Christmas Dress

Here is my attempt to get the girl's Christmas dresses. Yes, Kenzie wanted Belle Polly Pocket in the picture with her. Will try to get one of Porter in his Christmas suit this week. He was too tired to be cooperative in these pictures.

Eliana's 5th Birthday

So for Eliana's birthday this year we celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese, but we did this a few days earlier in Las Vegas with my family. Thanks for taking us on this special outing. Eliana loved it. I don't have any pictures of it, but my sister took some so I might post more later if there are some good ones. Then after the countdown to New Year's she got to open her present from her cousins Siosi and Kalo since we were all up still and it was technically her birthday. I think she was confused though. After she woke up from going to bed she went Geocaching with her dad and aunt and uncle. Since her birthday is January 1st we all have the day off so that is nice. Than we went to a wedding reception in Portland for David's cousin. Then we all meet at David's parents' for dinner and cake and ice cream. She had a excellent birthday although I think she is spoiled because we did celebrate it almost all week, with going to Chuck E. Cheese and then the next day she got to open Grandma/Grandpa Smith's gifts (She loves the Fancy Nancy game and Dorothy dress) before we flew home and then opening a gift after midnight and then the rest in the evening on her birthday. Plus she gets tons of new stuff all within a week of each other.

Kalo enjoying the cake and ice cream.

Eliana got a Princess book that she will soon be able to read.

Alyssa is excited about the puzzle she gave Eliana.

A game.

Eliana loved the art set from Grandma/Grandpa Strasser

Eliana wanted the same castle cake Kenzie had, but this time it didn't turn out very well. Oh well it just matters that she liked it and she did.

Blowing out the candles.

Belagio Gardens

While in Las Vegas at Christmas time we went to the Bellagio down on the stripe to see the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, which was amazing. We also watched the Fountains of Bellagio show. The gardens had a Christmas theme and everything in there is gorgeous plants, flowers and trees. I think that the reindeer on Santa's sleigh were nuts. I finally got these pictures off of David's phone camera so that is why they are late and not that clear. Just thought I would post the pictures we took.

Amazing snowman made of flowers!

Ok, the giant ornaments were not made of flowers.

Flower polar bear. Didn't get a picture of Santa's sleigh and other things, but this place was amazing.

Another cool thing we did while in Las Vegas was we went and saw a house that was just awesome. They had a Christmas light show, where they had you park across the street and turn your radio to a certain station and they had their lights dance to certain Christmas music playing on the radio station that was special for their show. It was the coolest thing I have seen done with Christmas lights. I am sure it took a lot of planning/programing. I totally forgot to write about this earlier.

David Update

David hasn't been up to too much that is new. He has just been busy with work and on the weekends duck hunting. He sad duck season is over this weekend, but I am sure we will find something to fill up that time. David is doing well with work and things hopefully stay that way. He enjoys his work. We are grateful for him and all the hard work he does so he can provide for our family. I am truly blessed with the opportunity to stay home with our lovely children. I am grateful for everything my family has been blessed with, which I credit David for he is amazing and does so much for our family. He is an excellent example to me and I love him so much.

A picture David took with his phone camera of the river I think he hunts on.

Dan loading up the boat after a morning of duck hunting.

Some ducks.

David and his brother Dan after a day of hunting.

Kimber Update

So I haven't been up to too much. Just the usual, being a mom and wife. David and I are primary CTR 7 teachers together in our ward now and that is fun, but crazy too. We are counting down the days until Porter goes into nursery as he is a crazy during church and the kids in our class just want to play with him. They have let us bring him in now for the last hour when we teach so that is nice. I swear they need a pre-nursery class because once they are moving around they disrupt class time so much. Just my opinion.

Mine newest thing for me is I have been doing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. This next info. is mainly for my future benefit so you don't need to read on. Since September I have lost 20 or so pounds. A couple of my friends and I did a "biggest loser" competition. The first 7 weeks we did it were from October 5 til November 24 and I lost 11 lbs. Then we made new goals when we got together to celebrate because we all met our goals. Since then I have lost 5 lbs, reaching my goal weight of 115! I say I have lost 20 or so lbs because I know I lost at least 4 or 5 lbs when I stopped nursing in September. I know I at least weighed 135 but didn't record it so I don't know exactly how much I lost then. I always lose as soon as I stop nursing, I am one of those who has a hard time losing all of the baby weight until then. I lose some but it is harder for me to lose all of it when I am nursing, don't get me wrong I will still do it and I love being able to even if I have to work very very hard and still have some weight to lose. I did bad with Porter too, because I gained too much with him, mainly because I don't get as sick with boys and I was actually pregnant before I completely weaned Kenzie. So I didn't get a chance to lose the last of my baby weight. Anyways, I feel amazing now. I have more self esteem, more control, more energy and just happier all around. I needed to say that so I know that in the future to motivate me to lose weight (when needed).

