Under Construction

Yesterday we celebrated the one year anniversary of our new house! So, I guess you can say we're celebrating by finishing the basement! (Even though it's been a couple months of work already.) Once it's done it will be fantastic, but for now we're in the thick of the work.

It's kinda hard to tell in the picture below how it's all going to work out, but you're looking at our main living room. Then at the back right is a bedroom and right across from that is the bathroom. To the back left is a playroom for the girls and down below (to the left of the main living room) will be Jaclyn's bedroom. I can hardly wait! There are clothes and toys just piled up everywhere upstairs, so it will be a sigh of relief when I can get it all spread out and organized. But for now, I'm going a bit crazy with all the clutter and dust from down below! :) At least I know there's an end in sight!

Memorial Day in K.C.

We had a great time in Kansas City this past weekend with my side of the family. It was short, but sweet. The girls had tons of fun playing with their cousins, as usual. They weren't ready to come home, that's for sure!

On Saturday we had a fun day together, which included seeing a circus. Here are all the kids as we were waiting to get in. (Not a great picture, but it'll do!)

One of the best parts of the circus was the cotton candy!

On Monday we had fun at my sister's house, playing outside and grilling. Here are some fun shots of the girls.

Ashlyn's Fun Meet

Ashlyn participated in her first gymnastics "meet" today. It was really just a time for the kids to show what they've practiced in a competition-like environment. No pressure, but there were a lot of parents/family members there watching, so I didn't know how she'd respond to it. But, she didn't really seemed phased by the audience, she just got out there and did her stuff.

She's been in a more intense class for a couple months now, and she's starting to get the hang of it. I still don't know if it's something we'll stick with or not, but for now she seems to enjoy it. Way to go, Ashlyn!

Happy Mother's Day!

18 Months!

It's been a little while since I've updated on Kendall, so here she is at her 18 month mark.

She is at such a cute stage right now. I love to watch her walk around with a "phone" to her ear, babbling on the line. She'll pretend with her babies and is really starting to communicate with us. She's becoming a little girl!

Here are a few more tidbits about our girl:
* Is currently saying and waving hi and bye-bye. One day I was in Target and she was in the stroller waving and saying "hi" to anyone she saw.
* LOVES to be outside and gets very mad when you don't let her go out. (She'll bring my shoes to me as a hint.) Unfortunately it's been a cold and rainy spring, so we've had a lot of battles over the great outdoors.
* Not saying a whole lot of words yet, but definitely communicates. She says "da-da" for both Mommy and Daddy and says "map" when she watches Dora. :)
* Shakes her head for "no" and claps for "yes"
* Has been known to use the fake cry tactic. It's very cute. One day she started "crying" and then stopped, peaked at me, and started again...and then repeated that cycle a couple more times.
* Can hold her own with her sisters. She's usually quite willing to play along, but there are times when she doesn't want to do what she's "supposed" to. Unfortunately, she's been known to hit, bite and pinch. (Although sometimes the older girls deserve it!)
* Very attached to her bottle. We're currently trying to wean from it. She'll drink water from the sippy cup, but not milk. Wonder how long it will take...
* Has found her own little seat on the bottom shelf of our entryway table.

She actually sat down and said her version of "cheese" for this picture! Yeah!! That's huge progress!

We love you, sweet girl!

Our Easter

Happy Easter! We hope you all enjoyed this special Resurrection Day!

We had a busy weekend of church, coloring Easter eggs, and an Easter egg hunt. Nothing unusual, but full of fun and tradition.

Craig took over the coloring of the eggs this year, so here they are enjoying it.

We also had our 2nd year of picnicing for lunch and hunting for Easter eggs in the park. It was again a bit cold, but it was nice in the sun! Here are all the kids that were involved this year.

Sweet Kendall enjoyed the hunt too!

Star of the Week!

Last week was Ashlyn's turn to be Star of the Week in her class, so we got to tell all about our special little girl!

We filled out all the paperwork and sent it in for the bulletin board, and Ashlyn got to present her information to her class. I went in and brought her a special lunch for her special week.

Here are a few pictures of her with some of her friends. Here she is with Addison Gisleson.

And here she is with Luke Traetow, Emma Doorn, Addison, Gretchen Marcy and Fred Schultz.

One of the assignments was for her to fill out a sheet that tells all about Ashlyn, so here are some of the questions and her answers:
The place I would like to visit: Minneapolis (specifically Nickelodeon Universe!)
My favorite food is: chocolate pudding and muffins
My favorite TV show is: The Amazing Alphabet Adventure (a Leapfrog movie)




My favorite color is: Blue
My favorite book is: Too Purpley




My favorite sport is: T-ball (although she's not playing it this year!)
When I grow up, I want to be: a mommy
What I like best about me: I can swing upside down on the bars.
Additional things you would like our class to know about you: I like to go to gymnastics and flip into the foam pit. I like to do my piano lessons. (She's not actually taking lessons, we just "practice" at home.)

So there's a little bit about our girl. She's growing up fast. Hard to believe that she's almost in Kindergarten! Things are changing...