Curly Cues and a Box Fort

We experimented with hot rollers today instead of curlers, she's advanced! They turned out really sweet. I think we need them just a little bit smaller though so they last longer. Kelsey is so photogenic, I love it. It is so easy to take pictures of her.

Per Kelsey's request, we made a box fort today and it has been quite the hit!! Right now she is having quiet time in it reading books with her new princess flashlight with the blanket over the opening. Ha, that cracks me up. Kids are so adorable! I remember doing these sorts of things growin up. I love Mylee in these pictures. She is beginning to understand what it means when we ask her to smile. This is what she gives us. A big crinkled-up nose cheeser!! In the picture below, she is cheesin' it so much that her eyes are closed.

Christmas Day

This was a Christmas I will never forget. First of all I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to those who made our holiday brighter. It's been a long time since I have felt such an out-pouring of love from others. Elder Holland in his talk this last conference said:

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”...And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal."

I have felt the present of angels both mortal and immortal and I thank those who may be reading this blog that were my family's angels this year. Blake and I were humbled and grateful for your service and kindness. We felt buoyed up, supported, and loved. Thank you!!!

From that note, as you may have guessed, Christmas was very special this year. Definitely different because it was the first year we celebrated Christmas without our extended family. But it was nice. Christmas morning began with the opening of presents then we had breakfast. I made the traditional sticky buns and breakfast casserole with fresh fruit. I always looked forward to this breakfast growing up. Thankfully it was as delicious as my mother's.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve this year, the Stake President and his family invited us over for dinner and holiday festivities. It was a lot of fun!! It was so nice to be in a home and to celebrate the holiday with friends. The dinner was wonderful. Sister Sessions make yummy rolls, ham, cheesy potatoes, vegies and there were a whole bunch of desserts. I was feeling ambitious and brought cherry cheesecake and fudge. Yummm, I love fudge. However this year, I accidently forgot to put the vanilla extract in. Opps, thankfully they still tasted good. After dinner we played holiday BINGO. Everytime someone got a bingo they got a present and then we would play until everyone got a bingo and a present. I got a nice cosy blanket. Blake got a huge remote control--haa haa, that was funny. Kelsey got a Ballerina Princess Barbie. She could not have been more thrilled. On the way home from the party she said, "This is the best present ever!" Mylee got a cute cuddly puppy.

This is what Blake got. Apparently President picked it out.

Kelsey and her new Ballerina Barbie

As part of the evening, the kids also decorated sugar cookies for Santa. There were all sorts of sprinkles and toppings to choose from.

The last activity of the night, President Sessions read the children, "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Kelsey was completely enthralled! She loved it. The President was so sweet with them.
Mylee had a great time. She loved exploring a new house and got into all sorts of things. It took me and Blake forever to eat dinner because we had to keep chasing Mylee and getting her out of things. Look at that cute smile!

Playing in the Snow

Our weather here in Vermont has been very strange in December. Just a few days ago we had over 18 inches of snow and now there is barely a sprinkle because it decided to rain this week. Never fret though, the snow will be BACK, I'll guarantee it!! I crack up every time I get Mylee's snow suit on. Poor thing can't move in it and I'm not too sure she's convinced that playing in the snow is for her. Kelsey on the other hand LOVES it!! Snow we need you to come back. And oh, when you do come back, please no freezing weather, so we can actually play in you :)

Blake helped Kelsey with some practice ski runs off the back of our house. The house you see in the back is our mud room. Blake constructed a nice little hit and let Kelsey cruise down. I wasn't there to witness it, but I hear she was quite good! He can't wait to get her up on the slopes. With our crazy weather, we were going to go at the beginning of this week (Blake works up there every day at the ski clinic and gets a free pass and Kelsey skis free of course), but her bunny hill is half grass half snow. Not too great conditions. It snowed last night though, so I'm awaiting the slope report from Blake when he gets home today.

Gingerbread House Tradition

Today we pulled out the Gingerbread house to decorate. I'm not sure if Kelsey or I had more fun! I love doing this every year. I have to admit though, I was pretty impressed at Kelsey's skills. Poor Mylee was having her nap so she didn't participate (not that she could have anyways), but when she woke up later she got to enjoy some mini M&M's and boy did she LOVE that!

WOW look at that masterpiece!

Kelsey at the Dentist

Kelsey went to the Dentist on Wednesday and did such an awesome job!!! Wow, I was so proud of her. She was a little shy going in and a little reluctant, but her hygenist Amy was so cute with her, that Kelsey warmed right up. Getting to pick out some really cool sunglasses didn't hurt either. Kelsey thought she was pretty COOL!! During her whole appointment Kelsey didn't wince or make a sound and was so good! I was such a proud Mom! Amy mentioned that she wished all her patients were that good. It was so cute, Kelsey was so concerned about doing what Amy asked her. For example Amy would tell her to open her mouth, so she would open it and KEEP it open FOREVER, even to the point where Amy said that it was okay to close her mouth and swallow. Kelsey then would say, "Oh, okay" and then shly smile. Oh man, I'm seeing so much of me in her it is scary sometimes! At the end of her appointment she got a toothbrush, floss, and got to pick out a prize for doing so well. She picked out a bouncy ball--and of course lost it not 30 minutes after we got home. I actually found it today under the stove.

Kelsey using "Mr. Thirsty."

Kelsey getting her teeth polished.

