Matt, Kara, and the kids...

Summertime in March!

2010-03-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all the folks in the west who are dealing with snow... It was 86 humid degrees here in Jeff City. That spells P-O-O-L where I'm from! Pool temperature was not ideal, and it took a little while for the kids to get over the initial shock of the cold water.

Corrinne got really in to flicking cold water at Ty, which he was not really a fan of...

So, he returned the favor by chasing her around with the brush we used to scrub out the pool, which she was not a fan of. Ahhhh... siblings. : )

She got the brush back and turned it on me, of course.

It was fun to just sit back and watch my cute kids be cute kids. I love days like this.

Luck of the Irish

2010-03-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day, for me, has never really been a big deal. Maybe wear a little green, just for tradition sake, but that's as far as it has gone for me....Until today.

Thanks to my son's creative little preschool teacher, Tyler took hold of St. Patrick's Day with the kind of enthusiasm only Tyler can. His teacher told him that leprechauns were real, and they got a letter from "Lucky" the leprechaun yesterday telling them that he had hid real gold on the playground. After that, Ty was hooked. So, today I decided to play along too.

Ty and I made this hat together, but just the hat was not enough for my very enthusiastic little leprechaun. He also requested we make a pot of gold and, of course a matching belt.

Apparently, no leprechaun outfit is complete without a matching belt covered in shamrocks.

Once Tyler got a look at himself in the mirror, he was in little boy leprechaun heaven. "I look so CUTE, Mom!" And I decided we'd better share some of that cuteness with others. So we drove to the grocery store to get some candy for his pot of gold. Tyler followed people in the grocery store around to make sure they saw his costume. "Mom, that lady smiled at me. She thinks I look so CUTE!" So, we took the cute boy and his extremely unwilling, uncooperative sister to Daddy's office to hand out candy to the staff. I figured it would be poor form to give it to the patients who were there getting their teeth worked on. He was, of course, a hit, and hammed it up the entired 5 minutes we were there.

But here's what made it all worth it. As were were getting shoes on to go out the door to Matt's office, Ty looks as me with a big leprechaun grin..."You are the best Mom ever!" My work is done. : ) Little sister got a hat too, but don't let that adorable face fool you. She refused to help me make the hat, ran away screaming when I tried to get her to wear it, and only gave in and actually put it on her head after the promise of a handful of jelly beans for her sacrifice. And, though it is the middle of the day when this picture was taken, Corrinne had once again changed back in to her princess pajamas for the third time, and I decided that changing her back in to her green shirt just for this one picture was sooo not worth the effort. I'm sure it would have required another handful of jellybeans as well. Pick your battles.

On today's menu (though not pictured here...I didn't get the camera out till the end of the day):

Breakfast:

Cinnamon rolls w/ green icing

Green Yogurt

Green Milk

Lunch:

Green grilled cheese sandwiches (found out by experimenting, you can put green food coloring in the butter before you butter the bread...turns the bread green as it grills...really).

Pickles

Dinner:

Green eggs

Green ham

Green hashbrowns

More green milk

I used up almost an entire container of green food coloring today. It will be interesting to see how things turn out tomorrow. Overshare, I know. But hey! It's my blog. : )

Cheese eating grin

2010-02-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when I let my two year old out of my sight for five minutes.

Yes, that was a brand new block of cheese, opened yesterday. She had just eaten lunch. Apparently not enough.

I need a lock on my fridge.

What I love about fall...

2009-10-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have decided this fall that I am obsessed with going to pumpkin patches. This is the third time I have been to one in the past two weeks and, well, I have enjoyed each time. In fact yesterday I went to one (forgot my camera, of course) that took me an entire hour to get to. Didn't mind the drive, though, there was a pumpkin patch at the end. Here are a few pictures to show you why I like them so much. It always has more to do with the look on the faces of my two favorite little people.

Tyler was determined to be the wagon puller "all by myself!", despite the very muddy, very deeply rutted ground. Tough job for a four-year old, but for a stubborn four-year old, it was the only way. He also enjoyed getting to clip his own pumpking from the vine this year. Little scary for Mom. No big deal for such a big kid. Cute kid. But then again, he's mine so I'm a bit partial. : ) Cute couple.

I love this little girl.

Found my pumpkin!

Uncle Brett came to stay for the weekend and was lucky enough to join us on our little family outing. He fit right in. Family is great.

My little animals, checking out other little animals. : )

Corrinne was hugging and kissing this dog. So cute.
Playing in the corn box. A lot less messy than our sand box at home. Kind of wishing we had invested in a couple bushels of corn instead of a couple hundred pounds of sand. Live and learn.

