Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Santa, aunts, uncles, and grandparents were very very giving. My children are spoiled rotten. We had a really interesting Christmas in that we were very blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan and Josh spend Christmas with us. They came over late Christmas eve, and then opened presents and played at our house Christmas morning. Aby and Kenzie were so excited that Uncle Josh wanted to spend Christmas at their house. They asked him to come, and even helped him to open some of his presents. I hope that everyone had as much fun as we did that morning.

This is one of two walkers that Brooklyn recived for Christmas, She is learning to walk and enjoys pushing them around.

Grandma Sullivan gave Kenzie a Delux doll set, and she loves it.

Brooklyn was fun to watch she would play with the paper, but when she found some books took time out to read a story. Brooklyn loves books, and will routinly sit down with me and turn pages and read stories.

A present for Brooklyn.

As soon as the Barbie Dolls were opened then we could hardly get the girls to come and open presents. I should have just put the rest of them in the closet for next year.

The other favorite present that my children recieved were dress ups. They have so many now that we can change outfits 5 or 6 times a day.

Aby Recieved the next step up in the Leap Frog reading and math group. She loves this new computer, and is doing really great learning some new words, and stories that she can read.

The Barbie house furniture.

The first thing is the stockings and the doll house.

Big Helpers

Lately we have had several snowstorms some of them small and some of them not so small. A few weeks ago Gandpa Sullivan came over and brought a small red shovel for Aby to help daddy shovel snow. Aby and Kenzie have taken thier job seriously. Whenever daddy goes out to shovel snow Aby and Kenzie can be seen getting shoes, boots, and gloves on and heading out. It is so great to see them so willing to help.
This is aby shoveling the sidewalk after we got home from chruch one day.

Kenzie is helping daddy with the big snow shovel. He is really great to let the kids help him push and throw the snow. I know that it slows it down, but the kids love to know that they are helping.

This picture was taken when we got back home on Christmas Eve, you can see we got a lot of snow and Aby was so excited to try her new shovel. She was very upset that I wouldn't let her get out of the van until I could pull into the garage. She was a great help when she got out though.

Look at her throw that snow!!!

Kenzie wanted in on the action also. So Aby and her would take turns, this was really hard for both of them and our neighbor across the street took pity on me and gave me his daughters little shovel for Kenzie to use. That was a big help. Kenzie loves to help, and I can always tell when she is done because she will come up to me and say.. "mom I need some hot chocolate now please." It is great.

Christmas eve day (sledding)

For Christmas Eve Day this year Marlene wanted to take the kids sledding, and so that parents had to come along. We went to a small park that is about 1/4 of a mile up from their house. There was a really big snowstorm that was going to hit in the late afternoon and evening of the day, and so we planned to go early, but you know how things go and so it was pretty cold and the storm was pretty close by the time that we made it to the park. We were only able to sled for around 30 minutes before the storm hit us pretty hard, but the kids had a great time while we were there. Ryan was able to come because he got off work early, and he had a great time also. I had fun and even went down the big hill a few times with the girls.
All three girls on the small hill. This is the only hill that I would allow Brooklyn to go on. She was very grateful and was content to sit in moms grandma's or dads arms from the remainer of the time.

You can't really tell how big this hill is, but it was pretty steep, and the only way Mckenzie could get up was on her hands and knees. In reality she didn't get all the way up this way either Ryan had to come down and carry her up the hill.

One their first trip down the went to the side over a bump and almost into a picinic table. It was very funny to me. If the video works, you will be able to see them come down the hill and the spill. You can see Mckenzie was more that happy to get out of the sled. She had to be convinced to go down again. She did go down again, but would only go with mom. Unfortunatly I hit a bump also, the only saving grace, we didn't tip over. Aby had a great time, and keeps asking when we are going to go again.

A visit with Santa

Marlene's Brother Lee had a Christmas party again this year with a special guest visitor at the end. This party was on a very busy day for Ryan and I, and we made it just in time for some dinner, visiting with reletives, and a visit from Santa. It is really fun because when Santa comes, he brings a bag of presents, (one for each child). Then when he gets your present out of the bag you get to go up sit on Santa's lap, and recieve your gift.
Kenzie was the first to go up this year, and she was excited until she realized that mom wasn't going to follow her. She didn't cry just got really shy and wouldn't talk.

Aby was just plain excited about sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what she wanted, and then getting her present. I didn't realize that she had figured out that this was just someone in a costume until a week later, when we were in the car and Aby said, "mom we need to go and see the real Santa." when I said that we already saw Santa she told me "that was not the real Santa mom, it was grandpa in a dress-up." So there kids are smarter than we give them credit for.

Brooklyn didn't cry or do anything other than just look at this wierd person with a beard.

