Christmas Day

This Christmas morning was by the far the best one yet! The kids are to the ages where they were so excited! Emmit was the first one up, which was good because then Tim and I could have the video camera ready and the fire going in preparation for the older two. Ky woke up next and when he first came down stairs he couldn't see his stuff and said "Santa didn't come!" Tim and I laughed and then showed him that yes he did come! Mya got up the latest and she could see her princess stuff from the stairs and just started squeeling and saying "princess, princess". Santa picked the right things for our kids this year!

Mya at her princess vanity with a mint. Our kids love life saver mints, so Santa brought them their own big bag of them!
Kylan with his chopper and dump truck - his most favorite gift!

Ky in front of his "blind".

Another of Mya. She loves this thing! And she loves her dress up clothes (75% off halloween costumes!)

Emmit's gift from Santa is his exersaucer/walker. He loves it and so do I! I really wanted a walker, but it would be dangerous with all of our stairs, so this one can either be stationary, or it can walk in a circle. So far, he loves just being able to stand up like his big brother and sister!

This was Mya by evening on Christmas Day - her and grandpa fell asleep while reading books. So sweet!

I have no other pictures of Christmas Day (I really need to work on that), but after spending some time at our house, we went down the Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen's and opened presents and hung out until about 1pm. We then came back to our house to show them the kids presents and grab some things, and then headed to my parents where we ate lunch/dinner, opened more presents, played games and hung out until bed time. It was a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was with the Sorensen's this year and it was so much fun! Tim's oldest sister and her family came from Colorado this year and so we had enough kids to do our first nativity and it was a lot of fun! Rachel did a great job putting all the music and narration together! Before the nativity, we had a wonderful dinner and then the grandkids did their gift exchange.

Mya, Leah and Braylon waiting for their turn.
Kylan opening his present from Braylon.

Mya was so funny! She was the very last child to open her present and so by the time it was her turn she wouldn't open it for a few minutes because we had been telling her the whole time not to open the random presents she kept finding for herself! She was a little trooper!

All the kids dressed up after the nativity. Cam was a shepherd, Jocelyn was an angel, Braden, Braylon and Ky were wisemen, Landon was Joseph, Cora was Mary, Mya was supposed to be an angel, but wouldn't keep her costume on and sat on Cam's lap during the whole thing (so I guess she was a sheep), and Leah was a cute little angel.

When we got home we had the kids open their Christmas Eve presents which were Camo fleece sweat suites this year and then we were actually able to get a cute pic of all of them smiling in front of the tree before they went to bed (a Christmas miracle)!

Just Dance!

Since we weren't spending Christmas Eve with my family this year, we had a pre-Christmas Eve with them on Thursday and we opened the traditional Christmas Eve present that was lots of fun to play! This a family tradition, when we were little it was jammies and then when we got older it was something that we could play with. This year it was Just Dance for the Wii and it was so much fun to play!!! And so much fun to watch!!! My mom of course thought she was the champion, but the real champions were Kent and Tim!

Ky and Evan tried, but they couldn't really do it themselves! You can't see Mya in this pic, but she was dancing more than anyone else and she wasn't really playing!

And of course no Schank party is complete without a group spoon!

Bowling with Sorensen's

Wednesday before Christmas we all (the Sorensen Family) went in to bowl at lunch time. This was the first time our kids had been and they LOVED it! Kylan was able to roll his own ball (although it was a ver slow roll) and they had a little ramp thing that Mya could push hers down. They even had shoes small enough for her! It was so much fun that the Schank family went on the Monday after Christmas!

Mya watching her other cousin's bowl.

Mya and mom pushing her ball down!


Ky watching his ball.

Tim helping Ky with his first roll.

The kids hanging out. They got a little restless between bowls, especially Mya, but as long as we sat her up by the food between turns she did pretty well!!

Swimming

Wednesday night after bowling we went swimming at the indoor pool. The kids had a great time and it is now one of the things that Kylan asks daily to do again (along with going to Aunt Lynne's house, bowling and the latest going to Evan's house). Kylan was quite the fish, swimming every where in his life jacket, and Mya surprisingly loved it also! I wasn't sure how she would react since she wasn't a huge fan of the water at the lake this summer!

Mya kept getting out and telling me she was wet!

I hung out with Jocelyn and Emmit outside the pool. I'm not a huge swimmer and wasn't too eager to get into a swim suite only 4 months after having a baby! We had a good time playing and watching everyone! These two are definitly the most easy going of all of Rayanne and my kids!

Catch Up Post

A lot has happened in the last week, so I will start with last Sunday. We had our first family dinner in Teri's completed kitchen! It looks beautiful!!!

On Wednesday Steve and Rachel's family got here and on Thursday Kyle and Carly came into town. That night we had dinner at our house and poor (or lucky, depends on how you look at it) Uncle Bill was the kid's favorite toy all night! Here they are tackling him!

Friday Kade took our family pictures since this is the first time Tim's whole family has been together in about 3-4 years (Carly and Bill were on missions). I will be posting those soon!

