Mischief and Apples!

The girls were playing quietly in the living room the other day so I decided to take advantage of the time to put away some laundry. Well, this is what I found when I came back just a few minutes later. One of them (Im quite sure it was Kate) had the idea to climb up on top of the table and eat some apples. There were about 8 apples in the fruit bowl and each one of them had Kate and Anna bites taken out of them! This is one of those times as a parent where you are torn between disciplining them for climbing up on the table, which is a no-no, and squeezing them because they are so darn cute. Judging by their faces in these pictures I am sure you can tell which one I chose! You have to pick your battles after all!

          Caught in the Act!!

Easter Dresses

The girls looked so pretty this morning in their Easter dresses. Here's a few pictures.

Easter Fun

Saturday morning the girls hunted easter eggs with a lot of the kids on campus. We were disappointed that it was so cold when we woke up, after being so warm all week, but the girls didn't seem to mind.  They found a lot of eggs and enjoyed opening every one of them to see what treat was inside. Later that night we had a great time as a family decorating eggs. Kate managed to turn her hands blue and the bottom of her hair red, and they ended up cracking most of the eggs and eating them, so we only had a couple left after it was all said and done. But the important thing is we had fun doing it and the girls got some good protein along the way!

Princesses on Ice

Yesterday was such a fun day for our family. We took the girls to see Princess Wishes on Ice in Kansas City. Our little "princesses" loved it! There were so many little girls dressed up, and Kate wore a very special dress her daddy bought for her to wear. It was a blue Cinderella dress, her favorite color. They were going to go by themselves for a special daddy-daughter day, but then Jeremy thought it would be fun for our whole family to go, so he got me and Anna a ticket at the last minute. I was so glad he did because we all loved being together. Anna loved it as much as Kate, and Jeremy and I enjoyed every minute of watching their awe and wonder as their favorite princesses that they play with and dress up like were skating right in front of them. We had great seats, only one row back from the ice! After the show, we all enjoyed the beautiful spring day walking around Kansas City and having lunch outside. 

Pictures of our fun day

Daddy and 'one' of his princesses walking to the show

I tried to get a good picture of Kate in her dress, but I had to settle for an action shot, because she was having too much fun to stop and pose for me.
Sitting outside, waiting for the show to begin......
Kate and her daddy (Anna was being clingy and wouldnt get in the picture)

"Sleeping Beauty" at the end of a big day.

"My Jewelry!"

Anna has started surprising us everyday with new words we didn't even think she knew. It is so cute and she is learning so fast. Today I came into the living room and noticed she had been in my jewelry box. I said, "Anna, what do you have" and she looked at me real mischieviously, and said "My Jewelry!" She was so cute, I couldn't take it away from her! So, I just grabbed the video camera instead to capture one of her first "big words".

Watch the video below!!

A fun day at the Magic House!

The girls and I had cabin fever today. After being sick all weekend and then waking up to a dreary rainy morning we decided to go somewhere fun, and of course when I asked Kate where she wanted to go she said "The Magic House". This is their favorite place in St. Louis by far. There is so much fun stuff to do. Of course we never have time to do it all with lunch and nap-times, but that is the great thing about having a membership. We can always go back! They managed to hit all their favorite spots today though. We played in the sand, went down several slides, crawled through tunnels, caught several fish, shopped for groceries in the pretend store, built little cars out of legos and raced them down the track, played in the ball pit, and last but not least played at the water tables and managed not to get too soaked.  They didn't want to leave after all that, but I had had enough "magic" for one day, and judging by how quickly they fell asleep, I think they did too!

Peeking in the minature mouse door together

Kate was very excited about what was inside! (tiny bunnies gathering easter eggs)
Anna loved the sand, so much that she kept trying to eat it!
Catching magnetic fish. (Anna did not want ANY help!)
After throwing her fish back in the water, she loved to follow it back downstream! She kept saying "My fish!" and wouldnt let it out of her site.

More pictures from the Magic House

Racing their lego cars down the track!

Kate had a blast picking out groceries for the dinner she says shes making tonight!
"Hey mom, do we need some mustard?"
She even remembered to pay for what she picked out!