All of the girls were very happy to get their presents of puzzles, and crayons, or scissors. Brooklyn didn't really firgure out that she got a stuffed goose she was very happy and content to play with the paper.....a sign of things to come.

Setting up the Christmas tree

Well I finally did get my Christams tree set up. We had to wait until the carpet in the basement was done to put it up and I think that my kids nearly died from excitement when I finally was able to pull out the tree and ornimants. This year I was able to decorate the tree with colored lights and my snowmen ornimantes. The kids had a great time helping me. The hardest part for them was having to wait until I got the lights on. During this time Ryan was busy finishing up some of the lighting and outlets in the great room so that we could have light and a Christmas tree.
Here is Aby putting on some of the ornimants.

Now it is Kenzie's turn.

Brooklyn was content to try and eat the orniments or pull the lights from the bottom of the tree. She did like the tree when it was finished, and would crawl under it and try to look up at the lights, then she would cry because the branches would poke her.

Kenzie's 3rd Birthday

Weel better late than never, I feel like I am going a million miles a minute and by the time I get a chance to sit down and blog I find that I am three weeks behind. Well Mckenzie turned 3 on December 1, 2007. We had a wonderful party at my parents house with both sides of the family there. (our house was still under construction.) We are so thankful to the many wonderful and supportive members of our family that made it.
For the past year everytime that we went to Costco Mckenzie has asked to get a cake for her birthday. So for one of her presents I let her choose a Costco cake, (even though there is enough for an army) She chose to have a rainbow cake.

In this picture you can see the fun little people garage that she recived from Grandma Sullivan, and the princess ABC writing book that was given to her by Chris and Amanda. Grandma Roundy gave her some panties, so that we could do potty training. On a side note after a week and several accidents Mckenzie is finally potty trained. I hope that Brooklyn is a easy as Aby was and not as hard as Mckenzie was.

Thank you Grandma Sullivan for the fairy doll, I love you very much. It is written all over her face.

Bryn and Kenzie love to be together I am so greatful for the friendship that they share.

Mckenzie blew out her candles (with a little help from the gallery of kids) and then counted the candles to see how old that she was.

Fun in the Snow

We finally had our very first big snow storm the week before Kenzie's B-day. Kenzie was so excited that she had me get her all dressed and ready to go play before Aby go home from Pre-school. I personally think that she was just really glad that I was letting her go outside this year. Last year I wouldn't let her go outside because she would get sick everytime she spent a long time outside. I am grateful that this year she has been much healthier. Later after Aby came home from school Both of them went out to play, and our neighbor Josh came to join them. They had a great time, and both love to play in the snow.
Kenzie went out and the first thing she did was pick up a bunch of snow and throw it in the air to see it fly.

A must when there is snow on the ground. After I showed her what to do Kenzie got right down and made a snow angel on the ground. She was so proud that later that day she showed Aby how to make one.

Here is Aby's Snow angel.

When Aby go home from school Kenzie decided to go back out, but this time when she was throwing the snow she had a target.

Aby thought that was great and joined right on in. Together they had a great snowball fight, and the best part was they were laughing and not crying.

Cookie Monsters!

I will admit that in the last week that I had before carpet went in I had to do a big push to get the basement done. I usually would wait until mom was helping so that one of us could watch the kids, and the other could work. In this way the kids were able to keep playing and it didn't interupt them too much. As you can see when mom wasn't there to help me I had to resort to other meathods to keep the kids happy. Junk food was very good at keeping Kenzie and Brooklyn happy for a while. (Aby is watching a TV show at this time. She is going to go into withdrawls when I move the TV and unplug it so that she will learn to survive without it for a while.)

Ok in my defense, I started out feeding them apple jacks cereal, but that only lasted for a little while, then I had to move on to the big guns OREO cookies, this lasted a much longer time. Brooklyn had never had oreo's before, and judging by her face she loved them a little too much. I will have to be careful when I feed her foods with sugar in them.

Grandma couldn't resist when she go there to help, she thought that Brooklyn's face was too cute. Brooklyn loves Grandma so much. Just how much was apparent today when Grandma and Grandpa Roundy came to see the basement, Grandma was holding Brooklyn, and when it was time to go i went to get her and Brooklyn took one look at me grabbed Grandmas shirt lapel and hung on for dear life, she didn't want to let go. Eventually she did but talk about a ego buster to mom (me) I am the one who gets up in the night to feed her really talk about injustice:)

Slow Blogger

I am sorry that I have been a little slow in getting caught up in all the blogging. I do have a very good excuse though....I have been working hard and heavy on my basement, and as of yesterday, we are 90% finished. All of the walls are painted, the doors are in (they still need to be painted), and the carpet in the basement is finished (except for the stairs). I still have to do the final touch ups on the walls and floor boards, but other than that, I can use the basement. We are so excited, I have been waiting to get it finished so that I can put up the Christmas tree downstairs, (we are going to be recarpeting the upstairs in the next couple of weeks.) The girls are so excited to help put up the tree that I think they are going to burst.

