A Weekend Away...

We headed south to Sioux Falls to meet Arin and spend the weekend there.  It was sure nice to get away from our house for a little while after all the illness that has plagued our family.  We hadn't seen Aunty since Christmas so the kids were more than ecstatic to meet her for the weekend.  We stayed at a nice hotel with a small water park that the kids loved.  It was so fun to see them swimming more independently and going underwater a ton more!

This photo cracks me up!! The kids just love swimming with Daddy!  I am proud to say that I swam with the kids this weekend, too!  It was very fun!

I don't know what I like more about this picture, Ryan being silly or Landon floating there waiting for him!

Landon coming down the slide by himself!  He loved it!  I was so proud of him! Kadence wasn't tall enough yet for the slide...

 Kenzie had a good time swimming also.  She was skeptical at first but warmed up to the idea pretty fast.  Love this challenging little monster.

The O'Connor's came and visited us at the hotel for some swimming and pizza.  The kids had a blast together and it was great to catch up with Ryan and Katie.  Now that's a lot of little people!  I wish we could spend more time together:(  Notice Kenzie screaming...typical.

This picture melts my heart.  There are no words...

Landon wrestling with Hayley and losing...they had so much fun playing!

Such a fun weekend away.  I sure do miss Sioux Falls!  We had breakfast at The Pancake House (my favorite breakfast restaurant EVER) Arin and I had pedicures, ate some Qdoba, watched a couple movies, and just hung out.  It was like old times in Sioux Falls when we were spoiled with having Aunty around so much.  I just wish she wasn't so far away and didn't hate Fargo so much...

15 Months.

Hard to believe this munchkin is 15 months old already and officially a toddler.  She has grown up so much in the past months and continues to change every day.  She just loves walking and running around the house following big brother and sister.  I'd like to say she has gotten easier, but I never was one to care for lying.  She is busy busy busy.  Kenzie knows exactly what she wants and usually is not very happy until she gets it.

 A few things to remember about our sweetie:

~She's a Daddy's girl. (This is painful for me but makes Ryan so happy!)

~She quickly went from walking to now running.

~Kenzie is a climber and loves getting onto our couches all by herself.

~She either loves her baths and doesn't want to get out or screams the entire time.  No rhyme or reason.

~She loves to "give love" and will give lots of kisses.

~She wants to play with everything big brother and big sister have and usually gets her way.

~She screams and throws tantrums (already, sheesh.)

~She is infatuated with toothbrushes.

~Although she is very vocal, she only says, "mom, dad, hi, and frog."

~She always gets very excited to see Emma and loves giving her kisses.

~She loves to read books and "Kittens" is her favorite book.

~She has a newfound love for my magazines.

~She goes and gets her nuk and blankeys out of her crib every morning after breakfast.

~She wants to snack ALL THE TIME.

~She has a cell phone radar and knows the second they are in her reach.  She loves to slide the little bar over on our iPhones to unlock the screen.  It amazes me.

~She really has absolutely no interest in anything on t.v.

~She loves to walk independently in the store and does not want any help or direction in where she's going.

~She just loves music and dancing.

~She loves putting covers on and taking them off of everything.  Hours of entertainment.

~She has such a big, bright smile and scrunches her nose just like Kadence did when she was little.

~Her hair is growing (into the baby mullet much to my dismay) and is thin and blonde.

~Her eyes are getting darker; green, brown, hazel.

~She is a challenging toddler but is also so sweet.

What a little love bug.   She is going in for her 15 month check up in March so I could do her and Kadence's appointment together.  Stats to follow.

Swimming.

Landon and Kadence just finished up their 2nd session of swimming lessons.  They were in Level 1 this time and made some major improvements.  I was so excited for them and proud of them.  Their teachers said they have to do level 1 again but should be able to move on after that no problem.  They really just need to get more comfortable with their faces in the water.  I bought them goggles before their last lesson and wish I would have done that at the beginning.  The kids loved them and their teachers said it made a huge difference.  It cracks me up because they wear them around the house all the time.  It's adorable.

