A Night Out!

Tonight was DATE NIGHT! We had tickets to the Chamber of Commerce annual Awe$om Auction that we attended for work. It was a fun filled night and a reason to get dressed up...the theme was "It's All About the BLING!"

Chris pulled out an old leisure suit costume that I have NEVER seen in all the years that we have been together! It was great and we added some long gold chains courtesy of the mother-in-law. Britt got to re-use a bridesmaid dress so that was a bonus!

All in all it was a fun night dressing up, having adult interaction and some wonderful food and drinks!

Friday Night FUN!

Friday night fun and pizza with the Cushmans! Karsten was so excited to see Dawson and Mommy and Daddy were looking forward to hang out with Nicci and Levi. The best was snuggle time with Millie Lou too! Karsten and Dawson decided to be EXTRA goofy as she sat in Millie's car seat and sucked on her binkie. Dawson decided to put on Karsten's snow white high heels and walk around sporting those and his camo fleece pants...what a fashion statement! FUN all around and a great night!

Daws decided to help K by putting the shade down on her! Daws putting on the heels-they were a bit tricky to get on.

The fashion statement!

HUGS for friends

Sweet Millie Lou

She LOVES her mommy!

Just precious.

Skyping is the Best!

With all of the various technology out these days, one of our favorites has to be SKYPE! We love it as it allows us to stay in touch with our family out of town. It is especially nice for Great Grandpa and Grandma to watch Karsten grow "real time". Karsten got a package in the mail for Easter so we decided to open it live-what fun! You can see Great Grandpa and Grandma watching intently as Karsten opened her present. Then you can see Karsten modeling her new duds for them (with her other clothes still on!).

A bit of wacky hair to go with it!

She was showing how she could spin like a ballerina.

Artwork on Display

In honor of National Library Week, many of the area preschools had their artwork on display at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. The various walls of the children's area were splashed with color of the various artwork of little ones.

Karsten's art medium was collage.

The Observant Child

It's a good thing Karsten was so observant this morning. As we were putting her jacket on to walk out the door she looked at me and said, "Mommy, why you wear your slippies"? Little did I realize that I was about to head off to work in a dress and my SLIPPERS! And, she also asked me yesterday "Mommy, what happened" pointing to my toes? She had to bring attention to my one toe nail that the polish had come off of that was barely poking out of my peep toed high heels! Leave it to a 2 year old to make you feel so unkempt!!!

Playing with Grandpa

Last year Karsten was gifted a black pair of rubber muckin' boots, just like Mommy and Daddy have. We tried to get her to wear them last summer, but they were a bit too big. Well she fits into them perfectly now and LOVES to wear them with any and everything! We go to Target, the grocery store, around the house, outside, on the playground at school, everywhere in them. The other night after dinner she was intently talking with Grandpa about her boots. In such Karsten fashion and with the encouragement of Grandpa, she started putting her Disney stickers on her boots :-) What a crack up! You may be able to see Minnie Mouse on the toes of her right boot.

The Park

Does anything spell FUN more than P-A-R-K??? These are shots from our many trips to the awesome playground at the Surprise park near Grandma and Grandpa's AZ house. The slides and swings are favorites~!

A visit to the Aquarium and Zoo

We were very excited to find a great zoo and aquarium close to Grandma and Grandpa's house and not a hour across the city. We arrived at the zoo early so we could see the animals out and about before it got too hot, and spent the morning frolicking among the animals. We then went home for lunch and a nap, but Karsten had other plans. She fell asleep in the car no more than 5 minutes from the house and was so excited about heading back to the aquarium after nap time that she never took a nap! After listening to her talk to herself for an hour in bed, we decided it was time to get up and head back to see the marine life! This is where she kept saying that she could see NEMO~

Oh, the sting rays were a HIT-until they came close by and then K would quickly pull her hand out of the water. She did NOT want to touch the slimy skin on them~ Daddy bought some fish food to bring them closer and he darn near got a finger sucked off when the sting ray got a hold of him!!!

K and Grandma talking to the fishies

K touching the starfish

Ohhh, look at those Mommy!

Loving every minute at the zoo! Nice shades, ladies :-)

"Mommy, can I go pay (play with them)"

Simply AMAZING seeing these huge animals in person. There was a spunky young one that was running all around and kicking up its hoofs all over. It ran laps around the grassy area, thru the barn house and then tried to rile its friends up to play!

The big white tigers

Zebras were a hit too~

Karsten is an animal lover!!! She loves reading about all kinds of animals at home so we knew the zoo and aquarium were going to be a highlight of the trip. As expected, Karsten was fearless and had a GREAT time. Watching Karsten have such a wonderful time made the visit to the zoo that much more enjoyable for Grandma, Daddy and Mommy! Next stop when she is a bit older, the San Diego Zoo!

Go Cubs Go!!!

Gramps took this picture from the cheap seats at the baseball game in Surprise with his IPhone- AMAZING sunset, perfect weather and wonderful company to watch a ballgame!

This is a picture of Mommy (with her cute Cubs hat) tickling Karsten's tickle bone. K asked Mommy what her collar bone was as it was sticking out, so Mommy showed her, touched it and Karsten started laughing. K now calls it her tickle bone!

Picture from our seats at HoHoKam in Mesa watching the Cubs vs Rockies. Thanks again Dad for using your connections to get us these tickets and ball signed by the Cubs team!

Our strong-willed and determined child

In the back yard of Grandma and Grandpa's house the yard is covered in coarse and jagged small rocks, as seen in the picture. There is about 20 feet between the bench you see Karsten sitting on and the covered patio where we were eating dinner. Karsten was playing on the bench with her baby before it was time to come sit down and eat dinner. After she finished her dinner she took her shoes off...the only problem was in order to get back she would have to walk on the rocks barefoot to get to her baby on the bench. Daddy told Karsten to come back and put her shoes on as it was going to hurt her feet (as it hurts Daddy's to walk on the rocks barefoot) to get back over to the bench. Karsten took a step on the rocks and immediately backed off , winced a bit and shrugged her shoulders. Daddy told her again to come put shoes on so the rocks wouldn't hurt her feet. She again decided to take another step onto the rocks, winced a little, took another step, and then another and another all the way to the bench. She got up on the bench, looked at us and said "Hoorraaayyy". A bit defiant....maybe. Strong-willed and determined...ABSOLUTELY!