Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pumpkin Carving

We spent last weekend confined at home while Kennedy battled Strep Throat. Saturday we decided to carve pumpkins. We had 4 pumpkins and Kennedy picked out what she wanted carved on 3 of them. Then I had the honor of carving all of these things. I obviously had patterns to follow...and I thought they turned out pretty good...I mean I did win the pumpkin carving contest at a Halloween Party we went to last year ;)
And since I won that contest, I received a tool box full of pumpkin tools that made carving this year so much easier...I had a battery powered carving knife--it was great! After I spent all that time carving my masterpieces Jeremy decided he had to one up me and picked out the most challenging pattern in the book. Needless to say, I don't have any pictures of his pumpkin to show you, because he never finished it! Kennedy was pretty excited about the pumpkins. If you click on the picture, it should take you to some more.
From Halloween 2008

Saturday, October 25, 2008

HSM3


Last night was the much anticipated opening night for High School Musical 3. We bought Kennedy the CD earlier this week, and she already pretty much had all of the songs memorized by the time we saw the movie. She was decked out in her HSM shirt, HSM underwear, HSM barrettes, and took her HSM bear with her. Her friend from church (she's 7) went with us too. Ansley even enjoyed the movie and made it until the last 15 minutes without having to be taken out! It was my favorite of the three movies, and I'm sure we'll be owning it as soon as it comes out on video!

Tigger

Jeremy's mom gave this Tigger outfit to Kennedy when she was a baby. Check out this link to see her in it. Today, we put it on Ansley and took a very similar picture. Kennedy was only about 4 months in the picture, and Ansley is almost 9. She's a little smaller than her sister was at this age!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sisters Sisters



I grew up with an older sister and a younger sister. We didn't always get along, but looking back, I have more good memories than bad. Today, we are all closer than ever, even though we are all far apart. I was blessed to have sisters (okay, maybe a brother too), and I am so glad my girls have a sister. It's so cute to watch them. Sure, Ansley is young, but she already adores her big sister. There are many times I have to ask Kennedy to leave the room when I am trying to feed Ansley, because even though Ansley LOVES to eat, she also really LOVES to watch her big sister in action...even more than eating! I love watching Ansley giggle at Kennedy, and I love watching Kennedy care for Ansley. Ansley loves playing with Kennedy, and Kennedy usually loves playing with Ansley. I know it won't always be that way, but for right now I'm enjoying it. I know one day Ansley will want to tag along with her older sister and Kennedy will not want her too. I still feel the need to apologize to my older sister Stacy for spending the night with her at her friend Stacey's house...I can't believe I did that...sorry Stacy. One day they may be able to share clothes, instead of hand-me-downs. I remember whenever Stacy came home from college it was like Christmas having our wardrobes doubled! But, I also know what it's like to have a younger sister. Someone to boss around and someone who wants to play with their older sister so badly they will endure hours of being a "student" while the older one is the "teacher". Poor Betsy, I was trying to teach her long division when she was 4. The amazing thing was, she caught on to some of it, which is why I credit her intelligence to me. Of course, I also credit her basketball skills to me as well. Had I not played basketball in eighth grade she may never developed the interest. Nevermind she was there to watch her idol Heather dominate on the court. She still likes to tell the story about when my dad raved about my best game ever. Something like 2 fouls and a rebound, I don't really remember, it probably wasn't even that good! And, I can obviously credit the fact that she is such a strong Christian woman with the fact that we would play "church" endlessly when she was little. Who cares if all that consisted of was eating saltines and drinking grape juice from medicine cups? Just kidding Betsy, I can take no credit for your skills or who you are today, but I did enjoy playing with you as a kid! I am so thankful for my sisters, and so thankful that my girls have sisters. They are such a blessing.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Cute Pictures




Here are just a couple of cute pictures of the girls. Kennedy is wearing the dress that she picked out at Old Navy, claiming that "it matches her". I don't know if it "matches her", but I do think she looks pretty darn cute! Ansley is wearing a Minnie Mouse dress that Kennedy had in her dress up clothes. We are loaning it to Cousin Chelsea for Halloween this year.

Zoo Fun





Here are some pictures from last week when we went to the zoo with Aunt Robbi, Uncle Steve and Zach. We had a great time and were so glad they stopped by to hang out!

