Holiday Cheer

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wasn't there a time when the year 2012 was the backdrop for a science fiction movie?

Okay, much to blog about. Let's just dive on in.

CHRISTMAS. This year the girls were out of preschool and Kindergarten for the entire week before Christmas, so by the time it actually came we were VERY ready for it. Very. Here we are on Christmas Eve reading the Christmas story. The girls played a variety of characters. At one point during the week, Allie was really looking forward to being the donkey, but forgot about it by the time her big debut came. Donkey, really? Eh, it's Allie. So here are my two angels heralding the birth of the Savior. In fact, my smartie pants little Kenna actually took off reciting the scripture all by herself. They do listen to scriptures!
The girls had been DYING to give each other their gifts they picked out for each other. Based on the reaction, they both enjoyed what the other had chosen. And of course I didn't get a picture. Then they opened up their Christmas Eve jammies from Mom and Dad and were ready to hit the hay. They were SO excited and went right to sleep waiting for Santa to come.

As I was crawling into bed Christmas Eve, I looked forward to a nice long sleep ahead. I thought to myself how glad I was that my kids were still young enough to not wake up at an insane hour to open presents.

Isn't there a phrase about not counting all your chickens before they hatch or something like that? Or don't put all your eggs in one basket? Or some other related phrase that eludes to the fact that you really shouldn't speak too soon?

Well, I spoke- or rather, thought- too soon. During the middle of the night I could hear Kenna stirring in the bedroom, and she managed to wake up her sister. I could hear little footsteps down the hall and then quiet little shouts of amazement to realize that Santa had made it! At this point I rolled over to check the time. 4:30. A.M. FOUR THIRTY IN THE BLESSED MORNING. Well my little theory went straight out the window.

"MOM," Kenna exclaimed. "You've got to come see the living room!" In return they got grunts and groans from Mom and Dad.

Uh-uh. NO WAY am I waking up. I think the girls realized it was futile. We finally convinced them to go back to bed for another couple hours. In our bed, of course. In our queen size bed. Four bodies in our queen sized bed. Two of which had a bad case of the squirms. Not the most restful sleep I've ever had, I must say. Maybe Santa should have stuffed a king size bed in his sleigh for us.

A little before 8 they woke up again. This time the sun was up so there was no denying Christmas morning had come! They were about to burst as they eyed all the gifts just waiting to be torn into. Since we have a little toddler in the house, not a single gift had been put under the tree before Christmas- that would have proven absolutely disastrous. So of course it seemed Santa had dropped his entire sleigh in the living room! He he. Insert here many thanks to our families who spoil us rotten.

We always start with our stockings. Perhaps Santa is very aware of the Christmas sugar rush, so he sent some new toothpaste and toothbrushes. Electric toothbrushes. Santa is one smart cookie- the girls LOVE to brush with their new toothbrushes. Like, 3-4 times a day brush. Who woulda thought?


Santa brought the girls a dollhouse. Kenna was just certain that Santa built it up at the North Pole. Much to Jacob's dismay, it seems Ty quite enjoyed the dollhouse:


But have no fear Dad, just give him a cookie and a new toy car, and he's back to being a little boy:


And here are the lovely ladies sporting their new dress-ups from Grandma Otte and their Fancy Nancy dolls from Santa. Kenna is Rapunzel and Allie is Tinkerbell. Nice pose Tink!

Fortunately since church was at 1:00, we had enough time to finish all our unwrapping, enjoy some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then get ready to head out to Sacrament Meeting. I have to say one of my greatest Christmas gifts was being able to sit by Jacob during Sacrament! Our ward choir put on a beautiful program, and the Primary even got to sing. Of course the girls did superb.

We came home to make a rush clean-up of the Christmas tornado so we could have the house somewhat presentable for some new move-ins in our ward to join us for Christmas dinner. It turned out perfectly delicious and was so fun having guests for Christmas.

