4 years.....

4 years old 3 years old 2 years old 1 year old

My sweet Kambryn Avery.....I can't believe that you are 4 years old today! You have had a great year and have been busy learning new things and gaining wonderful memories. Over the past year:

• You learned to swim last summer, you were fearless and brave each and everytime you wet into the pool.


• You started preschool 3 days a week and have learned to spell and write your name, cut pictures with more accuracy, play games like duck-duck-goose and be a wonderful friend.


• You got a big girl bike at Christmas and it only took you a matter of hours to learn to ride it like a pro.


• You have really started to shine as a big sister, you love teaching your brother things like how to color with sidewalk chalk, look both ways before crossing the street and how he should use please and thank you


• You question everything, I know that mommy gets a little annoyed with this at times but I do love your curiosity.


• You started gymnastics and we have realized you have a natural ability that we are hoping you continue to develop and enjoy.


• You are a very confident girl, you show us everyday that you are strong willed and have an opinion about everything.

We could just go on and on about all of the wonderful things you do and how we enjoy having you in our lives. We love you very much Kambryn, Happy 4th Birthday!

Obsession....

I always find it funny when one of my kids gets attached to a new toy, object or item and begins taking it everywhere with us. Kambryn doesn't do this often and when she does it only last a few hours or a few days. Kolten on the other hands is overly loyal to his obsessions. He of course first and formost has his "bebe" and it is like a second skin for him, we can't leave the house without it and we definetly can't sleep without it. Our new obsession is Woody, Bullseye and Buzz Lightyear. Kolten got Buzz last Christmas but Woody and Bullseye were given to him by my sister. Woody and Bullseye are the original dolls from the release of Toy Story back in 1995. I can confidently say that neither of these toys was ever loved, played with or taken along nearly as much by my sister as Kolten does with them today. He will play for hours with these three and they are usually in the car with us daily (although I try to leave them in the car when we are out for fear of loosing them). Kolten won't let you forget Woody's hat, it it falls of he will hold his hands up and shrug while saying "Oody hat?", it really is sweet. So of course this leads me to the picture above and the nightly ritual that we have now been doing for about 2 months. Kolten has a Twilight Turtle that shines stars on his ceiling and a light baby (glow worm) that plays music. Each night at I lay him down he starts with list of requests:

• "Tars", I turn on the Twilight Turtle and stars


• "Ight baby", I press the glow worm to turn it on.


• "Buzz Igh ear", I place Buzz in the corner by his pillow pet


• "Ooz Eye", I place Bullseye beside his pillow pet


• "Oody", I place Woody right beside Kolten in the bed.

He usually then rolls over with his "Bebe" and loves on all of his Toy Story characters. I ultimatly sneak back into his room a few hours after he goes to sleep and remove everyone so that he actually has room to sleep, as you can see above, the bed is getting a little crowded.

Cabin Fever

We have been cooped up in our house for a solid week now. The first few days were because of the crazy weather and then both of the kids got the sick bug (stomach bug) and it has just lingered for days. So what do you do with two kids under four when you are trying to keep them still and resting......watch lots of movies, color, read books, do puzzles and sleep! We have done at least 20 loads of laundry in the past 3-4 days and it seems to be the same items over and over again (sheets, blankets, clothes, towels). Here is a list of the movies we have watched

• The Little Mermaid
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Aristacats
• Charlotte's Web
• Snow white and the seven dwarfs
• Sleeping Beauty
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
• Frosty the Snowman
• The Little Drummer Boy
• The Sword and the Stone
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Despicable Me
• Shrek
• Madagascar 1 & 2
• Alpha & Omega
• Toy Story 1, 2 & 3
• Cars
• The Incredibles

This doesn't include various TV shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Olivia, Chuggington, Handy Manny and Backyardigans. I am exhausted from trying to keep these two kids hydrated, happy and clean, I am actually ready to go back to work! As a mom things like puking and pooping don't really effect me, I just go into mom model and I am able to stay very calm and deal with whatever is happening. Kyle on the other hand struggles a little with the poop and puke but he did a great job holding Kambryn's hair back for her as she got sick. He has also been a trooper with the laundry, dishes and disinfecting and that has really helped. Kambryn did end up at Children's because her intestinal cramping was so bad they thought it might be something else like a blocked intestine or her appendix. I am happy to report after three visits with various doctors and two scans we have ruled that out and she is fine. Hopefully everyone in our house is on the mend as of today and we can get back to our normal routine just in time for another round of winter weather, ugh.

