Pink Sparkly fingers & toes

For the past few months, Kendall has been constantly noticing (and commenting complimentary) on painted fingernails & toe nails ... and now, wanting her own fingers & toes to be "pretty and pink and sparkly" as she puts it.

She is a great balance of all-things kid ... enjoys sports, watching with her Daddy (and me) and playing them as well (much to her Daddy's happiness), likes to help Daddy fix things, work in our flowerbeds, looking for & playing with earthworms, insects and snakes ... BUT (and I am sooo thankful for this) she is my girly-girl too ... loving to play & dress-up, asks to have her "crazy hair" fixed & asks to wear big bows, loooooves shoes (and notices other ladies' & girls' shoes), compliments others' cute outfits & cute babies and all other things girl.  Our big girl loooooves pink and ALL things sparkly ... the more glitter & sparkle, the better, in her opinion!

So, when she opened up the Minnie Mouse pink glitter nail polish at her party from Aunt Rachel (and Uncle Mike, Mason & Tucker), she could hardly wait to get it on all of her fingers & toes!  After her bath tonight, I gave her a tiny-mini-medi & pedi and she could not have been more excited as she watched her fingers & toes turn light pink & sparkly for the 1st time.

 

 

She sat so still, waiting patiently for them to dry so she could touch her sparkly nails.  She talked about how she would show them to her teachers and friends at school tomorrow ... I think she's a bit excited!  Oh the fun little things that make a sweet little girl happy!  It's a happy-day-before her big birthday!

Chimpanzee @ the Movies

Over this past summer, we went to see the re-vamped Disney's The Lion King at the movie theater ... it was there as one of the new movie previews that we first laid eyes on the cutest little chimpanzee that we'd ever seen! This sweet little chimp was in a documentary movie by DisneyNature and was to come out this fall. Kendall loooooves monkeys so we put it on our must-go-see with Kendall movie list (which is extremely short!) ... but it never came out during the fall. Finally, we started hearing about it again this spring ... the movie was coming out at the end of April. That was perfect timing for Kendall's birthday, so our family went this afternoon of her birthday weekend. And she was soooo excited! {Excited to see the monkeys AND excited to get some popcorn at the movies!}

 

 

She looooved the movie ... it was cute & sweet, educational, funny (thanks to the narration by Tim Allen "Tim the Tool Man"), and had some sad moments, too (but those were over her head, so she didn't really pick up on those) ... and has a sweet ending.  (She had to pose with the huge Oscar the chimp movie poster once she saw it!)  We enjoyed our family fun afternoon together! 

Happy Birthday weekend to our own {nearly} 3 year old monkey-girl!

a Rangers game with cousins

Beginning Kendall's happy birthday weekend early, Uncle Mike & Aunt Rachel, Mason and Tucker came in today to join us for the Texas Rangers baseball game! Let's Go Rangers!

Aunt Rachel surprised Kendall with a special Rangers treat ... Rangers sparkly flip flops (aka flop flops, per Kendall).  She found these at Target in her quest for Rangers gear for her & the boys and thought Kendall might like some sparkly flip flops, too.  Kendall looooves them and was so excited to wear them to the game!

 

Kendall & Mommy rode with them, meeting Daddy at the game ... we stopped along the way for dinner at one of Uncle Mike's favorites Buffalo Wild Wings ... the cousins were soooo excited about the big game & getting to be together!

 

 

 

my happy little family at the ballpark ... Go Rangers!

We got to the ballpark in time to see lots of warm-ups ... our awesome catcher (& 1st baseman) Mike Napoli warmed up with pitcher Matt Harrison directly in front of us!

 

 

Getting all settled in our seats and watching warm-ups ... everyone was so excited to be there watching the Rangers!

 

the game ... Michael Young 1st baseman & Ian Kinsler 2nd baseman ... 2 of our favorite players!

David Murphy  left fielder and Josh Hamilton  center fielder ... our favorite players!

Daddy shared one of his baseball traditions with Kendall ... she learned to eat sunflower seeds for the 1st time.

We cheered, chanted, clapped & hollered for the Rangers throughout the entire game ... especially in the last few innings for a come back rally!  In the 5th inning, we witnessed a huge 2-run Josh Hamilton home run that looked as though it was coming straight to us, but ended up landing in the section next to us! Then in the 6th inning, David Murphy hit a home run into our right field, so it came really close to us, too!  In the 8th, Elvis Andrus hit 11 foul balls, including one that came within inches just out of the foul pole very near where we were sitting ... but in the end, we lost the game to the Tampa Bay Rays 8 - 4.  We were all a bit sad about it, since the Rangers usually win ... being back to back American League Champions!  

