Gingerbread Houses

We made gingerbread houses last night. Well, actually they were graham cracker houses. We made 3 this year. Doug made his own and I helped the boys make theirs. Doug was going to make one with Jordan, but I decided that wouldn't be a very good idea. Jordan would have probably messed it up, and Doug wouldn't have liked that very much. I'm a bit more easy going about that kind of thing :). It was fun having the boys do their own, with a little of my help.

Jordan, Jack, and Doug making the houses.

Jordan with his teepee house.

Jack with his flat roofed house.

Jordan's finished house and snowman.

Doug's finished house and snowman too.

Jack and his finished house and snowman too.

Jackson and Doug ready to eat their houses.

Photo Shoots

Kenzie has the cutest Christmas dress, and Jack agreed to wear a vest and tie to church, and Jordan was so handsome, as usual, so I had to take a picture of the kids. And I got some cute ones...

We went to my parents' house on Sunday and took more picture since all the cousins were together again.
Kenzie, Sam, Alli, Natty, Kimber, Kenna, Jordy, Jack

Funny faces shot, after Makenna, and Natalie were done with the photo shoot.

The Rockettes!

My mom took my sisters, my niece, Mackenzie, and me to see the Rockettes so the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (or something like that). It was a really good do show. I was amazed at what the dancers could do. They were kicking their legs and hopping and dancing all while wearing high heals. I can barely walk in high heals so needless to say I was quite impressed. We also went to lunch at Palominos, which was really good. I told Doug we should go there sometime. I think he'd like it a lot too. Maybe we'll do dinner and show sometime... Here's the pictures courtesy of my sister's blog.

Ashlee, my mom, Michelle, me waiting for lunch.

This is how I carried Mackenzie as we walked through Seattle. Her eyes were that big the whole time. I got a lot of looks and comments, many more than I would have wanted... Some people smiled and commented on how cute she is, others just gave weird or surprised looks. My favorite comment was when I guy said, I wish I had a camera, that's a great picture. When I decided to wear Kenzie in the coat I didn't think it would be as big of a deal as it was. I thought more people did it than me. But I guess I was wrong. At least she was warm.

Thanks mom! I can't wait until we do it again!

Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas Party last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Jackson was excited to see Santa and kept saying he was going to sit on his lap. I didn't think he'd do it though. But he did. His cousin, Kimber, convinced him to. I don't think he would have if she wouldn't have been there.

Alli and Mackenzie... Right when Alli got there she said she wanted to sit by Kenzie then pretty much immediately asked if she could hold her. She loves Mackenzie. But who doesn't?

Sam and Santa. Sam wanted me to take her picture with Santa.

Jack and Santa. Jack seemed a little nervous. I think he thought Kimber was going to sit on Santa's lap with him and was a little nervous when she didn't. He didn't talk to Santa. He just smiled and nodded. He was really excited when he got down though.

Kimber and Santa.

Jordan was there too. He just didn't want to sit on Santa's lap. We didn't even try. Doug asked him if he wanted to and he shook his head. Maybe next year.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We decorated the Christmas tree awhile ago. We all enjoyed it.

It was Jordan's first time hanging up the ornaments.

But Jackson was a pro.


as was Doug

Jordan and Jack with their ornament fingers.

Aren't they cute?

hugging brothers

It snowed a little bit last Sunday and Doug and Jack went out to play in the snow. They could really play though, so they just tried to eat it.

Jack and Doug

Kids Update

Kenzie is 3 months old now. She's been smiling a lot for the last month and is starting to laugh some. She does good at holding her head up and is pretty strong. She actually scooted herself today, on accident of course, but she did move a couple inches forward. If she could get her arms figured out she could have been crawling. I took her to the doctor a couple weeks ago and she weighed a little more than 10 lbs, which was the 30 percentile I think. And she was about 22 in which was also about the 30 percentile I think. Her head is average size though, which is rare for our kids...

