The Christmas Report

We drove over to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve morning so that Ronnie could go hunting one last time [he didn't see anything]. 

While the boys were gone, Aunt Sarah, Mama and Easton made a gingerbread house.  Easton loved the idea, but lost interest pretty quickly.  Here he is with the finished product.

After the big boys got back from the ranch, Uncle Jord-man and Daddy built a mini sledding hill for Easton.  To say that he loved it would be a massive understatement.

When Easton needed to come inside from sledding, we acted out the nativity. I only remembered to take a picture after it was all over so here is Easton and Aunt Sarah with his shepherd costume (crook to the side) and Sarah's angel halo.

Next, we ate dinner by candlelight.  Easton could not figure out why we had candles lit that we weren't going to blow out right away, but he got used to the idea.  After dinner, both Easton and Kendree opened a present.  I chose to have them open the gifts that they gave each other. 

Here, Easton is opening Kendree's fabric jingle ball.

 And Kendree taking a look at Uncle Adam before chasing after her ball again.

Then, Easton got to open up his gift.  Mama had made him a Super-Easton cape, which he loved!

After a few songs on the chimes, we got the kids into their pajamas and headed back to Cheyenne.  As expected, both kids conked on the way home.  Luckily, mom and dad remembered to set out milk and cookies for Santa.

The next morning, Easton woke up around 7:00 a.m. but he still didn't really "get" Santa this year, and we had to do some coaxing to get him to go downstairs.  [he was content watching cartoons in mom and dad's room].  However, the crumbs on the plate and milk residue left from Santa were VERY exciting for him.

Easton loved everything that he received and insisted on taking things out of the packaging before moving onto the next gift.  Unfortunately, Ronnie was running the video camera for most of the morning and since that made me chief helper, I neglected to take a single picture.  Shame on me!  After presents, we got ready and headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa's where more presents were waiting.

Easton had the drill totally down by this point.

 While Kendree was content as long as we gave her some wrapping paper to play with.

 And Easton was thrilled with his Lightening McQueen slippers.

Grandma and Grandpa Cali gave both kids their Christmas outfits this year.  You can see Easton's in the above picture and here's Kendree in her Christmas outfit (she's a little annoyed with the headband, obviously).

Ronnie and Easton got matching ties and here they are before church.

We had a great Christmas and the kids were spoiled, as per usual.  Now begins the monumental task of the toy clean-out/rearrange to fit the new stuff!

A few pictures

Ronnie's dad returned from a business trip to China and India not too long ago, and sent us LOTS of goodies.  One of them was a Kobe jersey for Ronnie, but Easton immediately claimed it as his own.  He knew that it was for Kobe, and when we asked him how he knew that, he said "the numbers!"  He makes his father so proud.

 And here is our little Kenny-girl.  The only two pictures I actually took on the day she turned 10 months old, so I guess that makes these her "official" ones.

 This is what I normally see when I take out the camera....she is moving as fast as she possibly can to get that fun looking toy out of mama's hands!

Easton's 3rd Birthday Party

Time for picture overload.

First, he gave a birthday present to his mama and took a nap!  This only happens about 1-2 times a week, so the fact that it was on his birthday was a small miracle.  He was even so tired he couldn't make it to his bed.

We had a small celebration on Easton's actual birthday (Friday, the 10th).  We let him choose what he wanted for dinner and he chose Sam's Club.  The kid LOVES their hot dogs and since I usually get him an Icee to go with it, it is the place he always requests nowadays.  So here he is enjoying his meal:

Then, we went back to the house and had a cupcake:

Then, the next day we had my family over for a meal of Easton's favorite foods (pizza, apple juice, string cheese, green (key lime) yogurt, cheetos) and then opened presents. Easton wanted to play with every gift as soon as he knew what it was, but is getting better at moving on and understanding that he'll get to play with them all eventually.  My mom just read that after about 3 presents at this age, they just can't process it and it is almost too much for their heads and I can definitely see that.

Mr. Potato Head!

An indoor bowling set....the immediate hit of the evening (although he has played with everything since then).

