Santa Land in Cloudcroft, NM

We had our 2nd annual soup potluck and Santa Land event this past weekend. We had 3 other families and Chad's parents with us this year. We enjoyed a yummy soup potluck at our home and then drove up the hill to Cloudcroft to see Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive to the park on a firetruck. Dathan and Kacy had a great time with their friends and enjoyed seeing Santa and the firetruck.

Kacy backed in a close as she could to Santa wanting him to put her in his lap too, but he didn't take the hint.

Kacy's first haircut, well really just a trim. She had a wild patch of hair that Great Grandma took care of us for us.

I think this pictures captures a bit of Dathan's personality. He loves to be silly.

Happy 2nd Birthday Kacy!

I think many of you have given up on me by now on adding new posts to this blog. I have been overwhelmed with the thought of "catching up", but have made the executive decision to just move on to current events.

To start off Kacy turned 2 this month! She is our green eyed red head that gets attention wherever we go. She is a cutie and has lots to say these days. She is starting some of those great 2 year old tantrums and very different from out experiences with Dathan at this age. When she throws a tantrum it goes on and on and on, unlike Dathan who would throw one and then get over it. I guess she really is a girl :) She loves her babies, shoes, hats, riding her tricycle, and drawing. She is very shy with strangers and particularly with men. She wants to do whatever her big brother does which leaves me to find her trying to climb up the side of the bunk bed, trying to jump off things...basically trying to be a nearly 4 year old boy.

Dathan has begun going to preschool 2 half days per week this fall. He loves his school and has lots of friends attending the same program. He is able to spell his name and is getting better at copying it down onto paper. He enjoys reading books, jumping, running, climbing, playing with cars, and many more things that wear his parents out:) He is a sweet boy that watches out for his little sister, but is a big brother that expresses his dominance at times too.

We have had a very fun and busy summer. I took the kids back to Kansas in early July to visit my grandmother and extended family over the 4th of July. We had a fun time and the kids were amazing travelers. We brought Mady back with us and enjoyed her stay until late July. In July we met a group of our Carlsbad friends for a weekend camping trip. We had a blast despite getting rained out and cutting the trip short by a night.

My mom made this cake for one of my birthdays when I was little. I had fun making it for Kacy.
Kacy trying to hold up two fingers while saying "I'm two". She's so stinking cute! Bribery material right here! Kacy was given dress up outfits for her bday and Dathan loved this one that he has on. He wore it for 2 or 3 hours today. He keeps saying he is going to "fly" and wants Chad to throw him in the air and not catch him. I think he really thinks he should be able to fly with the wings on. I said something about him being a girl fairy and he corrected me that he was the boy one from the book. He went and got Kacy's book on fairy's and showed me the boy that he was pretending to be. I think this is a good picture for highschool graduation...hehehe

We LOVE Mady! She is absolutely amazing with Dathan and Kacy.

Spring 2010

I have neglected this blog so much lately. Now to try and recap our spring feels nearly impossible. Trips to Colorado, San Diego, Iowa, Kansas...lots of miles on the van.

Kacy is getting close to being 22 months old and in the past month has really began talking more and more. She is putting 2 and 3 words together and her vocabulary has expaneded. Some of the cutest words she says right now are "wattie" for water and "coco" for cookie. She loves playing in the water, with her baby dolls and generally just playing. She is full of spunk and doesn't let much slow her down.

Kacy is 18 months old!

Kacy turned 18 months old last week and is growing up so fast! She is our little climber and is determined to keep up with her big brother. Her vocabulary is expanding and she is learning how to hold her own around the house. She loves to wrestle with Dathan and is often the one that starts the wrestling session. She is a tough little girl! In the past month she has become very interested in potty training and likes to sit on the potty multiple times a day. We still have a long ways to go before she is "potty trained". Kacy rises early everyday at 5am no matter what we do to change that routine, uggh!

Dathan is Kacy's biggest cheerleader with potty training. He is so good to help her get her clothing off and sit with her while she is trying to go potty. Kacy's favorite thing to tells us when she is on the potty is "Go Go" and closes the door on us. She likes her privacy!
We got away to the cabin a couple of weekends ago and met some of our friends from Carlsbad there for the weekend. The kids (Dathan, Kacy, Brenna, and Reagan) all had a great time sledding and playing in the snow.

Kacy playing with Daddy's hats.

January

January began with Chad's parents visiting from Montana for a week. We enjoyed playing in the snow and having the extra attention from Grandparents for the week.

