December 2008 pictures!

Christmas morning!
Colby, Kevin, Amie, & Cameron

Eden, Ocean, & Jamie

Christmas morning! Kailee loves her blocks!

Grandpa & Grandma Simmons with Allie

Christmas eve

Christmas Eve!

Kailee's $1 princess hat, lol

Christms morning; go cougars!

Temple Square!

Jared's fam!

We took a tram to Salt Lake

Cousins!

Granny took Kailee to a fun bounce house! She had a blast and boy was it a workout for me pushin her up all the ladders so that she could slide down, lol.

Eden and Kailee

Jared's parents surprised us with tickets to go to Body Worlds!! It was amazing! And surprisingly, we didn't get grossed out at all!

So, we got a little carried away, jk. These are martinelli's!

New Year's party at the Critchfield house!

Joy and my Dad sent these adorable dresses for the girls for Christmas!! I love them!

We got to see our friends from Wymount (Schmidts, Becks, & Johns), which was a very special treat! It's crazy that we all have babies now! Aren't Christian, Reagan, and Henry adorable? Except you can't really see Christian's cute face, he was busy jumping, lol.

At the hotel!

Jacob and Kailee! She love her uncle Jacob!

She finally got to meet Casey!!! She is constantly saying "Casey, Casey" now! We had a blast with him, as he spent Christmas with us at Jared's family's house!

BFF!!

"a-ba-ka-ba-ka-pa-ka-boo"

Our Growing girls!

Sisters!

Kailee has recently started not eating her meat or veggies, so I tried bribing her with stickers. Here she has eaten 1 green bean for each sticker you see. The next night, I could distract her by talking about the colors and get like 2 bites of veggies in for each sticker. She loves stickers!

First Kailee insisted on wearing her Elmo slippers, then her gloves, and then she put on her hat. Pinks and reds are a great combo!!

Kailee at the ward Christmas party!

While the primary children sang, Kailee stood in awe! Pull down Allie's dress, take her hands out of her mouth, put a smile on Kailee, and remove my arms... and this is one great picture!!

Allie sucking her thumb!!It snowed like .2 inches and because it was icy, school was cancelled!!! So Daddy spent the day with us!!

Her new outfit from Mama Bert!

Still cute in pigtails!

Jared's Christmas Concert!

Jared had his 1st Christmas concert Friday night and his students were awesome. Jared is seriously an awesome Choir teacher. I was very impressed with the songs these little sixth graders were performing. This video is of the closing song where all of the classes sang together. It's a beautiful arrangement of "Let there be Peace on Earth." I had so many parents introduce themselves to me after and tell me what a difference Jared has made in their child's life, what a wonderful job he is doing, and how much the choir program has improved since he got there. I could tell that his students really loved him too. I dropped Kailee off to play with a friend and just took Allie with me, who no longer sleeps through loud noises I guess. She was quiet and kept dozing, but would then awake during loud songs or when the backdoor would slam. I was so annoyed that people would come in during the middle of a song and let the backdoor of the auditorium slam. It was so loud. Aren't there concert etiquette rules about that? Jared said he didn't hear it though, so that's good. Anyways, please listen to this beautiful song and give Jared a round of applause for a great first semester!!! I'm so glad Jared chose a profession that he loves in which he can make a difference in the lives of many children. I love that he gets weekends and summers off too! And a 2 week Christmas break. Teaching is the greatest job!! I love you honey-bunny and I'm so proud of you!!!!

Our temporary house!

Videos of Kailee!

The BEST movie!!!

A friend recommended that I watch the movie "North and South." I did and it was one of the best movies ever. I loved it. There are 4 - 52 minute episodes, but it does not seem that long at all. I was so intrigued throughout the entire movie that it was difficult to stop watching it, but I had to because I only had 1 disc at a time (through Netflix). There are 2 episodes on each disc, so if you have Netflix, definitely watch it; you won't be disappointed. I cannot wait to read the book, though I wish I had read the book first.

Thanksgiving!

I'm so mad I forgot my camera. You'll just have to use your imagination. Jared had the whole Thanksgiving week off, so Friday after work, we drove to Houston to see our buddies Alex and Cathryn (and Bella...their cat!) We got to hang out with Dave and his new wife Danielle and Jake too. (All of Jared's roommates once again reunited). We played Settler's of Catan, went out to eat, and played some kiddie murder game where we hold hands and the murder keeps killing people and then you guess who the murderer is, lol. We also ate sloppy joes and had a great time! We had lots of fun there for the weekend, though the drive up with 2 sick kids was miserable. It took us 5.5 hours to drive 3 hours. A visit to the doctor let us know that Allie's 2 ear infections was what was making her so cranky and causing her to not eat or sleep much.

