2012

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping to a great year and more frequent blogging!

Super blogging mom.....not so much.

So it has been brought to my attention that I haven't been the best at keeping up this blog....ok, I pretty much am awful at keeping it up.  I keep telling Brian I want to be one of those super blogging moms....maybe one day.  Anyhoo, here are the latest happenings in a nutshell:  I quit my job at the end of September to stay at home full time and I LOVE it!  Brian started with Bank of America in January and in October was approved to start working from home which means he commutes only one day a week....wooohooo!  We love it!  He starts at 8, is here at lunch and we get to eat dinner between 5:30 and 6....much better than the 7pm time we were averaging before.  Addie is in preschool 2 days a week and loves it.  She is obsessed with Christmas and LOVES the decorations and everything that has to do with Christmas.  Every night when she sees our Christmas lights on the front of the house she squeals like it is the greatest thing she has ever seen!  Kenzie is almost 16 months and is walking/running around.  She is still as chunky as ever and is saying tons of words.  There you have it.  The last 7 months in one paragraph.  We  are doing an advent calendar and I have been taking pictures of each activity in the hopes of putting a small post each night with our activity.  It is December 7th and you can see how that is working out.  I am still going to try.  Just have to download the pictures.  Maybe later today?  A girl can dream.

I can't post without pictures so here are some recents of the girls. :)

Kenzie doing her favorite past time.

Addie on a trip to Disney. 

Hmmmm

See a resemblance?

Busy busy

Can you believe your eyes? A new blog post? I'm sure most people have stopped checking this thing. My girls are definitely keeping me busy these days, but have a rare few moments so I actually made it to the computer to give a short update.

I have gotten a better handle on having 2 kids, but we are constantly running. Brian started a new job in January at Bank of America and with his commute to downtown LA, he has a longer work day than we were used to before. I went back to work (20 hours/week) at the end of December, and there isn't much time to get everything on the "to do" list accomplished. So, the blog kind of gets put on the back burner. Even though we are busy, we have had some time for fun. Mckenzie is now 8.5 months old and is a chunker! She has finally started sleeping through the night thanks to sleep training. It was so hard to start it, but it worked like a charm and we are a much happier family now that mom and dad are getting a full night of sleep! Addie had her 3rd birthday in March and is still talking about her princess party! Life has been busy, but we are so blessed to have 2 fun girls to keep it that way!

Cinderella very excited about her gifts!

Party wouldn't be complete without a pinata!

Cinderella wasn't the only princess at the party. Belle, Tinkerbell, and Mulan also made appearances!

And here is the AMAZING cake my MOM made for Addie!! She took a cake decorating class and really outdid herself!!! It took 6 cake mixes and LOTS AND LOTS of hours of decorating. I don't think I can top it next year for Addie's 4th birthday!

Can you believe how chunky this girl has gotten?

She is such a happy baby!

Can't believe she has had already hit 8 months!

Chips

These days, life has been CRAZY! I love my babies, but the adjustment to have 2 kids was so much harder than I expected. Mckenzie has had some issues with nursing and without going into all the details I have had to spend a great deal of time with either my sweet girl attached to me or hooked up to a breast pump. So, I have had to learn to let things go. My house is dirtier than it's ever been, Addie's hair doesn't get done very much. My car is a disaster with toys and trash strewn throughout. I haven't blogged in almost 3 months. I finally downloaded pictures from my camera (the last download was 9/19). I'm lucky if I get a shower everyday and brush my teeth. Shaving my legs is a thing of the past. I never got a birth announcement out for Mckenzie and still haven't written my thank you cards for all the gifts I received (i know that's bad). And finally, when signing up for the potluck at Addie's preschool instead of signing up for some cool dessert I could whip up or some delicious specialty, salad or side dish like all the other moms, I signed up for CHIPS. I was the only one who took the easy route. But, my item was the only one completely gone with none to bring home. CHIPS describes my life these days. :)

Here are a few photos of the craziness and fun we've had with our sweet, sweet Mckenzie and big sis Addie.

Addie says "Mommy, I want to pump my boobies too!" There has been a lot of pumping going on around here.


A fun visit to the El Dorado duck pond

I got a smiling picture

Mckenzie's Baby Blessing ----- 10/10/10

Lots of naps with Dad!

And a sweet video of my sweet sweet girl!

Early Arrival

Our little girl was due Sept 7 but decided she couldn't wait. So, I got out of work one day earlier than I had planned and had a healthy baby girl instead of going to work. :)

Mckenzie Brianne
Born: August 19,2010
6lb 4 oz
18.5 in

Anatomy

We had our 20 week ultrasound last week and dun dun dun......

