Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays to you all! We've had a happy, excited and BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS kind of Christmas the past 2 days! Whew! Christmas was definitely different this year- with Keifer finally understanding about Santa coming and presents, and whoa, did she catch on quick to ripping those gifts open. I was so proud of my girl, opening her gifts and thanking whomever she received them from.....but by Christmas morning, she was into ripping into other people's gifts: she has the CHRISTMAS CRAZIES. We had to slow her down and remind her that we were celebrating Jesus's birthday, and that's why we gift each other, so we hope the message will get through.

In the meantime, a quick picture catch up of our Christmas Eve. Above is the picture of Abby and Keifer, cuddling after church, and waiting for present opening time.

This is Kyla, with her adorable hat on that matched her outfit. It remained on for about 2.4 seconds, so luckily I caught it before she ripped it off her head. LOL. It was so damn cute!

Keifer and our Pastor's daughter, who was home from college. Keifer is a HUGE Katie fan!

After hanging out in the nursery with Daddy, Kyla decided the church FLOOR was the place to hang out.....so K1 had to join her, of course.A quick family shot while the kids remained somewhat still!

And waiting to leave for church, our girls were so sweet sitting together in the rocker in their room, reading books together!

We hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours has been (so far!) We still have another celebration tomorrow, so many more pictures to come, including the shock and awe of Christmas morning, when Santa delivered THE PRESENTS that K1 realllly wanted! Happy Holidays!

GNO aka Girls' Night OUT

Because sometimes, Mama needs to CUT LOOSE and let out a little steam, right? In fact, in her opinion, Mama doesn't get out quite ENOUGH with her friends to let out the steam! HA!

Last month, early November, I met up with a group of my fellow MN Mommy message board friends. I've become very close with these lovely ladies, and we decided to do a night away from our mommy-hood lives. We stayed at a local hotel that has a free (YES, FREE) cocktail hour from 5-7PM nightly, as well as a free buffet breakfast in the AM. Aww, what a heavenly time we all had! *and I'm not saying I need to drink to relax, I'm just saying it sure was NICE to take a night away, enjoy a few cocktails, relax, unwind and chat and laugh until my stomach hurt with these fun friends of mine*

The group: Taryn, Missy, Julie, Allison, Danise, Roxy and myself. What a bunch of hot mamas! There are MORE Ladies who belong in this group who couldn't make it. We missed them!

And another picture of most of us- in the room before we made the decision not to drive anywhere, and instead, try the dinner out in the hotel's bar. That turned out to be quite the escapade of horrible service, but it sure did make for some great storytelling!
I think Roxy took this!

I love you, my fellow MN mommies! Until next time: Cheers!

Santa = Scared!

Guess what? We're on our way to the mall in Grand Forks, ND. We visited the mall during our Thanksgiving break up at Nana Margie's and Papa Jim's house!
I'm so 'cited to see Santa. I want to tell him that for Christmas,I want a : new cash register, a pink guitar and a microphone up to here *pointing to chin*!!

Kyla doesn't know where we are headed, so she's just along for the ride!

OK , Mom, enough with the pictures! I know I'm cute!

Quick pit stop at the Sam's Club to check on a few things. You see the 2 figures in the top right background, in the blue and greenish jackets? Yeah, that's Daddy & Papa Jim drooling over new big screen TVs.

And......here we are at the mall. There is NO LINE to see the guy in the big red suit! That is pretty unusual, considering it's Black Friday and the mall is a zoo!
Wait a minute- where did Keifer go? OHhhhhh, that's her, the girl who ran as fast as she could the OPPOSITE way of Santa, and and screeched and hollered that she didn't want anything to do with him! *sigh*
And then this is Miss Kyla. Man, I wish we had this scene on video! Kyla Whitney- all sure of herself. Sauntering up to see Santa, without looking up at who she was walking up the slanted walkway to. Then: she looks up. She sees the man with the big white beard, and she slowly starts to walk DOWN the slanted walkway, backwards, away from the stranger. Even the lure of a candy cane held NO appeal to this 18 month old girl. *sigh again*

Ahh, well. Better luck next year, right?

K2 is 19 months

Kyla's 18 month old stats from November's check up:

Weight: 24 1/2 lbs, or 50%ile

Length: 33 inches or 85%ile

Head: 18 1/2 cm., or 65%ile.

Dear Kyla:

I apologize for being the "that" mom- the mom who feels like SUCH a slacker when it comes to sharing news and pictures and stats about you. It was so much easier with just one child; now, with 2 active girls, I feel like I never get a chance to just sit and talk about you, even though I would like to so very much!

