Snow in Ft. Worth!

On the Thursday before we drove up Friday, Ft. Worth had record snow! Friday morning when they woke up, there was 12 inches on the ground! The previous record for the DFW area was only 7.5 inches! It was so pretty! We were excited that we got to be up there to see it and play in it! Kendall is going to think that it always snows in Ft. Worth! When she was there at Christmas while we were in Cambodia it snowed, too!
Here is a picture my dad took of his pool and his driveway before the snow had even finished falling. So pretty!

Saturday morning we got up and went to play outside in it. We got to build a snowman. Kendall had been talking all day Friday about building a snowman - we kept seeing them everywhere - but when it came down to it, she didn't really want to be outside. She either wanted to be on the porch or held by one of us!

Randy started building the snowman, but wasn't doing a great job. I had to step in and show him how it is done. :)

Where she preferred to be:

I set her down at first to see what she thought. She wasn't impressed with how deep it was...

Kendall loves her Granny!

Birthday Videos

This first video is of the first time we sang "Happy Day Kengal." She was so excited to blow those candles out!

Here she is offering Gracie some ice cream.

And here she is counting her money that she puts in her new piggy bank. She can count from one to nineteen in order, but lately she has been saying sequences of numbers out of order, just however she feels like they should go. It makes us laugh.

The other day she was counting money and she got up to 16. She kept going, but then she dropped a coin, so she said "16, 17, 18, uh-oh teen!" Randy has decided he wants to teach her that "uh-oh teen" is a real number. I told him he could teach her "white switch" instead of "light switch" but I don't think I'm going for this one. :)

2nd 2nd Birthday Party!

Friday we drove to Ft. Worth so we would be in town Saturday to celebrate Gracie's first birthday. Since we were coming up so close to Kendall's birthday, we had a party for her with our families on Friday night. Kendall was very excited about it and talked all week about "Happy Day Kengal" and practiced blowing out her candles.
It was so nice to see all of our family. Everyone helped out with the party - Mom and David got Kendall's cake, Gigi and Peeps got her balloons, and Pops and Kiki brought ice cream and ice for the drinks. It was nice to be able to pull into town right before the party and not have to worry about anything. Val and Dohe even ran by the store for us for some drinks and forks! Our trip up was a little slower than usual because it was our first trip potty trained. Kendall did great though, and even though we had a few false alarms, we had no accidents going up or coming back!
Kendall's cake was precious. I think Aunt Auggie got some better pictures of just the cake, but it was so cute and Kendall loved it. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, she enjoyed sticking her finger in the icing and licking it. She would even give you some if you asked!


Of course she loved getting to sing Happy Birthday and blow out her candles again! She kept trying to blow after every phrase of the song, but didn't get them all the way blown out until the end. She just loves doing that! Thank goodness Granny and Papas got her the Melissa and Doug Birthday Cake - she has been playing with it a ton and singing the song over and over again and then blowing out the candles. Today she wanted to play with it and needed me to get it down for her, so she ran up to me and said, "Mommy! Happy Day Kengal!" Look at how red her face is in this picture! She was blowing so hard!
Here she was asking her cousin Gracie if she wanted some ice cream. I've got a few videos I'll load later and one of them is her talking to Gracie and feeding her. Such a good BIG cousin!

We loved seeing all our family. We don't get to see everyone every time we are up there, so it was great to be able to see everyone at once!

Granny and Papas got Kendall a piggy bank! She has been very into "Kengal's Money" lately, and when she opened a whole baggie of coins from her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa, she was over the moon!

Brenda and Wayne got her a princess puzzle and a raincoat. So cute!

I don't have pictures of everything that she got, but she really got a lot of great presents - some toys and things to play with, but a lot of great summer and spring clothes she can wear soon. Mom liked that! Thanks family for celebrating Kendall's birthday with us! It was a great party!

Parnie

Kendall has been doing so great using the potty! She wears panties all the time now...has no accidents...and only sleeps in diapers. She sometimes even goes all by herself - she tells us she needs to go and we get up to help her and she says, "No, Kengal do it." She can pull her panties down by herself and just sits right down and goes! Two weeks ago I made a pan of brownies for a dinner we had, so ever since then, if she goes Number Two, she gets a brownie, because that is a bigger deal than just an M&M or fruit snack, which she gets for tinkling. So now, every time she finishes going to the potty, she says, "I wanna parnie!" She doesn't say brownie - it's "parnie!" We just love that. I have now run out of parnies and we're on to cookies. But parnies are still her favorite!

Happy Birthday Kendall!

Happy 2nd Birthday, sweet girl! We can't believe it's been two whole years since we got to see you for the first time! You bring us so much joy every day and we love seeing all the new things you are learning. You are so smart and so funny and we laugh so much at our house! Soon you will be a big sister and we think you are going to be great at it!!

Here is how we spent your second birthday!

Wednesday night after dinner we made cookies to take to your class to help celebrate your birthday. You had so much fun putting them on the cookie sheet with Daddy and then watching them bake.

No, it was not warm outside. You got this cute summer outfit from Sarah Grace and when I tried it on you that morning to see if it fit, you didn't want to take it off! I think your favorite part was the pockets on the front of the skirt. When you got fruit snacks when you pottied you kept putting them in your pockets. :)

I love those little feet folded up under you!

Thursday morning when you got to school, there was a present for you: your teacher Mrs. Lindsey got you some new Minnie Mouse panties! You were pretty excited. You made us take your elmo panties off that you had on and put on some of your new ones. Mrs. Lindsey said that several times that morning when she took you to the potty you saw your new panties and gave her a big hug!

I got to come to your class and be there when you and your friends had your birthday cookies. Your friends sang "Happy Birthday" to you and of course you pretended to blow out the candles - even though you didn't have any today!

