Snow Fun.

 We have had a good amount of snow this year already so and the kids love to play outside in it.  I took Kenzie out in the morning before the frigid air arrived later in the afternoon.  We were outside for almost 2 hours making snow angels, riding in the sled and just enjoying the fresh air and time together outside.  I was surprised she lasted outside as long as she did but she was having an absolute blast!

Then we came inside and warmed up with some hot cocoa.  Yet another reason why I just love this time of the year!

'Tis the Season.

 It is officially the holiday season and time to decorate the house!  With Thanksgiving so late this year I feel like we are a little behind!  I generally like to get our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving but Ryan was away so that didn't work this year.  We stopped by the local boy scout troop selling trees at a church near our home and picked out a gorgeous douglas fir.  It turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought but it sure was gorgeous (even though it took up half of our living room.)  The kids always like to decorate the tree with us.  I am not all about having a perfectly decorated tree so I let them decorate it themselves.  Landon probably enjoys the decorating the most but all 3 helped this year.

 Who doesn't love a picture of the kids in front of the tree?

This is a fun picture.  Kadence with her reindeer antlers and fake smile and Emma falling asleep.  Love it.

I am cherishing every year that the kids actually still like to decorate with me.  It will only be a matter of time until they are "too cool" for such a thing.  It was fun to have nice evening with the family before the hustle and bustle really sinks in.

Thanksgiving 2013.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  Thanksgiving is a fun time to spend with family and reflect on things in your life that you are thankful for.  From year to year my thankful list stays about the same and they are always things that I am thankful for every day: my family, friends, Emma, coffee, health, working out.  

 It was our Thanksgiving with my family and they were all nice enough to come to our home to spend with us.  It is nice not having to travel on a holiday since we do travel so much.  Ryan had Thanksgiving off but had to work Friday and then went to Fosston, MN for a weekend of locum work.  It was very nice for us to have people here so we weren't alone all weekend.

I go through phases where I don't take a single picture and that was unfortunately this weekend.  I did snap this cute one of Grandpa, Sofie and Landon playing their tablets.  We had a great Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.  The kids and guys all went to the movie Frozen to get out of the house which was nice.  Friday, some of us did some black Friday shopping and unfortunately I didn't find any great deals.  I guess that's what happens when you go at 10am as opposed to 5pm Thursday.  Saturday we took the kids to a huge indoor play structure and went out for a nice supper.  The Skowlund's left Saturday night and the kids and I just had a relaxing Sunday with Grandpa and Grandma until Ryan got home later that night.  

Another great Thanksgiving in the books, and thankfully no one was sick!!

Holiday Parade 2013.

We all bundled up and headed downtown for the annual Holiday Lights Parade.  It was a frigid 10 degrees out but we thought we'd at least go for a little while.  I absolutely love parades and have so many childhood memories of parades when I was younger.  Ryan comes along because he's a good husband and even pretends to enjoy them a little bit.  It is fun to watch the kids and how excited they are.  We happened to sit right next to a classmate of Kadence's so the two of them had fun playing around before the parade started.  The parade was fun to watch and Kenzie was taking everything in and waving at everyone.  I have never seen so much candy being thrown at a parade in my life.  It was the weirdest thing, there was candy all over the street in front of us that the kids couldn't even keep up with and people were throwing more.  We actually stayed for the entire parade and then headed home for some hot chocolate.  It was a fun night but it was nice to be home in the warmth!  The best part was that Ryan took all the candy to work the next day!  

3 is Awesome!

Our little 3 year old has been having a blast being three.  It's too bad she has no idea how old she is when you ask her.  It's hilarious.  She usually replies with "6, 14, 2" and then, "how old me mama?"

Kenzie has not been feeling 100% so she has been enjoying some snuggle time on the couch with her new Minnie Mouse blanket and her favorite puppy Emma.

Aunty Arin sent Kenzie these adorable Minnie headphones for part of her birthday present and she has been loving them!

Good thing she has been so adorable because she has been hogging my iPhone!  

Kenzie is 3.

 Happy 3rd Birthday to our BIG little girl!  I can not believe our "baby" is THREE years old.  She has blossomed so much in the past couple months and has the most fun personality.  She definitely makes us smile, laugh and sometimes yell all in the same minute.  She is loved beyond words.  I made some sprinkle cake batter pancakes for her birthday breakfast (Grandpa Ken had spoiled her with daily donuts while we were in Mexico so I changed it up this year.)

 It's my party and she'll cry if she wants to.  I'm not even sure what she was so sad about here but it did make for an adorable picture.  Miss Kenzie wanted any and every think Minnie Mouse for her birthday and I'm pretty sure she got it!

For a little girl who generally likes  a lot of attention, she sure didn't want to be the center of attention.  She was kind of quiet and shy about opening her gifts.  It was sweet.

 Kenzie was ecstatic to get her balloons at the door from Grandpa Ken and Grandma Debbie.

We went to Space Aliens for Kenzie's birthday dinner.  Big sister and her were buddies and had a blast playing together.  We had a nice supper and then played some games.

 I made Kenzie some Mickey Mouse cupcakes and she loved them!  We had a great family evening with are special little lady!

Appreciation.

I was so glad to be back to these 3 little munchkins.  It was awesome to snuggle them up and play with them.  It was nice to be missed but I was very glad the kids had an awesome time with Grandpa Ken and Grandma Debbie.  It didn't take us long to get back into the swing of things.  It was hard for me to send the kids off to school in the morning but I had a nice day at home with Kenzie followed by a great evening with the other 2 after school.

Sure missed the silliness of this little Minnie loving thing.  I had a newfound appreciation for the loud, chaotic house we had left for 5 days!!