Kelsey's first recital

Kelsey's first recital has come and gone, we were SO busy preparing for it!  There were extra rehearsals, picture days, tons of emails with schedules for everything!  I guess I'd never really thought of all the work that goes into recitals, and Kelsey's only in one class, I can't imagine how it's going to be when she's in multiple dance classes!  But it was so worth it!  The minute the first group of girls came on stage (which were older girls) I had tears in my eyes...I was just thinking about how much work these girls put into their dances and how proud their parents must be and I couldn't help myself!  Kelsey goes to a smaller dance studio which was opened 5 years ago by a woman (Miss Melissa) younger than me (so she's 17!) and she just has so much love and pride for her studio and her girls...I'm so happy we chose this studio for Kelsey.  There were several times during the show that Miss Melissa was choked up, of course I can't let anyone cry alone, so I spent most of the recital with tears in my eyes but I loved it.  Kelsey's class was SO cute, they were a little distracted being on stage so their routine kind of got thrown out the window but they were adorable!  My parents came, along with my two grandmothers and my grandfather.  Kelsey's sitter, Dale, was there to watch her dance too, she was sitting in the second row, Kelsey saw her while dancing and that made her day...Kelsey loves her Dale!  We had a great day, can't wait til next year!


Kelsey and her buddy Gabriella on picture day




Kelsey's dance class after their big dance!




Flowers for the dancer!



Zoo it to it!

Our family received a wonderful Christmas gift from Grandma Vickers this year.  She gave us memberships to the Family Museum, Niabi Zoo, Putnam Museum, and the IMAX.  We put the Family Museum membership to use a lot during the spring, I would pick up Kelsey's buddy Camryn from Dale's house and take the girls and Brady to the museum for a few hours and everyone always had a great time.  I couldn't wait til the weather got nice enough for us to go to the zoo and it FINALLY has!  We've already headed over to the zoo a couple times and the kids love it!

DIVA!  I also have to add that I was proud of myself
 for hauling 2 kids and the diaper bag onto the train by myself
while also managing to find the camera and take a picture!




Checking out the giraffes!




I had no idea that giraffes lay down!  Hmmm,
 you learn something new every day!




I just knew that with all these beautiful flowers and my fancy
camera I would be able to take a wonderful picture of my littles. 
Ummm, yeah...not so much...
So I thought I'd take a picture next time I was there, we went
exactly 6 days later and all the tulips were dead but one. 
SERIOUSLY?!?!  Oh well....

 We had SO much fun in the petting zoo!  Who doesn't like feeding goats???  Kelsey LOVED it...she was giggling so hard that everyone around us was laughing and watching her!  I could've stayed there all day watching my girl feed those crazy goats!


This goat ate probably 95% of our feed...what a hog!!




Look at that piggy goat Mommy!



Back for more!

 Of course we had to do the pony rides too!

Yeeeeeeehhhaaaaaawwwwww!!!!!!!!!!

We dragged my friend Jenny along with us another day and she was nice enough to ride the carousel with Kelsey.  She informed me after riding that I should be glad I didn't ride with Kelsey...the carousel spun a bit too fast!  Thanks Jenny!!


Hi Mommy!!





Easter Shenanigans

Easter weekend was pretty busy for us but it was a lot of fun!  Friday night, being the organized "with it" mother that I am, I realized that we hadn't dyed eggs yet and that night would be the only night we would be able to get them done before Sunday!  Oops!  Of course, since I love to plan ahead and be prepared I also did not have dye or eggs so I had to run to the store around 7 for the supplies.  I hate to add that on my way home I remembered that I didn't buy vinegar...I tried to avoid the busy grocery store and went to Walgreens...of course, no vinegar, so I had to go to the grocery store anyway...oh yeah and did I mention it was pouring rain the entire time?!?!  And, wouldn't you know it, I am such a domestic goddess that I have also never boiled an egg before so we had to google how to do that!  Don't judge me!!  So needless to say...Kelsey didn't get around to dying eggs until close to 10!  I know, I know, my votes for Mother of the Year are piling up!  But, Kelsey didn't mind the late night egg coloring and had a great time!

Ready to color some eggs!  Why are you in
your jammies Kels?  Oh...right...

I didn't even get the good dye kit with stickers
or anything...just one boring crayon! 
The Easter bunny probably wants to fire me!!

