Just Hangin Out

Kenzie loves hanging out in her new room. She's been doing great at keeping it picked up and keeping her bed made.

Shoe Fetish

I have caught Aydan several times with my shoes on. He loves to try on all of our shoes and walk around the house in them. I remember when Kenzie went through this phase too.

Please excuse the fact that he is only wearing a diaper. I'm lucky he kept that on long enough to take these pictures!! Recently, he's constantly trying to take off his diaper. He just wants to be naked all the time. Well, naked with shoes on:)

We're Moving!!!!

...to a different bedroom!!! Sorry I couldn't resist with the title! Do I catch ya off guard? Anyway, this really isn't important, but we moved Kenzie upstairs to one of the new, bigger bedrooms, and we are going to take her room and make our old room the computer room. But before we move in, we need to get rid of the purple walls and old, gross carpet. I thought we were all done working on the house, but I've discovered its really neverending. Kenzie loves being upstairs, so far. She has a ton more space and she has the whole upstairs to herself basically. I was wondering how she would do over night, being all alone up there, but she really did fine. I didn't hear a peep out of her.

"Breaking News" Praying Mantis eats Caterpillar!

We let Kenzie take her insect collection to school yesterday, since they are learning about them in class. All the kids thought is was pretty neat and another girl brought some bugs and a frog in too. Kenzie was pretty upset though when I picked her up last night. When I asked her about it, she told me that the praying mantis ate the caterpillar that was in there. She said "its guts were hanging out." Poor kid, hope shes not traumatized. Maybe we should have done some research on what eats what before sticking them all in there together. I guess its a "bug eat bug world." Whoa, how cheesy was that. Sorry. Well, last night we cleaned out the aquarium and let some of the bugs go free. Now we have one grasshopper and one caterpillar. And we noticed that one of the caterpillars has made a cocoon in a shell that was in there so we kept that too. Kenzie can't wait for it to turn into a butterfly, but I told her when it did, we'd have to let it go. She wasn't very happy about that.

Bug boy

Lately, Kenzie has been learning about insects in school and is always wanting to go outside and find a "pet" to keep in a plastic container. The other day Danny put a bunch of different insects in a little aquarium for her. She loves it!!! Inside theres 2 praying mantises, a cricket, a caterpillar, a locust, and a grasshopper. I know, YUCK!!! Anyway, Aydan has been fascinated by them as well and loves to watch them up close and personal, as you can see:)

Aydan's new toy

Aydan is beginning to play with baby dolls a little bit. He carries around one in particular and its really cute to see him treat it as if it were real. He'll walk around with it patting its back gently like I do with him.


Here he is wrapping "baby" up in blanket. Gotta love that "plumber's crack" showing:)

Nite nite time for baby. He just tosses her in bed. Ok, maybe he's not as gentle as he should be.
Time for baby's diaper change. "Um... how do these things work?"

I AM:

I've seen this on a few other blogs and I thought it was a neat idea. Little did I know how long it would actually take!! I really had to think about some of these. Anyway, enjoy and maybe you'll learn something about me that you never knew.

I am: a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a co-worker.

I think: that the "terrible 2's" stage begins at age 1 and its worse for boys.

I know: that worrying about something gets you no where.

I want: to reach our goal of moving to TX.

I have: an 18 month old son and a 6 yr old daughter and they are my little blessings.

I wish: for the best for my kids and family.

I dislike: cruelty, especially towards kids.

I miss: being a kid and not having any problems in the world.

I fear: my kids growing up too fast and having to deal with teen/adult issues.

I feel: anxious about the future.

I hear: the radio playing.

I crave: anything chocolate!

I search: for a pen at work all the time, seriously, what happens to all of them!?

I wonder: how many people actually read my blog?

I regret: not going to college.

I love: my, husband, my kids, family, and being a mom.

I care: about too much to mention!!

I always: try to set a good example for my kids.
I am not: as outgoing as I would like to be.

