Kelli Girl!

I know that every mom is pretty biased about how beautiful their kids are.. but I took this picture of Kelli and I just LOVE it! She has the biggest, most beautiful brown eyes, and she always has this precious look on her face.(of coarse with a few exceptions when she's throwing a temper cause she didn't get her way.) She is such an active little runt! And can drive me up the wall, but how can you get mad at a face like that! I love her to death and she is everything to me. She's talking so much now and always knows how to put a smile on your face! She is learning so much and was a perfect addition to our little family!

*I was a little disappointed about the glare from my parents table that happen to land right on Kelli's face, but you can still see how beautiful she is!

Opening Presents!

I don't know about anyone else's experiences with opening presents on Christmas morning but Kelli was so overwhelmed that after she opened her first present she went in the other room and played with the kids while the rest of us opened our presents! She would have nothing to do with sitting there opening present after present! She loved getting the new gift but didn't know why everyone was so excited about it.. she's getting into the shy stage so it was hard for her. Here are some pics of our Christmas morning experience with the whole family!

Christmas Morning!

Bed head and all, investigating her new kitchen
The beloved baby bottles that never leave her side

Santa! Santa! HO, HO, HO!!! That's from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and its what Kelli has been saying for the past few months whenever she's hear about Santa, or see a Santa! So when Christmas morning came and she saw all of her toys, to say she was overwhelmed is a HUGE understatement! Santa got her a awesome kitchen that she just loves since she like to help mommy cook in the kitchen. Also she got lots of cooking accessories like; dishes, pots and pans, and my favorite thing was food that has Velcro that you can pretend to cut into slices. (I found them at the Henderson grandparents house and fell in love!) But of coarse her favorite thing was a stroller and baby bottle because she is SO into babies right now and everything about babies. She plays for hours at a time in her room and its just so exciting to see her in there cooking and carrying a baby around while cooking.

Program extended...

Don't worry, Lyza has a diaper on!!

Look at how cute they look in their Jammers! They
both have their feet crossed and Kelli's folding her hands!

Here are some pictures of the program that we did with the kids. It was fun to have them open up their Christmas Jammers and to have Papa read, Twas' the Night Before Christmas, and of coarse the two little ones had to be front and center on Papas lap!

Christmas Eve Program

On Christmas Eve dinner we all had goblets to drink out of and we gave one to Lyza to use. She thought she was SO BIG! She would drink out of it so carefully and was so grown up. All these little kids are growing up so fast, I'm just glad we have cameras to capture these memorial moments.

Chrsitmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so fun and chill. Scott and Larissa were here from California, Steven, Shaundee, and Lyza were there also. Then of coarse there was my parents, Greg, and my little family. My mom cooked a yummy turkey dinner and all the fix'ens that go with it!

Christmas Party!

This Christmas my family decided to have my huge family party the Sunday before Christmas so on Christmas we could relax! The only time my whole family can actually have a family picture in years past has been at weddings! Since the last wedding was 3 years ago, we were definitely due for another one! So in every family picture we have, there is always someone that stands out a little more than the rest cause there is a huge white wedding dress in the middle. So this year at our family Christmas party my grandpa wanted us to all have family pictures taken. Such a simple request, but when its an hour past bedtime and there are little children running every where, it makes you think seriously about not having any more children!!! It's always more funny when kids are running round all 'crazy like' when it isn't yours, but when it is... its a whole other story! It was so much fun to have my whole family together this year.. I love getting together and playing games til the wee hours of the morning! Christmas was AMAZINGLY fun this year! Here's my family pictures. There are serious ones and then a crazy one... my legs were dropped before this camera took.. the digital camera delay can really mess up a picture sometimes!!

Happy Holidays!

This is our Christmas picture this year! I ran out of time in all the family things going on and I forgot to send out Christmas cards!! This Christmas season we were able to continue our family traditions of going to see The Forgotten Carols! That to me is by far the best thing to do to make you so excited for Christmas. We were also able to go down to Temple Square and watch my cousin Carly sing. She's serving a mission on Temple Square in the genealogy area. It was so awesome to see her up there singing away! Not to mention the family coming in and out of town. I hope every one has had a wonderful holiday season and I hope you have a happy new year! This year was so much fun watching Kelli grow up and mature so much and is learning so much every day! Her newest thing is singing the alphabet and counting! I can't wait to see what happens this coming year and what great adventures our family is going to be apart of! Happy Holidays!

Sledding!!

The best part is going down.. but the worst part is...

The long trek back up!


This is Kelli sledding down the drive way with her daddy! She was really tired and cranky the day before when we went to the big hill to sled so I stayed up at the top with her and played in the snow. She took a few face plants and got pretty upset but other than that it was a lot of fun. She went down the drive way a few times with Danny before we had to head home. She enjoyed it. Notice how I'm never in any pictures.. this just goes to show I've taken place of my father in my little family.. if I weren't around no pictures would document anything that is happening. That being said, I often forget to bring the camera, so we're lucky to get what we have! I love being able to have Kelli have such great experiences! I love being able to be so blessed to make such wonderful memories with my family and with our friends! Thanks Rach and Chad for the invite! Kelli and Ellie played so well together!

The Henderson Cabin & The Green Monster!

Here are just a few pictures of the outside of the cabin and the green monster that brought us up there!

The Moose

When we were getting ready to go out on the snowmobiles there were three moose down at the bottom. Two male and one female. The male moose started to fight each other. I started to walk down to get a closer look but I got a little scared when he turned and was looking at me. Rachael was closer so I think they could hear her. She probably got better pictures but here are mine.. enjoy!

