December 2015

I thought this was such a sweet sister moment-  we were at Costco and McKenna and Brooklyn were in the cart when they took them to the other side of the register from me.  I think McKenna was a little nervous about it so she put her arm around Brooklyn and Brooklyn gave her a huge smile.  I love moments like that- you know despite all of the fighting that they really do love each other and will take care of each other!

This was probably our last time at Zoo Lights!  We finally stood in line to see Santa, which may be only the second time my girls have ever done that. 

We love the zoo here- it is amazing!  The city we move to is going to have a lot to live up to...

This year for my neighbor treats I tried to keep it simple.  Usually that is my favorite time to try out new recipes and I do 3 or 4 different things to hand out.  But this year we just decorated ornament cupcakes and I let the girls do most of them.  It was really fun to watch the girls be able to actually decorate something now and I think they turned out pretty cute! 

I have always wanted to participate in our complex's annual door decorating contest but never was brave enough to do it.  I spent hours and hours putting together this door! We didn't win anything but I was glad I can finally say that I did it.  No regrets! ;)

Brooklyn is getting so big!  She is showing so much personality and I love when they start to get really fun at this age.

 

We went to Holly's for Christmas again. We kept planning Christmas-y games and activities for the kids to do but they would just fight and whine so we just let them play and they had so much fun! Which gave Holly and I a lot of time to be together...which made it my favorite Christmas trip so far!

We did our own little nativity on Christmas Eve 

and then had the cousins exchange gifts. The Andreasons gave our girls these beautiful nightgowns and they have wanted to wear them every single night since!

Once again my pictures of Christmas morning have mysteriously disappeared :( The girls got a giant dollhouse which I was SO excited about.  However, the girls were less than enthusiastic and didn't touch it at all at Holly's house and have barely played with it since we've been home.  I ALWAYS wanted a big Barbie house so I guess I was just trying to live out my childhood through them?  Which they did not appreciate.... oh well.  Maybe next year I'll get Christmas right!

We were very sad to leave Holly's house, especially knowing it might be our last Christmas with them. We'll just have to keep enjoying them while we can!

November 2015

The girls had the post-Halloween blues so we built a whole city out of candy.  I think it was more fun for me than the girls... but anytime they can be with their candy they are a little happier!  

We also did an activity at COSI where the girls pounded golf tees into a pumpkin with a wooden mallet.  Since I didn't have either of those I gave them real nails and a real hammer.  I am such a good, safe mom.... but they had a blast doing it!

Brooklyn starting crawling and it didn't take her long to get moving all over the place. I am so nervous to have a crawling baby with all the tiny toys my girls have now. I guess that is the hazard of being the youngest!

McKenna continues to be Brooklyn's best buddy.  We are still working on loving and playing with her in good ways, but she is so good at taking care of her and wanting to be with her every second.

McKenna wanted to have a party with her friends this year so we planned it the week before her birthday so we didn't run into Thanksgiving.  Thank goodness she actually loved it this year and wanted to participate in everything!  We had a rainbow party and I think it ended up being a lot of fun. Some of our pictures are mysteriously missing from when we switched computers so I don't have any photos right now but hopefully I can find where they went!

We had a very crazy Thanksgiving.  We were planning on going to Holly's house but the night before we were going to leave, Brooklyn was really struggling to breathe. We decided to take her to the doctor and then leave later that day but instead they sent her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with RSV!  Poor thing had so much junk in her lungs and really struggled to breathe for a few days.  It was very scary but luckily we had someone in the ward teach us a trick to clear up her lungs and immediately she sounded so much better!  If only the doctors had done that 4 days earlier.... Kaylee also got an ear infection and McKenna had a really dry cough that kept her up.  Between the 3 sickies none of us got any sleep!  It was a very long week and I was very grateful Richard was home to help me.  My Utah sibs were so sweet  and ordered a pizza to be delivered to our house the day Brooklyn was in the hospital so that I didn't have to worry about making dinner.  Even being 1700 miles away, they still found a way to take care of us!  They are the best. 

  Because we didn't get to go to Holly's we didn't have plans for Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't want to join anyone's group in case we spread our sicknesses. My VT companion was so sweet and brought us an entire dinner, with enough for leftovers too!  We were so blessed to be taken care of in our hard week. 

October 2015

October brought a lot of gorgeous weather days.  If I could live in Ohio in the fall my whole life, I would be happy.  Unfortunately the other 8 months of the year definitely don't make it worth it :)

Putting Daddy under arrest at the park:

We took advantage of a day off of school and went to the pumpkin patch with our friends.  They have a little petting zoo, big hay slides, a hay maze, sunflower maze, pumpkin donuts, and of course a tractor ride out to pick a pumpkin.  The kids had a blast, except when we were attacking by vicious wasps while trying to eat our treats!  Everyone else ran away but I was in the middle of nursing Brooklyn so I was just really hoping they would take pity on me and leave us alone! 