After the game, the Rangers put on a fantastic fireworks show ... it's something they do each Friday night ... and although it was really late, Kendall was sooo excited to see the fireworks.  (She's been waiting all year for the 4th of July fireworks to come again!)

 

 

 

Fun game with family (and besides losing), it was a great way to start celebrating Kendall's big 3rd happy birthday weekend!  We can't wait to go to our next Rangers game!

the Yellow table

Last August, my friend Angela (Kendall calls her Angel!) told me about her preschool Mom's group she had joined last semester and invited me to join her. It sounded fun ... meeting some other Christian Mommys with toddlers and preschoolers every other Monday for 2 hours, doing fun craft projects, reading & discussing a book each semester and listening to some fabulous speakers about things relevant to us & our stage of life ... it sounded fun & it sure has been! I'm so happy she invited me to join her! I've met some super sweet Mommys, gotten to hang out with Angela more (and our kids love that too!), picked up some yummy breakfast recipes, and just enjoyed some Mommy time with other Christian Mommys ... all while Kendall is downstairs in her own class getting to play, make crafts and play some more!

Each Mom is placed at a table for the year ... each table has a "Mentor Mom" ... we've been the Yellow table this year and our Mentor Mom is the BEST! Her name is Barbie ... she is THE sweetest woman I think I've ever met! She has a grown, married daughter and an adopted daughter who is in high school. Barbie is so sweet, has a great heart for the Lord, has an amazing way of dispensing wisdom and is loved by all! She is just that kind of a woman! She just told us that she & her family will be moving to Tennessee in June ... and we are soooo sad (selfishly) and will miss her greatly! (I was planning on asking to be put at Barbie's table for this next year ... that's how much I like her!)

This year's theme (and our t-shirt) is:  Courageous Women ... Doing Life Together.  Proverbs 17:17 ... which reads:  A Friend loves at all times.  During our fall semester we read & discussed a book about friendships ... it was good, but this spring semester we have been working our way through a fabulous book called Mothers of the Bible Speak to Mothers of Today.  It's been awesome as it goes through Mothers in the Bible, bringing out new thoughts, perspectives & insights on them, what they dealt with, worked through, their successes & failures ... and what we can learn from them.  It's 15 chapters, 15 Mothers that I've learned from ... Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel & Leah, Jochebed, Hannah, Rizpah, Bathsheba, the Widow of Zarephath, Elizabeth, the Canaanite Woman, Salome, Eunice & Lois, the Proverbs 31 Woman and Mary.  It's really been a great semester!

our Yellow table girls ... Kayla (who is expecting in August), Reagan, Barbie, me, Angela and Meredith (who is in charge of Mom's Touch & a children's minister at NRHBC).  (There were 4 other table members not here, so I hope to remember to take another picture next week with them!)

 

After Mom's Touch, Angela & I normally meet up for lunch at Chick Fil A (also known as Chicka Fil A by Kendall) so the kids can play together ... and they all love that!

Today was such a nice day, we decided to take our lunch to a nearby park ... it was a beautiful day out! The last few weeks another one of Angela's friends has been joining us ... Corrie and her son Luke, and daughter Lilly, with Ryllie

 

Angela and Lyndon

 

my sweet pea & me

 

Playing at the park ... sliding, one of Kendall's most favorite things to do!

 

 

 

We only have one more time to meet, then we will break for the summer and start back up in September ... I already can't wait!  Happy Monday!

a 1st Camp Out adventure

Daddy & Kendall embarked on their 1st camping out experience this weekend!  The Daddys of our small group planned the entire camping trip for the kids and them ... no Mommys.  (Which was great with me ... I had planned a fun girls weekend with Christi instead!)  Ash was very excited, since he loves camping and we hardly, like basically never, go!  There were several camping essentials he had to get for the big weekend.  With fishing practice complete and packing the truck with all their camping gear, the Daddy/Daughter pair were ready for their 1st camping experience!  Kendall loved the fact that she was going to be riding in Daddy's new red truck ... she loves his truck ... she tells him often "Daddy, your big red truck is pretty."  and "I really like your big red truck, Daddy." She hardly gets to ride in it (since we have one car seat and it's in our SUV), so she was really excited about the drive.  I really don't think she really knew too much of what to expect about a camping trip anyway ... her knowledge of camping is based mostly on the couple of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse camping or fishing episodes that she's seen!  HA!

