Kenzie Gets a Haircut

Last Saturday was a very busy day for me. I had a lot of errands to run, and I needed to get to a baby shower and Karsons Birthday party. So I left Ryan in charge of Aby and Kenzie while I was running around to different stores in the morning. When I got home later that day I called the girls into the bathroom to do thier hair. As I was brushing Mckenzie's hair I noticed that there were chunck of hair that were missing around her ears and the front of her face. My sweet Kenzie had decided to cut her own hair. Now to my credit I did not scream at her, instead I calmly asked her if she had cut her own hair. The conversation went as follows:

mom: Kenzie did you cut your own hair?
kenzie: yes (with a smile on her face)

mom: Why did you cut your hair?
Kenzie: I had to get the snarls out mom (duhhh...)

mom: ohhhh I see.

As you can see from the pictures we did have to cut off quite a bit of her hair to get it to look normal again. I am very grateful to have a good friend in my ward who cuts hair. She cut the hair to her neck line, and the feathered it around her face adding bangs for the really short hairs in front. All in all Kenzie is a classic beauty who looks like a little pixie with this haircut, and I am not sure that I will let it get long again. She really looks very very cute.

Who can get mad at a face like that. She does know however, that she is never ever to cut her own hair again. If you ask her who cuts her hair, she will say "only Randi!"

Finishing the Basement

Ahhh we are finally finishing our Basement. It has taken a lot of years, and planning to get it figured out but we are doing it. We hired out the framing, plumbing, and sheetrock (mudding and sanding included). Ryan and I (with help from a wonderful family) will do the electrical, painting, and finishwork. Tyler will lay the carpet.
The first thing that had to be done was to get everything that we had put into the unfinished part of the basement into the garage, or finished room. We call this room the Cathedral of The Sullivan's, and Yes is goes from floor to cealing. Including putting stuff into the middle of the couches. It really was a work of art.

The First thing to go were the walls surrounding the stairs, then we turned the stairs around, and had them go down into the great room instead of hitting the dead end of the storage room. The only scary part was keeing the girls away from the "big hole" in the ground. We put up a gate in the hallway, and were very vigilant. The hole was there for just over 2 weeks.

During that time the framing was finished in the Basement, and the electrical work was started. Tyler and Ryan were my hero's during this time. Tyler gave up a few evenings of family time to come and help us with the stuff that Ryan couldn't do. Ryan spent a few very late (4:30 am) nights finishing up and running wire, phone, and T.V. cables. In the above picture you are looking at the future laundry room, and the stairs going up.

In this picture you can see the great room, and the future bedroom. At the end of the hall you can see is a small bathroom. (I am so excited to get a second bathroom.)

This is Ryan working on one of the nights with the power cords. He is such a wonderful guy, and put in so much work.

Grandpa not to be left out spend two saturday's and a few week night working on my new banister. It is wonderful and very sturdy. Here Kenzie is watching him cut and measure for the end Newell.

Ahhh finally the sheetrock and my basement is starting to take shape for real. This is the hallway leading to the batheroom and the door to the bedroom.

You can see now the hallway and the laundry room. You cannot really tell from this picture but that is only a small pillar at the end of the stairs, and then they are open and we will put in a banister. I love open spaces.

This is my new Banister, Grandpa did a great job. I don't have to worry about my kids anymore. We will paint this Banister white to match the trim and molding on the walls in the upstairs family room.

This is another view of the banister that Grandpa did, and yes I really did buy that much cereal at the store. When I was carrying the boxes down the stairs (which still only consist of a 2 x 4 nailed in) I tripped and fell down the last 4 stairs I wasn't hurt that bad but I did get a few really impressive bruises.

Aby Plays Soccer (Sorta)

Aby started playing soccer this year. She was so excited that she will get to be big like Braden and Karson. We are very glad that Aby enjoys sports and playing out doors. She is definatly like her mom though, (not much for competition) She is getting much better though. Aby loves her coach and enjoys kicking and playing with the other people on the team. Her hardest part is focusing on the ball and not doing ballet on the field.
This is Aby at home before her first game. We had gone the previous week and bought her cleats, shin guards, a ball, and a bag. (this was a package deal) Aby was so excited to be playing. You cannot really tell right here but the shirt actually went down almost to her ankles, and the shorts are rolled 4 times at the top. (they ordered really really big uniforms.)

Aby is the one who is standing in front of the coach. He has been a wonderful coach and is really patient with the girls. I am the assistant coach and have had to take over a few games while he is out of town. This has been fun for me but I really think I just enjoy cheering and laughing on the sideline.

This is Aby's team, the girls are from a big area, two are from Centerville, and three are from Farmington. One girl is in our ward, and Aby and she are already good friends. We were very glad that they were on the same team. Names are: Aby, Sierra, Kira, Macy, Lauren P., and Lauren M.

