Monday, November 30, 2009

Didn't Make the Cut

I made our Christmas cards online last night and thought I would share with you a few of the pictures that didn't make the cut. Kennedy has her "picture look" of tilting her head to the side which she thinks is oh so cute, and Ansley is just plain ornery.








Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Special Person Day



Today was K.I.S.S. day at Kennedy's school (Kids Invite Someone Special). They suggest inviting a grandparent, but I think it's not called Grandparent's Day for those kids (like Kennedy) who don't have grandparents in town. While Kennedy really wanted Mommy, Daddy and Ansley all to come, we talked her into picking one special person. Her class has 19 kids, and is not in a huge space, and we knew it would be super crowded and we didn't really want to have to keep Ansley from getting into everything. She decided since Mommy got to go to her Fall Party, and will probably go to her Winter Party too, that she would like Daddy to go to school with her today. These are a couple of pictures from their morning.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

What She Does in Quiet Time

Kennedy stopped napping over a year ago, but in order to preserve my sanity (and take an occasional nap myself), I still make her have a quiet time while Ansley is napping. She has recently during quiet time, began changing her clothes. Each day she comes down from her quiet time, and I'm always curious as to what she'll be wearing. Her princess dresses are not in her bedroom, so those are not an option. Instead, she typically picks out some sort of summery dress or skirt to wear. This is what she came down in today. She was so excited how well the tights and shoes went with the outfit. What do you think?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Thanksgiving Spirit

If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my post this week about how Kennedy came home with this hat from preschool and told me pilgrims were little people who pinched you if you didn't wear green. She was confusing them with leprechauns (obviously), based on the hat she made.

However, tonight her and Ansley got in their "boats" to watch a video and Kennedy put on her hat and said "We are pilgrims in our boats going across the sea!", so I guess she wasn't completely confused on what pilgrims were...of course her former history teacher mommy did spend some time reteaching about them!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Lucky Number 7?

Ansley loves to count, but apparently doesn't like the number 7. Here is a video of her showing off.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Sales! Sales! Sales!

I would like to use this blog as a way to personally thank the person at Old Navy this morning who was declined from being able to sign up for an Old Navy card.

Why you ask?

Because that allowed me to be the 50th person in line at their Stuff-n-Save event...which meant I got 50% off of everything I purchased, including clearance stuff that was already take an additional 50% off! That's right, I got to take another 50% off stuff that was already marked on clearance and 50% off of that price. I got the girls matching jeans for $1.87 a piece! (You had to have their credit card to participate)

Now, I would like to personally thank Oprah, for giving me that cool code to purchase anything at Payless today for 50% off.

And of course, I would like to personally thank my husband for bringing home a paycheck so that I can go out and spend it at these amazing events. Oh, and for taking the kids today so that I was kid-free.

But, I would also like to personally thank myself for being the one who physically pays the bills, so that my husband has no idea the kind of damage I can do. :)

(I actually got quite a bit of Christmas shopping done...in my defense!)


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

More Halloween Fun


Halloween isn't until Saturday, yet we've had all kinds of Halloween fun around here. Tonight we went to party at Kennedy's school. Ansley actually has warmed up to the chicken costume and wore it once this weekend, however tonight she asked to be a princess. So we dug through the dress-up clothes and put a little outfit together, which turned out pretty cute if you ask me. Enjoy.




Great Wolf Lodge

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Kansas City to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge with Jeremy's parents, and his brother Adam and his family. We had a great time, even though it was too short! Kennedy and Ansley had a lot of fun playing with their cousin Chelsea (who is a couple of weeks younger than Ansley) and dancing together with her and Aunt Heidi. We swam in the indoor water park and just enjoyed being together. Of course, we also had a little time after the kids went to bed to play a little Settlers of Catan. Here are some pictures from our weekend.



