Kylee Turns 8!

I know what you're probably thinking. ONE photo!?!?! Yep. One. Kylee's birthday arrived very quickly after Christmas, as it always does. I can't believe she is already 8! She made sure I woke her up early so she could open her presents before school, and then that night she got to pick where we went for her birthday dinner. She picked Red Robin, and it was delightful. On Friday we had a birthday party with her friends at our house, and it was super fun. We were going to do outdoor games but the weather finally turned after all this time, and it was pouring rain all day, with tornado warnings. The power even went out while I was at the grocery store buying her a cake. So, last minute I altered the games to become indoor games, and it worked out just fine.

I was going to have Andy take a picture of her with her cake and blowing out her candles...but Ally and Skyler were kind of flipping out and we had 8 crazy girls waiting for food...so it got missed! Ah, well. It was fun anyway, and she loved having her friends here.

Things we love about Kylee at age 8: She's very creative. She loves to make crafts, play dress-ups, and read. She also loves to draw pictures and write little stories. She's also very generous. If she has money, she always wants to share with Skyler and Ally, or go to the $1 store to buy stuff so that she can afford to get them something, too. She is also very smart. She's (and we've) been a little worried about school here because it is A LOT harder and way more advanced than school in Utah, but they got report cards on Thursday and she got on the Honor Roll, so she's still doing great. I also love that she is old enough to help with a few more of the chores around the house so I don't have to do quite so much. She's really good at unloading the dishwasher, helping fold and put away laundry, and helping the littler kids keep their rooms clean.

She's really excited to be getting baptized soon. We scheduled it for Feb. 6 because Connie and Sugi were planning to come visit us at that time and we thought it would be fun to do it while we had some family here. Then we found out that Grandpa Rich might be able to come too, and my Aunt Rhonda volunteered to make her a home-made beautiful baptism dress, so now she's even more excited, and so are we. It will be such a special day and I'm so glad some of our family can share it with her!

Christmas

We came home from Disney World on Christmas Eve afternoon, and the kids opened up their Christmas Eve gift (which is always new jammies). I was excited to have found these Frozen ones online (and on clearance), because it was way too warm to wear winter jammies! Kylee and Ally love that theirs match.

Ally got a new toddler bed from Santa, which she loves. She also got a baby and baby carrier from Grandpa Rich and Grandma KD, and after she opened up those (which were the first things she opened), she didn't want to open up anything else! She just wanted to sit on her bed and take care of her baby. Eventually we convinced her that she should look at her other gifts, too.

Skyler was super excited that couple of his gifts were "bu-mongous". He almost didn't even need to open them; he just wanted to hold them and look at them. However, after opening one or two he also understood that it was much more fun to see what was inside.

Kylee got all sorts of new science and craft things, and loved every one of them. By the end of the day she had tried pretty much every single thing she got.

Ally is still in the phase where she thinks she needs to wear her pink cowgirl boots 24/7. She wears them all over the house basically ALL the time. When she goes to take a nap I always ask her "Should we take off your boots now?" And she always say, "No, I fine!" I've already purchased her the exact same pair in a larger size so that we're prepared when she outgrows these ones.

On Christmas Day all our friends and family in Utah were posting pictures of the awesome Christmas Day snowstorm they got. We were really missing the snow (it was 88 degrees here), so we decided in the afternoon to make the best of our different climate and go down to the beach. While we were there Kylee and I built "sand"men. Skyler and Andy found me shells to use for the eyes, mouth and buttons, Skyler found the sticks for the nose and arms, and Andy even got me some seaweed (eeeww!) and wrapped it around to make a scarf.

Ally is still not at all afraid of the water. She goes and sits close enough that the waves will crash over her lap and just digs and digs and digs in the wet sand.

She fills up her bucket with the wet sand and then it's too heavy for her to carry, so she needs daddy to help her.

Overall, it was a really great day. We had a nice quiet time with just our own family, and it was perfect.

Disney World Again

The week of Christmas Andy actually had off from school (they went back and had a test the Monday right after...) so we decided to head up to Disney World for a couple of days again. It was cool to see it all decorated for Christmas. Each park had a HUGE Christmas tree, and the castle at Magic Kingdom was decorated to look like an ice palace at night.

The very first morning that we were there Andy and Kylee were going on the race cars and while Skyler and I were waiting with Ally, Skyler pointed out to me that an airplane was writing letters in the sky (which he thought was just about the most exciting thing he'd EVER seen). It first wrote "U + GOD = :)" and then he wrote "JESUS [Heart]'s U".

Later, to Ally's ultimate joy, we discovered that she is actually tall enough to GO on the race cars now. She went a few times and loved every minute of it.

We of course always have to hit up the carousel a million times. Kylee always goes for Cinderella's horse (the only one with a gold bow on it's tail), and usually gets it because other people either don't know or don't care, and she makes a beeline right for it.

Ally allowed me to ride on her horse with her only one time. After that she insisted she needed to ride on her OWN horse, and she was not pleased that I kept putting my hand out to catch her in case she fell. She kept swatting my hand away and telling me, "No Mom! I do it!" She's quite the sassy baby now.

Skyler agreed to go on Splash Mountain again with me on the condition that he got to pick which ride we went on next. Of course he picked "the train that goes around the park." He LOVES trains. If you look super duper close in the photo from Splash Mountain, you can see Skyler's hair. I know he hates the drop, but he loves the "silly animals", and he'll ride it with me because I told him it makes me happy if someone rides it with me. After we got off he said, "That was fun mom, right? I maked you happy? Let me see your smile! Yep, you ARE happy!" (This is something that I say to the kids a lot - "Let me see your smile.") I love that he copies what we say.

