Thanksgiving Trip to SacTown!!

We always love visiting Sacramento. We love the company, we love the weather, we love how there is everything we could possibly want within a short drive. Maybe someday we can live there. Lizzy sure wouldn't mind. She keeps telling me everyday that she wants to live in Roseville because it is where Grandma lives and because it is so warm. We were able to go for two whole weeks. It was awesome but too short, ( I know that it ridiculous, but I am never ready to get back to Kansas) We got to stay with my parents in their new beautiful house. It was so great because there was so much room for everyone. We were so lucky because almost everyone was able to make it for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun to see everyone. We always have a fun time spending time laughing and eating, making food and watching shows together. This was Lizzy's bed. She manages to make herself at home where ever she goes. Including hanging stuff up on the walls. She is so silly.

The girls had fun with Austin's two girls doing girly stuff. It was so cute watching Sara Jane put makeup on Nellie.

It was fun to get the babies together and see how much they have grown. I just couldn't get a picture with both of them looking.

Nellie was just thrilled to see her buddy Max. They play so well together. She was having a hard time before Max got there, Lizzy was leaving her out sometimes, and she was all sad. But once Max got there she was so happy and they played so much together the whole time.

They played so hard, that by the end of the week they couldn't stay awake in the afternoon, which if you know Nellie, NEVER happens, so she must have really been tired.

Lizzy and her buddy Ozzie Bozzie as she likes to call him. They have so much fun together.

One day we took the kids to the park, it was such a beautiful day, The whole time we were there it was in the 60's and 70's. It hasn't broken 30 degrees since we got back to Kansas and it was a hard adjustment after such nice weather.

Nellie and Lizzy were having fun picking up leaves and collecting them. The leaves were just beginning to fall when we got there. The colors were so beautiful, we had already lost all our leaves in Kansas so it was fun to see all the colors again. Fall is my favorite time of year.

We took the kids to one of those bounce places, and they had this one that had ball shooting guns. Of course this is where Kevin spent pretty much all his time. I think he might have had more fun than the kids did. Men can be such little kids with certain things.

Little bouncer. I love her smile

Gotta love when you can eat Thanksgiving dinner outside. Another beautiful day. Look at all these cute kids. There were 16 of the 24 grand kids for Thanksgiving. They had so much fun being together. It makes me a little sad that my kids only get to see their cousins on my side a couple times a year. Oh well that's life.

Jane hung with Dad for much of the day because I was busy making food and cleaning up. Jane became a lot more attached to Kevin over this trip. Kevin was such a good help with the girls, so I could help with all the cooking and cleaning. It is amazing how much work it is to feed that many people, but totally worth it to have everyone together. It was so much fun to bake with my sisters and Mom.

All the men watching Football. It is amazing how into a game they can get into when they don't even like either team.

I just love this picture. SO cute.

These little cuties had fun decorating the tablecloth. Nellie just loves having little buddies to play with.

The last night that we were all together we had a little family home evening talent show, They kids sang and did other talents. Austin told us a story with puppets about Thanksgiving, and just the other day Lizzy told me "Ozzie did such a good job telling his story" It is so cute that she remembered that.

Lizzy is such a performer. She loves to get up in front of people. She sang a couple of solos, of primary songs. I enjoy watching her sing so much because she loves to do it so much. I love seeing my children and their little spirits and how different and special each one is.

It was such a special vacation to get to spend time with family. I just treasure the memories I have now. Lizzy and Nellie really got to know Grandma this trip and Lizzy cried for almost an hour at the airport because she didn't want to leave Grandma. It was really sweet that she has come to love my parents so much even though she hasn't gotten to spend very much time with them.

Our First Snow

A couple of days before we left on our trip we got our first snow of the season and the girls were dying to get out there and make a snowman. Luckily it was really wet snow, so the girls could make the snowman that they couldn't make last year because the snow was never the wet kind. Kevy was so cute with the girlies, helping them make their snowman that they named Frosty (big surprise). They waited until he got home to make it with him. He is such a good dad to his little girls.