Trip to Oklahoma

We had a great trip to Oklahoma this week. Jeremy went to a job fair to look for an intern for this summer. So, we left Sunday and drove a little out of the way to see Betsy in northwest Arkansas. It took five hours and we made the trip without any stops! The girls were amazing. In fact the only one complaining of needing to use the restroom was Jeremy :) Although, about 15 minutes before we got to Betsy's apartment Kennedy said, "Mom, am I wearing a pull-up or panties?" When I replied that she was wearing a pull-up (in case she fell asleep in the car) a wave of relief ran over her face and she said "Oh good." We stayed the night with Betsy, kept her up way past her bedtime, had a lot of fun, and she made us a yummy dinner. Monday morning we only had a 3 hour trip ahead of us. With our success from the day before, we thought this leg of the trip would be simple. Everything was going just fine, until about 45 minutes from Oklahoma City (our destination), Kennedy out of the blue with no advanced warning began throwing up all over herself. I remained surprisingly calm, and we pulled over alongside Interstate 44. All I had was baby wipes, but we cleaned her up, changed her clothes, wiped down the car seat, and then continued our journey. We have no idea what came over her, she didn't complain of a belly ache at all, and ate a Happy Meal shortly thereafter, and never threw up again. It was weird...and gross...and it made us totally paranoid the rest of the trip that it would happen again. Finally we got to our destination and got to spend the next few days with Adam, Heidi and Chelsea. We had a great time and loved watching the girls together. Kennedy told us this morning as we were packing to come home that she was so sad to be leaving them. She also made friends with their large chocolate lab, which was huge for her, as normally she screams even when a tiny dog comes near. She had lots of conversations with Aunt Heidi, but was pretty quiet around Uncle Adam. She told me the next time we went to Oklahoma she would talk to Adam. She's so silly. Today we made our journey back home. It took us eight hours, with a nice long lunch break at Cracker Barrel. Once again the girls did awesome. Ansley didn't cry at all, slept maybe 2 hours, and then just chilled the rest of the time. Kennedy watched a movie, listened to her new High School Musical 3 CD, colored and played with her doll. Other than the incident along Interstate 44, it was a great trip, and we look forward to seeing them again at Thanksgiving! Here are some pictures from our trip.









Thursday, October 16, 2008

Halloween Preview

I took the girls to a "Big Pumpkin" party today and we got into the Halloween spirit. When we got home we decided to try on our costumes to see how we looked in them. Here's a preview.

Thanks to Alisha for the zebra costume. I had to add some bows to the ears though to make sure everyone realizes it is a girl zebra!



Our beautiful little mermaid


Ansley didn't like the Ariel wig!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Here's The Video

I think it should work now. Here you go!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

New Things and Old Pictures

Update: For some reason the video isn't working...I'll get Jeremy on that trying to fix it soon!

Ansley has begun really crawling today! Here's a video of her trying to get her Puffs. She also has started figuring out how to climb stairs. We are starting to have to use the gate now!

From Ansley2


From Ansley2





Also, we told Kennedy when she was fully potty trained we would take her to Chuck E. Cheese's. We went like two months ago, but for some reason I just found these pictures on my computer. Here are pictures of our fun time there.





Friday, October 10, 2008

A Day in the Lou




Kennedy loves seeing the arch, but has never seen it up close. So today we hopped on the metrolink and rode it into town. We spent some time at the Arch, Busch Stadium, and then finished up at Union Station. It was a great day. Here are some cute pictures Jeremy took today.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

A What???


So, I have enjoyed living in St. Louis so far. I haven't had any complaints. Until tonight. The evening started off great. A couple of youth group girls came to babysit and Jeremy took me to see Nights in Rodanthe, which was great by the way, except I knew what was going to happen because I had read the book. We even finished off the night at Starbucks. However, as we got home, he parked his car in the driveway (we didn't want to take the minivan on the date...so we could at least pretend we were cool, you know in our '97 Camry) and we ventured in through the garage. Well, I have had a running list on our fridge pretty much since we moved in of things we need done. One is to clean out the garage, and put a light in it. Our garage is very dark and I have reminded Jeremy numerous times (kindly and lovingly of course) that he needs to get a light in there (the garage is his territory). I think after tonight, he may work on that tomorrow. Back to the story. I was going in the garage first and walked right on into the house. I heard a gasp from Jeremy behind me when I realized I stepped right over a SNAKE! He freaked out, and I would have, had I realized what I had done, but I was already inside the house safe and sound and he was left in the garage to figure out what to do and how to get the snake out of the garage and get himself back into the house. It was pretty humorous to say the least. I got the heebie jeebies after I had time to process what happened, and was very glad I was wearing my high heel boots for our hot date, and not flip flops. I realize Peoria has snakes, but I never saw one that close to the inside of my house--and if that's the only complaint I have about St. Louis so far, I guess we're doing pretty good! By the way, we did not take a picture of our little slithering friend, but that's pretty much what he looked like! Yuck.

