2009

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2008

Christmas at our house this year was relaxing and quiet. We woke up at 7:30 and opened presents and then had some cinnamon rolls that we bought the night before. We hung out all day and then had dinner with the Trujillos and played pictionary, it was a very nice Christmas. Here are some pictures from the occassion.

Kenzie opening presents

Kenzie got an easle with a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other

New boots for church so that her feet don't freeze in this winter weather

This was my picture of a bull for pictionary

Becky drawing with the help of Kenzie

Paul was getting in on the action too

And here is Steven, drawing a molar

For the Grandmas

Here are some updated pictures for the Grandma's

We went sledding the other day at Burchfield Park and had a ton of fun

Kenzie looking for something deep inside the box of toys

Kenzie and her sweet superstar sunglasses that are basically the same size has her face

Holiday Nights

I know I said I would post this on Sunday evening but I got a bug of some sort and haven't been feeling the best for the past two days but here it is now. If you want to see more pictures you can look and Nate and Des's blog.

We went to Greenfield Village in Detroit on Friday night and it was a ton of fun, I am looking forward to going back when the weather is a bit warmer:). We were a little bit more prepared for the cold this time so we didn't freeze quite like we did last year at the light parade. Luckily Des brought little warming packets because poor Kenzie had freezing feet by the end of the night. We took plenty of blankets and gloves and she was in her snow suit but I couldn't figure out how to keep her feet warm. It was fun though, we also got to ride the carousel and that was fun too. Once again, I really am looking forward to going back when the weather is warmer.

All bundled up in front of one of the many old Fords

Kenzie all bundled up, ready for a fun night

Arizona Winter

This is what it looks like right now where I am from-Flagstaff, AZ. For those of you who haven't ever been there, it is in Northern Arizona about 2.5 hours from Phoenix where it is in the mid 60's. I have had a hard time convincing people who are from Michigan that it snows more in Flagstaff than it does here, so here is the proof. I think my mom said this happened in about 3 days time. When I heard last, which was 2 days ago there was 20" on the table that is pictured below and they were still expecting more to come! I am questioning why we are choosing to move back there? But at least they plow ALL the roads out there and they use cinders instead of salt because that mountain you see below is a dormant volcanoe so there is a plethora of cinders in the area. As opposed to Michigan where they only plow some of the roads and use salt, which totally ruins your car. Anyway, here it is, the place we are moving to in just about 9 months! At least the summers are beautiful!

This is my parent's house, where I was born (technically, brought home from the hospital) and raised

Here's the 20" of snow that my dad measured

And for something more pleasant, my mom's beautiful Christmas tree, those lights are from Bronner's, brining a little of Michigan to Arizona:)

**Mom- I know you have seen this and are probably sick of it so I will post pictures of Kenzie tomorrow, they are still on the camera and I am too lazy and tired right now to post them too so check in tomorrow evening for some pictures from this weekend:)

Time to relax

Paul is on break from school for 3 whole weeks!!! We are excited to have him around the house for a little while without having that awful sense that we are taking him away from something important, like studying. It snowed last night so we are going out to play today. Nothing too exciting going on around here and it is nice to have it that way after finals and all. Here are some pictures for the grandmas.

Kenzie at the Fowler's house

Mom and Kenzie relaxing

Kenzie's Birthday Weekend

Kenzie is 2!!!! I can't believe it has been 2 years since we were blessed with this tiny, yet not so tiny, spirit. We started Friday with opening presents first thing in the morning, I made the mistake of leaving them on the table and somehow she found them immediately, so we opened them. I didn't mind though because I am not good at waiting to give people presents, I love to see their reactions, and besides that, I wanted to see the birthday dress from Grandma Emma. Dad had to study so Kenzie and I had fun playing out in the snow for a while, sledding down the tiny hill behind our apartment. She liked it a lot more this year than she did last! We are going to go a lot when Dad is done with finals. Then after we went sledding we got a visit from Diana Charles to bring birthday wishes and a present, which is wonderful, thank you so much, Kenzie loves it. Then she went down for a nap so I could get the house cleaned up and we just spent the rest of the day playing and doing whatever made our little hearts happy. Last night we had some friends over for some cake and went shopping with the money that Grammy sent. Here are some pictures from the occasion.