Saturday was a great (but very busy) day. Laine and Tonya went through the temple and then they and Logan were sealed. It was such a great experience and we are so happy for them! We then had dinner and decorated candy houses that night, however Teri became super sick and was in bed all night and only came out for the sibling gift exchange (Kyle and Carly won't be here for Christmas, so we did that early). By the time we all left Brett looked just as sick. To me, it just wasn't the same since they were sick and didn't decorate with us! Let's just hope that no one else gets sick!

Ky loved decorating and was able to frost most of his house by himself this year. Mya just helped herself to the candy table any time mom and dad weren't watching!

Emmit was an angle. He just played and kept himself happy while all the craziness was going on!

And this is what we are doing today:

We are so excited for Christmas and having so much with all the family that is here! Starting tomorrow my family starts arriving! I just I make it through without having a nervious breakdown from being so tired! It sure is fun though!

Christmas Tree Pics

Mya was too busy watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas to look at the camera.

Mya just walked up and hugged Kylan (even though it looks like he is holding her against her will) and Kylan said, "Mom, let's cheese this one too!"

Even though her dress looks red in these photos, it is actually a dark pink, which I love because I won't feel silly having her wear it beyond Christmas, and yes Ky's sweater shouldn't be zipped all the way up, but that is how he insists on wearing it!

Of course taking pics before church didn't happen, so these were taken about 3 hours after and Emmit was sound asleep, so he will have to get in the picture another day!

Four Months

Emmit turned 4 months old on Wednesday. He had his check-up on Tuesday and the doctor said he looked great! He loved laying on the exam table because everytime he moved the paper would crinkle! He just smiled and laughed the whole time the nurse and doctor checked him out! One nurse told me he was so big for 4 months and then the lady who made my next appointment told me he looked so small for 4 months, so I guess he is just right:) Here are the stats:

Weight: 15lbs 12oz (70th percentile)

Height: 25 1/4 inches (70th percentile)

Head: can't remember measurement, but it was the 70th percentile also!

He may end up taller than Ky, since Ky was always in the 70th or higher for weight and 50th or lower for height!

For FHE we have been watching Christmas movies, so this is how they ended up watching the movie. Tim layed down first, then Kylan brought his pillow over and a blanket, and then somehow Mya made it into the middle. I added Emmit later for the above pic, but I thought it was pretty cute! My kids sure do love their dad! And yes, Tim is asleep!

We've had a busy week. Monday in the AM the kids came visiting teaching with me, then Tuesday in the AM Emmit had his doctors appointment. I also started getting some kind of flu that afternoon, and had it until today. Thursday I thought I was better, so Tim, Emmit and I went to Reno to finish up our Christmas shopping and to see the new Harry Potter movie (which we loved and Emmit slept through most of), and that night I was super sick by the time we got home. Today I am finally better so I am trying to catch up on laundry and get my house cleaned.

NEXT week, the Colorado cousin's come on Wednesday and I also have jury duty that day and then it will be Christmas before we know it! Hopefully tomorrow I will get pics of the kids in front of the tree before church!

Almost Done!!!

By Friday Teri will have a working kitchen! Monday the remaining cabinets came in and now they are all installed. They have the granite counters all in and are working on the backsplash, then it's just trim work and putting all the appliances in and the plumbing will be finished Friday morning! It looks soo good!

A True Sorensen

I didn't have my camera handy, so I didn't get a photo to go with this, but it is official that Mya is a true Sorensen. I made Chimichangas tonight for dinner and Tim's family always dips them in Ranch dressing (not the kind in the bottle, only the homemade kind is acceptable), like they do about everything. Mya kept asking for more ranch, and I wasn't totally paying attention to how much she was going through. Finally Tim asked if she was just sucking it off of her chimichanga and sure enough, that is exactly what she was doing. She is a true Sorensen - Aunt Tonya would be so proud!!!
One time while eating dinner after one of Carly's college volleyball games after we had all ordered - and several people had either ordered a side of ranch dressing or extra ranch on whatever they were having - the waitress came out and informed us that they were out of ranch. The end of the world had come for the Sorensen family! I'm pretty sure we help keep Hidden Valley in business!

Christmas Party

All the kids with Santa. Mya had a death grip on me and wouldn't even get close to him, so I think it's funny that she is looking at him so fondly in this photo!
Kylan was SOOO excited to see Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. He has been worried that he wouldn't know!

This is Kylan with Sister Huntsman who was his nursery leader before Grandma Teri was. He still misses Sis. Huntsman and if you ask him who is favorite person is to play with in nursery he will say it is her!

Mya with Sis. Clark. Kylan was already on Sis. Huntsman's lap, so since Sis. Clark was sitting next to her, she sat on her lap. Pretty funny since about 15 min earlier she was crying because I was in her sights, and then she sits on someone's lap she doesn't even know!

Emmit was an angel as usual! He got a little fussy, and then fell asleep. I don't know how we got so lucky, but I sure am thankful to have at least one child who just goes with the flow!

Kitchen

Brett and Teri are in Colorado and the cabinet guy finished putting in the cabinets that they have so far today, so here are the pics for them. It looks SOOOOO good!