Makenna's First Haircut

Makenna got her first haircut yesterday when Natalie came up from Boulder. She doesn't have a ton of hair like Alli and Nick do so we waited a while longer than we did with them. She definitely needed it though. It was getting pretty long in the back and every morning she would wake up with a big tangle ball in the back of her hair. I didn't get any great pictures becuase she was being so silly and wiggly so I was trying to keep her still, but here's an after shot. I think it's long enough in the back that I will still be able to do her signature pigtails. She had shorter hair in the front so we decided to cut some bangs. And best of all - her hair is still curly, if not curlier. I was a little worried that we could cut her curls off.

Makenna's Birthday!

What? How could this have happened? The little girl that I've been calling "baby" for the last two years had another birthday? Well, she is definitley not a baby anymore, so I guess I will have to come up with another nickname, dang-it. She may weigh 20 lbs more than when she was born and she may talk in little sentences and have a mouth full of teeth, but she is still such a mama's girl that it's a little hard to let the nickname go. I'm getting better about it, but it still slips out once in a while.

For her birthday we had a little get-together with my parent's and Courtney's family. We had everyone over for dinner after church. There was a glitch with the cupcakes so there was a little more last-minute stress than I would have liked, but it all turned out fine. Whew!

Here's Makenna in the sleeping beauty dress she got from the Moses family. She's been borrowing Alli's dress-ups for a little while now, so it was time for her to get something of her own.
Taylor - her best friend, cousin, and crazy girl that found my water spray bottle and "styled" her hair all by herself. Cute! Love that mischevious little smile.

Alli was a very big "helper" and showed Makenna how to open her presents (and by showed I mean opened all her presents for her).

She also "helped" her blow out her candles...I guess I'm not the only one that thinks she's still a baby.

She did manage to eat her cupcake all by herself, though. And I should mention that despite the fact that I ended up making the cupcakes from a generic mix that expired a year ago and the frosting from a recipe that I've never tried before and has a reputation for being a bit temperamental, they were probably the best cupcakes I've ever made.

She loves the horses and stable that we got for her as well as the rocking chair and shoes from grandma and grandpa and the outfit and book from great grandma and grandpa. Happy birthday Makenna and thanks to everyone who made is special for her!

Christmas...finally

I know...I know...I am way behind. I think I will go ahead and blame that on two reasons: 1 - Brian took the Christmas pictures with his camera and he had to take the time to teach me how to get the pictures off and 2 - we (mostly Brian) have been really busy finishing our basement so that exasperates reason number 1. We got carpet in the basement last weekend (woohoo) and everything looks good so we are close to getting our lives back. I cannot wait for a Saturday morning when we wake up and have something other than working on the basement headlining the day's activities. Enough about that for now. I will post some pictures when it's all done!

So Christmas was great this year. We stayed home and Brian's mom flew in from New Mexico. The kids were so excited to pick her up from the airport on Christmas Eve morning. I recently asked Nick what kind of vacation he wanted to go on this summer and he said he wants to go to the airport. I thought maybe that meant he wanted to take an airplane somewhere, but no, he just really likes airports because that's where we pick up grandma!

After we picked up grandma we went to breakfast at Mimi's and then we hung out for the afternoon while Kenna napped. When she woke up we headed to my parent's house for Christmas Eve. We enjoyed our traditional Italian dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and then the kids got to open two presents from grandma and grandpa - pajamas and an ornament. We missed having Courtney and Russ and David and Natalie with us this year, but it was their turn to see their other families.

This first picture is of the kids on Christmas morning in their matching snowman pajamas. We woke up that morning to a cold surprise - our furnace went out in the night. Luckily Brian got it fixed and up and running in no time.

I love this next picture. I think Makenna was a little tired before we started opening presents.

It's present time. Here are the kids opening the Kinect they got from grandma Arens.

This one makes me laugh, look at Makenna's tongue. We were finishing opening presents. After that we headed to my parent's house for breakfast and then went to church in their ward.

Nick and Alli were very excited to get cameras for Christmas from Santa. They took a combined 800+ pictures in the week following Christmas.

Here's my cutie Alli opening a present from David and Natalie at grandpa and grandma's house after church.

And here's me, lovely me. We had a relaxing Christmas afternoon and then we had a yummy prime rib dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Zoo Lights

We went to the zoo's Wild Lights a few days after Christmas. Its becoming a tradition for us. It was a great night and all of the kids seemed to like it. Alli and Nick were very excited about their cameras that Santa brought them and took many, many pictures. Here are the best ones...

Getting Ready for Christmas

First up, decorating the tree. We are doing an advent calendar with activities every day. This was one of the first activities. One night while the kids were sleeping I decorated the house and put up the tree. When they woke up they ran around the house looking at everything. I'm really glad that I decorated at night becuase it was so much less stressful for me to get things out without all the extra "help" PLUS the kids were so excited to wake up, see the decorations, and decorate the tree...it was kind of magical for them.

Next (not Christmas related), but this is how I've been finding Makenna a lot lately. And not just in the morning or after naps. She has definitely reached the stage when she knows how to take her clothes off and she does it often. Like sometimes 3 times in a half hour. I usually give up at this point and she goes naked the rest of the day. She is extra sneaky about it and usually hides while taking off her clothes and then hides her clothes too. Luckily (and I am double crossing my fingers here) she does not take off her diaper, so we are safe on that front.

We went to the church Christmas breakfast and the kids got to visit with Santa. Considering that Kenna is the biggest momma's girl ever, it's not too surpising that she did not want to have anything to do with Santa. Alli was a little shy, but she tried to be brave and she told Santa she wants a scarf for dress-up. And Nick was himself and not afraid at all and told Santa he wants a remote control car.

Makenna...before the terrifying close encounter with Santa.

And finally, at Alli's preschool last week Alli and Nick got to decorate gingerbread houses. It was so nice of Courtney to let Nick come too. The kids loved this project, especially eating candy.

I am excited about this week. Brian has a few days off and other people will be working in our basement, so we should have some fun family time before Christmas. Plus Brian's mom is coming in to town for Christmas and we are all so excited to see her and to spend time with my parents too.