Beau had to get stitches when he split open his lip. I really can’t believe he’s gone this long! He was jumping on the trampoline with cousins over at Grandma’s house. We think he was trying to get off when he got bounced and hit his head on the rail. His tooth went right though his lip. He had a nasty hole whenever he opened his mouth! It was a Saturday night and we had a hard time finding a quick care that was open or that would do stitches at all. He was so brave and had stopped crying by time we got to the last quick care. When it came time to numb his mouth and they came at him with the needle they were going to put in his lip, he lost it. (I was so scared for him too though!) It took 4 adults to hold him down while the doctor numbed him and stitched him back up. He felt fine right after though and could even eat just fine. He was a trooper! He now has a scar.
Our neighborhood did a pretty cool carnival thing that we went to. The kids loved the games and they loved riding the shuttle to another park.
We love that we have so many friends close and we can just play outside and go for walks or bike rides a lot. We ended up in Erin’s backyard one day and the kids were going crazy. I got some fun pictures though. Trey couldn’t stay out of the water table!
We met Josh and Mandy at the Container Park on their way up to Utah for Thanksgiving. It’s always so much fun to see them even if it’s just for a little bit.
Casey was in town for Thanksgiving and she got us high school friends together. We hadn’t all been together in 3 years! Between the five of us there are 17 kids now! It was great to catch up. Kayli took our picture and tall Alise is cut out!
Our 8th Anniversary was on November 22. We never do much for our Anniversary because it’s always right around Thanksgiving and Kayli’s birthday and it gets so busy. We did go to dinner but then decided on making Kayli a barbie house so we ended up at Lowe’s the rest of the night. Maybe one year we’ll do something exciting!
Kayli turned 6! I can’t even believe it. She is so much fun but she’s growing up way too fast! We didn’t do a big party this year but she had a blast taking Madi with her to the nail salon for manicures, Cafe Rio, and then home to play with Madi all night. The nail salon people thought the girls were the cutest and their school librarian was there sitting next to them the whole time so she chatted with them and made them feel so special. They even brought out ice-cream for the girls since we were there for Kayli’s birthday. Kayli loves Cafe Rio pork so she wanted to go there for free kids quesadillas with a side of pork. Then the girls came home and played the rest of the night. Kayli absolutely loves when she has Madi over because she finally has a girl to play with her. I had a hard time taking Madi home that night because Kayli was in heaven!
Kayli’s actual birthday was on Thanksgiving this year but it ended up being a lot of fun. We were busy with both sides of our family that day so she saw everyone. We woke up early that morning for her birthday donuts, then ran off to the Turkey Trot that we like to do with Kenny’s family. The kids rode their bikes in it this year with Grandpa. Then we had another birthday breakfast at Kenny’s mom’s and then just hung out over there most of the day. We did Thanksgiving dinner with Kenny’s family this year but we did get over to my parents’ house that night and Kayli got sung to again over there and we had more dessert! She had a great day and got so spoiled by all of her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! It was the birthday of all things Shopkins!
That night I went to Target for Black Friday shopping just for fun but Kayli wanted to go so bad that we got up the next morning and went to the mall also just for fun-not really for anything specific. She was such a fun Black Friday shopping buddy and I think I’ll take her with me every year now! We went to Kneaders for breakfast and it was fun hanging out-just the girls.
Thanksgiving weekend we went with Mike and Erin to the Carrie Underwood concert and she was phenomenal! It was pretty incredible!
For Erin’s birthday we got a bunch of girls together and went and played soccer at Las Vegas Indoor Soccer. It was such a good time! Haley picked up a bundt cake and Dr. Pepper’s and set up a little table with it all while we were playing so Erin was surprised about that! We had so much fun and the place was so awesome that we signed up to play on an indoor Women’s league starting next week!
It was so exciting when our elf showed up! The kids named him Red.
It was so fun getting all of our Christmas stuff out this year. Our kids are at really fun ages and they were so excited. Christmas really is a magical time of year with kids!
