Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We took Kendyl to the annual Frosty and Friends through Parents as Teachers yesterday. She was terrified of Santa still. I am really looking forward to the time she is actually interested in sitting on his lap and telling him want she wants for Christmas. I really thought this might be the year, especially when I asked her what she wanted and she told me she couldn't tell me because I am not Santa :-).

We only have a couple more days until we close on the new house. I am so excited to think about how by this time next week we will be living in our new home!

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Last night may have been one of the best nights of Kendyl's short little life. She had so much fun hanging out with her parents. I treasure these times because I know eventually (hopefully a long, long time from now) she will not want much to do with us.

So we started the night off with dinner at Steak n Shake. Kendyl's favorite part was that we got to eat inside. Mommy's favorite part was the caffeine free diet Coke! After Kendyl ate her salad and applesauce and drank her chocolate milk she decided she needed to go potty. I happily obliged because I am anxious to get her potty trained. I quickly realized this was not going to be a fast trip when she told me to turn around. That is her way of saying she is going to be a while if you know what I mean. So ten minutes later, we returned to the table only to find Daddy all bundled up and ready to go. We told her there would be a special surprise in her future!

We got all loaded in the car and headed to Tillis Park to see the Winter Wonderland lights. Kendyl thinks Christmas lights are beau-ti-ful so this was the big treat of the night. I am pretty sure she was most excited that she got to get out of her car seat and sit in the front with us. We tuned the radio to their station and listened to the Christmas music while we drove through the amazing light displays. Once we got to the end I got to listen to Kendyl talk about how the police weren't there so she didn't have to get back in her car seat. After much convincing she returned to the dreaded seat for our next stop.

From there we headed to Cold Stone Creamery. My favorite ice cream place. Kendyl loves the blue ice cream there. I think it might be bubble gum flavor. Anyway she devoured it. I had some Cake Batter Ice Cream with Reeses, Twix and Snickers. Can you think of anything more yummy? I didn't think so.

So that was our super fun night. I think the only thing that could have made it better would be snow, but who wants to drive in that?

Kendyl-isms

So lately Kendyl has been coming up with some pretty funny sayings. I am pretty sure she is hearing people say things are repeating them wrong, but they still make me smile. Last night she told me, "Thank you, here's my dress." After I thought about it for a minute I figured out she was trying to say, 'Thank you and here's my address' which her aunt had said earlier in the evening. How can you not love that?

She has also decided she wants to take ballet classes so she can be Barbie Nutcracker. She told me we can buy her some ballet shoes at Target and she will go to the class and be a ballerina. But she had to make sure I was not going to leave her there alone.

One of her favorite questions right now is, "What time it is?" Just like that with the words switched. And when you tell her she acknowledges it as if she actually knows what you are talking about. She even tries to through times into her sentences. She will tell you that we are going to Target at 10:00. The best part is her conception of time is so distorted. She is constantly saying we did some last night or today and she is off by days, weeks or even months.

I think my favorite is when you ask her if she is doing something and she says, "Yes I ma'am." I think I smile everytime I hear that because she is so serious and does not realize there is anything wrong with what she is saying.

So those are some of my favorites right now. I am sure I will come up with more to add as time goes on.

Psst...

I'm pregnant!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Let me just start by saying how much I love Thanksgiving. I am a huge fan of long weekends and the last two years my brother has come in town from San Diego which helps to keep Thanksgiving on the top of my list of favortie holidays. I think part of the reason I like it so much is because there are no presents involved. You just get to hang out with family and eat a lot of turkey. What more can you ask for right?

This weekend was also Kendyl's first trip to the movies. My brother has a long tradition of taking all the kids to a movie when he comes in town so this was Kendyl's first year to be old enough to go. I also went in case it went horribly bad for her. We went to Madagascar II and she did pretty good. The movie didn't seem to hold her attention quite as much as some of the ones we watch at home but she did well overall.

Saturday was my niece and nephews birthday party. We all had a great time. Since my brother was in town we decided to let all the kids open their Christmas presents from him and Kendyl also got to open her birthday presents because it is right at the beginning of January. She was so impressed with her presents and I got a sneak peak at how Christmas is going to be. I can't wait to watch her open all her presents this year. So my brother got her some Little People toys (a castle and a horse drawn carriage), a complete Sleeping Beauty dress up outfit with a dress, crown and shoes, a Disney magical tea cart, and a Disney castle with some princesses and dress up outfits for them. She was so excited she wore her sleeping beauty dress all night while she served tea :-)!

Today was her "aunt" Foo's birthday so we met her for dinner tonight. We went to the Olive Garden and she did so good eating her spaghetti. Of course we did change her out of her white shirt and into a red shirt before we went, but I am still impressed with how clean she was after dinner.

I guess that is all for now. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as we enjoyed ours!

Its Getting Closer!!!

So, every other weekend, the hubby and I go out and spend as much money as possible. Why you ask? Well we have to fill our new house and we don't want to wait until the last minute. We had a huge list at first and we are slowing crossing things off.

Tonight we bought some curtains, a duvet cover, some curtain rods, and the mattresses for Kendyl's new bed. Tomorrow I think we are going to buy all of our new blinds. Then all we will have left is some curtain rods for our room, a desk and bookshelf for the study, and our stainless steel trash can. We keep going to Linens N Things trying to get a good deal on it, but the deal just hasn't been good enough. They are still almost $100 and I am just not ready to spend that. We also still have to buy all our paint.

So we have delivery set for December 20 for our new oversized chair, our new salsa couch, Kendyl's new trundle bed with mattresses, and our brand new refrigerator. Which by the way we got an amazing deal on. Originally $1150 marked down to $800 because someone happened to order an extra one. Gotta love that.

