The Big 5

That right there is the portrait of perfection. My beautiful first-born little baby. Now fast forward five years:


Yes, that again is my sweet little first-born so excited to open her birthday present that she absolutely insisted she couldn't possibly eat even one solitary bite of dinner (lasagna, by request- thank you Stouffer's) until she opened it. The excitement is just oozing!

What could it possibly be?


My oh my!

A Dora the Explorer Snuggie! Hooray! Much to the dismay of their father who loves picking up blankets from all over the house, my children LOVE their blankies. Or, "rankies" as Allie calls them. So I figured Kenna would love a blanket that she could wear. I was right. It was a hit. And of course she had to wear it while eating the birthday lasagna.

While up in Logan for Thanksgiving, we had a little birthday celebration for Kenna. Grandma Shelly made a darling snowman cake with long black licorice eyelashes and a red colored coconut scarf. Notice there are no pictures? My camera didn't make the trip with us for Thanksgiving. Oh well, at least I remembered to take all my children up. So, since we recently had a big cake, we opted for birthday donuts. But, alas, the birthday has not ended. Saturday will be Kenna's birthday party with 5 of her cute little friends which will include another cake. Stay tuned for that!

Kenna has really been anticipating her 5th birthday. On the morning of her birthday I could hear her in her bedroom talking to Allie. "Allie, I'm 5! But I still feel like I'm 4." All day long it seemed she was waiting for lightning to strike to initiate her into her next year of life. But, she loved the extra attention and it ended up being a great day. Oh and I can't forget lunch at McDonalds. When I asked where she wanted to go to lunch I was definitely not surprised at the response. We just over-utilize the hand sanitizer dispenser while we're there.

Happy Happy Birthday Miss Kenna D Dolly! We love you! Thanks for adding such a beautiful little spirit to our home.

OH- speaking of Thanksgiving, we had such a great weekend! It was so fun to spend time with family. The girls were in heaven playing with their aunts and uncles and cousins. We ended up coming home on Saturday instead of Sunday because of the storm (which proved to be a VERY wise decision) and Kenna was so upset to lose another day of playing. Another wonderful weekend of great memories with no pictures. Maybe we'll make up for pictures at Christmas. Hopefully the batteries are all charged...

Money Well Spent

I honestly can't remember who was the gracious donor of this baby gift from my first ever baby shower before I had Kenna. But this little bouncer toy has made it through 3 babies, almost 5 years, and is still in great shape! Maybe when this thing bites the dust, we'll know it's time to quit having kids. He he. I'm totally kidding. Really. This thing will definitely outlast my uterus.

Round 1: Miss Kenna D




Round 2: Miss Allie Gal (who, thanks to her sister, is sporting Mr. Potato Head's glasses- this picture is classic)




Round 3: Ty Guy


It's nice to know that out of all the you-MUST-have-this-or-die baby paraphernalia out on the market, at least one is worth the investment, huh?

So on Saturday morning while Kenna was eating her breakfast, she wheeled around in her chair to look at me, held her piece of bacon up in the air and shouted, "Hey mom! I made a Lamanite!"

Here is said Lamanite:

Not sure if I should consider this a parenting success or not....

Perhaps she should have been a Lamanite for Halloween.

Instead, she opted for the fairy princess she was last year. With whiskers and kitty ears, of course. What fairy princess is seen without them? And of course her little sister needed some whiskers too. After all, only the best ladybugs have whiskers. This year party-pooper mom decided we were going to dig through the dress-up bin to find our Halloween costumes, and we pretty much just did a repeat of last year. But these little spooks sure looked cute!



Lest we forget the cutest pumpkin in the patch, here is our little Ty man.


Let the fun begin!


The sugarfest started with a round of trunk-or-treating at the church which, many thanks to the cold, wind, and rain, was held in the cultural hall. But no matter, as long as the treats keep coming life is good! Later on the wind died down, and Kenna was determined to hit the neighborhood as well, so we headed around the block to top it all off. A giant diabetic nightmare. Now I get to be the treat referee. Those silly girls have organized and reorganized their treats a million times. I remember doing the same thing when I was a little girl, it's so fun to see their excitement.

Oh, we can't forget the pumkin carve. What is better than carving pumpkins in your jammies? Hmm, I guess the only thing that tops it off is carving pumpkins in your mismatched jammies!



Another Halloween goes down for the record books.

Now, on to Thanksgiving!

CHAMPS!

Some people mumble under their breath about their in-laws, but I am so blessed to have married into a darn good family! Check out these champs:

These handsome young fellows did us proud on Wednesday at the state cross-country meet. On the left we have Benson, coming in strong as the number 2 runner for Mountain Crest. Next to him in the middle is Daniel, number 1 runner for the team and 9th overall! On the right is their next door neighbor, Addison. We had so much fun watching them run. It was my first time at a state cross-country meet and I loved all the chaos as people ran back and forth to cheer on the runners as they passed by on different spots of the trail. Way to go Uncle Bens and Uncle Dan the man! We're so proud of you!

Hmmm, they must have a really awesome big brother. Well, actually I guess I have to say older brother. Jacob is quickly getting passed up on height. Don't worry Jacob, I love every square inch of you!

Oh, and Daniel and Benson: I guess it's alright that you run for Mountain Crest and not Sky View. *sigh* I guess we can't have it all....

:)

Resemblance

Top picture is Ty. Bottom picture is Allie. I think they're related.

Update

Hi there, this is Ty. My mom didn't put the best picture of me sittin' in my Bumbo chair, so now you can get a better look at just how handsome I am. Aaaah, life is good. Sorry ladies, you'll have to wait another 21 years til' I'm off my mission.

FIRSTS

I love the fall. I certainly can't believe it's here already, but I love it. Hopefully we can enjoy the cool for a while before the cold comes in to kick it out. So, we've recently had a couple of our "firsts" that signal summer has gone for the year.

-Last night we had our first chili for the fall. Which of course was accompanied by cinnamon rolls. With caramel frosting. Delish. We've had rain (a LOT of rain) this week and so it was a perfect night to stay in from the cold and have a nice hot dinner. Yea, some wives beg for nice weather, I actually beg for the cold and wet. It's just the only time I can actually get my husband in the house before 9 or 10 at night!

-We started our first fire of the year this afternoon. Many thanks to the fact that our furnace won't start. Nice. It fired up just fine about a month ago when it was nice and hot outside, go figure. I HATE paying for repair men to come! Perhaps it will just magically fix itself. I'll keep you posted on that one.

-And here is my little Ty trying out his Bumbo chair for the first time. How does one baby get so darn cute? His mama must be really good-lookin!