Christmas with the Kinyons

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas morning. Unfortunately, there are only a few because I forgot to charge the camera battery. I'm so awesome. We stayed up putting Lo's kitchen together and just kept saying "I'm so excited for her to see this" - and she was. There's something about giving your kids something that you know they will absolutely LOVE!

This is Lo's pile - here's the kitchen and her other stuff that didn't even matter to her.

Here's Mya's pile. Mostly clothes - there's only so much you can do for a 4 month old :)

She played and played with her kitchen, and we basically had to open all of her other presents because this was all she really cared about. We would open something, and she would turn and say "ooooh, thank you" and then return to her cooking of hot dogs, chips, and fries. It was so cute! We had to tear her away from it after only about 30 minutes to go to my mom's and she was so sad. She kept saying "I just want to bring all my stuff, I just want to bring it". Broke my heart!!! So we've decided that from now on, we are going to only 2 places on Christmas - our parents' houses. By the time we went everywhere (4 places) it was time to go to bed. Christmas shouldn't be that hard on little kids who just want to play with their presents!

This is the new nickname that Bryan has bestowed upon me. Chiefy Pants. I'm so lucky.

If this offends anyone, or if anyone actually has this shirt and wears it I'm sorry, but this was my joke present from Bryan. The cheesiest Twilight shirt he could find. The back has an excerpt from the book. He likes to try and make me guess my presents every year and his clue this year was "it's something that you won't use like other people will". Basically he knows I would never wear this outside of the house, but I still love all things Twilight!!!

Playin' in the Snow With Daddy

Here's Bryan shovelling snow around/on her so that she was stuck in the same place - she thought this was the greatest thing ever, since she didn't even try and walk through the snow because she kept falling.

Daddy giving her a snowball. She attempted to throw it, and it went about 4 inches :)

Thought I'd throw this one in. I snuck into her room last night to get something, and this is how she was sleeping. She's usually a pretty light sleeper, so I'm surprised the flash going off didn't wake her up. How is this even remotely comfortable?????

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

Lazy Day

I originally had things planned for today - going to the grocery store, running some other errands, maybe playing outside with Lo while the little one took a nap. Until I saw this from my front door:

I have a general rule about that - one should stay inside and enjoy it, so I decided that it was going to be Lazy Day today. We have Lazy Day here about once every 2 to 3 weeks. Lazy Day is also called Whenever I Want Day. When do I get showered? Whenever I want. When do I get the girls dressed? Whenever I want. When do I do anything? Whenever I want.

On this particular Lazy Day, I spent the morning drinking some of this:

And my sweet girls did some of this:

It's been a good day today. I think my bad week is finally over :)