Preparing for snowmobiling

These are some pictures of us getting ready to go out on the snowmobiles. I was so exciting to see how Kelli was going to react.. I wish we could of got a picture of us three riding on it. Kelli was squished in between Danny and me. In fact, both going to the top of the hill and riding back to the cabin Kelli fell asleep. Before she would fall asleep she was so excited! She loves to ride on toys like that. Before we left to go sledding, she just stood and said, "lets go!", and Chad and Danny were riggin up the sleds behind the snowmobile. Kelli loves the snow. If she sees snows, for like 10 minutes she's telling me some story about the snow.. I just can't understand her. For the most part I can interpret what she's saying. I usually look for key words like; snow, Danny (yes she calls her Dad by his name), juice, etc... Its safe to say that Kelli loves everything about the snow!

Quick Get-Away

This last weekend we were able to take a quick trip up to our friends, the Hendersons, cabin. It was so much fun! We stayed up late playing some pretty intense games and watched a few movies. The hit movie for the two days was, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Which was good because Kelli would watch it for a few minutes here and there, which doesn't sound like much, but you can accomplish so much in that amount of time.. like actually eat the food on your plate! Which is something I think every mom can associate with! I don't know how many people have ever played a game with the Hendersons but Chad is the Ultimate Champ. 90% of the time he wins. I don't know.. maybe while Rachael thinks he's asleep he's really rehearsing his game skills but its really showing. It drives us all crazy.. especially Rachael and Me!! In years past, we use to put on the Simpsons to distract him so he wouldn't pay attention and lose. Sometimes it works to our advantage. While we were up at the cabin we were able to ride the "Green Monster" up to the cabin which is nice cause you can carry so many things up at once but it takes a lot longer. Plus its exactly what you think.. a GREEN MONSTER! We also did some snowmobiling and sledding. Here are a few pictures from our trip!

MMMMM... SNOW!!

Kelli has tried snow before, but this was the first time she could help herself to the plentiful amount of snow that had fallen.... she'd scoop some up with her glove and eat it. Every time she would eat some, I think she had forgotten how cold it was til she missed her mouth and got it all over her face. It's hard to eat when you've never had to eat with mittens on... she needs those opposable thumbs!!

Like Father, Like Daughter!

These are just some more photo's of Danny and Kelli playing out in the snow today. She was trying so hard to run in the snow but wasn't have much success! If you've ever seen the movie, A Christmas Story, she felt like the little brother who couldn't put his arms down. She'd fall down and we'd have to help her stand up. She isn't use to wearing such puffy clothes. (snow bib, snow boots, snow jacket)

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

Or in Kelli's words, "E-No! E-No!" We finally finished getting all of her snow clothes and today was the first time she went out, played in the snow, walked around in it, and picked it up. She had a hard time walking around cause it was so deep. When she'd step down, she'd lose her balance and face plant it. We finally convinced her to walk around on the side walk. Which was also another challenge cause you couldn't see the sidewalk! She tried so hard to chase after Dad but couldn't so I had to Aid her in running after him. She tackled him a few times. You could see she felt victorious! Danny would also pile up a few snow balls and she's just knock em' down! That was her part in the game. She also loved eating the snow! Although when she went to eat the snow off the drive way that had already been walked on and shoveled it was hard to convince her it was 'yucky'.... Trying to get her to come inside was the hardest part in the whole thing.. she just wanted to stay out there forever and play in the "e-no!" (snow) Who knows if she was cold but we sure were.. the wind was blowing and snow was still falling!

Surprize!

Every day when I'm getting ready Kelli plays in her room with the door shut so she can't get out. Yes, this is my way of locking her in her room... for now it works and she likes her own little bit of quiet time! She would play in there for hours if I let her! Well, every time I go to get her.. her room is a disaster!! Drawers are emptied, toys are scattered every where. So this time I decided I would walk into her room with the camera ready to catch her in the act!! Last time I did this with a video camera and she was laying under her bed playing with the monitor. So I figured she'd be doing something like that. This time she was standing on her rocking chair, pulling at the blinds so she could see outside. Which she knows is a HUGE no! no! You can tell by the look on her face when I walked in that she knew she was doing something wrong! I also added a few pictures of her little play areas that were a complete disaster! Lucky for me.. we get to clean this up together. It would take her a year to do it on her own cause she gets distracted really easy. I usually just have to give her one task, like; "go put the books away." or "go put your clothes away." telling her to clean her room she just stares at me blankly like..."are you crazy?"

Ready.. Set.... JUMP!

As I said before.. Kelli loves to jump and climb. This is her in our room. She climbed up on Danny's chair and jumped from it to our bed. Back and forth and back again. Normally I would say.."no jumping!" but I had to capture it on film. Oh the places she would go, and things she would do, if she had free roam around the house.

Dress Up!

Kelli is for sure a 'girly girl'. She loves to play dress-up, cook dinners, and play with her baby! This is her favorite dress up outfit. Its a cheeta Jane costume that my niece Rachael had many years ago for a dance class. If Kelli sees it, its over... She has to then wear it for the rest of the day. Its like pulling teeth to get her out of it. Which I don't mind, I think its hilarious!

She loves climbing, jumping, running, and doing everything that the older kids are doing. Everyone use to tell me, "oh you're so lucky to have a girl they are so mello! They don't climb or anything!!" I was excited to just have a 'chill' girl.... that was the case til she learned how to walk, which didn't last long--she went from barely walking to a full on sprint. She climbs on everything she can see. (kitchen table, chairs, backs of couches, gates.) Literally anything that is taller than her.... she's climbing on. So for those of you who are thinkin' girls are easy... double check the background of the family before getting hopes up! No one told me it was in the BULL genes to climb on everything you can see. But I love it.. its hilarious to see her climb on something you think is impossible for her and then.. BAM! She's right on top of it the next second!