Happy Birthday Kaite!

Last Tuesday my baby turned six years old! She was so excited and has been counting down the days for at least a month. Sunday she got to wear her birthday dress (her favorite color) and the kids sang to her.

Then on Monday we had her family party with her Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. They are always so nice to bring presents, I think the girls are spoiled. We had a good evening of visiting and eating cake. Thanks to everyone who came and supported Kaite she loved it!
Some of the gifts she got. (not all of my picts turned out, we are still working out the kinks in the new camera, so if your gift isn't here the pic probably didn't turn out)

Ash being goofy.

Her cake, I went easy this time due to how busy things are.

Then Tuesday morning she got up and we opened presents before Ash headed off to school.

Her big present she really wanted, a red scooter!

Her birthday breakfast, french toast.

She spent the rest of the day riding her scooter and playing with her new toys. We then went to gym where they sang to her and then we had plans to take her out to dinner. She wanted to go to Craigos, but when we got there it was super busy so we went to McD's her second choice. The girls had the play equipment to themselves except for one other kid. Thanks to mom and Mar for joining us and making her day even more special. (We eventually hit Craigos Thursday with Mahon and Cindy)
Kami helping make the cake!

Friday we had her friends over for her friends party. She had such a hard time deciding who to invite, but she was so excited! We played some games, had cake, and fun.

Okay, Ash looks just like me!

Kaite and Lily

Kaite and her best friend Shay

Poor Trenton was the only boy since Eli couldn't come, he played foosball with Ky most of the time. Ky could sure use a boy.

I was really worried that we would have to cancel the party since it was a blizzard that morning, thankfully it cleared up! She had so much fun! I think she had the best birthday ever!

Happy Birthday Kaite! We love you so much!

Christmas party

Well we have stayed busy this past week. Friday we took the girls swimming and they LOVED it! Then me and Ky spent some nice quite time alone. Saturday me and the girls hit the mall and found some really cute Christmas dresses. We also spent the weekend hanging out and finishing the Christmas letter. Kaite also had her first eye appointment. She has been complaining of headaches when she reads, turns out she is pretty far sighted and holds her books way to close. The doc said that is normal for kids her age and that if it continues we can look at reading glasses, but probably not "she has a pretty good prescription". She did really good and I wish I would have gotten a pic of her in the chair. Thanks to Cindy for watching the other two, I can't even imagine Kami in an eye doc office with all that equipment and glasses everywhere, what a nightmare! Monday we had Kaite's family party (more on that later), and Tuesday celebrated her birthday. I will have a separate post on her birthday after we do her friends party -weather permitting and it isn't looking promising. Wednesday we had the ward Christmas party. We actually got Kami to sit on Santa's lap and not cry- like she did last week at the mall!

She still looks terrified! And she never did talk to him.

The girls also sang and I totally missed the whole thing. Kami chose that moment to need to use the bathroom and never went! Oh well Ky got a pic.

Then yesterday me and Kaite went in for our annual check-ups. Kaite looks great and both the girls were awesome with the long wait. Dr. W is awesome! I just tell him what I need and he says ok. He is so good with the kids and they love visiting with him. He even gave me some sample inhalers, see he is awesome. Also told me we should clear up my sinus infection before I leave the country. I have been fighting it for about a month and a half and this week I haven't been winning the battle. He also looked at my knee and told me what is wrong, thankfully nothing serious, and gave me some strengthening exercises to do. My knee has been bothering me since last may and then I really aggravated it when we went wake boarding last August. It makes this awful crunching noise and I don't dare run on it even with a knee brace. I was really worried that it was something serious, requiring surgery, yay nothing major.
I think one of the funnest things I got to do this week was hold Adelaide's baby. He is so cute and small (5.4 lbs). He is also the best little baby and seriously the cutest baby ever! Damon is such a proud papa. We had a really good visit with them. Unfortunately, Ben is still in the nicu and I can't even imagine coming home without your baby.
I will post all of Kaite's party stuff later. We are also planning on setting up the tree tonight once all the friends craziness is over! I think that wraps up everything else.

Lights!

We are in full swing Christmas mode around here. Monday we got out the lights and put them up on the house, Kaite has been bugging us about this for weeks. The girls had so much fun even though it was so COLD.

