Outdoor KC Fun

I love that spring has arrived!  The sun is finally shinning and I’m loving it!!  We headed out to KC this weekend to help celebrate my brother in law and niece’s birthday!  The festivities started Saturday night for a surprise birthday for Brian!  I’m not sure Brian was too thrilled with us, for “dictating” his birthday night, but it was all for the surprise, and surprised he was!  After it was all said and done, I think he realized that we wouldn’t have really said where we wanted to go without consideration of what he wanted on his birthday! 

 Chris and Brian..can you tell they're brothers! 

Sunday was absolutely beautiful and busy.  Hannah turned two.  We headed out in the morning to a children's farm  in KC which was amazing.  Emily said they like to go at least once a week in the summer and I can understand why!  I wish we had one close by to go to.  The girls LOVED it, and were a bit worn out afterwards.  The afternoon was filled with Hannah’s birthday party at the park.  We all had a great time, and are exhausted today.  It’s always hard to regroup after being gone for the weekend, but it was well worth it.  Had I been home, I wouldn’t have spent the entire weekend outside, which I LOVED!

 Parker and Brecken

 Parker feeding the baby goats!  Brecken wanted nothing to do with the goats.

 The birthday girl Hannah enjoying one of the many slides!

 The girls singing Happy Birthday to Hannah!

 

 The Howell Girls again

 The 8 grand kids on the Howell side all together!

A No-No

Last night Parker was at her first soccer practice and Brecken and I stayed home. Brecken was carrying around my purse saying bye bye, and I played along, and then told her to put my purse up and go get her own green purse..I walked out of the room, and started putting the dishes away...a few minutes later she appeared in the kitchen showing me what she had done! It was too cute...I immediately took pictures, and then told her no, we don't get into mommy’s purse and lipstick, took her into the bathroom and washed her off! When I showed Chris the pictures later, he asked if she got into trouble, and I replied yes...Parker asked if she went to time out..I said no..Chris asked if she was spanked, I said no...He replied that she didn't get into trouble then! It was too cute, and it was an almost gone tube of lipstick..I really didn't care!

Kitchen Before and After

Ok, so I didn't take very many pictures of the kitchen before..by the time I thought of it, Chris had already started ripping out the floors, and the cabinet that lined the windows in the kitchen..he's too quick for me!

Ok, so I didn't save these very well, but you can get the idea of what the kitchen looked like...brown linoleum floors, and before we bought new appliances, it had a brown stove/microwave combination thing that was all one piece...

The wallpaper had tiny blue pineapples on it...I didn't even take a before picture of the dining room, but it had white carpet, which was destroyed with the girls dropping food all the time. The previous owners had painted over the wallpaper to help it sell, so we removed all of that, and painted the kitchen and dining room yellow.

I took these pictures to show off the floors.  This was the next step in our multi step kitchen remodel.  In a few years we'll come back and get new cabinets, countertops, and backsplash....If I really get my way, the upper wall between the dining room and kitchen will be gone..we'll see!

Here's a view looking from the kitchen to the family room.

Here's a view of the empty china cabinet..Chris still has to put one more coat of sealer on it in a few weeks after the grout has time to cure...so I'm still a little bare as far as accessories go for these two rooms!!  We decided to use reclaimed antique brick from South Carolina, and we love it! 

another view in the dining room..that's the wall I would consider getting rid of!  Some day we'll paint the wood to match the new cabinet's we'll get!

Not great before and afters, but you get the idea!

Happy Easter

Easter weekend was busy, and made wonderful by the gorgeous weather God blessed us with. We spent the entire weekend outside it seemed. Friday night we spent the evening with Chris’ Aunt Patty, Uncle Don, Cousins Curt and Karen, and more cousins, Jena, Jamie and even more. There were 14 of us at dinner at Red Rock, our favorite! It was fun catching up on everyone, and the girls loved hanging with Karen, they loved her i-phone, and Curt’s girlfriends daughter Jena! Jena wore the girls out, and they slept well after getting home around 9 that night!

