Merry Christmas!!

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did as well. We stayed home and enjoyed not traveling during the storms (we love our families, but love not driving in the snow). Christmas Eve we had steak, baked potatoes, and vegetables. It was delicious! Andrews brother Ben came up to spend the night with us before he left for Colorado in the morning. We opened up 1 present on Christmas Eve- we all got pjs. We took a family picture in front of the tree. The kids loved the fact that the camera could take a picture on its own so we ended up doing it quite a few times.

Christmas morning, Kenadi woke up at her usual 6:15. She wasn't too excited about all the stuff at first, she was hungry! She enjoyed it after she ate though. We kept waiting for Jackson to get up and he just wasnt so we finally woke him up at about 6:40 (we were too anxious for him to see his presents!) He was so excited about his train! He got the GeoTrax Toy Story 3 train. It was like pulling teeth to get him to open his other presents. He did not want to leave his train.

We really didnt take many pictures at all! I know slackers, but thats what happens. Oh well. We had a very fun, relaxing Christmas!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

So this past Tuesday, we woke up to about 12 inches of snow and it was still coming down really hard. Here are a few pictures of the fun we had!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Taking her for a ride.

He loves to give thumbs up!

Yumm! Bell Pepper!

He loves taking baths! Then he likes to line the side of the tub with all his toys.

Decorating the Christmas tree (before we got the big one)

"Looking" at the black Friday ads.

They love playing with this nativity set (whenever we ask Jackson where's Jesus? He picks up the Joseph figurine- makes sense, all the pictures of Jesus we have he has a beard)

Buzz, Woody and Rex in the rice cereal "snow"

I now know if Jack is being quiet to beware, we just may have rice cereal in our cupboard.

Trying to help clean up the rice cereal mess.

Isn't she adorable?

He loves to play under the kitchen table.

 Jackson is saying more things. He has started saying, "Wheres buzz?" I hear this a lot throughout the day. Kenadi is starting to stand on her own without holding onto anything. Today she stood for about 45 seconds- she was so proud of herself and she started clapping when I did, thats what caused her to fall. She also can now use the walker toy to walk around a bit. Well, thats all the pictures for now, I need to find an iPod cable to get all the pictures from my phone (there are a TON!)

Kenadi

Kenadi had her 9 month check up yesterday. It went pretty good. She loves people as long as Andrew or I am holding her, but boy if they get close to her she freaks out! She only had 1 shot this time as well as a toe prick to check her iron. She did very well for the toe prick- didn't cry at all. She cried for the shot, but I don't think its because it hurt but more so because I put her back on the table. Yeah she started crying as soon as I put her on the table and then once the shot was over and I picked her up she immediately stopped crying. So here are her 9 month stats:
Weight: 16.93 lbs 12.49%
Length: 27.75 inches 47.2%
Head 17.75inches 75.88%
So for thinking our little girl is big, she really isn't. When the Dr looked at her weight he said that he wasn't concerned about it since she moves more than most 9 month olds. It was funny because he was asking me if Kenadi could crawl, I said yes. He asked if she had started pulling herself up on things. I was like oh yeah! Shes been doing that for about a month and walks along the sofa and things. He said oh wow! Shes ahead of most kids. He then continued to say that she has lost more baby weight probably then most babies because of how much she moves. Yeah, no delays here for this little girl. Can I tell you how happy it makes me when Kenadi is checked and everything is perfect and she has no delays! It's pretty awesome!
Other things about Kenadi, she loves food! Not baby food but real food! She eats everything we do now and has for a couple of weeks. She wont touch baby food any more. She "talks" a ton. Its pretty funny to listen to her because she seriously talks to us as though we know what she is saying. I fear that she is going to be the little girl who talks non stop just because she likes to hear her voice.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here at home. It was so nice. Andrew had Wednesday through Friday off- AWESOME! Andrew's youngest brother Ben came up to spend the day with us. My parents had brought us a HUGE turkey! And when I say huge I mean it- it was 22 lbs! I think we only ate about half of a breast of it, but I froze a bunch for turkey pot pie. So we had homemade rolls, turkey, corn flake potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing and chocolate pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. (We decided we really didn't need vegetables since those are lower on the favorites list over everything else). It all turned out great (well except for my rolls, they were overcooked a little. No more baking when Im dozing off on the couch). Kenadi really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. We gave her a little plate of mashed potatoes, turkey and stuffing. She went to town! Holy cow that little girl can eat. I ended up putting more food on her plate two more times after the initial plate. They only problem now is that she wont eat any baby food at all- she wants REAL food. So thats what she has been having the past couple of days and you know what she's happier! I mean I dont blame her, baby food smells funny! Jackson had an upset stomach we think so he didn't really eat. He was so excited about the turkey too! Oh well.
Well, I do have pictures of thanksgiving but I haven't downloaded them. I'll hopefully do that tonight so you can see how cute the kids are getting! Boy are they big! Jackson is almost 26 months and Kenadi is just over 9 months!

