Twins

There has been a lot of excitement on my side of the family because my brother Brannen, and his wife welcomed identical twins into their family! With the twins, they now have SIX BOYS!!!

No one on either side of our family has twins except for a cousin of mine. It's rare in our family and everyone has been so excited!

They were born on January 17th. Here are some pictures from when they were a day old.

I love how they are cuddling in this picture.

This is Luke. He was born first and was 5 lbs. 1 oz.

This is Landon. He was 5 lbs. 6 oz.

They were able to go home on Saturday. My parents are there helping with the babies and the four older boys. I really wishing I could hold these cute little guys. It almost makes me baby hungry again...almost. Not quite.

Welcome to the world Luke and Landon! I can't wait to meet you.

A New Year

Since it's almost the end of January, I thought I'd share my new year's resolutions even though I'm not a huge fan of them. Mostly because I feel like it's the same thing every year. Eat healthier, exercise more, etc. But at the same time it is a great opportunity to try to improve oneself. This year I chose a few goals I thought were attainable and somewhat measurable.1. Last year was the year of home improvements which meant we spent a lot of money. I like sticking to a budget so it kinda stressed me out how much money we spent on our home. With our big and costly home improvements out of the way, I'm looking forward to a year of spending less and saving more. Getting back on a budget!

2. I also want to do more fun things with Kensie. More park days, play dates, and story times. Less dragging her around with me shopping and running errands.

3. Making my bed every day.

Yes, #3 is pretty pathetic. Most people have been making their bed every day since they were ten years old. As much as my mom tried to bribe me by putting quarters on my bed when I would make it, the habit never sunk in.

So far, things are looking good for my NYR. We've already put a good chunk of money towards savings. Kensie and I have been to story time every week. We've also been going to the park at least once or twice a week when it's warm enough. I'm working on getting a babysitting co-op going. Aaaaaannnd....I've made my bed almost every day this year! Boo-yah! My mom will be so proud when she finds out.

2011: A Year of Home Improvement

Usually I do a recap of the past year in some form of a 'top ten events' or something. As I thought about our past year, I realized the best way to sum it up would be to label it 'The year of home improvement.' Overall, most of of our time, energy, and money was spent going into our new home. Everyone says that owning a home is a lot of work and money. Then you get a home and realize it's true!

The house we bought was built in 2006 and was foreclosed on by it's original owners. As far as foreclosures go, it was in really good shape. The owners took the ceiling fans, built-in entertainment center, central vacuum system, surround sound system, garage opener system, and the artificial grass with them. It sounds like a lot, but in this market of foreclosures and short sales we had seen everything from kitchen cabinets ripped out, holes in the walls, flooring ripped out, etc. It was evident the previous owners took good care of the home we now own. The carpet was in good condition so we didn't have to replace any flooring. Luckily the bank painted the home before we moved in (all the walls were green) and also replaced the ceiling fans.

Our home was pretty much move-in ready when we bought it but there was a lot we wanted to do to make it our home. While home shopping I quickly realized that unless you build your home, you aren't going to get everything you want. In 2011 we did the following:

• Painted the living room.
• Decorated
• Got an entertainment center. Sanded and repainted it.

• Had our kitchen cabinets painted white. I'll do a post on that later.
• Put hardware on our kitchen cabinets.
• Landscaped the back yard. More on that later also...
• Got a patio set
• Put in a stone walkway going from the side gate entrance to our pool in the backyard.
• Painted Kensie's room
• Turned the extra space in our master bedroom into a reading nook.

Lots of Saturdays were spent working in the yard, going to Home Depot, buying paint samples, etc. Along with all of the major projects we continue to decorate, hang pictures, upkeep, and work on mini home projects.

I feel like we have transformed this house into our home the past year. It's been fun, stressful, and hard work. It's also brought a sense of accomplishment. Our biggest and most expensive home projects are now complete! There are still lots of improvements we want to make to our home but it's a good feeling to have all of the big and expensive projects out of the way. Now onto 2012!

16 Months

Kensie has been such a sweetheart lately giving us lots of hugs, kisses, and cuddles.

