A Great Post

There is a blog that I love to read and she just recently wrote one of the best posts on this VERY important election that is upon us. She is a Republican (as am I), an educated Republican. I have read a lot of people's opinions and listened to a lot of opinions about McCain and Obama over the last few months and this is one of the best posts I have seen. It doesn't bash Obama (in fact his name is never mentioned) and it doesn't try to make claims that McCain is perfect. Please take some time to read this post whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

http://occasionallyfunny.blogspot.com/2008/10/get-out-and-vote.html

I voted yesterday and I hope that you will vote too. This seems to be one of the most important elections of my lifetime. I am not sure if I feel that way because I think more long term now that I have a kiddo that will have to live with the repercussions of our choices or just because I am getting older.

The Big Sister Bear

We took Claire to Build a Bear tonight to make her big sister bear. She was so excited and we loved sharing this moment with her. I am really starting to appreciate every memory we make with just her, they are so special. I honestly don't think she could have been any cuter.Picking out the perfect bear. It has just a hint of pink, perfect for our little princess.She loved picking this special heart to go inside the bear. She kissed it, hugged it, and danced with it.She decided that she would rather stand closer to her daddy than step on the pedal to fill the bear with fluff. It was a little too loud for her.

Placing the cute gingham heart in the perfect place inside the bear.

Waiting patiently for her bear to be all sewn up. She was really so excited. I LOVED it!!

Giving her bear its first bath. I am hoping that she never tries this in our tub at home.

The big moment of naming her bear. I was a little surprised at the name she chose all on her own- Baby, just Baby. How cute is that?!?!

She put Baby in her house and headed down to have some pictures taken in her "balleringa" costume to send to her grandparents.

She pretty much stole the show walking down the mall hall.

Making special memories with Claire is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. I love the age she is at and that she really gets excited about things like this.

2 Year Old Entertainment

Claire loves her Little People! she likes to find little places for them all over the house. The button dents on our ottoman make perfect chairs for them. She was so proud of herself.

What could possibly be so funny to Miss Claire?

Making Minnie Mouse kiss the baby over and over and over. My belly button has never been so interactive with anyone or anything until the last few weeks. Claire uses it to talk to the baby and play with the baby many times throughout the day. It is hilarious!

Outside Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon was so nice. We hung out in the front yard for a few hours. Allie spent a lot of the time taking some cool pictures, Allan and Jack played catch for quite a while, and at one point most everyone was either digging in the garden looking for bugs or recovering marigold seeds to plant another day. I laid on the warm driveway and read my People magazine and played traffic cop making sure the kids didn't get hit by oncoming traffic. The little ones learned to run for the closest patch of grass everytime I yelled "car". It was just such a nice peaceful time and I loved that that is how our time of having the Powell kids over came to an end. We really enjoyed having them here.

My niece is almost 12 and she is turning into one of the greatest tweens I have ever been around. She is beautiful as you can see in the picture above, that beauty runs both inside and out. She was the queen bee when it came to kids in this family for a long time and as our family grows and we all start having our own kids life has changed a bit for all of us. She has handled the change with grace. Allie you are one special kid, I love you SO much!!! Thanks for hanging out with us the last few days.

I loved these pictures that Allie took of my little princess roughing it with the boys. She wore her beautiful tutu and then played catch, dug in the dirt (shw literally had dirt coming out of her nose), and played with a green bug for a while. The contrast of the guys with their football shirts on and her in all pink is too cute!

Pics for Amy

Thought that you might want to see a couple of pictures of your kiddos. We are having fun, everyone is doing great. All of the plans you made are going smoothly, thanks for setting up help for me. I am loving spending so much time with your three terrific kids!!! Thank you for trusting me with them!

Cooper and Claire were hilarious in the bath tub last night. This picture just cracked me up. They sang songs. He tried to teach her "Lovebug". He is just a happy kid and I love him like crazy!

Jackson must have had a really good time at his sleepover the night before, this is how we found him after Allan and I did bedtime with the little kids. He barely moved all night (rare for him). He had been really excited about watching the World Series with Allan, but the excitement just wasn't enough to keep his eyes open.

This is my proudest picture of the trip so far, they are even all smiling. I made them take a picture before we left to take Allie to school this morning. I was so proud of myself for having them all dressed, fed, and out the door on time. Allie got to school with one minute to spare (literally). We even studied for both her tests on the drive there. She will do great on them I am sure.

We are praying for you guys while you are in CO. I hate that you had to head out there under these circumstances. Your kids are doing great, but I think they miss you and Corey. Cooper said he wants to go back to his "new house" soon and sleep in the bed he built. I told him you would be home tomorrow and he said "that's great!". We love you!!!!

