She's growing up!!!

I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up.  It seems like just yesterday we were bring her home and now she is 6 and a half years old.  She is still the sweetest girl in the world and loves everyone.  She is friends with everyone and wants all her friends to feel included.  I love this about her.  She is the best big sister to a little brother who loves to bug her all the time.  Very seldom does she loose her temper with Kyle.  She is getting so good at ballet and we love to watch her dance.  She loves to sing and read and play.  We still love doing her hair all the time and trying new do's.  The only difference now is that she wants a say in how I do her hair!!!  I am loving life right now with my girl.  I know that one day I am going to wake up and she will be a teenager so we are savoring every moment.

The kids love to take silly pictures.  Every time we take pictures after we are done the kids say, "Okay silly pictures now."  Their favorite thing to do is make silly faces at daddy in church when he is sitting on the stand and try to make him laugh.  (Did I ever mention that Ben was made first counselor in the bishopric?  AHHHH!)

The Circus!!!

When Ben and I found out that the circus was coming to Reno we decided that we had to go.  We all love going to the circus!  The kids were so excited and I have to admit that Ben and I were too!

After we got there the first thing we did was buy some cotton candy.  It was delicious!

Last time we got cotton candy Kyle refused to eat it but this time he loved it!!!  What a smart boy!!!

Makayla loved the whole thing.  She watched every act and had tons of fun.

Kyle on the other hand decided during the first act that he wanted to go home.  Luckily, he wasn't too bad.  He was into daddy that day so Ben had to keep him entertained for most the time.  The one thing he really enjoyed was the clapping.

During intermission we got to go down and see some of the animals close up.  The kids didn't even beg me to ride the rides!

Our favorite act... the elephants!

On the way home we stopped at our favorite place and got an ice cream cone.  I'm not quite sure but I think that from the evidence we can predict that Kyle enjoyed his chocolate ice cream.

Makayla is very happy after she finished off her cone.  What could be better than the circus and ice cream?!?!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone.  I remember the days when it was just Ben and me and we never celebrated the little holidays.  But now that we have the kiddos it is just too much fun to celebrate all holidays no matter how big or small.

The morning started out with the kids discovering that we had a little visitor in the middle of the night.  A leprechaun came and left footprints all over the house.  He also left a rainbow four-leaf clover treasure hunt. 

Makayla and Kyle found the clovers and Makayla read each clue to find the next one.

It took a little while for Kyle to understand what was going on.  But when he did he loved it.

Kyle has the cutest and funniest faces.

They found the treasure!!!  The leprechaun left it in the potty chair!  Makayla thought that was so funny but we figured he did it because the potty chair is green.  (My favorite part of this picture is Kyle's underwear in the background!)

For dinner we had our traditional all green dinner.  As you can see I made a small mistake.  When I was making the breadsticks I was in such a hurry I forgot to make them green!

And everything was topped off with green pie.  Overall it was a great day.  The kids had so much fun and because of them Ben and I had so much fun.  We love them so much!

Our February

February was a crazy month that flew by.  Here are a few things that went on during this month.

Every day when Makayla gets home from school the kids get a snack.  I try to change it up a little because they get so tired of the same thing.  On this day I made yummy little cinnamon rolls.  This is what Makayla thought of them...

And this is what Kyle thought of them.  He is my picky little eater!

One day Ben decided to bring home Jack in the Box for lunch.  It was awesome.  We topped off the meal with a yummy shake.  All of us loved it but we felt so bad that Makayla was at school and couldn't join us!

Kyle got to enjoy another day of snow... and I do mean day.  It always melts by the time Makayla gets home.  Poor girl misses out on everything!  Kyle loved it though.  This time he was actually outside longer than it took to put on his snow clothes.  That's a first!

This was a hairstyle I found on Pinterest.  We tried it on Makayla and it was so darn cute.  She got tons of compliments on it and it was really easy to do!  She looked so much older!

Every time we do a new hairstyle on Makayla we take a picture so we can remember it and do it again.  After each picture of her hair she wants to do a silly picture.  So this is her silly picture from that day.

Kyle got so sick this month.  He was sicker than he has ever been.  It was so sad to see him just feeling so crummy.  He had an ear infection and a sinus infection.  The only good thing that came out of all of this was mommy and daddy got some good snuggle time with our little boy.

After Kyle got feeling better we decided to give Josie a bath.  (One of Kyle's favorite things to do.)  This is Kyle's version of drying Josie off.  Surprisingly, Josie really liked it.

Grandma and Grandpa!!!

We were so lucky to have grandma and grandpa Shawcroft come and visit us last weekend.  It was a short trip but so much fun!  The kids loved showing them all their stuff and Ben and I really enjoyed catching up with them.  We can't wait to see you again grandma and grandpa!  You are welcome anytime!

Makayla reading her book to grandma.

Kyle and grandpa playing the Wii.

Snuggle time!

New Family Pictures Jan. 2012

This is my favorite picture.  Amazingly, we all look good!  I am so happy we finally have a new picture.  It has been a while.

This is my second favorite picture.  I love Kyle in this one.  It shows his little personality perfectly.

I love Makayla in this one.  She is really into posing in pictures these days and she looks so cute!

Little Man

Kyle just keeps us laughing every day.  He has the cutest personality and he is definitely a boy.  Here are a few pictures of our little man!

One day we got home from taking Makayla to school and Kyle wanted to keep his cool hat on!  Do you blame him?  He looks awesome!

A few weeks ago Ben's secretary gave him a couple suits that her son had grown out of.  He brought them home and showed them to Kyle.  You'd have thought it was Christmas morning!  Kyle was so excited.  He loves Sunday and getting dressed up all fancy to go to church.  He loves his new suits and has showed them off to everyone!

Our one and only snow for the season.  Pretty pathetic I know but the little boy is sure adorable.  He was so excited after we took Makayla to school.  He begged me to play in the snow.  Hopefully we will get a litte more before the winter is over.

Every morning before school I turn the heater on.  This is Makayla and Kyle's favorite time of the morning.  They get under a blanket and enjoy the heat together.  They love it when Josie joins them.  The are so cute!

We have been having some problems with Kyle staying in bed.  Sometimes he will wake up at two in the morning and think it is morning time.  Ben and I are a little sleep deprived these days!  Anyway, one night Ben went to check on Kyle and Makayla before he went to bed.  When he got into Kyle's room Kyle wasn't there.  Ben got a little nervous but found him here!  Crazy kid!!!  We love you Kyle!!!