"Happy 8th Birthday Natalie"

My little girl is getting so big. I can't believe she is 8 years old now! We have been very excited for this birthday and preparing for it in many ways. Not only have we been going back and forth about a birthday party with friends but a party with family including getting baptized, and releasing her pet butterflies.

Dad ended up getting pulled out of state for a business trip on Nat's birthday so I was trying to figure out how to make it special since he wasn't going to be there and we weren't having luck with inviting friends over and her family were coming for her baptism, two weeks away. It just so happened that the pet butterflies she had been raising for caterpillars that she got for Christmas were ready to be released that day! That helped. Then, she requested that I hide her presents and make a scavenger hunt to find them! To top it all off, Danicia was able to come over and join us for dinner and dessert. It was all a huge success.

Here we are getting ready to let the butterflies go. It was really exciting but some of the butterflies weren't sure how to get out so we had to cut up the cage and that was interesting. We have some video that I may post some day...

Yes, Danicia has a way of making everything fun and special. Natalie was so happy she was there. They both wanted me to make cupcakes. Nat requested ones with double frosting! We ate about half of them in one day!

These two are SO silly!

Kylie LOVED the cupcakes - you can see the evidence on her face!

The Jungle!

The Jungle is an awesome indoor play area for kids and toddlers. I have been wanting to take the girls ever since Kylie could walk. She is starting to jump and crawl all over my couch, so I knew she would really enjoy this place. We all had a great time watching both girls crawl, slide, and jump around. Grandpa Wilson hung out with us while we were there and Grandma Wilson met up with us afterwards for lunch and to see Natalie open some early birthday presents.

Yes, that is me crouched inside the toddler's tunnel. Kylie figured out pretty quick how to get up and down the playground steps back was still learning the ropes. The tunnel had a bump in the floor like a bridge that she really loved going back and forth over. She loved staring at the other kids playing there too.

Here you can see that little tongue sticking out. She was so thrilled to be sitting there, turning the wheel and didn't even need it to go moving!

I tried to show her how fun the ball pit was but she wasn't too interested. Maybe next year...

Natalie had a blast crawling through all the tunnels and jumping into the big kid's ball pit. Dad was brave enough (I think that how you describe it) to join her for some crawling. Not sure if he is going to do that next year without some knee pads!

Kylie was nice enough to perform her new trick for Grandma and Grandpa Wilson at lunch. I think the whole restaurant saw when Dad put her on the table!


Afterwards, she drove out to visit the church where Mary Jo is buried. It was the first time we had been there since the funeral. It was nice to remember how wonderful she was and what a great example her life is to us. Her birthday was that week so we wanted to make sure we saw her.

We stopped by to see Grandpa Fred and Chris! It was a wonderful day seeing so much family. We are very lucky to live so close to one another.

A New Year

Let me get you all caught up on what we have been doing this last month...

Kylie is just the silliest little baby ever. She is so very happy. She loves to met new people and can't wait to go outside every day. She is getting to be a very good talker too. She loves her family so much. Stephen is her favorite to sit with. Natalie is her favorite to chase. I'm her favorite to eat with. Dad is her favorite for just about everything but especially bath time.

She has a little obsession with shoes but I think that's pretty standard with baby girls. Natalie was the same way. Kylie is loves playing peek-a-boo best.

Anytime Kylie hears the doors open or close, she rushes to see what is going on. She cries if she doesn't get to go outside too but says a big "Hi" if you are coming in. She knows to sit down to get her socks and shoes on when we ask her if she wants to go outside. We think this makes her pretty smart. = )

When Karl is home, Kylie spends much of her time in his office getting into all his gadgets. When he is away from home, she spends her time getting into the bathroom and kitchen drawers, depending on which room I'm in.

Yes, this month Kylie has learned when asked to find her belly button. She is pretty good at pointing to her month and nose and sometimes can find her eyes and ears too. Again, we are convinced this are signs that she is an amazing baby.

Just as Stephen did, Kylie has inherited Karl's habitat of sticking out his tongue when concentrating. Sometimes it is hard to get her smiling when she plays because she is constantly sticking it out! Really far I might add...

Sorry I don't have more photos of the other kids here, more to come I promise!

Kylie Turns 1 Year Old!

We had such a fun time making Kylie's birthday special for her. Sometimes it's hard to tell if they know what is going on at this age... We hang streamers, blew up lots of balloons, and made three cakes the night before. The morning of her party she woke up to find the front room changed! You could see her eyes just light up! We moved the furniture and let her tumble and play in the balloons.

That afternoon, Karl's family come over and my sisters Deana and Leah. The kids had fun playing with all of Kylie's new toys.

Kylie loved opening her presents and genuinely loved them all! She really gave everyone a great show.

We stuffed ourselves full of yummy food and cake and ice cream. Kylie loved playing in her cake and feeding it to Karl.

After everyone left, Deana and her kids hang out and played games with us. We were so glad that so many of our family were able to celebrate with us!

Merry Christmas Time!

Our family had such a great Christmas! We were able to visit with so much family it was amazing. We went to see Karl's side at the Bajada's on Christmas. Almost everyone was there! Grandpa spoiled the kids good and the food was so yummy. Karl took some video that I will hopefully be able to share with you all soon.

The next day we headed back out and saw my family at the Wilson's. Kathy out did herself with beautiful decorations and a delicious seat down dinner. Everyone had so much fun playing games all day. The cousins couldn't get enough goodies and playtime.

