Kid Collages

Talmage and Anya in their new clothes from HoneyGram and Papa.

The kids after church on Sunday.

New Christmas Suit

Talmage was so excited to wear his new suit on Sunday. Again he wanted to match his tie to Anya's dress. This is us after church.

As a true Kay boy, Talmage needed his pants hemmed a few inches. This is Aaron attempting to hem Talmage's pants before church while I am finishing Anya's hair. The hem looked great but started coming out before Primary started.

Gifts

Here are some pictures of the kids with a few of their gifts. Santa brought Anya a mattress, new pillow, and sheets.

Here's the kids beds put together into a bunk bed. They are loving it for play time but Anya's still trying to get used to the new feel.

Anya insisted on putting this Elmo outfit from Sierra on as soon as she opened. She is also wearing Talmage's roller skates that Santa gave him.

Talmage got a SUIT! Now he can look like Dad on Sundays. He was very excited and put the jacket on and started searching for the "secret pockets". But his doesn't have any. He was a little sad but got over it quickly. We'll have to rig up something so he can put a pen inside his jacket were his Dad keeps his.


Here is one of Talmage's reaction to Aaron receiving a Wii from Santa.

Anya was so cute trying to play boxing.

This is a awesome picture of me looking super excited. It was snapped as I was explaining to the kids what the gift is. I am opening a scanner/copier/printer. I got a cord (USB2) in my stocking. Those of you who know Aaron's fascination with cords may find this funny. I was happy to have something to plug my cord into when I opened this gift, though I had guessed I would be getting it because I had been doing some serious hinting and out right asking for this. It will be great for preparing lessons for the kids.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve day he kids enjoyed playing outside to pass the time until they could go to bed and Santa could come. It was a warm day but I made the kids wear long sleeves because it was windy and they both have a cough.


The kids loved there pajamas they opened on Christmas Eve. Talmage is still obsessed with Mario and Anya loves her stuffed Elmo and all things that look like him. She even calls herself Elmo Mama.

Matching Brother and Sister

Talmage likes to match his ties with Anya's dresses on Sunday's. I think it's so cute. So here are the kids on Sunday in front of our Christmas tree. They sure love each other!

Talmage found a few more flowers like the ones in Anya's hair and wanted to take a picture of him giveing them to here. I think he must have some of Uncle Justin's romantic blood, cause he sure doesn't get it from his dad.

Christmas Light Bike Ride

On Saturday Aaron got his new bike. His company will reimburses us for $400 worth of exercise equipment or gymn membership for the year. And bikes count as exercise equipment. Aaron chose a orange and brown Trek mountain bike. He likes it so much better than his old one. He is now trying to pawn his old one off on the missionaries or anyone else who wants it.

So on Saturday evening we took a family bike ride around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. The kids enjoyed being out on a warm night with mom AND DAD. We hit a few dead ends and did a little off-roading. It was a lot of fun.

Trading Clothes

Talmage and Anya were playing quietly in there closet for a long time. When I was just about to go investigate Anya comes running out wearing Talmage's Sunday clothes. She was grinning from ear to ear and thought she was silliest girl ever. Then out runs Talmage in Anya's dress. Aaron and I were surprised and the kids just laughed and laughed. I was amazed at how well they worked together. Talmage had to button his white shirt on Anya and put the tie on and I'm not sure what they did to her hair. Anya had to zip her dress up on him. It was a little tight on him but she got it all the way up. Too funny!

USAA Family Christmas Party

Here is our family at the USAA Family Christmas party. It was held at USAA and they had a theater group come in and perform "An Amelia Bedilia Christmas." We like Amelia Bedilia and were excited to see the show. It wasn't as good as we had hoped for but Talmage said he enjoyed it. Santa was also there to take pictures with and the kids each got a gift bag with a teddy bear and snacks.

USAA Christmas Party

This is us getting ready to leave for the USAA (adult) Christmas party. This party was held at the Alamodome, downtown San Antonio. It was an "after five attire" party so clothing ranged from tuxes and formal gowns to slacks with dress shirt Most of the employees, including us, park at USAA and rode downtown in the tour buses provided. It was great to have free parking, a free ride, and to avoid driving in traffic. The party was fully catered and alcihol free (they are an insurance company after all). For entertainment they had LoneStar opened for Styx. We enjoyed LoneStar because it is music we actually know. They did a great job. We were able to go right up near the stage. We stayed for about half of the Styx concert. They put on a great show, we were about five rows back, but we didn't know there music very well and our feet were tired by that point. We had a great time. We also had a great free babysitter. She is a lady we sit behind at church most sundays that loves our kids and actually wanted to watch them. She even rented Horton Hears a Who to watch with them.

Anya Reading

Anya has started reading. It has been fun to see her putting sounds together to form words. She is also learning to write her letters. She wrote the words on the paper and spelled them all by herself! She's a quick learner. Our next lesson will be on putting a "two finger space" between words.

