Sunday, May 31, 2009...church, etc.

Today I took L to church while D rehearsed his thesis presentation for later in the afternoon. She cried when I dropped her off but they said she calmed down fast. She made a "stainglass" cross and wanted to show me how she held it up to the window when I got her after church. Then she heard the worship music for second service and wanted to dance so we stayed for that as well. She was SO cute.

D's thesis presentation went well and he's really excited that he's almost done. Now they just have to present their thesis to the next thesis class on Wednesday night and then he's done. I'm so proud of him! Two & an half years!

Saturday, May 30th: Drive Home.

L didn’t do as well on the drive home as she did on the way out. She must have been more tired. We got up a little after 5am so we could finish packing up the car (I had done most of it the night before, but still needed to do the cooler, pack-n-play, etc.) and make lunches, etc. Well when I went in to get L up a little before 6am, she was already awake sitting in her pack-n-play and she handed my Lucy’s (her bear) hair bows and said “bow.” I think she had her sleep sac off too so she’d obviously been up awhile. I don’t know if we woke her up or the people next to us since they woke us up at 5am. Anyhow, we got out of there a little after 6am.

We stopped for more breakfast around 7:30am at McDonalds in Clinton, MO. Then the next time we stopped was for lunch in Junction City, Kansas. We had totally forgot that we packed our lunches until after D got Wendy’s and D found me a Baskin Robbins off his GPS (we don’t have those in CO). I think we stopped about an hour later at a rest stop to let L out to run around and we used the rest rooms. We decided we’d eat dinner at a rest stop and have our “lunch.”

L was obviously cranky and tired even before lunch but more so after. I kept saying, just cry it out, b/c I thought if she actually cried maybe she’d fall asleep. Anyhow, she finally fell asleep for a whole 45/50 minutes and then woke up crying. She had a few pretzels and then got more and more quite and finally fell asleep again. When we stopped at a rest stop for me to pee, she woke up but she had slept about 45/50 minutes again. She was fine for the rest of the trip. D ate his sandwich in the car and we ended up not being able to let her out at the rest stop b/c it was raining. It rained SO hard for sections of CO…it was unreal. We made it home in 13 hours, which is supposed to be the straight drive time so I guess driving 5mph over the whole way made up for the 4 stops. We were able to go to Costco and get gas on the way home. My car did great….29 mpg. :)

Friday, May 29th: Branson Landing/Silver Dollar City…

K & D had gotten a deal on 2-day tickets to Silver Dollar City so K decided that the boys should go back and see the caverns that we had missed the day before and ride so more rides…so they did. K & I took the girls to Branson Landing’s Build-A-Bear to get bears for the girls (we had a coupon & had never been before). It took them forever to pick one out, even when I only gave L two choices, since they only had two allergy-friendly choices, a bear and a dog. We ended up getting the girls the same bear. L named her bear Lucy and S named her bear Sally (well, really, I named the bears but the girls were ok w/the names so they stuck).

Then we walked all the way through the Landing by the lake and back before heading back to the timeshare for lunch. It was the first “warm” day since we’d been there. The boys got back during naptime and I mean naptime b/c both L & I were sleeping. I was wiped! D was also tired and took a nap too.

When the girls woke up, we decided to head over to the pool since it was the first “warm” day we’d really had. D & I had taken L to the pool one other day, but S hadn’t been. The girls had fun in the kiddy pool together although K, D, & D all thought the pool was too cold! The girls played w/the beach balls and their “king-dom” (diving rings we had got them…S apparently said it was her “matching kingdom” b/c it was pink & her dress was pink and of course L called it whatever S called it). I, of course, was laying out trying to catch some rays! :D

That night we decided to do leftovers since it was easier and we all had packing to do. It was fun trying to remember how I had gotten everything just so into my car. Then we had to say our goodbyes since it was going to be an early morning! :(

