Our Big Weekend Adventure

This photo shows our biggest adventure of the holiday weekend. Yes, you are seeing that right, our sweet 4 year old little girl is missing a tooth! While playing on the swing set at Grandma & Grandpa Rankin's house last night she knocked out her front tooth!!! It wasn't quite the way I'd imagined she would lose her first tooth... in fact it was quite traumatic for all of us. Complete with tears, blood, racing hearts, frantic thoughts of what in the world do we do!? It was Memorial Day evening and we knew there was likely no way of getting a hold of a dentist much less get her in to see a dentist! 

We were able to get her in first thing this morning, she was so brave and strong (as she has been since it happened). The dentist took an X-Ray of her mouth and found that she would've probably lost that tooth within a year or so anyway. It seems the development of her teeth are a little further along than most 4 year olds... which gives me much relief. With a bit of tylenol and softer foods for a few days, she should be healed up within a couple of weeks and we will all get used to this beautiful new smile of hers!!! 

Oh, and just in case you're wondering... yes, the Tooth Fairy did come for visit last night! She has helped make this adventure a bit more enjoyable for us all! :) 

Five Things Friday

#1. I am SO glad it's FRIDAY!!! It's been a good week, but I am really excited for a long, relaxing weekend to hang out as a family and to unofficially kick off the Summer! 

#2. I have a feeling it's going to be a really fun, adventurous Summer with these two! 

(This photo is from our outdoor sprinkler play yesterday.)

#3. I was thinking yesterday about how much difference a year makes... this time last year Parker wasn't even walking yet!!!! Whoa! And Noelle... well she would barely even touch the water spraying from the sprinkler, seemed a bit afraid of it, and this year as soon as I turned the water on, she went barreling through it! 

#4. I am really excited about going to the Hot Air Balloon Invitational this weekend... I LOVE hot air balloons and am looking forward to taking some photos of them and marvel at them. 

#5. I feel full of joy and happiness right now, anticipating what adventures this Summer season is going to bring, it's such a fun time of year, so many opportunities to spend time outside, taking pictures, the longer days, road trips to the lake with friends, grilling outside, trips to the park & pool, maybe even a backyard camp out this year!  

Remembering the Fallen...

This morning we watched the funeral procession for the fallen Shawnee, KS firefighter who lost his life while on duty last weekend (you can read the story here). There were over 100 fire trucks and other emergency vehicles in the 12 minute long procession. The above photo is the sight that brought me to tears. Although I am almost ashamed to admit it, we originally went because we thought the kids would enjoy seeing all the fire trucks. But, after seeing the first truck, with the casket and those guarding it, I was moved and struck with the greatness of the loss of this one whose dedicated his life to serving and saving others lives & in the attempt to do so lost his own life. To us all, the definition of a true hero. 

And, on this Memorial Weekend, I will now be much more aware of the great sacrifice of so many heroes who've lost their lives out of service & duty for others. We pray that the families and friends of these heroes will be blessed with strength & peace from our Heavenly Father. 

How About A Five Things Sunday?

So I missed my 5 things Friday didn't I? We were on a little road trip, the kids and I... we headed to Emporia to visit some friends, yesterday we were galavanting about the city and so today I've finally gotten some photos uploaded and ready to share some things from our week!!! 

#1: This umbrella has been the toy of the week. Noelle picked this out at Toys R Us on Monday after getting a gift card for her birthday. Thanks Aunt Peggy! 

#2: So, of course, with all the rain we got last week, it was nearly impossible to resist a little play time in the rain. Thanks to Sissy for sharing her umbrella with her brother, although... 

#3: He didn't really mind getting wet, in fact when it was time to come in, he refused to come inside so Mommy got wet chasing him around the yard to get him inside!     

        

#4: On our visit to Emporia, the kids made salt dough bugs... aren't they cute? 

        

Here are all the kids posing with their bugs! They were quite proud of their artwork and so were their mamas!

#5: Check out these two! These cute little kiddos at the OP Arboretum children's garden yesterday enjoying the sunshine!

Five Things Friday

#1. Lots of preparation this week for a certain someone's birthday party tomorrow.

#2. Rodney & I enjoyed a date night last night at the New Theatre Restaurant. Thanks Mom! We always have such a wonderful time and it's always such a treat. The show was fabulous!

#3. Praying for no rain for the party tomorrow... 50% chance... eek! 

#4. The Wiggles has been the "go to" movie this week... the kids seem to not be able to get enough of this show... it actually is a pretty good show and the songs are quite catchy... so catchy that I often times can't get them out of my head! LOL! "Where's Jeff" is a personal "favorite". :) 

#5. When "Letters to Juliet" is released in the theaters, you must go see it... I saw a sneak preview with a friend this week and it's such a darling movie... really... I couldn't stop smiling through most of it... so sweet, so cute, so clean and classy, a true gem of a romantic comedy! 

A Weekend to Celebrate

We had a great weekend this last weekend! The weather was cool and gorgeous and we enjoyed some wonderful time together as a family! Saturday we enjoyed an afternoon at the KC Zoo! 

The kids & I walking into the zoo.

Parker enjoying the sea lion show from Daddy's shoulders. As you can see he is really enjoying Daddy's new haircut because he was continuously rubbing Daddy's head while he was up there! :)

Parker riding the tiger on the carousel.

Noelle on the pink flamingo.

And this little girl turned FOUR yesterday! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Here Daddy is showing Noelle how to hold her new purple guitar she got for her birthday. As you can see she loves it and as you can also see... Daddy loves it too! :)

And of course we couldn't have celebrated the Mother/Daughter day without a proper photo of the two of us together on this Mother's Day/Noelle's Birthday - May 9, 2010! Such a treasured weekend of memories together!

Five Things Friday

So, I thought I would start doing something new to help me post more regularly. Each Friday I will try to post 5 things about the week. These might be things we did, things we accomplished, things we heard or read, things we said or any other things that happened in the week! Let me know what you think! So without further adieu, here are Five Things from this week!

#1. Picking, Painting & Picnicking

Monday was a beautiful day, we went for a walk around the block and picked a few dandelions (aka flowers) and then used them as paintbrushes. I was surprised at how much Noelle got into the painting as she normally loses interest pretty quickly and how little Parker was into it as he usually does get into painting and coloring. It may have had something to do with the fact that we were painting outside and so he was a little distracted by the surroundings! After that, we enjoyed a picnic lunch outside, just the 3 of us. This was such a fun morning together!

#2. Financial Peace University

Rodney and I have been attending Financial Peace University for the last 13 weeks, every Thursday evening. Last night we "graduated"! For those of you who've been through FPU, you know how powerful it is and how much you learn through the class, if you haven't heard of it or heard of Dave Ramsey I encourage you to check out his site, read his books, it just might change your life, I know that it has ours!

#3. Cinco de Mayo

The kids and I had a Cinco de Mayo lunch this week with Grandma Johnson, Aunt Jamie and cousins Jack & Jeorgia. We had a bit of a crazy lunch trying to keep the kids sitting and eating instead of running around the restaurant, but it's always fun to enjoy a bit of Mexican on the 5th of May!

#4. Knuffle Bunny

We've been doing a lot of reading of this book lately, along with watching the Scholastic presentation of it on DVD that we checked out at the library. It is truly a cute story that you really never get tired of reading. The DVD version is just as cute. Besides it is near to our hearts since Noelle's favorite snuggly thing is her little pink bunny.

#5. New Friends

Great Granny & Papa in North Carolina sent these 2 cuties to our 2 cuties for Noelle's birthday. Aren't they adorable!? They are also environmentally friendly which is really cool too!