Busy busy

Kirsten (sis of the bride) with her baby Dylan.

Jeni (sis of the bride) with her cutie Jackson

Kay enjoying the cake

Steph and Jordan

Holidays holidays holidays! We've been having lots of fun and staying very busy at our house. Our Christmas was really nice and fun. We've enjoyed time with our families and will continue to this week to welcome in the new year. Our kids are loving their new toys and playing a lot with them. Michael has had a lot of time off from work and it has been so nice to have him home, we all enjoy it.

Today my cousin got married. Michael and I got to attend the sealing and it was very nice! I love going to weddings, they are fun! Tonight we have 2 receptions to go to so no slowing down here.
Steph's reception was nice and really fun for Kayleigh. She had a great time dancing around with her cousins to all the music and playing with the rose petals that were all over.

I hope all of you are enjoying this time like we are. I'll post more with pictures in the coming weeks but for now just wanted to check back into the blogging world for a minute.

Landon's 1st Party

We had a fun little party for Landon. My parents, Michael's parents, my brother, and my sister and her family all came. Landon got lots of fun new toys! We now can say we have some boy toys. Landon was really cute to watch as he pulled the wrapping from each present and then examined it, and of course he ate some, too.

His big sister and 2 cousins REALLY wanted to unwrap his toys and be the first to see them, but we tried hard to have Landon do it. I remember being a little kid at friend/cousin parties, it was hard watching them open all the presents and my birthday seemed years away!

I made a really cute basketball cake for his big day. As always I stressed about it and how the frosting would turn out and all that, but in the end, it was great. I found some really cute $1 balls at Target that went along great with it.

As we all sang Happy Birthday to him, towards the end of the song he started to smile and it was so cute! By then I think he finally figured out we were singing to him. We gave him his own piece to devour, but he mostly just picked the icing off and then was done.

I saved one present for him to open on his actual birthday. I know he doesn't know, so it was more for me, but hey, I wanted to do something on his actual birthday. As I already said in the last post, can't believe he's one now. Such a big boy!

Happy Birthday Landon!

Warning! Long post!

Can't believe our little guy is one! His birthday was yesterday and obviously I didn't post anything. We celebrated on Saturday with a family party which I'll post about soon. Today I took Landon to the doctor for his one year check-up. He's growing and doing very well! First off, his ear infection from last week is all better, thanks to Amoxicillin. He weighed 24 lbs. 14 oz. (79th%tile) and was 31 inches long (85th%tile). What can I say, the kid likes to eat!

I went into early labor (7 weeks early) and so we went to the hospital thinking they'd give me something to stop it. After they ran some tests and ruled out some possible infections that I might have, the finally checked me to find I was dilated to a 5 already. So, there was no turning back. Of course my doctor was out of town, just my luck. Since I'd had a c-section with Kayleigh, I would be having another one since an on-call doc would be delivering me. Thankfully Dr. Meek was great and got Landon out safely. I was lucky enough to be able to actually watch him be born because the nice anesthesiologist held up a mirror for me. (I didn't get that with Kayleigh.)

Landon was quickly whisked away, and I didn't get to see him for about 12 hours. Poor Michael was right in the middle of performing downtown with the Tabernacle Choir and their Christmas concert with Natalie Cole. So he had to leave me to go to a recording session. I'll admit, it was a hard day, lots had happened in so little time. I did have a pretty fun surprise that day though, Kayleigh got to visit me in the hospital. If you'll remember, last year was the big H1N1 scare and so most hospitals were only allowing visitors over the age of 18. But, Davis Hospital had just changed their rule days before to allow siblings of new babies in. Michael didn't tell me this and just showed up with Kayleigh, it was really cool! She couldn't see Landon though, that was hard to explain to a 2 yr. old that the baby had been born, but she couldn't see him. Luckily, she coped with it pretty well and in the following weeks to come, there were days that she was the strongest. I remember a specific day when I was heading out to go to the hospital and Michael just broke down. Sweet little Kayleigh went up to him and put her arm around him and told him it would be okay.

A year ago today Landon got to eat for the first time. (Preemies don't eat the first day they are born. Just being born is enough stress for their little bodies for one day.) He started out with only 3 mls of milk. (A teaspoon is 5 mls). Every three hours he got to eat more, and slowly he got up to over 40 mls by the time we brought the little guy home. He was in the hospital for 15 LONG days. He was the biggest baby in the NICU. He was born at 5 lbs. 8 oz. and got as low as 4 lbs. 14 oz. (I think, can't remember the oz. for sure.) While he was there, he had to learn to eat what he wanted when he wanted, without the nurses forcing him to eat through his feeding tube. He also had to learn how to breath on his own. Landon liked to forget to breath while he ate and while he slept. Once he figured that out, he was good to go!

We brought him home on he 27th of December. It was a wonderful day! I don't think I'll forget how excited Kayleigh was when she finally got to meet her brother. One of the first things she wanted to do with him was put him in her pink doll high chair. She's been a great big sis ever since!

He came home from the hospital with a heart/lung monitor and oxygen. It took us two weeks to get him completely off all that. We were so thankful to have him home! We can't wait to have our whole family of four together this Christmas.

