Kendall

Big day!

2012-01-31T13:08:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day for us - Kendall got her library card! She loves to go to the library after school on Tuesdays. Cooper and her enjoy picking out books, doing puppet shows, working puzzles, and picking movies. She was pretty pumped today when I asked her if she wanted to get her own card!

She is already taking very good care of it. :)

We're still counting down to her birthday...4 days left until she is 4 on the 4th!

Only one more week!

2012-01-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

Is it really true

that in just one week

this precious girl

will no longer

be three???!!!

We are less than a week away from Kendall's 4th birthday...4 on the 4th! We can't believe how big she is getting and how much she has been changing, even just over the past few weeks. She's very excited about her "rainbow unicorn" party, and even more excited that her Daddy told her that when she turns four she can take dance classes! We are excited about her being four, too, but are ready to soak up one more week of her being three!

Gergie in Brazil!

2012-01-27T21:49:00.000-08:00

I've written before about our friend (brother-in-law-in-law?) Greg Johnson who is serving as a Journeyman in Brazil in a community on the Amazon. He was back in the big city of Manaus, and Jan, Kevin, Alden, and Scott were able to fly down and spend the week with him! They have been having a great time and we have enjoyed seeing all their pictures.

While they were out of town, we told Jeff we wanted to have him over for dinner. He wasn't able to go on the trip because he coaches basketball at the high school. When he came over he told us that Greg was planning to get on Skype so that we would all be able to talk to him! Kendall was super excited about this. She loves Greg (Gergie) so much and still talks about him all the time. He has been in Brazil for months. In fact, just yesterday morning, we were driving to school and she said, "Mom, every day after we have center time we have prayer time and today I'm going to say that we should pray for Gergie." I love her sweet heart and I love that she remembers things like that!

So she was very excited to get to talk to him and see him! He was so sweet to listen to all her stories and watch her bring lots of stuff to the computer to show him. He even told her some stories about animals he has seen and about telling people about Jesus!

Cooper was able to see him, too. And Kendall brought her princess puppet out to show him. Before Jan left, she had Kendall record a video on Randy's phone and then we texted it to her so that she could show Greg. She did a puppet show for him. :)

We love that Jeff shared his Skype time with us and that we were able to talk to Greg and hear some of his amazing stories!

Puppet Show!

2012-01-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

We have lots of puppet shows going on these days! I'm loving watching her stories get better and better. She is so funny. This one is where the princess asks her mom for candy after lunch and then the "knight in charming armor" does the same thing. Love how she changes her voice for him! Enjoy!

Time for a haircut

2012-01-20T15:44:00.000-08:00

We took Kendall today to get her hair cut! She was very excited to go back to Snip-Its, where she gets a sucker, animal crackers, and a surprise when it's all finished. She loves getting haircuts!

All finished! We had some layers put in it, hoping to bring out her curls even more. She was most excited to get gold spray glitter in her hair! And now I'm still wearing it all over my clothes...that stuff goes everywhere!

Beautiful!

Getting Outside!

2012-01-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

The weather was so great yesterday that the girls and I were able to spend some time outside playing after their naps! They were both very excited to get outside to play - I think they are ready for spring!

Kendall was so sweet, pushing Cooper in the car and playing with her. She's such a sweet big sister!

Cooper's new thing she is doing this week is running to give hugs! She loves to hug and it is so cute - she runs to us with her arms out...best thing ever!

After we played on the driveway for awhile, we moved to the backyard to play in the house and on the swingset.

Happy girls! Thankful for nice weather!

January so far

2012-01-10T12:44:00.001-08:00

We've been back home for a week now and we haven't really been doing a whole lot! Christmas decorations got put away, the house has been cleaned, and we have found a home for all the wonderful Christmas presents we were given! Kendall had school last week on Tuesday and Thursday, but she has had a cough with a low fever the past two days so she didn't go to school today. We've played with all our new Christmas toys, cleaned house, watched movies, and today I went through the girls' closets. It's been a nice, relaxing January so far!

Cooper and Kendall got these Hello Kitty bags in their stockings at Kiki and Pops'. Cooper's favorite thing to do these days is fill up one of the bags with important toys and carry it around on her shoulder. It's so cute and makes her look so big!

I went away Friday to Saturday with the rest of the staff wives from our church! We got to go to Houston, stay in a nice hotel, shop, and eat and we had a blast. Randy and the girls had fun at home. Saturday was a nice day, so he got the new princess table and chairs out that Gigi and Peeps got the girls for their playhouse. This was the picture I got on my phone (they're inside the playhouse).

Yesterday Cooper was playing in her room while Randy and I were in the kitchen. I peeked in and noticed her sitting on her bear rug reading. She went through each page and then got up, went to her shelf, got another book, came back to the rug and sat down again. So cute!

Organizing our bathroom cabinet the other night while the girls were taking a bath, I found this duck robe for Cooper! It's so precious - when I took her in to Randy to show him and have him take her picture, we told her to say cheese but before she could do that, she had to drag her chair over so she could sit in it. She cracks us up!

Holly, Aaron, Ethan, and Ella moved into their new house in Galveston while we were in New Mexico. We were sad to not be there when they were moving, but we got out to see them as soon as we could last week. Thursday night we drove there for dinner and then walked down to the sea wall so Ethan and Kendall could do a little fishing. I know the picture isn't great, but we are standing on the sea wall, looking at the ocean. We miss them being right around the corner, but so far we've been able to see them a lot!

Sorry these were all pictures from Randy's phone. I haven't used my camera once since we've been home! I finally feel all caught up on blogging, though. Now it's time to get ready for Kendall's 4th birthday! It's coming up so soon!! I hope you're having as great a 2012 so far as we are!

Cousin Pictures!

2012-01-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

When we were in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving, Val and Jeff brought Gracie and Evy over to my Dad and Lisa's house for a little cousins photo session. We wanted to give Mike and Anita nice canvas picture of all four girls together, but we wanted to surprise them. My dad is great at taking pictures and has a nice camera, so he gladly said he would do it!

We got a lot of great pictures, but ended up using this first one. The canvas turned out great and Randy's parents loved it!

I wanted to put some of the pictures we didn't use on the blog, because there were so many cute ones!

This is the picture we used on our Christmas card.

I love this "W" tree in their yard! We took lots of pictures on it, but there was always someone not looking. :)

Val brought suckers to use as ~~bribery~~ motivation while we were taking pictures. It worked! The girls were all so patient and did a great job!

I love these four cousins!

Graduation Party!

2012-01-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

So, Sunday night when we got in from New Mexico, I thought we were going to my Dad and Lisa's to eat dinner with them. We got there and I was totally surprised to find all of my family there, too!! Randy had planned a surprise graduation party for me and I had no idea at all. So much fun!

My mom and David, Dad and Lisa, Mike and Anita, Granny, Grandma and Grandpa, aunt Christie, aunt Donna, Alden and Scott, Maegan, and Val and Jeff and the girls were all there. It was so wonderful to have everyone together and I was very surprised. I finished my Masters in Educational Administration in December and Randy wanted to find a way to celebrate. It was perfect!

We had lots of great food, watched the football game, and I even had cards and presents to open! I am very thankful for all our family, but one thing I am so thankful for is that we can do things like this where we are all together and are able to have fun! I don't take that for granted for sure!!

Kendall, Gracie, Evy, and Cooper had fun getting to play together some more. Gracie loves to give Cooper sweet hugs!

Alden, Mom and me. I love these two!

I am so thankful for my supportive family and especially my supportive husband! The past 18 months have been crazy with schoolwork non-stop and I couldn't have finished without his encouragement. I love my family!

Ski Trip to Angel Fire, NM!

2012-01-08T15:57:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year my mom and David took us all to Angel Fire, New Mexico! It has been almost ten years since I've been skiing, and I was super excited to get back out on the slopes! Also, Randy has only been skiing once and never with me, so that was exciting too. We were pumped about getting to take the girls to the snow. I collected snow stuff for all of us and Kendall kept getting more and more excited. We left early in the morning on the 26th and made it all the way to Angel Fire in one day! I figured we would have to stop halfway and spend the night in a hotel beause I didn't think the girls would be able to be in the car that long, but they did so great! Even after making the drive up from Lake Jackson just two days before, they were great car-riders and we were thankful to be able to have an extra day of skiing that we hadn't planned on.

Tuesday morning before we went to get our gear and get on the mountain, we dressed the girls up and played out in the snow for awhile. Kendall was great at making snow angels!

So cute in her snow gear! She's wearing Michael Pickering's Aggie hat here. Love it!

There was a great sledding hill right at our front door. Alden sled with Kendall a few times!

Cooper didn't really enjoy putting on the snow gear too much! We dressed her up completely, bibs, coat and all, and she just cried. We took her outside for a little bit, but she must preferred to just play in the house..and on the stairs a bunch!

Mom stayed at the house with the girls on Tuesday and Wednesday while we all went skiing. I picked it right back up ten years and two babies later and it was so much fun! I was sad at first because Kendall was too young for ski school. They start at 4 and she is still 3 for another month. I did keep seeing parents skiing with their kids though, even younger than Kendall, and wondered if maybe she would ski with me. Our house was right on one of the runs (totally ski-in, ski-out - so nice!) and she had watched us ski off one morning and said she wanted to do that. By the end of the second day I thought it might be worth trying getting her some skis for the last day. We asked her if she wanted to ski and she said yes! So that night we went down to the ski shop and had her fitted!
David's daughter and son-in-law Angie and Matt went with us with their two sons, Dylan and Logan. The boys had been in ski school for two days and were getting ready to go skiing with their mom and dad for the third day. Kendall loved playing with them so much on the trip and was excited to be getting to ski like them!

Such a big girl!

Thursday morning we started about halfway down the run with Kendall. The plan was to let her ski down the run to the bottom of the mountain, and then if she didn't like it, David was going to pick her up and take her back to the house. I got a little worried when we got started - she was all ready to go but then when we got ready, she started getting scared and saying she didn't want to. We got her skiis on her, though, and got started...and she loved it!! I skiied with her right between my legs and she just giggled and lauged - so much fun! Randy skiied next to us and she just thought it was the most fun thing. We got to the bottom of the mountain and she said she wanted to ski some more!

I was so nervous about taking her on the lift. The workers there do this all the time, though, and they were ready for her! We got her up to where the seat was, they picked her up and sat her on the chair! She was a little scared at first as we started going higher and higher, but she ended up being able to enjoy it! Randy and I, however, just kept thinking and praying about the end of the lift...getting off..the hardest part! I wasn't sure how it would go, but I called out to the workers again to give them a heads up, they got her off the seat, told us to get off ourselves, and then just pushed her to us! She did so great!! After that, she said she wanted to do the "ride" again.

We skiied on down the run until we got to where our house was. She did so great skiing with me and we never got tangled up or fell down. I was worn out! A few times, Randy would get ahead of us and I would let Kendall ski to him by herself. She loved that and kept asking to "ski to Daddy!" By the time we got to our house, it was lunchtime and we were ready for a break. She stayed in after that and took a great nap! I'm just so thankful she was able to try it and that she has good memories of it so she will want to try again in the future!

Randy was able to take a lot of videos while we were skiing - I'll put those here at the bottom. She is such a good skiier!!

We were able to spend Friday at the house just us - everyone else left Friday morning. We rested and played games and watched movies. We got ready slowly on Saturday morning and then left around lunch, during halftime of the Aggie bowl game. That afternoon we drove to Amarillo and spent the night in a hotel there. Sunday morning we finished the drive on into Ft. Worth. The girls really did so well in the car and we had such a great vacation!

Thanks, Mom and David for a wonderful trip! It was great to be able to ski again and share that with our family. Seeing Kendall ski was one of the best things either of us have ever seen - love it! We loved our time together as a family and then as just our family on the weekend. Such a wondeful getaway!

Christmas with Gigi and Peeps

2012-01-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon we went to Gigi and Peeps' house for Christmas with them and Val and Jeff! Kendall was very excited about seeing Gracie and Evy...and about getting to open more presents! She was even so thoughtful as to help Cooper open her presents.

One of Kendall's most favorite presents was her unicorn! This girl loves unicorns, so her Aunt Val got her one of her very own. She loves it!

Peeps read some books to Kendall while she played with one of Cooper's new toys.

The present we got for Gigi and Peeps was a canvas picture of all four girls. Val and Jeff had brought the girls over to my Dad's and Lisa's while we were here for Thanksgiving and he took some pictures of all four girls so we could surprise Mike and Anita. They loved it! It's not very often that we get all four girls looking in the same direction! :)

Mamaw and Papaw came to have dinner with us and watch everyone open presents.

One of Kendall's and Gracie's favorite presents were nightgowns from the Disney store. They had to put them on for dinner and they looked so beautiful.

Sweet cousins! They love each other so much! I didn't end up with many pictures at all of Cooper and Evy, but they had fun playing together and ~~stealing~~ passing toys back and forth. So many little girls running around!

Gigi and Peeps, we loved celebrating Christmas with you! Thanks for all our presents and for a wonderful Christmas dinner. We love yall!

