Sitting on Santa's Lap

Santa Claus made an appearance at our ward Christmas party.  All of the kids had to stand in a line and sing "Jingle Bells" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in order for the curtains to open on the stage.  Kinnie was nervous.  All day she talked about not knowing if she should sit on Santa's lap.  I love how she is looking at the older kids and how Andrew doesn't really know what they are doing.

We got in line and as we got closer she got more and more excited to sit on his lap.  And if Kinnie is excited, Andrew is excited.  I am glad they both did it.  It was kind of funny though because she was nervous about what she would tell Santa and guess what?  Santa didn't say anything!  I actually thought maybe he just forget to say something to her because they were taking pictures and stuff.  So I took her in front of a nice boy in our ward to see if she could tell Santa what she wanted and same thing...he just plopped her on his lap for the picture and didn't say anything!  I was really bugged and Kinnie was sort of confused.  I just told her he probably didn't ask her what she wanted because he already knew from the letter we sent him.

Sledding

Kinnie is loving the snow this year.  She always wants to go play in it.  On Friday I took some cookie sheet lids out to sled on and it sort of worked, but the kids loved it.  On Saturday Landon took the kids out to buy them a sled.  We knew it would probably get some pretty good use.  Here is our first time using the new sled.  We have an awesome hill right across the street from us!

Kinnie's Dance Recital

Kinnie and her good friend Addy

At the end of every dance class, Kinnie's teacher has each girl stand in a hoola-hoop and say "I'm wonderful!" and then they curtsy.  I love how special it makes each girl feel.  Her teacher had each girl do it at the end of the recital so they could show their parents.

Kinnie and her good friend Hallie

Kinnie with her teacher Chalise

Another update

Getting ready to play in the first REAL snowstorm here.  Kinnie played in it for about an hour and a half, until we had to make her come inside.  Andrew lasted a good half hour, I was surprised.  He came in looking kind of miserable and in a daze.

I frosted, they decorated.  Kinnie told me where she wanted everything and I put the frosting on.  They are very proud of their gingerbread house.

Kinnie is counting down the days until we can go to Salt Lake.  She never forgets to take a link off of our chain...only 9 more days.  She is so incredibly excited for Christmas.  I love this age so much!  She keeps adding things to her list though and it is throwing me off.  At least I haven't done too much shopping yet and can still decide what she REALLY wants, and still keep it simple.  She is so excited for this baby and gives me hugs all of the time and rests her head on my tummy.  She lets me know everyday how excited she is for the baby to come.  It is going to be a long wait!

Andrew is loving life.  He is hilarious lately and the best part is that he thinks he is so funny and cracks himself up.  The other night when he was crawling off the top bunk to get into his, he was telling Kinnie goodnight, just like every night.  But he said "No night night Ninnie (Kinnie)" over and over and was laughing so hard.  Yesterday as I was upstairs I heard him singing a song downstairs that went like this "Caillou, Barney, Boos Poos (Blue's Clues)" over and over.  He loves to "chrackle" (tackle) Landon and run around.  He is still so sensitive and has the saddest face when he cries.  I love to watch him brush his tears away.

Landon just started finals yesterday.  He is also REALLY excited to have a break and to go home for Christmas.  I don't even know how he does it.  How he studies for so many tests I will never know.  I remember in college feeling like 3 or 4 finals was soooo much and felt so sorry for myself.  The good thing is, is that he is really enjoying dentistry.

I am counting down the days until Thursday.  I am so excited to find out if baby is a boy or a girl but I am most excited to know how baby is doing.  Landon has two tests that afternoon so it will be weird to be all alone for that appointment.  These first 18 weeks have gone by so slowly so I hope after Christmas that things pick up.

Small Update

It snowed...a few weeks ago.  Kinnie was really excited about it as you can see.  It hasn't snowed since and I am fine with that, as long as it doesn't wait to snow the day we want to get out of this place and head home for Christmas.  We are a tad nervous about driving home in a few weeks.  That darn Wyoming stretch might be brutal, we are hoping for the best!  I tend to ignore the thoughts that come into my head about it being really bad and Landon is all about being prepared.  I am glad he is thinking ahead about it...emergency kit for the car, lots of blankets, a shovel!

Kinnie loves to talk on the phone with her Grandmas.  She is quite the chatter box and conversationalist.  She is so expressive with her hands when she talks so I love to watch her talk and use one hand while she holds onto the phone with the other.

