The Kelly Family

Porter Clapping

2010-12-08T21:07:00.010-07:00

Porter learned how to clap about a week ago. Here is a little video of him clapping. He was really interested in grabbing my phone too, the little stinker. He is so much fun!

Mr. Heater, Justin Bieber

2010-10-08T20:15:00.003-06:00

We were driving to the park in our car earlier this week and Emma says out of the blue, "I like Mr. Heater." (Our little propane heater we take camping.) She pauses and then says, "He keeps us nice and warm." Pause. "He's a great guy." Emma, you make us laugh!

Madalyn and Savanna, (but mostly Madalyn) really like Justin Bieber, sigh. They have a cousin that really likes him, (and many friends I am sure), and so now they really like him. A couple of months ago I was telling Nick, "I don't know why anyone likes him", so of course my children have to love him. Nick played a song for them from the Internet, and we were mock singing along to tease the girls, and Madalyn says, "I think you have Bieber Fever." Emma was singing along too, and it was pretty funny.

We almost have all of our medical bills from Porter paid off. I think his total bill cost more than my house. Thank goodness for insurance though, 0r we would be in big trouble right now.

Pictures

2010-09-12T21:04:00.009-06:00

We had our pictures taken at the end of June by our really good friend Craig Newbry. We just got them back recently, so I thought that I would post some of our favorites. We were really happy with how they turned out. Porter's baby pictures are included in the mix.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

2010-08-31T22:46:00.003-06:00

Savanna eating a lemon poppyseed muffin-

Savanna: This is the worst muffin in the world!
Emma: Not it isn't, it is the best muffin ever.
Savanna: Then why aren't you eating it.
Emma: Whycause (because) I don't like it.

The lemon poppyseed muffin was Madalyn's favorite, but for some reason she calls it poppynickel. Not sure where that came from, but she has a hard time calling them poppyseed.

Love My Kids

2010-07-29T12:13:00.002-06:00

When Emma was born, and for the first 2 1/2 years of her life, Savanna would tell me that Emma was the cutest, prettiest person in our family. She would tell me how much she loved Emma all the time. Well, the other day Savanna was thinking out loud, and said "I wonder if Porter will still be cute when he is 3, or if he will just be annoying." I laughed and asked her if she thought Emma was still cute, or if she was just annoying. She told me that she is pretty annoying, but still a little cute. (In Savanna's defense, Emma really likes to tease her sisters, so I can understand that she is probably really annoying.)

Last Sunday we were in Sacrament Meeting, and during the opening prayer Emma could be heard saying "Porter, close your eyes. Porter, close your eyes. Porter, close your eyes, etc..."
When the prayer was over she turned to me and said, "Mom, Porter didn't close his eyes!"

Madalyn is a really great helper. She really has a talent with helping with her siblings. It is so great to have her around to help me when my hands are full.

This is for you Tiffani!

2010-06-20T22:38:00.006-06:00

These are pictures from New Year's Eve. Tiffani, I hope you are really happy. I had forgotten that we had taken the girl pictures and sibling pics. I included all the pictures from the evening.

Finally, An Update!

2010-05-30T12:51:00.006-06:00

It has been so busy over here lately, that it has been hard to get more pictures posted. I finally found some time so you could see how little Portey, (as Emma calls him) is doing.

These are pictures of him when he was taken off the oxygen in the hospital. He still has an IV in his arm for some meds.

This is Porter off of everything. They were still monitoring him to make sure he was handling being off of everything

His sisters finally got to come back and see him again. They all had colds, or were sick and weren't allowed to visit him.

This is the day we brought him home. Here he is all dressed and ready to go!

We brought him home when his 2 oldest sisters were in school. Emma got to come to take him home, and was really excited.

He's home!! Hanging with Nick.

When Madalyn and Savanna came home from school, Nick didn't tell them that we had brought Porter home. It was really cute to see how excited they were when they saw him. Of course they had to hold him! Here is Madalyn holding him for the first time.

And Savanna holding him for her first time.

Little Emma holding her Portey.

Here are all the sisters with their little brother.

Mama and Porter, about a week after he came home from the hospital.

He has been smiling since he came home from the hospital, but I finally had a camera when he was smiling. He smiles a lot now, which makes his sisters happy. These pictures were from a couple of days ago. He is gaining weight really well, and only needs one more visit from the home health nurse. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts. I had many nurses tell me that they were so amazed at how fast he turned around. They all thought that he would need to come home on oxygen, and that he would have a harder time with eating. We have been so blessed and I know it is because of all the prayers and the father's blessing he received. We are so grateful that he is a healthy little boy.

Meet our son,Porter Harrison Kelly

2010-05-02T16:33:00.009-06:00

Porter Harrison Kelly was born Saturday, April 24th by c-section. He was 6lbs 14 0z. and 19 inches long. We named him after his brother, who we feel has been here with him, helping him fight for life. He seemed to have some trouble with his lungs so they brought him to the NICU. To make a long story short, he kept going down hill, and found himself first on a ventilator and then an oscillating ventilator. He hemorrhaged in his lungs, had to be on blood pressure meds, and had to have numerous tests done on his brain, heart, and lungs. They think that he got an infection, but will never know for sure because many of the tests were inconclusive. Thankfully he is doing much better, and should be home in a couple of days. He was one sick kid, but so cute. I didn't get to hold him for a few days, almost a week after his birth. It was heaven being able to finally hold him. Here are some pics of our little guy.

