Chocolate

(kc, you will be able to relate to this moment!)

So I was waiting in the car loop on Friday to pick Anderson up from school. As his teacher brought him out to the car, I noticed he had quite the bruiser on his cheek. I thought maybe he fell or something so when they got to the car I said "wow anderson, looks like you took a tumble today." the teacher told me that actually he got scratched by a kid in another class while playing at recess. When I looked closer I saw that yes, those were definitely fingernail scratches on BOTH of his cheeks. They were pretty nasty. I was a little upset with the situation (i had lots os questions- why didn't I get a phone call? how was the situation handled at school? what did anderson do when it happend? did he instigate the feud?) but I am very careful not to talk about my kids in front of them so I got the basic info from the teacher and left it at that.

Well.... on the way home I was asking Anderson about the incident.
Was it Jackson? "no, not Jackson."
Was it Courtney? (this is his favorite girl he told me once), "no mom not Courtney."
he said "A different girl, mom."
A different girl? "yes, different one"

then he kept saying "chocolate."

Oh, did they give you a piece of chocolate b/c you were sad??
"no mom", he said, "chocolate girl. chocolate girl."
So I was a bit confused until it dawned on me what he meant. Anderson, I ask, did she have brown skin? like her arms and hands?

"yes, chocolate girl scratch me."

oh dear, what do you do????

At least it wasn't in public or in front of her parents!

Almost a 1 year old!

Adrianna will be 1 in 6 days. I can't believe it. Her birthday party is a Sweet Shoppe/Candy theme. Its going to be super cute. Her invites turned out adorable and my dear friend Amanda, who takes all my kids pictures b/c she's the best, used a bunch of the photos from her invitation photo shoot to make a collage. I would wait to post a pic of it b/c I don't want to spoil its cuteness at the party, but it is so cute that I can't wait til after the party. So, here it is.


My personal fav is the one in the middle row, on the far right. She is looking at the lollipop and if she could talk, she would be saying "I LOVE YOU SOOOO MUCH! YOU ARE THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER TOUCHED MY LIPS!!!"

Needless to say, Adri loved her lollipop and it sure made for some cute pictures.

Adri loves her shopping cart

...and dancing!

Shootin Hoops

So lately our family has spent most of our time doing 2 things. 1- shootin hoops and 2- having dance parties in the family room. I will spare you vidoes of the dance parties, but here is Anderson showing off his skills.

HELLO!!!!!!!!!

So I know it has been forever. Thank you to those of you who refuse to let me go too long without posting before you are sending me reminders and relentlessly asking about blog updates. :) OK!! Here! Here is what we have been up to.


KU football games. We had season tickets this year and got to go to all but one home game. It was fun even though KU has had far from a good season.


We've also been known to veg out at home and cheer on the Red Raiders.


In the beginning of October we said goodbye to Gma and Gpa L's basement living quarters. Here are the kiddos enjoyingsome sun on Gpa's front porch.


Anderson got a big boy bed and LOVES it. He loves his new room too. He insists on taking anyone that comes over to the house upstairs to see it.


A trip to Texas! One of my best friends god married in Austin on Oct 25th. It was a fun weekend getaway. The wedding was beautiful. She picked great bridesmaid dresses! I was pumped about having a dress to wear again sometime. :)



Carved some pumpkins and roasted our pumpkin seeds.


Dad and son club top secret meetings in the basement.


Adri is a very busy little bee. She is such a blessing to our family. She is one of those babies that just lights up a room. I pray that she can keep that spark as she grows up. I love that about her. She likes to tell us every opportunity she gets that she is "SOOOO BIG!" She has been trying out her walking feet for a while and just about has the hang of it. Watch out!!!!!!!!!!!






Anderson discovered a hidden treasure in the basemet. His train set that he got from uncle Bryan for his 2nd birthday. Score! "want to play trains with me mom?" I hear this question about 10 times a day. Of course the answer is always, yes. :)

Sometimes Macy likes to play trains too.