I guess I have to say the only down spot was that it went entirely too fast. Oh, and Jacob was so sad to see the banana cream pie go entirely too fast as well. Thanks to his awesome wife, he had another one just a day or two later.

Aaaah. Another great Christmas down for the record books.

Now on to one of the most exciting events of 2011: The wedding of Uncle Karl and our new Aunt Julie. Stay tuned!

DASHING through the month

Something about the holidays means everything seems to go at lightning speed! I have plenty I need to update on, and am just not feeling up to a big long post. Maybe I can keep up with the theme of the season and do a lighting post....

...we'll see how successful I am.

We MUST start with Kenna's birthday! My little lady is SIX years old. SIX! And boy was she ever excited for her big day. She'd been counting down since Allie's birthday. She decided that she wanted to decorate her cake this year. So here she is (with her lovely assistant, of course) designing the perfect six-year-old chocolate birthday cake:


And of course when it's your special day, mom tries really really hard to just smile and say "Oh my- a gallon of pink and multi-colored sprinkles looks absolutely delicious! It's a masterpiece!"
And PLEASE take note of the missing tooth. She lost her very first tooth over Thanksgiving weekend and it was quite an accomplishment for Miss Kenna. She had been waiting and waiting to lose her first tooth. When it finally got wiggly enough, she dug her fingers right in there and yanked that sucker right out! The look of accomplishment on her face was priceless. The first visit from the Tooth Fairy was a huge success. She was a little concerned the Tooth Fairy wouldn't know where she was- so being the incredibly intelligent mom that I am- I simply sent the Tooth Fairy (aka Dad) a text. A TEXT! Can you believe that? When I was a kid that would have been science fiction. The Tooth Fairy sent a text back that she knew just where to go. Kenna was beyond excited. Thankfully her 4 quarters were found safe and sound under her pillow at Grandma's the following morning. Kenna was beyond thrilled! And I must say playing Tooth Fairy for the first time had a bit of a thrill for mom and dad, too.

The first weekend of December, Jacob and I took a little overnighter with some friends down to Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. It has kind of become a tradition. It was a lot of fun. Well, minus the part of Jacob dealing with Vegas traffic. Next time I'll be sure to pop him a sedative. But, despite the navigation woes, we had a great time. None of the pics are really worth posting, so you can just imagine us in Vegas, having fun.

The girls have been enjoying the snow. Really enjoying the snow. There was a day I enjoyed snow this much:

...But for now I'll just be perfectly content taking the pictures!

Then we hooked up the sleds to the Ranger and pulled them around the field. Ty got in on the action too. This little guy is just so lovably contagious! In my mind I'm thinking of Randy in A Christmas Story: "I can't put my arms down!"

And last but not least: Our ward did an activity called "Holywood Squares" patterned after the game show "Hollywood Squares." There was quite the assortment of "stars" who all had a Gospel-centered theme. Jacob and I were Sonny and Cher D Gospel. It really was hilarious and ended up being a really fun activity. They did it first as a YM/YW activity, then we were able to do it again as an adult activity. The best part was our hideous costumes. Much to Jacob's dismay (he LOVES dressing up and acting), I am posting this picture on the blog. So for your viewing pleasure:
And just for the record, we blew the real Sonny and Cher out of the water!

FOUR!

The last time this was my blog title it was for Allie's fourth birthday, and I got a few comments of people thinking it was a pregnancy announcement. I got a good chuckle out of that because I had never even thought of that.

Well, Allie isn't turning four again....

....so.....

....I guess that means that NOW we are announcing our FOURTH baby will join our family the end of May! Hooray! It will definitely be a memorial weekend.

I'm already exhausted. What were we thinking?

Needless to say we are excited. Even more so now that the nausea has run it's course. We are fourteen weeks along, so hopefully within another 6 weeksish we will find out if we'll even out the score with boys or if we'll add another little princess to the gang. I personally think it's a girl. We'll keep you posted!

Now I'm going to go have a nap. Oh wait, I have a toddler. Nevermind.

Update on Mom

After a nearly week-long stay, my mom is home from the hospital. Happy to be back in her own bed, I dare say!

