Sunday, December 6, 2009

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.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Clothes, Bumbo, and a Big Problem

A few days ago, after I got Jordan out of bed, we went to Jack's room to tell him it was time to get up. This is what I found when I walked in:

He picked out clothes for Jordan and him to wear and laid them out. I thought it was pretty cute.


Kenzie sat in her bumbo for the first time this week. She was only able to hold her self up for a few minutes before she was leaning to the side. So we'll wait a little longer to really start using it.

I saw this article on yahoo news yesterday. Just the title of it caught my attention and I had to read it...


I'm not sure how we'll handle this. We might have to start eating homemade waffles or even cereal for breakfast. Hopefully there will still be enough waffles at Sam's Club to supply our 3 boxes a month that we go through... :)

Friday, November 13, 2009

Smiles

Mackenzie has started smiling more this week. I've been trying to get a good one on camera and today I did. Isn't she so cute? It's fun to try to make her smile.

(sorry for the crooked picture... someday I'll figure out why this happens. But not right now. I'm a busy mom :))
Pretty much everytime Kenzie smiles she first makes a little grin that turns into a full out smile. I love it.

Another smile from a couple days ago.

Jordan and Jackson
Jordan, Kenzie, and Jack

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Mackenzie's Blessing Day!

Doug blessed Mackenzie on November 1st.

Mackenzie in her blessing dress. My sister Michelle made it and she looked beautiful in it.

Jackson, Jordan, and Mackenzie. Jackson shared his testimony for the first time that day. Doug was going up and he asked Jack if he wanted to go too. I only heard it, not saw it because I had to feed the baby. But it was very cute. Doug said he wanted to do it by himself first. But after saying a phrase he watned Doug's help. Last Sunday he wanted to go do it again. And yesterday he was holding an empty toilet paper roll as a microphone for me and telling me what to say. I told Doug he's going to have to go up every month now :)

Jackson, Doug, me, Jordan, Mackenzie.

Doug and Mackenzie

Alli and Mackenzie after Doug changed Mackenzie's close. Alli loves Mackenzie and is always asking if she can hold her.

Grandma and Grandpa Come Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Dance came up last weekend for Mackenzie's baby blessing. We took them to Seattle on Saturday and walked down Pike's Place Market and rode a ferry to Bainbridge Island. We ate walked around on the island, ate lunch, and rode back to Seattle on the ferry. Luckily it was a beautiful sunny day, and we didn't get rained on at all.

Grandpa Dance, Doug, Grandma Dance, Mackenzie(although you can't actually see her), Jackson and Jordan outside of Pike's Place. We had just bought them the balloons they are holding. They're both fish balloons.

Jordan, Grandma, Jackson, Grandpa, me, Mackenzie. After Pike's Place we walked along the water front to the place where we got on the ferry.

Jackson and Grandma on the ferry looking out at the water and land.

Grandpa, Jordan, Jackson, Doug on the back end of the ferry. Everyone but Mackenzie and me walked all around the ferry. They said the back end was better becasue it wasn't windy like the front was. It was everyone's irst time on a ferry except for me. They didn't really know what to expect from it, but they all loved it. Doug thought it would be boring to go on it, but as soon as we walked on he thought it would be fun. He thought it would be more like a train or bus. And since he rides the train everyday for work, that wouldn't be very fun for him.

This is the only picture I have of Mackenzie in either of her costumes by herself showing the full costume. I think she is so cute in it.
Mackenzie and the water. I tried to get a good picture of both Mackenzie and the water/land, but one of them kept turning out dark so this is the best I got. I think Mackenzie is very cute in it.

Our family on the ferry.
Thanks grandma and grandpa for coming! We loved having you here. Come again soon :)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween

For Halloween we went to Trunk or Treat parties, one the day before and one the day of Halloween. The kids had fun at both parties. They loved getting all their candy. Jordan had a hard time holding his pumpkin up by the end of the night though. It was too heavy for him.

Superman showing me his candy at my sister's ward's trunk or treat.

Grandma Riding and Catwoman

The kids and me. My sister made me be in the picture so Mackenzie would be in it. I tried to say no, but since she's the oldest she's still is in charge :)

Superman and Spiderman

Our two little Skeletons. Jackson refused to wear these pajamas for awhile. He said they're scary jammies. But then I made him wear them after he wet his pants (which he did probably at least twice a day last week) and he decided they weren't so bad.

Our three little skeletons.

Jackson, Jordan, and Mackenzie ready for the Halloween. We let them wear their costumes all day on Halloween.

Jackson, Jordan, and Mackenzie at our ward's trunk or treat.

Jordan trunk or treating.

Jackson trunk or treating.

Jackson and his friend Tristin after trunk or treating.

Jackson and Jordan with their friends Tristin and Serenity.