the best babysitter EVER...

So we LOVE our babysitter! You might be able to tell by the fact that we have posted pictures of her on this blog. At this point she is my little sister and I think she is incredible! Well, I told her that I would help her with her hair for homecoming, so she came over for dinner on Sunday to play. While I was putting her hair in rollers Kenzi was of course very curious and asked to have rollers put in her hair. So we put some in her hair too. They were so cute that I had to take a picture and Shanette gave me full permission to put them on the blog. So here they are...
WE LOVE SHANETTE! Later! Kari

Our friend's Eternal Day...

Well, Saturday started out with us trying to get Kenzi to her skating lesson and to no avail we decided instead of being 15 minutes late to a 30 minute lesson, I would get her there on Tuesday to make up. We then go over to our friends, Dave and Liz and drop off tables. We then go to Ms. B's baptism. She was so happy and looked beautiful in her dress. This outfit is what we wear when we get baptized. And this picture is with her daddy, Dave.

We then go to a luncheon for the family as it was Ms. B's birthday the week before, her baptism Saturday and the family's sealing that night. We had a great time celebrating with them.

And then off to the Temple we go. It was such a GREAT moment to witness this family take the step towards being together forever. I know that Dave and Liz waited a long time to have children and adopting them was no easy thing. So it was wonderful to see the fruition of the efforts!

Congratulations Dave, Liz, Ms. B and J! We are so very happy for you guys!

1st day of Preschool

So Tuesday was Kenzi's first day at Preschool. She was so OK with going that the picture of her and her teacher at the door, she is giving me that smile of "Are we done yet, mom?". As for me I did not like the day! I think it is because she is our only child and she is my shadow all the time. I was driving somewhere and saw Colts and started to say "Oh cool, Kenz... Oh yea she is not in the car!" I think it is going to take some getting used to! I only bawled at spurts in the morning. So by the afternoon I was not crying any more, but again it stunk! She had a great time and woke up this morning asking me if she was going to preschool today. So I am sure she will do great! Enjoy the pictures! Kari

Kenzi meets her Preshool teacher...

So on tuesday Kenzi will start Preschool at the Children's Workshop.  They had their open house where Kenzi met her teacher and noticed some friends but did not try to make any.  I am sure that will change in the first week.  She is very excited to go to school and if asked, "I am going to a big school!"  She is going to be just fine!  She was not happy with me when I told her it was time to go.  I had to pry her off of a playground contraption and she kicked and screamed to the car.  Luckily, her teacher was inside and did not tell me "Oh never mind, here is your check back."  I have a bitter-sweet opinion about having her go to preschool.  I know it is the best thing for her.  I am just not ready for my baby to be away from me that long.  I know that she will be in great hands, I did get the revelation, I am just a protective mama bear.  So wish me luck that I can let go!  Kari

P.S. She loves this bike merry go round!  Apparently it is a favorite among all the kids!  I thought it was pretty cool too.  Actually when Carter and I went to the Parent Orientation Carter asked KEnzi what he should check out and she said the bike merry-go-round.

Florida photo shoot...

So one of things that I like to do is take pictures with family, often. I love to see the growth in families. In fact my favorite thing to get is a photo with the Christmas cards. I scrapbook ALL of the photos and I have one cousin who has sent pictures of her girls every year. And it is so cool to see them through the years. With that being said, We got pictures with Gram Mac while we were there. There are some really great ones so enjoy! Kari

4 a.m.

The other night Kenzi decided to stay up while mommy and daddy went to bed. At 4 am, Carter woke up to use the bathroom and noticed that the used to be white dog in the picture, that lights up, was on. Now, this dog while it lights up it is timed. It is not all night. Carter turned on the light and this is what he found...
At least here she looks a little more awake. She probably was used to the light by this picture too.

If you have not been able to tell what all of this is, it is my makeup! Again! Oh and she got to Carter's contact lens case and dumped it on her bed. Hence the bed being wet. Carter just opened those 3 days earlier! Kenzi got a shower immediately and a sheet change. So now Kenzi has a baby gate in her doorway. Hopefully that will keep her in her room! We will see!

The used to be white dog, that we really do not know how to clean. I love my daughter, I love my daughter, I love my daughter!

We had to wake her up the next morning so I could visit teach and she did not get a nap at all. Needless to say, she went to bed/sleep at 7 the next night! I understand you cannot speak, you are in hysterics! When you catch your breath feel free to comment. I dare ya! :0) Kari

The rest of the summer...

Baby Rhys' baby blessing, I know I am over a month late but look at the adorable family!

