Michel Spot

Another Too-Short Weekend...

2012-02-05T19:58:00.001-06:00

This weekend we traveled to Oklahoma to enjoy some family time with the Powell and Perkins families. Josh, Chris, and BoomPa got going early on Saturday morning to go to the shooting range and try to fire some guns. It was Chris' first time and everyone said he did great! We have pictures to prove it! Saturday noon, we met up with family for a pizza lunch together. Ledger really enjoyed his cousin Peyton. Saturday night, we had a family dinner at a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate BoomMa and BoomPa's birthdays. But most importantly, we really enjoyed spending time together as a family. As always, the weekend was WAY too short and we look forward to spending time together again soon. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Ledger couldn't wait to get up and see his family on Saturday morning!

Check out that shot!

We're still working on using the potty chair.
He really liked bringing it into the living room and "performing" for an audience.

Is there anything in there?

Ledger's version of "planking"

Kinley is happy!

BoomMa with her 2 grandkids.

Ledger "helping" feed Kinley.

Ledger and Peyton have some cousin bonding time.

Busy busy busy

2012-02-02T22:14:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, we had dinner with Shawn, Jarod, and Briana. They are so good to us and brought the entire dinner over to our house -- I didn't have to lift a finger! After dinner, all of the boys brought back SCW in our basement. Oh, you don't know what SCW is?? Way before Chris and I met... Jarod, Shawn, and Chris made their own backyard wrestling league called S.C.W. - Salina Championship Wrestling. That's right. This weekend they officially inducted Ledger as their newest athlete, and (of course) he LOVED it!!

Sunday was extremely busy. It started early in the morning when we hit the grocery store to get some mega-shopping done. Then we had lunch with Grammie Pam at La Hacienda. When we got home, we unpacked all of our groceries just in time for Oma to come over. We spent about an hour making some adjustments on Chris' 2012 Halloween costume that Oma is helping sew. I think the costume details are still under wraps, but I can tell you that it is coming along very nicely! By 1:15, we put Ledger down for a nap and Oma and I got to work to do some major freezer cooking! For the next four hours, we worked together to cook up almost 30 meals and get them frozen for quick access after baby Rhodes is born. (This is a lesson we learned the hard way when Ledger was born and we ate fast food for every meal for the next two weeks.) Unbelievably, I didn't get a single picture of us working. But, I can tell you that there were no breaks and we worked HARD to get everything together. I am so proud of the accomplishment and so appreciative of my Mom's help. I never could have gotten it done without her! With all of those meals in the freezer, I had about thirty minutes to sit and rest before our next project -- painting! Jarod and Briana ~~were forced~~ volunteered their services to help us repaint a few of the massive walls in our living room. Since I'm pregnant and Chris doesn't have a fantastic sense of balance, we needed some able-bodied workers to climb the 20 foot extension ladder to get to the top to paint up to the vaulted ceilings. (The Simpsons can't even claim they didn't know what they were getting into because they helped us paint these walls when we originally bought the place 4 years ago!) Briana was also very helpful in wrangling Ledger and keeping him from "painting" everything in site. I was so exhausted, the only thing I could do to help was paint the trim that was on the baseboards -- an excuse to sit down and still be working! :) The Simpsons left about 9 p.m. and despite the fact that I was exhausted, I ran to Bogey's to grab some caffeine to keep Chris and I awake a little longer while he was trying to finish up his school work for the week. I got home and climbed in the bathtub to unwind and de-stress before bedtime.... but it was not to be. About 10 minutes into my bath, Ledger started crying, and crying, and crying. So I got out of the tub to get him and he was very upset and complaining about an ear ache. We sat up together until 11:30 just trying to get him comforted enough to fall asleep. And when he finally slept, he slept with us. Phew.

By Monday morning, I was d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g. Ledger and I managed to get ourselves up and out of the house to go to our optometrist appointment with Dr. Sharpe. It was Ledger's first eye doctor visit! I was a little nervous as to how they were going to "test" his sight and Ledger was a little nervous about what Dr. Travis was going to do to him! Dr. Travis put Ledger at ease by talking about boats and wakeboarding. They tested his eyesight by making him do an eye chart with pictures -- airplane, horse, car, etc. It was pretty cool. Then Dr. Travis used some neat "flashlights" to look in Ledger's eyes. He said that both of our eyes checked out just fine! :) Yay! Ledger got some really cool "first appointment" gifts including a bear with glasses and certificates for free ice cream and free personal pizza! Woah!

A little nervous in the waiting room. Mommy bribed him with an icee.

To keep the nerves at bay, we tried on some of the glasses in the optic center.

On Wednesday morning, I had an OB appointment and everything checked out great with me and the baby. That evening, we had an appointment with our favorite hair stylist to get Ledger's mop of hair under control. He did a great job of sitting in the chair like a big kid. It helps that Tracy's shop has "cool toys" to play with while we're there (like these cowboy pistols!).

On Thursday morning, Ledger and I got up early to go visit a preschool. When we started asking around about preschools, it seemed like everyone gave us the same answer -- go to Mrs. Freeland at Four Seasons Preschool. Chris called last week to check-in with the preschool and found out that for next year's 3-year-old class there was only 1 remaining slot! So we quickly snatched up the last spot and scheduled a visit for this week. Visiting the preschool this morning was so much fun! Ledger really wanted to play with all of the children and fun toys! So we picked up all of our paperwork and we OFFICIALLY enrolled Ledger in preschool 2 days a week starting next school year. Another exciting landmark to look forward to!

Have you made it to the end of this monster blog?! I guess I need to stop slacking off and do a better job of blogging more frequently!!

Family Update

2012-01-23T09:11:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a little while since I've last blogged. Our family has (mostly) been keeping busy with daily life.

Ledger has been busily avoiding the cough and cold that is making the rounds at his child care. He had been doing a great job at it... until today. Don't worry, it hasn't slowed him down at all! For Christmas, he got these miniature Star Wars action figures and he loves playing with them. It cracks me up when he has Darth Vadar out and will sing the Imperial March (or at least, his own version of it) or when he fights with "WEEbacca" (Ledger's name for Chewbacca). He can also always be found with at least one tool in his hands at all time, and often it's a Lego creation that he's calling "drill". He has also been working on potty training and is wearing Pull-Ups at grandma Jamie's house and has pottied in the little boy potty quite a few times. We're currently bribing him with Skittles at home and Starburst at grandma Jamie's house. He has pottied a lot, but we're still trying to figure out how to get him to poop in the potty. As I'm writing this, he just looked at me and said "I'm pooping". *Sigh* If only he would tell me just a minute in advance!

Chris has been suddenly motivated to watch his calorie intake and he's been on the treadmill almost every night. He is using a super-cool app on his phone to track the nutritional content of everything he is eating and drinking. If you've ever dieted, you know how difficult it can be to keep an honest food diary, so I am very proud of him! So far, he's down about 11 pounds! :)

(I promise to post a pregnancy picture here soon!)

I have continued to be busy at work and at home. Ledger is really going through a Mommy-clingy stage and although I love the cuddles and attention, it is very difficult to pick-up and carry my toddler while dragging my own belly around! It seems like I am continuing to add pregnancy symptoms to the list -- including cravings for vegetables and smells that overwhelm me in a negative way! My belly is big and tight and being on my feet does cause some very minor contractions. Rhodes continues to move a lot! That is supposed to slow down some as he runs out of room (or womb), but that hasn't quite happened yet! Starting in February, I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks. Things are really going to be speeding up as we near the end of this pregnancy!!

Kinley's Baptism

2012-01-16T08:02:00.002-06:00

Kinley wearing her Mommy's handmade baptismal gown.

On Sunday, our family celebrated Kinley's baptism at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lindsborg. We had a good turnout of family with Josh's family coming from Kansas City. Josh's brother: Brad, Brandy, and I were all named as Kinley's baptism sponsors. Kinley did great through the service, including having the pastor hold her through his entire sermon. She didn't cry or fuss at all -- even with the water and oil placed on her head. We were all very proud! Chris and I were also very proud of how well Ledger did through the church service. In one particularly funny moment when the choir had just finished performing their solo song, Ledger loudly said "Good Job!".

After the service, we had a family lunch at Oma's house. Ledger loved getting to play with his big cousins - Ethan, Olivia, Isaac, and Faith. Food was good, but hanging out with family was GREAT! Congratulations Kinley, we are proud of you.

Ledger sitting with the big kids!

Michels - Hensleys - Perkins'

Michels - Powells - Perkins'

In another fun moment... Josh's dad, Don, passed the fantasy football trophy on to the new champions, The Kauai Roosters -- BoomMa and BoomPa Powell. :)

New Year Nesting

2012-01-15T22:02:00.003-06:00

Since the new year, I have really felt the "need" to nest and get things organized. With the baby on the way and the chaos that Christmas inevitably brings to our house, we really needed to buckle down and make some changes. It started with a complete toy box overhaul last week -- out with the old and in with the new! And I rearranged the furniture in the basement to create a play area for Ledger. I was so inspired by a good start, that I actually agreed to buy some rubbermaid storage containers and cube containers for the playroom. (That's a big deal for me, because I hate spending money on stuff like that.)

This weekend we really kicked it up a notch by recruiting our visiting family to help with some of the never-ending projects around the house. Chris and Josh assembled two massive shelving units to help create some usable storage in our garage. Dad and Chris installed an updated light fixture in the basement living room (and of course this turned into a bigger project than expected). Thank you so much to my family for allowing us to turn every family gathering into a work weekend! :)

BoomMa probably had the most important job -- cuddling with Kinley.

Emily, Josh, and Ledger working on shelving for the garage.

Ledger, Josh, and Chris assembling.

BoomPa and Ledger working with POWER TOOLS.

Emily's primary project was to install a sports-themed light switch in Ledger's room.

Baby Rhodes

2012-01-04T15:00:00.000-06:00

As my first post of the new year, I thought I would reveal our little secret... baby #2 is going to be named

Rhodes Steven

There is no use in trying to hide it this time around. Ledger knows the name and whenever he points to my belly, he talks about "Baby Rhodes". Rhodes is definitely developing a little personality in there. He is ALL elbows and knees, I think, because he is continually "reminding" me that he's there. I am pretty uncomfortable already -- especially when I've spent a lot of time on my feet. My belly tightens up and just gets achey and I feel like I'm lugging my body around. At work, I spend a lot of time on the floor and it is getting increasingly difficult to get myself back up! I remember feeling this way when I was pregnant with Ledger, but not until I was further into the third trimester!!

Right now, baby Rhodes is 28 weeks along and I have just started the third trimester. We had a 3D ultrasound on Monday and invited Grammie Pam and Oma Korey to join us to see the little man in action. The technology is pretty cool -- you can really see a little face and person moving around in there. Rhodes definitely gave us a good show. He was sitting breech (butt down) for the photo session which allowed us a really good view of his face. He was suckling and swallowing a lot -- normal practice for babies in the womb. He moved a fair bit and even "waved" at his big brother Ledger. It was pretty cool. By the end of the session, he put his hands in front of his face as if to say I'M DONE. The only disappointment was that we couldn't get a good confirmation picture of his "boy parts". The ultrasound tech took quite a few measurements and said that Rhodes is measuring about a week big -- that is definitely different since Ledger was always right on for his age.

