The Nutcracker

This is Megan in her costumes for the Nutcracker performances. We dedicated some evenings and Saturdays to her practicing and performing. She has loved every bit of it. Her favorite costume was the "Little Cousin" outfit for the party scene. She loves to twirl around and around as it fans out around her. She was also a "Snowbird" in the snow scene. This was her first year dancing in in it and you can always find a big smile on her face while she is doing it. I was surprised that nothing about performing in front of a lot of people bothered her at all. We loved watching our little ballerina and it was a great way to start off the Christmas season.

My husband

My husband doesn't know I am writing this and putting it out there in the blogo-sphere but more people should know how great he is. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for him. He is very considerate of me and never takes much for himself. I thought I would list just a few of the little things that he does for me.

1. He always gets up first in the morning unless he is sick. I get to sleep in every Saturday and Sunday morning. Many times when he gets up, he pulls the covers that he has taken back over to my side.

2. He checks out books about maternity fitness because I asked his opinion about it.

3. He knows that when I am grumpy I either need a nap or a good workout at the gym.

4. He is the saver and I am the spender. As a result, we have little debt.

5. He hides my clearance candy so I don't eat it all at once. I love being surprised later, when I really need it and I had forgotten about it!

These are just a few things why I love my husband so much and am so grateful for him.

My Marine Animals

Costumes on my kids is the only part of Halloween I really enjoy. I could do without the cheap belly-ache from too much candy and the kids bouncing off the walls from too much of that same candy. This year, Family Fun magazine and Salvation Army Thrift Store were great places to help with cheap, diy costumes.

Jacob couldn't stop talking about being an octopus and he made sure everyone knew he had eight legs. Sometimes he would get down close to the ground so he could look like a real octopus floating in the water.

Megan (upper right picture) wanted to be a jellyfish. Nothing a cheap sombrero and bubble wrap couldn't fix.

Anna was a fish, complete with glittery scales on the back.


They all had plenty of opportunities to show off their costumes even before trick or treating on Halloween night. Gordon even dressed up as a fisherman looking for a deep sea catch. I don't have a picture of his or mine yet. For my costume, I took a fun idea I had seen on the internet. Since I am about 4 months pregnant, I stenciled a skeleton on a black shirt and then painted a little baby skeleton lower on the shirt where it really is. All in all, we had fun in our costumes.

Anna's birthday

Pizza-making fun for Anna's birthday party! She turns eight today and she had a fun party. We only do parties every other year so this is a party year. The girls showed me their best pizza dough tossing skills and then they each created a personal pizza. Their skills were of course improved by the poofy, white hats and silly black moustaches. Anna helped sew the aprons for each girl to take home. We completed the menu with lemon cake and ice cream. We also had beautiful weather so some of the party was spent outside.

We love our Anna and we our so glad she is ours. Eight is a special age and she has chosen to be baptized. The date is set for November 12th. Her teacher had nothing but excellent things to say about her in parent/teacher conference. Anna's reading skills are way above the second grade level too. She scored a 787 and the second grade reading level is 300-600 on the Lexile scale.

Eight is off to a good start.

Summer Fun 2011

The kids rode on a train with Gordon from KC to Independence. Short ride but a train nonetheless so Jacob was super excited.

We rented a pontoon boat with some friends. Megan was the only one who wanted to go by herself on the raft.

Anna and Gordon

Gordon and Jacob




Megan's birthday party. She turned 5 years old.

Anna had her face painted at a party sponsored by Gordon's work.

Round and Round

Anna decided she wanted to be part of the talent show for her first grade class. If you didn't already know, Anna is an excellent hula-hooper. She doesn't get it from her mother though. The song she hooped to was Selena Gomez, "Round and Round" and another little girl in her class did it at the same time. The song was 3 minutes long but Anna can go on forever without messing up. We are so proud of her future in the circus! Just kidding, but we are so proud of her for getting up in front of a group of people, especially a group of her peers.

(This is one of 4 posts)

Pre-K graduation

Megan had a great year in preschool. Loved her teacher and learned lots of new songs. She graduated from preschool Thursday night. I had them move her name to the front of the alphabet so I could wisk her away to her ballet recital that happened to overlap on the same night.

Our little troll

Megan had her first ballet recital last Thursday. She danced three dances total. In one of the dances she played a troll. It is fun to watch here dance and have fun. At this age they aren't judged for technical skills so they get to just have a good time.

