Christmas 2010

So much has happened in the last few days I am finding it hard to write it all down. Marshall's first Christmas, fun times with family, good food, play time with cousins, matching pajamas and ginger bread houses.
We started Christmas at my dad's house on Christmas Eve, followed by early morning Christmas day gift opening at home then festivities at Kirk's parents and completing the get togethers at the Specht residence in the evening. Some of the favorites gifts are the pillow pet, Tinkerbell head, mosaic jewelry box, numerous pet shops, activity easel, and glow doodle. A ton of pictures to sort through but here are a few.

Christmas Eve

 

 

Christmas Morning, Marshall isn't sure what is going on but he likes the paper. Mykaela got her roller boogies(skates) from Santa and Mallory got her pillow pet.

 

Cousins in their matching jammies (Marshall was sleeping)

Gingerbread house making with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Paul, in their new aprons and chef hats. Mallory filled her tummy with frosting while Mykaela filled up on as much candy as she could get her hands on. They can't wait to start eating their master pieces.

 

 

Kirk is back to work tomorrow. I have tomorrow off but then back to work on Tuesday. Hoping to get the girls out skating and sleding before the year is over.

Santa

Why do we make our kids take photo's with Santa? I think it is so we can all have a laugh when we look back at them. We went to the mall this morning and luckily the line was short. Right away I knew Mykaela didn't want to talk to Santa, let alone stand their long enough to take a picture. I wasn't prepared to be in the picture but had to be in order to get her to even stand by him. I set Marshall on Santa's lap to grab Mykaela and as soon as I did that Marshall started crying. I just shrugged and said take the picture. Here is our result. Mallory was a trooper this year and did what she was suppose to. She also made sure she told Santa what she wanted.

Merry Christmas

Here is our Christmas card and letter. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Another whirl wind of a year. Where to begin. May 25 we welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the family, Marshall David. He has been such a joy and is very loved by everyone especially his older sisters. He has an infectious grin and great laugh. He has two great teachers and soon enough he will be joining them in their antics.
Mykaela has quite the personality. Her random comments to anyone that will listen, her level of energy, number of outfit/costume changes a day, and how loving she can be. As with most younger sisters, wants to be able to do everything Mallory does and can‘t wait to start Kindergarten. She started pre-school this year and goes once a week. Even though she tells us every Friday she doesn’t want to go, has a great time when she is there.
Mallory is more reserved. Very observant, creative, caring and growing up too fast. She started Kindergarten this year and seems to really enjoy it. Loves doing her homework assignments and wants to do everything even if it is optional. She joined Girl Scouts this year. Lisa is a co-leader with the other moms in the troop. They have only met a couple times so far and it seems like a great group of girls.
In September Mallory and Mykaela were beautiful flower girls in the Ribar wedding wearing dresses made by Grandma Glenys, Marshall was even sporting a bow tie made by Grandma.
The girls have continued to participate in dance and swimming along with adding ice skating to the mix. The kids have a new nanny and really enjoy the time they spend with Ash-a-ley, as Mykaela says it.
Kirk continues to work for United Operations. Lisa however has switched again and is now at Supervalu in Edina. We made a few updates to the house this year. Replaced the bedroom windows and added a bay window to replace the sliding door in the dining room.
Extended family news, on April 5^th Lisa’s brother Nick and his fiancé Barbie welcomed their second daughter Stella Jean. Marshall and Stella are sure to be great buddies. On a sad note, over labor day weekend Lisa’s Aunt Jana lost her battle with Ovarian cancer she was such a great inspiration and support for many people. She is greatly missed. Love you Jana!
We continued to enjoy many trips to the Thorsen cabin, our annual Mallory Izatys weekend and numerous trips to Knoxville Iowa.

We are truly blessed

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2011

Love: Kirk, Lisa, Mallory, Mykaela & Marshall



Glasses

We stopped by and picked up Mykaela's new glasses this afternoon. She had just woken up from her nap so she didn't cooperate with the person at the eye place but I think they fit ok. I am sure she will start to get use to them but right now she keeps taking them off and on. I am surprised how much of a prescription  she needs. I tested her just to make sure she can actually see with them on. We also gave them a nick name of scruples to make them sound more fun.

