Christmas

We spent Christmas week with Dan's family. We arrived Monday night. The girls did really well on the flight but after we landed in SLC we were stuck on the plane for about half an hour. The flight over was only 45 minutes so it was a bummer. Ryleigh had had enough by then and was complaining pretty badly. We made it though and were very excited to see Dan's family. We had dinner with my parents Tuesday night. It was very nice to see my dad. The girls hadn't seen him for a while. Wednesday night consisted of the tradition of soup and scones for dinner, the reenactment of the nativity, and making gingerbread houses. Kenna was Mary and she was "pregnant" for some of it. It was so funny! Kenna and I made a triangular gingerbread house. It was the only shape that would fit on the plate. It was very easy to construct and we were done the fastest. Dan's sister's gingerbread house collapsed a couple of times. Christmas morning was crazy with Kenna running around passing around presents. I think she ended up with the most stuff. She is spoiled by everyone. Ryleigh loved these little rubber duckies in her stocking. She also loved the stuffed animals. Thanks to all for gave us gifts. After presents, we spent a relaxing Christmas day doing a puzzle and playing games. Christmas dinner was delicious! Ryleigh got one last Christmas present Thursday afternoon... Her first tooth! She had had a runny nose for a couple of days. I didn't think anything of it, but Dan discovered her tooth that afternoon. Friday, our flight was supposed to leave at 3:40pm. It was delayed four hours, but we checked it early so didn't leave Dan's parent's house until 5:00pm. We left at 7:30pm and made it home. Thanks again to Michael for picking us up last second. We really appreciate it.

Monday night football

We spent a Monday night a couple weeks ago having our own football party. Dan and I wore his old football jersies and Dan bought some cool green nerf footballs and pompoms. He even made a poster of Desean Jackson so we could throw footballs to him. Kenna loved it and we had a blast at halftime trying to get the footballs into the hole. We are not diehard Phili fans but they were playing that night. Ryleigh loved chasing after the footballs.

Santa

Kenna asked Santa for a pony (a toy one). Ryleigh just asked for the candy cane.

Christmas

Ryleigh and McKenna had fun helping decorate the Christmas tree. Ryleigh has already broken one ornament. It was her favorite one too. A ceramic boat. There was bound to be a fatality. She hasn't really been all that interested in the ornaments on the tree so I think we are safe for this year.

Ryleigh likes her veggies. Yummy broccoli!

She likes pretzels too. The best thing is that it takes her about 5 minutes to eat one. So I can actually get something else done instead of constantly giving her little Gerber stars.

Studio portraits... NOT CHEAP!

To quote my brother... How is it that you go to the studio expecting to pay only a small amount, because you have coupon, and you leave having spent way more than you expected? Anyway, these turned out great. Ryleigh didn't want to smile all that much in the family shots, but gave it her best when she was alone. Don't worry, I have plenty of prints to share, seeing as I spent a small fortune.

Who can resist these two beautiful faces?

Dan-made cabinets

Dan's recent home project has been building some built-in cabinets on both sides of the fireplace. To save money, he is doing one side at a time. One side is about 7 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Initially, we had two 3 feet tall bookshelves in the space. Pretty wimpy. So here is the step by step walk through of how he did it. It took about 3 full Saturdays over the span of a month and a half. He did a great job and didn't even make that big of a mess. He is awesome!

Pulling the carpet back

Fitting in premade, not painted, oak cabinetsAdding spacers in between each cabinet
The bottom half is done!

Squeezing in the shelving (made from scratch by Dan).
He did manage to gouge out some of the wall in the process.

Painted a "coffee" color from Ralph Lauren paint.
The shelves are removable and adjustable.


The finished look with Christmas decor.

Isn't it beautiful?

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just had to rub it in a little for all you Y fans out there!

Kung Fu Panda

You know in the movie where Po is training with his master and his motivation is food?  Well, Ryleigh's motivation to move forward on her stomach is food too.  She is finally making forward motion in the form of a lunging push up.  But only for snacks.  I place little Gerber snacks out and she goes for them.  Maybe by Christmas she be crawling for real.  We are excited to see everyone in Salt Lake this week.  McKenna is counting down the days.  See you soon!

How in the world?