  Of course we always love the People Mover as well. I've lost track of how many times we ride that thing. Any time we're over in Tomorrow Land we ride at least once or twice because the line is never long. I used to joke with the kids on the dark part, "Oh no! Where are my children? I can't see them! Oh no!" Then Skyler would kick his light-up shoes and I'd act all relieved that they were still there. Then I stopped doing it and now every time we go Skyler says, "Oh no! Mom! Where are your children!? (except he says - 'cho-dren') Don't worry mom, here we are!" And then he kicks his shoes and Ally laughs. Crazy kids. You would think the joke would get old at some point, but apparently it does not.

At Epcot the kids always like to look at the aquarium after we get off the Nemo ride. This time we got there just as they were starting to feed the fish and sting rays. It was super fun to watch. After they fed the stingrays they did a dolphin show. We were there for over an hour and the kids loved it.

I never realized that stingrays really do look like they have eyes and smile on the bottom of them! This guy was HUGE. He kept swimming right up next to the window.

At Hollywood Studios the kids went to play on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and loved all the slides and tunnels. They got sooooooooo sweaty. It was gross. I made them go play under the water sprayers so that we could claim they were wet from water and not soaked in sweat, but we knew the truth.

And of course the Buzz Lightyear ride. Kylee loves that she is old enough to ride alone because she can shoot both of the guns in her car at the same time. Ally thinks she is a big girl and trys to shoot her gun the whole time as well. She got a high score of 100 points. I don't know why I always look so cheesy in these. I always think I'm going to remember where the camera is so I don't look stupid in the photo...but I never do!

I got fast passes for Andy and Kylee to go see the princesses (because I know how much Andy secretly wanted to go see them), so they took Ally with them while Skyler and I rode the carousel.

 At Hollywood Studios Skyler and Ally and I went to see a 3D Muppet Show, and when we came out Lightning McQueen and Mater had just come out and their line was super short, so we jumped in to go and see them. Skyler was in heaven. When it was our turn he spun around and did a little dance in rapture. The workers were laughing at him. Ally never really cares or knows what is going on, but at least she was looking for the photo!

Random December

After being here for a couple of months with just one car, Andy FINALLY got a new one! We were planning to get one right after we arrived (with the money we got from selling Andy's truck before we left Utah), but the missionaries told us we should wait and get one from the mission office. They were right! We had to wait quite a while for them to have some available, but we ended up getting a 2012 Toyota Corolla for a great deal, and no worries about dishonest history since the mission office keeps excellent records of their maintenance.

A few days ago Andy took Skyler and Ally out to wash the car in the driveway. Ally mostly supervised.

Ally has become our own personal garbage disposal. She can often be found sneaking around the table to finish up whatever anyone else has on their plates after she is finished. One night Skyler refused to eat his spaghetti at all, so he was upstairs in his room crying about it and we left it out for him to eat when he was ready. Everyone else finished and left the kitchen. A few minutes later I walked back in there to find that Ally had climbed up on the table and helped herself to Skyler's food. And that was after she'd already had seconds of her own!

Right before Christmas Break Kylee's school had Field Day. The first thing 3rd grade did was tug-o-war. Kylee's class has only 15 kids (while the others have 20-21), so they basically got CREAMED both times they were up. It wasn't even a contest. They tried hard, though, and that's what counts!

They also played with parachutes.

And ran a 40-yard dash. Kylee got 3rd place in her category for this. They also did a baton-relay, which her team did great at as well, but I was on the wrong side of the track and didn't get a picture of that.

Grandpa and Grandma Visit

In the beginning of December my mom and Bruce came to visit us. The weather was nice when they were here because it was not too hot and barely any humidity. The first day they were here we went to a preserve in South Naples, and saw this turtle (plus lots of turtle burrows):

Later that day we went to the beach and played until the sun set.

We found quite a few nine-legged starfish. Don't worry - we threw them back before they had a chance to dry out.

I have no idea what is going on with Ally's face here. I told her to say "cheese" and this is what I got.

Andy decided to photobomb mom and Bruce.

Ally loves to just sti in the sand at the edge of the surf and scoop wet sand into her bucket. Sometimes a rogue wave will come up too far and wash her bucket away, but she just chases it down and then starts over.

Another day while Kylee was at school we went swimming at the pool in our subdivision. We were the only ones there (we usually are), so we had the whole pool to ourselves! 

Another day we went to the Cypress National Preserve down by Everglades National Park. There were a few boardwalks you could go on to try to see some animals in the swamps. On the first one (which was super short), we saw an alligator on the lawn behind the bathroom, and this guy swimming in the river.

On another one we came upon this bird just as he was catching his lunch.

He held the fish in his beak and whacked it back and forth on the log a bunch of times until he was sure it was dead. Then he tipped his head back and vibrated his neck super fast while he swallowed it whole. It was really interesting to watch!

We also saw this guy strolling around the swamp.

On the last one we went to, this alligator was lounging on the grass right outside where we parked our car.

And her baby was lounging in the shade on the other side of the river.

This boardwalk was pretty long, and basically just went out through a rain-forest type swamp area. Way out at the end, in the observation area, we ran into two ladies who recognized my shirt because they rode the same MS ride in Utah in 2013. What are the odds? Small world when you can be out at the end of a boardwalk in the middle of a swamp in Southwest Florida and meet people who did a bike ride 2600 miles away the same time you did.

We also went to our ward Christmas Party and met Santa. Note that there is no photo of Ally. She wasn't having ANY of that. Not even if I tried to sit with her. I barely got Skyler up there.