Just today I had my glucose tolerance test and doc doesn't think there is any cause for concern there. My blood pressure is great (yay!) and my weight gain has been pretty minimal so far. He noted that the baby is riding way up high, under my ribs, which is why I've been so much more uncomfortable this time around. Sally, the ultrasound tech, snuck me back into the ultrasound room to see if we could get a good "boy parts" shot. Luckily, he has turned back into the head down position and so we got a very convincing "boy" picture this time! I have another "monthly" check at the beginning of February and then after that we'll start doing appointments every 2 weeks. I really am nearing the "home stretch"! We also re-addressed the issue with my tearing and scar tissue problems from the last birth and decided that during that last month, we'll probably just have to repeat a pelvic exam and make a judgement call on how big the baby is at that time. To make a long story short, if there is a big risk of me tearing again, we may end up in a c-section. I'm hoping that's not the case, but I trust my doctor and if he says that he thinks that will be best, then that's what we will do.

Can you see his little smile?

Hands in front of the face -- I'm done having my picture taken!

That is definitely a penis. No question... it's a boy.

2011: In a Nutshell

2011-12-31T22:00:00.000-06:00

2011 has been another very busy year for the Michel family. After a snowy start to the year, we survived a blazing hot summer and enjoyed an unusually mild autumn. Mommy and Daddy took a cruise vacation in the spring and we enjoyed family summer vacations to Branson, MO and Hot Springs, AK. We were saddened by the loss of Grandma Marilyn Young but thrilled to welcome TWO new additions to our family -- Brogan Guy and Kinley Perkins. Happily, we will continue to add to the family when our newest son is born in March 2012.

Ledger: This year, Ledger has transitioned from baby to big boy in almost every way. He turned 2, moved from a crib to a toddler bed, and then from a toddler bed into a big bed in his very own bedroom. Ledger developed a bit of the terrible-twos attitude and is frequently testing his limits with Mommy and Daddy. His vocabulary and memory continue to amaze mommy and daddy on a daily basis. Ledger really loves musical instruments, sports (football and basketball), tractors, and tools. He is a boy's boy and will be an amazing big brother.

Chris: Chris has been especially busy in 2011 as he began to take online courses to get his master's degree in elementary school counseling. In the evenings, he balances Daddy time with homework, which is no small feat. As a KC Chiefs fan, we got to see a playoff game in January only to be followed by a relatively dismal 2011 season and the firing of the head coach. As Chris always says... there's always next year. :)

Kendell: I have been a very busy mommy, wife, and veterinarian this year. As always, my job keeps me on my toes and very satisfied, but it is my home life that makes me truly happy. I found out I was pregnant with baby number 2 -- another boy -- and struggled through a tough first 20 weeks of nausea before finally getting to the "feel good" part of pregnancy just in time for the holidays.

We are sincerely thankful for the friends and family that follow our blog to keep up with the Michel family. We wish you all a healthy and happy 2012.

Christmas Morning 2011

2011-12-25T22:09:00.001-06:00

Today was an amazing Christmas day. Ledger really gets Christmas this year and couldn't wait to see if Santa left him any presents under the tree! As soon as he could drag his Daddy out of bed, we raced to the living room to see LOTS of presents under the tree and stockings filled for all of us! Someone must've been very good this year! I'll let the pictures tell the story of Ledger's Christmas morning...

Ledger got right into his stocking and started opening presents.

He wanted to make sure his Buzz Lightyear flashlight worked.

He's been wanting this Spiderman mask for months!

I made Ledger take a break from opening presents to take a picture. He wasn't thrilled...

...but eventually we got a "smile" out of him.

Ledger's very own REAL vacuum. Now when he's "helping" - he will actually be HELPING!

This Jack Sparrow figure was a big hit. He couldn't wait to get him opened up!

Another instrument to add to our marching parade -- a saxophone. Ledger calls it a "trumpet".

The grand finale present from Santa was a SNOWBOARD to play with just like Uncle Josh and Daddy use their wakeboards!

Even Jayce and Barkley got presents and enjoyed family time.

Christmas morning breakfast - homemade mini-cinnamon rolls. (A recipe from Pinterest)

They were a BIG hit with the whole fam.

After a fun-filled Christmas morning, we had lunch with the Michel and Vanderbeck families. Daddy's muscle relaxers had kicked into full gear and he could barely keep his eyes open, so he went home to nap while Mommy and Ledger went to celebrate with the Peterson family at the Mitchell's house. After nap time, Daddy joined us at the Mitchell's house and we played ping-pong and Sequence and Ledger played tractor's with his cousin Ethan until way past bed time. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and look forward to celebrating 2012 with another little-one to enjoy.

Merry Christmas from the Michel family!

It's... It's... It's... CHRISTMAS EVE

2011-12-25T21:49:00.003-06:00

For our Christmas Eve celebration, we planned to spend the day with the Michel family. Unfortunately, Chris began having some nausea and back pain the night before and it continued when he woke up on Christmas Eve. So instead of getting ready and heading off to a family celebration, we headed out to Stat Care. Grammie came to pick up Ledger so that he wouldn't have to spend time in the doctor's office (and risk getting sick!). The doctor checked Chris for kidney stones and then decided that it's just a musculo-skeletal problem. He prescribed some muscle relaxers and pain meds and sent us on our way. The whole thing only took about an hour, so it wasn't too bad. By 11:30 a.m. we met the Michel and Vanderbeck families at Red Lobster for lunch. Yum! After lunch, we headed home for Ledger and Daddy to take a nap. Ledger could hardly wait to get to open some presents and it took a while for him to get to sleep.

By 3:30 we were headed back out the door to Grammie and Papa Michel's house to finally open presents. :) Ledger was a very good helper and helped Jaime pass out all of the presents! He got to open all of his presents first. He was very excited about his John Deere dump truck and a Batman race car set. Every time he opened a present, he would start saying: "It's.... it's.... it's.... it's...." until it was finally open and he could declare: "It's a DUMP TRUCK!" It was pretty adorable. After all of his presents were done, he helped unwrapped presents for everyone else in the family too.

After all of the presents were through, we had our annual scavenger (treasure) hunt through the house. Ledger led the way. Of course. And then we just got to spend time together eating sandwiches and helping Ledger play with his toys. By 7, it was time for us to head back home and get ready for bed while the Michels and Vanderbecks had to get ready for church.

When we got home, we said goodbye to DeeDee elf. It's his last day of 2011 as our scout elf, but we know we'll see him again next year. I wonder if DeeDee elf knows that next year he'll have TWO kids to report to Santa about! :)

Dee Dee elf thought he could hide amongst all of our Sweedish Tomtees.

When we put Ledger to bed, we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Last year, we had all of Ledger's grandparents along with great-Grammie and Nanny read and record a page of the book. Ledger really enjoyed listening to all of his grandparents read him a story. It was especially touching to hear Nanny's voice read the last page since she is no longer with us this Christmas.

"Merry Christmas to all. And to all a Good Night"

Little Drummer Boy

2011-12-22T21:22:00.000-06:00

Since watching the marching band perform at cousin Ethan's high school football games this fall, Ledger has been enamored with instruments and "marching". He can often be found dragging out random toys and holding them to his mouth as a pretend trumpet or banging on them like a make-shift drum. Thanks to Emily and Josh, Ledger got a marching drum for Christmas last weekend, and has frequently ~~requested~~ demanded that Mommy and Daddy march in his parade around the living room too. So here are some pics of our little drummer boy.

First Christmas of the Season

2011-12-18T21:19:00.000-06:00

This weekend we drove to KC for our first Christmas celebration of the season with the Powell and Perkins families. On Saturday morning, we woke up and stayed true to tradition by staying in our pajamas to eat breakfast (yummy breakfast wreath -- eggs, bacon, biscuits) before huddling around the Christmas tree. Santa actually knew to deliver some stockings to the Perkins' house -- I think our DeeDee elf must've told him where he could find us. Ledger got the honor of delivering the stockings to everyone this year, although he could hardly wait to open any of the stockings before they got to their recipients.

Ledger got a lot of cool stuff in his stocking, including a few movies and a train whistle. Kinley got to open her first stocking, too. The highlight of her stocking was a Wubby -- a beanie horse connected to a pacifier. She fell in love with it right away.

He couldn't quite get this train whistle figured out.
He would put his mouth to it and just make the train whistle sound himself. :)

Spiderman toothbrush. Ledger had to do shoot webs from his hands.

Kinley didn't seem so excited about Mortimer the Moose.

Kinley really loved her Wubby.

We all really enjoyed opening our Christmas presents this year. Chris and I got new phones. If you've tried to call us in the last few weeks, you probably know that our phones were dying respectable deaths. Of course, this leaves us a lot of "tinkering" to do over the next few days! Emily and Josh got beautiful new barstools for their new house. BoomMa and BoomPa got a new GPS (nicknamed "Bert") because their previous GPS ("Bev") was older than their two grandkids... combined. :)

Ledger must have been very nice this year, because he sure had a lot of presents under the tree! From BoomMa and BoomPa, he got a lawn tool set including a chainsaw, lawn mower, weed wacker, and leaf blower. He loved it! He even insisted on wearing the safety goggles and work gloves. :) He got a marching drum set from Emmy and Josh and enjoyed doing his own marching parade around the house. It's a good thing Kinley is such a good sleeper (during the day).

Trying to figure out how to get batteries into all of these tools.

Get my gloves on, BoomPa!!

Drum, drum, drum.

Watch out trees -- Ledger is coming for you.

Kinley just laid there and watched her cousin Ledger play with his toys.

That evening, we went to a Japanese steakhouse for our family Christmas dinner. It took a while for Ledger to relax around the "fire", but he was plied with edamame and white rice. :) At the end of the meal, we all took our turns trying to catch shrimp in our mouths. Emily (by far) caught the most. Enjoy the gratuitous "open mouth" collage. :)

Thank you to the Powell and Perkins families for another wonderful family celebration. We are so happy to welcome Kinley for her first Christmas this year. We love you and hope you had as much fun this weekend as we did!

Christmas Time

2011-12-11T20:43:00.002-06:00

It's taken a little while, but we finally managed to get some pictures of Ledger wearing a Santa hat!

Santa Baby

2011-12-08T13:21:00.001-06:00

Here is a quick Michel family update: Things are going well for us. After a busy Thanksgiving, we have settled back into our home routine and the last few weeks have been a nice laid-back pace. We are trying to enjoy the reprieve... we know how busy (and fun!) the Christmas holiday is going to be! Ledger enjoyed spending some time at Lynnda's house and loves playing with his big cousin-friends, Faith and Isaac. We all enjoyed watching Ethan start his first varsity basketball game of the season. I am in a good stage of pregnancy -- 6 months (24 weeks) pregnant and I feel great. The baby is moving a lot and doctor says everything looks great so far. Just after the New Year, we have a 3D sonogram and glucose testing scheduled. We are excited to get another peek at our tiny baby boy.