One thing I love about Kensie is that it isn't hard to get smiles and giggles out of her.

I feel like she understands just about everything we say. It's evident in how she responds to what we say.

She recently learned to say, "yeah" (d-yee-a). I love it. It is so much easier to find out what she needs. I love asking her questions like, "Do you love mommy?" or "Do you think my necklace is pretty?" because it's cute to hear her say, "D-yee-a".

We've been going to story time every week and she loves it.

She likes organizing objects/toys. She picks up her toys one by one and organizes them into piles or puts them inside things. Then she takes them out and moves them into a new pile.

She likes sitting on my lap while she plays with her toys and when I read her books. She also likes climbing and crawling all over Niel and I.

She knows and points to ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and belly button. Pointing to her belly button is her favorite. She thinks it's funny.

One odd thing she started doing is fighting her bed time. Bedtime has never been a problem with her up until now. Usually, she submissively lets us put her in her jammies, say prayers, sing songs, and lay her in the crib. Lately, she does everything in her power to postpone bedtime. Running from us, kicking, screaming, etc. She just wants to keep playing with her toys! Oh boy. Didn't know this would start at such young of an age.

Whenever music comes on she dances. She waves her arms up and down and stomps her feet really fast in place.

She LOVES babies and gets so excited when she sees one.

She pushes around her baby and puppy in the stroller all the time. When she gets tired of that she grabs her little bucket and carries it around the house looking for random objects to fill it with like socks, bracelets, necklaces, blocks, etc.

One of her favorite things to do is play hide and seek with her dad.

She has been playing so well by herself lately and I love it. Kensie has always been pretty needy, making it hard for me to get stuff done except when she is sleeping. She continues to get better as she gets older, especially lately.

She likes to shake her head no to tease us. If she knows she is supposed to do something, she shakes her head with a big, mischievous smile on her face. Stinker.

She is very interested in the toilet and watching us go to the bathroom. She won't let us shut the door to the bathroom. No privacy around here. Hopefully this means she will potty train early!

She has started to run away from me when it's time to brush her teeth, change her diaper, wash her hands, or get ready for bed.

After finishing her string cheese the other day, she threw her wrapper in the trash without me asking. I was amazed. I didn't know she could distinguish what goes in the trash and what doesn't. Since then we ask her to throw things in the trash for us.

Getting on the computer when Kensie is awake is almost impossible. As soon as either of us get on the computer she does one of two things: 1)cries or 2)tries to climb up on our lap and pound on the keyboard.

She is starting to follow simple commands like grabbing a book or getting her shoes. The other day I told her we were going bye bye and asked her to get her kitty and puppy. A few minutes later she was standing by the door ready to go with her kitty and puppy. Too cute.

We switched her to a forward facing car seat and she LOVES it. The first couple of times we put her in it she was giddy.

Words: Hot, yeah, dog, no, there, hi, boo, mom, dad, socks, all done, thank you, here you go.

Nighttime sleep: Between 7:30 & 8 p.m. until 6 or 7 a.m. I don't get her out of the bed until 7 or 7:30 a.m. though. She plays in her crib until I get her.

Diapers: She poops 3-5 times a day. ugh. Usually it's three times.

Nap: One nap around noon for one and a half to three hours. It's usually about two hours long.

Food: Getting less picky. Won't eat her green veggies though. Loves fruit. Eats what we are eating; I never give her pureed baby food anymore (haven't for awhile).

The Whitings Visit

The week after Christmas, my sister Jennifer and her family came to visit. I hadn't seen her since I was seven months pregnant, so they hadn't ever met Kensie. I was so excited to see their family. Kensie was very happy to have little people at our house to play with! She quickly grew quite fond of both McKay and Jordan, who were so sweet to her. They are both sweet and well behaved boys. Kensie would go up to Jordan and give him hugs and she wanted McKay to hold her a lot. She would walk up to him and put her arms out for him to pick her up.

We heated up the hot tub while they were here. That was a hit.

