Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! L was a pirate this year. She had a great time. And who wouldn't? She trick and treated at my work, T's house, Terri's house and Kay's house. She'll have enough candy to last until spring. Oh wait! Christmas is just around the corner.

My mom was kind enough to make L's costume this year and she looked adorable! She really liked the outfit too.


She and daddy went around the neighborhood treating. She had fun running from house to house, although I heard that she wouldn't talk to any of the people.


After a few candy bars and some apple juice, she starts getting a little goofy.
All said, she had a great time and behaved herself the entire night. I did a great job of portioning candy to prevent a hyperactive sugar crisis.

Workout Challenge Complete

Finally I am done with my 10 week workout challenge. It was challenging. I like exercising, but sometimes life gets busy and I want to push it off and can't. I didn't gain or lose any weight, so I'm happy to maintain for now.

My reward: an hour long massage. Got my appt. scheduled in a couple weeks. Yippee!!

L's first scrapbook page

L loves to help me out with my scrapbooking. Tonight, she asked for a piece of paper and used my Sharpies to create a cool page. Then she picked out two pictures, put the adhesive on the back and placed them on her page.

She is so proud of her page. We even put the page in her album. What a day!

Halloween at our house was Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. Everyone invited was to dress up as either one. Everyone looked great. All the Elvis' were different. We had a great time. The fixin's were Elvis' favorites...PB&Banana sandwich, Cheeseburgers, Devil's food cake, etc. The night was wonderful.


Above is Dan and Maria. Next is Terri and Doug. Below is Terry (Elvis) and Terri (Marilyn). They won best Elvis and Marilyn.

Van Halen Rocks!

We saw Van Halen at the Sprint Center in KC last night. They played very well and Dave looks ten thousand times better than the last time we saw him at In Cahoots. The boys played for nearly two hours and they rocked. No pics from me...check out Travis' blog, Outdoor Dog (see my fav blogs)...he snuck his camera in. BTW...the Sprint Center is great. The seat are awesome.

Where is everyone??

Usually, I look at everyone else's blog, before I start on my own for the night. And here it's Thursday and only a couple out of ten blogs I check have new posts since Sunday. Come on everyone, where are you???

Don't give me lame excuses. I have a two year old girl and a cold this week.

Cool Fall Pictures

I love my Canon. These pictures turned out great. The first photo is of our find at the pumpkin patch last weekend. Love the gourd Jeff picked out.

The last two pictures are using the color accent feature. It keeps one color (orange in this case) and everything else is black and white. Awesome!

Ponytail in training

L is so freakin' cute. She has finally discovered the world of ponytails and wanted to try it out. I couldn't find her holders, so she's wearing mine. And it worked out fairly well.... ..Oh except for the fact that she had to keep touching it so eventually I had to redo the ponytail. Ponytails and dvd players...she's starting to grow up.

Homecoming

As promised, here's a picture of South's homecoming candidates. This production took almost all of half time. First, they announced the freshman, sophomore, and junior king and queen (eyes rolling right now). Then all the senior candidates. Cute, but lame. They announced their names....blah, blah. And their favorite number...give me a break!!

Apparently, I am old. But it was kind of cute in its own way. They cheered on the king and queen and I'm sure the dance the next day would be great.

Such sweet faces!

L and MK had a wonderful time together. They are exactly one year and nine days apart in age. They had a great time at the pumpkin patch and played together all night long. What a pair of sweet girls!

So much to blog!

This has been a super busy weekend. I have so much to say! First, it started Friday night on our way to the South football game. Jeff handed me something and said, "L picked you out a prize." Of course, L starts shrieking and then I start shrieking because it's a new Canon Power Shot camera!!!! I have so been wanting a new camera. You heard right, want, because there's nothing really wrong with my current Sony, except it's a few years old and I wanted something newer, smaller and sleeker (like my friend, Jill). Those two are so sneaky!! They gave me the camera as an early birthday present since there are so many pictures to take (fall and Halloween).

South lost...I'll post on that later with Homecoming pictures!

On Saturday, we drove up to Lawrence for the traditional Shaake pumpkin patch trip. The weather was great, nice and sunny. We had lunch and shopped downtown for a bit. There's a toy store that I will definitely have to stay away from (did some early Christmas shopping). Then we headed out to the patch.

I love this girl!! She's such a poser for me. I couldn't ask for a better girl! More pics and posts later.

It's that kind of day

Today was rainy, dark and dreary. And all this girl wanted to do was hide under the covers and watch PBS. Don't blame her one bit.

What a beautiful city!

