School Days

 Kaylee finally started preschool in September.  We loved her preschool last year so she is going back to the same place, but one extra day a week.

 I am so sad to see her go every day but love to hear about her adventures and how she is growing without me.  She is already looking forward to kindergarten next year and every time we drive past her future elementary school she makes sure to tell me that's HER school. Ai- why do kids have to keep growing up?? 

Showing off her favorite robot backpack :)

McKenna has been having a hard time with it and asks me all morning, "Is it time to get Kaylee yet?"  Unfortunately it also coincided with the hardest pregnancy I've gone through and so Mom hasn't been much fun for her to play with.  Luckily Kaylee is only gone for a few hours and then these two are back to being the best of friends.  Hopefully that keeps up!

Kirtland Trip

We have been very lucky to have my Mom come visit a few times every year but this year we were extra lucky because my Dad came with her! We decided to make the trip up to Kirtland since none of us have been there before. I was sad we didn't take great pictures of Kirtland but it was great to be there. We drove up Friday and did the tour of the Kirtland temple first. 

Then we went to the other sites that are owned by the Church (like the Newel K Whitney store).  It was amazing to see the difference in those two tours.  Such amazing and sacred things happened in the temple and yet the tour guides stated it very factual with no testimony or emotion and breezed through all of the amazing things that happened.  At the Church sites it was the complete opposite and it was so easy to feel the Spirit in those sacred buildings.  

We did as much as we could with the kids going crazy and then went back to the hotel to let them swim in the tiny freezing outdoor pool.  They didn't seem to mind :)

The next day we figured we'd let the kids play for a little bit at this farm we found online and then go to one more Church site, about 45 mins away.  But when we got to Lake Metroparks Farmpark they had so many things to do and we all had so much fun we were there for 4 hours!!  The girls got to milk a cow, play on a huge farm-themed playground,

pet all the farm animals,

ride a pony,

brush down a horse,

play in another garden-themed place,

go through a corn maze,

and go on a tractor ride.  It was a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone going to that area. We were all worn out and decided not to go to the last Church site and just headed home.

Sunday Mom and Dad got to go to church with us and then we showed them around the beautiful Park of Roses.

 Monday we finally were able to fulfill Kaylee's wish of going golfing with Grandpa.  I thought my kids would lose interest pretty fast but they played the whole time and were actually pretty good for only being 4 and 2! 

That was definitely the girl's favorite part and they still talk about it all the time.  We were so happy to have Grandpa and Grandma here for one last trip before they leave on their mission next year. 

New Beginnings

We had a few fun additions in August. Our hybrid Honda Civic has been struggling for a long time and we kept going back and forth on how long we should keep it.  We took it in for yet another fix at the car shop and they basically told us they would be surprised if the hybrid battery would last another year, which is way more expensive than the car is worth. So we started looking for a minivan, since we knew that would need to be our next car.  It was perfect timing because we also found out that we are expecting again! Baby #3 is actually due March 20th but we took this picture before finding that out... so embarrassing ;)

 That doubled our efforts looking for a good van and we feel like we got an amazing deal on this 2010 Toyota Sienna.  So happy to have a lot of trunk space, automatic doors, etc, etc. We love it!  

So happy to have two fun new additions to our family :)

Family Pictures

It was definitely time for an updated family photo.  The last one we took was when Kenna was 7 months old!  Since I am cheap (and poor) and my amazing sister-in-law is too far away to take our pictures all the time, I begged my friend Linzi to take them for us.  She has a nice camera but told me over and over again that she doesn't know how to do family pictures and to not expect much.  Little did I know I would love every single one of them!!!  She seriously did so amazing and now the hardest part is choosing which one to print because I think they are all great.  This was also the most low-key, stress-free day for everything- doing hair, choosing outfits, the kids sleeping great, the morning went smooth, etc.  I only wish family pictures went that smooth and turned out this great every time!

Chop Chop!

Well I finally did it!  I have been debating whether or not I should chop my hair for months and I finally got up the courage to do it.  They were only supposed to cut 10 inches off but I think by the end of it, it was closer to 13.... which I was not happy about!  It has been a HUGE adjustment trying to get used to this short hair.  I wish I could say I am loving it but unfortunately I still regret it every day. Luckily my hair grows pretty fast so hopefully it will grow to a length I love soon!  And if nothing else at least I was brave and got a big change :)

Independence Day

Look at me- two posts in one month!  Maybe I will catch up one day.  This was the best 4th of July I have ever had with our little family and quite possibly my favorite one ever!  It just seemed like everything about the day went perfect.  We talked a very unhappy Richard into going to the parade with us in the morning, which is one of his least favorite things ever.  But we showed up right before the parade started, got an awesome parking spot, found a perfect place to watch in the shade, and even found our amazing friends to watch with!  Even Richard had to admit that if parades were always like that, he would probably like them more. I was sad I didn't take any pictures but it was a lot of fun seeing my kids excitement at McKenna's first ever parade and Kaylee's first that she can remember :) 

We had a very good relaxing afternoon (which was also the most perfect weather for the 4th, it was not hot but also didn't rain. See? It was meant to be the best!) and then Richard and I decided to bust out the face paint for our kids.  I knew it would be rubbed off in two seconds so I just did two little ones on Kenna

but Richard and Kaylee decided to go all out!

He did a fantastic job and she sat so patiently the entire time he was working on her.  She was really excited to show her flag off to all her friends.

That night we had a neighborhood BBQ with all of our friends (again, where was my camera??) I am going to miss living in a place like this for a lot of reasons but getting everyone together for holidays is definitely one of them!

