The Engel Family

kids and summer

2010-07-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

A few daylily pictures from our yard. We transplanted around 30 from my mom's yard a couple years ago. They were beautiful this year.

Anna - Anna has kept pretty busy this summer. She's been taking swimming and tennis. She's in Totus Tuus this week. Must her keep her busy or she'll go crazy like she did one day last week. Guess she was bored so she was determined to do all kinds of dare devil tricks around the house - with Kolbe at her side. I really scolded her good a couple times, sent her to her room, etc. About 20 minutes after I gave her strict instructions to find something safe to play, she decides to try slip and slide on the hardwood floor with a small pillow. Landed on her face and almost busted her front tooth out. She was bleeding, her face was puffing up, totally freaked out. Took her to the dentist who said it was too soon to tell if the tooth will survive. Err. I'm hopeful it will be ok - seems much better now.

She's pretty much past the age of saying unintentional funny things, but still makes me laugh with how passionate she can get about things. She's really been in to tree climbing this summer (another one of her extreme sports). She also feels strongly that a weeping willow tree would be a great tree for our yard. Dan just happens to strongly dislike these trees and it is funny how many conversations our family has had debating the pros and cons of the willow tree. One day she would not stop talking about wanting to plant a willow tree. We were at the check out at Dillons and the teen-aged girl clerk asked Anna how her day was. Anna sadly replied, "Well, fine, but I really really want a willow tree". Without missing a beat, the clerk sympathetically replied, "Oh, I really wanted one too when I was your age." I laughed at them both.

Audrey - Sweet Audrey. She is excited about being a real school girl next month starting kindergarten though she's already dreading the idea of having homework. She had her shots the other day and didn't cry even though it "hurt like crazy". She took swim lessons earlier in the summer and loved it - learned so much.

At our neighborhood 4th of July parade, Audrey was in charge of pulling their float (Kolbe and decorated wagon). When the kids started marching, Audrey starts running with the float. Anna ran along trying to keep up. That got other kids running. They ran the whole length of the parade which is a couple of blocks long and then they ran back. When we finally caught up with them, Audrey, out of breath said, "I think we came in second". They participate in the parade every year so it didn't occur to us that we should clarify that a parade is not the same thing as a race.

This was awhile back, but Audrey came up with an elaborate theory that our cat Sunny was the "Jesus of the cat world". She explained that he's so nice and smart and has other cat friends from the neighborhood. Specifically, she explained that he always gives her three chances - three chances before he bites her. Apparently we need to brush up on her theology.

Kolbe - I think we are finally experiencing the terrible two's tantrums. It would probably be wishful thinking that they will go away when he turns three next month. He can get pretty stubborn and irrational about the silliest things. For instance, the other day he threw a huge fit because he didn't get to exit the van door of his choice. Daddy didn't know he could be so particular about this and daddy was not going to let him have his way about such a silly thing. So, we got to hear him SCREAM for 20 minutes until I could not take it anymore and took him back to the van, let him back in and then let him out the door he wanted.

But, he can be very cute at other times. He was just thrilled one Saturday morning when PBS was left on and he discovered the show This Old House. He really got in to it. Every couple of minutes, he'd yell, "I wike dis show".

(gross alert) The other night he was sleeping in our bed. I was almost asleep when I heard him say sweetly,"Here you go, mama. Here you go" I didn't know what he was talking about at first. Then realized that he was trying to hand me something. I held out my hand. It was a tiny burger from his nose. I asked him what I was suppose to do with it. He replied, "I don't know" then yelled, "Eat it!" and started laughing and yelling it over and over like he was the first to come up with such a gross and funny idea. What a boy.

Oh, finally got him potty trained earlier this summer! Yippee, Kolbe! No more diapers, for awhile.

Baby - That's right - if you have not heard, a baby is coming late January.

This is not a picture of our baby, just a stand-in. I don't think our camera comes with that feature. Baby Sprout is 12 weeks along and simply perfect in every way. Never misbehaves or talks back. However, is causing mom some nausea and lots of fatigue. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure it is all the baby's fault that the house is such a mess these days. At 12 weeks, the baby is about 2 inches long and weighs half an ounce. The girls made a name list as soon as we told them. If you missed it on Facebook, here it is:

Summer trip to Florida

2010-06-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

We started the summer off with a trip down to the Gulf Coast. We were just ahead of the oil by about a week. On our way down we stopped in Arkansas at the Jean Petite State Park and took a two hour hike to a 90 foot waterfall. We were all exhausted by the end of it, but the kids did great. Even Kolbe walked the whole way carrying his stuffed monkey until the last 15 minutes.

On the way down we stayed near Mobile - ate at the wonderful Felix's restaurant which has become a tradition when we travel to Florida. We went sightseeing one morning south of Mobile and came upon the 80th annual parish picnic of St. John's Church in Magnolia Springs. We joined in the festivities. Dan and I chowed down on seafood gumbo. The girls danced and danced to some authentic live Cajun music. Their was a bench full of old Southern ladies who really got a kick out of them. I told the ladies that we were from Kansas and my girls were not used to the humidity and they replied back in their southern drawl "neither are we".

Before we made it to the beach, we had one more stop in scenic Florala, Alabama to visit Uncle Randy and Aunt Amy. Their home which Randy built is across the street from on the lake so we had several opportunities to swim and take walks along the boardwalks. The kids had a blast with Randy's three dogs and finally experienced taking dogs on a walk.

We stayed in Seagrove Beach which is between Destin and Panama City Beach. We mainly spent the time playing on the beach, playing in the sand, catching hermit crabs and little fishies . There ended up being quite a bit on algae in the water at our beach so we went swimming at St. Andrew's Bay and Destin Bay. Randy and Amy came down for a night. Dan, Randy and the girls caught 27 crabs one night in about 20 minutes

So, if you are wondering how the long drive went, the video below gives you an idea.

Anna also kept a journal on the ride down. Here is an excerpt, "Awsome I just saw a pretty horse. Now I'm starving. And I really want to get out of the car! Mom says that there trying to find a park! Dad is in a race on the road. I hope he is a champion. Dad is winning. Yay! We are listening to music that reminds mommy of me. Guess what It is raining."

And another from somewhere is southern Arkansas, "It is still day two and we just saw a plane drive over us! And mom is reading the newspaper in the car. She loves to read. Uh- Oh My mom and dad got lost. We almost drove into a cornfield which I wish we would. It would be fun. And guess what we just saw a man riding a horse. Now we are really lost but what a fun lost journey. Now we are off the rode to take a better look at the map and to think better. and there's a sign that says bear crossing."

All accurate reporting.

When they reached 500 we told them to stop . . . NOW.

a few pictures from spring

2010-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

A visit to Botanica

The kids love to climb the beauty bush in the back yard. The blooms lasted a bit longer this year I believe - maybe a whole two weeks.

Audrey's caterpillars finally came in the mail. The kids enjoyed watching the whole process. Here's 2 of the 7 the day they let them go.

I love this picture of Kolbe at Exploration Place.

Here I am at Exploration Place standing next to the Mammoth tusk that was discovered near Edgemoor and Kellogg a few years ago. I grew up just down the street. And yes, those are my kids in the background wandering off.

One windy day, Audrey made these "kites". Entertained the two for at least an hour. :)

Anna's singing debut

2010-03-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

Anna sang in a talent show at the garden show. It was her first time singing in public with the exception of her practice run she did for her class. She did great! She didn't win, but she got through it just fine. She was hardly even nervous. Sorry for the poor video - Dan had kids surrounding him.