Christmas with Kiki and Pops

2012-01-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

Late Saturday night we left Granny and Papas' and went to spend the night at Kiki's and Pops' house. The girls were very excited to see them, but they were also excited about the surprise Kiki had for them...she had turned the closet under their stairs into a Secret Playroom for Kendall and Cooper! Kendall couldn't wait to see it!

There is a little table and chairs in there for them to work on, a pallet to have pretend sleep-overs, doll furniture, and a chalkboard on the wall to draw on. So much fun!

Sunday morning was very laid back and restful. We all slept late, then the girls got up and we slowly got ready for the day. My Granny came over for presents and lunch and even brought Oscar with her! Alden and Scott came after church. Maegan and Donna were there, too! We had so much fun opening way too many presents!

Kendall and Cooper got a puppet theater from Kiki and Pops with puppets to go with it! Kendall was so excited and we have already been enjoying lots of awesome puppet shows!

Maegan passed out all the presents and Cooper had fun opening them!

The girls even got Tiny Toms from Kiki and Pops! They are so precious and I love them!

I love this picture of Granny and Kendall!

Family picture before lunch! Dad even figured out the timer so he could be in it, too! :)

Lunch was great and the table was beautiful! We loved being with everyone and are so thankful for all our wonderful presents. We are so spoiled! Love you, Kiki and Pops!!

Christmas with Granny and Papas

2012-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday we loaded up the van and drove to Ft. Worth. Our first stop was Granny's and Papas' house! After they went to the Christmas Eve service at their church, our whole family on that side met at their house for dessert and presents! We were leaving on Monday to go skiing with them for Christmas, and that was our big present. We had so much fun! The girls still had a few presents to open though and we all had stockings! Here is Kendall opening her first present from them...

...a snow hat with mittens! It's so cute and she loves it so much - so much that she slept in it that night! I need to get that picture from Randy off his phone. She was cracking us up!

Kendall and Auggie!

My Grandma and Grandpa, Kendall and Cooper's Great Grandma and Grandpa, went on a trip to Alaska this year. They brought the girls back Alaskan dolls and a book for Cooper and this hand puppet for Kendall! So thoughtful!

Here is Cooper opening her snow hat from Granny and Papas...super cute, but she wouldn't let us put it on for a picture!

Kendall helped Granny open her present from us!

And Cooper loved her stocking! This girl loves snacks and treats!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with Granny and Papas, but it wasn't over! We spent the following week skiing in New Mexico and enjoyed spending so much time together. We love you guys! Thank you so much!!

Christmas Morning!

2012-01-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was so much fun at our house this year! Santa came and the girls were so excited to see what he brought. Kendall only wanted a princess Barbie, so she got Rapunzel, and Cooper got a LeapFrog dog that is programmed with her name and favorite things! And all of us had full stockings.

Kendall started by helping Cooper open the present she got her. It was a mini pillow pet! Kendall was so excited about getting that for her, because she loves hers so much!

Cooper also got Kendall's old Pottery Barn chair recovered with a new cover and her name! It's so cute and she loves sitting in it.

Cooper is obsessed with toothbrushes these days. She found one in her stocking and held onto it the whole time we opened presents!

She also got a horse to ride on! Hmm...Kendall had one just like this when she was little! :)

Kendall got an Aggie cheerleader outfit!

Cooper also got a baby cradle just like Kendall's. Their great great grandfather made these and Doris, my great Aunt painted them. Kendall has my old one and Doris had another that she gave us for Cooper. I love that they have these!

Randy's favorite present we got Kendall: a US map floor puzzle!

Cooper got puffs in her stocking and she held onto those the whole time, too! Kendall is opening one of Cooper's presents here for her - a board book. I don't think Cooper minds!

All of Kendall's presents!

And all of Cooper's.

Before we got ready to hit the road, Kendall wanted to work her new puzzle...and of course, Randy said yes! She was proud of herself!

We love our time as a family celebrating Christmas! And it is just getting more and more fun as the girls get older. Check back for pictures of Christmas with the grandparents!

Christmas Eve Eve

2012-01-03T14:21:00.000-08:00

...or what Kendall and Cooper know as Christmas Eve. :) Because we leave to go to Ft. Worth on the 24th, we do all our Santa cookie baking, setting out cookies for Santa and all that on the 23rd. Then the girls wake up on the 24th, we open presents, play with all their new toys, and take our time getting ready to leave a little before lunch.

Because the 23rd was on a Friday this year, Randy was off. He told Kendall he would make pancakes for breakfast that morning and she didn't let him forget! She loves to make pancakes with her daddy!

And Cooper loves to eat them!

Before Randy had to go get ready for our Eve Eve services, we started baking our Santa cookies. Kendall and I made the dough earlier from a new recipe I tried, it chilled in the fridge, and then Randy helped her cut them out with the cookie cutters she chose.

She took a bath before her nap while the cookies baked and then she and I decorated them!

She was very serious about it. I think they turned out great!

After church that night, I brought the girls home to get ready for bed. We have four services, and the last one doesn't start until 8:30, so we went to the second one at 6:10, I served in preschool during the 7:20, and then the girls and I came home. We got ready for bed and set out the cookies and milk! I love this picture of the girls! Kendall just looks so big and Cooper went and sat right down because that is what Kendall was doing. She loves her big sister!

Before they went to bed, we stayed up a little and watched one more Christmas movie. I love these girls so much and loved seeing them get excited about Christmas morning!!

Lake Jackson Christmas - Galveston Edition!

2011-12-23T22:50:00.001-08:00

Last night we celebrated Lake Jackson family Christmas at Kevin and Jan's new place in Galveston! We are excited...and sad...that Holly and Aaron are moving to Galveston to replant a church that will be a satellite of Brazos Pointe. Aaron will be lead pastor. Kevin and Jan have sold their house too and moved into a new house to be a part of the new church! The Sanders and Johnsons are a lot of what makes Lake Jackson feel like home to us, so we are sad that they won't be around the corner anymore, but thankful they are just 45 minutes away.

Kevin and Jan are living in a very cool loft on the strand in Galveston. Holly and Aaron have bought a house and close on it right after the new year. So for our Christmas with them this year, we all went to their new loft and had dinner, the kids opened presents, and we had the 2nd annual auction!

Cooper was so sweet opening her present from them. She is going to be so much fun this Christmas! She got a Melissa and Doug 2-block puzzle that when you match the front and back of the animal correctly, it makes the animal's sound.

Kendall was excited, too!

She got a Melissa and Doug magnetic pattern block board! Jan has saved one that was the boys' when they were little, and Kendall has enjoyed playing on it at their house. Now she has her own!

After the kids opened presents, it was time for the auction. This was so fun last year and Kevin and Jan were so generous to do it again! Alden, Scott, Amy, Jeff, Aaron, Holly, and Randy and I each got $100 play money to spend in the auction. There were 8 of us and 16 gifts. We were so excited!

Each gift had a clue, and that was all we had to go on to start the bidding. Some we were able to figure out, but others were harder. It was fun to see what everything was! Randy and I got a Pei-Wei gift card, a Best Buy gift card, and the coveted Taste of Texas gift card (for the second year in a row!). We knew that it was in there somewhere, and I was able to figure out the clue first and bid all the rest of my money. We love Taste of Texas!

And we love the Johnsons for all the fun we had and the awesome gifts!

These four were busy all night..they had a blast exploring the loft! Kendall is going to miss not seeing her buddies almost every day like she's used to!

We had such a fun night and are so thankful for our friends that are like family here in Lake Jackson...and now Galveston! It was a great start to our Christmas festivities!

Ringing the Bell!

2011-12-21T14:17:00.000-08:00

We started a new tradition this year of ringing the Salvation Army bell with the girls! Randy has done it in years past, but just by himself. This year he started (it's a 2 hour slot) and then the girls and I met him up at the mall to "help." Kendall loves the bell ringers. So when she actually got to be the bell ringer she was pretty thrilled.

Cooper even helped! She turned around right as Randy was taking this picture, because she is never still. Never. But she was having so much fun and making lots of friends while she held her bell.

And finally, here are some videos of what I am going to go ahead and say is the best bell ringing in Brazoria County. Maybe even Texas. It's pretty awesome. :)

Emma's Birthday Party

2011-12-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

Most days Kendall comes home from school talking about things her friend Emma and she did together. They have even had their color changed together already. :) She loves Emma, so she was super excited about her birthday party on Saturday! It was a princess party, so Kendall wore her Barbie princess dress. She had so much fun!

She started off by decorating a crown.

Then she went to play tea party and dress-up with Emma. This picture cracks me up. I promise - all I did was say, "Girls, can I take your picture?" And without talking about it, without looking at each other, they both immediately struck this pose. So funny! They are loving themselves in their princess clothes.

One of Emma's two cakes. Her mom made Snow White and Cinderella cakes - so cute!

Snow White even made an appearance and read the friends a story. Kendall loved it.

This is her "I feel so beautiful and lady-like" smile. So grown-up.

Playing a game with Snow White.

Then she took her picture with Emma and Snow White! It really doesn't get much better in Kendall's world. :)

This video makes us laugh. Emma's party was at the Civic Center (her mom said she was not about to have a big party at her house the week before Christmas! Smart!) and Kendall kept saying it was at the "snicka snicker." It cracked us up everytime she would say it. We never did correct her - too cute!

Kendall the Angel

2011-12-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

Kendall's Christmas program and party at school were last Thursday...the day after our crazy Chick-fil-A adventure! We got home around 6am, the girls got baths and went straight to bed a little before 7. I went in to wake Kendall up at 8:30 so she could get to school and it was so hard to wake her up! She took a good nap that afternoon - and so did I!
She has been so excited about her Christmas program though, and I knew she wouldn't want to miss it. She has been coming home each Tuesday and Thursday telling me all about getting to practice on the stage and has been singing the songs randomly throughout the past few weeks. We couldn't wait to see her!
On the way to school that morning, I was telling her that Cooper, Daddy, and I were going to be coming back to watch her sing in her program. She started telling me that she wanted me to come up on the stage with her. Having flashbacks of walking down the aisle with her last weekend when she was a flower girl, I told her no, that we were going to sit in the audience and watch her and take pictures. I wondered what she would do when she saw us from the stage, though.
She did great! All the classes walked in from the back and she was so cute when she saw us. She is just getting so big!

The 4 year olds played the roles of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, wise men, and animals, and the 3s and 2s were the angel choir. We were so surprised she let them put her in a costume and that she wore the halo! So precious!

The sleeves on her dress are a little long, and that morning I asked her if I could roll them up. She told me no - that she likes them that way.

Love that smile! The program was really cute...Counting Down to Christmas. Kendall did a great job singing and doing the motions!

This picture just cracks me up! It's so Kendall.

After the program we went back to her class where they had their book exchange and party. Cooper had fun playing with all the toys.

We didn't even ask her to share with Cooper. I just love it when I catch her doing things like this - she is so good with Cooper most of the time and loves to take care of her. :)

She still calls cupcakes "muffins" these days.

Walking out to the car after the program! I was so worried about her being grumpy and not doing well in the program because she was so sleepy, but she did such a great job! And Cooper had a lot of fun, too.

Here are some videos from the program.

Chick-fil-A Camping!

2011-12-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

We did the most fun thing this week: we camped out at Chick-fil-A!! Kind of crazy...really fun....great memories!

So here's the deal: every time a new Chick-fil-A opens, they put on this big event called the First 100 Event. They let 100 people come and set up tents and camp out at the restaurant so that they can be the first 100 people at the new restaurant. The camp-out starts the morning before the opening at 6am. Once 100 people are on a list, they cut it off. Once you are on the list, you can't leave, or you're out. You have to stay until 6am on the morning of the opening, and if you make it til then, they give each of the 100 people free Chick-fil-A for a year (52 coupons for a number one meal)!

We had heard of this before - Randy's cousin Jeremy and his family did it at an opening in Ft. Worth. They had told us about how much fun it was...how they feed you all day, have a dj, lots of games and activities and just tons of cool things to do. So when we found out our Chick-fil-A was closing and being torn down to be rebuilt bigger, we wondered if they would do the Grand Opening event. We found out a while back that they were and joked about maybe camping out. Well, Thursday was the opening date, and Wednesday morning Chick-fil-A tweeted that they still had 60 spots left! Randy told me to go get the details. The girls and I went up there and found out all the rules. I called Randy and said, "Let's do it!!" He took a half day off work and we started packing up to camp out. So.much.fun!!

We got there around 1:00 and found out they were just in the sixties. We debated driving around for awhile or going ahead and getting on the list. We didn't want to wait too long, but we also wanted to wait as long as we could before being stuck. Eventually we decided to go ahead and set up camp...we didn't want to risk not being in the 100 after loading up the van and Randy taking off work. And the girls were so excited! Kendall has been asking for a long time now to go camping...it doesn't get much better than combining camping and Chick-fil-A!

