The way to my kids' hearts......

Now we know.... They might be thrilled by a letter in the mail, even more excited to open a present. But the way to leave them speechless with joy? Send them a tin of popcorn and candy!! Thanks Aunt D!! We love you!

Rooms of their own!

My kids have their own rooms, and couldn't be happier. They don't even miss each other! Kristen was quick to set rules for HER room, with visiting hours and all. The rooms aren't quite "done", but they have their beds! I had to post a picture of Ashton's new bed - so cool! I think Chris was a little jealous :)

And a big girl room for my little... I mean BIG, girl. She picked out her accessories herself. (The lighting in the pic is terrible, I just realized. Her bed is a beautiful chocolate brown and pink.I'll have to post a better one tomorrow.) She wants to give up the doll house, but I wouldn't let her :) I'm still waiting for her to actually play with it!

More toddler fun....

And here's my big second-grader... posing for the camera of course!

Window watchers

Seriously, have you ever seen three one-year-olds so still AND so quiet?! Thank you Garbage truck!

Birthday and Tea Parties

Kristen had a wonderful birthday. We found a great place at the last minute - CoCo Key Water Resort in Kansas City. Kristen brought a friend along, and they had a blast eating at the T-Rex cafe and playing in the indoor water park. We'll definately go back!

Thanks for the pictures Steph!

One of Kristen's presents was a little china tea set, which Ashton was quite willing to join her in playing with. Too cute - I had to take a picture! Poor Ashton - he'll regret that someday!

Outside Fun!

Happy 4th Birthday Ashton!

A little late, but who has time for blogging?! I'll try to do better. Ashton thanks everyone for all the birthday cards!

We have peaches?!

It's been an exciting spring in our yard as we've noted all the beautiful flowers, trees, and plants that we have. We were excited to see that we have cherry, peach, and pear trees! Last night we were in the backyard and realized that our peach tree held a couple thousand ripe peaches. Kristen and I spent the evening picking and gathering them. Kristen has big plans to package them marketably and sell them. Poor Ashton missed out on the fun, being sick in bed with a feverish stomach flu. He is still, as I type this, sitting on my lap burning up. He's mad that he's not in the pictures of the peaches. He's not so much whining because he's sick, as much as he's whining about being sick. "(groan) whyyyy did I get siiiiiick?", "I told you I don't like eating"

Here's a couple of pics of our sidewalk chalking, pre-sickness day.

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris' birthday came and went without so much as a blog acknowledgement. Don't worry - we didn't forget! Happy 28th Birthday Chris!!

Yes, he was present. Maybe I should snap a picture of the birthday person next time!!

Summer fun, with stocking hats

Swimming!

So Cute!!

Manhattan tornado

The tornado that made its way through Manhattan just missed our house, thankfully. It is truly heartbreaking how many families have lost their homes and belongings. The damage is devastating. We were very lucky to have our home intact, being less than a mile from the path of the tornado. Unfortunately, in addition to the homes and businesses, a hundred or so storage sheds were destroyed - ours being one of them. We spent several hours searching through the area, into the creek bed, but were only able to locate a few small items. No sign of the kids' beds, or any of the 50 or so rubbermaid storage containers that were inside. I was really overcome by the sight of Ashton's baby sleeper hanging from a tree. I'm sure we've lost things we haven't even thought of yet. We are especially discouraged since the majority of my mother's furniture and cherished belongings had been temporarily stored in that shed while she was living with us. It is very much as though her house were destroyed.

These are all pictures that I took of the Amherst storage sheds. They show the area where our storage shed used to be, and what was left in its place.

Google map of tornado path through Manhattan:

http://www.ci.manhattan.ks.us/DocumentView.asp?DID=4547

This photograph was in one of the news stories I came across. I believe it said it is the actual tornado that went through Manhattan, but I can't find the story to verify again. I'll update if I find it.

Waters True Value - leveled:

Please keep the residents of Manhattan in your prayers

For every mother of young children

I've been following Catherine Newman, stalkingly, through her weekly posts for three years now and I just had to share. What a wonderful writer - she captures the thoughts of every mother out there, humorously, week after week. I began reading when she posted on BabyCenter, then followed her to Wondertime. If you have time, I highly recommend starting at the beginning, but at least check out today!

http://wondertime.go.com/parent-to-parent/blogs/catherine-newman-blog/

and the old ones:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_quick-index-to-bringing-up-ben-birdy_72519.bc