"Mnastics."

The Frasher's bought Kenzie this adorable leotard and shorts for her birthday and she was excited to try it out right away at gymnastics.  She looked even more adorable than usual in her new attire.  All of the coaches thought her little shorts were absolutely adorable.  She had a great day and had plenty of stamps to show for it!

 Looking for a hand on the balance beam.

 She loves jumping jumping on the trampoline...if she holds our hands.

 There's the tongue!  When she is concentrating really hard she sticks her tongue out!

Gymnastics is so fun!  Kenzie really likes it and it is a great way for her to socialize with other kids and the coaches.  She loves her leo so much that she wears it the entire day.  She lets us put warm clothes over it when we go places but she takes them off the minute we walk in the door so she can just wear her leo.  So cute!

Strasburg Thanksgiving/Kenzie's Birthday Party #2

On Friday morning when Ryan finished working we packed up and headed to his parent's for the rest of the holiday weekend.  We had missed Thanksgiving dinner but still had a fabulous time with everyone and Kenzie was spoiled with another birthday celebration.  Thanksgiving often feels like a pre-Christmas with 4 of the 6 grandkids having November birthdays!

We played a lot of cards which was very fun.  Playing cards/games has always been one of my favorite things to do.  I don't do it near enough anymore.  We never had a big Nerts game, weird.  No one wanted to play me this year I guess.  Ha ha.

 There was a plethora of chatting.

 Lots of wrestling, playing, and teasing.

Plenty of wrestling singlets and iPad playing.

 An abundance of great family time.

Let's not forget pogo sticking galore.

And even a little bit of napping.

There were oodles of dogs around. Vinnie is the best behaved one of them all.  With a face like his it's no wonder he eats better than I do on most days...

This little munchkin was the center of attention and loved it.  Jack and Jessie decorated a birthday cake for her and it was adorable.

Yum!

Jack and Jessie had a little Happy Birthday performance for Kenzie.

 It was really sweet and Kenzie loved it.  She loved it so much that we watch it a bajillion times a day on my phone.

These 2 pretty girls had lots of fun together.  They even got to wear some make up!

 Another great holiday weekend under the belt.  It sure didn't take everyone long to crash in the car!

 Beyond blessed with such a great family!

Thanksgiving/Kenzie's Birthday.

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving at our house this year.  This year was Strasburg Thanksgiving with Ryan's family but unfortunately Ryan had Thanksgiving off but had to go in Friday (for just 2 hours.)  My parents came Wednesday morning and spent Thanksgiving with us here which was lovely! We had a wonderful dinner (my mom did most of the cooking) and relaxing day.

Landon played around in his "Ninja" outfit that he made at school which was actually supposed to be a Native American costume for a celebration they had.  Apparently, he didn't quite take out of the activity what he was supposed to, but he thought he was a pretty sweet ninja.

Landon and Kadence had lots of fun with grandma and absolutely loved doing her hair.  I hope she doesn't put coal in my stocking after she sees I posted these pictures!

Thanksgiving is always a great time to reflect on the things we are most thankful for.  I would list them all out for you but instead will direct you to Thanksgiving 2011.  It is rather comical because I am pretty sure I would write the exact same things.  I will sum it up for you in case you don't want to look at the other post:  I am thankful today and every day for: Ryan, Landon, Kadence, Kenzie, My 2 Extended Families, Puppy Emma, Running, and Coffee.

Landon and my dad made a trip to the store and came home with these beautiful flowers for me.  They were absolutely gorgeous for over a week!  I had to laugh though because Landon tried to take all the credit for them-and of course dad was letting him :)

My baby girl turned 2 years old today!  She has grown up so much in the past 2 years and she is such a little love.  She has not stopped talking lately and is hilarious.  She learns several new words a day and I love how she is starting to put them together.  Her favorite things to do are whatever big brother and sister are doing!  She loves music and dancing and lip syncing.  She loves her daddy more than anyone and calls him daddy-o.  She has the biggest smile ever and knows when to use it.  She still requires a ton of attention but adds so much joy to our hearts!  Love her to pieces.

Kenzie was pretty excited when she woke up and saw all of her presents on the table!

This was the first time Kenzie has really been interested in opening gifts.  She took her sweet little time and opened each and every package all by herself.  Her big brother and sister could hardly contain themselves in excitement and had to be reminded several times to let her do it herself.  It was adorable.

I think she thought that I was going to let her have the entire plate! Who wouldn't be smiling and licking their lips?  I made chocolate cupcakes with grandma june's famous frosting.  They were delightful-even on Thanksgiving!

Holiday Parade of Lights.

With the weather in the upper 30's low 40's we took the kids to the holiday parade of lights in downtown Fargo/Moorhead.  It was just what we needed after being stuck at home all weekend and the kids had a blast looking at the lights and getting candy.  Ryan made it home from his locum job in Valley City just in time which was great.  Such a fun holiday tradition!

'Tis the Season.

