Let The Countdown Begin......

We made some countdown chains ( I don't know the official name for these) for family night this week. The kids had so much fun making them. They get so excited to cut one off each day. It is helping them to be more patient with the presents under the tree. Carson asks if we can open them every day. They are so cute, and it is fun to see how magical Christmas is for little kids. As you can see.......I did the cutting really quick, so each one is a completely different size.he.he. They didn't care

Made my Day!

Kyle has been out of town for the last couple of days, so the kids and I have been partying!(j.k) I do not sleep good when he his gone, and we do miss him tons! I am such a big chicken....I even make Kylie and Carson sleep with me while he is away! Well Kylie and I stayed up late together, and so this morning she is sleeping in really late. Carson, Lexi and I got up early, and It is so nice spending time alone with each of them. This morning I was cleaning and mopping (my wood floors are high maintenance). While I was working, Carson was playing with his train.....one of his favorite toys. He just randomly said to me "mom, I like my new house". It made me so happy to hear him say this all by his self. 75% 0r more, of the reason we moved was to get the kids into a better school situation. Sometimes you wonder if they even care about the things you do for them. This confirmed to me that they definitely do! Anyways, he made my day, and I love him and his sweet little comments so much =0)

slippery snakes and Thanksgiving

Carson's first day in gymnastics. His grup is called the slippery snakes, which I think is really cute. He did pretty well. I thought it would be good for him to get some of his energy out. It was a pretty long class for such a little guy, and I could tell that he was tired when it was over. The coach was great with him, and gave him a lot of extra attention on his first day. It was really cute to watch, and I give her a ton of credit for her patience. I am proud of my little buddy!

Here he is on the high balance beam. He got a little nervous at the end when she let go of him, so that he could jump.And here is my little monkey on the bars!
I am also a little late with our Thanksgiving pictures. Here are the kids getting ready to decorate their gingerbread houses. Kyle' parents are amazing, and spend a lot of time making, and cutting the gingerbread. We are so grateful that they do this, because the kids LOVE decorating them. I think most of the candy ended up in their tummies, before it made it to the houses!

My beautiful little Lexi on her first Thanksgiving. She was asleep during our feast, but ate shortly after. She was not too fond of mashed potatoes. But it seems like she doesn't care too much for real food at all. Maybe she is getting teeth in right now, because all she wants is baby food. I am sure that it isn't too fun trying to eat solid food without teeth anyway!

Two of my sister in laws and I also got to go out together that night. We had so much fun, they are wonderful ladies. Thanks again girls! Can't wait to do it again. I stole the picture of your blog Melissa.......hope you don't mind!We went to a Christmas parade when we got home. It was so long, and really fun. We all loved it.We sat on a cement wall, which was freezing cold. The kids all sat on our laps to keep their little bums warm!

It was so long, that Lex couldn't keep her eyes open for the whole thing.

Her and I did a little unintentional ice skating when we got back to our car. Kyle is always reminding me to watch where I am walking. He sometimes calls me Gracie. he.he. Anyway, he was getting ready to tell me to watch out, and there I went right into a pile of ice. I had Lexi, and I put my elbow out as much as I could to break the fall, so she wouldn't get hurt. It worked, I was sore for a few days, but thankfully she didn't get hurt! It is funny now, but a little embarrassing at the moment. I am use to things like that happening, so it doesn't bother me too much. I think Kyle is probably the one who feels the most embarrassed! Oh well, he loves me anyways! hehe. I keep things entertaining, he would be bored without me!!

The parade was a fun way to start celebrating Christmas. We are all excited, and enjoying all the fun things to do this month.

Beautiful Ballerina!

Kylie is now a little ballerina. She is not exactly what I would call graceful quite yet, but she is trying hard and really listens to her teacher. She has only been to two classes so far, so she is doing great! It is adorable to watch the girls practice. Their teacher is wonderful, and has so much patience with them. I am so proud of her hard efforts in class, and can't wait to see her first recital next month. We ordered her costume and she is very anxious to get it. It is beautiful!!!
Mel.......I know this brings back a lot of memories of the good ol' days of pink cadillac! he.he. We had so much fun being dance buddies. We one time had a performance at a festival in our hometown. Our dance teacher was away, and there were three of us girls doing the dance. Mel and I forgot our routine, so we started making it up as we went. The other girl had to stop and cause a scene, because she remembered the steps and looked at us like we were crazy ( I think we were a little)! We kept on doing our best and made it through. It was hilarious! Now my little princess is making her own fun memories. I hope she makes as good of buddies as I did!

