Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is always a great time of the year to reflect on the things that you are most thankful for in your life.  It is crazy to think that last Thanksgiving we had just had our healthy, beautiful baby Kenzie.  With all of the changes our family has been through this past year (5 years really) it is not very hard to find things to be thankful for.

~I am most thankful for Ryan.  He is truly the other half of me and I can not even imagine my life without him.  Not only is he a great husband, he is a great dad.  We all love him so much and I thank God for him every day.  

~Our 3 beautiful children.  Landon, Kadence, and Kenzie are the light in our lives.  They are all different in many ways but blend together wonderfully to make such a great family. Love how much they love each other and us.  

~NO MORE ANESTHESIA SCHOOL.  We are thankful for Ryan's great position at Essentia.  He absolutely loves his job and the people he works with.  

~Finally settling into our own home.

~Two great extended families.  I think it is very unique to both have such great families.  Our families have always offered us so much love and support throughout our journey thus far.  I feel extremely blessed to have married into a family that I love just as much as my own.  How great for our children to grow up with so many people that love them so much.  

~Puppy Emma.  Silly I know, but sometimes her sweet snuggles are just what you need at the end of the day.  Emma loves unconditionally and expects little in return.  (Aside from not being able to jump on our new bed, so needing to be lifted up several times a night.)

~Pictures.  I love looking at old pictures and taking new pictures.  

~Running.  It is truly my sanity some days.

~Coffee. A necessity with a baby who still at 1 year old does not like to sleep all night....and it just tastes good.

My parents and my sister and her family came to visit us and celebrate Thanksgiving.  We were so excited and grateful to have them in Fargo with us.  Ryan didn't work Thanksgiving day but had to work Friday so having everyone here made things much easier for us.  It is always a little crazy when you put a 5 year old, 4 year old, two 3 year olds, and a 1 year old under the same roof but it is fun!  These guys were all really good and had so much fun together.

Unfortunately, the stomach flu went through the house infecting Jill, Curt, my mom, and dad.  There was some serious quarantine time to the downstairs.  Thankfully it was a short-lived bug, but I felt so terrible to have everyone here sick.  I guess we won't be forgetting this Thanksgiving!

Kenzie just adores AJ and had fun playing with him.  For a rough and tumble little 3 year old boy, he sure is good with her.

Who's that handsome guy on the roof?  My husband being a trooper and appeasing his wife and kids by putting lights on the house.  They look so good!  I just want to remind him for next year: When it is going to be 57 degrees, put the lights up.  Don't wait for the next day when it is 20 degrees and windy.

 Landon Gary.

 Annabelle.

 Kadence Jean.

 AJ.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hopefully next year I will get to add "no one getting the stomach flu" to my thankful list!  

Happy 1st Birthday Kenzie Marie!!

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet, feisty little baby girl Kenzie Marie!  I really can not believe we have been blessed with this little sweetie pea for a whole year already.  We will be celebrating a late birthday with her since Daddy has to work a long, late shift today.  He has been working a lot of late days the past few weeks due to the hospital being very busy.  It makes for some long days, but I am not complaining as he is getting some great overtime pay right before the Holidays!  Good thing Kenzie won't know the difference anyhow.  The kids and I are having our own little celebration with her today and making her feel very special! 

Love this little video of the kids singing to their baby sister!

Kenzie is still loving her singing card from Grandma Sue and Papa Gary, when big sister isn't hoarding it!

Love this cute little face!

Feeling pretty today!

Hard to believe how much they grow in a year!  I do think we are enjoying her a little bit more this November.  Thank you God for blessing us with this beautiful, healthy baby girl.  

First Snow.

We were graced with the first snow of the year yesterday.  It was just a dusting and didn't last very long.  As soon as the kids saw that it was snowing they wanted to go out and  catch snowflakes on their tongues.  This turned into eating the snow off the ground; yummy.  I remember how exciting the first snow was when I was a kid!  It's still kind of exciting; although now it means shoveling, cold, and more shoveling.

This picture doesn't show it, but it is snowing very lightly.  Too funny.

It was sort of funny because the kids were outside for about 30 minutes and then ready to come back inside.  It had stopped snowing, the sun had come out, and the few snowflakes on the ground were nowhere to be seen.  The kids noses were red and as soon as I told them that, they asked for hot cocoa!  So they had some hot cocoa and talked excitedly about the snow.  Kenzie was napping during the first snow and I was doing things around my warm house while keeping an eye outside!  Love these cute little munchkins!

Farmers.

