The Excitement Santa Brought

Christmas morning was more fun this year than I think it has been so far. The kids are bigger and totally get the concept of it all more this year. I just love waking up and feeling the excitement and anticipation that fills the air. We just couldn't wait to see what Santa had brought. We usually do breakfast first but the big Santa gift was a bit difficult to not notice. The kids were so lucky this year. Santa must have thought they behaved pretty darn good in 2009 because he brought them each their very own brand new bike. Zoey got a very girlie Hello Kitty bike and Noah got an all boy Jeep bike that is black, white, and bright orange. I have never seen them so excited. They hopped on them right away and just because it was Christmas they even got to ride them thru the house. I am so glad Santa could bring them something so fun for them. Mommy and Daddy were excited too because they got Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360 from Santa. We must have been good too. After riding thru the house a bit we sat down and had our traditional sweet roll and quiche breakfast and then quickly got to the stockings and all the goodies in store there. Santa was good to everyone this year and we are glad for the happiness felt by all.

Even Cosmo sat and enjoyed his goodies from Santa while we all opened our stockings.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was great as always. My brother and his family came over and spent the evening with us. We did our traditional homemade Mexican food dinner. Nothing like our homemade taquitos, queso, salsa, and flat green enchiladas. So tasty! We just spent the evening hanging out and eating and then we went to the Disney Lane neighborhood. It became a Christmas Eve tradition for us several years ago and we haven't missed one yet. We have noticed the number of cars going thru that night increasing but it isn't anything too bad. When we got back from that we came back to the house to exchange gifts with my brother and his family. The kids had a great time and everyone made out with some cool stuff. They left and then Zoey and Noah got to open their 1 gift from us that they get to open on Christmas Eve. They were very excited, as always, for their new jammies and they put them on right away. The rest of the night was spent hanging out having fun with Aunt Jenn (who spent the night) and anxiously awaiting sleepy time and the arrival of the big guy himself. I am lame and didn't take any pictures. I got a couple shots of the kids in their jammies and that was it. Oh well. So things go with me these days. It was a great night though and it is always so great to spend the time with family and just enjoy the excitement that comes with the season. I love having kids because it just makes me all that more joyous and excited for Christmas. It was a great night!

Sunday Before Christmas

What is with the cheesy smiles?! Oh well, they are still cute!

Our handsome little man.

Pretty little Zoey.

As years go by it seems harder to get a family picture where all of us look good. We did our best.

This is word to those out there anxiously awaiting the blog posts which are past due. I will get there eventually. I would say soon, but I don't want to make a liar of myself. I am tired and lazy and unmotivated to spend time these days blogging. I know it is such a connection to our lives for some of you and I do promise to get some posting done. I know you miss me and are tired of looking and seeing that same darned pre Christmas post. I will be along sometime with more exciting things and I promise it will be before this baby gets here in April.

Christmas Comes Quickly

With Christmas rapidly approaching I figured it was about time for me to post the pictures of the finished product after all the mess made working on getting decorations up. Time just goes too quickly around the holidays. I am so excited for Christmas Eve tomorrow but sad too. It comes and goes so fast and I am just not ready for it to be over yet. I look so forward though to the excitement my kids will experience in the next 2 days. It is going to be so much fun. I am so thankful for the Christmas holiday and the joy it brings to me and my family, young and old. The next 2 days will hold much excitement, laughter and just good ole fun times with family. I am thankful to be in a position to spoil our kids a bit this Christmas. I hope it is a good one for everyone. I know it will be for me. I wish a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone. May it be filled with love, laughter and hopefully some nice fun things from Santa. Love to all of you from the McKinlay family!

Oh how quickly these paper chains have shortened!

I love that my mom puts up stockings for EVERY kid and grandkid, whether they are around or not. It is so neat and adds more Christmas cheer.

My favorite Rudolph decorations. Love em!

Our happy tree stuffed below with gifts. Noah sure can't wait to dig in to those gifts.

Decorations here and there. Every shelf is emptied and replaced with Christmas stuff.

Mom's collection of Santas. Definitely one of the best, most Christmasy spots in the house.

Sophie

I have one of the cutest nieces ever! Look at that lip!

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday. I think it just might have been one of my best bdays so far. I spent the afternoon at the mall with my hubby and kids. It was an enjoyable afternoon just us 4. We came home and I had a nice rest on my bed. I got a little snoozing in which was nice. That evening we met the rest of my family at On the Border to have some tasty dinner. I love that place but we don't go as often anymore since the only one in town now takes us probably 40 minutes to get to. It is so worth the drive to me though. It was great to have my brother and his family there plus Jenn and Mom and Dad. It was a very nice, relaxed dinner. I even was a totally good sport about the staff coming out and singing me a birthday song. If you know me you know I DO NOT like the spotlight on me. I enjoyed my little moment though and I don't think I turned too red. Plus, the free sopapillas were SO worth it. Mmmm! It really was a fantastic birthday and I made away with some great gifts. My kids picked out some new reads for me and my hubby bought me movie passes, a giant box of Airheads, and a Harry Potter Xbox 360 game. I got some new sheets for my bed (much needed), the latest Harry Potter movie and a Flip Video. Now I can carry it along with me and hopefully catch some quick fun moments on video that I can share on the blog. It was an awesome birthday. Thank you everyone who made it such a great day!