Saturday we woke up, and dyed easter eggs, attended the annual Easter Egg Hunt at Aunt Heather’s Aunt Roma’s house. It was a huge group as usual, and the girls absolutely LOVED playing in the sand, on the swing set, having a picnic, hunting eggs..we got home late again.. but that’s just the way this weekend worked.

 

Sunday we attended church and had lunch at grandmas house, and then dinner at nana and papa’s house. After naptime we had a quick egg hunt in the backyard, which the girls loved. Enjoy the pictures!

One-Year

It’s been a year since I haven’t driven a car. I’m picking the wrong day to write this post, as I’m having a feel sorry for myself day, which has nothing to do with not driving, but everything to do with what I can’t see right now. All in all I really do try to go on living as if nothing is different, except that it is..not a day goes by that I don’t think about what it is I can’t see anymore, and I hate that I think about it that often, because it reminds me that I’m not like everyone else, and I never thought I would be where I am at in life right now. My pitty party began this morning, when I totally bit it over a picnic table in the living room. The girls have been using this table for quite some time, and with the new floors finally done, we decided that the girls would not use it anymore for eating at, and take it to the basement..we’ll a few weeks in the family room, you’d think I would remember it’s there, but I didn’t. While walking to the bathroom to help Parker brush her hair and teeth, I totally ran into it falling over it, and landing on my side crying in shock and a little bit of pain, which I have the bruises and sore arm as proof of my mishap..all the while the girls are watching mommy make a fool of herself, and probably the first time either of the girls have really seen me cry. What a defeating moment. Chris called later to check on me, and wondered if my pride was feeling any better…he wasn’t being a jerk, I promise, he thought something really serious had happened like the TV cabinet falling down crashing on top of someone..it was that loud, and came rushing downstairs to see me lying on the floor…anyway, I don’t think it has anything to do with my pride…I mentioned it to my boss today since he could tell something wasn’t right with me, and he couldn’t understand why it was a big deal to have my kids witness this, and I couldn’t explain why it bothered me, it just does. The sad thing is that it probably won’t be the last..I guess maybe its because you don’t want your kids to see you that vulnerable and have them realize that their mommy really is different, and then later understand how that impacts their lives..I don’t want my girls growing up feeling burdened for me. I want to be self sufficient, and capable, and strong, for them, for Chris, and myself….so, it’s been a year of not driving..honestly, that’s not the worst part of it all so far…year two may be a bit different.

Sick...

It’s been a while since I’ve posted…we’ve been plagued at our house! Several weeks ago, Brecken had the flu, while staying the night at my parents house…they were crazy enough to keep her through most of it sending her home at 5 in the morning on Saturday..Then my dad got the flu…then I got the flu…on the same day that she was sent home with pink eye…then she had horrible allergies, that may have turned into RSV because of the fever that came with the allergy symptoms..then Parker had the flu…then Brecken continued to get sent home from school because of a fever that was later discovered caused by a double ear infection…I simultaneously lost my voice and had a sinus infection…then Parker was up until 3:30 am last night because her ear hurt..we went to the Dr. today and she has an ear infection…sigh…I hope the black cloud is done at our house…It’s amazing that Chris has missed all of it! In the middle of our germy craziness, our kitchen floors are being installed..they should be done by Friday, YEA!!!!

Scooters & Connect 4

Do you remember those scooters from gym class growing up? They still have those! This is what happens when everything goes wrong when diving towards the floor with a scooter!

Parker came home with this huge rug burn on her face..apparently she had a bloody lip when it happend too. She must have been having a really good time, and I have no doubt that she can hang with the boy’s pretty well! On another note about these scooters, Chris was picking Parker up one day, and they were all playing with them, and Chris made the comment to Parker, that he wondered if this is how she gets all the holes in her jeans..Parker replied “no” and another girl quickly responded, “that’s how I get them!” My guess is this is how she gets them too.

Grandma and Grandpa Rick came over to see the girls on Valentine’s day, and Parker wanted to play a game of connect 4. She didn’t believe grandma used to play this game with her daddy when he was younger! Here’s the group playing..Parker and Daddy, against Grandma and Brecken!