My Horrible Week

I'm having an absolutely horrible week, one of those weeks that seems like nothing is ever going to go your way again. And as I was sitting here thinking about my horrible week, I decided that I need to look at the bright side of things. I've always been a positive person, and I don't like to feel sorry for myself, so here are the ways my horrible week has been a good thing.
First of all, I'm going to say that Monday is not included in my horrible week, it starts with Tuesday, so I guess you can say I've had a horrible Tuesday-Wednesday (it's 6:52 am on Thursday, so it hasn't been horrible yet).
1. The snow - I had 2 meetings in the office on Tuesday - one at 10:00 and one at 4:00. I thought I was leaving my house in plenty of time to take the girls to meet my sister-in-law in Bountiful. Apparently I didn't, because it took me about a half hour to get from my house on 12100 S. to I-15 and 10600 S. So I called Becky and just told her to go home, missed my meeting, and braved the weather for nothing. And for those of you who don't know, I'm DEATHLY afraid of driving in the snow. I have missed work, gatherings, appointments, etc because I'm so afraid of it. Where is my positive in this? There are a few: I drove in the snow, which is a big deal for me, I didn't just chicken out and call it in, I at least tried. I am so lucky to have such a great sister-in-law to get up and brave the conditions to help me out with my kids. She has done this more than once. And she called me later to let me know that she was going to come to my house at 3:00 so that I could make it to my 4:00 meeting without having to pack up my kids and get an extra half hour of my time in at work. Thanks Becky! And if I had been at work, I wouldn't have been home to snuggle with Lo while watching the Grinch, and to find a new way to make Mya laugh.
2. I dropped a piece of freshly made pumpkin pie on my kitchen rug. Upside? One less piece of pie for me to eat, which is a good thing.
3. The baby swing broke - I'm still kind of trying to figure out the positive in this, but maybe it's that I get to find a new way for Mya to take her morning nap? Maybe?
4. It took me an hour and a half to make it home from work, go to the grocery store, and get dinner home for my family on Tuesday because we had ZERO food in our house. My poor kid and hubby didn't get to eat dinner until 7:30, and Lo goes to bed at 8:00. I felt so bad! Positive? I got to go grocery shopping alone, without my screaming kids, which is always a plus - more fun for everyone.
5. Lauren has a rash on her whole head and won't stop scratching it, making her ears bleed all over her sheets at night. Very, very sad, and I don't know what to do about it - the doctor just says it's "winter dry skin". Plus? My other awesome sister-in-law Shara gave me some creams to try to see if they work. She did this after she watched my girls for me yesterday while I went to another meeting in the office. She took time off work to do this - I'm so thankful for her and how much she helps me out!
6. Opened the door to the basement where Daisy was to find she had found the 3 bags of candy that I bought for stockings. Wrappers and chocolate and Bryan's new socks (in the same bag as the candy) everywhere. Hopefully she won't get sick. Positive? I don't have to open the bags of socks to wash them, she already did it for me. And now I get to buy more candy, which is always a good thing.
7. On my way home from a dinner with some friends in Sugarhouse last night, I missed my exit onto I-15 and ended up going north instead of south and couldn't get off until 600 S. Positive? I got to listen to my new New Kids on the Block Greatest Hits CD that my friend Caroline gave me last night for a few extra minutes.
Life is great, isn't it? Hoping now for a better end to my week, and more ways to laugh about it if it continues to be crappy!

Random Pictures

One of the tutus I made for Lolo for Christmas - she is seriously going to FREAK OUT when she gets these! The other one is purple and green - I'm so excited for Christmas!!

My sister watched the girls for me on Saturday, and took some seriously adorable pictures of Lauren - here's one of them.

Baby Mya's flirty eyes - oh, and big fat cheeks.

Me and my girls snuggling and watching The Grinch on Friday night. It was super comfy, can you tell?

How Kids Make You, Let's Say, Squishy

This is how Lauren is making me squishy. I don't say fat, because I don't think I'm necessarily fat, I'm just a little squishy around the edges.

Yesterday started off with "Mommy, I wanna make some muffins". We haven't made muffins in months - since we live with my in-laws. Why? Because I love all things bread. My name is Kiersti, and I'm a bakedgoodsaholic. I try to avoid them whenever possible, but when your 2 year old says out of the blue that she wants to make muffins, and it's so cute, you just make muffins.

So I made the muffins. I only had 1 warm, delicious, fresh out of the over muffin and I was going to call it good. Then Lauren came upstairs, and I gave her a muffin. And this is our conversation:

Lo "Mmm, yummy muffin, isss beary good"

Me "Oh, good, I'm glad it's beary good"

Lo "You have one, Mom?"

Me "No, I already had one, I don't want another one"

Lo "You sit in this chair and have a muffin, Mom"

Me "I don't want one"

Lo "Mmm, isss beary good, sit in this chair and have a muffin, Mom"

I caved. How could I not cave? And when I finished that one, she tried to get me to eat another one!! Luckily, I was able to restrain myself that time. But how am I supposed to maintain self control with this kind of trickery?????

The Day Bryan Had a Stroke - NOT!!

First, I have to give a disclaimer - Bryan did not have a stroke. But we thought he did.

You know how there are commercials all over TV about the signs of a stroke? And you remember them, but you don't think you need to worry about them until you're retired and old and wrinkly, right? Well, yeah, I thought that too, until Bryan came home from work on Monday.

