Jolly Ol' St. Nick

This year our visit to see Santa was really a wonderful and fun one. Kellen very quickly embraced the idea of going and seeing Santa, sitting on his lap, telling him what he wanted for Christmas and, most importantly in Kellen's eyes...getting a Candy Cane! As soon as he knew of the plan to see Santa he asked about it almost every day. This came as a shock to me, seeing as Kellen tends to be the shy, stand offish one in the family. I guess when you want a Candy Cane bad enough you will go sit on anyones lap to get one :)

Makenna on the other hand was a bit nervous. Not as much as last year. Last year I "strongly encouraged" Makenna to go sit with Santa for a picture. She did it on her own, but was not very happy at all to do so. This year, out of fear of forever scarring our child, I told her it was completely up to her whether or not she sat with Santa. She knew she could do whatever she was comfortable with....just stand back and look at him, go say hi to him and talk to him, give him a hug, sit with him, etc. She did want to make sure that he knew what she wanted for Christmas, so this year we wrote our very first "Letters to Santa". We told Makenna if she was too scared to give hers to him then Kellen would do it for her, and he was very excited about this proposition

On my birthday we decided to take the kids to go see St. Nick.

Of course that morning, while we were getting ready to go get our picture with Santa, Kellen decided to hit Makenna in the face with a book leaving a number of very noticeable marks on her face by her eye. So, if Makenna looks a little beat up to you in this picture you are right...she is.

Kellen is going through a phase right now. That 2 year old phase of suddenly realizing he has the power and ability to pick on others versus being picked on. I think he half does it for attention, half just because he can. Makenna gave him a lot of abuse, so you can't totally blame him for wanting to try it out himself. It is sort of strange to hear and see Makenna being bullied now. I warned her that someday he would get bigger and stronger than her and that she would no longer have the upper hand. Once again, Mother is always right. The phase already seems to be passing a bit (thank goodness!), but now we forever have a ridiculous picture of Makenna with book marks on her face from her little brother.

Anyway, as we stood in line to see Santa both kids took their positions behind Mommy and Daddy's legs and were seeming a bit shy and overwhelmed by the moment. When our turn came I stepped up to tell the photographer what we wanted. And MUCH to my surprise I turned around to find Makenna already up in Santa's lap, happily telling him that she had been a good girl and was hoping for Hungry Hippo for Christmas. Kellen, who kept eying the Candy Canes, also climbed up on Santa's lap when it was his turn. When Santa asked him what he wanted he just shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know" in a very cute little voice. He then happily took his candy cane and we actually managed to get a picture with Santa without any of the kids crying or looking like they wanted to cry. I am sure next year Conner will be older and wiser and will be screaming his head off. But for now I am enjoying a year with everyone on Santa's lap tear free.

That was, of course, until we added Brooke into the picture. Poor girl didn't care At All about telling Santa her Christmas wish, getting a candy cane or anything of the sort. She just wanted to be as far from the Jolly Guy as she could get.
I mean seriously, her face is about at red as Santa's jacket. Santa, you are a very patient man :)

O Tannenbaum

No, we (I) have still not given into the artificial tree. I still make my family and my hubby pack up and drive down and dig for the perfect tree in a big pile of trees until we find the perfect McKamey family tree. For me it is one of the parts of Christmas I look forward to most. I love the finding the tree, bringing it home, setting it up, cleaning up after it, watering it. I love it all. Maybe some day I will get old and lazy enough to want an artificial tree. But that is in the very distant future (if in the cards at all), so for now we will keep picking out our tree every year....even if it is just from the Home Depot parking lot :)

Is it just me, or does Makenna look way grown up and mature in this picture? I don't like it! (Though she is beauty!)

Yes, we are picking out our Christmas tree in shorts and Capri's. Don't be too jealous...ha ha!

Conner playing his role of looking cute while we all pick out a good tree.

Kellen was in way too much awe to look at the camera at all.

Cute little elves

I was trying to photograph the way that kids put Tons of ornaments on the tree in big cluster, right next to each other. I was originally planning on "fixing" this once the kids were in bed and re-dispersing the ornaments to give the tree more balance. Then I had a friend of mine say "I left mine just the way they were. I figure that I only have a few years left of ornaments clustered together and then one day my tree is going to be decorated Too perfectly and I am going to miss it this way." Oh, so true. So if you come to my house and see clusters of ornaments, just know I am aware of it and prefer it this way :)

Daddy and the kiddos decorating. I was there too, helping decorate as well. But part of the title of being mom includes being photographer, so you can just know I was there because surely the pictures did not get taken themselves ;)

Kenna Trying to be a good big sis and lift Kellen so he could put his ornament up high. No need to point out that Kellen was much less enthusiastic about this. I had visions of her dropping him or falling with him right into the tree, but it ended safely. It is amazing to me that she can actually lift him, seeing as he is practically as heavy as she is.

