113 More Days!

Only 113 more days until "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" hits the movie theatre! I am soooo excited! Yep, I am just a little kid at heart. I have read all the books, own all the movies and have watched them several times. Last summer, Morgan and I went to the release party for the final book in the series. She stayed up past midnight just to humor me!! OK, she had fun too! Morgan watches the movies with me, and surprisingly isn't afraid. She knows that they are just pretend. We are both looking forward to seeing the new movie on November 21, 2008. Here is a little sneak peek of what's to come!




Get this and other HP countdowns at LeakyNews.com

Terrible Twos

Whoever came up with the term "terrible twos" was CrAzY! First of all, we know that each and every kid is different and second of all I am pretty sure it is the terrible ones, twos, threes, fours, etc etc etc!! Well....my darling little Ava had discovered her independence and has decided she wants things HER way NOW! She is much more bull headed than Morgan was. She bites, scratches, pinches, climbs, writes on furniture, screams and tantrums! She climbs on top of chairs and stands on them (and then falls off and hurts herself). She has figured out how to climb over the back side of the couch to get on the couch. She throws the pillows off of the couch so she can have more room to play on the couch. Several weeks ago I looked over at the girls playing and Morgan had piled up a bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor and Ava was standing on the chair ready to leap off!! And....she is a slow learner. No matter how many times she hurts herself or gets put into "time out" for hitting, pinching, biting; she just keeps on doing it!! I am guessing she is destined for great things! She is definitely going to be a leader and want to do things her own way!

Ava likes to watch Morgan and I walk on the

treadmill and gets mad when she can't play on

it. This is where I found her last night! She

even knows where to put her feet!!

How come it's not moving?
Seriously, how does this thing work?

I go back to work full time next week and then Morgan goes back to school on August 11. I am looking forward to a routine starting up again, but will miss spending time with my kids and leading a more relaxed lifestyle. I definitely think my kids need to be at daycare or school! Ava is so much nicer at Angie's!! Although we will see how nice she is when she gets back into the daycare routine and feeling comfortable again!

The Things They Say

I have wished and wished that as Morgan grew I had kept track of all the funny things she said as a toddler and preschooler. There's not much I can do about it now, except to keep track of Ava's funny sayings as she grows and start with the funny things I remember about Morgan and go from this point forward! There are a few things that stick in my mind clearly that I would like to share. Some things she still uses to this day:

Rusty nose (runny nose)
Pieces and Parts (Reese's Pieces)
Gassies (diarrhea)
Todd's House (O'Reilly's Auto Parts Store)

And tonight she was being silly and making up a funny rhyme: "Snitch, snatch, *itch, batch". Of course I laughed at her and reminded her that *itch probably isn't a word she should be using because it is a "naughty" word. And she then said "Oh sorry. But, isn't that what you can go into when there is a tornado?" OK....so how many of you are thinking real hard about this right now??? It took me about a minute and then I starting giggling and said "No, honey that is a ditch!"

She makes me laugh everyday! I need to do a better job of writing things down, but who has the time?? And Ava is starting to talk a lot and imitate a lot of words. It is so cute listening to her talk, because she doesn't say the words correctly, but we know what she means. Dana taught her how to say "money"!! Other words she says that I love right now:

Broki (broccoli)
Money
Pwetty (pretty)
Bubba (bunny)
Potty
Nice (because we are always telling her to be nice)
No No (see above)
Eat
Juice
Ni Ni (Night night)
Pillllllow (pillow)
Ock (sock)
Shooo (shoe)
SSSS (snake)
Hosie (Horse)
si (sit)
sis (Morgan)
Me-maw or Nemo (grandma)
Papa (grandpa)
side (Slide)
whee (slide)
pay (play)

And the list goes on and on!

Carnival Fun!

Morgan left for her grandma and grandpa's house last Thursday morning. It was definitely harder on me than it was for her, but only lasted a few short days. I called her everyday she was gone, but somehow didn't feel like she was missing us much!! Mainly because when I asked her if she was ready to come home she said, "NO". On Monday, I drove to Nebraska to meet them half way to bring her home. On our way home we stopped in Topeka to do some school shopping. We shopped all day long and didn't get home until almost dark! We were both exhausted!

Here is Morgan with her cousin Zoe.

Here they are snuggling with Barney in Grandma's camper.

They camped during the entire visit and I think Barney got

to sleep with them each night!

Here they are with Barney again and my nephew Cameron.

He is an awesome nephew, cousin and brother. I think he

was missing having some modern technology because he

had been away at camp the entire week before going to Grandma's! When

they met us in Nebraska, Cam was driving! He got lots of driving

practice with Grandpa in rural Iowa. I can remember when he

was just a baby and now he's driving!!

Grandma said the girls had fun feeding the ducks (a little too much)! One day they fed them and entire loaf of bread and lots of popcorn.

They also (over)fed the fish a little bit!

Look at all the babies! Morgan really wanted to hold one!

