Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Paige talking - Da Da and Bubba



We got a cute picture of Paige talking today. She's been saying quite a few things pretty consistently lately. Not the typical baby babble, it's got meaning behind it and she will do it if you ask her too. She is saying family member names "Ma Ma", "Da Da" and "Bubba" (We call Connor Bubba) pretty routinely.

Mommy brought Paige up to Daddy's office because Paige had been saying "Da Da'. Daddy's office was getting hot, so I'm wearing my undershirt only at this point. Ah... the advantages of working from home!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Andrea and Mandy run The Northface Endurance Challenge 10k


This morning, Andrea and Mandy ran in The Northface Endurance Challenge 10k. The race was downtown through the plaza and down all kinds of streets. The weather was perfect for it and the girls decided to try and finish under 55 minutes. They pushed each other hard and finished the 6.2 mile race in 53:02.

They were very proud of themselves and we got a quick picture at home with their medals on after the race.



House update



Our house has now been for sale for three weeks. We've had 6 showings and so far things have been going pretty well. It's not as many as we'd hoped for, however we knew that August was typically a slow month for house sales with people getting ready for school. Most houses are typically on the market for 2-3 months in our neighborhood, so we are trying to be patient about it.

One thing we wanted to remember was our funny yellow sign. It's got a smart phone barcode thing on it so people can scan the barcode and pull up the listing on their phones. We aren't sure if many people have actually done that, however the goofy yellow sign is definitely eye-catching and we've seen quite a few people slow down and read it while they drive by.


The saddest news of the week is that our dream home in Florida went under contract. We'd been watching it for months and thought it would have been perfect for us. We had even kicked around the idea of trying to find a way to put in an offer before our house sold. We tried to be patient and missed out on this one. Hopefully another one will come along at the right time for us.

Connor - Ninja Warrior!



Connor's really in to Ninjas lately and he and Daddy watched the show "American Ninja Warrior" recently. He really loved watching the guys try to get through the obstacle course and has been trying to do cool ninja moves at home. Yesterday he was doing cool jumps from the couch to the ottoman in the living room. He did a few good ones, but then tried to get too fancy and fell on his face in the carpet. Ouch!

He also tried to get dressed up like a ninja. He found some black socks in his drawer and put them on. At night time he dressed up in a long sleeve and long pant pajama. Probably a little hot. He asked me if he looked really cool and I had to admit that he did. Super cool!

At story time, Daddy came up with a great idea to use Connor's motorcycle guys as Ninjas and we put together obstacle courses with his blocks. It was Connor's favorite story of all time. He said that he only wanted to do that story from now on forever.

This morning we set up some more obstacle courses and I decided to snap a few pictures.


Connor with his motorcycle guy NINJAS!


Miss Sassy Pants

Paige has been such a different baby than Connor. It's been amazing to watch her personality develop. She is a very determined and headstrong baby. Whereas Connor would test your parenting from time to time, it seems like Paige tests everything you say. She will hardly ever stop what she's doing without a fight. She's strong willed and isn't scared of anyone. She'll stick up for herself if another child tries to take her toy and she's always trying to play with whatever other people are using. Her favorite things include Connor's lion, Mommy's phone, Daddy's food, and whatever else people have in their hands.

In this video, Paige is upset that Daddy won't let her play with his phone. It's a good example of Paige forcing out tears. At about the 35 second mark you can see her clench her fists, squeeze hard, and out pops a tear. She reaches up to touch it, to make sure it's a good one.

Paige visits Odessa


On Wednesday through Friday, Grandma Genie took Paige to Odessa for a visit. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to have her for a few days and they said she was a great girl and they had a lot of fun together.

This chair was the perfect size for her!


Biiiiig hug!


Paige loves to play house.

Paige loves her books right now, she's really in to them.

Amanda came to visit too!

Not much better than sitting on the step and playing in the rocks.

Thanks for a great visit Grandma and Grandpa!


Kids playing outside with helmets


Connor's always very good about putting on his helmet when he rides a bike or other riding toy. We found his old smaller helmet this past week and put it on baby sister. She tolerated it for a few minutes and Mommy got a cute picture of the kids before Paige took it off.



Connor's first day of Pre-Kindergarten


This past week was Connor's first day of Pre-K. He has been looking forwards to going back to school and learning all kinds of stuff with Ms Cindy. He looked very cute on his first day of school and Mommy and Daddy both hung out with him and got him on the bus Monday.



He had a great first day and got a smiley face on his daily report! Great work Connor!



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Grandpa and Grandma Vernon visit


This past weekend, Grandpa and Grandma Vernon visited us in KC. It was a pretty relaxing weekend for the most part. We had planned to go to the Royals game on Saturday, however the weather was unpredictable and we were worried we'd get rained on, so we didn't. On Saturday, we played around the house and ate at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.




