She's mobile

That's right. It is now time to child proof our house. Katelyn is getting into everything now. She is MOBILE!!! It is so cute. She does not do the typical crawl instead she decided to go military. She is an ARMY crawler. She cracks me up. When she wants something she will either roll or crawl or both.

Ken also taught her a new trick this past week. I hope this does not offend anyone, if it does I apologize. When asked, "Do hemorrhoids", Katelyn will bare down and grunt. Hopefully one day I can get it on video and post. We will see.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. I know we had a productive weekend working in the yard.

The Good, The Bad and No Ugly

Match day was this past Wednesday for Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship and well, we did not match. We both had a feeling that we were not going to make it this year, but it was still hard when it was concrete. We will just try again next year, we still have hope for next year. That was the bad news this week.

However, the good news is that Ken made Chief Resident for next year (which will look good on his resume). He will work about 15 hours more a week, which is really nothing compared to how much he is gone already (what is a few more). We have also decided for Ken to look into an away rotation for cardiology for a month. Again, I can handle a month with him gone and 2 kids right!? We will see when we cross that bridge.

We both feel that the Lord has something in store for us, we just don't know what it is. We will just have to rely on our faith in Him and wait and see.

JoAnne's Baptism

Last Thursday, we had another girls day out (Colleen, Tiona, Tressa, Katelyn and I). This time, we headed up to the southern part of Chicago to the city of Mokena, IL. We went to support JoAnne (Travis's girlfriend) in her decision to be baptized. We had a great time up there visiting with her. We took her out to dinner at AppleBee's, then headed to the church for her big moment. I was honored in taking part and saying the opening prayer. The spirit was definitely with us in the room. I love going to baptisms. It makes me remember and ponder the promises and blessings I made and received when I was baptized. What a great night. To top it all off, we stopped for ice cream on the way home. We have really enjoyed having Colleen and Tiona come to visit us. It is always great to see family. Thank goodness for great in-laws.

Here is a picture of JoAnne with the missionaries:

CONGRATULATIONS JOANNE!!!!

Old Historic Nauvoo

Last Wednesday, we had a girls day and night out at Old Nauvoo. We left at 9:30 to get our Subways for a picnic lunch then headed out of Peoria toward Nauvoo. We got to the visitors center around 12:30 to have lunch.

At 1:00, we met up with Elder Richards and his two companions. We had a great time visiting with them. I know Colleen was tickled to see her baby (Elder Richards). We took a carriage ride around the wooded areas (what Nauvoo looked like when the pioneers arrived) and heard several different stories about our ancestors.


We made a visit into town to the LDS Harvest bookstore. I was able to find Tressa the primary childrens' songs (words and music) on CD. Now we have something to listen to in the car instead of Christmas music all year round.

While Colleen was giving Travis a haircut on the deck of his apartment, Tiona and I took the girls to the pavilion to play pioneer children games from their time period. It was a lot of fun. Tressa made a little friend while we were there named Briel. We also got a tour of Scovy's bakery (I think that is the right name, I could be wrong).

An hour later, we met up for dinner at the Hotel Nauvoo. It was YUMMY home cooking. It was pricey but worth every penny. After stuffing ourselves happy at the buffet, we watched the band perform in front of the Cultural Hall for about 20 minutes. Tressa was rather entertaining dancing to the music.

Later that evening, we watched Sunset by the Mississippi. It had some great humor and rather enjoyable. In the beginning of the show, they had all the little kids decorate a hat and carry either a musical instrument or a flag around in their parade on the stage. Tressa looked so cute waving her flag.

We had a great time. After a long fun day we got home around 1:00 in the morning.

Visitors have come and gone

Last Tuesday through Friday, Colleen and Tiona came to visit. We did a lot of traveling in the time they were here. I thought I would tell you our adventures one day at a time for the rest of this week. So today, I will tell you what we did the night they came to town.

We had a nice made over taco bake. Delicious! Courtesy of Taste of Homes magazine. Of course, what would make a delicious meal even more delicious, WATERMELON!!! For those of you who know me, I could live off watermelon. It is one of my favorites this time of year.

After a great meal and conversation, we headed over to the couch to talk and flip channels. Later on that evening, we had refreshments made by our a little chef, Tressa. We had pudding popsicles with oreo chunks. Again, delicious. I think Katelyn would agree. Here is a picture of her enjoying Mimi's dessert.

Katelyn

Tressa (by the end she had a pretty good goatie)

It was a delightful evening of relaxing and hanging out. Now it was time to turn in early, because the following day would be filled with fun and games in Historic Old Nauvoo. Stay tuned tomorrow for our day trip and also for an update on Fellowship.

Afternoon at the Circus

A couple of weekends ago, the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circus came to town. I had been debating whether or not to spend a FORTUNE and take the girls. After learning that Ken had NEVER been to a circus, I decided we needed to go at least once. We had a great time spending an afternoon as a family. Tressa enjoyed the first half of the GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, but after the tigers she wanted to go home. Ken was a sucker and bought Tressa a stuffed poodle. Plus, what is a show without popcorn. When all was spent and done, we had fun. Here are some pictures to highlight the afternoon.