My Grandma Betty had given these cute little bib overalls to Landon and Kadence last year.  They found them in their closets and decided they wanted to wear them.  They call them their "farmer suits" and think they are pretty sweet (despite what Aunty thinks of them).  I happen to think they look pretty stinking cute with their farmer suits!  They had to wear them for our quick trip to the farm.  I thought this was some pretty clever thinking actually.

Grandma Sue made Landon a cute cake for his birthday and we celebrated again!  I was a bad mom this year and didn't make a cake, so I was glad Sue had made one for him.

Make a wish!

Waiting patiently for her piece of Landon's cake.

Looks like Kenzie was trying to blow out the birthday candles, too!  Practicing up for her big birthday next week!

I love this picture of Ryan playing with Kenzie.  She sure loves her daddy!

Nothing better than some snuggle time with Grandma and Papa.  They say couples who have been married for many years start to look and act alike.  Notice how Grandma and Papa both have their left hands on their heads!  Pretty funny!

 We got to spend some quality time with GG.  The kids sure love GG!  Her and Landon put together legos for a long time.  It was really sweet!

 The neighbor girl Madelyn came and played with the kids.  She's a cute blonde haired blue eyed little girl just 2 days older than Kadence.  She sure loved to play with Kenzie.  Love this picture!

Kadence absolutely loved playing with her auntie's cabbage patch dolls.  Her and Grandma had a lot of fun.

Lets not forget all the trips outside with Papa!  The kids rode in the tractor, picked rocks, fed cows, drove the pick up, shot muskrats, and just hung with Papa.  They love it!

We hadn't been to the farm since Memorial day, so it was a great visit!  Ryan was able to help his dad quite a bit which was nice.  The kids just love going so much!  Even Kenzie did pretty well!  Thanks for another great weekend Gary and Sue! We love you guys so much!

A Little Mischievous?

This is Kenzie...my busy busy little baby.  I honestly thought the third time around would be a piece of cake.  I thought wrong.

My littlest munchkin demands not only a ton of entertainment and attention, but also constant supervision.  The little stink bug is so persistent and gets into things knowing she isn't suppose to.  Today she found one of the kids markers and managed to get the cover off and was eating it when I found her.  I can hardly get her to sit still and smile for a picture when I want her to, but for some reason she sat and grinned at me without a problem.  Did she know her entire mouth was green?  How could she have?  At least she picked the color that matched her shirt...

My little love bug.  I could not love her more.

Landon Turns 5.

Landon started his birthday celebration on Friday at school.  He got to wear a birthday crown and was very excited he got to pick a toy from the treasure chest.  He picked an airplane, "just like Carter did on his Birthday."  He was pretty excited.

The celebration started bright and early on Saturday morning.  Earlier in the week Landon had asked if I would hide his present for him so he could find it.  So, he woke up and searched for his present and was very excited to open it.  I think he really likes his leap pad.  He tells people, "yeah, so I don't play Mom's ipad."  Ha!  That's not why we bought it! It is just much more age appropriate!

Landon picked out a cookie cake for his birthday this year!  Very yummy!  We forgot the candles; he blew out pretend ones and was just as thrilled. 

We all did lots of swimming and had a blast!  The pool area was pretty chilly but the kids didn't seem to mind too much.  Even Kenzie did a little swimming! Kadence is a fish and never wanted to get out of the water.  She's pretty brave, too.  She just loves the "pool-yo."

So we had a great birthday celebration and the kids even slept decent at the hotel.  Once the kids had fallen asleep Ryan and I rented a movie off the tv and relaxed.  Then swam some more in the morning before heading home.  

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little boy in the world!  Love him SO much.  

Halloween 2011

 We had a very nice Halloween this year.  On Sunday evening we went to the Bison Sports Arena and trick-or-treated with the Bison.  They had a ton of fun little games set up for the kids to play.  Landon had an absolute riot playing the games and getting candy afterwards.  Kadence played about half the games.  She had fun, but was sporting some serious 'tude; it must have been the costume.

 Love this picture of Kadence being silly.  The kids had "black/orange" day at school and did a lot of fun Halloween activities.  We trick-or-treated around our neighborhood at about 6pm.  It was a good way for us to meet a few of our neighbors and the kids loved it.  I was amazed by the amount of small children that live right around us.  It will be fun in the spring when it warms up and everyone gets back outside.  After trick-or-treating we came back home and watched the "Shrek" Halloween special on tv and Landon and Kadence handed out candy.  I think they had just as much fun doing that.

I can't believe it is November already! We are counting down sleeps to the big 5th birthday!  Just 4 sleeps until my boy turns 5 and then shortly after that we will be celebrating Kenzie's FIRST birthday! Wow.  Happy November!  I am anticipating a first snowfall soon...