Why we love Sundays!!

We always look forward to Sunday's around here. It us usually a laid back day where we are all together for the whole day. We enjoy going to church as a family. The girls love their class and Jeremy and I love sitting side by side worshipping together without distractions. The past two Sundays we have enjoyed having lunch with 4 other families from our church. We all love this fellowhip together. After we come home EVERYONE takes a nap. This is awesome.  The house is so quiet and peaceful for an hour or two and we all feel rested. Lately we have started a fun tradition of getting icecream after nap-time. Since we all LOVE icecream this is also a great part of the day. Approximately 30 minutes after the ice-cream a remarkable increase in energy is noticed in the girls! This usually consists of them spinning around in circles really fast, running up and down the hallway squealing or as you can see from the pics below, jumping off of the couches! This is usually about the time we decide would be appropriate to spend some time outdoors as a family! The girls love playing on the playground outside of our apartment, riding bikes, and just running off energy. Jeremy and I love the interaction with the other parents. Then we come back inside for dinner and baths. Too bad Sundays are only once a week!

So peaceful..........

Notice the size of Jeremys icecream???
Thoroughly enjoying themselves!!
It is worth every calorie!!
About 30 minutes later......

Enjoying the warm Sunday afternoon!

My 30th Birthday!

March 13th I turned 30 years old! That feels so weird to write. I don't feel like Im old enough to be 30 yet! Oh well, I wonder if we ever do? I have to say my sweet husband and friends worked hard to make sure I felt very special and loved on this big day. I am very blessed. Jeremy surprised me with an overnight get away to the Millenium hotel in downtown St. Louis. This is a really fancy hotel across the street from the St. Louis Arch.  We had a great view of the Arch and the river outside our window. The top floor of the hotel has a restaurant that actually spins slowly around to give you a rotating view of the city! He had arranged for Amy to come stay at our house overnight with our girls, while her husband Bill took care of their two girls that night. We left at 4 and checked in our hotel and then went for a stroll in the park and sat in the grass under the Arch and talked. It was such a beautiful, warm day outside. Then we came back and got ready for a wonderful dinner, but Jeremy wouldn't let me order dessert, because he had planned ahead to surprise me later with a 3 layer chocolate cheesecake and champagne to be delivered to our door! How fun! The next morning we enjoyed sleeping in with no little feet running in our room at the crack of dawn to wake us up. We took our time getting ready and then enjoyed a wonderful breakfast together before heading home.  We had such a special time together and a much needed get away. We are so lucky to have such great friends to sacrifice their time and energy to take care of our girls so we could do that.

And then....After taking care of 4 kids all afternoon, Amy went home and baked 2 cakes and threw me a surprise party that night. She had asked us to stop by for some dessert after dinner, but when we got there she had invited some of our other good friends to come and celebrate with us. We had a great time eating the yummy cake she made together and watching the kids play. What a great birthday!

Our hotel room (see the Arch behind us?!)

My birthday cakes at my surprise party. My sweet friend Amy who helped make it such a special birthday!

New attempt

For those of you checking our blog---I just want to let you know that I am making a new attempt to keep it more up to date this time!! I haven't posted since August, but Ive figured out how to do things more quickly now (time and efficiency is important at this stage of life right now!) and I am excited about posting pics and updates of life around here in St. Louis for our friends and family to keep up with us. So, keep checking.  I am going to do much better than posting every 6 months!

Snow!

We had a blizzard in March! 12 inches of snow came down last week. I am just now getting around to putting some pics up though! It was so pretty coming down, and the girls had so much fun getting out in it. It came up to Annas waist at some points! Kate and Anna played with their good friends Avery and Skyler, making snow angels, tackling eachother, and then collecting snow to make snow cream with inside. After every one had enough, we enjoyed some yummy pizza and homemade chocolate snow cream inside the warm apt. with Avery and Skyler and their parents Bill and Amy. We love being with them. The girls have a blast running all over the apt. playing dress up and princesses and we could sit and talk to our friends Bill and Amy for hours if the kids would let us! I don't love cold weather but days like this are fun sometimes, especially when you're doing it with the girls and seeing their wonder and joy.