Happy Birthday Audrey!!

Our Sweet niece Audrey celebrated her 3rd birthday about a week and a 1/2 ago. We went with Jessica and Katrina to Columbia for the day to attend her birthday party. The girls had a blast! Kayley and Audrey seemed to pick up from where they left off in playing with each other. They were pretty good buddies in Columbia and it's neat to see that friendship still carry over even though they live apart from each other now. They are almost exactly 2 months apart and it was so fun to see them grow and learn together at the same rate in Columbia. Cousins are such a special thing! I remember growing up and being so close to some of my cousins and I hear tons of stories of Nick being close to some of his. That friendship bond is so special and strong...almost as strong as sibling bonds. I love that we have since been blessed to live by cousins even though we've moved as we live close to the Carles and the Walkers now. We miss the Columbia Felkers so much but are glad that they are only 1 1/2 hours away still. We love you so much Audrey and hope you had a special and happy birthday! Thanks for having such a fun party! Here are some pics of when Audrey was born...October 21st, 2005.

Olympics...Here We Come!

A couple of weeks ago, Kayley and Cora had a Parents as Teachers activity where we went to a Gym that does Gymnastic lessons. They opened it up for a hour or so for the children to play on the gymnastic equipment. I was way excited for Kayley to go to this event...don't get any ideas...I'm not trying to get her to be a cheerleader (those who know me, know my stance on this!), but I do like the sport Gymnastics and think that it is a good sport to do as I did gymnastics for a couple of years when I was younger. Kayley did not want to go at first, she cried getting into the car and on the way there. I think she was just tired as we were in a rush to get out the door that morning. I told her we were going to go and at least let Cora play and if she wanted to join in, she could. We got there and same attitude, until our Parents as Teachers Teacher convinced Kayley to participate. Boy was I glad and so was Kayley...she had a blast and did not want to leave! It took her a little courage to finally do the big trampoline, but she did do it and loved it too! We are looking forward to going again this next month!

Chuck 'e Cheese

Last week we were able to make an almost complete family outing with Nick's side. Shannon, Randy, and Quentin were all in town at the same time for various reasons and we all decided to celebrate by going to Chuck 'e Cheese for lunch. It was Kayley and Cora's first time and they both loved it! They both loved watching the puppets play music and they both loved the games. And even though they knew there were games awaiting them, they both ate very well before we played games.

Cora's favorite part were the tokens..she carried the little cup around they give you with tokens and she only had one token, but loved to carry it around with her. She didn't really want to play many games, she just wanted to hold the cup with the one token. She was pretty easy to please! Kayley loved the games. Her favorite was riding the cars. I guess she has realized that they are more fun when they work. (When we go to the mall at the play place, Nick and I just sort of shake the cars and pretend they are working instead of putting money in b/c we are too cheap to pay money to get them running since they are so expensive for 20 seconds of riding.) So, Kayley was in 7th heaven that she could ride all of them that she wanted.

Then came the time to redeem the tickets. We had to share them between 3 kiddos with Kayley, Ashlyn, and Cora...so we tried to make it to where they all got the same toys and there would be no arguing. Well, that worked until Kayley changed her mind and wanted a sucker. She turned in one prize for 2 suckers...she went and shared with Ashlyn very willingly...then Cora had to have a sucker, so she did the same and turned in one of her prizes, then problem solved and it was a great trip! We will look forward to trips there again!

Oh...and by the way, look for coupons in the newspaper (sunday's) and also you can go to http://www.dealigg.com/ and print off some more coupons. We found that lunchtime had the best coupon options, plus it's not as packed! Good luck!

Pigtail Debut!!