And now to the main attraction! Check out the Santa diapers that Ledger came home from child care wearing today. When Daddy showed me, Ledger said "Surprise!" LOL

Giving Thanks for Family

2011-11-29T10:02:00.001-06:00

This year, we had much to be thankful for. The Powells, Hensleys, Michels, and Perkins' families all gathered in Kansas City to welcome our newest addition:

Kinley Josephine Perkins, born 11/20/2011

Ledger was very excited to meet his newest little cousin and was surprisingly gentle and sweet with her. He kept calling her "cute" and wanted to give her kisses. We were very proud of how well he did with the little baby. Kinley is a very sweet baby, but she has her sleeping schedule a little flipped around. During the days, she slept like a champ in someone's arms, but at night she kept poor Mommy and Daddy awake a lot. Everyone tried to pitch in a little bit to allow Emily and Josh to get a little bit of rest, but being a new parent is hard.

All of those newborn parenting skills came right back...

Ledger wasn't so sure about "sharing" his Uncle Josh. But luckily Josh has plenty of room on his lap for two.

Josh's parents, Mary Lynn and Don, kindly offered to make Thanksgiving dinner for all of the visitors. Sometimes combining families for holiday traditions can create an awkward scenario -- but we all had a great time. Football, family, and food -- who could ask for more?!

Look at Kinley's adorable little black Thanksgiving dress!

Chris and I maintained our Thanksgiving tradition by going out and braving the crowds of people for Black Friday shopping. This year the sales started at 10pm Thanksgiving night, so we were actually finished with all of our shopping by about 12:30 a.m. The Olathe Walmart was packed, but it was a very similar shopping experience to what we have had in the past in Broken Arrow.

On Saturday, we got up early to go swimming at BoomMa and BoomPa's hotel pool. Ledger had a great time splashing with BoomPa in the pool! Superstitious BoomPa wouldn't take off his OU socks to swim because it was a Sooner gameday -- so he swam in his socks. :) Millie took some cute pictures -- hopefully I can steal them to add to this blog later.

In the afternoon, Oma and Doodah went to Topeka to watch Josh coach the Olathe South Falcons in the 6A football state championship. The rest of us watched it on TV at home. It was a very exciting game and came down to a last minute score for the Falcons to WIN their first football state championship in school history. It was awesome! We are very proud of Uncle Josh and the Falcons.

Unfortunately, Emily was feeling particularly bad on Saturday. BoomMa and BoomPa took care of Kinley and I tried to take care of Emily. Poor Mommy. After some home ministrations, she finally started to feel better in the evening.

We left KC early Sunday morning to try to get home and get a little rest before we had to head back to the "real world" next week. We had a pretty restful day at home and got out some more Christmas decorations in the evening. Ledger is a big helper and helped us decorate the tree! With the extra lights and red berries (that Ledger insisted we put on the tree this year) I think our tree is just beautiful.

Holiday Weekend

2011-11-20T20:01:00.001-06:00

This was an exceptional weekend and felt like it officially marked the beginning of our holiday season.

On Saturday, we went to the annual Parade of Lights with our friends. The cold front had firmly moved in earlier in the day and it was COLD for the evening parade. This year, we were better prepared and dressed to withstand the weather. This year, it seemed like the parade was bigger than last year -- from start to finish, we enjoyed more than an hour of parade entertainment. AND the floats were very generous with their candy distributions. Very. All-in-all, we had a great time!! We know how lucky we are to have friends that will brave the frigid temps just to help us enjoy the holidays.

On Sunday, we awoke to a text message from Josh telling us that Emily's water had broke overnight an that they were at the hospital today. We ran a couple of errands in the morning before lunch and then came home and started assembling our Christmas tree. When Ledger woke up from his nap, he was really excited to see the "lights" on the tree and wanted to help put it together.

Kinley Josephine Perkins was finally born at 4:30 in the afternoon on 11/20/2011. We are so excited to welcome our first niece and look forward to getting to meet her in person later this week. Once we get more photos, I will post pictures of her!

Quick Pics

2011-11-18T20:07:00.001-06:00

This week we've had a pretty normal week. The baby is moving a lot this week and Chris can even feel him moving around in there too! Ledger has been noshing on left-over veggies with Ranch dip and he loves it. Who knew I could get him to eat veggies so easily if I would just add a little dip! Since I don't have much to update, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures of my cute kid.

Nesting

2011-11-13T13:05:00.001-06:00

Recently, I have been feeling the need to do some crafty type projects and mark some things off of my (very long) to-do list. Chris thinks I'm nesting. I'm not sure if it's nesting or not, but it's nice to get some things done. This weekend, we cleaned out our closets and took a lot of clothes to Goodwill. I can actually walk into my closet now! I'm very proud of us!

In Ledger news, he is finally sleeping better again. I have no idea why we had a couple of tough weeks there, but it seems like his good habits are starting to return! Yay! He is still loving football, but we are starting to try to transition him to basketball. We know we'll be watching Ethan play some Cougar basketball soon! We brought his basketball goal into the living room to "practice" a little today. We don't have an actual basketball, but the soft squishy purple ball works just fine for now. :)

Check out the form!

Celebration of Family

2011-11-10T08:19:00.001-06:00

Today we said goodbye to Grandma Young in a beautiful funeral service. Grammie Pam sang a beautiful tribute at the end of the funeral that brought the whole congregation to tears. Ledger was amazingly well behaved through the service and, as always, helped our family smile in tough times. Although it was difficult, it was nice to catch up with family that we don't get to see often enough.

We already knew that we wouldn't be together this year for the holiday, but we were disappointed that we would miss out on this tradition. Chris had the idea for us to do a family Thanksgiving dinner after the funeral service. We didn't want to add any stress to an already stressful today, so Chris and I agreed to cook the entire dinner and host it at our house. So we shopped on Monday for supplies and on Tuesday I cooked two turkeys, mashed potatoes, and prepped for a feast! Who says you can't make a full Thanksgiving dinner in 1 day?! On Wednesday, Chris whipped up a batch of turkey gravy and I finished up getting corn, turkey, bread, stuffing, and potatoes ready. As amazing as it seems, when the family arrived for dinner, it was ready right away and we were relatively stress free! Everyone loved sitting together as a family and eating a no-stress meal together. After dinner, we were thoroughly entertained by Connor and Ledger playing tackle football in the living room and being rough-tough boys together.

In all of the excitement, I didn't take a single picture. Not one. But I can promise that it was a day to remember. A day to celebrate the life of a wonderful matriarch by enjoying the family that she held together and remembering the holiday traditions she built for the clan.

Pittsburg Weekend

2011-11-07T12:54:00.000-06:00

This weekend we packed our bags and headed out of town to visit aunt Jaime and uncle V in Pittsburg, KS. We didn't have any big plans, but we were looking forward to spending some time with family. We got to Pittsburg too late in the evening on Friday to visit family. We decided to go ahead and put Ledger to bed. Unfortunately, we don't know how to put a 2-year-old to bed in the same room as us without having to go to sleep ourselves. *Sigh* As it turns out, I spent a lot of time in the bathroom where I could read with the light on and Chris went into his parents' room to hang out. And Ledger still didn't fall asleep until much later than his usual bed time when I finally gave up and put myself to bed too. (Moms -- if you have any advice on this, please email me!)

On Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel with Pam, Steve, and Jaime. Ledger just loves being with his family! We did a little shopping that morning and then went to pick up Uncle V for lunch. We ate at Del Rio -- YUM!! Ledger took his afternoon nap at the hotel and then we met up for a quick dinner. The restaurant had a big Pittsburg State gorilla out front, so we took some pictures (of course).

After dinner, we went back to the Vanderbeck house and settled in for an evening of football. Uncle V even got out some of the Star Wars toys that he played with as a kid and let Ledger play with those. He loved it! Here's a picture of the boys watching football...

and this one shows just how much Ledger adores his Uncle V...

Not too long after this, we received the devastating news that Grandma Young had passed away. We were lucky to all be together in a very difficult time. Ledger was very concerned about how sad everyone was, especially Grammie -- but he continued to make people smile through tears. Obviously, that changed the tone of our weekend. Grammie and Papa left early the next morning to head home.

We took our time hanging out in the hotel room the next morning and then went to the Vanderbeck home to play with the toys again. After a good lunch with Chris and Jaime, we headed back to Salina while listening to the Chiefs game on the radio. Although we didn't have quite the weekend together we expected, it is always special to be together with family.

Meet the Baby...

2011-11-03T21:22:00.002-05:00

Today we had our 18 week ultrasound. The ultrasound tech took a ton of measurements and checked for any evidence of abnormalities and everything checked out normally. Baby is measuring 19 weeks 5 days, which is just about right for our expected due date of March 27. This baby is a real MOVER and wouldn't stop wiggling and re-positioning through the ultrasound session. We got some really cool looks at the little arms waving and the little legs kicking. As soon as we tried to take a video, the baby settled down a little bit -- but you can still see that baby wiggling.

And finally, we started looking for a money shot to give us a clue about the gender...

... and we got one. It's a boy! We are very excited that Ledger will have a brother to play with, but we have absolutely no ideas for a name yet!

This was a very good ultrasound experience. Our tech was very informative and both Chris and I felt like the views that we got were really clear. It was surprisingly easy to tell what we were looking at most of the time.

So... a quick update on my pregnancy. We're at 19 weeks and I'm finally feeling more like myself. My GI system is still not right, but I'm not nauseous all the time either! YAY! I have felt a few small movements from the baby, but nothing definitive. The baby was dancing around on ultrasound today, so I'm sure in a few weeks I'll really be able to feel him dancing around in my belly!

Star Wars Halloween

2011-11-01T21:08:00.000-05:00

Since Daddy is the Halloween-king around here, we usually let him dictate the costume situation for our family. This year, he planned to dress as DARTH VADER. We actually bought his costume almost a year ago and have been modifying it over the last few months. As a Star Wars nod, we thought it would be funny for Ledger to dress as Luke Skywalker since he is Darth Vader's son. (Get it?)

We bought Ledger a "yoda" costume from the store but decided it didn't look quite "Jedi" enough, so I sewed a Jedi robe. Sewing the robe turned out to be easier than I thought, so in the spirit of the holiday, I decided to sew an adult Jedi robe and tunic for me to wear on Halloween too. After some discussion, Daddy decided it would be too hot to wear the Darth Vader costume in the evening and wanted to wear the Jedi costume instead. So I went back to the sewing machine and decided to make myself a princess Leia robe. I'm actually VERY proud of how these costumes came out. I am no seamstress, but I'm so thrilled with how good we looked as a family that I was actually excited to get dressed up for Halloween!

