Happy New Year 2009!

We hope this New Year finds you healthy and happy. We rang the New Year in style this year! Not usually New Year's people, I'm fine with either staying home or just hanging out at someone's house, we had the opportunity to do it up right this year. I figure you only live once so why not take advantage and jump right in! We went to a Toddler Dance Party! Yes, I said "Toddler", it was really "Kid". Our friends the Myers' and their family put on the dance party. It was at Knights of Columbus and there was even a DJ. Everyone brought something to share for dinner and the tables were decked out with party hats, noise makers, candy, coloring books, crayons, puzzles, play-do and many other fun things.

Kaylee after having her face painted.


Kaylee and Anisley taking a dance break.
Some of the dancing that was going on early in the evening.

Kaylee busting out some her air-guitar moves.
Daddy getting down with Ainsley on his shoulders. She had the best view in the house.
Kaitlyn and Kaylee with their noise makers. They kept putting the ends together and blowing them.Kaylee also enjoyed going around a blowing her noisemaker for others. Here she is demonstrating to Trey and Kaysyn.
At 8:00 pm we counted down and the balloons dropped as we rang in 2009. We heard a variety of music. Everything from Pink to country to Beyonce and Madonna to Dora and Mickey Mouse to the Chicken Dance and Hokey Pokey.

Awaiting the countdown to begin...........
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here comes the balloons.....
The kids had so much fun and this was one of the best New Year's I've had. Kaylee was a dancing machine and went up to any child or adult and asked them to dance. Ainsley was right out there too. Once the disco ball turned on she was really mesmerised and I had to try to keep her from trying to pick-up the light reflections from the floor.

What a great idea! Thanks Myers and Mouser Families. We had so much fun!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone, as has 2008, but we hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We definitely had a Christmas filled December as we had a few gatherings here and there. I love spreading it out because it makes it last longer. The month started off with the traditional State Farm Santa visit, see previous post.

The next weekend followed with the Duffy extended family Christmas. This was the first Christmas without my Grams. Although I know she was there in spirit. It was a little sad at first to think of her not there and it really didn't hit me until the last reminder email we got that mentioned the pinata. We all met at the church in Secor and had it in the hall. We have had several events there and with the large family we have and amount of kids it is probably the best choice because it offers the most room. Each of the children got 2 gifts one from their great-aunt Myra and one from Grams. They all had fun and loved all the presents and of course the pinata. You can tell our family is very kid oriented and comprised of many teachers as there is also always crafts for the kids to make.

Kaylee playing with the Little People Nativity set.


Kaylee playing with one of her new toys. A Baby Alive that talks and comes in a carrier that you can also wear as a backpack or snuggli type of carrier. Yes she has worn it to Wal-Mart and carried her baby.

Ainsley opening one of her gifts.

Ainsley giving some "loves" to her new bear. She loves to make him sing the "ABC's".

Kaylee taking a turn at trying to break the pinata open.

All of the kids scrambling to get the candy from the broken pinata.

My Dad holding Ainsley and watching all of the other kids get all of the candy from the pinata.

My Dad, Sallie and all their grandkids. They all seem so big in this photo, the grandkids that is.

The same weekend we had Kaylee's first Montessori Children's Centre Holiday Program. This was a little surreal for me. I have been to these for the last 4 years, as a teacher, but never as a parent. So while I knew what to expect it was still a different experience for me. It was much fun and of course all the kids were cute. Kaylee did well, when she wasn't yawning. I am not sure if she was still tired from the day before or if it was all the excitement for the program, or a little of both, but in between songs she would be yawning a lot. O'well. We videotaped it, thanks to my brother (shout-out to Weezy!), however Kaylee doesn't want to watch it. I think she gets a little embarrassed. The family came back to the house to eat after. It was a fun day and looking forward to next years.

Kaylee before the program. She's not always very cooperative about posing for me so I was very pleased with this one.

This is a general photo at the program. We were waiting for it to start. I was standing in the back with my brother. I made him video it so I wanted to make sure he stood in the right spot :)
The weekend before Christmas I traditionally make cookies with my mom. This year we thought we would mix-it up a little. We decided to do presents with my mom, Tim and Brian and Sarah. This way Christmas day would hopefully be a little less overwhelming for the girls. We had much fun making cookies and doing gifts. The weather really mixed it up. We didn't have power Friday night so we trucked over to mom's and stayed Friday night. The girls and I had ran to the store after work. My phone had died because for fear we would lose power that Thursday night Brad had us stay in town and I didn't have my charger. So Brad tried to call us while we were at the store to let us know we didn't have power but was obviously not successful. We got home and learned the news and I ran inside with a flashlight to try to pack a bag for us and remember all of the gifts and cooking supplies I was going to take over on Saturday. With everything in tow, and our groceries, we headed to mom's. It all worked out fine and we were able to stay at our house Saturday. I think the girls were very EXCITED to be able to sleep in their own beds. However on Sunday we ended up back at mom's because we lost power again around 4 and by the time it came back on the girls were already asleep at mom's. Thankfully since then we have been at home. Ahhhh country living!

