Randomness

How I found her one morning. Cute.

Fresh out of bed on a different day, she spots this jacket that a friend of mine couldn't resist buying for her. Of course she wanted it on immediately, and she wore it all morning.

She climbed through the top part of the table there, and got hung up for awhile. It was pretty funny.

Taking a snooze break with Auntie Elizabeth.

Darn toenail!

Gotta get a better look/grip on that toenail.

So tall!

Stopping mid-climb to smile at Mommy.

This one is All-gone!

This one is Peek-a-boo!

This is Rick's first ever post on this bloggenoggen.
Erin has been doing such a good job that I didn't want to soil it with my own mundane and trivial
comments.

Well purchasing your dream car that you actually have any hope of realistically purchasing is a pretty significant event.

A few months ago we put $1000 into my old car (which was purchased for $4000) trying to keep it going to avoid having to purchase another vehicle until after Erin's car was paid off.

A few days ago, my car didn't feel right so I took it in for a check up and come to find out that in the near future we may have to replace the clutch. Rather than funnel money into a slowly deteriorating car, we decided that I should update our vehicle stable.

I still wasn't that sure about it until I found a really good deal on my favorite type of car that I've been eyeing maybe purchasing in 5 years. It proved too good to pass up and now I'm living the dream for only $85 a month for 3 years after our trade in + saved money + tax return+ down economy = sweet deal. That's less than we're paying for Erin's car.

The only part that Erin doesn't like is that it's a two door. But until we have 3 kids, that's not too big of a deal for me. In fact it's kind of a benefit. Rather than strap Chelsea into her car seat in the arctic winds, I have to physically climb into the car to strap her in. Thus I am protected from standing out in the wind.

Girls and their clothes

Cheese! Mommy has a camera out. That means smile briefly and then beg to see the camera immediately. Luckily I was prepared and snapped in the nick of time and got a decent expression.

Because immediately after that first shot, she climbed up on the couch and patted the blanket next to her saying, "Sit, Mommy. Sit, Mommy," expecting to look at the pictures with me.

Chelsea was helping Daddy do some chores. (Thank you, Rick! It is MUCH appreciated!) Here she is stopping to explore the vacuum a bit. She has started to try to push it around by herself, which of course doesn't work. Keep up the motivation, Chels! Someday you will be assigned vacuuming, and I hope you still enjoy it!

If you have been wondering about the outfit choice, let me explain. Chelsea picked out her own shirt, pants, and socks in the morning. Later she was helping Daddy "fold" the clothes and decided she wanted to put a couple more shirts on. "On! On! On!" she says.
I say "fold" in quotation marks because Chelsea's version of folding is to roll it up and squeeze it against her body, then throw it on the pile of folded clothes. Very sweet, but not very helpful. I wait till she's not looking to fix it, hehe.

Anybody have any tips on cutting a wiggly toddler's hair? I think she is getting shaggy to the point where it looks more messy than cute. I've cut her bangs since these pics were taken, but I think it's almost time for the whole head. *yipes!*
No buzz cuts, so don't even suggest it. You know who I'm talking to. ;)

Babysitting and playing

I had the chance to babysit for Emma this week. We had lots of fun playing upstairs, downstairs, in Chelsea's room, in the kitchen, all over! It was nice to have a friend of Chelsea's come over. She asks about all the people she knows regularly. I don't know if it is just so that she can stay up later or what (it's usually bedtime when she's the most talkative, hehe.)

Chels is not afraid to let her friends know what she thinks of them. She is giving Emma a kiss on the head. So nice!

Cheese!

Photogenic kids. I'm so jealous of that. I look goofy in most of the pictures taken of me. These girls? Cute as can be!

Going for the gangsta look, Emma?

Sup. *head tilt*

Hat all the way on.

It's not just Chelsea that likes to put hats completely over her face! They both tottered around blind for awhile. Crazy kids.

Kitchen magnets! Woo! They must be tasty.

Even teeny tiny dolls deserve a proper stroller ride.

Peek a boo! I see you!

Kisses! Everything gets a kiss. Occasionally she helps her dollies do the kissing.

The Ensign is always a handy read since it is sitting on the side table all the time. She can identify the prophet and Jesus consistently. If she's not sure, she calls the women Mommy and the men Daddy.

Is this girl camera shy? Uh, no. :)

Chelsea hasn't figured out how to get the tray on the high chair by herself, so she brings it to me saying, "Broke, broke, broke." or else "Fix it, fix it, fix it."

This dolly high chair was a great present. (Thanks Hornbachers!) Chelsea loves to feed her babies regularly.

What kid can resist play food and dishes? Not these girls.

A new favorite place to chill is her Tink chair, along with pink blanket and a phone. I'm raising a girly girl, no doubt about it.

Chelsea was sad about something, I don't remember what, and so she took Tash, and went and curled up in her chair again. Isn't she just precious?

Emma liked the blanket and chair also.

