Happy Valentine's Day!

Remember when Valentine's Day was so exciting? Kenzie is at that stage, and she had a great time decorating this little foam mailbox for all her Valentines.

Then this morning I gave the kiddos their presents. (They don't need to know the word "clearance" yet, just that they were happy). Kenzie has been asking for a Valentine's bear, too, so I was very happy that one had been sitting in the closet all year. It has little hearts all over it, and Kenzie studied it for a second and remarked, "It's like the chicken pox, except it's Love Pox!"

I also loved that Kenzie couldn't be bothered to take off her coat or backpack first, no, she needed to empty her mailbox and go through the loot! Parker was right there, too, and helped himself to more than a few little pieces of candy (most were willingly shared). Happy Valentine's Day!

Day 100

Today was day 100 of Kindergarten. This was a big deal for McKenzie, so it seemed fitting to take a few pictures. I'm just glad even after 100 times (or well, 99, she was sick one day) she is still so happy to go each day.

It looks like we're preparing for some bizarre Mardi-Gras event! Happy Friday!

Cousins

Monday I had a doctor's appointment to remove the stent placed during surgery (and am now feeling much better, hooray!), and my sister-in-law came over with her little girl, Tatum, to watch Parker. (I was very glad not to bring Parker with me, since he's been extra concerned about me since the hospital.) But I thought this picture was too sweet that DianaLynn took - and I'm glad Parker has fun with his little cousin.

Jinxed

Well, I have learned my lesson - no month will ever be declared "boring" again! Last Thursday at 6am I woke up with a sharp pain my my back. I thought it was just a failure to evenly distribute my pregnancy weight while sleeping, so I told Chris not to worry as he headed off to catch his bus to work. About 20 minutes later, though, it was clear that I was not going to be fine, and my self-diagnosis was the dreaded kidney stone. I had one when I was pregnant with McKenzie, so I recognized the pain, the throwing up, and my whining like a little kid. Despite recognizing what it was, it still took all day Thursday in the ER, and then all day Friday admitted to the hospital, before the urologist agreed to surgery to remove the stone. (It was not showing up on an ultrasound and they'd rather a pregnant woman languish on heavy narcotics then have an x-ray...)

Anyways, my own grumbling aside, the saddest part was having my kiddos come visit me before my surgery. Kenzie brought me this picture she'd colored. (Top says: "To Mommy From McKenzie." Bottom says, "To Mommy I love you I'm sore [sorry] that you have a kidney stone.") She looked so worried seeing me hooked up to an IV, oxygen, heart rate monitors and who knows what else. Of course I tried to reassure her, but it still was obviously concerning for her.

My little guy was very concerned as well. Even this morning he still told me, "I miss you at hospital!" He got to ride in my bed with me as they wheeled me to surgery, so he did think that was fun ("I have fun in the bed!"), and he also got to ride in the wheelchair with me as I was discharged on Saturday and push the button for the elevator. He was very proud of himself for that. He's still worn out from the ordeal, though, and has gone back to napping during the day. I've just been puttering around very, very slowly. We have some great neighbors around here who have taken Kenzie to school and even brought us dinner a few times, and of course we really owe my in-laws for watching the kids all day while Chris sat by my side in the ER. (Some date! We spent all day together and I remember only a little of it!) Anyways I have an appointment on Monday to have the stent removed, so cross your fingers I will start feeling better after that!

January Sure is Boring!

I have not had anything to post about all month! So here's a random selection of recent things:It's cold in the basement. I did take a lot of "before" pictures as we slowly begin finishing the basement, but since there are no "after" pictures yet, there won't be a post on that for quite some time.

I love that in family pictures, Kenzie draws Parker as the tiny baby and Allison is closer to her size. The other day she looked at my growing belly and told me, "You just look like a real mom now!" It was better than calling me fat so I just thanked her!

One of my many sweet notes that come daily from McKenzie. Although I did really like the one where instead of Mommy I was "Tefne." I taped that one in my journal.

Here are the goofballs themselves, growing up some more. Each has been going through a growth spurt; I haven't had time to update the blog because we're always in the kitchen for snacktime!

Using the coffee table as the basis for a fort. I was sad I cut Kenzie's face off in the picture, but in my defense, it's increasingly difficult for me to get under a coffee table! And there you have it, January in a nutshell. When's Spring?

Arnold Family Christmas

My three favorite people, getting ready to head to Grandma and Grandpa Arnold's for more presents!

Torry and Wes trying out the lock-picking set I got for Geeb. It's only illegal in some states, by the way.

Every year there's a horrible gift my mother finds and calls it the "Mother-in-law" gift. This year it was a book about pee. Hayden always is amused by the gift of the year.

Kenzie getting ready for brunch.

Parker ate two croissants and quite a bit of hot chocolate. For my picky eater, this was quite impressive.

Megan, Camille, and Kenzie hanging out by the present pile, waiting for their turn...

...Kenzie's gift was a Barbie horse!

Parker loves Buzz Lightyear, and now has a Buzz and a spaceship.

Brilee and Lacie are arguably a little old for footie pajamas, but it was kind of funny. This family is not normal by any means, anyways. (Insert joke here about why I fit in so well.)

The rest of the day was spent snacking on various cheeses and treats. A great Christmas as always! Such a bummer to have to wait a whole year to do it again...

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning!! Kenzie headed straight for the presents when she woke up at 8:15, but she did wait patiently for her little brother to wake up a few minutes later. Parker surveyed the living room with new presents and said, "Look! A mess!" We loved that.This was the most enjoyable Christmas so far with these two - both could open presents on their own (although we did have to keep reminding Kenzie to slow down or she'd be done long before Parker) and were thrilled about everything they got.

Case in point - this was the face Kenzie made for every single thing she opened. Here she's showing off her new Ariel lip gloss.

Here's Parker's face. Pure cheese.

Snuggling with their new pillow pets.

One happy girl with her haul.

One very happy little man.

Parker loves Blue's Clues, especially Periwinkle the kitty. Santa brought him a stuffed Periwinkle, and I loved his reaction. Kenzie has wanted the orange Zhu Zhu pet, Nugget, for a long time, too.

One last video, because I loved Parker's reaction to his panda pillow pet. Somehow he guessed it as he was about to open it, too. That is pretty amazing to us.