You love to talk about your socks and shoes and slippers with us. You love to wear sweat shirts and get mad if we try to unzip them and take them off you. In the picture above, you were proud to be wearing a dress, especially one with puppies on them! You kept stopping to lean over and touch the puppies and babble your jargon,to tell us all about the puppies! You also love to tell us when you like your shirt- you hold your chest out, walk up to us and say "shir, shir" to us, as well as hold out your foot to people, while saying "sock" , to make sure nobody misses your cute socks!

You understand so much- if we say "should we take a nap" or "let's go to bed" or "let's take a bath" - you drop whatever you are doing and race to the upstairs, taking them as fast as you can, as you watch behind you to make sure someone comes with you. You love to close the gate at the top of the stairs, and you always know if it's bath time, you rush to the bathroom, and if bedtime, you rush into your bedroom to get ready for bed. Mama is so thankful for you, my sleeper who sleeps through the night *whew*

Right now, you say a lot, but most of it is unintelligible. We're learning "Kyla language", since a lot of it is mushed up inside your mouth. I'm not sure if it's because yours sister talked so much at this age, but your lack of words makes me feel like you are still so much younger than you really are. Your sister had 4 word phrases, and right now, I celebrate when you label or request things with just one word! You say the usual things, like "mama, dada, mommy, daddy, sis, Sage, Treble (weble), pease (please), sock, shirt (shir), bear, ball, baby, wa wa (water)", and other words that we can translate, such as "Corduroy" bear is "roy" or blah blah-roy. I blame your damn ear infections for the speech intelligibility. With 9 or so infections under your belt, and fluid in your ears, of course you won't be sharp and articulate with your words.

One thing we do understand is when you say "up" or "color'. You love to sit in your booster seat (yep, we sold our high chair!), and color and stamp, just like your big sister. You are amazingly very serious about your crafts, and I'm impressed with your patience and the care you take in coloring pictures, or stamping. You are so strong- you can take marker caps off and put them on, with no issues whatsoever.

When you are excited to see someone, or start to be your comedic self, because yes, you are what we call a 'class clown', you do your snicker nose. You love to smile at our family members who don't live with us with your snicker nose, as you flirt with them, and tease them with your eyes and laugh. You have the BEST Laugh in the world. You have this little grumble you do, that makes us know you are aware you are damn cute, and it's the funniest belly laugh we've heard. It gets everybody laughing with you!

You also love to look at books and frequently carry some around with you. You don't love us reading them to you, as much as you do pointing at pictures and turning the pages as fast as your little fingers can. We typically get most of our reading together done before bedtime, just you and Mama. Our routine is about 3-4 books, and we end with The Thank You Prayer book, just like we did with your sister. You are more interested in saying "bird" and labeling flowers (or so I THINK you are saying that), than listening to the actual prayer.
You're really into climbing and running everywhere. Your dance moves consist of shaking your head up and down, moving your bum around, and twirling in circles. You like to twirl until you fall down, which Mama doesn't think is so funny. You love to speedy crawl up the stairs and get so angry when we put the gate up to stop you from your exploring. The other day, we heard typing on the computer and we saw you had (for the first time) climbed into the chair and were typing on the keyboard, all by yourself! You stinker!

You usually eat everything we give to you. We like to say, "give it to Kyla, she'll eat it"; however, lately, you're proving us wrong with that and have started pushing food bowls/plates away, saying "no", and shaking your head. I think you just like to push and test your limits these days.

And of course, you love your Corduroy bear movie. You beg us the minute we get in the door at night to put Corduroy movie on, by following us around, chanting his name, and holding out the movie case for us to take. You even cry big, crocodile tears when we say "not now". The other movie you adore is "cow" - your code for Baby Einstein "A Day on the Farm" movie. You adore the cows and animals, but lose interest when the tractors come on.

Oh, Kyla, how we love you. I feel such a special love for you, my little baby peanut girl. You seem so small compared to how big your sister was at this age, yet you are not small. You are average and I love you. So much. You beautiful blue eyes and your hair is coming in curls in the back of your head; you are destined to be so beautiful.

Abstract *tape* Art

Keifer has discovered scotch tape. And our home has discovered new places of displaying scotch tape art projects. The place mats have been taped up to no end, the papers we color are all full of the sticky stuff, and a few weeks back, Keifer made an entirely new abstract art project that she wanted on full display in Mama & Daddy's bedroom.

The paper of tape art masterpiece.

Here it sits, TAPED onto our wall, of course. Under the picture of Mama pregnant with Kyla.