She was by far the youngest in the show. All the kids that won the top prizes were teenagers. She was so funny the days before the show. She told Dan that "Simon Cowell will probably be there because he's in charge of these sort of things". I played a little trick on her after the show and asked if she saw Simon standing in the back. Her eyes got huge. I didn't carry that on too long - it seemed too mean.

2010-03-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

It's hard being a parent these days. Kids expect so much . . . dance lessons, manicures, face masks, cucumbers on their eyes. I've never even had cucumbers on my eyes come to think of it.

The kids had their first spa experience at cousin Kylie's bday party. Poor Kolbe is the only boy and just had to suffer through it, even the finger nail polish. It was a fun night. Dan's sis Sheryl always comes up with such clever themes. She should be the one with a blog about all the birthday themes she has come up with through the years. The girls had a sleepover with their cousins. On the way home, Kolbe blurted out the longest and clearest sentence we've heard yet "I want to go back to Sheryl's house now" Then he cried for 20 minutes in the car. I know he'll thank us later for getting him out of there.

Below are a few of Audrey's cheerio creations I wrote about previously. She asked me one day if Martha Stewart ever had kids on her show. I told her that I thought she did. Then she asked if her cheerio creatures were good enough to get her on the show. I couldn't help but laugh imagining Martha, "Today we have Audrey Engel here to share with us these delightful animals made from cheerios and spit. Your guests will simply love them."

Conversation overheard in the Engel car driving home from school one day:
Anna (yelling): Mom, Mom! Guess what! My teacher has ammonia! She's really sick!
Me: You mean pneumonia. That's too bad. I hope she gets better soon. Was she at school today?
Anna (yelling) : Yes, but monia can make you really sick. You can DIE from it!
Audrey: Can we go to her grave?
Me: She's just sick, Audrey, not dead.
Audrey: When she dies can we go to her grave . . . . please?

And finally, happy kids playing in the snow.

We made two snowmen this year. Kolbe was thrilled with both. Every morning, first thing, he'd climb on the couch, pull back the curtain to see his beloved snowman. Late one night, some jerk in a pick-up truck knocked down our 6 foot tall snowman. Dan and I were still up and saw him speed away. So the next morning, I didn't say anything to Kolbe, but just watched to see what he'd do. He stood there with a puzzled look and finally said so matter-of-factly, "My 'noman' fall down, mama". It is so fun to hear him talk and put his little sentences together for the first time.

2010-01-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

This in one of my favorite photos from the Christmas season. The girls with my mom. It was a week before Christmas Eve, the night of Audrey's school program and my birthday too. Once Christmas Eve hit, we apparently did not have much time to take photos I realized when I finally downloaded. We spent Christmas Eve with my family at Wade's. On Christmas Day the Engel family started to trickle in delayed a little due to the bad weather. But, they all made it eventually and for 4 or 5 days we ate and ate and ate and played some too bouncing back and forth between our house and the Appl's.

I took this the morning of the hoarfrost in January.

Sunny the cat is still putting up with a lot of . . . stuff from the kids.

We went to the grand opening of the arena downtown. Kids enjoyed the trolley ride the most. Dan and I enjoyed the dream of being able to watch a concert from one of those executive suites.

Kolbe the builder - his latest thing. Kolbe shocked Dan one evening while I was out. While alone in the living room, he used the broom, mop and a vacuum sweeper accessory to construct this. Whatever it is. He has made many variations and I finally had to hide the the broom, etc. because for one, I was afraid he'd hurt himself or break something and two, my kitchen floor was disgusting because he'd flip out whenever I tried to borrow his supplies.

Audrey has been creating things on a smaller scale. Apparently with a little spit, Cheerios stick together. She has made dogs, cars, bunnies all out of Cheerios and spit. Are my kids weird? We do have Play-doh somewhere. I should find it for her.

Audrey makes me laugh so often these days. After sitting too long watching a movie one day she asked why her foot felt "all fizzy". Another time she had been hit in the eye by a flying block thanks to Kolbe. She was crying and I was calming her down, checking her eye. I held my hand over her good eye and asked her if she could see how many fingers I was holding up. Fighting back tears, she said, "I can't . . . see . . . anything . . . out of the eye you are covering up."

We've been swimming at the Y a lot this winter and Audrey's really coming along with her swimming. I had her in the deep end swimming back and forth from the edge of the pool to me. Dan and I started talking as Audrey clung to the edge of the pool. Dan noticed that she was holding herself as if she needed to use the bathroom. I offered to take her. She insisted she didn't need to. A few minutes later, she was still holding herself. I asked again. She insisted, "No, I don't need to go to the bathroom. I'm just trying to pull myself up so I don't sink." We moved to the shallow end after that.

Christmas is Coming

2009-12-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

To help get you in the holiday spirit, here is a video of my graceful girls trying to reenact a scene from the Nutcracker. I took them to the ballet for the first time on Sunday. Had a great time. I know - it is a really bad video. I was quite unhappy when I realized it was the wrong direction and I can't figure out how to rotate it. Wouldn't bother posting, but told a few people I would.

We took a quick trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in November to help my mom, Aunt Frankie, sis-in-law Peggy and cousin Asoka clean out my Aunt Clover's home. She is now in a nursing home. We were only able to stay for the weekend, so I'm afraid we were only a tiny bit of help.

Outside one of my favorite churches St. Elizabeth of Hungary in downtown Eureka Springs.

Also a few pics from Thanksgiving at our house. My family all came over. The guys played football in the front yard after we pigged out. Here is the cheering section:

Davey is missing in this photo. I'll have to post more on Facebook. We dragged the dining room table to the living room as usual.

I love this picture. My kitchen looks so clean, no toys on the floor . . . oh and Dan is in it too.

This month has been so busy with shopping, etc, etc. Dan's family is coming to Wichita this year so I'm working on pulling the house together and a few decent meals. I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Last year, we were so sick all through December and the year before that, dad had passed away a couple months before. I've tried so hard to start early and am still ahead of the game, I think. We'll see how this next week goes.

Happy Advent everyone.

Another Cat Tale

2009-11-06T14:22:00.001-08:00

Sunny went missing again on Wednesday evening. We saw him dash across the street around 5:30 and he didn't show up that night at his usual dinner time. He is mainly an outdoor kitty, but he is getting better and better at staying in our yard. He's usually right outside the door trying to sneak in. The next day, he was not sitting in the front window, his usual early morning spot. Audrey and Kolbe always bring him in first thing even before they eat to feed him so they were both sad when he didn't show. He was gone all day and I began to wonder if this was it. Audrey couldn't wait to inform Anna after school that Sunny had run away. Big news in their little world.

So last night around 6, the neighbor guy from across the street was at our door and told Dan he found our cat. Mom just happened to be over and we both glanced at eachother and whispered, "dead?". We did not have a good feeling. But, good news he was just stuck up a tree - high, very high in the neighbor's tree. We all went over there to look up at him. When Sunny saw us he really started crying. This tree trunk goes straight up and he was really stuck. The kids of course were all worked up about the cat being stuck in a tree. Dan dragged our ladder over but even that only reached about 2/3 of the way up to the cat. There was a bunch of firewood, a fence and other junk under the tree so it would not be a very nice landing if Dan or the cat fell. I ran home to get a big fish net to reach the cat - we were getting desperate! When I came back our neighbor had climbed up and was way up in the tree face to face with the cat. I was scared to death he'd get hurt. I don't know if his wife was as scared but she said he doesn't mind heights. Well, he managed to grab the cat who thankfully did not scratch him or attack him. Dan was able to bring him the rest of the way down. The girls cheered. Sunny seemed relieved, but mostly hungry. He devoured his cat food when we got him home.