We had the opportunity to do lots of service type things this Christmas. We did Light the World with the kids. We were also challenged by our ward to take cookies to our neighbors, just to be friendly. We actually know a lot of our neighbors pretty well because we are always outside! But we made tons of cookies and went to 13 of our neighbors and also handed out Light the World calendars. Our staked adopted a refugee group from Congo. We did a huge clothing drive and the kids loved being a part of that. They were very willing to give away clothes, toys, and blankets to people in need. The kids and Kenny also went one morning and put together bikes that would be donated to kids for Christmas. This was perfect for Kenny and the kids because they all love bikes so much! Another really cool experience we had was with this Congo refugee group. Kenny was in ward council when the high councilman over our ward was giving a little update about the refugee group. He asked if anyone speaks Swahili because they are trying to get people to help teach English to this group. Kenny mentioned that he could sing “I Am a Child of God” in Swahili because his whole family learned it when his Uncle Kasey came home from his mission to Kenya. Anyway, after the meeting Kenny got a phone call from our Stake President who had been meeting with this group. He asked if Kenny and possibly the family would come sing to the group! So Kenny rounded up his family and that next Sunday we went down to their congregation and sang. I played the stand up keyboard and the kids and even learned it and sang. Kenny and Uncle Kasey spoke and talked about the song and the pastor translated. We stayed for their meeting and danced and clapped and the people loved the song. It was pretty different from what we are used to but it was really cool to go and do that!
Kenny built a rock wall in the backyard and Kayli and Beau can already climb to the top! We also got a bigger trampoline so the backyard’s been pretty fun for the kids lately-even if it’s small!
We went to the Downtown Summerlin Christmas parade where it snows!
Kenny and I decided to take on a big project of making quilts for Erin and Haley. It’s a long story behind why we did this but they’ve both lost parents recently and I knew this would be very meaningful but I also knew I couldn’t sew! Kenny convinced me we could do it (he’s actually good at sewing) and with help from his mom and Sis. Truman (who did the binding) we were able to make them quilts! We gave them the quilts at Kneaders one night when we were all together and they were so surprised. Then that night just me, Erin, and Haley went shopping and then sat in my car forever talking about everything. It was so fun to do something so special for them-even though it doesn’t make up at all for what they’ve been through. These girls are soooo special to me and I am very grateful for a ward split 3.5 years ago that put us in the same ward, visiting teaching that made Haley come visit me when that ward first split, and crazy 1 year old boys that made me and Erin meet in the foyer at church all those years ago. They are such good friends for me!
We went to the most awesome Christmas Express with Kenny’s family out near Alamo. It was sooooo neat! We rode on the Christmas Express and Santa was there. We also went for a carriage ride and a hay ride, had dinner, and tons of hot chocolate, and the kids went on some other rides. And it was all free! A lot of people from my home stake were helping to put it on so I ran in to lots of people from high school and the Horton’s who I love so much! It was such a good time and I’m so glad we were able to do that!
Trey boy knocked over our Christmas tree and the stand broke. Kenny had to build a little stand to save this one but we tossed it out after Christmas. And I love the pictures we got of it. I’m sure we’ll never forget this.
Beau’s preschool class put on a little Christmas program for the moms to come see. His class is all boys and they are wild but such good friends and they were so cute and did such a good job. Beau was so sad that he wouldn’t get to go to preschool for a few weeks. He LOVES preschool and asks me every day if it’s time for school yet.
We also had a fun NeONBRAND Christmas party. Kenny has a really good group working with him and so it’s fun to all get together. They actually surprised Kenny and after he had handed out some pretty awesome Christmas presents to the employees, Kurt said that the last present was for Kenny. He had no idea and when he opened it, it was the gun he’d been wanting since he now has his CCW. He was pretty excited!
We went to our ward Christmas Party which was also a good time.
Mom and Dad had the grandkids over for Christmas cookie decorating! It was so funny when Emma was shaking the little icing pearls and the lid popped off… thousands of those little things went all over the house but we all started laughing (she started crying) and mom and dad were so quick to tell her it was perfectly ok. In fact, dad even told her that it looked like snow that it was pretty cool because it had never snowed in his house before! It took awhile to clean up and we’ll probably keep finding those things around the house but it was pretty funny. The next day they went to Grandma Eliason’s for Christmas crafts over there but I don’t have any pictures!