He started off by telling me about his afternoon. Around 2:30 he got weird blurry vision around the outsides of his eyes. So he decided to take a little nap. He woke up 10 minutes later, vision fine, but with a pounding headache. He then proceeded to drive to his shop. About 40 minutes later, his sister called him, and he couldn't form a sentence. The words were there in his brain, but they were coming out all mixed up and he just couldn't say what he was trying to say.

As he's telling me all of this, I'm thinking of the commercials, and how you have to act very quickly. I ran down to look up the signs of a stroke - he had all of them except for nausea, numbness, and loss of consciousness. I was trying not to freak out, but I can honestly say that I've never been so scared for him. Bryan rarely even gets sick, let alone something like this.

So we called Sharalee who was so great to take our girls while we went to the ER. I have to say that the ER waiting room has 2 posters about how "a stroke is a ticking time bomb", and then when we got called back to triage there was another poster with the signs of a stroke listed on it. Did not make us feel better, but we did get a good laugh out of all the stroke propaganda everywhere. It's a good thing we both have the same sense of humor, because without it we would've been a wreck. He had tons of blood work done and a CT scan and (thank goodness) nothing was wrong. He had what they call a "complicated migraine" which we think is their way of saying "We don't know what's wrong with you, but it wasn't a stroke". But they did say that we did the exact right thing by coming right in.

So now, Bryan just keeps calling himself a stroke victim and I should get things for him and be extra nice because he had a stroke. It's getting very old very fast. I quickly remind him that all he had was a bad headache that cost us $150 ER copay. Men are such babies :). Seriously, though, this was actually really scary, and I'm just so glad that nothing was wrong. I don't know what I'd do without my B-Town, and I don't want to ever have to think about that again.

But the next time you see him, please ask him about his stroke and tell him that one side of his face looks droopy - I'd really appreciate the pay backs!!!

My New Toy

Christmas came a little early for me this year. I decided that I wanted a new digital SLR camera for Christmas, and Bryan gave it to me yesterday so that I could start messing around with it and figuring out how to use the darn thing. I love my husband! Merry Christmas to me!!!!

So all morning I've just been playing around and shooting random pictures of the girls - here's 3 of the 300 I've taken today :)

Fat Baby Girl

I've started calling Mya "Fat Baby Girl" because she is. She is a fat little baby girl! I hope she doesn't see this someday and get a complex, but I also hope that the rest of her body catches up to her cheeks before she hits puberty. Oh, and I hope she develops a neck before then, too - that could be tragic.

I love to watch this little one sleep - she always looks so peaceful, it's just so precious.

Her too big beanie

This is so funny - she will sit like this forever with Bryan and just smile. She's a pretty serious baby, so this is a big deal! I just love this little snug-a-bug!!!
And I just have to mention, since she is so serious, that she finally laughed on Saturday! Dec. 6, 2008, she finally laughed! She usually tries to hold back, and just ends up grunting, but this time she actually let out a giggle. Big day around here, big day!

The Star

I just thought this was cute - this toy is referred to as "the star" at our house - it hypnotizes babies instantly - they love it. Apparently the star is not just for babies anymore. Lauren laid under here with Mya for approximately 25 minutes the other day just staring at it - yelling the whole time because Mya was "tickling" her arm, her face, her leg, etc. I kept telling her that if she didn't like it, she just needed to get out, but she just couldn't pull herself away from the power of the star.

Yeah for baby toys.

Black Friday

I was shopping online on Friday and this is what Bryan was doing - putting my baby in a shopping cart and letting my toddler push her around. Lauren actually looks thrilled about it....

Mya does not

I'm Thankful For......

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I just thought I'd write about a few things that I'm thankful for. First, today, I'm very thankful for kids that sleep in until at least 8:30 every day.

For my beautiful home and a husband that worked so hard for so long to make it so beautiful.

For Daisy - she's such a good dog!

Mya, for drinking her bottle propped up on the couch so that I can deal with Lo.

A toy room - need I say more?

