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.

Disney on Ice

Last week we were lucky enough to get 2 free vouchers to see Disney on Ice. (Thanks to Grandma Suzy!) I told Michael he should take Kayleigh and go. At first she didn't know what it even was, but after showing her the on-line clip and talking to her about it, she got pretty excited.

Michael hurried to get home from work, pick up Kayleigh from my mom's (I was working) and get back down town. I was nervous that they'd be late, but thanks to a really nice parking guy, they parked for free right across from Energy Solutions Arena. When they went to the ticket booth to exchange their vouchers for tickets, Michael asked for the best seats available and they got row 10 seats. Lucky!

Kayleigh really loved the show! Her favorite parts were Ariel and Peter Pan. Michael thought it was a pretty fun show, too. I'm glad they got to go and have some daddy/daughter time.

Crawling

Landon is officially crawling! He actually started last week, I'm just barely posting about it. We knew he was close to doing it for some time because he'd get up on all 4's but wouldn't take off. Finally he got pretty motivated by the door stop (for some reason he is fascinated with these) and off he went. He is getting into lots of things, but not too bad yet. I think he forgets he can crawl still, but I know that won't last forever. So much for the Christmas tree... It's fun to watch him explore though and Kayleigh loves getting him to crawl!

Our Halloween

Landon enjoying a sucker from his sister.
Kay and all of her candy.

Landon holding onto the umbrella, so cute!

Kayleigh with her pumpkin.

Kayleigh and Grace

Michael and Kayleigh eating dinner of scones and chili.

Landon playing while pumpkins got carved.

This year for Halloween, Kayleigh dressed up as a pink piggy. She made a pretty cute little pig. I thought it would be really easy to find some light pink sweats for her to wear as her costume, along with the nose and ears. I actually found it very hard to find some. Every store that had pink sweats also had some sort of decoration on the top. It was very frustrating! Finally the week before Halloween I got her a pink fleece outfit from Kohl’s.

Landon dressed up as a skunk. Yes, the same skunk that Kayleigh was. I am very grateful Marie keeps sharing her costume that she made for her girls. It’s nice when you don’t have to spend money for a costume.

On Halloween night it rained and so I was glad each of my kids were dressed warm to go out trick-or-treating. Landon only came with us for one street, but Kayleigh kept on going. She actually tired out quicker than last year, but still got lots of candy. She had been looking forward to Halloween and trick-or-treating for quite some time. Thankfully the rain didn’t seem to bother her and after awhile I gave up on trying to keep her covered with an umbrella.

Before trick-or-treating we had a fun party at Nana and Grandpa’s. We carved pumpkins and had a yummy dinner of scones and chili. Unfortunately, Michael and I were not feeling very good at all. I hate when I am sick, especially on a holiday when we have fun plans. We still tried to enjoy everything though and help Kayleigh to have a fun holiday. As always, we love being with family and celebrating together. Grandpa came out trick-or-treating with us and it was really fun to have him with us. We like going out in his neighborhood, the kids got two full-size candy bars!

Even earlier in the day, we had invited Michael’s parents and grandparents over to our house for a little treat and to see the kids in their costumes. It was a quick get together, but Kayleigh liked the attention and getting to wear her costume. Happy Halloween!

Picture Time Again

Fall means picture time at our house. Poor Landon hasn't had his pictures taken since he was brand new. My friend, Sherri, took these. They turned out very cute! I was nervous they wouldn't turn out since Landon would NOT smile, but even though he isn't smiling in all of them, he still looks very handsome!

You might remember how I posted a few weeks ago about being stung and how it got infected. Well, during this photo shoot, I got stung two more times and had an allergic reaction to the stings. My arms were so red and swollen! Thank goodness for Zyrtec. I couldn't believe it when I got stung again, really, why me again? I went to retrieve Landon's binki that Kayleigh had dropped off the bridge and while doing that I must have brushed up against the wasp or something. Anyway, it got me twice and I was dancing all over the place to get it to stop chasing me. It was probably kind of funny to see. What's so dumb too is that we ended up getting back to our car without the binki anyway. Oh man...hopefully I am done with being stung for awhile.