This will give you an Idea of how long the shirt was. Grandma cut the shirt and sewed it up so that she wouldn't trip on it. I do have to tell you that her shorts have fallen down at least one time each game while she has been running. I think that if she were older she would be mortified, but right now all I can do is laugh and help her pull them up again. I do keep trying to tie them tighter each game.

My goofy kids

My kids are some of the best things that have ever happened to me. They keep me on my toes and keep me laughing. This day they had been playing downstairs, and when they came up they had potatoe head ears in. I started laughing to hard.

Aby took it one step further and put all of the potatoe head things on. I couldn't help but take a picture. Aby is just starting to get a sense of humor and figure out when to laugh at jokes and funny movies. It is fun to watch.

Brooklyn loves paper, and the more the better, here she is playing with a coloring book. I love to watch her grow and learn. I just wish that she would learn to crawl so that she would be happy.

New York Vacation part 4 (The End)

This is Jones Beach, Atlantic ocean. My kids were not prepared for the difference in waves from the sound to this beach. Aby went running down the beach to the water when we very first got there, and almost got swept away, thank you Monica for saving her. This did make her and all of the kids really timid for most of the day around the waves unless they were with the adults. The adults however had a great time playing in the huge waves.
This is Aby in one of her more brave moments, she would play chase with the waves or sit with me, but for the most part just enjoyed digging and playing in the sand.

Kenzie on the other hand could spend all day in the water everyday. Here she is smiling at Andrew in the mud fight.

More people join in the mud fight fun. Andrew and Michelle were great sports about playing with the kids and letting them play with them.

This is Ryan body surfing, he had a great time, and thought that the water was great, he and the other guys spent the first couple of hours playing in the waves and learning how to body surf the best. Many of them swallowed pleanty of sea water. I was not that brave, but i did manage to get out and float on the waves, and that was fun.

This was Ryan getting up after getting into the shore, It wasn't this picture, but one time Ryan was thrown down on the sand, the wind was knocked out of him, and he scraped up his face pretty good. After that he decided to spend his time playing with the kids in the sand and reading his book in the shade. Just as a side note, Ryan did not get sunburned!!!! For us this is a major step Ryan always gets sunburned.

If you look close at the side of Ryan's face you can see the scratches and brusing. When Ryan went back to work a few days later, he had most of the guys he worked with convinced that he had been mugged on the way to the baseball game, That was until one of his friends who lived by a beach in Brazil started to laugh and said "You got pounded by a wave." So much for his story of heroics.

Later after the Beach we went back to the hotel changed, and went to the Yankee's baseball game. It was fun, but we were very tired. We had great seats though, we could see the whole field, and no one was behind us. We were the very top row. It was great I just couldn't look down the rows.

I would like to thank my parents who payed for most of the trip and did all that they could to make it a fun trip. Also thank you to Monica and Aaron for taking us places and showing us what they do in Connecticut. We had a great time and will remember it always..

New York vacation part 3

This was our big day in New York, and the weather was beautiful, after raining the day before the temperature was warm but not hot, and there was a breeze to keep the humidity at bay. On this day we had decided to ride the train into the city instead of driving the vans, the kids could not have been more excited, they had never been on a train before, and loved to ride. The hard part was keeping them in thier chairs. We did a ton of walking this day, and were very worn out by the time that we made it back to the train. We were able to see Time Square, the largest Toys R Us, (the kids personal favorite), battery park, and the financial center of the city.
This is Aby and Kenzie on the train, you can see how excited they were to see the buildings and grass go by so quickly. It was also really nice on the train because it was pretty close to empty, and so the ticket taker took time to talk to the kids and show them how they punched the tickets.

This is Grandma and Brooklyn, she was definately not as into the train as the other kids, but she did pretty good. Brooklyn rode in a stroller the entire day, and was very grateful whenever we stopped and she could get out to play.

After riding the train we go off at Central station. After getting lost using the elevators, we all finally managed to meet in the main terminal. This terminal is big, and there were a lot of people. It was interesting to me that on the way home at the end of the day there was a wedding party (bride in dress and bridesmaids in dresses also) that was doing pictures in the station. I can only hope that the wedding wasn't performed there also. This is the whole gang, at this time Andrew and Michelle had joined us, and we made a total of 19 people.

In Toys "R" Us the kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. They had a barbie castle, a candy land area, a giant dinosaur that really growled and moved(this scared Kenzie and we couldn't stay by it very long without her starting to cry.) They also had a lego section, train station area, and ferris wheel. the building was three stories high, and had an elevator. I don't think that my kids will ever look at another toy store the same way. Aby and Kenzie liked the trains the best because they could play with them.

Here Ryan and the girls are riding the ferris wheel. They had a great time and would do it again in a heart beat.

After eating lunch we found a small park that the kids could play in. there were three sections one of them having water, I was really surprised that me kids didn't play in the water, but they had a great time on the slides, and running around. Here you can see Mckenzie master her latest trick, going down the slide head first.