The day after that, we went to see more of my family at the Root's. We relaxed munching on food and baked goods all afternoon and evening. Us girls were able to gather around the piano and sing our favorite Christmas carols and songs from when we were growing up. It was so much fun. The kids had a great time seeing each other for the second day in a row and got competitive in front of the Wii.

Christmas in the Making

Karl and I have been having so much fun getting ready for Christmas. Karl and Stephen did a great job putting up new lights outside and even in the trees. Of course Karl saved most of his shopping for Christmas Eve but regardless of the last minute rush everything has been wonderful.

This year Natalie went to her dad's and Stephen to his mom's for the first part of their vacation. Natalie went up to the snow and had a blast sledding. We are looking forward to having both boys home the day after Christmas.

While it was just us parents and Kylie around, I baked up a storm. I made tons of sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, brownies, and salted peanut chews. After Natalie came home we all went to visit friends and share our baked goods. We had fun over at the Agbayani's and Rabuco's. Kylie is getting so big that playing with other kids and their toys is now very exciting.

I also got the chance to go up to Roseville and celebrate my friend Chrissy's birthday. Again, Kylie had so much fun playing with little ones! Then an old friend from high school was down from Idaho and came over to introduce my family to hers. We all had a great time watching our little girls play. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family to share this holiday season with. I can't help and think of all the family that live further away that I don't get to see this year. Hopefully this spring and summer will allow us to get together.

This Christmas season has been very special for us as Natalie has been taking lessons from missionaries from the LDS church. It is really neat to see her learning about the Savior and his plan of happiness. She was really excited about getting her own Book of Mormon and will have the opportunity to get baptized after her 8th birthday.

Now we have opened all our gifts and are looking forward to the next few days of gathering with our family to share good food and making great memories. To all those we don't visit - know that we are thinking of you and wish you all the happiness this season brings!

Holiday Season Fun

I have been so excited to this holiday season. Usually, I wait two weeks before Christmas to really start getting things rolling. This year has been different. Maybe it has to do with getting the family doing traditional things so we can really start feeling normal again. I think Karl has been the same way. He wanted to get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving! No worries, I stopped him from getting too eager. In fact, we are just now finishing up getting the outside of the house done!

So, to start out our holiday adventures, we went with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson to see the Christmas lights at the Oakland LDS Temple. We had a great dinner before hand and bundled up to see the beautiful lights on the temple grounds. Inside the visitor's center was really neat. Karl really enjoyed the high tech gadgets and we enjoy a musical number as well.

Then I got really ambitious and made gingerbread to create our own homemade gingerbread houses. As I started laying the cut outs on the cookie trays, I had a feeling it was going to be harder than it looked. Yep, as the pieces of the house come out of the oven I realized there must be some real good tips to making homemade gingerbread houses that I obviously didn't know about. Then, when I bit into the first gingerbread man, I knew things were going to be bad. They were rock hard! Last year they were as soft as the sugar cookies and twice as tasty!! So out went the cookies and I tried to focus on the houses. Yes, the pieces were crooked and lopsided, but there was still hope for really cute decorations, right? So on to making the mortar to put the pieces together. Well, silly me, didn't read all the directions and had to throw out the first attempt and try again at mixing sugar and eggs. Okay, done. Now to put the house sides up. Well, the lopsided, crooked pieces weren't too happy but with lots of mortar filling, we made it work.

The next day was on to decorating and making sugar cookies! Danicia came over to help the family out, and keep my spirits up. Thank goodness! The kids really did do their best at decorating the houses I prepared for them, though I have to admit they didn't look like the ones I imaged. The sugar cookies turned out perfect. After a few hours of rolling, cutting, baking, and frosting - we were all done! Though I still had to get the roofs on the houses - that was going to wait for another day.

Sadly, that day came and I really saw how mediocre my construction attempts were. Not sure if I'm going to do those next year....

Our family went out and got our Christmas tree, the most perfect one I've ever seen. We had a nice time putting up decorations together, listening to Christmas music, and drinking apple cider. So, with the tree and house decorated and yummy treats to eat, we were celebrating in style.

Kylie and I have been keeping busy picking out presents for the family and doing our best to hide Dad's presents from him. Not an easy task! Kylie is a pretty good assistant when it comes to wrapping. She keeps getting me new wrapping paper by digging into the box to find new ones!

Through all of this fun, Kylie has been rapidly developing. She started to take her first steps in the middle of November. This month she has been walking on her own and for longer and longer periods of time. No longer does she grasp on the my legs and following me around. She gets herself up and is going where ever she wants to go! (Usually to Dad's office.) It is amazing to see her getting better and better at it every day. Her personality is growing so much too. She has such a sense of humor! She is so friendly too. She waves to most people in the stores when we are out and isn't shy to be held and fussed over. The cutest thing she says right now is "Uh-oh". Anytime something falls she says it. Then she will make it fall again and again just so she can say it again!

After the cooking disappointments I'd already experienced, you will be surprised to know that I decided to cook my own Christmas dinner. We are so blessed with family and friends nearby that I have never had to cook my own holiday dinner. Well, I wanted to enjoy leftovers and turkey roasting and pie baking in my own home. Let's just say that I now have a whole new level of appreciation for the wonderful and delicious meals that I have enjoyed over the years and will never take another one for granted! It was good practice and a nice opportunity to take out the cloth napkins.

We are now really looking forward to the next half of this month as we get together with more friends and family. Hopefully I can take lots of great pictures and get back to you soon!