Autumn

2009-11-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sunny the cat is now about 6 months old. He eats and eats and eats. I couldn't believe how fat his stomach was the other day, I double-checked to make sure that he is in fact a male. He tolerates a lot from the kids. He loves playing with their toys and has even followed us on walks around the block. One day I caught Anna feeding him some good deli turkey. She said she wanted him to like her more than Audrey. The truth is he gets along the best with Kolbe.

Kolbe and Audrey milking a fake cow at the State Fair.

Ah . . . all clean. Kolbe is talking a little more all the time. Most things are in the form of a question. I hear "What dat, mama?" quite often. One of his favorite things to say is "mean guy". He calls himself a mean guy and asks if every guy he sees on TV or in real life is a mean guy.

Anna is playing soccer for the first time this year. Her highpoint of the season was the first game when she made two goals. Since then, she's had a rough season. I'll blame her being sick with the flu for a week and a nasty cough for a month. She was so upset about missing school when she came down with the flu. She asked me if she could go and be with all the sick kids in the basement. I asked, what sick kids? She said, "All the kids with swine flu. That's where they put them. The basement is full of them". Apparently a kid in her class told her this and she believed it.

The kids came home with a ridiculous amount of candy on Halloween. We first went to visit some of Dan's elderly patients who spoiled them like grandkids. Really, we could have stopped there. No - we headed to Grandma Helen's after that. Then we went to Audrey's preschool where they had trunk-or-treat. Then we hit the neighborhood and ended the night at Aunt Sharyn's. When you multiply all these visits by three kids you end up with a dining room table covered with candy. We were so exhausted I didn't realize Kolbe had unwrapped about 6 suckers. I found him with all of them in his hand at once. It made being dressed like a mouse all day worth it.

Birthdays and 1st day of School

2009-08-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

All three kids celebrated their birthdays this past month.

Anna with her pizza birthday cake.

Audrey with her mermaid cake

I didn't put much effort in Kolbe's cake. I don't think he liked it.

Anna started 1st grade last week. We took the traditional back to school photo with daddy who drives her to school every morning.

Cat Found!

2009-08-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

and I'm a jerk! Or at least I guess the neighborhood kids did not take him. We had a call Saturday - one week after Sunny had disappeared that an orange kitten had been hanging around this family's porch for a few days about five blocks away. We all ran out to their van when they pulled up. I think Kolbe even tried to climb in. I felt like we were on one of those TV shows reuniting long lost family members. Sure enough it was him! They were nervous about meeting us afraid they would not like us and not want to give us the cat back. First they were afraid he had been dumped, then they finally saw our signs. I had put up new ones the day before in different locations - guess it did work. I really had about given up and the whole time felt I was wasting my time with the new signs. So who knows where he was the first 4 or 5 days, but these people did say he looked skinny. Poor Sunny. And my poor kids - they were getting pretty sick of driving our neighborhood everyday. Whenever we'd get in the car, Kolbe would immediately start calling for Sunny.

So, as for the neighborhood kids, well I can't say I feel awful for suspecting them - they were acting pretty suspicious. At least one of the kids isn't still scared of me. He showed up on our doorstep the next day to show us his dog's latest tricks.

Cat missing

2009-08-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sunny has been missing for four days. These pics were taken last week. I'm so upset. We've put up signs, talked to a ton of neighbors, visited the animal shelter. I have my suspicions that some neighbor girls here for the summer who REALLY liked him may have taken him. I didn't really trust these girls. They were rude to me a couple times because I wouldn't give them our cat and what a coincidence they move out of state to live with their other parent the same time he goes missing. I've also found out these girls were borrowing other people's cats for sleepovers without permission just like they had "borrowed" Sunny a couple times. And then, there is another neighbor kid with issues and I caught him tearing one of our signs down. I had two frustrating conversations with him (the second time he ran from me and I chased him down the street with the stroller and kids). What the heck! The parents of the first kids were friendly but not much help. They admitted the girls were the type to steal a cat, but didn't think they took him. Don't know whether to believe them or not. Tomorrow we plan to talk to this other kids parents.

So, now I'll feel like a real jerk if the cat ends up somewhere else. I hope I am wrong and he wasn't stolen from us. We miss our kitty!

Summer Trip

2009-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is just the 1st cousins in attendance. We had around 20 out of 36 able to make it.

We returned home from Colorado last week. We spent the first two days at the Engel Family farm in NW Kansas. Dan's sis Sheryl and family also joined us on the farm. The kids caught frogs and butterflies and took two little excursions to the sand pit - their favortie spot. Grandma fed us a ton and since the carpets were being cleaned we moved the dining room table to the garage. The weather was pleasant so that was actually kind of nice.

The next three days we were in Denver and stayed with Dan's sis Jolene and family. We went shopping, swimming and visited with our old friend Bishop Conley at his office. Audrey could have spent the entire time watching the Disney channel (we don't have cable). Kolbe was fascinated with all of cousin Colter's boy toys. Colter introduced him to a nerf gun. I've never seen him so thrilled with a toy.

We headed to the mountains (Winter Park area) after that for the Stomp family reunion - my mom's family. There were 72 Stomp family members in attendance. We shared a house in the woods with my brother Wade and family and sister Elaine and her husband Mark - where we saw deer, ground squirrels, different kinds of birds we don't have around here and even had a fox and a BEAR come up on our deck. I kid you not! Dan went on a huge death hike with Wade and family one day. We took a few little hikes (trails) with the kids. I'm bummed I missed out on the bigger hikes and the rafting - next time!

Kolbe with my brother Wade and Wade's hat.

At Bishop Conley's office with Dan's sister Jolene

with Colter and his fish

Kolbe with cousins Emily and Kelsey

out on the farm in grandpa's old pickup

my mom and the girls in their reunion shirts

my mom and Aunts Mary Ann, Eileen and Frankie

The girls getting their first guitar lesson from Aunt Elaine

My brother Wade and family and sis Elaine. I guess Mark was taking the picture.

Summer Time . . .

2009-07-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Here's Kolbe trying on Audrey's new swim goggles. Does that sum up summer enough?

I'll keep this short and sweet - our summer has been busy. Busy with reunions (Newman Center), trips (KC) and parties (baby shower for my new great-niece) and family (about half of Dan's family were in town for about a week). I'm not giving any of these events justice to skim over them like this, but we are gearing up for another round of trips, parties and another family reunion. I'd like to at least post some pictures because I may not resurface on this blog til the end of summer.

Here's a bunch of pics from our little Kansas City trip.

Anna in front of the art museum.

somebody did not want their picture taken with sister.

At Crown Center after eating at Fritz's where little trains deliver your food and run along the ceiling. Kolbe stood on my lap and yelled "Wow" the ENTIRE meal.

A happier Audrey with no sister in the picture at the art museum.

Soaked Anna playing in the fountains at Crown Center. You know you're having a good vacation when you give in to your kid's requests to play in the fountains in their clothes.

The girls at Union Station.

Another 'you know you're on vacation' when you let your kids order expensive cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. Of course, Dan and I ate half of it. Still!

At Worlds of Fun - we picked the hottest day in KC in 2 years for our pre-order tickets. We spent most the day at Oceans of Fun. Finally did rides in the evening - the place was empty at least. It was insane with three small kids, but they were troopers.

my favorite picture from the trip.

There was a Chronicles of Narnia exhibit at Union Station. The girls were taking these pictures very seriously. Dan was cracking me up with his silly expressions.