Disney On Ice

So I was listening to the radio and heard Disney on Ice would be here. I was pretty sure the girls would like it considering that it was Disney and it involved ice skating. I mentioned it to Mallory and she said yes she would like to go.
Luckily we had tickets on Sunday instead of Saturday. Saturday was the day the 18 inch snow storm hit. I am glad it happened on the weekend where we could just hang out at home all day. Had to post pone the Larson Christmas get together that was suppose to be at noon. Kirk had to shovel a place for the dog and so we could open the door to let him in or out without a ton of snow coming in the house.
Sunday the girls ventured to Xcel Center and found our seats. We had a great spot and could see everything. The girls really enjoyed it. They didn't want to miss a second. At intermission I made them get up so we could grab a napkin to try to get some of the sticky cotton candy off their fingers. I asked them if they wanted to look around at all but they wanted to go right back to their seats. At the end Mallory said 'is it over?' I said yes and she proceeded to pout. She wanted it to be longer and told me she wants to go to every Disney on Ice show :) Mykaela was pretty excited to see Tinkerbell and Ariel.

Mallory is 6!

Mallory turned 6 last Thursday. I started a tradition that the kids can have dinner out on their birthday and this year Mallory choose Chili's. Which is her new favorite resturant, they have a bunch of options that she likes plus you get to bring home a cup.

Friday was her wellness check. Of course as soon as we get there she is all worried about shots and how many she is going to get. Luckily the only thing she needed was the flu mist. Her stats are 37 lbs and 43 5/8 inches around 15 percentile where she has always been. However she has only gained 1 pound since a year ago so she needs to go back in 6 months for a weight check. Hopefully we will be able to eat more by then. Not sure what they will suggest if she still isn't gaining weight. She should be gaining 3-5 lbs a year. Lost tooth count is 2.

Some of the things about Mallory that I love:

• Her smile
• Her creativity
• The love she has for her family
• How reacts to funny things in books or in what she is watching.
• When she sings songs
• Her imagination
• All of the new ideas and observations she brings home to share with us.
• And the list goes on

Of course as I am writing this she is being a little stinker and could put down things that she does that drives me crazy but I will keep those to myself for now. :)

We love you bunches!

Eye Appointment

So thinking back to a year ago I remember Mykaela either not understanding what she was suppose to be doing, not wanting to participate or maybe she just couldn't see well here we are a year later and we are still having the same issue and along with a few other observations at home that lead us to seeing a pediatric eye doctor. I knew we would have issues with her participation but luckily they are able to measure her eyes to determine if she needs glasses. She didn't want to do the eye chart matching with the nurse but when we got into the doctors office and saw all the neat lenses they had she was ok with the doctor putting those in front of her eyes because it was like a magnifying glass. Sure enough she needs glasses. She was excited about it when she was able to pick out her own pair. Of course they are pink and purple her two favorite colors. She should be getting them later this week and I will post pictures.

Picture Post

Birthday party pictures

Marshall in hat from Auntie Krista

Pool Party

The girls wanted to celebrate their birthdays swimming this year. We invited a few cousins, friends from school and girl scouts. It really became just a birthday for Mallory but I don't think Mykaela minded (she had one gift to open so she was happy) The party was at their swim school, Wise in Apple Valley. The smaller pool was a little deep but they all managed quite well. They free swam for about 1 hr 20 min then they had a bite to eat, cake and opened presents. Turned out to be a great party. Mallory said she wants all of her birthday parties to be a swimming party.

Mallory's actual birthday is Thursday so I am sure it will be another week long celebration and we are also going to Disney on Ice on Sunday :)

Pictures to come

Wellness Checks

Marshall and Mykaela went in for their wellness checks this afternoon. Can't say I ever remember spending almost 2 hours at the doctors office for a wellness check.

