Little Monkey Bizness

So... I kind of quit the blog thing because I feel like it takes me FOREVER to write one and upload pictures. But... it is naptime... and my agenda for the day is completely open, so thought I would give it another go.

This morning we took Chacey to a place called Little Monkey Bizness. It was suggested to me by a friend at work, so we thought we would try it out this morning.

It was actually a pretty cool place. They had a very large inflatable bounce house, several playground-type slide structures, different things to climb on, dress up clothes, a basketball hoop, etc. Since Chacey isn't known for being super outgoing, we decided to start slow. She jumped in the bounce house (which she was okay with since there were no other kids) and went down the giant slide that is part of the bounce house.


She started to play on the different steps/slides... which I would compare to indoor playground equipment. But as soon as another kid came to play on that same thing, she wanted to move on. She didn't want them to touch her, pass her, etc. She finally warmed up to these "horse" type things. They were on elastic type bands at the top so she could jump and make herself go pretty high... until she saw a bigger girl standing on one and she thought she could do the same... that didn't work out how she wanted it to.


She wouldn't actually enter the main play area without being accompanied by Sam or myself... so we both got to do our share of climbing/sliding with the other children and their parents.



She started off going down the slide feet first, on her tummy. Then she could use her hands to control the speed at which she wanted to go. She eventually started to get a little more brave though, and would willingly go down the slide by herself and it all sorts of directions... feet first, head first, etc.




They had an area with a pendelum type swing in it that I didn't think Chacey would enjoy at all. I figured that she wouldn't be able to hold herself on it, would fall off once, and be "all done." I was right in that she wouldn't be able to hold herself on it (for very long), but she still loved it!



We had a good time... and as the morning went on the place got pretty crowded. Next time we go, we will have to take Jackson. He would love it... and is definitely more outgoing than Chacey. Maybe if she had someone to lead the way she wouldn't be such a chicken.

Where is My Christmas Spirit?!?!?!

For some reason it has been more difficult for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year. I am sure that it has something to do with the fact that this is my first non-college Christmas. The first Christmas that isn't surrounded by a substantial, wonderful "Christmas Break."

Don't get me wrong... it isn't like Christmas Breaks of the past have been all filled with rest and relaxation or anything.... I always worked in college... and worked retail (Wal-Mart) for several years, so it isn't like I was just spending four weeks doing nothing. In 2008 we welcomed Chacey over Christmas break, halfway through my graduate program. The semester resume six days after she was born and life has felt crazy since! In 2009 we were moving, relocating to Kansas City and I was getting ready to start at Farmers in early January. Maybe it was just the feeling of getting a break from something (classes - 21 credit hours takes its tole) that made the Christmas spirit flow more freely. :) Now in 2010, I just worked 36 hours in three days and we are at a ridiculously high claims volume (quit wrecking your cars, people).

Oh well... moral of the story is that I needed an extra boost before I could recognize the reality that tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!! Chacey loves Christmas lights, so we took her to Christmas in the Park.... which turned out to be a big hit! She loved pointing out all the of items that she identified... trains, bears, water, etc.



Tonight, we decided to made a gingerbread house. Chacey was very helpful as she carefully spread the icing on the roof. (We may have told her that the icing was "yucky" so that she would abstain from eating it.)


Then Chacey helped Daddy line the top of the roof with gumdrops... that we convinced her were also "yucky." She did a very good job!


We let her decorate one whole wall all by herself... and she may have put some of the "balls" on the roof out of the color sequence that we were going with... but she was creatively expressing herself! :)


This was Chacey's side. I did the "icicles" hanging off the roof.


Chacey and Daddy with the finished product!

Our Short Helper

Chacey was such a big helper when putting up the Christmas tree this year! I thought that it would be a constant battle making her leave the "balls" on the tree alone, but she hasn't touched them since the night she helped put them up! The giant, head-sized balls on my Dad's Christmas tree have been a different story tonight though...

Chacey did such a good job helping Sam put up the Christmas tree! She took the top two portions of the tree out of the box and carried them over to Daddy in the corner.



I love this video of her taking the tree over to Sam. I like how you can hear the "strain" in her voice as she is trying to give the part of the tree to Sam. She was such a good helper! In my opinion, what makes this video even better is that it is such an accurate portrayal of her personality. She is SO dramatic and over the top in everything she does, right down to her vocal inflections. Cute now, probably problematic later...



Sam putting the star on the tree... before the ornaments were on. We had to get the light in the star right, so it got done out of order.


