Welcome summer!

Oh, why can't every day be a day off? Topher and I have loved the last 4 days at home with the girls. I would be lying if I did not say that Alivia and Addison loved having us home, too. Everyday, Alivia would wake up and ask if Daddy was still at home. Then, when I said yes, she would excitedly ask, "Do I get to stay home with Daddy and Mommy today?" It is so nice to see how excited she is to stay home with us, but at the same time sad that she is so upset to be left at daycare. I am sure there will be a lot of tears tomorrow as they are left for breakfast.

What did we do all weekend? Oh, we rode bikes (Daddy has this new toy that he pulls the girls behind his bike. It was an early Father's Day present that I think Alivia loves!), swam in the girls' new pink pool, played on the swingset, changed Alivia's baby's diapers more than 100 times, and went to the park. The sprinkler park is now open, so Alivia is looking forward to going there when the weather warms a bit more. Topher took her up there to look on Sunday, but it was just too cool to go play. Today we went to Iowa for the Memorial Day service and then the annual family picnic. I would post new pictures, but I left the camera in Iowa! What will I do without my camera all week! Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa are coming on Friday to babysit, so I will get it back then. Alivia can not stop talking about all the fun she has on the farm. Chris is looking nonseriously, I think anyway, at land to build a house on. What would Alivia do without being able to go to gymnastics?

I finally signed up Alivia for Swimtastic swimming lessons. We will see how she does. It is an independent swimming class with just 4 kids maximum in her class. She went to gymnastics alone, and she thinks she is ready for swimming alone. For the price of these lessons, we have high hopes. She begins in 2 weeks, so we will keep you posted.

So, tomorrow is back to the daily grind. Nothing like being thrown into the fire, either. My boss will greet me at my breakfast appointment at 8:30. Okay, what was I thinking making a breakfast appointment the day after a Holiday (the boss coming is completely out of my control)? So, it will be a big rush to get the girls up, dressed and at daycare early so I can rush to pick up my breakfast and get there in time. My hands hurt just typing that out. Thank goodness I have that SUPER WOMAN cape stashed away for just the occasion.

With that said...Happy Summer! Our family has a busy month of June planned with something every weekend, I think. Then, in July, Addison will be turning 1 with her big birthday bash on July 15th. I am sure there will be more Austin excitement up our sleeves as we make our way through summer.

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Going Private...kind of

Okay, those of you on vox know that when you post a message, vox shows other users that just posted updates. One from a person named Stace, I don't know why, caught my attention. Scary, this woman had pictures/videos of her daughters stolen and placed on someone else's blog as their own pictures! Creepy! So, I will continue to keep most of our posts public, but I will no longer post the pictures to the public. That is way too disturbing for me. Sorry, if you want to see updated pictures you will have to sign up to vox and I will add you to our neighborhood (which is an easy process). I hope everyone understands and keeps visiting anyway.

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Happy 3rd Birthday, Alivia!

Oh, what a 3rd birthday it was, too. Alivia woke to fresh chocolate donuts...her favorite but an extremely rare treat. She opened her presents: A Barbie big wheel that she will have to grow into, a wooden bake set, and Dora colorforms. She was mostly excited about the donut and told me, "Mommy, now that was a good donut!" After checking out her presents, we packed up for our trip to the zoo. It was a nice day to be at the zoo. It was busy as it usually is for our annual birthday trip. Alivia noted "there are a lot of kids here," to Grandma Bet when we called her while at the zoo. Alivia was actually afraid at first, which was weird considering we were just at the zoo 6 weeks ago and she was fine. She soon got over that. We visited the aquarium, bears, elephants, tigers, monkeys, gorillas, rhinos, and the giraffes just to name a few. Alivia liked the sharks best, as she thanked God for the "Sharkies" in her prayers tonight. We brought a picnic lunch from Little King. We stayed just a bit longer after lunch then made our way to Zestos for icecream. Alivia had her first chocolate shake and Addison helped eat my cone. Yummy.

Alivia came home and played until heading to bed. After thanking us for her birthday, she went right to sleep. What a sweetheart!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Alivia! Thanks for 3 great years (and many more fun years to come!).