We were also very fortunate to have our family around for the holiday this year. Oma Hensley showed up to the Heusner halloween parade to watch Mr. Michel lead his classroom of kids around the school. Grammie and Papa Michel went trick-or-treating downtown with us and treated us to dinner. We had a fantastic day, but now we're exhausted!!

Work & Play Weekend

2011-10-31T20:52:00.002-05:00

This was a fantastic weekend at home. BoomMa and BoomPa came to visit -- which made Ledger VERY happy. As is typical, we had a few small home projects for BoomPa to help us with, and he came equipped with cool tools!

Our first project was to use the air compressor to "blow out" the sprinkler system. We have this home-made sprinkler system that the previous owner cobbled together, and the system can be a little difficult to decipher. Our first attempts were unsuccessful.

BoomPa with the sprinkler.

The next project was to put trim around the door in the garage (you can see the door in the picture above). This was a much more successful project and with a little "rigging" we made it work. BoomPa's pneumatic nail gun really helped this project fly by.

While we were hard at work in the garage, Ledger and BoomMa were hard at work in the front yard, raking up leaves. Kinda.

After watching the KSU v. OU football game on television, we headed out to enjoy The Scheme pizza. YUM!!

On Sunday, we got back to work on projects. Chris and BoomPa worked on trimming out our electric fuse box downstairs. Chris loves using the pneumatic nail gun too! The trim work turned out very good. All we need is a little stain and it will look like it was built that way.

While the boys were working hard downstairs, BoomMa, Ledger, and I were in the kitchen making up caramel apples for fall treats. Ledger decided he didn't want any caramel and didn't want to put the stick in the top of his apple... only in the side. :) He's so funny.

After lunch, Ledger took a (much needed) nap and we finished two more projects -- fixing the garage door and (finally) flushing out the sprinkler system. All-in-all, it was a fantastic weekend. We were all exhausted. Ledger napped from 1:30 to nearly 6 p.m. on Sunday! Now we have to prepare for Halloween!!

Allergy Testing -- Take 2

2011-10-27T08:13:00.001-05:00

As most of you know, we have been living with Ledger's food allergies since he was first diagnosed in March of 2010. He is allergic to soy, corn, egg, and dairy. And cockroach mix (not a food!). At that time, the doctor recommended that we should get retested when he is 2 and 1/2 or 3 years old. For the first year, we were VERY good at avoiding the foods that Ledger is allergic to -- reading labels and keeping him on weird diet of protien, carbs, and applesauce. lol. Over the last 6 months, we have been much more lax about food avoidance. He eats (and LOVES) string cheese, cheese dip, corn chips, and a whole bunch of other things that are on the no-go list. But we haven't seen a single problem or reaction to the foods. He still doesn't get real milk -- he drinks rice milk pretty well. He's never had a scrambled egg. But mostly, we just let him live his life and keep his "allergy" foods in moderation.

Chris was especially anxious for this round of testing because we really felt like he would no longer show allergies to some of the foods -- especially dairy. I was especially anxious about the testing because I knew it would be painful and that I would have to "hold" him down through most of the torture.

The allergy testing was indeed a type of torture. They poked his back with 20-30 little needles. He squirmed and cried and made me feel terrible. But as soon as the pricks were over, Chris went to work distracting him and he quickly forgot the pain and was laughing and playing and chasing bubbles in the exam room. We waited about 15 minutes until the results were read and then waited another 15 minutes for the doctor. She had good news and bad news. Good news: Ledger is no longer allergic to corn. Bad news: He is still quite allergic to dairy and egg. He also had mild reactions to soy and peanut, but she wanted to double check these results with some blood allergy testing. She OK'd Ledger to get a flu shot as long as he was carefully monitored for allergic reaction, so we moved to the next room where a nurse gave him the flu shot in his thigh. We impatiently waited the 30 minutes and didn't get any sort of vaccination reaction. Yay! For the last step, we went to another building and had a bunch of blood drawn for the remaining tests. This was probably the most difficult one to hold him for -- he cried and said "it hurts Mommy!". We were in the clinic for more than 3 hours! It was a stressful morning for everyone.

Allergy testing pricks.

Just a few minutes after the skin prick test -- he's smiling and playing with Daddy.

So, overall, there are going to be no big changes in our lives. We will continue on rice milk and keep those other foods -- eggs and dairy -- in moderation. We will find out about nuts and soy in a few weeks and assimilate that into our current plan. Ledger is still healthy and happy. We are very proud of how tough he was through this testing and are thankful that we won't have to do this again for a while!

Ahhh... October

2011-10-23T22:34:00.004-05:00

The end of October is quickly approaching and we are preparing for Halloween. It's not my favorite holiday, but this year I think I'm going to bite the bullet and dress up with my family. Since Chris is already planning on dressing up as Darth Vadar, we decided that Ledger would go as Luke Skywalker. (Ya know... "Luke, I am your father...") We bought a pre-made Jedi costume for Ledger, but that just wasn't detailed enough to stand up to Chris' awesome costume. So tonight I MADE a jedi robe to go over the top of it. That's right.

So I knocked that out so quickly that I decided to go ahead and make an adult-sized Jedi robe for Mommy to wear or just in case Daddy doesn't want to wear his heavy Darth Vadar costume while trick-or-treating. And now I'm feeling so ambitious that I may, very well end up making additional costume pieces. We'll see.

So... what else is going on?

We went to KC for Emily's baby shower. I was pretty proud of the blanket I made for baby Kinley, but I didn't take any pictures!
We had our first fight with "the sickies". We had one sleepless night and Ledger had to stay home from child care one day -- but he recovered quickly.
We've been spending our Friday nights out at Salina stadium cheering for the South High Cougars and our cousin Ethan Mitchell. Ledger really enjoys football and watching the band march.
Ledger is scheduled to have his allergies retested this week in Hutchinson. We're anxious to find out if he's grown out of some of his food allergies. Keep your fingers crossed!
The pregnancy is progressing normally. I'm 17 and 1/2 weeks pregnant now. Still having some nausea and GI issues. We'll have our big sonogram done next week and find out if it's a girl or a boy this time.

I guess that's it for now. This should (at least) make Emily happy. Since we have a few busy weeks coming up, I will try to remember to take lots of pictures and blog to share them with all of you!

KC Weekend #1

2011-10-05T08:44:00.002-05:00

This weekend, we traveled to Kansas City to watch the 0-3 KC Chiefs play the 0-3 Minnesota Vikings. The Chiefs aren't having a very good season thus far -- they were even announced as the #1 Worst Team in the NFL on ESPN two weeks ago. That is not a good sign. However, we were hopeful that our presence in the stands would help turn things around for the Chiefs. Other than last year's play-off game loss, the Michels have been a good luck charm for the Chiefs.

This game was a little different because Emily is 7 months pregnant and I'm almost 4 months pregnant and dragging around a very busy 2-year-old. Our seats for the game last year were 1 row from the top and we knew there was no way we'd be able to make that long trek up those stairs -- plus we needed to be a lot closer to the bathrooms. Luckily, we found tickets in the upper deck corner, row 10 with the sun behind us -- perfect seats! :) We were surprised how full the stadium was, given the lackluster team performance this year. Chiefs fans are pretty loyal (and optimistic)! Ledger quickly learned to say "That's good for a Kansas City Chiefs.... FIRST DOWN!" and do the first down signal with it too. Emily has a video, but she will have to post it on her own blog.

Once we settled into our seats, Ledger took quick notice of the cotton candy salesman roaming our section. He was too far away to buy anything which left Ledger pathetically whining "cotton candy..." through the entire first quarter. During the second quarter, Emily, Ledger and I went on a quest for food. We had to go UP a section to find popcorn and pretzels but none of the concession stands sold cotton candy! Luckily, Emily spotted a roving salesman headed into the stands, so she took off RUNNING on a 50-yard dash through the concourse carrying Ledger and a very pregnant belly. She got a lot of funny looks. BUT, she managed to track down some cotton candy ($7!!!) for her nephew.

During the third quarter, Ledger started getting very sleepy and by the fourth quarter, he passed out asleep on our laps. The 4th quarter was very exciting since the game was close right up to the end, but Ledger slept through the whole thing. :) We stayed until the end of the game -- a 22-17 CHIEFS VICTORY!!

Michels and Perkins'

Still not quite sure about all of the game-time action.

3rd Quarter: Getting tired and sharing his beads with Mommy.

And... he's out.

15 Weeks Pregnant

2011-10-05T08:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm now two weeks into the second trimester with this pregnancy. Unfortunately, all of my not-so-great 1st trimester symptoms are still hanging in there. I keep hoping that I will wake up and the nausea and dizziness and GI issues will all be gone. But that has not happened yet. I also wish that I had kept a diary of my pregnancy last time so that I could compare my continuing symptoms. Chris seems to think that this pregnancy has brought significantly worse symptoms, but my Mom and Emily think that it has been comparable to what I went through with Ledger.

I have a doctor's appointment today and hope that all is continuing to progress normally. I will update this post after the appointment. :)

PS -- I promised myself that I would post more pictures of myself pregnant this time around. It is not easy for me, as I am not very happy with my current body shape. As a matter of fact, if I were a skinnier build, you would probably be able to SEE a baby bump on me now. I can feel the change in my abdomen shape and feel, but other people can't really see any changes yet. I will post pictures as soon as there is something new to see.

Perfect Weather

2011-09-26T08:38:00.001-05:00

The last few weeks have been perfect weather in Kansas! The daily temperature highs have been between 75-80 degrees with a little light wind and wonderful night temp temperatures in the 40s and 50s. It just doesn't get better than that. These nice weather weeks do not last long in the midwest -- so we have to take advantage of them!

Last weekend, we visited BoomMa and BoomPa Powell in Oklahoma. We went out to the Rockin' Rib Fest, watched Peyton play football, did a little shopping, watched OU football on TV, rode our new tricycle-motorcycle, and generally had a fantastic time. Ledger is such a good little traveler. He just loved spending time with his BoomMa and BoomPa! We didn't take very many pictures. My photography motivation has been highly lacking lately.

When we got home, I got sick. I still don't know if it's just the pregnancy or if I caught a little stomach bug. Either way, it was miserable for a couple of days and it marks the first time that I've . I am actually at the end of my first trimester, but my nausea hasn't subsided much at all. I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day (soon) I will wake up and just feel normal. *Sigh*

As is our typical fall routine, we are busily planning our future weekends. The next TWO weekends, we will be in Kansas City -- once for a Chiefs football game and once for Emily and Josh's baby shower. It promises to be a busy fall!

Well, a stinky diaper is calling me away from the computer. I managed to BLOG -- yay!

Mini-Update

2011-09-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I've been such a poor blogger. I have been battling some awesome morning sickness and have been trying to keep up with Ledger and work. I know... excuses, excuses.

I did have a doctor's appointment this week and Dr. Boo was able hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler -- so that's great! We have had a couple of busy weekends and are happy to be (finally) enjoying the start of the NFL football season. Once again, we are involved with our fantasty football teams and cheering on the KC Chiefs.

