merry christmas to us!

the hornacek family will be welcoming a precious little one into this world next summer! we found out yesterday morning...after i took two pregnancy tests, i had kyri go tell daddy, "i'm going to be a big sister!" with this sign on. i had made it a few months ago, ready for that special time. kevin was beyond excited, as well as the rest of our family. we still can't believe it's true! i guess the yucky nauseousness is a helpful reminder. what an unexpected blessing and wonderful christmas gift. there's a baby growing in my belly!

christmas tree, oh christmas tree!

this was our first year getting a christmas tree since kyri joined our little family. i was beyond excited to go pick out a perfect tree! we headed to a tree farm in roseville because i knew that they had silver tip's, which are what my family always had growing up. they are my favorite! we found one that was just the right size for our family. it was pretty late when we got home, so we ended up decorating the tree the next day. getting the lights on was a nightmare...i had to redo them three times because i would end up with not enough at the end to plug in. grrr! kyri helped put the ornaments on and she was such a great help! except she kept putting the ornaments in one little spot. kyri and i made these cinnamon applesauce ornaments this year, which are so easy and smell delicious! they're just made from a dough of equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. you roll it out, cut with cookie-cutters, use a straw to cut holes in the top, and let dry for 24 hours. they turned out so cute and i just love the cinnamon smell! our tree is delightful and i just love looking at it every day. i can't wait to wake up christmas morning and actually have a beautiful christmas tree! such a joyous holiday!

matching ugg boots!

i cannot believe i forgot to share with my fellow blog readers that one of the prizes we won, which we weren't aware of until we picked up our prize package...was 4 pair of ugg boots for our family! i know! we went that day to the mall to pick them out and i took forever long to decide which ones i loved most. this was a big decision for me. i ended up going with the tall chocolate brown and kyri got a matching pair, except in the shorter style. i love them so much! they keep my feet so very warm and i feel like i am wearing slippers. kevin picked out a pair too. his are more of a rugged, manly style of uggs, made of a harder black leather with sturdy soles. honestly, i feel weird wearing them because i would never purchase a pair of uggs in my life, let alone for my 2 year old. they are outrageously expensive and you can buy the knock-offs at just about anywhere. it is honestly (besides the t.v.) my favorite prize! we have a voucher for one more kids pair, which i might just get kyri a pair a couple sizes bigger for next year. they are such a blessing too because it has been dreadfully cold here and my uggs sure are helping to keep me nice and toasty!

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gingerbread houses with the haskins boys

yay for having kendrick and kyler over to hang out! they are so loving and patient with kyri and we just always have a great time when they come over to our house. i decided to get out all of the fixing for gingerbread-house-making (or i guess graham cracker) and everyone joined in on the fun! there was m&m's, raisins, marshmallows, chocolates, sprinkles, chocolate chips, cereal, and the frosting of course. kyri was so creative and did such a great job with her house! i helped her build her house and then all of the decorating was done by her two little hands. all of the houses turned out super cute and it was hard to not eat them! i let the kids eat some of the leftover treats...even though we all munched away as we were creating. how could you not? after kyri went off to bed, the boys got out all of kevin's ninja and star wars action figures. boy oh boy did they have fun! kevin was in heaven. they played for over an hour until their parents came to pick them up. what a super night!

getting the foundation done to begin the best part!
so proud of my girl! she loves to be creative like her mommy!

daddy's house was pretty cute too...such a fun tradition!

downtown lincoln christmas parade

saturday night we headed to downtown lincoln for the annual christmas parade...which we just love! i bundled up kyri with her hat, gloves, and all. we met up with our dear friends, the loomis family. kyri loved waving to all of the puppies and horsies and the little girls in their fancy dresses. her most favorite part was enjoying her scrumptious lollipop as the floats and firetrucks drove by. i love lincoln. i love living in a small town.

jingle ball

wooohooo for jingle ball! kevin and i used our tickets to jingle ball this past wednesday night, one of our many prizes. we took anne as a thank you for taking our family christmas pictures (which so far, are amazing!), and her best bud kaitlyn. they were so excited! i didn't know the jingle ball was such a big deal, but they were pretty stocked! the concert was at arco arena and even though our seats weren't the best, it was still really fun. the line-up was...shontelle, david archuleta (american idol runner-up), boys like girls, katy perry, and jesse mccartny was the headliner. even though i am not a fan of her song about kissing girls...katy perry was my favorite performer of the night. she was just super cute and has a really good voice! the girls had a great time and i'm so glad they were able to come with us! we stopped for del taco on our way home...yum!

is this for real?!?!?

do you remember that glorious day when i stood in line at the galleria mall for a jcpenny haircut? well, while i was there, i also entered a drawing that was randomly placed in the mall. what drew my interest was the second place prize, a tropical vacation. i didn't pay much attention to the other prizes. that was about a month ago so i totally forgot about the drawing...

i received a call yesterday afternoon from a lady at the galleria mall office...I WON THE GRAND PRIZE! shut your mouth! i couldn't believe what i was hearing! the lady started telling me everything i won and i was frantically writing everything down. the whole time i am thinking, "is this for real?" i always thought that no one ever actually won those things. i am a firm believer now! so do you want to hear what we won?

