This week has been a rough week for us. Tony was out of town all week so the girls and I decided to stay with mom and dad. Tuesday night (during the night), Kenna woke up and was just sobbing. It didn't take too long to realize that she had thrown up in her bed. This is the first time she had done this so she was pretty traumatized by the whole thing. Yesterday Tony came home from his trip and I thought all was well....... I was wrong. I became sick in the middle of the night and have felt terrible all day. I have a terrible low back/hip pain that has caused me to be emotional and uncomfortable. We decided to go in to the hospital to make sure I don't have kidney stones, kideny infection ,etc. Luckily all test came back fairly normal and the only thing is that I, obviously, have the stomach flu. Tony took the girls to his parent's house so I could rest. I thought- what a perfect time to lay in bed and work on my blog! So here we go!

The week between Christmas and New Years, we got Kena, Caroline and Taylor in tennis lessons. This is the girls relaxing after tennis camp

The first day, Kenna did better than I anticipated. I thought she would be shy and scared, but I'm sure it helped having the girls with her. The instructor had them doing "bear crawls". Of course, Kenna had to voice her opinion that she didn't want to be a bear, she wanted to be a doggy. Haha

Ok girls, this isn't exactly what we had in mind. I love Taylor's racket on her head!

Angela and I decided that the camp was totally worth the money for the hour that the girls got to run wild around the tennis courts. The were worn out and we didn't have to chase them. That is great, right?

The girls with Papa Dee on the last night.

On New Years Eve, Tony, Greg, Angela, and Matt took all the kids ice skating. (Cathy and I stayed home with Delaney)Tony and I were trying to remember whether or not Kenna had been skating before. I'm pretty sure they all went last year while I was pregnant. I guess she just had a blast with Daddy and her cousins! I love this picture- because Tony still appears to be getting ready and Kenna is off and running! I'm amazed she could walk in the skates!

Kenna and Daddy

After skating they all went to Starbucks for a warm beverage- but Kenna had juice!

Greg and Cathy had a little party at their house on New Years Eve. Julie and Russell Morris brought their kids along with their new baby. She was born before Christmas and seemed SOOO tiny compared to Delaney. I think Delaney is small but you can really see how big she is compared to a new baby!

My smiley girl!

This was hilarious. I put Delaney in the bouncer while I cleaned up the house and she pulled herself to a sitting position so she could chew on the part of the bouncer that plays music and moves.

Delaney has a new found love- baby food. At first she seemed pretty aprehensive about the whole eating thing, but in the last week she has really taken off! She will even REFUSE breastfeeding/bottle until you feed her real food first! Tony got out the highchair last night and she loved it. She tried mashed potatoes- but wasn't too interested- but LOVED her mixed vegetable and peaches baby food. She ate 2 bowls!!!

See how much she loves it?!?!?

LONG update- part 1

First, let me start out by telling you about my night last night. I spent and hour and a half typing/updating this blog. After I FINALLY got it done, I tried to publish it and POOF. It was gone. I was very disappointed, and since it was 11:15, I thought I'd just go to bed instead of typing it all again!

I think I say this in all my blogs. WHERE DOES THE TIME GO??? It seems to go very fast!

Delaney has begun to have a new found obsession with tags like her sister did as a baby. She will play with toys, only to be pleasantly surprised that they have a tag on them, which she loves to play with. Granny made her a few taggie blankets like Kenna has and she LOVES them. Here she is playing with them!

So, I just realized that this entire blog will be about Christmas. On the 23rd, we had our Christmas with the Greg, Cathy, Ang, Matt, and the kids........

This kids fell in love with watching the train under the Christmas tree. It was adorable because it isn't very often that all the kids- age 5mths to 12- all are interested in the same thing!

It has been a tradition in the Dee house (at least since I have been around), that we have dinner at Greg and Cathy's house, then all pile in the cars to go look at the beautifully decorated house in Emerald Lake, then one of the cars gets "lost" (usually the moms), and when we all meet up again at the house, SANTA has come! The past few years, the dads have taken the kids out and we stay to clean up the dishes. While washing the dishes, we hear sleigh bells, and when we go back to the living room, there are presents under the tree. BUT, we have yet to actually catch the jolly elf in the act. He is too fast. Here are the kid's stockings

It is difficult to get the expressions on the kids faces when they come in the door and see the presents. We attempted to get a picture of them by the tree but it was very difficult to get them all looking the same direction and smiling when there were tons of presents behind them!

Kenna got a chest of princess dresses from Angela and Matt- which was perfectly appropriate since she loves to dress up.

Delaney even got in to the unwrapping- with Daddy's help of course!

Greg and Cathy got the girls matching outfits. It wasn't long before she and Tay were modeling theirs!

