Doggie tricks

Kensie has learned a few tricks (some old and some new) including sitting, standing, and rolling over. Please observe the cuteness that follows...

...and with a little support from the couch (cheater), we have a 2 foot munchkin who looks about ready to walk...yikes! SIDE NOTE: she literally stood there for 5 minutes while I snapped pic after pic. She has NO balance whatsoever, but her legs are stiff as a board...cracks us up!

The rolling over trick has become my favorite. After only a half hour of training, she literally does it on command...see for yourself!

New news

I was never able to take a real "spring break" vacation while in high school and college. Sports always kept me tied down during that coveted week of no school and all sun.

Growing up in CA, the "cool" thing to do was go snowboarding over spring break. Everyone would come back to school with lift tickets still attached to their coats, bragging about where they went skiing that week and how many snowball fights they had. Meanwhile, here in MI everyone and their dog goes to Florida (where I STILL have never been..hint hint Greg...). After seven days in the hot sun, they return with the most glorious tans I have ever seen.

But, now that I'm out of school, who says I still can't enjoy a spring break trip?

Here are some pics of our missions trip to TN. Our church has been going to this summer Christian Camp for years, and we finally had our chance to go. We helped them do various jobs around the camp like clearing shrubs, trimming trees, cooking, stuffing envelopes, painting, shoeing horses, house-cleaning and the like. We were privileged to bring Katelyn along for the ride too (and the help :). She was a trooper, even if she did get bit by a horse! (ask her about it...)

And Kensie did amazing as well! Mommy didn't get much sleep as we had to sleep in the same room, but she faithfully took her two naps a day and slept 12 hrs at night. She even celebrated 7 months while we were there. And since I was kinda freaking out that we weren't going to have her infamous "chair picture" until 6 days AFTER we got home, we found a chair in our cabin to substitute...

the morning view from the front porch of our cabin...breathtaking!

Old news

A few weeks ago we attended a fun "winter Olympics party" at church. We were assigned teams, created our own country name and flag to match, and competed in various "athletic" events. These included flicking ice cubes with plastic knives on a table (to imitate curling of course), and putting shoebox lids on our feet and sliding around on carpet shooting Nerf guns at cardboard targets (the biathlon of course).

The last event was hockey. Played on a carpeted gym floor. It was broom to broom combat with a bouncy rubber ball. The goal, obvious. Get the ball through the goal as many times as you can.

So what's with the picture??

My competitive husband gave the tip of his index finger for his team during that hockey game. No, I'm not kidding. The brooms we played with were under-average household brooms (say from the 1930's?). Brooms were braking left and right, but people carried on as if it were the real Olympics. We had quite a competitive group. Anyway, Greg happened to have a broom with a metal handle. Basically (without being too graphic), the handle broke and pinched the tip of his finger off ... O-F-F ... off. Gross. You are now allowed to make that disgusting face that I know you can't help from making. To make you feel a little better, it was not the nail part of the finger, just the pad (like where you would get a finger print). But still...there was QUITE a bit of blood.

.

After a trip to the ER, Greg had his finger wrapped up with no hope of seeing his gold medal, or the tip of his finger ever again. A few members of the group came to visit him at the hospital bearing gifts and news. Greg's team had WON and so they draped his (plastic) gold medal around his sweaty neck. And as for the news, well.....let's just say someone "found" what looked like a peanut on the floor close to where the incident happened....gross.

Ready already??

Question.

When considering how far apart child #1 and child #2 should be,

which parent is usually ready first?

Before I go any further....

No. I'm not pregnant.

I would guess that most women are ready for baby #2 before their mates are,

and that usually the wife has to "talk" her husband into round 2...

can I get a second on that?

But, in our case. Nope.

The other night Greg says to me,
"Just look at her, don't you just want another little Kensie??"

And dare I say,
"Just let me enjoy 3 months this summer of feeling 'normal' and then we'll talk".

I mean, who enjoys swelling 'til you feel like your skin is so tight it will literally pop?

And who enjoys the perpetual sweat even in the midst of drying off AFTER your shower?

And let's be honest...who loves going to the beach looking like a beached whale??

Of course he's ready for #2.

HE doesn't have to endure any of that!

Then he pulls the "talk-through-the-baby-to-your-spouse" trick,

"But, Kensie don't YOU want a little sister?"

But don't you think I gave in that easily...I stood my ground.

Maybe next fall I'll be ready.

Until then...let's play!

4 Generations

While celebrating Grandma Mulder's 80th birthday over the weekend, we thought it was a good chance to snap a shot of all 4 generations on the Mulder side. This will be such a keepsake someday.

Mom's Famous Cornbread

Yes, here is the BEST recipe if you love soft and sweet, superbly moist, and simply scrumptious cornbread! Caution: extremely tasty and may cause overeating...bake at own risk :)



Sweet and Moist Cornbread

4 cups Bisquick
2 cups Cornmeal
1 1/2 - 2 cups Cottage Cheese
2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar



**Mix above ingredients. Add milk to make consistency of a batter similar to thick cake mix**



Put batter in a greased 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Or you can half the recipe and bake in an 8 x 8 glass dish.


Bake @ 350* 30-40 min.

6 month updates

Wowzers. Our little peanut is not so little anymore!

Over the weekend, Kensie flipped to the 6 month chapter in her little life. In celebration of this momentous occasion, I found this adorable swimsuit from Target which I of course couldn't resist from buying (only $7 ok?). Annnnnd it was time for my own swimsuit upgrade--> Mom Hides Stretch Marks 6.0. Ok, not your grandmothers suit that I know you are ALL picturing. Just a tankini that's more my age. I had way too many bikinis that I wouldn't wear now even if they DID fit. I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20. Let's dress like it please.

Ok, moving on -->

My sweet sister and her husband came to stay for the weekend! It's been getting harder lately to get together, and we SO appreciated having them for a few days. Dave and Greg worked on finishing our mudroom and other various house projects while Lauren and I took walks with Kensie, sat by the fireplace, laughed at funny stories, and had time just to catch-up on life.

Saturday afternoon we made the boys take a work break, and ventured to the nearest Aquatic Center. For only living 6 blocks from an indoor pool, it's taken us over a year to finally try it out. In short, it was a huge hit. I'm not sure if Kensie or the boys liked it more. But, I have never seen such grown men act like little 12 year olds splashing around, racing each other on obstacle courses, and eagerly waiting in line to go down the slide...or wait, have I?

It was a nice taste of summer for sure. And I have a feeling you will find us at the pool on a regular basis between now and REAL summer.


**Oh, and Kensie has also graduated to baby food! I have the cutest video, but couldn't upload it. Stupid slow internet....we brought it upon ourselves I know. Anyway, she loves her green bean and carrots for now and babbles the whole time (especially when she REALLY likes what she's eating).

Well, Ta-Ta for now!