Sunday, October 5, 2008

P is for Pumpkins!


We took the girls to an Outdoor fall store this afternoon to pick out some pumpkins and other fall decorations. The girls had a lot of fun deciding on which ones would get to come home with us and be a part of the front porch fall extravaganza. Hannah really enjoyed her time there and the wagon ride throughout the place. She was crying for "mo' pun-kins" when we left.
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Where's Waldo?

This picture is funny for two reasons. The first is Hannah and the dress she wore to church this morning. This was one of Sydney's dresses and for some reason the dress is size 18-24 months but the hat is 6-12 months. It was never an issue with Sydney because she was not a big fan of hats. Hannah on the other hand, loves hats and insisted on wearing this too little for her hat to church this morning. Secondly, have you found Sydney? She sometimes has a little trouble sharing the spotlight and even though Corey tried to get a picture of Hannah alone... Sydney still somehow managed to get part of herself in the shot.
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Picture of the week



















Corey look this pic this morning before church while the girls were eating breakfast. It's a favorite of mine now so I wanted to share.
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Z is for Zoo!

Friday Sydney had the day out for school so we used the afternoon to take some time off work and take the girls to the zoo. It was a great day to go, it wasn't too crowded, the weather couldn't have been better and because it was so nice all the animals were out too. Hannah loved feeding the giraffes...and Sydney liked it. The raccoons were very excited to see us and we thought it must be because somehow they knew Sydney's soccer team was called the Maroon Raccoons, but we found out that is was almost dinner time when we walked up and they probably thought we were there to bring food. The best part of the day was when we ran into a friend who I grew up with at church who now works at the zoo. She let the girls come right up to the fence of the deer and feed them a whole bag of carrots. We then got to go over to the Mountain Lion cage and Sydney got to pet a Mountain Lion. It was through the fence, she wasn't actually in the cage with them. They would rub up against the fence like a cat does against your leg and Sydney would put her hand right up against the fence to pet it as it walked by. Hannah didn't stick around for that part though. When the girls first got up close to the fence the male and female Mountain Lions had a few words with each other because the didn't want to share the attention. Hannah decided she didn't like that and quickly changed her mind about being that close to a big kitty kitty.
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Sunday, September 28, 2008

A Beautiful Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoon, after church and after naps, we headed out to the new Ruteledge-Wilson Farm. We hadn't been out there before and we were impressed with all the things to do. They have lots of farm animals to look at including two HUGE pigs and some roosters and chickens. Hannah was a fan of all the animals especially the rooster. She started to get a little too close to the fence and I was afraid she might get pecked at and then she and the rooster would no longer be friends, luckily that didn't happen. Sydney was very proud of the frame she made with the fall flowers glued to it. We then headed to the play ground and let the girls run around for a while. The only problem with the afternoon was that I think everyone else in Springfield had the same idea as us and the place was very crowded, we will pick another day and try to go back again hopefully when everyone else doesn't have the same idea.
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Dressin' up in Mommy's shoes

Sydney has already started teaching Hannah the fun of playing dress up. Saturday morning, before they were out of their PJ's, Hannah and Syd decided to walk around in my shoes after breakfast. Considering both pair have a heel, I was impressed with their struts and turns. Lookout catwalk...here they come.
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Monday, September 22, 2008

What a fun weekend!

Saturday morning started with Sydney's soccer game after my run. Aunt Missy was in town so she and Hannah got to watch the game from the sidelines with Grandma and Papa. After the game Corey and Hannah went home for a nap and Sydney and I went to Michael's to make a free jeweled American Girl t-shirt for her American Girl doll. Saturday night was the big event, Sydney and I went to see High School Musical at the Springfield Little Theatre. I'm always impressed with the productions they have there. We really enjoyed ourselves and the show. I think the most memorable part of the show was when a little girl in front of us, probably around 5, farted around an unusually quite time in the show. I think everyone in the balcony heard it. Sydney looked at me and smiled, but we had a good laugh about it when we got in the car after the show.

Sunday after church we went to Grandma and Papa's for lunch before Mis left and after lunch we went down to the dock at the lake to feed the fish. That's always fun, there are these HUGE fish, maybe Carp, and there are so many of them and they are so big and they create a layer of sucking lips across the top of the water that ducks can walk across. It's really pretty weird looking and I do have fear of falling into the water and being sucked to my death.
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Saturday, September 20, 2008

I think the running bug is back.

