Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

Happy Birthday, Lily!

2013-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Look who is 5!

Goodbye, Old Friend!

2013-06-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

19 years ago, when Roger and I were newlyweds, we furnished our tiny apartment with garage sale furniture. The one thing we could never find at a sale was a dresser. For the first 9 months of our marriage we stored our clothes on the shelves of the linen closet. My dad bought this dresser for us, brand new. It has been through 6 moves with us. It has been used by ever member of our family. It has been a good dresser. Unfortunately, after years of use, it did not hold up to the paces Lily, our little monkey, put it through. We found another dresser better suited for her and now it is time to say goodbye to this one. We are taking it to Furniture Amnesty, an exchange held by the city each summer. It will most likely go to a college student who might otherwise have to stack her clothes in a closet. So goodbye and good luck, old friend!

7!

2013-03-09T19:58:00.000-08:00

Look whose 7! I can hardly believe that Jena is 7 today. It seems like just yesterday so was that wriggly baby that Dr Bridges handed us. So full of energy then, so full of energy now. She is one of the most amazing people I know.

Merry Christmas 2012

2012-12-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas in Nebraska

2012-06-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas from Kansas!

2012-03-08T19:00:00.001-08:00

Skating

2012-03-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

Decorating for Christmas

2012-03-03T19:42:00.003-08:00

Finals at K-State are later then most universities. So, the weekend before Christmas arrived and we had no decorations up at our house. My school friends, my surrogate family here, decided to come over and help us decorate for the holidays. Since it was the weekend after finals, it was also one more time we were able to get together before most everyone left for the break.

Everyone got in on the act.

My friend, Melissa, getting into the holiday spirit!

Melissa and Mercy helping the girls with their gingerbread house.

Ben helping with the gingerbread house.

More Frosting!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Dance Clinic

2012-03-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

Jena's dance studio did a Christmas dance clinic. The girl did their dance to Rudoulf the Red Nose Raindeer. Jena what the cutest raindeer of all!

Pictures with Santa!

2012-01-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

K-State Football

2012-01-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

Here in Manhattan, we were drinking the purple Kool Aide this fall. It was a magical year.

We ended the year 10-2 and 2nd in the conference. Not bad for a team slated to finish 8 out of 10 teams. Thanks to all our friends who came to watch it with us!

Homecoming, Pumpkins Patch, and Halloween

2012-01-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

Halloween is Homecoming here in Manhattan. So we enjoying the festivities.

Dressed up for Trick or Treating in Aggieville! Then we watched the parade with our good friend, Melissa.

We also went to the Pumpkin Patch with our church.

And of course, Halloween! I was able to make it over to Jena's school in time for her party!

Here she is with her friend Reagan.

Yummy!

And of course, Trick or Treating! Lily is Smurfette and Jena is Buzz Lightyear.

Donuts!

2011-12-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

Time with cousins

2011-12-27T16:14:00.000-08:00

First Football Game

2011-12-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Back in September, when Roger was home, we were able to take the girls to their very first football game. Here we are at the Ag Farm where we parked for the game.

We also tailgated for the game, family style. Thanks to the Alumni and Family Assications for throwing a great tailgate.

Hallowed ground, Bill Snyder Stadium.

We had front row seats in the end zone. It was awesome!

A Sea of Purple!

And we got to meet Willie!

A Day with Harry Potter

2011-12-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

This is the Hale Library, somewhere that I spend a lot of time at. It always struck me that it looked like a castle.

On Family Day, back in September, we learned that it is actually Hogwarts! The Great Room on the fourth floor looks just like the Great Room in the Harry Potter movies!

They hosted a Harry Potter Day for all the kids that weekend. As avid Harry Potter fans, we were thrilled!

They had stories and a coloring contest for the kids. And a lot of things about the history of the library and the school.

R & R

2011-10-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

In September, Roger was home for two weeks of R & R. We were all very happy to have him home. The girls were excited to go pick him up from the airport. They insisted we take him car to get him. They said Blue Car had missed Daddy too.

And we took him to Famous Dave's. He was so happy to eat! Their chow hall in his new FOB has been a little light in the food area. We were very busy while he was home. I wish I had more pictures but I will post what I do have soon.

Oh, I forgot about the wind

2011-09-05T20:05:00.001-07:00

We are getting settled into our new home here in Kansas. And one thing for sure, I had forgotten about the wind. When Rodgers and Hammerstein said the winds comes sweeping down the plain they were not kidding. We drove here dodging tornadoes and fighting to stay on the road. There are nights I think my house is under siege the winds are so bad. And we enjoyed a summer filled with tornado watches, but were blessed to actually not have tornado warnings.

As most of you know, with in two weeks of moving in to our new home in our new town, Roger deployed to Afghanistan. We were expecting this and prepared as best we could. But that still left me to put the house together and help the girls to adjust. As usual they are troopers, but its hard to understand all of this when you don't know how long a year is or where Afghanistan is. I have once again had to rethink everything when it comes to Lily as she continues to plow her own unique path through life.

I must say first that we have been very blessed here with so many people to help us, from family to new neighbors. Everyone has made the adjustment for the girls and me much easier. I have to say Roger hit a home run when picking this house. It is fantastic and the neighborhood is perfect. Four of the houses on our street have families with children, including one with a 5 year old and a 3 year old. In fact the neighborhood is full of kids! A big improvement over Fayetteville. And all of neighbors have been so helpful. I couldn't imagine being in a better place.

