Mr. Twister!

Well, who would have thought that we would get a tornado-oh, excuse me, THREE tornadoes at 7200 feet! Certainly not me and not most people that I have talked with. We had tornadoes here on Thursday afternoon and we are just getting power back and things are getting back to normal...for us. We had no major damage to our home at all but just 2 doors down they had 4 shattered windows, serious structural damage, roof shingles ripped off and 3 blown in garage doors. It was really intense and happened so fast it was hard to make sense of it all. And the hail that came with it made it hard to even hear yourself try and think. The girls were both in bed and when I woke up Morgan to go get shelter she was absolutely terrified by the sound of the hail hitting her window. We were without power for about 20 hours, but our neighbors-Bryan's boss-put us up and made us feel safe and sound. Thanks Joe and Michele! While they were also without power Michele is an avid candle and flashlight collector and also has a gas stove so we were able to feed the girls and make bottles for Skylar. We are feeling lucky that no one was hurt. On Thursday we had quite a smorgasbord of weather! We had severe thunder and lightning, downpour rain, sleet, hail, tornado and after all was said and done we had about 2 hours of a blizzard. Here are a few shots of the aftermath:

This is a gas station just as you are pulling into town. No more roof on that one.
A new construction home that was in the framing stage. May have to start over on this one.
This is a picture of a canoe that was wrapped around a power pole.

Hey it's me...Martha!

Ok, so I made my first attempt at being the baker I never was (and I am still far from it)! I am pretty proud of myself, however. I made Morgan her very own monkey cake for her monkey themed birthday party! It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! Well, okay, the second one. The first one was a little scary, but here is the final:

And here are a few shots from the party. Morgan had a great time. It snowed the morning of the party and I was a little nervous about all the kids in the house, but everything went really well and I think that everyone had a great time. Morgan got some really cute gifts-a couple of those being monkey things. This is a shot of Morgan looking at her friend Heath I am sure wanting to express the importance of knowing that these gifts are HERS! While we are pretty good at sharing, we are also in fact 2! Here is a shot I got of Morgan while everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She apparently starts to enjoy it after you sing it to her enough times. I believe that was about the 74th time it was sung to her that week!

And if you are wondering why there are no pictures of Skylar it is because slept the ENTIRE time of the party! Really! No one could believe it-a few people went up just to check on her a couple of times, but she must have known that Morgan needed the spotlight that day and not her! And the whole spotlight because, did I mention, she is 2! And taking on the responsibilities that go right along with it! It is really terrible-terribly wonderful most of the time.

Vacation

We took a week long vacation to Colorado and visited with friends and family while Bryan was out recruiting the area a little. We had a great time and we miss everyone already. Skylar is getting so big and is starting to sit up a little-hey, whatever gets her closer to catching up with her sister she is all for it! She is expecting everything we give her to be edible and is drooling like crazy. No sign of any teeth right now, but watch out! You can't leave anything around this little one without getting it back soaked in drool. Skylar has discovered the joy of the exersaucer and has that much better of a view of Morgan-it really is all eyes on Morgan for her. And Morgan can get her laughing so hard. It is really too cute.

And Morgan had a great time with some warm weather days. She didn't know what to do with sandals on her toes and a sun hat on her head! That little girl was in hog heaven!

Can you say Spring Fever!?!

So Busy!

We have quite the whirlwind couple of weeks capped off by a big number "2" birthday today! Partied like a rock star and crashed like a baby! We had a great day with lots of memorable moments. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast-Morgan's favorite, then we opened a few presents from mommy and daddy, played outside a little, got windy so we headed to the library, had lunch with Daddy (well Morgan didn't technically make it. She fell asleep in the car on the way home). Ate lunch AFTER nap then headed outside for somemore fun fun fun! Then we went to Morgan's favorite (at least it seems it is-she knows what it is when we turn down that street and she tells EVERYONE there what she wants-Corona Village). They sang a great "Happy Birthday song" to her and even put the sombrero on. She was pretty much stunned and speechless, but made for a few seconds of fab photo ops! Here are a few pictures from the day. The Curious George viewfinder is the coolest thing going in our house right now.

The Circus is in town!

How cool is that! We had our very own 3 ring circus in town and it was great! No Ringling Bros. but it was really perfect for Morgan. Anything bigger and she may not have enjoyed any of it! When we got there they had a little petting area of goats and sheep. Of coarse she wanted to hug the sheep. Not gonna happen! And then they had an elephant acrobats and ponies, horses, camels and clowns. Mostly Morgan enjoyed running around during intermission. Skylar was less than impressed. Maybe a couple more years before she enjoys it. Morgan wanted to hold my hand the whole time but I think that she liked it.

Update...FINALLY!

Well, it's been a while since I last posted so wanted to give everyone out there a shout out from us! We have been enjoying a wet cold spring. Doesn't quite feel like spring most days but taking advantage of those that do. We got 6-8 inches last week and it is finally starting to melt.

Morgan is officially done with Binkie and it was really not so bad. Really glad we chose to accept that challenge sooner rather than later! She plays with Skylar's and tries to shove them in her mouth but never puts it in her own so I think we can say it was a success! Here are a few pictures we have taken lately.

And here is another one of Skylar. We are still doing the rice cereal. It is wuite a challenge. She always has her hands in her mouth and when the bib is on...well, even better! We definately do not have this mastered, but we are working on it! Not really even sure if she like the stuff. It seems to give her some pretty intense gas! Can't wait til she's old enough to read this. She will be so embarrased!

We've Gone No Binkie!

WooHoo! Morgan hasn't had a binkie since Thursday and she is doing so well! She cried the first 15 minutes and when we put her down for bed on Thursday night and hasn't cried since! So Exciting! There are a few side effects-she has terribly chapped lips and really stinky breath! We are just hoping that sucking on the binkie for so long didn't cause that. Well, we know it caused the chapped lips because she isn't slobbering like a rabid chipmunk anymore so her lips are all dried out, but hoping that it didn't give her bad breath. Trying to brush a toddlers teeth is bad enough, try getting in there to her tongue. I don't think so-I don't care how slick you think you are!

So here's the scoop:

We were going to take the binkie away when she turned 2, but when she got up from her nap on Thursday I was telling her about it and she said, "trash...now." Being the quick thinker I am I said, "ok-grab those binkies and let's put them in the trash!" Well, how exciting it was-she loves being mommies little helper and throwing things away-until she realized that was her most prized possession! Well, I couldn't turn back now, and so, as Grandpa Tutu would say, " the life lesson of the week is be careful what you ask for." Plus it was a good time because none of the grandparents had any scheduled visits any time soon so they couldn't spoil all that hard work and cave in to her while mommy and daddy weren't looking! They would never...

The saddest thing was daddy having to listen to her that night over the monitor, "binkie...please? Binkie...PLEASE! PLEASE!" Oh, how pitiful! Glad I wasn't home! That was well planned for not having thought out any of it!