I'm training for the Bass Pro Half Marathon Nov. 2nd but I must say I'm very behind right now. My heart just hasn't been in it and guess I forgot what I like about it until Saturday morning. After I ran the Chicago Marathon in '05 I didn't do much running after that, a few 5Ks here and there but nothing regular (I did have a baby in there somewhere so I'll use that as part of my excuse). I think the build up and actually running in the Chicago Marathon was so much work and then such a high to finish, I didn't want to go back to the build up of anything again, I didn't think anything could live up to that race. But on Saturday morning I remembered why I like to run. It's such a great reflective time for me. I like using the time to pray and be thankful and just to think. I like the challenge of my mind pushing my body when my body says stop.

I had a God thing moment on Saturday, as I was driving up to the park where I run, I prayed that I would run into Corey. He had a 22 miler that morning getting ready for Chicago and had left over an hour before I did. I was thinking that he could probably use a running partner for a couple miles to take his mind of the distance he had to go and I thought I could use the challenge of running faster than I would by myself. As soon as I started on the course, I looked up and saw him coming right toward me...the timing couldn't have been better. I must say my body is letting me know that I was not prepared to run as fast as I did for the first 2 miles, but you know what they say... No Pain, No Gain.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Oh those special sisterly moments


Hannah just loves to read and be read to. She will pick up a book and start flipping through the pages and makes her voice go up and down like she's reading the most interesting book and then when she gets to the last page she will she "De en". Sydney has always loved to read and be read to as well. It's just amazing how much they learn when the start school and reading is her best and favorite subject so far. I wanted to try to capture one of the times Sydney was reading to her little sister. Hannah sat still long enough for the picture but as you can see from the sub-second video...she turns into Hurricane Hannah rather quickly when she decides reading time is over.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

2nd grade, here she comes...

Here are a few pics of the first day of 2nd grade for Sydney. She was very excited to start back to school again. We were a little sad that all 4 of her close friends from last year were all separated into different classes this year. Maybe they were trying to tell us something. :) Hannah was excited about Sydney's first day of school too.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

On the Eve of the day that changed us all...

I was thinking tonight, as Sydney is doing her homework, 7 years ago tonight, I had put her to bed probably right about this time. She was 6 weeks old to the day. We had moved back to Springfield from St Louis just that weekend, so I'm sure I had spent part of the day unpacking boxes and probably even more time just staring at my newborn baby girl. I went to bed at a decent time that night, because I had an interview the next morning. I woke up before Corey the next day and turned on the Today show while I was getting ready. The first plane had already hit the World Trade Center and they were still trying to make sense of what had happened...a lost commuter plane, a plane with engine trouble...no one could even have comprehended at that point that this was deliberate. I remember sitting there watching the TV when the second plane hit. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and when they slowed down the footage to show that huge airliner flying straight into the other Tower, it's a sight I will never be able to forget. I was consumed for the next week watching only coverage of the terrorist attacks, a lot of the time watching with my newborn daughter in my arms and looking at her wondering what kind of world she would grow up in.

I pray that we will never have another attack like 9/11, I pray for the troops who continue to fight to keep us save and I pray for those who were directly affected by the loss of a friend or loved one on that horrible day. We will never forget.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Another milestone

Sydney turned 7 on July 30th. She had a mask making art party at the Y with friends, grandparents, (excluding Papa, Sydney really caused a problem being born during the week of the fair) even Uncle Travis and Cara got to come and make some masks. The big event happened that evening though, when her good girlfriends from 1st grade got to come over for Sydney's first sleepover. We had pizza, watched the Hannah Montana 3D concert and had peppermint pedicures...and that was just what mom got to participate in. The girls had lots of fun playing in the basement too from the squeals and laughs Corey and I heard upstairs.

What a wonderful little young lady she is growing up to be. Just tonight I came across an assignment she had completed at the beginning of the year during Martin Luther King Jr week at school. The top of the paper reads Dr King had a dream. My dream is... Sydney wrote: I have a dream that evrey wun will be nis to echuther. The end. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all just be nice to each other.
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Sunday, September 7, 2008

Finally! Some vacation pictures...