I have no pictures and no big news. But I just wanted to tell you that we're still here and we're still healthy. :)

The BIG News

2011-08-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

We're Pregnant!

July 14, 2011: I had a positive pregnancy test this morning, but the line is SO faint that it's hard to tell if I am imagining it or if it is real. Chris is out of town in Hays for his summer classes so I text him a picture of the test to see if he thinks there are two lines or not. He thinks there are two lines too. Can you see it two lines? That night, we went to the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. I think it's ironic our first child shares Harry Potter's middle name and we find out we're pregnant with our second child on the same day as the premier of the last Harry Potter movie.

July 15, 2011: To avoid further "what-if" moments, we take a digital pregnancy test. It results in less ambiguity. I'm having a little trouble believing that I'm pregnant. With Ledger, I "felt" pregnant from the first day of my positive test. This time, I'm not really having any pregnancy symptoms, yet.

Now: No need to worry now. I've been ridiculously nauseous for the last four weeks. I'm so tired that I feel like I've been hit by a bus. It seems like my worst time of day is from 4pm-8pm, which is also the busiest time of day when I'm trying to get work wrapped up, get home, get dinner served, and spend some quality time with Ledger and Daddy. Unfortunately, my quality time has been severely limited.

I have already had my first doctor's appointment and saw our little "blinking bean" on ultrasound. The doctor prescribed me an anti-nausea medication, but it hasn't helped that much. My prenatal vitamins have been adding to the nausea -- especially the DHA (fish oil) pills. Yuck! Fortunately, I found some awesome gummy prenatal vitamins that actually taste good and have made it easier to get those important vitamins down.

For the concrete stuff, our predicted due date is March 27th which makes me 9... ALMOST 10 weeks along. (Which means that I have 3-5 weeks of morning sickness to get through. Blah.) I have promised myself I will do a better job of blogging about this pregnancy -- more for my own recollection than to keep you entertained. So bear with me the next 7 months. :)

August, August... Another Month Gone

2011-08-27T21:04:00.000-05:00

This has been another crazy month. During the second week of August, Ledger started with his new child care, Chris started back to school, and I had to work full time while Dr. Ewy was gone. It was a very tiring and hectic week for everyone. Ledger had a very rough week adapting to all of the change. Since that time, we've had a LOT of family birthdays and more very busy days. Ledger has finally fallen in love with his new child care situation and has started requesting to go to "Grandma Jamie's house". Here are some fun pictures of our kid over the last few weeks.

Hot Springs Vacay

2011-08-14T19:52:00.001-05:00

At the end of July, we took a Powell family vacation to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. Dad and Millie rented a spectacular lakeside condo for us all to share. We arrived on Friday afternoon and Josh quickly tried out our dock on Lake DeSoto for fishing. Ledger was very interested in the rubber worms that Uncle Josh used for bait, but wasn't quite brave enough to touch them.

On Friday, we rented a pontoon boat and went cruising on Lake Balboa. We thought Ledger would want to tube, but he cried when he was out there. So Chris and Ledger challenged us to take them on a "big boy" ride. Well, we tried, but the pontoon boat tops out at about 20 mph, which makes it nearly impossible to have a thrilling tube ride. So the boys spiced it up a bit on their own.

The lake was super warm -- like bath water. We all enjoyed cruising around the lake and checking out the multi-million dollar mansions on the lake front. For lunch, we anchored the boat at a little uninhabited island and floated together in the warm water. We ate sandwiches from the cooler and had a awesome time. On the way back to the dock, Ledger fell asleep on BoomMa.

On Saturday, BoomPa and Josh got up and went to play golf. BoomMa, Emmy, and the Michels all got dressed in our swim gear and headed to the pool. We swam for a couple of hours and then met up with the golfers for lunch at a local pizza joint. The food was spectacular. I'd recommend it, but it was scheduled for closure in 1 week. Go figure. We had a family nap time followed by family dinner and an overall fantastic last full day of vacation.

Where Did July GO?

2011-08-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

July was incredibly eventful -- packed with fun with family and HOT HOT weather. It's hard to believe that it is August already and with Chris starting back to school next week, our summer is officially over. So please allow me to play a little catch up and tell you about what we've done this month:

Cousins

Ledger's cousins Jonas (4), Ronan (2... almost 3), and Brogan (3 months) were here to visit for the entire month of July. We spent a lot of time at the lake together, including 4th of July. Jonas and Ronan both brought awesome toys -- trains and Cars toys which automatically made them the "cool" cousins. Since it's been such a hot month, the only way for us to really enjoy any time together was at Great-Grammie's pool in Lindsborg. And BOY did we have fun! Jonas and Ronan are "no fear" swimmers -- they just jump in and go. Ledger is a little more hesitant, especially about "jumping in". But once you put on his water wings, he wants to try to keep up with the big kids! And, of course, each swimming session has to end with a popsicle! :)

Poker Run with Perkins'

July 23rd marked the annual Central Kansas Yacht Club Poker Run. For the second year in a row, the Perkins and Michel families were a boat stop and had a good time. We were having such a good time that we pretty much forgot to take any pictures. Go figure. Emily's little pregnant belly has finally popped out and we found out that she will be having a GIRL!! My first niece!! We keep trying to explain to Ledger about the baby in aunt Emmy's belly and he seems to be catching on.

Grandpa Steve's Birthday

As in previous years, we dressed Ledger up in a plaid, short-sleeved, button-down shirt just like his Grandpa Steve wears in celebration of his birthday. This year we ate at Daimaru steak house and even followed-up with dessert at Braums. YUMM!!

Phew! I'm tired from just putting the photos in this blog. It's been a very busy month. We ended the month with a big Powell-family vacation to Hot Springs Village in Arkansas. I promise that my next blog post will be all about our excellent vacation and include some pictures. If you can't wait, you can check out the pictures here.

This Kid...

2011-07-19T22:50:00.003-05:00

"You Don't Know the Power of the Darkside"

Bird Brain

2011-07-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

For the last month, we have been preparing for the possibility of adopting a blue and gold macaw. Yesterday, that became a reality when we brought home Topaz...

We are trying to take things slow and allowing him to acclimate to all of the changes. He seems to be adapting to the other pets pretty well. Tonight, we gave him some out-of-cage time in the living room. He was especially interested in Ledger and said "hello" to him and danced for him. He rocks from side-to-side and says "rock-and-roll". Ledger shared his banana with his new friend.

Right now, we are still figuring out how to live together. :) So far, things are going pretty well. Let's hope that it stays that way!

Summer Fun

2011-07-07T15:39:00.001-05:00

With the arrival of July and the HOT weather, it is officially summer time!! We are truly lucky to get to spend time with our family at the lake. And, as an added bonus, the Guy family is going to be staying here for the month of July!

This weekend, we celebrated the 4th of July out at Lake Kanopolis. Ledger got to see his cousins Jonas, Ronan, and Brogan for the first time in more than 18 months. This is the last time we were together...

Jonas (left) kissing Ledger, 3.5 months old

This time around, the boys are able to have SO much more fun together. Jonas and Ledger had a great time going out on the boat, swimming, and riding in the tube. Ronan shared his prized choo-choo trains with Ledger. Ledger just loved watching baby Brogan and didn't even act jealous when Mommy was holding the baby!

Look at that ornery face.

Ledger helps Uncle Josh cool off.

Jonas (left) and Ledger (right) walking to the boat dock.

Oma with Brogan (2.5 months)

Ledger loves "Baby Brogan"

Ledger and Jonas playing with bubbles in the yard.

Aunt Emily makes Ledger SMILE.

Brandy with Ronan (2 years)

Jeremy on the boat with Jonas (4y)

The Guy family.

Oma trying to wrangle Jonas and Ronan.

Captain Ledger drives the boat.

Keep a weather eye on the horizon.

Ronan gets a piggy back ride from Brandy.

We did get a chance to have a little bit of grown-up time too. Somehow, we forgot to take a group picture with all of us together though. Here is a video of Josh totally completing a back flip on the wakeboard.

Hot, Hot, Hot

2011-07-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

This week, temperatures in Salina have been consistently over 100 degrees. This kind of stifling heat can only lead to one thing....

...playing in the sprinklers!!

Branson Vacation - The End

2011-07-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

We woke up early on our last day in Branson to hit the pool as a family. Ledger just loves to swim!!

We left Branson after lunch at Fuddruckers and decided to take a different route home. We drove through Joplin, Missouri to get a first-hand look at the damage that the recent EF5 tornado had done. Honestly, the devastation was amazing. Probably as close to a war-zone as I hope to ever see. It has been more than a month since that area was hit and the clean-up effort is still just starting.

Overall, we had a FANTASTIC vacation and really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with the Michel and Vanderbeck families!

Branson Vacation: Day 4 - Ride the Ducks

2011-07-01T22:47:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, we got up early and took a 10 a.m. "Duck" tour. Ledger quickly figured out how to toot his duck call. :) The tour took us through the College of the Ozarks and into Lake Taneycomo. Ledger especially loved getting to drive the duck on the water. Chris actually took his turn to drive the duck too, in honor of his Grandpa Young who drove a duck in WWII.

We had lunch at the White River Fish Co. and then headed back for a nap. Daddy, Jaime, and Uncle V went into Branson to do some serious shopping while Ledger and I napped. We woke up a little early and went to take advantage of the Hilton's indoor swimming pool. Ledger really liked swimming with Mommy! We did a little shopping at the Landing on our way to dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ. Uncle V bought Ledger a St. Louis Cardinals baseball hat and he thought it made him look super cool.

On Sunday night, Grammie and Papa came over to our hotel room to hang out after Ledger went to sleep so that we could go "out" with the Vanderbecks. We had a really great time playing putt putt at Pirate Cove and racing go carts on the Wild Woody track.

Branson Vacation: Day 3 -- Bumper Boats

2011-07-01T22:40:00.001-05:00

On Saturday, we decided to split up for lunch. Pam, Chris, Jaime, and Ledger went to eat pizza at Mazzios. Chris V, Steve, and I headed to Joe's Crab Shack for AWEsome crab legs. We even donned the personalized bibs that are pretty much mandatory at Joe's.

After lunching separately, we re-grouped on the main strip to take Ledger on the bumper boats. We had so much fun the first time around that we actually went again. This time, we took Grandpa Steve with us too. We took a lot of fun pictures. It was hard to choose just a few for the blog. :)

Ledger really loved the bumper boats and all of the coin-op cars the little mini-park had to offer. He even willingly posed for a few pictures.

Ledger had a good nap after our boat ride, but Pam, Jaime, and I had a little "girl time" at one of Pam's favorite shopping locations in Branson. That evening we ate on the Landing again at the Mexican restaurant called Cantina Laredo. Good food! We finished in enough time to pose for our annual Old Time photo -- this year we dressed as barmaids and cowboys. :) Ledger stole the show though in his adorable Old Time vest and hat. I'll try to post a picture after we get it scanned.