Me and Kayli went and saw the Nutcracker Ballet with Haley and Collyns. Kayli loved getting dressed up and she liked the ballet. It was a fun tradition to start!
We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We had Christmas dinner and the kids put on a Nativity with the new costumes mom bought. We also had a candy sleigh building contest and watched some Christmas cartoons. We opened presents and the kids got their pajamas.
Christmas morning was so much fun! The kids were so excited and loved all of their new stuff. We had Christmas breakfast with just our own little family and then we went to church. We went to Eliason’s for lunch and Christmas presents over there. Taylor was able to be here for two days so it was fun to see him. We went to Grandma Taylor’s house for dinner and to see everyone there and then the kids wanted to play with their new toys so bad that we headed home pretty early to do that. Kenny built a barbie house for Kayli. I helped paint it and made a few little things to go inside. The boys were pretty excited about the train table. We also made the teepee for $20. We were on a roll after making the quilts and some barbie curtains that we tackled the teepee. Beau also got a maze book, RC cars, some games. Kayli got an American Girl doll (but not a real one), barbie stuff, clothes. She got a doll stroller from Grandma that she loves. Trey got a broom and mop that he loves some Mickey things and some animal things so he was set!
The day after Christmas we drove 2o minutes from out house to the mountains to off-road and go sledding with the Cahills, McCormicks, and Taylors. Kayli loved it. The boys were pretty grumpy that day.
New Year’s Eve ended up being so much fun. We went to the Jackson’s house for a party that we planned on staying at til maybe 9:00 but ended up there til midnight! Kayli loved playing with Milani and Madi and Beau had fun with his friends and the older boys, Cole and Jaxon and Ms. Kim! We played lots of fun games and Jen had made lots of yummy food. We had s’mores outside and the kids were having so much fun and doing so good that we just kept hanging around!
On New Year’s we slept in which was great and then went to church at 12:30 which is much better than 2:30 which we did all last year. Josh and Mandy got to our house that night and we made chicken pillows with Mandy’s help like old times. We chatted and laughed so hard and played games with the kids. They had to leave super early the next morning to miss traffic but again, any time we have with them is so much fun. I didn’t get a picture!
Kayli had the Monday off school too for New Year’s but this past Tuesday went back to school. It was so much fun having her home for so long so I was bummed she had to leave us again. She has her first spelling test this Friday that she’s excited for and she gets to start bringing books home to read. She still spends hours after school playing school, in her teacher outfits and all. She rearranges my piano room to be her classroom and she is a crack-up to listen too. She is the greatest helper. She will clean up the house just because and I’m always telling her how much I appreciate her and love her for that because she really does seem to step in and help out when I need it most. She is also so good with Trey. She is thinking she might want to try soccer. Her class learned how to make snowflakes at school with the fifth graders. She was paired up with a boy from our ward and she was so excited when she saw him at church and they are little friends now. Anyway, she came home and had it all memorized. They made these huge snowflakes, not just the one paper ones, and she remembered how to do it. I don’t get her memory.
Beau is all boy and so much fun. He is our cuddler and we love it. He makes us laugh and plays well with Trey. He loves to read! He has picked it up so quickly for some reason. He brings home BOB books from school and sits and sounds out words and reads them forever. He is so patient with it and works really hard. It’s been very cool to see.
Trey is wild but so fun and just a little kid. I have lots of pictures of him climbing on things or already on top of things. He is a sweet boy and we love him so much. He will be 18 months on Sunday and we can’t wait to send him to nursery! I’m hopeful he’ll go. Kenny and I both have busy Sunday callings so it’s been hard trying to wrangle him as well. He’s so loud at church that sometimes he just has to go outside. He likes to play with Kayli and Beau and thinks he keeps right up with them. He’s funny and has the cutest “cheese” smile. He loves to dance, color in his new coloring books, grab books and bring them to us to read to him, and run to the people he loves. He has a special gift of making people really feel special and loved. And he really means it! He had a cough all last week so he was pretty snuggly and would fall asleep on us at night since he couldn’t sleep well on his back. He is growing up so fast and seriously it’s like overnight he turned into a little kid.
Love these kids!
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