Fairy Tale Tea

From Princess Day @ Magic House

The Tea Party with Cinderella didn't start until 1:00 today. However, by 9:00 we were fully dressed in the princess dress of choice, with a tiara and all. We had a minor meltdown when I told her that she had to wear real shoes, not dress up shoes (she's not very good in those...they have heels). So after that I had to keep my little princess entertained until it was time to go. That was fun, especially since Daddy wasn't home. I told her we would leave after lunch. Probably about every ten minutes she asked if she could have lunch...even immediately following breakfast. But finally the hour came and we made the ten minute trip to the Magic House. We saw lots of other little princesses making their way inside too. The room was packed, and we found our table and began making a tiara. Kennedy was not the most patient child, constantly asking when she would see Cinderella. Soon the Fairy Godmother came out and told us the story of Cinderella. We saw poor Cinderella dressed in her rags sing a song. Then the Fairy Godmother with help from all the little helpers "Bippity Boppity Boo'd" her and she soon turned into a princess. During this time we ate our lovely snacks and drank tea and apple juice and finally, Cinderella, Prince Charming and the Fairy Godmother came around to each table to meet us and sign their autographs. Of course, Kennedy wouldn't talk to any of them, and hesitated even letting me take her picture with Prince Charming. However, there were other girls who cried at the sight of the Prince, and one told him he didn't look like Prince Charming. All in all, we had a great time. Click on the picture and you'll see more from Kennedy's big day.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Magic House Pictures

Click on this one to see more!

From Magic House

Grant's Farm Pictures

Click on this one to see more!



From Grant's Farm

More to come soon..

Sorry, no pictures this time...I'll do that soon. Just a quick update on what's going on around here. I'll start with a funny story. Kennedy has been having a mixture of quiet time/nap time. I set her Dora alarm clock and give her about 3o minutes to play on her floor and when the alarm goes off she must move to her bed, where she can continue playing...however she falls asleep there everyday. It's working out pretty well. Today though, I went in her room during the playing on the floor part to put some clothes away. Her room was a disaster! I said to her "Kennedy how do you get your room such a disaster?" in my most tired/frustrated voice. Her reply: "Mom, I'm just so curious." I couldn't help but laugh and grab and give her a big hug. She has a way of making me smile even when I'm worn out.

Ansley is changing by the day. She's still army crawling, although occasionally she'll get up on her knees and move a few steps, but then decides back down on her arms is easier. She also started pulling up on things too. Today she did the sign for "more" for the first time. We've been working on that sign for a couple of weeks now...actually I should say I've been working on that sign with her, but of course she did it for the first time for Daddy. Once we've got it down pat, we'll move on to "please" and "thank-you". Guess I did those kind of backwards...

Kennedy started a tumbling class this week at the Little Gym. She is painfully shy in those situations. I'm hoping it helps her come out of her shell a little. She really enjoyed it. I was so nervous that she wouldn't participate with out me holding her hand (which is impossible for me to do when I have to entertain Ansley...sure do miss having Great-Grandma Horsley close by to help out!) that I bribed her and told her I would take her to McDonald's afterwards if she was a brave girl and did it all by herself. After watching her shyly watch the kids for the first 10 minutes I went out to give her a pep talk. She said "I'm not crying mom! Do I get McDonalds?". I had to explain to her that she would have much more fun actually participating, which she did start to do. And, yes, she got to go to McDonald's afterwards, but I made sure she understood this would not be a weekly occurence! The Little Gym also offers a free class for Ansley until she is 10 months, so we went to that last week. She enjoyed it...I would never pay for her to go, but while it's free we may take advantage of it.

This past weekend our friends the Campbells came to visit. We have lots of pictures but I don't have access to them right now. We'll get those posted soon though. We had a great time, and Kennedy LOVED having her two little best girlfriends here for an entire weekend!

Well, I said this would be quick, and it's turned into a book. Things we are looking forward to that you can expect to read about soon:
--Tonight we are going as a family to the Magic House...Jeremy has not been with us yet, so Kennedy is excited to show him around. Our realtors are having a free evening for their clients there tonight with caramel apples, door prizes, etc., so we are taking advantage!
--This Saturday Kennedy and I are going back to the Magic House to have a tea party with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the Fairy Godmother. She is SOOOOO excited about this, and has been deliberating over which princess dress she should wear.
--Next weekend we are going to the zoo with Aunt Robbi, Steve, and Zach, as they will be coming through town on their way home from Branson. Again, Kennedy is ecstatic about seeing them as well (and of course so are we)!
--We also are getting to go to Oklahoma City in a few weeks to see Adam, Heidi, and Chelsea, while Jeremy is setting up a booth at a job fair so he can find summer youth interns. The girls and I will also be making a trip to Peoria for Halloween, while Jeremy is away at a retreat, and then we are looking at making a trip to Houston in the beginning of November to help my brother's church with Hurricane Relief.
Busy busy! Hope everyone is having a great fall so far!