Branson Vacation: Day 2 -- Silver Dollar City

2011-06-29T23:01:00.002-05:00

We woke up bright and early to head to Silver Dollar City. I had done a little bit of prep work before we took Ledger to the park and we headed straight for the kids area -- the "Grand Exposition". They have a really cool kids measuring station where kids are officially measured and given a colored wristband that denotes their height (and Mom's cell phone number just in case) and a list of rides that they can ride.

Unfortunately, we hadn't pre-measured Ledger and we found out that he was actually about an inch and a half short of 36 inches. Whoops. As it turns out... there aren't very many rides for kids under 36 inches. First, we took Ledger on the Flooded Mine ride, where you're given laser guns and slowly float through the ride shooting targets. He thought the animatronic people were a little scary, but he did OK.

Next, we boarded the SDC train -- one of Ledger's very favorite things. He loves a choo-choo. :) This particular train is "robbed" by a couple of backwoods train robbers. It's good fun.

Later, we hit the Half Dollar Hollar, the newest kids area in SDC. Grammie helped Ledger build-a-monkey. Ledger especially liked stomping on the pedal to fill his monkey with fluff. We also rode the Carousel and played in the treehouse.

We did actually find a little time to ride a few adult rides, including the wild river ride with Jaime and Chris and the awesome acceleration coaster called Powder Keg.

By the afternoon, Ledger was just too overstimulated to fall asleep in our stroller at SDC. We made the difficult decision to head back to the hotel and try to get our little guy to nap. He was asleep in his car seat before we even got out of the parking lot. :)

In the evening, we woke Ledger up and hit the Landing for a late dinner. We ate at Texas Land & Cattle -- YUM!! Afterwards, an 80s cover band was playing an open-air concert at the Landing fountain. They were pretty awesome and Ledger absolutely loved dancing to the music!! Everyone around us kept telling us how adorable our little boy is. (As if we didn't already know!)

Branson Vacation 2011: Day 1

2011-06-29T21:55:00.002-05:00

This weekend, we took an awesome trip to Branson, Missouri with Grammie and Papa Michel and Chris and Jaime Vanderbeck. We had a fantastic time!! It'll probably take me a few blogs to tell you all about it.

We left early on Thursday morning and actually headed out of town on time (gasp!). We got to Kansas City by 10:30 a.m. and walked around the Legends shopping area to stretch our legs and take a break from the car. Ledger especially loved playing in the fountain. You can see a video of it here. Uncle Josh joined us for lunch. It was pretty awesome of Josh to drive all the way out there just to hang out with Ledger and eat with us. We tried to eat at the "T Rex" restaurant, but the giant animatronic dinosaurs scared the crap out of Ledger. We ended up leaving after we had already been seated and ordered drinks because he just couldn't handle it. So, we ate at Five Guys and we loved the burgers and fries. YUM! :)

Ledger was pretty terrified by the dinosaurs.

We arrived in Branson and were greeted by Grammie and Grandpa. They reserved us an amazing room at the Hilton on Branson Landing. We got ourselves settled just in time for Jaime and Chris to arrive and for us all to make our way to dinner at Shorty Smalls restaurant. Of course, Ledger had to stop at the playground at the mall on the way to dinner.

Bubble Bath!!!

2011-06-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Last night we had our FIRST bubble bath ever! Ledger really loved playing with the bubbles, but didn't like when the bubbles got in his face and eyes. We got some good pictures though.... so, enjoy.

Two In a Row

2011-06-19T13:20:00.001-05:00

OK, I know it's probably pretty premature to be blogging about this... but Ledger has BIG news! He has peed in the potty TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! The first time, most of the pee went all over mommy (of course). But the second time, he even pointed his pee-pee into the potty!! Way to go son!!

P.S. - This isn't a recent picture He now has a potty seat on the potty with a step for him to climb up there.

Touch a Truck

2011-06-19T10:28:00.000-05:00

Chris took Ledger to the Touch a Truck event this week. Ledger got to see some of his favorite vehicles up close and personal. He was a little nervous at first -- but then he loosened up and just enjoyed himself. He got to push the buttons and make the sirens go in the police cars. He explored the front and back of a fire truck and ambulance. He even got to climb on top of a giant bucket truck! :)

A big city bucket truck

Driving the fire truck.

STAY BACK!

Ledger thinks he needs to put on his seat belt in every car.

The tires are bigger than Ledger is.

Ledger driving the tricked out police Camaro.

Catch up...

2011-06-15T21:20:00.000-05:00

Emily blatantly pointed out that I have not done a very good job blogging about the little changes around here. So let me play a little catch up.

1. Ledger moved into his big boy room with a twin-sized bed. I'd planned to post pictures of his room when it was complete, but we didn't have time to do the decorating we wanted to do. Right now his room is very plain, but he has room to play.

2. We had to cut down two trees in our backyard because they died. I have no idea why they died, but I was worried that the big dead tree would blow into our house with all of the recent winds. I was sad to see the trees go, but relieved of the worry. Our yard looks very naked without them.

3. We had professional pictures taken of Ledger for his 2nd birthday. Tony Guzman took some wonderful pictures -- despite the fact that Ledger was not feeling very cooperative at all. Actually, Tony did a great job of capturing his orneriness. Here is a little sampling of our photo session. For all of the pics, click here.

I will try to do a better job of blogging about what's going on here... the big stuff and the little stuff. :)

Saturday at "The Fest"

2011-06-12T18:34:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning started out bright and early with the whole family participating in the Festival Five two-mile walk. This was the first year that Ledger was old enough to race in the 50-yard dash. We had so much fun!!

Click on the picture to view the video.

After the race, we cleaned up and headed back to the festival. Aunt Jaime and uncle Chris Vanderbeck met us there and took Ledger for a little while. He sure loves his Uncle V. After a big morning, Ledger was exhausted and we had to head home for nap break. Saturday afternoon, we went back to the festival and enjoyed more (!) food, music, and Ledger played on the playground with Jaime and Chris. Ledger played with Grady, Gavin, and Faith through the evening. Daddy and the Vanderbecks went to the evening concert in the bicentennial center, George Clinton and the Parliment Funkadelic. Ledger and Mommy stayed at the park until the last act started and then we bid the river festival adieu until next year.

Daddy & Ledger having festival fun.

Ledger with Oma & Dooda.

Prince Ledger with prince Grady.

Aunt Jaime and Uncle V with Ledger.

Ledger, Gavin, and Grady dance to the music.

Friday at "The Fest"

2011-06-12T18:17:00.002-05:00

That's right, the annual Smoky Hill River Festival was this weekend. The 2011 festival will be remembered for it's incredibly perfect weather. On Friday morning, we showed up to the festival at 8:45 and waited in line for the opening of the gates. Next year I am going to try to get this craziness on video -- but basically imagine the great American land rushes on a smaller scale. We sent our two fastest runners to scout out a good spot under shade tree. The rest of us dragged our wagons, coolers, and blankets as fast as we could travel to stake out a big territory with our folding chairs. This year, we got an incredible spot and we were set up at the park nice and early. When the festival fired up, we headed over to the kids' tent to watch a musical act. They had automatic bubble blowers going and I was sure Ledger would love it. I was wrong -- the noise was too much for him to handle. So we relocated to the kids' craft tent where Ledger thoroughly enjoyed using stamps, stringing beads, and eating the Froot Loops at the edible necklace station.

Faith and Ledger waiting patiently for the Festival to start.

Faith liked the bubbles... Ledger didn't.

Ledger loved the Froot Loop necklace.

After we were settled back into our circle, we started looking for food -- which is the best part of river fest. I had the fried soba noodles, but they were only "okay". Chris had a bodacious burrito and (of course) fried pickles! Ledger played the part of a seagull and "sampled" everyone else's food.

Ledger samples some nachos.

Ledger samples some fried pickles -- he loved 'em, just like his daddy....

... and aunt Emily too.

Click on the picture above to see a video of Ledger (and others) dancing at the Festival.

We cruised through the crafts displays and then we had to head home to take a nap-time break, but we came back for evening festivities. The weather was absolutely perfect -- 72 degrees with a little breeze. There has never been festival with weather this perfect. Ledger had a great time playing with Faith and Isaac. The music was good and the final act for the night was Joe's Pet Project, a band founded by some Salina South alumni -- so I was excited to stay and hear them play. We didn't get to stay through the whole show, since it was waaay past Ledger's bed time, but we still had a great time.

Memorial Day at lake Kanopolis 2011

2011-06-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

We spent this weekend out at the lake with the Hensley and Perkins families. Ledger got to stay up a little late on Friday night and we all went on our first boat ride of the season. Ledger thought it was too windy and ended up dozing off in my arms on the way back to the dock.

On Saturday, the weather was chilly and overcast, so we played games in our sweats and enjoyed some family time. Ledger went for a ride on the paddle boat with Emily, Oma, and Mommy. We also went on a boat ride, but it was too chilly for anyone to get into the water.

Sunday was a gorgeous HOT day. We hit the lake in the morning with no intention of getting into the cold water. But, somehow, Josh was convinced to wake board. After some quality time on the water, we headed back in for lunch. Then Josh sat down for an afternoon head shaving (using the dog clippers of course).

Captain Dooda with First Mate Ledger.

Whoo.... that water is COLD!

And, we have our first wakeboarding air of the season!

Daddy and Ledger soaking up some sun!

That is one big wiener.

He got the buzz.

That afternoon, it got hotter and windier. After Ledger's nap, we went out for another boat ride. We found a protected cove and anchored the boat. Ledger was really enjoying splashing his feet in the water. Daddy and Josh even got in the water so that Ledger could "swim" a little bit. It was so great to be out in the sun and just relaxing!!

How cute is this kid?!

Bathing beauties.

Aunt Emily with Ledger.

Ledger dipping his feet in the water.

Splash, splash, splash.

Manly men!

Mommy and Ledger on a boat ride.

On Sunday it was way too windy to do anything on the water. We stayed on the deck and finished our Pegs and Jokers tournament (the boys won). Ledger played in the sandbox and in the hose -- what a mess! :)

What a great weekend! I can't wait until we are all together again for River Festival!

Let's Dance

2011-05-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

Right now, Ledger loves to sing and dance. He frequently requests that we sing songs -- his favorite is the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse clubhouse...

Look for the Lining

2011-05-11T20:04:00.000-05:00

This has not been a banner week for the Michel family. Starting last Friday, Chris accidentally backed his car into my car. Then our dishwasher started over heating and had to be completely unplugged to avoid a fire hazard. On Monday, a day of record-breaking heat, our air conditioner was declared dead beyond repair and required total replacement. We also got our lawn mower back after four weeks in the shop and the bill was about double what we were originally expecting. And I cried, but comforted myself with the thought that the bad stuff has to be over with. But tonight we found out that the storage shed at the lake was broken into and our wakeboards were stolen.

