at this moment in time...

As the year is about to end, I thought it would be fun to do a little time capsule type update about the girls. I hope any of you reading this might decide to do the same for your families on your blogs, websites, or even in a notebook. I would love to read about all of you and your families.

Starting with Karalee Ilyana

2010 accomplishments:
This year she turned 4, learned to read, performed on stage in a cinderella ballet, completed her first year of preschool and started her second, made a scrapbook, learned to use a camera, learned to add and subtract, and learned to play nintendo. She recently recieved her own nintendo ds, and loves playing with it. As of today, she weighs 37lbs, and is 44 1/2 inches tall.

special things about Kara:
she is very sweet. She cares about everyone, and is concerned when someone is sad or hurt. She is the smartest 4 year old I've ever met. She can grasp concepts very quickly, and she loves to learn. She is always reading everything she sees. I am often surprised by her ability to figure out words that would seem difficult to sound out. She is a tall girl with long legs. She grows out of pants at lightning speed, and never has a dress for long before it starts getting too short. She is very patient. She will patiently wait when we ask her too, and is very nice to her sisters. She loves helping with Evie, and lets Kiersten get away with a lot before she gets upset. She is my little helper. She loves doing housework with me, and is always asking for chores. Sometimes she asks me to write her a chore list, or she'll write up her own. She likes checking off all the things on the list, and excitedly asks me to come check her work. She is a stickler for rules, and always wants things to be done the "right" way. If I try to rush her in her cleaning or other tasks, she'll remind me that it needs to be done correctly, even if that takes a little longer.

and here are some answers to questions from kara herself about some of her favorite things:
favorite color-purple
favorite kind of animal- cats
favorite food- candy
favorite song- don't go breakin my heart
favorite movie- my little pony
favorite tv show- barney
best friend- Maya
favorite playtime activity- making block towers
favorite toy- Lucky the stuffed cat
favorite non play activity- math
if she could see anyone in the whole world right now, who would she pick?- Daddy
favorite outdoor activity- soccer
favorite outfit- yellow flower dress
favorite thing to do with mommy- scrapbook
favorite thing to do with daddy- hug and kiss
one food she doesn't like- spinach
one thing she doesn't like- daisy biting her

Kiersten Joy

2010 accomplishments:

This year, she turned 2, learned to ride a bike, learned the alphabet, learned to spell her name out loud, grew long enough hair to have hairstyles, decided she's a princess, counted to 18, got potty trained, and mastered eating with a fork and spoon. As of today she weighs 29lbs, and is 38 inches tall.

special things about Kiersten:

she is a little comedian. She is always saying the funniest things, and doing things to make everyone laugh. She loves putting on a show, and being silly. She also loves knock knock jokes and is constantly telling them. She is very loving. She always wants to cuddle, be held, and hug. She tells everyone she loves them on a daily basis, and will often go on and on telling me the long list of everyone she loves. she is a smart girl, and sometimes sneaky. If she thinks she can get away with something, she will definitely try it. One of her latest tricks is dumping her dinner or lunch in the trash or sink, and trying to convince us that she ate it all gone. She has a major sweet tooth and is always asking for candy and treats. She asks with such a sweet looking face, that it can be very hard to say no to her. she is very friendly. She loves having other kids to play with, and even adults. If we are around an adult woman, you can bet Kiersten is sitting in her lap, or begging to be picked up. She is loaded with energy and personality. She will let you know how she feels, whether it's super happy, or mad. She loves teasing people, especially Kara.

and some of Kiersten's favorites:
favorite color- purple
favorite kind of animal- dogs
favorite food- cereal
favorite song- my little pony theme song
favorite movie- sleeping beauty
favorite tv show- Dora the explorer
best friend- Kara
favorite playtime activity- playing barbies
favorite toy- dancing Mickey and purple teddy bear
favorite non play activity- dancing
if she could see anyone in the world right now, who would she pick?- daddy and papa
favorite outdoor activity- playing in the snow
favorite outfit- purple flower dress
favorite thing to do with mommy- paint fingernails
favorite thing to do with daddy- read books
one food she doesn't like- broccoli
one thing she doesn't like- time out and people being mean to her. Evangeline Rebecca

2010 accomplishments:

This year she was born, learned to roll over, learned to sit up, learned to crawl, started eating baby food, smiled for the first time, laughed for the first time, took her first car trip to Utah and Idaho, hated her carseat, doubled her weight, spit up hundreds of times, celebrated her first halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas, and started sleeping through the night. As of today, she weighs 16lbs, and is 26 inches tall.

