I have the cutest dogs ever!

Jess let us use his camera for a couple of days and I went CRAZY!! (side note - I want one of these cameras SO bad, but they are about $900. So, if you want to contribute to my camera fund, feel free.) Remember many many posts back I posted a picture of my attempt to show Patch jumping, but all you can see is a blurry Patch. So, I actually got some really great pictures with Jess's camera.

I also got some just plain cute pictures of Patch and Rameses.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE of Patch!!!!

In these pictures the dogs are getting treats.

Rameses always gets bombarded when he gets a treat and Patch doesn't.

They are so fun. They are such shadows. They follow you up and down the stairs constantly. I don't mind when Patch does it, except that he jumps on you constantly, but at least he's getting energy out. Poor Rameses though is so awkward going up and down the stairs that you feel bad for him when he follows you around. Anyway, I just love my dogs and wanted to show everyone how adorable they are.

Christmas and more

First, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Now for the good stuff. Most of the best Christmas pictures are on my mom's AWESOME camera, so we'll have to do with what I have. Christmas Eve we went to my mom's for a wonderful dinner. The kids opened their Christmas Eve gifts and then we all slept there anxious for Santa to arrive. This is Halle opening her Christmas Eve gift (a Tinkerbell robe and pink slippers).

It was morning came and "the package" (Doug) arrived so we were all allowed to go upstairs. Brenden came up the stairs and Erin says, "Look what Santa brought you!" and pointed at Doug. Brenden ran to his presents on the couch. Erin pointed Doug out once more and Brenden gave him a big hug.

Then Nolan came up and walked past Doug. After 10-15 minutes he discovered Doug and he yells, "DADDY!! I BATMAN!!" It was completely adorable. Here's a picture of Batman.

Ethan is such a daddy's boy there was no way he missed him. He wouldn't leave Doug's lap. Seriously, this child cries and screams everytime Doug leaves the room (not just during this time after not seeing him for like two weeks, he ALWAYS cries when Doug leaves the room).

Halle LOVED her gift from Santa, the big kitchen set.

I love that little tongue sticking out. My mom has a lot of those cute pictures on her camera. Some of her other favorite presents were Buzz: (she's yelling BUZZ!)

The new baby from Grandma Koren: (the tongue is out again)

And the Nemo fruitsnacks stuffed in the bottom of her stocking from Santa: (he is such a smart man)

Rameses and Patch loved their bones from Tina (my boss at work):

Then we went to the other Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner. We were SO excited to give Jess this awesome charcoal drawing that Nicole, at work, did for me.

We slept in our beds at home on Christmas night and then headed back to my parents' for Friday and Saturday. Dustin and Paulette took us (me, Jared, Erin, and Doug) out for dinner while my parents put all 7 kids in bed. We had so much fun and talked for 3 hours. Then we went back to the quiet house and played Wii that the Kline boys got from Santa. We had so much fun spending time with family. Halle loved playing with her cousins. I was really glad we could all get together. We visit each other throughout the year, but we're never all together except for every other Christmas, so I really love that time.

So, now is for the 'more' part of the title of the blog which is just going to be random.

Patch really likes heaters.

The other day when I got home Jared was telling me how it was so cute that Halle was pretending to take pictures of herself and that luckily the camera wasn't on. I then turned on the camera and discovered it most definetely WAS on. These are my favorites:

Halle loves to do flips. These are her front flips with daddy's help. She runs, put her hands in his shoulder, then he flips her over. Then she jumps on his arms. She walks back across the room, and RUNS back again. They did this for a good 1/2 hour or more.

These are back flips with the couch's help.

Good thing Dustin and Paulette got her another leotard for Christmas. She's becoming quite the gymnast.

And she loves being an airplane.

