The Alleman Family

Everything Else

2012-01-23T13:16:00.000-06:00

I figured I would quickly fill in the blanks of everything else going on so far this year with a few pictures.

Katie is completely adorable and growing up so fast. She loves to go to Kirsten's school and run around the cafeteria.

Katie is also developing a very strong opinion in certain areas. She insists on picking out her clothes everyday and her pajamas every night. If we pick it out, she just takes it off. She wants shoes and her jean jacket on all of the time, and only lets me fix her hair if she is in front of the mirror and can see what I am doing.

She is also refusing to sit in her highchair anymore. We had the Cochran's over for dinner last Sunday and so we pulled to booster seat out for their little one. Katie climbed into it and sat there for over an hour. It has since become her permanent place at the table.

She is also starting to play with her friends more and is particular about which ones she wants to play with. Here she is with Luke and Owen playing the world's most beautiful piano trio!

Katie also LOVES brushing her teeth. She seriously does it about six times a day. She copies Kirsten exactly which has helped Kirsten become more diligent in her brushing. It has become part of their nightly ritual - bathe together, matching pajamas, brush teeth together, read a story in Kirsten's bed together, sing a song together, and then get tucked in at the same time.

I feel seriously blessed that they love each other so much and love being together and doing things together. Kirsten told me the other day that she and Katie were best friends in heaven, so Jesus let them be sisters. It brought tears to my eyes to realize just how much she loves her sister.

We have been trying to enjoy some family time whenever we can. Friday was kind of crazy so we had a picnic in the living room and watched CARS 2. The girls were thrilled to stay up past their bedtime.

My dad spent the last month in Afghanistan. We have been so worried about him and praying continuously for his safety. His birthday was Friday and he came home Saturday. They came straight from the airport to our house and we were able to celebrate his birthday with dinner and carrot cake. The girls were so excited to see their grandpa.

I found at that I am going to have to have surgery on my ankle. I injured on my mission ten years ago and it never fully healed. I re-injured it running this fall. The tendon just under my ankle bone is ruptured. We have decided to schedule the surgery for March 5th so that I will have two weeks off of work - one being spring break. I will have to be completely off of my foot for a month, which should be interesting with Katie, but thanks to wonderful family and friends, I think we will actually be able to make this work. As much as I am not looking forward to this, I am looking forward to an end to the pain that has been plaguing me for so many years.

You're a STAR STUDENT!!!!

2012-01-22T16:29:00.000-06:00

Kirsten was the Star Student in her class at school this week. She was so excited to be chosen and has been looking forward to this all year long. She was able to go to the library and pick out a dog to bring home for the week.

She chose Biscuit and brought him home, complete with a carrier and book.

We also made a poster all about her that she got to take to school.

On Friday we went to Good Morning Ogle where they honor all of the Star Students.

Here is Kirsten with her STAR

Dancing on stage with all the other Star Students.

Kirsten also brought home her report card this week. She got all checks - an absolutely perfect report card! Kirsten is truly the "STAR" of our lives!

Jeremy's kind of fun

2012-01-18T22:10:00.001-06:00

Jeremy has a big smile on his face because he is having a ton of fun...

taking apart my computer!

He enjoyed himself way too much. I do have to admit that I was thoroughly impressed though (while simultaneously being freaked out). He was able to change out the mouse touchpad on my lap top for a grand total of $8. Add that to the dryer and freezer that he recently fixed, and he has saved us hundreds of dollars in the past two months. I am so blessed to have such a versatile handy-man in the house!

A song and a trip

2012-01-18T22:01:00.001-06:00

Friday was a big day for Kirsten. It started off with her class performance at Good Morning Ogle. They sang a really cute song about telling time.

Grandma Alleman came up to watch her perform and then took Katie home with her so that I could go with Kirsten on her class field trip to Frisco Fire Safety Town.

They started out with a class on car and pedestrian safety. It was not the highlight of the day....

But soon enough we made it outside where Kirsten's class got to drive the Jeeps. It became pretty chaotic and we were joking that we now know what the Liberty HS parking lot will look like in ten years!

After about 30 minutes, they switched with the other class and her class got to practice pedestrian safety through the little town. Kirsten loved running around with her friends, especially Caroline.

Mrs Bolling's class in front of the fire truck

Mommy and her angel

We had such a great time together and I loved being able to spend this special time with my special girl.

18 Months

2012-01-18T21:44:00.000-06:00

So Katie actually did turn 18 months old at the end of December. Time is just flying by so quickly! At her 18 month check up she was 27lbs 10 oz (88%) and 33 1/2 inches (92%). So she went down a few percent in her weight and up a few in her height. Overall she is just a really big sweetheart that is wearing 3T clothes at 18 months old!

The best part of turning 18 months old is starting nursery! She went on New Year's Day for the first time. She jumped right in and started playing with her friends.

Jeremy and I hardly knew what to do with ourselves when we got to actually go to Sunday School together! Of course that only lasted one week because he is teaching Gospel Principles and I am doing the new member lessons for Bri who was baptized in November.

She has been three weeks now, and it is actually getting progressively worse, which I did not expect, but we will work through it.

At the park the other day a friend of mine had her Canon Rebel T3i with her (my dream camera) and she let me play with it a while. I got some cute pictures of Katie on the swings.

We have Katie's speech assessment on the 31st of this month and a visit with the ENT next Monday. Hopefully we can figure out how to help her start talking more. She is such a wonderful little girl, and I can tell she has so much she wants to say to us. I love my Katie!

New Year's Eve

2012-01-18T13:08:00.001-06:00

We ended out holiday season with a fantastic New Year's Eve. We started the morning by heading to the mall for Kirsten to make her build-a-bear. She has been doing extra chores and saving all of her money since September so that she could buy herself one. She is so dedicated when she puts her mind to something, $30 is a lot of money for a 6 year old to earn and save! She ended up making a bunny, and named it Bun-Bun. I was so proud of her as she picked it out, made it, then counted out her money for the cashier.

We then headed quickly over to Nancy's house for our annual New Year's at Noon party that the Craig Ranch Moms Group puts on for the kiddos. They had a blast, but we may have to re-think the noise makers next year!

Kirsten and I enjoyed the beautiful weather by riding our bikes to Nancy's house. She worked so hard over Christmas break with daddy and was able to learn to ride her bike without training wheels! She loves it and we go bike riding almost everyday now. I am definitely getting a lot of use out of my bike and trailer for Katie.

That evening we started a fire in our fire pit and had Grandma and Grandpa Lowe over to roast hot dogs. The girls had so much fun being able to cook their own dinner and be outside.

It started to get super windy as a cold front was coming through, so we moved the party indoors. The Lendermans came over after dinner and we had a blast playing games, watching movies and making s'mores in the fireplace.

We got the kids to bed about 10, and then Jeremy and I counted down to 11 pm with the NewYork ball drop and headed to bed. Nothing like 9 am church to end a New Year's Eve party early!

We enjoyed setting our goals for 2012 with the kids Sunday night and I am so thrilled with some of Kirsten's goals. Her number one goal she set was to read the Book of Mormon by herself this year. She is doing great and is already well on her way. She is a great example to us as she reads first thing every morning and last thing before bed each night. This is going to be a great year!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-01T14:30:00.001-06:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. I think that the highlight was having my little sister, Jenny, her for four days. It is the most time that I have spent with her since June of 2001 when she graduated from high school and went to New York for college and I left for Honduras for my mission. It was great to see her and to watch my girls getting to know their Aunt Jenny.

We enjoyed having my mom here too and invited the Lenderman Family over for Christmas eve. We were brave and had a kids only table in the living room.

Jeremy kept up our tradition of reading T'was the Night Before Christmas

Followed by all the kiddos acting out the Christmas story. Kirsten and Michael were Mary and Joseph, and Rebecca had the starring role as baby Jesus.

Rachel and Katie were the cutest Shepherds ever, and Jenny was the Angel of the Lord (because she was the only "LOWE" in the house).

Kirsten and Katie also got to open the matching nightgowns that I made for them.

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa Claus

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care....

It was great having Jenny's stocking with ours. Santa left two shiny presents and filled the stockings. Jeremy made Katie a toy box that I covered. He also made Kirsten a bed for her American Girl Doll, and I made the bedding. They were so excited! The girls received so many wonderful gifts from family, here are a few of the highlights.

The CD player Kirsten got from Santa

Matching Princess Pajamas from Aunt Anne

A stuffed Kitty from her big sister

A stroller for her dolls from Grandma and Grandpa Lowe

A watch from Mommy and Daddy

And boots from Great Grandma Adams

I was also able to find beautiful matching Christmas Dresses for the girls.

After church, we came home and got ready for Christmas dinner. I made a turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing, an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. It was exhausting, but so fun at the same time. Jeremy loved being able to carve the turkey for the first time in his life!

We really enjoyed hosting Christmas this year, and were so thrilled to have my mom and Jenny out. My mom left after dinner on Sunday. Sunday night we opened presents with my dad and enjoyed pies.

Monday we got up early and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast - Patty's favorite! We enjoyed shopping at Hobby Lobby and then went to see Puss in Boots and the dollar movie. We had dinner at my dad's and then had to say goodbye to Jenny. Kirsten cried when she woke up Tuesday and Jenny was already gone.

Tuesday afternoon we headed over to Jeremy's mom and dad's house for Christmas with them. Megan gave the girls Disney Princess dolls, his mom mad the girls beautiful embroidered towels, and his dad made a periscope for them.

We enjoyed a great spaghetti dinner and tons of dancing with the Wii.

They also gave Kirsten and Katie matching pajamas (yes, that makes 3 matching sets for Christmas).

I think Jeremy got the most coveted gift of all....

A Kinex Rollercoaster. I think his brothers are all jealous! I do not know who had more fun putting it together, him or Kirsten. It has already gotten hours of play time this week!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We feel so blessed and are so grateful for this time of year to spend with family celebrating the birth of our Savior.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Monkey See, Monkey Do

2012-01-01T13:49:00.002-06:00

We have had a major case of Monkey See, Monkey Do in our house over the past two weeks. We have absolutely loved having Kirsten home from school. Although, she has insisted on sticking to her school schedule, doing PE, Music, Art, Library, spelling tests, all on their assigned day. She has been great about reading with me for an hour everyday during Katie's nap, and has actually finished three Junie B. Jones books all by herself during the break. Kirsten and Katie have kept me super busy, but they have been so much fun to watch.

Some of their moments over the break....

Pajama Day

We had Megan Hope stay with us for two days while her parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. At one point she hurt her knee and was laying on the couch with an ice pack on it. So Katie had to do it....

As did Kirsten.

Kirsten was practicing her spelling words, and Katie grabbed a pencil and notepad and joined right in.

They would snuggle together in Kirsten's bed and read stories together.

Baked Christmas Cookies together

My sister, Jenny, did her makeup and so of course Kirsten had to have her's done too, but Katie decided to do her own.

We have had many, many piano duets over the past two weeks.

Kirsten likes to lay in bed on her computer and so Katie joins her with her magna doodle.

Good thing we have two green balls, or whatever would we do?

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we had plenty of opportunities to play at various parks.

Kirsten even took some time and taught her sister how to ride a scooter.

I love that my girls love each other so much and get along so well. I have absolutely loved these past two weeks. I am dreading tomorrow when Kirsten goes back to school, Katie is going to freak out. At least Jeremy will be home one more day to run interference!

Ballerina Beans

2011-12-14T20:15:00.001-06:00

Who would have ever thought that a pan of old beans could be this much fun?!

It was one of those -"I may actually be a good, creative mom" moments.

This year we switched dance studios. We have been extremely happy with the new studio. This week they had their class performances to end the semester. Kirsten did a duet with Gracie, a girl in her class (Kirsten is 6, the rest of her class is 9). Their teacher danced with them since they have only been working on it for two weeks. I am amazed at the progress she is making with her new teacher.

Fun Weekend

2011-12-11T20:17:00.001-06:00

Katie is becoming such little ham. She has so much personality bundled up in her little body. We figured out that she will let me fix her hair as long as we do it in front of the mirror where she can see what we are doing. She is also becoming a poser. Anytime I pull out the camera, she does this....

I mean seriously, can it get any cuter?!

We also managed to finally get our tree and Christmas decorations up. It took two tries to get the star on top!

You may notice that it is really only decorated from the waist up....

Maybe next year we will be able to decorate the whole tree!

Yesterday morning I got up early to take my Girl Scout Troop to march in the Plano Christmas Parade. It was Kirsten's first parade to be in, Katie's first parade to watch, and my first time to be in a parade not involving a marching band. The morning was one of those "hurry up and wait" times, but the girls were thrilled that we got to see Santa while we waited.

We met up with the other Girl Scouts and spent two hours eating donuts, drinking hot chocolate, coloring pictures and playing games.

Once the parade started, they had more fun passing out candy than anything else.

I was secretly thrilled when they ran out of candy so that it was easier to keep an eye on them, and we could actually catch up with the rest of the parade!

Kirsten spent the afternoon at a birthday party, and Jeremy headed to his parents to build some Christmas gifts in his dad's workshop.

After dinner we headed to the park for our neighborhood Winterfest. The kids got to make cards and roast marshmallows, while we enjoyed carolers and hot cider.

Katie and Rebecca trying to stay warm!

The choir from Ogle Elementary came and sang a few songs followed by the tree lighting. They planted a huge pine tree in the park a few years ago and every year decorate it for Christmas. It is fun to turn into the neighborhood and see it each day.

And of course, as always, we had a ton of fun with the Lendermans.

The kids even got to see Santa. Kirsten was thrilled, but Katie not so much.

It looks vaguely similar to this picture of Kirsten at the same age

We had such a fun weekend celebrating the Christmas Season. I love this time of year.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-04T22:40:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. It seems to have somehow avoided becoming overly commercialized and is just about being with family, eating good food, and being thankful for all that God has blessed us with. I love it!