We were numbers 63 and 64. We set up our tent and Kendall's hippo tent. We put lots of toys in the hippo tent for the girls and set up cots and our stuff in the big tent. You would have thought the girls were at Disney World. They were having so much fun! They kept running back and forth between the two tents, playing on the beds, riding the car and the tricycle, and just laughing and smiling. It was so fun to watch them and made all the work of doing it worth it!

Playing in the tents!

We didn't even try to put Kendall down for a nap, but Cooper started getting sleepy around 4. We put her in the stroller and just made laps around the building! She fell asleep for awhile and got a little thirty minute nap.

I told Randy that I thought I might have been more excited about the actual event than what we would be getting at the end. They really made it very fun. They had a dj, and every hour or so they came out and would have some kind of new activity. One of them was a marshmallow war, and one that Kendall loved was building gingerbread houses!

Totally interesting bit of info: Randy talked to a lot of the other people who were doing this and there were very few locals there. Us, some friends from church next to us, and one other couple from Brazoria. Everyone else we met were from other parts of the state...people actually travel around to these things and do this a lot! We met one lady who this was her 17th opening and one couple who it was their 52nd!! Now those are the real crazies....I mean, we love Chick-fil-A, but that's a lot of free chicken! :)
We had a lot of visitors come see us throughout the evening and night! It was fun to get to see friends and to break up the time hanging out. Laurie and Tony came, and even went to the store and brought Kendall back some fruit snacks...

the Beams and Mitterlings came and all the kids played for awhile....

Ronnie and Cory came and brought Randy some tacos...

the Pickerings came to say hi (and we got a picture with Vicki who was camped out next to us with her girls Dominique and Marissa, friends from church)...

and Gayle and Tamara came by. We had fun seeing everyone! I just can't even explain how much fun Kendall and Cooper were having. They were so cute!

Chick-fil-A fed us lunch, brownies and cheesecake in the afternoon, dinner, and then they had ice cream sundaes at 9:30. Here are Cooper and I waiting to go in for ice cream. :)

Staying up late, getting to see lots of friends, sleeping in a tent, being at Chick-fil-A, and eating ice cream at 9:30...best camping trip ever! :)

We put on a movie to try and wind down around 10:30 and Randy walked Cooper around in the stroller until she fell asleep (it took about 10 minutes!). Kendall fell asleep around 11, so we each had a girl with us on a cot. They slept from about 11-4, but Randy and I didn't get that much sleep. People were up talking, playing 4square, and some of the "pros" started packing up their tents around 3:30. At 5:00 they started getting everyone stirring, packing up, and ready to get in line. We all got in number order in line and they passed out Chick-fil-A shirts and hats. At around 5:45 they started ringing bells and banging pots and pans and we went in the store and got our coupons!

Then we threw everything in the van and got out of the way because the restaurant was open for business at 6! We loaded up, and made it home just in time for the rain to start! I gave both the girls a bath and put them to bed and they were out...it didn't take them long at all to fall asleep!

Our prize! 104 free number ones! :) It was so much fun to be spontaneous, do something different, take Kendall camping, and have fun at Chick-fil-A! Pretty crazy, but that's how we roll!

We were out shopping yesterday around lunch, so we grabbed some coupons and stopped there to eat. We were walking across the parking lot and Kendall said, "Here's where we camped! In the street!" Ha! It will be so fun to hear what she remembers about this. So thankful for my fun family!

Living Nativity

2011-12-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

Tonight the girls and I went to a living nativity at the Episcopal church here in Lake Jackson. It was really neat! They had live animals and it was outside and just fun. It only lasted about 20 minutes, which was great because we were sitting outside and it was cold, but I loved that it was just one more way Kendall could see the story of Christmas reenacted.

Kendall said her favorite parts were seeing Baby Jesus and the angels. There were some little girls playing angels and Kendall thought that was pretty fun. They ran around the shepherds saying "Jesus is born! Jesus is born!"

Loving all the fun activities this Christmas season!

Christmas dresses!

2011-12-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Gigi and Peeps came in town this weekend! We enjoyed seeing them and it was great for them to be here with all the wedding festivities going on. Also, Peeps helped Randy get almost finished with the kitchen! It looks so great!

They also brought the girls some Christmas dresses! They look so pretty and wore them to church this morning. Gigi took some pictures before we left for church.

Peeps had a great idea to get Cooper to sit still...put her in the baby stroller! Genius!
Thanks for coming this weekend Gigi and Peeps! And thanks for the beautiful dresses!

Flower Girl

2011-12-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

Our friends Lauren and Kevin were married yesterday! They were both in our small group and are good friends of ours. We love them so much and were so happy for their big day to be here. They got engaged right before Lauren left to spend this past year working at our orphanage in Cambodia, and she has only been home for 40 days!

While she was oversees, she emailed asking if Kendall would be their flower girl! She has really watched Kendall grow up, because we have led small group since Kendall was 6 months old. This was Kendall's first time to be a flower girl and we were very honored that they asked her.

I have very strong opinions about children in weddings, so Randy and I talked about it a lot before we told Lauren yes. We decided there were several reasons we thought she would do well. First, Randy was marrying Lauren and Kevin! So Kendall would be walking down the aisle looking at Randy - we thought that would help her. Also, they asked Ethan to be the ring-bearer. Our friends Amy and Michael were in the wedding party, so she could stand with them. And finally, the wedding was at the church where her school is. She is familiar with the sanctuary from going to chapel each week, so with all these things combined, we thought it would be a success. And she's almost 4. :)

We took some pictures before the rehearsal Friday night. The girls were wearing some of their Christmas dresses and looked so pretty!

Kendall did a great job at the rehearsal Friday night. She walked next to Ethan down the aisle, stood with Amy during the ceremony practice, then walked back down the aisle with Michael and Ethan. I reminded her several times that night that there would be more people there the next night when we did it for real, but she seemed fine because we knew that we would know most of the people there.

(Love this picture of the girls together! So sweet!)

Saturday I brought my camera to the wedding and when I opened it, realized that I left my memory card in the computer at home! Ahh! I was so sick. So many great picture moments and no camera. Aaron took a family picture for us after the wedding. Hopefully I can get more pictures from Lauren soon, and I'll post those when I get them.

So, here's what happened. Kendall was doing great...waiting in line to walk down the aisle, not seeming nervous at all. Right after the last bridesmaid walked through the doors though, she got scared and turned to me and said she wanted to walk with me. I said, "No, you'll be fine," but she wasn't having it. The wedding coordinator told me to just take the first couple of steps with her and then she would probably be fine. So when they opened the doors, I stepped out with her and Ethan, tried to let go of her hand, but she said, "No! Walk with me Mom!" So I for sure walked down the aisle with her and Ethan. Awesome. I think I was a pretty good flower girl. :)

When Kendall got to Amy, she knew that Amy had something for her in her pocket. I had given Amy some smarties to feed to Kendall once she got down the aisle. So she let go of my hand and stood with Amy...and then stood there the whole time!! I was sitting behind her, so I couldn't see this, but friends told us that she made faces and said "Hi Dad!" at one point. But overall she did really good standing there for so long. At the end, after all the bridesmaids left, she went and stood by Randy for a minute...which was so super cute...and then she walked down the aisle with Michael and Ethan....and everyone clapped! :) She got flower girl applause! They were really pretty cute.

As we were walking out to the car last night, Kendall told Randy, "I want to do that again!" She is addicted to being a flower girl. I'm pretty sure it's the dress. :)

Also, my husband is the best wedding officiant ever. He's just awesome. That's all.

Baby Jesus

2011-12-09T22:25:00.000-08:00

Since we got out all the nativities, Kendall has been having fun playing with them. I came in her room one day and saw this going on: she had pulled her chair up to her dresser and gathered all the pieces from the nativities in her room along with some others from around the house. She put them all in some kind of grouping or order that made sense to her. I think all the sheep from various nativities were together, all the shepherds, all the mary's, all the Jesuses, etc.

She told me she was selling them and asked me which one I wanted to buy. I got to pick one from each grouping. :)

I love watching her come up with this stuff. It's just great. Her imagination is awesome. I asked her if I could take her picture and first she did this (and notice, all the baby Jesuses in the stable):

but then she said, "Oh, wait!" and grabbed the Fonanini baby Jesus and held him like this:

On a separate day, this is how I noticed her nativity scene looked:

My favorite part was the wise men - it looked like they were totally on guard, standing around the Baby Jesus in the center. :)

Not to be outdone, Cooper has enjoyed playing with her Little People nativity set in her room, too.

I love seeing Kendall become more and more familiar with the real reason we are celebrating Christmas, even when it means the nativities are all out of order and mixed up. So.much.fun!

It's Christmastime!

2011-12-09T21:49:00.000-08:00

Our house is ready for Christmas! We usually decorate the week before Thanksgiving, but this year we have been remodeling our kitchen, so that put us a little behind. We were in Ft. Worth the week of Thanksgiving, but when we got back we finished up the next stage of the remodel and then got our decorations up...still before December even started. :)

Our Christmas tree! We changed out our topper this year and added some candycane ribbon. I love it!

Cooper's room: her tree and Christmas books. Kendall helped her decorate her tree.

Kendall's room: Precious Moments and Jim Shore nativities,

her tree that she decorated all by herself,

and her Christmas books and stuffed animals. The girls had fun decorating their rooms!

Lots of our nativities from all over the world are in the guest bathroom:

This one is from Kenya, made of banana leaves:

and we got this one in Mexico on a cruise several years ago. We love baby Jesus in the hammock and the wise men are packing heat. :)

In the kitchen we have our four favorite nativities from our partner countries that our church works with:

We are doing advent for the first time this year with the girls. It has been really neat so far - we're doing it Dane-style, so making it work for us with Kendall the age that she is. Each night at dinner we light the candle that we are on for the week (so far just the Hope candle has been lit because we're a little behind), we talk about how Jesus is our Hope and about waiting for his birth at Christmas, we practice our verse that we are memorizing - Luke 2:10, and we pray. After dinner we let Kendall do a page in the sticker book you can see in the above picture. She is doing really well with it and we are enjoying doing this as a family!

Our mantle with all four stockings!

This is just the most fun time of year and we love decorating the house for Christmas!

Anniversary Weekend!

2011-12-09T14:04:00.001-08:00

Randy and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on Tuesday! This past weekend my mom came down to LJ to take care of the girls and we were able to get away for a weekend in Austin! It was so wonderful to have some time away, sleep late, eat a lot, shop, and just hang out by ourselves.

We got to Austin Friday, after spending some time in Bastrop on the way. That night we ate at the Salt Lick, a bar b que restaurant Randy has wanted to try for a long time. Saturday we slept in, then shopped in the Domain area of Austin. That afternoon we headed downtown and toured the Capital building for awhile. Holly called us dorks, but we really enjoyed seeing the Capital! I can't remember when I saw it last, and Randy hasn't been since he was much younger either. We loved the big Christmas tree in the House chambers!

On our actual anniversary on Tuesday, Randy brought home flowers for me, and chocolate!! He's the best. :)

While we were in Austin, the girls were having tons of fun with their Granny!! We were so thankful Mom said she would come and that they were able to spend time with her. She drove down right after school on Thursday, we left Friday morning, came home Sunday around lunch, she drove back to FW and got home that evening and then went right back to school Monday morning! Thank you for doing that, Mom! She sent us a few pictures of the girls throughout the weekend.

They went to the park during the day on Friday but had to hurry home because the mosquitoes were so bad...in December! It has been below freezing a lot this week finally, so I think they may finally be gone, but that's crazy!

Saturday they went to the mall and did some shopping and playing.

It was raining when we got home on Sunday and they were all in the driveway splashing in the puddles. :) When we got out of the car, Cooper and Kendall climbed in to play. We noticed Cooper's sweet little footprint on the seat of the car. Love those little toes!

We had a great time away and the girls had fun with Granny! It's always great to have some time by ourselves, and then it's always fun to come home to our sweet girls!

The North Pole Express!

2011-12-02T21:32:00.001-08:00

We got to go to such a fun thing when we were in Ft. Worth last week! Friday night Pops and Kiki tookk us for a ride on the North Pole Express in Grapevine!

Before the train ride, which was the Tarantula train that runs between the Stockyards and downtown Grapevine, there were all sorts of activities for the kids to do. They had ice skating, hot chocolate, and a place to make your own ornaments!

Kendall and Cooper both made one...they both had a little help. :)

Then, right before we boarded the train, there was a little show with singing and dancing! Alden and Scott went with us, too, and Kendall and Cooper loved that!

After the show, to get to the train, we had to walk through a Christmas tree maze. There was even snow blowing around!

On the train, ready to go!

Kendall and Pops! She said Pops had to sit next to her!

Cooper and Pops bonking heads!

Halfway through the ride, Santa came into our train car! This was Kendall when she saw him - so excited!

He passed out silver bells to all the children. Kendall did a great job - she wasn't scared at all!

Kiki, Cooper and me with Santa. Lisa asked Santa if she could have a silver bell and he told her no!! Ha!

