Random

Just a few miscellaneous pictures without a story...

Expressions

First some photos...

I turned away for just a minute and looked back to see Lesley reading a book to Leah.

Leah was just watching and listening so intently.

A few snapshots from a recent visit to Little Monkey Bizness. We were talking about a possible trip there the night before, and Lesley got very excited. We didn't realize that she even knew what we were talking about. The next morning, she kept saying "monkey biz" over and over again until we got there. She has a great memory these days!

Grandma was helping with some potty training.

Reading books with Aunt Aimee

Lilly is quite the talker. She is always cracking us up with her expressions. Lesley's vocabulary has also increased a LOT lately. Almost every day, we look at each other and say, "did you hear that?"

Here are some of my favorite expressions we've heard from the girls lately:

Recently while we were at church with Grandma and Pop-pop, they were looking at an elk magazine together. Lesley's favorite of course. Pop-pop thought it would be a good idea to teach the girls what a buffalo was. So, he pointed to one and said "buffalo". Lilly quickly repeated, however it didn't come out quite as Pop-pop had planned. "Butt-hole". Oops. At least the whole congregation didn't hear her.

Lilly has 4 (or maybe it's 5) dogs at her house. That's what happens when your mommy is a vet who is soft-hearted and an animal lover. At some point, she picked up on how to call a dog. You know, patting your leg and saying "come". She has perfected the pat when "calling" people. "Grandma. Come here. Now". And, she doesn't just pat her leg, she now pats her belly when requesting someone to join her. She is so serious about it too and will get upset if you don't listen.

We went to Cabelas last weekend after enjoying a nice brunch. Grandma was showing the girls all the animals which they LOVE. Grandpa says it's better than the zoo since you can get so close to all the animals. Anyway, they happened across a caribou that was dead. Yes, all the animals are dead at Cabelas except the fish but this one was actually displayed laying down, the victim of a wolf. Lesley told Grandma that he was "sleeping". Lilly pipes up and says, "Daddy shoot. Dead. Kaboom." What!? I think her daddy has some explaining to do. Lesley didn't understand and followed up by saying "owie". I'm not ready to explain that we actually eat her beloved elk from time to time. I have no idea how I am going to approach that topic.

One of Lesley's latest expressions that I love is "Oh man". She says it at the perfect time and really means it. So funny!

Also while at Cabelas, we happened across a young boy, probably 7-8 years old who was wearing a KU shirt. Lesley walked right up to him, poked him in the belly, and said "Jayhawk." Daddy needs to teach her some manners now.

Lilly also has a lot of cats and a miniature donkey at her house. One of the cats is Furby, but when she says his name it's "Turby". Love it! The donkey is Pedro and Lilly does a great "hee-haw" impersonation.

I like telling Lilly that it's cold. She quickly says "Brrr....", crosses her arms, and rocks from side to side.

Lesley likes to push her shopping cart around, or drive her car around the kitchen. If you end up in her way, she will say "Beep Beep Mommy".



One day while we were at Grandma and Pop-pop's in Iowa around Christmas, Leah was being a bit fussy and crying. I was rocking her to try and calm her down. Lilly walked up to us and said, "Leah, don't be crabby. Stop crying." Do you think she's heard that a time or two?

Another favorite Lilly story happened on our way back to Avoca from Uncle Mike and Aunt Aimee's house. The girls were riding in Grandma's truck with Grandma, Uncle Andy, and Pop-pop who was driving. It was pretty late so the girls were getting sleepy. Grandma was taking roll call at one point. "Lesley, are you asleep?" "No." "Andy, are you asleep?" "No." "Lilly, are you asleep?" "No." There was a small break and then from the back seat Lilly says, "Pop-pop, are you sleeping?" I guess she thought Grandma left him out. "No Lilly, I'm driving the truck." :)

Love these girls!

One Year Ago Today

We found out we were pregnant with Baby C, now known as Leah Kathryn. What a great day!

Um, do you see how young Lesley is in these photos? We were so thankful to know that she had about 9 months to get older before the new baby would arrive. I'm not going to lie, as happy as we were to find out we were pregnant, we were also scared to death about adding another baby to the family. Thankfully things have worked out nicely and we are so, so happy Leah is here.

Yet another proud daddy moment!

And now we have this sweet little girl.

What a different father/daughter photo we have today.

Cheese! This girl either needs to leave her bows, pigtails, barrettes, whatever in her hair or she needs a haircut. I cannot stand the hair in her face much longer.

Mama loves her girls! (And, Leah is still not so sure about her pacifier.)

Milestone

Lesley was showing off her rolling skills to Grandma Nancy and Pop-pop this weekend. Just yesterday she rolled from her belly to her back. Another first!

Winter be gone

You are probably wondering why we haven't posted any pictures of us playing in the snow. Well, the short answer is that Lesley doesn't really like the snow so much. Could have something to do with the following video....