So instead of focusing on the negative, I find myself looking for the silver lining. And, you know what, it's there. On the hottest day of the spring, we managed to get a reliable air conditioning company to come out and install a new a/c unit within 24 hours. Our riding lawn mower is in working order... finally! We have an amazing family support system that has rallied around us to help us out as we have needed. Sometimes I need to just step back and get a little perspective. Stuff happens, and all I can do is go with it.

Our family is healthy and happy and loved and truly blessed.

First Lake Weekend

2011-05-10T22:21:00.002-05:00

We had a very good first weekend at the lake. The water level is down a bit, but we played around on the paddle boat and Ledger (and the dogs too) loved playing in the sand of the beach. I'm so excited to be heading into summer!

And now you're two...

2011-05-05T06:35:00.001-05:00

Dear Ledger,

Another year has flown by. We have watched you grow from a baby to a little boy... right in front of our eyes. Last summer, we took a family vacation to Colorado and you loved spending time with aunt Jaime and uncle V and Grammie and Grandpa. We toured the Denver Aquarium and the Colorado Springs Zoo and visited Red Rocks and waterfalls. You loved every minute of it!

We also took a Mommy and Daddy vacation and Ledger stayed with Oma and Doodah. Although it was difficult for us to leave, you didn't bat an eye. We spent the rest of the summer spending as much time as possible at the lake and in the pool. You took to the water right away and spent most of your time wearing only a diaper and playing in the hose whenever you had the chance.

As we approached the fall, we loved watching Chiefs football and cheering for our favorite team! We made a trip to Pittsburg to visit the Vanderbecks and watched a Pitt State football game. We went to the KC Renaissance Fair, but you were a little overwhelmed by the costumes and craziness. Your vocabulary really started to blossom and you constantly were learning new tricks to show off.

At Halloween, we went to three different pumpkin patches, but never carved a single pumpkin! You dressed up like a cowardly lion and went trick-or-treating on Santa Fe street. You had your first dum dum and loved it!

As we approached the holidays, you started really developing an ornery side. You started being destructive and testing the limits that Mommy and Daddy would set for you. You really loved Christmas time and helped us decorate. We also went to the Parade of Lights with Jarod, Briana, and Shawn -- which has quickly developed into an annual tradition. You got a huge stack of presents for Christmas, but your favorite gift was a toy vacuum. And you vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed for the remainder of the holiday break.

With the arrival of the new year, you started to display your talent for singing and dancing. You loved to read books with Mommy and Daddy. You had your first real snow experience. You loved eating the snow, but didn't like having cold hands! We went to a few of cousin Ethan's basketball games, where you loved to play with the basketball and run on the court after the game. In February, we converted your crib into a toddler bed. As with everything else, you took it in stride and immediately loved being in a "big boy bed".

As spring approached, we continued to have new adventures. We visited the nearby park when weather permitted and played inside when it didn't. We spent quality time with family and friends. We went to the circus and hunted Easter eggs. You got a new "spiky" haircut.

And then you turned TWO.

You are an amazing boy. You love to sing Twinkle Twinkle and ABCs. You can hear an airplane or a train from miles away. You can spot tractors and trucks as they speed by on the road. You are affectionate and love to give hugs, kisses, and cuddle... when you're in the mood. You are definitely an outside boy and spend as much time in the yard as we can handle. You smile and laugh all the time and love it when you can make Mommy and Daddy laugh too.

We love you so much. Every second we get to spend with you is a blessing in our lives.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy.

Who's Not Two?!

2011-05-04T12:05:00.003-05:00

Ledger turns two tomorrow. But you couldn't convince me that he's not already into the terrible twos. Here's a video of one of his two-year tantrums -- this one because he didn't want to get into the car seat.

Ledger's 2nd Birthday Party

2011-05-01T22:42:00.001-05:00

This week, my little boy will turn 2 years old. We celebrated this weekend with family and friends on Saturday. We chose a Mickey Mouse theme this year. Chris and Uncle Josh decorated the house with balloons. Aunt Emily helped decorate cupcakes. Boom Ma and Boom Pa Powell, Grammie and Grandpa Michel, Oma Hensley, and Jarod, Briana, and Shawn all came over to help us celebrate. Ledger started off a little overwhelmed but eventually he loosened up and had a great time. He got a lot of presents, but his favorite of the day came from Jarod and Briana -- a toy lawnmower. After cake and presents, we took the party into the front yard where Ledger mowed and chased bubbles! The party was a success and we love that we were able to celebrate with our family and close friends!

I would just like to put a quick personal note at the end of this blog. I had a truly amazing weekend from start to finish. BoomMa and BoomPa Powell came early to help us work on the fence project, which I am so happy to report is FINISHED! I had Friday off and got to wake up early to watch the wedding of Prince William and Catherine. And I cried. On Saturday, we got some good garage sale deals. We went out to eat at some of my favorite places -- Carlos O'Kellys and Scheme Pizza. Ledger was all smiles because the weather was great and he got to spend a lot of time outdoors with his family. On Sunday, I got to go see a girlie movie with my mom and sister (which hasn't happened in a long time) while Josh and Chris caught a different movie. And then, after a very relaxing Sunday afternoon, we got the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American Sepecial Forces. It was just a great weekend. Thank you to all of our friends and family who helped make this weekend one to remember.

Easter Eggs!

2011-04-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

We had a great Easter celebration this weekend! This morning, we attended Ledger's first ever Easter Egg hunt at the Salina Country Club (thanks to Judy and Phil Mitchell for inviting us). There were eggs and pieces of candy all over the ground and Ledger loved zeroing in on the dum-dums and hoarding those in his basket. Mommy and Daddy really had to work to encourage him to pick up some eggs. But by the end, he got a basket-full of loot courtesy of the Easter bunny.

In the evening, Grammie and Grandpa Michel planned an egg hunt in their front yard. Again, he needed quite a bit of prodding to gather his eggs and candy into his basket. Luckily for him, he had his whole family there for encouragement. Uncle V carried his Easter basket while Grammie helped point out some of the "hidden" eggs. A few of the special eggs were decorated like sports balls, which prompted Ledger to throw them across the yard -- he was especially thrilled when they broke open and revealed their prize!

Circus, Circus

2011-04-17T16:02:00.000-05:00

This weekend, we took Ledger to the circus. I was a little hesitant about how Ledger would handle the noise and action, but our little champ handled everything very well! We really enjoyed the animals: the performing bears, ponies, dogs, and elephant. We considered paying to get Ledger on an elephant ride, but decided that he was too small to be up on that big ol' creature without a parent or older buddy, so we just watched. :) Of course, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are our photos from the event:

Uncle Bob is a Shriner. It was nice to have a familiar face greet us at the door.

The Michel family takes their seat to prepare for the big show.

Ready for the show!!

Dancing ponies.

The performing bears stole the show by riding bicycles, doing handstands, and skipping.

The high wire act made Mommy very nervous!

Rosie the elephant was the star of the show as far as Ledger was concerned.

And no circus is complete without cotton candy!!

Sticky... but happy.

We Love Spring!

2011-04-11T20:24:00.001-05:00

This weekend we spent some time working in the yard. I am most proud of our new mailbox rock garden that we put in place to fix the area that was torn up last year to replace our water meter. Hopefully, we will soon plant something other than rocks in this area. We also set all of the posts for the fence repair we are hoping to complete soon. We'll nail in the stringers this week. I'm very happy with how things are coming along. As you other mommies know, it can be really difficult to get any work done while you're trying to keep track of a very busy toddler!

All of the new fence posts are set.

Our new mailbox rock garden.

Ledger absolutely LOVES being outside. And the weather has been so beautiful, I really can't keep him in. :)

Doodah's truck!!

Girls and Little Boys: 2011

2011-04-09T21:49:00.001-05:00

Last year, I got together with my best friend Ann for a girls day. Of course, we both have little boys, so we had to include them too! This year, we did it again! We were blessed with a beautiful warm (albeit windy) day so we could play outside. Ann's oldest son, Brody, is almost 3 and her youngest is 8 months old. Brody and Ledger had a great time playing together. Ledger got to enjoy all of the benefits of country life, including feeding the horses, riding a (kid size) tractor, and walking to the pond to throw in some rocks. I did manage to take a few pictures, although getting pictures of two busy boys can be a real challenge!

It's a long trip to Manhattan... but Ledger kept himself entertained by reading.

Kids Gym

2011-04-07T20:48:00.000-05:00

This week, Ledger had his first "Tiny Tots" gymnastics class. I was out of town for the night, so Daddy was in charge of taking Ledger to his first gymnastics class. Grammie and Grandpa went with him and were able to snap some photos of the event. Ledger was definitely the youngest kid there and Chris was the only Daddy on the gym floor. Some of the activities were a little advanced for his age group (organized stretching, seriously?!) but he had a great time going down the slide, jumping on the trampoline, and throwing the bounce-around balls. Mostly, he was busy RUNNING! So maybe he didn't do the activities exactly as directed, but he had a great time and wore himself out! Check out the pictures...

Wrestlemania

2011-04-03T22:47:00.000-05:00

Ledger takes a press slam from Daddy.

Tonight we hosted our annual Wrestlemania get together. Ledger had an incredible time playing with Jarod, Shawn, and Damon. The boys wrestled, played trucks, and hung out before the show started. When bed time came, Ledger went right to sleep after being worn out by all of the excitement. Wrestlemania had a couple of good matches and it ended with the return of "The Rock" -- one of my all-time favorite wrestlers!

Gone with the Goal Post

2011-04-02T21:19:00.000-05:00

When we moved into this house, it had a basketball goal out front. But the gaol was broken, so we took it down.... which left a big ugly goal post next to our driveway. For the last three years, this eye sore has driven me crazy. I was pretty sure I was going to accidentally back into it one day. Twice, we have tried to dig it up... but it was a bigger project than expected and we gave up.

But today was my day! The weather was beautiful and the ground was softened from the recent rain. It took me about an hour, but my digging was successful!! Unfortunately, this thing is too big and heavy for us to actually move. So for now, it's just laying in our side yard. But, it's GONE!!

