Christmas in Indiana

Ok, I now have to eat my words a little bit. Remember my last post about Indiana where I talked about how ghetto it was and how much I didn't like the children's museum?  Well, I have to take that all back now (or maybe just some of it...) because this trip we actually saw a really nice area of Indianapolis (so I know some good parts exist) and we went back to the children's museum and had a BLAST.  Apparently last time we went to the two most boring parts :)  Needless, to say, our Christmas in Indiana was SO MUCH FUN!  We were even planning on leaving the day after Christmas but because there was a gigantic storm that day, we ended up staying for two more days of crazy fun.  (Although I think the kids had had enough of each other by that point!) .  How can you not have fun when you are surrounded by these four crazy kiddos??

Most of the festivities I did not get a picture of....but the few that I did include a nativity where Kaylee got to be Mary and was SO sweet and cute with the baby. She got very solemn when it started and seemed to take her role very seriously.  What a sweetheart!

Richard stepped in to be Joseph when the original decided at the last minute he wanted no part in the nativity.

Opening LOTS of presents, of course

Playing dress up (we need to work a little bit on her fashion sense I suppose...)

And, as I mentioned, going to the Children's Museum.   

I wish I had taken pictures of all the other fun stuff we did, like all the Christmas crafts we did, the nativity scavenger hunt we set up for the kids, or the kids decorating the Christmas tree by shoving ALL the ornaments into one tiny spot...but all I can say is that we had a great time! Thanks for letting us raid your house and eat all your food Holly and Chase!

Clothes-A-Holic

I think we are in big trouble with this little one- she already adores clothes!  Whenever she sees me getting her shoes she giggles and immediately sits down and puts her foot in the air for me to put her shoe on.  And if she sees clothes laying around, she hands them to me and sits down, then looks at me expectantly as if to say, "Well?  Aren't you going to put them on?"  And if I don't, you better believe she protests very LOUDLY until I do it!  After getting her in her jammies the other night, she got into one of Kaylee's drawers and handed me pair after pair of pants. I actually managed to get FIVE bottoms on her before I had to tell her I couldn't do anymore.  Here she is with her pajama bottoms, tights, two pairs of pants and a skirt.

 She was super happy and wandered around for a long time with all of those layers on, but I had to draw the line at actually letting her go to bed with all of them on.  I'm a little nervous for her teenage years...

Sibling Fun

We were SO lucky to not only have one, but TWO of my siblings come visit me last week.  At the same time!  For the first (and possibly last) time there were more siblings here than in Utah.  It was a good feeling :)  And this was probably the most fun week I have had in a LONG time. Nothing beats quality time with my brother and sister! Too bad it has to end.  Scott flew in on Thursday and that night we went to German Village. 

  Can I just say that I LOVE watching Scott talk to new people?!  He is the most friendly person you will ever meet and he will talk to anyone and everyone.  Not only does he put a smile on the face of everyone he meets but they leave with a great impression of Utah and hopefully they will remember that for the future. I could go on and on about how awesome my brother is...but that's not the point of this post.  We did take him to our awesome bookstore but mostly just tried lots of German goodies, including, but not limited to, the pig's ear (these are just the English nicknames. I can't remember any of the German names...), 

 the elephant's ear

and the mountaintop, which was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted (why didn't I take a picture of it?? I need to go back just to get evidence of this disgusting treat to make sure no one ever tries it again).  You know that smell that hits you when you walk past a nail salon in the mall?  It tasted like that.  I'm not sure if it was supposed to...maybe someone was doing their nails while baking the goodies that day?  Anyway, don't ever try it.

The next day we took Scott to the zoo.  Poor Scott had Kaylee attached to him at the hip all day and ended up carrying her everywhere. Another reason he is the best uncle ever!  

That night Holly got in and we went out to eat and then all went to Jeni's Ice Cream.  This place has all kinds of crazy ingredients in their ice cream like sweet potatoes, corn, and goat cheese. We made sure to sample all the gross sounding ones but then ordered more normal flavors to enjoy :)

The next day we saw Santa at Home Depot 

and went to an Aquarium store for a little bit.  Then while I stayed home for Madeline's nap, everyone else went to the Central Ohio Fire Museum.  The kids had a BLAST and it sounded pretty awesome but apparently it was extremely small for the price you pay.  So the adults weren't quite as happy as the kids. Kaylee got to dress up like a mini-fireman, 

slide down a pole, 

and play in the front of a real firetruck.

Kenna wasn't quite as thrilled with her fireman gear but looked just as adorable!

Scott and I walked across the street to get us some delicious Indian food for dinner and we had a surprise visit from Holly's husband, who was just passing through on his way back home from Philadelphia.  A very full and fun house!  We were very sad to see Scott go the next morning but Holly stuck around for a few more days.  Unfortunately, McKenna got pretty sick so we didn't do anything on Monday except decorate my house for Christmas and Tuesday we went back to the zoo but I forgot my camera so I have no proof of that.  Oh and we also blackmailed my nephew by getting him in one of our princess dresses.  Sad to say, he made a very beautiful princess!  I can't even tell you how much I am looking forward to showing him this picture when he's older....

