From Guatemala With Love

Monday, July 27, 2009

Vacation update

We are on our 4th day of vacation and we arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN this afternoon. We've been to Chattanooga and got to see my cousin, his wife, and their son. We rode the incline railway up to the top of Lookout Mountain. Yesterday we drove to Cherokee, NC and saw some breathtaking scenery. This morning we went to a little theme park and zoo called Santa's Land and Kristen had a good time there. She rode a roller coaster...not a huge roller coaster, but not a little kiddie roller coaster...and she rode it FOUR times!! She also went on the ferris wheel. This afternoon we went through Smoky Mountains National Park and it was beautiful. More to come later.

Surprise, surprise...Kristen is actually enjoying being in the pool.

Kristen had so much fun with her 2nd cousin, Daniel.

On the incline railway ready to ride up to the top of Lookout Mountain.

At the top overlooking Chattanooga.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Mornings

I've mentioned before that Kristen's not really a morning person...well, she likes getting up too early on weekends when I want to sleep in, but during the week it's so hard to get her up. Friday morning she came up with a new excuse.

Me - "Kristen, it's time to get up"
Me again after a few minutes - "Kristen, I said it's time to get up"
Me again - "Kristen, you need to get up NOW"
Kristen - "But Mommy, my toes are tired"

Haven't heard that one before :)

We are leaving on vacation this Friday and are so excited. We are taking a road trip to Tennessee and will go to Chattanooga, Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg area & Dollywood, Nashville and Memphis. I'm going to try to blog along the way to share with everyone how much fun we're having.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

July 4 photoshoot...almost

I wanted to take a few pics of Kristen yesterday for 4th of July. We were heading out shopping and after some coaxing she agreed to take a couple of shots in the front yard.

Kristen in front of the house.

Uh oh, she feels a couple of drops of rain.

And she goes running off....we are done!

We had rain off and on the rest of the afternoon and evening. We shopped at the mall, Target, and Wal-Mart, then later went to my sisters for a cookout and did some sparklers under the patio cover as it was pouring down rain. She still doesn't like the noise from fireworks but we had fun anyway.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Party!!

Kristen had her Hannah Montana birthday party Saturday and we had lots of fun. They did a craft project, sang Happy Birthday to Kristen and had cake and cupcakes, opened presents, acted silly, played dress-up, had a pinata, and danced the Hoedown Throwdown. Lots of giggling and everyone seemed to have a great time. Kristen was so excited to have her friends over to celebrate with her.

Future Hannah Montana fan

Monday, June 15, 2009

Look Who's 6!!!

Happy 6th birthday, Kristen!! We had a full, fun day. She went to daycare part of the day and took cookies and celebrated with her friends. Then I picked her up and came by the house and she opened her presents. Then it was off for some shopping at the mall. She wanted Mexican food for dinner so we went to Ted's. They put a sombrero on her and sang to her, which embarrassed her a little bit. She's growing up WAY too fast. My little toddler is gone and I have a big girl who talks about liking boys and already deciding how many kids she wants to have (and adopt) when she grows up. She's having some girls over Saturday for a Hannah Montana party, so more celebrating and pictures to come.

Monday, June 1, 2009

A First, The Last, and other stuff

Wow, we have been busy, busy, busy!! I have a lot of catching up to do :)

A week ago Friday Kristen attended her FIRST slumber party...this was HUGE for her. It was Sami's birthday party and most of the girls were older but since Abby was there she had someone closer to her age and could sleep next to her. She had a blast!! On Sunday she started running a little fever, then Monday she was worse so I took her to the after hours clinic. She tested positive for strep throat. (Thank God Abby did not get it...I was very worried)

Last Thursday was Kristen's LAST day of Kindergarten. I volunteered at the school on Tuesday, and since I was there and asked about the birthday bash for summer birthdays, I was put in charge of organizing it. Make a few phone calls, pick up stuff for the party, put goodie bags together...we got it done.

Thursday night she had dress rehearsal for her recital, and pictures in her costume. Friday night was the rehearsal downtown where the recital was going to be. Then Saturday night was the recital and she did GREAT!! There were 11 of us there to watch her, then we all went out to eat afterwards.

While all this was going on my parents were here and we were doing a little remodel of the guest/Kristen's bathroom. Everything in there was 17 years old, from when the house was built. Popcorn ceiling....gone. Wallpaper...gone. All the old hardware, lighting, faucets...gone. We didn't tear out cabinets or anything like that, just painting and all new hardware, faucets, light, shower curtain, towels. It's a very small bathroom so it's impossible to get good pictures, but hopefully you can see how all our hard work turned out. My parents worked very hard on it, and even my brother-in-law came over and spent several hours helping out with a couple of things.

Before

After

(The cabinet doors over the toilet wouldn't line up and close correctly when we put them back up with the new hinges, so we had to leave one of them off and my BIL will have to come back over to fix it for me) I also have a little more decorating to do to finish it up.

Kristen also helped Grandpa and her cousin, Landon, wash the cars.

If you've been following Kayleigh Freeman's blog, you know they asked for people to release balloons in Kayleigh's honor on the day they held her funeral. Here is Kristen releasing balloons for Kayleigh.