Halloween 2009

We had a couple of friends over for dinner and some trick or treating on halloween night. The kids had The Wizard of Oz theme going on. The kids had a blast getting candy. Anderson realized after a few houses in that if he grabbed with his own hands instead of letting the people at the door hand it out, he got a lot more. Luckily people thought it was cute. Everyone excpet for his mom of course. Manners PLEASE!

My mom, dad and aunt Linda escaped from the nursing home and decided to pay us a quick visit before the nusring home staff came looking for them! It was soooo funny to have them come surprise us at our party. We got the biggest kick out of it. Anderson kept pointing to my mom and saying "uh oh, your hair!"





Here's the kid crew


Dorothy, Wicked Witch and Lion


Eating some candy!


Trick or Treating with AJ who was actually a deviled egg but left the egg part at home. It was a cute costume idea. Kurt and Jen won the costume prize.

Hippo

So probably the most moritfying moment I have had as a mom happend a few days ago. I was with the kids at McDonalds. It was just me. I had to run to KC for the day to go shopping for a wedding this coming weekend. Anyway, we sat by the drinking fountain area and were eating our chicken nuggets and apples when a very large lady walks in. Both my kids immediately begin to stare at her. I cannot seem to distract them. Not even Adri. Well this lady comes over by us to get her drink and she looks at me and my kids who are still staring in disbelief and smiles a little bit. I was a little embarrassed so to save my face, I looked at Adri and said, "can you say hi?" thinking she would smile and wave. Adri doesn't perform for me this time so then the lady looks at Anderson and smiles. And thats when it happend,

Anderson looks at me with the most curious face and says "is that a hippo mommy?"

yep. he said it. loud and clear.

i pretented to not hear him. she did the same and then went to sit down and eat. now any of you who have been around a 2 year old and tried to pretend you didn't hear them know exactly whats coming next.

anderson, a little bit louder this time (since i obviously didn't hear the first time) begins a series of questions that i am guessing will take me a long time to ever forget and recover from.

It went a little like this...

"what hippo eating mommy?"
"hippo sit in that chair?"
"hippo get a drink?"

i turned all shades of red i am sure. i tried to act like he was saying purple instead of hippo. "no, thats not a purple chair, anderson. its silver" i don't think i was able to save the moment.

needless to say, we left McD's very quickly. Anderson had to finish his dinner in the car while i tried to bury myself in a hole somewhere.

God bless 2 year olds and their sweet curiosity. i think we need to take a trip to the zoo so we can talk about how hippos live in the zoo, NOT at mcDonalds.

:)

Still Alive and Kickin

well, its been a whirlwind of craziness since closing day on our house. we STILL do not have interent/phone so bear with me while i wait as patiently as i can for good old Cox to come out AGAIN and get me connected to the world. til then, no pics of what we have been up to. but we are slowly getting settled in to the house. kids rooms are getting painted this week. new lights and bathroom fixtures are on deck for the next few projects. i am exhausted. it is sooooo hard to move in and get organized with 2 munchkins around needing me all the time. thats ok, they are worth it! hoepfully some pics of the new place will be up shortly!
Til then,
Happy Fall Ya'll

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After an HOUR of sitting next to Anderson on the potty, he finally went poo poo!!! We have had the pee pee thing down for a long time now, but poo was a whole other story. Well, today it happend. I am so proud of him. He was quite proud too! A few weeks ago I took him to the toy store and let him pick out ANYTHING he wanted. He picked a train for his Brio train set. I told him at the store that we could buy it and take it home but that he couldn't open it until he pooed in the potty. It took him a while, but he finally wanted the train badly enough that today, he sat on the potty for an hour until he went. He was sooooo pumped when I opened the box and got the train out. He kept jumping around saying "train mommy, i poo poo mommy, train, please!" Here he is playing with his train. I couldn't even get him to look up for a split second snap shot.


Here is Adri cheering for her brother!

2 Teefers, Happy Birthday Daddy, and Hanging out at Gage Park

Adri woke up saturday morning with not 1 but 2 teeth! Here she is in all her teething glory! Such a big girl!


Lee Celebrated the big 3-0 on Saturday. He went golfing in the morning with his brother and a friend from Wichita and then we had dinner with his parents that night. Sunday we went to Lawrence to celebrate with his gma, gpa and aunts and uncles.

