Our COLORADO TRIP - MAY 2008

Still updating (3rd post of the night) - (Scroll down to make sure you don't miss anything).

I have so many pics from our trip to Colorado that I had to do a web album. Just click on it to make it bigger if you want and to read all of the captions.

We went to Colorado for my good friend from High School, Asna's wedding. My other two good friends, Kelly and Nora were able to go too so that was fun. We decided to make a vacation out of it and stayed for 5 nights at an awesome hotel. We saw mountains, wildlife, downtown Denver attractions, a traditional Indian wedding and even got to catch up with old friends. A fun trip. See web album for more.

Blogging the Past - May 2008

I'm trying to do some catching up -- this is the 2nd long blog of the night...more to come.


May was definitely a busy month. Around mid-May, Chris' Dad and Stepmom came to visit for Chris' sister Liz's Graduation. We had a fun-filled three or so days to spend with them. The girls are especially excited in the above picture because they are waiting on their ice cream on lawn at Sheridan's, excuse me, of course I mean frozen custard and not ice cream.

Grandpa was so nice and decided to take Ava & Elise to the Topeka Zoo...gotta love that zoo. It's the perfect size for small kids. Ava & Elise are wearing their new outfits that Grandpa George got them.

The whole group: Me, Liz, Jenny, Chris, Elise, Grandpa George & Ava.

Ava made instant friends with Grandpa George. She hadn't seen him for quite a while but made up for lost time. Thought I'd add this cute, or what I think is cute, photo of sloths. Every mother loves her young.


Had to ride the train in Gage park.

After the zoo, we drove out to the Legends shopping center and had dinner. The girls were sure hamming it up.
Liz's Graduation from JCCC. Congrats Liz!

One of the highlights of the visit was our trip to Jack Stack BBQ.

After a few days of go-go-go with few and short naps, the girls finally conked out. Overall, it was a nice visit and we're glad that we got to be a part of Liz's big day and to catch up with Grandpa George and Grandma Jenny.

Blogging from the Past Series: March & April

So I know I've become horrible with keeping up on my blogging. I'm still catching up on a few important events. I know this is boring to the majority - sorry!

My grandparents on my mom's side came up from New Mexico late March/early April for a visit. They haven't been up this way for a long time so it was a special visit. Above: Ava and Great-Grandpa Jack take a pic at the end of Elise's ducky party.

We all got together a few times while our grandparents were visiting. This picture sums up the fun we were having with all of the grandkids. My mom played lots of kid songs and the children just loved it -- dancing, clapping and singing along.
I'm so glad my Grandma Betty and Grandpa Jack were able to come and visit.

The cousins have a blast whenever they get together. They love to play dress-up, play in our tunnel (pictured above), and I even noticed the boys playing with the dollhouse I had put away in my bedroom to make more room in the living room. I thought it was fun to see them putting all of the furniture in, etc. Why not?


GARDENING & A FEW OTHER SPRING PICS:

I've been wanting to put in a vegetable garden since we first bought our house almost five years ago. Due to 2 babies and other distractions, it took us a while, but we finally put one in this year. (Thanks, Chris, for all of your hard work)....and boy is it a lot of work!
I thought it'd be fun for Ava to see what the different seeds looked like before and after planting so I made up a little chart for her to glue seeds on.

To keep the Elise busy while we were working the garden, we'd put her in her swing and keep going back and forth to give her more pushes, with help from Ava. Ava decided to strap herself in after she'd already had her turn and we asked her not to. Here's what happens when you don't listen to Mommy & Daddy and then get yourself locked in with no one to push you. I'm pretty sure her parents weakened and gave her a couple of pushes before rescuing her. ;)

MISC. PICS

I was doing some quilting and Ava was enjoying playing with all of the scraps I was making. I tied some bows on her puppy's ears and in Ava's hair too so they'd match. She thought this was the best thing ever and even smiled for the camera.

Elise, on the other hand, likes to look at the camera and always gives a big "CHEESE!"

Finally...we come to Elise's Birthday

Elise's FIRST Birthday (3/27/08)

Because we were still in the middle our our big tile project (actually the guy was working in our kitchen that very minute), we did a low-key birthday celebration for Elise on her actual birthday. A Little Debbie with a candle. hmm...a family TREND?
She obviously liked it and ate it all up! It was on to planning her big birthday party. Coming from a family of seven kids, we didn't always have big birthday celebrations. I guess I get extra excited for birthdays to make up for it...the first birthday is especially important --- I think anyway.

Because I go a little overboard, here's what my kitchen looked like the night before the party. I don't know what Chris is talking about when he says I can make big messes when I get "crafty"... Luckily, I always have sisters who offer their services. My oldest sister, Gina, was a huge help. She even spent the night so we could stay up late. Thanks to my other sisters and SILS for their help too.

THE PARTY:

We really wanted to focus on making the party a fun day for Elise, so we thought of lots of things Elise likes to do. For the theme, we chose to do a "Ducky Party". One of Elise's first sign-language signs was for duck. She seems to really love them and does the sign and makes a quack sound - so it was a natural choice for her party theme.

