Talkative Avery

I was playing around with the digital camera and decided to film Avery as she was "talking" to me. When she's in a good mood she tends to start cooing and, for lack of a better term, screeching, at whoever's around. It's quite wonderful. I decided to share it with everyone.

Cozy Chair

A few years ago we bought this chair for the girls. It's always been a part of their reading "nook," wherever it happened to be. I've recently moved the reading nook into the playroom to try to keep the upstairs landing decluttered. Usually the girls are anti-change and do everything they can to put things back to how they were. Well, this time the girls liked the change and Kaitlyn now likes to use the comfy chair as a movie seat. As you can see she definitely sits a little bit close to the television (I've tried MANY times to rememdy this), but I'm so glad to see her enjoying the comfy chair.

What a Pain in My Back... (literally!)

Why the photo of a wood floor? Well, it just so happens that is a picture of my newly sanded dining room floor. It turned out so beautiful! I haven't put the varathane on it yet... I get to do that tonight. I must give most of the credit to my super, wonderfully motivated, all-around awesome mom. Yesterday our house was being shown at 5:30 p.m., so Mom came over the night before to help me do some painting, etc. Well, she looked at my banged up, partly paint covered floor and decided we ought to sand it. I didn't particularly want to start that project quite yet, but I said sure. The next morning (yesterday) Mom shows up at my house at 8:30 a.m. with two sanders that she rented, one a stand up and the other one you'd kneel with. We got started and all I have to say is that the smaller sander kicked my dairy aire! I am so incredibly sore it's not even funny. But I must say that it yielded fantastic results. I love my floor and I'm sure it will be even better after it's sealed. I cannot begin to express how much I love and appreciate my mama. It seems she and I always get the difficult projects, but they always end up being so much fun. Sometime ask me about the wallpaper...

Our Cowgirl

During Laura's first week of preschool they learned all about cowboys. She brought home a hat, vest and chaps that they made. I decided that she needed to model them for us, so I thought I'd share the results. What a goofball!

Hello Denver!

Not too many people knew about this, but Aaron left for Denver this morning to start his new job with a company that Dad and two partners purchased. We are so incredibly excited!!! Aaron is going to be learning pretty much everything and the best part is that he will not be working at Midwest Academy anymore. His hours will be so much better, as will the pay. The only bummer about this is that Aaron left this morning, but the girls and I are still in Iowa. We are doing everything we can to try to get our house sold. We hope that because we prayed about this adventure and received the confirmation to move, the Lord will bless us and help our home sell. We are sad about leaving our friends here, but we are so excited to move on to a new area (in the mountains!!!). I don't think that we will miss Iowa very much... it's been fun here but we are westerners at heart. And it will be so wonderful to live closer to the rest of our family. Laura understands this a little more than Kaitlyn does. She drew her Dad a map of Colorado yesterday and made him "sticky tape" it into his atlas so he won't get lost. I am already missing Aaron so much. I think it's because I know that there's many miles between us right now. I know that we'll be together soon. I just hope I can be patient. Overall we are just excited to get this next phase of our life in motion. So, good-bye Keokuk and hello Denver!

The Nail Polish

Yesterday morning Aaron and I were kind of lazy about getting out of bed. Laura and Kaitlyn usually wake up sometime between 6 and 7, so they go in their playroom and play or watch a movie. Well, after I got up I asked Laura what Kaitlyn was doing. She said, "She's painting her nails." I asked, "Is she pretending to paint her nails?" And Laura replies, "No. She's painting her nails." Of course this makes thousands of alarms go off in my head. (I'm really not exaggerating!) I find Kaitlyn in the bathroom concentrating on painting her toenails with bright red nail polish. My first thought was, "Thank goodness she's in the bathroom and not on the carpet." My second thought was, "She actually did a pretty good job on her finger nails. But oh my look at her feet." When I announced my presence she proudly announced, "I'm painting my nails all by myself Mommy." How could I get mad about that? I didn't even think she could open the bottle, let alone paint her nails. Laughter tried to trickle out at that moment, but I didn't want to laugh at her, so naturally I called for Aaron to observe our daughter. He's always one to enjoy these kinds of situations, so he arrived and immediately got a smile on his face. "Wow Kaitlyn" was about all he could say. I ran to get the camera and had her pose for a few photos. After I began the task of cleaning up her feet with nail polish remover. I left the polish on her nails since she did such a good job. From now on I'm making sure that all polish is higher in the cabinet, out of reach of little girls on step stools or chairs.

