Time to decorate

Well it took a full day to put that monster of a tree together but I did it once again.  

It's such a nice tree, just a real pain to put up.  I do miss getting the real ones.  I love our tradition that we started with Jason's boys years ago.  We let the kids put the ornaments on however they want.  (I adjust it later they never know, haa haa)  And we turn on all the Christmas lights and Christmas music.  Jason sorts out the ornaments and hands them to the kids.  Jake & Erek always seemed to enjoy it and now my Maddie and Kenzie were doing it together.  I'm so happy Maddie has siblings to share our traditions with.

 

 Kenzie was having a good old time.  She was so busy putting up the ornaments that she wouldn't stop to smile for me.

Alex was good too, he just crawled around and played with his toys.

 

The tree is up and the house is festive.   Now to blink and it will all be over.  I'm always sad when Christmas morning gets here.  It seems like it builds up all month long and then it is over in a few hours.  I wish it lasted as long.  I love the lights on the houses in the snow and the decorations. Its a fun time of the year.

Look who's 1

He seems so small.  Well, he is small.  It is amazing how every kid is so different.

But we made it through the first year, YAY!  Alex's birthday fell on a weekend where we were all sick.  So this was his party.  Hanging out with the family.  It's funny how 1 year olds just don't care about the presents.

 He did attempt to open it.

Kenzie's trip to the Salon

So I decided to take Kenzie to get her haircut since she is such a wiggle worm. I didn't want to mess her hair up because she wouldn't sit still if I tried to trim it up. Maddie was going to do it so I knew Kenzie would be all for it.   She was really good. 

However,  I should have known not to go to Great Clips.... I just thought ohh a quick trim (ya know trim a little off the end) can't be hard to do.  They can't mess that up.  I told the woman to just take below her shoulders.  Ya know, just clean it up some.  I think because Kenzie was wiggling that she messed up and didn't want to admit it.  

It's a good thing Kenzie is cute no matter what!  Cuz look!  That woman chopped her hair off.  I'm so sad.  I know hair will grow back, but ohhhh it was so long and so cute for a little girl.  The new haircut changed her look drasticaly. She's still a doll though :) 

 

Maddie's new kicks

Maddie has been saving her money for the past few months. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to spend it on. She had so many ideas. Well, she made a choice and bought her "Heely's" For those of you that don't know its the shoes she has on. There is a wheel in her heel. And you can take it out and have normal shoes when you want. She's very proud of her new shoes. And I am proud of her because she did extra chores and thought of ways to earn more money. The first night she had them she was upset because there was a trick to them and she didn't know that. But now, she is all over the place in those shoes.

Sorry the video is sideways............. I didn't think about that when I filmed her.

At home

I bought Kenzie her first pair of Snow boots. She loves them. She wears them no matter what she has on. She will even put them over her feety Pj's. The other day she was running around with out her pants but she had the boots on.

Kenzie has decided to love her brother........ We have to keep a close eye on her because she likes to help. Yeah, I heard Alex screaming and when I turned around she had his arm and was dragging him across my floor to bring him to me! Made me laugh but at the same time I had to help her understand that she just can't pick him up. She hasn't tried since. We'll see won't we.

Our little guy will be 1 in a week! He's finally eating some finger foods. He has resisted anything with a texture! He is making it hard on me. My last kid and the most picky little guy. He even has his first tooth now and he is crawling all over the place.

These two are going to be close. They all ready communicate in their own little talk.

Mini Minerettes Dance

 Maddie was invited to dance with the Drill Team at Bingham Highschool.  They are called the Minerettes and the girls from the school taught classes.  Maddie was a Miniminerette.  She did a good job.  They had a 3 hour class, then a 1 hour practice the night before their preformance.  I love to see what my daughter can do.

It's crazy because this was my highschool for a couple years.  It sure brought back the memories for me.  Wow, sitting here with my family watching my kid dance.  Not to mention the girls on the drill team dancing.  They were realy good.  I should've taken a picture of them too but between Alex and Kenzie squirming around on the bleachers I was preoccupied.

She looked like she was having a good time too.

After it was over we had to rush out cuz of our little ones.  I thought Maddie might want to watch the big girls dance.  Funny, cuz her only intrest was cruising along the gym floors in her Heely's.  She's a pro now.

Trick Or Treat

Halloween is here. We carved our pumpkins last night. Maddie did most of it by herself! We assisted a bit, but she really did a good job on her own. She's growing up so fast. I can only imagine how our parents feel about us and our kids. One of the nice thing about having kids is traditions like this. It's a fun thing to look forward to and feels more meaningful when kids are the reason we do it.
Even Kenzie tried to touch the "guts" as Maddie calls them. She was not thrilled.

We drew the face, and Maddie carved it. These tools they have these days are great! It speeds up the process and its totally kid friendly.

Here's the results. Maddie's Jack O Lantern, and Daddy's Flaming Skull.

And here we are on Halloween. Alex was being stubborn when it came to taking pictures. This one turned out good. But after that he flipped out.

I love this one. We would have put Maddie in the picture too but she was out Trick O Treating with her friends that invited her to go along. Sad, she didn't need us this year to take her. But great times for her.

Maddie did go along with Kenzie to a few houses. Kenzie even said Trick Or Treat.

She's our Rock Star

She's our little Pumpkin

Winter in the Fall

Something isn't right about these pictures. Yeah, its October! What a storm. I would like to just finish out the fall. I'm not ready for our 7month long Winters. I love when Summer ends and fall starts but it sure doesn't last as long as the winter. So we should be able to at least finish out the fall. You just have to love Utah weather. Last night's storm was a white out. It was unreal. Big fluffy snowflakes. It felt like December in October. The kids were sure excited to bust out their snow clothes. Check out my trees! Still loaded with leaves. Nice and yellow, just changed colors.

Look who's 8

Happy Birthday to Maddie!

8 years ago my first little baby joined our family... Now look at her. I love every minute of it. It's been a blast, literally it blew right past us. So on October 17th we had a Halloween Birthday Party. Maddie was the Rock Star. Even though she's pulling a face here I know she had a good time. All the kids did.

Kenzie was the cutest little pumpkin. Oh my heck she looked cute.

Here from left to right we have Amber, (Maddie's BFF), Makenna (cousin), Milika (cousin), Shade (friend, aka Indiana Jones) and Victoria (friend)

I did a bunch of games for them. It's funny, even though they are kids I still don't like being put on the spot like that. It's up to me to make it run smooth while everyone watches, it makes me sweat. But it was worth it.

Another Pumpkin picture. You can't really tell here but her top of her hair is green.

And how about this sweet Dalmation, awwwwwww

ok here ya go, the green hair