Thanksgiving cookies

The girls decorated cookies the day after Thanksgiving with Oma again this year.  They actually did it after Kelly and I had left and it was a little less structured than it might have been if I were home.  They had fun though!
 

Kayden sampling a mini-cupcake paper full of sprinkles before starting her work.

Hard at work frosting cookies.

A little for the cookie, a little for the decorator.

We like sprinkles at this house.

Decorating another with purple - her favorite color.

Kayden getting in on the sampling of the frosting.

More frosting samples.

Frosting? Sprinkles?  Who knows but it looks good!

Straight for the sprinkles container now.

And now those sprinkles are on the floor.

Smiling in front of their work.

Finished product.

Sampling cookie plus the frosting and sprinkles they'd already sampled.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Aunt Alice's cabin in Oklahoma to celebrate.  The girls had a really good time, which I'll admit shocked me.  Keeley had a sinus infection, Kayden had walking pneumonia, and it was wet and freezing - in addition to it being people overload!  I thought that with the illness, yucky weather, and shy kids amidst all the family craziness that we would have a rough day.  They were totally fine and loving it, until we had to leave. At which point Keeley through a major fit and kept saying "I'm not going" while making a pouting face and crossing her arms.  Unfortunately, I did a horrible job getting pictures of the girls and Kelly only got two.  Neither shows Keeley's face though.

Here you see Kayden playing the recorder.  SO annoying.  I'm not looking forward to those in elementary school!

And here we have a picture of Kayden's crazy hair!  And Keeley working in the kitchen.  The girls had tea parties for their babies, played the recorder, and then pretended to iron after Grandma explained what the ironing board was.  I think they have only seen an iron at our house maybe 5 times in their lives!

Lab Puppy

Kayden has been very busy lately.  In less than 24 hours, she tore apart her foam pillow in her room before she got up in the morning, destroyed my make-up while I was helping Keeley in the bathroom, "wrote her name" on the carpet in 4 different colors, and dismantled a lamp in her room during nap time - wires and all

When I was telling Mom about it, she told me that Kayden was like a lab puppy - adorably cute but too smart to be left alone.  I have to say I agree.  It is really difficult to be mad at that cute little face, bouncy curls, and emphatic head nod!

Plus One

We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting again!  Baby Culhane should be arriving mid-May 2011.  It has been a bit of a rough start and so we chose to wait to tell the girls until my first trimester screen at 11 weeks.  Everything looked great so we told them at dinner a few weeks ago.  They were both very excited.  Keeley's immediate reaction was, "Can we name him Baby Kendrick?"  I told her that we didn't know if we were going to have a boy or girl so we couldn't pick a name yet. Her response was, "But we don't have a boy.  We only have girls."  Then she looked and noticed Kelly so she clarified, "We don't have a boy kiddo, only girls kiddos, so we need a boy kiddo."  I've tried to explain it doesn't work that way and that we don't get to choose but she is having none of that.  Hopefully we have a boy or we will have one really angry big sister! 

After we got past the gender issue a little, the girls wanted to talk about how big the baby was so I got out this awesome magazine I have that shows intra-uterine pictures of the baby at all stages.  I showed them what our baby looked like and then we had to walk through all the stages.  Then we looked at all the pictures of the days they were born.  They really enjoyed it and are telling everyone about the new baby.

Kayden is really excited.  She especially thought it was fun that she was going to get to be a big sister and a little sister just like Oma is.  The next day at school when I was picking her up, her teacher said, "Kayden told us all about the baby today."  Kayden immediately popped out of her seat and looked at my stomach and said, "is the baby out of your tummy yet, Mom?"  Needless to say, she's having a little bit of a more challenging time understanding the wait time.

Keeley also took a magazine to school the next day for show and share to tell her class just how big the baby is right now.  She informed me later that, when she grows up, she is going to marry Wesley and they are going to make a baby.  She's really intent on this marrying Wesley thing!

Bubbles

For the most part, I'm pretty picky about what the girls bathe in.  The cleaning products and "bubble" baths we use are pretty natural.  I feel good about that and I know that it is good for their skin.  The down side is that it isn't very bubbly.  The other day I purchased some bath paints that were not the type of product I normally purchase.  As I was letting the girls play with them, I read that the paints could be used as body soap too. I figured that meant they would suds a little bit.  I was way off.  We had crazy amounts of suds in the bathtub and the girls loved it!!

Surgery

Grosspapa is having heart surgery on Monday.  He is having a valve replacement and double by-pass.  We told the girls that the reason we went to Houston this week was to see him before surgery since it will be a long time before he is well enough to come up to see us.  Today while driving in the car, Kayden remembered the surgery and asked when it was.  I told her and then this conversation ensued with sister:


Keeley:  "He's having surgery on his heart."
Me: "Yes.  It isn't working very well so the doctors are going to fix it."
Keeley: "Where is your heart?"
Me:  "It is in your chest.  I can show you when we stop and you can feel it beating."
Keeley: "So they are going to fix his heart."
Me: "Yes."
Keeley: "How will they do that?"
Me: "The doctors will give him some medicine so he goes to sleep and some medicine so he doesn't hurt and then they will work on his heart."
Keeley: "But how will they get to it?"
Me: "Well, they'll have to cut him"
Keeley:  (horrified gasp) "But that will hurt."
Me: "Yes, it will hurt like when you fall down and get cuts, but they will give him medicine so he doesn't hurt."
Keeley: "How will they cut him?"
Me:  "Well, they'll use an instrument called a scalpel."
Keeley: "But that will hurt.  Grossmama will have to give him lots of hugs and kisses."

I learned two things through this conversation:
1. Answering kids questions honestly and simply doesn't always prevent you from having to get to details you weren't anticipating having to share.
2. Hugs and kisses are better than any medicine the doctor can give you.

Birthday party and Not enough

Keeley told me the other day that she doesn't like it when people sing "Happy Birthday" to her because it is too loud in her ears.  I told her that was fine and that we didn't have to sing that at her birthday.  The next morning she said, "When I have my birthday, I want to have it at the house.  That way not too many people will come and it won't be too loud in my ears." I told her that was fine and then asked who she'd like to have come to her party.  She replied, "Umm, Grandma and Oma, because I really love them."  When I asked if she'd like to have friends she said, "Nope.  Just Grandma and Oma."  So, friends, don't get your feelings hurt if you don't get invited to a 4 year old birthday party in March next year!

Yesterday morning Kayden kept leaning all the way across the table and I got onto her.  She started to get a very sad face and told me that I hurt her feelings.  I told her that I was sorry I hurt her feelings but that she wasn't listening and she was being dangerous at the table.  Keeley, sitting across the table eating her breakfast, looked at me and said, "Mom, sometimes 'sorry' is not enough.  You need to give her a hug!"