Girly Girls

As I mentioned in my blog about Kaitlyn, I recently got the girls a kids' makeup kit. They absolutely love to put it on. The only thing is that they rarely get it in the right spot. It always ends up on their faces... all over their faces as a matter of fact. I don't know if Aaron quite understands their fascination with makeup. I just tell him it's a girl thing. I've never been one to wear much makeup, so I was quite surprised when I found the girls getting into my makeup bag in the bathroom. They had drawn all over their faces with my eyeliner. They looked like they had roadmaps for faces. This led me to get them their own "makeup." I'm glad they enjoy doing the girly things, dress-up, makeup, etc., that make little girls so sweet.

Ciao Bella!

Yes, Avery is sitting in a box. Aaron gets some odd notions sometimes. But, it turned into a cute photo moment. So I got that onesie in LA when Kaitlyn was an infant, I guess back in 2006. I fell in love with it immediately. I absolutely love the Italian language... for a couple of reasons. My dad served his mission there and has shared some awesome stories and experiences with me from that time in his life. Partly because of this I went on to study Italian in college for about a year. I really enjoyed it. And I think my girls are absolutely beautiful, so what better way to show it off than a onesie that says "hello beautiful" in one of the most beautiful languages? Anyway, I can't believe how much my baby has grown. She is now rolling over both ways and she had her first cereal the other night. I love the milestones but sometimes I wish that they were ten-mile stones. I wish she could stay this age just a little bit longer.

My Kaitlyn

Almost everyday Kaitlyn plays dress-up. The girls' Cinderella dress is her favorite. While I was working upstairs yesterday Kaitlyn and Laura got into their dresses, put on some "makeup" and had a Princess Parade. They marched all over the house, upstairs and down. Avery, of course, was quite amused at this spectacle. The day is coming all too soon that there will be three marching princesses. One of the things I enjoy most each day is seeing what kind of outfit Kaitlyn puts together. Sometimes she has three or four layers on. And to see her walk in their "high heels" is the best! She has the perfect girly wiggle. I recently bought them a kids makeup kit, so naturally Kaitlyn's favorite thing to do right now is putting makeup on. I think she gets it everywhere on her face except for the places it's meant to go. I had to run an errand after she and Laura had applied their makeup one day and it was really quite amusing to see the way people looked at them, especially older women. I think they made a lot of people smile that day. Kaitlyn has such a sweet spirit... she's always saying hi to everyone and her big blue eyes make hearts melt. I sure do love my Princess Kaitlyn.

Water Is So Much Fun!

Today we just about finished painting the garage. Since Laura and Kaitlyn love to "help" paint, we decided it would be a great distraction to let them play with a big plastic bin of water and some water balloons. The balloons went incredibly fast, which isn't surprising. They were busy enjoying the tub of water so we continued painting away. All of a sudden we hear Laura yelling (we were right there with them, so the yelling wasn't necessary, just typical 4-year old volume), "Kaitlyn is naked!!!" Sure enough, Kaitlyn has stripped herself of her clothing and diaper. Aaron and I looked at each other and decided, aww, what the heck. Laura, upon seeing that we weren't dragging Kaitlyn inside to redress her, decided that she, too, should be naked. So, we had a couple of nudists "swimming" in our backyard today. And they were so incredibly adorable that we just had to get some photos (I realize that one day my children are going to have the desire to kill me for this impulse I have to capture their naked moments).

Good-bye Sandy... We'll Miss You!

Our hamster, Sandy, died the other night. We've actually been expecting it for awhile now. She was pushing their average lifespan and wasn't looking good for a few weeks now. During her life with our family she had a pretty posh "house" in the girls' playroom. Lots of tubes and space to run around in, etc. When I found that she had died, the girls were already in bed for the night, so Aaron decided to bury her in the backyard. The next day we were outside working on painting our garage (that hadn't seen fresh paint in like, 30 years!). Laura noticed the fresh dirt and asked about it. Aaron decided to explain to her that Sandy had died. Laura thought it meant that she was sleeping under the ground, so she wanted to dig her up and wake her up. We re-explained the death thing and I said that Sandy was in heaven. Laura looked confused and asked if heaven was underground. I asked her where she thought heaven was and she didn't know, so we told her about it. She then asked how Sandy got to heaven and I again asked what she thought. She thought about it for a second then replied, "I think Jesus comes down and holds your hand and takes you to heaven." What an answer! We were so pleased that Laura would think of Christ. Aaron and I were discussing this last night and we both came to the conclusion that we can never underestimate the mind of a four year old. The girls were sad that Sandy is gone, but they seem to understand that she is much better off where she is now.

(I must add that after they discovered that Sandy was buried, Laura and Kaitlyn then proceeded to capture, kill and bury bugs so Sandy would have friends.)