Anna's first time with camera

Here is Anna's first time taking pictures..... I did help her find me in the view finder! And can I add how much she loves turning my point and shoot camera on and off?!?!? Yea, i think we will be adding a kids camera to her Christmas list, or better yet, finding my old digital camera to give her.

Much Love,
Jenny

Deanna Rose

This past week, Grandma and Kate met us at Deanna Rose. We waked around, fed some baby goats a milk bottle (this was Anna's first time to do this and she did AWESOME!), played on the playground and had a picnic. It was fun fun fun! We wish we could have stayed longer but that time will come when we are nap free!!

Love,
Anna and Ashley

We got OUT!

It has been a long while, but Rob and I got out without the girls! We loves these nights and savor every single moment.... and we take a moment to take a self portrait of us like the old days. I think that Rob hasn't lost his touch at taking our picture- he might have gotten better at doing it- you can't even tell he is the one taking the pic here!!!

We went to the preseason hockey game between the Penguins and LA (I don't know their mascot) at the Sprint Center with Rob's brother Aaron and his wife Laura and Rob's cousin Cristopher and his girlfriend Erin. We had great seats and although I confused the rules of hockey with soccer I enjoyed myself- we even got to watch a shoot out in overtime which is actually VERY exciting!

Looking back on the evening, I think I mostly enjoyed my cold boulevard wheat beer and the fact that I was kid-less and out of the house. Plus I enjoyed sitting by my man, free from chores and without a care in the world, and chatting with Laura and Erin- great company!

Thanks for making this possible by watching the girls Mary!

Much Love,
Jenny

Stairs

UP UP UP she goes goes goes!

The dreaded day has arrived.....today Ashley climbed up the bottom stair. While I should be ecstatic, which I am proud of her for doing it, I am more dreading the next couple of months. Because when kids learn to climb stairs it's ALL they want to do and no matter where you are, if they see stairs they bee-line to them. And I would be okay with it if every place had a baby gate at the top and bottom of the stairs but they don't. And this makes this momma EXTREMELY nervous! Plus she's 7 1/2 months old- she's too young to be doing this- slow down baby girl- slow down!

Time to get out the baby gates!

Much Love,
Jenny

PS We were living in an apartment in Wichita when Anna started doing this so I got lucky; no stairs.

FOR SALE

So our house was on the market for 6 months last year and 6 months this year... yup- that's a total of around 365 days and we still own it. STILL.

The first 6 months was extremely slow- I think we showed it twice. And this go around has had a little more action but no offers. We have probably shown the house around 20 times in the 6 months and have had a couple of second showings. We even got told that an offer was coming but that all fell through. We have been people's second favorite and even people's favorite.

I think we need to buy and bury a Saint Joseph in our front yard.... I still can't believe that Rob and I dug him up 3 years ago and unknowingly threw him away. We need to reinvest and rebury so that he can bring us luck in selling the house.... I am at that point of doing ANYTHING to get a buyer... anything! I would even include a free schnoodle in on the deal (just kidding nuts!)

But this leads me to the point of my post.... we are a pretty solid team, Rob and I. We get a phone call and BOOM we get to work . After 6 solid months of this, we get straight to work; no words,  just work. He does his thing getting the basement cleaned, playroom organized, puts his clothes away and cleans the bathrooms. Like a squirrel on crack, literally, I tackle everything else. When we get a call during the day when Rob is not around to help, that is when I turn into a psycho squirrel on crack TOTALLY overwhelmed to the point of hysteria with two little girls just staring at me. But sure enough it all gets done and the house shines. I am then afraid to walk anywhere and want to leave the house and never come back until it sells so I don't have to go through all this turbo cleaning again.... and then the phone rings another day...

We have a showing tomorrow afternoon- the girls and I will leave and run errands all morning and nap at my parents until it is done- we lead a nomad life style on house showing days! Would you mind doing me a favor; cross your fingers and say a little prayer to Saint Joseph for us, won't ya?!?!?

Much Love,
Jenny

Apple Picking

Saturday we went out to Wagon Wheel Orchard in Garnder, KS and picked apples! Aunt Anne, Uncle Todd, Kate, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Laura and Henry joined us there; it was so much fun! It was a nice little orchard run by a man who is related to Johnny Appleseed; pretty cool, huh? He pretty much runs this orchard not to make money (he has a different full time job) but more for giving children an opportunity to come out and have fun picking apples. We were the only ones there for most of our 2 hours we spent there. This was REALLY nice because mommy and daddy let Anna run loose- they weren't too scared of letting her run free (that is until the scary dogs came and Uncle Todd started protecting up with the apple pickers).

We were allowed to pick apples STRAIGHT off the tree and even try before we buy! We had tons of fun doing that (especially Anna) and found some pretty good apples!

We even got to feed two horses apples. Anna loved them and thought they were so funny scratching their necks on the posts. Kate and Henry also liked the horses too; even though one bit Henry (don't worry it didn't break the skin and he was a champ about it).

 YUMMMMMMMMMM! We probably ate a bagful just walking through the orchard. Mommy swears that everytime she saw Anna she was munching on a new apple! We thought it was super fun to just pick and eat!

 And the trees were just my height!

 I picked this one all by myself!

 I even tried the apple picker and did a pretty good job. I could get the apples in the picker but mommy would have to help me pull them off the tree!

 Ashley even picked some!

 And the goats! We fed goats feed and Anna even got to feed the white one a peach!!!

 Pears anyone?!?!?!

 Thanks the Wagon Wheel!

Apples!

With the 2 bags of apples we got this past weekend at the orchard, we decided to have an apple day yesterday!

Here's what we've made!

We started the morning with:

Sauteed Apples
Rob liked this better then me. I am not a fan of warm apples and if I was I bet I would have liked it just as much as Rob!
Breakfast Rounds
We both thought these were quite tasty! Next time I will toast the english muffin!

Had an after lunch Golden Delicious apple!

Ended the evening with a warm serving (with ice cream of course) of
Caramel Apple Crisp
Yummmmmmmmmm.... caramel and apples.... yummmmmmmm.... and ice cream with caramel on top.... how can you go wrong here? A-MAZ-ING!!!!!

We plan on making applesauce for Ashley later this week and who knows, maybe we will have enough apples leftover for something else!

Yum!

Much Love,
Jenny

My birthday weekend

 Friday morning and afternoon was spent celebrating with Kate!

Friday evening we went to my favorite place, the park, and had a peppermint patty dessert! YUMMM!!!

 Saturday morning Daddy made me special pancakes with an A and a 2 written in chocolate chips.

 Saturday afternoon we went to the apple orchard with the Horton and Aaron Stilley's (a blog post still to come on that trip!)

 A special blackberry pie with a candle to blow out- YES, I finally blew a candle out on my own!!!!!!

 Sunday morning I woke up to balloons all over my room! We had so much fun playing with them!

And Sunday afternoon was spent opening and playing with my gifts! I LOVE my supermarket check out register and vanity (mommy also gave me a lot of her old pretty jewelry). I'm so lucky!

Mommy sure knows how to stretch a birthday out into a birth-weekend and I LOVE her style! We had so much fun! Now, when do I turn 3?!?!?!?!

Love,
Anna