As usual we painted our pumpkins instead of attempting carving.  Kenna did her usual- mix the paints until they are some kind of gray and paint the whole thing the same color.  And Kaylee did her usual- very meticulous painting with a lot of different colors. And this time she even attempted a vampire after seeing my Dracula pumpkin.  These girls are such opposites!  But still best friends.  

My neighbor taught a little class on flooding sugar cookies and gave us all a few cookies to practice on.  It was really fun to decorate but honestly I don't know if I will put in all the work to make them on my own...  they are always pretty to look at though!

Halloween was so spread out and the girls got to dress up multiple times- I don't think they understand anymore that holidays are supposed to just be on one day!  First we went to Boo at the Zoo and we were lucky enough to have Uncle Robert here for that again this year.  

McKenna had her Halloween party at preschool but Kaylee's school is super lame and don't let them dress up or barely have any celebration at all.  

Trick or treating was moved to Thursday even though Halloween was actually on Saturday.  Crazy Columbus!  It was pretty cold but the girls didn't seem to mind at all- they wanted to keep going!  Poor little Brooklyn had frozen hands and was up way past her bedtime though. 

McKenna fell off one of our kitchen chairs and sliced her chin open.  I am so bad in those situations!  I can't handle them on my own.  I face-timed Richard so he could tell me if I needed to take her in to get stitches or not :)  Luckily we didn't end up taking her in but it was still scary!

Holly came to visit for the weekend and we went to COSI 

and then our ward Halloween party.  Holly was nice enough to dress up with me since Richard never wants to do a couple's theme anymore :)  

I love this crazy crew!

August/ September 2015

Wow I was almost all caught up for a while and now all of the sudden I am way behind again!  

AUGUST:

We knew we had to fit in a few things before summer ended.  One of them was a festival at the park next to our main library.  We didn't really know what to expect because it was all advertisement for these companies but we actually had a blast!  They were giving away a lot of free things and they had all kinds of activities for the girls.  They got their hair colored and played games, and then they each got giant balloon animals, balls, a treasure box, flowers, candy, etc.  They were in heaven!

My favorite thing we did this year was finally go to Hocking Hills, which is about an hour from our house.  It made me sad that we have wasted the last four years NOT going!  It was GORGEOUS and made me realize how much I miss the mountains and hiking.  The girls did so much better than I thought and didn't complain once and kept asking if we could go further. They really came alive in the woods! Of course Brooklyn was the perfect angel and didn't seem to be bothered being in the carrier all day for the first time.  It was the perfect day and we were all happily exhausted when we got home. 

In August McKenna started preschool at Little Footsteps Preschool. The teacher is Kyla Schurtz from our ward and she is amazing!  We have loved having McKenna there and she absolutely loves going and wishes it was every day, especially with Kaylee being in school full-time now.  

Kaylee joined a soccer team this year, which made her mom very proud :)  She has done great and I love seeing how fearless she is.  Unlike a lot of little girls who play, she gets right in there and is especially good at defense.  She loves seeing how far she can kick the ball away when someone is bringing it down the field.  I guess she does have a lot of her mom in her after all!  Richard signed up to be an assistant coach but the real coach has had to be gone a lot so Richard ended up doing most of it anyway.  It's fun to see this new side of him!

SEPTEMBER:

I was SO nervous about Kaylee starting full day Kindergarten.  It was more because I didn't want to be away from her that long than thinking she wouldn't be able to handle it. She looked so tiny to me climbing up those big bus steps the first day!  I think she was more nervous about taking the bus than anything about school (and I'll admit, me too!)

She is exhausted at the end of each day and I definitely don't think she enjoys it as much as preschool but she loves school and probably always will so she doesn't complain about it and tells me she loves it anyway.  

Somehow we made it through the whole summer without going to a splash pad once!  I guess that's what happens when you mix a new baby and a paranoid mother!  We had planned on trying out a new one but it happened to be closed for repairs the day we went so we ended up back at the good ol' Bunny Fountains.  Brooklyn loves water and I thought she was love this too but she did NOT want to be touched by the water.  She was perfectly content to watch from afar though!  The girls had more fun than I think they ever have here, especially McKenna who used to take a while to warm up to the idea of the water splashing up in her face.  It was fun to see them run around crazy with the other kids instead of staying huddled by me the whole time.  

Richard turned 32 this year and unfortunately his celebrations were not anything to brag about.  He had to coach Kaylee's practice that night so we only had a short time to celebrate when he got home. We tried a new restaurant that we all loved called Melt. All the entrees are cooked inside a grilled cheese sandwich!  Richard had the Philly Cheese Steak and I had Chicken and Waffles and even though I felt like I was having a mini heart attack after, it was worth every bite :)

Probably one of Richard's favorite things this year was taking the girls to their first OSU football game. Our friends, the Kings, got extra tickets and were nice enough to give them to us and I couldn't tell who was more excited, Richard or the girls.  Kaylee has been to baseball games and I think a high school football game before but I wasn't sure how Kenna would do.  When I asked her what her favorite part was she said the cheerleaders so I don't think Richard will turn her into a football fan anytime soon!  But she said she loved being there so I was glad they had so much fun with their awesome dad.