Janie is growing so fast

My baby is 11 months old! This has been the fastest year of my life. I swear I just barely had Jane. Maybe it is because she has been the best baby. She is so sweet. She just barely became mobile this past month. It has actually been really nice that she was so slow with getting around, I enjoyed knowing that wherever I put her she would stay. Now she is everywhere and follows me wherever I go, but I am enjoying that too. It has been really interesting how different she is than the other two. She is so laid back. She is so much like her Daddy. Plus almost everyone tells us she looks like him. Lizzy just loves her to pieces. And Nellie loves her so much too. These three little girls are so much fun together.

She loves to feed herself and hasn't let me feed her at all for months now. She is really good at it though and is s super good eater. The only thing she won't eat is anything like mashed potatoes or anything that is the texture of baby food, she wants big chunks that she can feed herself.

She is a total mam's girl right now and I am loving it! She will be perfectly happy with someone else but if she sees or hears me she starts whining until I pick her up and then she is just happy as can be.

At her 9 month but really about ten month appointment, she was 15 lbs. 9 oz. fully clothed, so she is small just like all our girls have been, but I really like having little girls, I think they are extra cute.

Jane is such a water baby. She LOVES her baths so much. Lately she has been playing with this little water spout, she puts it in her mouth and breathes like Darth Vader through the little holes. She will do it for ten straight minutes or more without taking it out,it is really funny.

Buddies

I am going to try and catch up on everything we have been up to in the past month. Key word being try, with all the Christmas stuff happening it will be a miracle if I can catch up.

We have some friend who have boys the same age as Lizzy and Nellie, and they all have so much fun when we get together. Lizzy and her friend Taye were in preschool together last year, but he is in Kindergarten now, they were both pretty sad about not being together anymore in school, but they still have a special place in each others heart's. They both talk about marrying each other, it is really cute. It is funny too how well Nellie and Peyton get along because they are both firecrackers, but they really play soo well together.

My Big Lizzy Girl

My Lizzy is five. The years have gone by way too fast. I look at her and sometimes I get a little sad when I realize that I can't get back the time that has passed. Lizzy will never be that little toddler again. I have been so nostalgic about my kids lately. I really want to freeze time and keep them little and safe and happy with me. I don't want them to go off to school and realize how other kids can be cruel and mean, and do bad things. I am secretly happy that Lizzy wasn't old enough to go to Kindergarten yet. I got to keep her home another year with me.

But since my kids do have to grow up I can enjoy them getting older. There are a lot of fun things about kids growing up. Lizzy really is such a joy. She came to this life so happy. It is so interesting to see Lizzy and the kind of child that she is. She is completely opposite of the kind of kid I was. I was always sad and unhappy and I didn't make friends easily. Lizzy is Miss Social. When I take her to preschool all of the kids come running up to her "Lizzy's here, Lizzy's here!" She is always so happy all of the time. She gets so excited about everything. I love having someone around that has such joy for life. I swear she never has a bad day.

Lizzy is definitely the oldest child. She likes to direct everything and she likes to be the Mommy. She loves trying to take care of Nellie and especially Jane. She is always dragging Jane all around the house and getting things for Jane. No wonder Jane hasn't been very mobile, Lizzy just gets her whatever she wants. When Nellie was sick Lizzy just sat right by her and kept hugging her and getting her whatever she needed. She is the best little helper, whenever I ask her to help me with something, she ALWAYS does it. She i the best little cleaner, she will make her bed everyday and sometimes she will go in and make mine if I haven't done it yet. She just always wants to make people happy.

Lizzy has been really into Barbies lately especially Barbie and the three musketeers. She was pretty disappointed when I told her that she couldn't be a musketeer when she grew up because they no longer existed. So she decided that she was going to be a ballerina when she grew up. She really loves dancing and singing. She loves to have a stay up night and watch So You Think You Can Dance with us. She only like the dances that the girls have the beautiful dresses though. She is just the girlyest girl. She is always wanting me to put makeup on her, and when I tell her that she can't wear it until she gets bigger, she always says she wishes she was a mom like me.

