Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Brady woke up to discover that Santa left a basketball under the tree… after we went outside he found his "real" present, the basketball hoop he asked Santa for.  He was so excited.  After opening presents and eating powdered sugar donuts (Brady's choice), we headed to Mass.  I was amazed that Christmas morning mass was less crowded than a typical Sunday mass- I guess everyone else went on Christmas Eve.  

Brady and Kenzie after church.

 Uncle Dan is great at picking out presents for Brady- this year he got a remote control helicopter.  Dan, Andy and Brady all had a great time flying it (and removing it from trees and rooftops)!

 Grammy, Gramps and Kenzie Rose.

 This is Brady's basketball hoop from Santa.  He can't quite get the ball all the way to the hoop but he loves to dunk with the help of Daddy or Uncle Dan!

 A Ginger Brady- made by Grammy.

 Uncle Dan learning how to make bracelets on the Rainbow Loom.

Kenzie still doesn't like to nap in her crib and since it was Christmas- I didn't even try to make her.

 Gramma Dar got Brady a crystal mining kit- he worked very hard to free 10 crystals!

Grammy and Gramps got Brady the Lego helicopter he wanted- Brady and Andy had it put together in no time!

 We took Brady's new helicopter to the middle school up the street so Brady would have plenty of room to fly it (with trees and rooftops to get in the way)….

                           

 When the helicopter ran out of batteries, we moved on to playing on the football equipment!

A Very Volker Christmas

The weekend before Christmas, we all (except Grandpa Rollie) headed to Huntsville to invade Brad and Christi's for a few days to celebrate Christmas.  The kids had a great time playing together, riding the Ranger, playing Uno, feeding the fish, being outside and opening presents!

 Macy had no idea what to do when all the fish came up to eat...

                            

On the mend

Poor Brady was sick for a week straight.  He had a fever, cough and congestion- fortunately he just got Planes on DVD so we watched that on repeat for several days.

When he was finally feeling better we went to check out the new Austin Aquarium.  There has been a lot of controversy around the aquarium and allegations that they mistreat their animals (which the owner strongly denies of course).  We had already purchased a family membership so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and check it out.  What they had was neat but it is still very much a work in progress.  Several tanks and enclosures were still empty and the t.v.s weren't working so we didn't know what we were looking at but hopefully they will have all that up and running soon.  

Kenzie is 3 Moths Old

Little Kenzie Rose is already 3 moths old!  

She is such a doll- her little personality is really starting to shine.  She loves her brother and being held.   She is not a fan of napping in her crib and has a pouty face (complete with sticking her bottom lip out in the cutest frown) that she uses all too often!  

Kenzie is a great night time sleeper.  She goes from 7:30 pm till 6:45 am on the average night (every once in awhile she will wake up in the 5:00 hour to eat).  She nurses every 3 hours like clock work during the day.  We are working on naps- she does not like napping in her crib (she will scream and cry) but will sleep for hours in the Bjorn.  

She smiles and laughs a lot and seems to like being sung to (which is surprising because I have a horrible voice)!  She is starting to like her bouncer and enjoys sitting in the Bumbo for short periods of time.

 Brady and I raked a huge leaf pile that he played in for hours… he wanted Kenzie to get in on the action.

 Kenzie is 3 months old!

Brady at 3 months (not his best picture!)

Sibling Love

Brady LOVES his sister… sometimes a little too much.  He is always very close to her and tries to help her when she cries.  Kenzie has started smiling a lot and even laughs sometimes.  She thinks Brady is pretty great and smiles at her big brother all the time.  It's super cute to see them interact.  

 Kenzie loves the tv and iPad- things I strictly forbid when Brady was this little.  She will stare at them until you turn them off- she is also a big fan of the Christmas tree lights.

Family Pictures

Brady Turns 5!

I can not believe Brady is 5!  I just don't know where the time has gone.  

We had several celebrations for him… one with the family the day after Thanksgiving, he got to go on stage at Chapel on Tuesday, had lunch with Grammy on Wednesday, he took treats to school on Thursday, went out to dinner on Thursday and had a birthday party with his friends at the bowling alley on Saturday.  Wow!  He got lots for great gifts including a sno-cone machine, tennis racket, spirograph set, watch, Planes DVD, giant stuffed dog, Perler beads, art supplies, a basketball hoop for his closet door and a bunch of other things! 

Brady had his 5 year well check and is 44.5" tall (77%) and weighs 39 pounds (25%).

 On stage at Chapel...

 Picking a prize from the birthday bag- he really wanted a green smiley face water bottle- and that's exactly what he got!

Thanksgiving Weekend

The family came to our house for Thanksgiving this year because Kenzie got baptized that following Saturday.  It was great to have everyone over (except poor Wyatt was sick so Brad's family couldn't make it and Grandpa Rollie was in CA working).  The weather was good so the kids got to play outside and had a good time.  I'm not sure why but I didn't take many pictures at all.  

Here are the 3 I have:

Kenzie's favorite way to nap- in someone's arms.

 Happy Thanksgiving

 Black Friday ads- we ended up going out at about 8:15 pm on Thanksgiving night and we were back in less than 2 hours.  We went to Target and Toys R Us- we got everything we wanted and then some and didn't even have to wait in line (unless you count a 5 person line at Target and I don't).

It was a very happy Thanksgiving despite my lack of pictures.

Around the house.

It has been cold and rainy for a while so we have been staying inside and trying to find things to stay busy.

Brady was a little obsessed with these Christmas sun catchers we found at Jo Ann's.  Everyday he would ask to go get another one.  He now has one of every design so I think we are finally done!  

 Andy and Kenzie napping.

 We got out Wii bowling out the other day and Brady LOVES it!  It's so funny to watch him.  He shouts "Go baby, go baby, go!" as the bowl rolls down the lane and does a crazy karate kick.

Check out my high score!