We don't have a picture of anyone putting on the star this year because both kids wanted to do it. So we decided to each pick one of them up and let them both have a hand on it while it was placed on the tree. I am sure next year we will have to start some rotation, but for this year we all got a little piece of it.

Although I wasn't ready....He was

I tried. I tried my best to hold off starting solids. I did this for 3 reasons. #1 I had the brilliant idea of using all his new supplies for starting solids to be his Christmas presents, so I wanted to wait until after Christmas to start it. #2 Life is easy when all you have to do is supply milk....why complicate things if you don't have to? #3 It makes me sad to realize how fast my baby boy is growing up. And putting him in a high chair to feed him a meal only verifies that he is getting bigger and doing it too quickly.

But try as might, I finally gave in. When we were sitting down as a family to lunch and Conner was practically launching himself off my lap and lunging with outstretched arms for my food, I knew it was time to let the poor kid have a taste of something more substantial than warm milk. That day I went out and bought some rice cereal and he thanked me that afternoon by scarfing it down like a big boy should. Since then he has been doing great with him food. He has already had and approved of sweet potatoes, carrots, pears and apples...pears and carrots being the favorites so far. Unlike his brother, Conner is very happy to eat baby food and rice cereal, which his mother is very appreciative of. Although I plan to make some baby food myself again, it is nice that I don't Have to.

It is bittersweet to watch Conner getting bigger every day. He is such a cute sweet boy. I can't wait to see the boy he is going to grow into and watch him change and have him run around with his crazy siblings. As long as he stops to cuddle with his mama from time to time.

My silly little boy. I just love his goofy little personality. He had a lot to say during his first meal....all very happy things.

This face just melts my heart.

And that's a big smile of approval right there.

Sissy + Brother = Love

My Aunt got this adorable onesie for Conner, so the other day we had a cute little photo shoot with Makenna and Conner. (I also have one of these that says "I love my Big Bro", so you can anticipate a similar shoot with Kellen in the near future :) )
Makenna is such a great sister to little Conner. She and Kellen are also the bestest buddies. But it is interesting to see the way her relationship with Conner is already different. Being that the age gap is bigger for her and Conner and she has more understanding and maturity now, she is much more "mothering" with Conner. She loves to keep him smiling and happy, she is quick to see what is wrong if he is sad, she considers herself Conner's body guard from Kellen and is always making sure he is not playing to rough with Conner and is being gentle with him. She can get Conner to smile and laugh just as well as I can. I LOVE having another set of hands around the house that can help me hold him if he is being fussy and I need to get something done. He is a McKamey boy, which makes him a giant, so holding him can be a bit tricky for her at times. But she does great and he loves his Sissy time and attention. I feel lucky to have her as the big sister to her two crazy brothers. I know they feel the same way. And I know she equally feels as lucky to have such great little brothers. (She may feel differently at times, but in the end she knows I am right...as mothers are of course!!)

I think this first picture is so cute. Conner is just adorable to me!

These first couple of pictures make is look like Conner is just Huge in comparison to Makenna. But I swear, it is just an illusion. Must have been the seating arrangement, because his head is not truly bigger than hers the way it looks to be :)

Such sweethearts!

When you get behind

I could give you a million reasons why I have gotten behind in my posts lately, but I will skip those and just go straight into all the fun and craziness that has been keeping me away from the computer.

The first weekend in Dec our ward had its Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast playing with their little friends and eating lots of yummy treats. Makenna was in the nativity for the first time. She was one of many angels up on stage. The pictures that we were able to take were Terrible quality, so we are not sharing those. But she looked adorable. In good ol' Makenna fashion she would stand still for about 20 seconds at a time and then move to a different spot amongst the angels. At one point, while all the other children were singing, she walked to the edge of the stage and waved her hand and said "Hi Mom!" That's my daughter! When I asked her why she was moving around so much up there she claimed she was nervous :) My silly wandering angel. Anyway, it was fun and cute. Here are a few cute pics of her with her little church buddies.

All the girls (all the same age) were sitting together on the stage and kept giving big group hugs, then laughing and then doing it again. It was the cutest thing!

Kellen anxiously awaiting Makenna's appearance on stage. Silly boy. This is the same sweater he wore last Christmas. I was amazed that it still fit him so I thought it would be funny to put him in it again. I swear he has grown, but hey, it works.