Here they are enjoying some carnival rides. They also spent time at "Art in the Park" and playing on swings, slides and Merry Go Rounds at the park.

I love this picture of Morgan on the Carousel.

Who can resist a kid size roller coaster?

From the way it sounds they all had tons of fun. I am glad I sucked it up and let her go away for this wonderful experience! I now know she is able to be away from home (without freaking out like I did as a kid) and my mom is very capable of taking care of young children!!!! LOL! Funny how she didn't mess me up as a kid, but I was nervous to send my own kid to her!!!! Morgan is looking forward to more vacations with Grandma and her cousins!! Maybe they will get to do some "real" camping next time instead of in Great Grandma's backyard!!

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when it is my 6 year old going away to Grandma's for the first time ever. The longest she has ever been away from Dana and I was overnight when we were in the hospital having Ava. Yeah, I have been away for a few days up to a week when I go to conferences for work, but she is always home with Daddy and Ava. Somehow, this time is was really hard for me to let her go. There were a lot of tears (mostly mine) a couple days before she left and then more the day before and then again the moment she walked out the door and got in the car with Grandma and Grandpa. What made it really hard is she started to get a little nervous the night before, threw up, and got a little sad. She wasn't sure she wanted to go without me. But, by the morning she was up and ready to go!

We have managed to stay busy with her gone. I have taken advantage of only having one child to care for and have gotten a lot of organizing done. This is especially easier w/o Morgan because I am organizing (and throwing) many of her things!!! I can't believe how much junk one child can accumulate over a few short months. I try to clean out her stuff every couple months and I can still fill at least 1-2 trash bags. Of course some of the things go into our "garage sale" pile. You know all of those beautiful Gymboree clothes I bought her at the beginning of the summer?? They no longer fit. She decided to gain close to 8 lbs over the summer and grow 1 shoe size!! So, when I pick her up on Monday we are doing some school shopping!

Ava misses her very much, too! I didn't realize how much Morgan kept Ava entertained until she was gone. I leave you with a picture I took of Morgan a couple weeks ago when I was working on my quilts. She made herself an "apron" while I was sewing. Such a creative little girl. She can make just about anything out of scraps!!

Win a Ginger Blossom Quilt!

Swing on over to Old Red Barn and check out this AWESOME quilt! It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! You or I could have a chance to win this beautiful quilt just by posting a comment! Sure hope it's ME that wins, but if not I wonder if there is a nice person out there that is dying to make me one using that beautiful fabric!

Camping Washout.....

For about a month now we have had a backyard camp out planned for Morgan and a couple of her friends. Since our Girl Scout Day camp they have all wanted to stay the night in a tent. We planned to have the girls stay over this past weekend. Morgan and I planned for weeks to come up with fun outdoor activities to do to keep them busy all day. We bought "jewels" to hide in the rocks so they could go on a treasure hunt then make bracelets with the jewels. We had sidewalk chalk and paint, water balloons, the trampoline, pool, ingredients for s'mores, etc. etc. When we woke up Saturday morning it was raining. And...it rained ALL DAY LONG!!

The girls still had tons of fun - we just had to rethink our activities a bit. It was a little more challenging keeping them entertained when they couldn't play outside, but it all worked out. They all had their moments where they couldn't agree on what to do together. During parts of the day 2 of the girls were playing together and 1 was by herself doing something else. Then one would leave the other to be with the one who was initially playing by herself. It bothered me a bit that they all 3 just couldn't play together and agree on one thing, but I stopped myself from intervening too much. There were times when they were not getting along or someone would get hurt and start to cry, but everything was able to be worked out. I guess all that bickering is just part of their age, which I am not use to!!! I had flashbacks of what it was like when I was little and remembered "she's not my friend" "I don't like you" "stop it" "you can't do that"......etc etc. But on the other side of things, it was fun listening to them "play house" and pretend one was the mom and the others were the kids and "as long as you are under my roof....." conversations going on!!! Too funny! They also enjoyed playing with Ava and including her in their game of house.

They enjoyed making cake with the Moonsand

Hannah Montana with bad hair!

Kaylen making fruit kabobs for supper

The kabobs were Morgan's idea - we had to go shopping the night before the

camp out to get fresh fruit.

The rain finally stopped around suppertime. The girls were excited to be able to go outside and swim. This picture was taken in the middle of a terrible tantrum that Morgan was having. She had fallen and hurt herself and didn't want to be in the picture. She was carrying on so much I had to send her inside to calm down!

Morgan and Kaylen relaxing.....Of course we had to have ice cream. Ava really got into it! She had chocolate EVERYWHERE! This was about the same time Kaylen got upset because she bit into the hard chocolate shell and her loose tooth started to bleed. After that she didn't want to have anything to do with the ice cream or swimming. She calmed down after changing clothes (and looking at one of Moran's teeth that fell out) and came back outside asking to make S'mores!

The trampoline is always fun! They enjoyed having Ava on with them, but soooo not safe! I made them sit down when she was on it, but they couldn't sit still!


