Branson trip

We took a vacation with my parents over Memorial Day weekend to Branson, Missouri, and had an awesome time! The girls and I left last Wednesday afternoon with my parents and then spent the night in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We drove the last leg of the trip Thurs. morning and arrived in Branson around 1:00. After naps, we headed down to a really nice shopping and restaurant area just below our hotel called Branson Landing. After some shopping, we had dinner at Macaroni Grill on the patio overlooking the lake. Then we ran over to the fountains to catch one of the shows where the fountains "dance" to the music. They have a big fountain show with lights and everything later at night, but my kids have to go to bed too early for that-- maybe next time :) After a little walk up and down the pier and playing at the playground by Joe's Crab Shack, we headed in for the night.

Avery and "Mimi" checking out her new princess jewelry box from the Disney store
"Poppi" and Kendall
shopping at Branson Landing
Kendall drove the ice cream truck and Avery took orders

taking a break from jumping on the bed to play with the new princess jewelry

After Kendall's AM nap Friday, we drove over to Silver Dollar City (amusement park) and spent a few hours riding the kiddie rides, watching the craftsman in the shops, and listening to some musical performances. We also ate off tin plates and cups in a "cave" as Avery called it. It was a restaurant that was set up to look like a mine. That night we went to a local pizza place for dinner and I took Avery swimming. Scott flew in to Springfield that night, and then made the one hour drive over to Branson and got in about 11:00. Saturday morning Scott took Avery back to Silver Dollar City to ride some more rides while Kendall took a nap and my parents went to the Amish store. Scott even convinced Avery to ride the big swinging boat, although she didn't like it too much! She preferred the teacups, elephants, swings and little roller coaster. The rest of us joined them later for some more rides, lunch, and music. After naps that afternoon, Scott and I took Avery to see the Noah Musical. They had some live animals and many convincing animatronic ones, plus a 40 ft. high ark, so it was a pretty impressive show. After meeting my parents and Kendall for dinner, they took the girls back to the hotel and Scott and I went to the Pierce Arrow show, which was a variety show with singing and comedy. It was a good show and we had a really great time on our little Branson date.

family pic at Silver Dollar City

Avery and Scott rode the pirate ships 4 or 5 times I think

the teacups were one of her favorites

We left midmorning on Sunday and headed for Tulsa to spend the night. We went straight to the Oklahoma Aquarium when we got there, which the girls really liked. I think their favorite part was running around in the shark tunnel, especially after being in the car all day. After dinner at Red Robin and a good night's sleep (the girls actually slept until 8:00!), we headed back home to Ft. Worth. Whew! We had a great time, but it was action packed and we are definitely glad to have our own beds back to help us catch up on some sleep!

The Oklahoma Aquarium in Tulsa

sister love!

Princess Party!

Yesterday morning I took Avery to a princess birthday party for one of the little girls in her class at school. It was at a neat little place over in Colleyville called Antz in Your Pantz. It was similar to a lot of the children's museums in that it had lots of little rooms, each with a different theme and activity such as a pretend market, sand room, vet's office, fire station, art room, puppet theater, and dress up room w/ a stage. The girls all got to choose a princess dress and crown to wear, and they got to have their hair done and some makeup applied. It's kind of hard to see in the pictures since they were taken with my phone, but they did Avery's hair in this fancy looking pull-through ponytail that she was really proud of. Along with the usual birthday activities (cake, presents, etc), the girls had free run of the place and all the activities. Avery really enjoyed the vet's office and dancing/running around on the stage. At the end of the party, there was a surprise visit from Snow White! The girls just ate it up! They all ran and hugged her and then sat mesmerized in a circle around her as they took turns getting their faces painted. It was really cute and I think the adults had as much fun as the girls did just watching all their precious little faces!

