Visiting Kristi's Family

On Saturday afternoon we were able to visit Kevin's 2nd cousin Kristi and her family in Kingston.

Of course, all of the kids had a great time and the adults enjoyed visiting as well!  Andrew and Maddie were even cuter than the last time we saw them, if that's possible!  I just love seeing how kids change over the course of a few months.  Hopefully we will be able to see them again next month!  Thanks again for having us over, Kristi!

The Building of the Patio

Kevin, Kerriann and I spent this past weekend in NY with Kevin's parents (aka Grammy and Papa).  Kerriann was so excited to see her grandparents, and Kevin was really looking forward to building a stone patio off of the back of their house.  His brother, Ryan, also helped as soon as he finished up at work that afternoon.  They did all they could by hand, before Kevin decided they should rent a bobcat (see pictures below) to help them level the area and move the piles of rocks from one side of the yard to the other.  Though the patio wasn't completely finished when we left, they made a lot of progress for a day and a half of work.

Before...

Plotting things out...

Kerriann overseeing construction from the window...

Looking good, Daddy...

Ryan returns from work and the Bobcat arrives to help level the ground and spread the gravel layer...

After... coming soon!  When we left they did have most of the rocks down but I forgot to take a picture... oops!  I'll have to have them send me a picture of the finished product or I'll take one next time we're in town.


EDIT:  Here's a couple of cell phone pictures that Kevin snapped before we left... almost there!

Kerriann is 22 months!

I can't believe that in less than two months Kerriann will be TWO!  It just doesn't seem possible.  And I know the days between now and August 3rd are just going to keep flying by.  

At 22 months Kerriann can

-Feed herself with a spoon

-Feed herself with a fork

-Put on and take off shoes by herself (velcro) 

Her favorite books are

-Itsy Bitsy Spider

-Goodnight Moon

-Ballet Kitty

Her favorite television shows are

-Max and Ruby

-Sesame Street

-Dora the Explorer

-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Her favorite foods are

-Cheese

-Turkey burgers

-Animals crackers

-Blueberries

-Strawberries

Her favorite drinks are

-milk

-apple juice

-orange juice

She goes to bed between 8 and 9pm and wakes up between 6:30 and 7am.  On good days she is taking a nap sometime around 3pm for about an hour.  She can stay awake for a full 6 hour car ride.

She knows our house and says "We're home!" as we pull in.  She can also do this for her grandparent's houses.

Here are a few phrases that she has said or uses on a regular basis:

-"Go outside"

-"Good morning, (insert name here), how did you sleep?"

-"What is that noise?"

-"Everybody's sleeping"

-"Where are we going?"

-"Be careful, (insert name here)"

-"Night night, (insert name here), see you in the morning"

-"Please"

-"Thank you, (insert name here)"

-There are so many more as you'll find by just spending a couple of minutes with her!  Strangers are always amazed at how vocal she is for her age (especially because she is so tiny).

Songs she can sing all or part of

-ABCs

-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

-Happy Birthday song

-Max and Ruby theme song

-Elmo's Song

She can count to ten, though not always on demand

Some of her favorite activities are

-Having her toenails painted

-Feeding and taking care of her stuffed animals

-Stacking blocks

-Attending classes at My Gym

-Going to the park and taking walks

-Dancing

-Visiting family members

Her favorite stuffed animals are

-Minnie Mouse

-Donald Duck

-Elmo

-Dora

-Monkey

-Moo Cow

-Puppy

We have not yet started potty training because of our travel schedule.  I'm confident that she's close to being ready, we just have to pick a time that we're going to be home for a straight week and go for it!

We are tentatively planning a 2nd birthday party for Kerriann on Saturday, August 6, somewhere close to our condo.  If anyone knows of a huge scheduling conflict, please let me know!

PS stay tuned for a few more posts about our weekend with Grammy and Papa!

Wordy Wednesday

No "Wordless Wednesday" today because again I just have too much to get caught up on!  Instead I'm going to call this "Wordy Wednesday" haha!

First, I wanted to share these photos from when my sister was in town a few weeks ago.  The first one is of Kerriann as they were coloring.  The others are from playing on our patio.  Kerriann loves to give her toys rides on Kevin's bike.  She was having so much fun putting Carebear on and then making him "fall down."

Beautiful Evening

I wrote this post last Friday morning but for some reason it didn't post!

Yesterday was such a beautiful and busy day for us.  Our AC finally had the house nice and cool after a long couple of days in 90-100 degree heat without it.  I am so thankful for AC now and will never take it for granted again!  We had record breaking highs in the Baltimore area and it was just miserable sitting in the condo with KA, waiting for the repairman to fix it, and then waiting for it to cool off.