Happy Fall!

Snow...????

2009-10-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

No, it's not a camera trick, that is a yard full of snow. About five inches, I'm guessing. This weekend, we took a car trip to Omaha to visit family (which is now a lovely 6 hour drive, instead of just 3...blah). The plan was to spend the day at a pumpkin patch, one of my favorite activities this time of year. I guess mother nature had other plans. The kids still had a great time sledding, and playing in the snow. Corrinne must have been really hungry because all she wanted to do was eat the snow.

Even without the pumpkins, we're glad we made the trip. : )

Rainy day FUN!

2009-10-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

So I was standing in my kitchen trying to think of something to do with the kids since it has been raining and raining and raining... I looked out my window and what did I see?? Our back patio had magically transformed in to a pool. Sweet! Puddle time!

Wishing I had a camera that took better action shots. Just try to imagine it without the blur.

Rare moment when they are both looking at the camera and standing next to each other.

The water was deep enough in some spots to cover over Tyler's shoes.

She saw her brother do this ONE time and since she fears nothing... tally ho! Yes, she landed on her feet.

I think this is the cutest picture. This is Rinne's reaction to the sound of thunder rumbling...
followed by this... Guess she didn't like the loud noise. What a doll. : )

Both kids got a nice warm bath when we were done. Ty was ready to go in long before Corrinne, however, and the following video was captured. The sound is a bit muffled by the rain. She is saying... "No! I like it!"

It was a great time!

We LOVE moving!...not really.

2009-10-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a short and sweet post, so my sisters can stop harassing me about my out of date blog.

1. May 2009--Matt graduated from dental school!!!! (We're so proud)

2. June 2009--We moved to Columbia for our first job. (Didn't work out)

3. September 2009--We moved to Jefferson City for job #2. (So far, so good!)

4. Kara figured out she enjoys running. (Ran a 1/2 marathon Sept 26th)

And the kids... They've been real troopers. They've been to World's of Fun, had visits from all the grandparents, got a new sandbox...

All is well.

More of Maine

2009-03-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

So, we are back in KC now but I wanted to post pictures we took from our last day in Maine.

We went to see one of the lighthouses in Portland and checked out the Atlantic Ocean. Besides being beautiful, it was REALLY windy and much colder than inland Maine where we had been staying previously. But it was Matt's first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean, so that was exciting. I thought it was so awesome to think that we were standing at the edge of the continent. What a beautiful country this is.

We also stopped at the world headquarters of L.L. Bean in Freeport Maine. We took a picture next to the giant boot outside the builidng. Do any of you remember these shoes growing up. We called them "duck shoes" when I was a kid. Well, they still make them and apparently people still wear them in Maine.

I also took a picture of this house to give you an idea of what the houses look like in Maine. Many of them were very beautiful and pretty much all of them had this same colonial look to them and were built over a hundred years ago. We looked and looked for the typical suburban area that we are so used to seeing in the Midwest, but never found it in Auburn. In fact, people looked at us funny when we asked them, are there any "newer" houses around?

For those wanting to know about the job...we are still mulling over the decision. The dental practice was very nice and very busy, but we are a little uneasy about some of the contract details. So... no decision to report today. I am glad we made the trip, though. If you have never been to Maine, I would recommend a visit...Maybe wait till summer, though. : )

When in Maine...

2009-02-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in a hotel room in Auburn, Maine waiting for Matt to call me from the dental practice across the street where he is interviewing for a job. So, I decided to post a few of the pictures we have gathered in the last 24 hours. When we arrived yesterday we took a drive up the coast of Maine through the town of Freeport, Maine (home of LL Bean). Cute little town. The nice lady at the information center gave us directions to Orr Island, where we found the Atlantic Ocean and a restaurant where they pluck the lobster right out of the ocean, cook it, and plop it on your plate. Talk about fresh seafood. Matt was brave enough to try it. I couldn't get past the fact that it still had eyes, so I could see the look on the lobster's face when it realized it was being cooked. I had the fried shrimp. Also fresh, and wonderful. After dinner, we drove inland to Auburn where earlier this week they had the biggest snow storm I have ever seen. There was a dump truck and a bulldozer clearing the snow from the parking lot outside our hotel all night. There was so much snow, they literally filled several dump trucks with it. My question was, where the heck were they taking all that snow?? We drove around and tried to get the lay of the land here in town. Still can't get over the 10 foot high piles of snow in front of all the buildings. Well, that's all the stuff I have pictures of for now. Hope to get one of a lighthouse before we take off tomorrow. Maine is beautiful, even with all the snow. I can't imagine how pretty it is when it is green.

