Family Pictures 2013

18 Months

18 Months

18 Months

18 Months

18 Months

4 Years

4 Years

4 Years

4 Years

4 Years

New Classes for the New Year

With the beginning of the year came a new class for Kenlee at church.  She is now in CTR 4! Wow, so crazy to think that she is that old.  Her teachers are Brother & Sister Ashcroft. She says they are really nice but the funniest observation she had was that her teachers are married..... apparently this is a big deal to her where her sunbeam teachers were two women.  She always pinpoints the funniest things.

1st Day in CTR 4 Class

1st Day in CTR 4 Class

 Jordyn is still in Nursery but it is still kind of new to her because of how little she has been able to go between visiting family and being sick.  She is starting to really enjoy going and loves her leaders.  Today when I started singing Once there was a Snowman to Kenlee to distract her from the knots in her hair, Jordyn jumped right in and started doing the actions..... I almost cried it was so cute.

Nursery

Nursery

Of course sisterly love!

It's A Boy!!!

That's right, we are having a sweet baby boy!  We could not be happier! We had our ultrasound yesterday and everything looks really good.  He is growing on schedule and everything looks healthy.  He was a lot calmer during the ultrasound then Kenlee or Jordyn ever were so we got some great pictures of his sweet little face.

For some reason Blake and I decided to kind of wait to make any big announcements til we knew the gender of this baby.  We told our families and those that we would run into because I started showing around 12 weeks but decided not to blog it or anything like that til now.  I have been doing pretty good, normal aches & pains & fatigue but feeling good.  My cravings have been jalapenos and chocolate (but don't worry, I don't eat them together.)  Kenlee and Jordyn are both very excited for the baby.  We took them with us to our second appointment so they could hear the heart beat (our first appointment was at 10 weeks and we didn't want anyone to spill the beans early).  We really feel like this is what connected Kenlee & Jordyn while I was pregnant with Jordyn and made Kenlee's transition relatively smooth. Jordyn loves to point at my tummy and tell people about baby's heart beat and then talk to baby.  Kenlee is already protective of baby and makes sure nothing is hurting him.

18 1/2 weeks

We are so excited about this new addition to our little family and can not wait to meet him!

Winter Time Cuties!

Had to snap a few pictures of how cute these two are in their warm winter clothes.  I can't get enough! Thanks Grandma Tuke for their new scarfs! So incredibly adorable!

Ringing in 2014!

New Years Eve is always full of family and fun.  We started out the evening by running over to Blake's parents house to tell his dad happy birthday.  Kenlee was very excited to deliver the gift and she even practiced saying Happy Birthday.  Of course as soon as we got there she found out where Papa was and made sure he got his gift.  Kenlee has always loved giving gifts and celebrating with everyone.  So sweet! We stayed and visited for a little while until we all got hungry and then headed back to our house to start our New Year's Eve party.  This year Karlee and Colton were able to come party with us and it was great!  We started off with a yummy dinner of double decker tacos.... always a family favorite. Once the girlies were bathed and hair dried we all bundled back up and went to play with some pop it fireworks.  Both Kenlee and Jordyn thought that this was an amazing idea.... thanks Daddy for the surprise!  I think everyone had a great time, adults and children alike. Kenlee sang jingle bells while she played with her box of pop its while Jordyn found joy in throwing the pop its at our feet and making us jump and squeal.

Blake's stand against wearing pants.... I freeze for him.

After we had used up all the pop its we headed back down stairs to play the Logo Game.  Blake and I had only played one other time and were excited to give it another shot. I told the girls that they could stay up as long as they wanted to but by 10:00 both girls were asking to go to bed.  We paused the game and did the last of our fireworks which were some streamer pops.  Kenlee loved to pull the strings and Jordyn just wanted to watch the streamers pop out all over the kitchen. We put the cuties to bed and played the game til about 11:30.  Once the game was over we turned on the New Years count down and waited for the ball to drop. The ball dropped and we celebrated with some sparkling cider and then hung out talking til around 1:30. We were party animals.....

 New Years day was spent in Liberty, Idaho with all my mom's side of the family.  We had so many different yummy soups, it was more of a contest to see if you could taste test all the soups. After lunch was cleaned up some people played volleyball while some of us went and played board games. Jordyn thought that the echo of the gym was the perfect opportunity to sing at the top of her lungs, she certainly loves to perform.

Around 4 we all packed up and headed back to Cache Valley.  Both the girls were so wore out from running around with all their little friends that Jordyn only stayed awake til we got out of the canyon and Kenlee (who never sleeps in the car anymore) slept the last part of our trip. They had so much fun!

 

Happy New Years from Our Family!  Here is to keeping our goals and making more memories! Can't wait to see what 2014 brings!

