It's the Most Wonderful Time.....

I have had a wonderful December. We've been doing all sorts of fun things like eating fondue, going to parties, finishing finals (not as fun for Christian, but fun for me because now he gets home earlier), making cooking, eating lots and lots and lots of cookies, going to church activities, having baby play dates, and eating more cookies.Here's a picture from our December baby lunch. I can't believe how big they are all getting, especially the boys! We had our 'family Christmas' early since we'll be spending Christmas day in Utah.

We hung our stockings by the chimney with care..........

And St. Nicholas soon was there. This is the best present I got all year.

Kate loved opening presents, but needed a little help from her daddy.

Even after all the presents were opened, Kate loved to sit and watch the lights on the tree.

Tonight, to continue the holiday festivities, we went over to have Family Home Evening with our friends Kersina and Ryan, and Kate's friend, Zoe. We made gingerbread houses (with homemade gingerbread) and had a lot of fun.
I helped decorate, but Christian was the one who completed most of the assembly.

Kate and I are both just shocked how fast December flew by.

Proud to be a Californian

On Thursday night Christian went over to a friend's house to have 'man night'. While he was gone, I watched 'Jingle All the Way' on TV. How had I never watched this movie before? I laughed until I cried. Arnold Schwarzenegger is hilarious. There should be a sequel.

Time Sure Does Fly!

Exactly two years ago I was here...
Serving with these lovely Brazilians (and one American-Brazilian).....

With no idea this guy would meet me at the airport two weeks after....And change my life forever by marrying me three months later.
And I could have never imagined how happy I would be when this little lady entered my life!
It's been an amazing two years. I can't wait to see what the next two years have in store for our little family of three.

Duck Fight

Today Kate and I went to the park. We wandered around for a while and then settled in on a bench next to the duck pond. While we were sitting there, a little old man walked over to the edge of the pond, pulled out a bag of bread crumbs, and started feeding the ducks. The ducks started swarming to his side of the pond. A few minutes after this happened, I noticed that a few of the ducks started swimming away and heading to the back corner of the pond toward the fenced off section. My eyes followed the ducks, and there, behind the fence, hidden by bushes, was a much older man throwing whole pieces of bread to the ducks. After a few minutes, the majority of the ducks had decided that they would prefer whole pieces of bread to bread crumbs and abandoned their first lunch offer. Dejected, the first man sauntered away. The whole event made me wonder what type of old person I'm going to be. Am I going to be the type to go feed the ducks, or am I going to be the type that lurks in bushes just to foil my fellow elderly's afternoon plans. I guess I won't know until I get there.

Sumo Santa

There is an episode of 'The Office' where all of the employees take a day-trip to the lake together. While there, they have various competitions, including a wrestling match wearing giant inflated sumo wrestler costumes. One of the characters, Andy Bernard, while still wearing his sumo attire, wanders over to the edge of the lake, peers into the water, looses his balance, and falls in. Because of the costume, Andy is very buoyant and begins to float, frantically waving his arms and legs. He shouts desperately to a co-worker on shore who does nothing as Andy continues to float farther and farther away. Near the end of the episode, there is a night scene where Andy, caught in some reeds, is still calling out for help.

Today we had a Primary Christmas breakfast. When the breakfast was in its planning stages, I talked Christian into being Santa Claus. I promised him that I would stay by his side and make sure his beard stayed on, no kids poked him in the eye, etc. We were off to a good start when someone asked me a question and I went to find out the answer. As I often do, I got distracted and started taking care of a few other things. By the time I got back, I had this thought in the back of my head, "I wonder why Christian's shoulders are almost touching his ears. That's funny." I wandered back to his side where he desperately said something along the lines of, "Ho, ho, ho Sister Kelsey. Santa needs your help." He finally got it across to me that his beard was half way down his chin. I went to pull the elastic up and over his ear when I realized there was a piece of half eaten candy cane stickily stuck to his ear. At that moment two thoughts came to my mind. The first was that my husband's plight seemed to be paralleling that of Andy Bernard's, a nice guy stranded in a fat suit with no one around to help. The other thought was that I sure am a lucky lady because my husband will do just about anything for me. What a great guy!

Back From the Blogging Dead

It's been a while since I've blogged, so of course, the first thing I need to put on here are some pictures of Kate. I should probably change the name of my blog from 'The Kelsey Adventures' to 'All About Kate' because, let's be honest, that's all I ever write about any more.