 

After presents, we were able to convince him to stop playing for a few seconds so we could sing to him.  He loved blowing out the candle and asked to do it again.  Then he made us sing to him a second time before he would blow it out again. 

 Mama's "bowling cake"

After that, we went to the bowling "store" and bowled for real!  I have learned that at this age, Easton really only has interest in one game of bowling.  The second game he didn't even bowl some of his turns and kept on asking to go home and play with his "colored bowling."  The rest of us had fun though!

Coming back from his turn:

 Grandpa, Adam, Alicia and Kendree:

 Uncle Jord-man entertaining the little guy.

 Adam and Alicia with Sarah this time.

 Grandma (notice Ronnie in the background. I gave him a hard time for being anti social--turns out he was just trying to plan something for my birthday).

And now the traditional shot of the loot:

Kendree - 10 months

My, these last few weeks have been full of milestones!

Let's talk a little bit about our Kenny-bear shall we?

At 10 months, Kendree is:

• Not sleeping through the night, but usually only gets up around 5am for a feeding and then it's back to sleep until 7 or 8 (or 9 if mama really wants to mess up her schedule for the day).
• Not teething as far as we can tell.  She had a wonky sleep schedule about a week ago for a week, but has now settled back to normal and doesn't have a whiff of anything new in her mouth, so who knows!
• Army crawling everywhere.  She only pushes with her right foot as she drags her left one along, but that doesn't slow her down much at all.
• Loves to stop and survey the room from what we call the "Seinfeld pose." It makes me smile every time. [I've been trying to get a picture, but every time I pull out the camera, she starts immediately moving toward me to get it]
• Loving everything we will put in her mouth.  I haven't figured out if she really prefers the vegetables, or if the times I am feeding her veggies she is just hungrier, but she seems to always finish them faster and is more eager for every bite.  Not something to complain about at all.
• In love with her brother and even puts up with "rough" attention as it is better than no attention at all in her mind.
• Starting to show us when she is not in the mood for something [i.e. sitting and playing with toys when she would prefer to be part of the action]
• Taking two naps a day.  Unfortunately, these naps are not really very scheduled and I'll be the first to admit that our comings and goings interfere some.
• Going down for naps by herself [without nursing] but does not like it one bit and lets you know at the top of her lungs for 10-20 minutes depending on the day.
• Saying "mama" and "dada" all of the time now. 
• Clapping basically on demand and anytime I clap while looking at her she joins in within about 10 seconds.
• Working on waving.  She does it, but it usually is about 30 seconds after the person has stopped trying to get her to do it.
• Loving music and will flap her little arms around [especially if mama is filling in for the music leader at church].
• Obsessed with the wrapping paper that seems to be all around these days. 
• Eating three meals a day of baby food with snacks about once a day.  She is also nursing about 4 times a day [she has to keep those girlish rolls].
• Our favorite little sister!  We just love her ever-smiling face!

Sometimes a hat provides great darkness when napping.  She was conked out under there!

Her first visit with Santa.  She wasn't really smiley, but didn't scream either.

 Attacking the bows at Easton's birthday party.

And now, a video of the army crawling:

Easton - 3 years old

At three, Easton is full of energy (really, what 3 year old do you know that isn't).  He continues to love Disney-Pixar movies and is in love with numbers and letters.  Now that he can recognize and identify all 26 letters and number 0-13, we are working on numbers above 13 and the sounds of the letters.  So far, he is the best at "S" sssssssssss!  I'm also trying to get him to identify words that start with certain letters.  This has led to him yelling out "Look, E is for Easton!" when we see signs with Es on them.  He knows that K is for Kenny and M is for mama as well.  He is constantly amazing me with all he knows and wants to learn.

I have to say that although I think I will forever mourn the "nap time" that is no longer consistent, I do love the independence that he is showing.  I love that he will get up at night and come find me if he needs something and doesn't just sit and cry in his bed.  I love that he wants to help and enjoys doing his "jobs." Just this week I started him emptying the silverware from the dishwasher and he LOVES it. 

