Home for Christmas

It's Christmas night. The girls are in bed an hour early (I think they overdid it today). Jase had to work tonight so I'm sitting here thinking about the day. We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We couldn't make it home this year, but we managed to make it special here ourselves. We ate by candlelight, sang, watched a movie together and allowed the girls to open one present--pajamas. We did the webcam with my family. It was great to be able to see all the family gathered together. Even if we couldn't be there at least for a few minutes we were a part of it. I'm certain we won't always live this far away and so I must say that some day we will be home for Christmas.

I'm working on a little picture project so pics are soon to come.

Favorite Insults from a Three year old

When Kayla gets frustrated or mad at me she says one of three things:

"Fine, I'm not playin with you." (folding her arms with angry eyes)

"You're not pretty!" It's especially my favorite when she says this to Jason.

"I'm telling Santa to put you on the naughty list." (In the spirit of the season this threat was born a few days ago)

Kenna's Thanksgiving Performance

Kenna's class along with another class did a little Thanksgiving performance. Kenna's awesome teacher let Kayla sit with all the kids and eat their "thanksgiving dinner." My girls are growing up too fast!

belated halloween

Well for my b-day Jase got me a camera for video sharing. I have intended to load video on my blog since October. Here is the first video I took. This just makes me laugh, mostly because her she is so mad and then suddenly so happy--YEE HAW!

Sledding

Today it finally snowed. I'm sidelined this year from skiing, sledding, ice skating--just about everything that I did last year to try and enjoy the snow.

Kayla asked me to take her sledding today. I told her we could all go, but I could only watch. She asked me why and I told her because if I fell I could hurt the baby. She said, "It's ok mommy, I'll hold you're hand."

Sick

We have been sick around here lately. Being prego I had both the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1. I decided that since Kenna is in school she would get the H1N1 flu mist which she had a couple weeks ago. It is Kenna that has been sick really and I'm just waiting for Kayla to wake me up in the night with her turn. I haven't had a good nights sleep in 4 days so the sickness I have been feeling stems from fatigue I think. I am crossing my fingers that I don't get any kind of flu this year! Kenna is starting to feel better now. It wil be nice to have her back and to get us out of this house this week! On a brighter note-- I can't wait for Thanksgiving and getting my Christmas stuff out. I didn't get to have any of it last year because it was stuck in a storage unit after moving across the country. We will have a 2nd tree for downstairs this year. I really wanted to have a tree that the girls could help decorate with their craftiness. Fun!

Art

So everyday I look forward to the pictures my girls will draw that day. Daily they present their pictures to me. Now that Kenna goes to school every day she creates some great art there too. Here are some of my favs in the last little while.




This is Mckenna's award winning art. She won a smoke alarm and a t-shirt from the fire department for drawing the best picture in honor of fire prevention week. She chose to draw things that are hot. You can see the frying pan at the bottom and the other boxy shapes are stoves, ovens and microwaves. I asked her what the vertical line was coming out of the stoves. She said, "mom, its fire!' What does this say about my cooking? Ouch! haha

A cowboy riding a horse. You will see that there are people following---those are the cowboys children.






Mckenna was asked to draw a picture of what she wanted to be when she grew up: A Dentist. Check out the detail in this picture. The green person is a mommy standing by.

This is Kayla's creation. She told me it's "THE LAUNDRY." I have no comment on this! haha

I don't know how Mckenna could possibly be five. I asked her how she got so big and turned 5 and she told me, "I must have eaten all my vegetables." As much as I enjoy watching her learn and grow I wish that I could keep her first 5 years in a little bottle to enjoy whenever I want.

She has been really into barbie lately so I made her a barbie cake. This was a lot easier than I expected. Her castle cake was much more difficult. Her big gift was a bike (which we gave to her early so she could enjoy it this year). We also got her a journal which has been really fun to see her entries in the last week. I am sure that will be the topic of blog posts to come.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my Mckenna!

"Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

--The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Today Maine votes on weather to allow same sex marriages. While I'm sickened about this issue I guess I can find comfort in my faith that our Heavenly Father is in control.

Happy Birthday Jase!

Today was Jason's birthday. I don't think it was too eventful. We went out to lunch and then finished some kitchen stuff, fun huh? Our birthdays are only 5 days apart with Halloween in between and Mckenna's birthday a week after that. Needless to say each year at this time is pretty eventful.

We had a great Halloween. I couldn't believe how big my girls are. We were invited to a Halloween party and then we all took our kids trick-or-treating together. Mckenna and Kayla didn't need my help at all. They kept right up with the older boys going house to house to collect their treats. I found myself a little emotional (lame, I know) by the fact they didn't need or want me to take them up to each door. I'm glad that I still have another one on the way to "baby." After we got home from trick-or-treating we handed out candy. Well, we let the girls hand out candy. The girls took this job very seriously. Kayla was assigned by Mckenna to open up the door and Kenna declared herself the candy giver to all the "customers." We had a lot of fun watching them do this "job."

Here is the picture of my costume that I promised. It's hard to come up with a costume when you're prego, but I got creative and it turned out great! The skeleton idea I got online, but I had to be creative in making it because there weren't any pictures of this idea online. Now for all of you that are prego during Halloween, you now have a picture to refer to for your costume next year!

Birthday Shout Out

I have to give a little birthday shout out to Sarah. I can not get Mckenna's picture loaded so I may have to snail mail that to you. We love you and hope you have a wonderful day! Happy Birthday!

October

I lost my camera cord and used that as excuse not to post. No new pictures = no one reading anyway. I found my cord and Jase got me a new little video recorder for my b-day so I have no excuses.

