Happy New Year!!

Hopefully everyone had a great New Year celebration! I am anticipating a great 2009! It can only get better, right?? We had a great party at our house this year. Thanks to The Sterk's for taking Kaya overnight for us! We truly appreciate it. Thanks to all of our great friends and family who joined us in the festivities too. We had a great time!

Me and Sara...

I am sooo happy she is back in MI!

Tony and Abby

Carl and Jenni. Glad Carl could be home to celebrate with us. :)
Maci joining in the fun.

The whole crew at midnight. Happy 2009!
Me and my hubby.
Me and Abby.
Chris and Kerri livin' it up.

Kerri, Me, and Abby. Thank goodness for friends. I love them!
Oh yeah Kerri! Kickin' Chris's butt! He can't stand to have his wife beat him!
Jo-Jo air guitaring it up in the garage not hooked to anything. Totally acoustic. :)
Kristy and Kevin. Cheers to brothers too! (Most of the time...)

Together with The Pitzer's...

Addison and Kaya are always so excited to get together. The kids had gifts to exchange with each other. The girl's were giving each other their presents before we even knew what was going on, and they almost had them ripped open without us!

Here's Kaya teaching Addison about Hungry Hippo.

Matt and Colin hanging out.
Kaya picked out a doctor kit for Addison all by herself. She liked it so much herself that we ended up having to go get her one too! She's not a very good gift giver apparently.
Sara helping Colin open his present.
The girls, playing with Colin's present.
All dressed up for you!
Fireman Addison on the scene, ready to take some pics of the fire! (Or her own eyeball!)
I LOVE this pic of Colin! He is the sweetest little man I know.
This was officially our last Christmas get together. We enjoyed our season with family and friends very much, but are thankful too to get back into the normal swing of things. The holidays sure are busy and hectic.

Christmas at the Sutter's

The Sutter's had us over for brunch to celebrate Christmas together. We had such a great time! Kaya and Kaleb are the best of friend's so they always love getting to play together. And, Julia was in town from Colorado so it was great to see her too!

Below is Kaya hanging a pumpkin on the tree. She found it in the toy box and it was perfect size to be an ornament in her mind.Kaleb bouncing around on his ball.
Kaya sang "It's A Grand Ole Flag" for us! She is so funny! Again... has to be the center of attention.
Some Hungry Hippo action going on.
Julia is going to kill me for this but I htought it was too funny and cute! Abby's mom and Michelle got Kaya a book called The 2 Bobbies. It is about a cat and a dog that survived hurricane Ktrina and the dog saved the blind cat. Julia read it and this is what happened!!

Sobbing. So, if you want a good story in general, or need a good cry, you should check out the book!

The big Sterk party...

We got together with all of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and the whole gang. The kids had a blast together as usual. They are always the highlight!

Here's Katelyn, Rylee, and Eli playing so nice.

Katelyn is getting so big!
Here's Kaya again taking pictures! The sequence of this pic and the next one cracked me up!

Auntie Karen with Kaya and Katelyn.
Kaya wrote CAT on the board. She always underlines it too, which I think is so funny!
Grandpa and Grandma Sterk with their 3 granddaughters.
This board kept the kids busy for a while!Grandpa Sterk had a 60th Birthday too! Kaya of course was front and center helping him open his presents. She sang for everyone too. She sure is a ham. I guess class clown fits her, just as her teacher's told us.
Fortunately I got to sit out of this one! Here is the fam. doing our version of the 12 days of Christmas. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Holland State Park

Jer took Kaya out to Holland State Park, while I had to go to work. :( These pics are courtesy of him. The ice is amazing!
Kaya got to go to a side job with Jeremy too. He took this one on her camera.
And here are just a few of the pictures she took while on her trip to Holland with Daddy. We have found so many funny ones on her camera! It is awesome to see what she thinks is cool to take pictures of. I am so happy she loves her camera! Just like her mommy.
This one is right out the dashboard of the van.
And her legs and seatbelt too for you! I thought they were great!

Kaya to the rescue!

My mom got Kaya a whole fireman getup and a tool box with all the tools in it. She loves it. She knew what the axe was for, she went over to the door and said, "Move out of the way, I'll save you!" It was so funny. The firetruck went to her school last summer but I didn't know they got into all of that! All geared up ready to save you! Here she comes.
As a sidenote... We just found her a pair of rainboots at the store the other day. We had been looking for a reasonable pair for a while. We brought them home and she said to me, "Now I can be a real fireman mom." Apparently she had been waiting to finish her ensemble.

Christmas Morning at Home

We had a really good Christmas this year. Kaya actually sat on Santa's lap, and she told him she wanted a doll. As if there aren't enough dolls in our house already! That was the last thing I wanted Santa to have to get for her. Oh well. Santa brought a doll. It talks and cries too. :) Do you think the doll get's played with??
Not really.
She was happy though, and that is what counts!

Another thing I didn't really want to have to buy... a replacement baby toy. A friend of Jer's mom got her a pink bunny like the one below when she was born. You pull the little cord on his behind and it plays a song. Well, Kaya's had gone through the ringer these past 3 years and "surface" washing is a joke! So it had been through the wash and no longer worked. She talked about the poor thing constantly and saw one at the store and freaked out about wanting a new one. She is all about her stuffed animals in bed with her, and apparently this one was extra special. So, I broke down, and bought her a baby toy. She loves the thing! Who would have guessed.

And enjoying the rest of her goodies too.

Christmas Eve with The Sterk's

The Whole Group ALL smiling!!My sweet little girl.
Grandma with the whole gang.
Eli, Katelyn, Rylee, and Kaya.
Rylee and Kaya with their hot glasses on.
Sportin' her stuff.
Her favorite new present! A digital camera. She hasn't put it down yet!
Katelyn helping me open my presents. :)

Me and my girl.

We had such a good time with the family this year. The kids are all getting to the age where they are much more into the spirit of things. They loved opening their presents! The 3 big kids all got a camera, and they were the hit of the party.