We enjoyed getting outside. Ledger was a big helper with his shovel, as you can see below. We also found an earthworm, which Ledger determined was "icky". :)

Caribbean Cruise: Day 5-7

2011-03-31T16:13:00.000-05:00

Day 5: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
By day 5, we both woke up feeling much better. My double motion sickness patches were working wonders and Chris' eye felt better, although it still looked pretty red. We were excited to get out to Grand Cayman where we had planned a Stingray and Sea Turtle encounter. We met our tour group and took a short bus ride to the marina to catch our boat. We had a 30 minute boat ride out to a shallow sand bar that is called "Stingray City" where hundreds of wild stingrays gather to be fed by the tourists. We had a AWESOME time and loved interacting with these neat creatures. We took photos of us kissing the stingrays (we were told that it brings 7 years of good luck!) and having them draped over our backs (which the guides called giving a back massage). Our guide was a little crazy and kept licking the stingray tails and barbs. After about an hour with the rays, we took the boat back to the marina. Just as we were pulling back into the marina, it started to rain. We got back on the bus and took another short ride to the Grand Cayman Turtle Farm. They raise green sea turtles for release, education, and market. They let us hold some teensy weensy 4 month old sea turtles and then some larger 8 month old sea turtles. But the best part was the huge salt water snorkel tank where we got to snorkel with some adult sea turtles. Since we missed out on snorkeling with the sea turtles in Hawaii, we were really excited to get to swim alongside these awesome guys. After our excursion, we had about an hour and a half to spend in Georgetown before we needed to be back on the boat. Chris was really excited to hit Margaritaville, so we ate our lunch there and Chris had a Landshark beer. We had just enough time to buy our souvenir magnet before we got in line to get back on board the boat. That evening was supposed to be another formal night, but we were too exhausted from the excursion to get ourselves dressed up for dinner. So we stayed casual and just ate at the buffet. The evening show that night was Lady Hellevi, the magician. She was an amazing acrobat with so-so "magic" involving a lot of box tricks. The overall show was very entertaining.

Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico
We actually woke up before our boat docked in Cozumel. So, while we were eating breakfast, we got to watch our captain skillfully bring a 110,000 ton ship into a narrow parking space. We actually docked right next to a twin ship, the Carnival Valor. Our excursion didn't meet until 11 a.m. so we had about an hour to explore the port shopping in Cozumel. The port shopping is pretty awesome with a beautiful, clean shopping center right at the end of the dock. We met our excursion group and they quickly got us fitted with life jackets and safety harnesses and loaded onto our Aqua Twister power boats. Then we took off into the ocean, jumping waves at 50-60 miles per hour. Near the end of our trip, the captain found a smooth lagoon area where he would get up to a high speed and then turn sharply, swamping our boat in water -- SO much fun. We couldn't stop smiling! Our destination was a private island called Isla Passion, where we were looking forward to spending the afternoon on a pristine white sand beach with unlimited access to a Mexican buffet and open bar! The island was certainly beautiful. It's actually the island where those Corona beer commercials are filmed. The food was OK (not exactly the Mexican food we were hoping for) and Chris did take advantage of the bar to have a couple of beers and margaritas.... but the real draw was the peaceful sandy beach. We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed just getting to relax. We rode the Twister boats back to Cozumel with only about 45 minutes before we needed to be back on the boat. Chris and I decided to do some speed shopping for souvenirs and were pleasantly surprised to find that most of the stores had marked items down to 50% off for the end of the shopping day. We were really happy to go home with this very cool fish sculpture at a reasonable price and a sombrero for Ledger! We both wished we'd have had more time to explore Cozumel. Back on the boat, we had buffet dinner followed by the musical review called "Point and Click". It was entertaining, but Chris found the "mouse" character creepy and I couldn't take my eyes off of the jerry curl man mullet on the lead singer. We decided to see the new comedian's "adult" show, which was surprisingly good. I enjoyed my first on-board drink, a virgin "Miami Vice" and Chris had a margarita. We even hit the casino and played the Roulette table for a while. We lost $12 but got about an hour's worth of entertainment out of it! :) I am not a very good gambler, so I just stood by Chris' shoulder while he placed the bets.

Day 7: Fun Day at Sea
We really didn't know what to do with ourselves on our last day on the ship. We lounged around, laid out (with LOTS of sunscreen this time), played Bingo (but didn't win the $10,000 grand prize), paid our bills, ate frozen yogurt... Yeah, that's about it. The evening show was kinda like live karoke where some of our shipmates got on stage and did "impressions" of famous singers. I was amazed at how great a couple of them were. We spent the evening packing our bags and went to bed a little early so that we could get up and try to disembark early.

Day 8: Disembarkation
We woke up at 6 a.m. and went to eat breakfast and start the disembarkation process. We dragged all of our bags down to the lounge and waited to be called. They started disembarking passengers at 7:30 a.m. and we were off the ship, through customs, back at our car, and driving away by 8:20 a.m. Not too shabby! We drove 750 miles back home and made it to Lindsborg by 7:30 p.m. -- early enough to pick up Ledger before bed time! We sure did miss that little bugger! He had a great time with Oma and Dooda though! We were surprised to find it snowing when we got home -- considering we were both sunburned and wearing shorts and t-shirts, it was quite a culture shock!!

Our Caribbean Cruise: Day 1-4

2011-03-29T22:10:00.001-05:00

For spring break, Chris and I drove 750 miles to Galveston, Texas and took a cruise through the Caribbean on the Carnival Conquest. I had prepared to write big, long, daily posts about everything. Instead, I'm going to give brief summaries and lots of pictures. :)

Day 1: Embarkation
Our ship was delayed almost 2 hours getting into port due to fog. Since we arrived early to try to beat the lines, we ended up sitting in a holding pen for a couple of hours before we were able to get on the ship. Once on board, we hit the buffet and found ourselves a nice seat to people watch and listen to the live musicians on the Lido deck. After the standard "what to do in an emergency" spiel, we left the port around 5:00 and headed out to sea. We ate our first dinner in the Renoir dining room and then explored the ship. Afterwards we went to the "Welcome Aboard" song and dance show. After the show, we found lounge chairs on the Lido deck and watched the move "The Last Airbender" on the big movie screen outdoors. At the end of the movie, Chris had a late-night burger for snack and I had a banana. We discovered that there were certain areas of the boat that I really couldn't be in because the vibrations really increased my motion sickness. When we finally headed to bed, I crashed immediately but Chris had some difficulty sleeping.

Day 2: Fun Day at Sea
I actually woke up and hit the ship's gym. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill, which was a challenge -- probably a combination of missing my last few workouts and motion sickness. After showering, we headed to the breakfast buffet. Chris ate well, but I was too nauseous to eat much more than fruit. Then we found a pair of lounge chairs... one in the shade for Chris and one in the sun for me... where we just relaxed for a few hours. There was a strong STRONG wind across the deck which helped keep me cool. Unfortunately, it kept me so cool that I didn't realize how burned I was getting. After lunch, we went back to the stateroom for a nice long nap. :) That evening was one of the ship's formal nights, so we got dressed up for dinner in the dining room. Unfortunately, neither Chris or I are adventurous enough to try any of the exotic foods -- we had prime rib and chicken. I still couldn't eat. We went to see the comedian, Mutzie. He was OK, but not great. The cruise entertainers did a song and dance show called "Voila Paris" which involved some crazy sets and costumes. The show was pretty good, but there was a lot of rockin and rollin' on the boat, so I was having trouble enjoying the show because I was concentrating on not puking. That evening, we went to enjoy the outdoor movie theater again and watched Iron Man 2. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make it all the way through the movie and finally had to go back to the room to sleep away my motion sickness.

Day 3: Fun Day at Sea
Chris woke up with increased respiratory symptoms and a very red left eye. He wasn't feeling great and I was feeling super sunburned, so we both wanted to just lay low for the day. I finally bit the bullet and decided to add a second transdermal motion sickness patch to try to get a grip on my nausea. When Chris still had a red eye at the end of the day, we went to the ship's medical center to get some over-the-counter eye drops. It was an early evening for us.

Day 4: Montego Bay, Jamaica
Chris woke up with super pink eye. We made the decision to see the doctor as soon as the medical center opened. So while most of our shipmates were getting off the ship to venture into Jamaica, we were sitting in the doctor's waiting room. Chris was officially diagnosed with pink eye and placed on ophthalmic antibiotics. Since we hadn't planned an excursion on Jamaica, we only ventured onto land to check out the shops in the Mo Bay cruise terminal. For the rest of the day, we took advantage of having an empty boat at our disposal. We did a video tour of the boat, enjoyed some live music, and relaxed in peace.

Snow Boy!

2011-03-14T20:15:00.000-05:00

As promised, Ledger and I went out and played in the snow this morning. It's a good thing we did because there is not much snow left this evening. We had a great time. Ledger shoveled lots of snow... mostly right into his mouth. He loves to eat the "ice". Mommy snapped a ton of pictures, so enjoy...

And this is what happened when I tricked him into coming into the garage and shutting the door. He was not ready to come inside just yet, and I got a full force tantrum in the garage...

... and it continued into the living room once we got inside.

How do you tell a 2-year-old that "all good things must come to an end"?

That SNOW Joke

2011-03-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

(Did you understand my headline... That's no joke... Get it??)

I posted pictures taken yesterday where Ledger and I went to play at the park because the weather was so beautiful... 60 degrees and sunny. Today, the temperatures dropped into the 30s and it rained, sleeted, and then began to snow. Big, beautiful, wet, sticky snowflakes. It's coming down fast and hard outside... we have accumulated 3-4 inches in just 3-4 hours. Chris and I enjoyed the snow by sitting in our hot tub and watching the flakes fall. Unfortunately, the snow didn't really start until after Ledger's bed time, but if there is still snow on the ground in the morning, we are going to get out there and enjoy the (hopefully) last snow of the season! :) And, in case you're wondering, it is supposed to get into the 70s on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. That's what Kansas springs are all about.

What Have We Been Up To?

2011-03-12T20:10:00.000-06:00

Well, the last two weeks have been busy, but not eventful... which is why I haven't blogged lately.

BoomPa and BoomMa visited last weekend. Ledger LOVED having his grandparents here to spoil him. We really appreciated having BoomPa here to guide us through some much-needed home maintenance projects. I was an oaf and didn't take any pictures of all the good times we had, except for one on my camera phone...

Chris and I have been spending a lot of time planning our spring break vacation and soaking in our hot tub. :) The hot tub has been GREAT to ease my tense muscles as I work through the Couch-to-5K program. I am just finishing Week 6 of 9 and planning to run in the Eisenhower Marathon 5K after I complete the program.

But enough about us. We know that you're actually wanting to know what Ledger has been up to. Well, he's growing. He's bigger and faster and smarter all the time. He is putting together lots of 2 word sentences and even a few 3 word sentences. He is learning please and thank you and recently has taken to singing some of his favorite songs, including Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the ABCs. We have had a few warm-ish days here, and OUTSIDE is his very favorite place to be. Today we took advantage of the fair weather to walk to the park. I took a few pictures on my cell phone...

Hot Tub Surprise!!

2011-02-27T19:41:00.000-06:00

Last week, I worked hard to surprise Chris with a hot tub. It was no easy feat. Jarod, Shawn, and I had the afternoon off and were able to go with me to Manhattan. Jarod had a friend that we borrowed a trailer from. I borrowed a truck from Buddy. We borrowed heavy-duty tie-downs from Jarod's brother, Jamie. There were just so many people that helped make our surprise a success and so many things that could have gone wrong -- but it all came together beautifully! And most importantly, Chris was truly surprised and pleased.

Over the last week, we have had to jump a few hurdles to get the hot tub into working order, but today Chris was able to take his first DIP in our hot tub!! WooHoo!!

Ledger is mad that he wasn't allowed to get in the hot tub with Daddy.