The Creature Teacher at the Allen Library brought out all kinds of animals including the Chinchilla, which likes to take dirt baths. A frog, a skeet, a kimono dragon and a snake which people could pet after the show. Kenzi opted not too.

Kenzi being goofy at the bowling alley. She actually got to finish her games this time!

Kenzi cuts her hair with Carter manicure scissors! Retarded mom here, I found the hair and did not realize it was her hair until a few days later with Carters help. It helps that she cut the under side!

We help Allen Community outreach move to their new building. Kenzi did a great job of moving stuff!

Kenzi's cousins come for a visit with Gramma & Papa B. And somehow gramma and papa escaped again without a picture! Starting from left to right is Amber, Autumn, Drew, Kenzi, & Me. The things we did while they were visiting were ice skate (obviously), bowling, Celebration park, Natatorium, shopping, played games - both board and wii, playstation. When the cousins went home we had another week with my parents in which we did more shopping, looked at houses and neighborhoods and hung out a lot. We had a great visit with the family! Kenzi loves her cousins, gramma & papa B.

We get Kenzi's hair cut short/fixed. It would not have been a problem to keep it long, but the reason she cut it was because she wanted short hair. So Carter and I talked and we agreed to let her cut it but only to her shoulders. It is really cute and everyone seems to like it. Though I thought I was going to have heart failure when I saw three inches of hair on the floor!

So Kenzi and I got a date night while Carter had game night. We decided to go feed the ducks. Needless to say she LOVED it! We nicknamed two ducks Bob and Larry. They kept getting in my face. Offly brave ducks!

So the High School in our town was having a 10 mile parade fundraiser around town. They came right by our house but we caught the tail end of it. I knew where they were going to so we headed them off right before their finish point. Shanette, our babysitter told us that there are 600 members in the band! When you see them they are a spectacle! 600! That is 1 1/2 times my high school! GO EAGLES!

So that catches you up! Yea for me! And I know Keri I don't have too. But some grandparent's survival depend on it! I will be better about it now. Hopefully your summers were just as great as ours was! Thank you to all of our family and friends who helped it to be so much fun! Love ya! Kari

The post to end all posts...

I have decided that I am going to use one post to finish our vacation. So first up...

So I have a friend, OK a couple of friends who live here in Allen, that are "Cali" girls. But one in particular, is die-hard "Cali-girl" and I wonder why she ever left! But she is a MAJOR In-n-Out fan. So when she happened upon this restaurant she called them impostors! I went into this restaurant in Florida and thought OK, there is the red and white thing but that is pretty much where it stops. You can eat or stash as many peanuts as you want. The floor is so slippery that you could fall and break a hip! The menu is quite extensive, in which In-n-Out is very limited. (Which is way fine by me as they are THAT good at what they do, they do not need more items on their menu!) And holy-moly, fries batman! As far as the burger itself, In-n-Out will still be the best hamburger you can get in the country for this girl!

Before we left Sarasota FL, Kenzi went over with Gram Mac to walk Uncle Len's basset, Logan. Apparently Kenzi and Logan hit it off from day one. Not surprising really!

So we headed home and took three days to do it. We stopped to see the USS Alabama. Really my husband would be the better person to ask about it as he is the history buff and this kind of stuff is way cool to him. Me, on the other hand, it is a HUGE boat! This is a pretty cool picture though. That will probably be blown up in the scrapbook. But anywho, a funny story is that I tend to be afraid of heights. Though I don't realize it often because I am fine on airplanes. They also have a submarine on land that you can go in to. There are a set of stairs outside of it to get to the top and then you go down one of the holes to go inside. Well, by the time we got to the top of the stairs I was starting to have an anxiety attack. I walk over to Carter and tell him, "hey I am having trouble, so you and the kid do whatever, I will wait for you inside the Airplane hangar." "No we will come with you" After bantering back and forth we all start our decent down the stairs to which Kenzi says "What are we doing?" Carter: "We are going back down because mommy is scared." Kenzi: "Mommy it is going to be OK, you are going to be fine!" Mommy: "I know honey, thank you!" Pretty sad when your four year old reassures you!

We also stopped in Alabama to tour an Antebellum Home. (Or plantation home.) Come to find out that Plantation home is not the politically correct term as it connotes slaves. I was unaware and no one tarred and feathered me, however, I have always loved plantation homes. I would love to live in one, one day, minus the slaves. Though I would have family move in so we all could keep it clean together! :0) It was beautiful and if we had more time, I would have stopped at some more in Louisiana.

