Daughter like Mother

I know it's hard to tell by looking at her, but she really is my daughter. With the dark hair, big brown eyes and her olive tone skin I wouldn't have believed she was mine either if I hadn't delivered her myself. She looks just like her handsome daddy and I am very thankful for that. But if you hang around her for very long you'll quickly find out she acts just like me! She definitely has my personality and my parents just laugh and love to remind me that "the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree!" She has such a zest for life as I like to say it.

As you can see she is already testing out her cosmetology skills. She really wanted to do her own hair that morning, so I thought well let's just see how it goes. Thankfully we were only going to my parents that day. I guess I'll have to give her a couple pointers in the coming years!

Yet another thing that her and I have is our photogenic abilities.....I always have my eyes closed in pictures. So many times I resort to turning off the flash, but then the color of my pictures never turns out right. Maybe I just need a better camera....right ;)'

St. Louis '09

We were so thankful that we could take a family vacation this year. It has been a couple years since we have went on "vacation!" Since we have moved we are now closer to St. Louis and we decided after the craziness calms down we'll talk the girls down there for a long weekend. We were blessed to have my parents and brothers join us for most of the time. We enjoyed a lot of fun things that both the little girls could enjoy and the big boys too!

Being the Cardinal fans that my family is Friday night my parents and brothers spent the evening behind the dugout watching the Cards yet again come away with a victory!

Meanwhile we took the girls to a more kid friendly place....Chuck-e-Cheese! This was their first time there and needless to say they had a blast! Kate quickly learned where to put the tokens!

Saturday we spent at the zoo! It was one of the hotter days this summer, but we got to see maybe a 3/4 of the animals before we had to call it a day. That place is huge! I asked Mackenzie what her favorite thing was and she went back and forth between the train and petting the snake! She is not MY daughter!

Of course there is swimming to be done......what is vacation without lots of swimming!
Sunday we went to a Water Park on the IL side. The boys were giving me a hard time about it, but I think it was a hit. It was a little cloudy, but just perfect and I especially enjoyed the wave pool!

Sunday was Brock's 18th Birthday and he really wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant. We all agreed it was the best one we had been to and they are a favorite with our family. Hope you had a Happy Birthday and thank you for letting us be a part!

Monday it was just our little family as they had to head home and we planned to go to the Magic House Childrens Museum. I remember going there as a little girl and I had actually found my pin from the electrostatic ball where you put your hand on it and your hair stands up before we left to show the girls. They have recently doubled the size of it and the favorite for Mackenzie was the the Jack and the Bean stalk climber that went up 3 stories and the real life town complete with mechanic shop. For some reason this girl is enthralled with vehicles! Kate enjoyed all of the action!
Here is more pics of the vacation!

Since the move

It's been about a month since we have moved and we have been keeping busy. Again slightly late, but better late than never! I promise one of these days I will catch up.

The county fair.....my little brother showed a cow this year and we went to watch. He did very well and got reserve champion steer in his class! This is one of the things that I am just so excited about.....getting to participate in the small family things that we couldn't when we lived so far away. We also had family in town for the weekend and the girls really enjoyed playing with their cousins Molly and Morgan. Somewhere around this time Kate was sick with the hand, foot and mouth thing!!!
The girls loved all the animals....sheep, pigs, big cows, baby calfs, and goats.

The girls are really into sunglasses this summer! Normally Kate has hers on upside down!

The girls are really starting to play "together"......

.....and work together. This summer Mackenzie has started a chore chart. She has been doing so well. Some of the chores she does just because it is what we doing being a part of a family and others she gets a small allowance for. She does pretty well about doing them with a good attitude, but needs a lot of spurring on!

This was Kate's first experience "helping" make cookies. We have gotten on a snickerdoodle kick....yum, yum!

A couple weekends ago Aaron's parents and brothers family came to visit and we went to a local water park. We had so much fun....Mackenzie was even brave enough to go down a water slide with me. She wasn't happy when our tube flipped at the bottom, but we were just so proud that she was brave enough to go in the first place!

Stay tuned for our vacation pics!

Before & After

People have been asking to see pictures of the house so......Welcome to our new home! Now keep in mind a couple things....not everything is done!!! Things still need to be hung on the walls, curtains put up, many projects to be done and furniture to be bought. That seems to be our mission right now.....how hard can it be to find decently priced black living room furniture (coffee tables, china cabinet, end tables) Anyways here are the before and after pics.....it's hard to believe it's the same house and all that was really done was paint and of course changing our "stuff"!

The front.....nothing has changed here yet. I would like to paint the shutters and front door black!

Living room

Before

After

Dining Room

Before

After

Kitchen

Before

After

Master Bedroom

Before

After -remember not done yet!

