feed the ducks

Last Friday was so very nice out that we decided to spend the afternoon outside. It had been a while since we had fed the ducks so we decided it was a great day for it. After we were done I told Bill that it may seem silly but watching Jennifer feed the ducks is one of my favorite things to do! Jennifer runs after the ducks with such determination, she is convinced that she is really going to catch one. The whole time she is running she is yelling, "Come here duck, come on, come here duck." It is really funny to watch.

And what does Mikayla do while Jennifer is chasing ducks around? Well on this particular trip she decided the bread would be fun to eat. So she grabbed into the bag and got herself a slice and just ate away. Very cute! No need to feed it to the ducks when you can eat it yourself.

Bill is trying to see how close the ducks would actually get to the girls. This is about as close as they got. I think I may have gone a little crazy if the ducks had gotten any closer, I really don't like birds.

Jennifer is holding out a piece of bread calling the ducks over. She really just wanted them to eat the bread out of her hand. No such luck.

Now Jennifer is trying to get dad to get the ducks to eat the bread out his hand. Again she was so determined to get the ducks close to her.

After feeding the ducks we went to the park for a while.

Even Mikayla went down the slide a few times. I don't think she really got what all the excitement was about.

Check this girl out!

What a sweet fun filled family afternoon!

roller skating

Last weekend we went roller skating! Yes, roller skating. Bill is planning some family activities for the families that attend mid-week activities at the church. So the first activity was roller skating. The last time we went skating was in high school and that was with elementary aged kids. Oh it brought back many memories from going roller skating as a kid, "Everyone back out onto the floor for an all skate." Some of you are wondering what the heck that means those of you who went to school with Bill and I are laughing right now because you too are remembering Skate Town!

Jennifer was very excited when we got there, she was pumped up about skating. The sweet thing is that they tighten the wheels on the skates for the little kids so they can actually skate! Jennifer did amazing! I don't know who was more excited her or me. I was loving to watch her "skate" around, she did so well! I don't think the wheels on Jen's skates really moved at all but it was not a big deal because she was doing it! It was truly great to watch her succeeding all by herself, without help from anyone.

Jennifer of course loved skating with her dad. However, she was determined to do it "by myself" so she didn't skate with Bill for long. It was fun to watch her skating among the big kids all by herself.
There were a few falls of course. But Jennifer did not seem to mind, she would kind of giggle and then back up and keep going! A few times I think she even fell down on purpose, just to say that she fell down.
Jennifer also had to skate with one her favorite people ever, Jenny! It was very funny to watch her try to go as fast as she could while trying to track down Jenny, or a few times her dad, to skate with.

What a fun filled afternoon had by all.

a bath and a horse

Both of our girls love to take baths. If Mikayla knows that someone is in the bathroom, either taking a bath or showering, she will quickly crawl through the house and sit in the bathroom, excited that she should join in. It is really cute and funny. A few mornings ago she did something that is rare for her. She got to take a bath by herself. Usually her and Jennifer take a bath together, it really is faster and easier. But I remember the days when Jennifer bathed in the sink and loved so I thought Mikayla needed a turn too. She loved it, as you can see by the pictures.

Love this! She was giggling the whole time and babbling away. It was cute.

My favorite, I must say.

She looks as if she is trying to be a proper lady, even in the bath.

Then there is this sister. Her obsession with horses is not dying any time soon. Most five year olds would have been done with a pony like this a while ago. But not Jennifer, she drags this thing around the house almost ever day. In fact tonight the pony is sleeping in her room beside her bed.

After reading the pony a few stories the other day Jen decided to ride the pony on the couch. Interesting place!

The next pictures are from this afternoon. Jennifer took pony outside to play on the swing set for awhile. It was very funny to watch her. She drug that pony up the steps and pushed it down the slide for about fifteen minutes. Then she tried to put her on the swing but that didn't work so well.

Giving the pony a little push down the slide.

Jennifer, to the pony: "I go down with you." She then proceeds to climb on the pony's back.

Me, while watching: "Honey, no you cannot go down on the pony's back!" Yes Jennifer was going to go down the slide while riding the pony.

Pony went first, followed by Jennifer.

Bill hooked this string on the pony a few weeks ago, it is the reigns. They were coming in handy today to pull the pony around.

Dragging pony up the steps before heading down the slide.

Oh, how my girls make me smile!

"Mom, picture"

Jennifer is fairly sure that every time we make something and she is licking the spoon or beaters from the mixer that I need to take her picture. A few days ago we made some cupcakes to take with us to a party and when we were done mixing everything Jennifer says, while pointing the camera, "Mom, take my picture." I told some friends a few weeks ago that the song "Your so Vain" sometimes goes through my head with this child. She truly thinks the world is all about her! Which is my fault I guess so I shouldn't complain too much, after all she is pretty darn cute, most of the time! Mikayla crawled around the kitchen while we made cupcakes, without a care in the world. I can't wait until she can stand on a chair and help too.
This is the girls before bed one night. Usually before bed we all play a game together but on this night Jennifer choose the aqua doodle. Mikayla of course has to get in on all the fun. She is really watching Jennifer in this picture, which is very sweet. I thinks Mikayla really wanted to take Jennifer pen.

Attacking dad is always a fun thing to do too! Mikayla was thinking this was hilarious!

