Thank Heaven For . . .

. . . little boys who are old enough to watch BABY EINSTEIN videos, even if it's only for 15 minutes!

Fancy Hairdo

Allison always asks me to braid her hair at night, so that it's nice and wavy for school the next day. She thinks she is sooo pretty. However, it's such a pain because she barely has enough patience to hold still for a french braid (which gives the best waviness the next day). Sometimes we just end up doing 2 pigtails and then braiding them . . . it's faster and easier for her to hold still, but doesn't look as nice (since the top half of the hair is straight).

Well, the same evening that Matt was gone with Allison at the doctor (see older post), I decided to try something with Sarah. In contrast to Allison, Sarah is VERY GOOD at holding still while I french braid her hair. It's quite amazing (especially for a not-quite-3 year old). I thought to myself, "if one french braid looks good the next day, why not try 4 braids!!!" ( I know, I'm a little weird). But she held still for it (mostly) and I got it done. She liked it with the braids in, and also the next day when we took it out. And, yes, 4 braids makes your hair wavier than 1 braid the next day!

Silly Faces

One evening, when Matt and Allison were gone at a doctor's appointment, Sarah (almost 3) and I had some fun with the camera and took these pictures together:

Sarah is my silly, playful little one, who just likes to have fun . . .

As you can see, she had a blast making silly faces with me

for the camera . . .

You should be impressed that I took all of these pictures by myself,

just by holding the camera in front of us . . .

When I was preparing this post, Allison (5) saw the fun pictures

and said, "I want to do that too, Mommy!"

So, you may see a similar post with Allison and me in the near future . . .

Isn't Sarah cute???!! She's a keeper . . .

Snow storm cancels Church

Sunday morning, we woke up to a bunch of snow. We probably had roughly 6 inches, with no chance of the roads being cleared enough before church. So . . . church was cancelled. Here's a picture of Matt shovelling our driveway, after he got in his good deed for the day and finished shoveling our single/elderly neighbor's driveway.

My Valentine

This year, Matt went ALL OUT for Valentine's Day. He told me months ago that he had already made plans for the weekend of Valentines Day and that it was going to be great. Well, the wait was difficult, (I tried for 2 months to get out of him what we were doing) . . . but well worth it!

All I knew, was that I was supposed to be dressed up and ready to go by 5:45 pm on Friday night. When we got in the car, I found out that we were going to a fancy restaurant in downtown Kansas City called the Savoy Grill. This place turned out to be a very old & historic hotel with a restaurant, known for its good food and ambiance. It was pretty cool.

While we were eating our dinner, Matt pulled out a little wrapped up box from Helzberg Diamonds and handed it to me. Inside was a beautiful yellow gold anniversary band with sparkling round diamonds all across the top. (Now before you all think, "how much did he shell out on something like that?" just remember, that on February 13th, he qualified for his 70% off discount for being with Helzberg for 2 years). I, of course, was totally shocked, because we had previously decided together that although his new discount was coming up RIGHT BEFORE VALENTINES DAY, we weren't going to buy anything because we are going to see 'Wicked' in May and would be spending extra money on that. But, I guess, Matt just couldn't resist using his new discount.

Next, Matt informed me that after dinner, we would be walking 2 blocks up the street to attend a concert with the Kansas City Symphony, which featured a guest violin soloist performing one of our favorite classical pieces: Tschaicovski's Violin Concerto. I was so excited, because I haven't been the symphony in quite a while, and have fond memories of attending the Evansville Philharmonic while growing up in Evansville.

The concert was fun, the soloist did a great job, and Matt succeeded in planning and pulling off the most memorable and thoughtful Valentines Day of our marriage so far! Isn't he the best?

Scary Dragon

Here is a quick video of Sarah and her unbelievable Roar!!!!!

Claire the Bear

Allison has a new Webkinz bear that she named Claire (after her friend that moved away to St. Louis).  This bear has been a good friend to Allison and vice versa.  When Allison had a bad case of the flu a few weeks ago, Claire was right by Allison's side the whole time.  This morning, Allison told me that "Claire is sick today", and this is what I witnessed on the kitchen floor: (see above)

Here is a close-up of Claire:

As you can see, Allison has prepped Claire, (complete with "throw-up bowl", medicine, thermometer, a sippy cup and a towel), for the chance that she might throw up.  She's reading a book to her bear, and reassuring her that she "can eat this afternoon if she's feeling better. "  I wonder where she's heard this . . . ?

You Decide . . .

For all of you who think Kimball looks exactly like Sarah, take a look at this . . .

top:          Sarah

middle:  Kimball

bottom:   Allison

Genesis

The Midwest Craners are now "on board" with a blog site.  Since I don't have a good recent picture of our whole family, here's one of our newest addition , Kimball.  He's about 3 1/2 months old in this picture. Check back soon for new postings!