I want to thank my family so much for helping us get this far in our basement, My mom has spend countless hours either watching the kids or helping me to paint and clean-up. My dad has been wonderful to help with the baseboards, casing, and banister. Tiffany and Tyler I wouldn't have any carpet without you, so I won't leave you out either. Thank you so much for all of your support during this project.

Brooklyn crawls

Ok finally here are some pictures of Brooklyn. She turned 9 months old on Thanksgiving day so to celebrate we had a great big feast at Grandma and Grandpa Roundy's house. Everyone ate too much except for Aby who could barely manage to get down her small amount of yams and potatoes. It has taken about 2 months of practice but Brooklyn has finally started to crawl (normally). For the first little while she would get into the crawl position and then stick her bumb up in the air and move a little bit that way. (see video at the bottem.)

Getting ready to crawl to mom in the hallway. (see the toung) it is always out, very cute!

Going her we go, this was one of the first times that she did a good crawl, now there is no stopping her.

You can get a really good picture of her tonge in this picture. she loves that tonog of hers, everyone in the ward just laughes and says that she is too cute, I happen to agree. (sorry if I misspell tonge I really don't know how to spell it at all.)

After mastering crawling she decided that she needs to walk, she now spends most of the day creeping along the furniture, and crying until someone will take her hands and walk with her.

As promised here is the video of the "teepee crawl" enjoy!

Ballet Practice

Aby has been takeing ballet lessons for the past few months, and is really enjoying it. One of my favorite things is when Aby will come home and teach Mckenzie some of the fun things that she is doing. Both of my girls have fun ballet clothing thanks to my cousin Jeanine who has two girls that are older than mine. Mckenzie loves to play in her ballet clothes and Aby loves to teach her.

On this day Aby had been learning how to do leaps in ballet as was more than happy to come home and help Kenzie learn how to do them. They were so cute and they not only practiced leaping over a yard stick, but also over a paint can, and a tupperware container. They both did very good.

Here is Mckenzie practicing turning with her arms up. Not sure of the name of this move.

My favorite is when they are just best friends. I couldn't ask for better kids!!!

Pinewood Derby

This year for the Elders Quorm party the theme was "The Pinewood Derby that you always wanted." Each of the elders was given a pinewood derby car and there was only 2 rules 1) No open flames, and 2) you could not touch the car once it was placed on the track. Ryan wanted to go all out and buy a motor and batteries to make it work, but didn't really have enough time. One of the guys that he works with suggested a very simple idea. tie a piece of string onto the front of the car and pull it down the track. So Ryan decided to take his car and turn it into a piece of cheese (hence the drilling of the holes) He painted it yellow, and it really did look like a piece of cheese. We called the car the "NIMH rider," or for the less literary inclined I nicknamed it "the big cheese." Suprisingly enough on the night of the big derby Ryan's car did really well. He placed in the top 5, and the winner was a person who had taken the propeller and engine from a modle airplane and placed it on the car. (it was pretty cool because it could go backwards up the track as fast as it did down the track.) Ryan did recieve the award for "the best finish" meaning the most interesting looking car.

Ryan at his best!

A lot of people don't get to see the Ryan and I do. Most of the time in public he is very business like and formal, however when you get him alone with his kids or other people that he is comfortable around his true personality comes shining thru. I love to watch Ryan interact with our kids, he is so funny and they love to jump in and play with him. On this particular day we had just gotten home from church, and I was trying to get lunch ready. I heard the kids start to laugh and tell daddy that he was silly. This is what I saw when I came out to see what was going on.

The final result with the help and creativity of the kids.

I am so greatful that I married this guy!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Aby was all over it she knew what she wanted to be and had Kenzie pretending to trick-or-treat in the house as practice last July on. When the day finally arrived Aby and Kenzie were pretty darn excited. Aby was a glamorous witch (the prettiest witch possible), Kenzie was a fairy, and Brooklyn was a cat/lepord. All in all the kids looked very cute and we had a great time.
This is everyone sitting on the front porch getting ready to go and visit daddy's work. (this was the first year that we have been able to go and trick or treat there and the kids had a great time.) Everyone else that we saw thought that the kids were adorable, I have to agree even though I am biased I am pretty sure that my kids were the cutest ones.

This was after walking around the office area and trick or treating.

While I was talking to Ryan about when he would be coming home and such Aby and Kenzie snuck off and hid behide this big metal pole so that they could sneak some candy. I had told them they couldn't have any until we had eaten dinner at home.