You sat next to Connor at lunch and ate your cookies together. You just love that Connor! In this picture you were telling me you had "cookies!!"

After school we went home and you took a nap. I had to wake you up early though because later that afternoon we went to see Dr. B for your 2 year check-up! Here you are in the waiting room drinking your juice.

You did NOT like seeing Dr. B. You didn't talk to him at all and sat in my lap the whole time. He checked you out though and said everything looks great! You already have your 2 year molars and we didn't even know! You weigh 32 pounds, which is still above the 95th percentile, and you are 36 inches tall, which is also still above the 95th percentile! Still a big girl! Dr. B was impressed that you are already potty trained - he told me to enjoy no diapers for a few more months! He was excited to learn that you are going to be a big sister and can't wait to meet your new baby.

You did have to get a shot and you didn't like that. But, when we left you got a Mickey Mouse sticker and that made you happy! You told me to put it on your leg, and I thought that was weird, but I did it because you were so sad.

So when we got in the car, you showed me your Mickey Mouse sticker and your bandaid where you got your shot. You were already better by then!

We went home and met Daddy and you got to go to "Chick-a-lay" for dinner! You kept telling me the whole way home that you wanted to eat that, so we had to go! You didn't eat much, but you did get to have some birthday...

...ice cream!!

After we got home, I had to go to church and get ready for our women's retreat this weekend, so you got to spend the evening just you and Daddy. What a good end to a great day!!

We love you precious girl! Happy Birthday!!

1st 2nd Birthday Party!

We really can't believe it, but Kendall will be two on Thursday! She has been very into birthdays lately, because several friends have had parties. We've been telling her that her birthday was coming up, and she has been saying a lot that she will be two! She's also been practicing blowing out her candles a bunch - more on that later.
We are going up to Ft. Worth in 2 weeks to celebrate Gracie's first birthday, so when we go we are going to have a party there with Kendall's grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts and uncles. But we also wanted to celebrate with a few of her friends here in Lake Jackson, so last night we had a small party here at the house for her 2nd birthday! Kevin, Jan, and Greg came, as well as the Mitterlings and the Sanders. Kendall was super excited about it and talked about it all week!
I decided we should have a Sesame Street party, because Kendall has been so into that lately. I made a funfetti cake and when Randy got home from work, he decorated it to look like Elmo! Didn't he do a great job! I was so impressed.

Notice Kendall climbing up in the chair. She wanted to eat cake and ice cream from the minute she woke up and we had a hard time making her wait!

Ethan, Kendall, and Sarah played "Ring Around The Rosie." A lot.

"All fall down!"

Checking out her presents!

She opened her presents in her Elmo chair! She got a purse from Greg and Jeff, a Courderoy book and bear from Kevin and Jan, some cute summer clothes and bows from Sarah, and...

...a fish from Ethan! Ethan has fish at his house, and Holly told Kendall she would get her one. Kendall was so excited. They went to put the fish in the bowl and Randy spilled almost all the water from the fish's bag on his shorts and on the floor.

He thought "No big deal, I'll just add some water from the sink!" Not a good idea. The fish died before the party was over!

Kendall loved her fish. She didn't know later on that it had died and before she went to bed, she said "I wanna look" and climbed up on the couch to see her fish. She kept saying, "where?" and we just told her it was in the plant. After she went to bed (she had to take her new purse with her) Randy went to Wal Mart and got two new fish....AND the treatment drops. Those two fish are still alive this morning. Kendall didn't seem to notice that there was only one fish last night and there are two today. We decided to name them "Oooo" and "Ahhh." Except Kendall has been calling them "Ooo ooo" and "Ahh."

Before she left, Sarah decided that she wanted to try using Kendall's potty. Kendall sat in front of her and they read books and talked. So funny! They are such good friends.

And last but not least, some videos of Kendall blowing out her candles. She would NOT wait until the end of the song. I would light the candles and she would immediately blow them out! It's been so much fun to see her get into her birthday this year and really understand what's going on!

Fun weekend!

We had a great weekend to wrap up January! For some reason I can't move my pictures around, so they're a little out of order. But they're still of the cutest girl!

It has been pretty cold down here! We've been able to have a fire in the fireplace a lot and Kendall and I love it (and Molly, too)! One morning this weekend she found her hat, put it on, and sat down in front of the fire to read her book. Don't be scared - she's not as tough as she looks!

Thursday night at small group, Kendall had a great time playing with her friends. She loves when they all come over on Thursdays. This week I was able to get her bathed and ready for bed before they came over, so she was already in her pajamas.

She played a bunch Thursday with Michael, Noelle, and Jeff. She was very interested in his gotee this week.

At one point she was sitting next to Jeff and just reached up and started playing with his chin. She's done that to Randy before, but never to anyone else. So funny!

We were so excited that my mom and David came down to visit us this weekend. They got here Friday night and were able to hang out with Kendall while we went to a banquet. Saturday we went to Ella's 1st birthday party! She got a pink and purple car and Kendall spent most of the party inside the car. She did let Ella get in with her at one point.

And then she gave her lots of birthday kisses. :)

Kendall and Sarah sat at the counter together and ate their cupcakes. Actually, Kendall ate her icing. A lot of icing.

Here is a picture that Mom sent me while we were at the banquet Friday night. Kendall was wearing Papas' boots!

This last picture was taken Saturday morning after we had just woken up. I am a little embarrassed, but I think Kendall's face is super cute, so I had to post it. I love that little munchkin!!!

We had a very relaxing and fun weekend with Granny and Papas! Thanks for coming down to see us, guys! It was a blast! We'll see you in a couple of weeks for Kendall's birthday!