- hitachi 47" LCD HDTV...$2,500 t.v.!
- 1 year membership for our family to california family fitness
- 4 season passes to a ski resort in lake tahoe
- 4 season passes to golfland sunsplash in roseville
- private bowling party at strikes in their v.i.p. room
- 4 tickets to jingle ball

total prize package value = $8,000

CRAZY! kevin and i are still in complete shock. the t.v. is probably the coolest part because kevin being a home theater installer, has seen more t.v.'s every day. we have wanted to upgrade, but totally can't afford it. the t.v. we won is a super good one too! the membership to california family fitness is a dream come true. that place is amazing and has sooo many classes, especially for kids! now we can actually start working out as a family. awesome! the ski resort passes are the only thing that we might either try to sell. we just probably won't use them to their full potential and their value is $2,400! the golfland sunsplash tickets are going to be so fun to use! we can use them for miniature golfing, arcade games, lazer tag, and a really cool water park! the private bowling party...too good to be true. at strikes bowling alley, they have this private room that has 2 bowling lanes, t.v.'s, couches, and it's a huge room! since we have been trying to figure out what to do for kyri's 3rd birthday, so this could be perfect! the jingle ball tickets...some of you might know what that is. i did not. it's a concert tomorrow night at arco arena in sacramento, with 6 popular bands. i'm not huge fans of any of them, but we are totally going to go! kevin and i are going to take anne and kaitlyn (two teenage girls) and they are freaking out so excited! should be a crazy, fun night!

so yeah...still in shock. we pick up our prize package on friday so i'll post more details when i get them. this just couldn't come at a better time for our family. we have had such a rough couple of months with finances, my health, trying to get pregnant, and family stuff. all of these prizes are things that we would never spend money on, which makes all of them such a treat! we feel blessed beyond belief. God sure does take care of us in incredible, unimaginable ways. lesson learned...don't hesitate to sign up for those drawings! you never know, you could be a lucky winner just like the hornacek family!

thanksgiving with the haskins

what a wonderful thanksgiving! we were invited to join the haskins family at their home for thanksgiving this year. darrell and sandie haskins are such dear friends and we just love spending time with them, as well as their two boys, kendrick and kyler. sandie's mother and sister, her friend jean, and andrew were there to celebrate too. let's just say...we had TONS of food! everything that everyone made was delicious! i brought a yummy jalapeno artichoke dip, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and those adorable "turkey cookies" (notice the one kyri decorated). i just love to bake! after enjoying a wonderful meal, the ladies went outside to enjoy a cup of coffe, while the kids and the guys played some music. the haskins have a complete drum set, guitars, bongos...lots of fun instruments! kyri loves to play the drums and already is showing signs of true talent. she's a total rock star!

once we could fill our bellies with more yummy goodness, we went for dessert. we all tried a little bit of everything. while the guys played settlers, we watched "kit kittredge: an american girl." it's a very cute movie. the night wouldn't have been complete if we didn't play ROCKBAND! the haskins family all rock at this game. i played drums a couple of times and i totally suck. good or not, it is still an awesome game! we had a super fun time at the haskins! it meant so much to us that they invited us to be a part of their family and to celebrate thanksgiving. so many fun memories were made!

kyri enjoying her yummy thanksgiving dinner!
family and friends...something to always be thankful for.
kryi and kyler are just too cute eating their "turkey" cookies!

friends.

we sure do love the beidler family! we went over to ryan and gentry's house for dinner on sunday night...at their new house! they are now living in their almost-finished home and it is too cute for words! what a dream to be able to design and build your house from scratch. they have done such a wonderful job! gentry made a yummy dinner for us and i brought a banana cake for dessert. kyri and ava played so well together. ava is kyri's only girlfriend that is close to her age so they had so much fun "pretend" cooking, dressing-up, and being little mommies. ryan and gentry also have baby ravinia, who is 3 months old and so precious! while i was holding her, she had lots of squirty-squirts. oh man, baby explosive poop! gotta love it. we had such a wonderful time hangin' with the beidler's. we were able to share the drama of our lives with having 2 year old girls. they can so relate! when it was time to go, kyri was very sad. she loves her buddy, ava. i just love that kyri has so many little friends in her life. friends are such special gifts.