We were able to spend Thanksgiving with Jeremy's family this year. I somehow managed to not bring my camera - sorry. It was wonderful though. Alison took our family pictures for us (pictured at the top of the blog) and did an absolutely amazing job! We loved spending the day with Jeremy's family and eating way too much good food!

On Friday we headed up to Oklahoma to my Grandma and Grandpa Adams' farm. My mom and step dad came down from Kansas and met us there. We had a second Thanksgiving on Friday with family there. We were especially lucky to meet my new cousin, Bryce. He is 8 years old and was just adopted by my Aunt Iva and Uncle Cole. Kirsten and him hit it off immediately. He has been in foster care his whole life and said that he could hardly believe that he had a real cousin! They spent most of the day together.

On Saturday we headed up to the Oklahoma Science Museum. It was seriously the best museum I have ever been in. We spent five hours there and hardly did half of the museum. I am dying to go back.

Kirsten and Bryce waiting in line

Katie had a great time too! There was a huge kids area that was sectioned off where she could just run around and play. It was great until she found the water tables an got soaked!

With all of the things we did, I think the highlight was riding the Segway. We all got to do it, and wanted to do it again! Kirsten went first.

She was so brave and had so much fun!

There was no way to keep Jeremy off. He has wanted to do one of these for years!

I went too. We are definitely going to have to try a Segway tour on our next vacation.

They had great space exhibits. I think she is looking for the moon...

Kirsten and Bryce even got to go on a simulated space shuttle ride. It was great watching their faces on the monitors.

My brave little astronaut.

Katie went on a moon ride too, this one was more her speed.

I seriously cannot say enough good things about this museum. It is worth the trip up to OKC to go.

Before we came home Saturday night, Kirsten and my mom built and decorated a gingerbread house. Kirsten was ecstatic, she has been begging to do one for weeks. Would you believe that it even survived the four hour car ride home?!

And Katie was of course spoiled by her Grandpa Starnes who almost never put her down. Of course that could have been due to fear over what she might break....

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving and are so happy to have been able to kick off the holiday season.

Videos of Kirsten

2011-11-15T20:46:00.000-06:00

Kirsten has been learning so much lately. She has had three spelling tests so far and gotten a 105 on each of them because she has also gotten the challenge words right. They include words such as subtraction, addition, number sentence, graph, liquid - all vocabulary words from their science and math. It is amazing to me that she is learning to spell these words in first grade!

About two months ago, Jeremy took the training wheels off of her bike. She is doing great and getting more confident. I took a video, but it turned out really dark, so I will have to try again. She really only gets to try on Saturdays because it is dark by the time Jeremy gets home from work every night.

Kirsten is also learning to play the violin and piano. She is doing so well at both. She finished the first level of piano books in two months and is in level 2 now. I can hardly go two days without her asking for another lesson. She gets home from school, has a snack and then proceeds to practice 15 minutes of violin and 15 minutes of piano, practices her spelling words and then reads a half hour, all without me even having to tell her to. I do not know where this determination came from, but I hope that it continues!

So these two videos are about a month old (from before I lost my camera) so she is much better than this now, but she is pretending to be shy and won't let me do new videos. I hope that you enjoy!

I love listening to my budding musician!

Confession

2011-11-15T20:18:00.002-06:00

So I have a confession to make - I HATE doing laundry. Like, really, really, really hate it more than anything else in the world. If I could pay someone to do it for me, I would. A few years ago I decided that instead of constantly having to think about it and do a little bit every day, I would just ruin every Monday (we don't like Mondays anyway, right?) and just get it all done. This works great for me. I do one day, and then for six days I do not even have to think about it.

The problem is that about a month ago, the dryer broke. Of course I did not figure this out until I had a week's worth of dirty clothes and two wet loads. So I hung the clothes up outside on the clothes line I use for diapers, and called Jeremy sobbing. My wonderful hubby came to the rescue! He figured out quite easily that it was the heating element. Great! That should be easy to fix. The next day we went to Sears, because it is a Kenmore, but they do not carry any parts. We could order it for $60 plus tax, and shipping, and wait three weeks because it was back ordered. No thank you. So I figured, we will just try Home Depot or Lowe's and they surely will have something compatible. Nope. It turns out that no one carries dryer parts anymore. They all want to sell you a new set - "and we have great financing options available...." So we called a repair man, $150, no way. Finally we found the part at the one appliance part store in the area, 45 minutes away. It was ours for the taking for only $88 plus tax. No thank you. We finally found one on Amazon for $20. That was more like it, but it took a week and a half to get in.

Now I tried to do what I could during that time - mainly socks, underware and Jeremy's and my work clothes, but it takes twice as long to do laundry when they have to air dry and then you have to iron every single article of clothing. Then it turned cold and rainy and nothing was going to dry. I was getting desperate when there was a knock at the door - the UPS man, my best friend! Jeremy fixed it that night. Only by now, I had three weeks of laundry piled up. It took 2 weeks for me to catch up. Not an experience I want to have again. I am grateful that Jeremy was able to fix it for $20 though. I am considering ordering another just to have on hand for the future.

On a related note, during yesterday's laundry adventure, I washed 56 pairs of socks. That is PAIRS, not individuals. That was for just one week with a family of four, averaging 14 pairs of socks each. Now I admit that I go through 2 pairs of socks most days, one for the gym and one for the rest of the day, but what is everyone else's excuse?

Lost and Found

2011-11-12T11:16:00.002-06:00

"I once was lost, but now am found...."
~ Camera

About three weeks ago my camera disappeared. I mean, really, really gone. This was terrible for two reasons. There were pictures and videos on it that I had not yet downloaded, and I did not have a camera to take pictures of all the wonderful and exciting things we were doing. My solution, no more blogging. What's a blog without pictures?!

So after three weeks of searching everywhere and then finally researching cameras, we decided to buy a new one on Wednesday. Right before Jeremy got home and we were headed out to get one, Kirsten comes running in and exclaims -"Mom! I found your camera!" That is great Kirsten! Where was it? "It was in my purse in my closet. I have NO idea how it got there." Seriously? Well, at least I have my camera back. Kirsten informed Jeremy today that "Mommy is always loosing the camera and I am always finding it." Really? I wonder how that happens.

So here is one really long post of what we have been up to for the past month. Some of the pictures are old, and some are really bad ones taken with my cell phone. So get ready for picture overload!

We continued our Pre-Halloween celebrations with a Trunk-or-Treat party at church. Jeremy was really excited to decorate the car this year. It is actually the first time we have ever done it.

Maybe next year Jeremy and I will actually dress up, but probably not.

Kirsten with Zachary, Maddison and Abigail.

Kirsten and Michael (we have a lot of these)

Katie with HER baby Rebecca. She is seriously obsessed with this little one and goes completely crazy everytime she sees her.

The next morning we got up and headed to the pumpkin patch. Katie loved chasing Kirsten around the Hay Maze.

We went on a hayride too. It was fun, and way windy.

The best part of this pumpkin patch is that they have pumpkin launching. It was ridiculously fun.

My pretty little girls with the pumpkin they picked out.

They both also wanted a little pumpkin of their own.

That night we had another Trunk-or-Treat for our neighborhood mom's group, complete with a costume parade and a potluck dinner. It was kind of surreal to get there and realize that I was in charge. Katie had gotten her Belle costume pretty dirty the night before, so we had to use Kirsten's old ladybug costume instead. She was still completely adorable though.

All the kiddos lined up and ready for the parade.

So in the midst of all of this, I got really tired of my ankle hurting and finally went to the doctor. It turns out that I have a torn tendon. So no 5K for me that weekend, and I came home with this souvenir.

It has been almost three weeks now, and I hate it just as much as that first day. I really hope that this works.

The following Friday, my in-laws invited us to their ward's trunk-or-treat party. They had dinner and a ton of games inside, followed by trick-or-treating outside. The girls loved hanging out with their cousins.

Their Aunt Megan

And of course, Grandma and Grandpa Alleman

Finally, the actual day of Halloween arrived. I took Kirsten to dance and she was the only one who showed up in her class. Her teacher was wonderful and gave her an hour private lesson. As soon as we got home, I grabbed Katie and Jeremy and we headed out trick-or-treating. We had been to about half a block when we ran into the Lendermans, Sauters, Renkers, Christensens, Lendermans, and the Looslis, all from church. So we decided to hit the neighborhood together. The kids had a blast trick-or-treating with their friends.

So that about sums up Halloween around here. Personally, I think that it went on way too long. The positive side is that at least we got out money's worth out of the kids costumes.

In the midst of all this, we did some other things too.

Katie, Luke and Owen - snack time!

Katie refuses to sit in her highchair anymore, even when it is pulled up to the table. She gets so excited when it is meal time and she gets to sit in a big chair!

I have been staying busy with my girl scout troop as well. I have the greatest Co-Leader this year, Stacey. She even lets us have the meetings at her house. I really do love this group of girls.

They are so fun, and were dying to show off their silly side!

And finally, my cutie, Katie. She gets bigger everyday. She never ceases to amaze me with the things she learns and picks up on. I had to share this picture. She insisted on the boots. I think she looks like a true Texas baby here!

Now, hopefully I can hold onto my camera better from now on, or at least remember to check Kirsten's purse if I loose it!

Craig Ranch Fall Festival

2011-10-16T12:04:00.000-05:00

Last night we officially kicked off a month of Halloween activities at the Craig Ranch Fall Festival. It was really quite incredible for an HOA Halloween Party. We had hamburgers and chips for dinner, 2 bounce houses, ice cream, raffles, a costume contest, face painting, balloon animals, a rock climbing wall, 3 bungee trampolines, a bounce house maze, a petting zoo, lizard exhibit, pony rides, a train, a dunk tank, and a ton of other little games. We had such a good time as a family and spending time with friends.

This year Kirsten wanted to be a Witch - she specified that it had to be a cute one, and Katie was Belle. At least I still have one little princess in the house!

The girls loved the train ride, it was Katie's first!

Kirsten loved the giant blow up maze. Only one kid could go up at a time, so she and her friends started waiting for each other at the bottom of the slide so they could do the rest together. They are so funny at this age, and try so hard to be social!

She finally made her way out the other end.

Katie loved running around chasing her friends.

Kirsten got a chance to actually be in the dunk tank! She loved it and went four times. She was the only little girl in a long line of boys waiting for their turn. She was so brave!

The best part was that Katie and Jeremy were the ones to dunk her. Katie thought it was hilarious!

After the neighborhood party, we headed over to the Lenderman's for cupcakes and to let the kiddos play. We had a great night and are excited about the next few weeks full of more Halloween activities!

All about Katie

2011-10-16T09:40:00.000-05:00

So I was thinking that it is about time that I dedicated an entire post to my littlest angel, Katie Anne. She is such a little doll and has developed a very intense personality lately. She knows exactly what she wants and is learning how to get it. She is so bright and picks up on things so quickly. She copies pretty much everything Jeremy, Kirsten and I do. She is always quick to smile and give hugs and kisses. She is talking up a storm, but I hardly understand any of it. She always says "thank you" when I give her something and this week she did say "I love You mama" very clearly. It completely melted my heart. She is also quite the big kid. At her 15 month check up she was 27 lbs and 32 inches - 91% in both. She is starting to out grow some of ther 2T clothes. No wonder my back always hurts!

I feel so blessed to have her in my life and in my family. It has been a blessing to have so much one on one time with her while Kristen is in school. I had five years of it being just me and Kirsten, and now I am lucky to have some of that with Katie. Here is some of what she has been up to this week.

I was cleaning the bathrooms and she decided that she needed to help. I did find it slightly amusing that she knew how the plunger works!

She even helped me scrub the tub!

Her newest passion is playing dress up. She loves to wear tutus and puts things on her head constantly - she just won't leave them there. She also is completely obsessed with shoes. She picks them out and sits down and sticks her feet in the air for me to put them on her. If I forget to put shoes on her when I get her dressed, she yells at me and goes back for some. It is really funny. Her favorites are her sparkly shoes, but she has unfortunately outgrown them this week.

She is also fascinated by babies. Every time she sees one, she almost jumps out of her skin. She is actually very good with them and holds them, kisses them and pats their heads. If she sees a baby crying, she will go up and pat their arm and sing to them. She is really so sweet. We were lucky to have Kacey up on Friday with her baby, Leah. Katie was in heaven.

We put them in matching tutus and even let Katie try to hold Leah.

She is such a little angel and has brought so much joy to our lives. We love you Katie Anne!

Six Months into the Journey

2011-10-09T22:01:00.002-05:00

This past week marks six months since I got really serious about my weight loss and getting in shape. The past two months have been frustrating, going from 3-5 pounds a week to about 1. I am hanging in there though, and I refuse to give up. I met with my nutritionist this week and she says that I am ahead of my goal, being 120 pounds in 18 months. I have lost 58 pounds in the past 6 months. It is unbelievable to me how much better I feel. Kirsten can sit next to me in the recliner now. I can ride my bike. I can jump on the trampoline with my kids. I can practice ballet with Kirsten. I can chase Katie around the park. I no longer need the seat belt extender on an airplane. I can get up off the floor by myself. I do not have to shop plus sizes any more. My complexion is clearing up. My hypoglycemic blood sugar problems are resolving. My depression is improving. AND I now run for 45 minutes, 4 times a week, lift weight 3 times a week, and do yoga 3 times a week. I seriously feel the best that I ever have in my life. I feel like I am getting my life back. Like I am breaking free of this monster and becoming myself again. I could never do this without the support of my amazing husband and the rest of my family.

I put together a collage of pictures from Day 1, Two Weeks, Three Months, and Six Months. I am glad that I am having Jeremy take these. They keep me motivated on the hard days and help me to realize that I am making a difference each and every day.

Thank you to everyone who has been motivating me and supporting me. I know that the best is yet to come!