We have enough hair now for pigtails! I get so frustrated with her hair now looking all messy all the time going everywhere. So the other day I thought her hair might be long enough to put up in pigtails and yes they were! I just melted everytime I looked at her when they were up. Kayley's comment was, "Mommy she looks like Baby Katina!" (Baby Katrina...my sister Jessica's youngest.) Katrina wears her hair in pigtails a lot and I guess maybe she thinks they look alike too. Anyway, enjoy the piggies!! :)

Oh...and she does walk now...she's just crawling after me in these pictures b/c she was wanting to see her pictures on the camera right after I took them. I kept having to back up and take another one. Kids these days will not know anything but the latest technology, which means they will only think that digital cameras exist and nothing else, etc, etc...

My Growing Girls

These are just a couple of random pics of the girls recently and how they are growing up so fast!

Kayley as you can see is still way into princesses as she dresses up as one almost everyday! I have to set rules on when she wears them, otherwise she'd have them on 24/7. So, we don't get to wear them in public so they don't get ruined or to bed for the same reason. In fact this week we've been lucky to have Grandpa here to help Daddy with his truck and they have loved playing with him...I'll have to snap some pics of them and post them later! But, last night Papa asked Kayley which princess is her absolute favorite if she could only pick one which it would be and she replied with "Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella." So, she loves so much she can't think of life without them. We have dress up clothes for all three except Ariel, so I'm waiting for after halloween and hopefully get a costume of it half price after the holiday! She is such a good big sister as you can see in the pic that she loves to help Cora with anything.

Cora is something else and getting so big. She loves to do anything her big sister is doing. She loves to play with babies as you can see in this pic. She's already learned how to juggle two kids at once...a true mother at heart at only the mere age of 14 1/2 months. She is starting to say words now and trying to imitate us with what we say. She can now say, mama, dada, please, princess, shoes, uh-oh, bye-bye, hi and newly learned papa. Of course, you have to prompt her on a few of these words, but she'll repeat them back to you fairly clearly. People can even understand her over the phone, which is another thing she loves to do now too. Oh and Cora got herself into Preston's walker without any help and was found just sitting there eating her snacks as happy as can be. It was cute!

It's hard to believe how big my girls are getting and how quickly. I just try to savor the moments now as much as I can b/c I know it will continue to go by faster and faster!

Biscuits n' Gravy Recipe

Here's a post of my biscuits n' gravy recipe...I had a couple of inquiries on how to make it....it's super easy! All it is is a box of the biscuits n' gravy mix from Sam's club...it's a red, white, and blue box...can't remember the brand. Follow those directions and add cooked pork flavored breakfast sausage and a couple of squares of chicken bouillon. Then cook whatever kind of biscuits you like to eat and enjoy. It is the best however with Highland Orange Juice...something we can't get up here in KC area. Maybe someday KC will come to their senses!! Hope you enjoy!

I'm SO glad last week is OVER

Well, you guessed it if you read Michelle's blog at all...we got the flu bug as well in our house this last week from Ashlyn...don't worry, we still love you Ashlyn!! It was a very long and boring, but exciting week. Boring b/c we didn't go anywhere for a whole week and exciting b/c it was always a guess as to who was to be sick next!

Without giving you too many disgusting details...Cora was the first that got hit. On Tuesday night about 11pm she started throwing up and then 4 times after that within the following hour. Then it was every hour on the hour from about midnight until 5am...which is when I started to throw up, but luckily only once more again at 6:30ish. But, the day wasn't that much better as we didn't feel very good all day. Luckily neither Cora nor I threw up the rest of the day. Then on Thursday as Cora and I were finally feeling up to par on our appetites and strength, Kayley starts throwing up. She came to me in the night and said her tummy hurt and she needed a drink, then she said her tummy hurt and she needed to go potty..so I thought here it comes but nothing. So she went to bed and I put the bucket by her bed and told her to try and throw up in the bucket if she needed to and then come get me. Well, she came and got me at about 1:30am and said "Mommy, I already throwed up." So, there we were with throw up all in her hair and on her bed. So I made a pallet next to our bed and she went to sleep while I went to work on the laundry and get her bed cleaned up. Not 5 minutes after I hit the pillow I heard someone in the bathroom and we were at it again, only luckily this time in the toilet. Then that day she woke up and only had one more incident. However throughout the day you wouldn't think she was too sick and she played like normal and wanted to eat like normal. I had to really limit what and how much she ate so we wouldn't have a relapse.

