Milestones

Since it's been awhile...

Jamen
Jamen is now almost 7 months old.  His babyhood is a blur to me.  Probably from lack of sleep and too many distractions.  But truly, a blur.  I feel like he has gotten so big so fast.  At his six month check up, he was in the 75th percentile for height, but has now dropped to the 5th percentile for weight.  So much for keeping him on the charts!

• Rolls everywhere.
• Started eating baby food.  He LOVES it.  Unlike the other two, he pretty much hasn't spit out a drop.  In fact, he smacks his lips and gets so excited when he knows food is coming.  It is so fun to watch.  

• Moved to the crib and his own room. 

He is a very happy boy and is very patient as his feedings and naps are frequently interrupted.

Linzie

• Potty trained. When can you actually claim that a child is potty trained?  I'm going to claim that Linzie is because she has been wearing panties in the car for long distances and to church with no accidents.  I think that warrants the title of potty trained.  This, however, is not to say that she never has accidents.  No we still have the "I'm-having-so-much-fun-I-can't-stop-to-go-to-the-bathroom" kind of accidents once in awhile or the "I'm in time-out-for-hurting-someone-and-think-'I'll-show-them'" kind of accidents.

• Sleeping in the toddler bed.  This was a big move for us.  Linzie was set to stay in the crib until she out grew it, literally, or figured out how to climb out of it.  I guess our expectations were pretty low about her staying in her bed and her room.  We finally decided it was time, for both her and Jamen's sake (he needed the crib) to make the big move.  I am proud to say, she has totally exceeded our expectations.  Please don't tell her or teach her that she can get out of the bed without mom or dad telling her she can!

• Canine teeth.  Linzie has had no canine teeth on top or bottom until now.  They are finally poking through.  Nothing like being two and still not having your baby teeth.  Yeah for teeth!
• First hair cut.  Thanks, Aunt Becky! 

• Opens the fridge by herself.  Oh, what a milestone!  Good and bad.  Now I don't have to get her milk cup out of the fridge for her but, now she can get whatever she wants whenever she wants and, she likes to open the fridge just because she can.  

Linzie has recently reentered her biting, pinching, hitting phase.  Grrrrr...  Time out is proving to not be as effective as it once was.  She willingly takes herself to time out, sits in her chair and sings and laughs to herself, comes out saying "No biting" or "No hitting" and then turns around and does it again. I think she likes time out a little too much. Grrrrrrrr..

Kenzie

• First talk in Primary.
• Turned 4 years old. Don't mind the cake in the picture.  We had some of it at her party the day before, but somehow failed to get any pictures of her blowing out the candles when the cake was whole.  The cake was my version of a Frog Princess cake (her special request) and, it needed to have a frog on it as well she let me know.  She was so excited about the frog that she ate half of it (a ball of fondant) and then said her stomach was hurting so she would have to stop!

• First "friend" birthday party.  We had our first ever friend party.  Of course, it had to be a princess party.  We had a lot of fun.  Dress-up, decorating of tiaras, games, a tea party...can't be anything but fun, right.  She has such cute friends and was so happy to have them share her birthday with her.

Summer Anyone?

After a few days of gorgeous weather and playing outside and thinking that summer (okay, spring) was well on its way, we woke up to this...

...so, we had to do this

Maybe if we pretend it is warm and we are at the pool long enough, it will really happen!

Two Years Old

On Thursday, Linzie turned two.  I can't believe how fast those two years have gone.  She had a week full of partying, with one party at Grandma and Grandpa Adams' the week of Christmas, then on the 1st,she got to blow candles out at the Christensen monthly dinner/FHE.  Thursday, we got to have dinner and presents before Jared had to go to his Stake meetings.  On Friday, we got to go to Trafalga and play and then met Grandma and Grandpa Christensen for her special birthday dinner at McDonalds.  We had a viewing to go to on Friday night, so we had cake at Grandma and Grandpa's house after,with more presents.  It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa and Jason and Meradith and Lucy and Scarlett there for cake.  Linzie (with encouragement from Kenzie) requested a Strawberry Shortcake cake for her birthday. 

 Kenzie and Linzie made "birthday crowns" that they insisted on wearing all day Thursday.

 Of everything we did, the one thing I wish I could have caught on tape was her reaction when she woke up on Thursday morning and saw presents.  She stopped where she was, her eyes got super wide, and she said, "WOW...Presents!"  It was so cute.