9 Months?!

Well, Kenadi is now 9 months! I can't believe how time has flown. This little girl is AWESOME! Except for the times when she just whines and whines (like earlier today for oh, only about 4 hours) She is now crawling everywhere (actually she has been for a month), she pulls herself up on anything that is semi-stable and walks around it, she prefers our food to her baby food most of the time. Tonight while I was in the kitchen Andrew and her shared a bowl of ice cream- he says she ate half of it (hmm...and why did he let her eat half? Because she whined and fussed a lot until he gave her some, yeah she's not manipulative), loves loves LOVES Jackson and he loves her (most of the time, until she starts playing with his stool or grandpas cane, those are SO off limits to her). She is a lot of fun to have around and I can't imagine life without her. We love our little sassy pants!

Well, I can't just blog about Kenadi, gotta include Jackson.

Jackson is growing and learning so much. It seems like each day he picks up something new. He is learning new words every day (that is if he chooses to). He is so funny. If we tell him to say a word he won't say it, but randomly he will choose to say a new word. For instance, a couple of days ago we were in the car and Andrew and I were talking about ice being built up on the windshield wipers. All of a sudden, we hear Jackson saying, "ICE! ICE!" clear as day. I know he can talk, I think its just more of a choice not to. He has also started wiping his forehead with his arm and saying, "phew!" I told Andrew about it and Andrew told me that that is what I do when I am working on something. I realized that I do it quite a bit when I am cooking since I don't want to touch my hair or face with my hands. It makes me laugh every time he does it though. He is getting very excited for Christmas and every time he sees a Santa Claus (whether its a picture or figurine, whatever) he holds his belly and says, "Ho Ho Ho!" I keep hoping he'll learn how to say Merry Christmas, but so far thats a no go. He definitely keeps me on my toes but is also so fun to have around.

Life is busy with these two kids and some days they drive me crazy, but they are some of the cutest (yeah, you know you can't deny it) and funnest kids to be around! I think I'll keep them (well that is if they don't wake up at 4:30 again like they did today ;) jk)

Can't Get this off of my mind

Yesterday, I was watching the afternoon news like I usually do and this story came on. In the beginning they had not released names, so I had thought it was sad but did not think too much into it. Later they released the names of the victims and I learned that the student was someone I had gone to high school with and was in the same stake as me. It has made me think a lot about life and how short it can be. I can't even imagine how devastating it would be to lose my husband after only 11 months of marriage or to lose my son when he is only 25. My heart goes out to his family and wife. I wasn't good friends with David but we had classes together and knew each other through church activities and I haven't spoken to him in probably 6 years, but I can say that he was an extremely nice person to everyone. I don't think I ever heard a bad thing come out of his mouth. He knew the gospel through and through.
This has just really hit home with me and I can't seem to get it off of my mind. I am just deeply saddened for his family and wife. Please keep them in your prayers.

Have you heard about this?

Okay, normally I don't go advertising things but this is so great I have to share! Have you heard about Amazon Mom?? Let me tell you, its pretty awesome! A couple of months we were on Amazon and saw the advertisement for Amazon Mom. I looked it through and you can get some pretty awesome deals. We use it to buy diapers (wipes are still cheaper to buy at Costco if you buy the Costco brand ones). Anyways, basically if you sign up to have diapers delivered to you automatically, you save even more. We used to buy Kenadis diapers at Walmart (Huggies Little Movers) and spend about $20 for I think about 75 (it was right around that many) but now we buy them through amazon and are signed up to receive them automatically each month (you choose how often) and get 124 for $22.00. AWESOME! Plus, I don't have to go to the store to get them, they come right to my door- Double AWESOME! Plus, there isn't any obligation to continue with it for a certain amount of time, you can cancel anytime, and if you need more diapers its easy to just add another shipment or if you dont need more its easy to cancel the shipment. Love it!