A closer view of the talent my girl possesses

And my personal favorite- a gift to me. My very own red pepper, all taped up and ready to..... well, I'm not sure......

Magna ART!

Keifer art on her magna doodle- I find these pretty darn impressive for her 3 years of age!

A cat!

A snowman! (sideways, oops)

An airplane and a balloon in the sky

You might have a Red Neck Snowman in your yard......

.....if one of your dogs ate his carrot nose, his hat fell off, his mouth disappeared and your other dog uses the front of said snowman as his personal urinal.

This lasted a good couple weeks before his head fell off, and 20 inches of snow wiped out poor, neglected snowman. Better luck next time in our yard!

TGIF: Matt Damon Does Matthew McConaughey -

I came across this video clip after watching a clip of Matt Damon on Letterman the other night.

Me, being a lover of Matthew McHottee, decided it was funny enough to share with you!

:)

Enjoy!

A main street Christmas celebration!

A few weeks ago, our city sponsored a family outing, on "main street", the small one road downtown that signifies the older part of the city versus the new, sprawling suburbs.

Keifer was beyond excited to attend this holiday party and be able to investigate exactly what went INTO a holiday celebration "Down on main street".

Mom and Dad were curious how this would turn out, as well, as now both girls are freaked out at the mere sight of Santa Claus, so there would be (yay) no waiting in a 1/2 hour line to see the Man in Red. Face painting? Nope. Keifer doesn't like anything put on her face. Hmmm. OK. Should we go see Mrs. Claus read some stories and teach some crafts? Not interested. Hmm. OK, then. What DID we do at the party? Nothing INSIDE, I can tell you that much.

So......we went outside and we peered into the smallest cage possible for 2 live Reindeer, who looked completely miserable (which broke my heart). Keifer wasn't too interested in the Reindeer, but Kyla was curious.

Kyla "ohhhing" at the sight of the Reindeer, stuck inside their tiny corral.

We cheered Kyla on, as this was the first time she (finally) felt confident enough to tromp around in her winter boots! Go, baby, go! Go, she did....she didn't want us stopping her! Believe me, she told us. In her screams whenever we lifted her up and tried to bring her with us anywhere we went!

Taking a turn at looking at Dasher and Dancer

Along the way, we not only ran into our good friends (neighbors) with Hayden and JJ., but we also spent some time with Keifer's buddy, Brandt, and his parents and baby sister. Here, Keifer and her partner-in-crime were SO excited to be waiting in line to ride behind the horses, Sam and Sally.

The two pals also found that orange cones are pretty damn exciting to 3 year olds.

Ahhh, a joyous family picture while taking our horse-drawn- wagon ride. (hee hee)

Daddy & his baby girl

Screeching banshee child "STOP"

When we first loaded onto the wagon, the entire crowd sitting with us were quite entertained when Keifer and Brandt spontaneously (yes, on their own!) broke into a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells". The got quite a few cheers and some clapping, and of course, I missed the singing - dammit! See, I got the tail end of it HERE.

Ahh, yes. The fun in the cold. We were all frozen, despite all our winter gear, so after this ride, we were done. We said our goodbyes to Brandt and his family. Cutest thing ever? As were were leaving, Keifer suddenly stopped, ran back to the door, opened and screamed "Brandt, Brandt!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!"

"SAME TO YOU" he screamed back at her. These 2 three year olds crack me up!!

We headed home to drop off Daddy and Kyla, and then me and K1 hit our local library. We spent over an hour, looking at books, hopping up and down on bean bags in the back corner of the library, and spent time saying hello to people who were seeking some peace and quiet, rather than a chatty 3 year old.

Wordless Wednesday: Chapstick: the new hair balm?

**sidenotes: 1) do you not LOVE K2's buddha belly in her jammies? 2) Notice her smirk? She thinks she is ALL THAT and a bag of chips with her independent chapstick skills. Never mind it's being applied to the wrong area!**

"Bye"

Oh, what fun it is to watch Kyla explore the world around her, and test her independence. Last week, she started doing the "bye" randomly around the house, thinking she was hot stuff leaving mommy in the dust. She loves to climb upstairs and close the gate, thinking she will be even more independent and get into things upstairs. What a ham!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

The happy dance

As I shared with you a few weeks back, Kyla is in LURVE (love) with Corduroy, the movie. She now carries the movie case around, saying "blah blah blah...ROY!". She points at the TV, then looks at us and says "ROY!". Yeah, she has communicative intent, all right.This was another night of watching HER watch the movie. She is a damn hoot. Those little legs get SO excited that she cant' stand still, squealing with delight over her bear movie! Enjoy!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Whirling, twirling, ready to fall down

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I have lists of things that I want to share with you. NEED to get out of my head and onto the computer (written). It's my therapy.