Valentine's Party

2009-02-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

I admit, it is a couple of weeks past valentine's, but I was looking through my pictures and wanted to share them. The kids were so cute. We gave them their Valentine's gifts and candy in the morning. They were both jumping around on our bed, eating candy, and being kids. Then Matt decided to make our bedroom furniture in to an obstacle course that the kids could climb, starting at the bed and leading to the top of his tall dresser. They loved it. Yes, even Corrinne.

She is a natural climber, and this time no one was telling her no.

What more could a couple of kids want?
After about an hour of jumping, candy, and climbing Tyler declared, "Mommy! We are having a Valentine's party!" I had to agree. It may have just been fun in our pajamas, but to Tyler it was a party. Simple pleasures.

Matt and I got to go to a dance for Valentine's the night before. We got all dressed up, and even had our picture taken to mark the occasion. I, personally, went on two shopping trips to a total of nine different stores looking for a dress to wear. No luck. My friend Jenny came through for me once again, letting me shop in her closet where I found a great dress option. Gotta love good friends. It was nice getting out without the little ones and enjoying some time together. We ate way too much food and had a nice time talking with a bunch of our friends at the dance. For Valentine's this year, Matt went conventional and bought me running shoes instead of flowers and chocolate. Now, some wives may take offense to such a gesture, but it was the best gift I could have received because it showed me that my husband pays attention to what I really want and knew I would be overjoyed to replace my 3 year old shoes with a new pair. What a guy! : )

One more cute picture of Rinne. Sometimes we catch her making the sweetest faces. This is the blissful look of a one year old who just got to eat all the M&M's she could handle. Fun to be a kid.

Let the job hunt...Begin!

2009-02-05T12:26:00.001-08:00

Hopefully a couple months from now, the title of my blog will be, "The hunt is over". For now, we are in the midst of picking the perfect job. That starts with our very first out of state trip for a dental job interview...Duhn, duhn, daaa...(That was my suspense music if you were wondering.) So, Matt and I are headed to Auburn, Maine.. Yes, Maine... for a job interview. We decided today to just do it. The tickets were cheap, the opportunity has been made to sound pretty nice, and the town has a Wal-Mart, so I think I can survive. : ) We will be leaving at the end of the month for a quick weekend trip to see if it shapes up to be everything the recruiter says it is. We are still a little skeptical since the recruiter does have some financial motives for getting Matt out there. But, I figured what the heck. It will be a little adventure, and if nothing else it will teach us something we didn't already know about the dental job hunting process. So, if you know anything about Auburn/Lewiston, Maine (pictured above) I'd love to hear from you. If not, wish us luck and we'll let you know how things go in a few weeks after the trip is over.

A Day in the Life

2009-01-31T17:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a month since I posted something new on this blog. I have been spending my time posting things on a weight loss blog with my mom and sisters. Yay for dieting!

So, I was talking to another Mom today who asked me, 'What do you and your kids do all day?'. It's a valid question, and though it may not be terribly interesting to most people, it makes for cute pictures for the grandparents. And let's face it, that's why I do this blog. So, without further explanation, here is my post of what my kids and I do all day stuck in the house.

After we drop Ty off at school and make a stop at the YMCA for and hour, Rinne likes to come home, kick back and watch some quality TV while Mom gets a shower. Backyardigans is her current favorite right now. Sometimes the box is more interesting than the movie, and she usually ends up sitting in front of the tv reading a book. I think she just likes not have to fight Ty for her favorite chair.

After Ty comes home, we have some lunch and then it's time to get the wiggles out before Rinne takes a nap. It's the best I can come up with when I can't take the kids outside because it's 10 degrees. You've seen the live action living room dancing. So, these still photos are nothing in comparison, but the kids do love to dance together. I love the faces Corrinne pulls. The dancing fun typically ends when Ty decides that wrestling his sister to the ground would be more fun. She's going to be a tough little girl.

Ok...so this post is getting a little long, and I actually don't have any pictures of what happens during Corrinne's nap, because it's usually me trying to clean or prep for dinner, or playing Geo Town with Ty or... It's different everyday. But, I do have a video of my "favorite" time of day... Between the hours of 3 and 6, when Daddy's still at school and Mommy wants to lock herself in the bathroom. This is a pretty much our life in the raw, so only watch the video if you promise not to be judgemental. : )

Here are my cute kids eating dinner. I really do like this stage where they are starting to become friends and do things together.

