Christmas

We went to Cleveland for a few days before Christmas. We had fun seeing the snow and enjoying some relaxing time with family.

Mackenzie was in heaven with her cousins. They play so well together and Clara enjoyed trying to hang out with them as much as they allowed her to.

Lots of girls when we all get together. Keith had fun showing them how to build a castle with Kirk's old Legos.

25 weeks here, feeling pretty good.

Kenz hated the cold snow (I know the feeling) but Clara enjoyed it.

Cute cousins. Serena was so cute, she got really into it and lasted the longest with Gideon.

We were so bummed Keith's parents flight was delayed due to snow so they ended up coming late Saturday night instead of Friday afternoon. The kids were really excited to wake up to their grandparents on Sunday. It was our last night there so we opened up presents, watched the fun video Joan and Katie made of family pictures and sang some Christmas songs.

The girls each got an outfit and Kenzie got a kit with art supplies. Clara got a little dog that barks and walks which is super cute!

We had Kirk and Joy's family for our Christmas exchange this year. We ended up putting together a fort in a bag.

We are really bad at getting any family photos at Christmas. Joan snapped this one so it's all I have.

The girls did great in the car. We made much better time than we did at Thanksgiving. 

When we came home on Christmas Eve, Kenzie wanted to build a fort, eat popcorn and watch a movie so that's what we did. We watched The Grinch with Jim Carrey and Kenzie really liked it.

I have just a few pictures from Christmas day because I mostly took video. The bottom is of the girls getting into their M&M's from their stockings and the top is that night as we read books. It was such a fun day being by ourselves. Mackenzie was so into Christmas and grateful for her gifts. Clara got really caught up in the enthusiasm and was a blast. We had fun playing with their toys all day and were able to skype with both of our families.

December minus the major Christmas stuff

 This is how we all felt at the end of the busy month of December:)

 We made gingerbread houses

 Clara ate our scraps

 My little house

 Keith actually ate some of his, I never do. Kenz ate her candy that first night

I moved the Christmas tree...by myself across the room which meant I also rearranged furniture. The next day I found myself in the hospital having pain while breathing and a wicked bad side ache. Couldn't find anything with the breathing but they held me for a night to make sure I didn't have appendicitis. Pretty sure I just tore a ligament as my side hurt for the rest of the month.

 It only took 5 years of marriage but I finally managed to make rolls that tasted and looked good! My mom makes delicious rolls and I fail so often using her recipes that I decided to try the Lion House roll recipe. The stars aligned and they turned out light and fluffy. We'll see if I can ever replicate it. 

 It wouldn't be the holidays without somebody getting sick. My 26th birthday was on the 3rd. The day before,Kenzie stayed home from church because she seemed under the weather. The next day she and Clara were so insanely grumpy we decided to scratch any bday plans. My good friend Brittany insisted we bring them over long enough to go to dinner. We were about 20 minutes into dinner when she texted me to tell me Clara was running a fever. The rest of the week, Kenzie and Clara took turns running fevers and being grumpy/lethargic.

 On Thursday, Kenzie finally seemed to be feeling better so I had let her go to preschool on Friday. Well a couple of hours later she went in to her room when I heard the unmistakable sound of vomiting. She had covered just about every surface in her room. I got her cleaned up and prayed it was just a one time thing. No such luck. She continued to throw up the rest of the day and by 5 PM I was calling Keith in tears begging him to come home because I was starting to feel really sick and Kenzie's vomit was not helping the matter. He came home about 6 and started taking care of us all. Clara and I were both running fevers at that point. I got hit hard and fast with chills and fever plus the panic that I shouldn't get sick with the flu while I was pregnant. Keith was a hero and took care of the girls while I wallowed in misery:) The elders came that night and gave me a blessing which eased my mind a bit. I was pretty sick the rest of the weekend and on Sunday Keith was down with the stomach bug. Anyways, these are the moments of parenthood I dread the most but I had to document it so I know that as awful as it is, we get through it.

 Keith took the girls to the creche our ward put together.

 She loves on her a little too much sometimes.

 Such a great daddy. We (tried to) open a Christmas book every day in December until Christmas.

 Sometimes it's easy to tell that they are definitely sisters!

Bass Pro Shop

 

We decided to brave Bass Pro shop on a Saturday to meet Santa a couple of weeks before Christmas. It's such a fun store we didn't really mind waiting 45 min. in line. 

 Clara enjoyed the carousel after meeting Santa. Kenz was still too grumpy to do anything. She was so mad at us for trying to get her to go near Santa.

Kenzie's Preschool

 Kenz has loved St. Thomas preschool. Occasionally they post photos on their website of the kids so I was able to pull some off

 The other music teacher (who is also a good friend) and I were in charge of the Christmas program. Jo really headed it up because she had experience with last years program. It turned out really great with each class singing a song and then we had all the kids come together at the end to sing a couple of songs.

 

 Kenz is on the far right in these pictures

 

There would be more pictures/video but as I was busy leading the kiddos, Keith was in charge of Clara and the camera. He did capture this little clip at the end.

Cleveland Thanksgiving

We've had wonderful Thanksgivings here in Kentucky. Our first we spent with the Valgardsons and the Birds. The second was spent with Gosnells. The third with the Barratts and Robinsons. We've loved them all and never felt too bad about being far from family.

It was fun this year to finally be with family though. We're lucky to be only a 5 1/2 hour drive from Keith's brother Kirk. Granted the drive took us about 8 hours because of traffic but we made it to Cleveland the day before Thanksgiving in time for dinner. Kenzie was immediately in love with being surrounded by cousins and Clara kept busy practicing stairs. 

Thanksgiving itself was a wonderful meal. Keith and I were in charge of pies, potatoes and veggies so we kept busy prepping food while the kids played. I think our favorite part of the meal were the sweet potatoes. Later that night, me, Joy, and her cousin Sue hit a couple of stores. We got some good deals and didn't have to stay out very late.

I'm not one to take pics of food and meals and all that so I don't have any pictures until Friday when we went to Kirtland, OH. The girls shopped a little first, then met the men and kids at Kirtland. We missed most of the tour so we joined up with another.

The Newel K. Whitney store was definitely the highlight.

On the first floor they displayed goods that you would have been able to find. They also had an original book of receipts which would be fun to look through if you knew of any ancestors to search for.

Upstairs, they showed us Joseph and Emma's dining room as well as the room where the school of Prophets met. The spirit was strong and the sister missionaries did a wonderful job telling the history and revelation linked to this special building.

The visitors center had their nativities set up for the Christmas season. There were hundreds from all over the world.

We decided to spend the $3 to check out the Kirtland temple. It is a beautiful building and I loved the architecture inside. The Church of Christ owns this building so the tour was informative but definitely missing the feel that the LDS church sites had. We also didn't get to go to the top because of our group size.

We left on Saturday and were able to see snow before we left. It was really bitter outside so we didn't really get to play in it.