So that's all I have time for. And yes, we still have Sunny, the cat.

It's a Boy! and other great things

2009-06-05T08:59:00.001-07:00

In a moment of weakness, Dan and I let the girls bring home a kitten last weekend from a picnic we attended. His name is Sunny. He's orange and very small. I don't know if we will be Sunny's permanent home or not. He may be headed to the Engel family farm next month. They need kitties out there for a change. If he stays with us he'll have to be an outdoor kitty since the girls have seemed allergic to cats in the past. They don't seem to be allergic to Sunny . . . yet. He sleeps outside in our bunnyless bunny cage which he doesn't seem to mind at all. He's a pretty easy-going kitty so far and has had to put up with a great deal from the kids like being made to ride around in their little barbie car and play in their fisher price barn.

Here's a few yard pictures . . . some of my favorites.

We painted the shed/playhouse over Memorial Day weekend. I also stained the benches that were looking quite bad after being outside for so many years. I'm enjoying our small patio area much more now. I cleared the shed out of yard stuff so the kids can use it as their "clubhouse" Anna came up with a club for the three of them. It is called the "Snack Club" and its mission revolves around unauthorized snacking. I have caught the three of them in there several times with the door shut snacking on pop tarts or chocolate chips.

There is a bunny nest not far from the fake white bunny in the picture below. This area is right underneath our front living room window. It is the second litter of bunnies in this nest. The first we never saw hop around the yard. I don't know if an animal got to them or what. The current bunnies are still pretty little. The mama bunny has been hanging out in our front yard for months - can't believe I haven't taken a picture of her. She's so tame even though Kolbe chases her around almost every day. Surprisingly, I haven't noticed too much damage to my flowers.

I did some major rose pruning this year due to disease from last year. The yellow and orange roses are slower to bloom this year for some reason, but they do have a few buds.

This is Audrey's new favorite toy - a pink pegasus. We had to take about 20 pictures of it around the yard for her when she first got it.

Here's a few of my pots I put together this year. I buy everything so small that it will take all summer for them to be as full as the ones at the store. One of these years I may just buy them ready made. I probably wouldn't be spending much more, but not having as much fun.

Robins made a nest in an evergreen at the front of our house. We could easily hold up the kids so they could take a look. Could also see the babies from the bedroom windows. I meant to take a picture every day. Oh well, you get the idea.

5/12/09

5/14/09

5/21/09

Here's a picture of Kolbe and his yellow chair. There's not much Kolbe does not get into these days. He also keeps the house a real mess for us as can be seen in the video below.

So as you can see we've been pretty busy playing in the yard and picking up toys so far this summer. We have a couple trips planned and relatives coming to visit later on. Anna will start swim lessons next week and will attend the Totus Tuus camp at church. I've been thinking of signing up Audrey for a ballet class. We joke that we would like to sign up Kolbe for a home repair class for 1 year olds since he likes tools so much and is always pretending to fix things. One of his favorite things is for me to get out a screwdriver and take apart a toy and put it back together. This even brings him more joy than lining up toys!

Mother's Day at the Farm

2009-05-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

We spent Mother's Day weekend at the the Engel family farm near Oakley, Kansas. The weekend went too fast. Dan's brother Steve and his wife Anne also came out. Anna loves the farm so much she said she wished she lived next door to grandma and grandpa. This is funny since 'next door' is miles away. The weather was a little cool and we were too early to see the flowers in full bloom, but still had plenty of fun. We drove over to the sand pit. The kids collected more neat rocks, jumped off the cliff and played with a frog daddy found. They were scared of a bull snake daddy discovered in one of the barns and also of three impressive vultures that were sitting on top of a nearby abandoned farm house we stopped by. Sunday was cold and rainy. The kids played Connect 4 I don't know how many times with Aunt Anne and Uncle Steve. God bless aunts and uncles!

We made it back to town early enough to join my family at my brother's for dinner. Wade grilled a load of ribs. Delicious!

Anna has a week and a half of school left and I'm thinking of all the things I should get done before then. My knee is still a little messed up and I'm getting frustrated because I feel so lazy. Dan warns me to take it easy for a few more weeks.

2009-05-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I overheard Audrey singing while playing with her Barbies. She was singing some made-up song about how "she never wants to be a swine. I'm not a swine, I'm not a swine". I'm pretty sure the word swine was not in her vocabulary until last week.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ok - I know Easter Sunday was over a week ago, but I've tried several times to update the blog since then. Besides it is still the Easter season for quite awhile. Every time I try to download pictures, things crash and fall apart. Not sure where the problem lies or when I'll have more time to mess with it or feel like messing with it. I have pictures of the spring snow we had in late March (sounds like such old news now) and of course, some cute pics of the kids dyeing eggs and pigging out on Easter candy.

We've had lovely weather this week and Audrey, Kolbe and I are off to buy flowers in a bit - one of my most favorite times of the year. As usual, I'm spending way too much on annuals and should be putting my money towards perennials. Dan has big plans for our veggie garden this year and I hope we can keep up with it all. I have a sore knee that I'm trying to be very careful with so that has slowed the yard work down a bit. What great timing.

Kolbe has slowly been adding more words to his vocabulary though "Daddy" is by far his favorite word these days. He gets so excited when daddy comes home that he'll often trip and go flying across the floor because he is running so fast to meet him. This is cute, but not so cute when he thinks daddy is leaving and throws a huge tantrum. When Dan is at work, Kolbe often goes to the back door to the garage and calls for him. Lately, he's been dragging a chair to the back door to get up on and call for daddy. One time, I caught him in the bathroom near the back door and he was yelling "Daddy, Daddy" down the shower drain. I guess he was getting desperate and in a 20-month-olds mind that is completely logical.

Hope to get the picture thing worked out soon. For now, this is it!

LENT

2009-03-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are deep into Lent and we very much are looking forward to Easter Sunday. Anna was so excited about getting ashes on Ash Wednesday that she went to Mass twice. Once with her class and once with daddy. I could hardly believe it after the years of pew misbehavior we've endured. I guess she is growing up. We've done ok on some of our Lenten sacrifices and so-so on others and then had some unexpected things to give up - like no camera due to Kolbe "playing ball" with our good one and busting it. We probably would have bought a replacement by now, but we've been dealing with sick kids on and off now for the last few weeks. The worst of it was this past weekend when the stomach flu hit the kids again. Audrey has been the sickest and we are slowly letting her eat different foods. Her stomach still cramps up after 5 days. Poor girl.

Which reminds me of one of our pre-Lenten talks with the girls about offering up things we like. Audrey suggested that daddy give up tennis. He didn't care for this idea. I (jokingly) told her I might give up cooking and she gasped, "But mommy . . . we'll die!" So, you can imagine how devastating the stomach flu is on her. It didn't help that all that was on TV last night (besides the presidential address) while she was cuddled up next to me seemed to be cooking shows and then Anna joins us with a library book about making strawberry shortcake.

It is still a constant battle with Kolbe keeping him from destroying things and beating on his sisters with whatever weapon he can come up with. Geesh - he is small, but such a little wild guy. Maybe I'm not disciplining him enough? The other week he was looking in the mirror saying over and over "No, no. No, no." So either he thinks that is his name or he was just scolding the little boy in the mirror.

