Annika

I couldn't pass up this picture- Annika in her princess dress on her princess scooter.

Florida!

We got to go on a surprise trip (or last minute I should say) to Florida! The short version: talked to my sweet friend Allison the night before they left for their trip to FL. We decided at 10:30 pm to go to. We packed and left the next morning. We had the best time! I will post more later. But here are some pictures. I have many, many, many more on our picasa site! This trip was more than a HUGE blessing to me! It was our first of hopefully many family vacations. The girls adored the beach and everything about our trip.

*some of these pics are ones that our friends took. I have messed with too many in photoshop to know which are which now! The ones that are edited really well are probably his!

New Blogs

I have found a couple of new blogs I really like reading. You have probably heard of at least one of them, but if not I wanted to give you the link so you can check them out. But beware- they are full of real life and God moving in those people's lives. :)

The first one is about a lady with some kids... http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ Please check it out. She has been all over the news and papers with good reason.

The other I found from MCK blog. I loved it. After reading for a while I figured out that she is the wife of a Christian band called Selah. She is an excellent writer. They lost their daughter a year ago. She lived for 2 hours. It is so awesome to see how God has used them bless others. She is currently in India with the Compassion program. It is great to see how they use money that people send. It makes it seem so much more real to me. We aren't randomly sending money to a number, but to a life. Some don't like things like this b/c money has to be used for overhead, etc. but other groups can't get into places like this and really help children who really need it. http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/
Please take the time to read her posts- esp. the one called "I have been ridculed and lied to."
So, so good!

I have so much more to blog about. I want to blog about the rest of our trip to AR, but the pics on stuck on Trav's laptop so I'll have to wait. I also have some funny stories about the girls. Hopefully I will remember everything- another day! Here are a few of the pics that we hadn't downloaded to Trav's computer.



Annika and Olivia with their cousin Ashley- We had a great day celebrating Easter!



Annika turned three on our trip. We ordered a blank cake from a great bakery and got to play with my yummy fondant. It turned out so cute! The other pic is the girls with their cousins at the cupcake place in Little Rock. So fun! I wish they could play together everyday!

Missed

Why today? Something wasn't right. Thank goodness it is finally clear. I miss her. So much. But why today? I have no idea what makes it seem so fresh. My sweet grandmother, who really was my second mom, is missed a lot today. I felt it creeping for days, but I was hoping to move onto another thought. Not today. It is funny. The one person who I feel like could really understand how I am feeling right now is the one I am missing. While thinking of what I wanted to say at her memorial service 8 months ago I realized that we were so much alike. So much more than I had ever noticed. If you've read the love languages book- she was like me- words of encouragement. And her words touched deeply. They didn't have to be many, but they were like thousands of anyone else's words. I can't wait to throw my arms around her neck in Heaven. I really am so thankful for her. Without her I would have been a totally different person. God blessed me enormously with her life.

We made it!