One of the eggs broke while coloring, this
was Kelsey's face after she tried it!

All done and ready for the bunny! 
Now get that girl to bed!!!

Saturday was a big birthday bash for my grandpa's 80th birthday...yes we've already celebrated it once, but we tend to go overboard on birthdays in our family, plus he turned 80!!!!  All of my mom's brothers and sisters came in town to celebrate so it was great to see everyone.  The big tragedy of the day was that somehow between the VFW where my grandpa's party was, and my parents' house where the after party was, Kelsey lost her favorite toys!  She had a cute little dog purse that she named Walker and slept with every night and some smaller dogs that she played with ALL THE TIME (I believe there were 5 of them and they even had beds on her nightstand where they slept every night).  We searched everywhere at my parents' house and on Monday I called the VFW...no dogs.  So hopefully they turn up, but it's not looking good.

Sunday morning Kelsey was up bright and early, ready to check out what the Easter Bunny left for her.  She approved!



Easter Bunny loot!



Checking out the goods!

Looking for eggs

Brady was supervising with Daddy

Then it was off to Aunt Connie's for Easter dinner and hunting for more eggs!  It was so funny...while looking for eggs, my grandma and Brian kept sneaking eggs out of Kelsey's basket and re-hiding them.  We were joking that there were 10 eggs and Kelsey found 30...but she didn't know any better and had a great time!

FINALLY got a good picture of them together!

And then, this happened!! 
But luckily, for whatever reason, Kelsey
thinks its hilarious when he pulls her hair!

Hunting



Kelsey and her cousins




Brady and his cousin Kaitlyn...we
wish Kaitlyn and Bailey lived closer! 
They make amazing babysitters!



Big boy food for Brady boy!!

Brady has been eating baby food for a few weeks now and does pretty good with it!  I was a bit nervous that he wouldn't do too well...he was TERRIBLE at eating his cereal, he usually just pushed it all out of his mouth with his tongue so it was nice when it was time to feed him baby food and we could quit the cereal.  Pretty sure we are still supposed to be giving him cereal but you can tell he doesn't like it (can you blame him?) and makes such a huge mess that we seem to always "forget" to give it to him!  He's very into playing with the spoon while we're trying to feed him, and boy does that kid have a strong grip!  So things get a bit messy, but he doesn't complain!

Mmmmm, sweet potatoes!




I'll just do it myself!

Kelsey making sure Brady is doing a good job




What do you mean I made a mess??


I found these treats for new eaters that are called rice rusks, I don't remember seeing them when Kelsey was younger.   There are all kinds of different flavors and if he manages to bite off a piece they dissolve very quickly.  We have the banana flavored ones and they are a big hit with Brady!



Yummy!



A trip to the park!

It's been birthday after birthday around here lately so we've been busy celebrating!  Last week it was starting to look like spring, that look is long gone now, so luckily we took advantage of it and took a trip to the park!  We have a tiny little park behind our house which is perfect...it's behind several businesses and no one really knows it's there...I think out of all the times we've been there, we've only not had the playground to ourselves once.  The playground seems to be geared towards younger kids so it's perfect for Kelsey, she can easily play and climb on everything.  This was Brady's first time swinging and he had a blast!!

Ahhh, this is the life!!

Ok, so these next pictures are a bit frightening!  I swear I brushed Kelsey's hair right before we left the house, but it was really windy and she's also gotten into the habit of making weird faces when I try to take her picture.  You have been warned...


EEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!



This was the face I got after asking her to smile...umm, yeah, you look cute Kels...



Oh my...



I call this her Marla Hooch picture...remember,
 on the movie A League of Their Own, they took the picture of not
so cute Marla from really far away so she would look good? :)

I laugh a little bit too hard whenever I see these pictures...I can't help it, she looks crazy!!  I think I'll enjoy embarrassing her with these when she gets older since she's been so terrible about letting me get a good picture lately!

While the kids and I were in Branson, Brian decided to do some home improvements and everything was a total surprise!  He was harassing me to pick out paint colors for the basement, telling me he was going to paint while I was gone, but to be honest, I didn't really think it was going to happen....sorry babe!  While we were gone, when talking on the phone to Brian he kept dropping hints that he had been busy at home, and I thought oh well I guess he actually did paint.  But when we got home we saw that he was a lot busier than I thought!  Most of the work was done by Brian, but he did have some help from my dad and Jeff...thanks guys!!

