Christmas Fun!

We've been busy enjoying our Christmas season!!! I just love this time of year, but it goes by way too fast!!

A couple weeks ago we put up our tree...Kenzie loved helping!! :)

We were suppose to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving but I came down with some nasty bug and was in bed for almost 5 days....so Kenzie had to patiently wait! Every day I thought I would feel better the next day so I would tell her we'll put up the tree tomorrow but it didn't happen! When I was finally feeling better we realized the tree got wet in the flood so we weren't expecting any of the lights to work. Turns out only the middle lights worked...I really didn't want to postpone this any further so we just added a string of lights to the top and bottom! :) It works for us! :)

Kenzie even did a little "happy dance" after she hung ornaments.... :)

A couple weeks ago we went to the craft fair at the elementary school....kenzie painted some ornaments for our tree! :)

We were quite surprised to be met by "Jingle" our Elf the other morning! Kenzie loved my nieces' Elf on the Shelf and talked about it a lot so I think Santa sent another one of his elves this way! :) This elf is actually my mom's old elf that she would always put out when we were younger as decoration! :) But of course, to Kenzie this elf watches her everyday to see if she's being good or naughty and reports back to Santa every night! Kenzie loves getting up every morning to find Jingle! :)

Painting...

Abbie & Kenzie after story time at the library...
They made "winter people"

On Saturday Kenzie & I took a little trip to Oneonta for a little college reunion/holiday party with my old suitemates!! :) Before we went Kenzie & I went shopping for the ingredients for chicken wing dip....

(she loves these mini carts so much!! and I think it's the cutest thing watching her "shop")

We had quite the holiday party with 7 kids 7 and under!! :) They were all very well behaved and they all had so much fun!!

Seriously, look how cute they all are... Kenzie & Ayana had so much fun spinning each other in this chair. They took turns spinning each other and then of course Pups had to have a turn! :)

I tried so hard to get a good picture of the 2 b/c they were both laughing so hard but they just wouldn't stay still long enough!!

Kenzie wanted me to take a picture of her on this horse.

Lookin pretty before church!
And...with all this holiday fun some of us just can't stay up until bedtime! :)

Holiday Weekend

This past weekend was our village's Holiday Weekend! I love our village and I love Christmas so this is by far one of my favorite weekends!!

We started our weekend at the annual village tree lighting...

(I didn't bring my camera for the purpose of enjoying the moment....but then I just got my cell phone out and took pics....I guess I need to work on that!! :)

Saturday morning we went to Breakfast with Santa! Kenzie was very excited for this....she woke up and the first thing she said was "we have to go to breakfast with santa!".

The week prior she announced that she is a big girl now....she's three....she will sit on Santa's lap...so I was very excited to see how it would turn out!

Just what I expected...she got freaked out as soon as she saw him! Hahaha....but she did have fun looking at him from afar! :)

After BWS, we headed over to a local church for some Christmas crafts!
Boy, was I impressed with the crafts!!
I expected some coloring sheets, paper ornaments, etc.....which would have been fine, but there were so many neat crafts, cookies to decorate, prizes to be won and a book about the real meaning of Christmas!
Kenzie had a great time!
Decorating a gift bag....

This by far was her favorite part....she loved decorating the cookies!!!

(and mommy loved eating them later! :)

Later after crafts and lunch (which we ended up eating right there at the church!) we stopped by the library for a horse drawn "sleigh" ride!

Meet "Butterball" Kenzie's new favorite doggie! She has not replaced "Pups" she now carries them both everywhere....She explained to me that they are friends and when she leaves them home they miss her! Aww :)

We ended the weekend with church on Sunday!

It was such a great message and fit perfectly into this weekend!

