KINLEES NEW ROOM

Well our little kinlee is growing up and wanted her room to be downstairs and away from the other kids. so after many late nights and weekends we finally finished it. We had room to make two smaller bedrooms but decided to make it one large bedroom instead. we went with the shaker styleboard and baton look and made two large built in bookcases with a desk built in between, (nothing is to good for our Kinlee). anyways she is excited to have her own room. Mom spoiled her and took her to get a new bedspread. she is a cute girl and desereves it.

WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT WE WOULD LAST 15 YEARS

Wow where has all the time gone, I never thought Jill could put up with me this long. Anyways it has been 15 years since we got married and i can honestly say that Jill deserves a medal, a BIG freaking medal. Jill is my sweetheart and makes my life so easy, she is the greatest mom and wife. I often joke with her that the only good thing i got at BYU was a wife. Anyways on this special day i thought i would let her know how much she means to me. PS she looks good huh.

JUST TRY AND GUESS WHAT I AM THINKING

As you may know our youngest is known as "Dude" beacuase of his white hair and his totally laid back view on life, here is a picture that totally sums up a day in the life of the dude

First Recitals

Kinlee started playing piano this summer and had her first recital last Saturday. Her teacher teaches a couple other kids in piano, and a few in violin. Kinlee was the first to perform and she played "Oh Come All Ye Faithful". Her teacher played an accompaniment with her. She wasn't nervous at all and did a great job. Here she is before the performance...

Waiting patiently for the recital to begin...

Here she is playing her song...

Then, last night Dylan also had a performance at school. He was put into band (not his choice, but the school put him in band) at the beginning of the school year and has been playing the trumpet. They also played several Christmas songs... he did a great job as well. I was a bad mom and forgot to take the camera to the performance, but here he is afterwards with his trumpet...

He wasn't too thrilled about being thrown into band and thought his braces could get him out of it... but he is fine with it now and I think he even enjoys it!

Things that make me laugh

Well, there have been a few funny things going on at our house that have made me laugh over the last week or so. I figure I won't forget them if I write them down on the blog. The other day when the big snow storm hit, Christian kept pointing out the window and saying "NOSE" because he couldn't say "snow". It just made me laugh every time he said it. Then one night at dinner time Kaitlyn was eating her dinner and said to me "Mommy this dinner is so delicious it's making my brain hurt!" Not sure where that came from, but I took it as a compliment. Also, Kinlee likes to pretend she is a fashion model and gets out ties, hats, shoes, sunglasses, etc. from my closest and dresses up in them and has me take pictures of her posing. Here are a couple... there are about 30 more pictures but I thought I would spare you having to look at them all...

Here is a pic of the kids out in the snow the first day it came... they liked it for a day or so. :)

We recently went to the mall and Santa happened to be there, and there was almost NO LINE to sit on his lap. Katy really wanted to talk to him and tell him all the things she wanted for Christmas (which could take quite a while) but she kind of froze up when he asked her and just said in a very tiny voice "princess stuff". Here is Katy and Kinlee on Santa's lap...

First, we tried to get Christian on Santa' s lap for a picture, but I couldn't snap it quick enough, he screamed and couldn't get off Santa's knee fast enough! I took these pics with my phone... here is Christian trying to get away from Santa...Anyway, it's the little funny things the kids do that make each day worthwhile and give me a laugh. A couple more things that made me laugh... Kinlee after getting fillings at the dentist drooling all over herself and trying to talk with a mouth full of saliva, Christian waking up each day with wrinkly fingers because he sticks his hands down in his diaper when he sleeps (ok that is kind of gross, but still funny), Dylan wearing the same 2 pairs of pants all the time because he says they are the only warm ones he has (jeans are too cold in his opinion), Kaitlyn singing "You belong with me" at the top of her lungs in the car with Taylor Swift. And the list could go on... hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and remember the little things that make us smile. :)

Kaitlyn turns 4!

Well, Katy had a birthday on November 7th... we were on the cruise so when we got home, Grandma Pilling had a cake ready to go so we could celebrate. We had to stop at Walmart on the way home from the airport to get her this Cinderella doll... they didn't have Disney princesses anywhere we went on our trip... wonder why? Anyway, she also got an Ariel doll from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson which she loves the most. Kinlee gave her some lip gloss too. She is totally into princesses now, but Dora is still up there as a favorite. She loves to be a big girl like her older sister (even though Kinlee doesn't always enjoy it) and wants to do everything Kinlee does. She keeps us on our toes and loves to get love and attention from everyone! We love you Katy! Happy birthday!

Cruise to Caribbean!

