Christmas

Better late than never. We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve with a nice big dinner first. After dinner the girls wanted to open gifts right away but they still have not learned that we need to take picture's first. Christmas day we went to church and came home and made a brunch. The girls opened their stockings will the food was cooking. After we ate we opened our gifts. I love seeing the girls faces while they open their gifts. This year Kenzie was not so happy about any of her gifts and she sure let us know. Corey always gets the girl's a little something from him. This year he went for "boy" toys a nurf guns, over the door basketball hoop, and a pink bb gun. Late afternoon we headed to the farm to do the chores for Coreys dad. The girls love going to the farm to help. Brooke and Ashley helped put the hay in the cow pins. After the farm we headed to Coreys parents house. We usually go sledding, but no snow this year so they did a scavenger hunt in the house. We opened stocking and then had supper. The kids couldn't wait to open gifts so we let them open gifts first. While the kids played with their new toys us adults opened out gifts. We had a great Christmas this year!!

Walt Disney World

When Brooke was five years old I took her to Disney just the two of us. It was so much fun seeing Disney through her eyes and to have one on one time with her. Corey made the mistake and said "That I should do this with all the girls when they are five". Well we added Ashley after so that means two more trip's to Disney. This year was Kenzies turn to go. We headed out on December 4 - 10th. Kenzie never flew before and she loved it, maybe because I let her chew gum. She loved looking out the window and the snacks/pop we got. We had a direct flight from GR to Orlando and everything went good. We landed in 80 degree weather!!!! We got the the resort and had fun walking around and eating supper. We headed to Animal Kingdom the first day and then at night went to Magic Kingdom for the light parade and the fireworks. I think Kenzie is going to be a thrill seeker. She was not interested in the animals but wanted to ride the rides over and over again. The second day we headed to the Epcot in the morning and rode a few rides and then headed back to the hotel for lunch. The rest of the afternoon/night we headed to Magic Kingdom. We rode a few rides and got some character signature's. That night we watched the movie Tangled by the pool. The third day we stayed at the hotel. We slept in and had breakfast by the pool. We walked around the hotel to take a few pictures and then we went swimming for the afternoon. Kenzie made a friend by the pool but there was one problem she spoke French. This didn't stop the girls from playing together. That night we headed to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Cafe and to shop. It got really cold and rainy while we were there and Kenzies stomach hurt so we only shopped for what we needed and headed back to the hotel. The forth day we spent the whole day at Magic Kingdom. It was cold that day in the 60's and boy did I hear about it from Kenzie the whole day "I'm so cold mom". Most of the day was spent getting all the princess signature's. Since it was cold out that day Kenzie had a sweatshirt on over they Mickey shirt I made her, but every time we got up to one of the princess she would say "I'm hot mom" and take her sweatshirt off. When she was done she would always put it back on. The fifth day we went back to Magic Kingdom in the morning to do a few things and then headed to MGM for the rest of the day. We went to the Little Mermaid Show and they asked Kenzie if she wanted to introduce the show? Of course Kenzie said "yes". We ended the night seeing the Osborne Christmas lights (5 million lights) along with falling snow. This was such a great trip with Kenzie. It was so much fun to see her excitement seeing everything. The weather was great in the 80's everyday except that one cold day. Her favorite part had to be seeing all the princess. She would always tell me "Mom, they look so beautiful" Everyone did well at home while we were gone. Brooke was ready for me to be back so I could pack her lunches again. Thanks to both grandparents for watching Ashley during the day's. Here a few pictures of the trip o.k. maybe more than a few.

Three Years Ago

Three years ago today we almost lost our dear sweet Ashley to RSV. That night is so vivid in my mind. I don't think I will ever get those images out of my mind. We are so thankful that she is still with us today. Everytime she comes up and gives me a hug or a kiss I thank God for saving her life that night.

Above - Three years ago at 2 weeks old.

Below - Today at 3 years old and one healthy little girl. She makes us laugh everyday!!

Happy Birthday Brooke

Our first born turned 9 on December 17!!! One more year and then we are in the double digits - yikes!! She had a good birthday, but she did say it didn't seem like her birthday since it was on a Saturday. On Friday Grandma Tubergan took her to get her nails done and to have some feathers put in her hair. We had a party on Saturday with the families. Some of the things she enjoys are reading, crafts, drawing, and writing. I think we might have an artist on our hands.

Happy Birthday Ashley

Ashley turned 3 on December 4. I can't believe our baby is 3 already - sniff, sniff. We had a party for her on the 2nd since Kenzie and I left for Florida on the 4th. She loved having everyone over and made sure they knew it was HER birthday. She got lot's of gifts and had to play with all of them right away. It was so fun to watch her play with them, she didn't know what one to play with first. Happy Birthday dear sweet Ashley!!!

The Perfect Tree

Every year we head out to cut a Christmas tree with my family. We have cut in blizzards, rain, and warm days. This year turned out to be a perfect sunny day to pick out our perfect tree. It's just not the same without snow thou. We had our tree's picked out within 15 minutes and the girls were upset that it didn't take long this year. We set the tree up today with the girls with candy canes and all.

Halloween

It's a little late, but I still wanted to post about it. This year Brooke was a princess, Kenzie the witch, and Ashley the ladybug. We only stopped to my parents house and then headed to our church for Trunk or Treats. We made an early night of it since the both had school the next day.