Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving my mom, dad and Jeff came to Kansas! It was such a blast. It was a quick trip but am so glad that we actually had visitors here. We probably won't be having to many of those the next 3 years. We didn't do a whole lot while they were here. On Thanksgiving we just cooked and ate all day. That night we went to go see Tangled. It was really cute movie. Kate loved it. It was the first movie she has sat all the way through. Phil's Grandpa unfortunately passed away on the Monday before Thanksgiving. The funeral was held in Rockford, IL where we was from. Because it was thanksgiving weekend plane tickets were super expensive and Phil didn't want to drive to Chicago with Kate by himself (I unfortunately had to work or else I would have gone.) So they decided to take the train! They even had their own Harry Potter room. Kate absolutely loved riding the train. She still talks about it. They even had a train stop in Naperville. How is it that Kate and Phil got to go back there before me? They had to be at the train at 5am the day after Thanksgiving. I dropped them off and then went black friday shopping with my family. We went to walmart, target, kohls, gap, and jcpenney. That afternoon my parents left and I had to go to work from 1-11:30. It was a super long day. But Phil and Kate made it safely to Chicago and had a beautiful funeral service for his Grandpa. He will be missed but is definitely in a better place.
Here are a few pics from the train.

This is why I coupon

Anyone who knows me probably knows of my love of couponing. It is a fun hobby for me. It isn't even about saving the money (which is an awesome part too since we don't have any being in law school and still having our house in Vegas) but it also gives me something to do and it is so exciting walking into a store and seeing what awesome deals I can get. But when I tell most people that I coupon, they usually just laugh at me. Well I got everything in the picture below for .94 (I only had to pay tax) So who should be the one laughing? I also threw in a picture of Kate because she is just great and was so excited to help take the pictures. Oh and totally ignore the messy table in the background. It's my catch all in the house (we all to have one of those right? I'll just keep telling myself that)

Governor Kate Pemberton

Phil and I are trying to get out and see this state we just moved to so this past week our family took a trip to Topeka, about 20 minutes away, to visit the Capitol Building. They were in the process of renovating the building and because of the construction we were able to visit all of the rooms including the Senate Chamber, the House of Representatives Chamber and the Governor's Office. Our favorite room was the Senate Chamber because it had marble everywhere as well as a beautiful dome ceiling. It was funny to see all of the different representatives show their school spirit. Different desks in the Chamber had cardboard stand-ups of the different schools throughout the area (KU, Wichita State, Kansas State). Kate has learned how to say not only "Jayhawk" but the Rock Chalk Chant that is famous around here so whenever she sees a Jayhawk she yells it out except she combines some words and ends up saying "Jaychalk." Kate loved the Governor's Office and even got to sit in his chair! Hopefully she didn't break anything... We are still loving Kansas as we get to look around at the surrounding cities and are excited to spend the next few years here.

Birthday Girl

Kate turned 2 on Thursday. I really cannot believe I have a 2 year old. We had such a fun day!! She loved every second of it. She woke up to a birthday rope (it's a tradition in my family to have a rope go all through out the house with fun little toys and stuff on it) then she had pancakes with bacon and orange juice. It was like Christmas at our house with the amount of stuff she got. I don't feel too bad about it though because she has no age appropriate toys at all and most all day she just wants to watch tv. Well the day of her birthday she had so much fun stuff to play with she didn't ask to watch a "show" (as she calls it) once! That is a big deal if you know how much Kate loves movies and tv. We then took her to her favorite restaurant for lunch, McDonalds. She had a blast playing there. In the afternoon we took her to see Despicable Me. It was a really cute movie except Kate and I didn't get to see the last half because she thought it was more fun to play with the arcade games in the lobby then watch the movie but Phil said the last half was really good. I don't think we will be taking her to see another movie for a while. That night she opened some more presents and we had yummy cake. It was a day all about Kate and we loved every minute of it. Kate is such a cute and fun girl. We love having her here and can't wait to see what she will show us this year. Happy Birthday Kate!

got rain?

Kansas has definitely welcomed us with A LOT of rain. Right now we are having probably the worst storm yet and our yard is flooding. Some people in our ward that lived on our street just moved and gave Kate this awesome little tikes slide. She loves it. It entertains her for hours. Well here is stuck in our yard.