Kolbe can't get enough of playing outside and will cry and cry at the door if I won't let him out. He loves the tire swing and thankfully Anna is very willing to push him. Whenever we get a camera, I'll get some shots of him of it. The weather was so nice over spring break and now has cooled off again. Hopefully, it won't get too cold. We've been planning out our little vegetable garden which we are expanding this year. I need to research what kinds of annuals bunnies don't like. We have a wild bunny nesting in our front flower bed. Could it be Speckle, the baby bunny we temporarily caught last year? She is so tame even with the kids chasing her around the yard. The other day Kolbe and I sat on the front step with her 4 feet away eating my hostas. She has a nest with babies right underneath the window. We haven't told the kids yet and I'm surprised they have not discovered it. So here I am protecting these little guys who were the number one destroyer of my plants last year. But gosh, they are just so cute hopping around the yard and of course, the kids love them.

So, yes, we look forward to Easter Sunday, to spring weather that will stick around, and flowers and fresh veggies and healthy kids.

2009-03-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a kid questionairre I saw on Facebook. I decided to interview the girls. It is kind of lengthy, but decided to post anyway. I asked the same questions about daddy too. Anna's answer is first, then Audrey's. The second set of answers refer to daddy. My comments are in parenthesis. Enjoy learning what our kids think of us.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Anna - "I love you, sweetie"
Audrey - "Audrey, I love you"

(About Daddy)
Anna - "It's time to get up"
Audrey - "Try to go to sleep, Audrey"

2. What makes mom happy?
Anna - planting flowers for her
Audrey - help you clean the table

when we make cakes for him
when it's his birthday and we give him something special

3. What makes mom sad?
when we be bad
hurting things and Kolbe biting you on your leg

When we be bad
when a crab bit him

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
when we tell jokes
when we baked cookies and flour got all over (True story)

tells jokes
when he plays funny jokes

5. What was your mom like as a child?
she looked like me when I was little girl
kind of like Audrey and Anna

he probably looked like Kolbe
he loved cooking with grandma

6. How old is your mom?
48(!)
I don't know how old people are

42
I don't know how old our family is.

7. How tall is your mom?
24
I don't know

12
He's really tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
plant flowers
cook

stay home from work
he likes to eat his dinner so yummy and look at his newspaper

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
takes care of the other kids
clean the kitchen

work on his little computer that he uses for work (laptop)
goes to work

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Anna - good at finding the right house (looking at open houses)
Audrey - I don't know about such things. They'd say 'how that girl got on TV?'.

playing tennis
people would think he is very nice

11. What is your mom really good at?
good at finding the right house (looking at open houses)
cooking cookies

tennis
cooking turkey

12. What is your mom not very good at?
not sure
when you make sweet mash potatoes

nursing baby
I don't remember

13. What does your mom do for a job?
feed Kolbe (thanks)
cooking

Physical therapy
play tennis

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
pizza
spaghetti

pizza
plums and licorice

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
that she's a good mom
when she makes yummy cookies

when he hugs me
when he makes us dinner

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Emily Elizabeth from Clifford
Sleeping Beauty

Audrey - phantom of the opera because he has black hair

17. What do you and your mom do together?
plant flowers together
play outside

play tennis
clean up toys together

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we look alike when we are little
we like fun things

Audrey - we love to sing

19. How are you and your mom different?
moms older and I'm littler
mommy got a haircut

Anna - I have longer hair and daddy doesn't
Audrey - I have blond hair and daddy has a little bit of black hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because I was your baby
because you let me bake with you

Audrey - we do fun things

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
he helps cook sometimes. One time he helped make dinner.
when he cleans house and makes dinner

Audrey - When mommy cooks and surprises daddy on his birthday

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
grocery store
grocery store

Audrey- library

Kolbe celebrates Daddy's Birthday

2009-01-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

After a big meal, presents, an evening visit/walk to the Keeper of the Plains and chocolate cake and ice cream, we decided to complete Daddy's birthday with some dancing and rocking it out to CDs in the kids' room. Audrey preferred the Celtic Women of the World CD. Kolbe's favorite was the Beatles. Prior to getting the video camera out, he spent a whole song collecting every necklace he could find.

Happy 38th Birthday, Dan!!!

2009-01-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

Today is Dan's bday. Birthdays are a pretty big deal around here especially in Audrey's world. It's the first thing she said when she woke up this morning. "It's Daddy's birthday. Did I miss it?"She was afraid she slept through the whole day. She loves to talk about birthdays and she insists grown-ups should have theme birthdays as you can see in last year's Simpson's birthday cake for Dan. This year, Dan requested a sunflower birthday. I think he couldn't think of anything and was trying to make it easy for me since cake decoration is not exactly one of my special skills.

I rejoined Mom's Day Out last week so we'll be doing that on Tuesdays. I've been on the fence whether to sign up again and here the last few weeks Audrey has been begging to go. I know she gets bored during the day without Anna around. Plus, we've been without PBS for several months now due to the whole digital TV thing. What's a girl to do! She cracked me up the other day. She said she wanted me to hold up fingers and she'd tell me how many I was holding up (she saw me do this with Anna the day before when Anna insisted that Audrey had blinded her after a scuffle). So I hold up my hand, all five fingers and ask her how many. She replied, "All of them" I said, "no, count how many" "All of them!" she insisted. That was the end of that game.

Kolbe continues to amaze us with his dare devil abilities. Not only does he like to climb, but he likes to jump. The other night he was leaping from a small chair to the couch over and over. He would like to jump off the couch, but knows he's not quite ready. He's also working on another skill: spitting. It is really gross. I'll catch him leaning over and watching the spit fall from his mouth. The girls would never do such a thing! He threw his first really huge tantrum last week. He wanted to play outside, but it as like 15 degrees out that day. He screamed for over an hour, kept trying to drag me to the back door. One time when I told him "No, it is too cold out" he saw his hat on the floor and put it on quickly in a very stubborn way. I did take him out a couple times for a few minutes thinking he'd understand but the cold didn't really seem to bother him.

Anna has been really in to learning to read and write lately. She likes to dictate letters and rules for me to write down for her and then she posts them around the house. On the trip to Denver, she was trying to read everything including license plates. "Mom, what does WXD 359 spell?" We tried to explain, but she'd continue to try to sound out license plates which was pretty entertaining. She also tries to teach Audrey things she has learned in kindergarten. The problem is she loses her patience very quickly. I'll hear her yelling at Audrey, " Spell 'flower' for me now! I just told you how!" Poor Audrey!

In honor of the new American Idol season . . .

2009-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

Here's Kolbe trying to sing Happy Birthday about a month ago. He's moved on to other songs like Three Blind Mice. Still can't say many of the actual words though.

Grandma, Aunt Sharyn and cousin Jenna singing to Kolbe around Halloween.

Here's what happens during a typical evening at our house. At least we have a way to entertain ourselves during those long American Idol commercial breaks. If it is too quiet at your house, feel free to play this over and over. And yes, that is Kolbe putting the lens cap on to try to make it all stop.

Engel Bells, Engel Bells, Engel all the way . . .

2009-01-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

For all of you who did not get a Christmas card from us this year, do not take it personal. We did not get them out this year, darn it! But if we did, perhaps, the picture above would have been the one we sent. So, here is wishing you a very happy year. We appreciate all the cards and emails and I hope to have my act together next year.

It was a pretty good Christmas for us this year. We celebrated with my family on Christmas Eve at my brother Wade's house. It was great to see all my nephews and nieces many of whom are away at college. As usual we stuffed our faces with all kinds of incredible food and then we opened gifts. We then headed to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at Magdalen. Not the greatest time to attend Mass with little ones, but worked out the best since we were headed to Denver the next day. So we hit the road after opening Santa gifts and having a big breakfast on Christmas morning. My mom came over to share the morning with us which was really nice.