Friday Night Lights

2011-10-01T10:15:00.000-05:00

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was Elder Moli's birthday, so I made a chocolate cake and we invited the Lendermans over to help celebrate. After the party, we decided to head out to the football game. Liberty HS and Heritage HS were playing each other last night at Pizza Hut Park. I have trumpet students at both schools, and our kiddos will go to Liberty, so we thought it would be fun.

The kids loved it. Oddly enough, their favorite part was the food. Chris was feeding that habit (literally) by continually returning to the snack bar for hot dogs, nachos, drinks and even churros. Katie especially loved the game. I was so surprised. She was standing in her seat, clapping, cheering and jumping up and down for the majority of the game.

Kirsten and Michael had a blast too. They loved the marching bands, Kirsten wants to be in the colorguard and Michael wants to be the drum major. Kirsten was talking non stop about the drill team and how she wanted to do that, but then decided that it looked too hard and she could never kick that high! I took them over to see the band during the 3rd quarter, and they thought that was really cool until they started playing and it was really loud.

Such a fun night! We can hardly wait to do it again!

Camp Bette Perot

2011-09-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, Kirsten and I went to Girl Scout Camp at Camp Bette Perot! I was so thrilled to be able to go with her this time. From our troop it was just Kirsten and me, and Keeton and her mom, Misti. We were actually the only two Daisy Scouts from the entire Service Unit that went to camp this year. They put us in the lodge with two other troops. The Brownie troop took right to our girls and included them in everything.

We combined with two other troops from our school for the majority of our activities. We made all of us matching tie-dye shirts, and just about all of us braided our hair too. It made it easy to keep track of so many little ones.

Kirsten took this picture for me of some of the leaders from our group.

We started off Saturday by hiking - a lot. I think we logged almost 10 miles total over the weekend.

We got lost at one point, but don't tell the girls that. They thought we found the pasture and horses on purpose!

We let the girls rest a little before lunch and do some leaf and bark rubbings.

Then they made some huge posters. Bailey is in third grade, but just loved Kirsten and Keeton, and took it upon herself to make sure they were included and having fun the whole weekend.

We had to provide our own breakfast, but they had lunch and dinner for us in the dinning hall.

Kirsten and Keeton with the Girl Scout Emblem.

After lunch, our troop split off for the afternoon and went horseback riding. Since our girls are Daisies, we had to start in the Round Pen. Kirsten's horse was named Belle!

They let them out after awhile to go for a short trail ride.

Then they got to visit some smaller animals, some goats, a lamb, rabbits and a miniature horse.

Kirsten was ecstatic to be able to lead Belle back to the barn.

After horses, we went swimming, and then to dinner. The highlight of every camp is the night activites. We exchanged SWAPS.

And put on skits. Bailey joined Kirsten and Keeton in singing a song they wrote while hiking earlier. It was about how much they love being Girl Scouts and how Girl Scouts are nice to everyone.

Since there was a burn ban, we did backwards smores - marshmallows dipped in chocolate syrup and rolled in graham cracker crumbs! I think we successfully wore the girls out because they slept much better the second night. We got up and left early on Sunday so that we could make it back in time for church. It was such an incredibly fun weekend. I love that I got to dedicate three whole days to my special Kirsten!

Arizona and Idaho

2011-09-30T11:09:00.001-05:00

If you have not noticed, the past month has been completely insanely busy. I have not blogged in almost a month and am completely playing catch up now.

After my grandfather's funeral, I had a wonderful visit with my family. We spent some time at Christine and Steve's house and went to a wonderful barbeque dinner. Verlanne and Johnny were sad that I did not bring Kirsten, but it was great to see them anyways.

Grandma Lowe, Aunt Marilyn, Jennifer, John

My brother taught us how to eat Cholla Cactus. He learned last year in SERE training.

It was one of the most interesting things I have ever eaten, and I will probably never eat it again, but it was fun! On Friday night I shared a hotel with my sister we stayed up most of the night talking. I was exhausted from having been up 28 hours, but it was the most time I have spent with Jennifer in over ten years. We both flew out on Saturday morning, and I headed to SLC and rented a car to drive to Idaho to see Kacey. She just had her baby Leah, and I was so thrilled to be able to go and help her for a few days. We tried to find time each day to go for a walk. There are beautiful gardens on campus at BYU Idaho, and we loved walking around them.

The beautiful new mama!

Me and Leah

She is such a sweet, precious baby. I am excited to see her again next week when they come here. I love Kacey and Leah so much!

I left Idaho after dinner on Tuesday and spent the night in Bountiful with my cousin, Stephanie. She is getting married in December and so we had a ton of fun talking about wedding plans. On Wednesday morning I got up early and went to the Salt Lake Temple and spent some time on Temple Square before catching my plane home. It was so great to see my girls and Jeremy again. Katie was mad at me and screamed when she saw me, she would not let me near her. All was forgiven the next morning and I loved snuggling my baby girl again. I am so grateful for my husband and mother-in-law for taking care of my precious girls so I could go.

Bands of Steel

2011-09-12T12:36:00.002-05:00

When I was a little girl, my Grandpa Lowe used to play a game with us called Bands of Steel. He would hold us by the wrist and say "I've got you in bands of steel. You can't get away, you can't get away!" We would struggle and after a few tries he would let go and we would fall backwards then he would say "How did you do that?!" We usually insisted that we were either incredibly strong or magic and then come running back for more. We never tired of this game. All the grandkids would line up waiting for their chance in the bands. Now each of his children play this game with their grandkids.

On August 26th, my Grandfather passed away after a long battle with cancer. I felt so blessed to be able to have seen him just a month before. My wonderful husband let me fly to Arizona to be there with my family to honor him. My Grandmother asked me to sing, and I chose and arrangement of "I know that my Redeemer Lives." The funeral centered around his love of life and his love of his family. Invariably, each person who spoke, talked about Grandpa's Bands of Steel. This is the bouquet from the Grandkids.

One of my cousins talked about how we are bound together by Bands of Steel that will never be broken. That we are sealed together eternally as a family by bands of steel. I thought that this was a beautiful and perfect analogy. I am so grateful for a Grandfather who loved his family, his God and his Country.

I am so thankful for the atonement of our Savior. For the knowledge that it gives me, that I know without a doubt that he is with our Savior, that his body will be made whole again. I am thankful for the sealing power of the temple that binds families together for eternity and that I know I will see him again and be part of his family for eternity. This life is such a small part of our eternal existence, and I look forward with faith to eternity.

I want to share two more things. The first is his Obituary from the newspaper.

Lowe, Walter, "Walt"Walter "Walt" V. Lowe of Mesa, AZ passed away on August 26, 2011 in Mesa. He was 85 years old. Walt was born on March 10, 1926 in Logan, Utah to Gilbert and Leone Lowe. Walter Lowe graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1944, and enlisted in the Army. He served in the Army Air Corps from September 1944 until November of 1945. He served in the Northern States Mission for the LDS church from Oct. 1946 to Oct. 1948. He managed and owned KDJI Radio in Holbrook, AZ from July 1961 to 1978. He resided in Holbrook for 44 yrs. He served as president of the Arizona Broadcaster's Association for 1974-75 year. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Patricia Lowe of Mesa; 2 daughters, Verlanne(Johnny) Johnson of Mission Viejo, CA; Christine (Steven) Ramsey of Mesa, AZ; 2 sons, Walter V. (Patty) Lowe Jr. of McKinney, TX; and Laurence M. (Jennilyn) Lowe of Springville, UT; 19 grand children; and 19 great grandchildren. Walt is preceded in death by one son, Allen Lowe, in 1973. Visitation will be held on Thursday September 1, 2011 from 6-8 pm at Falconer Funeral Home. 251 W Juniper Ave, Gilbert, AZ 85233. Funeral Services will be held on Friday September 2 at 11:00 AM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Thunder Mountain Ward building located at 7752 E McDowell Rd, Mesa AZ . Additional Funeral Services will be held on Saturday September 3, 2011 at 11:00AM at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints , Little Colorado Ward, 1127 Helen Avenue, Holbrook, AZ 86025. Interment will take place at the Holbrook City Cemetery in Holbrook, AZ following services.

My dad was named after his father, and my brother shares his name as his middle name. My brother wrote this and it was shared at the funeral as well.

John Walter Lowe remembers his grandpa.

When I was a child, I was embarrassed by my middle name because I thought it sounded funny. I'm not sure exactly how the story goes, but apparently the name Walter was given to my grandfather on a bet. In my generation however, the name Walter is not just a silly sounding name anymore. The name Walter represents a strong work ethic, a loving heart, and an ability to persevere no matter the situation. We all know how great a story-teller my dad is, so perhaps I have a slightly exaggerated idea of who my grandfather was and the things he did in his life, but I grew up knowing that he could have beat up Superman. I did not realize just how much of an impact these stories had on me until I joined the Marine Corps. There was a time in boot camp, when I had fevers and infections to the point that I could not think clearly, and merely walking was a struggle, that I honestly believed I was dying. I seriously considered giving up, but I couldn't stomach the thought of letting Grandpa down. I knew that he would not have given up, and having the name Walter bears with it a certain responsibility. Later, when I was stationed in Texas, and we would go on our morning runs, I would always put myself out into the front of the group, fight to stay there, and feel absolutely dead halfway through. At those times, I would look up into the sky and find Orion. When my mom took us to Oklahoma, my dad told us that no matter where we were, if we could find Orion, he would be looking up at Orion as well, and thinking of us. I would look up and remember how my dad had his seven mile course that he would run with his friends on top of his daily military training at West Point, and how Grandpa was one of the few who passed all of the ridiculous tests that they were putting pilot candidates through to disqualify them during the draw down after the war, and I knew that Walter Lowes don't slow down, no matter how hard it gets.

But aside from physical and mental fortitude, he was an example to all of us in love, generosity, and righteousness. Grandpa didn't always make the best financial decisions, but he was one of the richest people that I know. He has a wife of sixty one years who loves him dearly. He has children and grandchildren who love him enough that they pitched in to help build his home, and helped take care of him in his final days, rather than consigning him to a retirement home, as befalls so many Americans these days. He has everything that I could imagine wanting in life. Looking at his life, we find the key to such happiness. Though his venture into chinchillas ended up going under, he gave his wife a chinchilla stole. Though his electronics store didn't work out, he gave my dad a really nice set of speakers from it. Though his trailer homes never brought him much money, and demanded more than they were worth in the maintenance that he had to do, he provided many people with homes that they would not otherwise have been able to afford. Anything he had, he was willing to give to those who needed it. He is the strongest example in my life of how to be more like Christ, and one day I hope to have all that he has. When I was a child, I was embarrassed by my middle name because it sounds funny, but now, because of the man it represents, I wear it as a badge of honor. Last Friday, the world suffered a great loss, but the ripples of his life will continue to spread, and if we but follow his example and spread these lessons on to our children, the world will never be without him.

John Walter Lowe

Aug 2011

I love my Grandfather and miss him dearly. I look forward with hope to the day when we will meet again in the presence of our savior and once again be able to play Bands of Steel. I love you, Grandpa. God be with you til we meet again.

Changes you never saw coming...

2011-08-27T10:22:00.002-05:00

So, it is official. We are pet owners. I know, I know, it is something we swore we would never do, but alas, all parents do give in eventually, right?

Introducing Ponyo.

Yes, Ponyo is a beta fish! And a rather pretty one if you ask me. What did you think we got?

We promised Kirsten six months ago that if she could keep her room clean for two weeks we would get her a beta. She finally was able to do it this week. If you can't tell, she designed the bowl herself, and is so proud of her first pet.

Over the past few months we have been making a lot of changes in our lifestyle, trying to be healthier. Yesterday I finished the Couch to 5k running program. It took me 4 months instead of 2, but I did it. When I started, I could barely run the required one minute. After 2 minutes of running, my heart rate would be up over 180-190 bpm. Now four months and 54 pounds later, I can run for 30 minutes and keep my heart rate between 156-160 bpm. It feels so amazing. I am still going sort of slow, but I am now going to work on my speed and distance since. I have actually grown to love running and my body starts getting warmed up and excited when I put my running shoes on.

We have also been trying to make some healthy food changes and are doing pretty well, but I could not help but feel there was more that we could do. Then this week Jeremy and I watch Food Inc. Holy Moly. If you have never seen it, you need to, like right now. It is on Netflix Insta-play. Go watch it. NOW. I knew some of this, but not the extent of it. So Jeremy and I sat down this week, did some research, budgeting, recipe and menu planning, and lots of talking. This morning we headed out with a plan to the Farmer's Market.

We really had a great time. There are so many neat things there, live music, face painting, and tons of food. The biggest changes we are making are buying grass-fed beef and pastured chicken and eggs. We are focusing on organic produce and fresh, raw, cheeses. We have a plan to expand our garden and will be doing some fall planting in the next few weeks. It will take some getting used to, but I am really excited about it. I want to not only keep my family healthy, but make a difference by supporting local farmers. For breakfast this morning we had fresh pastured eggs with fresh goat cheese, organic cantaloupe, fresh bread that I baked (ground the wheat, local honey ect...) topped with fresh plum jam. I am excited to see the difference that this makes in our health over the next few months. Kirsten is already talking about taking her spending envelope with her next week and the things that she wants to get at the market.

This has been a year of changes for our family, and most of them have been good changes. I love life, love my family, and look forward to what the future will bring.

First of First

2011-08-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Today was Kirsten's first day of first grade. She very carefully picked out her outfit two months ago and had it in a special place in her closet. Last week we finally found the perfect shoes, last night she very meticulously explained to me how she wanted her hair fixed, and this morning she added the necklace. I cannot believe how independent and grown up she is getting. She is in the same pod as last year, but on the other side.

Her teacher this year is Mrs Bolling. All of my friends with older kids light up when I tell them that Kirsten has her and insist that she is their favorite teacher at the whole school. Kirsten is already completely in love with her after just one day.

I think that her favorite part is actually having her own desk this year. She is so excited that she can put her pencil box in it and have her own supplies. I guess that is just one more step to growing up.

