Full House

Again this year I'm reminded of how much I have to be thankful for. One of the main things that comes to mind this year is how important it is to share our lives with others.  I am very fortunate to have wonderful friends and family to share my life with. Thanksgiving is usually my yearly reminder of the large extended family that we have who all still make the effort to come together to share a meal and play some games. This year that reminder came early with Aunt Bonnie's hospital stay. Our family came together to make the most of a bad situation and everyone gave in their own unique way to help out a very special person in all of our lives.

This years for Thanksgiving we had our largest crowd yet at Kacey and Eric's house - 37 people around the table. We had a great meal and then spent time playing games and catching up. While the house was full, Aunt Bonnie was certainly missed with her lively game play. It was good to know she was in a nice safe place with hot meals and nice people.

As I head into the holiday season I am thankful for the life I have that is filled with friends and family.

McKenzie and cousin Kayla, the sweetest Thanksgiving helpers around!


Ben getting a snuggle from Daddy.


After the meal the kids discovered a whole new place to play and took off under the table.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We had our first snowfall of the year last week and actually had snow on the ground through Thanksgiving. Lucky for us the snow was accompanied by our good friend the sun so we were able to enjoy a little fun outside without getting too cold.

McKenzie knows all about snow and what to do with it. Her favorite thing to say was 'I'm going to throw a (Silent S) 'no-man at you'. Ben wasn't too sure about all the white stuff but he was game for checking it out. He was mainly excited to wear his snow boots and be free to wander around outside.

Ben trying to navigate the snow while McKenzie chases him with a snowball.


Our little snow angel doing her thing - she loves the snow and does not mind the cold.


On the move, McKenzie is ready to put on some snow shoes and go off road.


After about a half hour Ben looked at me with this sad little face and said 'All done.' and headed for the house. He's a man of few words but when he does speak it carries weight.


A good shot of the house in the snow with little man heading for home.


McKenzie's (silent S) 'no-man' made the first day of snow. He's tiny but to her he checked off the box for making a snowman.


Looking forward to more fun in the snow this Winter.  I am glad it only lasted a few days since I ordered a whole bunch of Christmas stuff online and the delivery men need to show up before Christmas this year.

We House

Quoting another of McKenzie's often misused terms, this entry is about 'we house'. I know as a proper parent I should correct her and instill the standard use of 'our' for plural instead of 'we' but I love to hear her ask about 'we house'... 'we car'... 'we family'.

Matt and I moved into our house in April six years ago and the time has flown by. We bought the house knowing it had good bones but needed a lot of work. We've invested a lot of time, sweat and tears into the house and love that our kids added the final touch of making it a home. It's amazing to think back on all the changes we've made and all the lessons we've learned about home improvement projects. One recent project has been on the list forever. We finally did the front yard landscaping and front porch reconfiguration.

Here's a before shot of our house in July 2004 shortly after we moved in. You can see Matt's brand new truck - still our favorite car. This shot also shows off the fantastic paint choice by the previous owner of peacock blue trim with bright yellow siding. We haven't done the remodel to add on over the garage at this point. The front porch rail is still on taking you across the entire length of the porch to the front door. If you try hard enough you can see Matt and me on the porch with Indy and JonesZ in my arms as a tiny pup.


Similar shot from October of this year, the 2006 remodel is complete with a master bedroom over the garage. The new front porch is on replacing the old worn out one. The railing isn't up yet because we were waiting for the path to the front door. The trim is white and we have a new roof and accent peaks which changes the appearance of the house a lot. We have also added on pavers to each side of the driveway to widen it.


A few short days later and a lot of hard work by Matt and some of his friends and we have a totally new look for the house and front yard.


The front porch now has two entry points - one next to the garage for easy access and then a second more welcoming entry that leads you across the treed yard on a winding cobblestone path to a nice wide set of stairs directly in front of the door. The only thing unwelcoming is our 'No Solicitors' sign but we can't be wasting our new landscaping on just anyone.

We had our friend Tom Hartzell, draw up the landscaping plans for us back in the early summer of 2007 before McKenzie was born with great intentions of doing all the work that summer. Needless to say we didn't quite get around to it for a while. Matt did an amazing job of following the plan and making a concept on paper come to life.

View from the porch looking out at our birch trees and winding path. Matt also installed lights along the path and then spot lights under the trees which added some much needed light in the front of the house.


View down the porch to the access next to the garage. We love 'we house'!

Silent 'S'

Less commonly known than the very popular silent 'E' or 'H', the elusive silent 'S' is used often at our house by McKenzie. I've become an avid interpreter of the silent 'S' for those who don't speak McKenzie. Some of my favorite examples are 'no' for 'snow', 'nail' for 'snail', 'nake' for 'snake'... you get the picture. You have to be very alert when listening for the silent 'S', if you come to a point in the conversation where you aren't following what she's saying, just stop and listen for words that might contain the silent 'S'.

One night last week before bed McKenzie asked me to get in her bed and 'nuggle' her. Normally I'm not one for hanging out endlessly in her room at bedtime but how could I resist the offer of a 'nuggle'? Now she knows my weakness.