Well, we had been talking about it for months, and we finally decided to go ahead and go on a cruise since our 15th anniversary is coming up in December. Also, at the beginning of the year, Joel and I started serious dieting and exercising. He promised me that if we both reached our goal weights, he would take me on a cruise. Well, he lost 35 pounds, and I lost 23. I think we both gained it all back in one week with all the amazing food on that ship! Not really, but we did do some serious buffet eating. :) It was a lot of fun. Our first stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. Wasn't too impressed with this place, but we snorkeled and laid on the beach for a while so it was okay, but it had been pretty beat up by a hurricane a couple years ago and they are still trying to re-build everything. The next stop was Belize. We were told not to venture too far away from the main tourist shops here because it is such a poor country and the people might be aggressive toward tourists so we just did some shopping and eating there and went back to the ship. The next day we went to Cozumel and headed to a state park there to snorkel and relax. Well, as soon as we got our snorkel gear on and were ready to get in the water, we looked up at the sky and these huge black clouds were rolling in along with some lightning. We decided not to get in the water right then, and I'm glad we didn't because it started pouring rain and thunder and lightning. We waited it out at a little outdoor (covered) restaurant, but then started to realize it was not going to blow over any time soon, so we decided to go back to the village shops and look around for a while, then headed back to the boat. Didn't want to be away from the food too long! The last stop was Grand Cayman which was really nice. We had signed up for an excursion to go see the stingrays and snorkel around some cool reefs, but the tropical storm in the area made it so that side of the beach was way too rough and they said there were swells of 6 to 8 feet so they cancelled it. We were able to stay on the other side of the beach though and went snorkeling around some really good reefs and a shipwreck too. We saw some BIG fish there and had a good time. It was very relaxing and we really enjoyed ourselves, but all in all we were glad to get home to the kids. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Pilling for watching our kids all week! We missed them a lot and were thankful to get home. We had a connecting flight in Dalls coming home and on that flight a lady got sick halfway through and we had to turn around and fly all the way back to Dallas to let her get off with her "medical emergency". We were pretty mad, but finally we made it home a couple hours later than originally planned. We celebrated Katy's birthday when we got home because we were on the cruise during her birthday. Grandma had a cake and everything ready for when we got home.
Anyway, here are some pictures from the cruise... they are all in random order. :)Here is Joel as we are heading into Grand Cayman from the ship. They had to anchor the boat a ways out and take us to shore in smaller tinder boats...
I think this was in Belize... this guy was just letting everyone pose for a picture with him...

This was in Belize too...

Here is our ship and another one next to it... ours was called the Carnival Valor....

Here we are on one of the tinder boats that took us to shore...

Me...

This is heading into Belize...

Waiting for an excursion to go snorkeling...

Cayman Islands...

The cabin steward always made towel animals and put them on our bed each night... this one was wearing my sunglasses! It was funny...

A stingray...

Anyway, we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves way too much... when we got home we got on the scale and had a heart attack, and then wondered where the buffet was and the mints on our pillows? I felt like I was swaying a little for a few days after too. Can't wait to go again!

Costco smoothies are the best!

We love to get the berry smoothie at Costco anytime we go there, but the other day we went and apparently Katy's smoothie wasn't coming up fast enough through the straw so she decided to take off the lid and drink it that way... as you can see it didn't work out too well for her. :)

Halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone again. It's always stressful to me trying to find costumes or figure out what the kids want to be each year for some reason. I hate spending money on costumes, but I guess there's not much way around it unless you stick a bedsheet over their head and call them a ghost! ;) Anway, Kinlee was a "crazy" hair designer, she had pink hair and a brush and hair spray in this stylist's apron she borrowed from Bailey. She looked very cute...
You really can't even see Dylan in this picture, which is why he chose this costume I think... He is the grim reaper. All you can see are his hands and feet...

Christian was a lion, but wasn't too thrilled about wearing his costume. It lasted a little while after he figured out he was getting treats at each house...

Here are all the kids in front of our house... Katy was a blonde Snow White. Dylan is the black shadowy figure behind Kinlee...

I thought this one was cute because of Kinlee's pose and the funny look on Katy's face...

Anyway, the kids got way too many treats as usual, but thank goodness Joel and I left that night for our cruise and Grandma and Grandpa Pilling had to deal with all the leftover candy!

Swine flu is not our friend!

Well, we found out Wednesday that Katy has swine flu. Not sure where that came from, and I was pretty much shocked to find that out when I took her to the doctor for a sore throat, cough and fever. I thought she might have strep throat again because she had that about 6 weeks ago, but low and behold, they told me she has swine flu. They prescribed Tamiflu for her which was very expensive ($70 copay on my rotten insurance), which most of the time she spits out because she doesn't like the taste of it. She seems to be doing okay though and I'm hoping we don't have anymore symptoms pop up from this. Here is a pic of her today... she is doing pretty good...
This is a rainbow from Wednesday night after the big rain, it was pretty cool...

This was Katy two days ago... you can see her red and watery eyes. That was the symptom that made the doctor think she had the flu and therefore tested her for it...

Anyway... we are hanging out at home watching a lot of videos and doing pretty much nothing else. I feel bad for my older kids because this is their fall break and all their friends and cousins have gone out of town and we can't really go anywhere because of Katy. They are getting tired of staying home. Hopefully, Joel is going to take Dylan and Kinlee bowling and to a movie tomorrow to make up for it. They aren't very impressed. :)