After dropping her off, I headed over to Vicki's house for a "Cheers and Tears Brunch". Katie jumped right in and wanted to play with the big kids and I loved seeing so many friends that I missed over the summer.

When we got home, it sunk in that it was just Katie and me for the day. For the past year she has just basically been my "plus 1" or my a tag-a-long for whatever Kirsten did. She is now getting to where she wants to get out and go places and be entertained. I know that I used to know what toddlers liked to do, but I am having major mental blocks now. I will have to figure out some new activities for us to stay busy during those long school hours without Kirsten.

After school Kirsten came walking out with Michael, of course. As soon as she saw her sister, she took off running and hugged her. I wish I had that on video. I could tell that Kirsten missed Katie as much as Katie missed her. Even though it was 106 degrees outside, we still headed over to Sonic with friends for happy hour drinks.

Katie, Kirsten, Michael, Rachael

Koral, Kenna and Kirsten

Once we got home, Kirsten went into hyper-drive. She made her bed, cleaned her room, practiced her violin, the piano, read for 30 minutes, set the table for dinner, had a bath, family home evening, put curlers in her hair, played Monopoly and was still in bed by 8. This is a girl that thrives on schedule - she must take after her momma. Overall, I think I will declare day one a success. We will see how Katie does when mommy goes back to work tomorrow.

Musical Popcorn Randomness

2011-08-17T19:52:00.003-05:00

Survival has been the name of the game these past few weeks. It has been so unbelievably hot and we have had to become very creative with finding indoor activities to keep these little ones busy. I got really desperate and pulled the water table into the house.

We have been playing many games - most of them Kirsten originals - and they usually involve making Katie laugh. But honestly, she is so cute, how can you not want to make her laugh all of the time?!

Speaking of Katie, it has not been all fun and games. Kirsten and I were painting while Katie took a nap on Friday and forgot to put it away. The end result was not pretty.

Jeremy and I went on a date on Saturday to the most amazing movie theatre ever. It is call IPIC - you should totally look it up! The seats are plush recliners, they give you pillows and blankets, and you can order food to eat while you watch. We saw The Help, and it was so wonderful to be out without the kids. Jeremy made me pose for a picture on the way out, so I thought I would share. I am finally starting to feel comfortable with myself again.

On Monday, Kirsten treated Katie to her first Tea Party. She was a little frustrated that Katie could not seem to leave things in their place, but I reminded her that practice makes perfect, and now we have been having one every day.

On Monday we also had Michael and Rachael over while their mom took their brand new baby sister to the pediatrician. The big kids wanted a movie and popcorn and of course Katie had to be right up there with them.

On Tuesday, I paid Kirsten to babysit Katie for 30 minutes while I taught a trumpet lesson. She was determined to prove to me that she was the best babysitter ever. I did not hear a peep from them the entire time. Afterwards, this is how I found them on my bed. Can you tell that we like popcorn around here?!

Kirsten has been obsessed with my trumpet for a long time, but now Katie is wanting to play it all the time too. She likes to get out her plastic trumpet and climb up in the lesson chairs. Kirsten is thrilled to have graduated to the "real trumpet" since Katie has the plastic one now. Maybe someday I will be able to start my very own Brass Band in my Living Room!

Tuesday was a long anticipated day for Kirsten - she started her Violin lessons! I do not think that anyone has ever been more thrilled. She practiced 4 times today!

She has been begging to start for a while, but I told her she had to know all her treble and bass clef notes first and get through her first level of piano books. So yesterday was the day! Thank you Sister Hope for teaching her.

I can hardly believe that school starts next week. Kirsten is excited to meet her new teacher on Friday, and her new dance teacher tomorrow. Kirsten had her six year old check up today and weighed in at 57 lbs (90%) and 48 inches (88%). She is getting so big! We have been busy getting everything ready for schoool and I think we may actually be done. Last night we went to a mommy/daughter stamping night and had fun making notebooks and bows. Then today I met with my new Girl Scout Co-Leader and we planned the year. I am looking forward to teaching more next week and getting back into a more normal schedule.

My sister-in-law, Kacey, had her first baby on Saturday. She is in Idaho, so it will be a few more weeks until we get to meet Leah. We are so excited for her and Tyler.

That is it for now, only four more days of summer. Is anyone else counting?

Funniest thing tonight

2011-08-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

Jeremy and I were playing Settlers of Catan tonight when Kirsten came out of her room. She seemed very disoriented and so I asked her if she had to go the the bathroom. She nodded so I took her in. She immediately flipped open the lid on her step stool and tried to sit down on it. She fought me the whole time, but I was finally able to man handle her to the toilet. Once there, she proceeded to strip off her pajamas, get up, and walk to her room and put herself back to bed completely naked. I do not think I have ever laughed so hard in my entire life. Who knew being a parent could be so hilarious!

Happy Happy Birthday Kirsten, Dear

2011-08-08T07:30:00.000-05:00

I am in complete and total denial. There is NO WAY that I have a six year old. Kirsten would beg to differ though. When she woke up Thursday morning she declared "I am six, so now I look like I am nine." What?! Just be six for a while. She is such a wonderful little girl and we tried hard to spoil her for her birthday. Jeremy got up really early and made her banana pancakes before he went to work.

Thursday night we had her family party. We had my dad and Patty, Jeremy's mom, dad, sister Megan, Zach and Allison, and the Lendermans (they are family too, right?) She received so many wonderful presents, but I think her favorite had to be the electric snow cone maker. It has already had a ton of use. She is also very anxious to start using her Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Junior and to get some new books with her Barnes and Noble gift card.

She designed her cake and helped me decorate it. She is such a talented girl!

On Friday we had 8 little girls over for a Tinker Bell Pajama Party. We started with pizza for dinner.

Then spent about an hour playing Disney Sing It. They loved singing and dancing. They even let Katie get in on the action!

I gave all 8 girls makeovers ~ I painted nails, fixed hair and put on make-up. Don't they look beautiful?!

We had cupcakes this time, and it was interesting getting six candles into one, but she insisted.

Katie had fun finger painting with the pink frosting. The older girls thought she was hilarious.

After cake, we pulled out blankets and pillows and snuggled in to watch Tinker Bell and The Lost Treasure.

The night ended with a rousing game of limbo.

We had such a wonderful time. Thank you everyone for helping make this a special birthday for Kirsten. We love you so much!

Summer Cleaning

2011-08-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

Life since we got back from our trip has seemed like a constant game of catch up. I finally decided I was sick of my house being trashed and I was going to clean, like really, really clean this week. So far I have cleaned our room, Katie's room, the living room and both bathrooms. I have emptied, organized moved furniture, dusted, scrubbed, vacumned, shampooed, mopped ect. You get the idea. Only Kirsten's room, the kitchen and dining room to go. I have to say that it is therapeutic for me. I never got around to spring cleaning, so I guess that this is summer cleaning.

Other than that, I have been trying to enjoy my girls. On Saturday I spent 6 hours out with Kirsten. We went school supply shopping, school clothes shopping, and got her hair cut. She is developing some definite tastes in clothes and hair styles and it took a lot longer than usual. We had a blast though and I loved spending time with my little angel.

I am saving most of her new clothes for her birthday this week - that is all she wanted anyways, but I let her wear her new church dress this Sunday.

Here is a close up of her hair.

Can you believe how grown up she looks?! She really does seem like she is ready to be six years old and in first grade. Less than three weeks to go!

Katie is developing more and more personality and is such a hoot. Whenever she does something funny or new she turns and looks at us and claps! She climbs on everything she can get on. When she gets hungry, she will go to the pantry and grab some food, then climb into her high chair. So cute! One of her favorite things to do is sit in her rocking chair in her room. She was so proud of her self for getting in it alone.

In the past few weeks she has started loving to carry around her baby dolls. Now she likes to rock them in her chair and sing to them.

She also positioned her chair next to her bookcase and sits in her chair and flips through books.

When she gets tired and is ready for bed she gets a book and her blanket and climbs into the big rocking chair. She is definitely a smart one.

On a side note, I hit 50 lbs this week. I can hardly believe that in just 4 months I am half way to my weight loss goal. I guess Kirsten overheard me telling Jeremy, because she told a friend of ours today "my mommy is half way to being healthy, then she can play with me more." That girl doesn't miss a beat!

I love these little girls so much. They are truly the light of my life.

The Grand Canyon

2011-07-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

Monday morning we woke up early and headed to the Grand Canyon. It took forever to get into the park. After an hour of inching along, we found what was holding up traffic - a deer on the side of the road that everyone was stopping to take pictures of. Whatever. We eventually made it to the Visitor's Center, parked, and headed out toward the Canyon. I made Jeremy and Kirsten close their eyes and I led them to the lookout point. When Jeremy opened his eyes, he audibly gasped as he saw this....

They were all three entranced with the beauty of it. The pictures really cannot do it justice, but we took them anyways.

Kirsten was very good about not going too close to the edge and staying where there were guard rails.

And Katie was back in her seat of honor for the day.

Looking down at Phantom Ranch

Indian Springs Campground

After we walked the rim trail and got some lunch, we went to a story time at the El Tovar. They have teachers who spend their summers working at the park and doing education programs for kids.

They read a book called "Mule Train Mail" all about how the mules go down the Canyon Monday through Friday year round, regardless of weather, to deliver the mail to the bottom of the canyon. Crazy. Then the kids had a relay race carrying bags of mail. Kirsten's team won!

Kirsten completed her Junior Ranger requirements and then had a swearing in ceremony with a few other kiddos.

We ended the day by hiking about a mile down the Bright Angel Trail. Kirsten wanted to go further down, but knowing we had to go back, I made her turn around. It was a good thing too, because by the time we got to the top she was begging to be carried.

We took the shuttle back to our car and headed back to the hotel in Flagstaff. I feel like we hardly made a dent in what we wanted to do. We are hoping to go back in a few years and stay at the Rim for a few days so that we can have the full experience.

We got to the hotel and pulled the blackout curtains and had the kids in bed by 6:30. Love it! We were all exhausted, but it was a wonderful day.

We headed home on Tuesday and decided to drive straight through, which got us home at 1 o'clock on Wednesday morning. We had such a wonderful trip and the girls did so well in the car. No tantrums, no meltdowns, no fights, anything. It gives me so much hope for future car trips! I love my family so much and feel so blessed to have been able to spend 8 wonderful days with them.

Side Trips

2011-07-29T11:01:00.001-05:00

We left Sunday after lunch and headed up to Flagstaff. On the way there we took a side trip to see Montezuma's Castle. I have to admit that I love seeing the look on Jeremy's face when he sees all of these incredible places that I grew up with.

Kirsten also got to do the Junior Ranger program here too. She kept saying that she wanted to stay the night in the castle rather than going to our hotel. Katie slept through the whole thing. I guess we will have to go back some day.

We stayed Sunday night in Flagstaff and woke up early Monday morning to head to the Grand Canyon (more to come on that later) On the way, we took another side trip to Arizona Snow Bowl. There is not any snow this time of year, but this is where we used to go skiing as kids.

It was pretty funny that when we got there, Jeremy said "I didn't think there were trees in Arizona." HA! He loved it there and swears that he wants to move to Flagstaff now. I am sure it had something to do with the fact that it was 65 degrees and overcast, but that is just a guess.

Jumping ahead, on the way home, we stopped in Holbrook. We had to drive by the WigWam Hotel.

In case you can't tell, this is the hotel on old Route 66 that the Cozy Cone Hotel from "CARS" was based on. It is only a few blocks from the house my Grandparents lived in for over 50 years, and where my dad grew up. I have so many great memories of this place as a kid and teenager. We loved to play in the mountains and go to the lake on Grandpa's boat. We even made some good friends there over the years. I am so glad that I finally got to share it with Jeremy.

These little side trips helped break up the driving some and were a ton of fun.

Mesa

2011-07-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

Thursday morning we left Carlsbad Caverns and headed to Mesa, Arizona. It was a pretty uneventful and boring drive, there is not much between the two. The highlight was probably driving through Thatcher and all of a sudden there was a temple. Just right there on the highway, out of no where. It was pretty cool.

I went right over to see my grandma and grandpa when we got there. I wanted to make sure they were up to visitors before I took the girls over.

Friday we spent the day with my Aunt Christine. We went to the Sea Life Aquarium. We all had such a great time. I loved being able to spend time with my amazing aunt, and loved that my girls are getting to know her as well.

Katie was fascinated by Stingray Bay. She was not scared being so close to them, and we probably could have spent hours there.

We were there just in time to see them feed the Sea horses and learn more about them. There were places where you could go inside a bubble in the aquarium and have a 360 degree view.

On the way home we went by the school where Christine teaches, which happens to be in the old white church we went to when I was little. Then we drove around the corner and visited the Mesa Temple. I was hoping to be able to do a session, but it was closed for cleaning. We enjoyed the grounds and visitors center with our girls instead.

My Grandma Lowe loved having two of her Great-Granddaughters to dote on.

The biggest blessing of this trip was that we were able to see my Grandpa Lowe. We were honestly not sure if he would make it until July, and I am so grateful that we were able to see him one last time. He is so thin and seems so fragile. He did not remember who I was, but I was able to help him remember. I had to re-introduce myself everytime I saw him over those four days. It was heartbreaking to see his memory so far gone, but still wonderful to visit with him.

I took this picture on one of my morning runs. I lived in Arizona for 14 years and I have lived in Texas for 17, but the Superstition Mountains still feel like home to me.

Kirsten stayed busy helping my Uncle Steve make tokens for Scout Camp.

Katie was scared of the two big dogs, but finally on Sunday mustered up the courage to actually pet Dusty.

Friday night, my cousin, Stephanie showed up. She is teaching school in Bountiful, Utah, and we coordinated to be there at the same time. She did not tell her parents she was coming, it was so fun to surprise them! She brought her boyfriend, Tim, with her. It was great to get to know him. Stephanie is like a sister to me and this is the first time I have gotten to see her since her mission. We are already making plans for a visit in September.