If you are wondering, it is Elmo she has under her shirt. She was pretending to be fat.

A Santa Suit for Anya

Anya was telling us she wanted a Santa suit for Christmas. So while the kids and I were decorating for Christmas I put the tree skirt on Anya and she found a Santa hat. She thought it was great. We took this picture and she has not talked about a Santa suit since. How easy to please my kids are! Now what are the chances of them being this easy to please as teenagers?

Picture With Santa

On Saturday we kids got to talk to Santa and have their picture taken. Bass Pro Shops gave us this free picture that I then took a picture of so that you can see it. They both chose not to sit on his lap but Anya didn't break down crying when we stepped away for the picture. She's come a long way. Talmage asked for "bubble gum, the kind you can blow bubbles with" and Anya asked for a "big girl bed". Talmage's is no problem and for Anya we already have a bed frame that matches Talmages but I am still shocked at how expensive twin mattresses are. Santa's little elves better get busy on that one.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we went the more traditional route. We got together with two other families in the ward at a friends house and pulled together a really Thanksgiving meal. None of us really like cranberry sauce or yams so we just left that part out-- what a great meal. I made my mom's wonderful stuffing, butter horn rolls, strawberry jello salad, and vanilla pudding fruit salad. It was a good meal. Here is a family picture of us at our friends house.

The kids loved swinging on the swings while the rest of us ate pie. Both kids flat out refused pie-- they are so weird!Anya's so goofy!

Flashback to Halloween

We didn't get into Halloween very much this year. They kids were going to be knights with there plastic knight costumes. But on the way out the door Anya decided she didn't want to wear the costume because it was scraping her. (It is made for a little older kids) So at the last minute I pulled out some wings and a fairy skirt from the dress up clothes and made a wand (not pictured). She was the flighty fairy and Talmage was "a knight that's right"-- both from a favorite Backyardigans episode.

A Few More Gymnastics Videos

Here are a few more gymnastics videos. They are not quite as cool as the previous ones but they show the kids personalities. Enjoy

We Love You Lindsey

Talmage and Anya loved their postcards from Lindsey. Talmage wanted to send her a video instead of a note in the mail. I'm sorry I didn't catch all of Anya saying "I love you Lindsey."

Like Papa

Anya seems to have inherited Papa's taste buds. This is a picture the night she ate a peanut butter and jelly (strawberry jam) sandwich with tuna fish. She also ate carrots dipped in caramel and when that ran out she dipped the carrots in the remaining tuna fish. She never ceases to amaze us with odd combination that she actually enjoys.

We Can Have Fall!

Today Anya looked out our front window and saw that our trees had changed color. She started jumping up and down saying "We can have FALL! We can have FALL!" That's how I have been feeling the past two days seeing trees changing color. We got another "cold front" this week. This is the third this year and we are ecstatic. This really set the trees off. Last year we had to wait till February for the leaves to get all brown and fall off before the new growth started. This year "we can have fall". So today is the coldest yet at 52 degrees. Everyone is decked out in the warmest close they can scrounge and many look like homeless people. It cracks me up. Unfortunately I have weeded out almost all of my long sleeved clothing not to mention sweaters/ sweatshirts. So I too am sporting the mismatched-trying to stay warm look. Anya wants to pull out the hot chocolate tonight. We'll make it a fall celebration. Monday's supposed to be 80 degrees, which makes it all more enjoyable.

These are the three trees Anya saw from our front window.

I love looking at leaves changing color up close.

Our Little Boo

This is what we often hear when Anya is using the bathroom. She also sings and makes up stories like this during nap time. (She also jumps on her bed.) Sorry all you get to see is the door. She sounds like Boo from "Monster's Inc."

The Great Dictionary Battle

At our house we have few fights over toys. But lately the dictionary is the coveted item. Both kids love to have it and if the other sees it in use they try to coax it from their sibling by trying to trade them for a Spanish/English dictionary. This doesn't work very often so until who ever has the dictionary gets distracted the "loser" has to use the Spanish/English one. As you can see they are the same size and both paperback. But they know which one is the "real" one. You may wonder what they do with the dictionary. Well I'm not sure. Mostly just pack it around and read or pretend to read words out of it, from what I can tell.

New Camera

We finally decided to buy a new digital camera with optical zoom. We love it! I tried it out at gymnastics, so now you can actually see the kids even though I'm still standing far away. Very cool.

Here is Talmage's round off dismount off the beam. His teacher is standing on a trampoline getting a picture of him for a advertising poster.


Here is one of Anya. She got to ring the bell because she did a really good job on the beam. Then her teacher asks her to go and do it again. She is jumping over small cones on the floor beam.

Anya's bottom is actually off the pummel horse and her teacher is just helping her keep her legs steady. Anya is getting stronger and loves it.

Talmage is quite flexible and always enjoys cheesing it for the camera.

