Spaghetti Night

I get this weekly email update that tells me how to raise my kids. It has worked well so far I think. Just kidding, but I do get a weekly email telling me about infant and toddler milestones and what to expect. My last one told me that it is now okay to let Kenley start trying to feed herself with a spoon. Tonight we had spaghetti so we thought it would be a good idea to let her have at it. It was priceless. This is the aftermath.

Happy Birthday Kenley!

During my last pregnancy I had wished for a sweet little baby that loved her mommy. On November 19, 2007 my wish came true. Since the day she was born, Kenley has wanted nothing more than to be held and loved on. She would much prefer for me to hold her than to do anything else in this world. It seems like I have held her for most of this past year. I have felt bad at times for complaining about how much I have held her. My arms have ached, truly ached from hours of holding this little baby whose only wish is to be near me. But as I look back on this past year that I have had with her, I think about how grateful I am to have her in my life. I think about how much more my arms would ache if I didn't have her to hold each day. I love everything about this baby. I love her big doe eyes. I love her chubby, kissable cheeks. I love her tiny little nose. I love her long, skinny feet. She is my sweet little angel and I love her so.
We had a party for her this past weekend (will post that later), but we went to dinner tonight with Matt and Shelly to have a small celebration on their actual birthday. I know that I am not the only mother who has bittersweet feelings on this very special day. As I watched her sitting next to me, I thought about how fast this past year has gone for me. It seems like just a few days ago that we brought her home from the hospital. She is growing up right before my eyes. I can't wait for each tomorrow and what it holds, but want to hang on to each today. Here are some pictures from her birthday dinner.
Yummy ice cream!

The family photo

Ashlyn, Julia, and Kenley
Me and my daddy

The two birthday girls

Holy Cow, Sleeping Beauty!

We had a great time on Halloween this year. Germany doesn't have a trick or treating tradition so Julia got to experience this very American thing with the Rushings. We went to the neighbors house to have chili and let the kids play for a little while. Then right before 7 we left to start trick or treating. Ashlyn was dressed up as Sleeping Beauty. She had waited a long time for Halloween, just looking at Aurora's dress hanging up in our closet. I was going to try to stuff Kenley into the pumpkin that Ashlyn wore for her first Halloween, but that just wasn't going to happen. So Kenley was a cow that we borrowed from Shelly (thank you). Julia was a German teenager. They were all very cute. Aurora's hair didn't last long, but it was cute while it lasted.
Julia doing her thing....just chillin'.
Julia: "Ashlyn, please take a picture with me..."
Ashlyn (in whiny 3 year old voice): "I don't want to take a picture!"
Mommy: "Ashlyn, please stand still so I can take your picture..."
Ashlyn (in whiny 3 year old voice): "I don't want you to take my picture!"
Holy (cute) Cow!

Ashlyn loaded up on the candy and had a blast. It is so much fun to see the number of houses that she makes it to increase each year. Her first year she made it to about 6 houses. We called it quits at about 25 this year. I love these memories!

One Word Answers

Okay, I was nominated for this fun game by Shelly (thanks) and here are my answers...finally. I have had this done since she sent it to me, but here it is.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? sleeping
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? concerned
5. Your father? gone
6. Your favorite thing? motherhood
7. Your dream last night? worrisome
8. Your dream/goal? motherhood
9. The room your in? hallway
10. Your hobby? scrapbooking
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? apathetic
15. One of your wish list items? vacations
16. Where you grew up? Huntsville
17. The last thing you did? breakfast
18. What you are wearing? sweatshirt
19. Your TV? long-awaited
20. Your pet? Madison
21. Your computer? Mac
22. Your mood? excited
23. Missing someone? Porters
24. Your car? Sienna
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? Gymboree
27. Your summer? fun
28. Love someone? daughters
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. Last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

The seven people that I am nominating for this "award" are below. Complete the questionare in one word answers and forward on to seven more (or however many) people. It is quite fun and more difficult than you think. Have fun!

Julia
Mom
Sarah
Donna
Angelika
Christi P.
Becky S.

Okay, nominees. Make me proud.

And year six goes to....