Anyways, on Monday we went to Austin to stay with Jared's sister and her family. Jared's family from Utah also came down for the week, so the house was packed and we had a great time. Kailee loved having so many people to adore her and play with her! Jared's Mom also had a family picture arranged in which half the family wore BYU hoodies and the other half wore Longhorn (Univ. of Texas) hoodies because that's where Jamie graduated from law school, where Adam is finishing up business school, and Terrie, Amie, and Kevin always where UT stuff since they're from Texas. We had our girls in blue shirts. My BYU bow saved Allie from looking like a boy! I can't wait to see the pictures. Terrie made the BEST thanksgiving dinner and pies ever and we had a fun week playing games, hanging out, and going to chuckie cheese's. And there's a possibility we'll be going up to Utah to hang out with the whole crowd again in a few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that gas stays down! And if you'll be in Utah, we hope to see ya! Sorry about the long post!

Back to blogging!

Kailee getting ready for the big move to Mckinney! We moved the end of October and are living in a family friend's mother's house while she is away nannying her great-grandchild. It's an old home in the historic area of downtown Mckinney which is a beautiful area. Lots of homes are being remodeled around here. It's a 2 bedroom, 1200 sq. ft. home, which is like double Wymount size... so we love it! It has 1.5 baths. The half bath is in Kailee's room, weird huh? The other bathroom only has a shower, but it's a big one with a seat and a rail in case we need help getting up! I'll take a video of it soon so all can see our lovely home. Jared works 1.2 miles away and rides his bike there, so I get the car! There is a big lake about 2 miles away that has trails all the way around it for me to rollerblade! There is a park and the library about a half mile away too! I love it here! We only pay utilities/property taxes here, so we are super lucky and grateful to be here and currently saving for a 2nd vehicle and a house!!!

Bath time!

Last bath for a while... the house we're living in now doesn't have a bath :( At first, she loved the shower, but now she just cries and wants to get out. I never realized what a luxury a bath really is until now. I miss baths too.

Aunt Jess made this cute dress for Kailee! Can you believe it was still summer weather in October? Aren't her pigtails cute?!

Pic. taken at 3 months, but now she is 4 months and today we had her 4 month check up!

She is in the 73% in height, 83rd% in weight, and 98% in head. At 2 months, she was around 50% for everything, so she has really grown. She weighs 15 lbs. 13 oz. And once again, we have another girl with a big brain!! Allie can roll from tunny to back, coos and caas a lot, and is still getting up about 3 times a night (after I go to bed). After she's completely healed of her ear infections, I think she'll start sleeping longer periods of time. She is a great napper and sleeper, she will go down drowsy now, but she gets up in the night to eat a lot more than Kailee did at her age. Allie has a beautiful smile and is so dang cute! We love her to pieces!

3 months!

Allie at 3 months

Once Kailee got the hang of trick or treating, she would say "peas" grab a piece of candy, say "tankou" and then run to the next house. Eventually she got tired and to speed things up, Daddy would hold her! Allie did not dress up. She stayed swaddled in her car seat and slept most of the time.

One of Jared's best friends growing up used to live here. This is Mr. Moralis with Jared and the girls!!

Kailee loved trick or treating!

At one house, instead of saying "trick or treat", she said "happy bir-day!"

Nana sent Kailee a princess costume and she loved it!

She walked around the house saying "princess." 1 month later, she still says princess all the time and runs to her room, puts on her princess veil thingy and sits at her princess table and plays. In the last month, Kailee has become more independent and has gotten more of an attitude and an opinion about everything. She says "no night night", "want mommy... no daddy...no want mommy...etc.' she can never make up her mind. She started throwing little fits when she doesn't get her way too... like when she can't have 3 servings of raisins, or when I hold Allie and not her, or when she wants to go outside, but I currently can't because I'm feeding Allie. That's the hardest thing I'd say with 2 kids... trying to put Allie to sleep while Kailee is talking, whining, or yelling right beside me. I try to distract her and play whispering games, but sometimes it backfires and she does just the opposite of what I'd like her to do and starts yelling really loud. She has also started yelling "want it" when she wants something. We have a feeling she learned that from nursery. Though she's entering into the terrible 2 year, she is a sweetie! She loves to give Mommy, Daddy, and Allie hugs and kisses. She runs up to me or Jared sometimes and yells "kisses" or "hugs". We got a swing off of craigslist that you attach with rope to a tree and she loves it. She loves to play with other kids, watch elmo, barney, or strawberry shortcake (which she calls (cu-cake). She loves to jump off of her chair onto pillows, read books, play princess, play outside, eat, and she LOVES medicine. She is getting over bronchitis and has loved her antibiotic and Allie had 2 ear infections and she would always beg for Allie's medicine too. Kailee has big, beautiful eyes and the cutest smile. She is a doll. She loves to entertain guests and she loves to run errands with Mommy or Daddy. She is quite the bundle of joy!!

Diaper change?..."no, no"