My tired preschooler. Five days a week until after lunch do make her tired at night. "Mom, I tired" or "I sleepy" are two things she is starting to say. Now if she would only rest when she says those things.
Pictures are far and few between at our house right now. I discovered after the camera's little adventure the battery is not working so well. I only have a small window of opportunity to take pictures before the camera dies. I hoping if we get a battery that all will be well again and then hopefully there will be more pictures to share!

best friend

Tonight as I was giving the girls a bath Jennifer said something that melted my heart and probably will not be said too many times so I thought I should document it! Both the girls were in the bath and I was taking Mikayla out. I told Jennifer I would get Mikayla's pj's on and then get her out. Jennifer's response: "Ok, mom, you my best friend." I of course had to clarify: "Did you say mom is your best friend?" Jennifer: "Yes, best friend." Oh, I so love that. I don't she really gets what a best friend is but how very sweet of her to say it! As I was helping her get her pj's on we were talking and when we were done she gave me a hug and again said, "My best friend." So for today J and I were best friends, which kind of makes my day.

saved pictures!

Something tragic happened over the weekend, ok maybe tragic is too strong of a word but it was something that made me a little nervous none the less. I dropped our camera, in some water. Lets just say I had just used the restroom when I heard I loud noise, my camera had been in a pocket and well you can guess the rest. Luckily I had flushed so no worries there! But I cringed, our camera was done for. I quickly took out the battery and the memory card. I wanted to scream at myself. When I told Bill about it later he simply laughed! We decided maybe there was some hope for the camera. A few years ago Jennifer decided that the bottom of a cup filled with water was a great place for my cell phone. After letting it dry for a few days and charging it up it came back. So I was clinging to that, maybe the camera would come back. Really I was just sad because there were pictures on the memory card that could be lost forever. After a few days of drying out and charging the battery, woo-hoo our camera came back!

So here are some of the pictures that I thought were lost...

Last weekend we went to my grandparents to celebrate my dad and brother's birthday. Here is Jennifer "loving" her cousins. She looks like she is being really rough but I promise they were laughing at this!

All the kids blowing out the candles with the birthday boys. It is hard to see but if you look closely at Mikayla she has this face like she is about ready to scream, everyone was being a bit loud and she wasn't digging it so much.This picture followed the one from above. Daddy rescued Mikayla from the crazy big kids.All the great-grand kids with the great-grandparents. Trying to get these four kids to all look at the camera, forget the smiling just them all looking is hard enough!

Once again Mikayla could not make it through lunch time. There is still a pea in her mouth.

This picture may just seem like an ordinary picture of Mikayla. However, it represents all that she can do right now! She has accomplished sitting up on her own, finally! And she is now crawling everywhere in our house, everywhere. Just a month ago Mikayla was only crawling a little bit and she was just figuring out how to push herself back to sitting from laying on the floor. She is now a pro at both, very fun to watch her! We have had lots of people ask us if she is walking and I have to be careful not to laugh out loud. The sweet girl has no interest in standing up, although the past couple of days she has seemed like she wants to pull herself up a couple of different times. Someday, maybe before she is two, she will get there. Her timing, her timing.
School has started, which means football has started too. Here are the girls before we head off to the first home game a few weeks ago. Mikayla is clearly not impressed with this, Jennifer however was very excited. A place where she gets to eat popcorn and suckers and see all her friends, how great is that! She is still however not a big fan of the band. We were hoping this year she would overcome this fear, no such luck yet, maybe the next game will be better.

Ready to cheer on the Comets!

proud of you!

When Jennifer gets home from preschool in the afternoon she sort of needs a little time to just veg out. Usually this means she wants to watch some tv. Yes I admit it I let her come home and veg in front of the tv for a little bit. Lately Jen's big thing has been watching something on the wii. We decided to get netflix a few months ago and one of the features is watching movies on the wii. It really is a great feature, especially for kids stuff! So today when we got home from school I was getting her set up to watch some Barney on the wii, yes I hate to admit she still likes to watch the purple guy! At first it wasn't working because our internet was acting up. So I worked at getting it fixed so Jen could watch something. The whole time I'm trying to get it to work Jen is cheering me on with these words, "Mom, is it working? You fix it? Good job mom. I'm proud of you! I'm proud of you! Give me a hug." She then proceeded to wrap her arms around me and give me a huge hug and told me several times, "I'm proud of you!" I have no idea where this phrase came from but it sure did boost my attitude today. Leave it to my five year old to make me feel like I could do anything!
This is one of those things I just have to write down because it made me laugh and question the choices Jennifer may make in the future. On Wednesday afternoons our friend Jenny comes to hang out with Jen while Mikayla and I go to the church to help Bill get ready for the nights activities. Today Jenny took Jen to the park to play before coming to the church. There was a lady at the park smoking. First of all really? Did she have to be smoking at the park, where kids play? (Sorry if you smoke and I just offended you but I don't like smoking and well its my blog!) Jennifer, of course, notices the lady and goes up to her and says "Me too!" Yes, she was thinking that she needed what this lady had! Jenny of course handles the situation very well and just tells Jen that is not for her and gets her to go play. How does one not offend in this situation because I would have probably said, without thinking, "Oh no, that is gross, we don't ever do that!" Which probably would have gotten me yelled at or slapped. Guess I'm glad Jenny had to handle it and not me! And Bill made a valid point that we may need to watch Jen in the future with the choices she makes!
The things a five year old will come up with, gotta love it!