After the train ride, we went to get the girls' picture taken with Santa. We decided it would work best this year if we just held them and let Kendall tell him what she wanted. We love our family picture with Santa!

We had such a fun night! It was so much fun watching Kendall and Cooper both get excited about all the Christmas festivities! Thanks for a fun night Kiki and Pops!!

More from our Thanksgiving trip!

2011-12-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun week in Ft. Worth! We started the week off at Gigi and Peeps', then stayed with Granny and Papas, and finally ended the week at Kiki and Pops' house! The girls had a blast!

Not only did we enjoy seeing our family, but we got to catch up with some friends too! Tuesday we met Michael and Noelle for lunch. We went to their new house in Ft. Worth and then to Chuy's. We miss them being in LJ so much, so it was great to see their new place and hang out!

Kendall was very happy to see them...Cooper not so much! I put her in Michael's lap to take a picture and she started crying! Michael decided to join in. :)

So we tried a picture with just Kendall. She's so happy to be with her "Ma-kel" and "N'ell!!"

Wednesday morning we went over to visit with my great aunt Doris. We love her so much and just don't get to see her enough. Kendall enjoyed playing at her house and looking at all the interesting things she has. Doris painted doll cradles that my great grandfather Aubrey Votaw made and gave them to us when we were little. I have passed mine down to Kendall, and she loves to play with it. Doris knew that, so recently she emailed me and told me she has another one that has been in her house and she wondered if maybe Cooper would want it. I loved that! So we were able to get that while we were in Ft. Worth and Cooper will get it for Christmas! Thank you Doris! We love you and are so glad the girls were able to spend time with you!

(Cooper was really not in a great picture-taking mood this week!!)

Lunch at Bluebonnet with Gracie! They had their own little "date" on the end of the table.

Cooper became obsessed with graham crackers on our trip!

Breakfast at Granny and Papas' house! She is always happy to be eating!

Thanksgiving morning with Granny!

Kendall was so excited to take a bath in Granny's big bathtub when we were there Wednesday night! Alden was there too, with Scott, so she got to help give the girls a bath.

I love that little duck!!

This was a toy of mine and Alden's when we were little. Cooper would sit on it and ride around for as long as someone would pull her! :)

The stairs are super popular at Pops' and Kiki's. Kendall has always loved playing on them and Cooper started taking notice of them this trip!

Precious smile!

Friday after Thanksgiving Kendall, Cooper, Dad, Granny and I went and visited my grandpa Oscar in the new Alzheimer's facility he is living in. Granny had to move him there this summer and it has just been the hardest thing. I've decided Alzheimer's is just the worst thing ever. Kendall and I pray for Granny and for Oscar a lot, and she loves spending time with them. Since she asks how he is doing a lot, and we were at Granny's house on Thursday without Oscar, I decided I wanted to take her and Cooper to see him. We got there as he was finishing his lunch, so he visited with us out in the main room for awhile and then we all went with him back to his room. We got to see his room and when we got there, he immediately started taking off his shoes and climbed into bed for his nap! I know he doesn't remember us, but it was so good to see him. It was weird not having him there for Thanksgiving. :(

*Sweet story: Kendall knows that Oscar lives in a new house now and that Granny still lives in their house. After we had eaten dinner Thursday night for Thanksgiving, I saw her walk up to Granny and say, "Where is Oscar? Is he at his new house?" Granny said, "Yes. He is." Kendall said, "I miss him. He needs people to take care of him?" Granny said, "Yes - he is sick." Kendall said, "Well then, who takes care of you?" Granny said, "Well, Kiki and Pops take care of me." It was just the sweetest little conversation ever and so out of the blue from Kendall. I love to see how she processes things and what she remembers. Thankful her little heart is so tender!
Saturday morning before we left we took the girls out at Dad and Lisa's and took some pictures of them and got a family picture for our Christmas card. I love these two!

We had a wonderful week! We miss all our family and friends in Ft. Worth when we can't be there, but love times when we are together! Now we're ready to start celebrating the Christmas season!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-29T12:40:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year, we spent the entire week in Ft. Worth! We left Lake Jackson on Sunday afternoon after church and came back Saturday night. It was a great week and we really enjoyed seeing our family and friends. I have a few random pictures from our vacation, but this post is all about what we did on the actual day of Thanksgiving.

Each year, we go to four different places on Thanksgiving. It's a little crazy. And it's only getting harder. After going everywhere this year, we talked about it and are thinking we're going to need to do something different next year. It's just too hard on us and on the girls. And that's not what we want them to remember about the holiday! We love seeing everyone, but we may need to rotate where we go each year or something like that.

Anyway, we started off the day by going to Randy's Grandma Dane's Thanksgiving, which is at his Aunt Brenda's each year. The girls wore their turkey dresses, of course, and looked so cute! And check out Kendall's new ride! We bumped Cooper up to Kendall's seat and then got Kendall a seat that is still a harness for awhile (like, til she's 70lbs!) and then converts to a booster.

Knowing how busy the day was going to be, I wanted to try and get a good family picture early in the day before the girls got too tired. Not too bad! :)

All the cousins with Gigi and Peeps!

Kendall had fun playing with Maelie and Gracie! They had a special table all to themselves. Maelie is in Kindergarten this year and was so sweet to Kendall. We loved watching them together!

And Cooper ate a lot. She's happy all the time, but she's most happy when she's eating.

After that, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Votaw's house for Thanksgiving with them, Mom, David, Alden, and Scott. We are thankful for so much each year, but this year we are especially thankful for how God has watched over Grandma. She was almost in a bad accident earlier this month, and we are thankful she is doing ok! Here's Cooper with Granny and Papas.

Kendall had fun playing on the piano and seranading us!

For this family picture, Kendall decided to sign "I love you," but it looks a little like she's saying "Rock on!"

Next we went out to Randy's Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Frank's for his Mamaw and Papaw Bradford's Thanksgiving. Kathy and Frank just moved into a new house, so we were happy to get to see it! Cooper fell asleep on the way there, so we let her sleep in the car for a little bit. No time for naps on Thanksgiving!

Finally, our last stop was at my Granny's for dinner with my Dad's side of the family. Dad always takes a family picture, but then that means he is never in it!

Can you tell she was a little worn out? :)

And Cooper still ate!

Granny had a bowl of leftover Halloween candy on the table, and Cooper tried to get anyone who would listen to her to open some of that candy for her all night! We finally had to just move the bowl. She's a little obsessed!

At the end of the night, we put the girls to bed and watched the Aggies ~~btho~~ lose for the last time to Texas. I know there are a lot of good things about us moving to the SEC, but I am really sad that we won't be playing the horns anymore! Such a fun tradition!

Even though the day is busy, we are so thankful for all of our family and thankful that we get to see everyone for Thanksgiving. We are also thankful for the two sweet little girls God has blessed us with. They are our greatest treasures!

Festival of Lights

2011-11-29T12:39:00.001-08:00

We are home after a long vacation in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving! I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.

Last Saturday was the Festival of Lights and Parade of Lights here in Lake Jackson. This is one of my most favorite traditions for our family. So much my favorite that we even gave up our A&M tickets for the day!!

We started by going to the festival downtown Saturday morning. They have a bunch of booths set up with free stuff to do as well as choir groups, dance groups, etc performing all day. There is also a carnival that Kendall was interested in this year for the first time!

We took both strollers, but one or both girls ended up walking most of the time. Cooper thought it was fun to get to push Kendall. :)

One of the churches in our area had a booth set up where they did puppet shows. Cooper enjoyed watching that!

Pony rides! Kendall has always been too scared to do stuff like this, but she told us that she wanted to do this this year. We waited in the line, but I just knew she would get up there and change her mind. She didn't! She even let a strange man take her into the gate, put her on the horse, and she did just great! We were like, "Who is this kid!?" So proud of her!

She loved that her horse had a pink mane and pink tail. She was so funny - she would smile every once in awhile, but most of the time she was very serious. So cute!!

After that, she told us she wanted to ride the carousel. Again, we tried this last year, bought tickets, and then she was too scared. This time though she was totally ready - we didn't have any trouble at all getting her to ride the rides!

Cooper watched with Dad - she probably was wondering why we didn't take her! Ha!

Next Randy rode the tea cups with her. He said she just smiled and laughed the whole time! I'm so glad she's trying new things like this now!

We took the girls home for naps and I had a wedding shower to throw Saturday afternoon. Then, that evening, we met some friends for dinner and then went back downtown to get ready for the parade! It really is so neat - it's a pretty good parade and Kendall and Cooper just love it!

We sat close to the Hiatts, so of course we had to get a picture with Patrick! This is our friend Sam who helps Lindsey with Patrick during the week.

I can't remember what she was clapping at here, but she just really loved the whole thing! She was up and down, in and out of our laps the whole night, so between her and Kendall and making sure they were ok, I didn't get many pictures of the actual parade.

Love that smile! She's such a happy girl!

We love our Lake Jackson traditions! So thankful for small town stuff!

Wee Place Feast!

2011-11-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Today was Kendall's Thanksgiving feast at school! She has actually been referring to it as the "Thanksgiving festival" - what can I say? The girl loves a good festival!

Randy, Cooper and I all went up to the school to be with her and when we got there we were shocked that she had let them paint her face like an Indian! Back up - she has been telling us that they were going to be Little Indians for the feast. And that they painted a tv and marched around it. Randy figured out that she was talking about a tee-pee! She still is determined to call it a tv though. Anyway, she had told us they were going to be Little Indians and that she made a feather hat with pink feathers. She has never wanted her face to be painted though, so we were pretty shocked that she let her teacher do that. She was pretty cute!

Standing next to the tv. She showed us the part she painted. And then wanted to do a funny pose.

Emma! We hear so much about Emma and the last thing we heard was that on Tuesday they had to move their clips from green to yellow because they were playing ring-around-the-rosie and having too much fun. Troublemakers.

Her whole class looked so cute!

I love this little turkey!

Before we went to eat, all the classes sat in front of the ark and sang a song and said their prayer. We watched Kendall go from being so excited, out-going, and silly in her class to being very quiet, shy, and still with all these other kids and an audience of parents around. She did a great job of participating, but we could just tell she was nervous and a little overwhelmed. We love watching the little personality that God gave her and our hope is that we are sensitive to that as she grows and learns!

And....back to silly! :) The feast was Chick-fil-A nuggets, fruit, vegetables, and cheetos and of course, all she wanted was the cheetos. She also keeps talking about wanting to eat pie. As we have been talking about Thanksgiving, we always list pies as one of the foods you eat. This girl is ready for some Thanksgiving pie next Thursday!

Love!

And here are a couple of videos of the little performance. The first is of the song they all sang...

...and this is the prayer they prayed. Kendall came home on Tuesday telling us that they said a different prayer. When we heard this today we understood what she was saying - in her class everyday before they eat, they say a different prayer than this. I think this is one they just taught all the classes especially for today.

The one she usually says is so cute - we need to get it on video. She says, "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. Bow our heads, we are freds, thank you God for day-ree bread."

BFFs

2011-11-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting all day last Thursday, so after school, Kendall went and took a nap at Sarah's house! She was so excited about having a sleep-over with Sarah - it's something she asks to do all the time.

They both had on their fall outfits, so Mary took a picture. I love these two friends!!

What a deal!

2011-11-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

(the post that could also be titled "Why I cried when Kendall put on a white dress...")

Kendall is about to be a flower girl in our friends Lauren and Kevin's wedding! Lauren and Kevin were both in our small group and Randy is officiating their wedding. Ethan is the ring bearer, so all of these things put together gives us high hopes for how well she will do in the wedding.

Lauren has been working with Tamara at our church's orphanage in Cambodia for the past year. She had her dress made there, and was going to have Kendall's dress made to match her's, but ran out of time. So when she got home last week we talked about what she wanted us to look for. She told us that her dress has some ivory in it, and that it has ruffles on the bottom. I told her we would start looking.

Last week we went up to Pearland for lunch and some shopping. We ran into the Dillards up there, because I thought they might have a better selection than our Dillards. I asked if they had any white dresses, like for a flower girl, and she said there was just one. She pulled it off the rack, and it was perfect! Had some ivory, ruffles, and it was Kendall's size!! The only one left and it was the perfect dress.

All that is awesome, but here is the best part...it had just been marked down to $14! What?! It is beautiful, her perfect size and style, and it was $14!

So we were super excited, she was super excited, and we went to try it on. And that's when I teared up! She looked so beautiful and grown-up! Look:

She loves her dress so much and loved posing for Randy to take pictures. Now if we can just get her down the aisle at the right time!!!

Matching Turkey Dresses!

2011-11-13T19:34:00.000-08:00

We got the girls matching Thanksgiving dresses and they wore them to church this morning! They look so cute - I just love it when they match!

It's not easy to get them both in the same shot, much less both looking! I loved these pictures, though.

We practiced this "touchdown!" move a lot during the Aggie game yesterday...unfortunately just not enough! Ags lost in the fourth overtime to Kansas State!

