Mond-uary

Is it just me, or does January feel like one big long Monday? I mean, in November we were able to take a long weekend and go up to Boise for Thanksgiving. Then in December we took another long weekend and traveled to Kentucky for an early Christmas with Jake's family. Then during Christmas week, and New Year's week, Jacob only had 3-day work weeks. So we're having all this fun all month long, like it's a never-ending Friday.

Then January comes, complete with depressing snow, 5-day work weeks, and a whole heck of a lot of CLEANING that needs to be done. Just like Monday.

Anyway, at least our long Friday was a lot of fun. It was so nice to go visit our KY family. They all just ate Eisley up (not literally, thank goodness) and she basked in the glow of never-ending attention and affection (very literally). She was SO good both on the plane ride, and with the mass of family swarming around her. She was so happy and content, and that made it a lot easier for ME to be happy and content. We had tons of fun having Christmas, eating Missy's biscuits and gravy (something I never understood the appeal of until I had hers. Now I crave them, and I just can't do it the same way), going shopping, re-visiting old haunts, and catching up with old friends.

Eisley and her cousin Kyleigh

...with Granddad Kinney

4 generations! E, Jake, Missy (Jake's mom) and Granny Carlisle
Can you see the family resemblance or what?Eisley and her Auntie Clinton! So cute! There was a picture where you can see Tamara's face too, but this one's so cute with her laughing, that I had to use it instead. Sorry girl. We came back and very soon after we were celebrating Christmas with my family. It's not as big of a deal, since we pretty much all live here and see each other pretty often, but it was still fun. We decided to spread out the presents on Christmas day this year instead of opening them all at 6am and being done and tired by 8. This year, Jacob and I stayed at our house (instead of sleeping over at my mom's as we'd done in previous years) and opened our presents to each other after Eisley finished her morning bottle. Then when she woke up, we went over to my mom's for brunch (attempted biscuits and gravy. Not nearly as good) then most of the family went to see a movie, which is a long-standing tradition for the Dick family. We saw Avatar and LOVED it. Then we came back, Nate and Libbie joined the ranks and we stopped by our house to have everyone open their presents from us. Then back to mom's for the rest of the family presents. When all was said and done, the last present wasn't torn open until 4pm. If you ask me, THAT'S how you do Christmas!

Eisley trying to open her presents early

E and her cousin Elaina Christmas morning

I got Elaina a wooden pizza set. She loved it!Everyone at my house. The kids bought mom and dad a new microwaveNew Year's Eve came quickly too, and we spent it at our house playing games on the Wii, then Guitar Hero and DDR on the Playstation, eating hoagie sandwiches and just being loud and having fun. Now that there are 5 young kids, however, we did not make it till midnight. We decided to go ahead and celebrate with our friends in the Eastern Time Zone and blew our horns and popped our confetti at 10pm. Don't judge us. I was EXHAUSTED, and my living room floor was littered with confetti bits, but I went to bed at 10:30.

Probably one of my favorite pictures EVER.

Or this one. I love it. I think they were canoeing

Me and my girl

Jared and Ben in their special hats. Jacob and I in their special hats.

All in all, it was a wonderful Holiday season, and it makes me a little sad that now I have to live through a month of Monday's. But at least February will be here soon, with promise of another Holiday to look forward too. Now if only someone could remind Jacob that Valentine's Day IS a real Holiday...

Giggles

The video quality from my camera is horrible, but at least you can hear my little girl's laugh. I've been trying to get it on camera forever, but usually when she sees me recording she stops. Nobody can make her laugh like aunt Hannah though, and she barely noticed I was there.

Makes my heart happy.

We Call Him "The Crusher"

Tonight something happened that could have easily turned tragic, yet fortunately ended up humorous. Let me set the scene: we just got home from picking up Jacob at the Trax station, we dump the diaper bag, the laptop bag, the carseat and the groceries in their respective homes. Some of the groceries didn't fit on the table, so we put them on the floor until we had time to put them away. We're laughing and talking about our days, Eisley's squeaking happily as daddy gets her out of her carseat, and all is well.

Then, my ever-graceful husband, tries to stand up and walk from the couch to the dining room table. Big mistake. He does not notice his laptop bag propped carelessly against the foot of the couch, with its dangerous strap creeping into his path like a snake ready to pounce. It catches his foot in its grasp, and he starts to wobble. I see panic on his face as he tries to steady himself and keep from falling. Then I see defeat in his eyes as he trips and, holding as tightly as he can to our baby, he falls forward, straight onto the bags of groceries. The canned goods, to be precise. I was forced to watch and in those seconds wonder what I'd do if Eisley's head struck the corner of the table that was only inches from her as she fell with her dad.

