NO MORE MONITOR!! WooHoo!

Well if you haven't heard... Kira is off of her heart monitor! We were so glad when we got the word just in time for thanksgiving. Before I sent the monitor back to the medical company I thought I would take a picture or two to remind us what it was like. This monitor was such a love/hate thing... We loved knowing she was okay- especially at night... but it was so CUMBERSOME! Lugging this around everywhere and getting all tangled in the wires got old fast! But we still just thank the Lord that Kira's apnea was found before we left the hospital and that she's healthy and doing fine now!

YMCA Basketball

This winter Kenzie is playing basketball at the YMCA. She's on a co-ed 6-7yr old team... and she's coached by none other than Me! The YMCA program was not the most well organized program, so I offered to coach a team and we're having a blast! I have two boys that know how to play and then a few kids that are just learning, and then I have Kenzie! She is really beginning to have fun, but she's clueless!! We do drills and have a practice for the first 40 minutes and then we play a game for the next 20. She loves the practice, but is not a big fan of the game. She's always offering to be the first sub! Each week she's becoming more confident so we're really proud of her and glad that she's having fun!

I try to play lots of fun, silly games that teach the kids even without them knowing it!

Cutting a Tree

This was the first year we've ever cut down our own tree... We always have a real tree, but we had never cut one down ourselves. It was the best! Thanks Kev for telling us about "Wata Farm." The kids loved pulling the cart for the tree and picking out just the right one. This is one tradition that we'll be carrying on for years to come!

Kaden and me checking out the needles...

And we're off to find a tree... it figures that the type we wanted was in the farthest field... like a mile away!

The sad trees... Kenzie decided that she felt sad for the ugly, little trees and she thought that we should buy one of them... It was stright Charlie Brown's Christmas and she's never even seen that movie! I think at one point to get her to quit whining I might have promised to get a sad, little tree next year. Hopefully she'll forget by then , but probably not! :)

We bought a Canaan Fir... it's a lot like a Fraiser Fir. So far it's going strong... it only needs to make it 18 more days!

I absolutely love how Kira can smile with her eyes... you can't even see her toothless grin, but her eyes are all smiles. I have a ton of pictures of Kira in her carrier... ones with golf clubs, leaves, pumpkins, and now tree branches!

We found a winner!! It looks a bit gnarly here, but it's really a nice tree! We had to cut off about a foot from the top!

The view was just amazing... this is an open field where they were letting new trees grow.

It was amazing that in late Nov. there was still some nice color in the trees...

We need tough guys to cut down our tree

Whoa! What a tough bunch!

Our stump...

Our strong tree pullers...

now we have to walk back to the van...

Me and Kenz

We noticed that our new van does not have a built in roof rack, so rather than deal with rope and twine, we just popped the tree in the van with us!!

Kenzie thought it was great to have the tree in the car! Kaden was just tired :)

At home Kira was lending a hand with the lights

Daddy did a great job putting the lights on our frshly cut tree!

Kenzie's Santa Hat...

Well we broke out the Santa hat around Nov 2oth! The kids love wearing them around the house. They are very excited for santa to come... yes, we do the "santa" thing. According to our kids, Santa brings presents because it's Jesus' birthday. I think that's a decent explanation for their age and understanding. It will be a silly fun tradition for a few more years and then when the kids are older they can appreciate the true, deeper significance of Christmas.

Talk about Personality!!

These are the faces Kenzie made when I told her just to "be herself"... no j/k I'm sure I said something about silly faces! This kids cracks me up!

Santa's Litte Helper

Kira was all smiles the day that we took Santa pictures!

Her smiles are so cute and goofy... yes, this is a smile, not a scream!

She definitely has a tongue thing... she's ALWAYS sticking it out!

My little girl...