Christmas in March???

Well, not exactly.  It's just that I'm finally getting to posting pics of Christmas now:)  Better late than never, right?  We started things off with church on Christmas Eve followed by dinner at Kelly and Donnie's.  Of course, I don't have any pics of our night at Kelly's...bummer.  But as always Kelly made a delicious dinner and dessert!  We even had fun playing Just Dance:)  Actually, we started things off by opening the gifts the kids got for each other.  They each drew names from a hat then decided what they wanted to buy.  They did a great job picking out things their brother/sister would really like to play with!

 Kassidy picked out a blue Zhu Zhu pet for Kaleb...he had one on his Christmas list!

 Karson got Kassidy a new Squinkies toy, with mommy's help:)

 Kassidy thought of this one all on her own...a Cars 2 bed for Karson!!!  He LOVES it!

 Here we are after Kelly's house...Karson fell asleep on the way home and isn't happy to be up!  We got a plate of cookies and milk ready quickly for Santa then up to bed.  We put the final ornament on our Jessie Tree in the morning, the star for Christ's birth.  It's always such a great reminder why we even celebrate this day:)

 Santa left their stockings overflowing and a special gift for each of them...just what they wanted, too:)

 This next pic just cracks me up!  Karson got bored of unwrapping gifts, so just sat in his new chair and watched Beth unwrap it all.  Then made her open them up so he could play:)

 Kassidy got this cute candy holder for me at her school holiday shop

 This Elmo from Grandma and Grandpa ROCKS!!!  No really, it sings and plays the drums!  Too cute!

 Kaleb and I enjoying our soft, warm Snuggies:)  They may look ridiculous but they keep you warm!

 Time to put Kaleb's new basketball hoop together.

 Singing to Kassidy's new karaoke machine.

 The boys both got these bounce back racers...extremely FUN!!!

 Although we couldn't be in Ohio with our family this Christmas, we were blessed to have Keith's sister come for a visit.  It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with her.  It's been hard to see her since we live far apart.  She was able to enjoy some special activities with the kids on their winter break.  We even got some girl time together, too:)  Thanks for coming Beth Ann!!!

 Before school started back up we took a trip to Charleston to visit my cousin and her family.  They have twin girls who are just ADORABLE!!!!!  All the kids played really well together, too:)

 My cousin Stephanie, Eva, and Kaleb

 Kassidy with Julia

 Both girls just love to wear these bows anywhere in their hair:)

 Julia is definitely more outgoing at the playground.

 While Evan swings Julia gets dirty in the sandbox!

 Airplane!

This is one crazy slide!!! 

 Kassidy gets both girls laughing when she plays peek a boo with them:)

 We had a great 2 days visiting.  The weather was even nice enough to go downtown, to the park and walk/stroll around, and play outside.  Thanks Eva and Julia for sharing your toys with us!!!

We hope everyone had as great a Christmas as we did:)  Thank you everyone for the gifts!  The kids especially had such a great time opening and playing with all their new toys and wearing their new clothes.   We hope we will be able to spend the holidays with more family next year!!!  We love you all!

Karson's and Mommy's Bdays

Well we had a very busy last weekend!  Karson's birthday was on the 10th, same day as the wedding.  The kids woke Karson up with a special birthday treat:)  It was his first time getting breakfast in bed.  At first he wasn't sure about it but then loved it.  He even blew out all the candles by himself on the first try!!!

 I'm 3 now!

 We let him open presents and cards from extended family right after breakfast.  Keith and Kaleb had to be to baseball practice by 9 and Kassidy and I had to be to the salon by 10.  He was more than ready to open some presents!!!

 Of course after a long day with no nap Karson was exhausted.  He fell asleep on the way home from the wedding and didn't want to wake up!  We finally convinced him after a short nap and quick dinner...

 Super Karson to the rescue!

 As you can see, the super hero costume was a hit:)

 The next day after church we had his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.  He's been talking about this for weeks!!!  Probably even a month.  He had a great time playing games, getting tickets, seeing his friends and cousins, eating pizza and cake, and seeing Chuck E!!!

 Karson in his favorite ride.

 Oh boy do we ever have some Cars fans in our house:)

 Enjoying his cupcake with his special birthday hat and medallion

 Keith and I just cannot believe how big he is getting!