Thursday, May 28th: Silver Dollar City & the park/creek

Today was our big outing day. We went to Silver Dollar City w/K, D, & S and D’s dad (grandpa D) & stepmom (Mimi). We had fun, despite me & K being totally cold. It wasn’t that cold of a day, but we were dressed for hot weather. If we had been in jeans, I’m sure it would have been fine. It was overcast and, at the end, a bit drizzly/raining. We took the kids over to the kiddy rides first and discovered that S was tall enough for all of them, but L could only ride two of them. Turns out, that wouldn’t be a problem, since L wasn’t interested in riding them. She watched S & her daddy ride the Dumbo ride and said “L-what!” the whole time. Then she watched S & K ride the frog ride (at 6’4” D was too tall) and finally decided she’d ride the bug ride, but when D tried to put her in it, she cried. So off I went w/S b/c I thought she might ride it w/me. We put the girls in the front together and I sat behind them. She was expressionless the whole ride and didn’t ask to go again so I’m not sure how much she liked it. I think she was only okay b/c S sat next to her (they require the parent to sit behind the child). I got jolted around b/c S kept pressing the button to make us go up, but wouldn’t keep holding it so we’d jolt up and come right back down. I’d have to lean forward to press the button & hold it down so we’d go all the way up. Who knew going in circles over and over and over again on a KIDDY ride could make your tummy slightly queasy. Truth be told, I was glad L didn’t want to go on any more. After that, I put L in the Ergo on my back while D, grandpa & mimi went on a spin and puke ride together. The parents wanted to watch a bluegrass show so we all went to the “opera house” and saw Dailey & Vincent. The girls loved it and lasted all the way until the last song. It was slow & a cappella and you could hear the girls so the fathers rushed them out. After that, D & I switched back and forth who stayed w/L and who went on rides. K always stayed w/S b/c she’s all jacked up. K watched both girls so D & I could ride one ride together. I always waited extra for the front row. We had a ton of fun riding the rides and I couldn’t believe we were going on them w/his parents! K&D&S left around 2pm to put S down for her nap. After D’s ordeal putting L down last night, we decided against a nap for L so that she’d sleep tonight. We watched some more bluegrass and L danced. We also saw some goats, chickens, rooster, & bunnies. Then we went w/grandpa & mimi to eat lunch (they ate…I got dessert) and L danced to more bluegrass. That girl LOVES her bluegrass. You'll have to see the videos!

After we said our goodbyes, we headed back to the timeshare before heading back out w/K, D, & S for dinner at McFarlains. I wanted some of their chicken fried steak (yum!).

After dinner, we headed to the big park and let the girls play on the play structure before throwing rocks into the creek. I also took some pics and had K try to get a family shot of us (L wasn’t being that cooperative).

Wednesday, May 27th: Lunch at Parents

L told me this morning that at “pool night” there were “balls” in the pool (yesterday afternoon we went to the pool and they had balls you could play with in the pool). It’s amazing what she remembers now. She’s also still calling D “daddy Dave” occasionally throughout the day from yesterday.

This morning we did a pancake breakfast hosted by us in our timeshare. It was fun having the Gs over and everyone hanging out and eating a good breakfast. Then we hung out until it was time to leave for D’s dad’s house. It took about an half hour to get there since it’s out in the boon-docks on the lake. We bbqed and visited before heading back for the girls naps. Mimi even got L a tinkerbell doll for her birthday.

K & I went shopping during the girls naps. Then tonight D made his tortellini alfredo w/sausage. My favorite part of today was a half mile walk to and from the playground and taking pictures along the stream. After we put the girls to bed, K & I watched In Town. :)

Here’s D’s version of his evening w/L: I put her down at our usual time and sat in the living room to read my book. L was crying and stuff but eventually she stopped that and I just heard her talking to her self every now and then. All of a sudden I heard the door knob of the bedroom start to rattle. I definitely had a “wtf” moment so I got up and noticed that the light was on in the room. I opened the door and there was L straddling her crib (pack-n-play). That’s right…she got up on her crib and was playing with the door knob. I turned off the light and told her to go to bed. A little while later she did the same thing. This time I put her sleep sack on (I hadn’t put it on before) and put her back to bed. A little while later I heard her call for me and her voice sounded very loud. I walked to her room and she had taken off her sleep sack, climbed up her crib and opened the door. I was a little frustrated at this time because there was no place to move the crib to get her away from the door. I put her back down, turned off the light and closed the door. At this time K called to tell me that her DVD player was acting up and to bring her mine. As I left the room I noticed that the light was on again in her room so I quickly dropped off the DVD player, came back to our place, went into L’s room and unplugged the light. Now she couldn’t turn it on or off. I told her to go to bed and this time she said “OK” curled up and I put her blanket on and she went to sleep. Don’t know why she did that all of a sudden but it was welcomed (it was two hours after I had put her to bed).