15 months

It's difficult to believe how quickly my little "Ken" is growing up. She turned 15 months this past Monday! I took her for her check up today and she was 21 lbs (25%ile) and 30 3/4 in (75%ile). She is walking all over the place now, trying her best to keep up with the rest of us. Her vocabulary is growing steadily and now includes about 20-25 words (Mama, Daddy, Josie, bye-bye, uh-oh, go, hi, ball, fish, Bible, hop, Amen, all done/all gone, uh-huh, shoes, juice, up, there, this, again, baby, doggy, peek-a-boo,cheese). Her articulation is not the best though and I would probably have to interpret some of her words for other people. Lately she is trying to imitate new words more and does pretty good sometimes, so I'm hoping her vocabulary will really start to expand in the next month or two. She loves looking at books, playing w/ her babies, play-dough, play food and dishes, playing in the sand, and any kind of riding toy or outside activity. Kendall has also picked up on Avery's recent fascination with Disney princesses, and has her own favorite princess songs. Anytime she hears "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty or "A Whole New World" from Aladdin she "sings" along and then says "ga,ga, ga" (again) until you play it again. She has also become quite fond of going places. Anytime I say the word "go", she drops what she's doing, starts saying bye-bye and waving, and makes a bee-line for the door. Probably one of the best changes in her is that she is becoming MUCH less clingy. In fact, she has about done a 180, because now she just walks right up to people sometimes and starts smiling at them and "talking". Before separation anxiety hit at around 6 or 7 months, she was so friendly and just smiled and played with anyone, but I seriously doubted that she would ever be that way again. Today at the Dr's office she did not fuss or cry for one second when I laid her down to get measured, or when the nurse picked her up and took her over to the scale. We have had several visits where I have had to lay her down on the scale instead of sitting her up because she would scream and try to leap off into my arms! She was all smiles while the Dr. was examining her and And when she left, Kendall actually walked over to the door, pointed, and started whimpering like "I want her to come back!" (Or maybe she just wanted to go out the door too) Crazy! She is still sleeping great at night (7:30 or 8 until 7:00 or 7;30), even during a recent period of getting 5 new teeth-ouch! (2 laterals and 3 molars- the 4th is on it's way). She still takes 2 naps a day most of the time (about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs each), although she has a random day every now and then when she won't hardly nap at all! Makes absolutely no sense to me--but we just roll with it! Some of my biggest struggles with Kendall (besides her being so busy and feisty) are her picky eating and her ongoing battle w/ reflux. Good news is, the Dr. increased her dose of Zantac today (doubled it in fact), and gave us a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist. I'm sure I'll have more to report on that because we will probably have to do some "fun" tests to figure out why she is still spitting up and having lots of gurguly, wet burps. The Dr. also said that it was probably OK to give her peanut butter, so I'm hoping that she'll like it so we can squeeze a little more protein into her diet (She only eats pepperoni on pizza and chicken nuggets). If anyone has any bright ideas for picky eaters, especially for feeding them vegetables (she doesn't eat ANY), I'm all ears!

dancing with Avery to princess music

toddling around with her "lovey"-- a MUST for sleeping and car rides

taking care of her baby

"Look at me! I'm having chicken nuggets--again!"

Mother's Day

Hope all my readers had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday! We basically celebrated it all weekend! For my Mom's present, I decided that I would take the girls and make a surprise visit to her work. She is so proud of her granddaughters and she never gets to show them off (at least in person) since her work is about an hour's drive from where we live. So my Dad arranged it all with my Mom's supervisor early in the week, and then the girls, my Dad, and I headed over to the Cooper Clinic Friday afternoon. We surprised my Mom with flowers and then walked around the clinic so she could show off the girls to the doctors and everyone she works with. Then we headed out to the duck pond there on the grounds and let the girls feed the ducks. It was a very fun afternoon (minus the 1 1/2 hr drive home in rush hour traffic!) and I think my Mom was very surprised and thrilled that we came.

Surprise Mimi!feeding the ducks

we even got to see baby ducks, but they weren't too interested in the bread

Saturday afternoon my family had an early Mother's Day lunch at my parents house. My brother-in-law smoked a pork roast that was out-of-this-world good! We hung around there for awhile and then headed over to drop Avery off at Scott's brother's house for a sleepover with her cousins. For her birthday, they had given her a bucketful of Chuck E. Cheese tokens with a note attached saying she could come have a sleepover with her cousins. At this point, I don't have any pictures of the sleepover, but it sounded like she had a great time. The Mother's Day festivities continued Sunday as we went to church in Coppell where my parents and Scott's brother's family all go so we could pick up Avery. We had lunch at Mi Cocina all together, and then headed back home to take naps. Late in the afternoon, Scott and I took the girls to Bear Creek Park and then to grab some dinner and ice cream at Jason's Deil. It was a busy but fun Mother's Day weekend!

My mom (Mimi), Avery,me, Kendall and my sister Amy

a family photo

an attempt at a Mother-daughter picture

Kendall snuggled up to aunt Amy

Mimi and Avery had some special time reading her princess book and playing with earrings

Avery and Kendall helped Poppi put food in the birdfeeder

Spring Show '09

Tonight was Avery's Spring Show at her school. The theme was "Commotion in the Ocean", so they sang songs about sailors, sea creatures, and of course, the ocean. Last year we heard parts of a song or two prior to the show, but this year she had already sang several of them for us, complete with hand motions, so we weren't quite as surprised. But she did a great job and we had a great view of her since she was right on the front row. Here are a few shots of her in action and also after the show. She's on the front row, 3rd from the left in this pic

front row, 4th from the left

posing in front of the props by the door after the show

Mommy and the little performer

That's all folks! Spring show--done!

I don't blog very often about things other than the girls or our family activities, but I had to share that Scott and I were recently able to pay off the first of MANY student loans, courtesy of our tax refund. Granted, it was a small loan, but it is a debt that is now paid off nonetheless and now we have a little extra money every month to throw at another loan (oh how exciting!). So probably 5 yrs after participating in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, we are finally able to begin our debt snowball! Yay! I also wanted to share that Scott was recently able to hire a 3rd full-time employee (he previously had 2 full time and one part time) who is a dental assistant and is also able to help out in the front office. Having her on board will hopefully ease everyone's work load a little and make things run more smoothly. If the current trend continues, he will also be looking to hire a hygenist in the next few months who can take over doing some of the deep cleanings and maintenances so that he can devote more time to surgeries, which is what he was trained to do and what he loves. We are so thankful for the ways that God has blessed us through the practice thus far and looking forward to what He has in store for the future!