First snow

Kayla was beyond excited. Snow is definitely her thing. For the last few months she planned what she would do when it first snowed and her ideas included going out to play in her bathing suit because she loves to be cold! Well, she changed her mind about that this morning, but she played outside for hours unphased by the cold. Khloe and I lasted about a half hour, just long enough to experience it's fun (sledding) and beauty (oooh pretty), and we were over it.

Khloe was content to look at the snow, but wasn't too thrilled to play in the snow.

A week later, after all the snow had long melted, our snowman was still (barely) hanging on!

Sweet dreams

Kayla is going on night five of sleeping on her new/old bed. It's actually the mattress out of Khloe's crib and the same mattress that Kayla once slept on too. And, she's back to sleeping on it again. The mattress was on it's way out the door but Kayla wouldn't have that! She asked if she could sleep on it (I thought it would only last one night) so I thought "why not"?! We can't understand why she wants to, how it can be comfortable, but as you can see, the little bed wins every night. It must be fun to sleep on a bed just your size!

(Update: The novelty of her new little bed wore off after night five and she returned - finally - to her old big bed)

'Tis the Season

The angel goes up!

Christmas music has been in full effect all weekend and Christmas decorations are up! As you can see, we're all happy about it!

Also part of the season, Lowe's Build and Grow workshops are again in full effect. The first one this year? Santa's sleigh! Kayla LOVES these (Daddy looks forward to them too) and her apron is filling up with patches. She's got an engineering mind just like her Daddy!

Kayla was also busy watching Spartan football with Grandpa and Grandma F and going to see Wreck-It Ralph (rated as "sad but good" by Kayla) with Grandpa A!

With the help of Grandma A, Kayla purchased items for two shoe boxes for two little girls to receive through Operation Christmas Child. Today at church we - and all the kids  - assembled the boxes. Just look at all the gift-filled shoe boxes little boys and girls from around the world will receive and will have the chance to hear about God's Word and His Love! We can follow our boxes as they travel around the world, so we'll keep you posted!

'Tis the Season!

Not close enough

Can she get any closer?!!?

Kayla's favorite thing is to "help" Khloe  (as only she might call it). She helps Khloe get a drink, open up games, cover up with a blanket, play with toys, get clean in the bath, start a movie, get dressed - whatever it might be.  Most of the time Khloe declines her help (in the form of running away, screaming, crying), but still, Kayla is never more than a step away ready to provide assistance. Our greatest daily challenge between sisters is balancing the type of "help" and amount of hugs Kayla gives.

One instance where Kayla likes to be close to Khloe is at the dinner table. Normally Kayla's chair is positioned at the end of the table and Khloe's is on the side. Occasionally Kayla will slide her chair next to (on top of?) Khloe's. And lucky for Kayla, this is a rare moment when Khloe is distracted (and happy) with food, and can't run because she's in her seat.

How can you fault a big sister for loving her little sister too much? One day Khloe will appreciate her big sister's big heart!

Right size

The perfect little cubby for The Pickle!

Putting out fires

At the Port Huron Township Fire Station, with Kayla's Kindergarten class. It's fun to be a Kindergartner!

 Watch out! Outta the way! Kayla's driving!

 Watching Firefighter O'Donnell try on all his gear. Lesson here: do not be afraid of firefighters that look like this if they come in your house to save you during a fire. They will look funny and sound funny, but do not run and hide.

 Everybody got to try on one piece of gear; Kayla choose the pants, Addison choose the coat.

 Madelyn, Lyla, Abby, Kayla and Elianna - Friends!

 And below, Addison and Marissa joined in

 A visit to the one-room school house

 A benefit to being the younger sibling? Getting to experience all the big kid field trips!

Class Picture! Mrs. Prout is the BEST teacher!!!

Another great piece to the day, we attended our first Parent-Teacher Conference! How can a simple 20-minute meeting be so exciting? I don't know, but we were looking forward to it and actually thought it was fun. Kayla is doing well and a leader in the class. She does well in math and they are learning to read. Kayla is being moved up into a small accelerated reading group because she is doing so well. She does great at doing all the Kindergarten things a Kindergartner is supposed to do!

The Peacock's

We mustn't forget about Halloween - one of our family's most anticipated holidays of the year! The day after Halloween Kayla even said she wanted to dress up again and go trick-or-treating more. Us too honey, us too.

Unfortunately, the worst weather forecast you could have on Halloween - rain - happened. Bummer. Oh, and the entire neighborhood lost power at 4pm during the hectic-ness of all of us getting dressed, accessorized, eating dinner and waiting for friends to arrive. Is this really happening, we thought?? We have to trick-or-treat in the dark? Finish getting ready in the dark? Wow, this is going to be interesting, and different! Luckily, after we started down the road, and about two hours after the power went out, it came back on. Yea party on! The rain didn't slow us down, and definitely not the girls. They ran in the cold and rain and we walked with the stroller and umbrellas. Khloe rode comfortably in the stroller the entire way, happily munching on chips, chocolate, and when she ran out of a piece and wanted more I ran her up to another house for another little treat. After Kayla and Addison (and some other neighborhood girls) ran all the way to the opposite end of the subdivision, they stopped, said they were cold and tired, and wanted to go home. I don't think they even stopped at another house the whole way back, they were just focused on getting home, dry and comfy ... and eating candy. And, honestly, we were too. The girls changed into warm dry clothes and the adults handed out candy on the front porch for hours more!

First, the costumes...

 Some accessories

The unimpressed Peacock

 Batgirl and the Peacock

 Kayla wanted me to be the Mommy Peacock - which is a great idea! - but all I could pull together last minute with the help of Kristi was this nurse costume. But I did a good job administering medicine all night! I made sure everyone in the neighborhood was feeling good!

 Peacock and Jasmine

 This is pretty much all we saw for an hour - their backs, in a blur

 Warm, dry, watching a movie, and eating candy!

Best Spartan fan ever

It was a last minute decision for us to go to the MSU football game, and take Kayla too! We were over the moon to take Kayla to the game with us. When I asked Kayla the night before if she wanted to go to the game and she said "Wellllllll, ummmmmmm, I don't think so". Then I told her about the thousand's of cheering fans dressed in green and white inside a big stadium... and then I told her that there was pop and pizza and candy and ice-cream sandwiches and hot chocolate and.... "Yesyesyesyesyes! I want to go!"

When we pulled onto campus we were overwhelmed with the realization that Kayla was on MSU's campus with us for the first time. We had so much fun! Thankfully Kayla was with us which helped soften the blow of the horrible loss we witnessed. Without her it would've been a waste of a night, but instead it was a fun family day! Way to be a Spartan, Kayla!