My job - I really am lucky to have such a great job that still allows me to be a "stay at home" mom. My friends, they stick around through everything, and even though most of them I don't see more than once a month, I know they will be there for me whenever I need them.

GNO - I'd die without my monthly GNO!!

The Twilight movie for coming out at midnight and making me feel "young and crazy" for going when I'd been up since 3:30 that morning.

Snug-a-bug time with Mya during Lo's naps.

Naptime (for kids and moms).

Our families - we are so lucky to have so much support, and they all help us and love us so much. Blogging - for giving me an outlet.

My ward - we've only been here a short time, but already feel so welcome.

Facebook, yes Facebook, for helping me reconnect with people that I'd all but forgotten about.

Lauren for letting me love and kiss her constantly throughout the day.

Mya for having huge cheeks that are irresistible.

My nephews for reminding me how much fun/destructive little boys are.

My nieces for just being so sweet and making Lauren feel like a big girl.

For being LDS and being able to stay grounded through my faith.

For Christ and the Atonement.

My 2 girls for being the greatest blessings one could ever ask for.

And of course Bryan, for being the best husband to me and father to our girls. He helps me out so much, and he loves me unconditionally. He's always quick to make me laugh. He helps me to remember that I'm not just a mom. He's my partner, and my best friend, and I love him more every day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

One of Those Days

I guess I'm just having "one of those days" today. One of those days where you just want to squeeze your kids until they burst because you love them so much.

Lauren picked out her outfit today, which is a dress over a pair of jeans. It got me thinking about how independent and stubborn she is, and how that's not necessarily a bad thing. She's just getting so big, and so smart. She's forming these huge sentences, and making choices - things that you don't really think about until you stop and think about it. I'm sitting here watching her watch Shrek and play with toys in unconventional ways, and I have the overwhelming feeling that I need to just treasure this, because before I know it, she's going to be off to school, and things like Shrek aren't going to be fun for her anymore. She won't dance to every song that comes on, and say "I love you, too" when I say "Guess what". When I ask her if she wants to get out of the tub long after the water's gone, she's not going to say "I want to stay & play". She's not going to ask to snuggle Mommy right after her nap when she's still kind of groggy. She's not going to follow me around the house, being my shadow, and saying "Mommy, I wanna come wif you". I fear that too soon are going to be the days of "I hate you" and "leave me alone".

So for today, I'm going to watch Lauren watch Shrek, and snuggle her a little tighter after her nap, and give her an extra kiss when she goes to bed tonight. Because tomorrow might be a different "one of those days" where it makes it harder to think of things with this kind of perspective.

Thanks Carrie!!

I got this idea from my cousin, Carrie. She just had a baby and put baby pictures of all 3 of her kids together when they were newborns so you can see who the new baby (Nora) looks like. So I've now decided to steal this cute idea, because people are always asking me if Mya looks like Lauren.

I didn't put on newborn pictures, because since Lauren was so tiny, it took a while for her to really grow into herself.

This is Lauren at I think 2 or 3 months old.

And this is Mya at about 3 months - the picture could be better, but you can see how similar they look. They both have the same big, blue eyes, but they're shapded differently - Mya's are more almond shaped. They definitely have different hair (what little hair they have), and I think their head shapes are different, too. I think Mya looks a little more like Bryan, and Lo looks more like me. Either way, they're both adorable!!!

Baby Mya

Just thought I'd throw this new picture of Mya on. I can't believe she's 3 months now!! She talks (jabbers and gurgles) like crazy, and she's just getting cuter and cuter every day! Oh, and her cheeks just keep getting bigger and bigger, too. I think some day they will just pop.

Things I "Happened Upon" Today

I went in Mya's room to check on her, and this is what I found. Apparently having her hood covering half her face doesn't bug her. I don't care, because she's sleeping, and that is fabulous.

I found this on my couch. It's a bunch of stuff from Lauren's bed. I asked her what it is, and she told me it's "all the stuff". It consists of the frog pillow, pink B, pink and lallow B, flutterfly B (her 3 favorite blankets), 2 naked babies, the pink baby, and somewhere in there is her dolly and a moose. These are all their proper names, by the way. Kids are so cute.