So people have been asking me what I have done and I might need to look back on this and do it in the future so here is what I have done:

I am doing a workout video called 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michael's which is awesome. It is only a 20 minute workout, but let me tell you it is intense. I practically die each time. I love it though because I have no excuse to why I don't have time for 20 minutes at least a few times a week. I try to do it everyday well except Sunday of course, but maybe miss a day or two. I haven't been the best with it but try hard to make time for it. Also it is easier to get 20 minutes in without being interrupted by my kids. (I like to do it before Porter wakes up in the morning, since it is easier to do it without him bugging me. The girls are usually doing it with me if they are awake or they can easily be busy for 20 minutes.)

I also dieted for a few weeks with Slimfast. I started doing Slimfast for breakfast, then a 100 calorie mid-morning snack, Slimfast for lunch with some fruit and maybe a little bit of what the kids had, then a 100 calorie afternoon snack, then a normal dinner, and then a 100 calorie evening snack. Now I was not super accurate on the calorie counting, but just guessed. My favorite snack I found was cashews, you get a pretty good handful and they seem to fill me up. That was how I started the diet, then after a couple of weeks I noticed that my stomach shrunk and I didn't need all those snacks or some days I would take out a Slimfast and just have a snack. Oh, I bought the Kirkland chocolate weight loss shakes from Costco that are equivalent to Slimfast, they are a good price ( I think) and yummy! I did have the powder stuff but didn't like it as much, so I ended up just buying the Costco stuff because it was easier and tastier. The rest of the time even when I didn't do the Slimfast diet I just watched what I ate and tried to limit my portions.

Another thing I did to help me limit my portions was tried to drink a whole glass of water before I ate so I felt more full because most of the time when you feel hungry you are really just dehydrated.

The thing that helped me the most was actually being in my flab to fab group where we log our weight and report to each other once a week. That makes you stick to your goals and not put it off. Now don't get me wrong I had plenty of cheat days, about once a week, and I enjoyed desserts just a bite or two when I dieted. But since the Christmas holidays I haven't been the best with my eating but I have lost the weight I gained from then and have maintained it so I guess as long as i keep up with my workouts I should be ok. I hope I can keep this off and when I do decide to have another baby I want to not gain that much and stay active so it isn't so hard to get it off again. Well for those of you who did read this I hope it wasn't too boring or anything, I just had to record it somewhere and since this is my journal for now I decided to post it.

Also here is my new ring I got for Christmas/ Anniversary. It replaced my old wedding ring. I love it so much!

Another view of the ring.

Eliana Update

Eliana is now 5. She is doing well and is a busy girl. She loves to play games, make things such as cards or other crafts, wrap up gifts (likes to find things to give away), dance, and plan things. She always asks me every night what we are doing the next day and she likes to come up with things to do. For Christmas she kept planning her dance as a gift to others. Eliana is still taking dance lessons and loves it. She had a recital Dec. 19 and she did great, she was so cute. Here are some of the pictures from that:

Eliana loves to play Polly Pockets and "Mom and Kid". Her and Kenzie are constantly playing pretend and changing their "identities". Often I call them and they correct me and say no, I am so and so or I respond when they say "mom" and they say no you are "grandma" I am mom. Life is confusing when your name changes daily and hourly. Anyways, Eliana is quite the pretender and is now starting to tell crazy stories and even makes up stories to tell her fish. She is learning how to read and can read quite a few words when she tries to sound them out. Sometimes it is hard to get her to concentrate though on her reading lessons. So at her 5 year old checkup the nurse was asking her her letters to check her eyes and she asked about going to school and Eliana said she didn't go to school yet so the nurse asked her how she knew her letters. I was like I taught her, was this supposed to mean something, like do parents not teach their children anything anymore? Do kids just get sent to preschool and stuff to learn by teachers so parents don't have to teach them anything? Well, if this is the case, I think it is kind of sad. I know I am not very good at teaching them things and it is hard to find the time for me to just sit down and teach Eliana to read, but I try hard to make time, also so we can have some time together. We love Eliana and are in shock that our oldest is now 5. she is getting so big. It seems like yesterday she was born. I will post about her birthday in another post.

