Katelyn's preschool party

Well, since we have no pictures to document any of the happenings in December, I'll get right to the fun stuff. While she was getting ready, she was reminiscing about all the things she remembered when she went to Kelsey's party. She was not afraid of sitting on Santa's lap and welcomed the idea. Something I will never understand is that she works up for the big moment since Thanksgiving, talking and planning what she will ask the big guy for when it comes down to it. However, when that moment actually comes, she asks for something completely random and nothing she had ever mentioned in the previous month leading up to the big day.

All the kids gathered around, while Miss Kris calls Santa to find out where he is, followed by the singing of Jingle Bells.

Sitting on Santa's lap. And what did she ask for? Pink shoes! Again, nothing she'd ever mentioned before.

Thumbs up, mom!

And it wouldn't be complete without having Addison sit/cry on Santa's lap. She could tell I was going to hand her over, so as I was getting closer the grip she had on my arm tightened and I think she may have been crying even before I passed her off. I could hardly snap the picture because I was laughing hysterically! Is it so bad if we get a kick out of our children, even if it is at their own expense?!

Everyone singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and saying good-bye to Santa.

Annual Pumpkin Patch

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch one day after Kelsey was done with school. We decided not to wait for Dave because by the time he gets home, it's dark. So we got all dressed up and then the weather turned cold, windy and nasty. So we tried to get some pictures and went home. Not the best smiles but at least she wasn't crying (in the pictures).

When I'm a mom

Over the past couple of weeks, Katelyn has been on this kick of "When I'm a Mom." What's triggered this, I'm really not sure other than she must think that I'm being spiteful in not letting her do what she wants.

"When I'm a mom I'm going to name my kids Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Princess and the Frog."

"When I'm a mom and have a baby she's going to wear the same dress for 3 Sundays in a row."

Any my personal favorite

"When I'm a mom I'm going to give my kids only crumbs and I will get all the big pieces." No idea really where this is coming from since I share whatever it is I have and it's usually gone before I even get a second bite!!

Gotta love her!

Addison's 1 year pictures

Back in September I took the girls to get their pictures taken. I needed to get Addison's first year and updates of the other girls. I had it all planned out, down to the naps and even coordinating outfits. Well, the pictures turned out to be a complete bust. The photographer made Addison cry in the 2nd pose she tried to make her do, and it went downhill from there. I didn't even think she caught Kelsey and Katelyn's best smiles either. So after looking at them and hearing the shocking news of the amount they wanted to charge me for purchasing the CD with only 16 pictures, I gathered up my girls and left. I was a little bit frustrated and frazzled with how it went so needless to say no pictures were purchased.

Score: Addison 1, Pictures 0

So when I came home and retold the story to Dave he jumped to the next solution. We were already headed down to California for this huge motorcycle blowout sale over Conference weekend and since we would be halfway there, we decided to go all the way to my parents house and stay for the weekend so Alyson could take pictures of the girls. Sounds perfect, right? That's what I thought too.

We showed up at the studio after Alyson's last client for the day and we started shooting. She took some of Kelsey and Katelyn together and then some of each separately to warm Addison up to the idea. Addison is definitely not new to the camera being in her face. In fact, it's the complete opposite since she has become Kelsey subject for photographing and is to the point where she is closing her eyes before the picture is taken in anticipation of the flash going off. So I thought this would be a piece of cake. The pictures she got of Kelsey and Katelyn are darling to the point where there are too many to choose from to get printed. Here are a few of my favorites.

Kelsey loves her pictures with her teeth missing. And her favorites are those in the white shirt and jeans. Little Miss Attitude coming through all the way.

And Katelyn is just so angelic but to capture her true smile is nearly impossible. But Alyson did it and again, too many to choose from.