Kinnie overcame a really big challenge in her life (maybe I will write about that later) so we had a celebration.  It was a pretty big deal and as you can see from her face she is really proud and happy.  Grandma Bell sent her some party hats and party blowers and fun things and Grandma Bruschke sent her a card and the necklace she is wearing.  

Andrew the supportive brother.  He is always right be Kinnie's side.

Thumbs up!

Silly kids!

Thanksgiving

I made my first Thanksgiving feast and didn't even take pictures to prove it!  I had nightmares the night before of how awful it was going to be.  I think I called my dad a handful of times to ask him questions  I really was a bit terrified.  I had never done a turkey before and what about the timing of everything!?  When do I start boiling the potatoes...when do I start the rolls so they can rise...how do I cook a turkey??  I really kind of had to get my game face on and just focus on the next task.  I made sure I made the pies the day before and baked the sweet potatoes so they would be ready to mash.  It was scary but guess what, it turned out great (the turkey was a little dry but it was fine).  It was a lot of work but I knew it would be and I am so glad I did it.  It was fun to share it with some of our friends out here.  And I can't really claim that I made everything.  I was happy for their help in bringing some of the dishes.  Kinnie had a ton of fun with her friends and I got to stare at a week and a half old baby all afternoon!  I was dying to hold him but I was just getting over being sick.  We missed our families like crazy!  We thought a teeny tiny, little bit about driving home but we will be doing that in a few weeks for Christmas!   

Halloween...

I will be honest.  I am really glad it is over.  I realized this year that I love the simplicity of Halloween that I was raised with.  Growing up, Halloween was basically a Halloween party and parade at school and then trick-or-treating on Halloween night.  This year with trick-or-treating at Landon's school, a friend party, trunk-or-treating at the church, and then actual Halloween night, I was ready to be done with Halloween.  I just felt like it wasn't as exciting for the kids to dress up Halloween night because they had already worn their costumes a few times.

With that said, we had a good time.  It was fun for the kids to have a special day to go to Landon's school.  We are so lucky to have friends that put on an awesome party and did all of the dirty work of putting it together.  We were happy to support the ward and go trunk-or-treating and be with our ward family.  And Halloween was great.  Kinnie and Andrew had a good time and it was fun to see the excitement as they went from door to door yelling "trick-or-treat".  Andrew was so polite and made sure he said "thank you" to everyone. 

Some of the cute kids at our friend's Halloween party

Kinnie blindfolded, ready to play "stick the mouth on the skeleton".

Hey we at least tried to dress up.  And Landon did have a fake mustache but had taken it off to eat.

The only picture I took at the trunk-or-treat.  One of the dads dressed up like Cookie Monster and passed out Chips-A-Hoy for the treat.  Our kids were loving it and I should have gotten a picture, it was pretty funny.

Our nice neighbor Sharon always brings over some homemade crafts stuffed with treats on the holidays.  This is what they got this year.

Ready to go out trick-or-treating

Trick or Treat at Daddy's School

A lot of little munchkins showed up for the annual trick-or-treating at the school.  It was fun to see all of the kids in their cute little costumes waddling around.  There were some cute, creative, and fun costumes.  We took a little stroll around the school and the kids got a good portion of candy.  All of the little ladies that work there thought all of the kids were just so cute.  Isn't it fun when people you don't know adore your children?

Fire fighter Andrew and Kinnie Rapunzel

Andrew, Kinnie and Addy

Hallie, Kinnie, and Andrew

Some more of the gang

I promise Landon was happy walking us around.  Sometimes I don't have the best timing taking pictures.  And I should learn to take more then one. 

FHE Pumpkin Carving

Landon and Kinnie planning out their pumpkin.  Kinnie chose to do a happy face.

Kinnie and Andrew did not want to stick their hands in for the dirty work.  At least they touched the slimy seeds to see what they felt like.  Andrew kept plugging his nose and saying "inky" (stinky).  Kinnie just enjoyed the whole activity and loved every second of it.

Landon's and Kinnie's is the cute happy one.  When I asked Andrew if he wanted to do a scary one or a silly one he chose scary.  That is my lame attempt at a scary face.  

Primary Program

Kinnie had her first Primary program yesterday.  She was pretty excited about it and she said she was "curious."  I don't think she quite knew what it would be like to be up on the stand with a congregation full of people.  She did a great job and said her part all by herself, she was so brave! The Sunbeams even had a verse of "I Love to See the Temple" to sing all by themselves and she did great.

