With Christmas just around the corner I thought I’d better write a bit about Thanksgiving before its too late. We had a great time for Thanksgiving with all Matts family. Our house is just the right size, for us but when you throw in 13 people it is more than a little tight. Thanksgiving dinner was great. We really got to show eachother just how much we love one another as we were all rubbing shoulders as we ate. We were almost sitting on laps around the dinner table. We might not be the greatest hosts but we love having everyone come! The day before Thanksgiving we got our first snow here in Columbia. Thank goodness the Dahls were here, they knew just what to do! Run to the store buy a sled, some gloves, boots and enjoy the day in the backyard sledding down the hill. McKenna had a great time with Grandpa and her aunts playing in the snow! Kyla, not so much. She is not a fan of her winter coat so she spends all her time trying to get it off and then being cold. She much preferred to play inside with Julian her little cousin. They spent the time chasing eachother in circles around the house.
McKenna told her tragic story of her first pet worm that died on the way home from preschool and somehow ended up with another pet. Grammy and Grandpa were as devestated for McKenna as she was. But every kid should have a pet and while she is waiting for the day her mom will get her a dog a couple goldfish will have to do. Yes, Grammy and Grandpa bought McKenna a couple fish whom she has named “Flicka” and “Orangie”. Its been almost a month and they are still alive!
Of course Kyla had to add a little drama to the holiday season and what better way to do that than putting her tooth all the way through her lip. She was playing the in bathroom with Kenna (washing their horses in the sink). Kyla apparently was standing on top of the garbage can and took a spill. We thought maybe whe might need a stitch or two but she turned out fine.
McKenna had her first dance recital this past week. She danced to Frosty the Snowman. She was dressed in white sweat pants, a white shirt, felt buttons down the front, a scarf and a top hat. I’ve been watching these little girls practice for quite some time and I’m still amazed at how they pulled this off so well. They really did a good job, that is for a bunch of 3 & 4 year olds. Matt and I had a great time watching and Kyla couldn’t get enough. Everytime the curtain closed she said “Lyla see more!”. Kenna’s favorite part was simply dancing on the stage. She quite the showgirl! My only regret was that I forgot what I was really dealing with. As soon as I dropped Kenna off I saw what I had forgetten. All the stage make-up. Some of these little girls were all dolled up and it hadn’t even crossed my mind. I should have known better. I spent plenty of time with vaseline on my teeth, curlers in my hair, etc. You can bet that next time I’ll remember!
Last thing is Kenna’s 4th Birthday party! We had one heck of a “boot stompin’ fun cowgirl party! All McKenna’s idea as I’m sure you know. We found some cowgirl hats, bandanas and we made vests out of brown paper bags. They were some darn cute cowgirls. Kenna had a long day waiting for the party to start and by the time it did she was a little cranky. Once the kids arrived her eyes were fixated on her presents. She got some fun stuff but some of her favorites were the stuffed horse from Aunt Tessa, a barbie tea set from Emma, and some clip on earings from Sabine! It was fun although when it was done I thought my big sister Katie has it figured out right-only every other year!!!
I hope you all are great and enjoy the holidays! Talk to you after Christmas!

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Time just never slows down, doesn’t even take a quick break. I don’t know how this time of year always sneaks up on me but here it is again.
We are doing great and having a lot of fun. Both the kids have seemed to grow up the last couple weeks.
Kenna has announced that she has a “funny word”. Her funny word is “Booyah”. She is pretty proud of her funny word and even got upset when she told her friends and they didn’t laugh. After a little reassurance that “booyah” is indeed funny, she decided to keep it as her funny word.
Kenna is having a lot of fun learning her letters and how to write them. She spends a lot of fun typing on the keyboard and asking how to spell certain words. Lately she always wants to know how to spell “Santa” as she is compiling her Christmas List.
Any of you who will be calling and get no answer will be lucky enough to get to hear McKenna on the machine. Neither Matt nor I like to do the message so we passed the job on to her and she gladly took the task. Anything to her herself talk!
Kyla, our little spit fire, has really began talking quite a bit. It might be that only her mom can understand but she nonetheless she seems thrilled to be understood. The most important word in her vocabulary is “obby” which means blankey in Kyla’s world. Some words come more easily than others and “no”, “more” and “mine” are the ones she gets the most use out of.
Kyla has a mouthful of teeth but I’m pretty sure she is missing her K-9′s. No sign of them anywhere. Hopefully they are up there, but if not Dad maybe you could not retire for a really long time!
My favorite story about Kyla happened just a couple days ago. In her crib she has an Elmo stuffed animal and a couple baby dolls. After a hour or so of talking in her bed and not sleeping I decided to check on her. I found her tucking in Elmo and saying to me with her finger to her lips, “shhhh, Elmo go nigh nigh”. After shushing me she started jumping like a monkey in her bed. It has become somewhat of a trampoline for Kyla. The blanket eventually fell of Elmo and Kyla responded with a “no no Lyla” (her name for herself). I guess she hears too much of that these days huh!
We are good and getting excited to have family come for Thanksgiving. Hope you all are good too!