So needless to say I am getting so excited for the new house. It is good and bad for me. The good part is I have something to look forward to and its not too far away anymore. The bad is that every little thing seems to annoy me more because the big move is so close and I am so over this crowded condo. And I am so excited to see how everything turns out. We have been making all these purchases and we just have to visualize how it is going to look and I can't wait to see the final project.

Did I tell you we bought black curtains today? And I think they are going to look awesome! So hopefully we will have everything together before Christmas so I can post some pictures on here...for nobody to look at. Oh well, it will be mine to look back on forever.

BTW, the bloodwork is done and I am hoping to hear something early next week. In the mean time I think Monday morning is the earliest I can test myself so we will have to see if I can hold out that long.

And now...off to bed!

Good night.

Sleep

Sleep is one of my absolute favorite past times. Maybe its because I don't feel like I get enough or maybe I just really enjoy the quietness of nighttime. Right now I am sitting in bed wishing my lovely mini me would just go to sleep. We seem to have this routine every night where she fights sleep with all she has and ends up staying up way past her bedtime, not to mention me. I have found myself falling asleep before her the last few nights. Granted this head cold is bound to have something to do with that, but still...she's only 2.

Here is what I don't understand. At what point did I go from not wanting to miss anything to thinking everything will wait until morning? I am sure I used to be somewhat similar to the little one. I can remember staying up late in my room with my sister giggling. Now its almost like I am watching the clock trying to decide if its too early to go to bed.

I just keep telling myself this will get better when we move into the new house. Speaking of the new house, we have less than four weeks until we close and I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am. But back to what I was saying...I am sure once we move and things get closer to normal she will go back to her 8:30 bed time. And as long as she is going to bed at 8:30 she won't be so much of a bear in the morning.

In the meantime I guess I will just have to listen to her great 2 year old reasoning on why she can't go to sleep yet. I am pretty sure I just heard her say it is too windy outside to sleep. And no we don't have any windows open. That must be some pretty powerful wind. :-)

We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

Normally I would not say I am happy to see a weekend end. I live for weekends. If I had my way the weekend would be much longer than the work week. But this weekend is one I am happy to see end. It was long and emotionally draining and its not one I would like to repeat anytime soon.

Let me back up a little...Back in March my husband's grandmother came to live in St. Louis with his mother. She had spent all of his life living in Great Bend, Kansas, but she could not take care of her self any longer so she came to live with his mom. I am pretty sure he had mixed feelings about this. He was happy to have his grandma so close when she has spent all of his life 8 hours away, but the fact that she moved here was a sign that her time was limited.

Well Wednesday was the day we got the dreaded call. She had passed away. So Thursday we left work a little early and headed out to McPherson, Kansas, which is about an hour from Great Bend. We got there pretty late and started our weekend. Firday was the visitation and Saturday was the funeral.

I was surprised at how much my heart hurt for my husband. I mean his grandmother had been sick since we got married and it was just a matter of time once she moved here, but it was still very sad. He has told me so many stories of his time in Great Bend and I remember how excited he was when we made our one trip out there. He wanted to show me his favorite place as a child.

Great Bend was his place. It was his place where everything was happy and all the memories were good. And now it is a place he probably won't be back to for a very long time if ever. His grandparents were the only family members that lived there and now they were gone.

She was also his last living grandparent, not something I can relate to. I am very fortunate that I still have all of my grandparents and a great grandparent. So I can't imagine not having any of them. My heart ached because our daughter will probably not remember his Granny and there isn't anything I can do about it.

So we spent this weekend saying good bye and made the long trip back home today. But just because we aren't in Kansas anymore doesn't mean Granny is far from our minds.

Rest in peace.

I'll Be Loving Them Forever...

When my sister and I found out New Kids on the Block were reuniting we decided we were going to do anything in our power to be there. Then we saw where the concerts were going to be. Chicago was the closest so we were determined to be there. The tickets went on sale the day before Mother's Day so our husbands decided they would get us the tickets and a hotel room as our gifts. Then they realized the power of the New Kids...they had sold out in minutes.

Slowly more dates were announced and we started plotting our strategy. Our first shot was for a second show in Chicago and if that didn't work we were shooting for Kansas City and our last resort was going to be San Diego, we could visit PJ and see our favorite group from our childhood. Then it happened. They announced a St. Louis show and it was on.

The day the tickets went on sale I spent all morning on line. I was so ready for 10 o'clock when I could finally get our tickets. It seemed to take forever. So the time finally arrived and I got our seats. Section 116, row T, seats 13-15. They weren't bad from what I could see.

Fast forward to last night. It was finally time for the concert. We joked about side pony tails and puffy paint shirts but we went dressed in current styles. My sister was way more excited than I was and insisted we listen to their CDs on the way to the concert, so we did.

We got to the concert and found our seats and were shocked to find out just how close to the stage we were. Then all we had to do was wait for 8 o'clock. Lady Gaga and Natasha Beddingfield were the opening acts and they were good. By 9 o'clock they were both done and the concert was about to start.

The lights went down and the boys came out and my inner fourth grader finally broke free. I had forgotten how much I loved Joey, but it all came back to me. The concert was awesome! I am so glad my sister talked me into going. I am actually secretly wishing they will come back again! Well I guess it's not a secret anymore.

Here Goes Nothing...

So I have been stalking the blogs of random strangers long enough. I have decided it is time to dive right in to the blogging world and see how I do. I am a fairly opinionated person so I imagine I will have a lot to say in the coming days.

I am a working mom to a two and a half year old little girl. She is all girl and very dramatic, she is also a diva. My husband and I are building a home right now that should be ready in mid December. In the mean time we are living with my mother, so its kind of cramped quarters.

That's all for now, I will leave you with some pictures.