Saturday we went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie, which was totally cute! We spent the afternoon visiting, had a family dinner, and then Stephanie, Tim, Jeremy and I went on a double to date to see Harry Potter 7.2. I have to say that I enjoyed it much better the second time.

Sunday we were able to go to church with them, and my Grandpa was even able to make it. I miss my family so much and was so grateful to be together with them.

As we said goodbye on Sunday afternoon, I held up okay until I took a step back and looked at my Grandpa. I know that this was the last time I will see him in this life. If I did not have faith in the Resurrection and a knowledge that our family has been sealed in the temple for all eternity, I am not sure that I could have driven away. I am so grateful for family, and for the gospel and the sealing power that binds us together. I am grateful for Christine and Steve for opening their home up to us, and for an amazing husband who was willing to drive us all the way out there for this visit.

This was not the end of the trip. Stay tuned for more....

Carlsbad Caverns

2011-07-20T20:58:00.002-05:00

Our adventures started this morning when we pulled out of the driveway at 5:15. We tried to get the girls into the car asleep, but of course they woke up and were both so excited to be in the car that they never went back to sleep. Seriously, they were both awake the entire time. The greatest was when we turned on the DVD players and Katie's eyes got big and she started dancing and clapping. They were both entranced for hours. Kirsten loved reaching over and holding her sister's hand. They were both so great in the car!

We got to Carlsbad Caverns at 2 pm and headed straight down. I think that Katie had the best seat in the house!

Kirsten loved looking for shapes in the rock formations. She found bunnies and corn dogs, waves and sharks. She loved it!

Katie loved being up high and was entranced by her surroundings.

It was really dark in the caves, and our pictures did not turn out for the most part, but I did get a few that are okay.

These pictures just don't do it justice. It is really an unbelievably beautiful place.

We were all pretty tired after our 2 mile hike inside. Kirsten was a trooper and made it the whole way.

While we waited for the elevators, she talked daddy into carrying her as well as Katie.

Kirsten loved doing the hands on activities where she got to see up close how the sulfuric acid forms the rocks.

She even earned her Junior Ranger Badge!

The entrance to the cave

We ate dinner and then checked into the hotel. I came out of the bathroom to find Kirsten crashed in Katie's bed.

Katie thought that the tissue dispenser in the bathroom was the best toy ever.

So I have to consider day one a success. We still have another ten hours in the car tomorrow and then we have to make it home, but right now we are having a great time and are loving all of the time together as a family.

My Little Cheerleader

2011-07-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

Kirsten spent this week at a Cheerleading Camp that was put on by her dance studio. She had so much fun and even says that she likes cheerleading better than ballet. They did crafts everyday - made pom poms, t-shirts, picture frames, got a "cheerleader makeover", learned stunts, tumbling, cheers and dances. She absolutely loved it. Today we got to go and watch their performances. My camera stopped working when they did the tumbling, so no videos or pictures of that, but she learned how to do a cartwheel, a backroll, backbend and handstand. So impressive!

My little Cheerleader

She did not like the all black dress code for her Cheer Group, but I think she looked pretty cute!

Her friends Jada and Jessica from school were in her group too, and she loved being able to see them again!

Hip Hop Dance

Pom Dance

Cheer Group

Fourth of July

2011-07-13T10:28:00.000-05:00

This year may have been the first Fourth of July in 8 years that all of my family was not in town. They all left on the 2nd and 3rd, so it was just us in our house. We started off the day at our church for a bike parade and pancake breakfast.

It was Katie's first time on her bike, and I think that she loved it!

Kirsten had fun riding too, but insists that we decorate her bike better for next year.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Jeremy's parent's house for a family get together. His brother Jason and his wife Ellen and son Gavin were in town for the week. So I guess we traded one family for another! We loved being able to see them. Kirsten and Katie loved being able to play with Gavin, and he took a special liking to Kirsten. He even came over later in the week to swim with her.

We had a huge group over for dinner and had smoked brisket, rolls, potato salad, and about a thousand other things. After dinner we headed out back for some water fun. The baby pool was the favorite place for these little ones.

Surprisingly, Zach was able to get Katie to go down the slip n slide. Last time she screamed her head off if we even got her close to it.

The highlight of the night was setting off bottle rockets. This is something I have never seen before. They fill up 2 liter bottles half way with water, then set them on a contraption his dad built and hook the air compressor up to it. When you let go, they shoot up in the air.

The kids favorite part was chasing them down. The boy's favorite part was trying to aim it just right to soak all of us in the chairs watching.

I am especially grateful to live in this wonderful country. I am always very mindful of my brother serving in the Marines and his wonderful wife who is stationed in Afghanistan. She was deployed shortly after they got married and her tour length was just doubled. They are both sacrificing so much to keep us safe. There are so many things we take for granted. I am thankful for those who put themselves between harm and my precious family. I love you John and Sarah!

Happy Fourth of July from all of us

Weight Loss Journey - Three Months in

2011-07-11T08:24:00.004-05:00

I figure that it is time for an update on my weight loss journey. Last week it had been three months. I can hardly believe the changes that have taken place over these past three months. The most obvious are the physical. I have lost 46 pounds so far, 31 inches and 3 pant sizes. More important to me though are the life changes that I am making. I actually do not crave sugar anymore, which is major for me. I also do not have the major blood sugar swings anymore that practically controlled my life before. I eat when I need to, only what I need to, and only to fuel my body. The emotional and social reasons for eating are gone.

I have also started running. I have been doing the Couch to 5k running program. I finished week 6 today. I had to repeat the first 3 weeks several times because when I started I could not manage to run even the required 60 seconds. This morning I ran 25 minutes without stopping. That is unbelievable to me. It feels so amazing. I have been going to the gym 6 days a week, alternating 3 days of running and 3 days of strength training, pilates or yoga. I am trying to be well rounded in my exercise.

Overall, I truly feel like I am getting my life back. I try not to think about how far I have to go still, but focus on my daily accomplishments. Each time I go to a party and don't eat the cake, or say no to the bread at dinner is like a renewal of my determination. I even got to go buy some new clothes, and bought a few shirts from the juniors department. It was so fun!

Here is a look at my three month before and after pictures.

Summer Visits

2011-07-10T19:48:00.000-05:00

The past month has been a fun, but busy one. We had my niece Kaley here for 3 weeks, then her sister, Sarah joined us for two weeks, followed by her mom and Emily for 1 week. My mom and Clinton also came for 4 days for Katie's birthday. I have been playing catch-up all week, and my house still looks like a torpedo hit.

We were able to get tickets to see the 11 Stake Youth Jubilee. It was absolutely amazing. Afterwards, we all went to dinner at La Hacienda Ranch. Kirsten challenged Grandpa to a game of checkers while we waited for our table.

Sarah, Emily, Kaley, Me and Patty waiting for our table.

Kirsten and Katie loved playing with their cousins. They have had a rough week adjusting to them being gone. Sarah loved to play with Katie.

I think that Katie loved having Emily in the carseat next to her . They would hold hands and steal toys from each other everywhere we went.

Katie got a water table for her birthday, and everyone had a ton of fun playing with it.

We also took a trip to the Heard Museum. There was an amazing bat exhibit inside, but most of the stuff was outside and it was super hot. Here is Anne, Emily and Kaley on the trail.

Emily kissing Katie in the bat exhibit.

Katie, Kirsten and Emily in the Butterfly Exhibit

Jeremy was a little more out numbered than his usual 3 to 1, at 7 to 1, but he took it in stride. (We have a lot of girls in my family) I think he secretly enjoyed having so many little girls to dote on.

It has been a busy summer already, and I feel like we are just getting started!

One Year

2011-06-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Katie is one year old today!

She has gotten so big this month. She weighed in at 24lbs 11oz (93%) at the doctor today and is 30 inches tall (79%). She is starting to try to run, talking more and more and actually answers our questions some times. She is always quick to smile and prefers to be in the pool whenever possible. She is truly the joy of our lives.

We had her birthday party last night at the park. The kids brought scooters and bikes, played on the play equipment and played with sidewalk chalk.

She was so lucky to have all six of her grandparents there, two aunts, and five cousins, as well as a ton of friends. She is such a loved little girl.

It was super hot, but Katie was a huge trooper.

She loved her cupcakes and presents. She got tons of clothes, books, some shoes and toys. We got her a water table for the backyard, which she already loves.

Happy Birthday Katie!

Dance Recital

2011-06-19T20:45:00.003-05:00

On Saturday June 11th, Kirsten had her dance recital. It was her first recital with The Dance Movement and it was at the Eismann Center in Richardson. It is a huge performance hall and Kirsten was the first one on stage in her class. I was worried she would be nervous, but she just ran straight out each time. She has matured so much this year as a dancer. It was so thrilling to see her recital.

Here she is in the dressing room before her performance.

We absolutely loved her teacher, Ms Linda, this year. She is seriously the most amazing dance teacher I have ever come across. The moms affectionately call her the Mary Poppins of dance teachers. She is not coming back next year, and we will greatly miss her.

After the recital

We had such a great group of family come out to support our dancer. My dad and Patty, my niece Kaley, Zach and Alison, Jeremy's dad and sister Megan. She was so thrilled to have so many people there that love her.

I was able to tape the dress rehearsal. It is not the best recording, the DVD should be here soon, but you can get a glimpse at least. She is the very first person out onto the stage in the front row.

"Princesses"

"Car Hops"

Zoo

2011-06-19T20:21:00.000-05:00

Our good friends, the Cochrans, invited us to go to the zoo with them on TI day. Since we were last there, they have opened a new area called Giants of the Savannah. The have an area where you can feed the Giraffes, and as anyone who knows Kirsten knows, she is completely in love with Giraffes. So of course we had to pay the $5 to let her do it. I think she was in heaven.

The only better part was when one walked up to her and let her pet his nose. I did it too, because honestly, when else would you get pet a giraffe?!

We let Katie have a turn feed one, but she did not like it quite so much. As soon as it took the lettuce, she began shrieking.

There is also a new huge elephant exhibit.

We had such a great time and all the kids were such troopers with the heat. Thanks Liz and Rick for inviting us!

Memorial Day Camping Trip

2011-06-19T20:13:00.001-05:00

I know that I am a little behind and feel like I am playing catch-up with the blog. No one else may care to read these, but since I mainly keep the blog to print into yearly books for my family history, I am going to catch up.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a camping trip. We headed out Friday after work to Fairfield Lake State Park, about 2 hours south of here. It was a beautifully wooded area, and the campsites felt very private because of it. It seemed as if we were the only ones tent camping, everyone else had campers, so we practically had the bathrooms to ourselves. Katie loved to play in the dirt/sticks/leaves whenever we would put her down.

As a result, she spent most of our time there in her playpen, which did not make her very happy.

The first night, our air mattress sprung a leak. It was not a good night. We headed into Palestine on Saturday and bought a new one at the Walmart. Then we headed over to the Texas State Railroad Depot. They were having a huge military event for Memorial day. It included helicopter rides, but at $80 a person, we just opted for a picture.

There was also a train that took us for a 30 minute ride where we got to watch a World War 2 battle re-enactment and then ride the train back. It was a really great experience for the kids.

Kirsten loved seeing all of the old Army jeeps and tanks, as well as the Civil War re-enactments.

Somehow, we kept finding ourselves back at the train.

The girls were fascinated by the fire that daddy built and we even cooked tin foil dinners over the fire. We got hungry and impatient though, and cooked our smores before dinner.

There was also a beautiful lake with a beach. The lake is used to cool a power plant so it was really warm. We had a ton of fun swimming in it. When we got back to the campsite, Kirsten insisted on taking a shower because she had fish pee in her hair. I guess that technically she was right.

We spent the rest of the weekend playing on the playground and hiking. We had such a great time, but three nights was admittedly a little much for Katie. We will have to either shorten the next trip or wait until she is a little older. Regardless of the heat and exhaustion, we still had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed some much needed family time away.

Backyard Beach

2011-06-16T13:41:00.000-05:00

We had a backyard beach party with some friends today. It was great being able to have friends over and let the kids splash around. We had out the double slip'n slide so they could have races.

I had no idea so many kids could fit in such a tiny pool. Of course it was the only spot of shade.

Katie especially enjoyed playing with her best friends Abigail and Zoe.

Everyone was sure to get a turn on the swings and the trampoline. They even played Rapunzel on the fort.

Tania brought over a cookie cake to share. Katie started grabbing handfuls of the icing and began fingerpainting the picnic table and her entire body with red and yellow icing. It was so fun! We had to hose her, the table and the patio down when she was finished.

I love summer and love having friends over. Thank you everyone for coming!

End of Kindergarten

2011-06-14T21:32:00.000-05:00

It was only 9 months ago that I could not believe that Kirsten was starting Kindergarten. Now I cannot believe that she has finished.

Here we are on her first day...

And here we are on her last.

I cannot believe how much she has learned and grown this year. She has gone from being my little girl to my big girl. She is reading, writing stories, doing math and so many other things. She has learned how to deal with different types of people, different teachers, and has made many new friends.

This is her best friend, Azalea

On Thursday, June 2nd, was her class party. I had a babysitter come stay with Katie so that I could focus on Kirsten. They had an ice cream sundae bar and played BINGO.

We have all loved her teacher, Mrs Rolfe. She has taught my precious angel so many things that I never could have. We will always hold her dear to our hearts.

It was difficult to send her off to school on Friday morning. She cried for several hours on Thursday night, and again in the morning. She really is such a sensitive little girl. Finally, we were out the door.

They had a little graduation ceremony in her classroom. Her teacher put together a sweet video of the school year, which we all cried at, again. Mrs Rolfe gave each of the kids a certificate, a sweet letter, a copy of the class video, and a bag of goodies.

Grandma Alleman was able to come up and share this special day with Kirsten. Her face lit up when she saw Grandma come in. We were able to take her home with us early, so grandma took us out to Chick-fil-a to celebrate.