This is Kenzie at 2 months

Here's just a cute picture of her sleeping a few days ago.

Kenzie yesterday.

Kenzie yesterday again.

I've put her in her jumpy toy a few times. She doesn't last too long in it though.

Jackson, Jordan and Mackenzie.

Jordan after his hair cut yesterday.

Jordan is 21 months old now. And he's changing all the time. He talks pretty well I think. I can understand at least. He loves to repeat what we say. He also loves to do whatever Jackson does. It's pretty cute. I like watching him watch Jack and then immediatly do the same things he just saw Jack do. Jack and Jordan play well together a lot of the time. In nursery I hear that they always want to sit by each other and play together a lot. And they were feeding each other fishies during snack time. Jordan loves nursery now. He went through a phase where he would cry when it was time for nursery, but was usually ok after a little while. But now he gets excited when it's time for it. He's also a very happy little boy. He laughs a lot and get excited easily. Whenever we figure out what he wants he laughs instead of saying yes. Pretty much the only time he's not happy is when he's hungry. And when he finally gets food he eats it so fast. He eats his sandwich for lunch in about a minute I think. For dinner he often finishes his food before Doug and I can start eating. Jordan is also a boy who loves to get into things and make messes and do things he's not supposed to. He likes dumping water out of the tub. He can count a little, with help. He can drink from a real cup now...

Jack after his hair cut yesterday.

On to Jackson. Jackson doesn't change very much. Although he does like to change his clothes a lot. He's into warm up pants right now. He calls them his tennis pants. He likes to pick out Jordan's clothes too. He likes to wake up earlier than I like him to now. But he usually doesn't wake me up. He'll just go read books downstairs or something like that. He's been learning to write the letters and numbers and has learned how to draw people. He's becoming a little less shy I think. He loves listening to Christmas music. He likes to play computer games. He doesn't take naps anymore, which wasn't a fun transition for me, but it's ok now. I'm used to it. He does have quiet time in his room though.

Great Grandpa Riding

My grandpa came to town for Thanksgiving. Since we were gone during Thanksgiving, we were only able to see him for a couple hours. Jordan didn't get to see him though because he was sleeping when grandpa came over and had to stay home that night when we saw grandpa again for dinner at my sisters because he was sick. Grandpa got to meet Kenzie for the first time though. And I got some cute pictures to capture the moment. We hadn't seen grandpa for awhile and it was good to see him again and talk to him.

Sick Week

After our fun Thanksgiving week we got sick. Jordan was the sickest. He threw up a few times and seemed pretty miserable all week. He's never really been sick like this. Usually when he's sick he's still pretty happy and plays more. But this time he was pretty sad and actually rested some. All of us felt at least a little sick last week. Doug and Jackson weren't too bad though. I'm glad it's this week now and we're feeling better.

Thanksgiving Week

We went to Doug's parent's house an hour outside of Vegas for Thanksgiving. All of his 7 brothers and sisters were there with they're spouses and children. There were a lot of people! We had so much fun spending time together. It was the first time everyone was together in several years. I love seeing how well the cousins get along even though they don't see each other very often. It makes us want to live closer to them all :). We drove all the way there. We stopped at my sister's house in Portland and stayed there for a day, then drove to Doug's brother's house in Sacramento, which is about a 12 hour drive. Then we went to a hotel near Sandy Valley, where Doug's parents live, which took us about 9 or 10 hours. We stayed a week then did that drive again. The kids did really well in the car 3 of the long days. The last day was pretty bad, and I didn't think we'd ever get home. But we did. Kenzie cried a lot on the way home, and so did Jordan. Plus Jordan was sick and threw up twice. But all that driving was worth it. We had a lot of fun. The boys loved playing with their cousins. Mackenzie loved being held a ton. Doug and I loved playing games with his brothers and sisters and their spouses. We just had fun being together. I have a ton of pictures from the week and narrowed it down some. There are still a love of pictures. Sorry if you get bored :) Jordan, Jackson, Alyssa, Ashton, Carinn. The first evening we were at grandma's house the kids played the animal game. They each took turns pretending to be an animal and the others would guess which animal they thought the person was being. Jackson loved this game. He would get so excited when they would guess. It was cute to see the kids trying to be different animals.