Ainsley playing with her baking set. My mom bought each of them their own.

Kaylee still in her PJ's. She would live in them if we let her. She was getting ready to do the sprinkles, her favorite part!

Mee-maw helping Kaylee with her new jewels she got. Every princess needs some!

Kaylee in her new PJ's. She and her Bitty Baby got matching PJ's. This was a favorite gift of hers!

Ainsley hanging out in her new chair. Mee-maw got each of the girls their own chair. Kaylee's is blue.

Ainsley with her new "My Twin" baby. She loves her babies!!

Paw-Paw T-Dogg helping Ainsley with her present. Not that she needed much help this year :)

Finally Christmas was upon us. We always go to my dad's on Christmas Eve. The kids made some snowman cookies and of course opened gifts. There was a time where each person opened one gift at a time. Thank goodness for kids that don't have the patience to do that. It's more of a free for all. It's very fun though. Kaylee is old enough to go at it herself so I aided Ainsley and Brad was able to take some arial shots of the madness.

All the kids anxiously awaiting gift opening time.

Kaylee with Great-Grandma Schelle. Ainsley would not participate in the photo.

The Busing Family. As I am labeling these I realize many of them are dark for some reason. My apologies.

Kaylee getting ready to decorate some snowman cookies. I should have taken photos of the actual cookies because they turned out very cute. There's always next year :)

Kaylee and Ainsley opening away!

Some photos from a far. It's like our own Toys R Us. This is why it's good we don't do the "one gift at a time". We would still be there :)

Doesn't Brandon look excited. Can't you just see the Christmas spirit all over his face. HEHE!

My sister Katie, her boyfriend Jason, and my niece and nephews.

Christmas morning found that Santa had been to our house. The girls must have been good this year because he left them a wonderful doll house and accessories, Ainsley got a Cabbage Patch Kid and Kaylee at Batman racetrack. They had their stockings filled and of course got a few things from Daddy and Mommy too.

This is what the girls found under the tree on Christmas morning. The house hides the rest of the gifts that were under the tree.

Santa also filled their stockings.........

Ainsley and Kaylee digging in their stockings. Santa must really be watching them because many of their stocking stuffers were little things they play with in the grocery store line while we are checking out....he's good!

Kaylee and Ainsley playing with their house. We had to move it out of the way to try to get them to stop playing with it and open the other gifts. I guess that's a good sign that Santa picked another big hit!

A couple more "present opening" action shots.....now that they can both open their gifts it is fun to watch, but still busy. Daddy videotapes while I assist with clean-up, taking things out of the package and trying to take photos.

Later in the morning Grandpa Bentley, Grandma Ginny, Aunt Kristin and Great-Uncle Marty came over and there were more presents to be opened. Kaylee got her Leapster! She's been playing that and using her new Tag reading tool a lot. Which has been fun.

So excited for this gift!!!!

Ainsley pushing her new baby, from Santa, in her new stroller from Aunt Kristin.

Later in the day Mee-maw, Paw Paw, Uncle Weezy and Sarah joined in on the fun and we had a nice dinner and mom brought our stockings over.

All in all it was a very fun month! The girls made out VERY well as always. We have a lot to be thankful for and the best gift was that we were all able to be together!

Oh Christmas Tree

While this Christmas was probably one of our more exciting, as Kaylee and Ainsley are older and each year get more and more into it, it was also the worst thus far for our tree. The girls were both very excited when we got the decorations out over Thanksgiving weekend. We also found a train to go around the bottom of the tree this year. We had actually gone to Home Depot the day after Thanksgiving as there were some outdoor decorations I wanted but they had sold out of those, so instead we got a train. It's a fun train and has a remote control. The engine lights up and it can play music.

As I said the girls were excited to get the decorations put up and were very "helpful". Kaylee is at an age where she can help with some of the breakable ornaments and is very careful with things. Ainsley is at an age where everything is something fun to get into and is not so careful with things. I have never really been one to put things up that I don't want them to get into as they have to learn to be around things and not touch them. Kaylee seemed to learn this a little easier than Ainsley has. As much as Ainsley is laid back she's also very inquisitive and quite frankly a little wild. Needless to say many ornaments had to be repaired and the train was derailed many a time. I really thought on a couple of occasions that the tree would never make it to Christmas because I would be taking it down. However it did make it to Christmas, but no presents were put under the tree until Christmas Eve when the girls were in bed. This was a little adjustment for me as usually by the second weekend in December I have everything wrapped and put under the tree. I think that will become something of the past, at least for the next few years.

I have added some photos to this post to show you our beloved (or tormented?). Enjoy!!!

Here is our tree. It's hard to see, as the photo is a little dark, but the train is in one piece underneath it.

Soon after I would fix it here is what I would find. This or Ainsley bringing me 1/2 of the track, which she would drag behind her.

Toulie did very well with the tree. She would climb under to watch the train but that was about it. She's so sneaky.

Ainsley the conductor, using the remote to drive the train. She loved to do this and would dance to the music.

This is poor Ainsley when her turn was over. So sad...it's so hard to be a little one.