Happy Birthday Aunt Kiki!!!

I had this video ready to be posted on my sister's birthday (the 27th) and I am just now posting it, sorry for the delay.....hope you like the kids attempt to sing Happy Birthday.

Christmas 2010.....

Well, I know that it is mid January and I am just now posting a blog about Christmas but it just seems to have been crazy for us this year. Kambryn had her first Christmas Pageant at preschool and did great. I was a little sceptical if she would stand up in from of everyone and sing but of course out little ham was a rock start and belted out all of the rehearsed songs in all of their glory.

Christmas Eve we spent with my family and of course everyone was in heaven with all of the new toys. Kolten opened a few big trucks and a tool box and spent the rest of the evening in the middle of the chaos "repairing" his trucks with his tools and was completely oblivious to everything else around him. Kambryn got about 6 dress up dresses and she and Allie both proceeded to try each one on and model for everyone, they are really in their element when they are playing dress up.

Christmas morning was an early morning for us, Kambryn had gotten up to go the the bathroom at 5:30 and was walking to our room when she saw everything that Santa had left. She came running into our room and was so excited, she woke up Daddy and said "Santa came and he left us PILLOW PETS!!!, I think I saw a train too!" We then tried to get her to lay down and watch a few TV shows (because she wasn't going back to sleep) since we didn't want to wake Kolten up and we weren't going to let her start without him. So finally around 6:30 we heard Kolten start moving around and we were able to get started. This year was especially fun because both of the kids understood what was going on and loved seeing all of the new toys.

Christmas Day was spent with Kyle's parents and of course the fun continued because both of the kids got little four wheelers. The both quickly jumped on them and started navigating around as fast as they could. Lots more new toys like an aquadoodle, iXL video game, trucks, trains, and tons more that I won't even mention. I do have to say that I totally forgot to bring my camera and no one took pictures this year. That seems to be the running theme for us, I do have some pictures but over that 24-48 hour period my picture taking was on a steady decline.

Of course what happens when you get all of these new toys and need places to put them.....mommy gets to reorganized and go shopping at Ikea!!! Yay for me!!! Kyle was less than pleased to have to put together more new items, especially large furniture but he handled it like a trooper and we only had one major fight while we were putting everything together and moving furniture around the house. I am so pleased with how everything is organized now and the kids are actually able to keep everything picked up with minimal help. Here are a few pictures from our holidays.

a parrot in the house....

The other night I was in Kolten's room with him changing his diaper when I realized I needed something from the other room, I quickly called for Kyle and then waited for him to come into the room. As I was waiting our parrot, aka Kolten began yelling "Kyle", it was so funny and he used such a firm tone with it I almost wet my pants. A few days later Kyle and Kambryn were both gone so I grabed the camera and tried to capture some of the funny things that Kolten says on film.

A Fancy Dinner

Kambryn came to me around 4:30 Thursday afternoon and said "I have a great idea", now of course the is a phrase she uses often and I never know what might follow but on this occassion it was really sweet. She told me that she wanted to have a "Fancy Dinner" which to her means that we eat in the formal dining room. So I thought for a moment and realized that there was no good reason not to eat in the formal dining room and I even took it a little further and got out my crystal and china for us to use. So I finished preparing dinner and I allowed Kambryn to set the table with the crystal glasses and her great-grandma Nanny Betty's china and we were just about set. She of course needed to bring her baby to eat with us so we moved the baby highchair in from the playroom and had a wondreful time. I put on Christmas music and turned on all the Christmas lights in the house and the kids both loved it. I just love that my little girl thinks outside of the box and loves to change things up. She did approach me the next night and say that she wanted another fancy dinner but I told her we might need to wait a little before we do it again, maybe we can make it a weekly tradition.