For those of you who don't know, Ken and I have an anniversary tradition. Each year we take turns planning a trip for our anniversary. But the one who is planning the trip doesn't tell the other one about it. Everything is a total surprise until the day of the trip. This year was Ken's turn. He did a great job keeping it a secret from me. I had no idea where we were going. And Julia proved to be very good at keeping secrets. She had been telling me for quite some time that she had no idea where we were headed and she had known for awhile.
We left early (very) last Friday morning and flew to Seattle. We met Randy, Delia and Brynn for hamburgers at Red Mill (I think). They are listed as a top 10 burger joint by someone important. The hamburgers were very good but the company was better. This was my first time to meet Brynn. She is so cute. After lunch, I went back to the room to take a nap while Ken exchanged our car because the radio didn't work...only to get a car that the tire was flat. So...while I watched HGTV in the room, Ken took the car to get the tire fixed...welcome to Seattle. Then we met Randy and Delia downtown for dinner at this great Fondue restaurant. Well, I am assuming it was great. We didn't have reservations and were told that we couldn't be seated for three hours. No big deal, we were just happy to get away. PF Chang's sounded good anyway. So we went to PF Chang's. They didn't have any tables available, or pagers for that matter. But we could come back in an hour and 15 minutes and get our pager to wait for a table. At this point we were all chuckling a little bit. So we all went and shot a couple of games of pool and came back to eat dinner. It was a fun evening.
On Sunday we spent the entire day shopping. We went to the world famous Pike's Market and I got to see the guys throw the fish. It was so neat! The market was a really neat experience. There was tons of food, flowers, local artwork and even purses made out of nothing but duct tape!
On Monday we drove a hour or so from Seattle and went on the Northwest Trek...somewhat of a Seattle safari. We rode on a tram through a 435 acre wildlife park. We got to see grizzly bears, moose, elk and other great wildlife native to the area. We even got to see a skunk, which we wouldn't get to see again until...well, we got home (that story coming right up).
Tuesday we went back downtown and rode the 520 ft (I think) Space Needle. Thanks, but no thanks on that one. Holy cow that thing is so high. I was getting sick from feeling the movement at the top. They said that it only moved an inch for every 10 mph of wind...that was enough. After coming down (not soon enough) we headed back to the airport and home to see our girls. It was SO hard to be away from them.
About the skunk...we were so tired from our trip and looking forward to just coming home and relaxing, which we did. Then right before we went to bed (so we thought) Ken let Madison out to go potty. Before Ken realized that she was trying to make friends with skunk, she had already been sprayed. It was the most disgusting thing I have smelled in my entire life. We spent the next hour bathing her (I quit counting after the sixth bath) and trying to get the smell to go away. It didn't work. I think I finally got the smell out last night. Gross. The Seattle trip was great fun and I so enjoyed getting to spend time with Randy and Delia. I wish that we could see you guys more often. We miss you! Seattle is a beautiful city and has breathtaking scenery. Thanks for the surprise, Ken. Happy anniversary, I love you.
Here are some pictures of our trip.



For any of you keeping up on our anniversary tradition, here is our count so far:

First: Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Second: Ashville, North Carolina and the Biltmore Estate
Third: Napa Valley, California for a wine country tour
Fourth: Tampa, Florida Busch Gardens and the Tampa Zoo
Fifth: Ft. Worth, Texas
Sixth: SEATTLE!

We have so much fun with our anniversary tradition. I am not sure which one is more fun, planning the trip or being surprised. Either way, we both enjoy getting away and hanging out together by ourselves.

Ashlyn's First Dentist Visit

When you are a big three year old you get to go to the dentist. So Ashlyn had her first appointment today. I looked like the typical scrapbooking mother taking my child into the dentist at 7:20 am with my camera. Ashlyn was less than impressed with this, but let me take several pictures. As some of you know, Ashlyn took quite a spill a couple of weeks ago at the babysitting co-op at our church. She skinned her nose and knocked both of her top front teeth loose. We had a dentist at our church look at her teeth and he said we were fine to wait until her appointment. Her teeth are still loose and are starting to turn a little darker color which is normal (so I am told). Her dentist said that they will probably tighten back up and all will be fine...whew! I thought I would share with everyone the pictures of our big girl going to her first dentist appoinment. I have to say that I am so proud of her. Everyone that worked with her was saying that she did so good. They said they usually don't get all of the x-rays with a three year old and that all of her were perfect. She was so grown up about everything.

