We love our "Miss K"!

Do any of you women remember being an 11 year old girl? I do, and I remember that I loved babies! If there was a baby around I was asking to hold him or her. Well...we are blessed to have a sweet 11 year old girl living right next door to us, and she loves Alec and Ava, and they love her right back. She comes over just about every day to play with them for about an hour or so (usually in the back yard) around 4:30, just because she wants to. This could not be more perfect for me, because that is when I'm usually trying to cook dinner, and they would be at my feet wanting me to play. I can get laundry and dishes done...IT'S GREAT!!! We love little "Miss K"! She even plays cars with Alec and will pretend to be whatever superhero he dreams up for her. One of the few names that Ava can say clear as a bell is hers....and she yells for her almost every time we go in the back yard! Her mom said that she loves playing with our kids so much that when she gets home from school it's the first thing she wants to do...she said that it's a great motivator to get her to get her homework done! Needless to say, we love our new home and neighborhood, and it really does feel like home.

In the words of my preschooler...

My sweet little Alec, just like most 3 year olds, can say the funniest/cutest things sometimes. I usually forget to write them down, but a few weeks ago I wrote down a few of them, and I just never got around to posting them. So...here you go. Hope they give you a giggle!

*One morning I woke up with a huge zit on my face and Alec crawls up into my lap and started checking it out, and then he said "Mommy...you really need to have a doctor take a look at that!"

*He had been playing outside and ran in saying "There's a big bitey bug out there!"

*He was checking out an Ant bite he had gotten and said "This is one magnificent ant bite!"

*He was looking at a pregnancy magazine and saw a picture of an embryo and said in a super excited voice "Mommy, look...it's a squid!"

*This one was passed along to me by my friend Meredith who I car pool with to preschool: When Meredith was driving Alec and Mary to school one morning Mary was doing some "silly talk" (Alec does the same thing all the time). He said "Mary...use your REAL words!" So she said "Shoe"...he said "Good job Mary, that's a real word!"........ So, he really does listen to me!

Nanny, Poppy and GGPa...

Well, Nanny, Poppy, and GGPa left this morning to head back (with a couple visits along the way) to New Mexico. We had a really great visit with them, and miss them already. Alec and Ava especially love getting spoiled rotten by them :) We love them bunches, and had a great time just hanging out mostly. We didn't do a lot of running around, but I think that's the way they like it. Here are some great pics of them with the kids.

GGPa reading to Ava....she loves books just like her brother! I loved that he was holding her balloon for her while reading the story...too sweet.

Alec can't get enough of his Nanny!

Ava holding Nanny and Poppy's dog Tess.

Is this pic of Ava with GGPa a framer or what!?!

GGPa was consoling Alec who had just gotten a boo boo...he cheered him up real fast!

Ok...the kids LOVED Tess...Alec carried her everywhere, and when he wasn't carrying her Ava was chasing her around the house yelling Tess...Tess!!! Check out the look of pure glee on her face in the background...it's like she could just burst with joy :)

Lights out!!

Well...last night Hurricane Ike came to steal our electricity! We have Eriiks family visiting, so it was fun having them here to visit with during the whole thing. It had been raining and blustery most of the day, but it really started getting wild around 4:00. Alec was supposed to go to a birthday party at 3:30, but needless to say that was not going to happen. Our electricity went out around 4:30 when we were in the middle of watching "We are Marshall" (good movie so far). We decided to play a game of phase 10 while it was still light out, and before we were done with the game we had to start breaking out the candles. My personality does not allow me to just sit around for too long, so when the storm had died down (around 6:30) I ventured out with June (my mother in law) and Alec and Ava who were also getting a little stir crazy. They just wanted to ride with us so they could watch a DVD in the van...spoiled kids...back in my day we didn't have DVD players in vans to keep us entertained during a hurricane!!!! Anyway...we decided that we needed to get some food (the kids had already eaten their gormet dinner of turkey sandwiches). Most of the town was without elecricity, and the few resteraunts that were open were crazy crowded. We waited for well over an hour at Burger King to get some burgers....but at least I had some great conversations with people in line. It was kind of fun actually. After getting the kids to bed we stayed up talking by candelight till 11:00 with Mike, June, and GGPa. Our electricity came back on this morning at about 5:30 AM in time for us to get ready for church. There are many people still without electricity, so we are blessed. I personally enjoyed the whole experience...it added a little excitement to our weekend....and besides, who doesn't love a little candelight party every once in a while.

Ok....so this picture wasn't taken last night, but it's a picture of Eriik and his family anyway! I think this was taken on Wednsday night.

This picture was taken today after Ava's nap. She's standing by one of the many fallen branches. It's a bright, beautiful sunny day today and Ike is but a distant memory!

Fun at the company picnic!

Yesterday during my jewelry party Eriik took the kids to his company picnic. When I joined them around 1:00,they had done just about everything there was to do, and were still having a great time. Alec liked the pony ride so much that he wanted to do that again when I got there. Ava on the other hand was scared to death of the pony's...she practically squeezed my arm off when I took her near them, and screamed to the top of her lungs! She was perfectly content standing on the sidelines for this one. Can you see her pointing in this picture...she was saying "Doggie!!" Just a little confused!

Alec loved the bounce house and the train ride! There were clowns too...the kids weren't overly excited about them. The ice cream was a definite hit for both of them though!

Ava looks like she's singing in this picture :)

Anyway...it was a fun way to spend a Saturday....fun for all!

Ballerina Baby...

I am really enjoying the alone time I get to spend with Ava now. She's such a funny little girl...I love her spunk. This morning we had her 15 month well check and the doctor said that she is in the 65th% in height and only 12th% in weight! The doctor wasn't too concerned, but I need fatten this baby up...she's just sooo busy and isn't that great of an eater. Anyway...today she was in the mood to dance, and wear a colander on her head. Hope you enjoy this video..sorry it turned out so dark!

Back to school...

Well Alec started up preschool again yesterday. He was so excited to get back to it! When I went to wake him up he asked "do I get to go to preschool today". When I told him yes, he giggled with excitement. I had a striped polo shirt laid out for him to wear, but he wanted to wear his gray one....he's really starting to get opinionated about what he wears! I thought it was cute that he cared about what he wore on the first day. It got me thinking though...about someday when he's a teenager and wants to wear his hair in a way that I can't stand or wear clothes that I hate. OK...maybe I'm jumping ahead just a bit...but it's coming. He's growing up...not a baby any more...but he will always be MY baby.