It has been an eventful year, one full of ups and downs, friends, boyfriends, bffs, and frenemies. Questions about Justin Bieber and singing Katy Perry songs. I guess I no longer have exclusive control over what she is exposed to. I am so proud of her as she learns to surround herself with good kids. These are the friendships I hope will last a lifetime.

Now to figure out how to fill three months of summer....

Eleven Months

2011-06-02T19:17:00.000-05:00

Katie is Eleven Months Old!!!!

She turned 11 months old on Saturday. We were camping, so I did not get to post. She has grown so much this month! She is walking now and has not crawled at all for two weeks! She has a matched set of 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom) and has a ton of hair. She is even starting to talk some. She answers our questions with "yah" and "no", says mama, dada, kir (for Kirsten), baba (for bottle), didi when she needs a diaper change, and her newest "foo" when she is hungry. She is all smiles and giggles - as long as she is fed and rested, that is! She loves to swim and protests violently anytime we leave the pool. We love our Katie so much!

Things that make me happy

2011-05-16T21:08:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have gotten away from me somehow. They have been absolutely wonderful and dreadfully busy, all at the same time. So I thought that I would summarize in pictures some of the things that have made me so happy these past weeks.

I love being able to chaperone Kirsten's field trips. This one was to Safety Town.

I love seeing her with her friends, being just a little sassy!

Hello Kitty Press on Nails - they lasted a total of ten minutes before she got tired of them and took them off!

Field Day! - Need I say more?!

Katie's reaction to field day.

Winning the sack race and tug of war

My girls in matching swim suits

Kirsten pushing her Aunt Megan down the slip 'n slide

My new wood floors

The best mother's day present EVER!!! Thanks to my wonderful husband, his dad, my dad and Chris. I love them! I especially love how the piano sounds in the living room now.

Girl Scouts

The Kindergarten performance of the "Three Piggy Opera."

Wonderful family that came to support my singing piggy.

Cloth diapers. I know, I am weird, but I think they look so darned cute hanging on the clothes line.

Kirsten swinging all by herself and being able to touch the tree with her toes.

Katie walking excitedly to get to her daddy, every single time she sees him! She is such a daddy's girl!

I feel so blessed and my heart is so full. I am so grateful for my wonderful family. They make me happier than I ever imagined I could be. I love all of these simple day to day things that just make me so happy!

One of THOSE days

2011-05-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was one of THOSE days. It actually started off pretty good. I went to the gym for an hour, came home and got Katie down for a nap. I got to take a real shower and actually put on makeup and fix my hair. I dropped her off at the babysitters, and headed to work. Out of 8 students, only 2 had practiced in the past week during TAKS testing, but I can deal with that. So far so good.

I got back to the babysitter's at 2:45 to pick up Katie. I usually just hang out and talk with Holley, and Kirsten walks home from school with her two kids. At 3:15 the phone rang. It was Cathleen. She was with a sobbing Kirsten in front of the school. Meghan and Tyler had forgotten it was Tuesday because of the holiday on Monday and left without her. So I took off running the 3 blocks to the school, in heels, to rescue my poor little kindergartener. She cried the whole way back. "I thought you were leaving me there forever. I thought you didn't want me anymore since you have Katie now. I thought you didn't love me anymore." On and on and on....

So next we headed to the grocery store. She was so wonderful and such a great helper, so I let her pick out a treat. She chose a Nestle Crunch bar. When we pulled up in the garage, I turned around to see both of her hands completely coated in chocolate. The garage is so full of stuff right now that she cannot get out her door and I could not get in to help her. So I had to clean her up so she could unbuckle and climb out the other side of the car, all while Katie was screaming bloody murder.

So now it was 4:30 and I had a piano lesson coming at 5, and still had to get groceries put away and the enchiladas made and into the oven. I was doing fairly well until she showed up early at 4:45. So I frantically threw the last things together, made Katie a bottle and got ready to teach. Kirsten offered to give Katie her bottle, so I got her set up in the recliner with a pillow. Then instead of taking the bottle cover off, she unknowingly unscrewed the lid and poured 8 ounces of formula on Katie's face. It went EVERYWHERE! Katie, Kirsten, the chair, the pillow, the floor, covered in milk. I got a towel and wiped her down and gave another one to Kirsten to clean up, made another bottle and sat down to feed her while teaching. About five minutes later, Katie started pushing and blew out her diaper. Out the top, the back, the sides, everything all over me and her. Thank goodness I have been teaching Megan for over 5 years and she knows this is not normal!

We managed to have a pretty quiet dinner, but then Jeremy needed to go to Home Depot and I decided to take the girls to story time at the Library. As it turns out, there is no story time during the month of May. Kirsten broke down sobbing in the library, declaring that they had broken her heart. Of course right on cue, Katie decided to start screaming. Only then did I realize that I actually forgot to feed the baby dinner. I guess that is what she gets for being the second child. So I pulled out some snacks to calm her down and then had a genius idea for Kirsten. We signed her up for her very own Library card. She was thrilled. She said that it healed her and was even better than story time. Thank goodness.

When we came home, it was bathtime. Jeremy graciously offered to bathe the girls while I sat down for a few minutes. All of a sudden I hear Jeremy shouting from the other room. This NEVER happens, so I quickly ran into the bathroom. Kirsten had decided to play in the tub and had flooded the bathroom with about an inch of water. It is a good thing we tiled it last month! She has lost bath privileges, only showers for a month.

By the time we got the kids in bed I looked at Jeremy and started laughing hysterically. I could not believe all that had happened in the past 4 hours. I guess that is being a mom though, and at least I could laugh at it!

Some fun Outings

2011-05-04T09:00:00.002-05:00

We have had a couple of fun outings in the past few days. On Saturday I took Kirsten on a Mommy-Daughter Date. I let her choose the location and activities, so of course she chose the American Girl Store. We had such a great time there, like always.

We started off at the salon. Emily got her face, arms and legs cleaned and polished, her hair fixed and her ears pierced.

After she was all dolled up we had lunch at the American Girl Bistro.

We always have such a great time there. The best part is spending time with my little angel. Kirsten insists that Emily is real and that we have 3 little girls in our family.

Monday was a day off of school, and it was pouring rain, so we had to find something to do. We headed with the Lendermans over to Legoland. We had a great time. It was a little smaller than I thought it would be, but it was fun. There are two rides, and Katie could even go on the first one with us. They spent time playing in the huge play structure, and building and racing race cars. We loved the 4-D theatre and building buildings and then subjecting them to earthquakes to see if they will stand up.

I really enjoyed the miniland, a lego replica of many landmarks in the DFW area. My favorite was the Lego replica of the Cowboys' Stadium.

We spent the bulk of our 5 hours in the Duplo toddler area - go figure. Kirsten, Michael, and Rachel spent about an hour building a giant fort out of oversized, soft duplo blocks.

By the time it was finished, it was over their heads. They did not want to break it and could not get out. So Cathleen and I threw more blocks in to them and helped them make stairs to climb out.

In the Princess Palace, they could play with the pink legos and sing Karaoke. Kirsten and Michael sang and danced to Party in the USA.

Katie and Rachel had to get in on the action too. Here they are jamming to The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

The kids were all so exhausted that they all four fell asleep in the car on the way home! We are looking forward to going back and taking daddy with us next time.

Ten Months

2011-04-28T21:11:00.000-05:00

Katie is Ten Months Old Today!!!

I honestly cannot believe how much she has grown up this month. She is becoming such an independent little girl. She loves to feed herself and is starting to eat what we do for dinner. Her favorites so far are enchiladas, mac 'n cheese, and spaghetti. She is vocalizing more everyday and today pointed at a picture of Kirsten and said "Kay". Kirsten was thrilled to say the least!

On Sunday Katie took her first steps. What a treat that my mom was able to see them. She is walking a little bit more each day. She loves her sister most of all and follows her around everywhere. She still has six teeth, but I am pretty sure she is working on her molars. She insists on being let out of the baby area at the gym daycare and loves to play with the bigger kids. We love our Katie so much!

You've had a birthday, shout Hooray!

2011-04-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot that Jeremy and I both celebrated our birthdays last week. On thursday, Kirsten made me scrambled eggs for breakfast and Jeremy surprised me with a new bike. I had forgotten how much I loved to ride. My visiting teachers brought me yellow tulips and my in-laws came over that night to wish us Happy Birthdays.

Friday morning, Kirsten helped me make waffles for Jeremy. I made cupcakes for him to take to work and we took him out to dinner that night at La Hacienda Ranch. I spoiled Jeremy with a new grill and Kirsten and Katie gave him a Willow Tree carving of a dad with two daughters called "My Girls". It is beautiful!

I love that our birthdays are back to back. We have a 48 hour party every year!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-26T21:27:00.000-05:00

For Easter this year, we made a quick trip up to Oklahoma to see my mom and grandparents. We were going to leave Friday after work, but had to delay our departure until Saturday morning because of severe weather. Both girls were great on the trip. It is such a relief that Katie has out grown her phase of screaming non-stop in the car. Kirsten was a huge help with her sister, but did not like that Katie kept trying to take the DVD player from her. We will have to figure something else out for our trip this summer.

Kirsten, my mom, and I spent Saturday afternoon at the University of Oklahoma Natural History Museum. Kirsten loved that over half of the museum was dinosaurs. They have the largest in-tact dinosaur fossil in the world. You can even ride a glass elevator that goes right up to his face. It was pretty cool to be eye to eye with a dinosaur.

Saturday night, most of my mom's family came out to the farm for an early Easter dinner. We loved visiting with everyone. Kirsten also helped my mom decorate the Easter Eggs.

Sunday morning Kirsten and Katie loved getting their Easter Baskets.

We headed to church with my Grandma and then had lunch. We headed home after that, and actually made it back in time to have Easter dinner Sunday night with Jeremy's family. I was pretty excited that we could make it to both.

Here are some pictures that I took of Kirsten and Katie in their Easter Dresses. Kirsten loves posing, and Katie loves lunging for the camera. I did manage to finally get a few good pictures.

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-18T20:26:00.002-05:00

This weekend we had our annual Rockin Ranch Moms Easter Egg Hunt. This is the 4th year that we have done it, and it is definitely a highlight of my spring each year. It was especially fun watching Katie participate in her first Easter Egg Hunt. It took her awhile to figure out what to do with the eggs, but she eventually started crawling around, would pick up an egg, shake it, taste it, then put it in her basket. It was SO CUTE!!!

She had even more fun when her sister came over to help her.

Kirsten moved up into the school-aged group this year. That was hard to admit. She loves being with the big kids though and ran around like crazy collecting her eggs.

Thank goodness Katie was content hanging out in her stroller while I helped with the raffles.

We even had two bounce houses this year, which the kids loved, of course. I am still not sure why a bounce house is more fun than our trampoline, but oh well. The best part is the potluck afterwards. As organizers, we grill hamburgers and hotdogs for everyone and then everyone else brings sides. The sun was bright, but it was still great.

I love that almost everyone in our group comes out for this every year. We had over 150 people there! It was so good for me to be out and to catch up with friends after a few weeks of not really leaving the house. I know I have said this before, and I will say it a thousand times again, I LOVE my neighborhood, I LOVE our mom's group, and I LOVE that I am surrounded by so many wonderful friends!

Time for an update

2011-04-16T21:55:00.000-05:00

I feel like I am slowly coming back to the land of the living. Jeremy went back to work on this past Wednesday after being home with for two weeks. It was so wonderful having him home. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who was willing to sacrifice so much and take care of me and our girls after my surgery. The first full day he was home with the girls, he crashed on our bed at 8:15 and said "that is exhausting! How do you do it everyday?!" I think he has a new understanding of what goes on here while he is gone!

While Jeremy was home, Katie got her first spaghetti dinner. I am not really sure how much she actually ate, but she sure loved playing in it!

We also found matching pajamas for the girls. I love how much they love each other. Kirsten would love on Katie all day if she could. Katie loves to crawl into Kirsten's room and be in there while she plays.

On Wednesday, not only was I home alone for the first day, we also had Girl Scouts at my house. They earned their baking badge. We made daisy cookies and cookie sandwiches. They also had fun jumping on the trampoline and playing on our fort while the cookies baked.

On Friday night we went to the Daisy end of the year party for our entire Service Unit. It was a Fancy Nancy Pajama Party. They got to dress up "fancy", make magic wands, play Fancy Nancy Bingo, make ice cream sundaes and get manicures.

There was also a Pajama Fashion show. Each girl got to go up on stage individually and then some Brownie Girl Scouts came and were the Paparazzi. It was so fun watching Kirsten strut her stuff!

The seven girls from our troop that came.

Kirsten and Keeton enjoying their ice cream sundaes. They were getting so tired - it was past bedtime by about an hour!

Today Kirsten went to a gymnastics birthday party and then a pajama birthday party. She is definitely partied out this weekend.

We also went and got Jeremy's birthday present today. I know it is a week early, but I wanted to let him pick it out. I think he loves his new grill and we can hardly wait to fire it up!

We also finally got our carpet replaced. I absolutely love it. I think that it also looks great with the tile.

Jeremy also tiled our hall bathroom and is going to put wood down in our living room. It is in the garage, we are just waiting for a weekend that is not jam packed with parties and trips to be able to lay it down.

Kirsten is doing so well at school. She is able to read just about anything now. I love that she can take a turn with our scripture reading now and hardly needs any help. I woke up this morning and found her reading to Katie in her room. Katie had the biggest smile on her face. She amazes me with the things she learns. In the bathtub tonight she showed me with a cup and her duck that she is learning about volume and water displacement. She also surprised us the other night by picking up a can and saying "this is a cylinder." I said what? And she replied "you know, a cylinder, a three-dimensional geometric object." She blew me away. I asked if she was learning about that in school and she informed me that was last week. This week they were working on area. She is also getting ready for their program in May. They are putting on the Three Piggy Opera. I love listening to her sing and practice her songs.

