We have been elfed

Yes...I just couldn't resist! I know you have probably seen a lot of these, sorry.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1495503961

Santa comes early in Texas

We are going to Utah for the holidays and we are very excited. Since it is hard to take all of the Christmas presents with us, especially the big ones, we decided to do an early Christmas for Kenslee. She is a lucky girl because Santa comes to see her twice in one year. She loved all of her presents and we can't wait for the "real" Christmas morning.Some friends and I took the kids to see the movie "Ratatouille", it is a cute show. It may have been a little long and deep for the kids but they had fun. It was Kenslee's first time going to the movie theater and she loved it. We do let her watch movies, but I don't know why this is her first time at the theater. We will have to take her more often, she thought it was great!

A Crib...FINALLY

So it has been almost 2 years and poor Kenslee has been stuck in her Pack n' Play. It worked great for the first little while, but now I would say that she has out grown it. It was kind of our only option in Boston since space was an issue in our 2 bedroom apartment. Now we have finally purchased a crib for our 2 year old baby. It is big and spacious, and looks really nice in her bedroom. It makes me anxious to paint her room and make it like the nursery that I wasn't able to give her. We have actually had this crib for almost 2 weeks and Kens hasn't been able to sleep in it. We put her in and realized that she can already pull herself up and almost flip over the edge. She is 34 1/2 inches tall and you aren't suppose to keep them in a crib after they are 35 inches. I don't know if I am a crazy mom but I am not ready for my little baby to be in a toddler bed. I like her being trapped at night. So we tried to solve this problem and got a "crib tent". We were so excited because Kens would have the big spacious bed but still be trapped. The crib tent said that it fits ALL cribs--but I guess our crib isn't included in their definition of "all," because it sure didn't fit. We have finally accepted the fact that we are going to have to turn to the toddler bed. We will start this after the holidays, so not just yet. Sorry Kens, a few more weeks being crunched!
Let me out!I think she will really miss the Pack n' Play.I do need to paint so that it doesn't say "Ashley Elizabeth" on the wall above her bed

Bain Holiday Bash

This weekend was the big work Christmas party. I was pretty excited because I got to buy a fun "dressy cocktail" dress and I always love having yummy food for free. The place that they had it was very "sassy", if you have ever been in a hotel Zaza, it had that same feel. We were a little disappointed because instead of having tables and seating, it was all finger foods and you just found a chair where ever you could. It felt like a longer happy hour where you had to dress nice. They had a band which was fun. It was pretty entertaining watching some of the drinkers, and a BYU student that was showing off his smooth moves (they weren't really that smooth, he could move his feet mighty fast). My favorite part of the entire night was the photo booth. We would have done it all night if there wasn't a man keeping watch. We got some fun pictures!

Billy's company had a Children's Christmas Party today. They had Santa there to get pictures with him, arts and crafts and pizza. Kenslee was so excited, she couldn't wait to go to Daddy's work and see Santa. On the drive to the party I kept giving Kens a pep talk about how nice Santa is and how if she sits on his lap he will give her a candy cane. I think it worked because she sat on his lap but she would not look at him. It was really funny because he would talk to her and she wouldn't turn her head she would just look at him really quickly out of the corner of her eye. Then after a little bit it seemed like she went to her happy place, because she was in a daze and would not snap out of it until we took her off of Santa's lap. She was very happy that she got a candy cane from him.

We have done a few other fun Christmas activities. We made Gingerbread men with some friends and went to a Christmas Parade. I have never been to a Christmas parade, but it was very odd because it was 80 degrees that day so it didn't feel like Christmas.

Just a little R and R!

Happy Face

Kenslee is a pro at the "Happy Face", when you say this to her she gives the cutest smiles. We were having fun with the camera during some down time.
This picture is so cute, she put her head on my shoulder to pose, I absolutely love it. Once I looked at the pictures, I got the biggest smile when I noticed she was looking up at me and her eyes were crossed. I love my little girl to PIECES! Before this picture I told her to do a funny face, and this is what we got.She kept trying to get in this picnic basket, so I finally decided to just put her in. She liked it for a second until she started to tip. Kens is such a little helper, she loves to help me with everything. She even helps point out my blemishes. The other day I was talking to her while she ate breakfast and she looked at my forehead and pointed to a zit. She had this very sad face and said, "ohhh... its(zit)". She made me lean in so she could kiss it better. It would be great if that kiss would make them disappear. A few seconds later she pointed one out on my chin (that I didn't even know I had). She pointed to it and said, "baby its". Thanks to her I am more aware of my beautiful zits! She is always making us laugh!

Christmas Time is Here!

I could not wait to get our Christmas lights up and all of my fun decorations that I haven't seen for a couple of years. We had to buy all new lights for the outside, since we haven't had a house to decorate yet. I think it looks pretty darn flashy! I have big plans for the future, I just couldn't afford to get it all this year. My dream is to have my house decorated like the Griswold's on the Christmas Vacation, or if you have seen Christmas with the Kranks, that neighborhood is amazing. It was nice having my Dad here to help Billy with the lights on the house, they had to figure out how to hang them around our doorway and garage. Billy had to get a drill (we did get a great deal, and it is nice to have one) because they needed to drill a few holes to hang the lights. I have never seen Billy so happy over a little machine. He thought he was such a manly man, it was funny to watch. Kenslee loves the Snowman, Santa, and Penguin. She watches them blow up every night when we plug them in, and when they are deflated she says that it is their "night, night" time. It is so much fun watching her get SO excited about the holidays. Putting up the "Nonan"Big hugs for FrostyHappy little girlWe took Kenslee to Disney on Ice "Finding Nemo". She absolutely LOVED it! We had to buy her a Nemo and a Crush. When you ask her what Crush says she says, "hey dude". Once the show started she did not move until it was all said and done. After the show, she would tell us how Nemo got out and his Daddy found him. It was great, I am sure we will be going to many more of these in years to come. It was a stressful moment when my Dad and Billy realized that the Utah vs. BYU game was during Finding Nemo. I think we were pretty close to having two extra tickets, thank goodness for TiVo (how would we ever survive without this). I do love this new piece of technology, I can't stand commercials and I love to have the flexibility to watch shows when I want. Billy and my Dad did come, but it was a rush to get back to watch the big game. Sad to say that it didn't end the way that we had hoped. (Billy was a happy man)So we had some left over tinsel and we were just going to throw it away, but we came up with a better idea. We decided to decorate a tree in front of the Elementary that is just a house away from us. I am trying to teach Kenslee early the right way to do fun activities like this, Toilet papering will come a little later in life. My friends and I were pretty good at this back in the day.
This was a project my mom and I did while she was here. This is our family picture wall, It turned out pretty cute. Tip - hanging your pictures sideways adds a lot to a picture collection. (I am actually replacing them with new pictures)

Happy Turkey Day!

This was my first time preparing an entire Thanksgiving dinner! It is so much work but very worth it! Thanks to my Mom I was able to pull it off, I was more like the assistant chef. I made my first pie, turkey, homemade stuffing, and all of that other yummy stuff. It was a great day and I am so happy that my parents were able to come and spend it with us.
Watching the Thanksgiving ParadeBilly after playing hard at the Turkey Bowl
Waiting for the big feast to beginSlicing up the TurkeyThe massive turkey
Ready to EAT!!
Delicious Pies
HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We woke up at 5:45 am to go shopping on black Friday. We have never woken up early to go shopping on that day, but we thought it might be fun to witness the chaos. We did end up finding some really good deals and it was actually kind of fun to experience. although a TV we were hoping to get was gone by the time we got there (about 3 minutes after the doors had opened!).

Cute Girl