AND...for the grand finale! This is REALLY the best time of day. Rinne and Ty love their bath, and we recently started adding bubbles for a little more fun. These will make great black mail pictures someday.

Hope you enjoyed your little journey through our day. I'll try for a shorter post next time. : )

Dancing queen

2009-01-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

My new favorite thing that Corrinne does right now is her dancing. I finally caught it on video today. She does this any time music is playing, especially if it is a song with a strong beat. Today, I turned on one of our local radio stations that does an hour called the "Lunch Break Bootie Shake". This video was the result. The music that really got her moving was a new Beyonce song. Ty got in to it too. The video is about a minute long and took me over 30 minutes to download, so I hope you get as good of a laugh out of it as I did.

Christmas morning magic

2008-12-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

This was the first year Matt and I as parents could really play up Santa Claus, and I have to say it really puts a lot of magic in Christmas when your kiddo can't hardly go to sleep because he is so excited. We put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and Tyler reminded us all night long, "Santa does not come while you are awake". Sage advice that he found tough to follow when it was actually time to hit the sack. Christmas morning was kind of crazy. I tried to keep with my family's tradition of sorting out the presents and then opening them one at a time in age order. It wasn't until we had gone back and forth two or three times between Tyler and Corrinne that Matt brought it to my attention that we were not really sticking to the plan since neither of US had opened a single present yet. I guess I was just too excited seeing my kids have fun. Once Matt and I attempted to jump in to the present unwrapping, the kids lost interest in what we were doing and the unwrapping quickly became a little chaotic. Can't expect two kids under four to really be patient enough to take turns that many times, right? My favorite present for Corrinne was this little rocking chair, which she quickly learned how to turn around backwards in, rock it really hard, and fall flat on her back. She only did that once. She also enjoyed her little cabbage patch from great Grandma Campbell. She gave it "loves" (hugs). Tyler loved all of his presents. Mean parents that we are, Matt and I did not bring out Tyler's Santa present until he had unwrapped everything else. He had asked at least two shopping mall Santas for a rescue helicopter. Once he had all of presents opened, we asked him if he had gotten everything he wanted for Christmas. He tried to say yes, and then said, "Well, I asked Santa for a rescue helicopter. He must not have heard me." After a response like that it would have just been cruel to tease him any longer. The reaction we got when we brought out that one last present hidden behind the tree with Tyler's name on it was priceless.

The other fun thing we did was tie a string to the tree that led both Tyler and Corrinne downstairs to a toy playhouse from their Grandma Nelson. Both Ty and Corrinne were very excited about this new addition to their playroom. All in all, there were lots of smiles from both parents and kids this Christmas. We feel very blessed.

Family is Fun

2008-12-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

May I just say, I have the best in-laws a girl could ask for, especially when it comes to how great they are with my kiddos. Matt's parents came in to town for one day on their way up to visit the Omaha extension of our family. They packed more fun in to that one day with my kids than I am able to do in a week. Tyler was in attention heaven. Grandma and Grandpa listened to all of his jokes, watched all of his tricks, read him books, played with cars...what more could a little boy ask for? Ty, Matt, and the grandparents took a little trip to Independence to see the visitor's center, while sick little Rinne and I stayed home. Now those are good grandparents. Wish we lived closer and could see them more often.

Christmas Firsts

2008-12-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

It's amazing to me how fast the month of December is going. This one is full of firsts for this family. We decided to buy a REAL tree this year...They are cheaper than the fake ones, but after having it up for a couple of days I can't wait to buy a fake one at the after Christmas sales for next year. The day we brought it home was very exciting. Tyler wanted to have colorful lights on the tree. He practiced wrapping the lights around Daddy first.

We pulled out all the ornaments which Tyler loved putting on the tree, while Corrinne took them off again. Once we got them all on Corrinne pulled the whole tree on top of herself leaving her a little stunned and all the ornaments on the floor. Yeah!

This was Daddy trying to secure the tree a little better, with a little help from the kids.

Corrinne was also quite fascinated with the little nativity set. She loved setting them up in little rows.

Another first was Tyler's first school Christmas program. (He's in the middle). Oh, he looks all sweet and innocent there, doesn't he? That was the beginning of the program. Too bad I don't have any pictures of the end of the program where my son and the cute little kid next to him were having a friendly little shoving match. That was a tense moment for me as a parent, wondering what exactly do you do when your kid is sharing shoves with another kid in the center of the stage in a chapel during the Christmas program? The other picture I don't have was the lovely little stare down Tyler gave the little boy after they were done with the pushing. The singing was adorable, though.