Roasting marshmallows for S'mores




So we didn't get to sleep in the tent (okay by me.....I slept in my bed), but they still had fun sleeping in their bags on the floor. We had popcorn, Cheetos and milk with ice (Kaylen's idea). We started by watching Harry Potter until one got scared and switched to Enchanted (much better choice). They were so excited to come in the house and get their pajamas on!

The movie got over about 10:30. I didn't think any of them would last that long, but they did. I turned off the TV thinking they would all be out like a light. No such luck. Dana and I were watching a movie in our room (National Treasure 2) and heard them still talking around 11:30!! They were all still up by 8 or 8:30 the next morning!!!

Definitely a fun experience. Would I do it again? Probably, but I think we a good for awhile! I am proud of all the girls. Not too many tears and the tears we had didn't have anything to do with wanting to go home or being homesick, which I expected. Guess I have something to look forward to, the social school years. It's not like being in preschool.

The next step will be me dealing with sending Morgan overnight to someone else's house. Harder for me than it is for her :-) which I will get to experience soon, as she is leaving this Thursday to spend a week with my mom and her cousins. (GASP!)

I am Thrilled!

Last night, as I was ready to throw Ava in the tub to rinse off the spaghetti, she looked down (without diaper) and pointed and said "pee pee". I looked down to find that she had peed all over the rug!!! Most people might be a little upset by this, but not me! That means she is starting to show an awareness of what all that stuff means. I was so excited. This morning when I woke her up (earlier than normal because I have to work) I noticed her diaper was dry. So....I thought what the heck, let's sit her on the potty and see what happens. Well...guess what friends? She peed on the potty for the first time! Yeah, I know, she hadn't gone all night so of course she is going to go, but it is the process that matters to me. She got to see it in the potty and watch it get flushed down and then talk about what a big girl she was! Too exciting!

I'm Done!

Here is the rag quilt I finished last night! It was fun, but time consuming. Took much longer than the baby quilt. Not perfect at all, but I guess that's what makes it homemade!

July Fourth Fun!

Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. We usually celebrate with the traditional BBQ, fireworks and friends. Some years we do more and others not so much. This year was filled with all of the above, despite the fact that our town decided not to participate in a fireworks show due to budget cuts. There were many upset citizens who decided they would create their own show in their yards if the city wasn't going to provide the show, however due to laws prohibiting fireworks within city limits this proved to be a little tricky for some. There were many rumors going around that the police officers were not going to give warnings this year. If you were caught setting off fireworks within city limits you would be ticketed. This did not stop the festivities!

We had a WONDERFUL day. Our day started with friends over for lunch. You can't go wrong with brats on the grill, sweet corn, cucumber salad and a pound cake with berries. We ended our lunch by small talk on the deck, watching Morgan swim in the pool while Ava took a nap.

For the evening festivities we were invited to Lisa's house. Lisa happens to live next door to my friend Angie. It was a block party with about every family in the neighborhood invited. We had food, fireworks, a water slide, drinks & more food & more fireworks! I was expecting to shoot off a few little fireworks and sparklers (with the threat of tickets and all), but I was wrong. They went all out (as they usually do) and had their own little fireworks show for the neighborhood. The kids were entertained for hours, running and playing and sliding! I would have to say out of all of the July 4th festivities, since moving to Kansas, this one was my favorite. It is so nice being surrounded by friends and watching our kids play together.

Here is Morgan enjoying the water slide! I had to practically pull her away from it. All the other kids were done sliding and in dry clothes, eating their supper, and she was still on it. I finally had to tell her they were putting the food away and she needed to eat!

Here is a little preview of the "tablescape". Apparently, wrapped silverware is a tradition at Lisa's get togethers! :-)

Another decoration on the buffet table - a bucket of sparklers!
Kaylen wanted me to take a picture of her hanging upside down!Ava trying to drive away!

Morgan waiting in line for her sparkler to be lit - this one was a dud!
She was not impressed with sparklers at all! She kept yelling, "Put it out!"
Ava enjoying the confetti that dropped on the ground!

Here is Avery (Kaylen's sister) trying to pop the snaps that were dropped on the ground. Beautiful blue smoke! My allergies did not appreciate me at all!
Here is my friend Angie! This is the best picture I can get of her because she is like me, much more comfortable behind the camera!

Morgan loved the parachutes that dropped from the sky!

Ava watching safely by the house.

Avery enjoyed the show too!

Daddy and Ava watching the show! She was so tired, yet wanted to be down running around.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth! As I sit here typing, I am listening to more fireworks being shot off in our neighborhood. I am so happy that the rumors were not completely true about people being ticketed for celebrating our nation's independence. It just wouldn't be the same without the pops, booms and bright lights in the sky. During our festivities, a friendly policeman stopped by and nicely asked us to shut things down. It was close to 10:00 by then anyway and things were winding down. Thanks to the policeman for letting us celebrate our independence and thanks to the friends who hosted this wonderful party! I won't forget it and I am sure my kids won't either!