Adri tried some of gpa's homemade ice cream and really loved it!


Eating cupcakes and ice cream and opening gifts


Anderson decided that using his hands was too messy so he just dug in with his face!



We have been going to Gage Park a lot lately. Its lots of fun. There is a train that you can ride all the way around the park, a lot of playground equipment and a carousel. Anderson loves when we get to go. We went a few weeks ago with grandma and grandpa L and last Friday with Mimi. Here are some snapshots of our time there.

Anderson with his Mimi just after boarding the train (no he is NOT picking his nose. I promise.)


Self portrait of the whole gang


With Grandma L on the Carousel

halloween 2009 preview

We are teaming up with some other friends and creating the cast of Wizard of Oz this year. Over done? Yes. Still cute? Of course!

Here is part of Adri's costume. I made her a tutu and bought some black and white striped BabyLegz. She will wear a black onesie and some mary jane shoes. Still on the hunt for a baby sized hat that I can doctor up and make cute.

The Wicked Witch of the West has never been so cute!


Can't get this one to rotate. :(

Adri Claire

Adrianna has been lots of fun lately. She is such a little ham and knows just how to get you to pick her up whenever she wants you to. Lately we have been working on crawling. She still can't quite figure it out. She can get up on all fours, but doesn't know what to do after that. Still no teeth, but I will be surprised if one doesn't pop up by the end of this week. Seems like she has been working on one the past few days, which means lots of fussing, fevers, drooling and chewing things. Her funniest habit right now reminds me off "nessie" in the Twilight books. When she wants you to come over to her, she reaches out towards you with one arm and tries to touch you. Its so funny. I always call her "ness" when she does it. I just wish she had the same gift (for all you twilight readers, you know what i mean). Anyway, here is our little doll. Sweet as can be.

What happens when you give a baby a basket of toys to play with?


This!


Doing the "Nessie"

Pre School

We enrolled Anderson in pre school. Last night Lee and I went to parent orientation. It was a little surreal. Conferences, home visits, music programs, school carnival, can this be real?? Is it already that time???? Can he already be old enough for all this???? Wasn't he just born?? Crazy how time flies!

Here are a few pics of what our big boy has been up to lately.

new favorite hiding place


peek-a-boo


riding the merry-go-round at the carnival in Holton


riding the airplane ride at the holton carnival


cruisin for babes

Rub a Dub Dub 2 Babies in the Tub

Well, one baby and one "big boy" in the tub! First bath together. Anderson thought it was great to have someone else to dump water on. I asked, "who gets washed first?" and he said, "baby!" hmm, somehow I get the feeling he wasn't just trying to be nice. :)

Lee and Bryan

Stumbled upon this cute pic of Lee and his brother, Bryan on facebook today. This was taken when they were in Tahoe a few weeks ago. I think they were having a little fun, huh??


So I post this pic on my blog, and when I go to check to make sure it posted, I realize that this cute picture of my sweet husband and his cute little brother has been ruined by a crazy man in the background.

Oh, wait, thats John Ayres!! Looks like he is having some fun too! (sara, if this embarasses you, i am soooo sorry.)

The Future Residence of the Leinwetters!!!!!!!!!

I am excited to announce that we have a signed contract on a house. We are set to close on October 2. We are thrilled! The house will be a great one to raise our family in. Our new address will be 3520 SW Alameda Drive. Here is a pic of our new place. And I can call it "our" because the papers are signed!!!! :)

Kids Say the Darndest Things and Some Cute Anderson-isms.

So the other day we were coming home from a county fair in Holton, KS. It was like 10:30 at night, I thought surely Anderson would have been passed out from the car ride home, but no, he chit chatted the entire ride home. So anyway, I got him out of the car and as we started to walk inside he points to the sky and says, "thats heaven mommy." I said "what?" and he said again, "thats heaven mommy, up there in the stars." Talk about melting your heart away. I had to fight back the tears and then took the opportunity to tell Anderson about Jesus living there and share about God's love for us. It was a pretty cool conversation to have with your 2 year old. I am thankful for the chance to get to share that with him.