Lizzy loves to sing. Watching her sing in the Primary program was so cute because she really uses her mouth to sing and sings like the people you see on T.V. She is always trying to harmonize songs and practice singing different ways. I think it may be something that will be a real passion for her later on in life.

Lizzy is very conscious of her eating. She is the best eater. She eats everything, she is not picky at all. She always wants to know what vitamins and stuff is in her food that is good for her body, it is too funny. She likes her treats too, but she never sneaks into them and eats them if I don't tell her she can.

One funny thing about Lizzy is that she is very conscious about being a good person, and she can sometimes be a bit self righteous. One day I was doing my cleaning and my shorts were low riding a bit, Well Lizzy said "Mom please pull up you pants." in a very self righteous way. So I said Lizzy that wasn't very nice to say to me and she said all sad "But Mom, I'm just trying to live the gospel!" It was really funny and something I will remember forever.

Some other things about Lizzy:
Lizzy's favorite color is purple
Lizzy's favorite food is pasta
Lizzy's favorite show is Barbie and the Three Musketeers
Lizzy's best friend is Nellie, they have so much fun together and Lizzy always includes Nellie in every situation.

I am so glad that I was blessed with this amazing little girl who is a joy to everyone she meets. I love you Lizzy Lou Lou!

Lizzy's 5!?!

I know that every Mom feels this way but how can my little girl be 5 already! It is just crazy to me how fast times flies! Because we don't live in a place that has anything we had to go down to Salina to get Lizzy's present and October was insane with how busy we were, so it was Lizzy's birthday and we still hadn't gotten her a present, so I dropped Lizzy off at preschool and made the hour trek with Nellie and Jane to Salina to get Lizzy's bike. I was planing on getting her a Hello Kitty purple bike, but when I saw this Barbie bike that was very fancy, I knew Lizzy would like it better. She has been really into Barbies lately.

When we got home and unpacked the bike for her she loved it, but she was disappointed that there weren't any presents the she got to unwrap. We told her that Sunday we would have a birthday party for her and there would be presents for her to unwrap. She was quite alright with having another day that would be all about her.

Lizzy really has wanted a flower cake, and I just didn't want to spend the money to buy another expensive shaped pan so I just made this one up myself, It definitely wasn't my best cake I have made, but I had to make it when we got home from trick-or-treating and I didn't get done until almost 11:00 that night. When Lizzy woke up the next morning and saw it she was so excited and said "it's beautiful Mom!" So as long as she like it and thought it looked good, that was all that mattered.

After cake Lizzy opened presents and that is when Nellie started freaking out, she wanted to open a present and Lizzy wouldn't let her. Nellie went in our bedroom and shut the door and cried. It was sad. The good thing is Christmas is close, so I just went in there and told her after everyone left we could go online and look at some things she could get for Christmas. That helped a little.

Lizzy got a microphone and an amplifier from Grammie and Papi and that was such an awesome present because she is such a singer and she loves to hear herself on the microphone. She got CD's from the Leavitts, s that she could sing along to them and she loves to sing along. She got a barbie and pretty horse from Grandma and Grandpa, it was great because it got there the next day, so she got to extend her birthday out over a week. Thanks everyone for the presents, Lizzy loved them all.

Halloween Stuff

Halloween is always fun because it is the beginning of the holidays and that is my favorite time of year. I found this sucker making kit and I knew the girls would love it and of course they did, Nellie very much enjoyed making her green ghost. Lizzy made herself a kitty and then they made some suckers for some of their friends. When they were done I let the girls have a few bites of theirs. Nellie gave me back hers, and then a few minutes later we couldn't find Nellie, she had hidden under the table and was nibbling on her green ghost. Lizzy wanted to take her sucker to bed to sleep with it, and when we said no she was all sad, she is always wanting to take things to bed with her, she is funny.

