Christmas 2008

Well, another Christmas has come and gone... it seems like it went really fast this year. Joel's parents were here for Christmas and the kids really enjoyed having them stay with us. Hopefully everybody got what they wanted. Kaitlyn was happy, she got a Dora tent, Dora princess dress-ups, and a Dora phone. I know, I know I said I wasn't going to buy anymore Dora stuff, but how do you not get the kid what she wants for Christmas? That was all she asked for... MORE DORA! Christian got a dump truck he can ride on and it makes honking noises and back-up noises, etc. Dylan and Kinlee got bikes and a few other things. They all seemed happy on Christmas morning. Here are some of the pics...
Apparently Kaitlyn needed the "plus-sized" dress-ups. Her belly likes to stick out of this one. Hee hee.

Here is Dylan playing his new Nintendo game "Bolt". Actually that game was for Kinlee, but luckily they share games.

Kaitlyn peeking out of her Dora tent. She could live in this thing I think. :)

Christian loves his new dump truck.

More princess dress ups.

Kaitlyn and Kinlee got this little kitchen... originally Santa got it for Kaity, but Kinlee informed me that she wanted one too. Kinlee also got an easy-bake oven for Christmas. I had one when I was little and I remember using that thing all the time. Luckily I already had a 100 watt bulb which is not included with the oven. :)

The new bikes. :)

We took the kids to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" that night. Kaitlyn fell asleep just when the previews were over and woke up in time to go home. She wasn't too happy about it when we started to leave. She thought the movie hadn't started yet. :) Anyway, I hope you all had a good Christmas too!

Can't believe it's been 14 years!

Well, Joel and I got married 14 years ago today... who knew it would last this long? Just kidding... we looked so young and dumb back then. We had no idea what we were in for, who ever does? Look at my wedding cake, the flowers were supposed to be burgundy to match the ribbon on the cake, not purple! You would think I would have done something with my hair that day too. If I had it to do over again I would totally do everything different (not the groom of course! well... maybe. Just kidding!) It was a freezing cold day, but it was a great day. I can't believe we have had 4 kids and have built 10 houses since these pictures were taken. It doesn't seem like that long ago.

You can tell it was cold, everyone's noses are red and we just wanted to get the pictures out of the way so we could all go back inside and get warm again. Unfortunately, Joel's mom passed away about 4 weeks before we got married. She was very sick with cancer and probably wouldn't have been able to make the trip from Canada to our wedding if she had lived long enough. We figured she was definitely there with us in the temple when we were sealed. There was an empty seat next to Joel's dad saved just for her.

Happy Anniversary babe! Let's see if we can make it another 14 years! :)

First Snow

Well, it finally snowed enough to where the snow is sticking to the ground! Not that I'm happy about it, but the kids were. They wanted to go outside and play in it, so I took that opportunity to have them shovel the snow. :) Here are a few pics of them...

They were actually fighting over who got to use the shovel and had to take turns. Wow, that never happens with any other chores. They did shovel the whole driveway, then decided to pull the someone on the sled around behind the little 4-wheeler. They had a ball and were thrilled with the new snow. I'm sure that will wear off soon when they are ready for the warm the weather again. :)

What's wrong with this picture?

Does anyone think these Dora pajamas could be a little too small for Kaity? She will not let me get rid of them because she loves them so much, but I think she might have outgrown them a year ago... also notice that she refuses to let anyone help her get them on, you can see the tag sticking up in front of her neck which happens most of the time either pants or shirt or both. "I DO IT MYSELF!" is her motto. I am definitely going to hide these pjs from her, she looks like the Incredible Hulk after he has busted out of his normal clothes.

Also, little Christian is getting MOLARS if you can even believe it! He opened his mouth wide today and I saw two little molars popping out in the back of his mouth. No wonder he has been biting everything and everyone he comes in contact with! He has been grumpy and biting his brother, sisters, me, and I think he even tried to bite Grandma and Grandpa the other night. :) Now we know why. He isn't even 11 months old yet! Why does he have so many teeth? These kids are just growing too fast... anyone need some 2T Dora pjs?

Oh Christmas Tree

Well, putting up the Christmas tree is my kids' favorite thing do for Christmas. It seems like it gets earlier each year. Kinlee wanted to do it before Thanksgiving, but we told her we at least had to wait until after that. So, Sunday night we put our Christmas tree up and all the decorations... it wasn't even December yet! Here is Kinlee with her fiber optic Santa that I let her put in her room...


Christian pulling Kaitlyn's hair during the picture taking...

Christian helping with the ornaments...

Here are the kids getting the ornaments ready to put on the tree...

