Happy Birthday Kara!

So it's birthday week in the Bouck household. Mike's birthday was Friday, which he spent all day on the mountain snowboarding, and Kara's was on Saturday. I can't believe our baby turned two yesterday! She however, is in denial. Anytime you ask her how old she is, she replies either, that she's 1 or 3. She refuses to be 2. It was a low key day seeing as how I was sick most of the week before, but she had a BLAST with her new gifts. The only problem we ran into was, and continues to be, that Kate thinks she is entitiled to play with all of Kara's toys more than Kara. There is a melt down almost every two hours as to who all the new toys belong to. We still have a few kinks to work out.
Kara has to sleep with about a million things on her bed. One of which is Pongo, a three foot dog, that is considerably bigger than she is. Birthday girl.

Sporting her new tutu she got from Nana and Papa.

Anything to be like daddy. She's excited to rock out with her daddy now.

Christmas Festivities

This year we were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Bouck visit us from Washington for Christmas (good thing they made it!). We've had such a fun time and kept ourselves busy and somewhat sane (with the sickness and present overload I think we did pretty well). We've been busy shopping, playing, bowling, playing, going to the snow, and of course playing.

Grandpa brought his balloon kit and the girls have had a blast making all kids of hats and balloon animals.

This was Kara's first attempt at bowling. Thank goodness for bumper bowling...she almost did as well (or poorly) as I did.

Our California snowman. If we had proper snow equipment and good snow, instead of ice, I think Frosty would have turned out a little better.

About two minutes into playing, Kara said, "Mommy, I'm FREEZING. I need to go home." It took a little over an hour to get to the snow, and we were only there for about 20 minutes. Go figure.

Gingerbread houses

Making gingerbread houses (out of graham crackers) has been a family tradition for decades so I decided to carry it on. My girls absolutely LOVE it. Kate insisted on doing it all herself and I dare say, she did a pretty good job. And yes, that is Kara next to her with a candy cane up her nose. The finished product.

I fear it's just the beginning

As a young adult, I would see scraggaly looking kids and think, "I would never let my kids out of the house like that," or "why can't they just wash their kid's face?," or "does it really take that long to put on clean clothes?" Well to all those mothers that I have ever judged, I would just like to say, "I had absolutely no idea...I"m so sorry." I usually remember to wash hands after meals or activities, but their faces are another story. I usually don't notice that they have crusted milk around their mouth or who knows what wiped all over their cheeks, until they have been presented to the public. The best part about it is, half the time I don't even wash it off. Lately, however, Kate has been into dressing herself, and she and I never seem to agree on what matches. Not that I'm a fashion icon by any means, but I have learned a thing or two about stripes and polkadots, and different shades of pink. Kate however, very logically, debates that stripes go with stripes and pinks go with pinks...so there you go, debate over.

Kara on the other hand comes out every 10 minutes with no clothes on. She then continues to complain that she's cold but still refuses to put clothes on. I just don't know what to do with her. At least those scraggaly kids in the stores had clothes on.

Holiday family time

So, Thanksgiving has has helped remind me of all the things I'm thankful for (which I think should happen every month, not because it has now made me look 12mo. pregnant, but because I LOVE the family time). Right up at the top of my thankful list is my Savior, the Gospel, and of course, my family. I could have never imagined that being a mom and wife would be so fulfilling. Don't get me wrong, I tell my kids weekly that they belong in a zoo that's where I'm going to drop them off, but those moments don't last forever. The snuggles, laughs and playtime, however, do last a lifetime. Instead of shopping on Friday, we headed to the Sacramento Zoo (as a field trip only) and Fairy Tale Town. The girls loved the zoo. Now that Kara can identify most of the animals, she had a blast yelling at them, and telling them what they were. After, we hurried through Fairytale Town because of the crowds, and all the invisible snot and germs covering the toys (not my favorite place), we headed home to put up decorations. As we put up the tree and the decorations, I could see the magic of Chrismas in their little faces. It was just as it should have been.

Kate's favorite animals are the monkeys and the Giraffes. Kara likes anything that moves.

Fun at Fairytale Town.

It's fun when the Christmas decorations are bigger than your kid.

Making room for baby sister

Last week we found out that we are having a girl. Both Mike and I are very excited, while words can't express how ecstatic Kate is. I'm sure Mike would like a boy somewhere down the line, but we both feel extremely blessed just to have what looks like a perfectly healthy baby (especially with our history of miscarriages). Our little girls have brought more joy to our lives that we thought imaginable and are so excited to welcome in another one (red headed or not...we still don't know where the red comes from). Kara has decided so graciously to give up her crib. While I would like to keep her in there until she is three (those of you who know Kara know exactly why), she has proven that she will not be held hostage any longer. We figure we need to transition before she breaks her neck.

She says she's "riding the horsie."

Halloween

Kate with her little friends at her halloween party.

Kate and Kara ready for the festivities.


Lily, Henry, Kate and Kara. Once we actually got outside to trick-or-treat, Kate wouldn't let go of my hands.
Oh, the treasures!

Kara's just happy to be part of it all.

So the girls had a fun filled week full of halloween festivities. Besides wearing their costumes around the house all week long, Kate had a little halloween party/parade with her joy school and then on Friday night we joined with some friends Henry and Lily for trick-or-treating. Good thing for Henry and Lily who were all pumped up and ran to every house. Without their enthusiasm I think Mike and I would have had to hold the girls' treat baskets for them. After about two houses, Kara got the jist of it. In fact, she even decided she didn't just want candy, but wanted to stay with them for the night. We had to pry her out of a few houses. Needless to say, they had a great time. Kate came home, dumped out her treasures and started organizing her goods (that's thanks to her daddy's DNA). Kate wanted to savor everything and Kara just wanted the blue suckers, which she had about ten of (who invented blue suckers anyway?).