A trip to the Dentist

On January 5th I took Kelsey to the dentist for the first time. She was a champion. She didn't love the vibrator tooth brush but who does right. She did love the mirror and the fact that she got to watch TV during the whole appointment.
She was such a good girl and after wards got a balloon and a little toy baby. It was a successful trip to the dentist and I am so pleased.

While we were waiting in the waiting room, Kelsey was playing with the toys and farted. Instead of saying excuse me, she turned to the only other women in the waiting room, and was like, "Was that you!" It was so funny. I laughed so hard but tried not to. The lady just kind of looked at Kelsey. She either didn't hear her, or know why she said that, or thought that Kelsey had disgusting and rude parents to teach their daughter something like that. Regardless, I got a good laugh.

Post Christmas aka January

After Christmas with the Wings, we spent New Years Eve with the Nellys, Nelsons, and Harrisons. Here's how we do New Years now a days. We BARELY made it to midnight. We are such party animals.

Between New Years and the start of school we still had about a week of break and it was wonderful. We tried to take full advantage of our last 2 week Christmas break. We went to the RB like every morning, slept in, stayed up late, made fun dinners, and tried to do a family activity every day.

One activity that we did right before school was a trip down to the Springville Nicklemania. It was a little too old for Kelsey but we found stuff that she could do too. It was not crowded at all ( I love when all the students are gone!) and so we really could do anything we wanted.

Kelsey literally climbed up into the gate to drop the skee ball in. I could't move fast enough to stop her.

She loved the knock em' games and obviously the candy vending machine

Not to rub it in, but I beat Ethan at the basketball game. I honestly think that its because I'm THAT bad at real basketball so I can out perform in fake basketball. Kelsey loved the merry-go-rounds. So much so that she would follow families around and when they would pay she would quickly hop on with their kids. It was fine once because you all just share a like, but then she turned into "THAT" kid and we had to distract her from the merry-go-rounds. 

Luckily she thought air hockey was awesome. As a whole, I think the favorite game was the pac man game that we all got to play and eat each other. It was so much fun. 

Kelsey is a social butterfly. She hardly naps anymore because she doesn't want to miss out.  After Christmas however, we noticed that Kelsey would go off on her own a lot more to just be with her babies and toys. We worked really hard to get her gifts that were a little bit "older" and I think we nailed it. Santa brought her a baby that cries and laughs and every time it laughs, Kelsey laughs and every time it cries, Kelsey runs to get its bottle or blanket or something to make "white baby" (she has a white dress) feel better. She also will sit and read to baby for hours or make her food. Its so cute to watch her play with her toys and be a little mommy.

Kelsey also loves to dance. Nothing new. Over the break one of our favorite things to do was to watch the BYU cheerleaders practice and Kelsey would copy them. One of her toys from Grandma Nelson plays music and Kelsey dances to it at least 5 times a day and a lot of those times baby has to join her. She is such a happy little girl and I love watching her enter into this new stage of play and personality.

Kelsey also LOVES to wear dresses and skirts. Typically she wears both. For Christmas however I got her a shirt and I feel like it was a personal victory because I can get her to wear it! No skirt, no dress on top, just the shirt and pants! I love it. She also wears the other shirt I bought her but thats because she thinks its a dress. Doesn't matter... I got her to wear a t-shirt!

Here is Ethan the day before school. Such a handsome man.

I told them to both look at me and smile and they looked down and said cheese. It was so funny, but I also didn't get my picture for a few attempts.

The Saturday after school started, January 10th, we were all feeling a bit of the free time blues and went to Lowes Extreme Bounce house. Instant hit.

Kelsey was a little hesitant of the foam pits because she thought they were swimming pools (and they are the grossest things on the planet) but luckily she has a super fun dad and found out just how much fun they can be. I wanted to play with them so badly, but I'm really glad that they had a fun time.