Well, the last time I posted we were in Little Rock. Only a few hundred things have happened since then. I want to blog about some of them while I am here and all the fun things we do while we are visiting.
Today we flew here and Southwest lost our bags. Actually they forgot to get them off of the plane, so they sent them to Dallas. Our bags have been on quite a journey. Thankfully my mom had gotten each of the girls nightgowns as gifts! Perfect! How do mom's always know? They were sad to go to bed without their pillows and animals, but they are ok. Of course a long day and being tired makes going to bed much harder. Our bags are supposed to be on their way now. The girls did really well on our flight. We were on the same plane for 3 1/2 hours, but only in the air for a total of 2 1/2 hours. The other hour was boarding and then waiting for the other people to get on in Chicago. The girls did really well and it was kind of nice not having to change planes. I actually even read some of the In Style magazine my sweet husband had gotten for me to read. It was funny b/c he accidentally got the UK version. Why do they sell that in Ohio at B & N?
Also, I don't think I ever said for sure- we are moving to Ft. Worth because Travis took a job with TCU (texas christian univ.) We are so excited to be moving closer to family, but we will miss the friends we have made and the girls drs and dance, gymnastics, and piano teachers so much! Our house in on the market, which is not good. I love knowing God is outside of the economy and he is in control and has a plan. Most days I can totally rest completey assured of this. However, there are some days I get worried- not many- only b/c God has blessed us with a lot of peace!
There is a digital picture frame next to my mom's computer. The girls look so young and now they seem so old! Annika ditched her paci after we got back from Christmas. She did great and it looks so funny to see her with one in pictures now. I love my girls so much! Really. I am so thankful I am the one to get to spend each day with them.
For a while I have been the top pick at bedtime- that's just the way it goes with kids. However, Annika has been picking Daddy every night. He plays some kind of bunny game that she LOVES! She gets so excited to go to bed every night. I love it! Travis is so wonderful and I love seeing him be so fun and enjoyable to the girls. He is very good at making us all laugh. Which I am so thankful for. I LOVE to laugh and I am glad to have someone funny to live with! The girls are definitely getting their own sense of humor. It is great to see Olivia catching onto things she didn't used to get. Oh, but they are getting too big too quickly! We all are. I will be 30 in a couple of days. What? Did I just type 30? I guess that explains the few extra lines. I can live with those. It means I laugh a lot. :) Which I love- so see it all works out perfectly!
Well our bags are here- all 4 of them- hopefully. :) Better get to unpacking. It was kind of fun to not have to lug bags in when we got here. But I am so thankful to have them back. Again I am assuming they are all back. I don't think the courier would appreciate me going out in my borrowed night gown. :)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Well, the girls presents are all set out. We are so blessed. I wish we could every child as many gifts and as much love as Annika and Olivia get. My mom's love language is giving gifts. She is very good at it and the girls are certainly very happy recipients. My mom got some bells (like Santa sounding ones) and rang them while I was reading the girls their books. Their eyes got huge! They were so excited. Olivia knows about Santa, but we still do it just to be fun. And it is so fun! She wrapped him a gift (a ho ho ho throw blanket and a picture and card she made), made him choc. milk, carrots, cookies, and an apple and a knife to cut it with. She told me, "KK would only let us put out an icing knife. How is Santa supposed to cut an apple with an icing knife?" That is very true and funny! I like that she thinks that a certain type of knife is called an icing knife.

Tonight we went to the Christmas Eve service at my parents little church. It was very sweet and the girls enjoyed it. At the end they did the candle lighting while we sang Silent Night. Olivia seemed old enough to hold her own candle and she really enjoyed that. She only almost caught my hair on fire a couple of times. I looked down at Annika who was standing by my mom and I motioned for her to come by me. I carefully let her hold my candle. She looked so sweet and I wanted to get a picture of her just like I had gotten of Olivia. I looked down for about a half a second to turn on my camera and when I looked up Annika's hair was on fire!!! I mean flames- not just smoking. I just grabbed it and put it out with my hand. We headed for the bathroom. I couldn't bring myself to look until we got there. Thankfully, the black, burned ends wiped right off and you can't really tell. I am not kidding- I really am thankful. That fire could have spread really quickly. I washed that part of her hair when we got home because it didn't smell so good. She was SO tired and needed to be in bed. She now smells like toasted coconut. :)

Annika shortly before her hair caught on fire.

The girls ready to ice skate. Yes, I make them wear bike helmets. Olivia did really well and was skating by herself some at the end. Annika could hardly even stand in the skates. I didn't anticipate that. She skated some in her crocs and then watched from the side begging to go to "Chicken Nuggets," which is her name for McDonald's.

A Taste Of Arkansas

Well, it has been a while! We came to AR before Thanksgiving and we have been so busy. Travis traveled back to OH to finish up the quarter at OSU before returning. I was so looking forward to him being back because I guess I thought it was vacation time. Oh yeah, you can do research from anywhere. Shoot. The girls have so enjoyed being here. My parents have hundreds of things to do, see, etc. They have a playground, a pile of dirt to dig in, a gravel road to drive on, a Wii, a new enclosed deck room that is like a tree house, but connected to the house, a pool table, woods to run and play and yell in, a cat and a dog, lots of love, a big house to play in, a huge old doll house, a hot tub, lots of presents- it goes on and on. It is so fun watching them enjoy everything! Living so far from family makes it hard to get to enjoy these things on a normal basis.

