Merry Christmas Eve!!!

We woke up Christmas Eve morning to a blanket of snow outside. Dan started shoveling and when he was finished he decided to start a snowman in our backyard. Kenna woke up just in time to help. Thumper likes the snow too. He likes to catch snowballs and Kenna likes to throw them at him. The snowman turned out pretty good. Dan even gave him cheekbones. By early afternoon the snowman fell over and died. Mom and Dad Patton and Laurel decided to drive up a day early to beat any bad weather. They came up Sunday night and made it here safe and sound. Thumper loves having visitors and goes crazy when people stay over. McKenna goes crazy too. I don't think she went to bed until almost 11pm last night. It's a good thing she usually sleeps in until 8:30am. We took Grandpa, Grandma and Laurel to Sunrise Cafe, a local restaurant that serves an inexpensive breakfast and has really good biscuits and gravy. If you come and visit, most likely we will try to take you there once. Our fantasy football league ends tonight and boy am I glad. I like to watch and compete, but I stress out too much. I ended up fourth out of eight. Not bad since last year I was seventh. I am proud to say that all three girls in the league made the top four. Girls rule!! Dan is fighting for fifth or sixth. We will find out tonight. Thumper hated having the scarf on. He kept trying to rip it off his neck, jumping to twist around. Pretty funny to watch. I hope everyone's Christmas is going well and sorry for missing Christmas in California, doctor's orders. Merry Christmas!

Doctor's appointment

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything is going great. I gained 8 pounds in 4 weeks and grew 5 cm. Makes up for the 1 pound gain from last month. I start the every two weeks appointments next month. Not really looking forward to going to the doctor's so much but what can you do. With McKenna I never made it to the once a week appointments. Depends on how much this girl wants out. Dan has been busy with work. They asked him to work overtime again this week. Not my favorite thing but at least his office has lots of work. He has been busy at home too, buying book shelves and a mirror at Target to get the guest room ready for his mom and dad to come visit for Christmas. McKenna is excited to see Grandma Wendy and Grandpa David. Oh, and Laurel too or course. Ben is leaving on his mission to Washington DC tomorrow the 19th. We will miss you. On Sunday, we went to the Meldrums' for dinner and cookie baking. We made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter bars. Adrianne received some peppermint marshmallow fluff from a friend and we tried to make brownies with it. Bad idea! the marshmallow cooked to rock hard and the brownie mix underneath remained gooey. Well, we thought we would try something. But the other cookies turned out well. I don't think I have ever baked so many goodies in one night. McKenna's new favorite Christmas song is The First Noel sung by Josh Groban and Faith Hill. She asked me today what the second noel was. It took me a second, but I thought it was funny. She also likes the Little Drummer Boy. She asks the strangest questions sometimes, but she is four. Sorry no pics today. Will definitely have some next week.

Snow and Gingerbread Houses...

We decorated our gingerbread house Sunday night and here is our masterpiece. McKenna had lots of fun eating the candy and trying to help. We almost had a disaster a few times when she tried to reach over it, but in the end it turned out great. We did it from a kit so not from scratch but I am all about easier. If you look closely there is a green palm tree in the front compliments of Dan. This week was pretty busy for us. I had to sing in the Christmas enrichment of Tues while Dan helped out in the nursery with probably over 20 kids. Then I had a cookie exchange to go to Wednesday night. Do you ever go into a cookie exchange and feel like you wish you could take just your cookies back home? I made homemade oreo cookies. They turned out delicious and they are really easy to make. Thanks Adrianne for the recipe. Sunday I had to sing a solo in sacrament meeting. That was fun, but I was kinda nervous. It snowed last night and I thought I would show you the extent of snow we get here. You can still see the grass coming through. The picture with the house is taken from inside our house from an upstairs window so they are our neighbors across the street. Someday I will include pictures of what my house looks like for you Tracie. Just when it is not so cold outside... Yes I am a wimp.