Just in Case You Haven't Heard...

That is right folks, the Kavalich clan is growing again. We found out that I am pregnant two weeks ago and we are so excited. The original plan was to keep it somewhat quite until my first ultrasound, but how do you keep this kind of news to yourself? After telling our family and some of our closest friends the news kept slowly leaking out of our circle and so we decided to just go for it and make the big announcement. I am almost six weeks along which means that I am due mid June (my very educated guess is June 19th), we will know for sure after the first sonogram which is just a little over a week away.
As most of you know this baby is something we have wanted for quite a while now. We were beginning to get a little discouraged that it was taking so long to get pregnant. It just seems like after you have one kid your body should know how to do this. Month number ten was our lucky month and our family budget will finally stop keeping Clear Blue Easy in business for a while.
Claire is seriously over the moon about the baby in my tummy. When we first told her she said "I want the baby to come run with me on Thursday". I promised her that there will be a Thursday that this baby will run with her (it just might be a couple of years away) she can hardly wait. I am really shocked how much she gets it. She thinks that my belly button is the portal to the baby. Everyday she lifts my shirt and kisses the baby, tells the baby secrets and shockingly the baby tells her secrets too. I think that one of my favorite things she says while rubbing my tummy "I just love her so much", melts my heart every stinkin' time. She is confident that we will call this little one Baby Grace. That's right, she is convinced that the baby is a girl.
We are already praying for a safe pregnancy and delivery. The doctor says there are a few unknowns left over from my tricky delivery with Claire so we will be watching the baby's growth pretty closely. We are praying for a very healthy baby! Also we are praying that Claire's enthusiasm will continue towards this baby and that our little princess will transition into sharing her kingdom very gracefully. Feel free to pray with us.

We are super excited and can hardly wait to know if this nugget is a boy or a girl and what he/she will look like. It is a little crazy to think that we are headed down this road again, it will be an adventure I am sure. I am sure that over the next eight and half months there will be quite a few updates as we prepare for Kav Kid #2.

***For those of you who were wondering, the "24" post was a special note to my grandparents telling them I was pregnant. This baby is their 24th great grandkid.

"Pooping Out of My Lips and Tooting Water"

***Potty Talk Ahead...you have been warned***

Claire woke up screaming early this morning and when Allan brought her to sleep in our bed I noticed that her Pjs where crusty and her hair smelled really bad.  She had thrown up all over her bed and rolled around in it apparently (anyone know how to wash bumper pads?).  I gave her TWO warm baths because during the first one she said "I pooped out of my lips mom" (translation: she threw up a little more).  Once she was all clean and dressed we came downstairs to eat toast and have something to drink and it wasn't long before there was a rumble in her diaper.  She just laughed and said "I tooting water mom".  I won't go into to much detail here, but let me say I have never experienced a diaper like that ever.

She is acting totally fine, doesn't have fever, and hasn't had any more "episodes" yet- THANK YOU JESUS!!!  I hope that we are finished with this tummy stuff, I don't really think I handle too much more "lip pooping" or "water tooting" today and it is only 9:30 am.  I did laugh out loud with both of her descriptions of her bodily functions though.  She is HILARIOUS!!!

A Funny Tag

This is a picture of the night that Claire had too much to drink at the local honky tonk...JUST KIDDING!  We were on our way to a mystery party for my friend Leanna's birthday and were supposed to wear western clothes.  Claire was the littlest cowgirl there.  She was still a squishy baby and I was trying to get a picture of her in those cute cowgirl boots so I was balancing her with one hand and snapping the picture with the other one.  I am sure there was a better way to do it, but oh well.  I have better pictures from this night, but I had to follow the rules of the tag which are:

Open your pictures folder

Go to the SIXTH folder

Go to the SIXTH picture

Publish it to a NEW POST and tell the story of the photo

I am going to tag SIX people since this is a game of sixes: Leanna, Krista, Sara, Katie, Randi, Amanda

Let me know if you want to play.  Just because I didn't tag you doesn't mean I am not interested in your picture, you can play too.

The Zoo

The neiborhood kiddos waiting for the train

Claire in the parakeet house.  The blue ones were her favorite.

Addison and Claire were the lone girls on this trip.  They rode together on the train ride.

Today Claire and I went with our neighbors to the zoo.  It ended up being a perfect day for it.  We kept going back and forth about whether or not we wanted to chance the drive with so much rain in the forecast, but we sucked it up and it was so nice.  Not only was it half price Wednesday, becasue of the weather it was not crowded at all.  We didn't spend a ton of time at any exhibit, the pace was pretty fast and that was perfect for us.  I really enjoyed spending a little time with the ladies that I live next to.  I hope that we can have more outings in the near future.  All of our kids are getting to be at a good age for hanging out and interacting really well.  