Anyways, we started off our morning with a trip to My Gym.  It's been a few weeks since our last class there and I could tell that Kerriann was really happy to be back.  She had a great time and even seemed to warm up more to the kids.  Lately she has been acting scared anytime another kid would come near her, but by the end of class she was giving out hugs voluntarily!  It was so cute!  I hope that phase is behind us.

After My Gym we made a trip to the mall to continue my sunglasses hunt.  My eyes have really been bothering me lately and with all the driving I do I really needed to get a polarized pair.  I am so happy to report that I finally found some, and for a great price... yay!  The difference between the new ones and my old ones is like night and day.  Hopefully this will help with some of the issues I've been having while driving lately.

After the mall, we met Kevin and two of his co-workers at Chick Fil A for lunch.  Kerriann loves visiting "moo cow" and seeing the balloons, so this is a favorite spot for both of us.  I love that the employees are so helpful to anyone who has kids!  It was really nice to finally meet some of Kevin's co-workers, too.

We spent the rest of our afternoon doing laundry, grocery shopping, and preparing for another weekend away.  When Kevin came home from work we all had dinner together and then walked to the park.  It was such a beautiful evening, too nice to waste sitting inside!  Here are some photos from our trip.

Memorial Day 2011

We spent the majority of our Memorial Day in Poolesville with Kevin's Aunt Julie's family and his Aunt Patty.  We had a great time eating lots of delicious food, chatting, and playing outside.  And I took about a million photos, so prepare for photo overload.  I was pretty excited to have my camera back after a long 10 days without it while Kevin was in Colorado.  I'm going to try to convince him to write a post about his trip and share some pictures, so stay tuned for that!

It was extremely hot on Memorial Day, so we waited for the evening to go outside.  At 7pm it was still in the lower 90's (this is MD people!) which is not normal for the end of May!  But we decided it was better to brave the heat than waste this beautiful day.

Here's "Jeshie" aka Jessie, one of Kerriann's favorite animals...

Kerriann had a great time pushing Minnie Mouse on the swing, and she even wanted to sit on the swing for a minute herself!

Meanwhile, Kevin, Julie, Meggie, David and Marisa started warming up for the softball game...

Don't mind my overly patriotic child... I get really into holidays if you haven't already noticed...

After the ballers were sufficiently warmed up, we decided to move our gathering to Stevens Park.  Kerriann had a blast playing on the playground while everyone else played on the softball field.

And this is when the evening took a turn for the messy.  She planted herself in this jungle gym thing where I couldn't get to her, and went to town in the dirt.  She was a MESS by the time I could reach her. Dirt everywhere!

I was finally able to get some backup and at least move her to the dugout, where she continued to play in the dirt.  Right after this she ate a mouthful of tiny rocks.  I had a slight freakout and then was reminded that this is completely normal for kids.  I'm going to have to keep reminding myself of that... I'm not a big fan of dirt!

After everyone was done, we decided it was time to get Kerriann home for a bath.  We stripped her down right after these last few pictures that really showcase how dirty even her face was.

Look, I even made it into a picture!

And here she is, nice and clean again after her bath!

I hope everyone else had a happy and relaxing Memorial Day.  

Thank you again to all of the brave men and women who we honor on this special day!

Another Week Gone By?

Has it really been almost a week since my last post?  How did that happen?

First off I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mother!  

Her birthday was yesterday, June 1, and I really hope she had a wonderful day.  Kerriann and I celebrated with her on Saturday (our last day in WV).  We went shopping in Charleston and had a nice dinner at a steakhouse that evening.  I'm so glad that we were able to celebrate with her, even if it was a little early.

On Saturday we were also able to meet up with Kaycee while we were at the mall.  It was so good to see her, as always. Kerriann had a great time putting on a dancing show for her and the rest of the mall while we chatted.  We were talking about how spoiled we are getting because we've seen each other so much over the past month.  I hope this doesn't change!  I've been so lucky to make so many trips home this spring.

On Sunday morning Kerriann and I had lunch with my dad and brother, Shannon, before leaving to return to Maryland.  We decided it would make more sense to drive to Patty's and stay there for the night, because we wanted to get together with the family on Monday to celebrate Memorial Day.  We were really excited to see Patty for the first time since her return to the US from Hong Kong.  Kevin flew in from CO and joined us at Patty's that evening.  It was so nice to have us all under one roof again!

We started our Memorial Day off with a visit to Great Falls (that was the name, right?) near Patty's house.  It was SO HOT but it felt great to get outside and get some exercise.  The falls were seriously raging from all of the storms lately.  It was so awesome to see, but a little scary thinking about what would happen if you fell in!

We spent the rest of the afternoon celebrating Memorial Day at Julie's house... but that's for another post!