Christmas Celebration 2011

Here I am, a month late, posting about Christmas. This month has flown by and I am in that 'place' of being overwhelmed with all the blogging I need to catch up on. Life is so busy! I figure a little post is better than none, so here is my quick re-cap of Christmas. It was SO very wonderful and enjoyable this year! Much better for me than last year was when I was in the early stages of pregnancy. I had the energy and enthusiasm to keep up this time! My favorite thing about Christmas is watching my boys and their excitement around all the festivities, and it seems to get even better as they get older.

Christmas Eve morning we picked up the boys from grandmas annual cousin sleep over-gift shopping-play time extravaganza. I am amazed that my mom has the energy to follow through with this every year! It gets a little more wild each year as more grandkids get added into the mix! Luckily she had lots of help (grandpa Randy, Blake, Connor etc). Keeping with tradition, all cousins recieved matching Christmas PJs. They all looked so cute! What a fun little crowd of crazies!

The evening was celebrated at our house, complete with BOTH sides of the family. Doesnt get any better than that! We had enjoyed great conversation and time together as well as lots of yummy food. Oh and of course, the new tradition of the white elephant gift exchange which is always loads of fun. Here is the ONLY picture I took the whole evening :(    I must have been too busy playing hostess.....

Christmas morning was a whirlwind, opening presents and getting ready for church. I love having Christmas fall on a Sunday, but it does make for a busy morning. The boys had so much fun opening presents. Although we did have to have a lesson on being thanful for what we get. With two boys they both want the EXACT same things...however it is not practical to buy 2 of every thing. So each boy had their fair share of 'wanting' what brother got. Made for some interesting moments...but all was well in the end:) After the gifts were opended and the house was thouroghly destroyed we headed over to Spokane and went to church with my parents. All 5 siblings and families were there which was awesome! Dinner then was at the Kenworthy home....and of course the food was exceptional. Yummy, I love me some Christmas dinner.

 

5 Months Old

Ok, ok! Yes, it is true, Kashton is now almost SIX months! BUT....I had some cute pics of him I took on his 5 month 'birthday' and just HAD to blog them. He is such a handsome fun little devil. LOVE him to itty bitty pieces!!

 

4 Months!

I am in a bit of denial here, I do not want to be doing this post. Maybe thats why its a week late. But, I skipped the 2 and 3month milestone post, so this is a must. My sweet, precious, lovable, squeezable, cuddly, chubby littlest man has hit the 4 month mark. We have officailly gone from newborn to infant. Don't get me wrong, I love more than anything to watch him grow and see his personality start to develop. I just LOVE newborn stage, and it doesnt last long enough! This little fatty is weighing in at 16lbs and is wearing 6-9 month clothes! What?? How is this possible? He is by far our biggest baby at this stage in the game. It will be interesting to see how he compares to the other boys as he gets older. I find myself noticing so many qualities (mainly physical so far) that I see in each of the other boys. He is SUCH a mix of the two. At first, I thought he looked more like Kohen, then I thought Kason, now I cant decide. He's got the top half of his head like Kason (except the hair line which is no doubt exactly like Nicks-widows peak) and then the lower half is like Ko, the mouth and jaw line. I need to dig up old pics of the boys at the same age and compare...watch for this post to come....:)

He is the most adorable little butterball in the world, and his sweet little spirit has brought so much joy to our home. He is such a good baby, his only quirk being that he is a stubborn sleeper like Kason was. He HATES to go to sleep and protests beyond belief. Once he does, fall asleep, he doesn't stay that way for very long:) BUT, even when he is in desperate need of a nap, he is still happy and well behaved, so I cant complain too much! I am hoping that his naps will start to become a little more organized and a bit longer so I can start to get into a steady routine, which is what I need and love!

He has FINALLY started enjoying tummy time, it took forever!!! But, he is now pushing up on his arms an liftting up (kason seriously mastered this at like a week old, I didnt realize at the time, but he was SUCH a strong baby!) He is also grabbing a playing with toys and loves to play with his hands:) His favorite place to be is the swing, and he also prefers to nap there....a habit I am trying to break!! And second to his swing is his exersaucer. He LOVES to use his legs so this has been great for him to be able to 'stand up' with support. He loves his brothers already, and the boys love to entertain him and actually fight daily over who gets to sit closest to him. Cute but annoying. They seriously duke it out....boys will be boys I guess! But Kashton watches their every move and is learning so much from them...both the good and the bad!

