How To Eat Cereal

stir stir stir
STIR STIR STIR

Get on my fork already!

Forget it!

Got ya oatie!

Into my mouth you go!

chew chew chew

Well I do declare!

These are the best oaties I've had all day!

Insert fork into mouth now... I'm a big girl!

Trip Pictures!

OK, apparently I was trying to upload pictures that were too big! I was doing our year update for Meg's first mom H so the pictures I had were large so they could be printed nicely. Well I resized them all and here they are!

We went to Culver to visit Bill's grandma and Meg spotted the little rocking chair right away! She started throwing off all the bears on the chair and wanted to climb right up. This rocking chair belonged to Grandma Mert's father - so I hoped we would get some good pictures of Meaghan with it. A family tradition!



She was more than happy to model for me!



Meaghan with Grandma Mert!



One morning, Meaghan and I went with Amanda to the skating rink. It was the only time she wore her cute mouse coat! Meg loved watching the girls skate and was dancing to the music. Amanda gave her a new kitty named Trickster... she loves it!!!



This happy face lasted for about 20 seconds and then she realized the hood was over her head...



... not a happy camper! Mean mommy! In all fairness, it's 35 degrees in the rink and we were there for an hour so I was sure she was going to get cold....



The night before the marathon, we stayed downtown at the Hard Rock Hotel. Amanda and Meg were getting silly!



Millenium Park - Bill and Brock finished!!!



It was a great trip - the leaves were starting to change and some changed overnight while we were there. I wished for cooler weather but it was still much better than hot, humid Florida!

Back From Chicago!

We're back home and I just tried loading up some new pictures. It's not behaving at the moment, so I will have to try again soon.

The weather was a lot warmer than we had hoped but we had a great time! Both Bill and Brock finished the marathon on Sunday morning.

Stay tuned for some new Meaghan pics!!!

Animal Kingdom Pictures and News!!

Animal Kingdom was great! We had a blast, the weather was perfect, the guys had fun with the race, and Meaghan was an angel the entire time (well except for when it was time to go to bed that night)!

Picking up the race packets, Meg knew something fun was going to happen! I expected her to take a nap in the car on the way over... she did not. She was much more interested in playing with Jon in the backseat.
We weren't exactly sure how character greeting was going to go, but she really liked Minnie! Meg is trying to give Minnie a kiss on the nose, or bite it, one of the two!
And Minnie played back with Meg's nose!
We went to the Lion King show... and we got VIP seats right up front! Meg was quite intriqued.
But then the big stilt leg people came out...
and Meg wasn't so sure about them. "There's something definitely wrong with their legs!"
Then the monkeys came out and did their thing!
And Meg was delighted once again! "Yay monkeys!"
She was very interested at the end of the show when the kids were rounded up for the little parade.
Since morning nap time was non-existant, she crashed!
OK, here's the big news..... Meaghan took her very first steps at the Animal Kingdom!!! I don't have any pictures... maybe my brother does. In any case, it was very exciting!

At the Conservation Station, after riding the train out there.

Almost recreating the unassisted steps!
What does one do when meeting Pocahontas for the very first time? We put her down to get some crawling time in on the carpeted floor... she decided to lay and roll instead.
Ahhh.... two princesses, as cute as can be!
Mickey Mouse ice cream bar - yummy!!
"What do you mean there's no more?"
The start of the Expedition Everest Challenge.
Part of the obstacle course... Jon on the left, Bill on the right.
"We finished!" Their official race time was 58:25.
Our room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was excellent - and we had animals outside the window! Meg was so excited that we let her be out on the patio in her monkey jammies. Such a little mop top! The wild kingdom outside our room! It was so quiet... so amazing.
We found rocking chairs - Meg was all over it!
Literally... our little monkey!

Senate Bill 1738 Passed!

Thank you to everyone that wrote, called, emailed, or all of the above!!

Animal Kingdom - Here We Come!

Happy Friday everyone!!

We're heading over to the Animal Kingdom at Disney this weekend. Bill and Jon are a team in the Expedition Everest Challenge on Saturday night!

I'm so looking forward to watching Meaghan experience the park for the first time. Keep in mind our first Disney trip was to Epcot last December and she was ity bity! We'll be staying at the Animal Kingdom resort - so we'll have animals right outside our room. Speaking of which... off to charge all my batteries for the camera!

We recently went to the aquarium on a Sunday afternoon for some fish watching and more water play!!!

Meaghan has a new shopping cart and she LOVES it! She runs into everything and her basket is usually filled with interesting items she collects from around the house. You never know what you are going to find in there!

PSA - Clean Your Dryer Vent!

I've been putting it off.... actually, until I started seeing articles about how important it is to have your dryer cleaned, I had no idea that I was actually supposed to do more than clean the lint screen after every load! How did I not know this???

Well, I bought a dryer cleaning kit with the brushes and a flat vacuum attachment and took off the venting hose off the back of our dryer... it is amazing that we have not had a fire in our laundry room!!! We had a serious lint issue and combined with pet hair and dust, I am grateful that I cleaned it when I did. Bill and I are fanatics about cleaning the lint trap after each and every load but it's not enough. I cleaned everything I possibly could and I feel much better now!

We purchased our house brand new in 2002. I'm sure we've done tons of laundry in the last 6 years, but no where near households that do at least a load every day. I never leave the dryer running when we leave the house. Now I don't want it running when we go to bed either.

Please... if you have not cleaned your dryer vent at least in the last year or cannot remember the last time it was ever done, do it today! Either do it yourself or call a professional to have it inspected.