CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Friday, November 18, 2011

DunnDinger November 2011 & Other Treasures!

The Dunns were here! :) Oh how the Dunns lift our spirits. Too bad they can't stay forever! Well, we had an exciting weekend that, as always, went by way too fast! The boys hung out together while Tiff and I got our crafting on! WOW! It is quite amazing how much we cannot get done with 4 kids... oh well, we definitely wouldn't subtract any of them, but we always try to stuff so many things into such a short amount of time that we never get to it all!

BUT....as you can see, I did actually managed to get a picture of the Dunns (all of them together) this time! Sure they were about to leave out the door, and Brooke wouldn't cooperate, but Katelyn and Ryah were wearing twinner outfits so we had to document! It was just coincidence that they had the same outfits! The girls LOVE Adam and there was lots of rough housing up in here! All good things have to come to an end though, and alas they returned to Utah! SIGH!

Here are some pictures of the Hooligans! Please note the LARGE bandage on Brooke's thumb! Tori was taking a bath while I was putting a roast in the crock pot while Jason was at a meeting. Brooke was playing in the bathroom and I hear this blood curdling scream. At first I thought that Tori had bitten Brooke (this happens occasionally), so I just kept on cutting veggies and screamed a scolding message to Tori....then Brooke (still crying like a lunatic) comes into the living room covered in blood! YIKES! Luckily I was wearing my red apron over my church clothes and I swept in for the rescue. I quickly called Jason... the conversation went like this: SCREAMING cries in the background; Kendra: "Jason, I need you to come home NOW!"; Jason: bewildered, "What's wrong?"; Kendra: trying to keep Brooke's gushing thumb in a towel so that it will stop bleeding while holing the phone in between her shoulder and ear very unsuccessfully, "Just get home NOW!".
Well, it turns out that Brooke got a hold of the razor that I shaved with from behind the shower curtain and shaved a large chunk of her thumb off! YIKES! There was blood everywhere and with the help of my amazing husband who came back from his meeting, we were able to get Tori out of the tub, everyone dressed for church, the roast into the crock pot, and I was able to thwart getting one blood stains anywhere on my body although I had to hold Brooke's finger for 30 minutes until it finally stopped bleeding enough for me to put a Band-aid on it! Shame on me for leaving the razor in the tub!
PS. Aren't those pictures with Brooke and Katelyn so TENDER!

We're in the HOOD now! Oh and hats! Tori loves her new winter hat and takes it out of the hall closet quite frequently to wear it. She also likes to use my coat as a robe and she pretends to be Mary. Once again...my girls are getting bigger right before my eyes. SIGH!
Well, here is a little snip-it from Jason's journal...I LOVE how he writes about this cute little moment:
I have to share an experience that I had the other day. Most mornings my wake-up calls are as follows: the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?” playing from the girls’ alarm clock and ringing through the baby monitor in our room; the sound of Tori and Brooke shuffling their feet, turning on the light switch, and running through doors to make it to mine and Kendra’s bedroom; little voices calling “Wake up Dad!” while I ignore them in playful silence; followed by a THWAP! to the face from a little hand that somehow seems more like a giant bear paw clubbing its prey into oblivion.

Gratefully, that is not the experience that I wanted to share. Nope, this morning was a special morning. The routine was similar until it got to “Wake up Dad. I have a treasure for you!” This I had to see. So Tori took my finger in her little hand—not bear paw—and gently guided me into the living room. There she took me to a window and had me kneel down between her and Brooke. “Look,” she exclaimed, “it’s the moon!” She then sang “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” for me. In contrast to my paycheck (which I probably obsess and worry over more than I should) or any other monetary treasure trove someone could give me, Tori’s treasure for me that morning was priceless! Like I said, this morning was a special morning.

TENDER!

A Birthday Girl! Brookie is 2!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy BrOoKiE!
I cannot believe that she is 2!