She did very well during the surgery, and also did great during her hospital stay. The only bump in the road was trying to find the right combination of meds to keep her pain under control after all the tubes, wires, and IV's came out. But, I think they've got it figured out. She seems to feel a bit better every day, now just has to go through the process of healing.

As for a diagnosis, we are still waiting. It looks like a cancer, but no definitive word on what type. Hopefully today we will know, then we can move on to treatment.

As usual, mom is staying chipper. She is very much looking forward to having her whole family together for Thanksgiving. I agree- I am so excited to be with my family soon. It's not too often we all get together. We definitely have many things to be thankful for this year!

Prayer for Mom

Tomorrow my Mom goes in for a major surgery to get a biopsy of some questionable tissue in her lungs. The first biopsy was inconclusive, so now they have to dig in deeper and get a better sample to find out if it's entirely inflammatory tissue or if her lymphoma has returned. Her type of cancer is not curable so we knew it would be something we'd probably encounter again. She'll be in the ICU for a few days for recovery.

The thing about my Mom is she is one of the most positive, optimistic people I know. Even her nurse this evening commented on how nice it was to have an upbeat, positive patient. Kudos to my Mom that despite her many bumps in the road with her health, she is always marching along with a great attitude. As she constantly reminds us, everything is in the Lord's hands- and that is all that really matters.

So, my dear Mom, I send a special prayer out for you that all will go well tomorrow and throughout your recovery this week. I pray the doctor will be guided and use his expertise for your very best care, and the nurses who watch over you will feel what a special, amazing person you are, and that there are many out there who love you so very much.

Love you!

Word to the Wise....

...If you're going to be naughty and color on places you shouldn't, then it's probably not a good idea to sign your name. Just sayin'.

Halloween Happenings 2011

Many thanks to a talented Grandma, the girls were able to be angels for Halloween. They got their first chance to don their angel apparel for the Primary Halloween carnival. Loads of fun, plenty of treats, and of course, paint. Yes, they painted a pumpkin. In their white angel costumes. Needless to say, I had to pull out the bleach. I didn't get the paint entirely out, but fortunately the worst was taken care of.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to par-tay. Lovely little angels, I must say. Not an ounce of devil in them. *sarcasm*



You never know when you'll pass by an angel on the street:


And, of course, here's the paint. Allie decided she wanted an all-black pumpkin. Naturally when you're a 4 year-old wearing all white you want to use black paint:


And here is the Ty Man with our next door neighbor who is just 4 weeks younger than him:


This made me think of a picture we took of them when they were babies. She was so petite! But, she did beat him walking. I love this picture. Not much has changed, he bit her the other day (where is his mother?):


Instead of dressing up as a free-for-all at Kenna's school, they celebrated International Children's Day the Friday before Halloween where all of the kiddos were invited to dress up as someone from history, or someone in their family, etc. The day before, Kenna kept saying she didn't want to dress up and be in the parade. So, I didn't worry about finding her something to wear. Of course the next morning she really wanted to dress up, so I threw together a random, 10-minute costume. Here is my little sheep herder! (I know, I know, my artistic abilities astound you. Ha!):


Speaking of sheep, we ventured into town last Saturday for the annual Sheep Festival Parade. There's nothing like watching 1000 head of sheep journey down mainstreet. Still undecided if it was worth it. But, if anything we have fun together:


Let's hear a big round of applause for my little Ty who is finally walking! He is so very proud of himself and loves to practice his new found skill.


And, last but not least, my little angels are geared up to go fill their buckets with candy on Halloween. One of the most beautiful, pleasant Halloween evenings I have ever seen, I must add. I should have dressed Ty up as a devil. But really, someone that cute just doesn't need a costume.


Another Halloween down for the record books. Now on to November! I am going to try my best to enjoy the month of November, even if WalMart was playing Christmas music today. On November 2nd. Love me some Christmas, just not 2 months of it. I'll start with Thanksgiving, thank you.