On Halloween we carved pumpkins, or Kevin and I carved while the girls watched. Kevy carved Lizzy's, it was a cat and really cute. It was a good thing that Kevin did hers because it was more complex than the ghost one that Nellie wanted, and Kevin has way more patience than I do with these sorts of things.

Nellie didn't want to get the guts out, but I made her at least try it. She wasn't all that fond of doing it and she made me do the rest.

The girls sure were proud of their pumpkins. You would have thought they carved them themselves.

The girls were so cute in their costumes. I made Nelle be little Bo Peep, because it is such a cute costume and I wanted to get good use out of it, plus the sheep costume fit Janie this year, so how could I not. I don't think Nellie was too thrilled but she was a good sport. I promised her next year I will make her whatever costume she wants. We went to a local trunk-or-treat and to a few friends houses. The girls had lots of fun, it was nice because it was a pretty warm night so the girls didn't freeze to death. I decided not to take a bucket for Jane because then I would just end up eating the candy myself and I really don't need anymore sweets then I already get.

Janie wasn't too happy at the time so we didn't get the best picture of her. She was quite happy once we went out trick or treating though and she kept her hat on the whole time.

Cute Little Bo Peep. I am going to make Janie wear this one too, it is just so cute.

Lizzy wanted to be a "Sheerleader" as she says. Of course it had to be out of the shiny fabric, I found the R and thought it would be good for Richeys. She is definitely the cheerleader type, this is just a preview I think for a few years down the road. I wish we would have taken more pictures because for some reason these last two turned out fuzzy. Oh well.

Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun going to the Pumpkin Patch. I have been wanting to go every year for a while and we just never seemed to get around to it, so this year I made sure we did it before too many other activities got in the way. We were so glad that Kelli, Lance and their kids and Grammie and Papi could come with us too. The kids were super excited to go. Lizzy kept asking me all week if today was the day that we were going to go. Lizzy and Brinlee always love to get together and Nellie really loves Braxton and he is so sweet with her. My sweet baby Jane. She is such a good baby, she just hung out with us and didn't get too upset even though she missed her nap and was dead tired.

Me and Nellie on the slide. She wanted to keep going over and over, and Lizzy surprised me she was really brave and went by herself. It was really fun.

The kids getting ready to go find their pumpkins. The pumpkins were just way more than any of us wanted to spend so we let them get one of the tiny 50 cent ones. We all knew which one was Nellie's because it had quite a bit of green on it. Silly girl.

The girl were really cold so Papi wrapped his coat around them to keep them warm, it was really cute.

We got to go on a tram ride to see the buffalo, and if they were close at all it would have been cool, but they were really far off and the driver had diarrhea of the mouth and just kept talking and talking, it got a little old and everyone was just done by that time.

Lizzy hugging Brinlee, they have a lot of fun together.

Look at all those cute little faces.

Our little family. I love these people so much. It is so fun to have kids and take them places and see their excitement. I love my life.

Fall Fest

The annual Fall Fest in Concordia was the last Saturday in September. There is a small parade and then booths and different things for the kids to do. It is always a fun thing to take the kids to, since there isn't that much to do out here. Every year Lizzy has gotten to ride the float for Preschool and Nellie always wanted to. Well this year Nellie got to ride on the float too. She thought she was so big. They got to wear their sunglasses and wave to all the people. Nellie didn't care all that much about waving to people but wouldn't you know Lizzy was all about it. She had her beauty pageant wave down. She was waving to everyone, it was sooo Lizzy.

The girls got to perform on the street for their Dance class. Lizzy loves to dance and she had her dance down. She was practicing it while I was doing her hair that morning. She is such a performer.

I was surprised that Nellie danced at all, it was her first time in front of an audience and she did surprisingly well. I am not sure that it will be something she will stick with once she has more options on activities that she can do, but for now Lizzy does it, so Nellie wants to too.