We celebrated Brooke's birthday on a Saturday although it was really on Monday. We were supposed to celebrate this birthday with the Dunns, but poor Ryah had a double ear infection! Sad day! Luckily with a little pink medicine, Ryah mended up and they came last weekend! OK...back to Brookie! The birthday girl donned her Tinker Bell costume and we opened her presents. She got a haul this year gift wise. Add up all the grandmas, grandpas, aunties, uncles and cousins, and this girl got so many fun things, I now officially have no clue what to get her for Christmas! She got a Cinderella crown & Princess shoes (4 high heel sets) from Grandma and Grandpa Dinger; a little computer from Grandma and Grandpa Lee; an Elmo music video from the Olesens; a Cinderella dress up dress & Princess hair set from Auntie Marie; Mrs. Potato head from Jason and me; 2 new Princess Barbies from Aunt Michelle; and Princess Barbie clothes from Tori and Katelyn! YIKES! Lets just say that Brooke (and Tori) LOVES all of her new toys!

Ahhhh! Dina Gardner's cupcakes are AMAZING! We had Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes! Delicious! We sang Brooke the birthday song and she blew out the candles 3 times during the song! Ha ha ha! Tori was Rapunzel at this birthday fiesta and happily got butter-cream frosting all over her face! After cupcakes and presents the birthday girl played with all of her toys! We dressed all of the barbies and she put on her new Cinderella costume.

So as with tradition, on her real birthday we blew up balloons and let the birthday girl play all morning with balloons! Again...I cannot believe that she is 2! But she sure is getting bigger... look at those dimples! They make me melt. Her 2 year stats: 26 pounds and 33 1/2 inches! (Tori is now 37 1/2 inches and 31 pounds. Tori had to get in on the weighing and measuring too!)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Which one do you want on your mantle?

We recently got our family photos taken by my marvelous friend Julie Shepherd. She did a great job with our kids...and it helped that she brought along her beautiful assistant Maddie (whom Tori and Brooke adore) to help out! Which one would you pick? Cast your vote. Would you choose fence, waterfall or wall?


fence standing

waterfall

wall...(dang! you can see my stinkin' cell phone in this one!)

Tender....you can just make out little Katelyn's head!



all of them in a decent picture!

here are some bonus pictures!





Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Spooky Halloween!

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!

We attended our ward's Trunk or Treat on Saturday! It was great and the chili was delicious...ok...I only ate the chili I bought, but I was very envious of the men huddled around the 30 pots of chili trying every kind. Jason was too... but when you have 3 girls (well, really we only had to look after Brooke & Tori because Katelyn is so easily pawed off on Young Women) and dinner to worry about, everything we want goes out the window.
The girls both wanted to be fairies. Tori was Tinker Bell and Brooke was a Wood Elf. Do you recognize her costume from Tori in 2009?! Katelyn was a little sister ballerina. I didn't get really good pictures of them in their costumes alone, but these will suffice. Jason was a Hawaiian tourist who fell in love with the Local (me!). Isn't his hat amazing? $1.67 at the party store!
Tori and I made Jack O Lantern pizzas last Friday. We also carved our pumpkin (finally!) yesterday... just in time for Trick or Treaters.
(I LOVE the picture of Brooke in the trunk of the car with Katelyn eating her candy.

On Halloween I let Brooke and Tori wear their Ballerina tutu dresses all day long. They were in heaven and were especially "dancy" all day long. For Trick or Treating, Tori decided that she wanted to be Rapunzel and Tori stayed a Ballerina. We didn't get good pictures of the girls on actual Halloween and none of them trick or treating that had good enough light and wasn't pixelated. (If you are reading this blog... Santa, I want a better camera!)
For FHE we took the kids around our neighborhood. They LOVED it...all except for the part that it was absolutely freezing outside. It is officially Fall here in Meridian, that is for sure. My favorite part of Trick or Treating was Brooke holding on to a pack of Peanut M&Ms for dear life, afraid that she would have to put it in her pail and never see it again! Ha ha ha! I think that we only hit about a dozen houses, but they got quite a haul. We gave the reject candy (the candy that our kids won't eat yet) to everyone who came to our door. Genius! I already spent $10 on candy for the trunk or treat and I wasn't about to spend more!

Here are some more fun pictures of the little munchkins. Starting at the top is little Katelyn in her Sunday dress. Then there is Brookie swimming in the bath tub. The two of the girls in the hall "sleeping"... they like to pretend to take naps. I wish that Tori would actually take one! then there is Tori's hand turkey. The picture of Tori at the lunch table is by request... she wanted me to take a picture of her milk mustache! Oh how I love my silly munchkin!