They match!

Michael and Noelle brought Kendall an early birthday present to small group tonight! It was some super cute clothes: a pink shirt and a purple shirt because those are her favorite colors and some black tights that have a black tu-tu attached! She wanted to put them on right away - she loved the tu-tu and tights. I had to get some pictures. Noelle was wearing tights tonight, too, so I took their picture together. Kendall started twirling and told Noelle she should twirl, too. :)

Noelle bent down to get on Kendall's level so I could take their picture, and she put her hands on her knees. Kendall immediately did the same thing - so funny!

Most days we drive past Noelle's school - she teaches at the intermediate school - and Kendall says, "There's Noelle's school! She's my favorite." :)

She was acting pretty sassy, so Randy told her to do what Kiki taught her. I got a video of her - she is so funny and cute!

Ella's Birthday at the Animal Park!

Saturday we celebrated Ella's birthday at the Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin. It was so much fun! It was our first time to be able to go there and we will definitely be going back. We took tons of pictures, but it was just so great!

There were so many different kinds of animals there. Here is an alligator in one of the alligator ponds.

And a really cute zebra!

There was a petting zoo area...which totally grosses me out...but Randy and Kendall went in together. Check out this pig!

A baby giraffe! I think I heard them say that it is a year old.

Ethan petting a baby goat.

Interesting cows or bulls or something.

We really wanted to saw em off!

Sitting on the tram, waiting to start the ride! It was about an hour long and so great! We really got up close and personal with lots of animals and even got to feed them! Kendall had a great time with her friends. The Mitterlings were there, the Beams, Jan, Jeff, Amy, Chelsea, and of course the Sanders.

Cooper rode in the wrap on me and fell asleep pretty quick into the ride.

Kendall started out sitting next to Sarah, but then she moved next to Randy before the tram started. They're so cute!

Amy had a great time feeding the llamas and ilpacas. They kept running next to the tram trying to eat her food!

More giraffes! So pretty.

Zebras!

When it was all over, we got to celebrate Ella's birthday by eating cupcakes and opening presents. Kendall loved singing happy birthday to her friend!

Big two year old!

Kendall was so excited to give Ella the card we picked out for her - she is very into Elmo, so Kendall found a singing Elmo card for her! She had to show her how it worked. We got Ella some princess panties because she is potty trained now! Way to go Ella!

Holly and I had to get a picture of our matching shirts. We didn't know we had the same shirt and we just happened to both wear it Saturday! Yea for $3 Target shirts! :)

We had such a fun time at the park and Kendall is still talking about it! Thanks for letting us celebrate your birthday with you, Ella bell! We love you!!

She Loves to Sing!

"Doe, a Deer." Randy and Kendall sing this together sometimes before bed. We also just taught her how to say "thank you" and greet someone like a Cambodian. She is stinking cute.



"Twinkle, Twinkle." She has always said "krinkle krinkle." Until today. But I acted sad and so when we taped her doing this she actually said "krinkle krinkle" first.



And finally, here she is spelling her name again. She does great on Kendall, and she can spell Dane when she sees it, but when she says it from memory she still says "Daen." We love it anyway!!

Pajama Day!

Today was pajama day at school! Kendall was excited to get to wear her pj's to school, and to get to bring her pillow, blanket, and baby!

Posing before we left for school...

When we got to school, we met up with Sarah because Kendall had her bunny slippers and Sarah wanted to wear them. Last night we had dinner over at the Mitterling's and gave the girls a bath together. When they got out, they wanted to wear each other's pajamas, so they wore them home, slept in them, and then wore them to school! They thought that was pretty fun.

Caleb has started going to Wee Place now, too! We got a picture of all three kids saying, "Cheeeeese!!"

I went a little early to pick Kendall up so I could see her with her friends in their pjs. This is what she was doing when I walked in the door...

She was wearing a tu-tu (because she is constantly playing dress-up, wherever she is). She also wore her shoes that her Daddy brought her from Singapore, except she thinks they are from Cambodia. She was telling all her teachers, "My Daddy bringed me these shoes from Cambodia!"

Hugging her friend Jillian!

And posing with Conner. She really likes this guy!

Where does she come from? I think she is her daddy, made over. So funny!

Bedtime!

I am going to do a post soon about our daily routine, just for me and for Kendall's book so that I can remember what our life was like at this stage. But, Randy took these pictures the other night at bedtime and I thought they were so cute, so I thought I would write about our night-time routine.
We usually start getting ready for bed around 8 or so. Kendall takes a bath probably every other night, so if she needs a bath, we do that first. Then we put on her pajamas - she gets to pick - and her pull-up (so ready to be done with those!). Then she gets to pick two books to take to bed with us: one for either Randy or me to read to her and one for her to read to her babies once we leave. We get in bed with her and read her book, then we pray and sing a song. Sometimes if Cooper isn't in bed yet she will come and lay next to Kendall - they both think that's pretty fun! Then we turn off the lamp (she has a nightlight that stays on) and cover her up and walk to the door. Lately we've been blowing kisses to each other from the bed and the door - she blows one to me and I catch it and put it in my pocket and then I blow one to her and she catches it and puts it under the covers with her. I love these times with her and love that sometimes Cooper gets to be a part of bedtime, too!

Pinkalicious

This girl LOVES pink! And she also loves to play. She plays so well on her own - she's so imaginative and creative. We love to see what she comes up with. Dressing up is of course her favorite, and this is the outfit she came out with the other day. She had on her pajamas, she put her pink tu-tu on, her "fishing" hat, her pink socks and her pink dress-up shoes. Check out our fashion diva. :)

Kendall Says...

