A New Look

Kerstin has been talking about wanting to cut her hair...and today, she did it! Her new style is SO cute!

Spa Treatment and the Retreat

Friday morning, we were rushing around trying to get out the door, and I noticed Anna Claire's feet were black on the bottom and needed a little scrubbing. So, I let her soak them in the sink. Well, she thought this was the ultimate spa treatment! Ha! Nothing beats eating breakfast while having your feet washed.

This weekend, Brad and I went to our district church retreat - Ministers and Mates - and we had a great time! It was in Vicksburg, MS, and we were able to spend some good time with our other friends on the district.

The Big Switch...

We have officially spent 2 nights in our new home, and all is well! We were determined to stay there Wednesday night, so before heading to church, we filled our van with one last load. When we were taking apart Anna Claire's crib to move it, we made the executive decision to set it back up in her new room as a toddler bed. The first night, she fell asleep in the car, so we put her in bed already asleep and she didn't know the difference (until the next morning when she awoke and was thrilled at the idea of being able to get out of bed all by herself)! Night 1: Last night was a different story. I had her all ready for bed, and she willingly climbed up into her "big girl bed". I turned out the light, closed the door, and walked out. She was quiet for a few minutes until she started knocking on the door and calling out my name. She then started sliding her pacifiers under the door and into the hallway. I let this go for a few minutes, and then I picked up the pacifiers, went in her room, and we had a little chat. I told her that she needed to lay down and sleep and I would come back in a few minutes to check on her. 20 minutes passed, and her room was quiet...maybe a little too quiet. I slowly opened the door, and she was not in her bed. I looked over and this is what I saw..... ...our little darling sound asleep in her chair. Melt my heart. I picked her up and placed her in her bed.
Here are a couple of random videos from the past two days. Anna Claire has started singing songs. She makes them up, but when you ask her to sing, she is always ready for a song! Yes, she is her father's child!*grin* (You will need to pause the music on the blog to hear her singing. You can do this by going to the left sidebar of the blog and pressing the "pause" button on the music.)

Also, Anna Claire's new favorite 'treat' is a mint. Last night, she hit the jackpot when I came out of Target with two bags of mints (and yes, Gigi, they are sugar free)! She even did a little song and dance for the mints.

Cute.

The Little Monkey

This afternoon, we decided to take advantage of the "cooler" temps and go for a walk. Of course, Anna Claire insisted on taking her baby stroller. Today, she wore her sunglasses and decided that her Disney Princess dolls needed to go for a stroll (I think some Little People made it in as well).

Recently, Anna Claire has started to "race". She likes for you to stand next to her, say, "On your mark! Get set! Go", and she takes off running. Clearly she did not inherit the desire to run from her mama! *grin* Today, Kerstin was the one who raced.
We walked over to the church, and just look at AC being a good PK...waiting for the church doors to open! :)
Anna Claire's newest trick will make any mama's heart skip a beat! She has discovered how to "swing" on the bars that lead up to the entrance of the church. I'm pretty sure she is part monkey.

Let's Climb a Tree, Clean a Nursery, and Rock

While working over at the new house, Brad decided to show Anna Claire how to climb the huge live oak in our backyard. Of course, there's a ladder, and he helped her climb to the top of the ladder which was a big deal to her; Brad, on the other hand, kept climbing.

Yesterday, I was in the church nursery for a little while, and I caught two funny pictures. The first one shows Anna Claire and her friend, Brennan, enjoying their favorite activity in the nursery...cleaning! They each ask for a baby wipe and go to town, cleaning all the toys in the nursery. It's rather hilarious and entertains them for no less that 30 minutes.

When it was time to pick up the toys, I glanced around and couldn't find Anna Claire, until I heard her said, "Hi Mommy!" She had climbed in one of the toy tubs and was just chillin'.
And no Sunday is complete without a little dinner at Cracker Barrel and some time to rock on their front porch.
PS - We're are currently living in both houses....lovely. Most of our things are already at the new house, but we are sleeping at the old house while we get the last few things together to move. Brad and I are sleeping on air mattresses in the living room, and this makes me laugh! Here's a picture of our sleeping arrangements for a couple of days. I'm not sure why I feel the need to post this, but maybe I want you to see the craziness that is our life right now (notice the lamp and phone on a chair, the curtains tied up so that I could clean the floor, etc.). Just keepin' it real.

English Teacher Moment...

While AC, Elizabeth, and I were in Pampa, we (I actually think it was Elizabeth) spotted a sign on a store that caught our eye because of the random use of quotation marks. We took a picture of it and submitted it to a website dedicated to finding unnecessary quotation marks. Today, I received an e-mail from the website letting me know our picture had been posted! Check it out. (Ours is the 3rd picture down titlted "who? what?" under her September 13th entry)
http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

I'm a Pepper

As mentioned in an earlier post, AC has a new found love of opening the refrigerator and bringing me a coke. This morning, she came out of the kitchen with a Diet Dr. Pepper, and I said, "Anna Claire, you need to put that back in the refrigerator." To which she quickly replied, "Mommy, puppies want some coke", and off she went to the dogs' room. When I did finally open a drink, she wanted a sip, of course.