Some other cuteness that Anderson has been up to lately-

Hugs-he is in that cute stage where he runs full speed at you and then throws himself in your arms. LOVE IT! He also has to hug everyone in the room before he leaves to go anywhere.

"ok"- anderson follows every request with an "ok" as if his request was your idea in the first place.
the best way to describe this -ism is to give you an example of it. The conversation would go something like this...
Anderson- "mommy, i want a sucker"
Me- "you would like a sucker?"
Anderson- "anderson sucker. OK!"

trucks and tractors- he is obsessed. he can tell the difference between an excavator, dump truck, tow truck, pick up truck, tractors, lawn mowers, you name it, he knows it.

swimming- he has been a little fish this summer. it helps that there is a pool in the backyard! he loves to swim and even goes off the diving board.

gummies- he has gummy vitamins. he gets 2 every day and he will not let you forget to give them to him. he always likes to pick which color he gets. he usually chooses orange and pink.

those are some off the top of my head. i could share some other, not-so-cute habits he is in to right now, but i'm hoping those will pass soon! :)

6 Things That Make Me Happy

So I have been tagged by my friend Elizabeth H to blog about 6 things that make me happy. So here is my list. Besides the obvious (my family and kids), 6 things that make me happy are...

1- Projects. I love to start and finish a project of any kind. Mostly sewing projects have been consuming my project time right now but I love any kind. Crafts, cooking, sewing, etc.

2- Fixing up my home. This obviously is a happy place that I haven't been to lately, but soo dearly miss. I take pride in my home and the things in it. I love finding new pieces of furniture, art for the walls, or knick knacks to put around. Home decorating is by far one of my most favorite things to do. I feel at peace when my home is tidey, organized, and pretty.

3- Macaroni and Cheese served with Hot Dogs. My favorite meal. :)

4- Doing things for others. I truly find joy in helping others with anything they need. This is almost to a fault for me b/c I sometimes forget that not everyone else in the world is like that.

5- Being around people. I am a people person. I need very little alone time and thrive off of relationships I have with others. I don't necessarily have to be doing anything with others, I just like to have others around.

6- Clean sheets. Nothing is better than crawling in to a freshly laundered hospital cornered bed. I also love white sheets for some reason. I don't know why, I just prefer white sheets. The ones I have now (well the ones in storage) are perfect. They are nice and thick, so so soft and bright white! I get happy just thinking about it. :)

So there are 6 random things that make me happy. What makes you happy?

Mild Case of the "I wants"

So I am thinking about all the things I want right now and since I can't go buy everything I want, every time I want something, the next best thing to do is blog about it.

Now, before you go thinking I am an ungrateful brat...
I LOVE my life. I am blessed with a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful children and loving extended families. I couldn't ask for a better life. I am grateful for all that God has blessed me with. He has given me more than enough to be thankful for. This is simply a wish list of things that I have been keeping my mind on purchasing lately.

Top of my list- This baby food maker. SOOOOOO cool. WANT IT!!!!!
It does everything for you. Steams, purees, cooks, defrosts (if you put already frozen puree in it). You can use fruits, veggies and even meats! I think its a pretty cool gadget.



A king sized bed and new bedroom furniture. Not the one picture. I couldn't find one that I wanted on the internet. (I know, I don't even have a house to put it in. Lee reminds me of this everytime I mention a new "I want")


A new car seat for Adri. She is in a temporary until we pick one out. I got Anderson the Britax Roundabout, but am thinking about the Marathon for Adri. It will last her longer.


A cute swimsuit that will make me look like the bikini models in Victorias Secret cataolg. :) Ok, so thats far fetched, but at least something that can conceal the fact that I have had 2 kids and my tum tum just isn't quite as flat as it used to be.


Diamond earrings, pretty, sparkly, big ones! :)


Eyeglasses. Yep, its time. I went to the optometrist a month or two ago just like I do every year and every time I go, everything is great, see you next year. Well this time, they handed me a small peice of paper and said "here's your prescription." What?? Prescription for what? You mean, I need glasses??? No, I could see everything just fine, I swore I was doing great. Apparently not. Lee even told me that he was thinking that I needed them lately. He just didn't want to say anything. What a dear!


Thats all...

For now ;)