Kenzie is 10 months already?! Among other things.

On the 17th Kenzie turned 10 months old. She is growing up very fast and is always on the move. She is a very happy baby and I love her beautiful eyes, big smile, and playful attitude. She is a ring tail tooter though and gets into EVERYTHING! Everything she can get her hands on still goes in her mouth, and if she cant find something to put in her mouth she has started to go to our little divider between the two living rooms and gnaw on it. (When she was standing there the first time we didnt realize what she was doing until we went to pick her up and saw the paint missing from the corner of the wood. (YIKES!) Here are a few more things about Kenzie-

• she can stand for long periods of time and can walk holding just one hand, but does not really want to move on her own. She took 2 steps on Dec. 17th, but thats all she wrote.
• She thinks the funniest thing in the world is to knock something down or throw something down over and over again when you pick it up (such as stacking blocks, or when I sit her pacifiers on the rail of her crib)
• She is wearing mostly 9 month or 9-12 month clothes.
• She is eating 3 or 4 #3 jars of babyfood a day as well as 4- 6 oz. bottles of formula a day. We have started giving her juice on occasion and she seems to do well with the sippy cup.
• We lay her in her crib at 9 oclock and she falls asleep on her own and sleeps till about 8 in the morning. She is a very sporadic napper and there is no pattern of how many naps or how long her naps will be day to day.
• She loves to clap and give high fives.
• She has one tooth on top and the other one should come in at any time. 3 teeth on bottom.
• Her hair is still very short whisps and doesnt seem to be growing.
• She loves Christmas trees!! Well, it may be she loves lights, lol.

I am so blessed to have 2 wonderful daughters who are healthy and happy!

I also got my braces taken off yesterday and am very excited to finally have straight teeth! The retainers are a little difficult to deal with when trying to talk, but I am really trying to get it down so I wont be slurring and spitting on my students when I go back to school, lol.

As far as other things go- my principal got a bus for us and our families so we could go see the light tour. Well Maddie was supper excited about seeing the lights, but was Extatic when I told her we were going on a bus! She always sees buses and says "Mommy, theres your bus" or "Mommy, there goes your kids". She loves "the tunnel" and "the huge santa" (by the post office).

As far as potty training goes, we are wearing only panties now, and do very well most of the time besides the occasional poopy accidents. She even wears panties to bed and hasnt had any accidents until 2 nights ago and again last night. Not sure whats up with that, but 2 nights in a row is not cool. :(

The only other news I have for those of you that dont know, is that Chief unexpectantly passed away at the vet 2 weeks ago. He was throwing up and had diarreha so we took him to the emergency vet since it was a Sunday to check him out. They said that they have had several cases similar to his recently and that they would run some tests and hook him up to an IV overnight to get him some fluids. The nurse said they had him set up and were fixing to take him to his bed and as she was walking him down the hall he just instantly fell limp in her arms. So about 30 minutes after leaving the vet, we got a call saying that Chief was gone. :..( This has been extremely hard for us for many reasons.

• 1st because I expected to pick him up the next morning and didnt really say goodbye when we left that day.
• 2nd because he was 4 1/2 years old and was as happy as could be on Saturday.
• and lastly because explaining to Maddie why Chief couldnt come home, or where heaven was, or why God wanted Chief, or the various other questions she has asked that are hard to explain to a 3 year old. Everyday since then she has asked "when Chief was coming home?" or "why does God want Chief?"

To end things on not such a sad note, I just want to wish everyone a very Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year! 2011 is going to be filled with many more exciting events and I am looking foward to it!

Kenzie's 9 month checkup

Kenzie's 9 month check up was Wednesday (which was actually 9 1/2 months), but here are the results.
Weight- 17 lbs. 7 oz 20%
Height- 27.5" 33%
Head- 17.25" 45%

She's an inch taller and 1 1/2 pounds heavier than Maddie was at 9 months, but their heads are the same size.

She smiled or stared at Dr. Sawyer the whole time and she only pouted (no crying at all) when she got her flu shot. She is such a happy baby and I love her big gummy smile! She has started standing by herself for long periods of time, but she refuses to take any steps without holding on to something. She can wave, clap, and give high fives. She also started shaking her head when you tell her no. Then she just smiles and keeps doing whatever it was that I told her not to do. She is a stinker for sure!