This video was taken the day after Christmas while we were hanging out at Aunt Aimee, Uncle Mike, and Lilly's house. She survived and wasn't all that upset actually. But, she really dislikes snow now. In the mornings, she has to walk from the car to Chris's house since Mommy has to carry the carseat with Leah and the bottles. With the snow falls we've seen lately, she has had to walk in the snow a time or two. Oh boy, she does not like that very much. "Snow, shoe, yuck!" That expression is typically accompanied by her shaking her leg trying to get the snow off. Poor thing, she is like her mama and would prefer staying in the warm house.

Lesley and her mama are both hoping for warmer weather soon!

Discovery

Aunt Aimee, Uncle Mike, and Lilly and Grandma and Pop-pop were in town this weekend. We found a fantastic museum with all sorts of fun for the girls (and even the grown ups)! It's one of the museums I had driven past a million times (only 15 minutes from the house) and never really knew what was inside. I am so glad my co-worker recommended it to us. It was free and provided over an hour of entertainment for the girls. We would have stayed even longer, but it was lunch time. I highly recommend checking this place out if you are in Shawnee. The exhibit was Kidscape and it is at the Johnson County Museum.

There are lots of photos because there were so many things to see and do for these little ladies.

It's time to get dressed and head to the museum.

Lilly was prepping the stove while Lesley swept the floor. Time to cook breakfast!

Lilly churned some butter.

Lesley was cooking the corn (for breakfast!?) and Lilly made the bacon and eggs.

Let's eat!

We probably should have gathered the eggs before we made breakfast. Oops!
Side note: We went through the museum backwards since we had a stroller and the first part required stairs whereas starting at the end did not.

You can see part of the actual museum behind the girls. There were a handful of kids activities throughout. We didn't really get to enjoy the adult exhibit because we were busy with the kids, but I think it would be neat to read about Johnson County through the years. Jason discovered that houses in Johnson County ranged from $9,000-12,000 in 1954. If only that was still the case!

There were some cute, perfect sized dresses for the girls at the radio/music exhibit.

Lilly loved the symbols! You can see Lesley playing with the "radio" behind her.

Farmer girls.

Time to pick some corn.

And feed the cow...

Then milk the cow. Lilly was seriously a pro, Lesley was trying to figure it all out.

She was better at running the cash register than the farmer activities.

The daddies were in charge of Leah, who like so many of our outings slept the entire time. So, of course it made sense for the daddies to play a round of bowling on the Wii.

Strike!

Performing a very important surgery in the hospital.

Doctor Aimee checking out the anatomy of the patient.

The train/car room. I thought she would spend more time here since she loves trains, but there was so much else to see she just wandered in here a few times.

Making sure the babies were okay.

I think this is a hidden secret for parents. 1. It is free and 2. There were so many things to do. I didn't even take photos of the theater where kids could dress up and perform on a stage, the "bookstore" which was basically a little library, the golf and fishing pond area, and the arts & crafts room where the girls made bracelets out of beads and could color, glue, and cut things. We had to drag the girls away from a few of the exhibits because they were having so much fun. Plus, there were only a handful of other kids around which was fantastic. I think we will be visiting here many times in the future. They will appreciate some of the areas even more as they get older.

Hurry Pop-pop

You are missing out on all the fun...we are practicing our hunting skills and we need your help Pop-pop!!!

These moose have pink fluffy noses. How cute.

A, B, C

Lesley has been working on her A, B, C's. She's not very good. Yet. But we keep practicing. So far she knows the letters "E" and "I". She has gotten really good at her puzzle from Uncle Andy and likes to put it together herself. When we ask if she wants to say her A, B, C's...it goes something like this A, B, B, A, B, A, etc.


Funny story from yesterday. She brought her dolly to me and said, "Eat. Milk." So I asked Lesley, "do you need to feed your baby?" She promptly said Yes, lifted her shirt, and held the baby against her chest. Someone has been watching Mommy feed Leah! I quickly grabbed a baby bottle and showed her how to feed her baby milk with a bottle. Now she insists on a bottle for her baby to drink milk, just like Leah drinks from a bottle at Chris's during the day.

Stripes!!

Lesley's new mini train set is a hit. This seemed like a good alternative to a train table and taking up even more room in the living room than her toys already do. Thanks Grandma Nancy for helping us pick it out!


I couldn't get her to look at the camera. She was too focused on the cow and the horse in the train cars.


The following is what happens when Daddy is in charge of dressing Lesley...


At least he got the stripes together...too bad the colors don't quite synch up. Lesley doesn't seem to care.

Giggles

She was giggling even more before the camera came out. But I hope you get the picture how our littlest girl was having fun the other day.

Faster and faster

These pictures are long overdue...but still worth posting. I hope you enjoy!

Cookies and Milk for Santa

Santa was good to Lesley this year.

She loves playing music, so a nice plastic clarinet was the perfect stocking stuffer.