He is sleeping fairly well at night, it could be much worse. He goes down at night around 8 and wakes somtime between 3 and 5 for a feeding then goes back to sleep till 730 or 8. In a perfect world, he would skip that early am feeding, but that will happen soon enough so I am ok with it:) He HATES being in the car, which is new to me....both Kason and Ko loved it and I could always rely on a little nap in the car if need be. But for this stubborn little man, he is not having it. He screams probably 75% of the time we are in the car....doesnt that sound lovely??? It seems as though he is mad at the fact that he is staring at the back of a seat, he wants to be able to see what is going on and he feels left out. Poor little bubba:) Luckily, this seems to be subsiding a bit, now that he can play with his little toy bar attachment, that seems to be helping. Which brings me to my next point....he loves attention and to be entertained. (another Kason quality) he thrives off interaction and fusses when left alone. Now that he is developing the ability to 'play' with toys, he is a bit more content on his own at times, but usually not for very long. Luckily I love giving him attention as much as he likes to recieve it. I love baby stage and am trying to soak up every last bit of it as possible before its gone:(

So bear with me as I enter picture overload. As I said before, I skipped the 2 and 3 month postings so I am playing catch up on pics here. There are so many that I had to do a few collages to condense them. It is so funny to see so many expressions and compare them side by side. He has so many 'faces' and I love them all. My favorite is his chubby face where his cheeks all squish together. Love it. I am slightly frustrated. however at the fact that he refuses to smile for the camera. He will be all smiley and full of personality, and  whenever I get the camera out and he freezes and stares like a deer in headlights. I have yet to get his real smile and personality captured. This makes me so mad because his smile is priceless!! But the pics I do have are still dang cute. I love this little man.

These are all taken around the 6 week mark

These were taken about a week before he turned 2 months and are my fave! He was having a chubby day

These were from his little 2 month photo shoot:)

Around 2.5 months

 3 month photo shoot

 These are from a few weeks ago, about 3.5 months old

The Picture at the top is one of the most recent I have. I took a bunch trying to get a good recent one of him for the christmas card. I got a couple, and will post them all together with the other Christmas pics and posts, hopefully in the next week or so. I do feel a routine starting to take shape as of the last week or 2, so hopefully I can start blogging more consistnetly again!



Thankful

THanksgiving is such a great holiday. I was a bit annoyed this year that all the retailers seemed to go straight from Halloween to Christmas without giving Turkey Day it's much deserved 'turn' in the spotlight. Its a bit pitiful that its all about profit and revenue, ugh, I could go on...but I wont!! Anyways we had SUCH a lovely relaxing Thanksgiving this year. We hosted at our house, but it was very mild and low key and I actually enjoyed preparing the home and food. We were with 'Nick's side' this year, and unfortuately, Mike had to work, and Shelly was out of town, so we didnt get to see them. But it was still fabulous. Lots of yummy food and great conversation.

We are so blessed and so thankful for all that we have. Most of all, family and eachother. Everything else is just a bonus. I am so incredibly thankful for my amazing and hard working husband and the awesome daddy and example he is for our 3 little boys. He has been busting his butt lately working 2 jobs to provide a great future for us. I am thankful that he has the opportunity and ability to work and he is so good at what he does. LOVE this man. and LOVE my kids! And I LOVE having a day solely devoted to focusing on and appreciating all the amazing things in our lives!

Handsome Boys Ready for the Feast!!

