First Sleepover!

Over the summer, Kyri checked out a book about a sleepover party from the library.  Ever since, she has been begging to have a sleepover of her own.  She finally had the opportunity this past weekend.  Aubry slept over on Friday night!  Both girls had their own ideas of what was necessary at a sleepover. Aubry created a "list" and Kyri just kept telling me new things they were supposed to do.

They started out the night making individual pizzas with Kyle.

Then they played with the train set for a long time.

Some dress up, of course.  The princess and the prince were dancing...

Not sure how the royal couple ended up at the bar...

After playing in the basement, Kyri reminded us that they were supposed to have a treat.  So, they went upstairs to have some ice cream.

The girls were eager to get into their jammies and roll out their sleeping bags!

I was about to tuck them in when Kyri stood up and said, "Mommy, we can't forget the games!"

(Of course, all sleepovers have games!)

So, Aubry requested Tic-Tac-Toe.  We found the one she's used to playing from the app store and downloaded it to my phone.  Then, Kyri requested Duck Duck Goose.  We all played, even Kyle and Tessa.

Then, they were eager to get into their sleeping bags, so they went to bed willingly.

We could hear them talking and giggling on the baby monitor at first and were very afraid that we'd need to go in there and tell them to go to sleep.  Within about 10 minutes, the talking stopped.  Then, we heard snoring!  Both girls fell asleep and stayed asleep the whole night!  They even slept in until 7:45!  We got to sleep in, too!

Then next morning, Aubry got to go with to Kyri's dance class.

Ms. Penny let Aubry join the class!

Look how together their steps are!

The rest of the day was cold and rainy, so they had some popcorn and watched a movie.

Played with some Play-doh

And they kept each other busy all day moving from room to room, coming up with new games and pretend situations.  My favorite was when they were going through the house with flashlights calling themselves the "Mysterious Girls" and looking for mysterious objects. 

Kyri and Aubry played great together and I was able to get a ton of school work done!  The first sleepover was a success!

Also, here are Kyri's preschool pictures for this school year.  She looks so grown up!

This and That

We've been busy with the start of the school year, and I've been lazy about bringing my camera places. I was just scrolling through my phone, though, and decided to post some of the phone pics I've captured the past few months.

(I stole this one from Kay's blog.)  Kyri and Aubry are in the same preschool class this year!  They're loving it!  I don't get to pick Kyri up this year because my lunch time got switched, so I'm missing having that connection.  My mom has been keeping me updated with what's going on in the class, though, and I'm thankful Kay was able to get this picture of the girls on their first day!

We celebrated Kyle's and Sherry's birthdays at Sandy and Steve's house.

Messy Tessy

Just a random shot I got of the girls on our way out one day.  Those two and their "lovies"...

Aubry and Kyri at the Villa Park Oktoberfest

 Grandma Karen was nice enough to take them on a looong Ferris Wheel ride!

K.J. and Ozzie on an evening walk

Bringing up the rear on our family walk, I had to snap a pic of this sweet view.

Tessa's hair is growing at all different lengths, and she has these long strands that are always getting in her food when she eats.  So, during this dinner I decided to try and pull her hair into pigtails to get it out of the way.  It fit and she looked super cute!  So, I took a thousand pictures...

She'll do anything for a laugh!

And when I got her in her pajamas that night, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.  She was fascinated by her new hair do!!  Ha!

At bedtime each night, Tess loves to climb into Kyri's bed to listen to a story.

My parents hosted their annual golf outing a few weeks ago.  Here are some of the golfers resting after the long chilly day.

More golfers... 

My dad was wearing one of the medals that he received during the Knutson award ceremony.

The kids weren't very interested in the golf stories, 

they were more into the fairy stories that Sherry was telling.

More and more kids kept joining to hear her stories!

Last week, Charlie turned 4!  Can you believe it?

Here's Kyri and the Birthday Girl

They had a bounce house, and even big kids were allowed in!

Tessa and Lillian were in heaven with this giant piece of cake.

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Since last Sunday was so beautiful, we went on a bike ride.  Poor Tess had to ride with Kyri on her shoulder most of the way.  We heard her protesting at times, but for the most part, she was a good sport about it!