That night we also decided to take our girls to fireworks for the first time.  We met a bunch of our friends at the park and the kids played with pop-its, sparklers, and glow-sticks while we waited for the show to start. The kids were having so much fun that all the pictures we got look like this:

But at least we have proof we were there!  The fireworks were pretty good but my only problem with this show was there was no patriotic music playing during the fireworks.  Seriously???  I guess I'll have to put up with these ones until I can get to Taylorsville Dayzz again :)  Hope everyone had as good of a 4th as we did!

MAJOR Catchup

I have sat down to catch up on blogging many many times and there has just been too many things happening this year and I am so overwhelmed!  So instead of trying to write about all of it, I'm just going to make sure I document it with pictures and then hopefully one day  in the near future I can go back and get down some of the details....  But for now here is a glimpse of what our year has looked like from about March until now!

 VIP Night at Kaylee's Preschool

 Richard and I had a one night getaway to a B&B in a super sad little town

 Kaylee turned 4! 

 Kaylee wanted a pirate party with her friends and it was awesome! We kept the guest list small (which was so hard to do!), my sister was here to help, and we had tons of fun party games that the kids asked for over and over! So much fun

 Grandma came to visit! Can't ever get enough of her :)

 Super fun Easter with multiple Easter egg hunts and a brand new Sunday tradition that I love

 We took care of 5 kids under 5 for 3 days with no mishaps! We even ventured out with them and had a blast.  We will miss them so much when they move!!!!

 McKenna taught herself how to ride a big girl bike. Maybe one day she'll let me teach her something...

 Kaylee finished up her first year of preschool! She loved it so much, mostly thanks to these ladies. Couldn't ask for better teachers!

 Uncle Bryant got to stop and see us for a few hours on his way through

 Went to the new Africa section of the Columbus Zoo- it's amazing!  This is the best zoo I've ever been to by far

 Daddy Daughter Date going to ride on the bus and get ice cream (her choice) for being fully potty trained (for the second time around...)

 Daddy Daughter Date to a baseball game. Kaylee couldn't get enough of it!

 Had two caterpillars hatch into butterflies this year- I don't think I'll ever get sick of doing that.

Had a GIANT flood the night before we went out of town which caused a huge mess and forced our landlord to finally rip out our carpet :(  

Well that doesn't even come close to showing all the things we've done the last couple months but for now it will have to do.  Here's to hoping I can get back into blogging! I know all of you have been dying without me...

Theme Night: Olympics

Time for another theme night!  Since the Olympics were coming up, we decided to make that our theme.  This one was probably the most tiring theme night we've ever done.  Partly because we were constantly on the move and partly because the girls had no idea what the Olympics were so we were trying to explain, watch, demonstrate, and help them learn the events.  

We started off with the running of the torch, of course! We filled a paper cone with Cheetos and had McKenna run in from one room to Kaylee, where she poured some of her Cheetos in Kaylee's cone and Kaylee ran to Richard who ran to me :)  

Then we went right into our events!  We did the luge,

speed skating, (here are the girls showing off their "skates") 

figure skating,

and our very own invention of "toss the marshmallow into the Olympic rings", which the girls loved.   

Skating was also a big hit and they wanted to do it for days after. We did our speed skating around the couch and our paper skates worked great. I purposely didn't post any videos of that but trust me, we looked awesome trying to mimic the speed skaters :)  McKenna was too scared to do the luge so I tried it one time and almost died.  Apparently laundry baskets are not meant for adults.....

We ended the night with our medal ceremony in which we all won Gold medals! (which the girls had decorated)  We have quite a talented family.  

This was a good theme night but definitely one that we will need to wait until they are a little older for them to really get it.  They still had a blast though!  It was a very fun night. 

Snow Play

Since we have had tons and tons and TONS of snow this year, we have had to find something to do with it to keep us from going crazy (although it's not really working for mommy...).  We had a lot of fun first experiences with the girls this year since our past two Ohio winters haven't had hardly any snow.  We took the girls sledding for the first time and I was shocked at how un-scared they were! 

 Kaylee kept begging to go down by herself (don't worry, we were at the bottom to catch her) and once McKenna saw Kaylee do it she wanted to as well!  Sorry McKenna, you're not that old yet!  

But that doesn't stop her from trying (and mostly succeeding) to do every single thing that her sister does.  It was a blast! I forgot how much fun sledding is, I haven't been for years.  

We also had a HUGE pile of snow in our parking lot, which gave the girls plenty of play time climbing up and it was so big we even were able to sled down it for a few days before it turned to ice. 

 One of our neighbors added a cute face to it and we lovingly called it our snow monster mountain. 

 I guess if you can't have the beautiful mountains of Utah at least we can create the next best thing! 

One morning when it snowed, the top layer froze but the snow underneath stayed fresh and powdery.  It made it a lot of fun to walk over and crunch through the ice to the snow underneath.  We could "cut" out huge chunks of ice and the girls loved carrying them around and then we would break them. 

This was also the day we had a lot of friends out to play with so that always makes it much more fun!

We also tried snow painting. I thought it was a fabulous idea but it was pretty cold and the girls had a hard time ime squeezing the bottles with their snow mittens on.

Kenna lasted 10 seconds before she went back inside to watch us from the window and Kaylee only lasted about 10 mins, most of which consisted of her asking me to draw in the snow for her.

 Despite our big failure, I still thought it was fun and will definitely try it again another time. 

Even with all of these fun activities, I am DEFINITELY done with the snow and don't know how much more cold I can handle.  Isn't it time for spring yet??