Ready to go!  (First stop, Landon Massey's 3rd birthday party ... this is the first present for a friend's birthday that she has picked out ... and was proud to give him ... she could hardly wait!  They had a great time playing at the Southlake playscape & celebrating Landon ... and then they were off to the camp grounds!)
They decided to try out a new camp grounds for the group this year ... and drove out just north of Denton to Ray Roberts State Park. There were 9 Daddys, each of them pairing up to share the 5 camp spots near the lake. Since all of small group families have several children, most of the Dads wait until their kids are 4 before they go ... so Kendall was the youngest one, being 2 (just a few weeks from turning 3), but she loves all the kids so she had a great time hanging out with all of them.

 

After setting up camp ... a couple of times, due to the severe wind conditions & tornado storms that were approaching, they all went fishing! (Apparently, most of the Dads decided not to stay the night as the storms were to hit that night. Ash was planning to stick it out, watch the weather and hope it wasn't going to be as bad as the weather channels were saying ... but after putting up the tent once, having it blow down immediately, putting up the tent a second time, having it blow down again and this time breaking the tent poles, he decided they would be coming home after the evening camp fire! Poor guy ... I think between tent fiasco and many, many trips to the bathroom and back to the truck for bathroom breaks for Kendall, sleeping at home was the best idea!)  

Off to the Kids Fishing Pond ... they were told the pond had not been stocked in quite a while so they probably wouldn't catch anything ...

 

Kendall's 1st fishing experience ...

 

Pretty soon, Andrew Ridgell (4.5 years old) catches a fish!  Joe Don & Andrew and their catfish

 

And then, Kendall catches her 1st fish!  First time fishing, First fish ... she's going to think you will always catch something at this rate!  All the kids ran over to her as they were reeling it in ... chanting & cheering her on ... Ash said it was so sweet, although Kendall just didn't know what was quite happening or what to expect.  She did want to touch it and later gave me a full description of the smooth, slimy big fish that she had caught!  She has been so excited about catching that fish ... she's been telling complete strangers all about it!

 

Then Andrew caught another fish ... a much smaller one this time.  I had to laugh at this picture ... since Ash took all the pictures and was showing them to me once they got home, he got to this one of Joe Don and I just laughed out loud.  This fish was so small and he is posing so proudly with it ... I just had to add it to the blog!  I love Joe Don ... and so does everyone else ... I've known him since high school and I'm so proud of him, who he has become and his sweet, sweet wife Jamie & family!  This picture just cracks me up!

 

 

 

Adam, Chris and Joe Don with some of the kids

 

Walking back to camp ... Ash said that Jillian (who's nearly 7) was so sweet to Kendall and they held hands on the way back to camp.  She is always sweet to Kendall ... she is a great big sister ... and she just played with & took care of Kendall, who was the youngest & smallest one there.  So sweet ... melts my heart!

 

Chris and his many fishing pole ... girly pink ones at that!  What a good Daddy!

 

At the main camp site ... all the families gathered for dinner and a camp fire and roasting marshmallows for s'mores!

 

 

Biggest marshmallow ever!  After roasting it on the camp fire, Kendall didn't want to make a s'more ... just wanted to eat chocolate ... as she told me!

 

After the camp fire, all the families packed up except for 2 ... Rustin & Chaz.  They were secured in the trees and were going to try to stick it out.  All in all, despite the weather, despite the broken tent, despite the shorten trip, it was still a fun time out at the state park and a successful 1st fishing experience, with a bunch of fun Daddys and their kids!  Daddy is already planning our next camping adventure ... this time Mommy is invited ... oh dear!

Fishing 101

In exciting preparation for our small group's Daddys & Kids camping trip, Daddy bought Kendall her 1st fishing pole! When he first mentioned she was getting a fishing pole, she immediately said "a pink one!" Oh this girly girl does love her pink ... and that's perfect for this happy mommy! Daddy found the perfect fishing pole for her ... a Disney Princess pink one, just her size. He (and she) could hardly wait to get it out of the package, get it set up and start using it! They took it out to our backyard to practice the art of fishing ... in the pool. 

Here's the proud new owner of her first pink fishing pole ... and her Daddy who proudly bought it for her!

 

Learning the parts of the fishing pole and how it works ... she was a great student but was quickly ready to try this fishing-thing out for herself ...

 

Turn to cast it ...

 

And reel it ...

 

And keep reeling it in ... until ...

 

You excitedly catch a fish!  (It's exciting ... even if the fish is plastic and is already hooked on the line before it's even cast!)

 

our Little Miss Fisher-Girl with her Proud Fisher-Daddy!

They had a couple of successful evening pool-side fishing outings before their first big Camp Out adventure ... you know what they say ... Practice Makes Perfect!