Katie is growing like a weed. On Wednesday she starting clapping. It is unbelievably adorable. The cutest thing is that she starts clapping whenever Kirsten starts singing. I love it! She is walking along the furniture and walks all over pushing her stroller, and is getting really fast. She is starting to move between two things and lets go and tries to take steps. She loves to give kisses and giggles all the time. She insists on having her own book out anytime we read. She is also a daddy's girl. It probably has something to do with him being here for two weeks with her. She will seriously be in my arms and cry because he leaves the room. I guess that is what I get for having the most amazing husband ever.

Jeremy and I were both recently called as Ward Missionaries at Church. It is a great calling for us. We have been asked to teach the Gospel Essentials Class together. So we are trading off weeks teaching and watching Katie. I look forward to feeling better in the next few weeks and being able to help the missionaries more.

By the way, we got our second Bountiful Basket today. I love it! We only had to buy bananas and a bell pepper at the store tonight.

Bountiful Baskets

2011-04-09T11:51:00.001-05:00

We got our first ever Bountiful Basket today. I have to say that I am thrilled and hooked! We got all of this produce for $16.50!

Now I have just two dilemas. Trying to figure out what to do with that much zucchini, and deciding if we are going to get a basket every week or every other week. Interested in joining in on the fun? Check out http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ I checked, and they have locations in Provo, Rexburg and Denver!

Sing It, Baby!

2011-04-04T20:31:00.000-05:00

Tonight for Family Home Evening, it was Kirsten's turn to choose the activity. She wanted to play Disney Sing It on the Wii. We got out both microphones because Katie insisted on joining in on the fun. Both girls sang their little hearts out for about an hour. Love it!!!

Conference Weekend

2011-04-03T18:35:00.003-05:00

I look forward every year to General Conference Weekend. For those of you who do not know what that is, the first weekend of October and April, our church has what we call General Conference. There are six sessions, one the week before for the women, then two on Saturday for everyone, one Saturday night for just the men and then two on Sunday for everyone. Our church leaders speak to us from Salt Lake and it is broadcast all over the world in hundreds of languages. I love hearing the messages from our leaders and our beloved Prophet. It is also nice to watch church in your pj's on tv twice a year!

With kids, it is hard to be able to watch every session, so we usually just get the Sunday morning one. But with me having had surgery this week and not really able to do anything, I thought we would try. And wouldn't you know, we did it! We watched every single session of conference! After the second one ended on Saturday Kirsten said "another one, another one!" She was disappointed that she had to wait until Sunday.

Somehow Jeremy and Kirsten even managed to get our garden planted in between session on Saturday. They planted tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, green onions, lettuce, carrots, watermelon and zucchini. He is truly amazing!

Jeremy even made it to the Priesthood Session Saturday night at the Stake Center. I still cannot lift Katie, so my dad and Patty came over to help me with the girls. Kirsten loved having Grandma give her a bath, and they helped me get the girls to bed. Thank you so much!!!

Of course, the girls did not sit perfectly still, but they were surprisingly good.

Katie loved sitting on her piano while she listened.

She would get SO EXCITED every time the Tabernacle Choir would sing. She would stop whatever she was doing and crawl right up to the tv.

Sometimes she sang along, and other times, she just listened, but she loved the music most of all.

Kirsten learned that she can actually play Little People with her sissy. She would get frustrated sometimes when Katie did not play "her way" but we are working on that one.

This is how Katie prefers to drink her bottles these days. (Makes me kind of glad we stopped nursing this week!)

In between sessions today, Kirsten and I gave each other pedicures. I think she did pretty good for her first time.

Kirsten and Katie both spend a lot time sitting on top of daddy.

And Katie spent even more time climbing on top of Kirsten. I never thought we would be having wrestling matches with two little girls, but they love it.

I am so grateful for this wonderful weekend. I especially loved Elder Scott's message about Marriage. I loved his tender sweet memories of his wife. I am so grateful for my amazing husband who always puts us first. He is being especially wonderful right now while I cannot do much.

After conference ended tonight, I asked Kirsten what she learned. She told me "The Holy Ghost told my heart that it was all true." So I guess she did pay attention some!

I can hardly wait to get the printed copy of all the talks so that I can study them more in depth. I am so thankful to a merciful Heavenly Father for allowing me to be spiritually re-charged this weekend.

Nine Months

2011-03-28T20:01:00.001-05:00

Katie Anne is 9 months old today! She is such a joy and has added so much happiness to our home. She is full of smiles and laughter - especially when Kirsten is around. It fills my heart to see how much my girls love each other. She is crawling all over the place, walking along the furniture, and can stand on her own now. It is unbelievably cute to see her stretch up on her tip toes to try and see things. She is saying mama, dada, baba, gaga, lala, and dede. Kirsten is desperately trying to teach her "Sissy". At her doctor visit this morning she was 20lbs 12 oz and 28 1/2 inches, that is 81% for both.

Here is her 9 month picture.

Portion Distortion

2011-03-27T10:01:00.001-05:00

One of mine and Jeremy's favorite things to do is to go out and eat. I have desperately been trying to find things to do together that do not involve food. Last night, I broke down. We went out to eat for the first time in two weeks (which may be a record for us, sadly). We went to one of our favorites, Cotton Patch Cafe. I looked longingly over their menu full of rich comfort food, and then very carefully decided on a salad. I even asked for no dressing. The first bite was gross, but I thought, I can do this, I HAVE to do this, the second bite made me ill, and the third bite came back up (sorry, gross, I know). My wonderful, loving husband offered to switch plates with me. So he ate my salad, while I ate his meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli. Each and every bite came with a renewed sense of guilt at my failure. I felt even worse when we were leaving and I saw two other women eating the same salad. How come they can do it and I can't? So when we got home, I looked up the nutrition facts, just to see how bad I had been. I was shocked to say the least.

Nutritional Facts Chicken Salad Meatloaf Plate
Calories 1657 537
Fat 111 52
Sodium 5539 1441
Carbs 95 38

I was blown away. You mean that I can eat meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli for a third the calories of a salad with chicken?!!

I decided to look up the nutrition facts from some of our other favorite restaurants as well. I learned a couple of things.
1) Eating "just a salad" is almost always the worst option.
2) I am NEVER going to go to restaurant again without looking up the nutrition facts first and picking out my meal BEFORE I get there.
3) My body is getting used to having healthier things and actually rejected the unhealthy food.

I think that this is an indicator of a lot of what is wrong with our society. We are making ourselves fat through lack of information and ascribing to myths about food. I am grateful for the knowledge that I am gaining and the positive effect that it is having on my health.

Durkin's Pizza Tour

2011-03-26T13:48:00.000-05:00

Today our Daisy Troop went on a tour of Durkin's Pizza. It is this amazing pizza place by us and Mr Durkin himself did the tour. The girls got to see the kitchen, the huge ovens, refrigerators, freezers and dishwasher.

They got to see where the pizzas are made and where they keep all of the toppings.

Kirsten was particularly fascinated by the mixer that was bigger than she is!

He gave every girl some dough and let them make their own pizzas. They had so much fun playing with the dough. He brought out every topping he has and let the girls try anything they wanted. I was super surprised with some of the girls trying the mushrooms and onions!

We topped it all off with a pizza party!

I am so grateful for the amazing experiences Kirsten is able to have as a Girl Scout. It never ceases to amaze me how generous the community is to our girls.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

I was actually really worried about Spring Break this year. How in the world was I supposed to entertain a five year old for an entire week who is accustomed to being at school all day?! She had some moments of boredom, but overall, I think we did rather well.

I tried to be prepared by having several crafts ready for her to do. We built a foam jewelry box, colored wooden dolls, went through an entire package of card stock, and I even taught her how to needlepoint! - My Grandma Lowe would be so proud!

On Monday we went to have lunch with Jeremy at work. We had never seen the cafeteria at his office before and were able to see all of his co-workers again. They loved being able to meet Katie, and Jeremy loved showing off his girls.

Tuesday we went to Frisco Commons Park with our mom's group. We had a picnic lunch and played for awhile. After that we went to pick up the bike trailer I found on Craigslist. Now I can ride my bike to pick Kirsten up from school and throw both girls in the trailer.

On Wednesday we went to the park again with some friends. I think that the entire neighborhood was there. It was a blast. Kirsten took her bike and just rode around in circles for an hour. She taught her sister how to properly use a slide.

Katie spent most of the time on the swing. I put her there because she kept trying to eat the woodchips! Thank goodness she liked it.

Thursday was $2 day at the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville. We picked up Colette and her 3 kids, all piled in our car, and made the hour drive up there. It was a great little zoo. We made it through in about 2 hours, which was perfect with 5 little kiddos! There was also a great park across the street where we let the kids play for awhile. Kirsten's favorite was the Giraffes - big surprise there - and they had an incredible African Savannah. We will have to go back when it is less crowded to let her feed the Giraffe. She would love that!

We were all a little sunburned and just took it easy on Friday and did some shopping at the Gap Outlet with my 30% off coupon. That night we had a great time playing games with Zach and Allison. They were even super patient in letting Kirsten play with us - thanks guys!

Saturday we were finally able to find an Easter Dress for Kirsten. It is way harder than it should be. We also bought the wood flooring to put down in our living room.

That is about it. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I am personally just glad that we survived!

By the way, they just showed up to put in our new carpet!! I am so excited!!!

Weight Loss Journey

2011-03-22T10:46:00.000-05:00

It seems that we all have something in our life that we struggle with the most. Often times these are buried so deep within us that they are hidden from the rest of the world. When your deepest struggle is your weight, it is out there for the whole world to see. I think that this makes it even harder. It is no secret that I have struggled with my weight since my mission 10 years ago. I could go into all of the reasons why, childhood trauma, coping mechanisms ect... The reality is that these things do not matter to me anymore. I have decided NO MORE. I drew a line in the sand that I will not cross. I am changing my life, completely.

I am working with a counselor to deal with the childhood trauma, coping mechanisms ect... I am going to the gym everyday but Sunday. We bought bikes. We have purged our house, and I am even cooking fish! (I know, HUGE shocker there.) So today is our one week mark. So far I am down 9.5 pounds! At one point I was down a little more, but it was a rough weekend. But seriously, 9.5 pounds in one week?! I have not lost that in the past 3 years. I am motivated and excited. I am trying to teach myself and my children healthy habits that will last the rest of our lives. My goal is 75 pounds this year and another 45 next year. I am going to do this, and you are going to hold me accountable. I will keep a running update everyweek on the side of my blog. If you see me lapse - PLEASE kick me in the face.

There are so many people who have been a motivation to me, many do not even know it. I would say the three people who have inspired me the most have been Aime Rittler and Allie Sensinger with their continual running and Jodi Reeve with her working out. They keep me motivated and I finally decided, if they can do it, so can I!

So here it goes. Week Two.

Our weekend

2011-03-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful, relaxing, much needed weekend. Jeremy and I have been spending the evenings after the girls go to bed for the last week working on tiling the bathroom. Other than a few little mishaps -like running out of grout at 9 pm after Home Depot closes - it went really smoothly. It looks great! I will get pictures up after we get the baseboards back on. We ran out of nails for the nail gun Saturday night.

This week was the 99th birthday for the Girl Scout organization. On Friday, Mrs Tinsley invited all of the Girl Scouts at Ogle to wear their uniforms. She honored them at the morning assembly and we got pictures of all the Girls from the school together. I love it when they get to see that Girl Scouts is more than our little group of ten girls. It makes them realize that they are a part of something bigger.

Kirsten is on the second row on the left.

After the assembly, the Kindergarteners had their Nursery Rhyme Parade. It was in conclusion to their Nursery Rhyme Unit and they all got to dress up as their favorite character and parade around the school. Kirsten and her friend Azalea coordinated. Kirsten was Little Miss Muffet and Azalea was her Spider. They paraded around holding hands. It was too cute. Of course my camera died as they came around the corner. I am trying to find someone who might have gotten pictures.

On Saturday we were invited by our friends, Liz and Rick Cochran, to go to the Science and Nature Museum at Fair Park in Dallas. We picked them up and managed to get 4 carseats, 4 adults and two strollers in our car and drove down there all together. We had such a great time.

Here are all of the kiddos with the T-Rex model used in Jurassic Park

Kirsten, Katie, Kylie and Seth

Last night after the museum, we got a babysitter and Jeremy and I were able to go on a much needed date. As much as I love my kiddos, it is great to get out and away every once in a while.

Tonight, Katie Anne got her first haircut. It has been in her eyes for a while and I have been trying to figure out what to do with it. I have tried ponytails, headband and clips, but she pulls everything out. So tonight she got it cut.

Before

After

I know that it was not a ton, but it was still hard to admit that my 8 month old needed a hair cut!

This week is spring break and we are trying to come up with ideas to fill it. Kirsten is used to being busy all day, so it should be interesting. I bought 4 crafts projects for her to work on, and she did 3 of them today. Oh well. I think we may try to go on a day trip or two and definitely hit up a few parks. It will just be great to have a week that we don't have to pack lunches, get out on time or worry about home work.

Camp Classen

2011-03-11T11:12:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, Kirsten went to Girl Scout Camp at the YMCA Camp Classen in Davis, OK. I wanted to go with her, but with a nursing 8 month old, that was not going to happen. My friend Misti was going with her daughter, Keeton, so she took Kirsten too. Thank you so much!!!! She had such a great time, learned so much and made so many new friends. It was awfully quiet around here, and we were so excited when she got home Sunday morning. Misti took a ton of pictures (170 to be exact). So here are some of my favorites.

Her bunk bed in the cabin

Playing on the top bunks. She said they hung their blankets off the top bunk and made tents where they could have secret talks. So fun!!

Dining Hall

The Rock On workshop - her favorite one!

Archery. The look on her face is priceless,.

After the insect workshop, they made a human insect with 3 body sections.

Kirsten and Keeton. She said "We had to walk everywhere and never even got to go in the car!"