They have even been waring their goggles in the tub and practicing going under water.  Landon can stay under for the count of 30 and Kadence the count of 6!

Let's not forget this little munchkin.  She happens to be a great spectator at swimming and also thought it was pretty cool to wear the goggles around at home.  Snapped this one on my phone so it's sort of blurry but adorable nonetheless.

On to the next lessons which start in April!  I am going to have some little fish on my hands!

Love.

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids and I had a pretty fun Valentine's day while daddy was at work.  I don't feed into this somewhat made up holiday too much, but I do like to do some festive things with the kids.  I guess I am just lucky and don't feel like I need this one day for Ryan to tell me how much he loves me (a.k.a. buy flowers, chocolates, and jewelry) because he shows me he loves me most days.  Love him.

We made some homemade valentines for Ryan and even Kenzie helped (ok, so she frustrated the kids by messing everything up and trying to eat all their things).

The kids were pretty proud of their valentines and it melted my heart a little when I saw Landon's.  You can actually read it!

We made some Valentine crowns for everyone to wear.  Landon and Kadence wore the crowns most of the day!  Kenzie thought she was pretty special!

It is so hard getting these three to look at the camera and smile!

Then we made some yummy cupcakes!  Thanks Grandma Sue for all the fun festive sprinkles!

I don't know what we are going to do with all these yummy cupcakes!!

I think I'm pretty lucky to have these 3 little valentines in addition to my guy.  :)

Bugs.

I hate to say we have had some sick kiddos the past week.  Kenzie has had a nasty cold, that she has now shared with everyone and Kadence had a little stomach bug Sunday and Monday.  I was really bummed as Sunday was going to be a "girls day" for Kadence and I.  She ended up getting sick so that didn't happen.  Poor girl was spoiled with extra love and attention and thankfully the bug was short lived.  I am not convinced it was the flu as she never ran a temp, only threw up twice, and no one else has been plagued (yet).  I really think it may have been something she ate Saturday night, but at any rate it is never fun to have sick kids and feel so helpless.

I think we are on the mend with Kenzie finally feeling better (although her nose is still runny), Kadence back to her normal feisty self, and Landon on the downside of his cold.  Hopefully, this is it for awhile.  Sick kiddos is not fun for anyone!

I snapped this short video the other day on my phone.  Landon was being such a good boy putting his legos together by himself and just singing away.  It is sort of hard to hear, so make sure the volume is up.  It was the best I could get without him knowing.  Kenzie was performing, too...haha!
Here's a link to the song, "Love You Like a Love Song." If you're curious...

http://music.yahoo.com/videos/Selena-Gomez/Love-You-Like-A-Love-Song--221565127

Monster Jam!

The boys had a little guys day and went to Monster Jam at the Fargodome.  Landon was ecstatic as you can imagine and I think it's safe to say Ryan was just excited.

 

 Big trucks, lots of snacks, and dad all to himself....life does not get any better than that!

I just want to mention how great of a husband I have.  Ryan sent me all these photos from his phone without complaining because he knew I would want them.  What a guy!  Glad they had this special time together!

Growing Up.

Landon was invited to his first birthday party from a classmate at school.  Landon had only been to friends/family of his that were also friends/family of ours.  This seemed like a pretty big deal to me and I'm not going to lie, I thought about not letting him go.  Sending my baby boy to a birthday party with strangers, really?  The birthday party happened to be for one of Landon's special friends, Charlie Ann.  They play well together and he talks about her a lot at home.  He was so excited when he received his invite 2 weeks ago that he kept it on his dresser and asked when the party was every day.  The day was finally here, he picked out a present for Charlie Ann and was ready to go!  Ryan brought him to Games Galore where the party was and felt comfortable leaving him there.  So Landon partied hard for 2 1/2 hours and had a blast!  When Ryan picked Landon up, he told him, "I sat by Charlie Ann 2 times."

Landon even shared his party favors with his sisters.  What a good boy!