'Tis the season!  With Thanksgiving just around the corner followed by Christmas just a short month later, there is always a ton of holiday fun!  I absolutely love this time of year.  There is usually an abundance of soft snow, hot coffee, holiday music, and shopping!  Unfortunately in this post this is not the season I am talking about.  I am talking about the season of colds, stomach flus, and whatever other nasty bugs are around.  Our kids have had colds on and off for a few weeks.  Landon didn't feel well Friday morning but I couldn't tell if he was just tired and wanting to stay home from school.  I sent him to school and by 9:30 the school nurse had called me to come and get him.  Apparently, it was not my best motherly instinct.  He had a fever and was lethargic and pale.  He laid around most of the morning and I had to take him in the car at noon to pick up Kadence from school.  I threw a bucket in the car-thankfully as he ended up throwing up before we left the garage.  He ran a high temp 104+ Friday night and in to Saturday and we just figured it was the good ole stomach bug.  Saturday he appeared to be getting worse and when his temp reached 104.7 around 5 o'clock we decided he should probably go in.  Unfortunately, I had to take him to the ER as the walk-ins at our facility were already closed.  The NP took one look at him and said I'm sure he has Strep throat.  She ran the quick strep test which came back positive.  She gave him an oral steroid to help with the swelling in his throat.  His tonsils were so big it was hard to tell where the air was getting through.  She would have given him a penicillin shot if he wasn't allergic so it would work faster, but he had his first oral dose while at the hospital.  She hoped he would start feeling better the next day.

I snapped this shot on my phone while I was waiting in the ER.  It is so sad but shows just how crappy he felt.  He still felt pretty bad on Sunday and I even kept him home from school on Monday.  The poor thing hardly ate in 4 days and did a lot of laying on the couch.  This was our first bout of strep throat and I hope we never have to deal with it again (it was nasty).  I'm guessing that is not the case but I am extremely grateful for the antibiotics we have because he would have ended up in the hospital without them!

On a positive note, Kadence and I were able to escape the house of sickness on Saturday for some good girl time.  We went to the mall and I had a pedicure and she had her nails painted.  We then had lunch and did some shopping.  It was some great one on one time with my little lady!

Can't forget about the other little lady!  She wanted a picture with Mama just like big sister!

Here is to getting and staying healthy!

Big Girl Bed.

On Monday night Kenzie was looking for her Nuk and crawled out of her crib.  I was sitting in the living room watching Dancing With the Stars when I heard a loud THUD followed by blood curdling screaming and crying.  When I opened the girls' bedroom door I found one little munchkin on the floor crying and one big munchkin in bed horrifically screaming.  I immediately picked Kenzie up and then jumped in bed with Kadence to comfort her.  I think Kadence was more scared than Kenzie about the whole ordeal.  I have never heard her cry like that before.  So, after some extra snuggles we gave Kenzie her Nuk and put the girls back to bed.  I said a little prayer hoping that would be the only THUD we heard that night.  And it was.

Ryan and I had literally talked about switching Kenzie into a bed on Sunday and now we had no choice.  We made a quick trip to Target to get some sheets and a quilt and rearranged some furniture.  We were set!  Kenzie was not.  We tried to get her excited about her bed or to just play on it and she wanted no part of it.  I thought she would be happy to be more like her big sister!  We knew it was going to be a painful night and it was.  As it turns out, it wasn't the bed she didn't like but the fact that she couldn't have a Nuk in the big girl bed.  I pained through almost an hour and a half of screaming (Ryan would have given in so he was downstairs running on the treadmill) and she finally gave in.  When I went downstairs to run and tagged Ryan in, she stopped screaming after less than 5 minutes.  I was glad because she has him triple wrapped around her finger and I was afraid I would come upstairs after my run with him telling me he gave her the Nuk and she was sleeping.  She never got out of her bed one time the entire night-even through all the screaming!  Although, she woke up at 5 am and never went back to sleep.  That could be painful for awhile but I'm hoping she'll learn to go back to sleep eventually.  I was not surprised because she woke up about that time frequently and we would just give her her Nuk and she'd sleep until the other kids woke up.  I laugh because Kenzie still had her Nuk this long for our convenience and not for her.  We were not quite ready to give up sleep again.  I still am not ready but am holding myself accountable because I really don't want a 2 year old with a Nuk-which is only one short week away.

Kenzie only whined a few minutes at nap and then slept 2 hours!  So, I'm hoping we experienced the worst of it the first night!  Love that strong-willed little stinker!

On a side note, we don't have a crib in our home.  Weird.  

Gymnastics.

I started taking Kenzie to a gymnastics class Monday mornings while Landon and Kadence are at school.  I had been taking Kenzie with me to run errands at that time because let's face it, it's far less painful with one child versus all three.  I decided that although Kenzie likes those times with just me and her that we should do something a little more fun for her.  It is a 50 minute class at the American Gold Gymnastics here in town.  The class is somewhat structured with some instruction by 3 coaches but allows for some free play and "go at your own pace" technique teaching.  Kenzie screamed the first 10 minutes of the first class until she realized I wasn't going to leave her there.  We had our third class today and Kenzie is loving it.  She's still a little reluctant of doing things with anyone other than me, but I think she is warming up well.  Hopefully by the end of the session she will have made some good social improvements.

I love being able to take her to run off some energy when it is cold outside.  I snapped these shots with my phone and found out that she apparently sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating really hard.  Hilarious.  I did gymnastics with Landon and Kadence when we lived in Sioux Falls and I can honestly say that the program here is much better and is actually teaching them some base skills.  I chuckle because generally I struggle to find things I like better here than Sioux Falls!  Love watching this little lady grow.