Monday, October 26, 2009

Cool Picture and Parent Teacher Conferences

Look at this great picture Jeremy took of Kennedy:
Today we went to Kennedy's school for Parent-Teacher Conferences. It's a little weird being on the other side of the conference. Basically she's doing great with everything, but the only areas she needs to improve are "Participates in Conversations" and "Holds Pencil Correctly". Her teacher talked about how bright she was, and just said she was a little shy, but it slowly coming out of her shell. Guess she takes after mom there...I don't think Jeremy has a shy bone in his body, and certainly never has trouble participating in conversations! :)

She also said that Kennedy is the only child in her class that can count to 20! I was a little surprised by that. Not that she can count to 20, (in fact at dinner she counted to 100), but that she is the only one out of 26 three and four year olds that can count that high. Maybe some of them were having a rough day and not wanting to perform. Goodness, Ansley can already count to 10. Who knows? Maybe I just have brainiac children? :) Currently in her class they are working on counting to 5, and they don't start writing the alphabet until January. She told me this as Kennedy handed her a drawing she made where she had written her name on it. I'm thinking if it weren't so much more expensive, Kennedy probably would have benefitted more from the Pre-K class. I'm more interested in the socialization aspect of it for her though. Maybe she'll be better at "participating in conversations" by the time she gets to Kindergarten! I may want to be careful what I wish for though!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Halloween Preview

As I was typing the update to the previous post, the doorbell rang and it was the UPS man with the much anticipated Halloween costume. Kennedy has discovered the Wizard of Oz, and has quite a fascination with it. Early September she declared she was going to be Dorothy for Halloween. I emailed my mom and mother-in-law to ask them to keep their eyes/ears open for a costume. Did they ever come through! Nana (Jeremy's mom) bought her some "ruby red slippers" at Target and my mom volunteered to sew her a dress. She's had the shoes for quite some time, but I don't let her wear them very often in fear that all the red sparkles will fall off before Halloween. Pretty much since she found out Grandma (my mom) was going to make the dress, I think she has called her weekly to see how it is going.

Well today was the big day. I knew it was supposed to arrive today, but hadn't told Kennedy yet. When the doorbell rang and she saw me bring in the package, her eyes were as big as could be. It was like Christmas morning for her and she couldn't open the package fast enough! Lunch was then put on hold so we could fully change into the dress, and braid her hair just like Dorothy. Thank you so much to Nana for the shoes (she wants to wear them with everything!) and Grandma for the costume--I know it wasn't easy and took some time, but we really appreciate it!

As for Ansley, we are undecided about a costume. She was going to be this, (click on it for a picture of Kennedy at 18 months) but she's scared of the costume. Her back-up options are a Harding Cheerleader (which is what Kennedy was at age 2, but Ansley has her own outfit now) or a princess. I'm still hoping for the chicken, only because it will be nice and warm, but we'll see. Here are some pictures of Dorothy (and some of her sidekick, Ansley).








Weather Watcher


Update: She did it! And in case you were wondering, it was cloudy and rainy.

Here's a cute story about Kennedy at Preschool:

Almost everyday when I pick Kennedy up from school, one of the first things she tells me is that she didn't get to be the weather watcher at school. Apparently this is the very important job of looking out the window and informing the class what the weather looks like, so the teachers can determine if they will have outside recess. She goes on and on about who got picked, and that they had done it before, and she never gets picked, etc, to the point where I had planned on asking her teachers about it at conferences this coming Monday. Not that I am upset or worried about it, but I just thought I'd ask what the process was for choosing, so that I could explain it to Kennedy. I figured maybe she missed her turn while we were gone on vacation.

Well, Tuesday she got in the car and was telling me all about the day. I asked her if she got to be the weather watcher. Her reply was "Well, they asked me if I wanted to be, but I told them no". I couldn't believe my ears. I asked her why she said no, and she said she just didn't feel like doing it, and maybe she would next time. At this point I am laughing, and can't believe my little girl. I called Jeremy and he started laughing too. What a little booger.

So, Jeremy took her to school this morning and pulled her teacher aside to tell her the funny story. She then asked Kennedy, who was busy playing by this time, if she wanted to be the weather watcher today. Then, Jeremy said Kennedy shot him a look that clearly said "Dad! What did you just tell my teacher???" Kennedy then looked at the teacher and shook her head yes. I am very anxious to find out whether she did it or not! I'll fill you in later!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Evening Entertainment

Have the girls been watching too much TV? I'll let you be the judge!