Kendall says the funniest things. We love to hear what comes out of her mouth and every night Randy and I go to bed laughing about something funny she has said that day. I wanted to write a few of them down so I don't forget, and because pretty soon she will be turning three and I want these to be recorded in her two year old book.

Kendall says...

..."peenie honies" for jalapenos. As in "My Daddy gets peenie honies out of his garden and I like to keep two or three little cute ones in a safe drawer in my room."

..."see ya ow mig ee os!" for "adios amigos!" Randy says this all the time, as well as Michael and Noelle, and one day Kendall just spit that out all on her own. She says "Adios amigos" now, but just a few months ago, that was how it came out.

..."Inc the Monster" for Monsters, Inc. This is one of her most-watched movies these days. She has learned the name of the green monster, Mike, but she thinks the name of the big blue monster, Sully, is really "Inc the Monster."

..."Mom, I pretty love you." This melts my heart. I think she is meaning to say "I pretty much love you" because we tell her that all the time. Or, she will say, "Dad, I so love you!"

..."K-E-N-D-A-L-L" She is spelling her name really well, and she is working on Dane. Last time I asked her to spell Dane for me, I got "D-A-E-N!" She can also start Cooper. A lot of times it is "C-O-P-R!"

..."Mom, Conner loved on me at school today." Conner is her friend and they love each other so much. I asked her how Conner loved on her and she said, "Him tickled me."

..."Thank you!" She is so polite and thankful. She says thank you all by herself a lot, and we love that!

..."her" for she. Like, "Her shared her doll with me!"

..."Krinkle krinkle" for Twinkle twinkle, as in "Krinkle, krinkle, little star!" I'm sure if we corrected her she would start saying it right, but we really just think it's too cute. :)

After school last week, we had a conversation about baptism. For chapel that day, Mrs. Wendy had taught them about baptism and shown them the baptistry at their church. Kendall said, "Mom, Mrs. Wendy baptize." I said, "Oh yea? What did you learn about baptism?" She said, "My Daddy baptize. And my mommy baptize." We talked about how she has seen Randy do baptisms, in pools and at the beach. And I told her that I have not baptized anyone, but that I WAS baptized when I was a little girl. She said, "And I be baptized?" I told her that one day when she decides to follow Jesus and become a Christian, she will be baptized so that everyone will know. Then she said, "And everyone will clap and be happy?" I said, "YES! We will be so happy!" And then I tried not to cry. :)

And finally, a story about our resourceful girl: Last week when Randy was out of town, Kendall was in her room playing with her "play-dough that Walerie gave me." I was in our bedroom doing something and I heard her high heels walk into the kitchen, open and close a drawer, and walk back to her room. I didn't really think anything of it, but then she came clip-clopping into my bedroom. She had her ball of play-dough with her and she said, "Mom, will you make it flat? I tried a cup, but it didn't work." I said, "Did you go get a cup out of the kitchen to try and roll it out?" She said, "Yes. My Daddy doos that." I thought that was so smart of her to try and solve her problem by herself! Instead of just yelling out, "Mom! I need help!" She thought of a way to do it herself and then came to me when that didn't work! So resourceful.

I'm sure there are tons more stories but I can't think of any more right now. She is just so precious and we love her a ton!

Cousins!

We were able to get some pictures of all four girls together! It's not an easy task...with nap schedules, four busy girls, and an almost three year old that doesn't like to take pictures sometimes, it's hard to get them all smiling! But we did it! I think these are some pretty cute cousins.

Not real sure what Kendall is doing here, but I think she was holding on to Evy's ear to try and keep her sitting up. Sorry about that, Ev!

K-E-N-D-A-L-L!

Kendall is spelling her name now! I was able to get it on video on Christmas at my Dad's. She messes up a little, but she does it perfectly all the time! We are working on Cooper now and on Dane. When she sees our names written, she can point to each letter and say it. Then we ask her what it says and she knows! So smart. :)

Christmas night at Gigi and Peeps'

Our final Christmas celebration was at Gigi and Peeps' house on Christmas night. Val, Jeff, Evy and Gracie were also there, as well as Mamaw, Papaw, and Grandma Dane. Kendall was tired, but she took a nap and was ready to roll again that evening!

Cooper got to meet Mamaw and Papaw at Thanksgiving, but I didn't get a picture of them together. Here they are!

This is where Cooper hung out while we opened presents. She got a bear blanket from Gigi and Peeps with her name on it!

I got my first pair of Toms! So excited.

Randy got a new A&M shirt. He was very excited, even though you can't really tell here.

Kendall and Gracie got matching pink boots!! They love each other.

They also both got suitcases, or "soup cases" as Kendall calls them. She has loved pulling her's around!

Wow! What a diva. Here she is in one of her new outfits and her boots, standing next to her new baby carrier.

I told the girls to "stand like this" and stuck my arm out, trying to get them to put their arms around each other. They both did this, thinking that I just meant that they should stick their arms out. So funny!

Being a ballerina...or "vonorena" as she says.

She also got another tent! This one is a princess tent that can sit on top of your bed and has elastic straps that tuck under the mattress. Gracie and her loved playing in it!

Somehow I ended up with no pictures of the girls with Gigi and Peeps! We had a great time though! We love yall!! Thanks for all your thoughtful gifts!