The drive to Denver was pretty uneventful. The kids managed the drive without the DVD player. Amazing. We sang a lot of Christmas songs (including Engel Bells). We ate dinner at Denny's in Limon and I was pleasantly surprised that they have very tasty cheeseburgers. We rolled in to Jolene's (Dan's sis) Christmas evening. The Appls' had already arrived and the rest of the gang showed up the next day.

So we spent the next five days in Denver with almost 30 Engel aunts, uncles, and cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Engel. We were all able to stay at Jolene's and Steve's which worked out great. We went swimming one day, sledding in the mountains another, lots of shopping, lots of eating and the kids got to ride Aunt Anne's horse which was a big hit. The weather was great while we were there with the exception of a snow storm we hit while driving in the mountains.

We broke up the drive home and spent one night at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma played her violin and the kids sang Christmas songs. Dan took the girls out to the sand pit which isn't as much fun in freezing weather. We stayed the next day til afternoon before hitting the rode. Unfortuantely we had a flat tire near Russell. It took Dan forever to get the spare released from under the car and then it was almost flat! Not fun. We usually have an air pump when we travel, but didn't this time. No one would stop for us either. Finally decided to drive slowly into Russell which was still five miles away. Took forever and we got there right before 5 o'clock, closing time on New Year's Eve. Thankfully, they got a us a new tire and we were set, just two hours behind schedule.

Here's a few pictures. I have more on my Facebook page.

Here we are sledding at Snow Mountain Rach near Winter Park.

Freezing cold Engel grandkids minus Dave and Leah's kids.

Audrey's favorite Christmas present. She had been looking at it in an advertisement for weeks.

Audrey pooped out after sledding, but in great spirits.

So now Dan is back at work and Anna at school today. The house is very quiet. I'll head to the library in a bit with Audrey and Kolbe and Kolbe has a dr. appt this afternoon. Back to normal life, I guess.

2008-12-15T10:10:00.000-08:00

Christmas is Coming . . .
Well, I just found my mixer beaters on the Christmas tree. I'm taking it as a sign to finally update on what the kids have been up to lately. Yesterday, I noticed a bottle of purple nail polish resting peacefully in the nativity. Before I had a chance to put it away, my niece Kylie got hold of it and did a decent job on her nails. The kids, especially Kolbe and Audrey, have really enjoyed our decorations. I'm wondering why we decorated so early. While decorating the tree, Kolbe broke three ornaments before we were able to place them out of reach. He's so quick and can really throw! So the bottom three feet of the tree is bare, but it wasn't long til he came up with an idea. One day, I observed him carrying the kitchen broom through the house and then positioning himself right in front of the tree. "No way," I thought. Sure enough, he started taking swings at the ornaments up high.

Kolbe still isn't saying much, but he loves to sing Happy Birthday. He gets a little camera shy, but I captured a bit of it on video - which I will have to download later since I can't find the right cords.

Anna will be an angel in her school Christmas play this Tuesday. She has a line that she shares with five other angels. We'll see how she does. She's been singing lots of Christmas songs lately and will often change the words. The other day in the car, she was singing some sappy made-up song about "sharing, caring and being friends with people . . . no matter what they look like".

I have done very little Christmas shopping. I've bought only one gift so far. I mainly just have to buy for kids this year so I'm hoping one big trip to the toy store will do it . . . probably not though.

2008-11-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Not much to say, just some new pics to add from Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

Here's some pre-Halloween shots we've taken this past week. The kids have already worn their "Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens" costumes a few times to parties, etc. Also included is one of caveman Dan and my cool sis-in-law Peggy. Also a picture of me and my sisters dressed as the Golden Girls. We raided mom's garage sale clothes. Now that is scary.

In one of the pictures you may notice an extra kid. That's Jose, my brother Randy's step-grandson from Florida. He's been here this week staying with us. We have done so much and really have had a lot of fun. We've gone to the pumpkin patch, to the zoo twice, to the Keeper of the Plains down by the river and to College Hill's Halloween street. Tonight will be trick-or-treating and then Randy and Jose will head back to Florida tomorrow. I am so tired.

So that only explains my blog disappearance for the past week. Maybe I'll get caught up on the rest later.

In the picture of Kolbe in the chair, you can't really tell but he is TIED to the chair by his loving sisters and then had to endure dressup clothes. I heard Audrey laughing harder than I've ever had and this in the scene I came upon. Poor baby brother. He's really enjoyed having Jose here to have someone on his team.

2008-09-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed my garage sale, I feel truly sorry for you. My friend Vicki and her husband Laszlo and I had a sale at my house last week and we had a great time. Weather was perfect and it was nice to take a break from the usual stuff to sit around in my driveway and visit with the shoppers. Most of our visitors were quite nice. However, the last day some snotty teenagers said loudly as they drove by, "They've been having that junk sale for like five days." It was only three days, just felt like five, we said. I can't say in the end that I succeeded in what I had set out to do: get rid of stuff. After snatching up Vicki's cool stuff that didn't sell and visiting my mom's one last time over the weekend before her estate sale, I have more stuff than before.
So, here is a sampling of some of our junk.

Phones. Husband's collection. Which ones sold? The yellow and mint, of course.

Broken fertilizer spreader, crafty wreath thing, toy and baby and Vicki. What sold? Spreader, 25 cents.

Fuzzy Black Christmas slippers, wreath thing again. Slippers sold for $2. Big sale.

This specialty item got much interest and laughs from our more creative-minded shoppers. Sadly, it did not sell. Probably because we failed to get it out til the second day.

The phones have gone to Goodwill heaven, but if you are interested in any of these other great items, call us now!

Audrey turns 4!

2008-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

We celebrated the last of the birthday trilogy last week. Audrey's birthday theme was "Phantom of the Opera". My disclaimer: we don't ever let our kids watch PG-13 movies, but I let them watch this one with me because I knew they'd get in to the music. Well, did they ever. They became obsessed especially Audrey who teared up the first time she saw the scene with Christine singing on stage. So, she wanted to dress as Christine for her Masquerade Birthday Party. The funny thing was the girls were frightened by the masks and even scared of their dear cousin David who dressed as the phantom. You try and try to give them what they want and then they flip out. Audrey's cousins were so awesome to come dressed in character and then they were too frightened to go near them the first half the night. Jenna was Carlotta, David was the phantom and Michael was Raoul. Anna was Meg and everyone else part of the masquerade ensemble. We had candles, roses and even an opera stage.

To not leave Kolbe out, here he is in his new Star Wars t-shirt . . . Kolbe-Wan-Kenobi, you're our only hope.

Anna's least favorite part of school is whenever they have to sing "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands". She strongly dislikes this song as does Audrey. I don't know why, I guess it is annoying to them. It is the first specific song they really do not like and it's funny to hear them talk about it. The song will get in her head and it drives her crazy. She also has decided she does not care for rap music. Smart girl.

Kolbe's new trick

2008-08-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

This baby exhausts me. He also likes to stand up on the horse and let go when he knows someone is near to grab him. I guess that's his way of getting down.

Audrey's 4th bday party is Friday and I'm sure we'll have lots of pics to post after that. She's said a few funny things lately. Last weekend when we sat down to watch the Olympics she kept complaining, " 'Lympics again! Ugh . . . I hate 'lympics . . . it takes forever . . . 'lympics is not for kids". Also, last week we were walking to the garden center and she asked out of nowhere "Mommy, when are you going to grow a girl baby?" Maybe she thought we could pick up a seed packet at Johnson's.

School is going alright for Anna. The newness is wearing off and the poor girl is so tired.