Nick had to wear some pretty cool things over his clothes for the delivery. Here is a shot of his feet with his "cool" boots.

Here is the first time we saw him.

Right after birth, getting checked out.

I kind of got to hold him right after birth. What a happy moment!

Here he is being weighed.

Here he is with Nick on the ventilator. We didn't actually get a picture of him on the oscillating ventilator, it was even sadder than these pictures.

Poor little guy, he hated the tube down his throat and would try to pull it out.

I love his sweet little hands and feet

This was the first time I got to hold him. They had me hold him skin to skin. Skin to skin is supposed to be really good for babies. It took a team of people to get him in my arms with all the stuff he was hooked up to.

This is the second time that I got to hold him. I loved every minute of it. He is just on oxygen here and finally off of the ventilator. Nick was able to hold him again for the first time in a week.

I will post more pictures of him later. He is doing really well with breast feeding now, and off all of his meds and oxygen. Thanks for all of your prayers, I know it is helping him.

I have a day scheduled, and I love good deals!

2010-02-11T22:32:00.004-07:00

I am really happy to have a date scheduled for my c-section. I will deliver my little boy on April 24th, early in the morning. I am kind of nervous, but getting really tired of being pregnant. Only about 10 weeks left! I know that it is still a ways out yet, but I am starting to feel like the pregnancy could really end. I am so excited for my little guy to get here!

I just love good deals. Today I decided I would look for some new pants for Nick. He was in desperate need of some pants and some new shirts. I decided to see if Old Navy had anything that he could use. They were having a 50% off already clearanced prices sale today. I went in and found him 9 shirts/sweaters, and 5 pairs of pants for less than $60. I also picked up a couple of things for my kids. I was so excited. Two of the sweaters that I got for Nick were $0.98! Most of the items were under $4! I couldn't believe the deals I got. I have been so excited about my shopping all day long!

My Silly Madalyn

2010-01-27T17:43:00.003-07:00

My girls love to check out books from their school library. The last few weeks Madalyn has picked out books that are beyond her interest and level of reading. I talked to her about it, and told her that she should pick out a book that she will actually read. Last week when she came home from school on the day she had library, she tells me all excited, "Mom, I got a book this time that I think I will read." I said I was happy for her and asked to see what she selected. She showed me her book, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fossils. I just had to laugh. It is a very interesting book, and I could see why she was interested in it, because it had a lot of really neat pictures, but the reading isn't the most exciting for a 2nd grader. If you want to know about Schuchertella, Mesolobus, or Didymograptus fossils, it would be a great book though.

Another girl story

2010-01-16T20:15:00.002-07:00

My girls had a play date with some of their favorite friends last week. I let Madalyn and her friend paint nails together and Savanna and her friends played in our playroom. I went to check on Savanna and her friends and to tell them that there wasn't much time left before parents were coming to pick up their kids. I went in the playroom and found all the girls teary eyed. You never know what that means, probably fighting about something, but one of the friends says to me,"If you are wondering why there are tears in our eyes, it is because we are telling stories about special things of ours that were either lost, ruined or taken away." They started telling me some of the stories about their favorite toys, and they were so emotional about it! I left the room after talking with them for a minute and thought, "They are such girls!" They are already connecting emotionally on their own level. When I told Nick about the encounter, he just said, "Oh boy." Poor guy, in a few years when we hit the teenage years, he is in trouble!

Girls

2010-01-15T15:48:00.003-07:00

Nick and I were reading scriptures to our kids last night. We were reading the Book of Mormon, at the end of the story of King Noah. The Lamanites are coming into the land and King Noah tells everyone to flee. The Lamanites are faster than the fleeing Nephites, and so King Noah tells the men to leave their wives and children behind and save themselves. Some of the men do this, but those who choose to stay with their families have their daughters plead before the Lamanites, asking them to spare their lives. The Lamanites agree to spare their lives because of the beauty of the daughters. (When we read scriptures we read a part and then explain what is going on to the kids.) After Nick finished explaining that the Nephites were spared because of the daughters' beauty, Madalyn excitedly raises both hands in the air and says, "That's the power of girls!!!" We had a pretty good laugh!

Potty training story

2009-12-17T19:12:00.002-07:00

Emma has been really good about potty training this week. I think she is about there, she just needs to learn how to hold more in her bladder. There are times when she goes to the bathroom 4 or more times within an hour. Today she went number 2. She plopped three pieces, and they all landed together at the bottom of the toilet. She looked in to see her accomplishment, and said "Hey, there's Mickey Mouse ears!" I looked in to see, and they kind of did look that way. She was pretty proud of herself.

We have BIG news!

2009-12-11T12:23:00.002-07:00

We are going to have another little boy. I am 20 weeks along, and found out today that our baby is a boy. We are pretty excited. Savanna and Madalyn really wanted the baby to be a boy. We let them come to the ultrasound to see the baby, and afterwards Savanna told me she was really lucky. I asked her why and she told me that she always gets what kind of baby she wants. She really wanted Emma to be a girl, and now we're having what she wants again. I told Emma that we are going to have a little baby boy, and she told me "I don't want that kind." I asked her what she wanted and she said " A baby girl!" Oh well, you can't make everyone happy. Nick and I are excited and we are all going out to eat tonight to celebrate.

Madalyn's Baptism

2009-10-27T13:12:00.002-06:00

Hey, I just thought that I would let all you family know when Madalyn is going to be baptized, so if you want to try and tackle the Wyoming roads, you can come. She is going to be baptized,(as far as I know), the first weekend in December, which is the 5th, at 10:00 am. I know that most of you probably won't be able to come, but you are all welcome if you can.