It's another girl!!!

We are really excited and so happy Addie gets a sister! Not sure if I will be so excited about this during the teenage years. You'll have to check back to the blog then. But in the meantime we're thrilled and Brian is totally excited to be completely outnumbered by all his girls!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We had fun coloring eggs and finding them and then eating the candy!

Time is flying

Addie had her 2nd birthday on Saturday and had a great time. I can't believe it has already been 2 years since she joined our family. We had a small get together with family and a couple of friends complete with a jumper (which we got to use for free...woohoo!), pinata, face painting (thanks Cece!), and sidewalk chalk! Please tell me that the rest of her growing up will be a little slower than the first 2 years....i may be changing my tune during the teenage years though huh?

She was so cute and CLEAN at the beginning of the party
(didn't last)

By the end, she had rubbed sidewalk all over her face and clothing, lost her hair clips, and was exhausted!
(although she looks upset, this is her saying "cheese")

My attempt at a monkey cake and cupcakes to appease those who didn't want anything to do with the animal. Addie LOVED having a monkey cake and made monkey sounds all day.

Happy Birthday to Addison!

Cousins and pals!

A long break...

I haven't forgotten about my blog, just been really, really, really tired and not feeling so well the last couple of months. The last thing I wanted to do was get on the computer and update my blog. So, I'm back. So why the long break? Well, we're having baby #2!!!!! Thus explaining the really, really, really tired and not feeling well. But, I'm finally starting to feel alive again and am really excited about this new addition. We keep asking Addie if she wants a boy baby or a girl baby, and she repeats whatever gender we have said second. I think she'll just be happy with a baby! Baby is due Sept 7 and we are all ecstatic!

Traditions

We just had our Christmas Party at church last night and tried to participate in the age old tradition of having our child see Santa. I was hoping Addie would be cooperative and we could snap a cute picture of her smiling wide eyed on Santa's lap. Not so much!





Why do we torture our kids? Notice Addie with the death grip on Brian's shirt. We never got her on Old Saint Nick's Lap.



Luckily Santa snuck up behind us before he left. Addie didn't know he was behind her. At least we got one smiling picture.

She was definitely happy to see him go. Hopefully this girl will learn she's got to butter him up for the goods!

a

Decorating Contest

Addie's tree decorating job.
(the cluster approach)

Brian and my decorating job.
(the balanced approach)

You be the judge!!

Really?

Is this really the most comfortable spot to watch Sesame Street???

Bedrock

Introducing the Flinstones and the Rubbles!

Isn't she a cute Pebbles?

But, Pebbles wouldn't be complete without Bam Bam!

Ahh...Fall

Fall??? Yeah right!!! I was so excited to visit a local pumpkin patch and have some fun picking out a pumpkin with Addie, a couple of her friends (Abby and Laney), and Addie's cousin Jaxon. Ok, so my hopes and dreams were demolished by the 90° heat, craziness of 2 toddlers running around and the rough terrain. Let's just say we had no fun and I was so hot I could feel sweat dripping behind my knees. To top it off, we couldn't find our camera before, so luckily Aunt Kelly had her's and snapped a couple of pics. I don't think we'll be visiting the pumpkin patch next year unless it really IS fall weather.

Addie and Jaxon
(looks nice right? wrong!! we were dying!)

Our one group shot of the kids
(notice only 6 year old Abby is smiling.)

When is fall REALLY arriving????

No news is good news

Nothing new to report. Nothing exciting going on. The weather is cooling off. It's getting darker earlier. Addie is getting so big. AND my FAVORITE time of the year is coming...the Christmas Season! I absolutely love Christmas music and would listen to it all year long, but Brian won't let me. I'm one of the crazy's that loves it when KOST plays Christmas music all day everyday for an entire month. I know, I know, kind of annoying. So, our agreement is that I can listen from October 1 to the end of the year. It's time to break out the Christmas CD's! Wahoo! Anyway, here's a recent pic of Addie. She such a big girl...and is developing an attitude already. I am in so much trouble during the teenage years!

I'm just lazy...

I've been meaning to write something on here for awhile, but I have no good excuse, just lazy. I really have nothing exciting to write about and nothing clever to say. So, I'll just post a few pix of my sweetness. Here are all the fun things we've been doing this summer.

Watched way too many Laker games!

Fed the ducks at El Dorado Park

Got passes to the LA Zoo

Made lots of messes

Started Gymnastics

Sprayed mommy with the hose

Went swimming

Used daddy as my primary mode of transportation.

Went to the beach for the first time!!!

Played with my cousin Jaxon

And there's still another month of summer! Woohoo!