Oddly enough, I didn't have to do anything. Somehow, Jacob kept her upright in his arm and caught himself on his elbow, keeping her safe from harm. The same can not be said for the chili can he landed on. See what I mean?

Eisley didn't seem to notice that she was in perilous danger. She didn't so much as breathe in sharply, so after making sure Jacob was okay (he has a slight cut on his knee, but we couldn't get a good picture of it) I held her close and rocked her in case she was scared, but not showing it.

Then I smelled something that affirmed to me, she had, in fact been scared. The fall had quite literally (and pardon the expression) scared the poop out of her. I should've made dad change the diaper that was a direct result of his clumsiness, but it wasn't his fault and no one was hurt, so instead we laughed and thanked our lucky stars nothing worse had happened. Just another night at the Kinney household. At least he didn't fall down the stairs...again.

Here are more shots of the damage:

The World is Safe Yet Again, Thanks to...

SUPER GIRL!

I have to admit, I hadn't been this excited for Halloween since I was little. The past couple years, it's kind of turned into an overlooked holiday for us. But this year, I found this costume for Eisley and I was stoked. Plus we had reasons to dress up. First was Danielle and Devanie's trailer trash party (different costumes than I have pictured, but it was fun), then we had our ward party, then Beckie hosted a big family Halloween Blowout all day Saturday. So We had Eisley all ready and I kept looking for superman and super woman costumes, but they were all expensive (yet looked really cheap) and I didn't like them.

So in a stroke of genius I thought "Lois and Clark!" Okay maybe not GENIUS, but I thought it was a pretty good idea. All we had to do was iron a big superman "S" onto one of Jacob's T-shirts and put it under a work outfit. For me, I just made a Press Pass to go around my neck and, again, wore a work outfit. It was really fun. I know Eisley probably didn't appreciate it as much as I did, but she will once she looks back.

Anyway, here are some pictures of us as a super family (even more so than usual. ;) )

Cutest Baby? Duh.

Okay so last weekend there was a Baby Expo that I went to with my sister Beckie and my boss / bff Bri (since she's expecting and Beckie and I both have kids). Well it was pretty cute. There were lots of headbands with HUGE flowers (not a fan. I think our kids are going to look back at pictures of themselves with flowers as big as their heads and say "what were you THINKING?") , lots of nursery stuff, and some photographers. Well one studio was having a cute baby contest with all these prizes for different age groups. You pay 10 bucks and you get a mini photo session, as well as entry into the contest. So we don't know the winners yet, but I wanted to share the link to Eisley's pictures. I think I want to order prints, but I'm not sure of which ones. Input would be appreciated!
To me, she's already won. But I'm sure every mom thinks that.
So here's the link:
http://studiocloud.org/1?a=14202&e=1255096800000
The gallery's only up for 2 weeks, so I need input quickly.
And as a sidenote, they did not pose her hands. That's just how she has them a lot of the time.
Thanks!

Dinner Conversation

Here's another video. Nevermind the dinner table in the background; we were just finishing dinner and Eisley had just finished her bottle and was talking so sweet to her aunt Rachael, that I had to record it. Wait till you hear her lungs at the end!

Oh Blessed Day

Last Sunday was nuts. But in the best way possible. It was a double blessing day in my family. My brother and sister-in-law blessed their newest baby Ryan (he was born in April, don't ask me what took so long) and we blessed little Eisley. So we went to Nate's ward at 12:45 for Ryan's blessing, got done at 2, and drove like demons back to my ward to bless Eisley at 2:45.

It was fun too, because the Olson's (our besties from Bozeman) drove all the way down here so Dave could be a part of the blessing circle. That was really special. Jacob was in Scarlett's blessing circle 2 years ago, so it was nice that he was able to join us for Eisley's. Also my cousin Alecia drove all the way down from Boise just to meet our little girl.

It was a nice day, and a nice blessing. My sister kept notes for me and wrote a letter to Eisley detailing what was said. It was so nice of her to do that, because it's hard to remember after the fact, and now every time I read it I cry. Here are some of my favorite, most comforting statements he made to Eisley:

-You will have the strength to go through life and be happy
-You will will be provided with opportunities to show your faithfulness, and know when it will be your turn to shine.
-You will have the ability to know the past and understand your family, and to grow from it.

It was a really special day and I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who lives his life worthy of being able to bless our little girl, and for such an amazing supportive family who help me every day.

Here are some pictures of our little girl on her special day.