Mmmm...Homemade Chili

2009-10-21T16:21:00.002-06:00

A couple of days ago I went to walmart to get some needed groceries. Among my many items I happen to have some canned chili. When I was checking out, the lady working the register rang up my chili, and said "Mmmm, homemade chili sounds really good." I thought sure, that would be good. Then she said, "Is that what you are making tonight?" I looked at her and thought "Are you talking about my CANNED chili?" I just politely told her no, because I wasn't having chili of any kind that night. I guess if you heat it up at home, it is homemade. Sounds good to me.

Emma is such a funny girl. She likes to disagree about almost everything. Sometimes I tell her that she is a little stinker, and she will say "Yes, I not." We will then "argue" back and forth "Yes you are," "Yes, I not." It is one of my favorite things she says!

Announcing the newest member of our family!

2009-10-07T21:01:00.002-06:00

Our newest family member is Charlie, our cat. We adopted him from Cat Rescue and he is a perfect fit for our family. We have had him for about 3 weeks now, and my children just love him. (So do Nick and I) He is a really mellow cat, and lets the kids tote him around everywhere without any fuss. He does run away from Emma's crazy movements, but he likes her when she pets him. He was about 5 months old when we got him, so not a tiny kitten, but he has already grown a lot since we got him. He is a little lazy, and loves to sit in our laps in the evening. We named him Charlie because of a book that Nick loved when he was a kid. He still has the book and my girls love it too. The book is about a stray cat (that looks just like our Charlie) who finds a good place to live where people take care of him. Though we named him Charlie, we already have some nicknames for him: dweeb, nerd, pb cat (pooh breath cat) and turd. They really are all terms of endearment, we love him!

Here he is sitting in my lap for a good scratch, his favorite past time.

Madalyn and Charlie

Emma petting Charlie

Charlie

Savanna and Charlie

Nick and Charlie, again doing what he loves best.

He didn't like the flash of the camera, and he's trying to get away.

All the girls with their pet.

Why even bother....

2009-09-03T16:28:00.002-06:00

So Laurel knows that I give her a hard time because she often spends an hour or more getting ready to just go to Wal-Mart. I tell her that she could roll straight out of bed and look better than everyone else that shops there. Well...now I have proof. Someone sent me a link to this website which does a great job of confirming all of the Wal-Mart customer stereotypes.

http://peopleofwalmart.com/

Enjoy! (Sorry if your picture showed up on here.)

First day of school

2009-08-20T21:05:00.005-06:00

Madalyn and Savanna went to their first day of school on Wednesday. I thought that by the end of the summer I would be ready for them to get back into school, but I was really sad. Madalyn and Savanna are both gone all day long now, and I have to say I miss them. They really love school though and are happy with their teachers. When I picked them up from their first day of school Savanna said she wished it was the next day already so she could go back to school. Madalyn told me that she has the best teacher ever because they get to have a snack in the morning. (She belongs to me, she loves food) This is the first class she has had with a teacher who reserves time for snacks. They both have some of the same kids in their classes as last year, but a lot of different kids also. They were both so excited to wear new clothes to school and have had fun picking out their outfits. (They are such girls!) I am sure they will do well this year.

Emma and I have had a lot of fun together. Her favorite thing to do right now is to play dress up. She wears her dress up clothes most of the day. I make her take them off when we go somewhere and when she eats. It is a challenge to get her to wear normal clothes even at those times, so I usually let her play all day in her play dresses. On the first day of school, we came home from bringing her sisters to school and got her dressed up and took pictures. She was very pleased.

Here are some pictures of the first day of school. I think my girls are so beautiful!

Savanna and Madalyn in our front yard, just before we walked to school.

Madalyn at school.

At school, excited for the first day!

Savanna was so excited to have school all day long!

Savanna posing in front of the school.

My sweet little Emma in our backyard. We had so much fun playing together!

Smelling the flowers.

Emma loved getting her pictures taken. This is a first!

My kids love getting their pictures taken, and in the last week I had someone tell me that I had beautiful girls. She gave me her business card and asked me if I would be interested in having them model for her costume business. I guess it would be the pictures that are put on the packages of the costumes. When I told Madalyn and Savanna about it, they were really excited. We might do it......

Running My First 10K

2009-08-02T15:14:00.004-06:00

I ran my first 10K yesterday. Tiffani came to visit me kind of last minute, and ran it with me, yay!! It was her first 10K also, and it was awesome to run it together. I had a goal of running it in under an hour, and I was able to meet my goal! I ran it in an even 55 minutes, averaging 8.6 minutes per mile. I ended up placing 4th in my age group. (That's probably just because there wasn't as big a turnout as there usually is though.) Tiffani says she was a rock star and ran it in 57:58 minutes, averaging a 9 minute mile. We both were so happy about our times. My awesome friend Ada and her husband (along with a bunch of great people in my ward) also ran the race. Ada skunked us both with less than 53 minutes. I don't remember her exact time. Nick was really nice and watched our kids, plus Tiffani's kids, plus Ada's kids while we ran the race. He had 10 kids at our house. When I called him to see how he was doing he said he had only lost two kids, so things were great. Thankfully he actually managed all of them really well, and I owe him big.

Tiffani and I in the car on our way to the race.

We had to use the port-a-potty just before we ran. We didn't want any accidents! They were horribly smelly.

