Sierra's First Birthday

We are still alive and kicking, but in Idaho!

Sorry it has taken us so long to update our blog. We have had many things happen since last time. Mostly we have moved, Sierra turned one, and we are having another baby, a boy! We moved back to Rexburg for Dillon to go back to school. Sierra has grown a ton and is saying some words, she knows enough to tell us what she wants, about 12 words. She is still a very good baby for us and adds such a great spirit to our family. For her birthday she got to have two parties. Nana and Papa visited at the beginning of July so she had a party with them, and on her birthday Grandma and the kids came over and spent the night. She got a bike for her birthday and it turned out to be one of her favorite toys, every time we go outside she heads straight to her bike. For Halloween she was a hershey kiss, the cutest one I have ever seen, and she loved it. She wore the whole night at our ward party and in the car to Dillon's mom's house. Then on the 31st again and she still begs to wear it if she sees it anywhere. When we took her trick-or-treating she fell asleep so it didn't last long and she got about 5 pieces of candy. The important thing is she got to wear her costume for 3 hours and loved every second of it.
We are doing well here in Rexburg. We love our new ward and our neighbors. We are very lucky to live where we do with such good people around us. So far Dillon has gotten by without having a calling in church yet, but I am sure it is coming soon. Dillon has been working for Advantage Tree Care again and is loving it. He also has joined the National Guard since we have been here, and he is also enjoying that. I am currently the primary president and we have 10 kids, all in the nursery. I still just stay at home with Sierra and we babysit a couple of boys 3 times a week. Anyways, I will try to better about updating this blog and keep you all updated. We hope all is going well with everyone, we love you all!!! Love The Dances

Sierra's Visitors

We had visitors this week and it was very tiring, as you can see Sierra really did get worn out. These are her cousins from Arizona and every time we get the five of them together we try to get their picture, because they are all my mom's grandbabies. They did a really good job and the kids all had a good visit with each other.

My First 12-days of Christmas

She really was funny because we are always excited for them to open their presents and they are way more interested in the wrapping paper.

Sierra just hanging out with Aunt Shawni and Uncle Dexan in Wyoming.

Sierra's First Christmas & New Year's!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this one posted, so I'll give a quick update at the end about what we are doing now.

We spent Christmas in Wyoming with Dillon's family this year. We actually had two Christmas get-togethers. Sunday before we left to Wyoming we exchanged gifts with my family. Everyone had a great time because they got to open their presents early, because they had to go to Aztec on Christmas Eve to run the wagons at the Fantasy of Lights. We left and got to Wyoming late on Sunday. Sierra was great in the car because she slept the whole way. At Dillon's house they exchange gifts with the family on Christmas Eve, different than my family's tradition, and their Santa gifts on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve was on a Monday so Cindy did a small family home evening, reading us letters from Duke out in the mission field. Shawni and Dexan did a skit telling the Christmas Story, that Dillon narrated on the spot from the scriptures. It was really cute. Then Dillon and I had prepared our part of family home evening with a slide show about Mary and Jesus Christ, called "Mary Did You Know?" something we found on the internet. This was my first Christmas away from my family so I was scared, but it was okay. They definately have different traditions than my family. In my family we have finger-foods and snacks while we open gifts on Christmas Eve (because Santa comes on Christmas Eve). At Dillon's house they had a big nice Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve and use the left-overs for Christmas day because that is Cindy's day off for the year. We really had a great time and a fun vacation while we were there. I got to go on one of my first snowmobile rides with Dillon and it was fun! I was scared but really enjoyed it.

The other thing I want to share with you are a couple traditions in my family that we do around Christmas. One is we always choose a family, or two, to do the 12 days of Christmas. This year we chose two families from our ward, one who is a part-member family with the dad investigating the church; and the other is an inactive family who has really gone through some tough times lately. I always wanted to just do it the easy way and not get caught. Dillon wanted to do it the "fun" way and be sneaky and not get caught. We did this together with my family and everyone really had a lot of fun.
The other tradition is my parents always did the 12 days to us with a little twist. Each day for 12 days before Christmas we opened a gift that my mom put out at night with a note. On the first day we always recieve a Christmas ornament and when you move out you have 18 ornaments to take with you and have at your first Christmas. The rest of the days we got socks, toothbrushes, candy, deoderant, etc. just small cheap things that we needed and would enjoy. My parents started this when my little brother was a toddler because he always wanted to open his gifts. So my mom and dad started to do the 12 days and he would be allowed to open a gift every day to pacify him and save a fight with my parents. So I wanted to carry on the tradition with Sierra. She got her first Christmas ornament, a lot of socks, and some baby food. I think it will be more fun next year when Sierra is older.

Sierra got to spend her first New Year's in Wyoming also. We stayed up watching movies and played games with the family. She stayed up later than usual, but fell fast asleep and enjoyed the new year the next morning. One night she was up past 10:00 and Shawni and Dexan started talking silly to her and she laughed and laughed. It was so funny because she laughed really hard for about 15 minutes. By the end of the 15 minutes she was laughing hard, but without a smile on her face. It was almost like she couldn't make herself quit laughing. It was pretty funny.

Now Sierra is trying to crawl. She is so funny because she lunges. She will get up on her hands and knees and scoot her knees near her elbows and then lunge herself forward by throwing her arms out. If she isn't doing that she army crawls or rolls around everywhere. She always gets where she wants to. Dillon is still coaching wrestling and will be taking the kids to regionals this weekend. He is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and I am still in the Young Women's Presidency. I am still staying home with Sierra and hanging out with my mom, and I am going to start watching my sister's kids for extra money within the next couple of weeks. That's what we are doing and we are looking forward to better weather in life.

Hope all is well with all you, we send our love, Dillon, Alicia, and Sierra Dance.

Sierra's First Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Colorado with my family this year. Sierra had so much fun that she slept through dinner. Funny, but true. When she woke up we all gathered together to attempt taking a family picture (with 11 people). If you all have the same experience with this as we do, it was a tough task. We managed to get the picture and dinner over before anybody got to upset. Dillon and I also tried to take our family picture. That was also a tough task, but we got an okay picture with all three of us looking in the camera's direction. Other than Thanksgiving we have been just doing the same ol' thing. Dillon works and has been having a good time coaching wrestling. He has become the "official short-bus driver," and I took pictures because it is funny to see him drive a bus. We get to go on some wrestling trips with him.The high school wrestlers are a lot more enthusiastic so I think it is going better for him, as a coach. Sierra and I just hang out with my mom and each other. Sierra did get sick a few weeks ago, but she is doing better now. She is talking a lot and has even rolled over for the first time. She goes from her back to her stomach and then gets mad. She has also had her first foods: sweet potatoes, carrots, and cereal. She loves eating. When we feed her she starts smiling and kicking her feet with excitement. She weighs about 12lbs 11oz now. She is doing great, and she is a joy to have in our life. She is such a good baby and is at a really fun age as she begins to discover the world around her. Dillon has a new calling in church, in the Elders Quorum Presidency and I am still in Young Womens. With work and our church callings we keep pretty busy. Things are going pretty good with us and we are having a good time. We are looking forward to going to Wyoming for Christmas, for a small vacation.
We will probably do another update after Christmas, until then hope you all have a great holiday season.
Love you all, Dillon, Alicia, and Sierra Dance