This picture just makes me smile. We had gotten home earlier that day on 4th of July and wanted to see fireworks, so this is us waiting and eating Taco Bell/Pizza Hut dinner since that was pretty much the only thing open! Who knew? Such a fun vacation! Loved it! One of those vacations that you don't want to end even though you know it cannot last! Sorry for the long post, but at least vacations are done! Yippee!! Kari

Singing in the rain...

So on the last day that we were in Sarasota, we went to some outlet malls nearby. While we were there we got some more rain! And one of the children's clothing shop had rain coats and boots. It took some convincing, but we were able to buy Kenzi a coat and boots. (Of course, we meaning Gram Mac.) The thing that fully convinced her was the comment, "You know Kenzi, if you get those boots, you can splash in the puddles and mommy will not get upset." Well, she had the opportunity to put them on while we were shopping and ran around. It was so cute! I actually got some great pictures and was able to put together a video but for some reason it is choppy, so if this video loads it will be raw. It is still cute! Enjoy! Kari

Showing us the Florida beaches...

So one of the great things about Carter's family is that they will show us around when we come to visit. Uncle Len took us to a couple of beaches that we totally got stormed on and we all looked like we took a shower with our clothes on. Kenzi liked finding the shells on the beach but most certainly did not like seaweed and the storms. After we sufficiently got drenched we went to Saint Armand's and had an early dinner at "Columbia". If you are ever in or around Saint Armand's, I highly suggest eating at Columbia. The food was amazing! And Gram Mac bought the cookbook that they produce and I was able to make the 1905 salad for dinner one night with some friends and they liked it! Seriously good food! We did dry off about an hour after our meal. We had to walk around quite a bit. At least the rain stopped so we could dry off and enjoy and ice cream cone! Thanks for the fun time and for being our tour guide!

Lunch with Great Goog...

We were able to visit with Carter's grandmother "Goog". The name Goog came from when Carter was little he called her "Goog" because he could not say gramma. So it just stuck and as far as I know she has been known as Goog ever since. We love seeing Goog and she looked happy and healthy! We went to Kenzi and Great Goog's favorite restaurant... McDonald's! We love you Goog! I just love this picture below! Enjoy!

On a roll now...

So this actually marks the half way point of our vacation. From Orlando we traveled to Sarasota Florida which is on the West Coast in the Gulf. Everyone was so happy to see us and we had a swim party the next day with the whole family. I am so utterly grateful for how much the family loves on our daughter! She got a ton of presents and loved hanging out with Gram Mac, Uncle Len, Aunt Joy, cousins Cody & Adam, and Curly Bear and Duke - the fluffy dogs! We had a lot of fun and doesn't Gram Mac have a GREAT pool! Thank you for the fun time and warm hospitality!

Animal Kingdom...

OK, So this was my absolute favorite of everything we did. The weather was much nicer and I really did not feel like I was in a theme park so much. I think that is mostly because we were walking a lot of the park looking for animals. The had a very cute Safari parade, which we almost got to be in. Kenzi was to young. But other than that we had a wonderful time. There is one VERY memorable ride. It is Expedition Everest. It is Disney's self proclaimed #1 thing to do at Disney World. My brother-in-law JT went 4 or 5 times. My mother-in-law, Robyn hurt her back riding it 2 or 3 times. I most definitely wanted to puck after riding it once! (Man I am getting old!) Again Kenzi liked the characters. She REALLY wanted to talk to Stitch but we were unable to since they closed the line before us. She also liked looking at the animals on the Kilimanjaro Ride. You ride a big jeep and tour "South Africa" on a much smaller scale. We closed this park out too, however, it closed at 7 pm. Much easier to close a park when it is still light outside! Well, again, there are a million pictures, ok maybe a hundred. I know it seems like a million when you have to endure someone else's trip! I tried to edit better this time, Keri. Enjoy!

Down day...

So on Wednesday we took a day to chill. We went swimming at the hotel pool. Which Kenzi absolutely loved! She is becoming such a water bug. Ever since the life jacket at my brothers, she is willing to jump in without anything! I love watching my little girl have such a wonderful time! I never knew that as a parent you REALLY get enjoyment out of watching the world through your child's eyes. That would explain why when your child gets hurt physically or emotionally that you hurt more than you would for yourself too. Anyway, we again had such a wonderful trip! Enjoy! Kari P.S. the car we saw driving from lunch breakfast back to the hotel and we were so perplexed by it that we stopped to let it go ahead of us. Then we figured out that is was probably the purpose. Who know?!?!?! Funky nonetheless!