Merry Christmas!

Paul had to work on the 24th this year, so we had a nice relaxing Christmas at home with just the three of us!
On Christmas Eve Jenna and I went to a party with friends. Then Paul picked us up, we did our final devotional and put baby Jesus on our tree, Jenna opened new PJ's, and we put out cookies and carrots. Jenna had to make sure there were enough carrots for all the reindeer!
 Apparently our tradition for Christmas morning is being woken up ridiculously early by Paul, because I just can't stop him! He's such a big kid!
That's why we all look so tired:

When Paul finally managed to drag us out of bed, we put cinnamon rolls in the oven (that helps wake me up!), read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2 (a tradition from my family), then ripped open all our gifts before getting ready for church.
We were pretty excited to watch Jenna open her presents. We were so sure that her reactions were going to be hilariously extravagant, because every time we come home from the store with a gallon of milk she jumps up and down and screams for joy "you got milk for ME?" (seriously). Surely a whole gaggle of presents warrants at least as good of a reaction, right?
Sadly, she was pretty calm about the whole thing. She may have still been tired.

It wasn't until later when she got to play with everything that she got really excited.

When she came into the room, she pointed at the easel and said "I like that! That's a good present." very matter-of-fact like. It was so funny.

I still think she's too young for barbies, but she sure loves them! She brings them with her all over the house!

Oh boy, her very own camera from grandpa! By the next day she had taken over 200 pictures!

We are so grateful to all our friends and family who thought of us this year! It was a wonderful day!
Thank You, and have a Happy New Year!

Temple lights

Paul has had a very busy month at work, so we were so excited when he finally made it home in time to go see the beautiful Washington D.C. Temple lights!

Jenna was especially excited to see the life-sized nativity:

Then we went into the visitor's center to explore the displays about Christ and listen to a saxophone quartet play Christmas Music.
This was a map showing exactly where events in Jesus' life occurred:

I really love the D.C. Temple! It's where my parents were married, so I grew up with pictures of it on our walls. It is always the first one I picture in my head when I think of The House of the Lord. I'm so grateful that I am able to go to it now!

sugar high

For the last couple of days, we have been in cookie-making mode! And I couldn't ask for a cuter little helper:

Tonight we finished our cookie marathon with Paul's mom's delicious orange sugar cookies! Fun to make, fun to decorate, fun to eat! What more could you want?!

She's at that stage where she thinks this is smiling  :)

Jenna's cookies. She went a little crazy with the sprinkles!

I love my melting snowman and Paul's adorable tree!

For people we love! Want one? ...Come visit!  :)

And we still have enough left to feed a small army...

How lovely are your branches

I LOVE this time of year!
I love the decorations and lights,
I love the weather,
I love seeing strangers find acts of kindness to do for each other,
I love cheesy Christmas movies,
I love all the cookies,
I love Christmas music, and
I love the smell of our real tree!


Technically, it was Jenna's turn to pick out our tree this year, but she was more interested in running around chopping all the trees with her "special stick". So Paul and I took over and found the most perfectly shaped tree! Jenna has named it Thirsty, because it drinks a ton of water!

I know it doesn't have a lot of ornaments now, but we each get to pick out our own every year. So, give us a couple more years, a couple more kids, and we'll have that tree full in no time! And it'll be so fun remembering the old ornaments we picked as we decorate each year! For instance, Jenna picked out a Little Einsteins ornament, and Paul (I'm sure) will remind us every year for the rest of our lives how it sounds like she is saying "little wise guys". He thinks it's soo funny.
Looking at the tree now, though, I'm thinking I probably should add some ribbon or something...

Tree #2: I recently got on to Pinterest, and I love it! I'm finding so many cute decorating tips and activity ideas, like this gem that we put up for our FHE activity:

A felt Christmas Tree Jenna can decorate over and over again! So cute.

Tree #3: Tonight we started our nightly devotionals about Christ! It is so important to keep our thoughts centered on Him, especially during this season when we can easily be distracted by so many other things!
Jenna certainly didn't forget the routine from last year! She was ringing the bells with gusto and waited patiently to put the ornament on the little tree.

The red ornaments represent the blood of Christ and remind us how much He loves us!

I love my mother because...