Tuesday, May 26th: Park & Pool

Before naptime, we went out to the state park on the lake and had the kiddos play on the playground (which we were happy was mostly age appropriate) and then walked along the lake a little. On the way home, we stopped by College of the Ozarks and saw the chapel.

Since it was finally not raining, after L’s nap, we took her to the kiddy pool. I laid out by the pool in hot & sticky weather while D stood in the kiddy pool w/L b/c he said it was too cold to sit in. Even L didn’t really splash around or anything but chased big balls around.

Monday: May 25th: the dam road, the dam visitor center, etc.:

This morning we kinda slept in again…D got up at 8:30am and took a shower…by the time I got up, it was 9am. We got L up, had breakfast, and got ready for the day. We all piled up into the car and went to the Dewey Short Visitor Center, which is right next to the dam. The girls really liked the stuffed animals & the fish in the aquariums….and running in the rain. It was neat to see where the lake is supposed to be since last year practically everything was under water. Then we ate lunch in the car (raining) and dropped by D’s stepmom’s work to surprise her on the way back.

The biggest event today probably was L getting out of her pack-n-play during naptime. D heard a jiggling noise…then “daddy, daddy, daddy” so D went over and stood by the door to listen. Then he heard Velcro and then he saw the door handle moving w/the jiggling noise. So D opened the door and there was L…standing there smiling. Then she ran right past him out the room. She had climbed out of her pack-n-play. We moved a dresser and moved her pack-n-play into that spot so she couldn’t climb out of the pack-n-play directly onto the bed, but the room is small so there isn’t many options for where to put her pack-n-lay. Then tonight when D was trying to put her down, she put her leg over the side and was sitting straddling the side and leaning again the wall flipping the light switch on and off.

After the girls naps, the girls played while we watched Jon & Kate Plus Eight and made dinner. Then we were leaving & L fell and split open her lip and cut her face so trip cut short (literally we were all out the door when she fell). So we all piled back into our place, got the blood cleaned up, some Tylenol, and were back out the door. We went looking for Baskin Robbins but gave up and ended up at the park. We let the girls run around and then pushed them on the swings for awhile before we went down to the river and threw rocks into the river (and I took pics). It was a perfect break in the rain since on the way back to the car, it started to rain again. Then we got ice cream at the store on the way back. The girls played; we ate & watched more Jon & Kate Plus Eight. We hope they get counseling and figure out their stuff.

Sunday, May 24th…lazy day in Branson:

We slept in until 8:45am…wish I could have slept longer but for some reason I wasn’t sleeping well…had woken up around 4am for awhile and then again around 6:30am when I heard the people below us talking. Anyhow, I got up and took a shower before we got L up around 9:40am. She must have been really tired! It took us awhile to get going (K&D&S came over) and by the time we were ready to leave for the store it was after 11am.

It was fun seeing S again! She’s getting bigger and smarter every time I see her. She talks in full long sentences and was telling me what the colors & shapes were in the box. And now L knows “circle.” The girls liked seeing each other too although L keeps calling her “Cadence.” Apparently all little people are Cadence?? Anyhow, we’re trying to reiterate that S is S. :) The first thing the girls did was want to go out on the balcony. We have a large balcony w/ a view of lots of trees and the river/stream below. The girls jumped & jumped & jumped until we put an end to that…figured the neighbors might not think it was as cute as we did! Then we had to give multiple lessons in sharing L’s keyboard.

We went to the grocery store in town hoping to see D’s dad if he was working. He was & was pleasantly surprised to see us drop in on him. He was able to take his lunch break and we had lunch at the deli in the store with him. L was cute and gave him a hug & kiss right away. It’s been a year since grandpa saw L last so she’s grown quite a bit since then. Then grandpa went back to work & we went up to the big Walmart to get some groceries before heading back to put the girls down for their naps. K & I were going to go shopping at the outlets while the boys watched the girls sleep, but we got over there and the line was huge to get in and the parking lot looked full so we retreated and went to TJ Maxx & Target instead. K wanted to look for running shoes so we accomplished that before checking out Target.