Kensie wanted McKay to hold her in the hot tub. She rested her head on his shoulder for a long time too. She loved him so much.

We went to Red Rock Canyon.

We stuffed ourselves at the Rio buffet. This was the best buffet I've been to in Vegas so far. McKay and his dad both ate an incredible amount of crab legs. My favorite part of the buffet was the gelato bar.

Kensie and Jordan went in the bike trailer together when we went to the park.

She loved going down the slides with McKay.

It's a bummer we were still sick during their visit but we still had a good time. I'm so glad I was finally able to see my sister. I absolutely loved being around her adorable little boys too. Kensie missed her cousins when they left. The next couple of days she went in the guest bedroom every morning to see if they were there. I wish we lived closer. What a fun visit!

Christmas

We spent Christmas in Utah this year with Niel's family. It wasn't the usual Christmas since all three of us got really sick but we still managed to have a good time. Five minutes after we arrived at Niel's moms' place in Utah, Kensie threw up all over me. We weren't sure if it was carsickness, food poisoning, the flu, or a combination. She already had a cold when we left but didn't have any other symptoms. Then she continued throwing up into the night. Joyful.

Two days later Niel and I were doing the same thing. Then we all got colds and sore throats. And Kensie was waking up at 4:30 and 5 a.m. our time in the morning. So we ended up spending most of our time at Grandma's because we didn't feel well enough to do much.

Luckilly, Niel and I starting feeling a little better on Christmas Eve at Michelle and Aaron's house. We had dinner and then Aaron played the piano while the kids danced and ran around like crazy. Michelle gave Kensie a pettiskirt to wear while she danced with her cousins.

We were so excited for Kensie on Christmas morning. Especially Niel. He got up way too early and couldn't wait for Kensie to open her presents.

Santa brought Kensie a baby doll, a stroller, mega blocks, a build-a-bear puppy, and a big stuffed dog. Mom and Dad got her lots of books, a pretend cell phone, a shopping cart, Noah's ark, and a mini magna-doodle. The last thing I want are spoiled kids, but I have to admit we spoiled Kensie for Christmas this year. It's not something I want to continue (the spoiling) but I had so much fun shopping for her! Plus, it was a good excuse to finally get her lots of toys and books since she didn't have very many.

She was so excited when she saw the baby doll and stroller. This is my favorite picture from Christmas. Meeting her baby for the first time and looking so happy about it!

Then she put her baby AND the puppy in the stroller and pushed them around the house. She didn't want anything to do with the other presents. When we tried to pull her away from the stroller she threw a tantrum.

She managed to open one other present from Grandma Schurig before her nap (did I mention she woke up at 4:30 a.m. Vegas time on Christmas?!). Grandma Schurig made her an amazing quiet book for church. I love it! It has already made church easier.

After opening presents, we all went to church and then took family pictures. We had Christmas dinner at Michelle and Aaron's.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Santa

Waiting until the last minute to see Santa was a bad idea. Even 30 minutes after the mall opened on the 20th of December there was a long line with a 30-45 minute wait. One thing about Kensie is she has never been a child who sits still. Very squirmy. Especially now that she knows how to walk. Keeping her restrained in a stroller is almost a joke now. So you can imagine after waiting in line for approximately 4 minutes she wants OUT!!! Crying, squirming, and trying everything in her power to wiggle herself out of the stroller. Once she is out of the stroller the last thing she wants to do is stand in line. The next 25 minutes consisted of me trying to contain her in the line. Which wasn't really happening. I kept glancing around at all the other children sitting and standing contently waiting to see Santa and I couldn't help but think why does my child have so much energy?!?! There was one other little boy in line who kept throwing tantrums. That made me feel better.

Anyways, by the time it was our turn to see Santa I was sweating (can you tell in the picture?!) from chasing and trying to contain my child. As soon as I put Kensie on Santa's lap she started crying. I was prepared for that though so I jumped right in the picture and sat on Santa's lap too.

Kensie was very cooperative by smiling pretty for the camera. It was all worth it I suppose because she looks just too dang cute. Who would ever guess that this little girl with a sweet, innocent smile caused so much trouble in the Santa line? What a little ham.