baby riley

last week we finally made it over to brother and sister-in-law's house to meet their precious new baby, riley. she is so tiny! i forget how little they are when they are born...that time with kyri went by so very quickly for me. kyri just loves babies so she was very excited to see her and hold her. she kept saying, "oh baby riley is so cute!" kyri just played and ran around their house, while kevin and i got our fix of newborn-baby-holding. riley is perfect in every way and i think she looks like her daddy. it is so neat to see my brother as a dad now. not only is he a wonderful husband, but he is a wonderful father too. cassie and dana are both so in love with their baby girl. to have another niece is such a joy! we love you, baby riley!

hi there, sweet baby girl!
so in love with her mommy...
asleep on uncle kevin and so comfy, cozy.

the move it show

kyri has been asking to see madagascar 2 for weeks now...she calls it "the move it show". why you ask? well, if you have seen the movie or the previews, they play the song, "i like to move it, move it" and so that name just made more sense to kyri. every day she wants to watch the trailer and clips online...over and over and over. she walks around the house singing "i like to move it, move it" while shaking her little booty. it is too cute! so we decided to finally take her to see the movie today, which kevin and i were actually excited to see it too! the movie was quite hilarious and adorable. there is another song that kyri loves to sing from the movie..."i like 'em big, i like 'em chunky...chunky, chunky." oh man. it's what moto moto (the boy hippo) sings to gloria (the girl hippo). so great! we ended our fun, family outing with a stop at sonic for their half-off cherry limeades. i would say that makes for a great day!

right after we saw the movie...so happy!
kyri and her melman happy meal toy.

haircut nightmare

where to begin...so last thursday rebecca and i took our kids to the mall at 8:00 in the morning for the grand opening of the whole new section of the mall. they were giving out scratchers that were valued at $25 and 4 of them were for $1,000. we thought they had a limited supply...not so much. we waited in line for nothing because they had hundreds of them. so what did we win? we both won a haircut at jcpenny's salon. totally annoying! i didn't even know that jcpenny had a salon. well i was planning on taking kyri to get a trim sometime soon and because this was free, i decided to make her an appointment.

now to today. first let me say that this was kyri's first haircut in an actual salon. i have cut her hair numerous times at home and because it wasn't so easy the last time, i wanted to take her somewhere to get it done. when i put kyri in the hair, she clung on to me and started crying. she wanted nothing to do with it. the lady tried having her stand on the floor and see if she would let her trim her hair that way. notice the word "TRIM". all i asked for was an even 1 inch trim. standing up wasn't working, so we moved her back to the chair. the whole time she is trying to cut kyri's hair, i am trying to keep kyri focused so that she can finish quickly, which is not easy with a 2 year old.

after a few minutes of cutting, i notice that in the front, on the right, it's cut REALLY short. what the?!?!? i almost starting crying. i told her that it was looking really uneven and she just started complaining about how my daughter won't hold still and is basically telling me that it is all kyri's fault. how do you cut off that big of a chunk in just the front? so at this point i'm starting to freak out because this lady is ruining my daughters hair. she is frustrated with kyri, complaining about how she is straining to cut her hair and isn't trying to tell me what i can do to help. she even said at one point, "how old is she?" i said, "she's almost three." and she said, "oh, so that is why she is being so challenging." i was ready to leave. she went to get her manager because she was ready to give up. her manager, christine, came over and realized what a crappy job she had done. i told her that i didn't want the front shorter than the back, at this point i just wanted it to all be one length.

after the first lady left, i gave kyri a sucker and did everything i could to help her fix kyri's hair. christine was a lifesaver! she felt horrible about the situation and could tell that i was really sad that my daughter's long hair was gone. she has 20 years of hair-cutting experience and also has a 3 year old so she was very patient and super quick. there was another lady cutting hair next to us, and she was so glad that the manager came over to save the day! her and her client kept telling me how cute kyri was and how adorable her final haircut came out...that helped me feel a little bit better.

when christine was all finished, i started to feel a sense of peace. it was done now. kyri was calmed down and was just happy to be done. the final haircut looks very cute and even though it is much, much shorter than i wanted it, the manager at the salon was really able to give kyri an adorable haircut. christine gave me a $15 jcpenny gift card for my troubles, such a sweet lady. kyri has such thick hair and i know that it will grow back quickly. she is beautiful with long hair or short. lesson learned...don't take your 2 year old to jcpenney. next time, we will be going to a more kid-friendly salon. it may have been a free haircut, but it was so not worth it!

kyri's beautiful hair before...i miss it already.
the new, adorable hair-do...thank you, christine!