Big ole pregnant mama. I am going to be ginormous by April.

My wonderful hubby who LOVES the camera. (Ha Ha)

Me and my little monkey.

Finally got the stupid ribbon off the gift. Don't you love the Rudolph wrapping paper? I do!

Something was funny. No clue what it was.

Jay cut a slit in the plastic wrap of the Airheads to slip in the movie passes. It was hilarious watching Noah trying to get the movie passes out.

Do you see how my boy always has to be right on top of me, touching me? He is Mommy obsessed.

Thoroughly enjoying the free sopapillas. I did pose for this picture by the way. I would never post a picture like this if it wasn't intentional.

Grandpa, Elyssa and Grandma.

Kella, Donnie, Joshua and Amy.

Elyssa and David.

My pretty little Zoey. She tried for like 20 minutes to blow up a balloon. It was just too hard.

Playing in Aunt Jenn's jacket and scarf. Silly Noah.

So cute all snuggled next to each other. They really do like each other most the time. And those are not creepy, partly open, sleeping Zoey eyes. She was watching tv.

He Wants It All

Noah was showing Auntie Pam everything he wanted for Christmas. With Noah this year, any commercial or catalog he sees, he wants it all. It really is hard to shop for a kid who says he wants everything because I know he really doesn't. Silly Noah.

Decorating Chaos

Messes all over the place. It's just all part of the process of making a cheerful Christmas house.

Nice shot with Noah there. Silly kid.

The poor dog was so traumatized by the whole mess of decorating. He stayed by me on the couch or right by my legs almost the whole time.

Half Way, 21 Weeks

Today marks 21 weeks along in the pregnancy. In ways I can't believe we are half way (plus a week) there but at the same time it still feels like we have forever until this baby gets here. Things are going well so far. Getting past the all day sickness the first several weeks was the worst but all has been good since then. I am dealing with more back pain and aches earlier on but I will take anything over that awful nausea. I am starting to feel more and more little flutters of baby. I am looking forward to soon being able to feel this little one doing acrobatics in my belly. We had the BIG ultrasound about a week and a half ago. The kids and Jay both got to come along and it was great. I was excited for Jay because he hasn't been able to go to any of my appointments and he finally got to see the heartbeat. We didn't hear it but we did see it, all 4 chambers, working away. It is always so amazing to see everything you can see with an ultrasound. The tech was great and explained everything she was looking at and we could actually follow along and see what everything was. The best part of all was finding out that all seems to be going great with this little baby. All looked, and measured as it should and we are so thankful to have a healthy baby. We know we are truly blessed. The one thing we didn't do this 3rd time around at this ultrasound was find out if we are having a boy or girl. I don't know why, but we just didn't want to find out. We think the surprise is fun and think it will be so cool to not know until delivery day what we have in store for us. There is no way I could do it if I didn't already have a boy and a girl. Since we have clothes and stuff for both though I am able to not stress about it. I just can't wait until the day this baby is born and finding out if we have another boy or another girl. The kids both want a baby brother but most other people are predicting a girl. I think it might be a girl but I will offer no official vote or instinct because I really have no clue. Of course Jay and I will be totally ecstatic about either. We just pray for a continued healthy baby and mommy and for a good delivery. It sounds so cliche but really all we want is a healthy baby in the end. Jay pointed out the other day too though that we will be happy even if it's not a totally healthy baby. We just feel so blessed to be parents and that Heavenly Father is blessing us with another beautiful baby.

Paper Chains

I helped the kids make paper chains today to countdown to Christmas. It is a nice thing to do at this age because they have more of a visual of how long until Christmas. Noah especially feels like Christmas is TOO far away so I hope this helps him deal with the time a little better. Between tearing off a chain link and having a chocolate from his advent calendar he has something to look forward to every day and hopefully the wait won't seem too long. It was a fun little craft time this evening and I really enjoyed doing it with them. Even Daddy sat down for a few minutes and made a couple paper snowflakes for the kids. It was a great evening.

The kids each put the stickers on theirs to decorate it. Noah's is the one above and Zoey's is below. Zoey did almost all the chains by herself and Noah did most of his with some help from Mom.

They were excited and just had to take a picture with their works of art. They can't wait for tomorrow to tear off the first chain.

Zoey the Reader

I am so proud of our little Zoey and how much she has learned. I have never put her in preschool or done any sort of preschool at home with her. I know I have had a hand in teaching her the things she has learned but I really don't feel like I have done much. Zoey is such a self motivator and she has such a strong desire to learn and do new things. We are so proud of all she has accomplished. Her most recent stepping stone has been learning to read. She read her first book about a week ago. I consider it her first one, I only had to help her with a handful of words in the whole book. Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop will be her official first read book. I was so amazed when she sat down with it and went to town. She is such a smart kid and I am so proud of her. Way to go Zoey! I hope you never loose your desire and love of learning.

One of the first things Zoey did when Grandma Kinney got here was read her Hop on Pop.