Taylor holding Delaney

On Christmas eve, we had a difficult time getting Kenna dresses. She insisted on having the perfect dress to wear to church! I realized that the only picture I took was Delaney being content in her carseat with her Christmas dress on and her COLTS hat. I'm such a bad mommy. I didn't get any pictures of Kenna, the girls together or the family! Just this one. Only one!

After we got home, and when we were putting Kenna to get. She wanted me to come in to sing to her. As she was getting out of bed, she became tangled in her blankets (we think) and fell forward, hitting her face on the end of the bed. She got a great black eye for Christmas!

With this being the first year Kenna really understood Christmas and santa, we needed everything to be perfect. Me being new at this whole thing, FORGOT the cookies. Thank goodness for fundraiser frozen cookie dough- and its a good thing that santa likes coconut pecan cookies! The other issue to had was milk. We had run out of milk and the only thing I had was vanilla soymilk. Santa will drink soymilk, right? WRONG. "Santa" asked me WHAT WAS THAT? And insisted that I have "real" milk next year- he also requested DeBrands chocolates!

Kenna had a great time putting the cookies and "milk" out for santa. She insisted that they be on a stool right next to the tree so he wouldn't miss them!

Santa also left a nice note for Kenna about her cookies and milk! She is STILL talking about the fact that he only took one bite of the last cookie. Next year, he'd better eat them ALL!!

I was pleasantly surprised that Kenna didn't wake up at 3am and want to open presents. We actually had to wake her up! She wouldn't let us turn on the lights so some of these pictures are a bit fuzzy

Opening stockings

Delaney got some banana puffs to eat when she gets a bit bigger. MMMMMMM

One thing Kenna really wanted for Christmas was princess make-up and she was sure to tell all the santas that she saw that she wanted it. Luckily we were able to find it. Included in the princess make-up is "lips" (lip gloss) and fingernail polish. She is getting surprisingly good (for a 3 year old) at painting her own fingernails!

Another thing Kenna got that she really enjoys is a 3 1/2 ft tall ballerina doll. She also got a ballerina leotard. She LOVES her ballerina and dances around the living room with her often!

Just before Tony opened his big present - his new Garmin- mom and dad showed up with muffins for us! It was a lovely surprise! Now for the Garmin story- Tony had a garmin which functioned perfectly and he used often when he travels for his job. Unfortunately, the week before Christmas he was parked at his office downtown, some decided they needed a Garmin too. After a broken window, hole in the door panel, 4 trips to 2 different body shops, 50 calls between the insurance companies and the body shops, a rental car, a new garmin and a dead car battery later, we finally have the car back. All because someone wanted to sell it for probably 50 bucks. I told Tony that if it came down to it, I would have written someone a $50 check to avoid the hassle!!

After we were finished opening presents at our house, we headed for the Knafel Christmas!

A tradition at the Knafel house is to take our pictures in front of the tree. After already having 2 Christmases, Kenna was too preoccupied with which presents were hers than smiling for the camera!

Nana and Papa with the kiddos

Granny with the kiddos

This year, Kari bought the kids all jammies to wear to have their picture taken. It was adorable! I think this needs to be a new tradition. There was something about them all having jammies on that made it very much cuter! (but again, difficult to get them all looking the same direction at the same time!)

Another tradition is that both the bible story of Jesus' birth as well as 'twas the night before Christmas is read. Papa read Twas the Night Before Christmas with Kenna and Nana read the bible story. It was a tradition when I was young to listen to the bible story when we had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Knafel. I remember being young and listening to someone read the story, then as I grew up , I remember reading (or trying to read) the story myself and having help with the "big" words. (Notice Kenna is wearing the tutu. It was all we could do to get her into regular clothes for our picture, then jammies for the kids' picture) It is important that they kids know the true meaning of Christmas. Although it is rigthfully confusing to a 3 year old. WE open presents on Jesus' birthday? Isn't it usually the other way around? That is how birthday parties work, right?

Granny got a leopard print jacket for Christmas, which she modeled beautifully!

I think this is a great picture of Grandma. She is holding a shirt we got her.

Andrew loved his John Deere hat and toolbelt he got. It was hilarious to see him strut around like a big boy!

Dad has been working on his man-building for quite some time. Mom found a sign for him, which appropriately said "garage mahal".

Mom's big present was a laptop computer- which was appropriate since they were still in the stone age of desktop computers!

I hope I didn't miss anything since this is the SECOND time I've typed up this blog. I have TONS more pictures to catch up to date so I will probably be posting another blog in the near future!

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Conversations with Kenna

Tony (in the car looking at her lunch menu for daycare)- Kenna, it looks like you are having walking tacos for lunchon Friday

Kenna: (after a long silence)- Do we eat their legs???