And here are my cuties in my bed this morning.  Kyle is in Florida on a golf trip, so we are having a girls' weekend.  With Kyle gone, it was very tempting to lay around in our pajamas all day, but I found some motivation.  We were actually out of the house by 9:30.  Not too bad.

Tessa has learned the word "snuggle" ("nuckle"), so here she was trying to snuggle with Kyri.  She has been asking to snuggle all weekend, and I have to say I'm loving this phase.  I'm sure it won't last long, but I'll take what I can get!

K.J. was so helpful all day today.  She even started us off with some scrambled eggs!  We've been folding laundry all day, too, and I have to say that I would not have gotten as much done if it weren't for her laundry ambition.  She is sooo Kyle when it comes to sorting and organizing.  Each time I finished folding a basket, I wanted to lay on the couch and take a break, but she would pull another basket over and start making piles.  Thankfully, she kept me on track and we got a lot accomplished!

While Kyri and I were folding laundry, Tess was playing in Kyri's room.  At one point, she closed the door on us, but I could still hear her playing, so I let it go.  After a while, things got real quiet.  I went in to check on her, and I found that she had tucked herself into Kyri's bed for a nap.  Awesome!  

At first, Kyri was annoyed that Tess was in her bed, but when I offered to move her so that Kyri could take a nap, she decided it was okay to leave Tess.  : )

Okay, I've stalled long enough.  Off to fold some more laundry...

18 months (and 19 months...)

(This turned out to be a pretty long post.  I wanted to record all of these memories so I can look back and remember Tessa at this age.  There are some pictures and videos at the end if you would rather just scroll down to see Tess in action.)

I'm a month late in posting Tessa's 18 month stats. ...

34 inches tall - 97th %tile
24.4 pounds - 75th %ile

Also, we had an interesting scare the night of her 18 month appointment.  Our doctor called us to let us know that his nurse had given Tessa an adult dose of the chicken pox vaccine on accident.  He assured us that the worse that could come out of this mistake was that Tessa would most likely contract the chicken pox.  I wouldn't have been so stressed out about this news if we weren't starting our first week of school.  Kyle was even more stressed out about it because he has never had the chicken pox.  Luckily, though, there is a a blood test that he had done to determine if he was immune to the disease anyway.  It turns out he is!  (He is telling everyone he's super human now...)  It appears that Tessa is super human, too, because she never ended up getting it.  Yay!!  Of course, I was a paranoid freak for the whole three week incubation time frame.  But, luckily, she managed to avoid getting the itchy red mess!  (Oh, and that nurse was let go from the practice, by the way.)


Now Tessa is a big, 19 month old wild woman!  I have to say this is probably our most challenging month yet.  (Well these past two months.)  Tess knows what she wants, and she will do whatever it takes to get what she wants.  She can throw a mean temper tantrum these days.  She is loud and destructive.  There have been quite a bit of throwing and hitting going on, too.  I know she gets frustrated easily because she can't tell us what she wants, but she also just wants her way and doesn't like to hear the word "no".  She has learned how to say the word "no", however, and it seems to be her favorite word lately!  (Even when she means yes!)

Despite all of these tantrums, Tess still has a lot of sweet moments, too.  She is starting to understand so much more, which will hopefully make things easier on all of us.  We're learning that she, like Kyri, is a "routine girl".  (Uggh, how did I get these two mini Kyles??)  : )  When we start the bath, she gets all of the soap/shampoo supplies out of the closet and pretends to pour them into the tub.  In the morning, she has to have her shoes on before she leaves the changing table, and then stops by her bow holder and pats her head.

Some other cute things that I want to remember about this age...