Sunday, October 11, 2009

Hotel Life

Today marks the beginning of the third week of us living in a hotel. Honestly, it hasn't been horrible. We are ready to be back home, and tired of living out of suitcases, but we can't complain too much about our arrangements.
Here is a list of things I will miss about living in a hotel:
1. Not having to make a single bed.
2. Breakfast waiting for us when we go downstairs...with all kinds of choices!
3. Fresh, clean towels daily...without me having to launder them
4. Access to a hot tub
5. Access to an indoor pool for the girls
6. Free soda and snacks every evening
7. No cleaning
8. No grocery shopping
9. No cooking

Here's a list of things I will not miss about living in a hotel:
1. Sharing a bedroom with my entire family
2. Living out of a suitcase
3. Noise at night during the weekends
4. Trying to figure out which restaurant to eat at every night (it really does get old--and it's not good on our figures!)
5. Eating lunch on the floor or couch of our room--that's hard with a 20 month old!
6. No diaper genie!
7. Not being able to park in a garage
8. Having to take an elevator to get to our room
9. Fire alarms being pulled at 9:30 in the evening

Number 9 is the topper on the last list! Last night I was on the phone with my mom around 9:30. The girls were in bed, although not asleep, but having a very fun time entertaining each other, and Jeremy was not here. Suddenly, the fire alarms in the hotel begin going off. I quickly get off the phone with my mom and run to the girls room. They both have looks of terror on their face and are screaming at the top of their lungs. I quickly throw on a sweatshirt over my t-shirt, and have Kennedy get her shoes on. While grabbing Ansley, I am trying to explain what is going on to Kennedy. Having just had fire safety week at school last week, she thinks the hotel is on fire and is prepared to "stop, drop and roll". Although I'm pretty sure it's just a false alarm, I still touch the door knob to make sure it's not hot first. With Ansley clutched to me, sockless--I realize--and Kennedy still screaming at the top of her lungs, I drag her beside me and we head down the four flights of stairs right next to our room. I did manage to grab a room key and my phone on our way out, but unfortunately I forgot the prized bear and blankie of Kennedy's and she starts crying even harder. We are only outside long enough for me to call Jeremy and tell him to get home asap, and we learn someone pulled the alarm. Still screaming, we go back inside. I am trying to explain to Kennedy that we just practiced a fire drill and remind her that she learned last week that you aren't supposed to bring your favorite things with you, and that she did everything perfectly. I try to make it sound like it was a really cool thing we just did, and she'll have to tell her teacher all about it.

Luckily, by this time, Jeremy is home, and able to help me calm Kennedy down. Ansley was visibly shaken, but was silent and still clinging to me. In fact, she didn't stop clinging to me until she was asleep long enough I could put her down. Kennedy however, will probably be talking about this for the next year. We took her down to see the firefighters (there was a girl one, which she couldn't believe!) and the fire truck. She was up until probably close to midnight asking questions and talking about it. It's still the hot topic today as well. We currently have her convinced that the police are watching the alarms so that it will not happen again...otherwise I don't think she would have ever gone to sleep. (Please Lord, do not let this happen again!!!) This morning she asked if we could go meet the police officer, but we told her he was on break during the day so he could stay awake at night to keep watch. She slept in our bed last night, and I have the bad feeling that's where she will continue to sleep for the remainder of our stay. It really freaked her out, and I don't think she will be able to go to sleep on her own while we are here. We'll see though.

Here is a picture of the girls and Jeremy unwinding from the excitement last night by watching a little Elmo. This was the 5 minute segment that Ansley let Jeremy hold her and gave me a quick break. I think it's safe to say we are now all very ready to move back home!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Bored on a Saturday Morning

We're still in the hotel, now until Tuesday. We'll see if that changes again. The girls wanted to make a video this morning. Nothing too exciting, just them showing off a little. My favorite part is when Kennedy recites the Pledge of Allegiance and Ansley mouths along as if she knows it as well.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Disaster Zone

Here's what welcomed us when we returned from Texas. What you can't see really well is the standing water on the floor, but trust me, it's there. There also isn't a whole lot of damage to "see" in the bathroom or basement, but again, it's there. We're spending night #2 at the Drury Inn, and are here for sure until Friday...then we'll see how things are going. The girls think it's great, and so far it hasn't been too bad. No cooking, cleaning, indoor pool and hot tub...what's not to love? Well, I guess I can think of a few things, but I'm trying to stay positive! Enjoy.