FHE is becoming dangerous around here. While we were hanging up lights the girls were playing in the snow and I am not sure if Kami got kicked or if she scraped her face on the hard snow, but she has a nasty scrape on her chin and a gash in her lip. When Ash said "mom there is blood" I knew it was time to go in. Poor girl she wanted to stay outside so bad.

We also got the advent calendar out and started. The girls always love putting it up every year.

Then Tuesday we saw Marianne and her new super cute hair cut! She won't like that I posted this pic, but since she can't find the camera cable and everyone is dying to see it. Here it is...

Erin is amazing! This looks so good on Mar, it is totally her! I thought she was crazy to do this and so close to the wedding, but it looks great.
The girls have been having fun keeping busy. I caught Kami and Kaite dumping out all the puzzle pieces on the rug, that will be fun to clean up!

And yesterday I finished all my Christmas shopping!! We also had lunch with Missy and went and looked at maternity clothes. The clothes are so much cuter now than when I was pregnant with Ash and even the other two. They had some really cute pants, Missy got some cute stuff.
My goal this week is to finish the Christmas letter and cards. I also need to have Kaite's B-day party stuff all planned and ready. Next week we have five parties, two of which I am hosting, it's going to be crazy! You got to love the holidays!

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year and we had quite the turnout. We ended up having 30 people come, we actually invited more like 45-50. We held it at the barn and I think it turned out pretty good. I passed out food assignments and had my pies made the day before, that way we could concentrate on the turkey.
Here is our tasty guy.

Ky carving the guest of honor, well one of them!

George and Kami hanging out before the feast, she loved seeing all her uncles.

Most of the group, and Ash's black eye (I didn't mean to get that in there)

Kami enjoyed her food.

We hung out and played games after dinner and planned the shopping strategies for the next day. We had lots of good food and company. Ky says we are covered for ten years before it is our turn to host again! I really didn't mind. I am actually more stressed about London, there is a lot to do before we leave. I am glad the weather cooperated a bit and everyone was able to make it. We had fun staying up all night at the barn. The kids and those from warmer climates (Jason) loved all the snow we got, although it was a bit cold to break out the snowmobiles. However, Jason braved it and took a ride, his first I think. The girls enjoyed all their cousins, we were especially glad Cole and Sydney could come. And this was the last time my family will be together until London. Thanks everyone for coming and pitching in!

Cole and Kami saying goodbye to each other.

What would Thanksgiving be without black-friday! I think Briant is one of the biggest black-friday shoppers EVER! Since most of my shopping is done there wasn't anything worth getting up too early for. However, that being said we still went out and got some great deals. Mar got the cutest dress for the wedding and we both got matching boots. I also got a camera to take with me on the trip (with AA batteries). Here are the pics I found on the memory card that came with our first camera, August 08.

Kami had no hair and Ash hasn't changed a bit!
We looked at the calendar and we have 4 open nights in the next 4 weeks! Our life is just getting crazier and now I am planning two birthday parties and realized I need to do Christmas cards too!
I should also mention that this week also brought us a new nephew, congrats Devin and Julie! And a new ?? (my vote is boy) to come, congrats to that unnamed couple- for now!

Harry Potter and the ER

We have had another eventful weekend. Friday Marianne came up to stay with the girls while we went to Harry Potter 7. I liked the movie it was definitely different from the book but the overall plot was the same. I did not like the unnecessary nudity they stuck in it. I think that the movie was done well considering all of the material they had to put in it. This said I think part 2 will be tons better. I was a little disappointed just because I have been so excited to see it (and finished the book again last Thursday) and it was so different from the book. And FYI don't take your baby to the movie theater. Those of us who do get a sitter and then pay an outrageous amount of money DO NOT want to hear your child cry through the movie. I say leave them at home or wait to see it on DVD! That is just so inconsiderate.- I am done ranting now.