Tonight Jenna is sick. :(
She fell asleep at her normal time, but just as I was about to get into bed myself I heard a pitiful little sick-cry coming from her bedroom:

"I need you" she says.
"I'm right here" I whisper. I sing Silent Night as I rub her sweet little head and she falls back asleep. But every time I take away my hand, her eyes pop open, to make sure I'm still there.
The poor girl had a really hard time falling asleep, so this lasted for a while.

It was during this time that I thought of elementary school, and writing the "I love my mother because..." essays for Mother's Day. Do you remember doing those? What I remember about them most is that almost every kid would write that they love their moms because they take care of them when they are sick (or something to that effect). This bothered me back then, because I thought "that's a silly thing to write; they HAVE to do it"

Well, tonight I learned that isn't true.

I didn't have to sit with her until she could finally sleep. I wanted to. I could have gone to bed, let her cry herself back to sleep, and she would have survived the night. But I WANT to stay by her side, to give what comfort I can, and try to ease her pain. Even though I have to be awake in 4 hours to get ready to teach 19 other nursery children, I WANT to be there for my little girl.

Now I kinda feel bad for not acknowledging in my essays the acts of kindness my mom showed me when I was young.
So, Mommy, I love you because you always took care of me and made me feel better when I was sick! If I am a good mom today, it is because you first showed me the way.

That's MY man!

 Jenna has informed me that when she gets bigger, she's going to marry daddy.
But don't worry, I can still come... to take pictures! Gee, thanks!

She says she definitely does not want to marry a prince, because they are scary. Cinderella was running away from him, wasn't she!?
I love this kid! She's so funny.

I love Fall

A couple of our favorite Fall activities:

Trees + kids = hours of pure joy!

Halloween

 We decided this year to go simple for Halloween. We had just moved, after all! Here's Jenna's very last minute, but darling, Minnie costume:

All I got was this pic from my phone. That's an orange pumpkin basket, not her skirt! :)

 The dress is actually one of my shirts that I safety-pinned.  :)

She had a good time trick or treating with some of her friends and their older siblings. All she had to do was mozy on up to the door after they had knocked and screamed "trick or treat!", and collect her candy. She didn't even have to say anything; what a little cheat! (and we had even practiced a bunch...)
On our way home I asked Jenna "Are you gonna go home and eat it all up?" She looked at me like I was crazy and said "No, we're going to share it!"
And the best part is, she did. Whether I wanted it or not.  
One bite for me, one for you... One lick for me, one for you...

we've moved!

Yep, we've moved AGAIN! This is our 5th home since we got married! Paul thinks its funny that we've had all of Jenna's birthdays (including her birth day) in different places, and says we need to continue the trend. Hmm... we'll see!

I do like change, though! Even when we were in an apartment for less than a year, I changed the furniture around in at least one of the rooms every once in a while.

Why we LOVE our new apartment:

It's nicer and roomier!

It's still quiet, shady, and right next to a park (we do miss being next to the library, though!)

We eat out here at least twice a week! Loving this fall weather!

Two Bathrooms!

We are three entire minutes closer to Paul's work  ;)

We're finally getting away from the loudest upstairs neighbors ever!

We'll be in the same complex as Jenna's best bud!

Two words: Laundry Service! That's right: they pick up, wash, fold, and deliver our laundry - for free! (of course you can use the facilities yourself, too. For more personal items...)

I'm amazed at how many weird-shaped things we have (won't fit in a box)

 We had to move on a Tuesday, while I had Kyle, so I was fully prepared for a day of whiny, bored children. I seriously underestimated how much help they would be, and how much fun they would have doing it! Oh boy, they were so excited to carry little boxes to the truck. After every trip they said "What can I carry now?!" While we were unpacking the truck, they finally got bored of carrying things and entertained each other by pretending to be pets. And Kyle ran around saying "this place is so awesome!" at least 100 times!

They're so cute, I could just die!

So, the new living room is quite a bit bigger than our last one and our puny love seat looked pretty pitiful by itself. I've got this thing where I don't want to buy nice furniture until I know for sure that I won't have to move it around with us to who-knows-how-many different places, so we were deciding if we should look on Craigslist for a cheap couch. Well, The very next day I got an email from a friend in my ward: they're remodeling, so would anyone like a 2 yr old leather couch... for FREE?! Yes, please! Another family lent us their truck, and voila! No more lonely love seat! I sure love my ward! And not just for the free stuff!

nice, eh?

