Sunday Morning

We had time again this morning for pictures before we were off to church... I figure if I take the time and effort to always dress them the same, I need to get it on camera.

Matthew would like me to note that he didn't interrupt our flow. (see previous Sunday Morning post, if you don't get it)

Kylie looking at the camera.

Kacey looking at the camera.

What joy when we can get one picture of everybody looking at the camera! :)


Last Sunday of 9 am church!!! Yipppeee! Our new ward time is 11 am, which means no more setting the alarm to get 3 females dressed and fed and out the door. (Don't get me wrong, Kacey will be miserable by like 12:30 when she hasn't had lunch or a nap... but you take the good with the bad.)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope your day was filled with as much joy (and crazy things that kids say) as ours was! After we were done opening presents, which wasn't until about 11 am... Kylie looks around and goes, "Okay, let's do it again. I want to open the presents!"

So we were up at 7:15 am, after quite a long night. Kylie knew Santa was coming... we left out cookies and milk, but she wanted to wait up for him (despite all the coaxing we did to convince her otherwise). Finally, Santa called us and told us he was going to come in our house, but Kylie was not asleep in her bed. So he couldn't come... but he would come back, if she went to bed. That did it! :)

It really was a wonderful Christmas! I was looking forward to it, because of all our fun traditions (eating Chinese on Christmas Eve for example, a little unorthodox... but we really look forward to it). BUT ALSO because it's our first Christmas (of many more to come) in our new house... now we don't have as many pictures as I'd like, but that's okay because we did a lot with the dvd camera. After recording about 25 minutes, we'd only opened 3 gifts... this is how the morning went :) We went this afternoon to see the Alvin and the Chipmunks Movie, which was super fun. Dinner was supposed to be ham, german potatoes, pumpkin bread, and all the fixings. Too bad we were way too full to make it, because of all the movie food we ate. So we're saving it for Friday night when we have the missionaries over for dinner.

Okay, so let's face it.... 'tis the season for giving. And I hate the commercialism of the holiday. I really think it needs to be balanced, and the Christmas Season must include some sort of "good will toward men" other than just the typical "this is what I want for Christmas." So without going completely into my Young Women's lesson on Sunday. Our "good will toward men" experience will remain somewhat personal, but do know it happened and it was great.

NOW, for the top two favorite presents:

Kacey~ a little corded rotary toy phone and a toy animal train that moves on its own

Kylie~ a princess set with dresses, shoes and accessories (by 9 am, she was on her second dress)

and a toy dvd player that plays all the Princesses music.

This was a joint fave, the Aquadoodle... too bad they only want to play with it, when the other one is playing with it. It's caused a few fights and tears already :)

Matthew~ gps navigation system and a docking thingy for his IPOD

Me~ an assortment of perfumes (because I want a new fragrance but I'm undecided) and the nap I had in the afternoon :) ... no, and the JC Penney package of pretty new Sunday clothes that didn't make it in time for Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all... and to all a goodnight!

Kylie and Riley, All Smiley

We had Riley Mecham come over yesterday to play with us!

We made sugar cookies...They were so cute together!It was really sweet to watch- they took turns and shared the cookie cutters. Riley even took off her necklace to let Kylie wear it for a little while.

Riley... Kylie can't wait until you come back over to play again!!! :)

Preschool Christmas Show

Kylie's Preschool put on a little Christmas program for the parents today. It was so adorable. The kids all sang the Christmas songs they'd been learning.

I walked in with Kacey, and Kylie's casual... "Hi Mommy." You know, all the Mommies were walking in. Matthew was about 4 minutes behind me, he comes in the door. "HHHHHHHHIIIIIII DADDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYY!............my Daddy's here, that's my Daddy."

You can tell who rates.

They even had props (seriously, how awesome is Tate?!). They had jingle bells, a Santa hat, and a Rudolph nose that lit up!

So, publicly I apologize to Kylie. We had a bad morning, she was insistent on wearing her Christmas dress today. I wouldn't let her, they were going to have their Christmas Party and I just knew she'd spill or do something to ruin it... I know, I'm a bad mom. Kylie refused to let the issue go. An hour later (mind you, she was up at 6 am... so slightly cranky), she's downstairs on the couch in tears... Matthew's trying to bribe her to get back upstairs to brush her teeth and do her hair... I think we settled on 5 chocolate pieces so she'd wear what I picked out. (I know how terrible this sounds) so all in all really rough morning. Then I get to Preschool, and Riley is wearing a Christmas dress. So instantly, I walk in and I feel badly. Maybe they both talked about wearing a dress, maybe someone said they were going to dress up or look extra nice, who knows. But I realized she had her heart set on a dress prior to this morning... and all I saw was this morning's tantrum and I wouldn't budge. And honestly, if she ruined the dress... it's not like she doesn't have a few others. SO, I feel terrible :(

Sunday Morning

Pretty girls before leaving for church... I love how they love eachother. They totally suit eachother in their roles too. Kacey looks to Kylie for guidance and help and Kylie offers Kacey that loving "I'll take care of you" sisterly support. Don't get me wrong, they can make eachother mad... but it's never for long. Maybe here I could say that I love being a mommy to 2 little girls because I'm shaping little mothers to essentially change the world... but I'm gonna say that I love being mommy to 2 little girls because I find humor in watching my husband suffer for his sanity as he tries to survive in a house full of females.

a bunch...

