Kaylee's Three!

December 31, 2012

Kaylee is 3!  What?!  When did my baby girl get so big?  Kaylee is so spunky, funny and the cutest thing ever.  We went sledding at Constitution Park here in Roosevelt for her birthday.  We had a blast!  There's some pretty good hills there and even though it was crazy cold - Kaylee was a trooper, and so was Braxton.

We took Kaylee out to dinner to Pizza Hut where she ate so much pizza it made her sick and she couldn't even eat her princess cupcakes when we got home.  But she was still happy to open her presents!

Friends and family that came: Grandma and Grandpa Vane; Mike, Jess and Chloe; Cory, Elisha and their family; Rob, Kellee and Whitton.

The day before her birthday, I asked Kaylee these questions and here are her answers:

What is your favorite color?  Pink!
What is your favorite toy?   My kitchen
What is your favorite fruit?  A boyo (Banana)
What is your favorite TV show?  Dora
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Jam Samich (PB & J sandwich)
What is your favorite thing to wear?  Purple tutu and pink skirt (pretty much her dance outfits)
What is your favorite snack?  Purple fruit snacks
What is your favorite animal? Pink horsey
What is your favorite song? Old McDonald
What is your favorite book or story? Cinderella
Who is your best friend? Jade
What is your favorite cereal? Cherrios
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with my beach ball
What is your favorite drink?  Milk
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What do you like to sleep with?  Pink Blanket
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal
What do you want for dinner for your birthday? Pizza!
What do you want to be when you get big?  A dancer and a mommy!

I love this little girl so much!  She can be fiesty but also so sweet.  She tells me pretty frequently "Mommy, your my best friend."  (Even though she mentions her best friend as Jade in the question above - that's okay, I know I'm her best friend too!)   She's such a good big sister to Braxton and loves him so much.  She loves hanging out with her daddy outside and loves "helping" him with his projects.  She's a dancer - she loves her dance classes!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little princess!

I'm Back!

I've been such a slacker but I am going to update the last 6 months.  So get ready for lots of posts!  I don't even know if anyone still reads my blog.... oh well.  Here it goes anyway.

December-Christmas Awesomeness!

We started out the Christmas season by decorating our tree right after we got home from Thanksgiving.  I love our tree.  I sometimes miss having a real one but an artificial one is super convenient! Kaylee enjoyed helping me decorate. She loves the Christmas tree almost as much as I do. One of my favorite things at Christmas is to sit in our front room with just the Christmas tree lights on. 

 

December 1
Jake's mom took everyone out for our annual Christmas dinner and show.  We look forward to this every year, especially now that we seem to all be scattering farther away.  I feel pretty blessed to have such great in-laws!  The dinner was amazing as usual and the show was funny but spiritual.  It was a reminder to why we celebrate Christmas and it was a perfect way to start the season off.  Thank you Janice to an awesome night!

 

December 6
After the Nielsen Christmas party, I decided to stay in town to spend some time getting some Christmas things done and spending time with my family.  Jake had to come home to go to work so it was just me and the kids.  Thursday December 6th, I took the kids to see some Christmas lights and Santa at Riverwoods.  My mom and dad came with us and Audrey and Boston met up with us there.  We missed Jake and wished he could have come with us but we still had a good time!  The lights were so pretty and Santa was great!  Kaylee had no reservations about sitting on Santa's lap.  She was so excited!  She told him she wanted babies, a kitchen and cupcakes.  Even Braxton was fine with Santa.  No crying = success!

Kaylee really was excited to see Santa - it just isn't captured in this picture. :)

December 8
Jake came back out to Spanish Fork so we could attend our friend's Christmas party.  We usually aren't able to make it to their party but this year we were able to and we were so glad!  It was a small group of us and we all became friends while I worked at New Haven and our husbands all became friends as well.  I'm so grateful that we've been able to maintain these friendships since we've moved.  Their friendship mean the world to me and it was so great to get together with everyone!!

December 19
I took Kaylee and Braxton to the library where they were having Christmas story time.  They read some stories, got to make a craft, see Santa and have cookies and milk.  Kaylee loved it - especially since her best little friend Jade was there too.