Ohhh yes the bull, we couldn't get to the front to take a picture, so we took pictures at the backside. The kids just thought that it was funny to touch the big bull.

This was taken at a water fountain by another small park at the end of the day. While some of the adults went and climbed the brooklyn bridge the sane and tired people went down the street to this fountain and park. The little girls had a great time playing in the water, and running around.

This is another part of the park, the girls started to chase newspapers that had been left and then tear them up and throw them in the garbage. They were really cute running around together.

Ryan was tired and so he decided to play games on his cell phone and keep Brooklyn company. Brooklyn was just happy to roll on the ground and be out of the stroller. She was great about riding most of the time, but was always very happy to get out and play when she could.

New York Trip Part 2

This next part is Greenwitch beach, and the Museum of Natural History. The first set of pictures come from the beach. This was the first beach that we visited, and was the first time that any of the kids had ever seen close up. This was in my opinion the perfect beach, expensive, but Imust say worth it. The sand was soft and perfect for digging and playing in. (Aby especially enjoyed that part.) and the water was warm and pretty shallow. (during low tide which is the time that we were there.) The kids played all day long until they couldn't play anymore. Thank you Monica for taking us to this beach, and mom and dad thank you for paying our way in.

Brynn and Kenzie pretty much thought that this was a great big big sandbox with the added benifit of a giant swimming pool to play in when you got too hot. Here you can see them digging a hole together. I am so grateful for thier friendship.

Mom thought that this was the best way to spend her time at the beach. She enjoyed the shade and playing with the grandkids. She did spent a lot of time in the sand also digging holes and taking kids into the water. It is an experiance that none of the grandkids, or parents will ever forget.

Aby and Kenzie found that together they could dig a bigger hole a lot faster. Aby could have played in the sand forever, in fact when we went to leave and cleaned out her swim suit at the shower spout, she had over an inch of sand in the bottom of her swimsuit.

Kambree and Kenzie spend time enjoying the hole that Aby and Kenzie dug. It was so much fun to watch the three girls get to know eachother and watch them play and grow closer.

It is kinda hard to see in this picture, but all four girls wanted to be buried alive in the sand. So Tyler and Aaron dug holes for each of the girls and then covered them with sand. They thought that it was so much fun they kept burying themselves the rest of the day.

They didn't just bury themselves either, somehow Monica, Tiffany, and I were talked into getting buried in the sand also. It really wasn't that bad the sand was soft and cool and felt really nice until the kids decided that it was fun to walk on mom. The only problem was that the sand got into every possible spot on your skin, both exposed, and unexposed skin!!!. So after relxing in the sand Tiffany, Monica, and I took a nice trip out to the bouy where we stripped suits and took a mini bath. (ok not really stripped off but we definately scrubbed the unexposed skin:)

With the help of some bigger boys, the kids created a "hot pool" in the sand by blocking on of the rip tides (I think that is the correct term) one of the small rivers that runs out to sea after the tide goes out. They had fun playing in that, watching the fish, and taking baths. The only sad part was when it broke.

This was one of the few times that I was able to catch Aby in the water. She really did enjoy the swimming, but did spend most of her time on the sand. I think that I need to invest in a sandbox.

Kenzie Bless her heart, swam, played in the sun, and looked for crabs until she couldn't make her sweet body continue any more. She came over after going swimming one time asked me to wrap her in a towel, and then lay on the ground and went to sleep. She had a great time and just didn't want to quit.

This next set of pictures take place at the Museum of Natural History. This was a place that I had really wanted to go. I admit that I love Museums, and this is supposed to be one of the best. It really was great, and once we all warmed up we had a great time. The best part was this was the day that Ryan flew in. After a few hiccups in the pick up plans: His plane was delayed so he had to take a bus to Grand Central Station all by himself, and then find the Library because Grand Central was closed, and wait in the rain for Aaron to come and take him by subway to us. He made it and I could not have been happier to see him.

Aby saw her dad from across the room, and much to our surprise yelled "daddy" and ran to him. He and Aby have a very special relationship, and when she got to him she gave him a great big hug and then he picked her up and put her on his shoulders. Ryan was so tired but was a great sport about plugging through the rest of the day until we could get back to the hotel and he could crash land on the bed.

Aby and Kenzie were also very tired, about half way through the museum. They were not really interested in the dinosaurs and crashed in the stroller. I was glad, because it made them very easy to keep track of.

This was taken after we had eaten at the Carnigie Deli, and the wind was blowing and making the kids so cold. It had been raining most of the day, and this is also an example of what we looked like only the adults were carrying umbrellas and trying to push the stollers at the same tim. After leaving the Deli we put the umbrellas up to block the kids from the wind, and then made the decision to take cabs back to the cars. (you should have seen the cab drivers faces when they saw the stollers!) Tyler and Aaron did run one of the stollers back to the cars, but the rest of us took the kids and met them.