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It's Time to Celebrate...

Alivia turns 3!

...Alivia's 3rd Birthday! On Sunday we had Alivia's 3rd Birthday party with a few family. We try to keep the parties to close family that she knows well. Alivia had a lot of fun this year. Her cousin Lucas came, so she had fun playing with him. She needed help blowing out those 3 candles on her Dora cake (she asked for a Dora cake with Dora presents :) ), but she had no problem opening her presents. She has been enjoying playing with some of those tonight.

On Friday, her actual 3rd birthday, she will open her presents from Chris and I, and then it is off to a day at the zoo. She is really excited about that.

 

Alivia's 3rd Birthday Dora Cake

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The Cost of Living...

Seriously, Chris and I are finding out how much our cost of living is going up lately. Perhaps it is the cost of living in our house! The first of May started with the installation of the fence. We love it and would do it agian in a heartbeat. It was needed! Next came carpet. We have rather yucky carpet throughout the dining room and upstairs (we replaced the family room carpet last year and the basement carpet is new). So, it had to be replaced. Chris and I are dragging our feet to call the store to set up the installation. Why? We have to move all of our furniture, take down the beds, move dressers, clear closets, etc, etc. I, for one, just am not interested. Oh, and to top things off, our computer crashed last week. Chris had a hard drive just for me to save my pictures on. Luckily, I load them every month at Shutterfly, but, I lost most of them from our computer. Needless to say, I am quite upset about this. Chris is always telling me to back them up on a CD, but I am admittedly too dumb to do that. I will learn when this new Dell arrives. Now, don't anyone tell me that Dell produces bad computers because it is too late - it is on its way.  After 2 crashes in 2 years, this one better last longer. That is all I am saying. So, this is the final warning for Microsoft and then we are going to Mac.

So, now you know what I mean when the our cost of living seems to be on the rise THIS MONTH. Oh, and to top it off, I have never seen gas prices so high! Seriously!

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Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! We went to Chris' parents home last night to wish his Mom a Happy Mother's Day. Today we are making the trip to Iowa to wish my Mom the same (and Grandma's too). We are looking forward to a relaxing day on the farm. Alivia, having spent the night there this week while I was out of town, is excited to get to play with Grandma's toys, playset, and Tiper, their cat.

Happy Mother's Day!

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Addison turns 10 months old!

Addison has changed a lot over the last month. She has advanced into a big girl by eating mostly table foods. I still give her a baby food with DHA in it at every meal, though, and she has yet to refuse. As she turned 10 months, she started to spit food out. Hopefully that was just a fluke.

She is cruising really well now. However, to get from point A to point B, she drops to her nears and crawls like a rocket. Her favorite thing to chase is Piper, our cat. (He is a household favorite). She has also been known to crawl to Mommy or Daddy and crawl up our leg to hint that she wants to be held. She got her first pair of shoes so she can get around outside and in stores without stepping it something with her barefeet. We had to buy cradle shoes with a traction because her little feet are too small for cruisers or first walkers! These ought to last a good month!

Happy 10 months Addison. Check out the girls' lastest pictures taken on her 10h month (5/12/07) at http://www.capturetoday.photosite.com/Album152/. They are mostly Alivia's 3 year pictures.

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All fenced in

All fenced In...

Well, we did it! After living in our home for nearly 7 years, we finally had a fence installed. Oh, we have our privacy back somewhat too! Our yard was turning into the neighborhood playground (which Alivia loved), but Chris and I got frustrated by being the neighborhood babysitters. It is SOOOOO nice now to go out to our yard. We were not sure we would like it, but we would do it sooner (like last summer when we had a new baby, a 2 year old, and a neighborhood full of kids to look after).

As for this weekend...it is the garage sale. I know we say this every year, but this year is the last year. We are giving up a lot of stuff to clear our spaces a bit. What does not get sold goes to Good Will.

Next week is a busy week. I leave Monday night for Denver leaving Chris with the girls. I am totally dreading it. I hate leaving the girls. Chris will have fun, though. :)

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