Hurry up Daddy!

Going to see Santa on Christmas Eve at 4pm...nothing like waiting till the last minute! But the nice thing was there was NO line.

Always enjoys the fish at Bass Pro or Cabelas.

Using Granny's phone on Christmas Eve

A beautiful cardinal outside Grandma Nancy's window

Sneaking up on the birds...

Quality time with Daddy and Leah

Reading books with Pop-pop and Lilly on Christmas Eve

Kawasaki tricycles from Pop-pop (of course!)

The best attempt at a family photo...ugh!

What's in my stocking Uncle Mike?

I'll freeze for a second, but only for a piece of chocolate.

My new fridge stereo is a hit!

Cheese!

Swapping boots again

Another haircut...this time a sucker did the trick to keep her sitting still.

Rub a dub dub, two little ladies in the tub

Looks like trouble (Pop-pop thought the girls needed these camo pants)

January 16, 2011

Dear Lesley-

Time just keeps going faster and faster! (I'm late AGAIN with my update.) Twenty two months...next time I write you a letter, it will say 2 years. Then, I'll start referring to your age in years instead of months. What a big girl you have become over the past months. So many changes, and so much fun.

The biggest change I've seen is speaking skills. Although still not great, we are hearing more and more words every day and lots of new 2-3 word phrases. You haven't caught up with Lilly yet, she speaks in paragraphs, but you have made a lot of progress. We are getting better at deciphering your language and that makes communicating so much better for us. Daddy's favorite new word is "Jayhawk". You can't get enough of the Jayhawks these days, just like Daddy I guess. You point and point and say "Jayhawk" louder and louder until we acknowledge, "yes Lesley, that's a Jayhawk."

You continue to be a great, loving big sister. I told you the other day that Leah is your little sister and now you run around calling her "My sister." Before that, you used to say "My Leah." I think you love her a lot....always wanting to give her hugs and kisses, and feed her plastic chicken. :) And, I think Leah loves you just as much as you love her. She always gives you big smiles when you stop by to say "hi." I think a great friendship is already in the works!

Christmas was so much fun this year. You really got into opening presents. Good thing Mommy & Daddy don't care if you helped them, and Leah doesn't know any different at this point. So, you had a lot of gifts to unwrap. A little spoiled actually. We celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. So, we put milk and cookies out the night before. The next morning you were shocked that the milk and cookies were gone, and you were so excited about your gifts. All day you talked about the milk and cookies. And, whenever someone asked about Santa, you immediately would tell them "nilk" and "cookie". We also got to spend a lot of time with Lilly, and Gramma and Pop-pop over the holidays. It was much needed for both you and me to see them.

One of your favorite things this past month is snuggling on the couch with Daddy. You always need your "billow" and you want "up" -- translated pillow and covered up. "Nigh nigh" is also one of your favorite expressions and you often pretend you are going nigh nigh. Anywhere from the couch, to the bathtub to underneath the kitchen rug. Silly girl.

Books have also become a favorite for you. We read a lot of books and we practice our letters, colors, and counting. "Eight" is your favorite number, yellow is your favorite color, and "E" is your favorite letter. If we ask you what color something is, you ALWAYS say yellow. When we say "no, that's not yellow", you then say it's "pink". Someday you'll get those darn colors figured out! Uncle Andy got you an alphabet puzzle for Christmas and you are very good at it. You always look for the "E" first and then move on to the other letters. It amazes me how fast you are getting at putting it together.

Your favorite (and Mommy's favorite too!) gift from Christmas is your new kitchen set. We love getting groceries and then cooking chicken, corn, and pizza. So much fun! I was hoping it would keep you occupied while Mommy is cooking, but no luck. You constantly push one of the chairs over to the counter and climb up trying to help me cook. Some days that works better than other days, but I'm certain that some day you'll be a great sous chef for Mommy.

You still love going "botty" (potty). We aren't really potty training yet, but we don't discourage when you want to use the potty which is a daily thing. You even take your diaper off frequently now. That's not so funny, but we are dealing with it the best we can. Chris has you use her potty a lot while you are at her house. The chocolate covered marshmallows are fantastic treats. You love them! It almost seems like we should just focus and get this potty training thing done with. But so many people say "she's too young and her mind/body can't be ready." We'll see. Perhaps the next time we have a long weekend, we'll see what we can do to make it a permanent fix and stop buying those size 4 diapers.

I'm kind of disappointed on the photos we have from the past few months. It's so much more difficult to get pictures now that we have to man on man defense with you and your sister. No extra hands for the camera! And, when we do try to get shots you won't sit still for even a second. Mommy didn't send Christmas cards this year because there were NO GOOD family photos. I then thought, no problem, we'll send a New Year's card...but still no decent pictures. Maybe we'll send Valentine's cards?

Time keeps going faster and faster. But don't worry, no matter how old you get or how big you get, we will love you till the end of time.

Love,
Mama