...yum, yum!

You can't go to SF and not ride the cable cars! The Mitchell gang had fun hanging out the side and Devin managed to get yelled at multiple times throughout the day - that troublemaker!!!

Libby's first cable car experience. It got a bit chilly on the ride, so I was more than happy to have my own personal lap-heater with me.

Once the sun went down, it got cold fast! Libby was all bundled up and looked sooooo adorable! We had to wait in a really long line to get back on the cable car at Union Square. It was insanely busy there (what with it being Black Friday and all), but it was so fun to see the decorations and get into the spirit of the season.

We finished off the day at Ghirardelli Square for the Christmas tree lighting there. They have a store there with this huge Elizabeth sign and we were so excited to take our Elizabeth's picture with it! I knew her name would be in big lights one day...I just didn't realize it'd be so soon!

The next day we met up with our friends Emily and Jan for lunch and then went to see Harry Potter with the whole family. I spent the whole time in the foyer with Libby who apparently is NOT a Harry Potter fan. Oh, well! Then, we went to a Kings game that night and had a great time. They lost, but it was still fun. My mom was nice enough to watch Libby for us so I got to cheer as loudly as I wanted!

Thanksgiving in Northern California

We headed up to Rocklin for Thanksgiving at my Aunt Tammy's house this year and it was amazing! We were so lucky that she let us invite ourselves - it was wonderful! Another great road trip for Libby, too - 10 hours to get home on Sunday and she never cried once! How did I get so lucky??!!??

We decided to take advantage of the gorgeous fall colors and get a cute family picture while we were there. Libby is showing off another one of her fantastic outfits, of course! (We tried to get her to smile, but it was a no go - not for lack of effort by the Libby-entertaining squad, though. They were hilarious! Thanks Eric and Cheryl.)
While snacking on yummy appetizers, we all played a few rounds of my mom's new "Minute to Win It" game. The losers outweighed the winners, unfortunately.

Libby enjoying some time with her Uncle Randy - wouldn't be Randy without a toothpick in his mouth!

Tammy slaved away making the most amazing dinner ever, and then we relegated her and the other adults to the "kid table" while the younger generation took over the real table. Sorry, old folks! ;)

Half of the kids who took over the adult table.

The other half of the kid contingent - Tammy couldn't stand the idea of not being a kid, I guess!

Libby slept through most of the meal and was the highlight of the day, as always. She is such an angel!