Enjoying the Holidays!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Wednesday night we had a pie night with just a couple of friends. I made 7 pies!! We had to have a variety and Blake had to have his kind and I couldn't go without my key lime and lemon meringue. We had a tradtional apple pie, pumpkin. an apple pecan crumb, two kinds of chocolate and then the other two I already mentioned. We had a wonderful time and it was fun celebrating a tradition with others.

Thursday Blake had to work so some friends had invited me and the girls over for Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Some nice doctors at the hospital decided to let Blake come home early though so he could spend Thanksgiving with his family. We were very thankful for that. We had a wonderful time at our friends and our kids loved playing with each other.

We didn't do any shopping this year on Friday, we just enjoyed a peaceful day together as a family and decorated for Christmas. The girls got a kick out of that! The above picture is Kelsey and Mylee in their fall dresses. My mom made them for my sister's wedding a few years back. Mylee is wearing the dress that was made for Kelsey and Kelsey is wearing the dress my little sister grew out of. It's nice to get hand-me-downs. Thanks Mom!!! We don't know what we would do without them!!

We also started a new tradition that we will do all of December. For family night we learned about Jesus's birth and about the Nativity. The I prepared a little manger (a clementines crate) for a doll that we are now calling baby Jesus to lay on. The only problem is that Jesus has no hay to lay in. So every time we do something good, (obey Mom, clean room, be nice to sister, etc.) we get to put some hay in Jesus's manger. When we are able to put some hay in Jesus's manger is it like giving Jesus presents for his birthday. The hope is that Jesus will have lots of hay to lay in by Christmas. We'll keep you posted on our progress. We also have another fun tradition starting this weekend, I'll keep you posted on that one!


Here is a picture of all of our pies. Including the mini pies Kelsey helped make! I have to mention also that she was quite the hostess. She told everyone that we had made pies just for them and before they left she made it a point to tell them I had plates for them to take some pie home. I had also set up an activity table with some things to color for the kids and she made sure they knew about that. She was so cute and so much fun. She is growing up so much!


Here are some pictures of us playing out in the snow. It has since melted, but we sure enjoyed it while it lasted!

These pictures of Mylee crack me up!! She could barely walk!

HELP, I've fallen and I can't get up!!

This past Sunday, I dressed my girls up in pretty Christmas dresses!! My sister-in-law Tanya gave the one Mylee is wearing to Kelsey when she was a baby and Kelsey is wearing the dress my sister wore to my wedding. Sort of fun to think where we have come in five years. I could have never guessed I'd be living in Vermont with the most beautiful girls in the world!!

Blake wasn't too impressed with my photo shoot of Kelsey. Remember the panties? Well, I decided to do another shoot of her. These pictures turned out really cute!! I'm really pleased with them. And oh, Blake approves :)

Dance Pictures

Today at my little dance class I took pictures of my dancers. Two were missing because they were sick--so sad!! Our pictures were a success! I had to show off all of my cute little dancers. Oh yeah, and don't mind Kelsey's panties, opps!! Our dance classs has been so much fun and I'm so impressed with what my girls have learned! Some of you have asked where I have held them

Catching Up!!

It's been a while since I've shared any news, so I'll do my best to consicely catch you up. We've had a great couple of weeks. Having Blake home is definitely a bonus, he was gone the last week of September and 3 weeks into October doing an away rotation in Texas. Luckily he loved it and it looks like a great prospect for residency. We'll cross our fingers. He interviews there December 10th. That is another thing we have been up to, WAITING for interviews. Whoa! that can be stressful, but we have received some responses and that is very encouraging!

We had a wonderful Halloween! Our ward had a halloween party on Halloween so that was our main event. We just trick-or-treated to a few homes on our street. The party was great and the girls had a great time. My friend Michelle planned it and she did an incredible job!! Kelsey was Sleeping Beauty and Mylee was a Giraffe, thanks to Blake's sister Dionne for lending the costume to us :) Here are some fun pictures of that event.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Boston to visit Blake's sister Dionne and her family. They just moved there and boy are we excited to have some family within driving distance. We've been loners out here for a while. It was such a great visit. They moved into a fixer-upper, so we lended our support in helping get some projects done around the house. We were able to get a lot accomplished and we were so glad to be of service. I wish we could have gotten more done for them. While we were in Boston we also had the opportunity to attend the Boston temple. Whoa!! So beautiful! It so great to go to the temple with my husband. We felt so renewed and at peace after we left there.

On that trip we also went downtown to do the Freedom Trail. It was so cool, both meanings intended! The sites were so amazing and it was hard to believe that we were walking in the areas where our country started, but man was it cold!! We were freezing! It was so cold we didn't end up walking the whole trail, but got to see a lot of really neat things.

This is a picture of the U.S.S ConstitutionThe monument at Bunker Hill

Kelsey had a great time with her 5 boy cousins, as she refers to them as. She carved pumpkins with them and had all sorts of fun! She and Drew were little buds. They would find activity after activity and keep themselves busy all day. It was great! Kelsey got confused with all their names though. She is closest in age to Drew and therefore played with him the most. To the others she would refer to them as the bigger Drew or the smaller Drew. You don't blame her for trying to remember everyone's names. Here's the crew, minus Kade or the "smaller Drew" who is 18 months old. He and Mylee will be great buds one day! From left to right, Conner, Trey, Spencer, Kelsey, Drew.

Oh and I can't forget, Mylee took her first steps while we were there! It was so exciting. She is getting better and better at walking every day. She's so cautious, it's funny!