A Visit From St. Louis

Justin, me, Emily, Aiden; Adria & Andrew Medlen

Today was a day that I always look forward to...getting to see Andrew and Adria...IN KANSAS!!!!

They were at Morning Star Ranch with some of their kids from World Impact, St. Louis. It's always nice to get to see my old friend. Andrew finally got to meet Aiden. The last time I saw them in Wichita, I was 8 1/2 mos. pregnant with Aiden. When we were in St. Louis for their wedding, we left the kids with my sister. For Aiden's first meeting with Andrew, he made suer he looked his best. At 2 p.m. he tripped and hit his head on the corner of the doorway, leaving a goose egg and bruise straight down the middle of his forehead. The first thing Andrew mentioned when he saw Aiden(other than him looking just like his dad!), was his BIG FEET!! Ha ha. Aiden really enjoyed being held by Aunt Adria(especially playing with her necklace) and checking out Uncle Andrew. He was really checking them out. AND Emily even talked to Andrew! Emily had been talking about going to see Uncle Andrew all day! She's anti-boys, so for her to talk to him so quickly was an absolute miracle. This was only the second time that she actually has seen him. It usually takes her longer to warm up to Uncle Josh and we see him all of the time! We were only able to visit with them for an hour and a half or so, but it was well worth the drive out!! We can't wait for our next visit!

Moving Day

Moving day... Heidi, Chloe, Karsten, Jason and even Emily...ready to move.

Monday, the kids and I arrived at Papa and Granny's house to find out that the house that Ja and Heidi were getting ready to move into that day, was no longer theirs! They ended up getting another house, seeing it only through the internet and just started moving into it TODAY. They have been in St. Joseph, MO since Monday, homeless!

Emily was so distraught about Karsten moving, she colored on herself with a pen. That's not really what happened, but I will blame them anyway. :)

8 Days Without Mom

I told Emily today that I was packing for my trip. She said, "no, mom. Stay." Sigh. Tear. :) Hopefully, my child isn't too traumatized when I get back.

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!! We spent ours in Canton, KS and Abilene, KS. When we drove up to my mom's house, they had their flag hanging over the porch. The flag was given to Jack(my stepdad here w/ my mom) at his dad's funeral. We thought that it would serve as a great back drop!!

While we were outside, we decided to go for a walk "downtown". They live in a town of 800 people, so downtown is a block away and runs an entire 2 blocks. Huge, I know. They put these buffalo statues out in the last couple of years, so we decided to put them to work. Neither of the kids really cared to sit on them, Emily especially, but they did a good job taking pictures with them. :)

The kids loved swinging on the porch swing at gra and pop's house.

Aiden enjoyed playing in the "kitchen" in Alyssa's room.

We also went to Abilene to see my sisters and the cousins. Emily loves to play with her cousin, Alyssa, who just turned 5 this week. Alyssa always tries to take care of Emily and shows her all kinds of fun things to do. My sister's favorite thing to do in the summer is to have a water balloon fight. She and her dad have been doing balloon tosses on the 4th since she was little(her and dad and stepmom were also there). Emily didn't really know what to do with those balloons, but the fact that they were balloons and were in a bucket of water made it seem great to her!!

Emily fell on the ladder to the slide at my sister's house and had a HUGE bump on her lip. We gave her a popsicle to help with the swelling, since she wouldn't keep the ice pack on. She loved it.

Shoe Crisis

I hate kids feet. No scratch that....they are cute and precious. I hate trying to find shoes for their little toes!!! This is a picture of all of the shoes that Aiden has owned from May-July. The first two are size 4 and were both purchased in May. By the middle of June, they were too small. Then we moved on to the Nemo sandals, which I could've done without, but we were desperate for shoes!!! They are 5 1/2 and were the only thing wide enough for him. They are a 1/2 size too big, and even with socks and a band-aid, rub off the skin on the back of his fat foot. The girl at Payless said he was in wide, so I'd been looking for Stride Rites, waiting for the sales to start. Finally, I found a pair of cute Stride Rite sandals for him...if you know nothing about Stride Rite, most of their shoes start out at $30. My shoes are cheaper than that!! They are extremely good shoes(we ran into the problem w/Emily last Spring of finding comfy shoes for her and that's what she got), but not something that is really easy to work into the budget. So, I went ahead and got him size 5W shoes and they came in the mail yesterday. I was so excited! That was until I couldn't get the velcro together. Still, they were too small! So, today the kids and I went over to Douglas and Oliver...College Hill area, my favorite...and visited Little Feet Boutique. The sales guy(who graduated from my high school a few years before me) measured his foot and gave me the bad news. He's in 5's but his foot is EXTRA WIDE!!! 'Cause they have extra wide shoes everywhere!! After trying on some sandals and seeing if the ones we bought came in an extra wide, we were left having to buy tennis shoes. It was like watching a miracle performed...my son's feet fit in them. More importantly, they were comfy for him and we could tie them!!!! :) That man is my new best friend. Since May, the grand total that I have spent on shoes for my 14 month old is $101 bucks (the Adidas were $15, the Genuine Kids were $12 @ Target, the Nemo's were on sale for $8 @ Payless, the first Stride Rites were $30 and the new shoes were $36..ouch.)!!!! They are going to be a tad hot for this weather, though. It's a good thing he only really wears shoes to church!!

I guess we all know what I will be selling at the consignment sale!!