Someday, McKenzie will learn that she's been using silent 'S' incorrectly but for now I'll enjoy every one of them. Just for the record silent 'S' is part of the English Language.


Silent S
S is not pronounced before L in the following words:
- island
- isle

Here's the kids 'nuggling' on the couch on Saturday morning - adorable! Note McKenzie does not suck her thumb, she is just being silly for the picture.

Clowning Around with a Mouse

Every year Halloween ends up being a bit off kilter from the plans I make. But the one thing that is never different is the fun we have despite straying from my plans. Trying to change our fate from last year we decided to avoid costume shopping online and headed out to the costume store in early October to pick our perfect costumes.

My Plan: Pick out something coordinating for the whole family, like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Kind of like these people, only we'd be much smaller and cuter.

Photo Courtesy of rustytanton.com

Reality: We enter the costume store and they are completely out of Mario and Luigi costumer even though it is only October 9th. Unwilling to face ordering online we press on. Family costume dream is out the window. Now we're just focused on the kids. We point McKenzie towards a wall of princess costumes in every color of rainbow. Something catches her eye, her face lights up and she says quite clearly "I want to be a clown."  Matt is aware of my clown phobia as he jumps right in steering Kenzie's eyes from the brightly colored clown costume on the bottom row towards the array of princess costumes. Undaunted she points again and says "A Clown." I give it a try, "What about Jesse from Toy Story" but get interrupted by a firm, "A Clown." So we cave, there is genuine excitement surrounding the clown costume. We ask for her size, hoping they are out but imagine that they have her size. Next we are directed to the clown accessory section where we are sure we can end this plan. No luck, she loves the nose, the wig, the shoes, even the giant fake lollipop. Then she suggest that Mommy dress as a clown too. I agree thinking that we are going to have some serious buyers remorse over this clown costume purchase and that 'match - match' clowns will be a much better selling point later when I'm trying to force her into the clown suit on Halloween. I should have never doubted her. She loved every minute of it. I dressed as a clown for nothing or maybe it helped me get over one of my phobias.


Visiting with Aunt Bonnie who was in the hospital on Halloween. Such a fun way for a kid to visit someone in the hospital and fun for Aunt Bonnie to get cute visitors.


Ben on the other hand is much simpler. We look at the boy options and try to buy Superman since it has a cape but they are out of his size so we leave empty handed. Then Matt takes the kids to the Disney store and they come home with an adorable Mickey Mouse costume for him. Only issue is he hates the ears and also the gloves.  So we end up with just the puffy body so he looks like a little fat man with a tail. Oh well, he's still adorable and even more so when screaming "All Done" every time we got the ears and gloves on for a second.


Here is where the silver lining kicks in. Aunt Jennifer saved the day by actually capturing all three kids in their costumes somewhat looking the same direction. Adorable. Claire the Park Ranger, Kenzie the Clown (has a nice ring to it!) and Benny the Mouse.

Photo Courtesy of Aunt Jennifer

The Fun: McKenzie did some serious Trick Or Treating this year. No more of this hit the immediate neighbors then head home. We headed out and ran into three of the older girls in our neighborhood and went around with them learning the ropes. At each house McKenzie would drop my hand in the driveway and hold her hand up saying "Mom, you wait here. I'll go with the girls and ring the doorbell and get some candy."  Then she would do just that. She wouldn't let anyone put candy in her bucket, instead she would take it in her hand and immediately turn and yell, "Mom, look what I got!"  The pure joy was amazing. She was also given a miniature can of pop at one house that caused her to look into her bucket when walking to check out that pop. That was big time! Looking forward to next year already even starting my plan!

Works of Art!

McKenzie loves art, anything from coloring to stickers to cutting and gluing but if it involves paint she is in heaven. She would paint all day if we let her. This year McKenzie got to be more involved in pumpkins than she was last year and that meant a chance to paint her pumpkin. She was very serious about painting her pumpkins and wanted to make sure it was just right.


Matt and I handled the carving again this year and ended up with three carved pumpkins and two painted ones. Very spooky for the trick or treat-ers.


McKenzie was very excited about the lit up pumpkins. This year she really got into the spirit of the Halloween season.


Ben is learning to love art too but he is still not sure about getting his hands into all that mess. Luckily he has a big sister like McKenzie who is more than willing to show him how things are done. I am so looking forward to many more works of art with these two as they grow up. I have so many memories of making things when I was a kid. Time to start stocking up the art closet.

Should Have, Would Have...

what could I have done to prevent my bad online karma striking again?  I ordered adorable outfits for the kids first school pictures but as is the norm when I order something for a specific date the outfits arrived a day too late. I didn't let this little set back get me down.  Clearly I had other cute clothes my kids could wear for pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't realized that sibling pictures were an option.  I would have thought about two dueling striped shirts being a bad choice for picture day. Luckily for me their cuteness was able to overpower the fashion faux pas.

McKenzie 3 1/2

Ben 21 months

Above Pictures from Artis Photography

Here's the kids in the outfits that should have been. Definitely cute as well.



Okay maybe dueling stripes was better than coordinated outfits after all. No combo shot for me.