nana and cousin marcus

on saturday, my mom came to visit and marcus, my nephew, came too! kyri was so excited to have her nana and cousin marcus stay the night and to play with them. marcus was so great with her...running around the house, letting her "play" video games with him, and just being goofy. we watched kung fu panda (halarious!) and i made another yummy pumpkin pie (kevin and marcus' favorite). sunday morning we went to church and then to chili's for lunch, before kevin had to go to work. kyri was really sad that they weren't here when she woke up from her nap. she is such a social girl and loves having people over. having nana and marcus come visit was such a treat! i just can't believe marcus is in 6th grade already...i remember the day he was born. time goes by much too quickly.

muffin tin monday

pear slices...green beans...shells n' cheese
more shells n' cheese...more pears...vanilla yogurt

and kyri ate every last bite! (i'm telling you, moms, it works.)

banana cranberry bread

warm bread on a cold, fall day...what a fabulous idea! yesterday kyri and i made a loaf of delicious banana cranberry bread. bananas and cranberries was a new combination for me, but when i found the recipe, i had to try it! the bread came out super moist and i loved the contrast of the sweet bananas and tart cranberries. i altered a couple of things with the recipe and here is what i came up with...

banana cranberry bread

3 to 4 ripe bananas*, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup fresh cranberries

preheat the oven to 350°F. with a wooden spoon, mix butter and mashed bananas. add the sugar, egg, vanilla, and spices. mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. add the cranberries, stir until combined. pour mixture into buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. bake for 1 hour. cool on a rack. slice and enjoy!

*i only had two bananas, so i added 1/2 cup applesauce.

baking helps to build big and strong muscles!
kyri looooves banana cranberry bread.

perfect pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie...my favorite fall dessert. i actually could eat it anytime of the year. yesterday kyri and i made a pumpkin pie completely from scratch! (thank you, carmen, for the inspiration!) i took two different recipes and made it my own. i tend to do that. i roasted the sugar pumpkin (the ones you use for pies) in the oven the night before and made a yummy pie crust, which is so much better than store-bought. kyri helped me roll out the crust, sprinkling on the flour. she also mixed all of the ingredients for the pie filling. she had to taste everything as we went along. of course. kyri's favorite part was sprinkling the cinnamon-sugar on the cinnamon-sugar sticks i made with the extra pie crust. my mom used to make them too so it was a must! my whole family enjoyed the pumpkin pie...it was delicious! kyri was so proud of the pie that she helped mommy make. now that it is almost gone, i'm already thinking about making another one. i just love baking with my kyri girl. there will be lots of baking with mommy this holiday season!

so serious rolling out that pie crust.
i love to wisk, wisk, wisk!
modeling mommy's apron...miss baking beauty!
enjoying tasty cinnamon-sugar sticks, fresh from the oven.


while waiting patiently for the pumpkin pie to bake, i recorded kyri singing this mother goose nursery rhyme...oh so sweet!
old mother goose
old mother goose when she wanted to wander,
would fly through the air on a very fine gander.

the great pumpkin festival

we celebrated halloween night at the great pumpkin festival, put on by our church. there were games, the movie "it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown" was played on the stage, rock band, pumpkin painting, and lots and lots of candy! i worked at one of the booths while kevin took kyri around to all of the fun activities. we all dressed up...which wasn't planned. at the last minute kevin and i decided to put together what we could find at home. i printed up an "authentic" ACDC 1988 backstage pass to complete kev's 80's band guy ensemble. so hot! kyri was an adorable puppy. she had a great time playing the games and running around with her friends. when we got home, i asked kyri, "what was your favorite game?" she said, "the candy!"
a good time had by all! enjoy the pictures!

mommy the pirate...kyri the puppy...daddy the 80's band guy
fishing for some yummy treats!
playing the flour tower game with daddy.
sarah, kerri, and jackie...three hot chicks!
kyri being the cutest, little puppy dog!
mmmmmm....nice mullet, honey.

thursday morning "halloween" playgroup

we celebrated halloween with our playgroup on thursday...too fun! the kids looked adorable, running around the park in their halloween costumes! i think the other kids at the park were sad that they weren't dressed up too. kyri was a cute, little puppy. i made yummy pumpkin cookies for the kids to decorate. cookies in the morning...yes, i know. most of them just ate the frosting off the top and the candy. they all played so well together, just running around playing pretend and being silly, while the moms caught up with one another. i just love my friends and their precious kids...and i love our thursday morning playgroup!

i painted her nose black, but she wiped it off...she's still cute!
mommy and her sweet, little puppy dog.
ava and kyri coloring jack-o-lantern pictures.
cutest cowboy i have ever seen!
queen sienna and her beloved cookie.
sienna is going to be such a wonderful mother someday.
she is always so great with kyri and ava!
three beautiful girls.