Opening Grandma Emma's gift

beautiful new birthday dress, we LOVE it!

she's holding it up to herself so we can see how it looks:)

Finding Nemo!!!

Candy Land!!!

The birthday cake, I made it all by myself!

blowing out the candles

what a puzzled look, I hope she is enjoying the cake, she sure seemed to be at the time

this is our newest friend, Sydney Fowler, thanks for coming Syd!

modeling her new birthday dress, this is our big 2 year old, very cute if I do say so myself!
Saying thank you for the birthday dress, it is hard to capture sign language with a still shot:)

All of Kenzie's lute

The stroller and table & chairs are what we bought with the birthday money Mom, thank you very much!

The microphone and the magnet writing board(what are those called?) are from the Fowler's, thank you guys so much, she wanted to bring them both to church this morning but I thought the microphone might be a little to irreverent:)

The color wonder stuff from Diana, it was so much fun, we have used almost every page already!

These are from Kenzie's mom and dad, these are the other things we did on her birthday, we curled up on the couch together (mom and Kenzie) and watched Nemo and then "played" Candy Land, it was really a fun day for the both of us, I might have enjoyed it more than her!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENZIE!!!!

For the Grandmas

Here are a few updated pictures of Kenzie and what it looks like around here.

She emptied out the bottom drawer in the dresser and then pulled out the drawer and played in it. She comes up with the craziest things to do!
She had pigtails in her hair again yesterday for about 20 minutes, then they fell out as she was playing, but she looked cute nonetheless. That is Paul in the background, studying is little heart out.

This is our winter wonderland, it has been snowing everyday for almost a week. Yesterday we got a break from it though and all of the ice melted off the streets but it all came back last night.

My root canal went fine, my jaw is killing me today from having my mouth open for an hour, which means I can't talk a lot, but that is good news for Paul:)

I HATE the dentist's office!

So, I broke a tooth a while back and it didn't start hurting until about a month ago and, seeing as I HATE going to the dentist, I put it off until it was really bad. Last night the pain was more than I could bear so I went to the dentist today and I need a stupid root canal! AUGH!! I have to go in on Wednesday for the root canal, then I have to go back 3 more times to get all of the other stupid, ridiculous stuff done. I really hate going to the dentist, A LOT! They all smell the same, AWFUL! I have definitely learned my lesson, next time I am going in right away, or maybe if I wasn't such a baby and went more than once a year these kinds of things wouldn't happen.
I HATE DENTIST'S OFFICES!!!!!!!


**Yes, it is the dental office I hate, not the actual dentist, most of them are very kind, I just don't like what they do to me:)

Thanksgiving

We had some friends over for Thanksgiving and it was so nice! We had a lot of turkey and everything else. We had 3 pumpkin rolls, which were all delicious! We also had a banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and an apple pie. Needless to say, we had plenty of dessert! Kenzie played with Eve the whole time, it was so fun to see the two of them running around together getting covered in food and playing and having a grand time.

Kenzie started the day off by helping Dad make a banana cream pie

Everyone that came to join in the feasting

Kenzie and Eve eating their 4th or 5th partial piece of pie

And we ended this years Thanksgiving without any mishaps! If some of you may recall, last year we spent the evening in the ER with a cut lip and I had fallen down the stairs on the way but this year was accident free!

Christmas Music

I put Christmas music on the blog but I moved the player up to the top if you aren't ready for it(anyone from my family in particular) so you can pause it easily if you don't want to listen to it yet.

Potty Training...

I have made the decision to start potty training Kenzie and I have no idea what I am doing. I got one of the little toilet seat things so that I don't have to clean out a potty, that is worse than diapers in my mind. I just got the stuff yesterday and when I got it all set up I took her diaper off and sat her on it and explained what needed to happen. So now she just wants to play on it. She will plug her nose, like she is stinky and ask to go sit on it. I will take her diaper off and sit there with her for a few minutes and then she is ready to get down and nothing happens. I really didn't expect it to happen overnight but is what I am doing okay? How long did it take your kids to get fully potty trained? Any pointers that might make it easier?

Pictures of Kenzie

I promised my mom I would post these today because I put pig tails in Kenzie's hair.

giving mom so serious rock star kisses, these were taken this morning so you know what Kenzie looks like today:)

pigtails from the front, they are really hard to see, sorry
pigtails from the back

eating a banana in her dirty clothes basket, this is one crazy little girl!