Big Boy Hair Cut

Someone had their first hair cut last night.  He did great!



 Before

 During - sitting perfectly still and even letting Tara use the clippers

After

2!

Happy birthday to Henry!

Let the "Terrible 2's" begin...or continue...or whatever.

5!

Happy birthday to Lily! 

Here's an action shot from her bounce party.



Sleepy

I was very tired after my weekend stay at the kennel.

Bunk Beds

Lily thinks bunk beds are pretty cool and was really excited to see that Cami and Rory have some when she visited them in Columbia.  Since she will most likely never have her own set of bunk beds, she and Henry have to make do.

Yes, that's a sofa table and of course Henry gets the bottom bunk.

My Yard!

Our fence was replaced yesterday. It looks gorgeous and was done in lightning speed. The company showed up at 8:00 a.m. and drove away at 1:30 p.m. Wow. I've now reclaimed my yard. I watched over my domain while my people ate their dinner. It was great.

Halloween 2011

The kiddos had a great time on Halloween this year. My people went to the Trunk or Treat at Grandma Gail and Papa Dean's church again. They had a great time getting candy, making crafts and running around on the parking lot.  Of course Lily was a princess, Belle this year.  Last year was Cinderella and the year before that Snow White.  She has every Halloween planned out until she's 11 and they all involve a Disney princess of some sort.  Henry was Superman.  My people figured with the way he runs around, he needed a cape flying out behind him.



The car next to theirs at the Trunk or Treat had a train theme.  The little boy, Eli, is close to Henry's age and they're good buds whenever the kids go to church with Grandma and Grandpa.  They spent most of the night parked in front of the train set.  Eli was dressed as a train engineer.  

Last night my people learned that Henry is scared of clowns.  He wouldn't go anywhere near their car and needed a lot of help to just walk across the parking lot a safe distance away from them to get to the other cars for candy.  They thought they were being very kid friendly, they were happy clowns after all, but he strongly disagreed.  Strongly. 

Mizzou Homecoming 2011

Lily had a lot of fun at Mizzou's Homecoming. My people stayed with some friends who have two girls ages 6 and 4. They all had a blast playing together. Lily enjoyed the parade and the game. Her favorite part was meeting Truman. Since they were in the front row, he walked by many times so she got her picture with him and got to talk to him. I think one of my tall girl's goals is to get the entire family to a game so they can get a picture with Truman for their Christmas card. :)

Click on the album below if you want to see more pictures.

Mizzou's 100th Homecoming 2011

A Zoo

My people are taking Lily to Mizzou's Homecoming in a couple of weeks. They've been talking with her about it telling her how they're going to watch the Tigers play football and hopefully see Truman. The other day she asked "I wonder if there will be any animals to pet." My people were confused until they realized that she thought they were going to "a zoo", not Mizzou. I'm glad they got that cleared up. Otherwise she may have been pretty disappointed when they got to Columbia and didn't find any goats to pet.

Fall Leaves...or Lack Thereof

One of Lily's favorite Fall activities is raking leaves into a huge pile and jumping in them. The other day she asked my tall girl person if they'd do that again this year. The answer came automatically "Yes, of course." Then it dawned on her that all of the big trees that dropped tons of leaves in the yard are gone. That's good news and bad news. No more raking (yea!), but also no more jumping in piles of leaves (boo!). Also, no more pretty Fall colors. What a bummer. Yesterday morning my tall girl person walked the kids over to where the Pattonville Homecoming Parade was going to come by. On their way there, Lily saw a yard with some leaves in it. She said "Maybe we can put some of those leaves in a bag and take them home to jump in them."

Before (picture taken in 2004)

After (2011)


Quite a difference. We'll all miss the gorgeous flaming orange maple tree.

The Whale Monstrosity

Over Labor Day weekend, my people thought the kids should have an opportunity to play in their whale pool at least once this summer before the weather turned too cool. They ended up getting two nice evenings to swim and had a blast in the water. Click on the album below for pictures and please pay no attention to the missing fence sections or broken boards. Repairing the fence is on Baldy's very long list of things to do. :)

First and Last Days in the Backyard Pool

Just Because

We're Home!

We've moved back home! The inside of the house was finished a week ago Thursday (8/11/11). My big people spent that weekend unpacking and getting ready for the kiddos to come home. The kids moved home on Tuesday (8/16/11) and I came home on Thursday (8/18/11). I would've come home on Tuesday, but once the rest of the stuff from Grandma and Grandpa's house was packed in the car, there was no room for me. I see where their priorities are. I have not quite settled in. My wooden fence is still missing large sections and the electric fence has a break in the line somewhere, so that means I have to go out on a leash. Not fun. My people can't put area rugs on their newly refinished wood floors yet, so there's not a good place for me to lay down in the living room and dining room. They went ahead and put my new dog bed down in the bedroom, but it doesn't compare to the Sleep Number bed I got used to at Grandma and Grandpa's house. I sometimes get so nervous I start shaking, which isn't new for me, but it happens quite a bit now. I think I'll settle down soon though.

