LiveStrong Challenge

This weekend was Daddy's LiveStrong ride. This is the annual ride that Daddy loves to do and trains for. With so many people touched by cancer in our lives, this has become a very important event to him.

In previous years, he has ridden with a team that he met through a class that he took years ago; however this year, he was part of a team from his school. Here we are in the shirts he designed for this year's ride. Pardon the not so flattering shot of us, J had just finished his ride (cut short because of an injury last week), I had run most of the 5k (I had to stop a few times because Kara was screaming.), and it was already scorchingly hot.

Here's Dada talking to Jana, assuring her that he was coming back, before he headed out on the 40 mile course.

Here's Dada heading out on his ride.

Here's Suzanne, Brad, Lexi ("Weck-ski") and us posing for a picture.
The girls were mostly good on the ride. The problems with this stroller are that the girls are touching each other, it was hot, and they could easily push, hit or otherwise annoy each other throughout the run. I got many laughs and many sympathetic looks as Kara screamed at different points on the run. Sometimes it was because Jana bopped her on the head, sometimes because Jana took the toy she was playing with, and sometimes it was just to scream. We finished with no major catastrophes or injuries, so that was the biggest success for us.


After J showered, we headed indoors into the air conditioning for a while to cool off and get a bite too eat.
Kara has hit the stage where she won't sit unless strapped down. If given the choice, she will crawl everywhere and anywhere she can. She discovered that she could crawl under the table and come out the other side and that provided such amusement and entertainment for her. She also liked crawling into the door way and sitting there; it was the best of both worlds - cool from the A/C inside, but still had all of the views of the outdoors. So, she needed to be strapped in while we sat and ate.

We headed outside to wait for Lance Armstrong's speech. Jana very quickly spotted the miniature golf and wanted in.

Her swing leaves a little to be desired, but she had fun, nonetheless.

Here is Daddy negotiating with her about returning the putter after she was done.
In the end, it took the two of them to talk her out of taking off with the putter, but she finally gave it up.

Kara was getting a little bored waiting for the speech. Can you tell? Mmmm. Tasty stroller!


And the speech finally started, so we roasted in the heat some more.

A few nice people shared their shade with us. Kara wasn't happy about it, but she sat in the stroller quietly through the speech.

Jana insisted on sitting on my lap despite the heat until she decided to take off and run around again.

We had a good time and the girls were actually pretty good through it all.

An awesome sight. The dedication wall: who people were riding/walking/running for.

Auntie Meghan's Shower

We had a fun, but busy weekend.

Friday everyone came into town, and Saturday was the shower.

Jana, Kara, and Dada hung out with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Dave, and Jenny on Thursday and Friday while Mama was working. She always has such a wonderful time with Uncle David. Here he is showing Jana how to play the guitar.


Jana was so excited when Grandpa cleaned out the play house and put the kitchen in there. Oh what fun she had in there!And it just got better when she discovered the bubble wrap.

It was a bit of an adventure juggling Ari, Jana, and Kara while trying to get ready for the shower, but we managed. The boys had a fun day hanging out together and checking out the train tour.

Luckily, both Jana and Kara went down for naps before the guests arrived and slept through most of the shower. Jana joined us for the last half hour and Kara for the last few minutes before everyone took off.

We had a lovely time with about 20 guests.

Ari was around for most of the shower and was so delightful to be around. She's such a sweet baby and has the cutest little face.
Auntie Sarah and Ari hanging out during the shower.

Auntie Meg posing for a picture with me.


The cute train car that Grandpa and Jenny put together for Meg's celebration.


Jana woke up from her nap with about a half an hour left in the shower and came down to play. There were 4 other little girls running around and Jana wasn't so sure about them. She LOVED Jailah, Sean's niece. Jailah was so good with Jana.

The girls played outside and Jailah and Emma were playing house in the play house. Jana hasn't been around that, so she was unsure of Emma's play-crying (she was the baby and Jailah was the mama). Jana came running in telling Emma's mom that she was "crying and playing." Jana loved following them around, though, and they were remarkably tolerant.


When all the guests left, Ari got a chance to stretch out and Jana watcher over her.

Neither Kara nor Ari were really too keen on sitting next to one another. One would flail an arm and the other wouldn't like it. It was actually pretty funny.

You'll notice Jana's dress. Jana doesn't spend much time in a dress, especially not one this long.

So she greatly enjoyed dancing around in it; however, she doesn't quite grasp the idea of not "showing off the goods" as Dada puts it. It's good practice for Uncle Patrick, right?


And finally a great shot of Uncle Patrick and Ari.

Kara's 13 Months old!

Kara's personality is really starting to come out.

She's a master crawler now - far more proficient than Jana was. She's fast - she can get to the stairs in no time at all. She loves to climb up the stairs, so we have to be careful to close the gate on the stairs now. She doesn't get the concept of falling down stairs yet, so we must stay close. When she decides to sit down, she does and it doesn't matter if there is anything under her or not.

