December 2016

We had a lot going on in the month of December.

This was technically in November, but I forgot to include it.  We measure the girls each November & May around their birthdays.  I thought this was fun because we reached the first time when the kids were measured at the same ages. If anyone wants to know how much older Katelyn is than Brooklyn at a certain age, her it is.

Brooklyn fell the first Saturday of December and the next morning her elbow still hurt and she would not bend it, so I took her to urgent care on Sunday and the x-ray was inconclusive about if it was a break or not so they treated as one.  When we went to the specialist a couple days later, he did not think it was broken and she was acting totally normal.  

I took Brooke for a treat (donuts) after her urgent care appointment.

Decorating for Christmas.

Katelyn got a subscription to Clubhouse for her birthday and everytime she gets a magazine she finds a quiet spot to read for a long time.

We took a family bike ride to a local Little Free Library.

When you are a kid, it is still fun to rake leaves.

 Here's a few more randoms.

Katelyn reading a Bible story to Madison.  💗💗

 You will need to turn up the volume on this, but it is pretty sweet.

When did she get so big?

Kyle has become a true Californian.  Here he is in our bedroom when our heater wasn't working in Dec.

Katelyn had her first soccer practice before Christmas. (Top left)

 The girls each got to pick one thing that was important to them over the Christmas season.  Katelyn wanted to make a gingerbread house.  Brooklyn wanted to do a Christmas tree craft.  I picked going to see Christmas lights.

We drove through the lights this year and on our way home stopped at a home that has a display set to music. Here is Madison watching it.

We opened some of our gifts before we headed out of town.  Evidently I didn't take too many pics, but here is a pictures of pure joy of Brooklyn.

And then we were off to Minnesota for Christmas.

San Diego Zoo & March 2016 - Week 3

Our big excitement for this month was a short trip down to San Diego to take a trip to the zoo.  This was our Christmas present from my mom & step-dad.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids really enjoyed it as it was their first visit to that zoo.  We drove down on Sunday afternoon and stayed the night down there so we could be at the zoo on time the next morning.

This is all for 1 night.  We do not travel lightly. . . .

When we first arrived at the zoo, we took a 45 minutes bus tour around most of the park.

Cousins!

Madison the navigator

Kyle and I took a picture by this statue when we were dating.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it to upload it.  But someday, we will be able to compare the photos.  Probably 11 years apart.

I have been working on a couple small projects for the girls bathroom.  I made plaques with their initials to hang above their new towel hooks.  We had a towel bar before, but it was hard for them to get their towels on and off.  I also made another hair bow hanger.  Our hair bow collection with 3 girls gets a little crazy.  We have now lined up someone to redo our bathtubs and shower surrounds in about 3 weeks.  So you will be seeing more on that in coming weeks.

The one on the far left is the new one.  It matches the headband holder I made last year, although you can't really see that as it is so full.

Here are a couple more random pictures:

Katelyn wrote a story about fairies.  She is really enjoying writing stories, letters, and journaling lately.

 

Here is a video of Madison chatting & playing that I forgot to post last week.  It is a little long, but she dances towards the end of it.

Cute Quotes & Quick Stories:
- "Maybe one day, Mommy, you will see me on TV as President.  But I still also want to be a teacher and a scientist."  - Katelyn
- Madison managed to climb into the full bath tub by herself - with shorts and shoes still on.

Sunny Days in February & Garage Organization

I am struggling a little with the flow of this new weekly blogging format.  I like the topical posts that I used to do better, because I felt they were probably more interesting to follow along with than just a weekly update of 'here is what we did this week.'  However, it is much easier to make sure I actually stay on top of the blogging when I do a weekly post on around the same day each week.  So please (if anyone is reading this ;-) ) bare with me while I try to get the flow of this down and figure out what is best.


We have been having some wonderful weather the past few weeks (possibly even too warm), so I am trying to get the kiddos outdoors a little more.  The unfortunate part of that means more baths/showers (not my favorite part of parenting), but I guess it is worth it, right?  Katelyn doesn't have school on Mondays and Fridays, so on the very rare occasion where I'm not working and we don't have appointments, I try to do something fun with them.  Last week we went to the park on Friday.  There happened to be another girl from Katelyn's class there that day too, so Katelyn had a blast.

Lunch Time!

On Saturday, we had a work day in the garage.  We bought some new shelving and moved some things around so that the kids will hopefully have better access to their toys.  Before it was just all in one huge tub and finding balls/helmets/toys could be difficult.  It was beautiful outside and we pretty much spent the whole day in the front yard. 

We love chalk at our house.

The finished product

 I might still pick up some more baskets and we need to get rid of a few basketball (I think 5 is too many), but I am really like it so far.  Our hope is that the bikes will stay far enough to the right so that they don't block everything else.  Fingers crossed.

On Tuesday, Katelyn celebrated 100's day at school.  She had to bring in 100 snack items (she picked marshmallows) and she had to turn in a project of her choice last week that included 100 items on it.  After looking through some ideas on Pinterest, she decided to make a skittles rainbow.

The highlight of my week was that they opened a new Hobby Lobby less than 10 minutes from our house on Monday!  So, of course, I had to go this morning with my mom to check it out.  Brooklyn thought these flowering trees in the parking lot were cool and wanted to go stand by one. 

The sun was a little bright . . .

Funnies of the week:
- I found an ice pack in the trash the other morning when making lunches and I asked Katelyn why it was in the trash.  "It's not cold," she said.  Evidently she thought that because it was no longer cold, it was broken.  I promptly took it out and put it in the freezer.
- Why is it that the only time flip flops fly off a kids foot while riding a scooter is when you are in the middle of a 5 lane road?  This of course happened to Brooklyn (aka Speed Racer) while walking to Katelyn's bus stop yesterday afternoon.

2014 - An exciting year ahead

We have a lot to look forward to for 2014 in our house.  Mainly a new baby girl to come in May, but I'm sure that Katelyn and Brooklyn will grow and change a ton during the year too.

We celebrated the new year at home.  As I mentioned last year, it has always been a family tradition for me to make breakfast on New Year's day and watch the parade.

We did this again this year with another fun new breakfast recipe.  I made Stawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast. And wow, was it good.  The recipe (and prettier pictures) can be found here.  Of course, the idea again came from Pinterest.  Here is a picture of how ours turned out.

Here are the girls watching the parade in the living room while eating breakfast.

What a goof ball.