Crown molding put on cabinets




New island counter top installed




Our bedroom carpet removed and hardwood floors finished




Basement painted and chair rail installed




Kelsey enjoying new carpet installed in basement

It's like a whole new house!!  We LOVE it, he did such a great job!  And he did all this work while also being super busy at work...he logged over 40 hours that week at work on top of all the work around the house, is he the best or what? ;)

I felt the need to contribute some handyman skills myself!  Kelsey got a super cute table and chairs set from Grandma Vickers for Christmas probably 2 years ago and it's been sitting in the box ever since because we had no where to put it...not anymore!

I did it!  Isn't it cute??



Luckily Toby was there to supervise



After 30 years I decided to quit biting my nails and have been growing them
out for the past month, and this is what I get...my first broken nail.  Darn!!



Daddy couldn't even take his coat off after getting home from work
before he had to join her at her first tea party!




Yep...it's a great party!

 

Mama, what's vacation mean??

Well, we all survived the big family vacation!  The drive was pretty uneventful, we stopped several times more than I would have liked, once Kelsey figured out that saying she had to go potty meant that she could get out of her carseat (and probably score a treat or two from Grandma or Aunt Connie) she suddenly had to go potty every half hour!  Luckily we were able to ignore her convince her that she could wait.  Brady was pretty good on the trip...he didn't sleep much in his carseat, but didn't really complain much.  We arrived in Branson around 4 or so, got settled into our condo, which was nice and open and very clean, and ran to the grocery store to stock up on booze food for the week.  After a nice dinner we shared some drinks, played some games, and headed to bed. 

The next morning I woke to hear Kelsey crying saying her eyes were yucky.  I turned the light on and saw that both her eyes were bright red, swollen and her eyelashes were all gunky and stuck together...UGH!!!!  So I placed a call to my friend Jenny who was nice enough to call in an Rx for some eyedrops, thank goodness!  So our plans were pretty much done for the day, not only did I not want Kelsey to spread her eye crud, she was also pretty gross looking!  After picking up her drops ($40 for the smallest bottle of drops I've ever seen, but whatever, at least they worked!) I felt guilty that she was stuck in the condo all day so I ran to the toy store and grabbed her some toys.



Lookin good Kelsey!



Enjoying her new loot!

 Poor Brady was stuck inside too!



Looks pretty nice outside!



What do you mean Kelsey can't play with me??

Luckily by Tuesday Kelsey's eyes looked much better and we were able to get out and do something.  We went to the outlet mall and then came back and Kelsey got to go swimming with her cousins.  It was nice for me because my 15 year old cousin Bailey was able to take Kelsey swimming so I didn't need to worry about it!  At night we played Apples to Apples and Sequence.  I think Apples to Apples is a fun game, however it's very frustrating for someone who's looking to play with a strategy because it's really dumb luck on who will pick your card.  Case in point, my mom seemed to always win...what's that all about??  Here she is gloating celebrating.


They say your cards describe you...her's are Aged, Offensive,
Comical, Misunderstood and Dysfunctional.  Sounds about right!

 The next day we went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  The drive there was about an hour of really windy hilly roads...Kelsey was almost sick on the drive there!  Unfortunately on the day we went it was very cold and rainy and most of the stores weren't really equipped for my huge double stroller!  So we ate lunch, shopped for about a half hour and left.  We discussed that it would have been the perfect trip if it was nicer weather and we didn't have the stroller!  We stopped for ice cream on the way home so everyone was happy!  That night it was more swimming and more games!

Thursday Bailey was nice enough to watch the kids so the ladies could do some serious shopping (aka shopping for ourselves!)  I got an awesome deal on a sweater from Ann Taylor...an $89 sweater for $14.99, SCORE!  That night we celebrated my grandpa's 80th birthday by going out to dinner and having cake and ice cream and presents.  We crammed everything we could into the van on Thursday night so when we woke up on Friday we would be ready to go.  We left Branson around 7 Friday morning and surprisingly enough only made 2 stops on the way back up...WOW!  I think we were just all excited to be coming home...I know I was!  Brian had been doing work on the house and wouldn't tell me what he was doing so I was in for a big surprise when I got home!  More to come on all the hard work he did...