Oh Christmas!!!! It is soooo much better now with kids! For years we had Christmas without any kids in the family and it is just not the same. Kacey is at the perfect age (can next year be even better?) she was able to look forward to it, get excited about Santa, appreciate presents without crying about more. She would even get excited about clothes gifts and I don't think many 5 year olds do. So again, I think 2.5 is about the perfect age.

We read several different Christmas themed books over the past couple of weeks and Rudolph quickly became the favorite. I got Kacey a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book and she was really upset that Rudolph was not in it. We tried to explain that the book was written before Rudolph was born but I don't think that helped. For at least a week she would tell everyone she saw "Merry kissmas!!!" She would ask if it was time to open presents yet and we would say no and she would actually stop asking. She would look at them under the tree and sometimes touch them but she never actually tried to open them. I was very surprised and very pleased!

I enjoyed the season very much, Making cookies with her, seeing Santa, setting up the tree and hanging ornaments, watching David's eyes light up at all the lights, Kacey hugging the reindeer on our front lawn, her telling us that EVERYONE should have lights on their houses for Kissmas, and the actual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! I could not have had a better time! Perfect. People say Christmas is for kids but I really think it is for the adults. It reminds us how to be like a kid every now and then.

Celebrating at Best Friend Taline's house. The girls helped open each other's presents.
Kacey also helped open David's

All four kids playing together. Can't wait to keep recreating this picture as the kids grow up!
Kacey showing off her muscles

Here is a little video of David scooting backwards on his tummy, getting ready to learn to crawl!! and Kacey spinning and saying Merry Kissmas!

Nana with David
David checking out his Uncle Derrick (my brother)
My friend Gwynn just had a baby a few weeks ago so they were not able to fly to see her family like they normally do. Fortunately for us, they were able to come celebrate Christmas Eve with us!!! After dinner Uncle Tom pulled out his guitar and we sang carols. Kacey and Dashell made sure they had front row seats.
Jamie and Dave
Nana, Derrick, and GG holding David

A video of us singing a song and Dashell and Kacey dancing to it. They were having sooooo much fun!

Kacey set out some cookies and milk for Santa and daddy helped write a letter so Santa would know they were for him.
Christmas morning tree!! What has Santa brought???
WOW! A new bike for Kacey! She was thrilled!
I had fun sitting with her as she spent 30 minutes just opening her stocking presents!!!
David's new train was a big hit!
Santa ate half a cookie!!! 4 days later, Kacey is still talking about how Santa came into HER house while she was asleep and ate half a cookie.
David loves showing off his standing skills with this new toy Nana got him.

I got the video out when Kacey woke up and was able to capture her when she first saw the bike/ tree etc. The video is long but it has all different moments from the morning. It's a grandparents video!

Uncle Dave (Jamie's brother) and Aunt Kristie flew down from Vancouver the day after Christmas. It was so wonderful to have them here and Kacey fell in love with Dave. At bedtime she asked for him instead of Jamie to read her a story!!! In this pic she is holding a play doh dentist kit, very cool!
Dave reading to Kacey
Kacey and her new bike at the park!!! She picked up how to ride it pretty quickly and by the time we left she was peddling all around, turning when she should and getting a decent speed going!

This video is of her just starting to learn to ride the bike.

Swinging with Uncle Dave
In the midst of all this fun, David turned 31 weeks old.
Santa brought these lovely jammies to GG's house for us. Aren't they fun! If this doesn't say family Christmas.....


I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours!!! Looking forward to 2011!!

I went online and got printed pictures of a bike, guitar, purple high heels and a Jetta (she wants a car like daddy's) Kacey then stuck them onto this letter and "wrote" her letter to Santa.

David is at that extremely fun age where he is learning new stuff every day. He just learned how to splash water!!! WOW, that must sound so silly to people that don't have kids but it really is impressive to those that know what I am talking about. He was sooooo excited and had such a great time. I think bath time is now one of his favorite things to do.

The Santa pic with Taline that I promised!!

David enjoying the glow of the Christmas tree.

Jamie had Monday off work so we loaded up the car, braved the rain and headed down to the Natural History Museum. It was a huge hit!!!!!

When I found out about 3 years ago that I was having a baby girl, I started dreaming! I dreamed of going to afternoon tea, pretty pink dresses, curling her hair... all sorts of girlie stuff. The one I looked forward to though is one of my regular splurges, a pedicure!! I knew I wouldn't have to wait too long and honestly 3 years has flown by.