I only wished I could have sat and watched her the whole time.  I had a good experience though playing the piano for the program, and it is fun to be in Primary with Kinnie (even though she sometimes forgets I am the one playing the piano).  I was REALLY nervous to play for the program.   I don't play in front of people very often.  When I got my calling as Primary Pianist I was even nervous to play in Primary!  It is kind of ridiculous, I hate how nervous and anxious I get about things.  I couldn't go to sleep the night before and a had a nightmare that I messed up every song and everyone kept giving me looks of disgust.  I was so glad when I woke up!  I ran through a few songs before we left for church which was helpful.  When we got to church 10 minutes early there were already so many families and friends there to watch.  Then the 2nd counselor in the bishopric asked me to play prelude music.  I really didn't want to but I told him I could and then realized I would be playing the hymns too!  It actually ended up being a huge blessing that I was asked to do that (and that I said I would) because it really helped me feel comfortable up there in front of everyone.  I could feel my heart beating my whole body at first!  Everything turned out great though and I was thankful my nightmare didn't come true!  The children did such an amazing job and the Spirit was felt so strongly throughout the meeting.  It was so neat to be able to feel the difference of the Spirit during the actual meeting compared to the practices.  There were so many people in the congregation who were visiting and I am sure they were touched by the sweet spirit that was present. 

Two Thumbs Up!

The day after my parents left Landon's Fall break started.  We didn't have any big plans.  We knew we wanted to paint our stairway since it looked really bad from when we had pulled the carpet up.  And we thought we would just hang around and maybe hit the zoo and do things around Omaha.  Wednesday afternoon I got a LivingSocials offer in my email for a one-night stay at a indoor water park hotel in Des Moines that included dinner, breakfast, and wristbands for the water park.  It took us about 10 minutes to decide that it sounded fun and we bought the deal.

We had so  much fun!  We checked in, got our goody bag filled with pirate eye patches, snacks, treats, pirate tattoos, and got our suits on and went to the water park right outside our door.  They had two 2-story slides where the kids could sit on your lap.  Kinnie and Andrew loved going down the big slides with Landon and I and Kinnie got really brave and did some of the other slides by herself.  She even learned how to jump off the top step of the pool into the water without anyone catching her.  That was a big step for her!  After swimming for awhile we ate our pizza in the room and went to the arcade room.  Landon and I let the kids drive the cars while we played the games :)  But hey, we did it so we could get tickets and buy the kids those cheap toys.  I think we had a little too much fun there.  We did some more swimming that night.  We went to the hotel grill for breakfast and swam some more!  It was a quick trip but a perfect 2 hour drive and enough fun for all of us.  We would definitely do it again!

My Parents Visit!

I have decided it is a perfect time of year for visitors.  I am so glad my parents were able to come out for their first time and experience some of Omaha.  We stayed pretty busy and did some fun things.  My kids were in Grandma and Grandpa heaven and enjoyed every second being with them.  Kinnie was so excited when the day finally arrived for their visit.  It was a long day for her due to a flight cancellation (and a long day at the airport for my parents).  But they finally lucked out and got a flight in only arriving a few hours later then planned.

Some of the things we did:

The Zoo

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Landon and I had heard how awesome Vala's was but had never been.  It was such a cool place.  I can't even describe how big this place was and how many different things there were to do.  We didn't even get to do everything because there is so much going on.

Waiting for the pig races to start

Andrew could have spent a couple of hours on the tractors

And Kinnie could have gone on a few more pony rides

The train ride

Kinnie probably could have jumped all day on these things.  I should have gotten a picture of the whole bubble because they were huge.

Andrew sat down on the sand gaining up the courage to go and jump with Kinnie

The Missouri Riverfront

We had a lot of fun being with my parents.  I think we wore them out but I know they had a lot of fun.  We also visited the Mormon Trail Center and showed them the Winter Quarters Temple.  We made a visit to Landon's school and showed them around and went down to the Botanical Gardens.   It is nice to know that they can picture where we live now and were able to see the things that we see.  Andrew cried when we dropped them off at the airport and I told him to say goodbye.  He cried and kept saying "Wanna get out Mommy!"  I think he thought we were getting on the airplane with them.  Thanks Mom and Dad for visiting and for such a great time!