 The day of Karson's party was actually my birthday, but with everything else that day we decided to celebrate mine on Monday.  It was nice because the kids were out of school so it was a relaxing day:)  I even had a massage before dinner and yogurt mountain after dinner!  If you look closely at the previous picture you'll see one of my b-day gifts.  It's a mothers necklace from Pandora with 3 birthstone charms separated by a white polka dot charm.  Keith used his creativity to design it and you can also take the charms off and put back on so they go across and not down or put different charms in between the birthstone ones.  Many options which is fun!  My other gift was a watch for my ipod nano so I can wear it while I run.  So much more convenient than clipping it onto my pants.

Kassidy and Karson both had their well visits this past week.  Kassidy grew 3 inches in a year!  She is now 48 in (16%) and 51 lbs (28%) which puts her in the 48th percentile for BMI.  The Dr. said that is great:)  Karson also grew 3 inches!  He is now 39 in (84%) and 28 1/2 lbs (17%) which puts him in the .12 percentile for BMI.  Needless to say, he is tall and skinny!  The Dr. also weighed Kaleb just out of curiosity and he gained 2 lbs since his well visit in November!!!  Woohoo!!!  It's so great not to have to worry about that anymore:)  PRAISE GOD!!!

So, back to Karson.  He has grown so much this past year, not just physically.  He knows all his letters, their sounds, colors, shapes, can recognize numbers to 10, and can count to 22.  He talks very well and all the time.  Sometimes the things he says just crack us up!!!  He will even discipline Kassidy and Kaleb if they are bad.  He can draw a pretty good circle and a cross but doesn't really do much other writing.  He enjoys coloring and painting, playing with any car, bubbles, bouncing with Kaleb, swinging on the playset, and riding his new Raptor (small motorized ride-on) outside.  He is attempting to ride his bike (a tricycle) but still needs pushed a lot.  I really think Karson would enjoy a pre-school setting come next fall!

Karson is definitely a mama's boy!  He rarely wants anyone to help (and I mean with anything!) but me.  Daddy and siblings will offer but he will say no I want mommy to do it!  It's cute but also very frustrating.  There's times when I just need someone else to help because I am already busy doing something else.  I'm sure you can imagine.  We are really working on obeying right now.  He tends to say no a lot and think he can get away with it.  It's a work in progress:)

We are slowly working on potty training.  If you know Karson well then you know how his bowels are.  I won't go into detail, but that is definitely going to be the hard part of training.  Karson will do extremely well with me at home staying dry:)  Now we need to work on going potty with someone else helping (besides me) and at other places outside our house.  Hopefully once summer comes his bowels will be more under control so I can really go all out on potty training.  Until then we're happy having a one-diaper day:)

Karson continues to be a sweet boy and Kassidy and Kaleb just LOVE playing with him:)  It's just so neat to see how they interact and love each other!  And also to see his own unique personality coming out.  We just couldn't imagine our lives without him!!!  Thank you to everyone for his (and my) birthday wishes, cards, gifts, etc.   Again, you all helped make this day so special for the two of us and we love you so much:)

Another wedding!

Kassidy and I were in Sarah's wedding yesterday.  It was such an honor to help celebrate her special day!  I  used to work with Sarah's mom, Kathy, before we had kids.  Once we had Kassidy and needed a trustworthy sitter, Kathy offered her twins to babysit.  At the time they were about 17 years old.  The girls (as we refer to them) have babysat for our kids (and my sister Kelly's kids) ever since!  They obviously have grown to be much more than just our sitters.  They are like another part of our family and we are so lucky to have them!  

Here's Sarah with her twin Lindsey.  They looked awesome with fancy hair and make-up!

Sarah with mom, Kathy.  Doesn't she look amazing? 

Kassidy and I

My niece Sara.  These two were the cutest:)

My sister Kelly and I

This pic is for our mom and sisters:)

The flower girls with Mason, Sarah's new son!  Boy did the girls just love him:)

This is my favorite one of Sarah with the kids.  They actually all smiled really well!

Sara and Kassidy were very excited to get big girl glasses for a special pre-wedding toast!    They even have their initials on it.

I didn't take any pics of the other bridesmaids since only the wedding party was around for pics, but the other 3 were in lilac dresses.  The flower girls dresses really made everything come together.  The colors were so pretty together!  The wedding and reception went just perfectly and they even had a beautiful, sunny day.  We really wish Sarah and Justin the best!!!