Ada and I before the race.

Tiffani and I before the race.

Getting excited!

Erin was taking our pictures for us and accidentally got our feet . I thought it was funny, and thought I would show our running feet before we ran.

This is my favorite picture.

I love running, and it was so fun to have a sister and good friends there running with me.

Goodbye BUM

2009-07-26T19:39:00.005-06:00

We went camping this last week with Nick's family. We had a lot of fun, which I will tell you about in my next blog. This blog is actually dedicated to Nick's BUM shirt. He got this shirt when he was in the 9th grade, and a few years after that he began using it as a camping shirt. He continued to wear this shirt every time he went camping, year after year. Well, he wore the BUM for the last time. This year after wearing it he burned it. Everyone had to watch as his famous shirt was burned. I have to say though, for being at least 16 years old, it was still in pretty good condition before it burned!

Nick holding it for the last time.

Into the fire it goes.

We thought it was funny that you could still see the letters and stripes so well as it burned.

Goodbye ol' friend.

2009-07-15T08:32:00.003-06:00

A couple of weekends ago we had my family's reunion. It was so much fun. We had fun with all my sisters and parents on Friday and then on Saturday we joined my Mom's side of the family for their reunion. I have a couple of uncles with boats so we did boating and eating, and just hanging out and having fun. My favorite was being pulled on the raft with Nick, and my sisters Wendi and Tiffani. My uncle Kirk pulled us, and he is a crazy driver, trying to knock us all of the raft, which he had great success in doing. I was laughing so hard, I could hardly breathe. Here are some pictures from Saturday.

Emma and her 2nd cousin Cambry

Madalyn and Naomi (cousin)

Savanna with a bunch of her cousins. They had so much fun together!

More cousins on the raft.

All of my sisters and my Mom. (My sister in law Sara wasn't there, so she is missing.)

Sisters and Mom

My Mom is such a good sport. Ha Ha

Tiffani, Candice, Rochelle, Wendi, Me

Nick and I

Tiffani, Me

Madalyn and Savanna. Cute Sisters!

Emma and her cousin Ashley

My pregnant sis Candice, Dad and I

My House

2009-07-08T14:08:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I have finally gotten around to posting pictures of my house. I have been really busy with getting the yard work done, and I am still not caught up like I would like to be. It is coming along though, and I love my house.

This is the front view

This is the front facing the side. Nick is closing the gate to the backyard. Notice the rainbow in the sky.

This is the flower patch in the front yard. It still needs a little weeding, but it's not too bad.

This is the other side of the front yard. I love the rock.

This is my garden in the backyard. I should have taken a "before" picture. It was covered in weeds. Getting it weeded has taken a lot of time!

This is a rainbow that was outside our home on the fourth of July.

This is the living room. I didn't pick it up before I took pictures, so you get to see books, shoes and other kid stuff.

This is the kitchen/dining area. Madalyn and Savanna were working on puzzles.

This is Emma in our family room, and her messes. I really love our home, but I would really like to replace the green carpet and get a more neutral color.

Okay family, if you want to see the rest, you have to come and visit!

All about Emma

2009-05-31T20:51:00.003-06:00

So, yesterday we were at our new house bringing a few things over and working on some stuff. I had been standing on a kitchen chair in the kitchen to sanitize some of the high cupboards and then got down and was working on something else. Emma decided to climb onto the chair, and tipped it over, smashing to the ground. I just barely missed catching her, I watched it all happen and just couldn't quite make it in time to her. The back of the chair hit the floor and she hit the back of the chair by her eye, splitting it open. There were three little gashes and they bled pretty good. We took her to urgent care and they stitched two of the little gashes closed. It wasn't a really gaping injury and they would have used glue if it wasn't so close to her eye. They had to wrap her up tight and then hold her head steady. The nurse had a hard time keeping her head where it needed to be, and the doc and nurse kept commenting on how strong she was. She was pretty worked up, and didn't like people looking at her or touching her. Finally it was over and we went home. I let her fall asleep cuddling with me on the couch. Poor girl. Then today I put her down for her nap after church and when I got her out she had pulled out one of the stitches. I decided just to let it be, because I didn't want to put her through all the trauma all over again.

And now for some fun stuff about Emma. She has really taken off with talking and doesn't stop when we are at home. When we go somewhere and we are around other people she hardly makes a sound, but at home it is constant! And as you all probably know, when they learn to talk they say some of the cutest things. The other day I got her out of the bathtub and wrapped her up in her towel. She opened the towel exposing herself saying "naked princess". Then she would wrap her self up again and say "warm". She does this every time she has a bath now.
A few evenings ago I decided to wear a night gown that I hadn't pulled out for a long time. It is pink and silky and Madalyn and Savanna have always made comments on how beautiful it is. Well, I changed into it and then grabbed Emma to get her ready for bed. As I was getting her dressed, she looked at me and she said "Mommy princess!" I asked her if she liked my dress and she said "It's pretty."
I was doing Emma's hair one day and she somehow got a hair ball on her. She started freaking out saying "hair get you, hair get you". Apparently she didn't like it on her.
The other day Savanna brought home some school work she had made. One of the things was a big paper spider. It was on the table and Emma reached up to get it, not knowing what it was. Savanna said, "That's my spider." Emma dropped the spider and it fell onto the chair. She just looked at it and then I saw her whole body shiver, and she said, "I touch it!" I then told her, "Emma, that isn't a real spider." She finally relaxed and said with relief in her voice "oh". I thought it was really funny. She already has a fear of bugs.