Halloween-2011

Halloween came and went so incredibly fast this year. Here I am blogging about it, nearly 2 weeks later, and I feel like it was just a few days ago! And to think Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away...yikes. I didn't think it was possible, but having a 3rd child makes the time fly even faster! Although we had tons of fun celebrating this year, I was just not as 'in to it' this year. I did the bare minimum to keep the kids happy, nothing above and beyond. Luckily the kids were super easy in their demands for costumes. Kason wanted to be a MotoCross rider which was sooo easy since we have all the gear. And then Kohen fell in love with our Buzz Costume (Kason wore 2 years ago) and was happy with that. All I did was get Kashton a shark costume on clearance at Old Navy. Thats what I am talking about. My kind of holiday:)

Festivites began on the Thursday prior to Halloween. We had the Harvest Party at the Kinder Center for Kason. The kids all put on a costume parade in the gym then we went around and played games in the classroom. It was a fun night for the whole family. It was fun to see Kason in his environment and see him interact with friends and his teacher. Then on Saturday night we went to our ward party, which was a great time. I was so very impressed with the costumes that people had on! So much creativity and hard work! I felt a little 'lazy' in my regular clothes:) Maybe next year I will have the ambition to dress up. I got some great ideas! And can I just say how much we love our ward?! They sure know how to throw a party, it was a fabulous turn out, so many people came to celebrate. And the kids had so much fun. Oh, and the food was to DIE for! Love those lds potlucks:)

On 'acutal' Halloween we had a little party at our house. Mainly used it as a 'hub' for the trick-or-treaters to warm up and fill their bellies and a place for the moms to stay with babies while daddys took big kids out.  I think its safe to say that this will become a new tradition. It was great for the cousins to be able to celebrate the holiday together. They all seemed to have so much fun, and I think there were a few great memories made!!

Here are the Halloween Pics that I captured. As of lately, see previous posts, my pictures are not the best. I am lucky to get the ones I do. Too busy holding a baby to juggle a camera! :)

My big boys-Rider and Buzz

 This is during the costume parade at the harvest party. Kason was terrified:)

My little shark at the ward party-love the drool face

Watching the young women perform their dance at the ward party. Ko was intrigued. No surprise there

 Kason and Carson (2nd cousin) after trick-or-treating

 My mom and aunt Lisa, had to include, thought this was cute:)

This was the entire gang. good times!

This is my very favorite pic of the entire holiday weekend. I love his squishy face!

Kashton's Baby Blessing

October 16th was the day Kashton had his baby blessing. I can't believe that was already 2 weeks ago! We had family and friends join us at church that day and then everyone came over to our house for a yummy lunch. I made White Chili Chicken soup for the first time and it was a major success. Yummy. Kashton's blessing was Nick's first opportunity at giving a priesthood blessing (aside from the 'night before first day of school daddy blessing'). I think I was more nervous than he was! He, to no surprise, did an amazing job and gave Kashton such a beautiful blessing. These boys are so lucky to have Nick for a daddy. And, of course Kashton looked so very handsome. It was a great day.

I had hoped to get a picture of the whole family, but since the cousins were over, the 'big boys' were nowhere to be found:)

Kason starts Kindergarten!

The big day has finally come and gone. Last Tuesday was Kason's first day of 'big boy' school. He has loved his first week, although he has had a little anxiety when it comes time for mom to leave him there. Today was actually his first day with no tears! So we are making progress...yay:) He gets his anxiety issues from me...I had to have Kiley stay with me as long as possible everyday of my kindergarten year, so I can relate to how he feels. Everyday when I pick him up, he is all smiles and tells me all about his fun day. I know he is going to end up loving the experience. He has an awesome teacher, Mrs Hansen, who I can already tell I am going to love. I wasn't emotional at all taking him, up until the teacher read this book to the kids and parents during the parent orientation on the first day. This is when I cracked....



A must read for moms and kids ready to start school!!!

It's been bittersweet leaving him there each day, he has grown up so much and we are so proud of him and the great example he is to his little brothers! I sure miss his sweet little face each day, but know its all part of growing up....

I took so many pictures on the big day, many of which were super cute. I am stressed at the fact that those adorable pictures are currently trapped on my laptop which refuses to turn on. Luckily the hardrive is still intact, just need to get the power on! Have a call in with Toshiba on that....(another reason I need a mac!!) So these are the pictures taken on Nicks phone (iPhone saves the day) which will have to suffice until I can access the others.. Luckily they still document his cuteness.... :)

This ones super blurry due to cropping....