Our Christmas Holiday

Our holiday season began with our traditional trip to see The Christmas Carol. It worked out that Blake was done with finals the last week of the show and we could go and start off the Christmas break right. We had originally planned on leaving Jordyn with someone and only taking Kenlee to the show but I procrastinated trying to find someone to watch her and ran out of time so we ended up taking both girls to the show.  I thought that there was a good chance we would spend most of it wandering the halls with Jordyn but she loved it!  From the minute it started she was on the edge of her seat watching. Before we left for the show Kenlee started to feel sick, I was so worried that she had the stomach bug that Blake had had a few days before.  After a small debate we decided to still take her with us, seeing as how we were not sure what was going on and she had been so excited to go see it. By intermission I was super worried about her but she insisted that her tummy was ok and so we finished the show but hurried home not too long after it ended. She had a fever so I gave her some tylenol and put her to bed, hoping she would wake up better on Sunday.  At around 3 in the morning I woke up to check on her and her breathing was really rough and she had started with a barking cough.  We knew what that meant, croup again.  Blake spent a good 30 minutes on the front porch with her while I set up our bedroom to keep her with us and freeze our room out for her breathing.  After a few popsicles and getting her to relax she was able to go to sleep on our floor and get a little more rest. We spent the next few days watching lots of movies and trying to keep the girls apart.

In November we made the decision that we wanted to take the girls back to Temple Square to see that lights. The plan was to go on Blake's first day off after he was done with finals.  That day happened to be the Wednesday after Kenlee started with croup.  Since she was starting to feel better and being out in the cold was good for her breathing we decided to make the trip still.  It was beautiful but really cold so we never stopped to take any pictures because it felt like the wind was cutting through us.  If you ask Kenlee what her favorite part was she would probably tell you everything because she just loves the holidays. When you ask Jordyn she will tell you all about the ladalou (water fountains), she was obsessed with them.  We would try to point out the lights and all she wanted was the fountians.  To top off her experience, when we got back to City Creek Mall to head down to the parking structure, we happen to get there when their fountain was doing a choreographed number to a Christmas song... there was even fire in the middle of the water.  She was amazed! Once we made it back to the van we headed to get some dinner at Red Robins. Jordyn started getting a cough that night and I hoped that hers would stay a small cold.

The next day Jordyn was fevering and obviously was feeling really sick.  Her cough was rough but never got barking and her breathing seemed relatively normal but she never seemed to be getting any better so after many many nights of no sleep, I decided to take her to the doctor the Monday before Christmas.  I was surprised to find out that she had croup as well seeing as her symptoms didn't progress like they should have.  Luckily the doctor was able to give her a steroid to open her throat and after a few days she was doing a lot better.  

After our trip to the doctors office, I took the girlies home to get some much needed rest and tried to clean up the house and prepare for Christmas since it was only two days away and those days were full of family time.  After the girls short rest we gathered up and headed over to my parents house for the traditional eve before the eve of Christmas sleep under the tree.  Of course we did pizza night and each family brought their creation.  Blake and I made a BBQ chicken pizza with pineapple on it, Tiffany and Brock made a delicious veggie and meat pizza, Karlee and Colton made a wonderful margarita pizza and Mom and Dad made a traditional Hawaiian pizza with a little end of pepperoni for Nate and the little girls. We all over ate and then settled out the bed situation.  Blake and I opted to sleep with sick Jordyn upstairs in the reading room to try and let everyone else sleep. Jordyn had not slept more then a hour or two at a time since she had started with croup.  Kenlee wanted to stay with her aunts and uncles in the basement so we set her up down there. Unfortunately Kenlee was startled by the kitties wandering around and trying to snuggle, and Tiffany and Brock's mattress became a taco and Colton's mattress went flat so not much sleep was to be had.  Maybe next year.....

Blake worked Christmas eve morning so the girls and I hung out with my family til around 5 then gathered up and went back to our house to get the things we needed to go see Blake's family.  After Blake got home we quickly hurried to his parents house to have dinner and exchange a few Christmas gifts.  Because the little girls, especially Jordyn, were still not feeling well we didn't stay very long, hoping to not get McKenzie sick were she was in the age group our doctor had warned me to keep Jordyn away from. Once we got home we quickly got the girls ready for bed in their new Christmas jammies and began a frantic night of getting everything ready for Christmas day. That night was the first full nights sleep that all of us had had in about 2 weeks. It was wonderful! Kenlee woke up first and Blake heard her say "Its Christmas Day!" from her bedroom.  Then she made her way to the living room and squealed "Santa came!"  Finally she came to get us and we waited a few minutes for Jordyn to wake up and then all gathered in the living room to see what Santa had brought.

Santa brought Kenlee everything she had asked for: a Princess Aurora lego castle, a pink watch and Tinkerbell squinkies, he also surprised her and brought her a Lambie doll. Jordyn hadn't really asked Santa for anything so he decided to bring her a toy cash register, a Doc McStuffins, and a magnet drawing board for church. After we had opened all our Santa gifts we had a small breakfast of biscuits and juice.  We spent the rest of the morning playing with our gifts and slowly working our way through the gifts under the tree.  It was perfect.  We got Kenlee an easel with all the necessary equipment that she would need to be a artist.  She loves it and plays with it every day. We got Jordyn the Disney Klip-Klop Castle with all the princess/horses.  Once she opened that and we got it set up she refused to open anymore gifts, she played with it for 45 minutes straight and still loves it just as much today!

Once the girlies had opened everything and finished their naps we all headed to my parents house to have a Mexican Christmas dinner.  We usually do an unusual Christmas dinner of different kinds of mexican foods and this year was wonderful. Since Tiffany and Brock had to get to another family thing we finished opening gifts with all the family together right after dinner.  Then once everything settled down we all just hung around chatting while the girls played with some of their new toys. Time slipped away and we finally had to get the poor girls home to bed since they were both still getting better.  Christmas was so fun this year with Kenlee and Jordyn both beginning to see the wonder and excitement of the holidays.