Here is Chelsea's castle and coach. We thought of hanging up the castle so that it looked like you were going into it, but we settled on hanging it on the wall instead. It's easier to see the kids/room that way.

Overall play area. The molding made a nice definite area to put up the castle walls. It's almost as if there used to be a real wall there. Weird... ;)

This corner is for relaxing. Chelsea loves to sit in her Tinkerbell chair and talk on the phone. Funny side note: Chels held the phone up to her ear and said "Talking, talking." insead of actually having a pretend conversation. Funny! She's also been known to lay on the purple pillow and cover up and say shhh shhhh shhh. (snoring, hehe)

The kitchen now has a little work table! Yay for spare coffee tables that don't fit in living rooms!

These bookshelves act as kind of a half-wall. I like that I can sit at this messy work table of mine and see her just fine. Or I can work out on our new elliptical machine (you can see a small part of it at the very top of the picture behind the foosball table) and see her also!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I have to show our snowfall for those folks that live in warmer climates. We've gotten a LOT of snow over the last days/weeks. So much so that I don't have to work today. Walmart has been CLOSED for two days so far because the weight of the snow on the roof has caused it to be structurally unsound and unsafe to be in the building. And we haven't had heavy/wet snow folks, just a whole LOT of it. And it's been sub-zero temps a lot and windy too.
The window on the left is our garage, the rail is around our steps by the front door. (We actually even started shoveling some of this out yesterday, but the 50 mph winds last night blew that progress away.

This is the mountain next to our driveway and our neighbor's van. This is a lot of snow, yes. But think how much there would be if there were three times this much snow piled here. There would be, except the city cleared our mountain twice (maybe three times, I forget) before this last snowfall. Does that make sense? Moral of the story: We have a LOT of snow. This spring we are totally going to have a wet basement.

Here's our snow looking toward the back yard. You can kind of see the fence sticking out of the snow in the back there. This pile in the foreground is about shoulder height I think. We haven't placed any snow beyond this foreground pile, that's just how it has fallen and/or drifted.

For those of you in the same conditions, check your own rooftops and clear them if need be. (Carefully!) Be sure your vents are clear also. Clear and free of rocks, as ours apparently has a rock in it. How it got there and how long it's been there...who knows?

Christmas!!!!

Christmas Eve at the Kelly's! This year our numbers caused us to move downstairs to eat. We put some smaller game tables together and made one big setting! Sixteen seats, sixteen people! (that includes the REAL little one) Three of the four people actually looking at the camera are hamming it up. Can you spot them? One isn't hard to miss, hehe.

Gavin was very nice and concerned about Chelsea all day. He was always asking about her and checking on her if he couldn't see her. What a sweetheart! Gavin is Reed's age. I don't remember if they ever met...

Finally able to eat some FOOD! Poor Chelsea was not allowed to eat all day because she had been throwing up that morning and the night before. She was glad to have a banana and stuffed it in as fast as possible! I felt bad only letting her have bananas and crackers and such while the rest of us feasted on all sorts of yummy food. But it couldn't be helped. Stomach flu knows no holidays.

The Kellys! (yes I know there are also Heits and a Bowles too) Faces left to right are: Chelsea, Rick, Erin, Diana, Mike, Elizabeth, and Jennifer.

The Hornbachers! Left to right is Kinda holding Gavin and Gatlyn, Crystal, Bryon, Del, Ladel, Pam, and in the front is Tyjah. Pam and my mom (Diana) are sisters, for those who don't know.

The tradition goes on. I used to be one of the kids sitting in front of the tree with a present every year. Now I'm the one trying to get a good picture of it! There will be at least one more kid by the tree next year. Bryon and Crystal are making Tyjah a big sister in May! Yay!

It goes with your eyes, Grandpa!

I'll take this one, thank you.

Checking out the loot. Gavin enjoyed unloaded this box that had Chelsea's things in it. He didn't even jump in the box afterward. He just wanted it empty I guess. :)

Christmas Day at the Heit's! Santa came to visit during the night. It's a good thing Chris and Amanda (and baby, yay!) weren't able to come this year because there was no room for their stockings. The mantel needs to grow another foot or two in order to fit everyone's. Ok I'm just kidding about C .& A. & baby. We missed you guys! Hope you like the prezzies we sent down for you!

Gotta love the sunshine!

A blind Reed.

Chelsea thought it would be fun to tackle Daddy and climb up on his back. Ride em cowgirl!

We love trying to capture the moments these two get to spend together. They see each other so rarely.

The end of Christmas Day. I think it's time to head home and go to bed.

We finally got to open Chelsea's presents a couple days after Christmas. No more stomach flu! Now THIS is how it should be! Happiness, excitement, joy...

...and playing in the garbage! Woo!

This is dark, but she was being so funny! She tore off some of the paper and then wrapped herself in it and laughed about it.

Ooh! Abby! How did you know I would like Abby?

Grand total number of Abbys: THREE! Chelsea loves them and plays with them all. She asks now for Abbys instead of just Abby now.