Talmage's strength impresses me. He is holding himself up by his hands and then keeping his legs steady, with pointed toes. His great strength is his shoulders and then his abs.

I have one more video that is too big to post so Aaron is trying to figure out how I can split it into two videos. In it Talmage is doing a regrip on the bar-- a level 4 skill (that is competitive level) and then he does a handstand on a low bar and holds it against a wall. I am told these are hard skills but he makes them look so easy. Talmage and Aaron sometimes have push up and sit up competitions (usually instigated by me). They are both so competative. Aaron doesn't want a five year old to beat him and Talmage really wants to be as strong as a dad. Talmage is almost there!

Caricatures

At Aaron's company party they also had artists doing caricatures. I have always felt nervous about getting mine done because I didn't want to see my defining features exaggerated. Well I was feeling brave and we had fun laughing at the pictures. Here they are.

Talmage looking smug.

Anya looking more like a doll than my silly girl.

And scary Aaron and Brandon! Aaron's scariness makes me feel better about my prominent cheeks. I'm not sure if they are more like Cher or Yzma (scary beyond all reason--Emperor's New Groove).

You may wonder why they are so wrinkled. Well Aaron, at my suggestion, went to cross a "dry" riverbed to put them in the car for safe keeping. Well the riverbed was dry till about the half way point, at which there was a few feet of secretly soft mud. Aaron stepped into it and went down. He sunk in just above his knee. Both leggs ended up caked with foul smelling mud. Poor guy. And the party was only half over. Talmage's sunglasses were lost, the pictures wrinkled, and his pride deflated. He claims it is the most embarrasing moment of his life-- and he's had some doosies. I wish I had a picture of it!

Company Family Picnic

Last Saturday we spent an adventurous evening at the annual family picnic Aaron's work puts on. Here are some pictures of the the fun things we did.

Talmage tried out the climbing wall after watching Aaron go up. He went up about six or seven feet and then came down. It was amazing that he even tried-- he doesn't like heights.

Aaron, of course, went all the way up and rang the bell before descending.

Anya was fearless and loved feeding the long horns. Talmage, after watching Anya feed several long horns (and after much daddy pressure) finally fed one and felt so brave.

Anya also liked feeding the goats. She is getting so much braver these days.

Silly faces by the pony rides.

Talmage riding a pony. He has done this the past two years also, so he feels like a pro.

The past two years Anya wanted nothing to do with the ponies but this year she was ready. She warmed up even more than this and took another ride later in the day with out me standing so close. What a big girl.



We had a lot of fun. Not included in these pictures is the giant inflatable bouncers, the live band (which Talmage was a quite miffed about because he thought he'd get a chance to try their instuments), the hay ride and all the carnival rides, and of course lots of food.
Anya's favorite part of all was the Ferris Wheel. She rode around and around with her arms up while her poor mom held onto her shirt with one hand, so she wouldn't fall out, and onto the bar with the other because those things go higher than I remember ( I think I'm getting old!).

Talmage's Second Piano Lesson

Today Talmage had his second piano lesson. He had practiced all the songs he was supposed to and then went one song further. So he is forcing his teacher to allow him to progress faster. She went right along with him and passed off his extra song because he knew it so well. She complemented him on his hand positioning and timing. Later he told me that "Miss Tammy (his piano teacher) doesn't use enough pronouns." He said she calls herself "Miss Tammy" rather than "I".

Every Sunday

Aaron has meetings that start a few hours before church every Sunday, so the kids and I get ready after he leaves. And every Sunday when Talmage is getting dressed he runs into my room to ask me, "What color socks does Dad have on?". Every Sunday I tell him black sock. Aaron still has a pile of "bullet proof" mission socks that are all black and his suit is dark so he only wears black socks to church. Yet every Sunday Talmage asks. Forget matching with his pants (which are black) he wants to match with Dad. If Talmage had it his way, he would have a suit that matched Aaron's, complete with a cool pen in the inside breast pocket, and a matching tie to go along with there matching socks.

Anya's Birthday

For a few weeks now Anya has been telling me that she is getting a cow for her birthday. I don't know where she got that idea from or if she was really serious about it. She is such a funny girl. Well we couldn't disappoint her. So here is her cow.

It looks more like mad cow. She saw the eyeballs at the store and loved them so we thought putting them on the cow would make it even better. She liked the cake.


Here's her blowing out the candles. She didn't want to get anywhere near the FIRE. I think my kids need to go camping and see a real fire so they aren't so afraid of birthday candles.

She's not sad, she's just making faces.

Again with the faces. All I wanted was a smiling happy birthday picture, and I ended up with five different faces. Luckily later in the day we get some smiley ones.

Anya loves her new purse from HoneyGram. As you can see she has already enjoyed the lip gloss.

She is very excited about her Elmo shirt from Stephanie. She slept in it that night and wore it to the park the next day even after spilling breakfast on it. It is now in the wash. Below is a video of her opening it.