And with that we are into the New Year officially. We are adjusting to Ethan's new schedule and are figuring out ways to be Ethan-less again. Also every now and then we remember that we have a baby coming really soon and freak out because we have much to do to get things ready for her arrival. We are very excited but not very prepared!

Happy 5 years

We have had 3 anniversaries with kids and have been able to spend one without Kelsey. Better luck next year right? I guess its our fault for getting married during Christmas break when all of the babysitters are out of town.

Although we had to have Kelsey, December 29th was one of the funnest days of the break. We started the day by exercising at the RB and then Ethan took us all to breakfast at Shirley's where we had some of the best cinnamon rolls of all time. AND the cinnamon rolls were as big as my face! It was AWESOME!

We spent the afternoon bowling at the WILK and oh my goodness. Talk about family fun.

Kelsey did pretty good, but got a little bored. She loved to push the balls down the ramp but even that only lasted a few times. She also LOVED to play with the fan where you dry your fingers. I don't like this picture at all, but you can see Kelsey in the back sticking her face in the fan. It was hilarious.

She also found other ways to entertain herself. She did her best.

While we were there we ran into the Salmons and Shellee was nice enough to take a picture for us.

We woke up to a pretty good snow storm and it lasted for hours. We were going to go bowling first thing but decided that it would be more ideal if we played in the snow and I am so glad we did. This was probably my favorite thing that we did all break. They only word I can think of to describe the whole morning would be happiness. It was just so happy to be out there as a family running around and laughing at everything. Nothing could go wrong. It was just one of those moments in life where you stop and realize how lucky you really are. Its also a moment that makes you wonder why all moments can't be like this one, but you at least have this moment. It was so much fun.

Kelsey LOVED the snow! Her coat didn't let her put her arms down and her gloves were too big so she was the cutest sight ever. Watching her try to run and keep up with Ethan was hilarious. She would trip and fall so many times and just laugh and laugh. It was equally as funny to watch her try to pick up the snow and throw it at us. Since her thumbs weren't in the gloves it was just kind of sad attempts that led to more falling but luckily we got it all on film.

Kelsey wasn't the only one that loved the snow. Although Ethan played different than her, he found ways to make his snow experience magical too.

When she would fall she would just sit there until we came and helped her up. She wasn't being lazy. She literally had no other option.

 Its long but PLEASE watch from 41 seconds on!! This is my favorite video ever.

And oh my goodness!! This girl loves her snow pants. She thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread. She wore them for days after. When did my baby grow up?!

After playing in the snow we introduced Kelsey to Top Ramen and hot cocoa and let her watch Cinderella. I think its the best anniversary she has had yet!

Although I tease, spending 5 years with Ethan has been my greatest blessing in life. He is a wonderful man, a great husband, and such a happy father. He makes everyone around him better. I know no one that works and plays as hard as Ethan. He is optimistic, positive, and loves life. Situations don't get him down even if they try. He just chooses to be the bigger man and improve from everything that is thrown his way. I love him more every year and am so grateful that I get to learn so much from him. We have grown a lot as a couple and I look forward to these next years. I just don't fear the future because I know with Ethan by my side I can do anything. We will figure it out together and for that I am eternally grateful.

Side note: In the last five years we have had 7 moves, 2.5 cars, 1.5 kids, 2.5 degrees, and so many BYU home games that I didn't bother counting. Love you Ethan!

Christmas 2014

We were fortunate enough to spend Christmas and Christmas Eve this year with the Wings up in Bountiful. Because it was so close for us, we decided to stay in Provo until the evening of the 23rd and then stayed until the 27th. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary happened, but it was such a wonderful holiday.

We all were together, minus the AWings, on Christmas Eve for a beautiful dinner and most of us ended up spending the night at Robert and Dianas. The highlight of the evening was probably singing Christmas carols, or opening crackers. I love that the Wings introduced me to crackers. They are so much fun! I love them. The prizes this year were pretty swank too. We all had to act and told a joke but the best joke teller was probably Holden. "My clue is book. My word is To Kill A Mockingbird" and then he sat down. The best actor was definitely Emily with her impression of Fiddler on the Roof. Good times had by all.  I wish the AWings could have been there too, but we all got some pretty great laughs from cracker opening.