School Daze

2008-08-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Anna loved her first and second day of kindergarten. Audrey was so happy to see her when she got home. The hugging and kissing went on long enough for me to get a couple minutes of video too.

2008-08-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

I rarely read the comics, but I saw this one the other day and it cracked me up.

Ahhh . . . .

2008-08-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's been busy. I'll give a quick update on everyone and everything:

Kolbe: almost 1 year old. We had his bday party the other day and his favorite part was when he was presented with some balloons. He hardly touched his cupcake. He's been taking a few steps here and there and then really took off last night taking 6 - 8 steps at a time and then he claps for himself. Call me crazy, but today when he was showing off his walking, he kept saying "waa, waa, waa". Anna was saying a few words by now, but he just seems so little still.

Anna: Will start kindergarten on Monday! We'll see if I can hold it together. She turned 6 last month and the bday party theme was "Off to School". She wore her school uniform. She's been climbing trees and the other day gave me a scare when she climbed high up in one of our backyard trees - she was a few feet higher than the pic below. She's also been riding her new bike around the Bishop Carroll track with daddy.

Audrey: Not much new with Audrey. She continues to "adopt" every critter she can find in the yard. Her 4th bday is soon. We finally bought a zoo membership and she is loving our visits there. She loves the Children's Farm the most.

Chrissy: I spent most of July (it seemed) working on the Children's Program for the conference the first weekend of August. It was my 5th year to help coordinate volunteers and seemed much harder to get it all done (I blame little Kolbe and Dan not being around as much due to his new job). I'll probably have to cut back next year. The weekend was a lot of fun as always and it was great seeing so many friends and sweet little ones in the program. We have around 600 kids in the program and around 100 volunteers.

So now that that is over, I mainly just want to get my house in order. Does it ever seem like every drawer and cabinet and closet need to be cleaned out and reorganized? That is how I'm feeling and I'm not getting very far!

Dan: Work, work , work, mow lawn, work, take Anna bike riding, play some tennis if he is lucky. The new job is going fine. Usually works over time each week, but it is also somewhat flexible if he needs to take off early or go in late. The great thing, for me at least, is that he'll be able to take Anna to school every morning. I feel a bit guilty when I hear of moms who have to get all their little ones up and ready to take the older kids to school.

Pets: No pets yet, but we are still planning to get a bunny.

Weather: It has been cool and rainy this week and suppose to be next. The kids have been playing outside more and I'm getting caught up a little on the yard.

So that's it for now. Check back soon. I will try to add some pictures to this post once I get them downloaded.

bunny update

2008-07-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Happy belated 4th of July! Hope you had a good one. Ours was pretty laid back this year compared to last year when the entire Engel family was in town. Dan's sister Sheryl and family came over for swimming at the neighborhood pool, dinner, little fireworks in the driveway and then a quick visit to mom's to see big fireworks from her balcony. The girls went home with their cousins for a sleepover. What a treat!

We didn't keep the four baby bunnies for too long. The mother came looking for them and we felt so sad for her. Why the heck am I feeling sorry for these little pests that have destroyed my flower bed!?! So we let them all go back in the petunia bed. Audrey didn't quite understand what was happening and she went hysterical when we released her baby bunny. Can't make anyone happy! They are still there and last night, after midnight I looked out and there was the mommy bunny sitting on our sidewalk nursing the babies. It was so neat to watch. After they finished eating I could see the bunnies scampering around the flower bed and sidewalk much the like the girls do in the daylight hours.

I have failed to mention that Dan has changed jobs after 10 years of teaching. He's back working as a Physical Therapist with Via Christi Home Health. He's been at it now for a few weeks and it is going ok.

Speckle is his name

2008-07-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write for awhile now about a recurring topic in our home: pets. Anna and Audrey pester us on a daily basis regarding this topic . We don't have a pet yet. I'm too busy. There's already enough things that poop in our house I have to clean up after.

They ask, "Did you have a pet when you were little?" Yes, many. "Did daddy have any animals when he was little?" He grew up on a farm. "Then why can't we have a pet? It's only fair," Anna cries.

One day Anna was in the backyard chasing squirrels. I overheard her say to herself, "Darn, I missed him again. I thought I was finally going to have a pet."

They love animals. They run outside whenever they see someone walking their dog so they can go pet a new friend. They've resorted to playing with roly polies and earthworms. Audrey will play with earthworms a little too long and I'll hear them arguing whether the poor creature is dead yet. I'll even find roly polies inside the house. They'll go out every night to catch fireflies. They'll easily catch a dozen with only their hands. The other week they had an adult wild bunny cornered up against the fence. They almost had him, but I told them to stop. I mean, what good was going to come out of that?

I wouldn't mind a cat, (Ok, I would love a cat. Dan hates cats.) but the girls seem to be allergic or at least they are to my mom's cat (my old cat). A dog seems like so much work. Besides shouldn't they be older? A fish tank can be a lot of work too and wouldn't they lose interest? Won't they lose interest in any pet after a few days? Maybe a bunny.

I had rabbits growing up and so did Dan. Mom has a cage and all the accessories at her old house just waiting for a new home. We pretty much made up our minds that we would get a bunny this summer for our first pet. The Sedgwick County Fair is in a week and I thought that would be a good chance to check out different bunnies and maybe find one to buy.

So two nights ago I'm out watering my pink petunias in the raised flower bed in front of our living room window. I've been frustrated because my flowers are being eaten up something awful. I thought it was bugs and I keep scattering bug repellent granules which I hate using too much. I see a baby bunny dash along the wall!!! It has been a darn little bunny eating my flowers all along. So against my better judgment, I tell Dan and the girls and to make this long story short, poor baby bunny has been living inside the house in a laundry basket since then.

The girls were so excited. Even Kolbe was shrieking with delight at the sight of little bunny. Anna yelled, "We have to start calling people." Who do you want to call? "Everyone!" she pleaded. I wish I had her on video making the first phone call to announce our new baby. The bunny is pretty tame and easy to hold. The girls, against my wishes, have carried him all over the house.

So the plan has been to keep the little bunny a few days, let him go and get a real pet bunny SOON. Then tonight I'm out checking on my petunias again. They still look horrible. Well, geez, I find 3 more baby bunnies. Dan has caught them and added them to the laundry basket. He's off to get the cage from mom's. Anna has been napping this whole time and I'll try to record when she goes to check on bunny. :)

More bunny updates to follow, I'm sure.

Florida trip

2008-06-10T20:54:00.001-07:00

We made it home late Sunday night from our 2 weeks in Florida (Destin area). It was great . . . so many stories to tell. We spent the first week with my family all in one condo - my mom, sisters Elaine and Sharyn and nieces Jenna and Michelle and nephew Alex. My brother Wade came down also with two of his sons Austin and Erich for a few days before heading south for more fishing. We met up with my brother Randy who lives in the area. The second week we spent with Dan's sister Jolene and family.

The drive down (17 hours) with the kids was no problem except for one potty incident with Audrey. She just waited too long to tell us and the poor gal just about exploded. At one point she yelled, "Give me a diaper!" She couldn't bring herself to do that and we tried the side of the road thing which she found even more horrific. To add to her misery, then we got lost for about 15 minutes since there was not an on-ramp back onto the Interstate. Finally we found a place. Several hours later though, the whole routine started up again. I assured her we'd find a place "real soon" and can you believe she just gave up and pee'd right in her carseat! I guess she figured the heck with that and wasn't going to go through that again.