While we were there the dr. checked Kenzies gums for teeth, and as soon as he left Maddie told Josh. If he thinks he's checking my teeth, he's not!.... She is also such a stinker.
As we were leaving she bent down and picked something up (or so Josh thought) and told Josh she had a lizzard. So we played along and asked her what his name was and she simply replied "Johnny Lizzard". So on occasion I ask her what he's doing, and most of the time she says he's sleeping, lol. He was playing with his friends once and I asked who his friends were, and she said she didnt know his friends because she hasnt met them. WOW...What an imaginiation!
Well I have to run....my very demanding daughter (Kenzie) is ready to eat!

Kenzie is 9 months old!

I just cant believe she is already 9 months old!!
She is a busy girl.

• Busy putting things in her mouth, it doesnt matter what it is and where she found it. :/


• Busy climbing in things, out of things, around things, and on things.


• Busy eating....all the time! She is eating 4-5 six ounce bottles a day as well as 2-3 #3 jars of baby food, and an occasional snack (cheerios are her favorite!, but she likes Gerber cheetos too)


• Busy being a jealous belly....she does not like for me to hold anyone or anything else. She gets jealous if I am holding Maddie, Chief, or my laptop in my lap.


• Busy SMILING :) - She has such a beautiful checky smile, that I love to look at every morning.


• Busy crawling. She can crawl as fast as Maddie can run, lol...not really, but she is very quick. She does not however seem to have much interest in walking. She will let go of her rail and stand alone for a few seconds or move from one table to another chair close by, but if I tried to hold her hands and stand her up, she will immediately sit down.

She does go to sleep close to 9 oclock every night and wake up between 7 and 8. She is very good at playing peek-a-boo, and can play for a long time. She also thinks the funniest thing in the world is to twist and turn when you are trying to change her diaper. Now Maddie did that like Im sure most children do to a certain extent, but Kenzie is super quick and really flexable which makes it MUCH harder to make her be still. The whole time she is doing this she is laughing like a hyena, which makes me laugh, thus making her want to keep doing it.

I am completely in awe of my 2 wonderful girls, I love them both so very much and just cant get enough of them. Now I am excited to announce that I will be the proud Aunt of a niece! I am so happy for Lacy because she will have a blast with a daughter, and I am excited for my girls that they will have a girl cousin to grow up with and have girly slumber parties and other things that I enjoyed so much when I was a kid. I have such a wonderful relationship with my cousins, and I pray that my girls and my neice will become best friends! My cousin Tina is having a boy and I am also excited about that because he will be the first Grandson on that side of the family and it will be nice to have a little boy running around during family get togethers.

Kenzie's 1st Halloween....she wore the same costume that Maddie did her 1st Halloween...However, we lost one of the feet while trick or treating in Bronte :(

Maddie's 4th Halloween...She was Cinderella!

Maddie and Annalise at the schools trunk or treat.

Happy Birthday Josh

Josh turned 28 years old on the 13th! I love it when its his birthday because other than my girls there is no one that I love giving gifts to more than him. Even though I didnt get him much, just a card, a shirt, and a UT pullover, I still get excited to give him something for a change. He has surprised me several times at work with flowers and chocolate covered strawberries for my birthday, anniversary, or just starting back to school. (So thoughtful) However, he doesnt usually want anything that is within a reasonable price range. (Guns, Hunting Bow, trucks, lol) So its hard for me to just get him something nice that he actually wants. Well this year I wanted to mae him a special cake, and after finding an idea from another blog I made him this cake.

This is a picture of us on his birthday before I had to leave for work...obviously I was still a little tired, lol.

I am behind on blogging, so here is what I have to catch up on:

1. Brontes homecoming

2. Maddies Big Green Tractor

3. Kenzie will be 8 months on Sunday

Its Fall!!

I absoulutely love this season. The weather is perfect, there are football games to go to, and its the beginning of the best holidays!!

This year for Halloween Maddie is going to be Cinderella, and she hasnt even seen the movie. So before we actually dress up as Cinderella, we will have to rent the movie and enlighten her. I still havent decided what to do with Kenzie, but Im leaning towards recylcing Maddies costumes. I might do matching costumes for the 1st and 2nd year for all my kids just to be fair. If thats what we end up doing, Kenzie will be a monkey this year. If not, well...I have no idea what she will be if we dont do that. If they werent so expensive then I would probobly just buy something else, but $30.00 for an outfit they will only wear once is a little much for me.

