Christmas Activities

Below are some pictures of various things we've been doing this month.

above: ward Christmas party- A Night in Bethlehem.

Kylee at the mall enjoying all the trees, ornaments, and Santa

Every week we participate in "Music Makers" with many other children and their moms. It's a lot of fun. This month the theme was obviously Christmas, so Kylee is up front picking an ornament off the tree that correlates with a song we sang. She looks forward to music makers every week and has learned so many songs and activities by going. It's a lot of fun!

Ahhh, our traditional Tamale making. Eric (above on right) and my brother-in-law Wayne spreading masa. It's quite the process, but we've got it down to about 3 hours to make about 150-200 tamales. It's a fun tradition we've had in my family for as long as I can remember. We eat the tamales on Christmas day (and before then). The boys don't always enjoy the making, but it's a tradition my sister and I aren't willing to give up and when it's all said and done, the taste of those tamales is all worth it!! This was the first year Kylee is old enough to really enjoy the tamales, and she does. She loves them!

Future home?

We've been trying to buy this home on a 2 acre lot close to town, but it's a short sale, so it's taking a really long time. Hopefully we'll get it, but no telling at this point. But regardless we decided to take some pictures in the back part of the lot and here are some of them. The lot to one side has vineyards in their backyard, the lot to the other side has goats, horses, etc, and the house across the street has horses. It'd be a great place to live, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

December

We love Christmas time!! I love the excitement and anticipation that the Christmas season brings. I've had so much fun shopping (well, I always love shopping) for everyone's Christmas gifts this year. You know how some years you just find the right gifts, well that was this year. Kylee is at such a fun age to buy for. She loves just about anything and is very easy to please. I had to control myself so I didn't buy everything I saw for her.

Below are some pictures we took this month:

Above is one of 2 Christmas trees we have in our home, I really wanted to decorate one, so that's the one you see, and the other tree we have has the fun ornaments we've collected throughout the years. Kylee goes to that tree everyday and picks some ornaments off to play with. She's very careful with them though and knows which ones are ok to play with and which ones are not.

Kylee and mom in the backyard messing around!

Above is at a birthday party Kylee attended. It was at a dance studio and they all got to wear & keep these fun tutu's. Kylee can't stop talking about the dance studio now and wants to go back!

Ky and dad sticking close together to stay warm on a crisp December morning.

Thanksgiving

Okay, I'm a little late getting this posted, but we had a great Thanksgiving. We spent it with my (Kate's) family at my sister's house. Below is the beautiful table she decorated. It was so fun to be with all my siblings and their families. Some of the highlights were my nieces, ages 8 and 6, putting together a list of activities for us to complete- dance lessons (given by them), an art contest, bowling, and an interview with them. It was very creative and fun. The dinner was fabulous, all of our favorite holiday traditions, green jello, layered green salad, raspberry pretzel jello salad, marshmallow yams, homemade rolls, Eric's scrumptious mashed potatoes, and of course the turkey, pumpkin pie, and lemon merangue pie. Yum, yum!

Sunny days

In the beginning of November we still had great weather so a friend and I decided to take our girls to a fun place to play and imagine.

"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pain of water..."
Loving the animals to play around on

Cinderella in her carriage...

Watering the gardens

Thankful

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving. I've been busy getting things ready for my brother to come stay with us and then we're going to my sister's for the Thanksgiving feast. I love this time of year. I love getting together with family and just being together! Then the shopping begins. I love the excitement of getting ready for Christmas. I love late shopping nights (I wish the stores had holiday hours year round, it's nice when you have kids to put them to bed and then be able to go shop alone!) I love the smells this time of year brings. I love the good feeling I feel this time of year! Happy Thanksgiving, there is much to be thankful for!!

One of the things I'm most thankful for is our daughter. She is the light of my life. She brings me so much joy. Everynight as she sleeps and I am still awake I think about her and can't wait to see her again in the morning (yes, even on those hard days when I welcome the quiet at night, I find myself anxious to see her in the morning). She is so full of life, so smart, so much fun, so lovable, so kind, so helpful. I just can't get enough of her. Some days I worry I might smother her with all the hugs and kisses I give her, but then I think I don't care, I want her to know how much I love her and how grateful I am for her in my life. I am so thankful I get to be her mother. It is my honor and privelege to be her mother. She is so full of compliments like "you look beautiful mom" or "you're pretty" or "I love you". When she says those things to me I want to cry, it's so sweet. Being a mom is the greatest thing on earth and I am so grateful to be Kylee's mom!!