In the parking lot before. We let her take her
blanket because she was nervous. So cute.

Still sleepy in the waiting room

Looking a little nervous

I have sunglasses now...I'm good.

Getting her teeth cleaned. Holding "Mr. Thirsty"

Waiting on x-rays

That was easy...and I get a goody bag!

Three Great Girls

Okay, I guess I will just start with the oldest pictures. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. But I am guessing that is just how it is going to be around here for awhile. I will just blog when I get a free minute. We made the mistake of mentioning to Ashlyn several weeks ago that we were planning ski trip for this winter. Three year olds are so cute in their inability to grasp the concept of time. Ashlyn figured that if we were going on a ski trip that she would be a helper and get ready. So she did. She got a stool and climbed up to get the ski suit out of the very back of the closet and got dressed. When she came down the stairs dressed like this I laughed so hard. This little girl is so cute! As you can tell from the picture, she was so proud of herself for getting dressed for skiing all by herself. She only stayed in the ski suit for about 5 minutes because it was about 95 degrees outside. Although it will be awhile before she can actually wear it, we do have a ski trip planned for this winter. I am so excited to go back to Reno and catch up with friends and take Ashlyn skiing for the first time at the same place that I learned to ski. I can't wait!

Ashlyn started school several weeks ago at at new place. She loves it and is having a blast. She came home the first day saying that she learned about the letter A and that apples and alligator both start with A along with her name. I was quite impressed. She is now learning the letters by sight and learning to write the letters. She is really growing up. She absolutely loves school and does very well. At her new school she goes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. They didn't have an opening for Tuesday, Thursday. It has been difficult for me to be away from her so much, but the positive to it is that she takes a nap at school now and when she comes home she has me all to herself because Kenley is napping. It has worked out well. I cannot believe that she is going to be in Pre-K next year. Wow, time flies.
Kenley is still just as sweet as she can be. She is our little snuggle bug. She just lays her head on my shoulder. Still loves to be held which can be very tiring. I know that people think that I hold her too much (and I do) but I will only get to hold her for a short time. Too soon she will be grown up and I will long for these times.

She has also started to climb the stairs. She has been playing at the bottom of the stairs for several weeks now. She just stands there and pats on the steps..so cute. It was keeping her entertained for 15-20 minutes at a time...not anymore. She crawled up one step the other day and that was all it took. She climbed the entire flight of stairs. She has gotten to be quite good at it in the few days since she has learned. Now we have to teach her how to come down.
She is still having physical therapy twice per month and it is going pretty well. We have had x-rays done of her neck and everything came back normal so that is good. We are still working on stretching her neck out. She is still very tight on her left side and screams when it is stretched because it is painful. We are hoping that this will loosen up soon.
Kenley is crawling everywhere and has been starting to cruise around the furniture. I cannot believe how fast this first year has gone and we are about to be planning her first birthday party!
Julia is doing well. She has had a rough first six weeks in school adjusting to America, being moved and new classes mid grading period. She was really nervous about taking a Pre Calculus test yesterday. This was a class that she was move into because she was doing so well in Algebra II. She is the only sophomore in PreCal! She was so nervous that she would do poorly on the test. I told her I wanted her to try her hardest to study for the test and then we would talk about options after the test. We studied hard all weekend and Monday night and....she got an 87!!!!! I was so proud of her. So now we can move on to the 2nd six weeks and start fresh. She is such a bright girl and is just a joy and a blessing to our family.
Ken and I will be leaving on our anniversary trip this weekend and I have no idea where we are going. All I know is that we are flying. I can't wait to get away, but it will be difficult (as it always is) to be away from my girls. Thank you Nana for coming to help with them this weekend. I know they will be in good hands. Stay tuned next week for the recap of where we went....