I told Randy I would put the girls in these dresses every day before Thanksgiving...so you'll probably be seeing them a lot! :)

Playing...together!

2011-11-13T19:05:00.001-08:00

These girls love to play together! And we just love watching what they come up with. One of Kendall's favorite things to do is get Molly's leash and drag her stuffed animals around the house on "walks." This week she decided to let Cooper walk her! She clipped the leash to her dress and Cooper thought it was so funny to hold the other end and run around the house with her.

Kendall is handing Cooper the other end...

...and now Cooper is "walking" her big sister!

We love how much they love to play together!!

Polk Pandas!

2011-11-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

On Friday night Randy had Secret Church to go to, so I took the girls to the Polk Fall Festival! Polk Elementary is where I have been completing my administrative internship for the past 18 months. Twice a week I have gone in the morning to shadow, learn from, and complete internship activities with the principal and assistant principal there. I have loved being a Polk Panda and I was excited to get to take the girls to see my school!

At her school, Kendall is in the orange giraffe class, so she thought it was fun when I told her that I am a Panda. She said, "Mom, I like Pandas!"

The fall festival was so fun - there were so many activities! All the classrooms had little carnival games in the doorways, and Kendall loved playing the games and winning candy!

At this game, she won some Smarties. She turned around and said, "Mom! Look, Smarties like Pops!" My dad would come home from work some days when I was young and bring home Smarties for us. Now he gives them to Kendall! Love that she associates those with him!

This was a fun thing: when we came in, they gave us five tickets. We wrote Kendall's name and our phone number on the back, and then she was able to go around to these toys and put a ticket in the bag next to the five toys she wanted to win. At the end of the night, they drew a winner! I don't think we won anything, because we haven't gotten a phone call yet, but she really had fun choosing which toys to put tickets in!

Cooper did so well in the stroller all night! I loved bringing my girls to my school and we had a fun time at the fall festival!

For Shell....

2011-11-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Kendall was newly 2 when Michelle left for Mali, West Africa. We were able to have a great weekend in College Station between her training in Virginia and when she actually left the country, and we are eagerly anticipating her coming home in a few months! Kendall remembers "Shell" as she calls her a little, and we talk about her frequently to remind her of who she is and pray for her, too!
A couple of weeks ago, Randy wrote Michelle an email and wanted to tell her some about the girls that she might not be able to know just from reading the blog. I loved what he wrote about both girls, and wanted to save it here. Here is what he said about Kendall:

We are good. We can’t wait for you to be around our girls – they are hilarious and cute.
Kendall is random, and prissy, and sassy. She poses, mismatches, makes faces, talks in other languages, is extremely creative. She wears dresses almost every day – and has no interest in other clothes really. Kendall is smart, but not dorky prodigy smart – which I like. She is very picky about eating. She eats about five things. She loves animals. And talks to them in a little voice – like you know who. She loves books like her momma. She can be outgoing or shy – it just depends. Sometimes she is extremely cautious and sometimes she is totally careless. She is pretty much a beautiful mix of the two of us. She is literally one of my favorite people on the planet.

I thought that was a perfect description of Kendall!

Michelle, we can't wait for you to come home!! And we are excited for you to get to spend time with your family soon. Have a fun time!!

Halloween Night!

2011-11-04T22:10:00.001-07:00

Our Halloween started off not so great but ended really great! When Gracie and Evy were here this past weekend, they both woke up Saturday morning with stomach bugs. It was impossible to try and keep the girls apart, so we all just prayed that Kendall and Cooper wouldn't get sick too. No such luck. Kendall woke up around 4am Monday morning throwing up, and was sick until a little before lunch. Cooper never got sick, though! Poor Kendall wanted to trick or treat so bad Monday night, so we told her we would see how the day went and how she was feeling when she got up from nap. She was fine, so we were able to trick or treat! We were supposed to go to the Beam's house for dinner, but we went ahead and backed out - I figured walking around trick or treating was not quite as bad as being in their house, eating, and spreading germs!

Randy came home for lunch on Monday and Kendall asked him to help her carve her pumpkin! So he did! He is such a fun Dad - I love how he is spontaneous and loves doing things with and for his girls!

Here is Kendall showing off her pumpkin, ready to trick or treat!

Barbie and the alligator, ready to go! Do you like our new cabinets?? I will do a separate post on those soon!

Coop was NOT a fan of the hat! I tried several times to get a picture of her with it on, but this was the best we could do! Just like bows, she reached up to take it off as soon as I got it on.

Our first stop of the night was Greg and Kathy Pickering's house! Their neighborhood is really fun to trick or treat in and they like to just sit out in the front yard and pass out candy. We enjoyed getting to hang out and visit for awhile!

From there, we went to Kathy and Jerry Peters' house. We are thankful for sweet friends and our sweet children's minister who loves our girls! Kathy loves Kendall, but she has a special thing with Cooper. Her granddaughter Morgan is just a couple of months younger than Cooper, and lives in College Station, so she always loves hearing what Coop is up to and getting to love on her!

While we visited there, Cooper had fun dumping out all of her's and Kendall's candy and carrying it around.

And that would be where I left my camera for the rest of the night! We met Ethan, Ella, Aaron and Holly at another neighborhood to do more trick or treating, and I realized I had left my camera at Kathy and Jerry's. Bummer. We had a great time though and Kendall did a great job going door to door. She loved having Ella with her and was not as shy as she was last year. Cooper rode in the wagon and Kendall always made sure to get candy for her, too.

We were glad Kendall was feeling up to trick or treating! We had a great Halloween!

Halloween Parade 2011!

2011-11-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

We look forward to our annual Halloween Parade every year! This was our third year to have it and it was fun to see Kendall get so excited about it, having remembered it from last year. This year we had the parade on Sunday night, the 30th, so that we could go to the A&M game on Saturday and then trick-or-treat still on Monday.

We were also excited this year that Gigi and Peeps, Val, Gracie, and Evy were here for the parade! They came in town on Friday, stayed with the girls all day Saturday while Randy and I went to the game, and then stayed for the parade Sunday night. The girls had so much fun together and we were so glad they were here.

I had fun making some of the decorations for the house. I went with a candy corn theme, so everything was yellow, orange, and white.

I loved these little candy corn trees. I saw the idea on Pinterest, but I thought I wouldn't have time to make them. Saturday night after we got home from the game, I was finishing a few things up and decided to try. Randy went and cut some sticks for me, I got out the hot glue gun, and the whole project took less than thirty minutes! Fun!

Like last year, we put tables in the garage and made cupcakes for the kids to decorate and eat after the parade. I just mixed several colors of icing, we put sprinkles in cupcake holders, and that was it! Easy and fun.

Kendall and Cooper's float. It was fun getting to set up and decorate with Anita and Val!

My little alligator and Barbie. Randy decided that he and I were going to be Troy and Liz from Swamp People. (It's a show on the History Channel that we love - so funny. It follows people deep in Cajun country in Louisiana during alligator hunting season. Crazy.) Anyway, we thought it would be great if the girls would be alligators. Kendall didn't think that would be great. She wanted to be Barbie. Our years of theme costumes may be coming to an end. I found this little ~~monster~~ alligator outfit at Target for Coop - she was warm and happy! :)

Troy, Liz, our alligator catch and ~~Barbie~~ the Swamp Princess!

Val's girls were clowns and they were so cute! Gracie kept talking about when the parade was coming. She was having a hard time figuring out that she was going to BE the parade! :)

Amber and Garrett Scarborough: Thing 1 and Thing 2!! Love it!

Sarah and Caleb!

Kendall wanted to invite her friend Emma from school. She was Snow White!

We were super excited that Patrick got to come this year! And check him out: he's the Little Mouse, Lindsey is the Red Ripe Strawberry, and Matt was the Big Hungry Bear! Love that children's book!!

Jackson and Mikey - Brittany and Katie were somewhere! Last year it was just these two at the parade...now there are four!

Leading the parade! Cooper loved holding the candy that our neighbors and friends threw to them. They had so much fun! We went to every house on our street this year and invited all our neighbors to come. We were able to meet some new neighbors! Some with kids came and participated in the parade, and others without young kids sat out and threw candy and cheered. Love that!!

Eli and his fire truck. He won one of the prizes - his float was awesome!!

Kevin was our videographer!

Some of the kids at the end of the parade! Kendall and Cooper are there - they are hidden by the balloons on the back of their float!

This is one of the highlights of my year. I love being with all our friends, letting the girls wear their costumes a second time, and meeting new neighbors. Already excited about Parade 2012! :)

Go Rangers!

2011-11-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last week the Rangers were in the World Series! They made it all the way to Game 7, where they lost, but we are still proud of our Texas team and how far they got!

Kiki and Pops sent Kendall and Cooper some Texas Rangers shirts in the mail to celebrate them being in the World Series!

They loved their shirts!

It was an exciting week full of exciting games, even if they didn't turn out the way we hoped. Maybe next year! Third time's the charm!

Back to the Pumpkin Patch!

2011-11-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Monday we went back to the Pumpkin Patch with Dad! I couldn't believe how many pumpkins were already gone! Also, the mosquitoes have shown up in Lake Jackson. We had no rain all summer, and still haven't had rain, and a plus to this has been that our mosquitoes have not been as bad this year. But this week they have come and they are making up for being gone all summer!! They have been SO BAD. We got to the pumpkin patch and they started swarming us, so we snapped a few pictures and got back in the car!

I love this picture of both of the girls! It's so rare that we are able to get both of them looking at the camera!

Big hug!

Here is her measurement picture from this year:

And here is last year! She is getting so big!

It was fun going back and picking out another pumpkin! The girls loved it in spite of the mosquitoes. Maybe they'll leave with this cold front we're supposed to have tomorrow!

Matching!

2011-11-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

The girls kind of matched last Sunday! Kendall had leopard print on the top of her skirt and Cooper had it on her pants. So in the rush to get out the door and get to church, I had them pose for a few pictures.

I think Cooper's face in these pictures is so cute! We think she's just changing so much lately and love her sweet little face!

I love those two leopard girls!! And I love it when they match...even if it's just a little!

Copycat!

2011-11-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Cooper loves to do whatever her big sister is doing! The other morning, Kendall was playing on PBS.org (or "dot or" as she says) on the laptop on the couch. Cooper was up playing in the living room, but when she saw what Kendall was doing, she went and found their Barbie laptop, carried it over to the couch, got up next to Kendall, and started working like her!

They make me laugh so much!! I love these two!

Aggie Tailgate!

2011-10-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Kendall and Cooper got to come to the Aggie tailgate with us last weekend! While Randy and I watched A&M btho Baylor, the girls had a fun day with Granny and Papas. We were so thankful they drove down to College Station to help us with the girls!

Kendall had so much fun with all her friends at the tailgate. She loves the Erskine family and was so happy to see Micaela, who is a student at A&M. The Erskine's oldest daughter, Laura and her husband Justin were at the game with their newest Aggie, Easton! He is so precious and both of the girls were in love with him. He also has a full head of red hair, so he just fits right in with our girls!

Cooper was having a lot of fun with Papas! And she was having a lot of fun eating and drinking.

Kendall and Granny. She loves that Granny!!

Loving on sister...maybe a little too much! :)

And then...oh the joy...Laura asked Kendall if she wanted to hold Easton. I love this picture of her big smile - she was so excited and felt so big!! I think Easton enjoyed it too. :)

Just a little sunburned! It was an 11:00 game and we forgot sunscreen. Yikes!

This was the beginning of a fun weekend away. From College Station we drove to Beaumont and got to stay in a hotel! Randy preached Sunday morning at The Bridge, the church Brazos Pointe is supporting in DeQuincy, Louisiana. We stayed in Beaumont and then drove just about an hour more Sunday morning into DeQuincy. I can't even describe how excited Kendall was that we were staying in a hotel. We just don't do it that often and I think she thought she was at Disney World. She loved the big bed the three of us slept in, she loved watching tv in bed, she rode on the luggage cart out in the hall, and she loved taking a shower. I wanted to try and get a picture of her but she kept trying to do poses - she was wound up! Both girls slept well though and we had a fun trip!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

We went to the pumpkin patch for the first time this year last week! Kendall has been asking for about three months now when we would get to go to the pumpkin patch, so she was very excited.

Cooper was old enough to enjoy it this year, and she loved sitting on the little tractor.

Kendall picked out this funny pumpkin, but then decided she didn't like all the bumps.

I love these two!

We are looking forward to going back sometime this week with Dad. Mary took more pictures of Kendall with Sarah, Ella, and Caleb, so I will add those as soon as I get them! We love the pumpkin patch!!

Ella-Belle

2011-10-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Holly had a dentist appointment yesterday morning, so Ella came to our house to play! Kendall was actually still asleep when she got here, but quickly woke up when she heard that Ella was here!

The girls all had fun playing together! They watched a little t.v. while Kendall woke up and ate breakfast, then they were off and running. They played with the dollhouse,

pushed babies all around the house,

and then Kendall finally got dressed. :)

And did a little show. Jan gave her this flute the other night when they watched the girls while Randy and I went to see a movie (Courageous - if you haven't seen it, go! It's very very good!) Anyway - lucky us with the flute. She loves to play it!