Kacy has been doing really good feeding herself with a spoon and loves to drink the milk out of her cereal bowl (most of the time it goes all down the front of her). She is independent as ever and is a "determined" little girl. She still prefers to play with trains, balls and cars over dolls or "girl" toys. She has learned to hit her brother when he is in her space or takes something from her, which we are actually happy that she has a way to defend herself now. She seems to be picking up more words all the time. Her favorites right now are: ball, "ba-ba" for book, "day day" for Dathan, baby, "mo" for more, "eese" for please, and "all doo" for all done. She can throw some impressive tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants and will continue to throw the tantrum even if we cave and give her what she wants. I can't seem to go anywhere without getting comments on how cute my "redheads" are or how lucky I am to have redheaded children. I must say I agree=)

One of Kacy's last days with the paci. She had not been sleeping so great, so decided if the paci was not helping we might as well get rid of it. After a couple of days she didn't seem to miss it. Kacy loves to read books and Dathan is always right behind her fighting for the attention too. =)

Grandpa and Dathan had a fun snowball fight.

Catch up time!

I know these photos are a bit late, but I couldn't pass up the chance to share them with you all. Chad and I had the best time with Christmas this year! Dathan understood Santa and enjoyed every celebration along the way. Kacy as you can see below would have preferred to not meet Santa this year, but what a story telling picture we got! We took the kids to see Santa at Santa Land in Cloudcroft, NM with a group of friends. Dathan sat on Santa's lap and told him he wanted a green car for Christmas.

Santa brought some fun new toys!

Grandma and Papa came to visit a few days after Christmas.

Kacy all bundled up. She loves her "Paci". I decided yesterday to cut the tip off of one of her pacifiers in and effort to get rid of them. After about 1min. of crying last night I caved and gave her another one. I don't think I am ready for her to grow up.

The excitement of the holiday celebrations got to her one day at lunch and she fell asleep eating lunch. You can see part of her sandwich is still in her hand.

Snow Day, Chirstmas Tree, Parade....

Chad and I are so excited for this Christmas! It is our first Christmas in our own home, our first Christmas tree and to top it off Dathan is SO excited about Santa this year! We went to Ruidoso this weekend and Chad cut down our tree. Dathan helped us decorate and Kacy helped by pulling the ornaments off the tree=) I have been doing too much candy making and can already see this will not be a good month for our waist! While we were in Ruidoso we met up with our good friends Jerry and Nicole and their precious little girl Charise. We enjoyed going to the Walk Through Bethlehem and to a very cold Festival of Lights Parade with them. We ended the day with a hot bowl of chili and a fun game of Settlers of Catan at the cabin.

Kacy fell asleep before the parade ever started and slept through the firetrucks and police car sirens going off right next to us during the parade. I guess she was a very tired little girl!


Jackson (Nicole's nephew), Kacy and Charise bundled up and ready for the Walk Through Bethlehem.

Chad and Dathan getting the tree.

Kacy practicing using the spoon. She is still quite a messy eater when she is feeding herself, but she is getting better.

Kacy and Dathan both enjoyed eating the snow. Kacy was making a face at me here.

My Favorite Season

Many people that are close to me know that I love winter, but really my favorite season is fall. I love the cooler air, the changing colors, the good smells from the kitchen and most of all knowing that winter is next! We have had a great fall this year, one that tops them all! Chad and I enjoyed a week away on a cruise with friends while the children got to spend a week with Grandma, Papa and Mady. We have enjoyed dressing the kids up for Halloween, carving and decorating pumpkins, baking yummy food, going to fall carnivals and seeing the fun of the season through our kids eyes...the best way to see things!
We celebrated Dathan's 3rd birthday over a month ago now. He has really been into pumpkins this fall and wanted a pumpkin cake.
My parents survived the week with all three grandkids at our house while Chad and I were on the cruise.

Our little football girl!

We had a great week cruising with our friends Greg and Delaina from Carlsbad. We went to St. Thomas, St. Marten, Grand Turk and Princess Cays. We had a nice relaxing week.

Chad did the honors of carving the pumpkin after the kids and I had cleaned the inside out. Kacy liked playing with the seeds, but Dathan didn't want much to do with it.

Halloween morning we made pumpkin shaped pancake and Dathan put the faces on them.

Dathan and his good friend Austin at the pumpkin patch.

Kacy loves her blanket and pacifier for nap time and bedtime.