Mackenzie's Room

Before

After

Kate's Room

Before

After

There are no pics of the bathrooms yet because those have not been touched. That is going to be a slightly bigger project.....remove borders, put texture on the walls and then paint. I'm waiting on my shower curtains to arrive so I can pick the paint colors! Check back for those later.

There you have it folks!

Summer at G&G- Part 2

Part 2 of the time we(mainly the girls) spent at my parents this summer before and during the move. I just wanted to catch up with pictures and the highlights of the summer. So many fun times and memories happen at Grandma and Grandpa's right?

I decided to put Mackenzie is swimming lessons this year. She did very well and got her whole face wet, but we were bribing her to put her WHOLE head under. The last day she might have gotten the courage, but it started storming so they had to get out of the pool.

My parents had gotten Mackenzie this Barbie scooter.... she rode that thing all over and caught on very quickly!

I big thing for both of the girls was the Barbie Jeep! (the Barbie theme again) My Aunt and Uncle had this for their kids and now they are all too big so they let us borrow it until they have grandchildren someday. All we had to do was clean it up and get some new batteries and it is as good as new....Thank you so much! Mackenzie enjoyed washing it all up and now being the chauffeur!

The itsy bitsy teeny weeny pool...I think they are both a little too big!

She loves playing with Grandma's toys....she finally learned how to stack them herself! I don't know if you can see her face, but her facial expressions are so funny! She just makes us laugh!

Mackenzie playing with......you guessed it...Barbies!!! She loves getting out all of my old Barbie stuff, or baby stuff when we are there!

Dressing up! Doesn't she just look like an onry cowboy?

Enjoying Grandma's good cookin!

It was so much fun staying with my parents during our transition. It was good for me as the one thing that I am going to miss most about moving closer to home is not staying the night, or weekend, at my parents house......as much ;) That was one of my big hesitations about moving back.....I either wanted to be right next door or far enough away that I could still stay if we wanted. Mom and Dad again thank you SOO much for all you did while we were there....watching the girls.....we couldn't have done it without you! We are so glad to be close to you!

From There to Here

The Big Move.......and now we are back! Sorry again for the absence...no explanation needed right? Well for the sake of your time and mine this is just going to be a brief update (mostly pics) of the moving process so we can get back to real time.
We got to close on our new house a couple days earlier, which was a huge help since we had a lot of painting to do.....I mean a lot of painting and I wanted to get it done before we moved everything in.

So we laid down the floor coverings, taped, and trimmed......

.....and primed and painted.....and painted....and painted. We had so much help.....Aaron would come home from work and start working again.... my mom and sister came several times and even one of my best friends from college came to help. Tara thanks so much for coming to visit....and help. We got most of it done I mean 3 bedrooms, hallway, laundry room and the dining/living room. All that was left to do was the kitchen...which I was still trying to find the perfect color of green and the stairwell to the basement....which needed special equipment to reach. The bathrooms were not on the list as they need a lot of work, so we don't count that yet. (Check back in a later post for before and afters pics.....you won't want to miss it!)

We did take a break and have a night out. It was so much fun.....I hadn't been "out" in so long. All the "kids" meaning my brothers, sister, Tara and my 2 cousins all went out for $1 lip night.....no wait......half price appetizers.....no wait..... just $2 off appetizers and martinis!!!

Yes Brock, Dustin and Aaron did plan to match....well sort of. It was a joke.....I told Brock on the phone to make sure Aaron changed into something nice and it first started out as coincidence that Brock and Dustin had the same color shirt on so Aaron thought it would be funny to join in. Us girls arrived at Martinis first and when they walked in we just cracked up!!! Andrew tell the guys to give you a call next time!

Tuesday morning the truck arrived......

and they packed and packed....one of the guys was really sick, so he only joined in when he could.

The house was turning into a pile of boxes. We offered to help, but they just told us to relax!!!! Aaron did pitch in quite a bit!

Thursday afternoon the last box came out of the house!

Have you ever wondered what your house would look like in a semi trailer?

My parents had kept the girls for us and it was so nice....almost like a vacation. It was so nice to get to spend some more time with friends before we officially left town! Thursday night we headed back then bright and early on Friday the unloading began!

My mom came to help kick off the organizing process.......she is wise in this department....I guess it comes with experience! Thank you mom!

The last box in the new house!

The crew!

We just want to thank everyone that helped us in this process. Most of all my parents who kept the girls a lot for us while we painted, did house stuff and while we were away packing up.....and everything else you helped with along the way. We could not have done it without you.....we love you so much! Several other babysitters......painting, and moving are not little kid activities, so thank you again! My sister and her husband for helping us paint, rip off wallpaper and mowing our yard. Tara for coming out to help paint.....what a great friend! Our realtors.....If anyone needs a realtor in either town, we know some good ones! Last but not least the moving guys......wow that is the way to go!