HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING

We want to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. We had a nice quiet dinner and I mean quiet. Paige was in the hospital, my dad was out of town, and John was sick. Kate slept through dinner and Hannah and McKenna were too busy playing to eat. I guess that's how normal families celebrate the holiday a few adults, a few kids, a quiet dinner, and then dessert. That's not the norm for the Kollen family, so it was a little weird, yet eerily calming.

We have many things to be thankful for...our house, our jobs, our children, our families, and our friends. We are eagerly looking forwarding to the birth of our 3rd little baby girl and all the things that life will throw our family.

We hope you had a wonderful holiday!

John, Courtney, Hannah, and Kate

John and the girls are out hanging Christmas lights, so there is a picture from that, but otherwise you can see that it was another successful picture taking holiday at the Ross Compound!

Love to all!

I am your controller

So, let me start off by saying the flu bug has hit us all. Kate got it Thursday night, I got it Friday, Hannah got it Saturday, and John looks like he is getting in today!! Anyways. I decide to take the girls for Christmas pictures today to get them out of the house so John can rest.
We get ready, I blow dry their hair, put their dresses on and Kate won't budge. She screams, rips her onsie off, pulls out her hair, etc. So fine, she will take Christmas pictures in her pink top and jean shorts. We get in the car and head off to the Cerritos library. They have a pretty fountain that I was going to go to. I wanted the beach, but too far, rainy, just too much. We get out of the car at the library and I dress Kate, she lets me, and Hannah says, "Yeah, it's raining!" No it's not I say, let's go. Sure enough, it starts raining. My mind didn't have polite thoughts. I throw the kids back in the car and it slows immediately. I change my mind, rain or no rain, we are taking these pictures. To make a long story short, we get the pictures. They SUCK!! Kate won't listen to a damn thing. Hannah has this funky smile, and Kate refuses to take off her crocs. We finish, and I promise Hannah a Build a Bear moose if she listens. She does that, minus her smile, so off we go. We get to Disney and there is a tree with Christmas balls all around. We attempt to take more pictures. I throw the kids up on the tree, past the yellow caution tape and go for it. Once again, they SUCK! Oh well, you shall see when you get your card:) We go to build a bear, Kate could care less, Hannah is in Heaven.
Now what makes this story complete. We are in the car, Hannah is dressing her moose, can't get the clothes on, can't get the bear out of the box, on and on. I hear from her. "Let's go moose, you need to listen to me now. I am your controller!" Gotta love it!

                         Giving the kids a bath.  We have since moved them into Kelsey's jacuzzi tub which is much bigger.
The highlight of the girl's birthday was the free sno-cone maching.  Here is Kate eating #3 or 4.
                    Showing off their snow cones.

I'm going out in style. My last traveling before the little nugget makes her entrance.  The girls and I have had a busy last week. It started last Friday when I rushed home from a long day at work to find my mom in my driveway with the girls ready to drive to Arizona to celebrate the twins birthday. I need to park in the drive way, but since she is deaf, she does not hear my horn 3 time. My old next door neighbor does though and he comes out of his house.

We load up my stuff and are out the door on our way to Arizona by 3:09 pm.  The drive was uneventful except for the use of my mom's Magellan that she CANNOT work.  I can see her eyes veering to the right every so often to check it out and as her eyes veer, so does her car.  At one point she is trying to grab the thing from me so she can do it!  We are trying to find a restaurant with it about 3 hours into the trip and it is showing nothing.  My mom tries to tell me it is because there is nothing close.  I try to explain to her that it is satellite and it will show the closest one no matter where it is.  We agree to disagree on this point.

We arrive in Arizona safely, and celebrate a great 3rd birthday with the twins.  The girls have fun swimming, bouncing, and eating.

We drive home Tuesday morning only to have me leave again on Friday.  This time I flew though...thank God.  My last trip out of Orange County before the baby comes.  I am looking forward to not going anywhere for the next 6 months after the baby comes.  I have done way too much traveling this year!!!

We are having a good girls weekend with Kelsey and the girls and some of Kelsey's friends who's husbands are all in Seattle on a boys weekend.  We have done nothing and like it that way.  We might venture to Sam's Club tomorrow!

I need your help!!!

I need your help. PLEASE!!! My daughter Kate, who I love very much:) is in the terrible 2's. She will not...
eat
wear clothes
wear a diaper
talk
let me dress her
wear jammies
sit in her car seat
wear shoes
not stop changing clothes
the list goes on

What do I do? I am tired, fat, lazy, etc, whatever you want to call it. She is driving me crazy. Currently she is outside in a diaper and a bathing suit top bangin on the front door shouting MaMa (that is her only word). I let her in and she bangs on the door to go outside.

Today the speech therapist is coming to our house to assess her and I honestly think she is going to have to do it naked because I can not keep clothes on her!

Help!!

Googy's Kitchen

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We took the girls to Goofy's Kitchen today at the Disneyland Hotel. It is a little expensive, but highly worth it. The characters all come up to your table. They talk to the kids and take pictures. Hannah loved it. Kate, not so much! She was a little afraid of some of the characters. She warmed up to the princesses though !