Okay, so I have one funny thing that isn't about Emma. It is about Madalyn. Today after church Madalyn and I were hanging out on my bed chatting. She loves to do this, (so do I). She was showing me how big her muscles were. I asked her if she wanted to see how big my muscles were. I showed her my arm muscles and she said, "I see a hump." I said, "Yeah I know, it's my muscles". She looked at me and with amazement said "Wow". I laughed and told her I was glad someone was impressed with them. I found it pretty funny, because I don't think I could impress too many people with my arm muscles.

Kindergarten Graduation and Closing!

2009-05-28T21:38:00.003-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been really crazy for us. Today was Savanna's Kindergarten Graduation. It was really great. At the graduation all the kids got to tell what they wanted to be when they grew up. Savanna said she wanted to be a doctor. It was pretty funny what some of the other kids wanted to be. One wanted to be a McDonald's worker, another a spy, cat rescuer, power puff girl, super model, to name a few. Savanna had a great teacher and a fun class. Last night I put her to bed, and about an hour later she was sobbing so I went to see what was going on. She was upset that school was almost over. She also has a friend that is moving at the end of the summer, and her teacher might not be back next year due to a decline in registration for next year's kindergarten. She was so sad that she might never see her teacher again! We talked it out and she finally went to bed feeling better, but it is a big stress for her right now. Poor girl.

We also closed on our house today!!! Ya-hoo!!! I am so excited. Everything just fell right into place, and we feel like it was meant to be. Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many extra's with this home, that I never expected to get. I want to do a little painting and a little sanitizing, though the house looks very clean (our sellers left it in excellent condition), and gradually move everything over. I have been going through all of our stuff the last couple of weeks trying to de-junk everything. You would think that since we moved a year ago, we wouldn't have that much to go through. It is crazy how much stuff kids can accumulate in a short year. I will post some pictures of our new home when we get some.

We found one!

2009-04-28T21:24:00.002-06:00

Nick and I put an offer on a house here in our neighborhood, and they accepted our offer. We are going to close on the 28th of May. We can't wait! We are praying that everything goes well between now and then so it can become ours. We are really happy about the house. It is a 5 bedroom house with a nice yard that has a garden spot and raspberries. I am so excited about the garden area. My girls will still be able to go to their same school, so they are really excited to get this house. We feel really good about this house after all our looking!

House Hunting

2009-04-09T16:40:00.003-06:00

Nick and I have been house hunting the last couple of weeks. I found a home that I just loved, but it needed a lot of work done on it. It is really close to the school my girls go to, and we all loved the home. It's previous tenants, (it was a rental) apparently had dogs, and all the carpets needed to be replaced, there were holes in the walls, and it needed painting. It also had a leak in the laundry room, and the oven didn't work. Ok, we thought they would give us a steal of a deal, and then we could do all the work to get it fixed so we made an offer. They wouldn't come down on their asking price so, no house for us yet. There was no way we were going to pay as much as they were asking with all the things it had wrong with it. It could be a nice home, but not for us. We are still on the lookout for a home. My girls are begging me to find one in the neighborhood so they can stay at their school, and I am hoping to be able to make them happy.

Happy Birthday Savanna

2009-03-30T22:17:00.002-06:00

So, Savanna's birthday was almost a month ago, but I am just barely getting around to posting some pictures. Savanna turned six on the third of March. She found an old pin that Nick's parents had given Madalyn when she turned six that said "I'm six years old today", and wore it all day long. She was so proud!! She chose to bring in little mini cinnamon rolls for her class treat at school, and this year she wanted a big cookie for her birthday. I was more than happy to do that instead of a cake, so much easier and less time consuming! We let her choose her birthday dinner and she chose to have pancakes, eggs and bacon. She had a really great day. She also had a friend party the Saturday after her birthday and she told me later that day after the party was over that it had been one of the best days of her life. I was so happy that she had such a great day! We love our sassy Savanna!

DisneyLand

2009-03-08T21:51:00.006-06:00

In February we went to Disneyland. It was a trip we had been planning for almost a year. It was Nick's, (and the family's) graduation gift. We had a great time while we were there. My sister Rochelle and her family decided to join us for part of the time. It was so fun to have them there with us. Emma had her birthday while we were there so we had a little party for her at Rochelle's hotel room. We went to the beach and spent a lot of fun days at the parks. Emma got really sick while we were there, so we had one day where we couldn't really go anywhere, and the rest of the days we gave her tylenol and dragged her around with us. She was able to have fun but it could have been better for her, and for me. I got a little sleep deprived while we were there. Overall we had a great trip, and would like to go back again. Here are some pictures of our trip. I posted a lot of pictures, but we took way more than I am posting.

Madalyn with her 3D glasses on.

Savanna waiting in line for the 3D Toy Story ride.

Emma was making me laugh! She loved these glasses!

Emma was really thirsty from her fever and we were constantly giving her something to drink.

I got soaked on Grizzly River Rapids. You can't tell with the color of my pants in the picture, but they were completely soaked.

Emma hanging out with her mommy. She felt miserable a lot of the time and had to be held by her momma.

Emma loved the carousel rides. They were some of her favorites! She is pretty excited in this picture.

Savanna, Madalyn and Emma found Jessie hats and they had to try them on. We didn't end up buying them though.

Savanna and Naomi on the bumper cars in the Bugs Land area at California Adventure.