Kacey already loved getting her nails painted and will sit fairly still for it. I didn't know if she would be able to handle a whole hour (since i would be getting mine done too). I am happy to report that she did great!!! She sat with a perpetual grin the whole time and every 2 minutes or so would ask me what the lady was doing. Oh it was so much fun and sooooo worth it!!!

Getting to dip her feet in the water, they barely reached!
Getting the polish after a full treatment including a leg and foot massage!
She picked blue paint just like her mommy :)
A manicure too!!!

All done!

Happy Happy!!!
Love it!

Posing with his favorite toy!

At gym class this morning, Kacey's friend Thea went up to a bar, swung her feet up and flipped over backwards. We were all stunned. She had never done this before and it was not something the teacher had taught the kids. She did it a couple more times and all the moms and the teacher clapped for her. So what do you think Kacey did? Well not to be outperformed, she ran on over and did it too!!!! Of course I did not have my camera but fortunately it was so exciting she kept doing it over and over and gave me time to go get my camera.
Here is a short video...


and here is a longer video of her doing it a few times as well as walking on a beam

I know he has been growing and growing and growing but it still shocked me to see 22.5 pounds on the scale at the doctor's office on Tuesday. I think Kacey was almost or right around a year when she hit that. Honestly I think it is a bit of him being a boy and a lot of me eating sugar like it was going to disappear off the face of the planet. I still cannot eat enough sugar to satisfy myself. For that matter, I rarely eat enough food period to stay full longer than 1 hour. This is an improvement believe it or not, I used to just not ever get full. Hopefully as he keeps increasing how much solids he eats and nurses less and less, I will crave less sugar and he will slow down to a more average size. Don't worry, he is not off the charts, still just 95%.

We did have to make a big switch though. Bye, bye infant carseat!! There was a 22 pound limit. David is now in the same carseat as Kacey except turned around of course. This is mixed. I like getting rid of the snap n go and having more trunk space but he would actually sleep in the carseat. I was able to transfer him into the snap n go and he would stay asleep. I could even carry the thing into the house and he would stay asleep. This was completely unheard of with Kacey. I had heard rumours of babies doing this but never believed them until David. So now I, sadly, have to wake him up and carry him into the house or put him in the Babyhawk and hope he falls back asleep. Oh well, I have learned they just keep changing and there is nothing you can do about it except adapt!

Another big deal this week was this...

We went to see Santa and do pictures and Kacey was soooooo very happy. She likes to tell Santa and anyone who asks that she wants a bike and a car. She went right up to him, climbed on his lap and told him. She was even happy to share the lap with David. We went with Alex and Kacey shared Santa's lap with Taline too, Alex has the pic so I will post it as soon as I get it.

I downloaded the pics in my camera and in an effort to not get behind, I will just make this a big, huge massive picture post. On Sunday, despite Kacey having a fever, we still made it out to get our Christmas tree. She didn't seem to get into it until she saw these little trees. They were very cute but still $20!! WOW!

Later that evening Nana came over and helped us decorate. Kacey found these hats in the box and decided to have everyone wear one.
David liked his hat!
Such a cute pic of Jamie and Kacey
Modeling her new stockings...
Kacey helped decorate the tree by putting all of the ones she hung in the same place.
A longish video and unfortunately the lighting is terrible so the whole thing is pretty dark. Worth it for Jim and Marie as you will get to hear David "talking."


At David's class on Monday a couple of dad's came and sang Christmas carols. David was mesmerized and sat there with his mouth hanging open the whole time!


A quickie video of the guys singing and David and the rest of the class watching.

Lorelei dancing to the music.
Wednesday, when we went to the mall to see Santa, Kacey and Taline got to play in the toy cars.
Taline taking Kacey down!!!
and she's getting back up....
and she made it into the driver's seat!
Taline wants in too!!!
David at 29.5 weeks old... whew behind on the weekly pics too!

This morning I set David down to play with the kitchen as I was finishing up getting ready. I looked back over and the pillow was behind him. I asked Kacey if she put it there and she said "Yes, David fall down and not get hurt!" She has seen me and Nana put a pillow behind him and remembered. How sweet!!!
She helped me make our potluck item today. Too cute not to photograph!
Here she is "cutting" David's hair. She LOVES to "cut" people's hair!
Fortunately David does not mind!