Saturday we ended up working on Mar's case for a mock trial she is in, she is defense attorney. Then Mar ended up staying all day due to the weather and crappy roads. We got tons more snow and broke out the sleds to pull behind my snowmobile. We had fun playing outside, little did we know the fun was just beginning! As I was in my closet picking out my clothes for stake conference it happened. Me and Mar heard a big crash and went running into the living room. I found Ash on the floor screaming laying inside the art easel and Kaite trying to pull her out. Apparently she was wearing it and walking around the house and fell, they had been using it to make a tent. Anyway, as soon as I saw Ash's face I put ice on it. I can't believe how much it swelled in that short amount of time. I was really worried she broke her zygomatic bone. She looked so awful and the bone looked broken in several places. Ky got home and gave her a blessing. He then had to run into stake conference to play the piano. We had decided to take her to the ER to have it looked at when he got back. By the time he got home it was looking tons better and the swelling had gone down a bit, miracle. We got her in and the ER doc said it isn't broken but could be cracked which they don't do anything for. He also asked her about falling down alot- no. He was referring to her broken collar bone and severe concussion almost four years ago. I have to say that happened in a public place and I swear we are not beating our kids! Fortunately, Mar seems to be here every time something happens- she is my witness! I will say that Ash does look like someone clocked her, poor girl. She is doing real well, no concussion and she doesn't have hardly any pain despite what it looks like. This could have been so much worse. Here are the pics of her. This is the art easel she was walking around in---WHY I still don't know!

Her face last night, I didn't get a pic of it when it looked really bad before the blessing.

Her face today. The bruise still extends down past her cheek but isn't as black as I thought it would be.

Now she is trying to come up with a "cool" story to tell the kids at school. I think she should tell them a boy kissed her and she got cooties! Mar said she should tell them she fell off the roller coaster at Lagoon! Regardless, I am glad she is doing so well, but she looks so much worse in person.

I have decided that I need to wrap the kids in bubble wrap. Kami tried to fall down the stairs again last week but Ky caught her. Then last Sunday I caught all three of them trying to head down the stairs with a blanket over their heads! I can't figure out where they come up with these things. I remember James and George jumping on my get in shape girl mat and flying down our wooden stairs. Sometimes I can't figure how kids survive childhood!

Winterizing

This past weekend we spent some time finishing up some things around here. First thing we got all our wood cut, split, and stacked. We figure there is about ten or eleven cord out there. Me and the girls went out on Friday and started stacking what we could, this didn't go over too well. After about an hour and half everyone was crying, it was cold out. But Saturday we really hit it hard and spent all day out there, well me and Ky did anyway. We managed to finish up just before seven and it was snowing for the majority of it, but it is done!!! Chad came over and helped split in the morning, he sure was a big help!

Here is a picture of the girls running the splitter.

Last night we finally took the trampoline down. We were going to do this weeks ago but it was so nice the girls were still using it. So last night they all got one more jump in.

For FHE we played monopoly deal and had popcorn. This picture is what happens when Kaite plays, too bad Ky didn't get the rest of the table. Kaite annihilates us! Every time she plays she wins and wins big, we all end up with nothing left. I don't know how she does it, but she sure loves to win. (This was a mild hand for her)

We have all been enjoying the snow, the girls go out and play in it every afternoon. Yesterday they built a fort with a slide. I am glad the roads haven't been too bad.
Last week we had parent-teacher conferences and everything was good, as always. Their teachers can't say enough nice things about them, they love having them in their classes. I was a little surprised to learn that there are only two other kids in Kaite's class that can read. Kaite's teacher is going to start letting her take the AR reading tests, they don't usually do this until first grade. She is really loving school and doing great.
This morning I heard Ash up an hour early, when I finally got up I found out why. She has started reading the Harry Potter series and can't put the books down. She was up reading to her hearts content! Her teacher told me that one day when they had reading time Ash got so engrossed in her book that she didn't notice when class started back up, her teacher finally told her to go over to the couch and finish her book!
Life around here has slowed down a bit and this weekend we have big plans to go see HP7- well me and Ky anyway. I am almost done with my Christmas shopping and I have passed out food assignments for Thanksgiving. I am right on schedule, so far. The count down is on for London!

First Snow!

Yesterday we had our first really fun snow. We made snowmen, had snowball fights, and even broke out my sled. We had fun! We figured out that we got about 8 inches by this morning.

We also had hot cocoa with marshmallows, of course!

Kami has a new found love for puzzles. She loves to do them by herself.

Last Saturday Ky and Chris went to get our last load of wood. Ky thought it would be fun to take Ash and Kaite. They were suppose to haul this log to the truck but Ky found them doing this instead!

He said they were good helpers and had fun.
I am close to being done with my Christmas shopping! But until yesterday it didn't really feel like Christmas shopping. As much as I don't like driving in the snow I was ready for it and now I am more in the Christmas spirit!