Nemo, When Baby Jesus was "Borned" and Turkeys

Here's a video of how our life pretty much is in the mornings. :) A recap of the day before and McKenzie being McKenzie :)

We've Been Busy (Again!)

Kylie waiting her turn....it will be here soon, little miss! :)

McKenzie and Cookie

McKenzie got an "owie" and daddy had one too, so we took a picture of their matching band-aids, but this one was cuter :)

Shopping at Costco. McKenzie loves her sunglasses...and Kylie just loves everything and everyone :)

McKenzie playing at Braden's house...she tried on his helmet ;)

Wow! Where does the time go? We have been very busy lately, doing our own things and trying to enjoy life with the girls.

As most of you know, we are facing uncertain times (like the rest of Michigan!) with Rob's future and Ford. It seems the more I read the papers, the more it seems this bailout is not coming. If you would like my educated opinion on this, feel free to write me! :) I can talk and talk about this topic. BUT....I would also encourage you to write your senators (if you agree with the bailout, not trying to force opinions on the matter). I did today and at least it felt like I was doing something! As soon as we know, you will know.

The girls are growing fast...and busy. McKenzie is 2 1/2 now and 37 inches tall. When we went to the doctor today, she wanted to get on the scale. She is 33 pounds. :) She always tells us, "I'm getting so big!" And she is...her vocabulary is amazing. She can count to 10 without any help and sometimes higher! She can say her ABC's (though like all kids K-P is a bit jumbled :) ). She knows her birthday is "April 12th", and I am currently trying to teach her the months of the year and days of the week. We try letter identification by sight, but she just isn't ready for that yet :) Her attention span is like her daddy's ---- always a BUSY mind :) She has such a personality, and at times, a "tude" :), but she is WONDERFUL and so many people have commented on her humor and love. Kylie Noelle is growing wonderfully, too (you can see below in the next post!)

It snowed yesterday...our first significant snow of the year. McKenzie HAD to go outside and go sledding with daddy. They had a blast and I will let Rob post the videos we took. McKenzie is not a big sled rider...she just loves to pull it. Then, daddy had the idea to put animals on the sleds (stuffed ones) and so she got Cookie Monster and daddy got one of her stuffed doggies. It was so cute...she was like, "Come on, Cookie!" Then, Rob convinced her to ride on his sled with Cookie. When they were finished, they came inside after we convinced her she could have hot cocoa like Curious George does after he sleds. She had the cocoa, but was more impressed with the whipped cream. Kylie and I just stayed where it was warm and watched out the window :) I had to go buy new snowpants for her today...and boots! I guess I should have been more prepared :)

We plan to spend the winter months dreaming about Hawaii and other warm places, while entertaining ourselves with library visits and trips to visit friends around here. We've got lots of ideas of things to do, but we'll see how much we get done :) It's always nice to plan things :) We are, however, looking forward to the holiday season. We are planning to go get our Christmas tree (hopefully) the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and that is always a highlight of our year. We pray life is treating all of you wonderfully. And as always, the door is always open here in O-Town, so stop by for a visit! : )

Kylie Noelle

She's standing! All by herself...she LOVES doing this :)

No joke...when she looks out the window like this all the time, I hear squeals of delight. She loves being mobile! :)

Just an angelic picture of her true personality :)

Again, here's my lil' pumpkin. What a cutie! :)

Ok...here's another blog post dedicated just to Kylie :) She went to the doctor today for her nine month check-up. I can't believe she is that old already! She is our little mover. She has learned to climb steps and does wonderfully at pulling herself up! I am so proud! She is such a happy, content baby. I am not exaggerating when I say that 9 times out of 10 when you see this baby, she is just as smiley as she is in these pictures :)

Anywho, she weighed 17 pounds, 7 ounces today at the doctor and is 27 inches tall :) The doctor also called her "ADVANCED". :) She can use a sippy cup all by herself and if McKenzie's is anywhere in sight, she'll crawl over and start drinking it! It's so cute! So, we introduce the sippy by putting formula in it and she does great :) She sleeps pretty much through the night now and when she wakes about 5AM or so, I bring her to bed to cuddle with us and slide back off to sleep. She is amazing and wonderful, just like her sister. We are so blessed. So...enjoy the pics of our lovebug! :)

Snow!?!