Haircut

A boy's world

Jacob is fascinated and crazy for trains. Especially Thomas the train but any sort of train moving or standing still, sends him into a happy frenzy. He also really likes bridges and overpasses and is always on the look out for one. Just imagine what it is like when a train is passing overhead on a bridge while we are driving underneath!

As a tribute to that fascination, his Happa (Grandpa Downs) has created the ultimate magnetic board to display it and Jacob throughout his young years. Jacob loves it and names the trains on it every time he enters him room. It is fun to see his face light up!

Our ballerina

Megan has started taking a ballet class. She loves it and even slept in her ballet slippers the first night. She loves to twirl and move around in her new clothes. At this age they mimic the teacher and move about the room. Every day she asks how much longer until Thursday.

Burns and McDonnell Prom

We got all dressed up the other night for a fun night with each other and about 2600 other people from Gordon's work. The CEO joked about it, welcoming us to the Burns and McDonnell prom. The company was celebrating 25 years since it became an employee owned company and to honor the original 10 men who put their own money into it. It was nice to have something to dress up for and enjoy ourselves. I had a friend do my make-up for the special event and she even talked me into fake eyelashes. SO FUN!

The company went all out with a great dinner, entertainment and dancing. The club style dancing wasn't exactly for us but we danced a little or should I say dodged happy, intoxicated people. I was more than happy to visit the dessert bar instead.

Pride in ownership

I don't think I ever posted a final picture of the front porch addition. Some of you have already seen it in person and some have just not seen it in its completed beauty. My dad and I built this together with no prior deck building experience. We both did our research and asked a couple professionals for advice but otherwise we did it with our own hands. It adds so much to the house.

Sandra over at Sawdust and Paper Scraps is highlighting safety gear that goes along with projects like these. I'd rather you admire the beauty of the porch but she wants to see some safety gear pictures out here in the blogosphere. Here's mine, nothing fancy and pretty basic~The gloves use to be for gardening but the fingertips wore out and I needed some woodworking gloves anyway.

Speaking of which, why isn't safety gear a little prettier? There seems to be a lot women building out there so where can we buy the girlie stuff? I'm not talking ruffles and lace but maybe a little pink or pretty colors wouldn't hurt.

Time for the twos

Jacob had a birthday in February so we celebrated with some cake and ice cream. When he is older he might understand the prince like power he could have on his birthday like no chores and first choice on the tv. For now, we just tried to keep him out of time-out a little less. Jacob could be compared to a tornado with teeth. (Just ask Megan about the teeth part and oh yeah, that little boy at Toddler Town last week~Sorry, I just wasn't quick enough!)

He is full of sillyness, kisses, and is a jumping machine. He loves to watch the Swedish Chef on YouTube (the popcorn one, look it up if you haven't seen it), play with trains, watch for trains, listen to trains and sleep with as many stuffed animals as he can get away with. Jacob loves to brush his teeth and eat the toothpaste. Eating snow and playing in the mud is big time entertainment for this guy. He loves to dress up for church, including a bow tie and is always running. We love this guy. Watch out for the rough and tough but the sweet kisses can't be beat. (The birthday crown was compliments of his sister, Anna)

Christmas 2010

The kids had a great time opening all their presents. With some family farther away I wish I could have taken better pictures to capture their joy as they opened the presents from you. Everything was a big hit! I hope everyone got their snowflake thank-you notes.

I wish all this snow we have would melt away but maybe that makes okay to still post Christmas pictures.

Feel the Love

This is the pillow formerly known as a dishtowel.

I had most of the supplies already for this cute heart made out of buttons.

I am way behind on my posts. I know Thanksgiving and Christmas are somewhere in my camera. Until then, let's start with the holiday of love and friendship. I needed some Valentine's Day decorations so I found a cute striped dishtowel at the thrift store and then another project I found on-line that was easy and fun.

Handy Hubby

Gordon has been really earning his keep around here lately! I thought I would brag a little for him since he is not the bragging type. He successfully changed the spark plugs on the car, unplugged a major pipe coming from the bathtub, spackeling here and there, paint touch-ups , hanging a drapery rod, and lastly he installed a new kitchen faucet. I can tell he loves to learn how to do new things and save money in the process. Jacob likes to help right along side him too. He has his own set of toy tools but he has been found with the real stuff once or twice. YIKES!

The bathroom drain works so well now that Jacob is scared when the water goes out be. It makes a very loud gurgling sound which is music to our ears, but to him it means fast water going out and trying to take him with it.