November/December

I feel like such a slacker with my blogging lately. Mostly our lives have been so full of the busy day-to- day things but it's 11 PM and I'm forcing myself stop procrastinating...ready?

This poor guy is pooped! We came home from YW/Scouts/Tithing Settlement at 9:20 tonight and this is where he ended up after putting Mackenzie to bed. Finals started beginning of December and end the 14th. This semester has definitely been the worst. Not only are his classes a lot more demanding but I've been a bit of a crazy person lately. He's so good to put up with me and study as hard as he does.

On the 3rd, we went to Red Robin to celebrate my birthday. Did you know you get a free burger on your b-day if you sign up for their e-mail? It's kind of becoming our tradition. It was fun to get out and the waiter was nice enough to snap a picture because I seem to never take them on Birthdays. Keith got me a Kitchen-Aid for my b-day/anniversary/part of Christmas. I've wanted one for a long time and finally found a deal on Kohl's for $100 for the classic. I busted it out today and made homemade pizza dough and breadsticks, yum!!
This picture makes her look so sweet and innocent. She is most of the day. She's my best bud and her evolving speech makes me laugh. My favorite phrase is "We're home!" every time we pull into the complex. Today her diaper leaked (again!!) while she was supposed to be napping. When I walked in there she told me "Mamma, poo, stinky, bath!" For once Keith and I are actually considering potty training sometime soon.
I laughed when I saw this picture as I uploaded them. I HATE this dog. Unfortunately, he lives directly above us. I took a picture trying to catch it in the act of leaving his gigantic pile of poo right by my porch that his owners did NOT pick up. This happened twice during Thanksgiving break and I was more than happy to report it to management. I figured the dozen newsletters addressing the issue were warning enough. He also barked for 2+ hours a day sometimes waking me up in the morning, other times just driving me crazy in the afternoon. I used my mom yell on him several times and I was surprised how well it shut him up.
We bought our tree at Lowe's again this year. You can't beat $15 for a 6' tree and it's beautiful! Kenzie loved directing where the ornaments should go:All of my pictures of the tree lit up are blurry so these are the shots you get instead (she's about to attack me in these pictures hence the crazy faces) :

She's so fun
And finally a little Christmas craftiness. I made this with Carlie and I'm so glad I did because it was cheap, easy and I love seeing it every time I pass the front door. Mackenzie however throws a bit of a tantrum every time we leave because she wants a "sucky"
So I cut out scrapbook paper and put it behind each cubby on this shelf from my friend Amber. Do I like how it turned out? Yes. Worth 2-3 hours of my time? Maybe. Worth cutting my finger (including under my nail) with a rotary cutter and having it bleed for a couple days? Definitely not.
And to end this long post, I have to say that nothing makes me happier than sitting by the Christmas tree at night when all of the lights in the house are off except the ones on the tree. It's such a beautiful, peaceful sight. I'm so grateful for this Christmas season. I'm grateful for a wonderful little family here in Kentucky and our extended families back West. We miss everyone dearly but maybe staying here for Christmas will help us focus on the blessings we have and the celebration of the birth of the most important baby this world has seen. How lucky we are to have the Gospel of peace and love in our lives!

Kenzie's 2nd Year

Better late than never.
It's cut off on here so click the little YouTube link on the
bottom right to go to YouTube if you want to watch it full screen.

Kenzie Turns 2!

It's a big day- the only day you double your age and I have to say I'm feeling a little bittersweet about it all. I cried on her first birthday and I cried again on her second. We had a fun morning taking some pictures found here and then we walked around the mall while everyone oohed and awed over the tutu Keith's mom got for her this summer. I wanted to take her to the zoo but it was a gloomy day. We stopped at BF Rose's house to play for a few minutes then came home to nap. Then she watched TV while I made dinner. When daddy got home it was crazy- dinner and presents and neighbors visiting then book club at our apartment for a few hours.

After all was said and done I felt like I hardly held my baby on her birthday so I sneaked into her room and found her awake. I picked her up and rocked her and marveled that she was ever small enough to curl up in my belly. And then I cried. I cried because I felt like I had just delivered her and time was slipping away, because I loved her so much I didn't want to think about anything hurting her, but mostly I cried because over the past couple of weeks I have watched her slip away from being a baby and instead, turning into a little girl.

We are so very lucky to have you! Happy Birthday Mackenzie Shaw!

Corn Maze

On Friday, we made our way back to Deere Farms to go through the corn maze. Unfortunately, we had a bad storm on Tuesday with some high winds and a couple of tornadoes that destroyed a lot of the corn maze as you can see below:

But it was still a beautiful day and we had fun trying to hit the different checkpoints. Keith mostly had fun watching me try to navigate us through the maze with the help of a map.

It was a little challenging to enjoy it with this girl. We've both had colds so she was tired and she wanted only to eat the dried corn on the ground and sit to say "cheese" for the camera

We thought this view of the church was so beautiful. The bells rang out hymns for about 10 minutes at 6 o'clock, it was so peaceful.

Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins this year with 1st year Mitch and his wife Kristi and 3rd year JD and his wife McCall. They're such great friends and we had a lot of fun together. My pumpkin is supposed to be an owl and Keith's is a wolf. If you want to see what our pumpkins should have looked like, check out my friend Kaleena's blog...

Zoo Boo

I must have been inspired when I bought Mackenzie's costume on clearance last year. My sweet little 11 month old was anything but a monster but this year being only 3 days off of 2 she fits the costume a bit better :) We were glad we didn't take a stroller this year. Kenzie can walk for quite a long time without getting tired and she loved the crowd and the freedom.

My pictures of the attractions were better last year. We went later at night this time and so most of my pictures don't show the cute decorations very well so you jut get a few:

New this year was a Toy Story area with Buzz and Jesse.

One day a few weeks ago, Kenzie started asking for Elmo. I'm not sure where it came from because we get only a few channels and PBS isn't one of them but she loves him.
Her monster friend
You can kind of see Shrek and Fiona in the background here
Some of the carved pumpkins on display

Ward Halloween Party

Our ward Halloween party was really fun. It was held at the Button Farm just outside our ward boundaries. They had a hayride and grills for hot dogs and burgers. As you can see, we dressed up last minute and threw on the only costumey outfits we have anymore.
I managed to only snap one picture of another couple- the Birds. We'll miss them when they leave us next spring!

My friend Michelle's little girls in their cutu tutus. Those girls are the reason Kenzie will be dressed cute the next two years. My friend Brittney and I took Blake and Kenzie trick-or-treating in Indiana later in the month. They had a lot of fun. Keith and I recently made up a song with Kenzie's friends in it and she always sings the first line "Blakey" over and over.

Bernheim Forest

Deere Farms

On Saturday we went to a Deere Farms in Indiana with our friends Brittany and Tanner and their little boy Blake. It was a blast and we were really excited that everything but our pumpkins were free. Kenz was really excited to go:

The 30 minute drive was beautiful

This girl is obsessed with pumpkins and kept trying to pick up the biggest ones.
The Barratt's
Blake and Kenz loved this bed full of dried corn
Pony rides that the kids didn't go on because our little girl is afraid and we didn't want to dish out $5
The kids maze
Our happy little pumpkin head
The very dirty slide that Keith braved over and over
The giant pumpkin bounce house. Kenz and Blake weren't sure what to do inside but once they figured it out, they had a blast