Kenzie's a smarty pants!

We received a postcard in the mail from the Jr. High saying we were invited to attend an awards ceremony where Kenz would be receiving an award. After asking her about it she said she didn't have a clue about what she would be receiving. Well it turns out that she received a certificate for having a 3.7 gpa or higher all year and a 3.7 gpa or higher all three years in Jr. High. Quite an accomplishment I must say since Jr. High years are usually very trying!! Congratulations Kenz!!

Pearly Whites!

Ainsley got her braces off this last week. She had a hard time smiling because she thought she looked weird with them off but I was able to snap a picture anyways! Whenever her orthodontist removes a patients braces, after the appointment when you're at the front desk they throw a mini party congratulating them. Over the speakers comes the song "Celebration" and then Dr. Johnson comes out blowing a horn and the assistants are doing those New Year's noise makers. They then give balloons, popcorn, a gooey candy bar, and bottle of root beer (you know cuz they're not supposed to have any of that stuff with braces on, wink wink!). Happy days we're done with braces!

Before and after appointment pictures:

Birthdays!

So this year the girls are obsessed with Transformers--anything! For their birthdays they both wanted their cakes to be Transformers. The difference was that Ainsley wanted her cake homemade which I don't do because I am terrible at decorating cakes. So I ended up bowing to her request and made the cake, put a layer of white frosting down, then with a talented daughter as McKenzie is had her decorate it-- drawing with frosting! Ainsley also had friends over for a sleep over party.

McKenzie is very private and didn't want a party. We got her a Transformers cake from the bakery, took her out to dinner at Applebee's, and will be seeing the new Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp this coming weekend.

Ainsley's cake

Back row: Monica, Whisper, Arianna, Sam
Front row: Ainsley, Brooke

McKenzie's cake

My patient, Ainsley

I brought Ainsley into clinic with me today to be my patient. Oh she had a blast....not! Because of her braces her gums were already inflamed and then because of my less than perfect technique she did not have a pain free cleaning! She even refused to open her mouth a few times. Then on top of that I decided to use the air powder polisher on her because that's the easiest way to polish around braces. It's pretty much like sand blasting the teeth with salt water. I know I know mean mom, but on the bright side I was able to finish her in 1 appointment!!

Christmas 2009

Well Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Every Christmas Eve we go over to Bryan's Dad's house and have dinner. And every year without fail Santa finds a way to make a quick stop, on his busiest night, and take in some last minute orders!





















Here are a couple of Christmas morning pics of the girls and some of their favorite presents. Ainsley--an African Elephant stuffed animal and Kenz--an Optimus Prime bobble head and a Dragon figurine.

What a difference a day makes!!

I thought I'd give a good example of how the weather works here in Utah. Yesterday we spent the afternoon raking up all of our leaves. Ainsley wanted to play in them and even asked me to take a picture of her in them. I'm glad she had me do that because here it is not even 24 hrs. later and we have about 3 inches of snow out there. So I thought I'd get a picture of her now playing in the snow. Notice how she didn't even have a jacket on in the leaves, but now she's totally decked out in snow gear!

Halloween Fun

This year for Halloween Ainsley was a zombie and McKenzie was a character out of a book series she and her friends have been reading called Lightning Thief. All of her friends dressed in the same orange shirts that she has on. On their backs were the names of whatever Greek god was their immortal parent. I'm going to have to read it myself to understand!

Here are their pumpkins they carved too. Kenz went all out this year it took her about 4 hrs. to draw and carve her Transformer insignia!

We also went to Ainsley's sixth grade carnival where she and her classmates had to come up with a carnival game and run it like a business. They had to keep track of their money (tickets) and all of the money earned went to help fund the sixth grade activities and field trips. The girls decided to spend some of their tickets on getting their faces painted.....here you go!