Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! Every Christmas morning we torture our children by making them stand at the top of our stairs while Ryan goes down and makes sure everything is "ready". By that I mean turning on the Christmas lights, getting Christmas music going, and just double-checking things to make sure Santa was on top of everything the night before! And here is the proof of the torture being inflicted at 6:15 am! Actually, this year was a little different because Lexi decided on her own that when she woke up she was going to read her scriptures. It was her way of remembering the true meaning of Christmas. And she did. I heard the girls door slam 5 minutes before they ran into our room. During that time, Lexi gathered Kendri and Kyson into her bed and read 2 verses of scriptures to them! I thought that was a great idea!

Poor Shayli is not an early riser. She missed out on Christmas morning because I decided to let her sleep in. Fortunately, she didn't even notice!

The kids had plenty to open and I dare say were spoiled rotten! Santa brought them skiis....more on that later!

After we opened our presents, we got ready for church. Church was at the same time as always - 10:00 am. After church, we headed down to Tracy to celebrate with the rest of Ryan's family . We had an awesome day and really hate to see the holidays end! Boo!

Gingerbread Houses

Here's my tribute to gingerbread houses......I mean, I "only" made 60 of them. I suppose it deserves a tribute. Too bad I didn't get a picture of my house looking like Gingerbread Land. We had to eat at Taco Bell that night because there was no room in the inn. I spent ALL DAY constructing my mini-masterpieces. Granted, it is only graham crackers. But you would be surprised at how long it takes to make 60 of them. (Or maybe you wouldn't.) Luckily, I had help from 2 neighbors.

Here's the kids creating their houses at the school Christmas parties. I went to Kendri's kindergarten party first and Kyson made his gingerbread house. Then I zipped on over to Lexi's classroom to help there. It was very busy but it is a fun tradition for the kids!

Parcel-Post, Please

Going.......

Going..............

Gone! I decided to send a present to Grandma and Pa in Colorado this year. COD. Do you think it'll get returned???

Santa Claus and Hay Rides

We took the kids to Jackson in the beginning of December for a hayride through town to see the lights. We went with some friends and had a great time! Here we are on the hayride. It was a bit chilly, but no need to fret.....we had free hot chocolate and cookies to keep us warm!
The kids love doing this. We went last year and it's become somewhat of a tradition now!

Before the hayride, we got to visit with someone very important......

It was Shayli's first time to see Santa and I dare say she liked it! There were no tears for her!

Lexi and Kendri are old pro's at sitting on jolly old St. Nick! I think there was talk about a certain microscope Lexi is hoping to have on Christmas morning. (btw, her probing, scientific mind takes after me. Wink, wink.)

Kyson didn't ask for anything except the candy canes sitting next Santa. Shocker, right?

And I think Kendri was interested in some crafting iron beads. We'll see if Santa delivers!

Christmas Princesses

Lexi and Kendri have been stealing Shayli lately when I haven't been watching. They like to take her to their room and have her become a part of their make-believe games. Shayli usually ends up being the "baby" in their game of house, but sometimes she gets a little more dramatic role......like princess! Oh my, is Shayli in for it!

Shayli is 5 Months

It's really hard to get any pictures of Shayli smiling. Remember my beef about it when we were doing the ultra-sound? When we couldn't get any good head shots? Well, nothing has changed. Every time I get the camera out, she starts to glare at me and get fussy. This is the closest thing to smiling I've got of her. But we'll take it!

Shayli turned 5 months today.....it's hard to believe less than 6 months ago I was waddling around trying to imagine what our new little baby would bring! I feel like Shayli has been a part of our family for much longer than 5 months. In fact, I can hardly remember life without her (or maybe that's just sleep deprivation)! I must say, she is the best snuggler around. She likes to be held facing toward me which is opposite of all my other kids. She buries her little face in my neck and nuzzles me. It is her favorite way to fall asleep. I love giving her kisses on her little lips. It's so hard to resist when my nose fits perfectly above her little nose. It's obvious we were made for each other! :)

And on to some stats......She gets up 1-2 times a night. We are NOT on a good napping schedule. Every time she falls asleep it's time to load up in the car. She's rolling over like a champ and is starting to end up in different places than where I put her. She's scoots a little bit and the kids are having a good time helping her practice sitting up. Overall, she's growing and developing her own personality. She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 8 oz (25 percentile) at her 4 month well-child appointment. And she was 25 inches long (75th percentile). She's been such a joy to our little family!

Christmas Traditions

Every year the women in the Reese family get together after Thanksgiving and help Pam (m mother-in-law) decorate her house. We make a weekend of it and go hog-wild! We usually spend the night without any children except the babies. This year Shayli came. We decorated Friday night and through Saturday. By the time the afternoon came, we were ready for a change of scenery. We went to lunch and hit up some of our favorite shopping spots. Whooooo-hooooo!