Nonvascular

Tonight I was sending an e-mail to a friend in which I included the complete web address for our blog. During spell check, the blog address was highlighted. The suggested word replacement given....nonvascular. Clearly when I see http://annaclaire2007.blogspot.com, I immediately think, "Oh, I meant to type nonvascular....silly me." And I will stop here before climbing up on my English teacher soap box regarding spell check.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Although it may not "feel" like Fall outside here in Baton Rouge, I'm trying to get in the "Fall spirit" because this is one of our favorite times of the year! I'm hoping that making the blog look for more "Fall-like" might help get me in the spirit of this great season!

These Shoes Are Made for Walkin'.....

Anna Claire got some new tennis shoes today, so we decided to take a walk tonight to try them out. In true Anna Claire style, she can't just walk out the door empty-handed. Of course not! She was wearing her backpack, some beads, and pushing her doll stroller. And keeping true to form, she filled her stroller with some odd items...a small doll, a Baby Enstein block (the yellow one...her favorite color today), and a plastic olive oil jar that goes with her grocery cart. In the next picture, you will see a scene that is all too common on most streets in Baton Rouge as a result of Hurricane Gustav. This is our street and every house has a pile of tree limbs in front of the it ready for pick up. And last but not least...a couple of videos.....the first is of Anna Claire on our walk. She decided that pushing her stroller and then letting go of it was rather funny. You can also see how well she minds her mama! *wink*
This next video will make Kerstin's family so proud! heehee! While on our walk tonight, Kerstin chose to "wow" us with her flip flop throwing 'skills'. Just watch and be amazed.

The Silly Girl That is Our Daughter......

Anna Claire is one silly girl! She is always finding ways to make us laugh. Today we were able to move some things over to our new house, and Anna Claire was delighted to ride in her little car on the new back porch.
Kerstin even turned on the water hose so that AC could "cool off". Who knew that a little water could be so entertaining?
And tonight...I caught AC getting another drink out of the fridge. When I asked her if she was supposed to be doing that, she quickly put it back in the fridge and then put her hands in the air as if to say, "Mom, I don't know how that drink jumped in my hands!" Such a silly girl.

"I want some m...i...l...k!"

Anna Claire has a great Southern accent forming, and you can really hear it when she asks for a drink. In her opinion, every drink is milk, but she makes "milk" a three syllable word! It's hilarious. Anyway, today she brought me an unopened can of Coke Zero, and said, "I want some milk, please." And I said, "No Anna Claire. Please go put it back in the kitchen." She turned around and walked back to the kitchen. The next thing I heard was the sound of a coke can opening. I said, "Anna Claire! Come here now!" She came into the living room with a huge grin on her face and holding an OPEN can of Coke Zero. Seriously?

Drawing and Cooking 101

Anna Claire's school doesn't reopen until Wednesday thanks to Gustav, so she went to work with us today! Kerstin went with some others from our church to help hand out supplies to hurricane victims. Anyway, Anna Claire wanted to go outside with her daddy this morning to "help" him, but we told her to stay inside. This was our compromise. She could sit by the door and draw while keeping an eye on Daddy.
When she heard me taking the above picture, she quickly sat up, put her hands in her lap, and said "Cheese!"
Switching gears.....it didn't take Kerstin long to fall in love with Cane's, a local favorite. They serve a "secret dipping sauce" that we all enjoy. Well, I found a recipe online for the recipe. Tonight, we tried it and the verdict is still out. Something is missing, and we can't figure out what it is. Hmmm.....

Finally.....Pictures.....

First things first....here's the outside of our new house:
And our large live oak and pool....

Let the Gustav festivities begin! We stayed at our friends' house and our associate pastor and his family also stayed there, so it was a full house, but the best way to go through a storm. We celebrated Heidi's birthday at midnight the first night we were there, but we didn't have the right candles or cake, so we had to wing it with a "6" candle and 100 calorie cupcakes! Nice. Brad and Dale even gave us a light show while we sang Happy Birthday!


Labor Day (aka "storm day") breakfast:
Watching the storm roll in...
We lost power Monday morning, so we busted out the generator. The men even read the directions! Please note that it took 3 men to read the direction....moving right along...
Anna Claire thought this hurricane stuff was pretty fun! She got to spend lots of time with her friends. Here she is with "B" (Brennan) watching a movie. Well, I think he watched the movie, and she just played!
This is what "nervous energy" looks like while we went through the storm.....
And somehow, Kerstin managed to take a nap amid all the festivities!
After the storm passed, Heidi busted out some arts and crafts projects for the girls
The day after the storm, we ended up going up to the church and we took an evening walk to get some fresh air after being inside for so long.
And there's no explanation for this next picture....Just Anna Claire being her silly self. Note the water on the bottom of her dress...she is drawn to puddles!
Brennan and Anna Claire were estatic when Brad put together a new toy for them in the nursery!
We have several branches and shingles all over our yard...

Today, in the office, Dale (our associate pastor) decided to try one of the "heater meals" (read: fancy M.R.E.) that they are passing out to people who still don't have electricity. You can tell he was real excited about this one!
And amid all the activities of the week, Anna Claire discovered that she can climb out of her crib! Oh dear. Her first attempt was successful while her second attempt ended with her hitting her cheek on her bed. She has a little bruise, and when I tried to take a picture...this is what she gives me!