I think this is pretty much the cutest picture ever. She is smiling so much nowadays. It's fun.

Jackson helped grandma make enchiladas.

Joan, Doug's mom, watched our kids, along with Doug's brother's and his sister's kids so we could go on a triple date. We brought Mackenzie and Doug's sister, Candis, brought their baby. So we left Joan with 8 kids. She said everything went well when we were gone. I was worried about Jordan, but she said he was fine. We had a lot of fun on our date. We were going to go bowling, but the bowling alley was going close for a couple hours about a half hour after we got there so we decided to go see New Moon instead. I was nervous about taking Kenzie in the movie because we've never taken a baby to the movies, but she did amazingly well. She slept the entire time in her car seat. After the movie we went to the Bellagio and walked around and then went to see the water show. Thanks for watching the kids, Joan!

The picture is of Doug and I with a troll tree.

Here's the Bellagio. A smaller version of it. Jack was looking at these pictures with me and when he saw this picture he said "conference!' I guess he thought it was the Conference Center.

Doug and I with the water show behind us.

Brian, Tina, Candis, and Ryan outside the water show.

Doug and I with the fake Eiffel Tower. Too bad we didn't take a picture with the fake Space Needle too. :)

Alyssa, Jackson, and Avery

This is Carinn. Jackson saw this picture and thought it was him, then Jordan, then Ashton. I told him it's Carinn and he said in his baby talk voice "oh, it's Carinn when she was a baby." I guess he thinks she looks really young in the picture.

Avery and Jordan coloring.

Jackson, Carinn, Isaac, Mckay, Brooklyn, and Avery eating dinner. Not Thanksgiving dinner though. I don't have any pictures of that meal.

Eva, Grandma, and Mackenzie. Eva is 3 months older than Mackenzie.

Carinn and Jackson. These two became good friend while they were together. Jackson still talks about her. Just yesterday he was telling me that he would get to see her and his other cousins in the summer. Then he said "Carinn's so cute. I love Carinn." They were always asking about each other and wanting to play together.

The oldest three cousins, Toria, Whitney, and Dylan. Dylan leaves for his mission at the end of this month.

grandma and grandpa. We had family pictures taken while we were there. I might post some of those pictures later. But I might not.

This is some of the family. We had a Thanksgiving program. We all went around and said what we were thankful for after Grandma and Grandpa talked a little bit. Jackson was excited for his turn. But I never heard what he said because Mackenzie was crying. Although I did hear him finish like he just shared his testimony.

Eva

Lauren and Anna put Jackson up in a thigh stand. I guess we have another cheerleader in the family :)

Doug helping Jackson shoot an arrow.

Anna shooting one with Lauren watching. We were having a long distance shooting contest.

Doug, Anna, Shayla, Preston, and Lauren watching after Preston's turn.

Xavier with his bow.

Me and Doug.

Mckay.

Lauren loved holding Mackenzie. She wanted to do it all the time.

We had a little Christmas party and the kids did a talent show during it. X did some pretty amazing break dancing. He can even spin on his head.

While we were having fun during the party one of Santa's elves delivered some presents on the doorstep for each of kids. Each child received a pair of jammies.

Our kids got cute matching ones. Mackenzie's is pink but other than that it's the same.

All the grandkids. Damon, Shayla, Dylan, Hunter, Toria, Whitney, Ashton, Lauren, Mackenzie, Daisy, Carson, Brooklyn, Preston, X, Landon, Anna, Eva, Alyssa, Carinn, Avery, Jackson, Jordan, Isaac, Mckay.

After the picture taking, the kids had a fashion show. Jackson showed off his muscles during it.
The boys on the long drive home.