So we had our Ward Christmas Pary last night~~ super fun (great job Kata!)... Feliz Navidad! We had yummy enchiladas, salsas, and churros. The kids put on a Nativity skit, and Kylie got to be a shepard. Then, Santa came to visit... Kylie ran, so no pictures of that. Although the other kids looked very happy to see him! :)

She did a pretty good, "CHEESE!"
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This is from a bit ago. December 5th is St. Nicholas Day, and it's German tradition to put out a shoe before you go to bed that night. If you're good, you get something... if not, you know to shape up before Christmas.

This is our before picture...

And this is our after picture...

The wagon is really cool~ we go to the mailbox in it. It has a door, drink holders, a cubby space for storage, and seatbelts (thank heavens~ because one of them sits and one pulls, and it can be a bad thing waiting to happen)

Matthew surprised me while I was running errands. He left work and I guess was thinking I was home, but I wasn't. So he left them on the counter for me as a fun surprise. (Now the obvious question~which his dad even said~ "what did you do wrong?" And his response, "he was just being a wonderful husband and buying me flowers.")

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We spent the day up at Mt. Charleston. It's amazing how just a 45 minute drive will have such different weather... I think the car reading was 29 degrees! There was snow everywhere, and Kylie was in heaven. Kacey was a little unsure, especially when Matthew asked a stranger to hold her for a second because Kylie and I couldn't make it up the steps to get on one of the sled paths. The steps had completely frozen over and were literally a slippery 45 degree incline. It was hilarious... I was cracking up, but I could not hold onto Kylie and pull myself and her up. Matthew had to make a few trips to get us (up and then back down)... what I wouldn't do for a picture of that!

Snow Angels! She just started laying down and doing them, we didn't even know she knew how to do it or what they were. Plus, she didn't care how wet her jeans were. We have to get the girls some snow pants.

Look at that beautiful background!

She was bundled up nice and warm... but her cheeks and nose were still bright red.

After all the playing, we went to warm up and have lunch at the Lodge.

This was the absolute best family fun Saturday!!!

I can't wait to go back... (but we need to get a really cool sled first)

the stockings are hung...

I had to give a big *T*H*A*N*K * Y*O*U* to my sister-in-law, Rosanne.

She handmade these stockings, and I just love them!

There's 8 total... she's so sweet for giving them to us. Thank you so much for the package of the other 4, I just got it yesterday. I can't imagine the time and effort... Rosie you are super talented and I'm so glad Bryan married you!!!

(Kylie's also chirping in that she loves her Aunt Rosie)

Look at that detail and fabric coordination... wow! I just hate buying Christmas stockings, because they are only good until the next kid comes along... (me being slightly obsessive compulsive) I want them all to match, and be personalized, and I can never find one to match what we already had, so I end up buying all new ones... Problem Solved. :)

Flashback Friday

It's been a while since I did a Flashback Friday. Since it's actually raining here today, I thought I'd look back in our files for some snowy pictures. This is our Utah house, 11/01/04.

Snow, what's that?!?!?Christmas 2004, Kylie was 9 months old.******************************************************

Okay, so Matthew's job can be pretty cool. I never know what he's going to call and tell me. He's called to say he's in Nicholas Cage's house (Carrot Top's house, who's not as skinny in person he said), he's golfed with John Elway (ex-Bronco's QB), met a Laker Coach and he gave Matthew his phone numbers (including home phone, Matthew was thrilled because he has hidden dreams of being a Scout) he knows the bass player (I think) from Fuel... he's met some people on Big Brother... etc.etc.etc just really random stuff.... here were just a few pictures from his "excursions."

This guy means nothing to me, which shows my love for sports. I think his name is Ron Jarowski (and I'm sure I butchered the spelling)... I think he's an ex-Eagles QB and now a sports commentator for Monday Night Football. Not sure, but Matthew thought it was pretty awesome.
Yeah... so Matthew calls me to say that he's just hanging out with Jon Bon Jovi. So I'm like, "you cut out, it sounded like you said Jon Bon Jovi." Yup...

(I cropped this picture a bit... Matthew didn't feel the need to be IN a photo with him, so he took a picture of someone who works for him and Jon)

Personal Progress Night

We made dinner for some families in our ward. We had a really great evening.

Thanks Sister Meeks! This is everyone at their stations, working on salad, rolls, yummy cookies or the lasagnas.
My girls were in heaven with all the YW in our house.
Shannon and Emily are starting an ONION eating contest... silly girls! They were hating it afterwards :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, from our feast to yours!

I love cooking for our big meal! I set the alarm for 6:30 to get started, and I made enough food to feed an army... Our "buffet style" menu included: turkey (that just fell off the bone, perfect!), glazed spiral honey ham, creamy tomato parmesan bisque, butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, German potatoes, stuffing, cornbread, croissants, rolls, pumpkin bread (with a glaze that is to die for!), banana bread, corn, green beans, lima beans, peas, baby carrots, cauliflower, and pumpkin/dutch apple/cherry pies. And get this, I forgot the cranberry sauce in the fridge... didn't realize it until we were doing dishes! Also, those are Sparkling Grape Juices in the front :)

***Are any of you waking up early tomorrow for sales? I heard Target is 50% off all toys. My mom and I are starting our journeys 3:30 am.