5!

Happy birthday to Lily! 

Here's an action shot from her bounce party.



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.

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

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

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 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

Spring Snow

On Tuesday, March 22, Katie took the kids to the zoo to enjoy the 70+ degree weather (and forgot the camera, of course). On Saturday, March 26 we had snow. Only in St. Louis. The blooming daffodils were not happy about it.

The kids had a blast though.

Hopefully that'll be the last time we see snow until winter.

Matching Jammies

My people got Lily a pair of new pajamas. The store had an adult sized version also, so they got them thinking Lily would get a kick out of it. They were right. She thought it was really funny that she and Katie matched. "We're twins!"

Wanna Hear the Most Annoying Sound in the World?

Remember this scene from the movie Dumb & Dumber?



Behold dinner the other night.



You're welcome.

The Carolinas

The day after Christmas, I was picked up and taken to Nome and Hawkeye's house to spend the week. It was glorious! Not one kiddo was around to bother me. While I was there, my people headed to the Carolinas to visit their brothers and Lily and Henry's cousins. They drove to Columbia, SC and stayed for a couple of days to play with Ben and Sam and then headed up to Cary, NC to play with Maddie, Nate and Avery. It sounds like they had a lot fun and my tall people are very thankful and surprised that the car ride(s) went so well. Like usual, you can click the album to see pictures.

The Carolinas

Snowmen and Sledding

With the snow we got for Christmas, Lily was able to enjoy a couple of firsts....building a snowman (or two) and sledding. She loved it! The snow was a great packing snow for building snowmen and my cousins, Nome and Hawkeye, have an excellent sledding hill in their backyard. Here are some pictures.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Snow 2010

Christmas 2010

It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and it's already 2011. My people enjoyed the holidays and learned that Henry is not a fan of Santa.

Maybe next year, bud.

They went to Dinner with Santa at the Zoo and had a lot of fun (even if Henry was afraid of jolly old St. Nick and all of his character friends that joined him at the dinner). After dinner, they got to walk around the zoo and check out all of the lights and decorations. Click the album for more pictures.

Dinner w/ Santa and Zoo Lights 2010

The rest of the week leading up to Christmas they decorated sugar cookies (I won't even tell you how much my tall girl person cheated with the cookies this year), saw Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, went to Christmas Eve service at Papa Dean's church and spent Christmas Day at Grandma and Grandpa Wagner's. Click on the album below to see pictures. We had a white Christmas and the kids, especially Lily, LOVED it. I think she expects it to snow every Christmas now. I'll save those pictures for another time though.

Christmas 2010

Kansas City Trip

Grandma Polly and Papa Jerry took Lily to Kansas City, MO last weekend. It was her first time going out of town without my people. The grandparents said she did really well and had a blast. They did lots of fun things at Crown Center, saw pretty lights on The Plaza and took a carriage ride in a coach that looked like Cinderella's. Lily is now making plans to go back when it's "hot" out so she can wear her Cinderella dress on the carriage ride. Click the album below to see pictures from the trip.

Kansas City Christmas 2010

Updated Stats

The kids went to the doctor yesterday for their well-child/baby visits. They did great and both are happy, healthy and growing.

Lily
Height: 39-1/2" (50th percentile)
Weight: 32 lbs. (20th percentile)

Henry
Height: 30-1/2" (75th percentile)
Weight: 21.14 lbs. (35th percentile)

Let's Dance!

Lily finished up her tap and ballet classes at the local community center last week. They had a recital to show off what they had learned. My people said it was really cute and pretty funny. They were so proud of Lily and how well she did.

Here's her tap dance. Don't worry, the video's only like a minute and a half long.

And here's her ballet dance. It's also short. They combined the two Monday night classes for the ballet dance, so there were a lot more girls on stage. They didn't do a very good job of spreading out, so Lily was kind of cramped for space. I'd love to know what the little girl to the right of her said to make Lily freeze up for a second. I'd also love to know what Lily was chatting about to the girl on her left. :)



Henry enjoyed himself at the recital also.