We started covering the windows with clear plastic prepping for the snow and colder weather to come tomorrow. The lawn is as finished as it needs to be for winter and most of the summer toys (chairs, umbrellas, trampoline, etc) are put away until the warm weather comes back. The snow blower is on deck and the sleds are waiting on the back porch :-) The tow straps, jumper cables and emergency blankets are ready in the cars. Why do we live in Michigan? Come on winter!

Fall Fun!

Things have been going well for us. We really love the summer, but these warm fall days have been nice, too. I like to wait until most of the leaves are down before picking them all up, which is working out pretty good for McKenzie to jump into from the slide. Enjoy the pictures and video :-)

Toshia to Tascha

We switched the spelling (Rob's idea) since Mama wasn't too keen on the name. I wanted Bailey. McKenzie won. I lost. :( Just wanted to update that. :) We're doing great and all adjusting. My husband is wonderful and I love him....I'm working late right now (it's 1:05AM) on Tutor.com and my eyes hurt :) I went out tonight with Kiki to The Secret Life of Bees. Great movie, but she is almost 8 months preggers and I cried more than she did :) Then, we went to Mongolian BBQ (yummy!), Target, and Starbucks. I know...I know...two wild women on a night on the town! :)
Things are great otherwise...just busy :) Rob's schedule was pretty consistent last week, so that was better. He gets 2 days off this week! Election day is free...then, he is taking Wednesday off because I got the opportunity to sub in 2 classes on another campus for OCC. The problem is that the prof quit...1/2 way through the semester. I have no lesson plans to follow, so this will be quite tricky! :) It's OK though. We'll see how it goes. :)
Well..I have a student working on suffixes, so I better go! Have a wonderful week, everyone :)

A Perfect End to the Perfect Day!

A perfect fire....

Daddy jumping with McKenzie...note her smile! :)

McKenzie "hiding"...her new favorite game :)

So, Friday came around....We had a BLAST. Seriously. We don't celebrate Halloween in our house. So, we started a "tradition"....my friend Kiki and I (they don't celebrate either) don't want our kids to feel "punished" when we pull them out of school that day (due to parties)...SO...we go do something out of the ordinary and special. This year, Autumn (her daughter) is in 1st grade, so we knew we had to make it extra special ;) We decided to go to the Ann Arbor Children's Museum. Then, Jonah (her son) got sick and we had to end the day early after lunch :( BUT...it ended up being a GREAT day!
When we got home, we tackled the leaves in the yard and then we ended the night with a campfire. Kylie fell asleep early, but McKenzie got some trampoline time with Daddy! Seriously, it was one of my most favorite days in memory with the girls. I loved it! :) Here's a picture album :)

More Friday Fun Pics! :)

Here's some "glo rocks" from the floor-0-lights!

McKenzie learning how "magazines" work...her favorite Curious George video has George playing with magnets and she calls them "magazines" :)

More magazines

She probably spent 85% of her time at the water station. They even have lil' smocks for them to wear! Isn't that awesome?

More water station :)

The BEST Fall Day a 2 Kids Can Have!

McKenzie learning how to jump in the leaves :)

Kylie...I just thought this picture was oh so sweet with the sun...I love her!

The leaf pile at the end of the slide!

Getting the work done :)

Toshiawan

Boomer needed a companion. We could never replace the love we have for Abby, but Toshia is her own loveable self. We had tried a brand new puppy dog in Marley (might be a relative of my boyhood dog Blackie), and boy was he a cutie, but he was jumping and licking and play-nipping Kylie any time he had the chance. So we had called my sister who had a different nice home set up for him in a few minutes with someone that she works with. The latest is that Marley is very well loved by an 8 year old little girl.
McKenzie named her Toshia and what a love-bucket dog! Soft, hasn't barked yet in about 10 hours, one-and-a-half years old, just fixed and well mannered house dog. Apparently she was picked up in Detroit as a stray dog, so who knows what her name really is, but McKenzie started calling her "Toshiawan". We call her Toshia. Boomer really likes her, too! She is even quicker and more nimble than Boomer, so this is great for him. Boomer will be 7 this Christmas. She is so gentle with the little girls, and McKenzie already gives her treats in her hand. Kelli will surely write more about our newest member of our family later. She's been working super hard for a long time and is sleeping now. What a great wife and mom :-)