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Destin this past June. It's hard to believe Sydney missed her very last day of school so we could hit the road and start our vacation and now summer is over and she is already 2 weeks into the 2nd grade. Is it just me or is it the older you get the faster life goes by. The first picture here is the first official picture of vacation. The car and girls were all loaded up and I took this as we were leaving our house. The first line of Sydney's journal she's holding reads, "We are getting set". I wish we had been better about helping her keep that up, but you know how it gets when you're on vacation, too much going on, too much fun and if you do stop to slow down, you'll probably fall asleep, it's hard to find the time to write. She did manage to log our first evening when we stopped in Hattiesburg, MS for the night about Hannah throwing up in the car in Arkansas. Note to self: A full sippy of milk, followed by a 1/2 sippy of chocolate milk, followed by curvy Arkansas roads leads to at least 4 sippy cups worth of curdled milk all over Hannah and her car seat. Luckily that was the worst thing that happened the entire trip so we couldn't complain.


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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Yes! It's an update!

Ok, I realize I have been horrible about keeping this updated and I hate for my first post in months to be picture less but I wanted to post a quick funny story from the other day while it was on my mind.

The other night Corey was carrying Hannah to bed and he took her hair tie out that was holding the top part of her hair out of her eyes right on top of her head. The hair pretty much stayed in place and just fanned out a little bit over her head. Sydney was looking at her while this was going on and said, "Ha! Hannah has 80's hair!". Corey and I both cracked up. How did she even know what 80's hair was, but sure enough that's how I would have described it too if I was picking a decade. Apparently Hannah Montana has been to an 80's party on the show...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Who is this girl?


Do you recognize her? It's Sydney! She had a couple of changes to her appearance this weekend. First the summer cut. Cousin Jenn cut off about 6 inches of hair on Saturday, at Sydney's request. She wanted it to her chin. I think it makes her look older which is very sad for Mom, but it looks so cute on her and she loves it. Plus, no more fighting with horrible tangles after showers and in the morning before school. It will be perfect for summer.


Then Sunday night after we got home from bible study, Corey pulled Sydney's third tooth. The first of the upper front teeth. By the way, Sydney requested Daddy wear the purple glove from the dentist's office. She didn't want to go to bed without pulling it out but as you can see from the video, I think it was a little more "stuck" than she thought. But now she's excited because it's out and the tooth fairy is coming tonight. Although she may be disappointed in the morning, someone at school got a Polly Pocket for their last tooth and Syd's tooth fairy doesn't bring gifts, only a $1 bill...that won't cover a Polly Pocket either.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Happy Easter!






Here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. I think one of my favorites is Hannah with her legs propped up and crossed on her sister's Dora couch. She got up and sat like that all on her own. She just loves that couch. She likes to walk, yes walk finally, into Sydney's room, pull the books off of her bottom shelf and climb up into that couch. I have my good friend Amanda to thank for her adorable dress. You did find the perfect Easter dress for Hannah! Thank you so much! And then my mom found Sydney's matching polka dots when we were all out shopping together with my grandma and aunts.


The Easter Bunny brought both of the girls sunglasses and as you can see they both thought that was very cool.
Hannah has a short attention span for pictures. We like to say that when Hannah is sweet, she is very very sweet and when she is mad, she is very very mad.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Hannah's Makeover




Hannah received a makeover 2 weekends ago! She will no longer answer to "Shaggy Dog". Her bangs were so long and we kept thinking that the longer they get the easier it will be to put her hair back with a little barrett or pony tail. The only problem is Hannah will pull out anything that's in her hair within about 20 minutes regardless of how tight the barrett is (I mean it had to hurt when she was ripping those things out sometimes with stands of hair left in them) and regardless of whether or not her hands were covered in mac and cheese or any other food group that she would then rub all in her hair.

So when I was at my cousin Jenn's salon on Saturday for a haircut we stuck Hannah in the chair first for a mini-makeover. As you can see, she left the curls in the back. :)

God is so good!

I have great news for those who haven't heard! I'm transfering to a department in Springfield with the company I work for sometime in March. I'm so excited that I will no longer have to make the commute from Springfield to Monett everyday with Hannah. I know Hannah will be glad too.

As with several events in my life, God made it so clear that this is exactly what He had planned for me. I would like to share this journey. I originally applied for this positon back in October. I wanted it so bad, I was starting to completly stress myself out about it. On the afternoon when I knew the decision was going to be made and it was down to me and one other person, I was a nervous reck. I didn't know what I was going to do if I didn't get it, but at the same time knew that may be the outcome...it may not be mine this time. I went into the bathroom at work (oh yes, the bathroom) and prayed. I told God that I knew He knew how much I wanted this right now but I also knew that this may not be the plan He has for me. I asked Him to take the burden of me worrying about this job because I couldn't handle it anymore. It is just amazing what God will show you when you just ask Him. I had this picture in my mind of me lifting my hands and another hand reaching down and taking what I was holding in my hands. The hand then came back down and scooped up what was on my shoulders. It was as though God was telling me "I'm going to take all this worry and fear that you just had in your hands to give me but I'm also going to take these worries that you don't even know you have or that you think you can handle but I know you can't." It was an incredible picture, it was overwhelmnig for me. When I got back to my desk, I had a message, the job was not mine this time, but I was okay with that and I was 100% certain that this was part of His plan for me right now.

