Kenzie's First Halloween

Our sweet little Kenzie had a great first Halloween! We went to a church party the week before, and she looked so cute in her costume. The fangs on her bat costume drove her a little crazy, because they were right at eye level. 

Marley also had a super cute costume. She went as a witch, a "candy corn" witch to be exact.

It was very hard to get her to stand still for a good picture.

The day of Halloween we drove down to Spanish Fork so the girls could trick or treat with their cousins. We went out in my sisters new neighborhood, and it was really nice. It wasn't super busy, and the kids had a great time (once the toddlers stopped freaking out and realized what was going on).

After the ward party, I kind of realized that Kenzie's costume wasn't very girly. A lot of people thought she was a boy while we were trick or treating. After awhile I started joking that "Kenzie went as a boy" for Halloween, because on top of her costume not being girly she was also riding in my nephew's blue stroller and wore his blanket once she fell asleep. It didn't bother me though, she was the cutest little bat there ever was! 

We headed back to my sisters house and let the kids play and burn off some energy. They sure have lots of fun when we all get together! 

Kenzie woke up and tried to sneak some of her sisters candy. 

Marley Stories: October

Another month has gone by with our silly toddler! Here are some funny things that happened over the last month... 

I noticed a spider on the wall the other day, and asked Jason to kill it. Mr. Spider decided to camp out on one of our picture frames, so Jason took the whole frame outside and avoid spider guts everywhere. When he came back inside, Marley pumped her fists in the air and said, "We did it!!" 

Early one morning, Kenzie was playing on the floor in the living room while I got Marley out of bed and changed her diaper. Then Kenzie made some noises and this conversation followed...

 Marley: "Listen. I hear Kenzie."

Me: "I hear Kenzie too."

Marley (sighs): "Yeah, She's crazy." 

We try to skype with my parents once a week, and Marley LOVES it. I turned on my laptop the other day to work on something and Marley walks up, furrows her brow, and asks: "Where's Grandma? And Papa?"

I finished putting some butt paste on Marley during a diaper change and she goes, "All better! Thanks Mommy." 

I was in the other room when I heard Marley say "Try this Kenzie, it's yummy!" I run in, thinking I'm going to find Marley shoving cereal in Kenzie's mouth. Instead I find Marley giving her sister a Lego ice cream cone.  

Early one morning, I carried Kenzie into Marley's room to change her diaper. (I already knew Marley was awake, because I had heard her talking.) After I changed Kenzie's diaper, Marley asked if Kenzie could come sit on her bed. So I laid Kenzie on her tummy inside the crib and left to get my camera. As I was walking back I heard Marley say, "Here Kenzie. Try this bear." (And then she handed Kenzie her teddy bear.) Then she shoved a blanket in Kenzie's face and said "Try this blanket!" (See Photo Below)

While I don't really find this cute, it needs to be documented. We are in the heart of "terrible twos" and as a result, Marley is pretty whiny and defiant at times. When she doesn't want to do something she says "I'm not..." followed by what you're trying to get her to do. 
Examples: 
I'm not take a nap.
I'm not change a bum.
I'm not go inside.
I'm not pretzels.
I'm not George. (as in the monkey)
I'm not brush your teeth.
Etc. 

Marley is big on opposites. Mostly "fast" and "slow." Lately she has really started to hate it when I wipe her face after eating, so to make her not so mad I would whisper and say I was being soft. Then she would get a big grin on her face and whisper it back to me. Well one day after whispering "soft" to me she exclaimed "HOT!" I was confused, thinking to myself that wet wipes weren't hot. Then I realized that she thought the 
opposite of soft was "hot" aka "hard." 

One of Marley's favorite movies right now is Cars. We took it with us along the drive to California last month, and while she was watching it in the car I overheard something funny. During the beginning when Mater and Lightning are introducing themselves to each other, I heard her say "And I'm Marley!!" Silly kid. I've since noticed that she does this while watching any show where someone introduces themselves.  

Trip to California

Back in October we were able to head out to California to visit our families. My parents and little brother live out there, and Jason also has a brother and sister there too. Since Jason gets a week off for fall break, we figured it would be a good time for a trip. 