Lemon Drops and Gumdrops

Check out this video of Kylee doing actions to one of her favorite songs.
http://vimeo.com/7435379/l:transcoded_email

Twinkle, Twinkle

Here's a link to a video of Kylee singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
http://vimeo.com/7436250

Coming soon...

I know, I know, I've been a slacker when it comes to blogging. Ky and I just have so much fun everyday, it's hard to break away long enough to get a blog post done and then when she goes to bed there's a list of things I need/want to get done and unfortunately blogging gets pushed down to the bottom of the list. I wish I was like some of my friends who update their blog daily. Maybe someday? Actually I'd be happy if I could do it at least weekly. But the good news is, I went through all our pictures from the last couple months (since I last blogged) and picked out the ones I want to post. Now I just need to find/make the time to post them. They will be coming soon...

Yankees game

A couple weeks ago Eric and I went to a Yankees vs. A's game in Oakland. Unfortunately the Yankees lost, but it was still fun to be there watching the game. We're going to NYC soon, where we'll get to watch the Yankees in their own stadium, I sure hope they win that game.

Flying

We went flying with some friends of ours a couple weeks ago. They have a piper plane and our friend has his pilot's license. It was a lot of fun. We flew over the bay area and landed in Napa for dinner. Eric got to take over the controls for a little and loved it! Kylee didn't go with us, but she often tells us she wants to go fly in an airplane. We flew a lot with her the first two years of her life and she loves it, which is nice since we like to travel so much. At least once a day Kylee will say "let's go mom" or "let's go bye bye". She likes to keep moving, enjoys car rides, and going places. She's definately our daughter!!

Here are some pictures from our plane ride:

Our little waterskiier!

Kylee's first day out waterskiing and she was a champ! She's been on the boat with us since she was only a few weeks old and this year we put her out on the tube with us and she loved it. So we decided it was time to get her on the waterski. They just came out with this new EZ ski so we put Kylee on it and then we couldn't get her off. She was so chill on it, just looking around at everything. She even gave us a wave. The only way we could get her to stop was by telling her it was someone else's turn (she's really good at taking turns), but then she was keeping track of when it was her turn next, "after daddy", she'd say. She even wanted to go faster. If she's doing this at 2 years old, who knows what she'll be doing in the future!!

Here's the video of her first ski:

Dancing

We’re in Utah right now visiting Eric’s family. Kylee and I were dancing around in the family room earlier today. While we were dancing I thought how fun it was to just play and dance around with my daughter. I’ve always loved dancing and now I have someone who loves it as much as I do. When I sat down to take a break, Kylee came over and said “stand up mom”. Gotta love kids, they keep us going!

Kylee's Brag Corner

When Kylee was about 22 months she got a puzzle of the United States from one of the men Eric home teaches. Kylee started putting it together right away. We helped her a few times and before we knew it she was saying the names of the states and putting them in the right place. She even knew where to put the states before I could figure out where they went. She continues to do this and impress family and friends. It’s amazing how smart she is! Eric taught her that New York is where the Yankees (his favorite team) are. So when she picks up New York to put in place she says “Yankees” which makes Eric smile wide. I taught her that Minnesota is where Grandma Pat is from so now when she picks up Minnesota she says “Grandma Pat”. It’s really fun to watch her name the states and put them in place, even before I know where they go. Some of her favorites are Texas, ‘fornia’, Utah, ‘ginia’, Idaho, Florida, ‘ssippi’, Georgia, and South Dakota.

Kylee is getting really good at naming her colors. I think she learned pink first. Now she knows all of them and only gets them mixed up every once in awhile.

Kylee enjoys counting, but for some reason she skips “1” and starts with “2”. But it’s fun to watch her count. She knows she’s two and that her name is “Kywee” (Kylee) or just “Ky”.

For several months now I’ve been taking Kylee to a playgroup called “Music Makers”. Some ladies from church run it voluntarily. I actually go to two, one on Tuesdays and one on Wednesday mornings. It’s been fun to watch Kylee evolve the more we go. She follows directions and participates in the various activities. In one of the groups they pass around a microphone, at the beginning, as we sing a welcome song and the kids are suppose to say their name at a certain part as the microphone is passed to them. Kylee usually got shy when it was her turn and stayed quiet, but as of a few weeks ago she started to say her name with confidence. It’s been so cute to watch. We practiced at home and she was finally ready to perform. It’s been so fun to watch her blossom.

Hawaii

We spent a week in Kauai. It was so nice! Everything you’d hope for in Hawaii, relaxing and beautiful. We celebrated Kylee’s 2nd birthday there. Below are some pictures from our trip (I made 3 collages so you don’t have to thumb through a bunch of pictures).