Madalyn and Savanna playing in the waves. Even though the water was freezing cold they loved playing in it.

Emma and Nick at the beach on Emma's birthday. Emma hated the water because it was too cold. This picture was taken right after she felt the ocean water.

Madalyn at the beach on Emma's birthday

Emma on her birthday eating a cupcake and icecream.

Savanna, Gabby, Madalyn and Naomi meeting Silver Mist at Pixie Hollow. My kids had so much fun playing with their cousins!!!

2009-03-07T16:25:00.004-07:00

Okay, we have had a lot going on in the last month, which is why I haven't been posting anything. I am just going to post about Emma's birthday today though. I will post the other things soon, hopefully. She turned two while we were at Disneyland, but we had a little party for her before we left. I made her an Elmo cake. I think that was the highlight of the party for her. She also got some fun toys she enjoys playing with. We love our little Emma!

Monkey Bars

2009-02-05T21:31:00.007-07:00

Well, for some reason it has been hard for me to keep up with blogging. This last month has been fine for the Kelly family. We have been sick on and off since Christmas, but nothing too serious. Right now we are all healthy and hoping to stay that way since we are going to Disneyland soon. For those of my family wondering about Don, he is home from the hospital and doing much better. He still is definitely recovering, but we are relieved that he continues to improve all the time.
So, we have had some days of beautiful weather this winter! We have been to the park a lot more than I think I ever have been in the winter months. One of the days we were at the park the girls were playing on the monkey bars, and Madalyn was finally brave enough to go across by herself. It was a pretty big event for our family. Savanna has been doing them for a while, and I think that was hard on Madalyn to watch. She had wanted to go across for a while, but would always freak out, and seeing Savanna swing across would bring an outburst of tears occasionally. We actually brought our camera the day of her accomplishment and got pictures of her, yay!!! Here are the pictures of all the girls going across, even Emma, although I am holding her to get her across. You can't see me in the pictures though so she looks pretty tough, haha. There are also some other park pictures included.

Emma's Lip Sync

2009-01-05T00:13:00.003-07:00

Madalyn taught Emma to lip sync along with a barbie she got for Christmas. When she showed it to us, we thought it was hilarious.

Petroleum Jelly

2008-12-22T19:35:00.003-07:00

Laurel went running this morning and all of the girls were playing around in our room. Savanna came up to me and told me how good of a helper she was by wiping Emma's nose (Emma has been a little sick). She then told me how Emma had a little scratch on her nose. I told her that I would take a look. Both Savanna and Madalyn discussed that it would be a good idea to put a bandaid on it. I laughed and told them I would probably just put some petroleum jelly on it. Savanna looked really confused.

"What is trolum jelly", she asked. I smiled and told her I would show her in a minute. A few minutes later I caught up to Emma to wipe her nose. As I was struggling to wipe a moving target, I noticed that it wasn't a scratch on her nose, rather a little bloody booger.

As I continued to try to wipe it off, Savanna asked, "Do you want me to go get you some jam?"

I was royally confused, "What?"

"Jam...that is what you said before."

I laughed, "Oh no, it's something different, sweety." I showed her the jar of petroleum jelly and explained that you can put it on cuts to help protect it.

I can just picture Savanna imaging me spreading raspberry jam all over Emma's nose. No wonder Savanna gave me a wierd look. Sometimes she thinks I am crazy (half the time she is right).

Update on Emma

2008-12-19T20:31:00.002-07:00

So, I thought I would let you all know how Emma was doing with her nudity issues. The pinning works really well with the sleepers with zippers, however when I put her down to nap in the afternoon, she likes to take it all off, and this week she pooped in her crib and played in it before I realized she had taken everything off. She also has a night gown that she loves to wear that she can't take off because it buttons too tightly to pull over her head, but she can still get the diaper off. Last night she took it off and pooped in her crib again. I think I will have to tape the diaper when she wears those pajamas. She also likes to strip down during the day, especially when we go to someone elses house. Good times. It is a good thing she is so stinking cute.

Speaking of cute, she said something that really made me laugh. She loves to say her prayers, except she doesn't really copy much of what you say besides "amen". Yesterday when we were saying her prayers, we thanked Heavenly Father for her toys, mommy and daddy, and then she looked at me and touched Savanna and said "toh-tee" I understood that to mean that she wanted to be thankful for Savanna and added her in the prayer, which Emma smiled approvingly to. Then she pointed to Madalyn and said the same thing "toh-tee", so I added Madalyn too. She looked very pleased with herself, and I thought it was weird that she was calling them "toh-tee". A few minutes later she was calling the girls "toh-tee" again, and I said to Nick "Emma is calling both of her sisters toh-tee, I wonder why." Which he replied to by saying, "Is she saying turkey?" I turned to Emma and said "Are you calling them turkey?" She got the biggest grin on her face, nodded her head and said "toh-tee" as she pointed to her sisters. I laughed so hard. She rarely says her sisters' names, and now she has decided to call them turkey.