And finally, a story. We are in the midst of potty training, and of course it can be frustrating and thrilling. Unfortunately our child pees like every 20 minutes, so we are constantly running to and from the bathroom, and STILL she goes potty on the princesses on her pull up. Well, yesterday she pooped on the potty. Thrilling, right? Well, yes, but she clogged the toilet. My TWO year old clogged the toilet?!?! Is that normal? So, we continue to work on this. I mostly think she's ready, but I read that a good sign that they are ready is that they wet their diaper only every two hours. This is not how she works. She enjoys sitting on the potty and LOVES doing the potty dance (which I will take a picture of and post later). That's our most recent adventure. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. Once again, happy new year.

A night with Auntie Em

Last night Nolan (Erin's middle boy) spent the night. He and Halle are only 4.5 months apart and had so much fun in Alaska that we invited him to spend the night while they were here for Christmas. Halle went down for a nap, Erin put Nolan down for a nap, and left. I went to check on Nolan...he had a poopy pull up and had a box of 100 crayons poured on the bed and was coloring on random paper that luckily wasn't important. He never slept. By this time Halle had been sleeping 2 hours or so, so we just got her up. They jumped in the bounce house for more than an hour.

They jumped, but I never got a good picture because they would jump and sit or splat, so I only got pictures of the sit/splat part.
Seriously, who wouldn't want this cute kid playing at their house??

Then we played airplane and I threw them over to do a flip.

Then it was time to rest and drink some milk.

Then more playing, but this time with balls. This is how it went (for about 30 minutes before we finally stopped them because we had to go somewhere).

Throw the balls over the edge.

Go get them.Get back in and start it all over again.Halle's hair was totally crazy the whole time. The static did wonders for her.

Jared and I played in church today, so we had to take the kids to the church so we could practice real quick. Then it was time for dinner. They had 3 cheese grilled cheese sandwiches and peaches. They were canned peaches and with the number of slices they ate I'd say that Nolan ate at least a whole peach and Halle a good peach and a half. Then they put on their jammies and ate ice cream. Note Halle's tongue sticking out. This is what she alwas does while concentrating whether it's trying to get a bit of food on her spoon or playing with toys. I love it. Then it was movie time. They watched My Friends Tigger and Pooh Super Sleuth Christmas Movie.

It was over around 9:00. They brushed their teeth and headed to bed. Erin warned us that Nolan hadn't been sleeping well at night, so we were a little nervous, which is why we kept them up pretty late. After 4-5 times of him coming out saying he had to pee or some other excuse or us hearing him playing in the room (which has no toys in it, which is why we were concerned) he finally fell asleep a little after 9:30.

We woke them up a little after 8 this morning and they ate cheerios. Then we went to the conference center for the annual Hurtado Sunday before Christmas Music and the Spoken Word followed by Little America brunch. They enjoyed the pretty music. Then we headed to Little America. I could not believe how much that little Nolan can eat! Usually he doesn't eat that much, but today, Holy Cow!! He had like 6 or 7 shrimp, fruit, cheese, crackers, half of my snow crab, some waffle, ice cream, and a bit of Jared's cake. I took him to get 3 or 4 plates of food, PLUS he ate off of my plate. Who knew a 2 (almost 3) year old would like shrimp, and most of all crab?? This is a $28 buffet and luckily the little kids are free, so man he got a GREAT meal considering it was free. Shrimp AND crab?? That's like a $20 meal!! Then Grandpa picked him up to go get Dustin's family from the airport. We all had so much fun together and we'll see them again on Wednesday for Christmas Eve and SANTA IS GOING TO COME!!

So now for some random pictures. This is something Halle has been doing a very long time. She loves to show us what she is eating and we just love the face she makes when she opens her mouth. We finally got a picture that may come close to doing that face justice.

For some reason we put the dogs in the same crate. I can't remember why, but I do know I got some cute pictures. I don't know if you can see it in Rameses' face, but I can and he's barely tolerating this. Although his head is down, he is obviously not happy with the situation.

Here he's getting a little more uncomfortable.Here he is begging. "PLEASE, get this little rat OUT of my crate!!" Really, they adore each other. Rameses just doesn't like things invading his personal space, especially in his crate. I am so excited for Christmas and to spend the time with all of my family so close. Only a few more days. Merry Christmas!!