We also planned this trip so that we could be able to see my "little" brother Nathan march bagpipes for his senior year of high school. Marching band is something I did all 4 years of high school, so it has a special place in my heart. I really wanted to see Nathan march one more time before he graduates, and it was so fun! 

We drove out on a Saturday and got into Fairfield around 8pm. Considering we were traveling with 2 little ones, things went better than they could have. (And that was including 2 blowouts, and a 40 minute scream fest as we left the sierras.)

Marley was so sweet to her sister in the car. Whenever Kenzie started fussing, Marley would talk to her and try to make her laugh by making silly faces or singing a song. She is really the sweetest big sister. So we treated her to some cinnamon twists...

The next day was Sunday, and we got to go to the ward I (sort of) grew up in. (I grew up in 5th ward, then got moved to 1st ward in high school, then 5th ward was dissolved and 1st ward is now mostly full of 5th ward people.) It was great seeing lots of familiar faces! 

After church we had a big family dinner with all my aunts and uncles and cousins that live in the area. Some of them I hadn't seen in over 2 years, so it was really lots of fun! And I got to play lots of Scum with my cousins, which made the whole trip worth it. 

Monday we headed to Apple Hill, which is such a fun place! It was a bit of a drive, but so worth it when we got to have caramel apples, fritters, and pie! I also got some salt dough ornaments from a stand that we've been buying from for over 20 years. I love family traditions! After a long day in the car, we came back to grandma's house and played with Uncle Nathan's old trains. 

Tuesday we went to visit some Fairfield staples. We took a tour of the Jelly Belly factory, and then had lunch at Joe's Buffet. I also got to go through some boxes of old stuff from the garage, and it was fun reliving old memories...but I mostly threw away crap I couldn't believe I had saved all these years.

Wednesday we drove in to the city to visit Jason's siblings Heather and Mason. It was quite a drive to get to where they live, filled with lots of traffic, but we had lots of fun visiting them. We don't get to see them very often, so its always a treat! They took us to lunch at our favorite place, BJ's, and we had our ultimate favorite dessert...Pazookies!! We hung out for a bit, then had to say goodbye so we could beat traffic. 

Once we got back to Fairfield, my mom and brother watched the girls for us so Jason and I could go out to dinner just the two of us. That hasn't happened in a LONG time, and after so much time in the car with the kids we REALLY needed a break! We went to Chevy's to enjoy some flautas, and they were delicious! 

Thursday we had a slow day and mostly relaxed at my parents house. We brought lunch to my mom at her school and ate with her during her release time. When her kids came back from lunch we went with mom inside her classroom so they could meet Marley and Kenzie. They were all really happy to meet the girls, and thought they were really cute. Marley brought the house down when she decided to sing the ABC's for everyone and all the 4th graders clapped and cheered. It made Marley so happy, she sang it to them one more time.

Friday we met up with a dear friend for lunch at Round Table for the buffet. I was so happy we got to meet up with Zuleyma! We were such good friends in high school, it was great to catch up. It was also great to have some of our favorite pizza too. 

Saturday was the Del Oro band review. We got to see Nathan march his bagpipes, and Marley had so much fun watching every band go by. She kept exclaiming, "INSTRUMENTS!!" The weather was kind of cold and rainy, so we didn't stick around for awards and drove home early. We stopped for In-n-Out in Davis (it always tastes better in California!) and then took the girls home for naps. 

We had such a great visit with my family, it was sad to leave! Both the girls had SO much fun getting to spend time with everyone. 

We can't wait to have them all come out here for Christmas!! 

Mackenzie: 7 Month Update

Our sweet, happy girl is 7 months old! Mackenzie is such a cutie these days, she turns heads everywhere we go. "Those cheeks!!!" is something we hear a lot. We love our chubby girl! 

She has changed SO much just in the last few weeks. She has decided that she no longer needs her pacifier, doesn't need to be rocked to sleep, and loves being on her tummy more than her back. We aren't complaining! 

Kenzie is also very close to sitting up on her own. She loves sitting up and playing with her toys. She will grab onto anything you put in front of her, whether you like it or not! 