Her idea of putting the ornaments on the tree was to stuff them into the branches until they were wedged in there and didn't fall out. And, of course, they were all at one height. She did such a good job though (even if they did get rearranged after she went to bed)!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (Slightly Delayed)

So, I haven't had internet access in a VERY long time... and am consequently very behind in the updates of our life. In trying to highlight the major life events, Thanksgiving seemed like an appropriate topic to touch on!

We spent Thanksgiving with the Dollins family this year. We ate a delicious meal and enjoyed visiting with family that we don't get the opportunity to see very often. Chacey got to hang out with her cousins, Truett and Macy. We hadn't seen Truett since May and had never met Macy, who was born in late July. Below: Grandma Karen with Truett and Chacey, taking a break from meal preparations.


On Thanksgiving evening, we braved the frigid temperatures with Andrew and "Big" Chacey to the Plaza Lighting (visit that website to see a video of the lighting and fireworks). Chacey was so much more interested in pointing out all of the "buses" (helicopters) that were flying around in the sky than she was in the actual lighting... or in getting her picture taken.


Trying to get a picture, but between her love of the flying buses and her concern for the people standing in the second story windows of the surrounding buildings (she thought they were going to fall), she couldn't focus.


Finally a smile...


The crowd and the lights... there were enough people to keep it from feeling so cold!


Immediately following the lighting, we stopped at Quik Trip to obtain "dinner" food (the only place open on Thanksgiving) of Cheetos and Dr. Pepper, then crashed the Rembecki house for awhile so that we could all warm up!

At Farmers, Black Friday is apparently a holiday worthy of vacation (no complaints here), so we got to spend another relaxing day doing whatever we wanted. Karen and John wanted to take the kids to the Sesame Street show at the Planetarium at Union Station. Chacey is a hardcore Elmo fan, but she wasn't sure about the Planetarium view... especially when Big Bird kept randomly popping up and startling her. Ah well, all about life experiences!


After the show, we went over to Crown Center to eat at Fritz's... where the primary appeal to kids is that all of the food is delivered by trains that run around tracks next to the ceiling. Chacey and Grandpa John got in some quality coloring time while we waited on our food..


Truett and Ben in their conductor hats:



Saturday was mostly consumed by family pictures and shopping. On Sunday, Sam had to return to Maryville pretty early to get set up for Feaste, so Chacey and I had a "pajama day" that resulted in very little productivity and all of the 6th season of Friends (yay $9.99 on Black Friday). Overall it was a fun, busy weekend. Vacation days are always welcome, and it was nice to get to spend four consecutive days with Sam... we don't get to see him all that often!

B.E.A.R.C.A.T.S.!!!

Chacey got to experience her first Bearcat homecoming this weekend. We made the trip to Maryville to see Sam (who had homecoming commitments all weekend) and got to go to the Variety Show, parade, and football game, all while hanging out with several of our friends while we were there.

Friday night, Sam, Andrew, Dan and Reed performed in the homecoming variety show with their quartet. Chacey kept yelling "Daddy!" and clapping while they were singing. Everyone around us just thought it was so cute! She was just thrilled when Sam waved at her from the stage. The Phi Mu Alpha guys got first for their skit at the show... again... this is like the fifteenth year in a row or something.



Saturday morning, we watched the parade, which Chacey really enjoyed. She loved all of the marching bands and giant floats that come with a college homecoming parade. She did NOT, however, love Bobby Bearcat. Apparently he is an intimidating creature... but I guess that is the point of a mascot???



The Phi Mu Alpha costume clowns in the parade (Sam is second from the right), for which they also got first place! Whoo hoo!



Saturday afternoon, of course, was the homecoming game... and also Chacey's first Bearcat game! Below is a picture of Chacey and Daddy standing at the endzone (the game was standing room only), watching the second quarter.



Chacey running around on the track, getting in some dance moves, while the BMB performed at halftime.



The guys with the Phi Mu Alpha banner... I think they got fourth???



And finally... we finished up Saturday by spending some time at the park, playing frisbee, climbing on/around the "horse" (which is a dinosaur unless you are an animal challenged one-year-old), and swinging.



Over the weekend, I realized that I am clearly not cut out to live the college life anymore. I was exhausted by 10:00 every night! It was great to see some good friends though... and any Bearcat exposure for Chacey is only promising for her future :)!

Pumpkin Patch!

Sam is very anti-Halloween, so I decided that this year I needed to find something for Chacey to do that was seasonal, but not necessarily Halloween. When I thought about it, I remembered looking at some adorable pictures last year of Jackson visiting a pumpkin patch (he was/is so cute!). I decided this year that I was going to take Chacey and planned an outing with Mom, Ronnie, Emily, and Audree to visit Papa Charlie's Pumpkin Patch.