Linzie, you are such a fun girl. You get very excited about things and although you can be a little loud, we love to hear your squeals of excitement. You are very determined and it is almost impossible to get you to move on or change your mind once you are set on something.  You are very helpful and are the most polite little girl.  You are very good at saying "thank you" and you love to give hugs and kisses.  You have started to say dinner prayers by yourself and in family prayers, even when we help you, you add your own thoughts to the prayer.  You love breakfast food, smarties, and any kind of treat.  You still love your blankie and ice will make any owie better for you.  You dress yourself and are very determined to do it yourself, including the snaps and zippers.  Kenzie is your best friend and you get sad when she is sad. Your laugh is contagious and we love to hear it.  Happy Birthday, Linz!  We love you.

Christmas

December really equals Christmas, does it not?  We had a fabulous Christmas month, starting with a not so fabulous visit to see Santa at the BYU Employee Party.  We won't be doing that again.  After Santa arrived late and we waited in a line that hardly moved for 2 hours (and yes, we were towards the front of the line), we got a picture of the girls and then the camera battery suddenly died when it was Jamen's turn.  His first Christmas and no picture with Santa.  Thankfully they were also taking pictures so we did end up with ONE picture.

The next weekend, we ventured to Temple Square.  The whole day, there were lots of phone calls to determine whether we should go or not because it was raining then snowing then raining and we were meeting  my whole family there.  In the end, we did meet up, found perfect parking for everyone, and had Temple Square pretty much to ourselves.  It was the best visit to see the lights we have ever had.  It was warm(ish) and it didn't rain or snow.  We had dinner after and just had so much fun being together.

 The next day, we had family candy making day in Morgan.  Somehow I managed to not get a single picture, but imagine two tables full of hand dipped candy...you can imagine the lusciousness.  We are still trying to finish some of it off.

For Family Home Evening one Monday, we also got to go to the library and see a fun puppet show.  Santa made a surprise appearance there, so the kids got to see him twice this year.  Once again, Jamen did not get his picture with the old guy, as he was asleep.

 Jared had the 23rd off, so we decided to have a play day.  We went to lunch and then took the kids to see Tangled.  Loved the show, but we won't do that again anytime soon either. Kenzie could have handled it if there weren't 20 minutes worth of previews she had to sit through before the show actually started.  Linzie didn't even make it through the previews before she was up and walking up and down the stairs.  A few minutes into it, Jamen had a near blow out.  We did actually make it to the end of the movie with all three of them in the theater, but for our sanity and the sake of other movie patrons we will wait to take them to the theater until they are much older.  They did love playing at the play place in the mall, however.

 On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with the Christensens.  We made the traditional gingerbread houses...

 ...wished Jamen a happy 3 months

 ate tons of food, did our funny skits, then the Nativity (with the Embley girls playing guitars and singing Christmas songs), opened presents...

 ...got in our Christmas jammies and headed for home.

 We did Christmas morning at our house and, just as Kenzie had told Santa to do, he delivered his loot to our basement.  He managed to bring the Barbies and Princess dress-ups that were requested, among other things.

 Jamen totally got into Christmas this year. It will be really hard for him to ever be more excited then he was this year!  He is loving his Bumbo and ball popping machine.

 Christmas Day, we drove to Morgan and got to party more.  Once again, we ate way too much food.  We also did the Nativity.  We're still a little short on characters, but have some up and coming wise men and shepherds.  We really missed you, Corprons!  Mary, Joseph, the angel, and the donkey really did a great job though.  The pianist for the carols really came through too.  After presents, we put the kids to bed and then the party really began.  Our favorite tradition on Christmas is to play BINGO for fun prizes.  We have been doing this since I was a kid.  Everyone brings some random wrapped prizes for the pile and we play until the pile is gone.  Once the pile is gone, we set a timer and anyone who gets BINGO can take one of someone else's prizes.  Once the timer goes off, you get to open what prizes you have.  So fun and funny to see what the prizes are.  Right now, we have a pair of adult footy pjs that keep reappearing every year. 

 We all got to go to church together on Sunday and then on Monday, had our annual sledding day.  Grandpa found the ultimate sled to pull behind the snow mobile... pretty good when you can get all the kids and and one mom in the sled at the same time and still be able to be pulled.

 Jamen loved being inside and warm while we were all out in the cold.  He loves to flash this little grin.

 We also got to have a joint b-day party for Linzie and Tate.  They are just a week away from being one year apart.  I'll save the details of that event for another post.

 We had a very wonderful Christmas and feel so blessed to have been able to spend time with our families.  Mostly, we are thankful to have a Savior who's birth we got to celebrate.