A More Thorough Update

I thought I would take some time to give an update on how we are doing since it has been quite awhile since I have blogged. Time seems to be going by really fast lately, and I apologize for taking so much time between blogs. 
Tobey has finally kind of had a chance to catch his breath since our lawn was put in. He is still doing little projects all around our house, trying to get the garage cleared out before winter hits so we can actually put our cars inside – this is one of the things he was most excited about having our house for, the garage! He is getting busier at work now that they are actually starting construction. He is a little bummed that motorcycle season is coming to a close and he will have to put his bike away for the LONG winter ahead.
I am doing great. I have really enjoyed being able to go and work out everyday. It is “my” time where I can de-stress from the craziness of life. The girls seem to really like going to Kidsworld and they have little friends there that come every day like them, so it is kind of a social time for them. I am also really enjoying my American Literature class (thanks to Katie’s amazing babysitting skills). The stories we read are all pretty depressing, but it is fun to try and decipher their hidden meanings and keep my brain active. Other than that, I am trying to be more creative and fun with the girls. We have been doing cooking projects a lot lately and it is really fun to see how excited they get at their culinary masterpieces.
Paige is loving preschool this year. She is really trying to learn more than last year and keeps trying to read and sound out words. She is always sitting with a book, “reading” (or saying phrases she memorized when I read to her). She is also going through what we call a very high maintenance phase. She is always looking in the mirror, fixing her hair, putting on her play make-up and earrings and asking us if she looks pretty. Last week she told me that she wanted “long nails”. I told her that she could go get long nails put on when she is a teenager and can pay for them herself . We are going to get her ears pierced for her birthday.
Kennedy is such a funny little girl. She is still constantly putting on a show to get everyone to laugh. I signed her up for a free tumbling class at the gym and she loves it. Whenever Paige tells us about “her class” (pre-school), Kennedy chimes right in and tells us about her class. She will say, “Well at my tumbling class….” it is fun to watch her try and do all the little gymnastic exercises at home after class is over. She is very independent, and does more for herself than Paige ever did at this age. Sometimes it can be frustrating though because it takes so LONG for her to do things, but I am glad she has the motivation to try.
Avery is getting so huge! She is such a snuggly loving baby and she is seriously happy most of the time. She just got over a nasty stomach flu and it was so hard to see her miserable because she is usually so content. She is a full time walker now. She does not crawl at all anymore. Her favorite songs right now are “twinkle twinkle little star” and “Patty cake” (not really a song I guess) but she knows the actions to both of them and will do them with us when we all sing them to her. At night when I rock her to sleep, I usually hum songs to her until she falls asleep and now when we sit in the rocking chair she will start to hum a monotone note over and over until I start humming then she will grin and settle down. It is adorable! She turns one in two weeks and I can’t believe it!
Other than that we are all just trying to enjoy the sunny fall weather, although about a week ago there was a snow storm that left enough snow on the ground for us to build a full size snowman! It melted the next day, but that is just the weather here in Idaho for you. (There are pictures of this on the blog). We love you all and miss you!

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Recent Videos

Here are some recent videos of the girls. The first one is from quite awhile ago. When Paige was still in her cheerleading phase Avery decided to start copying her and she would always raise her hands above her head and say, "Go!" She is over that phase right now, but it was so cute I decided to post it anyway. The second video is Avery walking...this video is from about a week ago and she has improved since then. She doesn't crawl at all anymore. She is an official walker. (It makes me sad! She is growing up WAY too fast). And the third video is the girls singing a song from "The Little Mermaid". Kennedy can sing all the words, just not as fast as Paige so you don't see her singing too many in this video. I will have to try and get her to sing it by herself sometime. :) I will try to post some pictures and a more complete update soon, but we just got a new internet provider and it is WAY slower than our old one so it takes FOREVER to download pictures. :) Melyssa

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EUROPE!!!

We are just 2 weeks away from flying to Europe and I thought that I would share our travel plans.

First we go to Venice and we stay in Venice for 2 Days. Here is a link to our Hotel there.

http://www.hotelcazose.com

Then we start our 7 day cruise on Splendor of the Seas. You can view all the details on

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000RZZYn2BpMwnklWsG_28-lf2:12hdhua36?packageCode=SP07M010&date=20074&selectedCurrencyCode=USD&promoType=

After we get off the cruise we are headed to Lucerne Switzerland via Eurail. I don't know what we are going to here but it is really pretty. Here is our hotel.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g188064-d239138-Reviews-Hotel_des_Alpes-Lucerne.html

From Lucerne we are headed to Interlaken Switzerland and we are staying her for 2 days here is our hotel here.

http://www.swissqualityhotels.com/hotels/picturegallery.asp?code=ZINGOL&pic=ZINGOL-l220-1.jpg&_lang=en

From here we are headed to Paris where we will visit all the sights we are also staying 3 min. walking distance from the eiffel tower. here is our hotel.

http://www.eiffelseine.com/hotel-eiffel-seine-english/the-hotel-01.html

We are really excited to get out of Alaska and travel. Its something we never dreamed we would be able to do. If you have any suggestions on places to see of things to do let us know. Also if you want us to pick you up something specific let us know. We love you.