Last week we drove to California, and Kenzie did great! She was so happy every day, and LOVED all the attention she got from her grandparents and friends. She did really well in the car, except for two blowouts, and a few stretches where she screamed for like 20 minutes before falling asleep. 

Here's how other things are going right now...

Kenzie Likes:

Scooting backwards in the walker

Sitting up by herself (with a little help)

Giggling at her sister

Drooling (going through 4+ bibs a day)

Falling asleep during bottles

Pooping at inconvenient times 

Tummy time (Never thought this day would come!)

Waking up around 3 am, just to kick her feet a little

Kenzie Doesn't Like:

Driving across Nevada

Being in one position for too long

Outfit changes

Taking long naps

I can't say enough how lucky we are to have such a sweet spirit in our home. I seriously had to sit and think for a long time of what to write for Kenzie's "dislikes" because she really is a happy girl. I love every minute I get to spend with Kenzie, and her sister too. 

I know I've been saying this for awhile, but I'm pretty confident that we'll have the girls sleeping in the same room by next month. Now that Kenzie is putting herself to sleep, it seems more possible. I'm also predicting that by the next update, we will have a crawler and a sitter. 

Marley Stories: September

Having a 2.5 year old toddler can be very exhausting. 
Thank goodness she's cute and says funny things! 

Here are some stories from the past month...

I was changing Kenzie's diaper and Marley was in the living room, hanging over the baby gate trying to get my attention. When I finished and turned to come back into the living room Marley ran away and said, "AAAAAHH! She's coming!!" 

This kid is STILL obsessed with birthdays. I often hear her singing the song, and she offers me "birthday cakes" a lot. (Usually her snack cup, or something made out of Legos.) Well recently I overheard her say "Happy Birthday Chair!" as she set a 
Lego birthday cake on our Lazy-Boy.  

Marley's latest obsession is trying to make her sister smile or laugh. She doesn't really use the right pronouns when speaking though, so whenever Marley makes her sister smile or giggle she exclaims, "It's laughing!!" 

We were watching a show about colors the other day and Marley turns to me and says, 
"That blue is SOOOOO great!" 

Toddlers pick up the funniest phrases from TV shows. That's the only explanation I have for some of the things Marley says. Lately, she has started saying, "Oh dear!" When something goes wrong. And today "Oh dear" was followed with an, "I cannot believe it!" HAHA! 

There was a big bug on our front window (thankfully on the outside) so I brought it to Marley's attention. After she watched it for probably 10 minutes straight it finally moved, and she exclaimed, "Its working!"   

Marley was looking through some of the photo books we have of her first year baby pictures. She looked up at me and said, "I love this story!" I had to chuckle. I'm glad you like this story kid, its your life!

I recently put together bins full of games, puzzles, and other activities for Marley to do every day. Lately when she sees me carrying them into the room each morning she goes, "Lets do it!" along with a few fist pumps. 

We were reading a book about counting, and got to a page with "10 tadpoles." I read that out loud and Marley responded by saying, "10 poodles."   

We were watching the Giants game one night, when it was time for Marley to go to bed. I picked her up and took her to the bathroom to brush teeth. Once we were done, I started to carry her into her bedroom, when she noticed the game on the TV. She waved at it and said, "Bye baseball!" 

You know how sometimes when people are finished with something, or set something down, they brush off their hands? Well Marley has started doing that a lot when she sets a toy down or something. The funny thing is, she slaps her hands together like they're mad at each other. Like when you get in a slap-fight with a younger sibling. I wish I had video, its so funny! 

Right now Marley is going through a "scared of bugs" phase. She thinks pieces of fuzz, or hairballs are bugs and gets really scared. Today she did that and it was just a scuff on the wall. After we calmed her down, she was over by the window and noticed a speck of dirt on the shades and said, "Oh no! A second one!" (Meaning, second bug.) 

Marley was outside with her grandma, looking at our garden. Grandma picked a fresh green bean, handed it to Marley, and then Marley ate the whole thing! I was pretty surprised since she is hesitant to try new things. I was changing her diaper maybe 10 minutes later and when I stood her up, she patted her tummy and said, "Those were GOOOOOOD beans!" 

Things Marley says wrong, but are oh so cute...

truck = cruck
popcorn = paw-corn
amen = the end
slinky = squeaky