Making guitars. This year's theme was Camp Girls Rock

Lo Ropes Course

Team Tactics with Leah

Leah, Kirsten, and Keeton, they are inseparable!

She even got to go on an hour horseback ride through the woods.

Camp T-Shirts

The Troop shirts that my mother-in-law made. She is amazing!

SWAPS

For their skit, Kirsten and Keeton danced to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". They won best costumes. You cannot tell me that she is shy at all!

Leaving Camp

I am so glad she got to go and am so grateful to Misti for taking her and for all of my other friends who were there and helped keep an eye on her. She loves that she now has friends in 2nd grade that say hi to her at school. I cannot wait until next year when I get to go too!

Trip to Kansas

2011-03-08T22:27:00.001-06:00

We took advantage of the long weekend over President's Day and flew to Kansas to visit my mom. It was great to get out of town and even better to spend time with her and Clinton. On Saturday we drove to Wamego and went to thee Wizard of Oz Museum. Kirsten is obsessed with this movie, thanks to her Aunt Megan, and absolutely loved it. She kept wanting to climb into the displays to get a closer look.

She did not like walking through the scary forest or seeing the Wicked Witch, but she LOVED Glenda. She also got to sit in the Wizard's throne!

Kirsten spent Sunday playing with Playdoh. She made an entire zoo on the kitchen table. It had an entrance, a penguin, giraffe, and polar bear. She is so creative!

Kirsten and Katie had a blast playing on Grandma's piano.

On Monday we drove into Kansas City and went to the Visitor's Center for our Church in Independence. Last time we went Kirsten was a baby, I think she enjoyed it more this time. Both girls especially loved the children's room where they could pretend to be pioneers.

They even got to play house in a log cabin!

Next we went to visit the Liberty Jail. Kirsten did not like it. She said it was scary and I had to coax her into going near it for this picture.

Finally, on our way to the airport, we drove by the Kansas City Temple that is under construction. We are looking forward to taking the girls there next year for the open house tours before the dedication.

We had such a great visit with my mom. Thank you for letting us come!

Presidents

2011-03-08T22:10:00.000-06:00

Kirsten's class gave the presentation at Good Morning Ogle for President's Day.

She is 3rd from the right in the light blue shirt.

They said all of the Presidents of the United States in order and then sang "You're a Grand Old Flag". It was truly amazing! She has been working on this all year and I am so impressed that my five year old knows all of the presidents!

Eight Months

2011-03-08T22:01:00.001-06:00

Katie turned 8 months old on February 28th. Honestly, I don't know where time is going. It is getting close to impossible to get her to hold still for a picture. We kept trying throughout the week, and after more than 60 pictures, this is as close as we could get for her 8 month bear picture.

Katie continues to grow at record speed. She is over 21 lbs now and has 6 teeth. She crawls all over the place and now she loves to walk along the furniture. She has even started to let go and try to take a step. She has such a beautiful smile and brings so much joy to our lives.

The Great Alleman Flood Part 2

2011-02-20T21:45:00.000-06:00

So after our pipe broke two weeks ago, we were so grateful that it was an easy fix and were able to get the little bit of water in our master bedroom up with a shop vac. Fast forward 5 days to Thursday, and it broke again! The only difference this time was that I was at work, and so it was leaking for an entire day. I came home that afternoon to 3 inches of standing water in our entire house. Our wonderful neighbor helped me get the water shut off and then I began getting as much up with the shopvac as I could as Kirsten started picking up things in her room to save what she could.

The emergency water extraction company could not get there until Friday afternoon because they were so backed up. They had to tear out our carpet pad, carpet, remove all of our baseboards, and cut away the bottom 6 inches of sheetrock around our entire house. They cranked the heat up to 90 degrees, had two de-humidifiers running along with 10 fans. I am not looking forward to that electric bill! It took until Monday to get everything dry. The contractor came on Tuesday to put together a repair estimate and the insurance company approved it on Thursday. This Wednesday, the carpet company is coming to take a sample of carpet to get a replacement cost estimate. I still do not know when they are actually going to start construction.

This has been more than I have ever wanted to deal with. Thank goodness that my dad lives so close and has let us stay at his house indefinitely. Kirsten is loving being able to walk to school, and I have to admit that it is nice being so close to school.

We are in Kansas at my mom's right now. We had the tickets a while ago and decided to still come. It has been nice to get away from the mess and not have to think about it too much for a few days. I have been SO TIRED ever since we got here though, and Jeremy thinks that my body is finally relaxing after the past few weeks and just wants to rest.

When we get home tomorrow night, it will be time to start going through things and taking pictures and putting together a personal property loss report for the insurance company. Most of our hardwood furniture seems okay, but it is the pressed wood stuff from IKEA that is destroyed, and we have a lot of that. I am just ready to get this chapter of our lives closed, and move back into my home. Maybe then Katie and Kirsten will start sleeping all night again.

The week that would never end...

2011-02-09T19:59:00.002-06:00

This past week will go down in History as one of the longest ever. Monday was normal enough, but then Tuesday morning we woke up to this...

That may look like snow, but it isn't. It is a 3" sheet of ice covering everything. So school, of course was cancelled. Since it did not get above freezing, nothing melted and the entire city was at a standstill. I saw videos of people ice skating in the streets. School was canceled again on Wednesday, and Thursday and Jeremy worked from home. No one walked out the front door of this house for 72 hours. All things considered, we did pretty well, but we were definitely feeling like we were on top of each other in our little house. Kirsten occupied herself by creating. She went through 200 pieces of cardstock and 5 rolls of tape. Here are a few of her creations. She made a bird, nest and eggs.

She made a giant treasure map and then recreated it in our house. We then spent two hours playing pirates over and over again with a twist each time.

We also set up her tent in her room and then she trashed her room thoroughly. I didn't mind though, we just let her play to her heart's content.

We spent tons of time snuggling,

And even more time cuddling.

We even finished our Daisy Troop Flag.

Thursday night we managed to finally make it out of the house. Our street was pretty scary, but once we got on the main roads, we could drive in the ruts that had been made by other tires. We went to On The Border for dinner and then to Target for a few things we had run out of. I am sure glad that we made it out, because Thursday night, it snowed. The weather report said we should expect less than an inch. When we woke up, we had actually gotten 7 inches, and it kept coming down all day, for a grand total of 9". So that is 9 inches of snow, on top of 3 inches of ice. School was cancelled again on Friday.

Friday afternoon, Kirsten announced that she was going to runaway. She packed and everything. What made me laugh is that she had packed paper, markers, glue sticks, tape, and 1 change of clothes in a shoe box. She informed me that she was going to Michael's house and that his mommy could sew her more clothes when she got there. Luckily, I convinced her to stay. When Jeremy was done working that afternoon, they went out to play in the snow, which helped her mood. They made snow angels, went sledding down our driveway, and played in the igloo someone had made at the end of our street.

That is about where the fun ended. On Saturday morning, I thought I heard water running. I could not find it anywhere inside, so Jeremy checked out back. We had a waterfall coming out of the back of our house. We had a pipe burst. We got the water shut off, and our neighbor gave us the name of a plumber that used to work for his parents company. So we had no water all day. No showers, no flushing toilets, nothing. Luckily we do have an emergency supply of water, so we could wash hands and had plenty to drink. At 4:30 the plumber called and said he could not make it until Sunday. So we packed up and headed to Jeremy's parents house for the night. They were so gracious to let us in and we were so thankful to have running water! Sunday morning, Jeremy met the plumber at the house. It turns out that the pipe burst in 2 places. They had to cut a hole in the back of the house to get to it. It is fixed, and I am so grateful. I kept having flash backs to my mission in Honduras every time I would try to turn the water on and nothing happened. I will never take running water for granted.

In the midst of all of this, we finally got Katie's closet organized. We had it all torn apart before the pipe burst, and still managed to get the shelves in on Saturday. I think that she likes it.

Would you believe that school was canceled again today?! We had another ice/snow storm last night. Tomorrow there is a 2 hour delay, although I don't think it will make a difference since it is not going to get above freezing until Friday afternoon. We are all starting to feel it now. I absolutely love my family and have loved spending time with them, and I am also so grateful that Jeremy could be home with us too. However, we are all ready to get out of this house. Luckily, there is sunshine in the forecast.

Star Student

2011-02-02T17:56:00.001-06:00

Last week Kirsten was chosen as the Star Student from her class. I think she was literally bouncing when she came out of school on Friday with the news. She spent all weekend decorating her poster to take to school

She was so excited to go to school on Monday and share her poster with her friends.

On Tuesday she got to take her favorite toy to share with her class. She of course took Emily, her American Girl Doll. She got her all dressed up for the occasion.

Wednesday she was sick and unfortunately had to stay home from school. On Thursday, she got to take her favorite book, Pinkalicious, with her to school to share with her class.

The best part was Good Morning Ogle on Friday morning. Katie, me, Jeremy, and his mom were all able to come and cheer her on.

She got to go up on the stage and do the Star Student cheer, and then dance to Toe-Knee-Chest-Nut -Nose-Eye-Love you. (Tony Chestnut knows I love you!) It was so cute, and she was not shy at all as she shook her stuff up there.

Her Star

On Saturday I used my very first ever Groupon to buy her a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. It was decorated to say "Today you are the Center of Attention".

I hope that she felt special this week. She is such a wonderful little girl and we are so proud of her!

Seven Months

2011-01-28T21:02:00.001-06:00

I honestly cannot fathom how it is possible that Katie is seven months old today, but she is! It is crazy how quickly time is flying by. She is such a wonderful baby and is getting so big - over 19 lbs already! Here she is with her Papa Bear.

It is nearly impossible at this point to get Katie to sit still for a picture. It was definitely a combined family effort. I had to include the outtakes from our mini photo shoot tonight - they were too cute! And yes, she is in a cotton dress, in January. It was 72 degrees today. Beautiful!

This is how Katie would be all of the time if we would let her. She LOVES to stand up!

Firestation Tour

2011-01-26T22:35:00.000-06:00

Today we took our Girl Scout Troop to tour the Firestation. It was super convenient for me because it is located directly behind my house. The girls had so much fun. I am loving getting to know them better and absolutely love my troop!

Reese, Marli, Koral, Kirsten, Keeton, Leah, Samaya, Lily and Elena

Somehow, I was convinced to dress up in a full Fire Fighter get up. The girls got a kick out of it.

To make it better, I had to race my way into the suit against a real Fire Man. He won.

Each girl got a chance to climb through the Fire Truck and explore the inside.

I absolutely love this shot of the entire group on the front of the truck. I am so glad that they were willing to do this for us!

After the tour, Kim shared a book with the girls while they ate cookies and waited for their moms.

I was especially glad that Jeremy was able to come home and finish working while he watched Katie for me. She has a double ear infection and a sinus infection and would not have done well being out for that long. I love Girl Scouts!

Sometimes

2011-01-16T08:43:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a girl has just got to sing!

Snow is falling

2011-01-09T20:33:00.000-06:00

Kirsten thought that today was Christmas all over again, because IT SNOWED!!!! Of course that was on top of several inches of rain and sleet, so things were pretty slick. We did not make it to church today because we could not get out of the driveway. I am probably one of the only moms around hoping that school is canceled tomorrow. I just miss Kirsten so much and want any excuse to have her home with me.

Kirsten wanted to go out and play all day, but I made her wait until it stopped falling, mainly because I did not want to go out until it stopped falling! I did sneak out and grab a handful off the grill and put it down Jeremy's shirt after lunch, which started a snow war in the house! So I bundled the girls up and sent them out to play. Kirsten made about 20 snow angels, it is her favorite thing to do in the snow. Maybe that is because she is my angel.

Kirsten spent the rest of the time chasing daddy with snow balls and cleaning off her swing set and slide.

Katie was not sure what to make of this white, fluffy, cold stuff or being bundled up in 4 layers. She grew to like it though and sat very contentedly for about 10 minutes just playing with it in her hands trying to figure out what to do with it!

A few years ago, my sister gave us some size 8 purple ski bibs. They have sat in Kirsten's closet and I seriously wondered if we would ever use them. Well, we used them today, and she loved them.

My Snow Princesses

I had to include these pictures too. Katie actually has enough hair to put in a little ponytail now. The funny thing is that she pulled it out while she was nursing (she always plays with her hair or mine) and then her hair stood straight up like a mohawk the rest of the day.

Kirsten has really taken to carrying her sister around. I try to monitor it, and Katie does not really like it, but what's a mom to do?!
Next weekend is a four day weekend and so hopefully we can find something fun to do as a family once all this snow melts. And yes, my life shuts down when it snows. What can I say, I am a Texan, born and bred, and that's how I'll stay!

Not ready for that!

2011-01-06T17:01:00.001-06:00

I just walked into the living room to see this...

I was NOT ready for that!!!!

Kirsten asked Daddy to put a shelf up in her room. She picked the location and decorated it with her Santa from Grandpa Alleman and her Nutcracker from her dance teacher. She is very proud of it.

We had a pretty calm New Years. We spent New Year's Eve at my in-laws house. My dad, Patty, John and Sarah came for awhile too. We played Settlers of Catan and then had a foosball tournament. New Years day we stayed home enjoyed some quiet family time. I made a meal of ham, blackeyed peas, green beans and potatoes.
We set our goals for this year. Kirsten set the goal of finishing 2 levels of piano books this year. I guess that means that my goal is to teach Kirsten piano...

Six Month Check Up

2011-01-04T17:00:00.000-06:00

Katie had her 6 month check up today. She weighed in at 18lbs 5 oz (86%) and 26 1/2 inches long (73%). The doctor was amazed at how alert and interactive she is and said that she is way ahead developmentally. Other than her double ear infection - how did I miss that?!- she was declared perfect!

A Day Past Half

2010-12-29T13:29:00.000-06:00

Katie Anne is 6 months old going on 6 years. She wants to do everything we do, especially Kirsten. She is actually trying type on my computer right now. I cannot believe how quickly time is passing and how much she has changed in the past 6 months. Love you Katie!