Monday, September 28, 2009

Vacation and Horrible Welcome Home

So we're back from an awesome vacation at the Flying L Ranch in Bandera, Texas. My sister Stacy and her husband saved up their timeshare there so we, my brother and his wife, and my sister Betsy could all come hang out with them there for a week. It's nice when the only worry of the day is "Will it get warm enough to swim today?". The crazy thing was it is usually in the 90s this time of year there, and it rained for 2 or 3 days and was barely even 60 degrees. Good thing I packed lots of shorts and tank tops to wear! Let's just say the one pair of jeans I packed for everyone ended up getting worn most of the week. It was hot on Monday when we got there, and got hot again for Friday and Saturday, so we were able to play at the water park on those days.

The four cousins got along great and had a fun time playing together. All the adults also had a fun time hanging out and playing Settlers of Catan at night. All of us girls got to go out one night and see The Time Traveler's Wife too. We had a few mishaps with an inkpen--Ansley decorated the leather couch one day with it, and then the next day Sidney decorated the coffee table with it. We're hoping we got them out enough that they wouldn't be noticable! I'm waiting any day for a call from my sister saying we have to replace the couch...which would be just our luck considering what we came home too...

Apparently our toilet in the girl's bathroom (you know the one that I just re-did the floor 2 weeks ago) somehow got a leak and water came through our living room ceiling, causing a huge hole in the ceiling, on top of our TV and Wii, and making a lake in our living room. It also caused water to soak through the living room floor into our basement as well. So it turns out the floor that I have been hoping Jeremy would finish since April, and the ceiling which I had been hoping he would finish since January (we had a shower leak then) will both be ripped apart and replaced professionally...as well as the floor that I finished a few weeks ago!

Right now we're hanging out at the Drury Inn indefinitely. It's about 2 miles from our house, and has an indoor pool, so the girls are happy. Thank goodness for insurance is all I can say! We have to pay our $1000 deductible, but then they will pay for everything to be fixed (ceilings, living room floor, bathroom floor, possibly basement carpet, new rugs, etc). Oh, and Jeremy is hoping our TV needs to be replaced, and it's possible they will have to pay for a new Wii too. They are also paying for our suite at the hotel and our meals while we can't be home. Not exactly how we planned to spend our week though. We only booked the room for 2 nights (wishful thinking) but they said it could be at least 4 just to clean up the mess. Then everything has to be replaced.

I'll post pictures of our disaster area later, but for now you can enjoy our vacation pictures by clicking here:


Flying L Ranch

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Things That Go!

Today we spent the morning up at Kennedy's school for an event called "Things that go!" Basically they had trucks, tractors, busses, etc. in the parking lot and the kids could get in them and play around. The girls had a great time, and we had fun watching them. Speaking of things that go, I hope they remember how much fun cars can be during our 15 hour drive to San Antonio. We leave tomorrow for vacation and are so excited!






Home Improvement Project

I usually leave the home improvement projects up to Jeremy. However, he's so busy that I know he doesn't have time to get projects done in what I consider a "timely fashion". I may struggle with patience a little bit! I'm the type of person that would rather stay up all night long to get a big project done, just so I don't have to worry about it the next day. Or like when we got home from a trip, it doesn't matter what time of night it is, I have to unpack and put away everything...I can't stand to leave it and wake up to it the next day! Jeremy, well, I don't think the word "worry" is even in his vocabulary. We are just a little different in that aspect. Take our beautiful living room floor that he worked so hard on...in April. It's still not quite done yet, but I'm sure it will be someday...and he did a really great job, so I'm trying not to complain...too much. :)

I've known that our bathroom floors were disgusting since we moved into this house over a year ago, but it wasn't a priority to change. The other night though, I was giving the girls a bath and suddenly I realized again how awful their bathroom floor looked. It was a white linoleum, but many parts of it were gray, there were some holes in parts of it, and it was just nasty!!!