Alas, lately, life doesn't want me to get my things done. Oh, no. I get things done. Things like cleaning the kitchen counter tops off, making breakfasts and lunches and dinners, and keeping up with dishes and TRYING so very hard to keep up with laundry, which is endless, isn't it? And I SUPPOSE I could do my blogging at night, when the kids FINALLY get to bed, but then 1) Keifer isn't going to bed without ME these days and I end up passing out along side her due to being tired, or 2) I'm too tired and brain dead after busy days, and 3) what little time I get, I try to see my hubby (ha, rarely!), or I catch up quickly on emails, blog reading, and Facebook.

Work is insane. I've gotten 3 new kids on my caseload (I teach early childhood special education) and suddenly, I've been notified that 3 more will be coming down the pipeline, on top of the 2 that will start after Christmas. Ahhh, paperwork. It's endless. I love my job, but the paperwork part of it is endless and stresses me out to no end. Time lines. AHHH.

The girls. So much to say- Keifer has been just a riot with her language lately. Kyla had her 18 month check up last month and I Have pictures and stats to share. They are at home. Along with half the things I forget to grab- like my PM snack? Yeah, in the cupboard at home. Oops.

Keifer and Kyla and their sickness continue. Keifer has actually been pretty good lately, I think partly because she is getting older and the sickies are making her immune system stronger. Kyla, on the other hand. Poor Kyla. She is currently on ear infection #8 (or is it 9? I honestly don't know). Yesterday, I was told her left ear was full of "pus", after being completely clear last Monday only. We have (FINALLY) an appointment with an ENT on December 30. Can I wait that long? I have to, if I want my bill to be paid (ie; staying within my insurance network), but the pain of watching HER struggle with pain is awful. And knowing her language isn't as clear as it should be- most likely because her right ear is constantly filled with fluid - makes me frustrated and sad. It makes sense that her language sounds "sloshy" to me. Yesterday, for the first time, she said "cow" clear as a bell and I rejoiced. COW! She says words like "mama, daddy, mommy, sis, sage, bye bye, me, mine, sock (saw), shirt, etc" but it warmed my heart to finally her some more understandable language coming from her, other than the "routine" language that most kids have, you know?

Poor girl also had a fever for 2 days, along with mouth sores, that is a virus. Keifer was OK, but woke up last night burning up with the same virus. Lovely. As always, my stress about work sick days (taking them) is sky high already, as I only get a certain amount, and I panic about 1) taking too many (but I have to, they're my kids) and 2) because I worry about my SCHOOL kids and their education program, etc. even though my coworkers are fabulous and always do fine. Guilt. Mommy guilt.

More to say, pictures to share, but thank goodness I ordered our Christmas cards (finally). For the first time, I went "Retail" and used Snapfish. I used Coke points (they add up and I 've gotten fabulous things from redeeming the points), so I used my (and Chris's) points for free snapfish cards. However, you cannot group them together, nor can you pick up (for no shipping charges). So I ended up paying a ton in shipping charges just for my "free cards". I usually have my friend Taryn design something and then print it out at Sam's. That will most likely be what I do next year "Saving" a buck for cards this year ended up NOT saving money like I thought it would.

Anyhoo. I have to run, but know my heart and head are in my blog land, but my time is limited. Thanks for understanding!

Pre-reading?

This was up at Papa Jim & Nana Margie's over the holiday weekend. Keifer was hiding out in the new "fort" that Papa Jim got for the girls (to keep them busy!).Here, she had no idea I snuck up behind her to tape her reading to herself. She sat in the fort, reading to herself, for at least 20 minutes prior to that, while I kept peeking at her. *sigh*


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Ride 'em, Cow Girls!

Keifer and Kyla both chickened out of sitting on Santa's lap up in Grand Forks on Black Friday last week. However, when she saw all the "rides" nearby, Keifer was adamant that she be able to ride on something. The horse was the "safest" choice she thought she could make, so we plugged it full of quarters and yee-haw, our girls held on tight!

Kyla has never been on a ride, except for the Merry-Go-Round at the fair this past summer. If you could've heard her giggles as she "rode" the horse, you, too, would've been giggling until tears squirted out of your eyes!! What a ham!

Wordless Wednesday: Child Labor

The Soupy Family believes in putting children to work at an early age. This was (obviously) the case over Thanksgiving up at Papa Jim & Nana Margie's house!