Special things about Evie:

She is a cheerful baby. She doesn't wake up and cry. She wakes up and starts giggling and cooing until I wake up too. she is fascinated by her sisters. She loves watching them play, and loves when they include her in the fun. She is an active baby. Even before she was crawling she loved to wriggle and squirm around. Now that she is mobile, she crawls everywhere and climbs all over. She has already started pulling herself up on things. She's not quite cruising yet, but I have no doubt she will be very soon. She loves her parents. She is always happy and excited to see either one of us. (me a little more). she seems to have a very social personality so far. she loves to eat. She is the cleanest baby I've ever fed. almost nothing gets back out of her mouth once it's gone in. She tries to get any food that we eat within her reach. She loves playing with toys. She especially likes teething toys right now, and we think her teeth are going to be making an appearance soon.

next year she might be able to answer questions about some of her favorite things too!

Big crawling girl!

Our Christmas

you may already know that Kara loves setting the table. Christmas Eve was no exception. Ben helped her out a little, and I think she did a very nice job. Kiersten helped a little too. She was very proud to sip out of the glass with no straw.

Here is a good picture of their cute Christmas dresses. Kara started running a fever on Christmas eve. As long as we can keep it down with tylenol or motrin, she is still happy. But I can tell as soon as it is wearing off. She starts whining, and shivering, and saying her tummy hurts. poor girl!

Evie got into the excitement a little more than I expected her to. She knew something fun was going on.

sweet Karalee

cute Kiersten

we let them open new nightgowns and slippers before bed. Then we drove around to look at Christmas lights until all 3 fell asleep. They were all in bed by 9, and Ben and I were in bed by 10:30. Ben woke me up around midnight, saying Kara was running a fever of 104. He stayed up with her until her fever went back down.

Evangeline got a blanket with her name embroidered on it, since she wasn't around when the rest of us got blankets last year.

ready for bed. You can tell in this picture that Kara wasn't feeling well.

Kiersten woke up around 5:30, and found Ben and Kara in the guest room. She asked him if he thought Santa had been here. He told her to get his phone so he could see what time it was. He okayed her to wake me and Evie up, and we all went downstairs. Kiersten was thrilled to see this dance star Mickey she has been talking about for weeks.

Kara first saw that santa had eaten the cookies she left, and then walked right past her gift to the stockings, and started looking in them. Then she noticed the big rapunzel tower she had somehow not seen. Don't know how she missed it, but the look on her face when She realized it was there was pretty great. it even has a painting that changes when she paints it with water.

they wanted to open presents right away. They got so many fun presents from everyone.

Kiersten pretended to call Papa, and then told us he said he was coming on the airplane to see us.

I finally got a carpet cleaner. It's been hard not to open it the last few weeks, but now I have it, and have already started using it. I'll post before and after pictures later. The livingroom carpet is looking way better.

of course Ben was happy with his wii game. Donkey Kong country 2. The girls have enjoyed watching him play it the past few days.

Kara got this zhu zhu pets giant city. It's pretty cool, but I don't know where we will keep it.

Ben and Kiersten thought it was funny to put Evie in this doll stroller Kiersten recieved.

Kara with her gifts

Evie got lots of fun things too.

Kiersten's gifts. I think Kara and Kiersten will be getting mostly clothes for their birthdays after getting all these toys! I am going to have to go through the playroom and get rid of some things to make room for it all.

I thought we should take a group picture since we were all dressed yesterday, and the livingroom was cleared out for carpet cleaning. Evie is 5 months, and this is really the first family pic we've taken that you can see everyone.

I tricked Kiersten into wearing this new outfit from the Sutherlands. I called it a dress and leggings. If I'd called it a shirt, she'd have refused to wear it.

Happy Christmas Eve!

here are a few pics of what we've been doing this week.