When Holly got back from her appointment, we all went to the pumpkin patch! It was so fun - Kendall has been asking when we would get to go to the pumpkin patch for probably three or four months now. I'll post pictures of that soon!

Fall Zoo Day!

2011-10-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

We went to the Houston zoo yesterday! I found out a few weeks ago that every first Tuesday of the month from 2-close the zoo has free admission! It gets pretty expensive for all of us to go, so I thought this would be great to take advantage of. I talked to Holly about going and Ethan and Ella were super excited, too. We picked the kids up from school at 1:00 and headed up to Houston to be there around 2!

I was a little worried about how crowded it would be, since it was a free day. But when we got there there were plenty of parking spaces and no lines! We thought that maybe because school was still in it kept the crowds down. Score!
The weather has been so beautiful lately. It was a little warm yesterday afternoon, but there was a nice breeze and lots of shade. Cooper took her morning nap from 10-12, so she didn't take a nap on the way up. Kendall fell asleep for about 20 minutes, though, so at least she got a short nap. The girls did so great - I was very proud of how Kendall listened and Cooper rode in the wagon the whole time and was so big!

Kendall and Ethan loved checking out the lions. They were very active - running around and even roaring! They loved it!

I had the hardest time getting a picture with both girls looking at the same time. I think this is one of the times Kendall was fussing at me for asking her to look at the camera for the millionth time. Oh well - there's her face!

Kendall's most favorite animal in the whole world: the rhino!

And her other most favorite animal: the otter! She sat and watched them play for a long time. :)

My little monkey!

"Look Mom! A Cebu!" We love singing the Cebu song from Veggie Tales - she was excited to see one in real life!

The last thing we had to make sure we saw: the Komodo Dragon. He was laying right next to the window, so Kendall and Ella just laid right down next to him and watched him.

I have wanted to ride the Hermann Park train that is right outside the zoo for so long now, but we always come to the zoo in the morning and leave when it's naptime. But yesterday we were leaving a little before 5 and were going to stop in Pearland at Chick-fil-A for dinner on the way home. We figured we would be sitting in traffic either way, so we decided to hang around a little longer and ride the train! I was very excited.

This was Kendall's first time to ride the train, too. I have such great memories of riding the Forest Park train outside the Ft. Worth zoo with my family after we would visit the zoo, so I was excited my girls would get to do this!

We had such a fun day at the zoo and are already planning on trying it again on the first Tuesday in November! Yay for fall and the zoo and fun days with my girls and our best friends!!!

The Pledge of Allegiance

2011-10-02T12:51:00.000-07:00

Kendall says the pledge of allegiance every Tuesday and Thursday mornings at school. I didn't realize they did this until a couple of weeks ago when she came home and told me she was the flag holder. I asked her if they said the pledge and started saying it, thinking she would recognize it and say it with me. She didn't. Today at lunch, though, she said, "Hey mom, at school we put our hand on our heart and we say the pledge of allegiance." I asked her to say it with me and she did the whole thing! I was way impressed. :) I told her that her Granny would probably like to show it to her kids at school.

A Day in the Life

2011-09-27T14:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I've done this before, but I have intended to for a long time. I want to write about what our days look like at this stage of Kendall's life so that we can look back and remember someday. I just think these are the best days ever and am so thankful that we get to have the kind of schedule we do. Being home with the girls is one of the biggest answers to prayer for me and I just love it so much!!

So, here is what a regular day looks like for us right now, with Kendall at three and a half and Cooper a little over a year old.

Both of the girls usually wake up anytime between 7:30 and 8:00. I try to get up before them and read my Bible, pray and walk sometimes. I have such a hard time waking up these days, but I always feel better if I am up before them.

When Kendall wakes up, I let her watch a little t.v. while I fix her's and Cooper's breakfasts. Kendall has a cup of milk, bread with honey on it and some yogurt. She loves to watch Sesame Street, Word World, another PBS show, or one of her movies.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have to get ready for school pretty quickly and then get in the car by 8:45 to be at school by 9:00. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays though, we're a little more laid back. Usually one morning a week we go grocery shopping during this time, and try to be home before Coop's morning nap. Some days we go see friends to play, in the summer we'll go to the beach once a week, but a lot of days we stay home and play inside or outside the house. Kendall loves to play dress-up still, and she loves to draw or play with play-dough.

We also like to go on walks around the neighborhood if it's not too hot and the mosquitoes aren't too bad. That's been one benefit of having no rain this year - we haven't had many mosquitoes!

Cooper goes down for a nap around 10 or so, so that gives me time to play just with Kendall when she's home. We play school, practice her letters, have tea parties, read books, or just play in her room with the "little" things that we have to be careful with when Cooper is awake.

Cooper usually wakes up around noon and we eat lunch, most days with Daddy! We are so thankful he gets to come home for lunch to eat with us. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I pick Kendall up from school at 1:00.

After lunch we play a little more and then start winding down for nap time. I usually let Kendall watch a little more t.v. before nap, depending on what we've done that morning and how she has behaved. We also run errands sometimes after lunch, just because it's hard to squeeze things around Cooper's nap schedule these days.

2:ooish to 5:00ish is naptime for both girls! Since Cooper just woke up around 11:30 or 12, I put Kendall down first. This is sometimes the hardest part of the day! Cooper wants to read with us and play and she is just so busy and can make such a big mess so fast. Kendall likes to take her "little nap" on her trundle bed, so we pull that out, she picks out two books - one for me to read and one for her to read after I'm gone - and we read together. One thing we don't do lately is put on her pull-up! She has been taking her naps in panties and we are so stinkin excited about that. Before I walk out of the room with Cooper I start her princess music - a CD of all the Disney princess songs that Granny got her. She listens to that as she falls asleep.

When she wakes up from nap she calls me and I go get her super fast to take her to the bathroom. We've been so proud of how she has done. Maybe there will be an end to pull-ups someday. :)

She usually wakes up before Cooper is awake, and I will have usually been doing schoolwork or blogging or reading, so I bring her in my bed and let her read books or play on PBSKids.org while I finish whatever I'm working on and Cooper finishes her nap. We are amazed at how well she can work the laptop, navigate the website and play games! She knows how to make the mouse pad work, scroll up and down the page and get back to the main page if she wants to play a different game.

Randy comes home around 5 and we start getting ready to cook dinner. The girls play - sometimes together, sometimes by themselves - while Randy and I cook and then we eat. After dinner we play a little more and then take baths and start getting ready for bed. We try to start bedtime around 8, with baths, brushing teeth, getting pajamas on and picking out books. Kendall is the queen of stallers and can stretch bedtime out sooooo loooong. We read a book to her, turn her music on, and then leave for her to read to her babies. Usually she is done for the night around 9 or 9:30, but there is lots of her coming out into the living room and us having to go in to her room in between then.

I love our laid-back, relaxing schedule. I'm not real sure I'm going to like sending her to school in a couple of years - I am going to miss my little buddy! She is a pretty fun girl to spend my days with!!

Telling a story

2011-09-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

Last night during our "sleepover" Kendall was reading one of her Biscuit books to her baby after I turned the light out. I know it's dark, but I shot some video, just so I could record her story. Also, it's in five parts because it takes me so long to upload the videos. Enjoy! :)

Sleepover with Mom!

2011-09-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Randy has been out of town this week on staff retreat, so Kendall and I are having a slumber party tonight in my bed! She has done such a good job all week, so this is her reward. She has been so excited all week, and I just think it is the most fun to be able to do something for her that makes her so happy! :)

We watched a princess movie, ate marshmallows, read books, and just had so much fun! I started this post last night, but couldn't finish it until this morning and it really went so well. She went to bed pretty late, so I'm sure she'll take a great nap today. This morning I got up to take a shower and when I got out I went over to wake Kendall up. She was kind of stirring and when she saw me she smiled really big and said, "Mom, I had so much fun on our sleepover!" I love that she was so happy and that getting to do that was such a big deal! I look forward to doing fun things like that with her more and more!!

Class of 2030!

2011-09-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

I just realized I put these pictures on Cooper's blog last week but forgot to add them to Kendall's! I will be so excited to just have one blog come February.

Last week Randy was asked by our friend Kathy Pickering to speak at our local Aggie Mom's Club meeting. It was the first meeting of the year with lots of new Aggie moms attending. He spoke about traditions and it was fun to go with him! They invited all of us, so we took the chance to get the girls dressed up in some of their Aggie clothes and take a family picture. :)

(Not real sure what Kendall is doing. It is so hard to even get them to both sit still at the same time - much less smile and look at the camera! Ha!)

Love our sweet little Class of 2030 and 2032!! Gig 'em!

Stories from Kendall

2011-09-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

Randy: "Kendall! We are so proud of you for taking a nap for THREE days in PANTIES and keeping them dry!!" (This is huge for us. She has been potty-trained since before she was two and we are still taking all naps and going to bed every single night in pull-ups with no end in sight. And we have had three days of naps in dry panties. Woohoo!!!)
"How have you done that? Three whole naps??"
Kendall: "Well, Dad, because it's my job!!"
Randy: "Oh really? That's a good job! What is my job?"
Kendall: "Your job is to go to work. And Cooper's job is to play. And Mommy's job is to clean the house. And Molly's job is to...snuggle."

Out of the blue the other day, Kendall said, "Mom, you are my most preciousest girl in my life." She is always saying things like this. "You are the cutest girl in my world." "You are my best Dad in my life." So sweet!

(While reading a Biscuit book today I read about a dog named Sam): "Mom! I have a friend named Sam at school! He is my friend and his name is Sam and he knows my name is Kendall!"
Me: "Kendall! That's great that you have a new friend! What do you like to do with Sam?"
Kendall: "Play home living. When we do centers."

She is also starting to talk about the days of the week and the season a lot more since they started doing calendar time each Tues/Thurs at school. Earlier this week she broke out into the "days of the week" song and we didn't even know she knew that! And she has been focused on asking us what season it is a lot. Except sometimes she says things like "Mom, what fall is it right now?" meaning what season is it?

One of Cooper's nicknames is Pooper. Ella couldn't say "Cooper" early on, and what came out was "Pooper." It has stuck. Poor Coop. We call her that a lot though when we are just being silly with her, and now Kendall has shortened it to "Poop." I know it sounds awful, but when she is saying it, she is being really sweet and endearing and I think it's so cute!

On Sunday Randy came home from church and put his swimsuit on to get ready for a baptism.
Kendall: "Dad! Are you going swimming?"
Randy: "No, I am going to baptize someone while you are napping."
Randy laid down with her to read books before nap.
Kendall: "Daddy, don't you have to go...put people under water?"
Randy: "Yes Kendall, but I'm kind of sleepy. I think I want to stay here and nap with you."
Kendall: "No Daddy, you have to go baptize. You have to be obedient to God."

I've thought of a ton more funny stuff she has said lately but can't remember it now! I will come back and add to this post as I think of things. She makes us laugh!

Drawing People

2011-09-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

We had dinner and a meeting with some friends the other night and while we were talking, their daughter Hailey took Kendall to her room and they drew some pictures. Kendall came out every so often to show us her pictures, and these are some of them. This is the first time we have noticed her drawing people like this! I remember one of my early childhood classes talking about the stages of how children learn to draw, and this is the early stages of how they draw people: a body with two legs. We were so proud of her..which of course made her want to draw more and more. :) These are just a few of the ones she made that night.

This first one is actually Molly. She told us that was her because she has a tail.

I couldn't get my pictures to flip for some reason. This is a picture of Mommy.

And this one made us laugh because it had a story to go with it. This is Kendall on the left (top) and Gigi on the right (bottom). She said "Kendall is sad and Gigi is mad because Kendall didn't pick up all the toys in her room." So funny!

So fun to watch her learn and grow...even just in how she draws! :) And we loved watching her with Hailey - I think I'll do a separate post on that later.

Swinging Sisters

2011-09-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Last week was a little cooler (highs only in the 90s!) and we spent more time than usual outside playing. One afternoon before dinner I took the girls out in the backyard to swing. Cooper hasn't swung in the little swing since she was a lot smaller, and she had a good time while her sister pushed her!
She loves Kendall so much!

After awhile, Kendall decided she was ready to swing, too.

Look at all those bruises on Kendall's shins! I guess it goes with being three...

We had a lot of fun being able to play outside for awhile without sweating. Hopefully it will get a little cooler soon and stay that way!

Cooper's Party!

2011-09-12T12:39:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was Cooper's party and we had so much fun! Lots of family came down and our friends all came to help us celebrate. Kendall has been so excited and has been helping me make lots of decorations. She was ready for the party to be here!

One part that Kendall had been talking about for several weeks was getting to help Cooper blow out her candle and eat her cake. She did a great job!

After we cut the cake, we went outside to swim in lots of pools and play on the slip-n-slide that Gracie and Evy brought!

Sarah and Kendall had fun swimming together!

Randy threw her down the slip-n-slide a few times!