2008-12-14T23:17:00.002-07:00

So, if anyone has any great ideas on how to keep a kid from stripping down, please let me know. Emma likes to take everything off when she is put into her crib. It is awfully cold for her to decide she likes to hang in the nude. Wendi, what got you to decide not to sleep that way? ha ha

2008-12-12T23:01:00.002-07:00

I have a couple of Emma stories. Last night, a little while after I put Emma to bed she started to cry, but I just let her cry it out and it seemed to work. About a half an hour after she stopped crying I thought I would check on her and cover her up with her blanket, the usual stuff I do after she falls asleep. Well, when I went in to check on her she was completely naked and laying in a fetal position on her belly! She had unzipped her pajamas and stripped down, taking her diaper off as well. Everything was thrown over the side of the crib and in a pile on the floor. (Luckily she hadn't pooped.) She hadn't gone to the bathroom in her crib naked so I pulled her out and got her dressed again, (however she refused to wear the same pajamas as before so we put her in a different pair, ) and put her back to bed. She went right to sleep, and Nick and I had a pretty good laugh. It was very unexpected to find her that way!

Tonight Madalyn came into the kitchen as we were cleaning up dinner and informed me that Emma had taken off her pants and was sitting on her potty with her "bare bum". Now, this is not something new, she likes to do this all the time, which I let her because I want her to get comfortable with it, and she is so interested. I turned to Nick and told him that I didn't want to start potty training yet because she didn't seem ready, and then both Madalyn and Savanna run in yelling that Emma peed on the potty. We went in to see, and she indeed had. That makes the second time that she has done this, but the first time was totally luck. This time, I think she did it on purpose. I was really surprised, and maybe she will be the easiest kid of mine to potty train. (knock on wood)

Having fun at the waterpark

2008-12-06T16:37:00.003-07:00

I was forwarded this in an email. I thought it was hilarious......now, why didn't I think of it?

Savanna's Haircut

2008-12-04T14:41:00.003-07:00

Savanna wanted to chop off her hair so yesterday we finally did it. I think it turned out really cute and she really loves it. We won't be able to do as much with it, as far as braids and pony tails etc., but it should be so much faster to wash and brush. (Which I think is a big reason why she wanted to have it chopped. She doesn't like to spend the time on long hair.) I didn't do a before picture, but here are a couple after shots.

Madalyn's Birthday Cake

2008-11-21T23:30:00.003-07:00

I let my girls pick what kind of cake they get for their birthday, and this year Madalyn wanted to have a horse cake. She wanted it to be pink though, she is such a girl! It actually ended up being one of the easiest cakes I have ever done, so that was really nice.

This is Madalyn and Savanna, waiting to eat the cake.

Madalyn making a wish and then blowing out the candles. Savanna wanted to help a little.

Madalyn's Birthday

2008-11-21T23:09:00.002-07:00

Madalyn turned 7 on November 12th. She had a fun birthday. She didn't have a friend birthday party this year because she had one last year, and I don't want to do friend parties every year, but I let her invite a couple of friends over from school to play. I let her pick what we had for dinner and she chose Campbell's Bean with Bacon soup and cornbread. She was thinking about having steak and potatoes but she changed her mind a couple days before her birthday. Nick and I were hoping for the steak, but what do you do? She had a fun time opening her presents, and was really happy with her presents.

This is Madalyn with all her loot.

Madalyn got a new dress and shoes.

Madalyn opening her presents.

Jack-o-Lanterns

2008-10-31T23:46:00.002-06:00

This is Madalyn's pumpkin. It is a witch. We had some patterns that Nick and I had bought the first Halloween we were married but never used, so we found them and let the girls choose what they wanted. We ended up having to put the kids to bed before they were finished so Nick and I ended up doing more of the work than in previous years.

This is Emma's pumpkin, although she was to little to even care what she had so Nick picked this one out. Emma liked watching us work on them though, and we put her in a chair up to the table to she could see. While we were busy cleaning the pumpkins out I heard her say yum yum, and looked over to see that she was eating the guck out of the bowl we were putting it into. She is funny.

This is Savanna's pumpkin. She liked that cat and was pretty excited about it.

Trick or Treat

2008-10-31T23:34:00.002-06:00

Madalyn and Savanna eating a few of their treats after trick or treating. They had such a great time trick or treating today at Nick's work and then through the neighborhood. Madalyn while she was out said it was the best day of her life.

This picture ended up a little dark, but it is of Emma with a chocolate face from eating some treats after trick or treating. She had a really fun time and even overcame her shyness at a few of the houses by saying "trick or treat" and "thank you".

Our little ladybug taking a seat on one of our pumpkins. Emma loved wearing her costume, but she would not let us put the hood on her. She looked cute without it though.

Our ladybug, queen and ballerina. Madalyn wanted to be a queen, not a princess, because she wanted to be the boss. While we were out today, Savanna decided that she was the royal ballerina that performed for the Queen.

Church Halloween Carnival

2008-10-31T23:00:00.002-06:00

Madalyn, Savanna and Emma at the Halloween carnival at our church.

Madalyn, Savanna, Addy, and Brooklynn at the church carnival. Addy and Brooklynn are sisters that are in Madalyn, and Savanna's classes at school. We invited them to the carnival with us. The girls had so much fun. They LOVE these girls and are always wanting to play with them.

Emma, Addy, Brooklynn and Madalyn at the face painting station.

Savanna getting her face painted.

Madalyn and Savanna checking out their prizes at the carnival.

Madalyns' school halloween party

2008-10-31T22:41:00.003-06:00

Madalyn's class all dressed up at her class party.

Madalyn working on a craft at her school halloween party.

Madalyn walking around the school in her beautiful Queen costume in her halloween school parade.

Madalyn in the Halloween parade at school.

Savanna's school party

2008-10-31T22:27:00.002-06:00

Savanna and Emma at Savanna's school Halloween party. Savanna had a really great time at her party, and Emma loved the snacks! I love being able to help out.