• She likes to play pretend with her baby dolls...changes their diapers (by using 15 wipes), wraps them in blankets and burps them or rocks them to sleep, then puts her finger up to her mouth and tells everyone to "shhh" because her baby's "nigh nigh"
• She loves everything "Rella" (Cinderella).  She likes to read a Cinderella book before bed, sleeps with a stuffed Rella doll from Aunt Jan, and she points out anything with Cinderella on it.  It seems that all of the Disney Princesses are "Rella" to her right now, actually.
• Speaking of that, she tends to generalize everything...  Any type of drink is called "water" to her. Any body part is an "eye".  And she used to call all animals "puppies", but now she's starting to be able to name some others like horse, bird, leopard, monkey, and bunny.
• We're working on knowing the names of family members.  Aubry is definitely her favorite family member right now.  Sorry everyone else.  I have heard her singing herself to sleep with songs about "Auby".  She has even called for Auby in her sleep.  And if you even mention Aubry's name, she runs around with her hands out saying, "Auby, R you?"  (Where are you?)
• She recognizes both sets of grandparents' houses when we pull in the driveway and starts yelling, "Nama" or "Mama".
• Tess seems to be pretty coordinated and likes to ride on toys and figure out how things work.
• Tessa makes A LOT of messes, so she is good at telling on herself when she makes a mess now. This is usually because she's playing with her meal.  Tess is amused easily, so she likes to put her spoon under her plate and then have it pop out.  (She cracks up at her trick.)  She also thinks it's cool to spin her spoon like a board game spinner.  It's also fun to put food on top of your sippy cup and then try to drink it.  

We've said it since she was just a few months old... Tess is going to be the class clown for sure!

Her hair is finally getting long enough to fit into a ponytail.  It doesn't last long, though.

One of her sweet moments

This was the result of finding a blue marker in Kyri's craft basket while I was in the bathroom.  She decorated herself and the kitchen table.  The picture was taken after we scrubbed her hands with soap and water...

Here is Tess looking at her photo album of family pictures.  Most people probably can't understand what she's saying, but I have a habit of translating for her when she talks.  Sorry you have to listen to my annoying voice after her sweet words.

This video is titled, "Auby, where are you?"

(Don't mind the mismatched pajamas.  Kyle changed her.)

Wrapping up her baby and rocking her to sleep

The Lake 2012

This summer we were lucky to have excellent lake weather, and our weekends weren't as jam-packed as they have been in past years.  So, we were able to go up to the lake a lot!!  Here are a bunch of pictures that I took throughout the summer.  Since we just hang out in our bathing suits or pajamas at the lake, all the pictures look the same.  And since I don't want to ruin my good camera in the water or sand, I took most of these on my cell phone.  They downloaded in random order, but here they are...

At the beginning of the summer, Kyle took a few days off of work, and we were able to go up during the middle of the week.  Here is how these two spent most of the days...

Here was another hot visit.  The girls were cooling off by dripping popsicles all over themselves...

 Mmmmmm.   Gwyneth

Charlie

Tessa (her first popsicle!)

Kyri

Here's Gwyneth, again, loving it!

(Poor Lillian napped all afternoon, so she missed out on this fun time.)

 Following Grandpa down to the beach

During this visit, we took a night ride after dinner.  Tess passed out before the end of the ride.

 We also did some tubing this summer.  Kyri and Charlie loved it!

Kyle and Kyri

Owen and Charlie

Kyle and Kyri again

 Since most days were in the 90s, it was too hot to sit on the boat for long.  

We usually ended up jumping in during our boat rides.

Beach fun...

There were a lot of waves this weekend, so these girls were pretending they were in the ocean.

Lake Summerset Summer Fest... First rootbeer floats.  They were a hit!

The golf cart was another source of entertainment for the girls (and Ozzie, too!)

When it wasn't moving, it served as a jungle gym, too!

Auntie Chrissy was able to make it up for a visit one weekend.

Tess snuggling with Grandma

Ha!  I'm not sure what they were doing in this pic, but it cracks me up.  

Nobody better mess with their beach toys!

 Kailey came for a visit one weekend.  The girls loved following her and her friends around!

More tubing

K.J. and I were having a blast!

Kyri lounging by herself as we switched riders.

Even Grandma B gave it a try!

Kyri still claimed that the bonfires were her favorite part of the lake...tubing was a close second.

I think the S'mores are the reason why she loves the fires so much.  

K.J. giving Tess a bite.

Partners in Crime

Trying to get their get-away ride started...

Another fire night

And more roasting marshmallows

Grandpa Larry taking Tess for a ride

Looks like she's going to be a thrill seeker!

Hopefully we'll be able to get up to the lake some more in the fall, but as for the hot summer fun, I think Labor Day was our last weekend.