Lots and lots of Fire Trucks!

I was thinking about it and the girls and I had probably not been to a fire station in maybe almost a year and then in the last month we have been 3 times. Ryan is a rover right now but has had a little temporary spot at station 54. The Captain invited us for dinner about 3 weeks ago. Then we went back again about a week and a half later to the same station with Mindy and her kids for a visit and tour of the station, and then since Ryan worked actual Thanksgiving we went to visit him and have lunch. On Thanksgiving he was roved out to station 1 downtown.

My Mom and sister came with us on Thanksgiving Day. This was my Mom's first visit to a station and first truck ride for her and my sister. ;)





Only 3 or 4 stations have the traditional fire pole

Playing in the racquetball court after the truck ride.

Here are pictures when we went with Mindy, James and McKenzie.

James was in HEAVEN! He got to sit in the captain's chair and honk the horn and push the siren.

Poor Lex in the middle of her cold

Spraying water!

Lex was all about it too.

Kaylee not so much. She was trying to be brave and then decided against it.

Our Thanksgiving

Ryan had to work on the actual Thanksgiving Day this year so we treated the day before as our Thanksgiving. Kaylee had no school on Wednesday so after breakfast we started the fun of preparing our feast.

They maybe did not want to eat it, but they were sure excited to help make it! Kaylee would only eat Turkey and Gravy and cranberry sauce...not bad, and Lex would only eat the mashed potatoes. I made them some plain broccoli too, which they ate since they did not want to eat much else, but I did not count that as REAL Thanksgiving food! Oh, and of course they both loved the pumpkin pie!

Kaylee was ready and waiting for the feast to begin!

Little Climber!

So really..... I can't believe my 19 month old climbed out of her crib tonight!!! Ahhhh! I had just put her down and I was finishing getting Kaylee ready for bed when I glanced in her door way and she was standing in it. About gave me a heart attack. Thank God she was not hurt and no tears. The evidence showed she just went right to playing with books and taking all the wipe refills out of her dresser. I know she is my climber, and figured I would probably not be able to keep her in her crib as long as Kaylee, but 19 months!!! Kaylee stayed in her crib until her 3rd birthday and never even tried to climb out once. It was actually a funny thing with Kaylee, she wanted to go in Lexies crib the other day for fun, so she was able to get in and then when she wanted out she started crying because she could not get out. REALLY! She is five in 2 month and STILL scared to crawl out of the crib. I actually showed her how and where to put her feet and then made her try. Oh boy! The differences in your kids! I was really hoping to make it until 2 with Lex before having to convert her crib to a toddler bed or really I was hoping we would be like big sis and never even have a toddler bed. Just go right to a big girl bed at 3. Hopefully it was just a fluke thing....I guess tomorrow morning will tell.

So Thankful!

This Thanksgiving we have been talking to Kaylee about what we are thankful for. One of our Thanksgiving books talks about how the food, parade, family, and football are all great but most important we need to be thankful to God for all those things that He gave us. After we read our Thanksgiving books I always ask Kaylee what she is thankful for. I am thankful that most of the time she said Mommy. Melt my heart! Annie and her stuffed Reindeer were also thrown in their a lot. And of course Daddy and Lex. :)


Here Kaylee is Thankful that she has these cookies to decorate. Now these are super cute but I have to admit I really tried to not make them. I am ALL about holidays and traditions but I think with 3 of us being sick, so much going on this time of year and trying to fit everything in...and not wanting one more sweet thing for me to eat and for the kids to want to eat, I really tried to ignore this request. We have never made turkey hand cookies before but Kaylee kept seeing the commercial for these on the Nick Jr channel (see what happens when you are all sick and you let you kids watch too much TV) and literally kept begging me to make them. It was so bad...I would say "OK, sounds fun" and just think to myself...I really hope she forgets. That sounds awful I know, but with the dozens of homemade Christmas sugar cookies that are soon to be made, and that tradition will always stick..... and we just had the Halloween sugar cookies that we made.....I am sugar cookied out just thinking about making more. But the requests never ended, and since I am all about making the holidays super fun for the kids I gave in. Lex and I went to the store, colds and all, while Kaylee was at school on Monday and I bought a roll or sugar cookie dough in a package and icing in tubes....that was as creative as I was going to get. Of course the recipe wants you to make the frosting and in a bunch of colors. I bought three colors and that would have to do! Another reason for my reluctance was that making sugar cookies in the shape of your child's hands, while cute, meant that Mom would be tracing and and cutting them very carefully out with a knife. You can't just give your 4 your old a cookie cutter and say have fun. So after tracing both Kaylee and Lexies hands, and cutting out a template of each, I set out to the task of very carefully cutting out little hands out of dough.....I have to say it is very difficult to do this and not loose any fingers. So Kaylee watched me for about all of two hands and then was bored and off playing....an hour or so later I was finally done. Oh sigh....the things you do for your kids!
After dinner while I cleaned up I turned Kaylee loose with 3 tubes of icing, candy corn, and mini chocolate chips. She really had fun decorating. She even came and thanked me afterwords for making the cookies, and for me letting her decorate them all by herself with no help. At least it was all worth it in the end and I had one happy four year old!





They really did turn out cute and it is fun that it is in the shape of the girls hands. Maybe next year I won't be so grumpy from a cold. :)




Here are some of the people that I am most thankful for.....