Savanna working on her witch craft at her party.

Savanna going on her Halloween parade through the school. Isn't she a beautiful ballerina?

Walking in her school parade.

This is Savanna with some of her friends at school. She has made a lot of fun little friends at school.

Isn't she too young?

2008-10-31T22:20:00.002-06:00

Emma got into the toilet paper the other day. This is nothing new, but usually she is unrolling the whole roll, or ripping lots of little pieces to use to wipe her nose. This time she was stuffing loads of it into her shirt! I had to laugh because she is way too young to start stuffing already!

2008-10-18T21:57:00.003-06:00

Today we all decided it would be fun to go to the Denver Zoo. We had been waiting until fall because we thought that there would be less congestion in the zoo and we would be able to see the exhibits better. Well, we just happened to choose the day that was free admission into the zoo. At first we were all excited about getting in free, but when we got there it was crazy busy. Traffic was backed up blocks away from the zoo and all the streets were packed with parked cars. We decided not to go because it was too busy. We figured that we needed to do something down in the Denver area since we drove all the way there, so we decided to visit Littleton and see the house that I used to live in and drive past my old schools, church, parks etc. It was really fun to see everything again. It had been 16 years since I had been there last, so I couldn't remember where everything was, plus I think that things have probably changed a lot since then as well. Going through the neighborhood brought back a lot of memories. We let the girls play at a park for a while and then we went to a McDonalds with a playland so they could play some more. When we pulled up into the parking lot of the McDonalds, Madalyn informed us that she was feeling sick. She barely made it to the door of the van and threw up onto the parking lot ground. There had been a tire swing that she played on a little too much at the park that got her sick, and then driving in the car made it worse. We were just glad that she made it out the door. I think we are still going to try and go to the zoo this fall, but we will make sure we pick a day when there isn't free admission. We would rather pay to get in and really enjoy the zoo rather than get in for free and fight for a glimpse of any of the animals, and worry about losing kids in all the bustle.

I guess my job isn't so bad...

2008-10-03T15:09:00.002-06:00

I bet the guy holding the tail is thinking, "I hope I don't have to go in after him."

2008-09-27T23:25:00.003-06:00

We went to the Rocky Mountain National Park today. It was so beautiful! We decided to go and lucked out because admission into the park was free today, when it is normally $20. It was a fun trip with so many things to see. We would like to go back so we could see more of the park. There just wasn't enough time to see everything. The changing leaves were breathtaking, (the pictures just don't do them justice), and there were a lot of elk and deer around to see. We did have a little trouble with motion sickness with our kids though. They all were feeling sick, but Emma lost her lunch in the car, and again when we got home. She also started out the day with a blowout in her crib, which left me thinking about how messy parenthood can be. These are pictures from our day, (don't worry I didn't take any of Emma puking).

2008-09-27T23:17:00.000-06:00

Sleepy Emma

2008-09-27T23:09:00.002-06:00

Emma wouldn't take a nap a couple of days ago and by dinner time, she just couldn't keep her eyes open. Isn't she cute?!!

Nick's Parents

2008-09-27T23:03:00.002-06:00

Nick's parents, Don and Bonnie Bliesner came to visit us last weekend. We took the kids to the park to play, but I think the grandparents might have had more fun than the kids. (Ha Ha)

Having Fun

2008-09-13T21:34:00.001-06:00

2008-09-13T21:24:00.002-06:00

The girls making a train on the slide. They love to play together!

Savanna standing on a rock structure she climbed up on. She is showing me how strong she is.

Madalyn playing on a toy at the park. It is actually kind of hard to walk on it without falling off, but she does pretty good.

Playing at the park

2008-09-13T20:53:00.002-06:00

There is a fun park here in Fort Collins that my girls just LOVE to play at. It has a fun water spray park that they love to play in. We didn't go to play in the water the evening these pictures were taken but Emma had to check it out a little. The little fountain that she is looking at is her very favorite to play in.

This rock is the shape of a sleeping giant. There are some really fun features to it, besides climbing on it. You can put your hand in parts of the giants body and it will make funny noises associated with that body part.

Going Fishing

2008-09-13T15:24:00.005-06:00

Nick took Madalyn and Savanna fishing a few weekends ago. It was their second time going this summer and they really liked it, even though they weren't able to catch anything. These are some pictures of the girls posing in front of the beautiful scenery.

Can you guess the name of this mountain? It is called sleeping elephant. It really looks like a sleeping elephant!

Good Quality TV!

2008-09-10T12:55:00.003-06:00

Oh boy this is gross!

I think Laurel warned you that I would post some off the wall sort of things. This is one of them. This is one of my favorite shows [Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel] and now you see why. : )

Emma

2008-09-09T23:34:00.002-06:00

This is Emma on her birthday. This picture is a little old but it is a cute one of her with her dog. She loves animals, and this is one of her favorites.

Savanna is soooo excited for school

2008-09-09T23:18:00.000-06:00

Madalyn excited for school on her first day

2008-09-09T23:16:00.000-06:00

2008-09-09T23:13:00.000-06:00

Madalyn and Savanna started school a few weeks ago. This is a picture of them before they left to school on their first day. They were pretty excited to go.

I finally did it

2008-09-09T23:02:00.000-06:00

I finally started a blog. A little bit about us: Nick just graduated from BYU with his MBA in April and got a job in Fort Collins, CO with HP. He is a sr. financial analyst, and still learning the ropes of the company. We love it here so far. We have met some really great people and it is so beautiful here.