So then we tried throwing Addison into the mix. Alyson was able to get a few pictures of her before she went postal. I say that because by the end of the night I could laugh at it and then going through them it became quite comical like one of those old animation flip books. The faster we clicked through the pictures the funnier it became and it told the story of how traumatic this really was for Addison, not to mention Alyson who felt terrible that she wasn't able to get any good ones.

I guess she saw this as torture since I wasn't holding her and it would've been better if Dave had been there instead of me. After the crying started the pacifier went in and I had to leave the room just for her to calm down. Everytime Kelsey tried to sneak it out, she went postal again.

Here's Addison's single shots with her arms throw up in the air in protest.

This is what happens when the girls are too comfortable with their photographer. They decided how they wanted to pose and what props to use.

Apparently this was just torture for her. So I'm over it. She's going to have a crying 1 year picture on the wall next to her sisters huge smiles. And when she's older and asks why she is the only one crying, I will have these to look back on and show her the nightmare she was on this day!! So here's to next year being a little better than her first

Happy Birthday Katelyn!!

Last week in our week of birthdays, Katelyn turned 4!! She had her family party on her birthday and then had her friends come over the next day. She had to wear her birthday hat that she got from preschool.

Who doesn't love playdough?
Oh, yes that's a nerf gun. This was Dave's idea and she got two so they could play together. She absolutely loves them and both she and Kelsey have played with them almost everyday.
And a few more games to play with mom while Kelsey is off at school all day and Addison is down for her naps.
Now for the cake.

Her first birthday party

We were a little preoccupied last year with Addison being born so we waited another year before having her friends over for a birthday party. She picked all the friends she wanted, and had it all planned. We went and picked out her plates and what she wanted to do. She chose to have a glorified playdate with presents and and it came off great. Aside from the power being out almost the whole time, everyone came and a great time was had by all. They had pizza and cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents of course. Thanks to all her friends for coming to her party.

All Katelyn's friends.

Everyone together.

Katelyn, you are getting to be such a big girl and we are so proud of the person you are becoming. You are always happy no matter what and your smile lights up the room. You are such a big help with your little sister who loves you so much. You are growing up so fast now that you are the big sister at home to help mom. We love you so much Katelyn, our little "peanut."

A week of firsts!!

Last week Addison turned 1. I know it's cliche and everyone says it but I really can't believe how fast this year has gone. Since Kelsey was in kindergarten most of Addison's first year, it made it go by even faster. Then the summer came and at least while we were at home it seemed to drag and then it was over. So while it seemed slow, it was over before we even knew it and now we're halfway through September already. Holy cow, where has this year gone?

We take "Birthday Week" to a whole new level. Three of the five members of our family have birthdays in September, all within a week. Addison's is the 12th, Katelyn's is the 14th and Dave's is the 18th. I know it's kinda crazy around here, it's worse than Christmas. To celebrate Addison's first year, since Dave has lots of meetings on Sunday, we did it all in the morning. We started with her favorite breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes (she couldn't tell us what she really wanted but she ate 1 1/2 so I don't think she cared what she had), then she opened her presents and has been so happy to play with all of them. The girls were so excited to help her open them and have had fun playing with her as well. It was also our scheduled family dinner and it just happened that we had dessert to bring. We made a chocolate cake with pink frosting and we all sang to Addison and Katelyn. Addison loved us singing to her and smiled the whole time. For Katelyn she doesn't really like cake, except for the frosting so we made homemade chocolate ice cream and peach ice cream too. Addison loved that she got to eat (destroy) her own piece of cake and stayed "way too clean" for someone who had just eaten her very own piece by herself.

The Presents

I love this look on her face

She just loves this ball. She throws it everywhere and chases it.

She also loves books. All kinds of books. Since both her sisters always have a book they are reading, she's picked up on the idea too.

A bag with princesses on it? That must be for me!!

Singing Happy Birthday to both Addison and Katelyn. I love that Katelyn doesn't mind sharing her birthday week with Addison and her dad. She thinks it's that much more special!! And it makes it a little easier on me with the cake situation. Although dad gets his own. I don't think he'd want a pink cake with princesses on it, do you?