Black Friday

Does anyone else have Black Friday traditions??? This was actually my first year of leaving the house to shop. The past couple of years I have shopped online and then Ryan will head out for some shopping. (He is half-girl. Most people just don't know that. JK. Sort of :)

This year my friend and I decided to head out to the crowds but we certainly were not the die-hard type. We left Friday morning at 5:30 and headed to the Roseville area. I was surprised that there were not hordes of people. Apparently everyone was done and sleeping! And we were still scoring door busters! I have to say, I was happy with what we found. To be honest, most of my Christmas shopping was done so I was sort of along for the ride. But I did pick up some fashion tights for $5 courtesy of JC Penny. I don't normally shop there, but let me tell you, I spent $50 and saved over $100! I thought that was pretty good. :)

Lots of fun and I'm still waiting for my sweater to arrive. I got it for 40% off. It has a little bling and who can say no to that!

Thanksgiving

I went to celebrate Thanksgiving with the elementary school kids with Kyson and Shayli in tow. We didn't stay long because we didn't want to overstay our welcome! But we did get to hang out with the 2nd graders and kindergarteners for a little while. Kendri's class dressed up like pilgrims. I thought it was totally cute. We ate stone soup and had a feast!

Our actual Thanksgiving Day was out of the norm for us this year. Most of Ryan's family was in Hawaii and we didn't make the trek out to Colorado. Instead we had dinner with some friends and had a low-key day. It was fun!

All in a Day's Work

Kyson.

He had a bad week. Or should I say, he had an adventurous week and I had the bad week. Where to start?

Maybe with the "accidental" pooping in his underwear? Followed by the "accidental" peeing in his pants and then on his shirt 30 minutes later. (He spent the rest of the day naked.) Or perhaps the "accident" on the bathroom floor that I found while I was cleaning up a blow-out from Shayli.

No, no, no. I'll start with the story of Kyson trying to drive away in my car. That's right. I found him in the car with the keys in the ignition and the radio blasting. And then I'll follow that story with the 100 meter sprint I participated in while trying to catch up with the "Lightening McQueen" on training wheels. I was trying to stop my little Kyson from riding his bike into the highway after he so quickly raced through the front gates of our neighborhood. Luckily I was fast enough to stop him.

And then I'll talk about how he hangs on the garage while it is on it's way up and then dangles his little legs and drops to the ground unharmed. Except sometimes he makes it to the top and then needs mommy to save him. But not often does he need saved. Because he is invincible. Or so he believes.

And then I'll finish with the story of Kyson escaping the "compound" otherwise known as "home." I'll talk about how I keep the front door dead-bolted with an additional latch at the top so the kids can't reach it and how we have a padlock on the gate so the kids can't leave and how I use the secret lock on the garage so no one can open the garage without me.

And then I'll hint about sometimes tuning out while I'm nursing Shayli and after 10 minutes of peace I'll start to realize something is terribly wrong because I haven't been hounded for anything and I havn't seen or heard from Kyson in about 15 minutes. Which is what happened.

By then it will be time to tell you about how I started to check all of my "compound" locks to make sure there hadn't been any oversights and how then I double-checked and still no sign of Kyson. Next I checked all closets and closed doors including inside the car. And by now I'm starting to feel slightly faint and panicky because I'm remembering how the cops frown upon you if you wait even 20 minutes before calling 9-1-1 in an emergency and all of a sudden the crazy mother is the prime suspect. How much time has passed?!?

AAARRRGGGGGHHHH.

And then you'll be ready to hear how I raced out the front door certain my son had somehow bypassed all locks and how, even I, am starting to think he is invincible and possibly a superhero.

Are you ready for what happens next? The neighbor comes strolling down the hill with my little superhero in tow. Where was he, you ask? Patrolling the neighborhood and fighting crime. And what was his method of escape? Climbing our 6 foot fence and dropping neatly to the ground. Superhero. I'm sure his realization of freedom was quite intoxicating. His little hands were pretty torn up but who cares? He discovered a means of escape. *Sigh*

We celebrate every day that Kyson is still with us. He should be dead by now, the little stinker. But the good news is our "super-special" week came to an end and Kyson is still alive. Thank goodness that even superheroes need to take a break every now and then! ;)

Chicago Get-a-way

Hello. I'd like to introduce you to the "new" me. The "city-living" me that went on a trip and spent the weekend living it up in downtown Chicago. That's right. Living. It. Up. Here's the view from my hotel room. Just call me ritzy.
Oh, and here I am at a Broadway musical. Perhaps you've heard of it.......Wicked? Mmmm hmmmm. But don't get jealous. I was sat in the very, very way back. I think it was, like, the fourth row or something. I was a little disappointed that I could totally see the zipper on Elpheba's costume. Talk about tacky. Wink. Wink.

I guess I should pause a moment and explain just what was going on. My mom and sisters and I decided it was time for a girl's trip. So we decided to go visit my sister, Bre, in Illinois. While we were there, we'd hit up Wicked in Peoria and then make our way to Chicago for a couple days of shopping and sight-seeing. And the only kids allowed were nursing infants! So that meant Shayli got to come.

