Things I Want to Remember...

* Abigail came down while I was watching the end of Judge Judy, and she corrected the grammar of one of the litigants. Quite funny!

* Kenzie, at 17 months, was upset I wouldn't let her play in my make-up. She started crying and covering her mouth with her hands. I said, "Oh, you need to go show daddy that drama." She stopped what she was doing, went into the living room to see dad and started wailing in the same manner. Who said kids don't understand or can't control?

* I've always been impressed by my daughter's recall of vocabulary that she may have heard one or two times. It gets quite interesting, however, when she says things like, "I'm having a bachelor party in my bed." Hmmm...

* Kenzie most often wakes asking for Abby or saying "Daddy - work." With her little face expressions and baby accent, it's my favorite thing she says right now.

* Kenzie's vocabulary is growing exponentially. Her own version of wods include: dada, mama, Abby, Grandma, house, mouse, work, car, bike, ball, frog, dog, cat, more, thank you, hi, bye, book, berries, cheese, juice, water, teeth, hat, dress, boots, shoes, poo poo, hot, yes, no, off, on, open, yogurt, baby, necklace, snack, night night, and those are the regulars that I can remember right now. Of course, there words probably only a mother can understand. She also is willing to try all words presented to her.

* Kenzie is very enthusiastic about talking on the phone. If I'm on the phone, she comes up with her hand on her ear and says (loudly), "Hi." She then gets on, says hi and a few other mumbles and then shouts, "Bye!"

* We drove up to Babies R' Us and Abigail pointed to the sign and said, "That says B-A-B (sounding it out)...Baby." I don't know if she was really reading it or knew we were going to the baby store, but I was impressed. She also looked at Kenzie's tag in her clothes and said, "This is size 18 (Kenzie's in 18 months)." Again, I don't know if this is a fluke or she knew it. She hasn't replicated it since.

Tricia's Birthday

It was Tricia's birthday, and we decided to have a girls night out at Masa on 6th Avenue. After fabulous Fresh Mex, we went to coffee and dessert at the Mandalay Cafe. After a great evening and a lot of laughter, we think we would like to do this for every girl birthday.

My Bride

My little girl is all girl. Ever since Julie's wedding, she has wanted to play bride.

Zoo Cookie Play Date

We had planned a play date to the zoo, but fall has seemed to come early and the weather did not permit. The solution? Make zoo sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. Despite a love of sprinkles (as demonstrated here by Abigail), it was a fun play date.

The New House

You can't make a big purchase like a bunk bed without making a house out of the boxes.Let's see if I get inspired to paint it and make curtains. Hmmm....

Bunk Bed

A new baby coming soon means that the girls are going to need to share a room...thus, a bunk bed. The girls "helped" daddy assemble the new excitement. Abby is super excited to have her sister join her in her room. We're delaying that process a bit though because I'm just not convinced Kenzie is ready.

Lake Chelan 2010

Lake Chelan was fun this year. We are lucky enough to be able to stay for free at a gorgeous house overlooking the lake. We stayed with the Popps and Harrisons (Jeremy's aunts, uncles and cousins). The house is big, beautiful and has a pool. We wore the kids out during the day and then were able to put them down for naps and get our own vacation. Jeremy went golfing one day with all the guys. My parents were in Chelan at the same time, and they treated us to a delicious BBQ at a winery while the Durrs had volunteered to take our kids. We spent most mornings and evenings at the camp site with all of the rest of the family there. Jeremy and Abigail camped in the tent down at the campsite one of the evenings. Another evening we had everyone up to the house for dinner and S'Mores. It was cold outside, and much to my dismay, we did the S'Mores over the gas burners inside rather than a perfectly good fire outside. Although a couple days were windy, we had gorgeous weather.

Winthrop

While in Chelan we took a day trip to Winthrop with Jeremy's parents. The highlight was the ice cream and candy shop. We also watched a glass blower for a while, which was really cool. It's a fun little town to visit.

Our Friends

Just a cute pictures of Abigail and the Wilkening kiddos after they went swimming.

Our sweet Kenzie is 17 months old. She is quite the spirited one and can be somewhat intense at times. She has developed more and more of her personality and can be quite goofy at times. She has shown a lot of love to her sister when Abby is upset, patting her and loving on her if she is crying. It shows her sensitive side. She seems to be "the grass is always greener kid." If she's on the ground, she wants to be in your arms. Once she gets to your arms, she's reaching toward the next person. Then, she wants down again. She's beginning to communicate more and more, which has been really helpful. The more she communicates the more content she seems. She is fairly good at playing by herself or with her sister. She hasn't been sick a lot, which is a blessing. Figuring things out is a skill of hers, and she is a climber. I think she is a smart little cookie and understands most of our verbal instructions. Sleeping is no problem for this kid. She can confirm when she is tired saying "Nigh Nigh," and we put her right to bed. She seemed to get all of her teeth in one fell swoop, which I think contributed to some of her neediness. I think she's more content after this last round of five teeth coming in all at the same time. Kenzie loves books, figuring out how toys/things work, her sister, catching balls, singing and being verbal, playing in the lake. She eats well but is a picky, picky eater - not putting a lot of things in her mouth. She has her favorite foods that we stick to while offering her other things. We love this kid and are excited to see her coming into her own.

Nate's Birthday Celebration

The same day as Medina Days we celebrated Nate's birthday. The kids got some time in the sprinkler, and then we surprised Nate with his gift. He had asked for a banjo, so Shannon collected the funds and everyone chipped in for this fun gift. He has the money and will shop for one on his own. However, Shannon thought it would be fun to have him think the cake was his banjo. So, I went to work on the cake. I wanted to construct it to scale, so every fret, string, knob, and hardware is exactly how it should be. It was a fun cake to design and build.

Medina Days

My cousin, Tyler's son, Conner, and Abigail were attached to one another during the parade.

Medina Days is an old annual tradition for my family. It started off in the morning with the parade, which I missed because a cop wouldn't let me get anywhere near with my car. However, all the kids were dressed up and ready to walk to streets of Medina in their costumes. Abigail was, obviously, Snow White. The next stop was the Medina Park where there were big bouncy houses and slides, food, face painting, balloon animals and dancing. The party wouldn't be complete without Elena shaking her thing on the dance floor. The real deal will never be captured completely on camera film, but there's a full thread on our photo gallery at http://durr.smugmug.com/ under "Events" and "Medina Days." The day ended at the Medina Beach with more dancing to a steel drum band, food and just hanging out.

Cousins

We were able to get all the cousins together for a picnic and play date at our old stomping grounds, Kelsey Creek Farm. The kids enjoyed the playground, the picnic and of course, seeing all the animals. It was a little be of nostalgia for me too.

Quiet

It used to be that a quiet around the house meant that all the toilet paper was being unrolled, all mommy's pajamas were being pulled out of a drawer, things were being colored on that should not or my lipstick was covering a child's body. I can't tell you how glorious it felt to come out from blow drying my hair to that eerie quiet but find this...Abigail reading quietly in the living room to the dog and lamb that she has all tucked in and ready for bed. She's such a sweet little thing.

Socks on her hands

This is not a great picture - on so many levels. However, I wanted to document Abigail with socks on her hands. She's been doing this for a while, but I never knew why. She is very into accessorizing (goggles, snow hats, gloves, boots, jewelry - whatever), so I just assumed it was another weird addition to an outfit. However, in this costume, she was Belle. I figured out and confirmed with her that the socks were the princess gloves she sees all the "other princesses" wear.

Misha's Visit

My good college friend, Misha, was in town for a bit, and we were able to get together for dinner at Johnny's on Lake Union.