We have this window seat in our house and it must be the cool hangout spot because Kate loves to sit up there and read books. She isn't afraid of the lighting or thunder at all going off every minute right outside the window. I love my tough little girl.

Tozzle, Lawrence and Kate

One of Kate's best talents is to use the Iphone. (what does this say about my parenting skills?) Phil has a number of apps to get her through various outings, one of which is Tozzle. Basically it is a puzzle game geared towards toddlers. The other day we were sitting in bed and Kate was playing the game and all of the sudden this clapping sound came on, SHE BEAT THE GAME BY HERSELF! She knows how to move from app to app, go and start movies, play different games such as Frogger although she can never make it across the logs, she surprisingly usually makes it through traffic. She is too smart for her own good.



As for Lawrence, we are loving it. The humidity does wonders with my hair, but it is fun to be in a college town. Lawrence is all about the Jayhawks, there are even little Jayhawk statues all over town. Kate already loves the mascot, whenever we go to a place where the mascot is on a flag or there is a physical Jayhawk, Kate stops, points and says "OH, WOW!." I am so excited to live the college life we never got to experience together. Phil is loving law school. For the summer he only has class from 9-12, although his books are huge and he in constantly reading, we are getting to spend more time together. By a miracle, we found a place to live. It's a cute 2 bedroom duplex. I will post pictures when it's actually clean. Life is good and we feel so blessed!

rock chalk jayhawk

The last 3 days at our house have been CRAZY. We found out Friday that Phil was accepted into the University of Kansas law school but he is starting this summer so we are moving to Kansas in a week! Phil has to be there May 21st. I don't know how we are going to move and get everything together in a week but we are so excited! This is a really good law school and we have really been blessed these past 3 days. We are really going to miss Vegas. The past 3 years here haven't been the easiest but I am really going to miss this place. It was always so nice having so many people come visit but it's time to move on and start the next chapter. Now, I have to go pack and do a million things. Save me! This is going to be the most hectic week ever.

feel better kate

Kate woke up Saturday morning with a really bad cough and by monday it wasn't better so I (very unwillingly) took Kate to the doctor. I dread taking Kate to the doctor for my own selfish reasons. It always takes FOREVER and Kate seriously can't sit still for 30 seconds so chasing around my crazy child in a doctors office for 2 hours is a form of torture in my eyes but she really needed to go. So I forced myself in the car and to my surprise from the second we walked into the doctors office, Kate laid on my chest and never left for 2 hours. I know Kate was miserable because for her to do that means she is very sick but I was in heaven. I cherish anytime Kate will lay and cuddle with me for 2 hours straight was a dream come true, I just felt so bad though because she was really sick. So we get in to the see the doctor and she listens to Kate's chest and says she is wheezing way to much so Kate had to get chest x-rays. I was shocked! I was definitely glad I decided to go to the doctor. It was nearly impossible for us to take the x-rays because Kate was freaking out. I felt soo bad. She was crying so hard and I just wanted to pick her up and calm her down. They had to strap in her into this device that put her hands over her head so we wouldn't move around. After we barely got those done the doctor came back in and said Kate has really bad bronchitis and has to have breathing treatments for 2 weeks and she is on 5 medicines. The breathing treatments haven't been going very well. She really hates it. I just hope she starts getting better. Lesson learned on my part, always take your child to the doctor if they are sick.

this is kate getting doing her breathing treatments and for the first 30 seconds she does okay and then it takes both phil and I to hold her down to finish it.