Nellie jumping on the big tramp, she was a little nervous at first with all the other kids, but she had a lot of fun.

The girls riding on a pony, they seriously love to ride them, but I think most kids think it is pretty cool.

Riding on the train with me. Kevy went home so Janie could nap, so I took the girls and went on some rides and got a snow cone and other stuff, it was fun. Nellie just had to have a green snow cone and what they had was sour apple, it tasted so gross but Nellie just loved it.

Butch

A few weeks back Nellie decided that she needed a haircut. She found some nail scissors (I have no idea where) and she hacked off all of her bangs. Because her hair is really blond these pictures do no do justcie to how bad it was. I did however just pull down more hair and cut it into bangs. It still is noticeable, but not too bad. Kevy keeps calling her Butch because of it, and now Nellie keeps saying, "I'm Butch."

All About Nellie

How do I describe my sweet Nellie. Nellie is by far one of the most stubborn people I have ever met. This can be a bad thing, or a good thing. I like to think that later on in life I won't have to worry as much about my Nellie because she won't let anyone lead her astray. This past year has been a bit tough for our little Nellie. She was the baby and she loved to be the baby. She wasn't ready to share her attention with Jane when she came along. She has struggled a lot, but lately she has started to pull out of it. She is really enjoying going to school, I think it is something that is just hers and she really likes that.

Nellie has always been such a tough little girl, but she has one of the kindest hearts. She gives the best hugs, she always has. Lately her big thing is to say "You're my best friend" She says it to everyone, Daddy, Lizzy, me, Jane, and don't worry inanimate objects as well, her stuffed animals, her doggie blankie, other stuff too. I took her to the nursing home to visit the people and she was sooo sweet, she put her little hand out and shook all of their hands and talked to them, even though some of them looked a little bit scary to a 3 year old. She always is willing to share her stuff too. If she has a treat left and Lizzy's is all gone she always gives Lizzy some of hers too. She is always giving her stuffed animals to Jane to try and make her happy. She really can be the sweetest girl.

Nellie's favorite color is surprise, green, She loves Diego of course. She is definitely not your typical girl. Lizzy and Nellie are very opposite in many ways, but they are the best of friends. Nellie lets Lizzy boss her around quite a bit until she pushes too far and then Nellie has had it.

Nelie started dance class, I think she wanted to be like Lizzy, Sometimes she tells me she doesn't like green anymore she likes pink and purple instead (Lizzy's favorites) but then a little while later she is back to green. I think she wants to be like Lizzy in some ways.

Nellie says some funny things too. One day she was talking about boobies, I know nice huh and I said they were private and we don't talk about them. So almost everyday she says to me "Mom, we don't talk about boobies, just our legs and bellies." I also told her that Dad doesn't have boobs, they are called pecs, and she says to Kevin all the time "girls have boobies and Daddies have pickles." I guess she thought I said pickles and not pecs. I should probably correct her but it is funny.

Nellie is not a very good eater, but I will admit when I tell her she can't have anything else until she eats her meal, she usually eats it so she can have a treat. She has a major sweet tooth. But being my daughter, she didn't have much of a chance. She does really like fruit though, I have to save it for after she eats everything else because she will want to eat just that. One of her favorites is "honeydude", probably because it is green. She really loves her milk too and will not go to bed until she has had her drink of milk.

Trying to bribe Nellie to do anything does not work. We have a chore chart and the girls get a quarter for every thing they do. Well Nellie could make a quarter everyday she makes her bed, but most days I can't get her to do it. I tell her I am going to make it and then she will get a bad check mark and she will have to pay me the money, she just says "It's okay if I get a bad check mark." She just doesn't care. Only Nellie can motivate Nellie, but we are still working on it.

She really loves her name too. Sometimes I will call her my princess or cutie or something else and she will say "I'm not a princess I'm Nellie!" There is one thing for sure our life would not be the same without our Nellie. We are so glad she is in our family she adds so much spunk and energy to our lives. We love you Nellie Belle!