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I didn’t realize it had been so long since I last blogged, so let me update you on the latest happenings around here.
We are all doing well and trying to adjust to the colder weather. I probably should just say that it’s me who is trying to adjust to the cold weather, the kids don’t seem to mind it much.
Kenna is having a great time in pre-school. They have even started learning Spanish. Together with “Dora the Explorer” and preschool McKenna can say quite a few words and even count to 10! This past Tuesday McKenna took her first ever school picture. We’ll see how they turn out, but be looking for you copy soon. I’m sure she’ll be excited to share her pre-school pics with you all. She also came home with a scholastic book club order form. As exciting as that was for me it is still just another reminder of how fast these little ones grow up.
Kyla has also become a “Dora the Explorer” fan. Occasionally she’ll even try to repeat one of the spanish words too. At this point the Spanish and the English sound about the same but it’s still impressive to hear. Kyla seems to get more stubborn everyday. She sure knows what she does and doesn’t want. Its just too bad she can’t let all of the rest of us in on it too. She learns more everyday and just wants to be like Kenna. I think her favorite thing is for Kenna to chase her around the house. Kenna has been trying to teach her how to hide for a game of hide-n-seek. Guarenteed you’ll find Kyla in the same spot everytime. Her secret place is in her closet in a box of old shoes. She kind of just digs herself a hole to sit in. She’s a good player because she sits patiently until someone finds her.
Matt is getting ready for a week vacation next week. We are going to take a trip to St. Louis and see some sites. We hear there are some fun children’s museums and other fun stuff for the kids. We have a temple trip planned and hopefully we’ll get to see the arch too. We are only going for a couple days because Kenna wants to be back for her Halloween party at school. Our lives obviously revolve around them these days!
I am on the activities committee and am tying up some loose ends for our Halloween party. Other than that I just do my best to keep up with the kids without losing my sanity at the same time. That’s about it for now. We have some fun pictures of getting picking pumpkins so look for them soon. Hope all is well! We will talk again soon!
Jen

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McKenna started preschool this past week and the first thing she wanted to know was if she could ride the school bus. I tried to explain that she’d have to wait until kindergarten before she could ride the big school bus. She was quick to come back with, “well, can I ride the short bus?” What does one say when their daughter wants to ride the “short bus”? Kenna’s first week of school was a huge success. She woke up with a big smile on her face and within minutes she was ready to go. After making her suffer through my “this is my first kid in school camera shoot” we were off to school. Kenna made a quick stop at her cubby to put away her backpack and then, without a worry in the world, it was into her classroom to play playdough that Miss Kelley put out. There was no good bye kisses, no hesitation, no nothing. I had to run in to give her a big squeeze and tell her I’d be back to get her. She humored me with a bye mom but that was about all I got. I took my time leaving just to make sure she wouldn’t need me but of course she didn’t. When I picked her up I found her much the same as I left her, all smiles! One day of pre-school and already water color painting, watching a caterpillar spin its cacoon, and new songs. Pretty much all the things moms think about doing with their kids but just never do. That’s why we pay for pre-school I guess.
Kyla misses Kenna when she is gone but has been doing a lot of learning on her own lately. Suddenly words are flying out of her mouth! In the last week she has learned, yellow, more daddy, night night Nenna, but the big one is “MINE”. Funny how they learn that word and suddenly everything belongs to them. She seems to have a lot to say these days so we are glad she is learning to talk a little more. Anything beats the whining, although we still get plenty of that too.
We are all doing great and hope the same for you all.
Jen

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Matt and I have recently watched as our two girls have become sibblings that are in competition for everything we own. Something that was slightly humerous at first has turned into battle of the fittest. If one has it, the other one wants it. It has even escalated to the point where we have heard, “don’t touch me”, and “get out of my room”, and my favorite, “she’s on my side”.
Being the spiritual giants that we are, Matt and I decided to put an end to our problems by having a family home evening about how we treat our family and sharing. If you have never seen a FHE backfire, then you should have been here. After some careful selection of toys and an attempt at a demonstration of how to properly share and take a toy away that belongs to you, both our kids were in tears and the fight was on once again. Matt and I looked at each other wondering where this one went wrong and then busted out the oreos for a quick fix and an attempt to finish FHE on a good note. Maybe we’ll try again next week with a different approach but this FHE went down as a flop.
After this experience I was reminded of something my Grandma told me and my sisters time and time again. She’d say, “just wait, one day you girls will be best friends.” While at the time I thought she had no idea what she was talking about, now twenty years later, I can see her wisdom. So now I will do my best to maintain peace and just hope that in 20 years they too will be best friends!
Hope you all are doing great. We love you and will talk again soon!
Jen

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