I seem to remember loving putting up the tree when I was little too, why does it seem like such a chore to do now? Once it's up I do love to look at it though. It brings a nice glow and Christmas spirit to the house. Too bad I haven't done ANY Christmas shopping yet. I guess I better get on that!! :)

Thanksgiving

Well, we had a pretty laid back Thanksgiving at my house with Joel's sister Leigh Anne and her family. I cooked a turkey, which turned out great (thanks to my mom being available on the phone a few times to answer my questions) except it wasn't done when it was supposed to be done. We were planning on eating at 1:00 and the little thermometer thingy finally popped out at 1:25, but it was better to wait than eat a turkey that wasn't quite done! Here is Christian with his baby food "turkey dinner"...

Bailey, Kinlee and Kaitlyn standing by the warm oven waiting for the turkey thermometer to pop out...

Here are the little turkeys Kinlee, Bailey, and I made for the name tags, I got the idea from my niece-in-law Camille from last Thanksgiving. By the way, Brandon (my nephew) and Camille just had a new baby boy on Tuesday which weighed 10 pounds 4 ounces and was 22 inches long!!! What a big boy! I am a great aunt now. :)

Here are Bailey and Kinlee "patiently" waiting for their Thanksgiving dinner to be done...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Twilight

Okay, I admit it , I loved the movie. It followed the book pretty closely and although the special effects were a little cheesy, I really liked it overall. I laughed at some of the serious parts, but that's what made it so fun. I think the girl playing Bella was really good and she fits perfectly what my image of Bella would be. I liked Edward, but in my mind he is too perfect for any person to really capture. This Edward was pretty good though. I really hope they make the other 3 books into movies and this time they could spend a little more money on the special effects (like the skin in the sunlight looked like glowing fuzz or something like that). I think my favorite part was when Bella walked into Biology class and the fan blew her scent over to Edward and he looked like he was going to throw up. That was pretty funny. Anyway, what did you guys think?

He's Getting Too Big

Well, I went in to check on Christian today and I found him STANDING UP in his crib! He is getting too big and soon he won't be my little baby anymore. When I opened the door, he just looked at me like "check me out! I'm big now!" It was so cute, he just started giggling and laughing because he knew this was pretty cool for him to be able to do. He is such a sweet baby and Kaitlyn is even pretty good to him now. They have fun splashing in the tub together and playing with toys together. I'm glad they are getting to the point that they can kind of play together now.

So Weird

I can't figure out why but Kinlee has this really unfounded, crazy fear of the weather. Every time it rains or it's a little windy she freaks out and thinks a "twister" is coming. I think she watched "Storm Chasers" one day with Dylan quite a while back, but she still gets really upset about any clouds, wind, or rain. She worries about Joel and thinks he is out working in the weather and wants me to call him to make sure he's okay. On Saturday, we went up to my mom's house for a baby shower and she could see the leaves on a tree in my mom's backyard fluttering in the breeze and started to get upset. She wanted me to take her home right then because she thought a twister was coming. This morning I kept her home from school because she had a fever and sore throat yesterday, so she keeps looking outside at the dark sky and she can't see the mountains because it's misty and she is getting upset about it. There is pretty much no wind at all, but she sees the tree moving around a tiny bit and thinks some terrible storm is coming. I had to close all the blinds so she can't look outside! This is getting ridiculous! I can't let her watch the weather in the morning because if the 5 day forecast has clouds, rain, or snow in it, she looks at me like "oh my gosh, what are we going to do?!!" Anyway, I hope she grows out of this soon. I don't know how to get her to stop worrying, I try to tell her that she's too little to worry about stuff like that and to let grown-ups worry about things like that, but she just can't seem to help herself. Any suggestions? :)

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Well, today Kaitlyn finally turns 3 years old! I say finally because it seems like the "terrible twos" have lasted quite a while with her. :) She is such a funny girl and brings a lot of craziness yet a lot of love to our family. Kaitlyn was a small baby weighing 6 pounds, 6 ounces at birth. She still LOVES Dora, but is finally branching out to other things too. She can spot Dora in any store from a mile away. Have you ever gone to the store and noticed how many Dora products there actually are? Well, take her with you; it's like her eyes automatically zoom in on the Dora things and she wants to get them ALL!

Here are a few things you might not know about Kaitlyn:

Her favorite color is pink (big surprise).

Her favorite food to eat is oatmeal with bananas (she calls it "meatmoal")

Her favorite drink is lemonade (she calls it "my-yade")

She LOVES to jump on the trampoline with Dylan and Kinlee

She can sleep through pretty much anything, which is good since she shares a room with her baby brother.

She is ALMOST potty-trained, we're still working on it. :)

She can say the prayer all by herself and it is very sweet.

Below are a few pictures from the past...

I just remember her lips looked really big and red when she first greeted us...

She adores her big sis Kinlee...

Dylan has always been very sweet to Kaitlyn...

This is when she had just turned one year-old...

Happy birthday little Kaitlyn! We love you very much!