And to top it all off...you're probably wondering where Nick is in this picture. Well, of all weeks for us to get sick, he had to work as their were TWO people on vacation that week (which has NOT ever happened the 2 years he's worked there)...then on top of that, he was also on call once he did get home for the day...and his on call involves actually going in to the hospital for about an hour at a time for a callback. So, our biggest feat was to try and spare Nick from getting sick. Well, he was lucky and did not happen to get sick although there were a couple of times where he felt like he was. But, he was still good at helping me when he was home, even so much that one day he went to Walmart for me to get "sick" supplies instead of taking a shower before work...isn't he so sweet!?! So, needless to say, we are better now and feeling a lot better and glad to not be sick anymore.

These are pictures from when the girls were sick, but I couldn't tell that they looked sick at all. I guess they are always gracefully sick.

Our House Is a Nice House...

Ok...you're probably wondering why this is the title. This last week Kayley has been constantly asking me to go to Grandma's house (Grandma Arlaine is Grandma and Grandma Jani is Grandma Jani to Kayley...for those that were wondering which Grandma we are talking about)...anyway, I kept telling her that Grandma's house is a long way from here. Our conversation went a little like this:

Kayley: "you can drive fast Mommy."
Me: "But, it takes a lot of money to fill the van up with money."
Kayley: "But, you have money's to fill up the van."
Me: "We can't go without Daddy and he is at work."
Kayley: "We can go when he gets back from work."

Well after a couple of quick responses from her, I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with this. So I asked her why she liked going to Grandma's so much. She said, "She has a nice house and when we go there, we go to sleep and then when we get up, she makes us stuff." She then kept thinking about what it was called that she makes us. I asked her if she was talking about Grandma's biscuits n' gravy and she said yes. I told her I had a secret and told her I knew how to make Grandma's biscuits n' gravy and that maybe later this week when Daddy was home from work for a day we would make them for breakfast in the morning. She said she liked that idea and asked me how many days until then. I then asked her if she would like our house if I made biscuits n' gravy and she said that yes, our house would be a nice house if I made them. Well, since Conference was this weekend, we got to sleep in and have a nice breakfast on Sunday morning and yes, I made biscuits n' gravy and yes, our house is a nice house now!! Yeah!! :)

Oh and on a side note...we are so excited that there is going to be a temple in our area soon!! For those of you who may not know...this last weekend during our General Conference it was announced that there was going to be a temple built in the greater Kansas City Area!! Yeah!!! :)

Happy Birthday Aunt Tootie!

We just wanted to wish a special Happy Birthday to our Great Aunt Tootie and the girls' Great-Great Aunt Tootie (Tootie is her nickname and Ruby is her real name...but she goes by Tootie to us!) Her birthday was yesterday and she turned 90 years old! I remember when I was younger and I was so privileged to stay the week with her while her daughter Carrie (pictured above) was gone out of town. At first I was a bit worried that it wouldn't be fun, I believe I was about 12 and I didn't know if we would have stuff to talk about or anything like that. Boy was I mistaken! I had a blast and I became so close to her. I remember she would make me breakfast in the morning before school and then have a snack ready for me when I came home from school and we would talk about my day. I don't even think we turned on the tv but maybe once while I was there. We just sat and talked about anything and everything! I had the best time and loved every minute of it. I was so glad that I got to spend that special time with her! We love her lots and lots and hope she had a great birthday yesterday! We did talk to her yesterday and she was enjoying her day and loving life and the great memories she has had! She is an amazing woman! We love you Aunt Tootie! :)

Happy Birthday Grandma Jani!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Just thought I'd share the cool card that we were able to make for my Mom for her birthday today! Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you!