Can you tell, Addison loves singing. And the fact that we were singing to her made it even better. Such a beautiful smile.

The eating of the Cake

Starting out, not sure what to do.

It didn't take her long to figure it out.

All finished.
Oops, forgot some. Gotta get every last crumb!!
I must say, she is the cleanest baby I've ever seen after eating her own piece of cake.
And of course Aunt Kaylene had to spoil two of her favorite nieces with clothes for their birthdays as well.

In our next line of firsts: Katelyn started preschool. She has been waiting, well really since Kelsey graduated from Miss Kris' preschool. All summer long we were on countdown. And then finally when the big day came, she said, "But I can't go yet, I'm not 4!" But she was excited to go anyway. She went the week before to orientation and met all her new friends that would be in her class. She is also so excited because she is the first "Leader" and she gets to celebrate her actual birthday in school with her friends too. So much fun.

And last but not least, Kelsey had a first too: She lost her first tooth on Addison's birthday. Her two front bottom teeth have been loose for a little more than a week and while brushing her teeth one of them just popped out. She came down stairs crying because she was scared, but after she rinsed out her mouth a few times, she was very excited. She now talks with a bit of lisp and can't keep her tongue from playing with it. Just waiting for the other one now and then she really won't be able to talk!!

Hooray for a week of milestones.

Silver Mesa

It seems like this was so long ago that we went here. At the beginning of the month a bunch of us friends, Amber, Leslie, Stephanie, and Keli, got together and planned a day at the Silver Mesa activity pool. We packed our lunch in and stayed for a few hours and had such a great time. They have a huge water slide and a smaller one in the kids play area. Kelsey went on the big one first and there was no turning back and getting her off it. Katelyn on the other hand was a little more cautious and wouldn't go on it till I could wait at the bottom and catch her, although she can swim better than half the people there.

Kelsey coming down.Katelyn coming down once I convinced her it was fun.

Even Addison played in the little fountains and tried to walk all over the pool. It was only up to her chest and she stayed in it just as long as the big kids. Lucky for us it was close enough to home that the kids didn't fall asleep in the car but they were all so tired and warn out from a day at the pool. Thanks ladies for such a fun day.

The end of summer

As summer is drawing to a close, very rapidly, I might add, our vacations are too. Or so we thought. We headed up to Pine Valley (again) this past weekend for one last short trip. They were having carpet laid so we went up to help and get out of the heat. A few of my cousins were coming too, so the girls would have someone to play with.The new carpet. We love it so much and makes it really feel like it's done!! Can't wait to be able to spend some more time up here, maybe in the winter now.
Addison had so much fun being down and once Amelia showed up she actually had someone her size to play with.We left Addison asleep for about a half hour so we could take the girls shooting. We came back to this. This poor girl's been left or taken so many times this summer by so many different people I think she's just learned to deal with whomever she's got. That is, until I show back up and then she thinks she's been picked on and abandoned!!
Kelsey, Maddie, Katelyn, and Becca hanging out on the porch.

Going on a nature walk.
Just goofin' off.Even though they'd ridden the bikes all day, they didn't get enough of the motorcycles. Guess that's not a bad thing, right?

Even Addison had her turn this time. And she wasn't scared at all. He warmed her up to the idea by starting the motorcylces so this was a piece of cake. I love her arm resting on his leg, as if she totally trusts him to keep her safe. Such a sweetheart.

Katelyn.

Kelsey

And this trip the girls officially rode all by themselves. Kelsey even bailed on the motorcycle trying to race Dave and had him beat for a minute too. She didn't think her battle wound meant something good like everyone was trying to convince her of.

I love this picture because after riding on her own, she ran into his arms and she was so proud of herself. Nothing like a dad's love for his daughters!

Playing follow the leader. This right before she fell, but had to gas it to beat her dad. Such competition, those two.