Fast forward about 3 months to January. I was having a bad week at work and I really didn't think I could take anymore. I had walked down to the cafeteria to bring something back for lunch. On the walk back I was by myself and I prayed. I told God that I know He says He will never give us any more than we can handle and He may think I'm stronger than I feel I am, but this was all I could handle. I told Him I could not take anymore. I knew He had a plan for me but this can't be it. I had not even been at my desk for 5 minutes when I got a note from the supervisor I had interviewed with back in October asking if I was still interested...he had another opening. When I saw that message I immediatly thought, God is good! I knew that this was not a guarantee that I had a new job and I had to go through the interview process again but the fact that God gave me a clear and almost immediate sign that He was by my side. I will never forget it.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Oh the things kids say...

Sydney went to the Kids Night Out at the Y on Friday night. One of the things they got to do was swim. When she got home that night she told me: Mommy I didn't even swim with a life jacket on. All I had was a noodle around my waist and I swam all the way to the deep end. I didn't even drown! Mommy: Great job! I'm so glad you didn't drown! :)

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for a friend in her class at Skate Port. This was her first invite to a party from a friend at school so it was a very exciting time. Skate Port, by the way, hasn't changed in 15 years. Same blue carpet, same white lattice separating the snack bar from everything else, same loony toons characters on the wall of the DJ area, it was like going back in time almost. This was probably only the third time Syd has been skating and bless her heart she has my coordination. She her legs spread about 3 feet wide most of the time and I watched her take a few falls, some that would have probably made her cry had it just been me and her there. When we got in the car to leave after the party, I asked if she had fun. Sydney: YES! I had a lot of fun...except when I fell down real hard.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Too close for comfort

What a night last night! We were hit by storm after storm - 4 all together.

Around 4:45 the sirens went off in Monett and we were all sent downstairs to the vault. It was just before 5 when they said the worst would be in Monett until 5:15 so that's when everyone heading toward Springfield asked to go ahead and leave. They said we could at our own risk. I left to get Hannah at Sandy's, she doesn't have a basement so she had already enacted her tornado plan and taken the kids to a doctor's office a couple of blocks away. I was leaving Monett at 5:08. The sky was as dark as I've ever seen it and the lightening was fierce all around. I was just praying to get home safely. When we got to Aurora, the radio stated a tornado had been spotted in Verona...not even 5 miles behind me. Driving through Marionville, then Billings, then Republic all had their tornado sirens blaring. I hate that sound. When I got to Republic around 5:45 I had 2 different vehicles flash their lights at me. I still don't know if they had seen the tornado and were trying to warn people or what. I knew I would be home at 5:55 and they were calling for the storm to be in Battlefield by 6. Luckily Battlefield missed most of the first storm but the sirens were going off when we pulled in the garage. I've never be so thankful to be home safe...next time I'll stay put. When Corey picked Sydney from school after work they were in the hall - duck and cover.

We spent most of the night in the basement watching for number 2 and then 3 to come through. My cousin Jenn and her husband Robert came by with their doggies to ride it out with us. They left around 9 and by 11:30 we had gone to bed. At 3am I awoke to the sirens again. Corey was already up watching the news. I looked at the radar and it seemed to have already pasted Battlefield at this point so I went to lay back down. Not even five minutes later everything got really calm and the windows started moving to a point that I was sure they were going to burst. I ran back out to the LR and now Battlefield was completely in red on the radar...how could it have changed so quickly. We grabbed both the girls and headed back downstairs. Luckily we had no damage and I think it was just very high straight line winds that we experienced, but that is the closest I ever want to be to a tornado, I really thought it might be the real deal last night.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Sisterly love...



I was going through some Christmas photos from this year and came across a couple I wanted to share. I realized before Hannah was born that having another child was a wonderful blessing. What I didn't know is how much joy I would get from watching Hannah and Sydney together. Sydney is a loving and helpful big sister and Hannah just thinks the world of her big sister. I love watching them play and spend time together. Sisters are a great thing to have in your life. I know I'm lucky to have one...love you Miss.