Saturday, April 18, 2009

Rain Walk

Tuesdays are what we call Daddy - Chica days. I have to work so Kris and Charis get to spend the whole day doing fun stuff together. Today they went for their first rain walk. It was just drizzling or had just finished raining. And they went exploring the neighborhood.Then they stop for a snack.More exploring ... yuck look at her feet.
And pickup flowers to share with me.

More Kansas

Phil was great with the girls and definitely helped me get out some of Charis' wonderful energy before bed. He played ball with them, gave horsey rides, played frisbee and just chased them around. It was great!Between Kris and I, Kris is the more silly, energetic, playful one. Don't get me wrong, I am plenty silly and playful with Charis because she is so fun that it is hard not to be, but Kris is able to pull energy from somewhere and play harder than I can. Thank you Phil for playing with Charis like she was one of your own daughters and being silly, energetic and playful.


Charis loved playing with both Kristen and Audrey. But she has some sort of obsession with babies. She constantly wanted to hug, kiss or just touch Audrey.On one of our last days, my mom and I took Charis and Kristen to a free petting zoo center with a playground and other fun things. We ran around a lot, played on their play scape and visited the animals.
I guess I did not get many pictures of the animals but I did capture this one of Charis "milking" a fake cow. It is ironic because Charis does not drink cow milk and she kept saying "yucky cow milk".We all had a great time!Also while we were there, Charis attempted to write her name on the sidewalk with chalk. I think that Cecilia wrote her name first and she then tried to copy it. If you look really hard there are all the letters. The H is just lighter and not fully connected and the R looks more like a v but I was so proud, she did such a good job for her first try.And of course, we hung out and played with Audrey, Kristen, and Charis most of the time.Thanks Audrey for letting me take care of you some at night.
On Sunday, we got the girls all dressed up and Phil took Charis and Kristen to church. They looked so cute!
We had a great visit and Charis can't stop talking about when we will go again.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Trip to Kansas

After talking with my sister Cecilia about how exhausted she was and how little her 6 month old daughter Audrey was sleeping. I asked if I could come help them out, maybe just giving Cecilia a little rest by taking the kids out so she could nap during the day and maybe just maybe starting a new sleep training program that would help Audrey sleep. They said yes and Charis and I very quickly decided to drive up to Kansas to hang out with Cecilia, Phil and their two beautiful daughters, Kristen and Audrey.

Charis did amazing on the 12 to 13 hour car trip over night. Mostly we all just played during the day and prayed that Audrey would sleep at night. I did the pick up, put down with pat and shhh method (yes that is a real method but maybe not the technical name). Every night we had good progress that looked like it just might work. But on the last night or the one after I left, Audrey started teething and had a bad cough and shortly after that went back to not sleeping. But the trip was fun and I hope everyone got just a little more rest while I was there.
They have a great backyard and the girls loved just playing outside. This day was all about digging a giant hole, carrying the dirt and lots of laughing.We also got to visit with my mom and Debbie. Nana (my mom) playing with girls - blowing bubbles.Both girls really love bubbles and my mom was able to play with them while we got dinner ready.The girls did okay playing together but they handled it a lot better when we got out of the house, plus that would give Cecilia a chance for a nap with Audrey. So one of the days, I took Kristen and Charis out to the play center. We had so much fun! I was a little scare about how high I had to climb to get to the big slide, but I put on a brave face and the girls loved it!After that we went to a pet store. Kristen's parents take her there just to look around and see all the animals. Definitely something that I will add to our rotation of activities when we get home.
The girls loved the store, they had dogs, lots of birds, turtles, snakes, frogs and lots of different fish. Charis liked the birds the best, but I think Kristen loved the fish.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Fun with Friends

On Saturday, both Kris and I had to work, so Charis spent the day with the Brown family. Chase and Meagan agreed to watch Charis. I think that Elias was happy to have a playmate for the day. They played cars, went to a birthday party, rode on the four-wheeler together, and lots of other fun things. Charis always has lots of fun with Elias and never wants to leave. Thanks for the great day!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Color Hunt and playing Ball

We decided to have a little family time. Snack and drinks on the porch. Then we did a color hunt with Charis in the yard. Charis had lots of fun! We should do color hunts everywhere. Then Kris and Charis played ball in our new backyard.

Easter

On Charis' last day at school, they celebrated Easter (which worked well for us since I had to work on Easter). The kids all took a basket and plastic eggs filled with stickers or candy. The teachers hid the eggs and then the kids had an egg hunt.Kris got Charis some bunny ears. She loved them and wanted to wear them all day. Charis found lots of eggs with stickers and a few with candy. She also practiced how to hop like a bunny a lot, they must have been doing that at school. She had a great day and we loved seeing her so happy.

Last Day at School

Charis' last day at her first school. Both Kris and I went pick her up. We took her teachers, Ms. Lettie, Ms. Janet, & Ms. Marie flowers - bluebonnets. We also brought Charis flowers. Her teachers all hugged her goodbye and gave her raisins and playdoh. All of the kids hugged her goodbye too. She is going to miss them. But we are going to have a great summer with her all to ourselves.