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...

Loco legs

Well it's been a pretty boring week for us, nothing too exciting going on.  In the last week we've had our basement waterproofed and our front stairs mud jacked (where they raise them up so they are level aka where they are supposed to be!).  We used a company called Todd's Mud jacking and Basement Services and I would definitely recommend them to anyone!  They worked with us on price, the workers were all very courteous and professional, and they left everything a LOT cleaner than they found it! But all that aside, if you heard that loud sobbing a few days ago, it was me when we wrote the check to the company...even though they do great work, it still stinks to pay all that money for something you can't even see!  But it's worth it to no longer have a wet, smelly basement and the "death stairs" are now a little easier to climb!  Plus that brings us one step closer to finishing the basement and eventually moving into a new house!

We are busy preparing for out road trip on Sunday to the action-packed exciting city of Branson, Missouri.  I kid, I kid...while it might not be the most exciting place ever, it will be nice to get away and spend some time with the family (ask me if I still feel the same way next Friday!).  Brian isn't able to come with us because he has work he can't get out of (that's his story and he's sticking to it!) so I will be the one doing all the driving...YIKES!  We will be driving down with my mom and my Aunt Connie, hopefully I'm not jinxing myself here, but the kids are pretty good on long car rides so hopefully everything goes smoothly.  This will be our first road trip since Kelsey's been potty trained, so hopefully we won't be stopping every half hour for potty breaks, although I'm sure my mom is relieved she can now use Kelsey as an excuse to stop!  The drive is supposed to take 8 hours so we'll see how long it actually takes us!  Once down in Branson we will be meeting up with my Aunt Sara, Uncle Bill and their 3 kids, my Uncle Paul and Aunt Kirsten, and my grandparents.  While down there my grandpa will be celebrating his 80th birthday, so we'll be partyin!  Well as much as you can party with a 5 month old and a 3 year old!!

We've been working lately on letting Kelsey dress herself, it's so much easier and faster for us to do it for her, but obviously she needs to learn how to do it herself!  I still haven't let her pick out her outfits, I'm not sure if I can be one of those moms who lets their kid leaving the house looking all crazy because they dressed themselves!  Although the few times she has picked something out, she really doesn't do too bad...sometimes I think she does a better job than Brian!!  Here's what happened when she put her jammies on the other night...sadly she didn't even notice that anything was wrong with her pants for longer than I would care to admit, she only noticed once she started walking!  She thought it was the funniest thing ever and wouldn't fix them for the longest time and kept trying to walk around.  She kept saying she had "loco legs" (which is a song from one of her shows she watches).


What do you mean my pants aren't on right?



I've got loco legs!

 

Our first trip to the library!

Lately Kelsey has been talking nonstop about the library, she pretends to go to the library, takes books to the library, puts books away at the library...it only took me about two weeks to figure out that (DUH!) I should take her to the library!  I told her yesterday that we were going today and that's all she could talk about all last night and all day today "Mommy I love the library!"  "But you've never been there, how do you know if you love it?"  "I just love it!"  We discussed library etiquette and she took it all very seriously telling Brian later "Daddy you have to be quiet in the library cuz people are tryin to learn!"  The library was definitely a hit, she's been carrying around her books all night and can't wait to go back!



Are you listening Brady?



Do you like Curious George?



So serious!



This must be her thinking pose

Of course the t.v. junkie only wanted to read books featuring characters from her favorite shows and wouldn't look twice at any books I suggested!  Oh well, I tried!!

Brady loves sucking his thumb when he gets sleepy, because of the thumb sucking he tends to always keep his head turned in the same direction while sleeping so he's becoming quite the Flatty McFlathead (yes that is the technical term) on his right side.  He is not a fan of being on his tummy but I keep telling him he'll thank me when he has a lovely round perfect head!  Brady's doctor was quick to inform me that no one's head is perfectly shaped or symmetrical but what does she know right??  Usually he holds his head up well for about 10 minutes and then lays face down, trying to shove all his fingers in his mouth while Mommy and Kelsey call his name and shake toys to try to get him to lift his head again...poor Brady! 



Seriously?  This is supposed to be fun?!?!



And...I'm done!!

 



Kelsey-isms

We all know the things that come out of toddler's mouths are hilarious and Kelsey is definitely no exception!  Most of the time I have no idea where she comes up with the things she says!  She calles Brian's belt his seatbelt "Daddy, you forgot to put your seatbelt on your pants!"  I overheard a conversation she was having with her Grinch stuffed animal the other day after putting him down for a pretend nap and just had to laugh.  It started out with her stomping back into her room and saying "UGH!!!  THE GRINCH!!! (for whatever reason she never calls him Grinch, it's always the Grinch)  WHY DID YOU POOP IN MY BED?!?!?!  There's poop EVERYWHERE now you have to go to timeout and my dad will be so sad that you pooped in my bed!"  I must say, I get her frustration, I mean I heard her take him to the potty SEVERAL times before she laid him down for his nap.  She must have been having "war flashbacks" from when she was being potty trained...I might have mentioned once or twice that her Daddy was going to be sad when he heard about her potty accidents, but I was desperate!  She never seemed to care if I was sad that she had an accident!

And while we're on the subject of that fun task of potty training, can I just say...thank goodness we are officially potty trained!  Once it clicked for her she's been amazing with it!  The only drawback now is that she is constantly running around with no pants on!  When I see this, our conversations sound a little something like this:  "Kelsey, why are your pants off?"  "Ummm...because...I...want to be...ummm..." and then she just turns around and walks away.  But oh well, it's not like her walking around without pants is hurting anything, but if you notice some of my pictures of her look a bit weird it might be because I'm trying to hide the fact that she has no pants on!

By far, the cutest thing she does lately is read her favorite book "My Lucky Day!"  Brian and I've probably read her this book probably twice a day for about 3 or 4 months, it got to be where if we would skip a word she would notice and yell at us!  A few weeks ago she wanted me to read it to her, I was doing laundry so I told her it would have to wait...the next thing I know she's reading the entire book out loud to Brady, apparently Brian and I weren't the only ones who had the book memorized!  She now reads it to anyone who will listen and it is too funny, she gets almost every word right and she traces her finger along the page like she's actually reading the words, SO CUTE!

Are you listening doggie?



This must be my lucky day!

For the record, she's wearing a nightgown in this picture so I didn't have to hide her not wearing pants...except maybe I should've hid the fact that, by the light in the picture, it looks like it might be a little too late for her to still be in her jammies!! 

Brady Boy is 5 months!

My baby is five months old already!  He's definitely growing out of that tiny baby phase and, in my opinion, is a lot more fun!  He's always smiling and his smiles light up his whole face.  Much to Kelsey's delight Brady has started talking to her...she finds this to be the funniest thing she's ever heard and laughs and tells me "Brady is so much funny Mommy!"  Brady definitely likes the sounds of his voice (hmmmm, that doesn't sound like anyone I know...) and lately he's been trying to find out how loud he can be...he's got nothing on Kelsey but he's working on it!  He was a willing participant (kind of) for a quick photo shoot yesterday in his favorite place...on his changing table with no clothes on!



5 months baby!



Oh I get it...yeah that's funny...



Wait...what??



Oh, I get it now!!  That IS funny!




Heeyyyyy ladies!




Perfection

Do we make some darn cute babies or what???