Christmas 2011

What a wonderful year it has been! We have been blessed beyond measure this year and look

forward to a wonderful 2012.

We have been having an awesome time with Grandma Melanie and Uncle Lucas the last few days. The kids can't get enough of them.

Mom heard "grandma, grandma" every 5 minutes for the first two days she was here and Lucas could hardly walk into a room without being mobbed by kids who wanted to climb on him.

Ella has taken the opportunity to grow up before our eyes! She has added a word every other day to her vocabulary in the last week or so. It is amazing to watch her mimic Katherine, Jack, Grandma, Uncle Lucas, James and I. She notices so much around her that we don't even realize!

The kids have had a blast doing projects with Grandma. They decorated a gingerbread house from a kit our neighbor Amy gave us - the temptation that provided was too much so the house was relocated to get it out o sight and hopefully out of little minds!

Christmas morning was awesome. The kids had a great time opening and playing with their new presents. We haven't broken out the new Wii games yet, but with an added controller the kids and Grandma will have a blast dancing with the Nick characters and exploring with Diego.

By far, the most amazing blessing this Christmas has been having Grandma and Uncle Lucas with us. My heart swells watching them interact with the kids, enjoying the little things and the big things.

We celebrate the birth of our savior this time of year and look to Easter remembering that He makes all things pure and new. An awesome reminder of this came when we opened the items in our stockings this morning. Katherine received a pack of sight word flashcards which James opened to check out. The first card he pulled out had the word "make" on one side and "new" on the other. God is amazingly faithful, blessing us in too many ways to enumerate. I pray that you are filled with joy this holiday season and beyond!

September in review...

Things have been busy in the Kanary nest this month. Obviously we welcomed Ella to the world on the 7th. We celebrated James' birthday on the 13th. Grandma and Grandpa Kanary came to visit for almost a week. James went back to work. Kat's mothers group re-started after taking the summer off. Uncle Lucas (or as Jack says it "undle ludas") stopped for the night with his bandmates on their way from one show to the next during the midwest leg of their tour. Now we are gearing up for Katherine's birthday and looking forward to Halloween!

Here are some pictures from the month:

Jack meets Ella Rose

Jack meets Ella Rose, originally uploaded by kokanary.

Katherine and Jack stayed with our wonderful neighbors the night we spent in the hospital and Jack hung out with them during the 2 days I was in labor and recovering.

When we came home it was almost 9pm, but they brought Jack home to meet his new baby sister and got to enjoy the introduction with us!

Katherine meets Ella Rose

VID00050, originally uploaded by kokanary.

We hadn't planned to bring Katherine or Jack to the hospital to meet Ella. We thought it would just be easier to have the introduction be on home turf in an environment we could more easily control. Things just worked out such that we asked to be discharged from the hospital early and that meant James picked Katherine up at school and the two of them came back to the hospital to pick Ella and I up to go home. So, we got Katherine on video meeting Ella in the hospital.

My favorite question from Katherine - how do you know it is a girl? Well, honey, the same way we know you are a girl, I guess... She asked the question several times - apparently it was important to know for sure!

I also love that she was excited about her new baby sister, but equally excited to see the hospital room and check things out! Before long all she really wanted was a snack...typical Katherine!

Fun surprise from friends!

Opening gifts from the Hren family, originally uploaded by kokanary.

When we got up from naps today there was a box on our front porch. While cooking dinner we opened the package to find presents! We were blessed to have the opportunity to show a friend's family around and hang out a bit when they came to help him move to KC a few weeks ago.

As if the blessing of their company wasn't enough, they sent the kids gifts - we are so blessed! Thank you so much Clem, Fran and Jessica. We would love to host you for dinner the next time you are in town!

We got a wii!!!

Well, not exactly, but Jack has dubbed our post-Christmas purchase the "wee." Grandma and Grandpa were generous enough to send some Christmas money to the kids. With that money we purchased a really cool slide! Here is a video of the kids playing on the "wee" this morning.

Meeting Santa

Meeting Santa, originally uploaded by kokanary.

Our realtors have become friends. We spent quite a while looking for a house in KC and they were amazing through the entire process. They are truly good at what they do and make their customers feel like family. Each year they host a breakfast with Santa and invite all of their customers.

We had a blast! Katherine got her face painted, both kids got balloon animals, they both sat on Santa's lap, and Katherine talked to him a little bit. It was a fun morning and we got some great pictures!

Breakfast With Santa

Here are some pictures from a visit with Santa!

Our Month In Photos

Class Halloween Party

Helping Daddy with yardwork

Halloween - Lion and Magical Unicorn

Jack pulling his friend Timothy around

Jack's intro to pinestraw in GA

Kelly's wedding in GA

School BOO-fest - teacher Mrs. Heather, friend Ava

Class trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

Katherine's 4th birthday

Cute Kid Moments

I am continually amazed at the cute and funny things that come out of kids mouths. When they are learning to adapt their speech to our common usages the things they put together are so amusing. Learning that adding an "ed" to the end makes something past tense results in things like "goed" or "gone" instead of went, "maked" instead of made, "keeped" instead of kept. Those are common things coming from Katherine these days.
Other funny things stem from associating an object with what it does. Today, Jack was using the sign for nurse even though I was across the room (he sometimes uses it to indicate he wants something, not necessarily to nurse). Katherine, who was sitting next to him, exclaimed "Jack wants to nurse from me." That alone was comical enough to picture, but she followed it up with "He can't do that, my nurses are too little." Hysterical!
She must just have babies on the brain (no idea why). She has been pretending to be pregnant today and while we were in the car she informed me that she was going to have two girls and two boys: Melissa and Tatum for the girls and Conor and Jack for the boys.

Jack still only really says Mama, Daddy and now something like deedee for dog. However, he has started singing the tune to one of Katherine's favorite songs. For months Katherine has been singing the song "My God is Mighty to Save." She and James heard it on the radio in the car on their way to school and she sings it often. Over the last week or so Jack has started singing - really cute, especially when he pulls out a stool, stands on it, and sings to his heart's content. A couple of days ago I realized that he was actually singing a specific tune - he has been singing the tune to "My God is Mighty to Save."
Jack has really gotten into cars, trucks, and things that "go." Last weekend we all drove up to my family's farm in Minnesota for my grandfather's funeral. We stayed late with several cousins on Sunday to play around on the farm. I got to drive a tractor, James hit golf balls into a corn field and had some target practice with some of Papa's old guns, Katherine had a sleepover with Grandma and Great Grandma the first night, and Jack became enthralled with the tractor. Jack was the funniest - he watched me drive the tractor around, then when we had parked and turned it off my cousin Shannon lifted him up to the seat. He immediately grabbed the steering wheel with a grunt of satisfaction. Shannon hit the starter button, making a really loud noise - Jack didn't flinch. Shannon hit the button again, then Jack tried to press the button - he had a blast!
Out of the tragedy of Papa's death came the blessing of reconnecting with relatives I haven't seen in almost a decade. Most had never met the kids, some hadn't even seen me since I was a kid. With the blessing of modern technology we hope to keep in touch better in the years to come, and plan to get together more than once in a decade!