Company Party

The company Niel works for had an awesome Christmas party this year at the Plaza Hotel downtown Las Vegas. Day of the party, we headed to the mall to pick out something to wear. Niel chose a nice sweater and I was about to grab a sparkly top when we run into one of his co-workers who tells us the company parties are semi-formal. People dress up. No joke. I freak out slightly since I have nothing to wear and the party was that night! Plus, this was my golden opportunity to get something fancy and dress up. Niel was busted. In my limited amount of time I didn't find anything to wear. During a moment of despair and frustration at the store I randomly ran into my friend Sarah who had a dress I could wear. Crisis averted thanks to Sarah.

Anyways, on to the party. It really was fantastic. And it turns out I didn't even need to stress about our attire so much because some people were hardly dressed up. Oh well. A whole feast awaited us when we arrived. I was most excited about the DJ and dance floor though. Niel and I always went dancing when we were dating. In fact that's how we met. It had been a long time since we'd hit the dance floor together so we shook it up. You better believe we busted out our sweet dance moves.

Whenever we leave Kensie with a babysitter I like to check on her sleeping when we get home. Sometimes I pick her up and hold her but most times I just peek at her. When we came home that night Kensie was sleeping in the most bizarre position with crazy hair and all.

She is awesome like that.

The Nativity

In December, every year my church puts on an outdoor nativity production. This year we got a babysitter for Kensie and went for our first time. It was only 40 or 50 degrees outside, which seems really cold to us now, so we grabbed hot chocolate on our way. We got there early to get good seats on the front row and then took a look at the live animals and nativity display.

It was an amazing production that exceeded my expectations. It brought the story of Jesus' birth to life so well. Going to the production helped me re-focus and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I'm hoping it will become an annual tradition for our family.

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken at Calico Basin in Las Vegas by Brittany K Photography the first weekend of October.

I didn't think I would stress out very much about family pictures, but I did. I ended up spending way too many hours planning, shopping, and primping everyone for family pictures. I'm going to chill-out a little bit next time.

On family picture day, of course Kensie didn't fall asleep for her second nap until we were in the car on our way to family pictures. Then I realized I forgot the diaper bag at home and we were too far from home to go back for it. I was worried she would be too tired and hungry for the photo shoot but she ended up doing really well for the first 30-45 minutes. Long enough to get a few good shots.

Here are some of my favorites from the photoshoot...

I loved the yellow flowers

My favorite picture of Kensie

What a relief to have them done! Overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I love the bright colors in the pictures hanging up in our home. I will post pictures of the wall collage I'm working on once I'm done.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Carl like we did last year. My cousins Ginnie, Heather, and their families were also there. The Smith family is so much fun and I love getting together with them. It wasn't the typical Thanksgiving dinner because the turkey didn't turn out. We had ham instead. But Niel actually prefers ham over turkey so it worked out.

The best thing about Thanksgiving dinner at Marilyn and Carl's house is the huge assortment of pies. This year they had a pie competition. Niel and the neighbors were the judges.

My pumpkin pie took second place overall. Booya.

Walking

Kensie started taking her first steps the day before her 14 month mark (11/15/11). Up until then she would only take one or two steps at a time.

Just getting the hang of it... On (11/20/11) she started taking 5-10 steps at a time.

By 11/26 she ditched crawling completely while we were at Walker's Furniture. She started walking all over the furniture store! She gets a little smile and look of satisfaction on her face when she walks. I tried to upload the video of her walking better but after three failed attempts I decided to forget it.

Since she learned to walk, every morning she grabs her bucket of blocks (which she uses as a purse) and carries it around the house. She walks around from room to room grabbing toys and putting them in her 'purse'. She is so proud of herself and happy to be learning new things. Hooray for Kensie!

14 & 15 months

Stats at her 15 month appointment:

Weight: 19 lbs 3 oz. (5th percentile)

Height: 28 3/4 in. (10th percentile)

Head: 45 cm (25-50th percentile)

She is a walking machine and loving it!