Kenzie Update

Kenzie is now 3 years old and a lot like me, well I think so. People say she looks most like me too, except for her balding issue from Porter pulling out her hair, that is getting a lot better now. She is pretty shy in fact she is now a Sunbeam (a 3 year old class at our church) and hasn't said a word to her new teachers. She and them just say she nods yes or no when asked something. I hope that gets better with time. I guess it has only been two weeks. She took a while in Nursery before she would talk, in fact for a long time I think they thought she just didn't know how to talk but little did they know she is very good with her speech and talks quite a bit to people she knows. She is still not as loud as her sister. It is fun to see the differences between them. Kenzie will play by her self for a long time and loves to do puzzles, read books, color or play with people (Little People, Polly Pockets or Mr. Potato Heads) for hours even if it is by herself. She is a big Mommy's girl though and most of the time will not let her dad do anything for her right now. I hope David still knows she does love him but just likes her mom to do things for her. Kenzie knows almost all the letter and gets most of them right the first time you ask her. She knows most of their sounds too. Kenzie has pretty much stopped taking naps now, but most days will just go to bed earlier. She does get cranky sometimes but mostly if she is hungry. In fact most mornings she requires me to feed her a couple of bites or she just cries and throws fits until I do. I think it is just because she is hungry so she gets unmanageable, but is pleasant once she gets some food in her. We are still working on writing them and writing/spelling her name. Kenzers, as we like to call her, is such a joy to have around and we love her so much. She is getting to be such a wonderful little girl, oh, and we love her sweet soft "muchkin" voice.

The 3 year old Kenzie.

Kenzie when she was 2 days old.

One year old birthday.

Kenzie at her 2 year old birthday.

The 3 year old Kenzie.

Kenzie had her 3 year old checkup a few days after her birthday. I am just late in posting the stats:

Height: 2' 11.5" (12%)

Weight: 30 lb (43%)

These were her two year stats:
Height 2' 9.5" (41%)

Weight 25 lb 2 oz (29%)

Head Circ. 19.09" (77%)

Porter Update

Porter is our little man. He is such a big boy now and is learning new stuff everyday day. He knows lots of words; he says, most aren't very clear, but I know what they are: Mom (yes he says mom, not mama anymore), Daddy, Eliana, Porter, tries to say Kenzie, shoe, sock, binky, blanky, stinky, mine, Grandma/Grandpa, night-night, hello, bye, banana, pasta (calls a lot of food this), baba (bottle or any drink), bath, dog, cheese (for the camera) ball, baby, neigh (when he rides his horse), uh-oh, rock (gives you his fist and then says boom), five, and today he even said chair. He also repeats a lot, well only when you aren't wanting him too, never when you try to capture it on video or show someone. The other day I had my nieces over and the girls were all running around saying "nah, nah, nah na nah" (not sure how to spell) and of course he picked up on that and he even rocks back and forth when he says it. I got it on video, well sort off. (see video below). Porter is being a good helper lately too, although he is still a big trouble causer and get into everything, but when I ask him for diaper and wipes he gets them and puts the wipes back when done, he hands me dishes from the dishwasher to put away or clothes out of the dryer or puts clothes into the dryer when I hand them to him from the washer. He also puts things in places they go like the other day David had contact solution and a case on our nightstand and Porter took it to our bathroom and put the solution in the cupboard where we keep it and the case in a drawer we keep them; Porter also will throw things away, which I have to be careful now to check the trash before taking it out. When you tell him thank you he smiles big or you say good job he will clap for himself most of the time. He favorite things to do are to vacuum ( I have a little vacuum that is real), clean with spray ( he pretends to spray and wipes with either his hands or a rag), and wash himself (when you put something like soap in his hands he rubs it in his hair first). My girls were never so attached to things like Porter is. Eliana never took a binky and Kenzie took one til she was about 8 months, but Porter requires his to sleep with and he needs his blanky, which is a certain one. He also still requires a bottle of milk before bed, if i don't give him one he will go to sleep but it is a guarantee that he will wake up in the night at some point. So I give it to him but we are slowly trying to transition it to at least a cup not a bottle, but for a long time he wouldn't drink milk at all from a cup. He sleeps through the night as long as he has had enough milk. Porter is quite the climber and his favorite place is on top of the kitchen table. He has fallen off a couple times but that doesn't stop him. He is also already sliding chairs over to get to things in the kitchen and I am constantly putting chairs back from him and the girls.

Porter is now 16 months.