Since our last post the biggest news we have is that we are going to be having a baby girl in March. The girls were a little disappointed at first, but we are all excited now! Mckenna insists that the doctor was wrong and it's really a boy. The doctor wasn't 100% sure, but he said if he had to guess from the difficult ultrasound, then he'd guess a girl. Now we just have to come up with yet another name. No real ideas yet. Here's my baby bump and as much as this picture makes me cringe, there have been those of you who have asked for a picture of my "transformation."

The girls have had fun lately by raking our many leaves, decorating cookies and visiting the pumpkin patch. The pictures show what we've been doing.

some kind of pretend play--don't ask me! What makes this picture so great is their matching shirts. They could almost be twins!


Sugar cookies are a tradition at every holiday. The girls are getting good at the decorating or at least eating the frosting from a knife.

Now the pumpkin patch. This was so much fun. Jason's work had a party at the pumpkin patch. They took us on a fun wagon ride to a field where the kids got to go pumpkin hunting.

My birthday was yesterday. I didn't make myself a cake, but my girls did--out of play dough yummy! They also filled a bag with some of their books for my present. Best cake and present I've ever had! Jason got me a little camera that does video so much better than the one I have so be prepared for videos as soon as I can actually figure it out. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. It was a great day.

In addition to my birthday yesterday, we went to a Halloween Party at the church. The girls couldn't be any cuter. Mckenna was a punk rock witch and Kayla was a little cowgirl. YEE HAW! I had a costume of my own, but I'll save that surprise for my Halloween post in a few days.



On top of all this fun stuff we have been working. We have completely remodeled our kitchen in the last two weeks. I will have pictures soon, but I thought a project that size earned its very own special blog post (plus my kitchen is a mess at the moment).

It's ALL about family.

Grandma and Grandpa visited us this past week. It was so fun to show them where we live. It's unbelievably beautiful here in the fall. It still takes my breath away (as cheesy as that sounds). I would post pictures but they don't do it justice. It was so fun to have them visit and share it all with them.

Whenever family comes to stay I always feel so sad when they leave. Our whole married life we have lived far away from family. I have gotten use to it now. There are times that I wish we could live closer. I never dreamed that I'd live far away from everyone that means so much to me. I guess it makes you appreciate them and enjoy them a little more. It makes the time you do have with them a little more meaningful.

End of Summer Fun

We have been up to a lot and I haven't been that good about blogging. I've been busy with house projects (pictures soon to come) school and of course the kids and being prego. Here's a brief illustrated version of the last month or so.

We went to the kids day for the Crown of Maine balloon festival in Aug. This was fun. They had a huge pen of shredded paper with white paper money mixed in that the kids could find and retrieve for a prize. They had more fun jumping and playing in the paper.

Bean bag toss. The girls loved playing all the little games. This was such a fun thing day. The best thing about living here is that it's so family oriented.

The girls competed in the cookie stacking contest. Mckenna won and was happy that her prize was her very own package of cookies.


Just thought this was a cool picture--at one point we could see 8 hot air balloons at once.

They do a hot air balloon festival here in Aug. The girls had so much fun watching them launch and then disappear behind the hill in the back yard.


Mckenna started Soccer last month. Today she scored her first goal. We love our little soccer player. It's pretty entertaining to watch this age group play.

In the last month Kayla learned how to ride a bike. She is quite content to ride around in a circle.

Pretend!

I love kids imaginations.

Kayla: I know what we can play.. lets play "dive into the sea."

Kenna: No, I don't like that one anymore.

Kayla: Fine, then I'm not playing "baby" but I'll only play "cat."

I just love that they give things like this names, and they both know exactly what the other is talking about!--Mom has no clue!

Inspiration

Faith in God Includes Faith in His Timing. ~Neal A. Maxwell

I don't know why, but this quote has been popping up throughout the last few weeks. Thought I would share.

First Day of School

Yesterday was Kenna's first day of Preschool. She waited outside for the bus for half an hour. She's been more than ready to go to school for over a year. She totally pulled a Mckenna, walking nonchalantly up to the bus as if she had done it a million times before.

She had a lot of fun, but I had a hard time getting details out of her because she just is soo cool and wants to act like it's no big deal, even though I can tell she's excited.

Happy Birthday my Little Kayla

My little Kayla turned 3 and I feel bad that I didn't take any pictures, I only recorded it and can't get the video to load. I did find the birthday cake picture though.

Anyone that knows Kayla knows that she is just a ray of sunshine. She is goofy and silly and friendly. She loves to sing (especaially when she is in a public bathroom). She loves to swing and is proud that she can pump herself. She's so full of personality! Happy Birthday my little Kayla, I love you!

Summer Time Pictures

Here is what we have been up to this summer. It's been pretty busy!


Kenna building her sand castle (PEI).


Kayla learned to pump while we were at PEI. No one would push her so she got on the swing and when we looked over she was just pumping herself higher and higher with a big smile.


Kayla playin on the beach (PEI)


One side of the beach on PEI looked like this but the other we perfect sandy beach with warm water.

Prince Edward Island. The girls thought these were the coolest chairs.


The main reason we went to Utah was for John and Sarah's wedding. Here are the happy couple after the big day as they came to say goodbye before they headed down to St. George for the rest of the honey moon. You guys look good with kids (hint hint).


Kayla and her cousin Lucas

Kenna and her Cousin Sam.


One of the highlights of our trip to Utah was being able to see baby Crew. Mckenna loved holding him.


Kayla loves to try the monkey bars


Me and Kayla on the boat at Jordanelle


Jordanelle Res. boat ride.