For the activities, we did finger painting -- messy, but fun!

- a fish/duck pond (thanks, Gina for making and manning it)...

Since Elise's birthday conveniently fell after Easter, we found little ducks that made quacking sounds on clearance - so that was the main prize for the fish pond.

A funny story: Ava was so excited about the fishing game after getting the duck reward, that she kept throwing her line over the pond even when no one was manning the station. I guess she threw it over a few times, kept looking at the hook each time, and disappointed said, "ughh, NOTHING!" That's so funny to think she thought it really was magic or something.

Elise loves to dance to music so we did some musical lily pads (the "everyone wins" version where you don't take any away), and sang along to some fun songs on a cd...
...like "If You're Happy and You Know It"...

We also did a little duck pond with water so they kids could splash around a bit.


Of course, we also had cake & ice cream, duck feed: Kix cereal, M&Ms and teddy grahams (cuz ducks love to eat bears), cheese squares, and tuna-fish sandwiches (more popular with the adults).

Nom-Nom!

Can't forget the bubbles - another toddler favorite.
Elise had a FABULOUS time, which was exactly what we wanted. She loved splashing in the water, reaching for the bubbles, singing and dancing to the music, and stuffing cake into her mouth. She also loved playing with all of her little friends and her family -- a very fun and memorable day!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, SWEET ELISE!

Blogging from the past series: Jan '08 - Easter '08

Yes, I'm still blogging old stuff. Of course, I did blog a few things this year - here are some of the things I missed.

January 26th, 2008

I had to take a picture of this because it is exactly how Elise would wake up from every nap. She wakes up, cries, I make her a bottle - happiness. She was always so, so happy to be fed...imagine that.

This girl loves to ham it up! I took about 10 pics in about a minute and each one is a different, happy, expression. She just loved the attention of the camera.

Elise with what is now nicknamed, "Scary Baby". I don't think the baby is that scary and wasn't the one who nicknamed it. The girls love it. It's weird. These pics were taken the same night we ended up having to take Elise to the ER for RSV. I spent my birthday morning at a hospital and we just finished paying the bill. Elise is happy and healthy now though.


FEBRUARY 2008
OK (as in Oklahoma, not "just okay" ;) Trip

If you keep track of my blog, you probably already see that we go down to OK at least twice a year to visit my Grandma Patty and our cousins, etc. Here we all are at Chili's enjoying food after waiting an hour or so to eat. They only had 2 tables to accommodate large groups and the people just wouldn't leave!

This is the face I get from Ava when I say, "Look at the camera - say cheese!" Ava's enjoying herself some mac & cheese.

And here's the face I get from Elise when I point my camera in her direction and say, "Say cheese!" One shot and this is what she gave me. How adorable!

Daddy & Ava

Great-Grandma Patty, Elise & Lori

Ava has a 2nd cousin only a few months older than her, McKinley. They've really started to enjoy playing together on all of our visits.


REORGANIZATION

I was starting to feel more energy after many months of caring for a small baby and wanted to tear the house apart and then put it back together, "the right way."

We set a table up and went through every room and closet, putting all of the misfit, homeless, to store, to get rid of, on the table. Then, we sorted things into categories: store, keep, donate/give away...our own mini "Clean Sweep". Sadly, it's probably about time to do this all over again.

THE 2008 TILE SAGA:

This is our old kitchen floor.

This is how our living room looked for a few weeks while we waited for our tile to be finished. It was so bad, we basically ran away every chance we got, calling on family and friends to let us hang out with them. We had to put everything from our pantry and laundry room, plus anything kitchen related that we'd need, in our living room.

The progress in progress. Ava had fun pulling out all of the spaces once the mortar was dry. I'll have to post an after picture sometime to show the finished product. I'm happy with the end result for the most part. The guy doing the tile was very nice and all, but the timing just wasn't the greatest. Originally, the tile was only supposed to take 5 days. But -his wife had a baby during the process and the roofing season started (that's his main business), so he had to be out to get bids and help his wife. It was definitely a trial for us, but I've heard much, much worse horror storiess. At least we have what we paid for, even if it took 4 times longer than expected.


MARCH 2008
EASTER: March 23, 2008

The Easter Bunny brought some fun things this year. We went to at least 2 Easter egg hunts this year, which Ava thoroughly enjoyed.

We celebrated with my family of course - this time at Kevin & Gaia's. Elise was enjoying her ham & potato chips....Hey, who gave her potato chips!?

The cousins minus 1. (Kate didn't feel the need to conform to the annual cousins group photo). from left: Ryan, Ava, Elise, & William.

Pretty girl.

Ready to hunt. As you can tell by looking at the kids all bundled up, it was pretty darn cold that Easter. Overall, it was a fun day and most importantly, the kids all enjoyed themselves. They got lots of toys & treats and had fun playing and coloring eggs.

Elise found a few eggs and kept them all to herself.

Next update: Elise's Ducky Party and springtime fun