Thank you, Starbucks

A lady in our church brought us a large supply of Starbucks Christmas cups (something about she knew someone who helped close one of the Starbucks and they needed to get rid of inventory). Well, the little cups are just the right size for Anna Claire. Today, she filled several of them up with water and lined them up in our dining room. She was beyond proud of her accomplishment!

Little Drummer Girl

Anna Claire LOVES her drum. I'm sure our neighbors appreciated her playing her drums outside this afternoon, but the weather was just too nice to stay indoors.

Kerstin's Award Ceremony

Tonight was the honors award ceremony for Kerstin's high school. She received the "Outstanding Student" award for her Free Enterprise class! We are very proud of her and all that she has accomplished this year in school! After the ceremony, we met the principal, who had several nice things to say about Kerstin and her success in an American high school!

Friends.

First Swim of the Season

Our house has an above ground pool; however, when we moved in last September (right after Hurricane Gustav), it was not in "swim" condition. Well, Super Brad has been working overtime on the pool trying to get it ready for this summer! We've had some warm temps this week, so tonight, Brad & AC decided to give the pool a try. I have a feeling this will be the first of many more posts about our time in the pool!

How Now, Brown Cow?

...or black cow in this case.
The other night, Brand and Anna Claire were cleaning out her closet. They came across this cute cow blanket that a lady had made for Anna Claire when was she was born.
Here are a couple of pictures from when she was about 3 months old, modeling this cow blanket:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
And here she is at 2 1/2 modeling the infamous cow blanket:

Picnic at the Park

We went on 2 picnics this week at the park! Anna Claire thought this was too fun that we got to eat our lunch/dinner on a blanket at the park. Oh, the simple things. The first time we went, we took food from Sonic. Well, I guess AC thinks you can only take Sonic food because on our second trip to the park, she insisted that we take Sonic again.
Here are a few pictures from our second trip. (I only took one picture at the first picnic and it's on my phone...i'll add it later.)

There is a huge open field next to the playground that Anna Claire loves to run in. She looks back at us each time and says, "See ya!" Nice.

Daddy's Girl

Crawfish Boil, Easter Egg Hunt, & Easter Sunday

Good Friday

Today has been a great start to a wonderful weekend! This morning, AC, Kerstin, and I went to an Easter egg hunt over at a friend's house. Our new friends, Liz and her daughter, Cadance (who is a couple of weeks older than AC) joined us and we had a grand 'ol time! The girls were paying close attention to the adults who were hiding the eggs. The area that they were keeping an eye on was actually for the older kids, but they didn't know that. Here they are waiting on the swing for their turn to go hunt eggs! Two peas in a pod!They make each other laugh, and their little budding friendship is cute to watch! At one point, I was looking for Anna Claire, and I found her, sitting on a step, a cookie in each hand. She was perfectly content. Sidenote: easiest cookie recipe - 1 box of Funfetti cake mix (Pillsbury), 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup of oil. Mix ingredients together and then roll into balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook at 350 for 5-10 minutes.........DELICIOUS. I plan to put icing on the next batch. Just a little something extra. I know AC isn't looking at the camera, but I thought this was such a cute picture of Kerstin. Before heading to our Good Friday service at church this evening, AC was in a photographic mood, so I didn't let the moment pass. She LOVES this bunny in our side yard and thinks it is necessary to pat his ears. And the little kids reading? She thinks they're pretty special too!
I tried to take a picture of Anna Claire sitting in front of some of the lilies at church. Just look at this most cooperative 2 year old. I'll try again on Sunday.
I was working on making signs for our Easter egg hunt at church tomorrow, and AC decided she would use the extra poster board to make her own signs. Concentration at its finest.
And here's a precious little video of AC singing her bunny song. She insists on singing this song multiple times a day and at the top of her lungs! Tonight, she had Brad hopping in the kitchen while she sang! Gotta love her enthusiasm.

Jesus and Santa

Driving in the car....
AC: Do you pray, Mom?
ME: Yes, I pray. You pray too, remember? We pray and ask Jesus to help people, or to be with you at school, or for our meal.
AC: Yeah. Jesus is in my heart.
ME: That's right, Sweetie.
AC: And at the mall.
ME: The mall?
AC: Yes, he says "Ho! Ho! Ho!"
ME: That's Santa, not Jesus.
AC: Jesus is in Santa's heart too!
Oh, if only we could see what goes on in that little mind of hers!
I'll post some new pictures soon. We all went different directions this past weekend and are trying to regroup before Easter!

Our Girls...

We got an invitation in the mail yesterday to a Honors Award Ceremony at Kerstin's high school where she will receive an academic award! We are so proud of her and her hard work in school this year! She's already graduated in Germany, and she is only in school in America for the "experience". I keep telling her that not too many American kids would sign up for an extra year of high school just for the experience and work as hard as she has this year to maintain incredible grades! Go Kerstin!

Anna Claire woke up this morning at 5:00 because she wanted to hunt Easter eggs!!! Last night, we bought some plastic eggs and an Easter basket for her to take to school. We've also been hunting eggs in our backyard. Bless her heart...I guess she was dreaming about them! I convinced her that it was the middle of the night and that she needed to go back to sleep but that we would hunt eggs this weekend. She didn't put up too much of a struggle and went right back to sleep.

Happy Friday!

She Keeps Us Laughing....

Here are some conversations from our house today:
1. 5am, AC comes in our room.
AC: Mommy, I pee-peed in my bed.
ME: Really? (She's been waking up dry, so I found it hard to believe that she had soaked through a diaper). After checking her diaper, which was dry, we headed back to her bed.
AC: Look, Mommy! I pee-peed in my bed!
ME: Oh, Sweetie, you didn't wet your bed, that's just drool. You know, spit. From your mouth. See, it's right here by your pillow.
AC: Oh.
And she crawled in bed and went right back to sleep.

2. 8pm, in the car on our way home from church.
ME: Anna Claire, on Friday night, you get to spend the night with your friends because Mom and Dad will be out of town.
AC: Yes! Do they have carpet?
Not sure where this came from because we don't have any carpet in our house. Odd. Yet funny.

3. 9pm, Brad is putting AC to bed and reading her a book that has a picture of a little girl holding a cat.
Brad: Anna Claire, do we know someone that has a kitty cat?
AC: Yes, Sissy (Aunt Elizabeth) has two kitties.
Long pause....
AC: Is Sissy at home eating cake?
HAHAHA! Love it.

"I Don't Want to Be a Half"

My super talented friend, Lindsay (who I might had has a monumental birthday coming up on Friday!), made AC a "2 1/2" shirt and it arrived in the mail today! Tonight, when I was getting AC ready for church, I said, "Anna Claire, I want you to wear your new 2 1/2 shirt tonight!" She quickly made a sad face and said, "But I don't want to be a half!" Ha. I came back with, "Well, how about wearing your 2 shirt?"...and she seemed happier about this!
How cute is this little t-shirt??
And here she is singing, "I Like to Move it, Move it!" from the movie Madagascar (which she has never seen, but loves the song!)
Thank you, Lindsay!