Grandpa and Grandma played Candyland, Hi-Ho-Cherry-O and Memory with Connor.

Connor had fun battling with Grandma Alice and Daddy. Grandma Alice did most of the cool fighting, but we only got her in the video.



Sword fighting with Grandma Alice and Daddy.


No mercy for the weak.

Grandma cleaned the plaque off of Chloe's teeth. I didn't imagine Chloe would stand for it, but surprisingly she cooperated.
Good as new!

Thanks for visiting with us, we love you guys!



Radio Disney visits our neighborhood



On Friday, the Radio Disney group came and did a pool party at our neighborhood pool. Mommy and Connor went and partied up and enjoyed the festivities. Paige went to bed while Daddy waited for Grandpa Rick and Grandma Alice to arrive.

Connor liked the party, but obviously the pool was the most important part.

Open house at school


On Friday, Connor went to visit his teacher Ms Cindy and the para educator Ms Christy. He went to school with them all last year, so he already knew the drill at open house, but we wanted to still go and see everyone and get Connor back in the school mindset. Connor's also got a new speech therapist, Ms Elizabeth, so Mommy talked shop with her for a bit. It was great to see everyone, and Connor's looking forwards to starting school next week.

Connor took a quick pic with Mommy and sister at school.



Baby sister bumped her poor head this past week. Ouch!


Daddy posed with Connor at home. Connor wanted a pic of his new awesome motorcycle. Mommy bought it for him on Friday and it was the highlight of this whole weekend.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Chloe and the stinky egg


Chloe is gross.

There are many stories of her doing horridly disgusting things and this morning was another fun one. I gave her a bath this morning and she was sparkly clean when we went out front to play. I hadn't tied her up yet and after a couple minutes I noticed her rolling in the grass with a focused determination. You could tell there was something she liked and she was vigorously scooting her left shoulder in to it and was just starting to roll the rest of her body in it when I yelled at her to stop.

When I looked at her, there was something that looked like a huge booger on her back and even without getting too close I could smell that it was something disgusting. We see her doing this kind of thing from time to time, but usually when you go over to the area where she was doing it you can't see what it was. Today, I when I went over to the spot in the grass I could see a crushed robin egg. It looked like the embryo inside was partially formed and had gone rotten and then had been crushed. The perfect thing to roll around in!

I hosed Chloe off and then put soap all over her. I decided I would get a picture of her and her disgusting prize today before hosing her off again and that's why she looks miserable in the picture as she sits next to the egg. She would much rather have the rotten egg on her fur than the nice soap.

Rudolph Kids visit for the weekend


After CoCo Key, we brought the Rudolph kids home for a slumber party. The kids played great together and we played soccer, ate pizza, got LemonTree (frozen yogurt) and played a bunch of games on the iPad. Connor and Drew did quite a bit of Ninja fights with toy swords and the boys had fun during story time together. The girls played together nicely too and Paige loved all the attention she got from Allison.



We did a lot of playing outside since the weather finally cooled off a bit. It was a great visit and we love our niece and nephew so much!


CoCo Key waterpark






On Saturday we decided to use our CoCo Key passes. We had purchased them over the winter and had given the Rudolphs tickets for Christmas. We all got together and decided we'd give it a try. The waterpark was indoors and a lot like Great Wolf Lodge, but much smaller. We hadn't brought Paige to Great Wolf Lodge, so we thought it'd be nice to let her have a chance at some waterpark fun too.

We had a lot of fun with the Rudolphs, but overall it was exhausting and not too exciting catering to the little kids' desires. Connor had no interest in the lazy river, waterslides or pools. He wanted to play "treasure hunt", which involved climbing all over the structure in the middle of the waterpark. The structure consisted of stairs and rope netting laddders. At the top of the structure were 3 neat waterslides and there were water hoses squirting water out all over you as you climbed. "Treasure hunt" consisted of climbing up one side of the structure, walking by the slides and then climbing down the other slide. I kept thinking that if I could just get him to try one of the slides, we'd all have more fun and the climbing would be worthwhile. Instead, the one time I got him to go down one of the slides he got very angry with me and cried. So we just hunted for treasure instead until Daddy couldn't take it any more. Thankfully the Rudolphs also humored him with his fun game.


Paige had an equally entertaining, but much more dangerous game, in mind. Her plan was to climb up the slippery steps on the side of the baby pool, sit down, then jump back in to the water and run around. Apparently it made the game less fun if she was holding hands with anyone or had a responsible person within arm's reach. She ran up and down the sloped entry to the pool and fell numerous times. Andrea and I agreed that she probably bonked her head more in the two and a half hours at CoCo Key than she did in a normal month at home.



Finally, towards the end, both kids played nicely in the baby pool and went down the slide. Allison was very good with her baby cousin and helped her go down the slide a bunch of times.






Thanks to the Rudolphs for joining us!