Aanika's first BIG haircut

She did it! She finally decided to cut her hair and it was so worth it! We all love it but can't believe how much older she looks.

First grade, here I come!

Dad's Spring 2009 vacation

Well, the first week of Dad's visit was great (got to golf) but the second one was rain, rain, and more rain! We decided to take a trip down to Branson to visit with the in-laws and to play a little. Unfortunately for us the rain followed but we made the best of it and ventured off to Silver Dollar City.

The start of Dad's last week will be at a Cardinal's game on Monday night with Kevin. After that, the week remains wide open to the adventures we'll have! Check back soon for some more updates.

Dad on the tee

Travelling to Branson

Having some fun in the Funhouse

Dad, Tim & Kevin

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Aanika's doing wonderfully in her violin lessons and wanted to post a video of her playing.

Here she is playing Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Cil's furniture redo adventure

Wow, I got it done!

I bought some old and really beat up wicker furniture last fall with the intention of redoing it.

These are the before and after shots.

The BIG 4-0

Kevin's turned 40!

After the super surprise he threw for my 40th, I wanted to do something fun for him so I tried MY hand at a surprise party. Somehow I managed to keep it a secret from both Kevin and Aanika (don't ever tell her secrets!) for several weeks and we had a lovely evening with a bunch of our friends.

(The little girl in the picture is our friend's daughter, Madeline....she loves Kevin)

I made a chocolate cupcake-cake for my chocoholic sweetie, we had food delivered in and many of us overdosed on Mousse Au Chocolat that Hendrick made especially for the occasion (it's soooo good).

All in all, a great night!

Sweet Faced Girls

These are Aanika's best buddies, Joy and Kendahl. They all flew off the bus on Wednesday and managed to wrangle a playdate out of us moms. Since it was such a pretty day, they came over for some fun out in the 70 degree weather to play hopscotch and to jump rope together. I just couldn't resist getting a shot of them with their sweet little faces. They always have such a good time together!

I'm so thankful that we found this neighborhood.......

Happy 6th Birthday Aanika!

Aanika's 6 years old already - how the time flies!

Watch her grow with us....

One year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old ..... going on 16!

The first baby tooth is gone!

Aanika was cutting her eighth tooth when she was nine months old and she's finally lost her first tooth just before her 6th birthday!
After more than a month of having a very loose tooth, her new one came in behind her baby tooth instead of underneath it. By the looks of her dental x-rays that were taken the other day we think that three others on the bottom might do the same thing. Not a big deal but it draws out the process of actually losing the tooth. Fun fun.

Snow Day & Sledding

I got in my exercise AND my fun today! I was out shovelling at 6:15 a.m. and 50 minutes later I was finally finished. We got about 5 inches of fluffy stuff last night on top of about 2-3 inches of sleet that fell yesterday. Two whole days off of school and only one of them was good for sledding.

We were out on the neighborhood hill this morning by 10:00 a.m with some friends and other kids from the neighborhood. After about an hour or so we headed back in for lunch, a bit of a rest for Aanika and then back out on the BIG hill with our little friend Kylie (we have to drive to that one). 1.5 hours later we're at McDonalds for French Fries and milk (bleah!) then home to play some more in the yard. I finally got them in the house around 5 pm for a hot bath! Sheesh, I'm pooped.....

Three Sickies

Ever have one of those days? This is what I woke up to a couple weekends ago - my three sickies....Hubby, daughter AND the cat. It's been almost two weeks now and they're still fighting it - except for Smudge, he was only sick for about a day. Good time to be a cat I guess!