What I didn't take into consideration when planning this... is how big of a chicken my daughter is! She didn't want to ride the rides, didn't want the animals to look at her, and didn't really even enjoy the hayride because a cow got too close to us as we passed. Ugh! But, I still consider it a hit because Audree loved it!

This is me... riding the "train" all by myself (Emily and Audree are in the one behind me). I had gotten in the cart and put Chacey on my lap when she started screaming bloody murder... so she got passed off and I went along on the ride. You might think that this was a pretty mellow ride, but let me tell you, this was a CRAZY driver! Emily was screaming her lungs out behind me! We were getting whipped in a million directions, doing donuts so tight that the driver could high-five the person in the last cart, and going over hills so fast that it was practically a ramp!



One of the few parts that Chacey did like was the hay maze. You had to crawl through it (which was stressful for her at the beginning because she didn't want the hay on her hand). Auntie went with her the first time (and learned that she needed to wear higher pants), but then Chacey got brave enough to do it by herself and she went several more times. The first picture is of all the stacked hay that made the maze. It was covered too, so you definitely had to crawl. The bottom picture I was able to lean down through a gap in the corner and get a shot of Chacey crawling through.




Next was the hayride... which was pretty relaxed (much less intense than the "train" ride from earlier). Audree seemed to like it okay... she didn't really show much emotion either way. Chacey liked to moo at the cows (from an extreme distance) and was not a fan when one of them approached us as we passed through!



We made a quick pass through the petting zoo... where Chacey proceeded to hang out as far away from the animals as she could get!



Audree, however, loved the animals and was made several times to quit climbing in with them!



There was a giant stack of hay that had ropes/slides coming out of it in random places. Chacey was really too short to get herself up, but she knew how to slide down!



The biggest hit of the day was definitely the slide set up on the side of a hill. Chacey absolutely loved it and ended up going down four or five times before we made her stop and move on to the next thing. Audree didn't really seem to care though... she didn't even smile coming down! In the pictures below, Audree and Emily are on the left, Chacey and Nana are on the right.



Chacey and Papa heading back up the hill carrying their burlap sacks. It was so cute. Everyone else was carrying one, so Chacey picked up a discarded one to carry around with her, too.



Next we decided to go through the corn maze, but after she tripped fifteen times, Chacey insisted on being carried. So, Emily was packing Audree, Mom was packing Chacey, and Ronnie and I were packing all the diaper bag and beverages that Emily thought we HAD to bring through the maze with us. Below is Audree coming out of the maze like a big girl!



After the corn maze, the girls picked out their pumpkins. We ended up taking home three big ones and two little ones. We are going to have a pumpkin carving party next weekend while we are in Trenton for Missouri Days.





Finally, just as we were getting ready to leave... with our two children, five pumpkins, and two diaper bags... Chacey ran over to the train and wanted to ride! So, we paused so that Chacey and Auntie could go for a quick ride and then go through the hay maze one more time.

Renaissance Festival, Bearcat Victory, and Royals Game!

We had a busy day yesterday! We started the day by watching Karen's choir performing at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. Chacey enjoyed the freedom of roaming around, but she wasn't a fan of the Knight (dressed in full armor) coming up to talk to her! Below: Chacey, Uncle Nate, and Daddy sitting on a bench at the Renaissance Festival (there was WAY too much going on around us for her to look at the camera).


After the Renaissance Festival, Chacey went home to take a power nap while Sam and I cheered the Bearcats on to a beating of Missouri Western. Whoo hoo!

Then we headed off to the Royals game. The first 20,000 fans got free Royals snuggies! Chacey loved being able to watch the fountains! During innings (when they turned the fountains back down), she would stick out her bottom lip "where water, where water?" and then become greatly excited when the inning was over and they turned the water back up. Daddy took Chacey over to get an up close look, since she was so excited about them! (They are in the bottom left, see her pink jacket?)


Chacey loves ballpark food, especially frozen lemonade. So, even though it was upper 30s, lower 40s temperature wise, Chacey and Daddy had frozen lemonade anyway. Then I made her wear her blanket/poncho and watch the game. She danced and danced... and did a lot of cheering!


A video of Chacey cheering... at the beginning she is saying "catch, catch" and then, obviously, "go, go, go!".



At the end of the game, we had a very exhausted little girl. She had a busy day (with only about an hour of nap), but is always such a trooper and so well behaved! Walking to the car with Daddy, dragging her foam finger along with her!