So we took a trip to the urgent care yesterday afternoon. Let me tell you the whole story. We had just returned from a friend's house and Kenna said she was thirsty. She got a plastic cup out of the cabinet and put a restaurant lid on it after filling it with water. Then she stuck a Halloween straw in it from last year I think. She drank and then gagged and spit the water out. She yells "It's stuck, it's stuck!!!" She starts gagging and spitting up spit. I race her to the bathroom where she proceeds to lose her lunch (literally). I, thinking she just choked really bad on the water, don't really believe her when she keeps yelling "It's stuck in my throat!!" She is hysterical at this point. Still gagging too.

Me- "What is stuck?"
Kenna- "A piece of plastic is stuck in my throat!"
Me- "What???!!"

I grab a flashlight and look down her throat. Low and behold... something is stuck in her tonsil! I thought it might be a plastic shard. At least that is what it looked like. Dan thought I should try to take it out myself. Nothing doing. Kenna is screaming and freaking out and making me stress out. I tried to get down there but could barely see it myself. So I grab Ryleigh out her crib and off we go to the urgent care. Once there, I tell the receptionist, "my daughter has a piece of plastic stuck in her throat." A nurse comes rushing out and he shines a light down her throat. We rush into a room and four other people (doctor and nurses) come rushing in. The nurse grabs an instrument for the doctor that look like really long needlenose pliers. Now the doctor thinks it is plastic too so she says if she can't get it out, it means a trip to the ER because they don't want it to go further down her throat. Luckily, the doctor got it out on the first try. Kenna did beautifully when the doctor when in after it. It only took a second. And this is the culprit...


A piece of grass seed, the kind that sticks in your socks. How the heck it got into her straw we do not know. The pointy end was stuck in her tonsil. McKenna was totally fine after it was removed. But the drama! Sheesh! Dan's theory on how it got in her straw was that she was playing with it outside one day a long time ago and even though it was washed in the dishwasher, the seed stayed put in the straw. And when Kenna went to drink, it shot out like a dart and into her throat.

Talk about stress, but I have to say that that was the fastest I have ever been in and out of an urgent care facility. GO TEAM!

The clapper

Trick or Treat!

We had a fun Halloween. The weather was really nice. A little cold but not freezing. We set up our cooking station and Dan fried up the doughnut holes that I made that afternoon. We rolled them in sugar and they were delicious. Kenna and I hit the houses in our neighborhood. We only have three streets in our neighborhood so it was pretty easy. Since we live on the corner, we kept going back to visit Dan to see how he was holding up. We had to break for a bathroom emergency. Then I got Ryleigh dressed and she finished trick or treating with us. She was really mellow and just enjoyed the stroll. By 8:30pm we were out of doughnuts and candy. I say we did pretty good, but next year I think I have to buy more candy.

My studly hubby getting ready to cook.

Sizzling away!

My cute girls!

Ryleigh caught with her hand in the "cookie jar."

She even tried to eat some still in the wrapper. She is my chunky monkey or cow in this instance.

Pumpkin pics

Dan and McKenna's painted masterpiece. The lips are supposed to look like mine, that is what Kenna keeps telling me. I guess I have a big mouth.

Kenna's sketch of the carved pumpkin.

I was the lucky one who got to clean out the pumpkin. Dan had the easy job of carving the face.

Ryleigh was supervising.

The finished product!

SPOOKY!!!

Poor Baby!

Ryleigh has been sick this week with a stomach bug. Poor girl! She doesn't really want to eat all that much, which is a huge change from when she is healthy. She threw up a couple of times, once in the bucket of toys. That was fun cleaning up. She is gradually getting better, but not as quickly as I'd hope. This week has been a challenge, what with cleaning up vomit, poopy diapers, and forcing her to eat something. She is also really grumpy and whiney.



Ok...on to the happy news. We have been having fun with pumpkins this week. Friday night, we went to the pumpkin patch and corn maze with some friends. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home so I didn't get any pics of Ryleigh in a pink snowsuit shoved into the snuggly. She looked like a pink marshmallow and couldn't move a muscle (like in "The Christmas Story.")

Kenna had a blast looking through the leftover pumpkins and picking out a small baby one. The kids went down slides and jumped in a sandbox filled with corn (cornbox?) The maze was shaped like Obama and McCain (birdseye view.) We went through Obama because it was shorter. Saturday, Dan and McKenna painted a funny face on her baby pumpkin. We were going to carve our big pumpkin Monday night for FHE but found that it had gotten squishy on top. It sat in the garage for too long. We ended up buying a new one and carved it Wednesday night. We are getting ready for a funfilled Halloween. We have a parade at Jodi's in the morning and doughnut holes to prepare for the trick or treaters' parents. We stole a Halloween tradition from Dan's aunt Connie. We made scones for the parents last year. This year we are going to try doughnut holes. We had a pretty good turn out last year and this year our neighborhood has had a lot of new families move in. Dan is our frier and I take Mckenna out trick or treating. I hope Ryleigh just goes to bed early tomorrow.