Finally, Corrinne and Ty got to play outside in the snow today. This was Corrinne's first time getting to play in the snow. It took 10 minutes to get her dressed in all that pink fluff, but the picture of her was worth it. She looked like a little pink marshmallow. Tyler loved the snow, and probably would have played in it all day if he didn't have to stop to eat. Kids are fun.

Gas obsession

2008-11-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

So...remember this time last year when gas stations were putting up funny things like this instead of the actual price of gas, because it was pretty much too painful to look at?

I told my mother, who is currently paying ridiculous money for gas living overseas (sorry mom), that when gas gets below $1.50 a gallon here I was going to take a picture. Well, I don't have the picture today. It seems lately everytime I pass a gas station i am behind the wheel, not in the passenger seat and it is hard to take a photo and drive at the same time. No really, it's hard. But I just HAD to tell everyone that gas prices here are INSANELY CHEAP right now. And by that I mean $1.35/gallon!!!

I seriously filled up my tank the other day for about $25.00, and that's when it was 1.59/gallon which I thought was a steal. I haven't been able to fill up for that price since my first year in college.

I don't know why this is so amazing to me. Maybe it was all those reporter stories I did back in 2004 when gas prices were going up and I had to interview people at the pump. "So...what do you think about the gas prices? (please say something intelligent that I can use)"

Seriously, I think I did that story WAY too many times. It must have had an impact.

Who needs a trainer?

2008-11-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

Matt has been working out with a trainer these past couple of months and has really bulked up the muscle mass. This morning he was working out at home and Tyler was very interested in what he was doing. So, Matt was showing him some of the exercises he has done with his trainer like lunges and sit-ups. Tyler jumped right in, "Look at me, I can do lunges too!" He had a very serious look on his face the whole time, like he was working really hard. He needed a little help with the situps. I think the best was when they were doing push-ups. Ty did a few on his own (real pushups, no kidding), and then he took a break and made his Dad work a little harder. Ty is always telling me he wants to grow up and be big and strong like his Daddy.

Avid Reader

2008-11-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Now, I love my little girl but I really have to keep an eye on her especially when she is being very quiet. When this happens I usually find her making toilet soup, dumping her brother's cereal bowl in the middle of the living room floor, getting in the pantry and emptying an entire box of Cheerios in the hall...you get the picture. There is one exception to this, however. Just about once a day, I will find her off on her own reading. Who doesn't love to just spend some quiet time alone with a good book, right? Corrinne certainly does and today I had the camera handy to finally document it. She can entertain herself for quite a while (by one year old standards) just flipping through the pages of books. She really likes our book of nursery rhymes and Curious George...shocking, I know. Of course, I will sit down and read books with her too, which she also loves. I just recently added some more books to the basket in her room and as you can see thinks she hit the jackpot.

Still trying to get in to this

2008-11-14T20:50:00.001-08:00

Me and my cute little girl playing house at Sears. Ty can be seen trying to climb on top of the house. Shocker! So I was reading a bunch of different people's blogs tonight and really enjoying catching up on other people's happenings. It inspired me to add something to my blog since I haven't done anything with it since I created it this summer, and actually I don't think i ever emailed anyone the link because I didn't want the pressure of knowing i would have to update it. I am a wimp, I know. My brother Bret brought that to my attention tonight while i was whining about not being able to find the time to update a blog, so why should i start one. ---Enough whining--

This is Corrinne doing what she does best..."The Look". You have to see the picture up close to really appreciate it. This is the face she pulls when she either knows she has done something wrong, or doesn't want to do what I want her to. She thinks she's being so tough and stubborn. It's a signature look, and it makes me laugh every time.

Tyler loves to dress up and play pretend right now. His favorite character is Handy Manny (a cartoon fix-it guy on the disney channel), which is funny because we don't have cable and he has only ever seen one Handy Manny show. Nonetheless he likes to dress up as Handy Manny and always wants me to find something for him to fix. He spends a lot of time explaining things with his hands and telling Matt and i what to do when he is dressed as Handy Manny. The picture says it all. He has already broken half of his plastic tool, but still keeps hammering away on anything that I don't specifically prohibit. Consequently, Corrinne thinks that tools and fixing things are pretty awesome as well. Her favorite movie is the one Handy Manny video that we own. She specifically requests it multiple times a day by pointing her chubby little finger at the dvd player and saying moo-be maa-ny (movie, Handy Manny). Poor girl doesn't stand a chance at being a girly girl with a brother who is obsessed with being mr. fix-it all day. Though, since Halloween, Ty has broadened his make believe costume wardrobe to now include a cowboy and a firefighter. It's fun.