With Roger gone I knew I would need to enlist help, at least for the summer. I took 2 classes this summer, each 4 weeks long, each meeting 10 hours a week. After much struggle and prayer, I found a summer babysitter. A preschool teacher who decided to run an in home daycare. She was able to take both of the girls for the summer. I had originally planned to put Lily in the campus childcare when school started for the fall. But we liked her so much, after two weeks I decided to keep Lily with her for the school year. It was the best decision I could have made. Lily loves to go to Sandy's and Sandy truly gets Lily. She has blossomed there and Sandy has been a HUGE help with potty training. I know that changing childcare for the fall would have been more harm than good for Lily who has had to deal with so much change already. So I fell blessed to have found Sandy.

I also had to enlist help with the yard. The yard has always been Roger domain, but with him gone and a yard that no one had tended to in almost a year, I was overwhelmed. I found a horticulture student to come and sort it out. One issue was there were so many plants and trees that they were crowding each other. He cut out half of what we had in the yard and it looks so much better.

So, we made it through the summer. I love here so far. It is truly liking coming home for me. And Manhattan is a great place for kids with lots of parks and swimming pools. We have been to Nebraska fours time and Kansas City once. It has been so great to be able to visit my relatives and know that it won't be another year before we see them again. I'm sure I'll won't love it as much here when we have a foot of snow outside this winter, but for now I'm enjoying Kansas. I hope to take the girls to see lots of new things now that we are in a new region. Hopefully we will get lots of pictures!

Jena's first day

2011-08-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

Jena started Kindergarten last week. I told her she could have anything she wanted for breakfast. She chose Lucky Charms.

I started measuring the girls when Roger left for deployment. Here is how much they have grown over the summer.

Jena already for the big day! She coordinated her outfit with her backpack.

I tried to get them both in a picture but Lily didn't cooperate.

One more try.

Our very excited Kindergartner!

Saying goodbye to the angel.

At the drop off. One thing I love here is there is no car line in the traditional sense. They have a lane to pull up to the school and a separate area for the Kindergartners. They also having parking in both areas and you can park on the street in the neighborhood. We parked and walked to the school that day. Since then I've been able to park in the kindergarten area or pull up and get her. Only about 5 minutes at most. No 45 minute wait here.

All ready to go in her room. She already knew one girl who lives on the next street over. They have become fast friends. So far it has been good. She has had hot lunch at school and has taken her lunch a few days also. She likes having the option of eating at school. They assign each student a number for their account. Our little overachiever already knows hers, we've been working on it for last few weeks. She told me last night she thought the lunchroom would be more like a restaurant where you pay. I told her you pay by telling them your number like when we pay with a card. She doesn't quite get how that works yet, which means I'm safe for at least a little while when it comes to shopping.

New hair cuts

2011-08-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

All the time at the pool this summer took its toll on the girls' hair. Jena asked for a haircut and Lily's was getting pretty long, so I cut their hair for them. Lily did great, didn't even care that all of her hair was gone. She feels like such a big girl now with her shorter hair.

Good Food and Good Friends!

2011-08-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Since we had just moved and it was summer, having a party for Lily was difficult. So we had our good friends the Hokes over. They were at Bragg with us and Jason and Roger shared an office while they were in residency. And Christi and I became good friends during our time there. And the girls of course adore Jay. We were so happy to learn they would be moving here!

We did cupcakes that I allowed them to frost. I had to do candles first because Lily was trying to eat the cake while frosting it.

Jason volunteered to grill the food for us since I am grill challenged. It was so nice having someone else do the cooking.

It was a great party and the girls loved being able to play with their buddy Jay. We are so glad they were able to share the day with us.

And Lily did get a pretty good haul this year!

Swimming lessons

2011-08-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

July brought more swimming and swimming lessons for Jena.

She took the lessons at City Pool in the deep pool.

Lily had to sit out this year because she wasn't old enough. She really didn't seem to mind. We would hang out and play in the kiddie pool while Jena had her lesson.

They really love our beach towels.

At the end of the two weeks, Jena was swimming! She did really well, making it to level 4 of 10. Pretty good for someone who didn't want to get in the pool at the beginning of the summer. She can't wait to take them again next year.

Kansas City

2011-08-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

In July, the girls and I were able to join my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Jim and Brittney as well as my cousin Georgia, her fiance Meridith and her two kids Meghan and Trevin in Kansas City.

My aunt and uncle had a conference, but the rest of us were able to go to Worlds of Fun!

They recently rebuilt the kids area, now Planet Snoopy. It was awesome!

Trevin and Lily enjoyed these blocks that sounded like bells when you stepped on them.

The rides were great!

Hangin' with Snoopy!

There was a Charlie Brown show.

And a pirate ship.

On Sunday we went to Crown Center for some shopping and lunch. Lily was allowed to pick out one present for her birthday. She picked Hello Kitty.

For lunch we went to Fritz's, a train themed restaurant.

The food is actually delivered by a train!

Lily even got a sundae for her birthday!

July 4th, Fenton Style

2011-08-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

The second half of the July 4th weekend was spent in Lincoln. My cousin Joel and his wife Anna really know how to throw a party! I won't even guess how much Joel spent on fireworks. Lets just say their single car garage was almost full.

I love this picture of Lily and Trey watching the snakes!

The kids had a great time hula hooping.

Joel's oldest, Kendal was a champ!

Fireworks!

And of course, we did some hanging out with Aunt Janelle.

The Joy of Cousins! (and a visit to Omaha)

2011-08-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

After I finished my Macroeconomics class in June we headed to Nebraska for the July 4th weekend. First we went to Omaha. My cousin, Georgia, and her family came up too.

The girls enjoyed playing on the piano at my aunt's house. That is the same piano that I used to play on in my grandparent's basement when I was a kid.

The girls really enjoyed the pool and hanging out with their cousins. Here they are with Trevin and my Aunt Sharon.

Cousins are awesome!