As far as the house goes, the inside is done. My people just need to finish unpacking and decorating. There's still work to do on the outside. The fence needs to be fixed and the house still needs to be painted. There's still a ginormous dumpster in the driveway and a ton of stuff in the garage, making it hard for the kids to ride their bikes and such. It'll all come together eventually though.

We're all very happy to be home and would like to give a huge thank you to Grandma Polly, Papa Jerry, Nome and Hawkeye for letting us crash at their house for four months!

Kiawah Island, SC - 2011

Here are pictures from my people's trip to Kiawah Island, SC. They went with Grandma Polly and Papa Jerry and met Uncle Eric, Aunt Melissa and the kiddos there and had a blast. My people forgot to pack an extra camera battery and the battery charger. When they got to South Carolina, they had 2 bars of power on the battery they had with them. So, they had to be more conservative with their picture taking than in years past. Also, the first day they went to the beach they carried the camera in its bag in the cooler. They failed to remember that the lens would fog up when they first got it out. As a result, there are a couple of would-be really good pictures that are foggy. It looks like some sort of photoshop effect, but it isn't. Just poor planning on their part. :)

Enjoy!

Kiawah, SC 2011

Pictures (but not of vacation)

Our camera is currently MIA, so until it's found and charged, vacation pictures will have to wait. In the meantime, here are some albums with photos of things we've been doing during our extended stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Enjoy!

Extended Stay at Grandma and Grandpa's, Summer 2011

Strawberry Picking 2011

Marine Week 2011

Attack of the Dishwasher

It turns out Grandma and Grandpa have a very dangerous dishwasher. I was licking dirty plates the other evening (which I'm not supposed to be doing) when my collar go caught on the bottom shelf. When I couldn't pull myself free I freaked out and tried to run out of the kitchen except I was still hooked. I ended up pulling the entire bottom shelf and the dirty dishes in it across the kitchen with me. It was loud and scary! I vaguely remember this happening once before, which is probably part of the reason why I'm not supposed to be over there when it's being loaded, but I forgot. I've learned my lesson...for now.

18 Month Check-Up and Other Updates

Sorry for my absence. Surely a tornado is a good enough excuse, no? Let's start with the fun stuff...

Henry is 18 months old! He went for his check-up yesterday and the doctor says everything is good. He's 27.9 lbs. and 33-1/2" long. That puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 80th percentile for height. These numbers are foreign to all of us. Lily has never seen these percentiles before or anything close to them. Ha!

I had an extended stay at the kennel last week while the family went on vacation. They drove to Columbia, SC to visit Tim and Gretchen and the kiddos for a night and then continued on to Kiawah Island, SC to spend the week with Grandma, Grandpa, Eric, Melissa and their kiddos. Henry's not much of a traveler right now, so I hear the drive there and back was...interesting, BUT the kids had a blast in the pool and on the beach. They had a ton of fun seeing all of their cousins. The best part is that Henry wasn't left on the side of the highway during the long drive. :)

As far as the house goes, things are moving along. They started on the inside right before the South Carolina trip, so my people scrambled to get all of the non-furniture items packed up and moved out of the way. The new A/C and furnace have been put in, drywall has been installed on the walls and ceiling, the first coat of paint has been put on, the hardwood floors are scheduled to get started next Wednesday, new carpet for the basement has been chosen and replacement ceiling fans/light fixtures/etc. have been purchased. There's still a lot of work to be done, but is that a light at the end of this very long tunnel that we see? It's been 11+ weeks since the storm, but who's counting?

A Month Later

We've been out of the house for a month now. I haven't been back to see how things are going with the clean up. I've been too busy learning the new electric fence boundaries of my temporary yard and then busting through them anyway. It's great fun to see either Papa Jerry or Katie sprinting across the lawn yelling my name. Good times. I heard that one morning Lily was looking out the window and told Grandma Polly, "Papa Jerry's running across the yard!"

I've been told that all of the storm debris, tree and structural, has been cleaned up from my yard. It took almost 2 weeks longer than planned for the contractor to get a building permit from the city to start repairs, but he now has one and the roof was completed at the end of last week. No more tarps! I'm not sure which project will be tackled next, but my guess is the siding and gutters. There's still a lot to be done, but it's a relief to know that water can no longer get into the house.

We're all extra skiddish with severe storms now. Yesterday one blew up and I hid under a barstool. Lily crawled under with me and said "This is a good place to hide."

Meanwhile, Mr. Henry turned 17 months old the other day. Time is flying!

Easter 2011, The Not So Good Stuff

Here are a bunch of pictures of the tornado damage to our house and neighborhood. Click on the album to see them.

Easter 2011, The Not So Good Stuff (Tornado and Storm Damage)

Easter 2011, The Good Stuff

Before the chaos of the storms and tornado on Easter weekend, my people were able to do some fun things for the holiday. They had breakfast with the bunny at the Zoo and the kids had a blast. Well, Lily had a blast. Henry still wasn't so sure about the characters that were walking around. Lily and Baldy also dyed some eggs. Here's a picture Grandma and Grandpa took on Easter Sunday before church. Lily loves fancy dresses, even if you can't quite tell from looking at the picture.



Click on the album to see pictures from the other activities.

Easter 2011, The Good Stuff