I would have pictures of our adventures from this week, but Dan took the camera to work. I will post them once I get the camera back. TTFN!

Busy, busy, busy!!!

This month has flown by and I realized that I have been slacking a little in the blogging department. McKenna started track break earlier this month so it has been a nice change to have her around all day. She has been constantly asking to play games like Clue Jr. and Monopoly Jr. She is actually pretty good at both and beats me at Monopoly Jr. all the time. I usually wait until she has the answer for Clue Jr. so she feels triumphant. She is fun to watch get excited about games. Even if she finds out she is losing, she says "it's just for fun." She used to cry and throw a tantrum when she lost. She is really growing up. She can't wait for Halloween, too. We have a countdown of the days left on our whiteboard. I think she will be Mulan again.

Ryleigh is still not crawling but getting very good at going backwards. She would rather just sit and play with her toys or the remote control than try to go anywhere. That is fine with me. Less chasing around and yelling "NO!" She did say "mum mum" today distinctly for the first time and repeated it when she wanted a cracker. And she has started waving goodbye. She won't perform either for the camera yet. She knows when she is being watched. I thought she was cutting a tooth earlier this week because she was drooling and her nose was running like crazy, but still nothing. Guess she is not really interested in doing anything quickly. Again, fine by me because getting bitten hurts.

Dan started one of our home projects this weekend. He is putting together built in shelving to go on both sides of our fireplace. It will give us lots of storage and places to decorate. I am excited for the finished results. It may take a few weeks seeing he is doing it on his spare time. Dan is taking pictures as he goes along, but won't let me post them until it is finished. Stay tuned. We are still awaiting results on his last test. Maybe two more weeks?

I have been busy with work (flu shot season), kids, and church. My calling at church is CTR 7 teacher. Sometimes my kids are great and sometimes they can be monsters. With the primary program coming up in three weeks, I am extremely happy to get a break from preparing lessons for a few weeks. This week is crazy for me. I picked up an extra day of work on Monday and have a flu shot clinic on Wednesday not to mention my usually work days on Friday and Saturday. I feel bad cuz the girls go to daycare but they love it at Jodi's. Ryleigh always comes home so tired out from the day. She sleeps from 7pm to 8am the next morning. They tucker her out there. I am also watching my friend's boys for half a day on Tuesday. This may not seem like a lot for some, but it is more than I usually do during the week.

Last week, my friend Adrianne and I made these cute journal boxes. You use dividers for each month and put index cards (one for each day of the year) in the box. If something fun happens that day, you pull out the index card for that day and write the year on it and one sentence about that event (ie. Ryleigh said "mum mum" today when she wanted to something to eat or McKenna helped me make biscuits for dinner, she loves to help in the kitchen). You can fit probably 10-20 years on one index card (front and back). It is a quick and easy way to keep a journal or keep track of your kids milestones. When your kids are older, you can pull out a card and see the fun things they did or said that day.

Tomatoes!

Tracie and Troy have zuchini, we have roma tomatoes. Dan and McKenna picked a few on Saturday. It was my job to wash them and prepare them for... something. I think I am going to make spaghetti sauce out of my 30 pounds of tomatoes and freeze it. Dan loves spaghetti. Can you believe that this came from one tomato plant? It is now a huge bush! And there are still green ones on the plant. Maybe it is time to invest in a water bath canning machine. Salsa would be good. Yum!



If you pick and leave the stem on green tomatoes, they will turn red in a few days. Like I need anymore red ones right now. Dan heard somewhere that tomatoes will do that on their own. We didn't believe it until we tried it and it does work. Hope you learned something new today. Also, if you stick them in a paper bag, they will turn red faster. I will post the color change in a few days.

Update

Kenna getting her certificate for patience at an assembly.

Dan's birthday was on the 26th. McKenna and Ryleigh got him a couple of Star Wars Legos to put together. I got him a book about Flipping Houses. I made scallops for dinner and we had apple pie and ice cream. We went to Boondocks to play arcade games. We had a blast!

Ryleigh trying on her cow costume for Halloween!