It was seriously the best week and I was so sad to see all our visitors leave.  We need to make sure this happens more often!  Thanks for an amazing trip Scott and Holly!

Baby Girl Turns One!

I think it's great when people put so much work into their kid's birthday parties.  And it makes me pretty envious...but at the same time I've never felt the need to do that for a kid who doesn't understand what's going on.  So that combined with my laziness kept McKenna's birthday very very simple this year :)  Apart from opening her presents,

and helping Daddy put them together, 

all we did was get a GIGANTIC chocolate cake. It reminded me a little of the cake scene from Matilda.  (not that my child reminds me of that boy at all, just the enormity of the cake, ha ha). So, ok, the cake was mostly for us...but at least she enjoyed it too!  This little girl loves food so much that I thought she would be going to town on her cake.  Instead she was very careful and very deliberate in making sure that every single little tiny piece ended up in her mouth.  

We finally had to take her piece away because I didn't actually think she would eat the whole thing.  Even though it was very simple and short, we were very happy to celebrate having this amazing little girl in our lives!  She has definitely changed us for the better.

Wild Lights

The zoo puts up a ton of Christmas lights every year (called Wild Lights) and we decided to go check it out last week. This was our first time going to the zoo at night. If you are going to see animals, I would not recommend it. But the lights were really pretty and they have a TON of them!  

 Around the huge lake, they have even more lights and a light show that talks about different animals around the world. 

Going at night was good too because it forced us to go to more inside exhibits that we normally don't check out, like the reptile house where Kaylee got to pet a snake.  She is my brave girl and isn't afraid to touch any kind of bug or spider.  Hopefully that stays and I don't rub off on her too much!

It was really fun and a whole new experience at our favorite zoo....until we were ready to go.  Richard decided to run over and see one more thing with Kaylee while I waited with McKenna on a bench by the entrance. On his way back, Richard couldn't see me so he stopped to call and ask where I was.  He finally saw me and started walking towards me but looked at me really confused and then stopped and said "Where's Kaylee?".  I immediately started freaking out and said "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, where's Kaylee??".  I'm pretty sure everyone in the whole zoo heard me scream that...but can you blame me??  Richard started running around looking for her while I got a zoo worker to call security.  It was a good 15 or 20 minutes before they found her and she was pretty far away.  I really wasn't even panicking, it was more like I was in shock.  I was just frozen and stood there stupidly, not knowing what to do.  I wouldn't allow myself to think that she had been taken or any other scary scenario, I just kept saying to myself "she has to be around here somewhere".  But it was still the scariest moment of my life! We think what happened was Richard told her they needed to look for me and when he stopped to call me, she must have unbuckled herself from the stroller and took off, maybe looking for me?  We're not 100% sure, nor do we really know how they found her, other than knowing that it was a MIRACLE and Heavenly Father answered our prayers VERY quickly!  I don't think she really knew she was supposed to be scared but we probably freaked her out by telling her over and over again how happy we were that she was ok and that we were glad she was back. That night she was really scared going to bed and kept crying.  I finally held her close and told her that she didn't need to be scared because Mommy and Daddy wouldn't ever leave her and that she was ok now.  She immediately closed her eyes and went to sleep.  Poor little thing must have been scared to death!  It was a much more wild night than we were counting on, but we are so grateful to have our little girl safe and sound!!!

November Baby

In honor of this being Kenna's birthday month, I thought I would help all of you get to know this adorable little girl better as she prepares to turn ONE (when did that happen??) at the end of this month. Besides being the most beautiful little girl in the world

here are some fun facts about McKenna:

-She is walking like a champ and never really crawls anymore. 

-She loves food!  And I mean REALLY loves it.  If you are eating in front of her, even if she is not hungry, she gets so offended and begs and begs until you give her some. And she probably out-eats any other kid in the world.  She eats twice as much as Kaylee does but burns it right off wandering all over the house.

-Her favorite foods are bananas, cottage cheese, and yogurt and she will literally lose her mind if she sees them and doesn't get to eat them.  It makes grocery shopping much more interesting...

-She loves watching other kids but doesn't like to be touched.  Usually if another kid tries to touch her, even in a nice way, she cries and comes over to me. Her one exception, of course, is for Kaylee. She gets really sad when she can't see Kaylee

-She smiles and laughs at just about everything.  She has a huge, beautiful smile that can light up your whole day no matter what else has been going on

 -She loves her Daddy and will wander all over the house saying "Dada, dada" looking for him.  When he gets home she is SO excited and runs right over to him 

-She tries to do everything she watches her big sister do.  She has been hurt many times trying to jump, climb, tackle, and get into everything that Kaylee does

-She does not like to be in the stroller. She does fine in the car, but try to strap her into her stroller and she will be squirming and crying in about 5 mins.  Needless to say, we don't go on many walks anymore.

-She has the most adorable little curls coming in just on the back of her head. Hopefully that means that she will have curly hair all over when she gets a little older!

-She is the exact opposite of Kaylee in just about every way.  One of those ways is that she does not like to read books.  She will bring a book to you and sit down for about .25 seconds before she pushes it out of the way and is off exploring again.

