What a Wednesday evening...

So it doesn't need MUCH explanation, except it was a very anticlimactic trip over his own feet, onto the pavement! We spent a couple of hours with Brady at Regionals emergency department. Thankfully, they were able to forgo stitches and just glue his little noggin back together!

Other November fun!

In November, George, Koda, and my mom spent a week down in Arizona sprucing up my parents house down there. They spent a LOT of time painting, redoing light switches, and the like. The DAY they were to come home, George called me with a "surprise". He and Koda fell in love with a little puppy at the pet shop! She was a little older...about 6 months.....spunky, fun, and lovable! She is a half Yorkie, half Maltese....which makes her a Morkie. It took a couple days to figure out a name for her, but the "official" full name is Arizona Lulu, but we call her Zona. Brayden, in particular, fell in love with her and she's officially "his" dog! 

Also, the end of November came gingerbread house decorating time! This is an old Oberg family tradition, and with the exception of my teen years, I think I've made a gingerbread house pretty much every year! My grandpa Oberg made metal baking molds for gingerbread to create the sides and roofs of the houses. We put them together with royal white icing, let them harden, and then let the kids go to town on them! The past few years, George and/or his brother Alan have done an "adult" house, including a fairly impressive, specially engineered candy-lego chimney in 2010. It's gotten pretty rediculous. Here the boys (and Ky) are showing off their houses!

Family Pictures

Ronalyn and Paula worked their magic....and, as always, I loved our family pictures in November 2011. Technically, this was Kylee's 1 year pics, but we always fit in a family picture. And Ronalyn always fits in a pic or two of just George and I :)

Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde

aka Brady

Our handsome Koda bug

The little princess

Daddy and his kiddos. Shows off Brayden's personality well.

 Mommy and the rugrats

Seriously, she probably couldn't be any cuter.

On the same little wooden plate she layed in for some newborn pics!

My best little buddy

Eeeeeewwwwww. He's showing everyone his chewed up cracker.

 And then he can be as sweet as can be!

Love of my life!

The following are all attempts at final family pictures on the bench. As you can see, these were unsuccessful as "good" family pictures, but they're the best outtakes ever. And they pretty much demonstrate our household at any particular time.

Kylee's 1st Birthday!

Our little Kylee-bug turned 1 on November 21st, and we had a family bash just for her. After George and I's success with previous cakes, I decided I was going to definitely make a 2 tiered princess cake for our little princess. The smallest top tier would come off and serve as the traditional "smash cake". Her cake turned out fabulous, and she enjoyed it thoroughly! Her gifts consisted of plenty of girlie stuff, including clothing, baby dolls, hair accessories, and books.

That being said, I can't believe how big she's grown! At one year of age, she has a head full of little curls-so much more than Brady (or Koda for that matter) had. At her birthday, she had no interest what-so-ever in walking, and now she RUNS everywhere!

Today, she's not the pickiest of eaters, but definitely has her favorites of chocolate milk, pancakes, raisins/craisins, ritz crackers, pb&j sandwiches, any type of chocolate/junk food, popsicles, strawberries (really, ANY kind of berries), and yogurt. If she spies a dress or hair accessory, she'll try to put it on (ie: around her neck) or in her hair. Occasionally, you can catch her being nice to her dollies and trying to feed them a bottle or wrap them in a blanket....however, it's much more common to witness her snatching her dolls out of her play stroller, drag them around, etc, etc. She got a little doll stroller/walker for her on her birthday, thinking she'd love it. Unfortunately, she hates when the dolls are in the stroller and will yank them out. It's become a bit of a game to see how mad she'll get when you place a doll in it :) Hey, a parent has to mess with their kids a bit! She is SO into books and wants you to read one whenever she brings one. She is IN LOVE with being outside. We took a trip to Arizona in March and she got spoiled, able to be outside all the time, no shoes or socks, in a onesie or shorts. She tries to escape out the door whenever it's opened. She also really loves going for walks in the jogging stroller. Now that it's warmer out, we've been taking family walks a few times a week. Once George gets the stroller out of the shed, she starts yelling and squirming, or running to get it if we're not holding her!

She really is the little girlie light of our life. Couldn't imagine our family without her. She's universally happy, and the boys are so great with their little sis :) Life really couldn't be any sweeter!

Then THIS happened....and other various things

I come home yesterday, and my mother-in-law meets me at the door and tells me to "be prepared". I come in to George holding Brady with a towel over his eye....
Dakota and the plastic shovel: 1. Brady: 0.
Not quite enough to require stitches. Brady was a pretty good sport about it and was in better shape than Koda. I found him upstairs in his bed still crying. He was so upset that he'd hurt Brayden! Of course it was an accident, but he felt SO BAD!

In other news, here's also a few pics from this weekend. We spent an afternoon at the cabin getting it ready for summer. And getting the darn tree off the roof, thanks to our pesky beavers.

Also, I'll have a full post on this later, but Koda placed in the state wrestling tournament on Friday, and his team, Alaska Battle Cats, swept the tournament, winning 1st in folkstyle, Greco, and freestyle!

September and October festivities

In trying to keep up with catching up this blog to the present, here is an update on last September and October. Koda's 6th birthday was in September, and we held a swimming bash at H2Oasis indoor waterpark! He was able to invite a few of his new friends from school (he had just barely made some since he switched schools this year!). George and I spent the better part of 2 days creating his masterpiece of a cake, which was a huge hit! When I went into a local bakery, the lady actually KNEW my cake (from Facebook) and they have a picture in the back as their "Mario" cake inspiration! Made me feel pretty darned good! Here's a few pics of the festivities:

 Boys will be boys.

My cute Ky-ky 

 Koda's Mario Brothers Cake

For my mom's birthday (2 days after Koda's), we bought her tickets (and us!) to the Landon Swank show. He was fresh off of America's Got Talent, where he made it to the finals (and was one of our favorites-a magician). He's from the valley, and the show was awesome! 

The middle of October was the twin's birthday. They had it at a rec center on base, and it was pirate themed! The boys had a blast, and Kylee had fun making "laps" around the fireplace...she was *so* close to walking!