This is such a fun time in mommyhood, Claire is more fun to be around everyday.  I especially enjoyed seeing her interest in all the animals.  She was able to identify every animal we saw.  She is just so darn smart.  We only had one minor tragedy today.  She accidentally dropped her little Belle doll into the tiger pit.  She said "oh no, my Belle, the tigers will bite her".  I put on my best distraction cap and we headed straight for the parakeets which helped ease the loss.  I loved that little Belle doll too, I will have to be on the lookout for another one.    

Cooper Clay

My sweet friend Sarah had her baby boy today.  I had the privilege of spending a few hours with them this afternoon.  I loved cuddling with Cooper Clay and helping Sarah get adjusted again to life with a newborn.  He is a precious little boy and looks a lot like his big sister, Caroline, just a couple of pounds heavier.  I can't wait to spend time with them again soon.  You did great Karl and Sarah, he is a cutie!  Love you guys!!!

Hilarious Tumble

Today we were walking around at The Shops and made our mandatory stop at the fountain for Claire to play a bit.  She walked on the wall in the background of this picture for awhile and then she decided to walk on the wall that goes around the actual fountain.  It all happened in slow motion...her right foot fell in first and somehow the rest of her (except for the very top of her head) was submerged.  I screamed, grabbed her out of the water, and then did what all good mothers would do- I laughed hysterically.  She was soaking wet and a little freaked out, and she kept saying "I fell in the water".  I had to strip her right there and change her into a dry diaper.  That put an end to our shopping trip.  I was so glad that Allan grabbed the camera and snapped a few pictures after he knew that she was ok.  I always said it was just a matter of time before some kid fell into the fountain, I wasn't counting on the kid being mine.  It made for a great laugh and once I pulled myself together I was able to talk to her about never doing it again.  

A Little More Ainsley

I can't get enough of my new niece.  Claire and I headed back up there this last week for a couple of days and I just fell more in love with that little beauty.  Claire and Asher had some rough times this go around, but I think that is just part of them being two (well Ash is almost two).  The last day we were there Sara put Ainsley in this ballerina outfit and she was just too cute to pass up a photo shoot.  She is getting chubby and more alert.  I also think that she is looking more and more like her brother, with a feminine touch of course. 

Pumpkin Patch

Today was our Pumpkin Patch playgroup.  Even though Claire was not up for posed pictures we were able to have a good time.  She even brought a "pumpkin pie" (her word for a small pumpkin) home with her since we crashed The Village playgroup on their hayride.  I love watching Claire interact with her playgroup buddies.  It has been a year since we began getting together every other week and I really enjoy the time I get with these great moms and great kids for Claire to spend time with.  Here a few pics from the morning...

Cooper and Claire on the hay ride today.  They were so cute holding hands.  They wanted to be sure that the driver wasn't going too fast and that the tractor wouldn't be too loud.  Once we got started Cooper announced "this is fun" and Claire followed "it's safe"  too cute.  I love that they get to spend so much time together!

Claire and "Lukey" showing each other their pumpkins.  

Claire running throught the pumpkins in her pony rainboots.  She was not remotely interested in posing for pictures today.  I would ask her to sit on a pumpkin and she would say "um, no" very sweetly usually.  It kind of cracked me up.

Hanging out on "the turner" (that was Randi's name for it).  This was a highlight for all the kids.

The Dukes and Claire in the pumpkin bounce house.  I love that Luke still has on his firetruck boots.  I honestly don't think that I have ever seen him with out them on in the last year of being his friend.

Claire heading into the hay maze alone.  This pretty much made my nerves stand on end.  I could hardly handle not knowing where my little girl was.  She was too short for me to see her head.  I learned my lesson, Claire will not be going back into a maze without a tall person for a very long time.

Safety Extravaganza

This last Saturday we got a chance to have Allie hang out with us.  I love spending time with her, it is a little sad that we don't get all that much time together as she gets older and I have the responsibility of being a mommy.  Anyway, we were headed to downtown Grapevine and saw the "Safety Extravaganza" at Grapevine Mills Mall.  Claire has really liked firetrucks in the past and we thought she would be in heaven.  She was a bit shy with the firefighters, but loved having Allie to play with at the bouncehouse.  Thank you Allie for being such a FANTASTIC big cousin, I know that it isn't always the easiest role in the world.  

Make Up Artist

Adding the perfect amount of blush to Daddy's dimples

Thinking really hard about where to adjust her masterpiece

Allan was a great sport, he will do just about anything for his girl. I also have to point out that I might have the cutest little girl in the world, I mean look at her tutu tushy and beanie on her head...LOVE IT!!!