Total Daddy's girl. Sometimes she cries when Niel goes to work. Sometimes she cries when Niel hands her off to me. At times it seems she doesn't want anything to do with me. I think it's great she loves her dad so much but I miss being the favorite!

She loves going for bike rides in our new bike trailer. Her puppy usually comes too. In fact, her puppy goes wherever she goes about half the time. They are best friends and she gives it lots of hugs and kisses.

She is too busy to give mom and dad hugs and kisses lately. We only get one every once in awhile:(

• Loves reading. She will find a book she likes and bring it to me to read to her. I cherish this time since it is the only time she will sit still.
• She sits on her knees. She also sits in squatting position.
• She loves going outside and getting out of the house. She will go up to the door and bang on it when she wants to go outside. Which is usually at least once a day.
• Twelve teeth! Six on top and six on bottom. Her top molars came in finally. Those were not fun at all for both of us.
• She has been so much happier since she learned to walk. We had a really rough patch around 13 1/2 months of not sleeping or napping well and being really cranky. Once she started walking and cut her molars things have improved a lot.
• She has a sense of humor. She laughs when we do, does funny facial expressions, and does funny things.
• She puts on my shoes and bracelets.
• Anything with a strap becomes a purse.
• She likes to hand objects to us and say, "here ya go" (ee-ya-o) and then take them back from us about two seconds later and say thank you (tay-doo).
• She is good at shaking her head no.
• At 14 months I couldn't hardly get her to eat anything. This has improved a bit at 15 months. The things she will eat are yogurt, milk, bananas, lunch meat, oranges, graham crackers, bread, tomatoes, grapes, toast, cheese, mac n' cheese, granola bars, apples, and pizza.
• When she wants something to eat she yells, "NUN!! NUN!!" We are working on our manners over here. Sometimes she does the 'more please' sign in ASL.
• She needs her kitty and puppy to sleep.
• She is hungry ALL THE TIME. She will pretty much eat all day long if I let her.
• She is pretty good at sitting still while I do her hair. I usually do it in pigtails or a pony-tail on top of her head.
• Is a total sweet tooth just like her mom and dad. Oh boy. She manages to find our candy stashes and then takes the candy to her dad for him to open it for her. She knows mom is the stickler on sweets.
• Her hair has been growing fast lately. She has more curls in the back too. Love it! I hope her hair stays curly!

Please feel free to skip the following paragraph. It is for me to remember with my next child.

She is officially a one nap baby. The transition to one nap was and still is a lot harder than I thought it would be. She gets really tired in the morning around 10 a.m. and would usually go down for a nap then if I would let her. But when I put her down around 10 a.m. she would only nap for an hour and a half to two hours and wouldn't go down for an afternoon nap. Resulting in an exhausted little girl by bedtime. On the rare occasion she would take an afternoon nap it would only be 30 or 45 minutes long and it would take her about an hour to fall asleep. Or if she did take a good afternoon nap she wouldn't be tired enough to fall asleep at her bedtime. I felt like I was spending all afternoon trying to get a second nap that was wasn't very productive. But I also felt like she got too tired and cranky to push her nap back until after lunch. For a couple of months we had days with two naps and some with one nap. Simply because some days she wasn't tired enough. The first week of officially transitioning to one nap was really rough (right at 14 months). Although I attempted it once or twice before and failed. The week I transitioned, I ran my errands in the morning and she would be extremely cranky, throw tantrums, and fall asleep in the car on the way home. Sometimes she would wake up early from her nap and only nap for an hour to an hour and a half. The second week I decided to stay home all week in the mornings. I would give her lunch between 11 a.m. and noon and then put her down for a nap. Second week was a lot better and since then the one nap has worked out better for her. She usually sleeps for about two hours. Sometimes it is only an hour and a half (spare me!) and some days it's up to 3 hours or more if I'm really lucky (love those days!). I think she was ready to switch at a year but mom wasn't ready for one nap yet:)

One last picture because it's too cute. I don't think anyone has ever rocked a pink pea coat the way Kensie does.