I had "assisted" Jeremy in replacing one of our bathroom floors in our old house with peel and stick laminate tiles, and decided that I could tackle the bathroom floor all by myself. I didn't want to ask Jeremy to do it, I just wanted to get it done so he didn't have to think about it. So the next day while Kennedy was at preschool, Ansley and I ventured out to Lowe's (woo-hoo!) and bought a $25 box of 30 laminate tiles. We also managed to visit Target and hit some great clearance racks while we were out, which helped make the trip even more worthwhile.

Today, while Jeremy had the day off, I got to work. I finally had to ask for his help to remove the toilet so I could finish the tiles underneath it, and to assist me in one that I really messed up, but other than that, I did it all by myself! Add a few bucks in for a new wax ring for the toilet and that brings our newly improved bathroom total to about $30, and only took about 4 hours of my time! Jeremy told me he'd even let me do our master bathroom floor too...isn't he so nice? :) I think I'll wait a little while to tackle that project though...it involves 2 closets and is about 3 times the size of the girl's bathroom. I need to let my back recover a little too.

We forgot to take a before picture, but this is the same type of linoleum that was in the bathroom (it's also in the master--and much worse looking in person!)

The finished product

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend we spent some time up in Peoria. Not only did we get to see lots of family, but we got to hang out with some of our best friends that we miss dearly, the Campbells. Kennedy cries at least once a month about how much she misses their girls. Anna is a little older than Kennedy and Emily is just a little younger, but these girls have such a great time playing together. We went over to their house Friday night for dinner and other than eating dinner and dessert, we pretty much didn't see the older girls. We heard their squeals of delight, but they kept themselves entertained until after 10:00 when we had to cause tears to come in our announcing that it was time to go. Their youngest daughter Jenna is about two weeks older than Ansley, and although they were a little shy around each other, I'm sure someday they'll be great friends too. (Sidenote--Jenna had to spent last night in the hospital with pneumonia, so keep her in your prayers!) Here are some pictures from our fun times.



Thursday, August 27, 2009

Nothing Much to Say

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk lately...there just hasn't been much going on that seemed blog-worthy! Kennedy just finished her second week of preschool, and still loves it...especially now that they started doing crafts this week. That is what she was looking forward to most. Her teachers told me she is very shy, and rarely talks, although she did share the things she brought in her "All About Me Bag" with her class, which I wasn't real sure she would do. She doesn't tell us a whole lot about her day, unless we specifically ask, although today she got in the car and told me a boy pooped his pants. I'm so glad she remembered to tell me that one! Ansley and I are enjoying our one-on-one time. I'm not sure what Kennedy thinks that we do while she is gone, but today when I told her that I took Ansley to the library for storytime, she seemed very hurt, got teary-eyed and said "Are you going to take me to storytime for 4 year olds sometime?" I promised I would sometime and then changed the subject. I'm hoping the teariness just came from the fact she got to bed a little late last night, and she's got a bit of a cough/sore throat and I'm not sure she's feeling 100%.

Kennedy has also started asking me to play "school" with her. That's one thing I'm pretty good at! I've been "playing school" probably since I was about 5! She has a small chalkboard/easel that we use, but soon enough I'll have to bring out the five-foot tall chalkboard/easel that my dad made for me one year for Christmas. It got many, many years of use from me, and I am looking forward to my girls using it to play school too! However, I did forget one part of school I do not like--fundraising! In her four days of preschool, she has already come home with two different fundraisers! Are you kidding me??? I wasn't expecting that so soon!

In other news, Ansley has recently begun asking to sit on the potty. She doesn't do anything while she's there but sit and grin at us, but she's showing interest. Not that I am expecting anything from it though this early! With all the trouble with had potty-training Kennedy (mostly thanks to the fact that she had a new baby sister!) I am not quite ready to start that again!

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls having fun with my computer the other day.