Kate is now three months old. Here is her monthly car seat picture. As you can see, she's getting closer and closer to the plaid on top. She is getting so big! She's already double her birth weight.

Kate's been getting really good at holding her head up. She's also a lot more alert. Her favorite thing to do is play with her dad. Her second favorite thing to do is pull at her pants until they turn into mini-shorts (as you can see in this picture). She gets frustrated when I put her in jeans because those are harder to pull up. She especially likes wearing skirts because she can pull them up to her chin. I guess we'll have to have a modesty talk when she gets older.

We went to Utah for a few days over Thanksgiving. The time went by so fast because we kept bouncing from family to family. Kate loved it! She got to be held for three straight days. The only thing she didn't love was the cold. To prevent her from getting really mad, we tried dressing her up as a polar bear.
Somehow on the way home we ended up having first class seats. It was probably because my mom bought the tickets with her extra platinum sky miles or whatever it is. It was the first time I've ever flown first class. It was also Kate's first time. It's not quite fair I had to wait until I was a quarter of a century and Kate only had to wait until she was a quarter of a year.

It was nice to come back home where we're enjoying lovely fifty degree weather. Kate and I love to play in the backyard during the afternoons. I guess Kate's not quite big enough for the swing just yet, but we're getting there.

And one last picture just for good measure.

Kate's Blessing Day

So this is what it would be like to have twins.....

Baby Lunch

A few months ago there were a whole bunch of pregnant ladies in our ward. Now, surprise, surprise, there are a whole bunch of babies. Every now and again we get together and have lunch. It is really fun to see how much they've all grown (the babies, not the ladies). Here are some pictures to prove it.

Brett (6 mo.) Charlie (3 mo.) Kyle (2 mo.) Kate (1 mo.) Zoe (1/2 mo.)

Brett (7 mo.) Charlie (4 mo.) Ryan (3 mo.) Kyle (3 mo.) Kate (2 mo.) Zoe (1 1/2 mo.)

Don't tell her dad, but Kate already started to cuddle with a boy. Fortunately for Christian, Kyle doesn't look all that interested in Kate.

Sweet Little Lady Bug

Here she is! My darling little snuggle bug.

You can probably tell from the picture, Kate slept through most of her time as a Lady Bug.


Kate finally got to meet her only two cousins, Betsy and Gabe. The lady bug on the left is Betsy. My whole family (except Carrie, of course) came to visit for Kate's blessing. The day before we had a Halloween party, complete with pinata. Afterward we went trick-or-treating. Kate diligently held a candy bag even though she was asleep. Christian ate all of her candy.

Here's Gabe's costume. He was a ghost-robot, but he turned out to be more robot than ghost. The two red rectangles on his chest flashed and he could make his claw open and shut. This costume was a BIG hit as we went door-to-door. One guys said, "I'm totally going to make that costume next year!"


Kate loved spending time with her cousins!

Gabe kept saying, "Aw! Kate is such a cute little girl!" I think it made Betsy jealous because it looks like the girls started fighting for Gabe's attention.
I'm guessing Betsy was winning because Kate looks pretty mad.

But then the whole operation fell over.

It was so much fun to have my family here. More pictures to come of Kate's blessing day. But until then, here are some 2 month comparison pictures.

2 Days


1 Month


2 Months

2 Days

1 Month

2 Months

It Happened!

We did it! We had a primary program, and it all came together. The kids were amazing. They all did a wonderful job!! They memorized their parts, sang with all their hearts, and smiled their beautiful smiles. I'm so grateful for them and also grateful for the dedicated teachers and leaders who made it all happen.

Halloween, Baby

Any guesses what Kate is going to be for Halloween? I'll give you a hit, it's one of the following.

For Emmy.....

If I Could Attatch a Carseat, I Would Buy.....

Isn't it a beaut? And the best part is it's green! Okay, I know it looks blue, but it's the inside that counts and that is definitely green because it's electric. That means it's emission-free. Now that's a convenient truth! Plus, since they are classified as electric bicycles they do not require registration, an insurance policy, or a motorcycle permit. Go check out the website! Now, if they could just make that carseat attachment......

Creepy Crawly

Guess what little critter I found in the bathroom today.

no, not one of these,

not one of these,

not even one of these

It was one of these!!!!