Then we had dinner at K’s (each couple’s in charge of half the dinners) before going down to the Branson Landing to walk around and let the girls run around & get all their energy out. Well they ran around all right but L still came back w/energy to spare even though the parents were exhausted!

Saturday, May 23rd…Drive to MO

Today was the really long drive to MO…14 hours to be exact, which is long enough just by ourselves, but with making extra stops (2) in an attempt to let the munchkin out to run around for a whole 5 minutes, somehow our trip took a whole hour longer than planned (I know 20 minutes of that was waiting for a burger at Dairy Queen in Wakeeney, KS that D just had to have, instead of someplace faster). We listened to all of ABBA Gold and the Mamma Mia soundtrack and when D was sick of it and thought L was too busy whining to notice, he changed the music and immediately L was saying “honey honey” b/c she wanted the Mamma Mia songs back. :) Too funny…or at least I thought it was b/c I like ABBA & don’t mind listening to it a lot, but D, not so much so! :)

Anyhow, we arrived safe at the timeshare a little past 9pm MO time (we left home at 6am). K&D were able to check in ahead of time for us so they met us in front of our place w/the key (they had already put S to bed) and we were able to chat w/K for awhile and have L run around before we put her to bed. She didn’t sleep at all (that’s right…NO sleep) during the car ride and we had woke her up like 2 hours early so she was one tired little girl (along w/her parents!). I think we managed to get to bed around 11pm.

Make a difference...contact your reps & save the adoption tax credit!!!

I urge EVERYONE to contact your US senators & congressman to SUPPORT HR213 to end the sunset (expiration) of the adoption tax credit. go to the link for more info on how to contact your reps (step-by-step & for a sample letter). http://abbafund.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/902help-make-the-federal-adoption-tax-credit-permanent/. [It's expiration is stated in Sec. 901 of the Economic Growth & Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.] PLEASE do it NOW!!!

5/17/09...weekend update...

Saturday morning we went to lifegroup. We're excited about a study our group is about to start... www.tangiblekingdom.com/the-primer/. It's a little crazy just trying to share about our lives and pray w/all the kids running around, but we're hoping to be able to do this one as couples and possibly discuss in group. Hopefully, as couples, we'll actually be able to get it done since the days are really short & we don't have other studies to do during the summer.

In the afternoon, D met w/his thesis group. He stayed up 'til 12:30 the last two nights working on it, but this was the last meeting before his final presentation so he's almost done. His last day of his other class was last wednesday. I'm so proud of him. Two and a half years!

This morning we had a kind of lazy first half of the morning hanging out together. Then D had to mow the lawn (his least fav thing) and I tried to straighten up the house and do some laundry. I was able to do an hour and a half of errands while L took her nap...which would have taken longer I'm sure if I had to take L with me.

Tonight, D's uncle Dale & aunt Candy came over for dinner. We BBQed burgers and got to catch up a little bit. We always have fun w/them :) Oh, and they brought gifts for L....some outfits and a L-sized plastic white chair for outside, adorned w/stickers spelling L's name. L really liked it but didn't want to have to use it outside. I took some pics but they were all on Candy's camera. Anyhow, this weekend flew by way too fast!

5/14&15/09...walks & playgroup...

pics from thursday walk & friday's playgroup at the park. She's SO stinkin' cute!!

5/12/09...vacuuming & pigtails...

We're trying out side pigtails for the first time today. She LOVES to vacuum and while it's very cute, she really can't help that much and it takes me twice as long when I have to fight her for it and she screams "MINE!!" and "L-dee do it!" She tried to watch daddy from inside (she cried outside when he turned the mower on & then wanted inside & refused to go outside again) the whole time he was mowing the lawn...so that's all the pics of her looking outside. She also really likes to draw (scribble).

CA TRIP

I'm finally caught up on updating from the CA trip so scroll down and make sure you've seen them all :)

5/7/09...

cute new outfit & leggings


being naughty sitting on the arm of her highchair and then standing on her highchair

5/6/09...another day and another ponytail...

slideshows & updates

Two things:

1) if the slideshows aren't showing on your screen, you can click the "view all images" button below to see them

2) i am slowly updating the CA trip stuff and putting the updates in order so keep scrolling down to see if i've put another day in there.