Kara cruises on anything she can get her hands on. She is constantly pulling herself up on whatever is in reach. She also gets very frustrated that she can't walk. She wants to get up and run after Jana, but she gets up on her feet, with her hands still on the ground and then can't get any further. She bear crawls around (hands and feet) when she gets annoyed with crawling normally.

Kara is such a little imp. She can turn on the tears and turn them off just as fast. She's going to be a bit of a manipulator, we can tell already.

Her favorite word is "uh-oh." She loves to say it... especially after throwing her sippy cup across the room. (And man that kid has an arm! She can out throw Jana already.)

She still lights up when she sees Jana. She will be crawling across the room with a purpose and Jana will yell "Kara Mae" and Kara spins so fast and comes crawling back to Jana as fast as she can. We're starting to see a bit of scrapping over toys, but we know it's only the beginning.

She is loving her time with Daddy. I've seen such a difference in her in the last week. She's getting to be so much more confident and starting to show more independence. She just seems more comfortable.

We don't seem to have as many pictures this month as we have for other months - not surprising for how busy we've been.

Here are some more pictures of Kara from when Megan took pictures of the girls. I love these, because these really show many of the aspects of Kara's personality. She's got a bit of a flair for the dramatics and is very expressive with her face.

"Is this supposed to be fun?"

"Well, since I'm bored, let me entertain you with a few of my faces."


"Okay, seriously now. This is getting old, so you get my stink face!"

"So will someone come get me? NOW!"

"Did you think I was kidding?"


The worst part is that if she's distracted while crying, like in the above picture, she'll stop and pay attention to whatever has distracted her. When she finally remembers that she was crying, she goes right back to where she left off.

She is a very happy girl, don't get me wrong.
But she is her mother's daughter: the highs are high and the lows are low.

She seems to be greatly enjoying her newly discovered independence that has come with her mobility. Just look at this face as she climbs the stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's. Tell me that isn't a look of someone who wants to find trouble.

Here she is enjoying the attention this last weekend.


A little goofy grin while hanging out with Mama.
Her current favorite toys are the Mega blocks. Funny, Jana is on a Mega Blocks kick too. We get a little cranky over sharing these. Probably because Jana builds things and Kara swipes the blocks from her "castle".

Jana's 2 years, 4th month

Oh wow! Jana is so two! She's so much fun and such a sweetheart, but boy howdy is she two!

She has come up with some hilarious new sayings.

The other night, she was trying to take the "lid" off the Pooh's Honey Pot I told her "It doesn't come apart. I can't." Her response was, "Yes, Mommy, you can do it."

She saw kids taking swim lessons last week at the gym while I was working. Since then, we constantly hear, "Jana go to swim class now Mommy."

She has also learned to use the words "ready" and "yet" often and correctly. They usually take the shape of the answers, "No, I'm not ready yet" or "No, not yet," to the questions: "How about eating dinner?" or "It's time for bath," or even "Let's go upstairs for stories and bed."

Pictures:

"What do you mean, Mama, that we're not going anywhere? I'm ready to go. My backpack is all ready. You never know when spoons, Sissy's shoes, pink bear, dirty socks and a handful of wash clothes will come in handy."

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the car!"

Daddy stayed home with the girls one day when Mama had to work. Check out "Daddy's piggies" as Jana called them. Not bad for first try. Jana asked to wear "Daddy's piggies" for the next few days. Apparently she greatly enjoyed them.

Even though they are Mama's (and Grandma's) favorites, we've had to abandon the Osh Kosh pink striped overalls. Why do you ask? Because it's too easy for her to become "Nakedy Girl." We were able to convince her to put some clothes back on. Nothing like the Hilly billy look.


Here are Daddy's girls playing with their tool set. They were all having a wonderful time until Kara started putting them in her mouth - oops!

She's very into dressing herself (or undressing herself as the case may be). She went down for a nap in her purple track pants and a t-shirt. When she got up, she added this dress to the ensemble. When she came downstairs to see Daddy, who had just returned from a ride, she added his helmet and glasses. She was so proud of this outfit and we have such a bribe-worthy picture for when she becomes a teenager. Hee, hee!


Here is another attempt to dress herself. She found her "yellow jersey" from last summer and insisted on wearing it. I had to do a lot of convincing to get her to wear anything else as well. I managed to "convince" (read: pin her down and dress her while she was yelling at me) to wear pants and a shirt that would actually cover her torso as the yellow jersey is a 12 month size shirt (and she wears 3T shirts). People had quite a few laughs as she proudly strutted around, showing off her outfit, while we were out that day.
All dressed up in her Giraffe raincoat and sunglasses. Too bad Mama wasn't fast enough to pull out her Giraffe umbrella too. (Jana has an obsession with umbrella's right now, so we're a little hesitant to voluntarily pull them out.)

Kara got a water table for her birthday and Jana has been enjoying it immensely.

It doesn't matter how long or short she plays with it, she ends up soaking wet. She's not a big fan of wearing wet pants, so those never last long.

And while she's stripped down, what better time is there to practice drinking out of a big kid cup?