-She got 8 teeth really fast (her 8th came in at about 7 months) but hasn't even had a glimpse of another tooth since. 

-I am positive she already wants to take after her mom and play soccer.  She can already kick the ball so good and tries to back it out with her heel when it goes up against the wall.  She is a natural!

-If she is not tired, there is nothing that will make her go to sleep.  And I mean NOTHING.  (trust me, I've tried all of them at 3:00 in the morning).  But when she is tired, she lays right down and goes to sleep.  We never even had to do sleep training with her, she preferred to just fall asleep on her own. 

-She is the most determined little girl you will ever meet.  If she has her eye on something, there is nothing you can do to distract her.  And she usually doesn't get frustrated when you take her away from it, she just starts right back towards whatever it is she wants.  Here is the perfect video to show how determined she is: 

We love our beautiful, smart, talented, funny, happy, AMAZING little girl!

The Book Loft

Technically this post should be titled German Village, since that is what we went to explore today.  But with our kids, we have very limited schedules (and patience) and so we didn't actually make it very far into German Village :) Our favorite new place is called the Book Loft which brags about having something like 32 rooms of books to get lost in.  

It's a really fun place and you get lost so easily because it twists and turns and is like a big maze.  You better believe Richard and I will go back there on date night to play hide and seek one of these days!  Of course for Richard, any bookstore is like heaven to him. And as much as I liked it before, I liked it even better when I found this beauty:

Sorry you can't tell what it says...but it is the official Saved By The Bell Guide To Life. Pretty much the best book ever!  What else do you need??  

We also stopped in a little pastry shop to get some sweets

and mostly just walked around enjoying our AMAZING weather (Sorry all you Utahns who are currently buried in snow). Honestly, I could have spent another hour or two in the bookstore, but we will definitely be back!  

Child Labor

This is what life looks like at our house- my two year old is doing the dishes while I am reading a book on the couch.  That's how we roll.  Also, we don't allow her to wear clothes.  

(Ok before you judge me too harshly, here's what really happened: I was doing the dishes and Kaylee came up and moved me out the way saying "I'll do the dishes Mommy, you go play".  I kept trying to help but she said "I'm going to do the dishes BY MYSELF.  You go play".  Who am I to argue?  And while she has more clothes than she knows what to do with, lately she refuses to wear any inside the house.  It's enough of a fight to get her to wear clothes in public, I'm not going to fight that battle in our house too! But seriously, don't I have the best naked toddler in the whole world??)

Trick or Treat!

Last Friday was our Ward Halloween Party. Since Richard nixed all of my GREAT ideas for costumes, he was left without a costume about 10 mins before we needed to leave and finally decided to go as a last minute zookeeper to match Kaylee's adorable leopard costume

I went as a bank robber, with my adorable bag of money kept close at all times!

The party was pretty fun and Richard participated in a few of the games including wrapping the girls like mummies

and the doughnut on a string contest, in which he won the first round and went to the finals which means he ate two full doughnuts after eating all of the goodies from the party. Just watching it almost made me want to puke!

Halloween was very cold and rainy but we braved the weather for a few minutes to go trick-or-treating. Since I wasn't dressing up again, McKenna decided to show her true colors and display her pretty angel wings. 

Cutest angel I've ever seen!

And Kaylee also got into character and was crawling around and growling at us before we gave her some candy :)

I wish I could say that this was Kenna's first taste of candy but she is too hard to say no to. She loves food so much and takes it as a personal offense if you eat in front of her so I always have to give in! 

And Kaylee was thrilled to see her big stash of candy waiting for her.

I tried to convince her to go back out and get some candy for me but she was too cold...I guess I'll just have to sneak some from Kenna's loot when she's asleep.  The perks of being a parent!

Little Walker

Remember how I said McKenna just took her first step?  Well tonight she was determined to actually WALK. I tried to get it on film by myself but it wasn't working out so I had to wait until Richard could help me and by that time she was super tired and ready to just go to bed and this was the best we got.  Either that or she just wasn't as impressed with her walking as we were!  

Grandma Fun

Kaylee (and let's be honest, me too) has started to measure time by the amount of days until our next visitors come.  Luckily, we've had our fair share of amazing visitors and this last week we were happy to have Mom come and stay with us.  It was a whirlwind four days and went by WAY too fast but we were still able to pack a lot in.  In addition to making her do all my crafts with me, walks, treats, shopping, errands, and games we visited the zoo:

(Kaylee wanted to get her picture taken on every single statue but would NOT look at the camera when we were in front of an actual animal!)

went to a pumpkin patch:

had another Theme Night- this time Spain style! It included a bullfight

a soccer match

a sad sad version of Flamenco dancing and our own tasty Spain flags made out of sugar cookies. 

We also painted pumpkins:

(or in Kenna's case, ate the pumpkins)

And Kenna was even able to show off for Grandma and take her very first steps!  So far she has taken a record two steps in a row but she seems pretty hesitant to try more.  Even so, she is VERY close to actual walking and I'm sure it won't be long now!  Thanks for a great visit Mom!  Now to start the countdown to our next visitor in about a month!!!