January 2014

January!

The start of a new and busy year.

To start us off, Kacer-roo. We just love this kid, I will post his birthday post soon and go on and on about all his accomplishments because there are so many. His growth and progress during 2013 was amazing. We love this kid so much.

 

Pennsylvania has a huge Farm Show Expo every year. So we took the kids down for that. I guess we didn't take any pictures of them with the actual animals, haha. But here they are enjoying the other festivities.

 

That, my friends, is a giant butter sculpture. Cool right?

 

 Free Turkey Hill Ice Cream! That was Kacen's favorite part.

 Andie freezing while eating ice cream.

 

Kids playing in the corn box. These are a huge children's attraction in PA too. 

 Oh our sweet little angle. haha. We love her!

 Ky likes using this function on the camera. It is pretty cool. Kacen and I like to "play a round of zombies," as he says. Plants vs. Zombies fans here.

 The kids getting caught red-handed eating candy off the gingerbread houses.

They don't do too much together but they make good partners in crime. 

They were so funny when they got caught too. 

 We took Aunt Maddi to the airport in Baltimore, to send her back to Utah after Christmas break.

Kacen loved the airport and was so sad when he realized he didn't get to go on the plane too. But he was a great helper with the luggage.

 It was so fun to see Aunt Mad again. This girl sure loves her nieces and nephew. She is such a great sister-in-law and we have a great time together. She is always up for a great dance party, which are near daily frequencies around here. I can't wait to see what her grown-up life has in store for her, we all know she will do great things. 

 Dude right after this Andie biffed it at the end of the escalator and cut up her mouth, it was so bad, I felt horrible.

 

The drive home from Baltimore was crazy snowy. 

We pulled into the driveway around 11:00 p.m. and when I saw all the snow I told Ky I was going out for a night time ski sesh. He laughed and thought I was joking but we totally put the kids in bed and headed out to back yard for a little skiing. 

Sometimes I wonder where is that girl that Kyle met 8 years ago, well I am right here baby! I still have a midnight adventure bug in me every now and then.

 

 Just some snuggle time. Andie is such a snuggle bunny, she loves being held and cuddled and sitting in your lap. This girl sure keeps me on my toes getting into everything but she also pays out well in kisses, hugs, snuggles and giggles. We love our Andie Bear. She has taken to saying/screaming daddy all of the time. When she sees him, when she comes into a room and is looking for him, when she is crying in her crib and wants out, it is adorable.

 My blue-eyed big boy.

 

Playing dress up on an afternoon with the kiddos. Ky and I were bored so we decided to make some felt masks in adult sizes too. My owl was ok but Ky's Lorax went a little awry, haha A+ for effort, he is super creative and did it all on his own. It was just a little too wide, and the mustache was a little more sharp than the flowy/billowy one on the cartoon.

 We did a little more skiing too.

 See, Andie up to her toddle tactics, getting into markers, pens, pencils, dog food, water, the toilet, oh pretty much anything and everything you don't really want kids to do she does daily. Busy busy bee.

 I made a baby shower cake for a friends shower. My SIL Amy helped me out with the cute bow and balloon, and other finishing details. 

 We also threw Amy a tea part birthday party. And by we and mean she and I, haha. It was super fun and really cute. Man we had the best tea, fig rose, thanks Jen! So yummy. The kids, especially her girls loved it. What a great mom to make your party just what your kids want.

 I love this Lady so much. She is so gentle with the kids. She is crafty and creative and fun to be with. We love to just sit and shoot the breeze and cook and clean together. It isn't always easy living in one house with three families but she makes it more enjoyable and I am sure grateful for this time together. She is a great example to me and I love her so much.

 In March I get to welcome another SIL into my family. Miss Kendal is marrying my BIL Ian. My MIL, Valarie, Amy and I threw her a bridal shower. It was a lot of fun making the decorations and games. We made tissue paper tassels and flowers. Because Kendal is a theater major we played wedding charades.

The bride to be! She was such a fun sport and had a great time.

 

 She wasn't even embarrassed by the gifts, though our friend Mary probably one of the most "out there" people you will ever meet, totally was, it was hilarious

 Andie loves her Uncle Chad. This guy is a great guy too. We are so lucky to have him around. He is always so willing to help out around the house with repairs, and he loves to play with the kids, especially outside in the snow! The kids have loved having him around this winter. Like I said, it's not always easy living with so many people but when the people are good people you are living with, it makes it much easier to bare the burdens. We sure do love Aunt Amy and Uncle Chad. And especially our cousins, Lily and Ellie who love to play "mom," and play with our kids, every day is a play date around here.

 Andie loves shoes! Here she is doing one of her favorite things, sneaking into her cousins closet to get into their "big girl" treasures. She know this is a big no no but that is pretty much all she wants to do everyday.

Our January was busy with lots of parties. But mostly just a lot of the day to day stuff. 

I will try to get Kacen's birthday post out soon, but no promises.

December

Here is a snap shot of our December. 

