it's like the end of an era...

a few years ago i was at the library and picked up a book called "remember" by karen kingsbury. i fell in love with it right away. it was the 2nd in a series, so ordered the rest of the "redemption series" at the library. oh my gosh, such good books! i fell in love with the baxter family. i was so sad to end the series. then i found out she had another series, the "firstborn series" that moved on to some new characters but involved the baxters. and then she continued it again in another 5 book series, the "sunrise series".

i just picked up the last book of the last series yesterday. i don't want to read it too quickly, knowing this is truly the end of the baxter family. seriously, it's the kind of book that you really feel like these people are real. i'm always amazed with writers than can draw you in like that. michael thinks i'm such a dork, that i get so involved with a fictional family.

so, i'm off to read my last book.

michael in kenya...

i just talked to michael for a little bit on ichat. he's doing great and loving it there. he just blogged some amazing images from his day yesterday. the internet is a little slow loading for him but hopefully he will have time to post again.

check it out: www.mnpblog.com

just like old times...

back when we lived in houston we had a big backyard. penny LOVED the trees and would bark at the squirrels all day long. she loved it out there. michael's brother jeff lived with us for a few months after college. he brought a couch with him with all of his stuff. the plan was it was going to go in the studio, but it didn't fit through the door. and we only had one living room area so we couldn't add it to that area. so, we just stuck it on the deck in the backyard. the dogs loved it, they had a nice comfy place to sleep while we were at work. well, what once was their nice place to sleep became their chew toy while we were at work. they destroyed the couch. it was in pieces throughout the yard. jeff didn't feel the need to take it with him when he moved out and left me with the chore of taking care of the mess. my mom came for makenzie's birth and we finally cleaned it all up and got rid of it.

all that to say, this is one of my favorite pictures of penny. she's sitting on remnants of foam from the destroyed couch, her little spot to stare at the tree and be ready to chase the squirrels.



well, we don't have a big yard for penny to chase squirrels but she seems very happy in what we do have. she spends alot of time outside at night just staring at the little tree and bushes. we recently saw a mouse run by one night, i'm sure that's what she is after.

well, the other night she was sitting on her bed looking out the door. it made me think of the picture of her in houston. on the lookout for something to chase in our little side patio.

a picnic in the park...

makenzie keeps talking about how she wants to have a picnic with her friends. she has pretend picnics all the time in the house or in the backyard with her stuffed animals. with michael gone in kenya its just the two of us for now. i was trying to think of something fun to do tonight and asked her if she wanted to go to the park and have a picnic. she was so excited and ran got the blanket and her red basket that goes with her kitchen. since i don't have a real picnic basket that's what we used. :) we went to a different park tonight, one with swings. she hasn't swung in so long, so had a blast. she kept thanking me and telling me it was such a perfect night for a picnic. it was quite cute. :)

and finally...preschool!!

well since makenzie was sick and missed her first day last week, yesterday was her first day of preschool. it wasn't quite as normal because we were actually in carlsbad camping with some friends for a couple of days. so we played on the beach all day monday, slept in a tent that night and got up an extra hour early to head to her first day of pre-k. and like any good mom i fed her breakfast before school - she started off her day with starbucks...a breakfast sandwich and some of my frappachino. :)

she seemed to really like her day. at first when i picked her up and asked her what she did, she said she couldn't remember. i told her that was not going to be what she told me after school and had to tell me about her day. so, she finally started talking. she told me they talked about creation and how God made the hills and the fish, along with hand motions. she told me about how she made a man, i'm assuming it maybe was related to adam? she said they played on the playground and had a snack and read a story. and then a while later she remembered that she got 2 stickers for being a good listener and got to put it on her sticker chart. then she got excited telling me about getting a whole row of stickers means she gets a prize. so, overall sounds like a pretty good day!

new shoes...

so you may have noticed that makenzie is actually wearing shoes in the last 2 pictures. the girl has been wearing only flip flops since like february (except for the two weddings she was in) and needed some shoes for school. no flip flops allowed at school meant we had to go shoe shopping!!

maybe since all i wear is flip flops too means i need to go shopping too!

here are the cute new shoes we picked out for her....

monkey girl...

WOW!!! We are at the park right now and makenzie just made it across the monkey bars all by herself!! I usually have to have a hand on her just to give her confidence but I was just sitting on the bench watching and she did it. She was so proud :) So she did again so I could take a picture.

my little golfer...

michael came home with a set of golf clubs for makenzie today. and then he took her to the driving range to practice. she was so excited to play golf with daddy and asked if he was her coach. it was so cute.

how cute is this and pretty good form too!!

no first day of preschool...

sad day here...makenzie missed her first day of preschool. she was up in the night from 4-7am throwing up. fun fun. when it first happened at 4:00 i thought maybe she would be fine to still go. but when it went on for 3 hours and she wasn't sleeping in between i knew she wouldn't make it there today. she was really disappointed, she's been looking forward to thursday all week. sad :(

instead of her all ready for school here she is not feeling good...