Back to Work

Wondering what this picture is of? It's looking into my new home office. This is what Bryan can do in about 10 hours - build an office!! Just wanted to show everyone where I will be spending 36 hours of my weeks starting last Thursday :(.

Actually, it feels kind of good to be thinking about something other than feeding times and grocery lists. I get to use my brain again, yeah!!!!! And I know that I'm so lucky to be working here in my jammies instead of fighting the traffice every day - I really do love my job!

Bonding

This is just a cute little picture of Lauren and my sister, McKell. My sister was awesome enough to babysit the girls while Bryan and I went to the METALLICA concert on Monday (which was awesome, by the way). Anyway, looks like Lo had fun bonding with her Aunt Mickey!

First Year Trick or Treating!!!

Lo and Daddy on their way to the first house across the circle while I stayed home to hand out candy to the million kids that came by. We ran out and had to have my brother pick some up on his way to our house.

Bryan said that she just talked the entire time about pumpkins, and candy, and trick or treating, and that she would say "trick or treat" and then when they gave her candy she would say "thanks, I love you too". Apparently everyone got a big kick out of that.

Mya was a ladybug, and she actually did pretty well in her costume, she just slept all night all snuggled in it.
A better picture of Lauren as an elephant, and of course, Mya is just snoozin. Lo walked the whole time, and they were gone for an hour and a half, but Bryan said it was painfully slow. When they got back, she was so excited to open all of her candy, she would open one, take a bite, give it to me, and move on to the next one.
My brother, Andy and his wife Heidi and their kids came over, and Greg and Jess. It was the first night that we actually stayed home all night for Halloween, so it was kind of weird, but we had a lot of fun, and I'm sure next year will be even funner with Mya being a little older!

Pumpkin Carving

We got together with Bryan's family at Shara's house on the 30th and did a little pumpkin carving.

Here's Brock with his 2 pumpkins - he told Becky that he really wanted to carve Star Scream from Transformers into a pumpkin. Sadly, none of us were talented enough to do it, but he did seem to like the classic "triangle eyes, triangle nose, and crooked mouth with a tooth" method.

Annie, Shawna, Becky, and Brock carvin' away.
Lolo is stabbing the pumpkin. I'm not sure if that's a very good idea or not.

New House

I FINALLY got around to putting the before/after pictures of our house on here, now that we've lived here for 2 months!!

This is Lauren's room before - pirates aren't really our thing :)

During (don't ever ask me to help remove wallpaper, I've had enough)



And now - we did the same thing we had in her room before with the walls, but with different colors.

We still haven't finished putting stuff up on her walls yet, but we do have one of these flower stickers on each wall, courtesy of my awesome friend Julie who made them for me :)

Living room after we took out the carpet

Living room now (still not done decorating, but I guess that's how every room is)

This was a closet in the living room - I never got a chance to take a picture of it, because we tore it out about 15 minutes after we got the keys.

I'm really glad we got rid of the closet, because it makes the living room/entryway feel so much bigger.

Kitchen before - awesome cabinets

Kitchen now - Bryan painted the cabinets cream with a chocolate glaze, new countertops, new appliances, tiled the backsplash, and put can lights in the ceiling and these 2 pendant lights in over the bar with matching chandelier over the table. He did a lot of work in here.

You can see some of the family room here, this is the hand rail that matched the kitchen cabinets

Bryan sanded and refinished the handrail to match the wood floors and we put in new carpet

More pictures of the family room and the fireplace (and Lo taking measurements)

Refinished the mantle, took out the ugly tile around the fireplace and replaced it with the same tile that's on our backsplash in the kitchen.

Mya's room beforeHer room now - we put chair rail all around the room 12 inches apart to make this super cute border, and here's another cute addition from Julie with the stickers.

We still have so much to do - we haven't done the bathrooms or our bedroom yet, but some of that should be coming this Christmas, but we love New House!!!