Here we are in the hotel. (Please ignore the double chin. I was appalled when I saw it, too. But not appalled enough to delete the memory ;) As I said earlier, our hotel was one block away from the Magnificent Mile. Also known as Shop Til You Drop road. Okay, so I made that up but that's what we did! And we totally got a taste for city living. Our "hang-out" was the Corner Street Bakery. We slept in and walked to the bakery for breakfast everyday. Then we'd walk off our french toast and coffee cake by shopping. It was fabulous. I envy myself.

We managed to hit up a few tourist attractions, too. This is the famous popcorn shop. I didn't really know Chicago was famous for popcorn but that's Bre said. So I believe her. And if you look close enough, you can see my dad in the corner. He tagged along to watch Shayli for me while we went to Wicked and help out with the shopping! Thanks, Pa!

Amber and I are modeling our twinner jackets that we bought in this picture. (Ignore the creepy smile. I was overly excited by my super steal.) We call them our Chicago coats. We also have matching Seattle jackets from our trip to Seattle in February. It has become somewhat of a tradition. :) We almost convinced my mom and Breanna to buy theirs in green. They withstood the peer pressure.

Here we are at the Navy Pier. We were very lucky and had nice fall weather for all of our walking and shopping. It rained one day but not hard enough to keep us indoors!

Chocolate anyone? Of course, we had to hit up the chocolate shop! We went to Hershey but the Ghiradelli (right behind me) had a huge line. We skipped it. At this point, we were getting rather winded from all of our traipsing about the city. But we still had shops to see so we pushed through our tired legs and aching backs and pregnant bodies (Amber and Bre. Not me.) and kept shopping! After all, we were leaving the next day.

Shayli sure had a good time. She got lots of Grandma and Pa all to herself!

This picture is from the top of the hotel. We snuck into the sky lounge. They wanted to charge us $17 for breakfast just so we could enjoy the spectacular view. Amber and I just waltzed in like we belonged there and started to talk to the manager on duty. Turns out he liked us because we are twins. (I know, right? What's new?) Just kidding. In actuality, he did like us because we are twins but also because he is a triplet! And multiples just have a connection. So anyway, we stayed as long as we wanted with no pressure to buy an over priced meal and didn't feel guilty about it!

We made it to Millenial Park while we were killing time before going to the airport. They have the giant "Bean". I didn't get a picture of the whole thing but here is a close up. It basically is a giant silver bean that is super reflective. As you can see. People like to get real creative with their poses. We just copied a couple of people to try it out and then we were on our way!

And then it was time to go home. Dad got pulled aside for saying "bomb". Okay. Actually he was randomly selected for further screening. He's complaining to this girl about it.

And flying! I was lucky enough to get a flight with a layover in Denver. That way we all could fly together for half of it. It really made the trip easier on me. And I think Grandma and Pa enjoyed it too! Shayli did so well the whole time. She started falling apart for the trip home but who could blame her? She had a taste of the city life. And then she had to come home to the living room floor. I'd cry too.

Overall, we had a blast and I'm saving my money for the next girl's trip. New York, anyone???

Jack O'Lanterns

The kids were big helpers with the jack o'lanterns this year. In fact, Lexi did her own all by herself! And I am NOT complaining. That just means one less pumpkin for me to carve!

Okay, fine. I don't actually carve the pumpkins. I make Ryan.

Bleh! Goo!

Kyson could barely fit his hand in his "widdle pumpkin". But he managed to shove it in there and pull out some seeds!

Happy Haunting!

Exploratorium

I took the kids for a fun trip to San Francisco over our Fall Break. We went to the Exploratorium where we did nothing but explore!


There was a ton of things to do. We didn't even make it to the second level. It was rather challenging keeping up with all three of them when they each took off in different directions!

We went with some friends and that made it less stressful since everyone stuck with a buddy.

Here we are in the parking lot after eating our picnic lunch. The parking lot for the Exploratorium shares with the Yacht Club. I pretended I was headed to lunch with the rest of ritzy wives. And then I got honked at by some old man who wanted me to close my door so he could park his pricey car next to my Highlander. Not a good idea. (I have one word for him. Ding.) But since there were a hundred other parking spaces staring him in the face and he could obviously see my brood unloading, I decided it was his own demise. I closed my door and smiled.

This was at the end our day. Just about ready to head back home.

But before we left........this was one of my favorites. I don't need to tell you that I only saw kids drinking out of this drinking fountain. For obvious reasons.

Ever wonder why the smoke follows you at a campfire? Well, this particular discovery showed how smoke will circle around you if you stand still long enough. Here's Kyson, in awe of it. Over all, it was a fun way to kick start our vacation!

Halloween Party

We were invited to Halloween party a couple of weeks ago. It was a blast, filled with good food, candy, apple-bobbing, and pumpkin decorating!
Took some will power, but Lexi finally managed to get her apple!

Pumpkin decorating. Notice the large "L" for Lexi?

Kendri thought it was a good idea so she added a "K" at the last minute.

And Kyson just liked the small pins that were used to stick the buttons on.

Ribbit-ribbit! What a cute little froggy!