All I Want for Christmas....

IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH, MY TWO FRONT TEETH, MY TWO FRONT TEETH.......

New Earrings Anyone?

If you're struggling to find that perfect piece of jewelry to match your newest outfit, try these. These little lizards are cheap and easy to find. You don't have pierced ears? Oh no problem....these are clip ons....

Crazy Girl......

Birthday Girls....

Time seems to be getting away from me...how can my girlie girls be 6 and 8? We had some fun parties over the last month. Kenzie asked for a monkey party. What? How am I going to do a monkey party? It wasn't as hard as I thought thanks to Oriental Trading. It was a very cute monkey theme and I made monkey cupcakes that she loved. This was the first time she really seemed to enjoy the attention as evidenced in the picture below. On her actual birthday, we let her choose where she wanted to go to dinner. She picked Chuck E. Cheese. We gave in. This was the first time the kids had experienced it. She had a great time. We spent about $50 and she came home with tattoos, a ring and some vampire teeth but her joy made it all worth it!


Enjoying the moment....

She was very specific about wanting a pinata.

Her posse....

Eight feels big to me. I don't know, Madalyn is definitely entering into a whole new developmental stage, just more mature and into different things...jewelry, nail polish, lip gloss. She requested a "Minute to Win it" party. For those not familiar, its a game show hosted by Guy Ferreri. The higher the level completed, the more money you win and you have 60 seconds to complete the task at hand. So Matt did a great job with the games and everyone got to pick out prizes.

Opening new bling....

She and I had gone a little shopping trip the week before to see what she liked and checked sizes and such so she was thrilled to see some of the things she had liked.

A game called Separation Anxiety. You have to separate M&M's, or in our case, gum balls into cups with the corresponding color and you have to go in order.

My Big Girl...

Happy Birthday sweet girls....we love you so much!

Fall Fun with my Boo Crew...

I'd have to say that my favorite picture taking of the year is at the pumpkin patch. Not sure why but I just love it. There is a favorite one we visit yearly at a Methodist church down the road. The church is known as the "pumpkin church". The kids love looking at the different types of pumpkins and try to see which ones they can pick up....

Last night we trick or treated with the other kids on our street. My kids don't yet have the desire to go and go till they drop so two loops around the block and they were done! Love that! This year we had.....

One handsome Train Conductor...All Aboard!

Dorothy (with the much coveted red ruby slippers)...

And my sweet Tinkerbell....

At the end of the night...Happy Halloween from my Boo Crew to yours!

Gotcha....

The time goes by way too quickly. Monday the 25th was 5 years since we were blessed with Mackenzie and today is 7 years that Madalyn made us parents. I look at these pics and see so much change and then none at all. Madalyn was and is our more serious, tenderhearted girl and Kenzie was and is our spunky, loves intensely, "I'm gonna let you know how I feel", girl. They are known affectionately as "the girls". I can look back now and see that both of them were grieving all the change and loss but very differently. Madalyn was just quiet, serious, holding back some as she tried to adjust. Mackenzie on the other hand was loud, mad, sad, and wouldn't let me out of her sight. This is still how it is. I love their uniqueness and what they bring to our family. We love China and can't wait to go back in a couple of years. I can't imagine not being mama to these girls.....

They were and still are yummy.....

Six Years Ago...

God created a blessing that would soon be ours. Happy Birthday Mackenzie Paige Kang! Our joy girl, always ready with a smile. You are beautiful, funny, smart, and kind. We love you!

More bday celebrations coming up...stay tuned.

Sticky Situation...

A couple of weeks ago, we spent the day at Bok Tower (more on that later). On the way home, we always stop off at Webb's Goat Milk Candy store and we each pick our guilty pleasure. Mason picked this candy stick. About 10 minutes into it he starting yelling and crying. What in the world? I turned around to see this...........stuck to his hair and forehead.....we couldn't help but crack up.

Our Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday Mason who turns 3 today. Over the weekend, we celebrated with friends and family. He goes with the flow, loves playing with his sisters (although that is not always reciprocal), is WAY more talkative than either of the girls, loves to rough house, can keep up with the big kids, and still likes me to sing to him and "nuggle nuggle". He's just so fun for our family!

You may notice the decorations look familiar. That's because we had a Hot Wheel themed party last year and this year was Cars. It really is his obsession so I'm glad I saved all the stuff. We started off with a little pool time, then pizza, cake and presents....


This might be my favorite pic of the day!


Oh, and he's sporting a new haircut!

He found those two new cars sitting on the counter before I put them on the cake and he couldn't get to them fast enough.

Still on there.....

And now they're gone. The second he blew out the candles, they came off!

He loved opening presents. He received the Cars movie, a new sleeping bag, new Cars cars, a Thomas movie, a new fancy Rescue Helicopter, a fire engine Cars thingy, and he has a super hero cape with a big M on it coming in the mail.

There's that fancy helicopter....

The sweetest time for me is after the party when the birthday kid can just play and enjoy all their new things.

Our time with him has gone by really fast. I'm not sure if that's because he was bit older at 16 months when he came home or if its just that I'm getting old-er. In any case, I think of his birthmom today knowing she is thinking of him and wondering about him. I am forever grateful for her selflessness and courage.

We love you Mason! Happy Birthday Buddie!

From Baby to Big Boy all in a Week....

Mason turns 3 in about a week and this week has been full of change, maybe more than one mama's heart can handle. He started preschool and goes on Tuesday and Thursdays. He has been talking about going to "Chenky's (Kenzie's) school" for about 6 months now. We took the kids to buy new backpacks about two months ago and he could not have been more excited to buy his Thomas "packpack" and fire engine lunch box. He would frequently take them to bed with him. So he was definitely ready for school to begin. Here are a few shots from his first day....

Those gates are heavy. I love this shot.

In front of the loft where they can go to look at books and hang out with the Jesus doll (which Mason said looked scary and that he didn't like him).

It took about 30 seconds to find the truck/car area...

Here he is looking at me as I'm leaving...all smiles!

So in other news this week, he is fully potty trained even at night...well at least so far. He's been using the potty casually thru the summer. But in last couple of weeks, in preparation for school, I began being more consistent and he picked out some big boy underwear. It took several days to convince him the cars go on the back. He came out of room time a few times having turned them around to have the cars on front so he could see them! Quite a site....baggy in the front and his butt cheeks hanging out in the back. Sometimes he'll ask me to go into the bathroom so he can see them in the mirror! He's had several accident free days now. He's not great at letting me know when he has to pee but if I set him in there, he'll go every time. He will tell me if he has to poop though. So the other night, I ran out of pull ups and thought, oh well, let's see what happens. He woke up dry and has been for the last 3 nights.

In addition to preschool and underwear, he has also transitioned to a big boy race car bed. He LOVES cars. Originally, I had planned to put him straight into a full bed but decided not to rush it. And we knew he'd love the car bed. I got it off Craigslist. So with a new car bed, comes a new car rug from Target and new car bedding. I also have some Cars wall stickers that will go up around his bed.

He thinks is he quite cool....and he is!

So all in a week's time, I feel like he has grown up on me......SIGH......