Back from Quebec!!! The city is beautiful and I hardly saw any of it. These pictures are from the downtown area. It's a very different place...of course they speak French, but the area is definitely French. The streets are narrow, the buildings are European looking and I felt like I was in Paris.

I think the signs were so cool. It was weird flying from Quebec to Montreal. Quebec is very quaint and country, while Montreal is cosmopolitan and urban.

It's amazing how far you can see from the convention center.

The experience was good. I was really happy when we reached American soil. It's funny...when I'm here all the time, I appreciate America and how much the soldiers do for us. But when I'm in Canada and reach U.S. customs, I feel so proud and happy to be an American.

Bonjour!

Second day in Quebec and the conference is going well. I have learned a lot and it hasn't been overwhelming. Hopefully, we'll be sight seeing this afternoon.

Last night I was able to spend time by myself. I ran (workout friends, nine weeks done!) and then watched my guilty pleasure....Mc Dreamy, McSteamy and McGrumpy (Alex). Oh I shouldn't forget McStupid...how do you end the show with "I slept with Izzy". I hate the creators, but of course, I'll be back for more next week. Ahh!

Dorothy where are you??

I am definitely not in Kansas anymore. Currently, I'm in Quebec for a conference. While the conference is good, I feel like a foreigner (oh wait, I am!). And yes, I've been to Canada before, but both places I've been to were English speaking provinces. Everything is in French, everyone speaks French. Although the people are nice and will speak English once they figure out I'm American. I really need Stacey to help me translate.

The scenery is pretty...haven't been out much but I'm going to do that tomorrow (pictures will have to wait til I'm back). The weather is cool, brisk 60 degrees. Hopefully I can find Dorothy soon.

Merci!

Gotta love this!

-Jill

Baby K

Baby K is getting big. He weighed 6 1/2 pounds a birth. Five weeks later he's 11 pounds. We hadn't seen K for a couple weeks and he is bright eyed and checking everything out. So far, he loves L....she likes to talk to him and caress his head.

Jeff's helping out. Apparently you can keep K happy if he has a pacifier in his mouth.

So Sweet!!

My cousins travel

Jeff's cousins are traveling through China, India and other parts of Asia. You can follow their 6 week tour thru Shrader's travels on my favorite blog list.

Parks are everywhere

We had so much fun at Jill and Adam's. This morning we walked for about an hour and took a detour to the park. L LOVED this park!! She loves going to any park, but as this is new, that makes it better.
L loved these horseys. There were three at the park and she rode on all of them.


How cool is this swing?? I can't even describe it very well, but it was very comfortable for her to swing in. After a long walk and some noodles for lunch, L is chilling at home with the do-rag. Uh, oh...is my girl turning into a hippie??

The Freaky Friday (even though it's Saturday)

Since Kat and L are at my place, I've hijacked their blog to tell you about our day.


First thing this morning, we checked out the Dunes. L got her photo taken with the moo that's painted all crazy out in our "yard."


Then, she chilled at the pool for a minute.



Then, she hit the clubhouse for a little "fitness" time.



Then, she tried on Adam's Cubs hat. (Adam wanted her to tell her Daddy that she was wearing it since the Dodgers are, um, done.

Much later in the evening, we decided to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. But, alas, even the Cheesecake Factory didn't satisfy this two-and-a-half year old.


She went for the Clifford cereal we bought at Wild Oats while we waiting for a table.

Toilet training mishap

I'm sure when L is older, I'll be in big trouble for this post. Last night, we were hanging at Kurt and Kasey's (yes, I finally have Baby K pics) and L said she had to go use the potty. So she ran into the bathroom by herself. I didn't think anything of it...she only uses her Dora potty. A short time later, she yells,"momma, help me". I casually walk in to the bathroom, and she's FALLEN in the TOILET!! Apparently, she really needed to go! Needless to say, part of her dress got wet, but her pride wasn't hurt and after I got her dried off, she sat on the big potty and peed!

My Walks

I love to go for walks. I try to go a few times a week (by the way, I'm almost done with week 8 of our workout challenge). I see so much when I'm walking. The frustrating part is I always forget my camera. I have seen elegant birds, interesting people and beautiful homes and yards. Today I went walking at lunch and I saw a cat sitting at the concrete wall by Kellogg watching the traffic fly by. It was so comical!!

Coffee anyone??

While we were eating at Blue Mesa (if I didn't mention, they have the best brunch ever!) L wanted to try daddy's drink. As you all know, brunch=coffee. So he let her try it. Her idea was to drink with a straw. What a funny face she made (pretty similar to the mustard face). I don't think she'll be getting hooked on coffee anytime soon.