Travis and I went to Ft. Worth to look for neighborhoods and found a house we really like. Actually, we found a lot of houses we really like, unfortunately most were 1 million or more. Hmmm, not quite in our price range, but pretty to see! It was fun, but quick! We flew b/c it was so cheap and it was such a time saver! We got to see downtown, with our sweet friends who let us stay with them. They have a super cute house and it is in a great part of town. We have decided to put our house on the market when we get back. If you are looking for a house in our neck of the woods, please let me know! :) Hopefully God will provide someone to sell our house to! I will miss it. It is great and has been more than a blessing to us.

My mom took Olivia and I to see the Rockettes. It was so fun! She loved it! My mom got GREAT seats! We also went to eat at Sekisui. It is a hibachi grill that is one of my and Trav's favorites! I love every part of it. The soup, salad, rice, veggies, and whatever else I get. This time is was shrimp and scallops. We are so blessed and I am so thankful to get to go do fun things like this.

We also went to the Wonder Place in LR- the girls have been begging to go. It is kind of like a children's museum. My sweet mom also got the girls animals from build a bear. Annika picked the cutest cat and Olivia got an elephant. They love going there. Of course, everything they get i start thinking where and when I will pack it up!

Olivia also got her last two dental appts over! Thank you God! We saw Dr. Mark Wilson in NLR. He is outstanding! He told Olivia what he was doing the entire time. It was so great. I am so thankful. She now has a very shiny mouth! Hopefully she will be good and her permanent teeth coming in will not have these same problems!
Olivia has been loving playing guitar with Poppy! Little does she know, Santa has one for her!
We have also had fun playing with my nephew Hayes. This picture does not do him justice. He is the cutest little boy ever. Oh my goodness. I am partial to girls. I just can't help it. Now I am partial to girls and Hayes. :) Olivia read him a book and he loved it!

We got to go to Fayetteville to visit Trav's family and friends. It is just so good to be there. I forgot how good it feels to be around friends that you have a history with. I so miss my friend Allison. We both have two little girls close in age. It seems wrong that we don't live in the same town. We got to go out the first night we were in town. Travis took his turn staying at the hotel with the girls while we went out. We went to Mason's just as they were closing and tried on hats. :) Then she treated me to some kind of yummy choc. frozen drink from Starbucks. It was so fun! The next morning we went to a Happy Birthday Jesus party. It was so fun to see people we used to have play group with. And yes, about 5 min. later someone got hurt on this.
Travis, the girls and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express this time. It was SUPER! It met all of our needs and then some. I definitely recommend it! We also got to eat- a lot! We went to Monte Ne chicken house with 10 of our closest friends. The next day we ate lunch at Taste Of Thai. They have the best spring rolls. Afterwards we got in the car and I did my normal check my teeth. When I opened the mirror and an envelope fell in my lap. It was gift certificate to Mason's. Which led to this. One of my very FAVORITE things- I am very shallow apparently- jeans. With the addition of a bit of my Christmas money, I got these. I almost cried in the dressing room. There aren't a lot of gifts that do that to me. Oh, they feel so good. Thank you Travis! We got to spend a lot of time with Trav's family. The girls were so excited to see them- even though it had been 9 months. They got to color, read books, and make candy cane cookies. They had a great time! We did opened gifts with Travis' family. The girls were so excited to get the Bitty Baby beds. They have been wanting them for so long! They got a lot of other fun things, too. We went out to Powerhouse for dinner. I was a little worried b/c in the past it has taken a long time and our girls that are normally very good at restaurants had bad nights. This time was different. It took a long time, but the girls were great. I got crab legs and a kilowatt ( a yummy frozen drink). Both such a good time. The next day we at breakfast at IHOP and went to Uncle Todd and Aunt Tonya's house to see their baby cow. The girls loved feeding him. He really was cute! On the way to their house, Olivia said, "Tonya is one of my favorite persons."

We headed back to Little Rock. It is nice because my mom is off of work now, so we can play! We did a little shopping today b/c there were some good sales including 20% off of everything at Williams Sonoma. That's a good time! I got a digital candy thermometer I have been wanting. I also got our secret santa gift from there. I want it. I have to admit. I won't be sad if we end up with it. :)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!