When Santa came in, I told Kaylee to go sit up front where the kids were gathering.  Well, she thought I meant go sit WITH Santa.  So she marched herself up there, weaving in and out of kids and parents.  She got right in front of Santa, who had just sat down, and waited.  He grabbed her and put her on his lap and he didn't even have to ask what she wanted for Christams, she just went right ahead and said, "I want babies, kitchen and cupcakes!"  Everyone giggled at her and told her she was a pro at this Santa thing.

Kaylee and her bestie Jade

Later that night Kaylee had her dance recital.  She looked adorable but she didn't really do a whole lot on stage.  But that's okay.  She said she had fun and I've seen her do it in dance class so I know she knew it.  I was proud of her just the same.   

   

She's the 2nd in from the right - the one that looks angry...

 We've had such a good December.  The holidays are so much more fun with kids!  Especially now that Kaylee is understanding more and more.  She's super excited for Santa to come but not only that, she's starting to understand that Christmas is about our Savior's birth (but let's be honest, for her it's still mostly about Santa).  

With everything that's happened recently, I've just tried to hold my kids more and tell them I love them even more.  I feel so terrible for the parents who lost their little ones and can't hold them any longer but I know our Savior is doing it for them.  I'm so grateful for the gospel, for our Savior, His birth and everything He has done for us.  And I'm so grateful for these two little ones...   

Merry Christmas!

My Sweet Girl

Yesterday morning while I was getting ready Braxton was in his room on the floor playing.  He started to get fussy and I heard Kaylee go in there and say "What wrong Braxton?  It's okay." In her highest, sweetest voice.  I then heard her a minute later talking to him and he had stopped fussing so I went in there to see what they were doing and this is what I found...

Such a good big sister reading him a story.

Fast forward to later that afternoon. Jake had been home for lunch and then went back to work. This is how our conversation went...

K:     Why daddy go to work?
Me:   Because somebody has to work around here...
K:     Kayee go to work!
Me:   What are you going to do at work?
K:     Fix a castle for mommy!

I love my sweet girl and I'm really looking forward to my castle!

Braxton's 1st Haircut

Braxton has a lot of hair.  I love it!  And he's complimented on it all the time.  Ladies are always running their fingers through his hair - he loves it.  But it was getting hard to style it and I just kept telling myself that I would cut it when he was 6 months.  Well, he's 6 months now so I decided to just do it (I didn't actually do it - Elisha did.)

The whole day I didn't know if I could do it.  I was afraid he wasn't going to look like my baby anymore!  I'm not sure why cutting off my little's boy hair was so emotional for me but it was...

He's looking at his Dad for help... and sucking on his thumb...

Look at all that hair!

My handsome boy with his new do.

And that darn thumb again...

 He wasn't happy to lose those beautiful locks but he looks good!  He does look older though now and not so baby-ish but I'm getting used to it.

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun this year with Kaylee.  She was so into it and had so much fun!  Kaylee HAD to be a princess so I had her help me pick a princess dress online. She picked a pink one of course.

We went to a Halloween carnival and played lots of fun games.  She got to catch her own goldfish and we named him Bubbles.  Apparently we don't know how to take care of a goldfish because Bubbles passed away a few days later.  Kaylee was sad but then said "We need new fish now".  I don't think that will be happening...

Princess Kaylee and her fish Bubbles

 Kaylee had a dance Halloween party as well, which she loved.  Her favorite part was the spook alley - weirdly enough.  After the party we went Trunk-or-Treating with her cousins and friends! It was really fun and she made a huge haul!
   

Kaylee and Sadie - two beautiful princesses!!

Halloween night we went Trick-or-Treating around our neighborhood.  Kaylee loved going up to doors, knocking, and saying "Trick-er-tree"!  She was so cute.  And Brax was a ferocious dragon - just look at this mean, fire breathing beast....

The most adorable dragon I've ever seen!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween!  I know we did!!!

Halloween Fun

The other night for Family Night we carved pumpkins.  Kaylee wasn't really digging the whole carving thing since we obviously don't trust her with a knife so we gave her paint instead.  She created a masterpiece! 

Braxton enjoyed watching us.

Our Jack-O-Lanterns! Jake's is on the left, Kaylee's in the middle (obviously) and mine on the right.

Yesterday I helped the kids make some ghosts with paint and their hands.  I found the idea on pinterest,of course. Kaylee loved that I painted her hand and while I was helping Braxton make his ghosts - I looked over and saw Kaylee painting her whole arm.  It was awesome....  Anyway, I think they turned out pretty cute and now I can use them as Halloween decorations.