Mia's Top 10

1

 I try to bask in the rare still and lady-like moments we catch of Mia... 

 

 ...because this chickadee is a mover and a shaker in every sense 

(we to appreciate the moving and shaking too)!

2

Here she is moving and shaking on the make-shift bungee swing 

Dad made her out of Gma's exercise bands:

3

Dad is also proud that his girl is NOT a fair-weather athlete.  

Mia would take her daily cruise in our sub-freezing whether with nothing more than her birthday suit 

if mom didn't always cramp her style.

4

Moving and shaking while trying to be helpful:

5

Some more moving...

 6

Some more shaking (or "shimmying," to be exact)...

7

...and a little something more to go with that shake!

8

Lately, Mia finds it comical to escape and hide when I'm not looking. She knows that one of my pet peeves is  retrieving her from the glories of Gma's kitchen just beyond the door at the top of the stairs back to our basement abode.  Thus, when Mia decides that the ennui of Mom's routine needs to be spiced up a bit, she will make a break for it! Today she must have noticed her tactics becoming stale because when I went to steal her from the usual pre-freedom perch (see the photo below), 

I found her, instead, crouched sneakily behind the dryer in our laundry room. 

9

Casually putting Beyonce to shame...

10

My favorite milestone this month:

mastering the toilet.  Hooray!

Holiday Season, Part Two

Mia and cousin Talan jollifully celebrating by Great-Gma R's fire on Christmas 'Eve:

Loves for Mia's sweet Great-Gma R who is so ahead of the gift-giving game that present opening is just as much a surprise to her as it is to her recipients. 

Her Christmas shopping is usually done before March and all is wrapped by Easter! 

The usual excitement of Christmas morning was deflated a bit this year. 

We had so wanted to be in our new house for the holidays (moving day, by the way, will officially occur this week instead) and even worse, Mia woke up feeling crummy. 

It literally took us a valuable hour (the church hour was fast approaching) to convince her to open her stocking...let alone open a present.  She just wanted to go back to bed!

Once she had tasted a few of her stocking goodies however, she had picked up a little steam:

            Having Christmas on a Sunday was really quite nice.  Our ward is blessed with tons of musical talent...particularly a harpist, so our meeting was perfectly ethereal. 

It was also a bitter-sweet ending to six years of attending this ward (well, a life-time of attendance for David...six years for me).  We will miss seeing both the temple and Gma K sitting next to us each Sunday.

For a touch of nostalgia, Mia wore the Christmas dress my mom had made for me when I was her age (complete with giant white collar) but topped it off with a most appropriate new Christmas coat.

Post-church celebrations with our fun R family:  Mia was so pleased with her new purple tutu.

We got to celebrate with Gma K and my siblings the following day.  

Mia was feeling much more seasonable after a long, sound sleep.

Gma K made Mia a night gown that, along with her purple tutu, 

has been the most key piece in her wardrobe these past two weeks.