call me crazy

I have finally found my niche in life, cooking. I am not a good decorator. I am horrible with fashion. I am not creative at all. Couldn't scrapbook to save my life, but I have really fallen in love with cooking and am actually pretty decent. For me, it is the one thing in life I can control. I can't control the situation I am in with life. I can't control my really out of control child but I can control food. I find cooking very relaxing and I really enjoy doing it. I haven't found that love yet with baking but I am getting there. And I just have to announce my love for www.melskitchencafe.com It is truly the best cooking website I have found. I go to that site at least 5 times a day. I use it everyday to plan my meals. She matches my cooking style perfectly. So the other night I thought why not go for the grand daddy of them all, homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade rolls even with homemade chicken broth and noodles. And oh man, it was exhausting and sucked the fun right out of cooking for me. I first had to cut up a whole chicken. It was disgusting and gross and something I never want to do again. After I had tackled that beast, I had to make the noodles. They turned out alright. They were a little thick and dense but the flavor was good. The rolls were my 4th attempt at homemade rolls and my worst too. I was so disappointed because my 3 others times were awesome and these ones came out all hard. So after, 4 hours straight in the kitchen the meal turned out pretty good. I think I'll leave the chicken noodle soup to my grandma. And I apologize if a lot of my future posts are about cooking. I can't help it. I have become addicted.

Valentines

My valentines day post is a little late but at least I'm doing it, right? Anyway, since we have lived in Vegas we have never stayed on the strip. I have been to almost every hotel down there but never stayed in one. So we decided on Friday to spend the night at Mandalay Bay. It was lots of fun. The room was stayed in was really nice and it was really nice to get away. We went to dinner at some restaurant at the hotel (it was just okay) and afterwards we went to the shark reef. This was our 3rd time going there but Kate's first time really knowing what was going on. She LOVED it. It was fun to see her get all excited about everything. The only bummer was that the beach at Mandalay Bay was closed. I was so excited to finally be going to it but I guess they close it seasonally. It was nice enough outside to lay on the beach but we had to go to the pool instead. It was a great to get away. Anyone who comes here (you are obviously allowed to stay with us) but if you want a great place to stay, I recommend going there! I forgot my camera so the ones I have are only from my phone.

Miss Independent

If you thought of the Kelly Clarkson song "miss indepedent" when you read the title of this post you are exactly right. That song is the most perfect way I could describe Kate. I don't know what has happened this past few weeks but she has turned into Miss independent. The song goes like this: "Miss independent, miss self-sufficient, miss keep your distance, miss unafraid, miss out of my way, miss don't let a man interfere." Okay she's not the last part but still. She has to do EVERYTHING herself or else she throws a huge tantrum. She has to drink out of a big girl cup or she won't drink at all. She has to feed herself or she won't eat at all. She knows what she wants and has to have it but can't communicate it so she just whines. She is trying my patience! I'm sure this is totally normal and any other mother who has a kid this stage is just laughing at this post but I just want it to be over. She turned 18 months on Friday and I really can't believe it. Which means she went into the nursery for the first time Sunday! She did really well. I heard her crying twice so I went in and checked on her. But I am very proud of myself because I never got her. We went to her 18 month check up yesterday. She weighs 27 pounds 6 ounces which is the 90%. She is 35 inches tall which is the 97%. That is the first comment I ever get on her these is day is how tall she is. I really am loving this age though and am excited for when she can really start talking. This is the most recent picture I have of her. We had family pictures taken in Salt Lake for christmas (more on that later) They turned out really cute.

Truly blessed

I have been so bad and blogging and I apologize. I have had many things to blog about but my lazy side wins the battle every time I remember to do it. So my goal for this week is to blog everyday (ha we'll see) but it's good goal to have.

Anyway, we could not be happier to see 2009 go. It was a very difficult year for our family. Phil lost his job and luckily found another in a matter of weeks thanks to great friends but the job left him working in Kingman, AZ monday-friday. Phil and I have spent almost every week apart since May. It has been very lonely and awful for the both of us. I wish to never see another 2009 again. So we have been thrilled to have 2010 start off great! We have been thinking for a while to go to law school. We finally decided to apply and the 2nd day in January we found out Phil got accepted into the first school we have heard back from! The University of Maine! (so far away, I know) but we are so excited and it is a true blessing. For a while I was thinking we were being forgotten about, but it is good to be reminded that the Lord is always watching over us and has a plan even if it's the plan I don't want. We look forward to hearing back from other schools and to see where life will be taking us this year. The most exciting part of it for me is to see the light at the end of the tunnel when Phil and I can be back together again. 2010 is already looking up and am excited to see where else we get accepted to so we can make our decision!

I know it's dorky but I really wanted to take pictures opening his first letter.