So enough about that. Our first condo was on Okaloosa Island, right on the beach. Very nice. We spent lots and lots of time just swimming, boogie boarding, and playing in the sand. The second day all the guys went deep sea fishing, a trip organized by my brother Wade, a master fisherman. The gals all went shopping and I was nervous all day for Dan who gets motion sickness easily. Well, it ended up being a pretty rough day at sea. About 45 minutes into the 8 hour trip Dan starts puking. Later, Alex, Randy and Austin all got sick. Luckily, they only stayed out for 5 hours since they caught their limit. It was pretty funny hearing them all tell their vomit stories and teasing each other later that night. Dan puked like 15, 20, maybe more times! YUCK! I can't imagine. They still managed to catch a bunch of fish and that night we had an awesome Red Snapper fish fry. They say they still had fun on their fishing trip. Whatever.

Randy took us out sightseeing/beach hopping the next day. We went to a state park where we swam at the beach there and then took a hike through sand dunes (it was suppose to be a short walk) to a lake to swim. When we finally got there, there were "No Swimming, Watch for Alligators" signs everywhere. So that added some excitement, but no alligator sightings. We headed to Grayton Beach after that - one of my favorite places in the area. We ate lunch at the Red Bar. It was pretty neat and we found out later that Jason Castro had been there just a few days before. Man - wouldn't that have been cool!

Towards the end of the week we all went up to Randy and Amy's house in Florala, Alabama about an hour north. He's getting close to having the house finished and everywhere there are touches of Randy. He even made his dining room table. He's right across the street from a lake and the entire area is just really nice.

Elaine, Dan and I tried snorkeling in Destin Bay along a jetty one day. It was a lot of work getting to the spot. We brought the kids along which made it all the more work. Saw lots of fish, but of course it did not compare to snorkeling in the Caribbean. Really, it was kind of spooky and we didn't last too long. Later, we heard numerous shark stories. So maybe that's why we were all alone out there.

My family (except for mom) headed home and the Robinette's arrived. We moved to another condo on the other side of Destin. We were up on the fourth floor so we had a great beach view. We didn't run around quite as much and mainly stayed at the condo and played on the beach. About mid way through the second week the water became much rougher (red flag) so swimming wasn't quite as much fun, but we still had the pool and hot tub. Our kids had a blast with their cousins Elyse, Emily and Coulter making sand castles and catching crabs and fishies. Dan went parasailing for the first time. I almost went with him, but I just did not have much desire to do that. He ended up having to endure another 1 1/2 hour boat ride while the other people took their turns. Randy came back down to visit and mom spent the last part of the week with him up at the lake.

Here's the snapfish link to more pictures than you would probably care to see of our family vacation:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=229495710/a=104371426/t_=104371426

2008-05-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Darn - I'm already falling behind in my post. Well, we've been busy and it has been absolutely beautiful out. I'm sure next winter when we're cooped up inside I'll be posting all kinds of boring stuff.

My sister Sharyn graduated from Newman University last weekend. She's been attending school part-time while working full-time for a very long time. I'm very proud of her that she was able to stick with it and get straight A's too! I love this picture of her and my mom.

There's been requests for a pic of my new haircut - well, you can't tell much from this photo. It has more layers in the back and the straight hair I've had my whole life has started to get some wave in it. I mentioned before that the girls are not fond of my short hair. Well, the other morning when we sat down for breakfast, Anna exclaimed, "Mommy! Oh, never mind . . . for a second it looked like you had lamb's ears, but it's just your hair." Guess I am not managing my wavy hair too well. So here's a pic and I can show off our Beauty bush/tree as well. Oh, and baby too.

Here's some more yard pictures. The irises are from Dan's parents farm. Hopefully, in June I'll have some daylily pics. We transplanted about 40 daylilies from my mom's yard last fall. Our roses also look great this year. Don't have a pic yet.

Little Kolbe is not much of a napper and occasionally I just have to put him down crying. He often falls asleep this way. It makes me sad to see him sleep like this, but I don't dare move him. He reminds me of a little frog. Don't worry he's breathing.

2008-05-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

We had another full weekend. So much going on this time of year - end of school activities, graduations, etc. etc. The highlight was Msgr. Conley's going away party at the McFall's. Msgr is headed to Colorado this month to be ordained the Auxiliary Bishop of Denver. Congrats! We are sad we'll miss the big day due to our family vacation, but we were so glad to see him before he leaves. In the picture with us is my mom Helen, Msgr. Conley's mom Betty and hostess of the party Bridget McFall who I worked with back at the Newman Center when Msgr was assigned there. Those were fun times and I can't believe how long ago it was. We saw so many old college friends. It was great to catch up.

My niece Jenna invited us to see her artwork at the Bishop Carroll art show last night. We had a nice time and I am inspired to post some of my favorite pieces of my girls' recent artwork. The first is by Audrey and the next two are by Anna.

I had my hair cut much shorter last week. When I came home, Anna gasped. I asked her is she liked my new haircut. She said "Oh, mommy! Just go look for yourself in the mirror!" as if I had not seen it yet. I played along and went to look in the mirror. I heard her tell Dan "don't say anything, daddy. Just let her see for herself." About then Audrey began to cry that she did not like my short hair. I think it took Dan a while to get used to it too. Well, I like it at least.

2008-04-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

We're in the final stretch of Dan's tennis season. Whoo-hoo! Dan's boys won the city league championship and they'll have regionals and state within the next week. Dan's been super busy and I look forward to having him back around the house. On Saturday, we tried to meet up with him at the tennis tournament, but I went to the wrong courts (my fault) and we never did meet up. Disappointing and frustrating especially with getting the kids ready and dragging them across WSU campus. But the day was not a total loss. I took the kids to the Rock and Mineral Show. They loved it! We could have spent all day! Who would have thought! I was begging them to leave after 2 1/2 hours because I was exhausted. Audrey was disappointed I would not take her back the next day. The girls came home with 2 bags of rocks and I came home with an awesome $2 bracelet.

Anna has said a few funny things recently. When we piled into the hot van after church, she said, " Whew, it's hot in here. It feels like we're in a Pop Tart heater upper". I said, "You mean a toaster?" "Oh, yes, a toaster," she replied. Guess we need to use the toaster a little more.

My mom watched the girls for a bit last week. Mom and Anna had a conversation about make-up. Mom asked Anna if she'd like to wear make-up someday. Anna informed her, "Well, I'm already experimenting." Mom got a kick out of this and I found it quite informative too.

2008-04-22T10:14:00.000-07:00

We've finally had some nice weather and spent most the weekend outdoors. The girls and I planted one flat of annuals - petunias, cosmos, portacula, marigolds and salvia. I let the girls pick out the flowers this year for the most part. They are mostly pink and purple, of course. I'll be buying more later on. On Sat, we went to the Renaissance Fair with Aunt Sharyn and cousin Davey.

The Bishop Carroll prom was Saturday night. Dan and I did not chaperone like in the past which was too bad since this year Jenna, Michelle and Alex all attended. We caught up with Jenna and Michelle at Mass at St. Elizabeth's. They looked stunning!

On Sunday, we went to Botanica where the tulips were in full bloom. Managed to get a few good pics of the kids.

2008-04-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello - welcome to our blog. Wow - I'm finally blogging (thanks to Lindi's encouragement). Not sure what is to become of this, but at this point I'm guessing it will be mostly about the kids and all the goofy things they are doing and saying. Occasionally, perhaps something of interest will happen to me or Dan that does not involve the children. We'll share that too, if something like that should ever happen.
So, enjoy. Now I have to figure out how to post a picture.
Chrissy