I believe: "no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."-AESOP
I dance: when I'm being silly playing with the kids and at wedding receptions; those are so fun:)

I sing: in the car when only my kids can hear me:)

I don't always: say how I feel or whats bugging me.

I argue: only when I really want to prove a point.

I write: when the kids are sleeping and I have time.

I win: when I have helped someone

I lose: when I'm aruging with Kenzie in the morning about what she's going to wear to school.

I never: intend to hurt someone.

I listen: to mostly country music

I can ususally be found: at work or at home with my kids

I am scared: of sharks, I've seen Jaws one too many times!

I need: to be a little more motivated when it comes to getting things done around the house.

I am happy about: my life

Putting 'em to work!

I can't believe how much its starting to look and feel like fall already! We've already got a bunch of leaves in our yard, so I put the kids to work yesterday raking them all up. Kenzie would gather up a big pile, then Aydan would go trudging through, messing it all up. She'd get mad at first, then she just started jumping in them as well.

The last day

Time went by so fast! Friday came and it was time to go home already. There just wasn't near enough time to see and do everything we wanted. We were very lucky though, the weather ended up being great! It was about 92 and sunny all week! We were worried about Hurricane Gustav being down there and it sounds like Illinois felt more of its wrath than Texas did! Here are some more random pictures of our hotel. The pool was on the roof of the 3rd floor, which was pretty cool.

Vacation: Day 3

This is a statue of Sam Houston, the founder of Houston, Texas. Its right across from the Museum of Natural Science that we went to.
This is outside the museum, looking into the butterfly exhibit.


This looked sooo real it was crazy.

On Thursday, we decided to take the lite tran (the "L") down to the Museum District and go to the Museum of Natural Science. The whole time we were there, we kept thinking how much Kenzie would have loved it! There was a lot of very cool exhibits. They also had an IMAX theater there, but we didn't go in.

Vacation: Day 2

On Wednesday, we met up with my Aunt Vicki. She had been telling us she had a surprise for us for weeks before we ever came down, so we were pretty curious what she had in mind. It ended up being that she was taking us up in a 4 passenger plane with a good friend of hers that is a pilot. Danny and I had never riden in a small plane, so we didn't know what to expect. The man, Peter, had Danny help him with some of the pre-flight inspection that is required that they do before each flight. In the picture above, Danny is checking the fuel tanks to make sure they are full. It was a lot of fun going up in the plane. Its a lot different than a commercial plane. You can feel a lot more of the bumps and turns. It made us feel a little dizzy because we weren't used to it, but it was a very neat experience. We had a lot of fun!

Vacation: Day 1

Here we are with cousins Shawn (left) and Aaron (back), in the lobby of their building before heading out to eat.
This was taken outside the restaurant we ate at.

Our view heading up in the plane.
The ship channel near Houston
Houston skyline
Our hotel, The Residence Inn by Marriott

This is the view from our hotel room on the 6th floor. It was a great view of downtown!

The first day of our vacation started pretty early. We were up at 3 am to head to Bloomington, since our flight left at 6 am. That is, until it got delayed 45 min. going to Atlanta. Once we finally got to Atlanta, we had missed our connecting flight to Houston, so we were to leave at 11 am. Due to the weather, that flight got cancelled so we had to hang out at the airport until 2:30 pm when the next flight to Houston left. Its a good thing they have restaurants at the airport. We were starving, and not to mention, very tired. Finally, 2:30 pm rolled around and we were able to head to Houston. My Uncle Jerry picked us up at the airport and took us to his house. We swam in the pool there; it was great to finally be able to relax. After that we went out to eat. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them. Uncle Jerry helped us find a great hotel, right in downtown Houston. We were on the 6th floor so the view was amazing! It was so handy because the lite tran goes right by the hotel, which will take you all around downtown.

Off to the Lone Star State

Well, we are off to Texas tomorrow. We are so excited! We were worried that Hurricane Gustav would interfere with our plans, but right now it looks like everything is on track. We will take plenty of pictures so I can post them on my blog when we get back.