Jeff and I are trying very hard not to take the true meaning of Christmas away and making it all about presents! It's very hard to do but we are making an effort to not buy tons of meaning less stuff just for the sake of having something to unwrap Christmas morning. We really don't want Kenzie to just expect tons and tons of presents and ignore what's truly important! It's hard since we would love to just keep buying but we really don't want her to be greedy and expect so much from us, Santa or our families! With that being said we are trying hard to follow the advice given by our pastor for the holiday season (2 things not to do, 1 thing to do):

*Do not buy what you can not afford

*Do not covet

*Celebrate the birth of Jesus

Kenzie lined up her dogs and asked me to take this picture....she loves her doggies! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday!!

We had a great day with my family!

(I think this might be our first couple picture since our wedding!)

Kenzie loves her Ella!

We tried a cousin picture...

Jeannine was a little apprehensive....Emily & I thought it was a good idea! :)

I think they turned out well....
(the second picture I had to steal from Emily....I cut my poor daughter out of my pictures! The first picture I took all you could see was her dress! I think I was in such a hurry trying to get a picture of 6 kids 6 and under!)

Ella being Ella :)

My loves! :)

My sweet grandparents

Brayden just chillin before heading home!

We have so much to be thankful for!! :)

a very random post!

It's been awhile! We're doing well over here!! I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!!

Seriously, where did November go?!?!

I wanted to catch up on some random pictures and stories from the past month or so before the holidays!! So warning....this will be random & will have lots of pics! :)

Oh, and it's also my 300th post!! Woohoo! :) Wow....that's a lot of posts about Kenzie! :)

Here is the last month of the Soto's....

*Kenzie has fallen in love with kittys!! A stray cat has found her home at my sister's house and Kenzie is in love! She even prays for a kitty of her own! :)

*in kenzie's world every princess needs a pony...

and yes she has prayed for a pony of her own too!

*For the past couple of months Kenzie and I have been doing "school" at home! She loves it and I love that she loves it! Although I spend a lot of time with Kenzie there are days when I go to bed feeling bad that I didn't spend enough quality time with her. If I have "school" planned for us she gets my undivided attention and she learns a little bit too! :)

*Let me introduce you to "Pups"! Kenzie has had this puppy dog for awhile but in the last month or so she has been glued to it!! I think Kenzie lives through Pups (aka Emma....yes, the puppy has 2 names!) I'm not sure if Pups and Kenzie share a brain or Kenzie is living through Pups at times....for instance....the other day I was sitting down and "Pups" smacked me VERY hard in the face (for no reason!). When I asked Kenzie why she did that she calmly explained that Pups did it! Also, apparently Pups also loves princesses and barbies b/c while at Target the other day "Pups" wanted everything!!!

*Some little things that just make me smile...the other day I looked above our bed and Kenzie spiced up our wall with some monster stickers... :)

....and I don't think a day goes by where our "Family" blocks get stacked, saying anything but family! :)

*Kenzie has had more decoration parties! :)

....and she's put on some shows! :)

*The other day Kenzie woke up from her nap so I went in to get her and realized she was in a very cranky mood. I told her to call me when she was ready to be nice, then I would come back in. I went in the other room and I heard her getting up so I thought she was going to follow me. A couple minutes later I went in to see where she was and I found her dresser like this...

....she explained to me that she was mad so she opened up all her drawers! haha! Can you imagine doing that when you're mad!?!? I think the world would be a lot nicer place if people just pulled out their drawers when they got angry! :) So FYI next time you see me, if I'm pulling out drawers, just know someone really made me angry!! :)

Other random stuff going on around here....

*We got out our Christmas pjs! :)

*We looked cute going to church! *We looked cute napping with Pups!

*We spent last weekend in NJ with Jeff's family! :) I didn't take a single picture!! Kenzie had a lot of fun with cousin Drake! I love that they are getting to the age where they can play t/g! :)

*We bought a new (to us!) car! :) Our old car finally got to the point where we were putting more money in to it than what it was worth so we were forced to buy a new (to us...hehe) car!

That's about it around here...hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving week! :)