I didn't want to do a gingerbread house this year, but I changed my mind, and bought one. They loved it, so it was worth the mess.

I did the icing, and the girls put on all the candy.

love this little Christmas baby!

making sugar cookies with the girls.

we also made a half bathch of cupcakes. I let the girls look through my cupcake books and pick out a Christmas one to do.

they chose ornaments. they were fun and easy. Ben did the 2 at the far right and bottom of the cookie sheet.

this morning I let the girls decorate the sugar cookies we baked yesterday. Kara always wants to use all different colors, and do it like coloring a picture. I made her stick to white or brown, with a few sprinkles options.

happy girls. We have been watching SO many Christmas cartoons the last few weeks. Yesterday and today were no exception. (excuse the chocolate stain on my sweater. I was making a pie, and didn't notice it.)
I don't think this kid could be any more excited about Christmas! We are just trying to keep them busy so they wont nap. We don't need them staying up late tonight. Hopefully a long drive in the car to look at lights will get them tired later.
I wish everyone could hear how cutely she says. "Kwissmiss" and "thana kwas".
Karalee and Kiersten have been dying to wear their new Christmas dresses forever. I now realize I need to get a good standing shot of them wearing them. Kiersten loves to dress up and be "fancy". She was thrilled to get her hair curled.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas tomorrow!!!

december jam

this past week has been jam-packed with things going on. On top of everything, Kiersten has had croup and Evie has an upper respiratory infection. So that has not been the greatest, but they both have managed to stay mostly happy through the sick times. I think Kiersten is starting to be better. Today there was no vomiting or fever. Kara has been fine so far, and hopefully wont get sick at all.

Kara made Christmas suckers to share with her classmates. Kiersten got to help for the first time ever. She did better than I expected. Here they are enjoying some of them.
Evie is such a big girl. I have started her on fruits and veggies now. Here she is trying to use the spoon on her own, unsuccesfully. She has really started loving food, and tries to eat anything we eat while holding her. If we aren't holding her, and she sees us eating, she just lunges forward with her mouth open and a frantic look in her eyes.
this is how she looks when the food is gone and she's upset that I've stopped shoveling it in.

now that she's such a good sitter-upper, she doesn't have to take lay down baths anymore. She loves looking at herself in the mirror, and also splashing with her hands.

I like this one of her looking in the mirror.

she is getting around so well. I'd call it more of a wriggle than a crawl, though.

sometimes she likes sitting in the splits. She is so proud to be able to get into a sitting position all by herself. She beams with pride every time she does it. (which is like, 30 times a day)

you'd hardly know she was sick, if not for the running nose, horrible coughing and raspy breathing. she is still so happy.

Kiersten was no longer contagious as of friday, so she is happy to play with Evie again. I was trying to keep them away from each other as much as possible so Evie wouldn't get croup and end up even sicker than she is.

Kara's class Christmas party was friday. They did a singing and dancing performance for us. Kara is in the pink dress if you can't spot her.

They held up their books in front of their faces the whole time they were singing, but the words weren't even in the books. it was just pictures to remind them which song came next. I wish Kara hadn't held hers up the whole time. I took video, but only got a few glimpses of her face.

Mrs. Wright is always dressing up for holidays and the kids love it. She's a fun teacher.

Kiersten refused to wear her shoes because it was raining, so she insisted on her rain boots.

After the party, we drove up to meet Ben at Black Angus for his birthday dinner. We had several people come over to tell us they thought Evie was cute, and a few to tell us all the girls were cute.

When we got home, we let Ben open his birthday gift early. He went right upstairs to start playing it.

Today is Ben's 29th birthday. Every year after my birthday, I have a month of teasing to endure. He calls me an old lady and teases me about having robbed the cradle. Now he is 29 too, and the teasing will stop for another 11 months, until I turn 30. I'm sure that one will be extra fun for him. He dislikes cake, so I made him a birthday rice krispie treat. I could only find those 2 candles, so we decided each candle represents 14.5 years.

blowing out the candles. I hope his wish comes true!

It was taking too long to load the videos from Kara's christmas recital on here, but I did post them to facebook if you want to see.