Here she is at her second classThis is first position She is proudly wearing her cinderella tights!

And here she is at her first class

me and my kiddo's

and this is Kylie. We had gone to McDonald's for a happy meal. When we got home.....she looked like this! There was a little stamp as the toy, and she apparently thought it was makeup in the car (it was dark out). It was pretty funny!

Kylie and Carson dressed up for church in their coordinating pink outfits. Lexi was sporting purple that day.

Pearly Whites

Carson had his first dentist appt. today! He did super! I was very, very proud of him. It was a little scary to bring all the kids with me alone, but Kylie was a huge helper. She sat in the chair with Carson the entire time and was his moral support. He had his hand on her leg for the majority of the time. It was really cute. They both got to wear these cool glasses, and he picked out a cars toothbrush. He also picked a motorcycle for his prize (they had great toys), and he got some cookies on the way out. They are smart at that office, they give us sugar on our way out to ensure that we will be back again=0) he.he. The best part of all was that he had no sugar bugs! Way to go buddy......keep up the good work. He eats candy like crazy, so I was a little worried, I would have been incredibly embarrassed too, since I used to work in the dental field! I guess our daily brushes are working well.

Back in Business! (picture overload)

We finally made it through our illness, and have a lot of fun things to share. The weekend before we all got the nasty bug, Kyle's parents came to visit. We went to the pumpkin patch with them. The hay ride was a little scary. My bail of hay was loose, and it felt like I was going to fall backwards at any minute. Thankfully Lexi and I were saved from that potentially embarassing and painful moment!
The kids were allowed to pick any pumpkin that they wanted, but they had to be able to carry it. (those were the rules of the patch, not ours!) There were not any little ones, so we bought some on our way out.

Here is a tired daddy with his little princess
Carson gave Lexi a lot of love on the hayride

Here is grandma Belnap with the girls. We went with them to see a horse competition.

Carson loved hanging out with his grandpa and watching the tractor that smoothed out the dirt.

Here is Kylie reading to Lexi, while we all were sick. She was a great helper!

My grandma came to visit for a couple weeks. Thankfully we were all better, a few days into her visit. We took her to the cheesecake factory........yummy! We had a great time with her. She is so up to date with things. She knows how to use computers, cell phones, and she even ordered a stun gun while she was here. Look out all pontential intruders.....she said she knows exactly where she wants to aim that thing! he.he. She is funny and we love her! The kids are missing her. She played ring around the rosies with them, and London bridges. They think she is a pretty cool lady.

The kids also got to build their first bear.......or turkey( that is what Carson chose)

It even makes a gobble noise!

Halloween cards with McDonald's gift cards from nanaAlexis kept getting buckets placed on her head. She didn't seem to mind too much.

We made some spooky food. The kids enjoyed helping

Those eyeballs were pretty tasty!

Pumpking carving........we let Kyle do all the dirty work! Carson could not stand touching the slime.

but he loved using the carver

On Halloween we got extra dressed up in our colors, and went to the game( once again with our awesome bronco buddies). My mom and grandma watched the munchkins for us.....thanks again.

Aiden was buster bronco, and his outfit was too cute....especially from behind!

Carson, Kylie and Lexi complimented him, with their football and cheerleader costumes. Our neighborhood was very festive.

What a fun holiday. We all had a great day. Next year we will be better stocked with candy to pass out. I totally under-estimated! This was by far, the cutest bunch of broncos I have ever seen!!

sick of being sick!

So I think we got the nasty pig flu! Yuck! We have been feeling pretty awful this week. Lexi started having symptoms last Friday. Then Saturday night Kylie started feeling warm and looking really tired. Sunday morning Carson and Kylie were really sick. They had high fevers of 104 at some points! Lexi's fever did not last for very long, but she still has a cough. Kyle and I got it on Monday. There is not anything much worse than feeling horrible and trying to take care of kids who also feel horrible! I know my kids are not feeling well, when they are laying down during the day rather than playing.....very unusual behavior! We all now feel like we just have a cold. So I think we are almost over this nasty bug! We are all tired of being stuck in the house and are ready to feel back to normal. To top it all off, even the dog has had issues (she is blind, and has some back problems)! This has been a crazy week, with not much sleep!

Kyle brought home these adorable humidifiers for the kids. That really cheered them up! What a cool daddy, he did such a great job finding these!
They are so cute. Someone was really thinking when they made these things!