"bath"room

Ok, one of the major issues we had with our house in Cincinnati was the lack of even a half bath on the main floor.
This shortage was especially painful during both of my pregnancies when I had to pee all the time.
Our current place in KC has a small half bath off the kitchen area. Awesome, right? Well, as you can see - between the dog bowls, the hockey equipment, the potty seat, and the two stools there isn't much room for an average sized human to use it for its intended purpose. Oh well, it works in a pinch.
Can you tell we are feeling a little overcrowded in our temporary accomodations?
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First Day of Her New School

Here is a video we took dropping Katherine off for her first day at the new school she is attending here in Kansas City. This is the second week she has attended and she really seems to love it! She comes home with lots to share every day, new songs to sing, new things to talk about (last week they did a unit on transportation), and new library books to read. We are happy to have found such a great place!

Lunch

Here is a video of Katherine helping Jack eat lunch last week. So cute. I apologize for the shaky camera work, next time I'll put it on a tripod!

Baking cookies

We had to drop James off at the rental car place early this morning, so it has been a long day.
We needed an activity to occupy ourselves, especially after a post office fiasco. Baking cookies was the perfect distraction!
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Moving day #1

Well, we are on our way! So far the weather is cooperating. No snow, just cold.
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Almost walking!

He is so mobile it is scary!
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Happy New Year

We wish you a very happy new year. The new year comes with a variety of changes for us, one of which is a move. In a little over two weeks we will be moving to Kansas City to allow James to take on a new and exciting role within the company he works for.

Moving means many things, not the least of which is leaving behind many close friends and family. So, in an effort to allow those close to us in spirit, but not in proximity to see the kids grow and change, we got a little video camera for Christmas.

Here is a video of Katherine and Grandma baking cookies at Christmas...

Jack is getting so big!

Poor little guy has his first ear infection. Jack went in for his 6 month check-up last week. Doc said he looks great...other than the virus he was apparently sporting (fever, rash, no big deal really). So, we couldn't get his shots at that visit and had to schedule a visit for this week hoping he would be over the virus. Well, he is over the virus (no more fever, etc.), but has an ear infection. No wonder he hasn't been sleeping!

Despite being a little cranky and a little clingy, he has really been super smiley and active. He has started pulling himself up to standing and is almost really crawling. He does this cute army-crawl kind of thing, but doesn't lift his body off the floor in order to get places. So, gone are the fleeting days where I can set him down somewhere and expect him to be there for more than a few seconds!

He is chewing on absolutely EVERYTHING so I hope he actually cuts some teeth soon. We will all sleep a little better that way, I think!

He LOVES his big sister. She is quite a ham and provides no shortage of opportunities for him to smile, laugh, and grab. Now that he is a little more mobile, she is learning how quickly he will grab her stuff. She is definitely not a fan of that!

Pink Princess Party

The definition of insanity should include a short video clip of a birthday party with four three-year-old girls throwing elbows, pushing, taking toys, and crying for no ascertainable reason. Overall it was great to hang out with our friends, but peaceful it was not. Three couples that we are close to also have 3-year-old daughters. So, we decided to start with the theory that you should allow your child to invite one friend per year of existence. Since Katherine was turning three we invited three friends.

Her only real request was a pink birthday. James had an out-of-town speaking engagement that night so we decided to do breakfast. Thus, the Pink Princess Pancake Party was born. Of course we are NOT morning people so the official start time was 10am. We had pink pancakes, pink/red fruit (watermelon, raspberries, strawberries with bananas and apples thrown in for good measure), princess goodies for each girl to take home, and four very cute princesses.

I don't know if it was a full moon, if it was just the wrong time of day, or if we didn't feed them enough, but it was like watching mini cage fighters in dresses (just kidding). Really though, they were whining, crying, pushing, hitting, wrenching toys away from one another...it was such chaos you just had to laugh.

In the end we were all well-fed, the parents got to socialize, the girls had fun overall, and the little brothers got some socialization in too. Not bad for a 3-year-old party!

Some recent pics...