Here are a few pictures of Maddies first Halloween in the monkey costume. She was only 2 months old, so it was a little big for her, but it should fit Kenzie much better.





On another wonderful note, I am now the proud owner of a 2010 Chevy Tahoe!!! It was very unplanned, but it was a good deal and we just couldnt say no. It only has 21,000 miles on it and was used as a program car (he thought maybe Enterprize used it for a rental) Our original plan was to pay off Joshs truck and buy a Tahoe at the same time, which would have happened right as we were having our 3rd child (at least that was the plan). However, we were going to buy a new Tahoe that would run us about $50,000 (eeeeeek!) Well we were driving home from Rosas and Mitchell Buick had a Tahoe out front that was the dark gray that I wanted, so Josh wanted to go look at it. So we get out, and of course a salesman comes over....and about 4 hours later. We ended up buying it. We got them down to a good price and they paid off the rest of my car loan so I wouldnt have double payments (we wanted to keep the car to use so we dont always have high gas bills). Its pretty much awesome! It has black leather seats, remote start, and 3rd row seating (which i didnt know some Tahoes come without). The only defect is a small scratch/knick by one of the back doors, but other than that....looks brand new!

Already?!

Kenzie had her first tooth come through on 9-9-10. Almost 7 months old....Maddie didnt get her first tooth till she was 10 months. However, Kenzie never acted fussy or got diaper rash or any of the effects that Maddie did. Just another difference between my girls, lol.



Its hard to believe we have already finished 3 weeks of school. I am hoping that the year continues to go by as quickly as the first 3 weeks. We will be busy busy for sure, but thats ok with me!



Josh and I have been dove hunting twice, and will go again tomorrow. I have only shot 6 from the first 2 trips, so maybe tomorrow will be a little better. We did buy Maddie some earmuffs, overalls, and hunting boots, because she keeps telling us that she wants to go hunting. I bet we try to take her next weekend....we shall see how that goes. If nothing else she will look like a hunter, lol.



I have been in the mood to clean lately, and have done what I can, but it seems as if I am making no progress. It is very frustrating to live in a messy house, but no matter what we do, it seems to stay that way. I have to remind myself that I am a full time working Mom and somethings got to give. Sadly its my house. I go to work and when I come home I want to spend my time with my family. Maddie doesnt go to sleep till 10-11 so as soon as shes out, I head to bed also. The downside to this is that I would like to have people over, but am to disgusted with my own house to let others see it. Another reason for our mess is that we have too much stuff!!! We are going to have a garage sale sometime, but who knows when that will be...until then we have boxes of stuff waiting to be sold which also adds to the clutter. OK. So I am done griping about this now, lol.

I have officially experimented with the Swagbucks toolbar, and it is totally legit! I will be recieving my first 5.00 Amazon giftcard shortly. And all I do is use the search bar. You get points for using their search bar and other ways, and then you can trade them in for prizes or giftcards. I choose the Amazon card because its the best deal. You can get Target and other giftcards too, but it takes more points. If you are interested in trying it, I put the link below. Its very easy and free!

They are growing up soooo fast!

Maddie 3 year update:

28 lbs. -18%
35.5" - 12%

As soon as we walked into the doctors office Maddie gently grabbed my face so I was looking at her and said "tell her (the nurse) that I dont need shots" HAHAHAHA!
Even though she was not getting shots, she still was extremely anxious and cried most of the time. We made it through the appointment, everything looks great, and she got a notepad, lol.

Maddies birthday party was AWESOME! We had a great turnout and lots of people came that I wasnt expecting! She got so many great gifts and loves them all. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate her big day, she is still talking about it.

Kenzie 6 month update:

14 lbs. 14 oz.- 26%
26" - 56%
Head - 16.25- not sure the percentage, but they measured twice because its such a small number, but he said that her soft spot was still open and there shouldnt be anything to worry about, she just has a small head.

Kenzie is (and has been for awhile) pulling up on the couch and her crib, we had to drop her mattress down in her crib already. She is officially crawling now, but when she wants to go really fast she still prefers to army crawl. I am sad to say that she now says "dada", but she doesnt know what it means...so does it count? Haha, Im just kidding, its cute.