Folk Festival

We took a last minute trip to play with Jenna's Grandma and Grandpa King a couple weeks ago. They live in South Carolina, so we met up at a Folk Festival going on along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway in Virginia. It was literally halfway between us: We both left at the same time and they pulled onto our road right behind us! Crazy! It was a beautiful drive and a fun time!

Even though we didn't bring a stroller, Jenna had to bring her animals. Guess who ended up carrying them most of the day?!

These women asked us to take their picture. They said "This is the original blender!" I think they were a on a serious sugar-high!

Jenna really got in to the children's games:

She wasn't sure what to do in the hay at first, but once she found some candy she was all about it! She came out with pockets full and ready to share!

There was no stopping her! She ran up and took her place on the tug-of-war rope!

I'm just glad she didn't get trampled on!

Then we saw the potato sack race!

I wanted to just race Paul, but when we started a bunch of other people came over, so they put us in teams of two for a real race! Paul totally smoked everyone giving me a huge lead, so he was really disappointed when I let the boys next to us win. Come on, they're kids!

I mean look at this guy; He was trying so hard that he fell over at least twice! I couldn't let him lose to a girl in front of his family! It was still fun.

Thanks for playing with us! It was a good day!

Momentous!

Jenna just ate spinach!!!
And said "yum yum yum!"

Wahoo!

So, putting it front of her over and over actually works!
...or she just thinks it's funny to be eating "leaves"... Either way, I'm overjoyed for my little picky eater!

Joy School :)

Jenna started Joy School this year! She absolutely loves it! The night before her first day we gave her her very own little backpack, and she ran around putting supplies in there until we made her stop.
After her first day we asked how she liked school, and she said "No, I was at Johanna's house!" She also wondered where the school bus was. Sorry, kid, I'm not ready for that kind of school yet!

She looks so grown up, I just wanna cry!

We meet once a week and there are 8 kids so I only have to teach once every two months! Not too shabby!
We also get to pick up Jenna's best bud, Huck. It is seriously soo funny listening to them talk to each other on the drive! I'll have to try to record it sometime.

 

They are just too cute!

Next week is my turn to teach - wish me luck!

Book Sale!

Jenna and I just got back from our very first library book sale! Wowzas! We got these awesome books:

...for a grand total of $2! WHAT?!?! I know... We were pretty excited. Jenna is sitting on the couch right now "reading" her new books.

p.s. Today also marks Jenna's first embarrassing moment! While we were looking at books, a larger woman came up next to us. I think you can see where this is going... Jenna immediately pointed right at her and loudly exclaimed "She has a baby in her belly"! I just quietly said "No, she doesn't... Jenna, look at this book!" and then Jenna said "Her belly is really big"!
No filter...

He's Baaaack!

I wasn't expecting to be watching Kyle this school year, but their original plans for all day preschool didn't work out so... he's back!

Jenna's got a part-time brother, and we're absolutely loving it!

They play so well together!

...and love to be silly   :)

Who needs blocks when you've got tons of cups?!

"I'm gonna get your tower after this..."  Yowzas! Watch out, Kyle.

Happy Conference!

What a wonderful 2-day spiritual feast we just had! I just love preparing for and listening to General Conference with my family!

Jenna had fun getting snacks and setting up:

 Don't judge! We had a healthy lunch  :)

We hooked up the iPad to the TV so we could stream Conference through BYUtv, but the video-out isn't set up on the app, so we only got audio through the TV. That's okay, we could still watch on the iPad:

 Jenna wouldn't let me help her with her packet this time. She colored a bunch, eventually started playing with some toys, but by the last session she was getting restless and climbing all over Paul. She really enjoyed finding the speakers' pictures in the old Conference Ensign, and I'm happy she recongnized President Monson on her own!

I had completely forgotten that it starts at noon out here instead of 10! And despite having watched it Saturday, on Sunday morning I was all ready to go and snuggled up on the couch at 9:50. Then...
Paul: Maybe I'll take a nap.
Kali (thinking he's kidding): Paul, it starts in 10 minutes!
Paul: Um, it starts in two hours!
Woops!  :)

I love the spirit I feel as we listen to prophets and apostles speak God's message to us. I'm really grateful that we're able to watch it! I can't narrow down just one favorite talk, but I very much enjoyed the entire Sunday Morning Session! I am excited to reread these messages and apply them to our lives!