Making Pancakes

Helping Mom make the pancakes.

She enjoyed this part even more than eating them, I think.

She's a girl who really knows how to eat pancakes too. :)

Great Weekend

We had a great weekend. We had time with each other, family, friends, shopping and even a little snow. The snow was not one of the high points, as you can imagine. The highlight of the weekend was attending the Casting Crowns concert on Saturday night. Alan and I had a fabulous time. It was really awesome. Aaron was able to get free tickets for us. Lauryn and Aaron also babysat Jadyn while we went. It was a great evening. Thank you, Aaron and Lauryn!

I am excited that Kaitlyn will be coming home this week. She's been attending school in Missouri. We're looking forward to having her home for the summer!

Here's a little painting that Jadyn did this morning. I didn't have a photo to share so I thought this would be kind of fun.

2nd Friday Post

Jadyn said something funny yesterday (as she does every day) and I wanted to share. We were at an indoor play center, and there's a very large mural painted on the walls. It has all kinds of animals on it. On the wall next to us was a very large peacock. I asked Jadyn what type of animal it was. She said, "It's a cuckoo clock". I just laughed.

Cuckoo clock and peacock, those are distant cousins, right? Every day, this child makes me laugh, and that's good.

Happy Birthday, Lexi!

It's a rainy day at our house and I don't mind at all. I love the rain! We know it will bring May flowers too.

Wishing a Happy Birthday to Lexi! She is 9 years old today. She's our Texas kitty, born at my mom and dad's house and so we've known her since birth. :) Here are "now and then" photos. She was only a couple of handfuls when we met her. Sometimes she's still a handful, but we love her.

Have a great weekend!

Life is rocking right along at our house. Alan's in Chicago at the moment on business. I kind of wish I was along on the trip. We went there last May for a reunion with our travel group. I enjoyed the city so much.

We've had lots more sunshine and we've been outside cleaning out flower beds and removing the unwanted thorny shrubs. You know when you buy a house, you just kind of inherit whatever landscaping exists? Those shrubs were a 'thorn in my side' and our fingers and feet too! :) I'm glad they are gone. Now I won't have to worry about Jadyn falling in one either.

I found green things growing under all of the leaves and debris in the flower beds. Not anything weird mind you. My flowers are on the way back!

We've had a bit of rain too. Is there any better smell? Yesterday I was thinking about how thankful I am just to have warm air outside again and to be able to let the breeze blow through the house. The smell of rain was a wonderful bonus.

Some in our home are experiencing spring allergies and colds. I know we're not the only ones though. To have our wonderful spring blooms and green things, we'll just have to deal with the allergies too. :(

We had 2 playdates last week which were fun. We love opportunities to get out for playtime and mommy time. Too much time indoors can make both children and mommies whiny. :) So we are happy to join friends when we can. Here are photos.

Jadyn And Friends

F.A.S.C.I.N.A.T.I.O.N

Sophie spends much of her time like this each day. She's a very, very active cat. Maybe I've just forgotten how active they can be when they are young. She runs around the house, galloping like a small horse. There is nothing that she doesn't check out. She's also fascinated with my aloe vera plants (chews them like crazy) and Lexi. Poor Lexi just wants some solitude and she has zero desire to be the playmate of Sophie. Sophie on the other hand, feels that she should be stalking poor Lexi. If Lexi is lying in the sun or walking past, it must mean she wants to tackled. Oh boy.

Conversations with a 3 year old....

J: "Mom are you 28?"

Me: "No"

J: "Are you 29?"

Me: "No, I'm __."

J: "No!! I can't say that!"

I'm thinking, "Well, yes it is a bit hard to say, isn't it?" Who wants to admit age? :)

Brown Eyed Girl

I put her brown eyed girl shirt on her after bath this morning. She asked me what it said. I told her it said, "Everyone loves a brown eyed girl". "Mom...I'm a brown eyed girl?", she asked. "Yes you are sweetie". So of course we know that led to photos...

She loves somersaults and it's one of her current things she does a lot. I thought this photo was kind of funny. I hope you don't think it inappropriate...

We've had a nice weekend, with just the right mix of activity and time enough to enjoy family. We'd been plagued with snow, ice, and rain for days, but today the sun has been gracing us with it's presence! What a glorius day it is, when the sun is out!

Jadyn is always curious about the sun and moon, asking me where they are. I always tell her that the sun is behind the clouds, or the sun is down and the moon is out, etc. This afternoon when we arrived home after lunch, she asked me where Mr. Sun was. Thankfully, I was able to tell her that he was out and right up there shining brightly. Hallelujah!

Here are photos from Friday when we went to Open Gym at a gymnastics facility with friends.

She liked the rope swing best.

Fun At My Class

Jadyn and I attend a class together on Wednesdays. Here are a few photos.

Look what I found today. This didn't last long, but it looks like they will do okay together.

We had a good weekend, spending time with family and friends.

Things are going well here at home with the cats. They definitely were not too happy at their first meeting though. We slowly let them spend more time together over the weekend, and now they seem to be doing pretty well. Lexi is still quite vocal with our new kitty at times though as if to say, "I am the boss!" or "Are you still here? Go away!" I hope they will be friends and companions. That was the reason I orginally thought about getting another cat.

I've decided to name our new kitty Sophie. I hoped to get members of the household to help me name her, and no one gave me a definite answer. After hearing some opinions, I decided on Sophie.

Sophie has made herself right at home and I believe she may become spoiled if we're not careful. She really has such a sweet personality and she's so cuddly and loveable. We're all enjoying her and it's almost as if she'd been here for a long time.

Jadyn seems to really like Sophie and I'm happy about that. She needs a special companion.

We learned on Sunday that our friends were inspired by our kitty's adoption, and they've adopted a dog from the same shelter. How about that? I think that's great! Congratulations to them and their new dog.

Today I went upstairs to my bedroom to take a little nap. I found Lexi in the chair and Sophie had tucked herself into my comforter. Yes, she's making herself right at home.

In this photo, Jadyn says the cat is in a nest and she's teaching her how to sleep. I thought that was kind of funny. I doubt if the kitty will have any problem knowing how to sleep. :)

A Tale of Two Kitties

New kitty















Lexi








We're happy to introduce a new family member. We've adopted again, only this time it's a kitty!

We visited the Humane Society yesterday as a family. We'd considered the idea of getting a second cat for a while now. We went yesterday for fun really, and didn't fully intend to bring home a kitty. All of those precious cats who need homes just tug at your heartstrings though and we decided to make one ours. We would have brought home several if we could have. :) They are all so sweet.

We didn't tell Jadyn anything about the possibility of bringing one home until we were sure about the decision. She had no idea what the Humane Society was all about. She thought it was the pet store. :) When we asked if she'd like to bring one home and keep it, she was so happy.

Our new kitty doesn't have a name yet, but she's a girl and she's about 10 months old. She was found in Minneapolis as a stray. Now she has a home. She seems to have a very sweet nature and is just starved for love. She gets in my lap and lets me know, "You will love me and adore me." A ten month old has much more energy and curiousity than a 9 year old. She's already decided that the fish are great fun to watch and bugs are a delicacy. Oh good.

Here are photos of our new kitty and our older kitty, Lexi. Do you think they have anything in common? We didn't plan it this way, it just happened. Any ideas for a name?