The End! :)

Cooper's First Birthday!

2011-08-31T21:35:00.001-07:00

Sister had her first birthday last week! Cooper turned one on the 31st, and we had a fun day, even though her party wasn't until this past weekend.
In the morning, we all went to the doctor with her for her check-up.
Then that night for dinner we went to Chick-fil-A!

After dinner, the girls had fun playing outside on the playground together.

Kendall loves to play...as long as there aren't too many other kids around. :) Happy first birthday Coop!

First Day of School!

2011-08-30T13:35:00.001-07:00

Today was Kendall's first day as an Orange Giraffe! She was very excited to start school today, and to get to take her ladybug backpack again. She is looking so big to me!!
We took a few pictures before we left for school. Cooper and I were headed up to visit the school I am interning at, Polk Elementary, after we dropped Kendall off, so I got her dressed and ready to go too.

Ready to go!

When we got to the church, Sarah, Caleb, and Mary were walking in, too! Kendall was excited to see her friends. Sarah is in the 4 year old class this year, and Caleb is in the 2s!

So much love!

Kendall got a little nervous the closer we got to her room. She told me she wanted me to take her to the bathroom, but first we hung her backpack on the hook with her name on it!

After I took her to the bathroom, we found her place at the table and she got to start practicing tracing her name! She got the pink marker, so she was loving that. Right after I took this picture, her teacher, Ms Shiloh came over and started working with her, so I gave her a quick hug and walked out with Cooper! I watched from the door for a little bit, and she was so focused on writing her name! She looked so grown up and was just fine, but for some reason, for the first year, I teared up a little! This is her third year to go to preschool, and my first year to be emotional about it!

When I came to pick her up, all the kids were sitting on their class's line.

Here she is with her teacher, Ms Shiloh!

She had a great day! She told me that Conner and Gyliana were in her class, and that she got to go to Chapel today. She also told me about the stoplight (for behavior) and that if you get moved to yellow, that means slow down, and if you go to red, that means you don't listen. She loves her teachers and said they were nice. She has a hard time saying "Shiloh," so it came out "Ms Sharlo" several times. :)

After we left school, I took the girls to Chick-fil-A for a first day of school treat! Kendall got some ice cream and she shared with her sister. Last year we missed the first day of school because we were in the hospital having Cooper! She turns one tomorrow!

I love this big girl! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see what she learns this year!

Meet the Teacher!

2011-08-30T13:16:00.002-07:00

Last Thursday night was Meet The Teacher night for Kendall's preschool! She is in the 3 year old class this year and her teachers are Ms Shiloh and Ms Crystal. They were both really nice and took a lot of initiative while we were there to ask us questions, ask if we had questions, and make Kendall feel comfortable.

She was a little unsure when we first walked in. They rearranged some of the classrooms this year, so she is actually in the same room as she was last year, but she has new teachers and a few new friends in her class. She is still going two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1.

She found the dress up clothes real quick! She wanted me to take her dress off and put Snow White on her. :)

Cooper watched from the stroller!

They had puzzles laid out for the kids to play and these color-matching boards. Kendall enjoyed doing these!

We finally put Snow White on for a little bit before we left. She got more comfortable by the time we were leaving and was looking forward to starting class!

Happy Birthday to Mom!

2011-08-30T13:16:00.001-07:00

I had a great 29th birthday last week! When I was pregnant last summer with Cooper, people kept saying, "Oh, maybe she'll come on your birthday!" And I would say, "No, I think I want to keep that day for myself!" :) She did decide to wait a week, and we are very excited about celebrating her on Wednesday and this weekend.

Randy and the girls spoiled me for my birthday! Last weekend, we went to Pearland for a family date at Lupe Tortilla, Barnes and Noble, the party store, and Starbucks. On Saturday before my birthday on Wednesday I came home from taking my principal's exam in Beaumont to this:

a present for each day of the week leading up to my birthday! Randy had not only kept both girls by himself Friday night and Saturday, but he also took them shopping and planned out a fun birthday week for me! I got to open a present on Saturday and then every day leading up to Wednesday. They were all little, thoughtful gifts, and my favorite was the last one: a book called "29 Reasons We Love You For Your 29th Birthday!" Randy sat down with Kendall and asked her why she loved me, why Cooper loved me, and put reasons in there from him, too! It is so precious. Some of my favorites are:

4. You love that I am Cinderella - Kendall

7. You pack my food for dinner - Kendall

10. Cooper loves her momma best in the world - Cooper (from Kendall)

11. You put us first - Daddy

13. You hold babies - Kendall

15. You make me feel special - Cooper (from Daddy)

19. You make cookies and pudding with me - Kendall

23. We go to Wal-Mart - Kendall

25. You feed me a lot - Cooper (from Daddy)

26. You teach us about Jesus - Daddy

I love my book so much!! And I'm so thankful for how Randy made me feel special on my birthday.

Kendall and Cooper - someday when you are big and you are looking for a husband, you need to find someone that treats you just like your daddy treats me! He makes me feel so special and loved and he does so much to help take care of both of you! Don't settle for anything less!

On Wednesday Randy watched the girls while I went to have lunch with Jan, we ate dinner at home, and then he surprised me again by having arranged a sitter so we could go get coffee and dessert at a new coffee shop in town! Fun! The girls were dressed so cute that day, so I tried to take their pictures...but you know how that goes....

Oh the faces...

Then, on Thursday night after my birthday, we had the Johnsons, Erskines, Sanders, and Mitterlings over for dinner, cake, and ice cream. We cooked roast (my favorite) and Randy and Kendall made a wonderful strawberry cake with strawberry icing. Randy decorated it with real strawberries on top and it was so pretty, but I never got a picture!

After dinner the kids were a little wound up, and I got some pictures of them playing Ring Around The Rosie. :)

I had a great long week of birthday celebrations! It for sure did not get lost in the shuffle of Cooper's birthday!! We have been working hard getting ready for that though and I can't wait to post pictures of her party this weekend!

Target Date

2011-08-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

You never know what's going to happen on a date to Target! :)

Puppet Show

2011-08-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had to drive to Beaumont to take my principal's exam. Since I would be driving all that way by myself, the four of us stopped at the library so I could get a book on CD. While I was picking one out, Randy took the girls to the children's area and Kendall put on a puppet show. It is so cute! She says
"Hello, I'm Kangaroo and Puppy! And I'm here...we're here to say this: A, B, C, D..."

End of summer beach days

2011-08-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

We have enjoyed a few more days at the beach this last week before we think about getting ready for fall. I know we will still come some until it gets cooler, but Kendall starts school next week, so we probably won't be able to come as much each week.
Last week I braved taking both girls by myself. Our plans with friends fell through and she was already so excited to go, so I packed us up and we went out there for lunch and to play! The girls both did great and at one point, I even thought I might could have brought a book! They both played together and by themselves and we all just had a blast.

The rest of these pictures are from a beach baptism we had last Sunday night. After the girls' naps, we went out as a family, watched Daddy baptize some people, and then played for awhile.

I love these sweet little beach bums!

Birthday Date!

2011-08-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Randy took me and the girls up to Pearland for a birthday date for me and celebration for passing my first principal's exam! We went to eat at the best mexican restaurant, Lupe Tortilla. They really have the best flour tortillas - they are bigger than your head! Then we went to the party store to get some things for Cooper's birthday party. You would have thought Kendall was in Disney World. She was so excited to be in that store and thought everything was just the best thing ever. She cracked us up running up and down the aisles admiring everything! So funny. At one point, we had her stop so we could take her picture - she had collected this birthday princess hat, pink ring and balloon holder that she honestly thought was just the most beautiful thing ever. :)

After we were able to tear her away from that store (we were able to get out of there with only the things we needed for the party and the birthday princess crown) we went to Barnes and Noble to look for Cooper's birthday book. Kendall wore her new crown into the store and a lady stopped and said, "Oh, is it your birthday?? Happy birthday!!" Kendall looked so confused and told her that it is Mommy's birthday and then Cooper's. Come on lady - don't you know sometimes you just wear a pink and purple birthday princess crown because you just love it??

She had fun looking at all the books in the children's section and at one point Randy and I looked over and saw this. She had picked out a couple of books and just gone off by herself to sit and read. She is so cute and funny! We never have a dull moment! I loved my birthday/celebration date with my sweet family!

Hair cut

2011-08-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh!! Kendall cut her own hair for the first time this week! One morning this week while Cooper was napping, Kendall and I sat down at the kitchen table to work on some decorations for Cooper's birthday party. I was doing a lot of cutting with scissors, and Kendall was interested, so I thought it would be a good chance for her to practice using scissors, which we haven't really done a lot of. I got her a little pair and she had so much fun cutting up my scraps of paper. She was really doing well, too! Close to when we were going to be finished, she was holding the scissors and she said, "I'm going to cut my hair!" She sounded like she was just playing, but still, I said, "No, you don't need to cut your hair!" She said, "Yes, I'm just going to put the scissors right here (putting them to her head) and cut (cutting!!)" She said it so playfully and not defiantly at all....I really think she didn't really know she was going to for real cut it! But before I could say or do anything, I could hear hair being cut! AHHH!!! I reached up for her hair and big chunks started coming out! She was shocked and a little upset, so I didn't get mad - I just told her that we do NOT cut hair and we were going to go ahead and put the scissors away for awhile. Oh. my. After I gathered up all the hair, I took her to the bathroom and showed her what happened. She was so surprised that she had done that! She has a few short hairs now over her right ear! I am totally laughing about it now, but it was just one of those moments where you feel like everything is going in slow motion and you can't stop it fast enough! Ha!

The Carnivore!

2011-08-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend our church had a Preschool Extravaganza for preschoolers and their parents. Kendall has been so excited about it, ever since we got our ticket in the mail. We talked a lot about what we would do at the carnival (or "carnivore" as she said a lot) and she was super excited to go on Saturday morning!
Our children's ministry staff did such a great job putting on a fun event for families. Kendall was a little overwhelmed when we first walked in but she warmed up pretty quickly!
There were tons of fun little carnival games that were perfect for her age group. Fishing,

picking out ducks,

eating popcorn,

and bowling were some of her favorite things we did.

Cooper loved playing in the ball pits and she kept this ball with her as we went around to the different games.

She even got to play Plinko!

There was a cupcake walk and the first time Kendall and I played, we won! She was very proud of her cupcake and couldn't wait to go home so she could eat it!

Love these girls! Love Coop's little head poking up in the back!

We came back to the ball pit several times so Coop could play. :)

Lots of families came out to play and the event was a big success!

Biggest news of the day: Kendall bounced in a bounce house for the first time EVER! Anytime we go to parties or events that have bounce houses, she is not even the least bit interested. She says that she is scared of them and has never wanted to bounce - it doesn't even matter if it's a smaller one like this. But today for some reason....who knows??...she decided she was ready! She just climbed right on in and started bouncing! We were so proud and happy that she finally got to experience the greatness of bouncing!

She crawled in so fast we didn't have time to get her sucker away from her! We got it from her before she started bouncing, though! So glad she had fun doing this!

Cooper enjoyed her sucker while she was in the bounce house.

We had such a good morning hanging out together as a family and with our friends at church! We are thankful for an awesome children's ministry that makes it a priority to take care of our whole family!

Splish splash!

2011-08-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

One day this past week we filled up the princess pool for the girls to play in!
Cooper wasn't too much of a fan - I think I should have filled it up earlier in the day and let the sun warm the water up!

Love fun nights at home!

Out for a walk!

2011-08-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Even though walks with these two girls don't really count as exercise because we stop every three steps, I love love love them!!

Usually when I take both of them on a walk these days, I push Cooper in the stroller and Kendall rides her tricycle. We walk one time around our block, checking out all the flowers, unusual sights, listening to the birds, and making our way to the waterfall...a water feature at the house on the corner. This is Kendall's favorite part! I love going on these adventures with them!

Cow Creek 2011

2011-08-13T20:15:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we made our annual trip out to Aaron's family's place at Cow Creek! We have been each summer for three years now and we love it every time! This year we had a committment on Thursday night, so we left early Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. It was just our family, the Beams, and the Sanders. Smaller crew, but we still had a blast and the kids loved it.

Something about having two kids makes me take less pictures (ha!) so I hardly have any from our time there this year! Friday we got there after lunch, and even though it was naptime, Kendall was ready to go get in the creek! Randy sacrificed and stayed up in the cabin with Cooper while she napped and Holly, Stephanie, and I went down to the creek with the kids. I think Jason and Aaron were also up helping Ran watch Cooper...napping. :)

The creek was super low this year, but it actually made it better for walking down there and then sitting out in the middle on a sandbar. Kendall was totally my child this year and didn't really want her feet to touch the bottom. :) She eventually warmed up to it though and started playing.

We did a lot of eating in the two days we were there! Here are Kendall and Cooper eating a popsicle!