Any how ... Marshall is doing great. Poor guy had 5 vaccinations (4 shots) His stats are Weight: 17 lbs 8.5 oz (50-75%) Height 27 1/2 inches (75-90%)

Mykaela on the other hand was hit or miss on cooperation. She did some of the things they asked but wouldn't participate in the hearing test, didn't want the doctor to touch her but she eventually settled down enough to get most of the information that we needed. End result is that we need to bring her to an eye doctor (I am guessing glasses are in her future) and we still need to get her hearing checked. Her stats are Weight 35 lbs (50%)  Height 40 3/4 inches (75%)

So much ...

Where to begin how is it that I am so far behind already.
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Let's see we had a family birthday party at the house for both girls. Had a great time and lots of fun. Played a few Minuet to Win it type games. My favorite was watching the kids try to move the cookie down their face without using their hands. Another memorable moment was when Mykaela held her hand in front of Owen's mouth when the candles were being lit because she was afraid he would blow them out (Krista got a great picture) Luckily most of our guests returned home before the big rain and then freeze that evening. Favorite gifts were Mykaela: her 5 1/2 inch tall fairies, Mallory: vtech laptop

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Thanksgiving weekend we spent Thursday afternoon at Kirk's Aunt Carole's house for the Thorsen get together. The girls had a great time playing with the cousin's kids. Then we headed to the Spechts for Thanksgiving dinner at their place. Jason was a great chef. Thanks J! The kids and I spent the night there since Krista and I wanted to shop and Kirk had to work ... which I should have realized we were shopping super early and would have been home before he left for work ... oh well we all survived even if we were all tired on Friday. Krista and I braved the early morning shoppers and came out with some good deals and no scratches.
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Friday we spent most of the day home and dug out all the Christmas decorations we didn't get the tree until Saturday. Mallory managed to loose her second tooth, which she was not happy about and whined/cried about it for at least a half hour. Luckily she is finally over that drama. That afternoon we had family over to spend time with the Kentros family and Ryan before he left to go back to Montana. The kids played great together.
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Sunday spent most of the day cleaning up and doing laundry. The girls and I escaped for a few hours and saw Tangled with Krista and Owen. I really enjoyed the movie.
-- Monday we were back to work and school ... boo

First Tooth

I noticed today that Marshall's gums are a little red today so put my finger in and sure enough I felt a tooth. If he moves his tonge out of the way you can see the top part of the tooth peaking through. :)
So many changes the first year and it goes by so fast. Slow down kid.

Mykaela is 4!

It is hard to believe how fast the last 4 years have gone by. There is so much I love about Mykaela a few of them are:

• How caring she is
• How she will tell anyone what she is currently thinking and the randomness of the comment. 
• How everyone in the family is her 'best' something
• How excited she was about playing in the snow this year
• That she can't wait to get somewhere and then once you get there she asks if we can go home
• That she wants to do everything her sister does
• The voice she uses when she talks to Marshall
• Her imagination
• Her fashion sense
• And the list goes on

We love you so much Mykaela!

First Snow Fall

The kids woke up this morning to the first snow fall of the season. Mykaela was so excited she couldn't stop talking about it. Mallory says that she loves the snow so she can make snowmen and snow angels. Of course the first thing they do when they get out to play is eat the snow.

 

Phases

So Mykaela is going through a phase where my little social butterfly does not want to participate in activities we have her signed up for. I don't want her to get into the mindset that she can make the decision if she wants to participate or not since most of these activities are things we have paid for but I also don't want to force her because these things are suppose to be fun. I am just hoping this ends soon. She always says she wants to go to swimming or to dance but when we get there she changes her mind. I also think if she could be in the same class as Mallory we wouldn't be going through this, but with a 2 year age gap they are always seperated. She always says she doesn't want to go to school but that is the one thing I have made her do and when I pick her up she had fun. I think she is just testing us to see what she can get away with.

New Start

I neglected my first blog for about 5 months now. Lets see if I can keep this one updated :)