Bell Updates

I saw this fun idea on a friends blog.  Kinnie helped me paint the rocks black.  I painted uppercase letters on one side and lowercase letters on the other.  We haven't used them too much yet...

Labor day weekend Landon and I ripped our carpet up upstairs.  We were shocked when this beautiful hardwood floor was revealed...just kidding.  We knew it was under there and the carpet was so old the padding had started to leave little black sticky spots all over.  So while Landon pulled up all of the tack boards I scraped and scrubbed.  We camped down in the living room for a few nights and after the maintenance man came and buffed and waxed the floor, we were able to get back to our normal lives.  We are really happy with the results.  And although it isn't as cozy we were glad we did it.  We actually found a receipt for the carpet that was stuck under it and it was put in in January 1988! We were in Kindergarten...

Sometimes the kids play out front while I am doing dishes or making dinner.  I looked out to see this and it reminded me of two old people sitting out watching the birds or whatever.  They have so much fun together and I love it.  Now if only the fighting and pushing each others buttons would stop!

I don't think there will be much more of this.  We wore pants and jackets to the zoo today and I think it is supposed to be around 60 tomorrow.  Bring on the fall weather, I LOVE it!

And Kinnie has started up preschool again.  This time there are 3 boys and 3 girls.  She loves it and really looks forward to it each week!

FOUR!

Turning 4 was a pretty big deal around here.  Kinnie woke up that day feeling like a 4 year old and thought that her hair seemed longer and that she could do so much more as a 4 year old.  For me, it was a huge reflection of her arrival on this earth and the sweet, fun, happy, silly, determined little girl she is.  I told her about how peaceful the hospital room was when she was born and all of the people that came in the middle of the night to meet her.  I will never forget how calm the room was and the mellow atmosphere that surrounded us.  And now she is 4, and it has all happened in the blink of an eye.  I think she is going to enjoy being 4 and I am excited for this next year!

We invited her friends over for a last minute cupcake and ice cream get together.  Kinnie loves her friends SO MUCH!

Hide-n-seek

Duck Duck Goose.  Or "Good Pirate, Bad Pirate" or "Good Barbie, Bad Barbie."  These kids make me laugh.

Opening some of her presents.  I was not very good at taking pictures for some reason...I didn't even get a picture of her blowing out her candles!  Just video camera, good enough right?

Now that is the look of a proud and happy 4 year old!

This Past Week

• I started running with a friend every morning at 6:30.  It has actually felt really good even though I am not a huge runner.  It feels good to get up and get going and exercise.  We don't run far yet but we are working our way up slowly, and it just feels good.

• I left Landon and the kids 3 nights this week!  That is very rare.  I went to a baby shower one night, played volleyball the next, and went to see a movie the next night after that.  I think it was good for all of us even though I felt a little guilty about it all.

• The movie I saw was "The Help." It was really good and covered all of the important parts of the book.  I was only about 75 pages from finishing the book so at first I was a little disappointed with how the characters looked or certain things that were left out.  But 10 minutes into the movie I got over it and really enjoyed it.  My opinion, the book is ALWAYS better!

• Landon taught Kinnie how to tie shoes.  I told Landon that if I were the one doing the teaching it would have never happened.  Kinnie just seems to understand how he explains things.  

• We are on day 3 of keeping Andrew's binkies just for nap and bedtime.  A big part of me (and all of Landon) wants to just go cold turkey but I can't do it.  So we are working towards this goal of having it just for sleeping and hopefully soon it will just be gone!  

I haven't taken any recent pictures so I wanted to include this one.  This little squirt is going to be 4 years old on the 7th!  I can't believe our baby girl is growing up so fast...