....and I am also thankful for my Christmas tree that was put up on Sat Nov 20. I love how it can be pulled out of a bag and put together in three pieces lights and all! I am also so thankful that for the first time ever I finally have a front living room where I can put my Christmas tree right in front of the window. I have always loved driving by peoples houses at Christmas time and seeing the tree in the front window. Oh the little things!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The sick house.....

This picture pretty much sums up the misery in our house the last 12 days. Lex has had it the worst. A horrible cold that has not let up in 12 days....I keep thinking any day will be better....wishful thinking. Two days after her getting the cold and basically not sleeping for two nights....that means I did not sleep either, I took her to the doctor and she had a horrible ear infection. She just finished day 10 of the medicine today and since we have no improvement in the cold I am worried we will be right back in the Dr office next week. :( Kaylee and I made it about 4 days into her cold before we both got it and have had it on an off. Of course this has meant 12 days of an extra fussy baby....I am sooo ready for us all to feel better.

School Feast!

Kaylee had her Thanksgiving feast at School today. They made cute hats and necklaces and had Turkey (chicken nuggets), stuffing (apple sauce), and dessert was check mix with skittles. Perfect for a preschooler!



Kaylee and her friend Makenna

8 Years!

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you so much! Thanks for bringing me beautiful flowers!



The girls loved their flowers too!

Cute in polka dots!

These were taken before going to church last Sunday just because they were cute!

It's that time again.....

Kaylee started soccer again yesterday. She enjoyed it so much in the spring so we are giving it another go. They don't play any formal games just a once a week practice for 45 minutes. They mostly play little drills and run around and kick the ball. So I had to laugh....most of the time I would look up for the first half of practice she would be running with the ball in her hands. I can just hear it now...."but Mom, why would I want to kick the ball when it is so much easier just to pick it up?" Oh silly girl! So we will see how far we go with this but for right now she is having fun! I think the coach finally said something because towards the end she started kicking it. :)

Patriotism Day

Kaylee had Patriotism Day at her school on Wednesday. This is a really nice event her school puts on every year to say thanks to the people serving our country. The students and staff that know anyone present or past military are asked to invite them to the school on this day so they can be honored. All the 4's and 5's classes at the school sang them 6 songs about America. After the singing each military member was introduced and we were told when and where they served or are currently serving.

Here are a few of the songs the kids sang. Unfortunately you can't see Kaylee in either of the videos.....she was being blocked by someones hat.

Halloween Fun!

FALL FESTIVAL

On Saturday night our church had their huge fall festival. This year it was at Westworld and not on the church campus. It was a huge event and tons of people showed up. They had bounce houses, lots of games, food, a horse drawn hay ride, and of course tons of candy for the kids. Kaylee was excited when she learned she got to also wear her costume this night. Poor Lex was fussy this night and I thought she was just tired from having to wake her up from her nap earlier in the day to take Kaylee to Ballet. Turns out she was getting sick and was sick most the night. :( Poor thing. Luckily she bounced back really quick and felt better by the next afternoon so we let her trick-or-treat to a few houses. I felt bad keeping her from the fun when she was running around and acting like herself again.

Here Lex is at the toddler area of the Fall Festival





while Lex was playing Kaylee enjoyed the bounce house

Petting the horses

On the hay ride

Kaylee finished the night off with playing games

HALLOWEEN DAY

We started off the morning with Pumpkin pancakes. This was a new recipe this year that also has a homemade syrup that goes with it....super yummy!!! (thanks Katie ;))

Then it was time to carve pumpkins. Poor Lex missed out on this. She slept most the day recovering from being sick the night before.

Kaylee was ready to dig in to the pumpkins this year. Other years she has been a little cautious about the pumpkin goo but she could not wait to help pull out all the seeds. With Ryan's help she helped out with most of one pumpkin. Then it was uww..."I have to wash my hands", and "Mom, can I color now"....and so Ryan finished carving that one and then did the other one by himself. Isn't that always the way....good old Dad does most the pumpkin carving. :) We also remembered to save some seeds out for roasting for the first time since we have had kids. I roasted them today with butter, garlic salt, and seasoned salt, and they are really yummy!

Posing with the finished product!

TRICK-OR-TREATING

Our cute Sleeping Beauty and Tinkerbell ready to go!

The girls helping daddy put the tea light candles in our little pumpkin lanterns out front

Anxiously waiting for Memaw and Auntie to come over so we can all go trick-or-treating

Going to the first house. Lex did so good and even said trick-or-treat a few times. And Kaylee was such a good big sister and made sure that Lex got candy at every house. She would grab some and bring it back to her pumpkin if Lex did not walk all the way to the door.

We just went to a few houses on our block all together and then me and my sister took Lex home so she did not over do it from being sick.

Back at home passing out candy. I got Lex all comfy in her pj's and then she helped me and my sister pass out candy. We just sat out on the front porch and ate pumpkin bread and drank apple cider and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Lex had a great time bringing candy back and forth from the trick-or-treat basket to her own basket.

When Ryan, Kaylee, and My Mom got back Kaylee took over passing out the candy. She was so proud to have that job. :)

At the end of the night checking out some of her candy. I say "some" because I can see she still has a ton in her pumpkin. :)