I always love when I come out and see these two sitting together doing sweet things with one another. When Kenna is in the mood she is great at sitting with Kellen and reading him books.

Kellen and Brookie playing at the park. It is cute to see the age gap closing and watching Brooke run around with the big kids now. I think my kids still overwhelm her a bit, but she will just have to get used to it :)

Kellen has finally mastered how to get up and down these tricky ladders....and he is very proud of it! He will do it over and over again, cheering for himself every time he gets to the bottom. Such a cutie pie. It is weird to see him getting bigger. He is changing these days so much. Even the way he is talking is sounding older. He used to call Elmo "Ya-Ya" and then it was "Ya-Yamo" and now it is pretty much "Elmo". He used to just call Makenna "sissy" and now he calls her "sissy tenna mae". It always makes me sad when you notice their baby talk fading out.

Pa just had his Birthday on Dec 9th. We went with him to Phil's BBQ for dinner and the kids "helped" Pa open his giant tin of Almond Roca that we got him. We love our Big Pa. He may be "feisty" as Kellen calls him, but that is all part of his charm!

The other day I finally relented and let Makenna play around a bit with some of my make-up. It was just hilarious. Here she is showing you her blush (which you can't see at all).

She was a very serious make-up artist during the application process.

The finished product. Todd and I both laughed and said she looks like an old 80 year old woman with bad make-up. But she was very proud of herself. She smiled for a few pictures, then studied herself in the mirror and said "Mama, this stuff makes me look funny. I want it off now" I told her I was glad she felt that way. I am far from ready to think about Makenna and make-up.

Kellen stole Kenna's which hat and ran around the house for the evening in it, calling himself a "bad guy" and thinking he was mighty cool. What a goof.

Kenna posing as a Jaguar (which she does any time she wears these jammies. Putting these on her is a sure way to fill the home with growling and snarling until bed time).

It's so nice having another set of hands around the house that can help hold Conner for me. And are they not so cute together?!

Conner hanging out on the trampoline outside while I swing and chase the big kids outside. I like him to join us and get some fresh air, and he loves it. Kellen said he was keeping Conner safe from snakes and monsters. What a good brother. He has quite an imagination for being just 2, part of which is provoked by his older sis.

Marshmallow Pops and More

Kenna and I made these cute and easy marshmallow pops for her preschool class Thanksgiving party. They were darn good and enjoyed by the adults and children the same. I didn't even realize how funny this picture was until I was viewing the pics on my computer. Look at Kellen boy...trying to snag a bite when sissy is busy...that a boy!

It's fun to let your niece make a big mess of herself and then watch her mommy clean it up :)

I swear these two could be sisters. People often think they are when we are out and about together. Can you blame them?

One of Kellen's new things to do is set up his chairs in the living room and play pretend nursery (like at church). He will sit down on the chair with his dolls and stuffed animals, help them fold their arms so they can say a prayer and then sing songs with them. Too cute!

This girl is a monkey....and I figure let her have at it. Sure, I monitor her and set limits. But I also let her try things out and see what she is capable of. And she is good at a lot. My silly little girl. Love you Kenna!

She wanted to try and got higher, but I stopped her at this point. See, I do give her boundaries...

This little man is just growing like a weed and changing so much. He is really just coming out of his shell, getting so much personality and really interacting so much now. I love this age. He is so smiley and happy. He just started sleeping through the night fairly regularly (and yes, I mean 7:30 pm to 7:00 am) He is binky free already....woohoo! He is 4 months old and fitting well into 9 month clothing. He is getting close to sitting on his own. He just melts my heart. He is already taking on some pretty strong mama's boy qualities. I have noticed that especially in the evenings he will cry if I leave the room or walk out of his line of sight. This feels young to me to already be having separation anxiety. But Kellen was a big mama's boy for awhile, so I am sort of expecting the same thing from Conner. Little boys just gotta have their mama's. I will just enjoy it while I get to be the woman in their life :)

This boy's hair is so confusing. It is definitely a light color (though it looks a bit dark in these pictures). Sometimes in certain lighting it is toe head blonde....blonde as it could be. Other times it looks like a golden/yellow kind of blonde. Then there are times is looks strawberry blonde yet there also seems to be a hint of brown to his hair. I don't know. I am just curious to see what it looks like as more comes in and he gets older. What, oh what color will Conner's hair really be?

May not be sure about his hair, but those eyes are certainly blue. He stole them from his Grandmas....so sweet.