As we look back, we know that we are so blessed. I once was telling the story of Landon's birth, etc. to a guy I know and I said how we'd "been lucky." I'll never forget his response, he said, "No, you've been blessed." It's true! We really felt the prayers of our family and friends in the week following his early birth. I healed very quickly from the c-section and that was a little miracle to me. I remember how I felt when I'd had my c-section with Kayleigh and Landon's was SO much easier. I was up and around quicker and my incision stopped hurting sooner. I had to be up and going though, we were making multiple drives to the hospital each day. I know Kayleigh was blessed with an understanding of the whole situation. Landon grew and developed very quickly in the hospital. The doctors told us a few days before we brought him home that he shouldn't be doing any of the things he was doing. Michael was able to take off three weeks of work during all of this. We had fabulous insurance that payed a lot for Landon to receive the care he needed, leaving us only to pay a small portion.

I guess I just wanted to write some of that down for myself, so I don't forget our experience. We love Landon and are grateful he's in our family. Happy Birthday, little guy, we love you!

Go Jazz!

While Michael was at work on Monday, he got offered two tickets to see the Jazz that night in the Huntsman Suite. Well, of course he couldn't turn those down! So, since I didn't want to get another babysitter (my kids will go to 5 next week) we decided Michael would take Kayleigh and go. She wasn't way excited to go, but I knew if she went she'd have fun.

They parked at the Conference Center and then rode Trax down to Energy Solutions Arena. The seats were great, the food was great, and Michael and Kayleigh had a fun little date! Kayleigh loved that she got some ice cream with sprinkles on it. Michael loved being there and being in a suite. Fun times!

St. Nicholas Day

Well, December 6th has come and gone already. On the night of the 5th, St. Nicholas made a quick stop by our house. Thankfully Kayleigh had stocked all our shoes with some carrots for his horse. And in return, he left us some presents! Kayleigh was very excited to come walking into the family room on Monday morning to find a present in her shoe. She was so excited that after opening her own, she opened her brother's and then her daddy's before I realized. (I was on the phone.) Guess I know how Christmas morning is going to go this year. :-)

The St. Nicholas Day tradition was something I loved when I was growing up and it's fun to see Kayleigh enjoy it, too. Poor Landon doesn't get it, but I know he will next year. He's a big fan of the paper, though.

Gingerbread time

Landon's house

Kayleigh with her house.

Yesterday as we made gingerbread houses at my mom's, I just couldn't believe that it's really time to make them again. I remember doing them last year and it feels like not that long ago. Time is flying by!

My mom found a gingerbread village at Bed, Bath and Beyond that she bought. She figured each of the kids could do a little house for themselves instead of doing huge houses like last year. It worked out really well. The girls got to pick the house they wanted to do (each were different shapes) and then decorate with whatever candy they wanted.

Kayleigh was very excited to go to pre-school in the morning because she knew when she got home we would go straight to Nana's to do the houses. When we got to my mom's, she had everything set out and ready on her kitchen table. Kayleigh asked her if we could get out the little table to do them on. It's so funny because last year we did them on the little table and she remembered. I am shocked at what she remembers from last Christmas because she was only 2. What can I say, she's a smarty!

I decorated Landon's house for him, but I know next year he'll be ready to do it himself. This year he enjoyed watching the commotion from the high chair while eating a candy cane and some M & M's. Who wouldn't enjoy that?

Christmas at the Kennard's

Michael's annual friend get-together at our house happened early this year. We found out that Jacob and Alaina would be in town for a family wedding so we thought it'd be fun to have them there and thus we did it the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone was able to make it and it was fun!

We didn't do the full dinner that we normally do, just desserts and appetizers. Everyone brought something to share and it was good! I made bacon wrapped water chestnuts (yummy!), I did a cheese ball and crackers, rolls, and a pumpkin pie.

We barely fit in our house anymore, but we'll keep doing it as long as people keep coming! This year we had only 6 kids there, the rest were with babysitters. I know Michael really enjoys getting together with all his friends and reminiscing about high school days. He is lucky to have such good friends that still stay in touch and want to get together. Merry (early) Christmas everyone.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this year. We went to my parent's house for the dinner to be with my dad's side of the family. We ate around 2 in the afternoon and dinner was delicious! My favorite part of the feast is always the sweet potatoes and this year did not disappoint! My aunt, Annina, and also my cousin's wife, Katie, made some and they were both very good! I mashed some up for Landon and he liked them, too.

After eating dinner, Kayleigh disappeared downstairs to play with my cousin's boys. Then we put Landon down for a nap and Michael and I were actually able to visit and play games without any interruption, it was so nice! We played a big game of Catch Phrase and it was really fun!

Later in the afternoon we ate pies. I made a pumpkin one that turned out pretty good I thought. There was also 3 diff. kinds of apple and one coconut cream pie. For the dinner I also made a cherry jell-o that turned out good as well.

Once everyone left, we stayed to help clean up. Then we went and rented the Disney's Christmas Carol that just came out on DVD. Kayleigh lost interest pretty quickly, so she went off and watched Ice Age by herself while we finished watching it. I liked it, but there were some scary parts, I thought. I think I still like the Mickey's Christmas Carol version a lot.

We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, too. We have much to be thankful for at this time of year.