Cooper loves Holly! So thankful for sweet friends who love our kids!
We ate dinner Friday night and then put a movie on and let the kids watch that together while we stayed up late talking. Love those times! We laugh a lot and just enjoy hanging out!
Saturday morning was our turn to cook - Randy made chocolate chip pancakes, I made eggs, and Holly made bacon. The pancakes were a hit! After breakfast we went down to the creek and played more. Cooper and Randy came down to the creek this time!

We ate lunch and then cleaned up, packed up, and took a picture of the kids before we left!

Ella, Aubrey, Ethan, Lawson, Brynlee, Cooper and Kendall!

We love Cow Creek weekends! So thankful for sweet friends and relaxing days together as a family.

Kendall in Longview

2011-08-11T14:10:00.002-07:00

I took a few extra pictures of Kendall when we were in Longview that I didn't put in the other post. She had so much fun with Kate and is still talking about wanting to play with Kate and Baby Hannah!
She loved getting in Kate's bed with her every night when Amy was reading to her before bed. I love these next two pictures of Kate..ha!

You can also see in these pictures that we are still in pull-ups for naptime and bedtime. ugh. We are tired of pull-ups. Sometimes she will wake up from her nap dry but she is never dry after going all night. Not real sure how we're going to change this! I don't know how you teach them to not tinkle when they are sleeping!

The girls also loved sitting on the couch together and watching Curious George. Love this picture!

David is a home builder and he built the house that they are living in now. He is also currently building one right next door, and Kendall thought that was very neat. She loved to go outside and watch the "workers" working on building the house.

Friday afternoon the girls made cookies with Amy! No matter what we were doing when we were in college, if we were at Amy and Courtney's house, Amy was always up baking or cooking something. Glad she is continuing the tradition! :)

Pictures from the splash pad on Friday night!

So glad we got to hang out with the Mitchells!! Can't wait to have everyone back next year!

Bandit Reunion 2011

2011-08-11T14:10:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago we had our annual college friends reunion!! Every year we get together with the Vests and the Mitchells, Michelle when she's not in Africa and sometimes Alden and Scott. We were all great friends when we were at A&M - Michelle and I were roommates and Amy and Courtney were roommates - and I love that we still get together to hang out every year even though we are spread across the state now!
This year was a little quieter than normal though. Courtney and Trent are expecting again and Courtney has just been too sick to travel. Trent had an unplanned, last minute football camp to go to the weekend we were meeting, so they had to skip out this year. We missed them a bunch but can't wait to see that sweet new (boy??) in January! And, like last year, Michelle is in Mali doing awesome awesome things and we miss her terribly! We're hoping for an extra big 2012 reunion with everyone back!
Randy, Cooper, Kendall and I drove up to Longview to spend the weekend with just Amy, David, Kate and Hannah, though, and we had a great time! This was our first time to get to meet Baby Hannah and their first time to meet Cooper! Hannah is just a few months younger than Coop, so they had a good time doing baby things together.

We swam a bunch over at David's parents' house in their pool. They have a great walk-in beach area and when Cooper was in her float, her feet touched and she just walked all around! She loved the freedom! Here she is hanging out with Kate.

Love those sweet little feet sticking out of the bottom!

One night at dinner, had finished feeding the babies and were cleaning up, but they were still wanting more food, so we gave them some puffs....yes...on the floor. We're awesome like that. The little girls shared...

...and then the big girls decided to get in on it. With a little help from Kendall, who poured more puffs out when they were all gone.

Randy said this video reminds him of those little wooden toys where you pull the strings and there are chickens on the end all pecking at the kernals of corn. Are you with me? Not sure what those toys are called. :) We have cute little chickens.

We enjoyed just spending a lot of time hanging out and not doing a whole lot. Kendall loved playing with Kate's toys and Cooper loved sharing Hannah's toys! Amy and David moved into a new house (that David built!) right before Hannah was born, so we loved getting to see their new place!

Friday afternoon, Amy made cookies with the big girls. She even had them put a stick in it and then they got to decorate them and eat them like suckers! What a great idea!

Friday night after we ate dinner at Randy's favorite Longview place - Big Dave's Barbque home of the Hot Pucker - we went to a park that had a splash pad and fun playground. Cooper and Hannah enjoyed swinging next to each other.

We also tried to take some family pictures, but you know how that goes these days! Amy put Kate with Cooper and Kendall with Hannah though and got some cute pictures of the girls at least.

And of course we lost Kendall when we tried to take a family picture. So here is Mom, Dad, and Cooper....

...and then Mom, Dad, Cooper and a not-too-happy Kendall. Why must a family picture be so hard??

Amy and David, we had a great time and are so thankful for your hospitality! We love getting to see you guys, even if it's just once a year. Already excited for next year! Courtney - stop getting pregnant! :) And Michelle - come home already! We miss you so much! Love you girls!!!

Summer School!

2011-08-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

This summer, I have been trying to be super intentional about how I spend my time with Kendall in the mornings when Cooper is napping. She is so great about sharing and spending time with Cooper and she rarely gets frustrated with her, so I have wanted to make sure and really take advantage of being able to give her all my attention while Cooper is asleep.

I told Kendall at the first of the summer that we were going to start "playing school." She loved that idea. She totally thinks it is a game we play - she packs her backpack, "drives" to school, and comes in and sits at her table with me, her teacher. :) Then when she is finished, she tells me goodbye and drives back home. Sometimes she is finished after about ten minutes, sometimes it's longer, when I tell her we're done for the day. I have been trying to be super casual and easy-going about it because I don't want her to get frustrated or not enjoy what we are doing.

The main things we have been working on are letter id, letter sounds, numbers, and writing. I bought a great workbook at an office supply store at the beginning of the summer and we have been working through it. It started out just having her practice tracing lines, preparing her for tracing letters. She does a really good job of taking her time and staying on the lines, and holds her pencil well. We also have a set of flashcards that we have been using to practice id and sounds, and she almost has all of them down!

I think one of her favorite things we have done has been to label things around her room. She picks something out, and I have her help me sound out the word and I write it on an index card. Then I put tape on it and she gets to go put it on whatever the word is. (This was very hard for me at first...the letting her go tape the word on...she does it a little crooked. But she is so proud of getting to do that part, so I have resisted the urge to come behind her and fix them. Aren't you impressed?) I need to take pictures of her room right now with all the words, but she loves them. We have labeled what is in her drawers, her books, lamp, closet, wall, window, chair, and lots more. I know these aren't words she will be able to read any time soon, but I think just having more print around is good for her. And one day when we were working on her letter flash cards, we got to "W" and she looked over at her sign that says "wall" and then said "w." So I can at least tell she is making connections!

Sometimes when we are playing school, we go to "Chapel with Mrs. Wendy." Mrs. Wendy is her for real chapel teacher at school, and so for this part we walk to mine and Randy's bedroom like she is in a line of kids and when she gets there I all of the sudden become Mrs. Wendy and I tell her a story from one of her children's Bibles. We read the story and then I ask her some questions about it, we sing some songs, and then we go back to "class" in her room.

This is another one of her favorite things to do - ABC Bingo. I spin and she tells me what letter we landed on and then she gets to see if she has it on her board. So fun! And great practice!

We have also done puzzles, colored, and she has been tracing over her name and other words we've been practicing. We work with her letter magnets on the fridge some, putting them in order, and she loves listening to her CD books too.

Today while Cooper was asleep we played outside some. (So thankful that our driveway is shaded! We weren't out there long...) She wanted to play with chalk, so I told her to practice writing her name, which she loved. She is getting so much better! Then I taught her how to play hop-scotch. We had never done that before, but she was so loving it and it even gave us a chance to practice her numbers!

She's not really so great about hopping in the one square with only one foot...but we'll get there.

So proud of her name!

And here are a couple of videos. The first one is of her counting and doing hop-scotch, and then the second one is her showing off the names of the people in our family.

Sorry for the super long post! I have been meaning to write some about what she's been learning lately, but just finally got around to it. I think it is just one of the most fun things of my whole life to get to teach Kendall, take advantage of teachable moments, and watch her learn new things. I never knew it was going to be this much fun!!!

Gergie stories

2011-08-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to be better about writing on here the random funny things Kendall says throughout the day. Randy and I just laugh at her all day long - we think everything she says and does is funny. For instance, just today at lunch Randy was messing around with Kendall and playing with her, then he went to make his lunch and Kendall got back in her chair. She was looking at Cooper and playing and talking to her and she said, "Cooper, your daddy is so silly!" So funny!

Just recently she has said some funny things about Greg Johnson - "Gergie" - that I haven't written down yet. I think I put them on facebook, but I never blogged about them and I wanted to remember what she said. Greg is currently a journeyman with the IMB in Brazil. She loved him so much before he left and has been missing him a lot. She calls him Gergie because when he graduated from A&M and moved back to LJ, she was 2 and people with the same name really confused her. Our pastor's name is Greg, so we asked Greg J what he wanted to be called and he said "Gergie." So that's who he is. :)

We're still not sure why she was so stuck on this, but for the longest time she would say to us in the most pitiful voice, "Mom, I'm so sad because I miss my Gergie." We would tell her we were sorry and that it was ok, he would be back, all of that. Finally we honestly got a little tired of it. It was - no lie - at least once a day. Every day. Sometimes more. So we started telling her, "Kendall, it is totally ok for you to miss Gergie. But you can't be sad. Gergie is doing what God wants him to do. He is telling children and mommies and daddies in Brazil that Jesus loves them. We are glad that Gergie is doing that. So you can miss him, but you need to not be sad because we want him to do what God wants him to do." She seemed to really get this. Now this is what we hear (and not quite as often these days): "Mom, you know what? I am happy because I miss my Gergie!!" So funny. Guess she got it!

So a few weeks after that conversation, we were watching Mulan. She loves Mulan. In the beginning when Mulan goes to see the matchmaker lady things go wrong and the "mean lady" gets mad and tells Mulan to go away. One day Kendall was watching that part and she said, "Dad, why is that lady so mean to Mulan?" Randy said, "Well, Kendall, I don't know! She must just not know how to be nice." Kendall said, "Why Dad? Because she doesn't know Jesus loves her?" Randy said, "Well, yeah, I guess." Kendall said, "Because Gergie hasn't told her?" Randy said, "Yeah, probably that!" Then Kendall said, "Why hasn't he told her yet Dad? Cause she's in the t.v.?" Oh my gosh!!! We were cracking up. "cause she's in the tv??" Hil.ar.i.ous!

On a little more serious note....Kendall started associating Gergie with being the one that needed to tell them Jesus loves them. So we have started to talk to her some about how we can tell people that Jesus loves them in Lake Jackson! I love how this is so new and just coming alive to her. And she just sees it as something so practical and like, why wouldn't we do that?? Not real sure I ever thought these were the conversations I would have with my 3 year old, but I'll take them as they come and I will learn so much about our calling as Christ-followers - even through Kendall!

Slumber Party with Gracie!

2011-08-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Our last night in Ft. Worth Kendall went over to Gracie and Evy's to spend the night! The girls had so much fun. Cooper and I came too for a little while to swim and have dinner. Kendall was excited to swim, but right when we got there she quickly got busy playing with all of the girls' toys! We swam for a little bit and then had dinner, and then Cooper and I left and the slumber party began! Val took these pictures on her IPhone, so they aren't super clear, but we are so thankful that they had Kendall over and took such good care of her!
Of course the girls had to switch pajamas! I think this gown is one of Gracie's new favorites, but for this night she let Kendall wear it and she wore Kendall's.

Brushing their teeth! I love seeing how Gracie looks up to her big cousin!

They both slept on a pallet on the floor in Gracie's room. So cute!

Once they finally fell asleep they slept all night!

The next morning, Val and Jeff took Kendall, Gracie, and Evy to Splash Day at their church. Apparently their favorite part was fishing for ducks in this little pool. The rest of it was not so much their favorite.

After they played for awhile at Splash Day, they met Mom, me and Cooper at Taco Bueno! We ate lunch and then got on the road to come home to Lake Jackson. We were so glad that Kendall got to have a slumber party with Gracie and that they had so much fun!! Thanks Val and Jeff!!

Baby Hudson!

2011-07-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

When we were in Ft. Worth last week we got to see the newest Lester!! Hudson was born on Saturday morning, July 16th. He is so precious!
When I was driving up Friday, I knew Joy was close to being ready to have him. I almost texted her and said, "Ok! I'm in Ft. Worth! He can come this week!" He ended up coming that night and we went to the hospital Sunday morning to see him.

Kendall was SO interested in him. She just kept wanting to rub his hair. Sweet girl.

This was their first time to meet Cooper, too! She was all smiles for Brett.

Kendall really really wanted to sit on the bed next to Joy and help her with Hudson. She did a great job of being gentle and moving slow! Look at how great Joy looks! We are just so happy for them all!

I love how Kendall is looking at Katie in this picture. We love Mallory and Katie so much and can't believe how big they have gotten. They are going to be great big sisters for Hudson!

Thanks for letting us stop by Brett and Joy! We love you and are praising God with you for a sweet new baby boy!! Kendall is still talking about Baby Hudson and asking to see him - hopefully we can see you soon!