Here are his 15 month stats, a little late in posting them.

Height:

2' 6.5" (32%)

Weight:

23 lb 6 oz (34%)

Head Circ.:

18.66" (58%)

Here are his past stats:

12 months

Height: 2'6" (59%)

Weight: 21 lbs 11 oz (33%)

Head Circ.: 18.39" (61%)

6 Month (closer to 7 months)

Height 2' 4" (82%) Weight 18 lb 12.5 oz (55%) HC 17.52" (56%)

4 Month (well closer to 5 months)

Height: 2' 2" (69%) Weight: 16 lb 8.5 oz (63%) Head Circ.: 17.01" (60%)

2 Month Stats:

Height: 2' (86%) Weight: 12 lb 1.9 oz (61%) Head Circ.: 15.98" (66%)

2 Week Stats:

Height: 21 inches (60%) Weight: 8 lb 15 oz (54%) Head Circumference: 36.5cm (36%)

Porter is such a joy to have in our family. We love him and enjoy having a boy to throw everything, climb everything and hit everything (he loves his hammer toys my parents got him for Christmas). No but he is really fun to have in lives. It is fun to watch him get older and smarter.

Las Vegas for Christmas

I mentioned in Early Christmas post that we ended up going to Las Vegas for Christmas. We had a wonderful time visiting! We got to go to the Nelson's for Christmas Eve, we love doing that. We also got to talk to Kalli, my sister serving her mission in Fiji. We were sad to miss talking to David's brother Shawn who is serving in Tonga but couldn't be in two places at once. We also got to play walleyball, which is our favorite thing to do when we visit and we got to meet my brother Mitch's girlfriend Angela for the first time. Everyone else in my family had meet her before so we were lucky we got to spend a day with her too. I love visiting my family and I miss them so much when we come back home. Here are the pictures I took of our trip. I ran out of memory so I didn't get too many this time.

Playing our famous Candy Bar Unwrapping game at the Nelsons for Christmas Eve.

This is Riley ready to start unwrapping. I used to babysit Riley and his brothers. Riley is now 19 and leaves to Japan in February on his mission. So odd to me since I babysat him when he was just about 1 year old. I guess I am getting old.
One of the winners, my mom.
Another winner, my dad.
Me, a winner.
My winner brother, Mitch.
And yet another winner, Eliana. The Nelsons thought it was unfair that all of the winners this year were from our family, what can we say we are good at this game.
My brothers and two of the Nelson boys.
Eliana and Zac in our Christmas play as Mary and Joseph.
Chistmas Morning with Stockings.



I got a new ring! I picked it out on December 2nd when David tricked/surprised me by having me come up to Portland for a "work" thing and taking me to Shane Co. to pick out a ring. I didn't get that until we were in Las Vegas on Christmas, it was also my anniversary present since our anniversary is the 28th of December. I can't believe we have been married 7 years! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband; David is the perfect husband and an excellent father of our children. I love him more and more everyday. I will have pictures of the ring, my sister took some and she needs to send them to me and I would take one with mine since I guess I haven't yet, but David has our camera right now.
The girls opened one gift from Grandma and Grandpa Smith before breakfast, then the rest was after Parker and Stephanie came over. They loved their Fancy Nancy tutus and wands.


I got a cute sweater and necklace from Stephanie this year from our Gift Exchange (we draw names).
Noel with his Gift Exchange from me, Movie tickets and treats.
Eiana with funny smile showing off her coloring Cd.
Kenzie with hers.
My sister Kiffyn with her new camera!
Kenzie and her puzzle.
Grandpa Smith (my dad) with my parents gift from us kids, a Willow Tree Nativity.
A puzzle from the grandparents.
David with his new duck calls.
Parker and Stephanie.
My mom with some of her gifts.
Porter had a Popsicle and was really funny with it. He held it by the Popsicle when he ate it and froze his hands and got really excited. In this picture he finally held it the right way.
Eliana sporting the Las Vegas Santa hat.

The kids sure got spoiled this year between their parents, and both grandparents. The girls both have their birthdays around Christmas too so they got so much stuff. I will post Eliana's birthday soon. My parents sent us the twelve days of Christmas which was based on their favorite things. So the kids got to open gifts a lot. It was a really cute idea to do their favorite things. Some of the things were stuff to make fudge, other treats, a game, puzzles, a book and pillowcases to lay on while you read, a movie, and other things. When we opened them we were supposed to do them as a family that day/night. It was a focus on family time and we loved it! Thanks Mom and Dad for that special gift!