Ky finished up his first semester of clinicals, he will go back to school on January 13, but we are so happy having home more often for now. 

I got a nasty stomach flu the night of our Ward Christmas party. But my wonderful Sister-in-law Amy took Kacen with her and he even willingly joined the Nativity. 

What a cutie and I think he even knew one of the songs he sang.

We got some decent snow one evening so we took the kids out to play and learn to ski. And I even busted out my skis to head down the back yard, it was so fun!

Kacen loved it! I hope we can get him on a ski hill this year.
Longer runs would be less exhausting. But this kid loves anything ski and snowboarding, he will sit and read magazines or watch ski videos just for fun.

Andie liked the snow ok, but was a little bothered that she kept loosing her balance in her outfit.

My longest life friend's mother, Yvette Clark, came out to PA to visit her other daughter and stopped in to see me. We had a WONDERFUL time together. I took her to a tourist town in Amish country to visit the shops, we let kace decorate a gingerbread cookie and he loved it. That day was so fun because it became the day when the age gap bridged and Yvette was just my friend not my friends mom. But I do hope Abigail can come out next time too.

Kacen got to see Santa a couple of times. We like the Bass Pro Shop Santa best and he went there twice but Ky's work was hosting "Cookies and Milk with Santa." So we took the kids to see this scary Santa. I know they are doing a nice thing but man Santa looked a little rugged and dirty.

Andie was having none.

Until she got her food. Man I even dressed the kids up thinking it would be a nice photo op, no he was on a table cloth and napkin covered chair people!

 Amy took these beautiful photos for our Christmas card. Sorry don't have a pic of the card it's self. But here are the photos that were on it. I will put the blurb we put in the cards at the bottom for those of you who are interested.

Just some random pics

The weekend before Christmas we went up to Connecticut to visit my sister, K'Leena, and her family and my parents who came down from Maine to visit. I was so happy to be able to go to their Ward party because I missed mine and it was a wonderful program. Kacen also sang in their program, the kids sang his absolute favorite Christmas song, Jingle Bells. I only have a video of that, and videos take forever to load on blogger and never actually work.

My daddy-o sure loves these babes. Kendra and Andie are only a couple of months apart, I know they will have years of good times together.

I feel bad I didn't take more photos but Grandma was there to love on the kids, and I had a really great time being with my family.

Christmas eve we had a nice sit down dinner, made by Valarie. Amy made Christmas crackers, with these crowns inside. We added the mustaches for a good pic.

Here are the kids Christmas morning

I think the highlights for the kids were Andie's play kitchen that Kyle and I recrafted from a cupboard Ky's grandpa made, and Kacen's hotwheels racetrack and loop. 

 Christmas day after presents, cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole, we went to Masonic Village to carol and that was so wonderful I love doing something for others on Christmas, even something simple.

And Mr. Gus who we hope can hold on til Spring when the ground is thawed enough so we can dig his hole. JK we love the dog.

Christmas night Ky's family goes to see a movie, so Ky and I went with Kacen to see Frozen, it was cute. But it was just fun taking him for his first time in the theater, he thought that was a ton of fun.

Oh and for those of you who missed it, Ky had a minor procedure done Saturday morning. Friday night at 6:15 he was eating a steak I bought him for Christmas (I don't usually buy a ton of red meat), on his first bite, he must have been too eager to chew it, the steak got stuck in his esophagus. Oh and also he has major esophogeal problems for like six years now, and we haven't addressed them. 

Soooo, we went to the ER after he tried and tried to force it either down or up with no success. At the ER they gave him two rounds of a med that is supposed to loosen the esophagus, it didn't work. So they had to do an endoscopy at 12:00 a.m. and reach in with a little claw and pull it out. Everything went well, and we will have follow ups and get all the issues resolved soon. We didn't get home til 3:00 a.m. I got in bed at 3:30 and woke up with the kiddos at 7:00, yikes it was a long day! But I feel worse for Ky who has been on a liquid only diet for the past couple of days. He graduates to soft food tomorrow and will stay on those for two weeks.

So that is about all of the exciting things I can think of. Hope you all have a great new year. And I will probably post again in January!

In 2013

Kyle started Nursing School, and is doing exceptionally well. He is still working in the ER as a Nurse Aid.

Heather catered two weddings, and has started making cakes, her first wedding cake is ordered for next March.

Kacen turned three. He started Headstart, and is doing very well. His speech is improving every day. He loves painting and doing anything active, he even started skiing this year.

Andie turned one. She started walking and talking. Her favorite words: mom, dada, there you go, thank you, dat (that), night night, bye bye, hi and hey.

We feel blessed that at the close of this year our family is in good health, we have accomplished some of our family goals and that Kyle and Kacen have excelled in their studies. We know many of you have prayed for our family this year and we greatly appreciate it. Some of our most challenging life experiences have happened this year, but we know through the grace and mercy of a loving Savior and Father in Heaven, and the faith and love of our family and friends, we have come out stronger and happier. Merry Christmas!

With much love,

The Congers

Kyle, Heather, Kacen and Andie