Okay, now many of you are students so have you heard about Amazon Student? (Can you tell we love amazon?) Its totally free if you are a current student (at a college or university and have a .edu email adress) and you get all the benefits of Amazon Prime (free 2 day shipping on most items). Check it out! You won't regret it!

(P.S. you're welcome :) )


(P.P.S this is Christina, not Andrew)

Sick...

Again... I swear we just got over colds just to start them again. And of course, the one person who probably brought the germs to us (Andrew) is not sick. Hopefully we'll get a break soon. We are starting to be like Bobbie's family.

Cowboy Poetry

Last week Andrew got free tickets to Cowboy Poetry from his principal. We had never been but thought it would be fun to go, plus it was free so why not. Ben came up and babysat for us. I was a little nervous because Kenadi is in a super clingy stage- as in must be by me at all times preferably being held. Anyways, when we left the kids didn't even cry!! Probably because uncle Ben is pretty much their favorite, I think they could have cared less that we were gone. Ben said that they didn't cry at all for him, phew what a relief. Anyways, we saw Ian Tyson- he was...interesting... He lost his voice a couple of years back but continues to sing, so Im sure you can imagine how well that went. But, fortunately all the acts leading up to him were AWESOME!! The first act was Hot Club of Cowtown. They are described as western swing/ jazz, not exactly my favorite type of music, but let me tell you, they were incredible! We would go see them again in a heartbeat. There are three musicians and each of them are so talented. They are definitely masters of their instruments and extremely fun to watch. In the show they also had old cowboys recite poems, they were really good too! Most of them were all about being a cowboy and what not but it was fun. It was definitely a new experience and we are going to make it a yearly tradition now.It was nice to get out just the two of us (its been quite awhile since that has happened). And sorry, no pictures, we forgot to take a camera.

It is 4:15

and my kids are still sleeping. Need I say more?

Both kids take naps at 1:00. Yes, I am an amazing mom and have my kids on a nap schedule. (Actually for sanity's sake we all love a schedule. We kind of go crazy when we don't stick to it) Jackson woke up at about 2:30 crying. He came up the stairs and he cuddled with me on the couch. He fell back asleep within 5 minutes. I laid him down on the couch to finish sleeping (the kid usually takes a 3-4 hour nap so I knew it would be bad news if he stayed awake). Kenadi then woke up. We played a little downstairs on my bed. She then laid in between my legs while I rubbed her head (poor girl is cutting her bottom teeth, I swear these teeth have been trying to make their appearance for like 3 months now, maybe they will finally come through). She started to doze. I put her back bed. That was an hour ago. I have had peace and quiet for like 3 hours now. What a wonderful thing. Unfortunately since Jackson is upstairs I can't get the dishes done (maybe this is a fortunate thing and I can leave them for Andrew, jk).

Not much has been going on in our world. The kids and I stay home pretty much all day, with the exception of a much needed visit to Emily on Monday- boy it stinks living a half hour away from her (I know it could be worse, but when you're used to living like next door, its a rough adjustment). We watch a couple cartoons in the morning (Curious George and Cat in the Hat, and if I'm super lazy then Super Why makes the cut as well). Then it's time to get things done and no more TV. I've really been trying to cut TV out of our days and I really like it. Today has been beautiful outside. So after lunch, we went and played outside. Then naps, and here I am now. Killing time until its time to make dinner and waiting for Andrew to come home. I don't remember if I have put it on here, but he is an assistant basketball coach. He is loving it. Tonight for dinner chicken stir fry with noodles. Delicious! We haven't had this in like forever! Maybe after dinner I will post the recipe on my recipe blog, whatschristinacooking.blogspot.com. Since I haven't made it in forever I have to remember what I do so I can write the recipe down. Most often I just cook by feel, I get that from my mom- its a good quality.

Well, now that I have bored you with information about our day, I guess I'll put pictures up of the kids because I know thats why you read my blog anyways.

This picture cracks me up. Jackson really wanted to watch a movie while he was eating breakfast. Well, Kenadi wanted to watch too evidently and pulled herself up to stand so she could see it.

She loves to sit under this table. No idea why.

Jack loves to help feed her. Sometimes she eats better for him than she does for me. 

 Oh, and no need to be jealous anymore. Both kids are awake.

PS Can I tell you how excited I am that Halloween is over? That means its almost time for the real holidays! YES!

Happy Halloween!

We went to our ward Halloween Party last night. Jackson was especially excited to dress up. He loves his dragon costume! Here are some pictures of the kiddos. Yeah, they didn't really want to take a picture together.