Oh and the cord is what is left of our extension cord that hooked up our icicle lights thanks to Thumper. I knew it would happen sooner or later. He can never resist a good cord or plastic. Luckily it was not plugged in to the outlet at the time. Yelp!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

To me! Well, Saturday was my birthday and I had a baby shower at my house that day too. My friend Adrianne threw it for me and mostly church friends showed up. I haven't made too many friends outside of church or work yet. I'm not all that social anyway. The baby shower was fun. We had cupcakes and a light lunch. I received lots of cute gifts for baby Ryleigh. I don't have to buy diapers for the first couple of weeks. Yeah! During the baby shower, Dan put up Christmas lights on the house, but ran out of clips so he only got about half way done. Hopefully he will get the rest up this weekend. He has another test to take on Saturday so we will see. After the baby shower, we got ready to go and take family pictures at Kiddie Kandids. Dan bought me a pair of shoes and My Fair Lady for my birthday. After pictures, we had dinner at Red Lobster. Yum! I love crab! So does McKenna. Then we went home and watched the movie. I had a lot of fun. I forgot that My Fair Lady is almost 3 hours. I was tired after it was over.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

I never thought I would be saying let it snow, but since it snows here in Boise and melts in an hour, I am fine with snow. We put up our Christmas tree the night that we drove home from Salt Lake City. I thought he would be tired from driving for 5 hours, but once he got started he couldn't stop. He moved furniture around and everything. We ended up buying the Target ornament set in burgundy and gold. Those are the colors that Dan picked out this year for our theme. I think the tree looks pretty awesome. We are actually looking forward to having Christmas here at home for a change. Don't get me wrong...I love traveling for Christmas, but it is nice to stay home once in a while. Dan is going to try to get the lights on the house this weekend but that depends on his soccer injury from last week. It was great unpacking the Christmas boxes and finding that we had bought extra icicle lights on clearance last year. Dan was excited. McKenna loved helping put on ornaments all in the same spot. Dan had to move them around without her knowing. I am really hoping Thumper doesn't decide to eat the tree or an ornament. So far so good. He is learning. We had left some watermelons out in the garden from the summer and he finally gnawed through one and was enjoying the juicy insides. I finally got around to disposing of them today. He was disappointed. Yesterday we bought a TV at Best Buy. For those of you who have been in our house, it is replacing our one and only 19inch TV. We should be able to pick it up Thursday (pic to come). I am excited. We won't know what to do with a bigger TV. The TV is Dan's and my present for Christmas, even though Dan says it is really for me. What can I say... Dan spoils me.

I thought Kenna looked so cute in this outfit my mom bought her. I even did her hair in ringlets. I had to take a picture.

Turkey Day!!!

Kenna loved making chocolate dipped strawberries for Thanksgiving dinner. However, I think she managed to eat more than she made. She loved them. I don't blame her. We had a great time going to Grandma Joan's house for Thanksgiving. Kenna even participated in the Turkey Bowl. She is kicking off in this picture. Dan couldn't play because he hurt himself in soccer the Monday before, but he did manage to take quite a few pictures. I'd like to thank Wendy for making me a lemon meringe pie. Delicious!!! Friday, Grandpa Dave and Grandma Wendy took us to Antelope Island. We stopped to check out The Salt Lake. It was cold and windy. We saw buffalo and horses. Kenna loves petting horses, but I think I am allergic. Saturday we went to Will and Kristin's for Sierra's baby blessing. It was pretty quick, but she is pretty cute so it was worth it. We went to Auntie Joanna's new condo in Cedar Hills and spent some time with Popo and Gong-Gong. We loved seeing everyone even though it was only for a short time. Dan, McKenna and I spent a couple of hours in Ikea and don't I love the prices. We bought a couple of things then headed back to Bountiful to play games with John and Mandi. It was a crazy weekend but lots of fun.

Kenna loved pretending to ride the tractor at the farm on Antelope Island. Her friend Kye would be so jealous.

Primary Program

Kenna's Primary Program was today in church. She did great! The Sunbeams were only up on the stage for the first 10 minutes then they came back into the pews. Probably a good idea. McKenna's aunts and uncle, Laurel and Matt and Cami, came for the weekend and were able to attend the program. Kenna kept making faces at them from the stage. She kept filling her cheeks with air and popping her cheeks. Crazy girl! McKenna had two parts in the program. She recited the Fourth Article of Faith and said she was thankful for her baby sister. We are so proud of her for memorizing the entire Article of Faith. She only needed help one time. I call her my robot because she can memorize easily. We have been working on memorizing the Articles of Faith and she knows 1 through 4 now. I tried to download a video of Kenna saying it but it took too long. You'll just have to ask her when you see her.