5/5/09...bows & horseriding

i got her to wear a ponytail and bow!


She likes her "stickers"!


She really didn't want her pic taken w/mommy :(

L riding the "horse-y" that Dale & Candy got her for Christmas.

5/4/09..swim lesson...

L had her first swim lesson of the season today. She lasted 22 of the 30 min. lesson. At first she liked the water as you can see. She jumped up and down in the pool. She tried to blow bubbles but just drank the water. I was watching and taking pictures and she wanted me, but I wasn't dressed to be in the pool. So that was the end of that. We're hoping to get her ready for our trip to MO in 3 weeks. Hopefully she'll do better on Wednesday when it's just me.

Here's the pics I got. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some video sometime.

Does L look like me??

1980: A, me, K


dad, me, Jenn (9.5yrs old)


me w/my pot-belly-bear (which i still have in a box in the basement)


dad & me

5/2/09...CA Trip Day 11....Park & Trip home

Phyllis came by this morning to say goodbye. It was good to see her again. I didn't feel like I got to spend enough time with her this trip, but that's how it goes. She was really busy cleaning out her house to prep for work to be done to mitigate a mold problem. ;(

This morning Amanda & I decided to risk it and have the kids play together again since we wanted to see each other again before I left. We met at the park near mom's house and mom & Phyllis came too. Unfortunately, it was a little on the chilly side, but the girls were still able to play while we rotated who took pictures of who. :) The girls even joined us for a couple pics. I was afraid to push L too much on the swings but she really wanted to be on the swing forever so we just pushed her very lightly. Amanda also got me a treat from one of those hoity-toity cupcake places in Newport Beach...red velvet...that I enjoyed later while sitting at the airport waiting for our plane. :) :) :) Anyhow, it was nice to see everyone one last time before we left.

L was supposed to take a nap before we left but she never did go down so we just gave up and tried to entertain her instead. It was a little difficult to get the last minute packing stuff done w/her unpacking stuff, but we managed.

At the airport, L really enjoyed watching for all the planes and seeing ones takeoff and land. She would yell "airplane" EVERY single time and "truck" (but sounds like a different four letter word) EVERY time she saw one. She was pretty good on the airplane too. We got a kids pack from the stewardess w/a brochure and coloring pencil and L quite enjoyed that, but let's just say those two hours go by VERY SLOW. She LOVED seeing daddy show up to pick us up and we listened to the Elmo cd for the first time that Phyllis had given her on the way home. She said, "Elmo!" right away. I have no idea how she even knew it was Elmo, unless it was from all that PBS that Grammie let her watch in CA. Before we knew it, L was snoozing away in the back seat. It was SO precious. She hasn't fallen asleep in the car in at least a year. Hopefully that will mean she'll sleep on our next trip, but I'm not holding my breath.

5/1/09...CA Trip Day 10...the Pukies :(

Last night we had a hard time getting L to go to sleep...it took forever. I was wondering if she was coming down with something or if it was the tooth that was coming in. Then this morning when I got her up and brought her into my bed, she just laid there with me, which is totally unusual so I'm thinking "ut uh...hope she's not sick." She wouldn't eat breakfast and finally ate some yogurt an hour and an half later. I decided to cancel plans to go to the beach with Amanda and go on a walk with L instead to gauge how well she was feeling. Well, we got two large blocks away from mom's house and L threw up twice. Yuck! So we walked back to mom's and I put her in the bathtub and you would have never known she had been sick. She played and smiled and splashed around. Finally got her out of the tub and she watched a bit of VeggieTales, hung out w/my mom, read some books, played the tambourine and by 12:30 (2.5hrs after pukies) she was downing bowls of cheerios and kix and drinking lots of water. She napped fine and we canceled our dinner plans w/Amanda since I didn't want to expose her or her kids more than they already had been to whatever L had had. Mom, L & I just laid low for the evening and ended up watching some of Mamma Mia b/c L likes the music so much. She even danced around a bit for us, although she froze up when I got out the video camera.