This fruit dish was too gorgeous to not take a picture.

I have officially decided that ham is so much better than turkey. Like so muc

h better

And by some miracle we woke up Christmas morning to snow on the ground. The whole week had been in the 40s and even 50s and then a storm rolled in. It was beautiful.

Ethan's family wakes up very happy. I do not. Ethan was nice enough to prepare me for Christmas morning by waking me up about 30 minutes before Kelsey woke up. He came in our room and said "I know you probably want to keep sleeping, but I thought you'd want to wake up so you can get ready to be around people." It sounds really sharp, but I thought it was one of the sweetest things he has ever done. And yes, his family wakes up every happy. I could learn a thing or two from all of them.

 Kelsey sleeps amazingly well at the Wings house and at 8 am we were all getting really excited and tired of waiting for her, so Ethan and I woke her up.

It took her a minute to realize what we were saying but then when she saw what Santa had brought, she was sold. It was so exciting. I thought Christmas was fun as a kid, but its so much more fun as a parent.

After we looked at Santa stuff, the Mannings came over and we all took turns opening gifts. This is minus the AWings and Robert and Diana, but there's the whole crew.

Everyone was so kind and generous to Kelsey. She had so much fun opening presents and wanted to play with everything immediately. She got a little overwhelmed and tired of waiting so we had to take a break from her gifts. She literally said " No more presents please." I felt really bad because I wanted people to know how touched we were, but she was just so tired and wanted to play. We need to remember that for next year. She was also super cute because she kept wanting to thank Santa Claus. It really concerned her that she couldn't give him a hug.

Kelsey helped Ethan and I wrap our presents and she was so excited to give them to us

On the evening of the 25th, the Smiths and Mannings had to leave, but the Wings got into town. We had a wonderful Christmas day dinner and then went to bed. Everyone was so exhausted. The next morning I got to go day after shopping with Andy and Annie and they helped restrain me from buying too much stuff. It was super fun though to be with Andy and Annie.  We had a whole day with Andy and Annie and decided to do our sibling gift exchange then. We had munchies, Andy and Ethan tackled each other in the snow and we played a game in which I got a little snippy and felt really bad, but the game was fun.

 Holden made everyone gifts. I got a BYU hand warmer, the baby got a soft rattle, and Ethan got a really cool car. Maybe the best gifts of the year right there.

During the gift exchange, Diana prepared a plate of chocolates for everyone and passed them around for all of us to enjoy. A few were taken and then the plate was put on the table. About half way through the gift exchange, I thought I would check on Harper and Kelsey (since we all got distracted and forgot to take notice) and I looked up to find Kelsey grabbing the last chocolate from the plate. The girls ate EVERY SINGLE CHOCOLATE OFF THE PLATE!!! No one actually knows how many they ended up taking but it was at least 6 a piece. They ran away from the table laughing hysterically.  About an hour later, we were all opening some gifts and playing games when Reo was like "where are the girls?" Good question. We were all upstairs and again no one had seen them for about 20 minutes. We heard gleeful screaming coming from Diana's room, headed in there only to find the bathroom completely flooded!! The girls had turned on the tub, would get in the tub "swim around"  jump out and run to look at themselves in the mirror. They were soaked and so was everything else. Both girls spent some time in time-out.
The next day Diana was talking to Kelsey about being naughty and eating the chocolates. Diana asked Kels how many she ate and Kelsey was like "3. 5. um I don't know. I being sneaky. Shhh!!" That little stinker! She is hilarious and she and Harper together are one dynamic duo.
I don't really have a favorite Christmas but 2014 was up there with the rest of them. We had great food, got some snow, played lots of games, finished a puzzle, sang songs, and were all together. I am so grateful to be apart of two really wonderful families who want to be together over the holidays.