Matt and Cami came up for Cami's cousin's wedding in the Boise Temple on Saturday. They arrived Friday and stayed over until Sunday. After the reception, they brought us back four slices of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. Yummmmm!!! They were delicious. We took Matt, Cami, and Laurel to a Thai restaurant after they got back from the wedding reception. Cami's first time trying Thai food. She said she liked it. At least I think she did. Definitely a new taste for her. We appreciate her trying it.

Laurel is staying with us until Wednesday when we will drive her back to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. I can't wait for all the good food! That is what I think about a lot now. Eating... Well, I am eating for two now. Here's a pic of my belly. Thought I'd include it cuz I don't have any pictures of my being prego with Kenna. Oh yeah, I had to drink the glucose drink at my doctor's appointment this last week. Yummy!

One out of Nine

Yeah! Just wanted to announce that Dan has officially completed one of his architectural licensure exams. His first one out of nine tests. We find out in 4 to 6 weeks. Why it takes so long, I do not know. I knew within a week for pharmacy, but I guess the architectural program works at a slower pace. Dan took the test Saturday morning. It was a four hour test and he used every minute. By noon, I was on pins and needles. We anxiously await the results. I know he

did just fine. It's Dan and architecture! I had Kenna do some homework while we were waiting. She loves to do rhyming, reading, and writing. Just thought I'd include a pic of Thumper for all to see. I really like having the fence finished so he can run around the backyard and not be stuck in the kennel.

Car sickness

So, this may be gross but I have to report it as a mom. Friday on the way to Jodi's house, McKenna's preschool/daycare, Kenna decided she was going to clutch her stomach and moan then throw up. Luckily she wasn't feeling good when she woke up so I didn't feed her any breakfast. It was mostly spit. But still... I had to decide whether or not to turn back and go home or go on to Jodi's and clean her up there and go to work as planned. I continued on the road to Jodi's. During the confusion, Kenna was crying "Don't crash!" cuz I kept looking behind me at her. And she said, "My coat is all dirty!" The things she worries about. I told her the coat could be cleaned and she calmed down a little. We raced into Jodi's and straight to the bathroom. The other kids were very curious and crowded around the bathroom. Luckily Jodi has clean clothes for all kids at her house. Thank goodness, cuz I had nothing. I got Kenna cleaned up and changed and rushed off to work. Some mom, huh. I just left her there. But someone has to open the pharmacy. I picked her up after work and she had a fever. I could just tell by looking at her. Got her home and gave her Motrin. She crashed on the couch and watched TV for a couple of hours. By the time Dan came home from work she was jumping around and her usual self. Maybe she had a 12 hour bug. Who knows!

Kenna in Gymnastics

I am going a little post crazy with this new blog, but here are some recent pictures of McKenna in gymnastics class. She goes every Monday night until the middle of January. McKenna loves tumbling and the beam and the bars. Basically everything. She is pretty good and I'm not just saying this because I am her mother. Kenna's friend Kye is in the picture with her on the uneven bars. He is wearing the dark sweats on the ground. She has a pretty big class with 3 to 5 year olds. I think Kenna just loves to wear a leotard. So girlie!

Our First Halloween in Meridian

Our first Halloween in Meridian was a success. Dan made scones and hot chocolate for all the parents and we had candy for the trick or treaters. It was a great way to get to know the neighbors. The weather was pretty nice even though it got colder as the night went on. McKenna had a blast showing off her costume of Disney Princess Mulan. She loves dressing up. She was going to be Cinderella like last year, but we found a deal at the Disney store on costumes the Saturday before Halloween. She loved wearing lipstick and blush. It took a huge amount of gel to get her hair up without wispies everywhere. McKenna and I went around the neighborhood and she got about a half a bucket of candy. She kept making me hold it because it was too heavy. Our friends, Adrianne, Dave, Kye and Dallyn came over to try the scones. Kye was a John Deere tractor and Dallyn was a puppy. All the kids looked so cute! We didn't dress up Thumper, but he wanted to eat all the scones. Maybe next year we will spring for a costume for him, when he is old enough to not chew it off. Everyone had a great time! Oh yeah...after three weeks of waiting for our backyard fence to be finished, they finally came and finished it. Hooray!!!