We continue to work on being nice to his sister.  He gets frustrated that he doesn't know how to play with her yet.  He does love the attention she gives him and once she starts laughing will do anything to keep her going. 

Easton is still not potty trained.  In fact, he still doesn't seem ready to me, but I think it's time to jump in and see if he will catch on quickly or not.  He is ready to go into Sunbeams at church in January and as of now, is the only one that is not potty trained.  In his defense, he does have the second to the latest birthday in the year as well.

We love our bubbers and are so glad he's ours!

Although he will never admit to needing naps, sometimes he just can't hold on any longer.  I loved that he conked out this day (in his Woody gear) with his feet in the air.

 A picture taken during nursery.  Classic Easton smile.

 The face I normally get when I ask him to smile.

 We took him bowling for the first time in Utah during Thanksgiving.  He was in HEAVEN.  He loved every minute.

Easton Dances to Step in Time

I Love You

Kendree - 9 months

My, my, how our little Kenny bear is growing!  Let's take a look at all she is up to.

• She is 50th percentile on all the charts.  19 pounds and 28 inches long.  No wonder she is so heavy in the car seat. (it should also be said that she weighs more now than her brother did at 15 months)
• She is not sleeping through the night anymore.  Ronnie and I have conflicting view on whether the baby monitor should be on in our room at night.  If he turns it on, then I get up with her 2-3 times a night.  If I leave it off, I only hear her once. (see why I want it off?).  I really believe she is just "readjusting herself those other two times I hear her on the monitor.  I'm not going to push sleeping through the night until she is done nursing at one year.  I learned my lesson with Easton.
• She loves all foods.  Fruit, vegetable, she doesn't care.  I'm excited to see how she likes meats now that she is 9 months old.  She eats three regular food meals a day and I'm going to start having her schedule be such that she is eating when we eat.
• She really likes to feed herself.  Right now that is pretty much just puffs, as her mom wasn't willing to put up with the mess of other things, but I think I can convince her mom that a little mess is okay and branch out to broader self-feeding.
• Kendree is not crawling yet, but is getting up on all fours and rocking, so we're expecting it soon.  She also does this funny "plank" position that you'll see below in the video.
• She doesn't have any teeth, in fact, not even a single sign of any teeth.  I'm loving that part and she can keep those little chompers to herself as long as she would like.
• She is going through a phase were she prefers to be on her belly or back on the floor and not sitting up.  I think it is because it saves her one step in getting around everywhere, but it is pretty funny to watch her arch her little back so you don't put her in a sitting position.
• She babbles and screeches all of the time--it's getting harder to act like I'm in a professional environment when I have conference calls for work. :)
• She continues to idolize her big brother and even if he is being a little rough, revels in any attention he will give her.
• Kendree is wearing 12 month clothes almost exclusively (there are just a few 9 month outfits that mama continues to put you in because she loves them so much--but they are days away from being too small) and would fit in a size 3 shoe if she did not have the crazy fat foot thing that Easton has as well (fat from the bottom to the top of her foot--if you were looking when she was standing up) and if she would not curl her toes down really hard every time you try to put a shoe on.  The Target brand version of the Robeez are the only things I can get to stay on.
• She can get to anything she wants between rolling and a kind of army crawl thing (push up on hands and lurch forward) and has the longest reach I have seen in a long time.  When I think I've put something a safe distance away, I never have!
• Is still a little stranger shy, but is beginning to warm back up more quickly.
• She is starting to not like the headbands and hats I have her wear.  They come off almost as quickly as I can put them on.
• Takes two naps a day (totaling 3+ hours)
• We finally had to retire the swing this week as she would only last about 15 minutes in it and it isn't worth my floor space for that amount of time. :)  She does continue to enjoy the stand-up bouncer thing.

Enough with the talking already--on to the pictures!

The only two "official" shots I have of Kenny girl on the day she turned 9 months.

Hanging out with daddy.

Letting big brother hold me (he has to get those "holding times" in while he can still hold her--she's catching up to him fast)

Hanging out in the bouncer.

And now a video of the plank position.

Brother and Sister

It's a love/hate relationship. Lucky for us, it's mostly love.