Welcome Baby Kinley

On Thursday. November 11th we welcomed the newest member to our family. Kinley Keating Pearsall entered into our world at 5lbs. 8oz. and 19 inches long. As you can see from one of the pics has a good bit of dark hair.

I figure she is resting up to meet her big brother Boone. Oh the surprises and adventures that await you baby Kinley. Looking forward to when we can see you in person!

Sending love from R.V.

Aunt Nickie, Uncle Steve, Cousin Sydney & Cousin Anderson

First Day in TN

Our first stop was to visit Aunt Beullah & Aunt Sharon. Lucky for Syd, Chloe was there too. So they were able to play together. And of course that led to more plans for them to get together later in the week.

Anderson had fun showing off his ball handling skills. I think Aunt Beullah was really impressed.

Of course Anderson was at the receiving end of tons of hugs from Aunt Sharon.

Then we went to one of Sydney's favorite places Old McDonald's Farm Putt Putt. This is a must stop at least once (sometimes more) while we are visiting. There is actually three different courses one is cows, pigs & chickens.

Everytime one of us hit the ball Anderson squealed & waved his hands around. It was hysterical. Although with 4 people playing there was alot of squealing. Did I mention the kid loves to play ball? He doesn't care what kind of ball just as long as he can play with it.

 

We also stopped over for dinner at Uncle Michael's and Aunt Kelley's house. While Anderson had a blast playing in the water all the other cousins were busy running and sliding into the water. You should of seen his face when they came down the slide and the cool water came up on his back. It was priceless.

The Cousins

Riley, Logan, Anderson, Sydney & Emma
You can see the great slide in the back.

 Did I mention Anderson has found a new favorite desert? Unlike his sister he thinks ice cream is AWESOME!!

Leaving in a Toyota

For vacation this summer we went to Tennessee to visit Steve's family. We had not been there in awhile and with Steve's Dad being diagnosed with lung cancer we needed to get the kids down to see him. This was to be Anderson's first LONG trip in the car we were not sure how things were going to go. Lucky for us he has a great big sister and she kept him entertained.

The kids as we were leaving the house. They seem pretty happy we will see how they are after 10 hours.

As you may remember Steve's new car is not exactly large in size, but gets twice the gas mileage my Explorer does. So the choice in what car we took was easy.

Anderson somewhere in Virginia. Not too bad for only having slept a total of an hour and 15 minutes. He normally takes two naps that are two hours each. Thank goodness for dvd players, Blue's Clues and Veggietales.

We made it down with no big problems. Hopefully our trip home is as uneventful. I have a really cute video but blooger is not cooperating.

At A Snail's Pace

At a snail's pace is how I seem to of handled my blogging responsibilities. Sorry folks. Once I got so far behind it seemed like catching up was going to be impossible. But I am going to try my best. After chasing after the Little "Big" Guy all day. I have been using my free time to do, well everything else. Plus trying to do fun stuff with Sydney.

This is Sydney's Lego "Gary". Even if you are unwilling to admit it I am sure you all know that Gary is SpongeBob Squarepants pet snail. I don't know where she comes up with these things, but I thought it was pretty darn creative.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Happy Birthday Aunt Jackie!!!!

Hope you have a great day!

We love you very much!

Not his favorite word

I am guessing "No" will never be the word of the day!

This is what happened after I told him "No" for chewing on the coffee table. Well it happened after a few seconds of telling him anyway.

What "Mother" Means

"Mother" is such a simple word,

But to me there’s meaning seldom heard.

For everything I am today,

My mother’s love showed me the way.

I’ll love my mother all my days,

For enriching my life in so many ways.

She set me straight and then set me free,

And that’s what the word "mother" means to me.

Thanks for being a wonderful mother, Mom!

By Karl Fuchs

Wishing all the moms and moms-to-be a terrific day!!

Happy Mother's Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE AARON!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE AARON!!!

We just wanted to wish Uncle Aaron a wonderful birthday!! I have written before how much Syd loves her Uncle Aaron this visit was the first time Anderson got to meet him. I would say he is going to be as fond of him as Syd. Especially after taking him in the backpack carrier for a walk. (Thanks Elizabeth!) We made sure we got our Aaron & Syd photo this time. This time Uncle Aaron taught her how to play chess. He is one brave man.

Have a great day! You are a terrific uncle and will make a great father!!

Love ,

Sydney, Anderson

(of course Nickie & Steve too.)

Who is here???

.

                      That is the question Syd asked as we turned the corner to our house. My response being I don't know. We need to go find your Dad. As she went running to see who was at the house I waited for her to come back. She kept asking her Dad who was here his answer being the Easter Bunny left it. After a good bit of torture he finally admitted it was his.

How do you like Steve's spaceship? (That is what my cousin Chris said it looked like.)

Yes, even though it looks too small. Steve has plenty of head & leg room. Syd also has plenty of room sitting behind him. He was glad to give up the extra space of his old car to have one with better gas mileage. Also little things like air conditioning & rolling down his window were also a perk
.

Syd at the wheel. Heaven help us it will happen all too soon. She said she could drive now because she could reach the pedal with the seat up. UGH!

Anderson thought it was pretty funny.

.

Getting into things

Anderson figuring out how to spend his spare time.

Forget the nursery rhymes Anderson has decided to go straight to hard stuff and read some Dean Koontz.

                                      

We can only hope he likes to read as much as his sister does!

And The Winner Is......

Shannock Valley B

Congratulations Girls on the tournament win & going undefeated!!

Well we survived the tournament very well as you can see. The girls did a great job and won all of their games. They were pretty tired by the end of the day.

All of the teams were made up of third & fourth grade girls. Let me say I learned alot that day. Now I am one who cheers & sometimes yells (never at anyone elses kid mostly defense & hands up) from the stands. (Go figure huh? Sorry it is in my nature I grew up with a Dad hollering at me to sacrifice my body while playing second base in the church softball league. Seriously, Dad grown men hitting the ball at me. What were you thinking?) These parents from the other schools were down right ruthless. Normally the one school has four teams well they combined all their good players for one "super" team. Those parents were actually banging the bleacher for foul shots. Hello People! They are in third & fourth grade. Our lucky girls had to play them twice. We did have some folks from our side start to bang in the championship game but our coach put an end to that quickly. Good for him. He told his team that they didn't need to do that to win.

I would like to say that I think there is something in the water in a couple of these towns their girls were huge. They were all taller than our tallest girl. When you are a head shorter than your opponent it gets a bit rough. Our girls were in there with the best of them. Lots of bumps & bruises but held their own.

A great thing happened that day though and I was so proud of our girls. The Dayton team has a girl who has Down's Syndrome I believe her name is "Evie" Well when she got the ball and yes her teammates passed it to her several times our girls backed away so she could try & do something with it. Well wouldn't you know it she dribbled halfway down the lane and lined up for a granny shot. And it went in!! That gym erupted into cheers & clapping. it was the most amazing feeling. I am so proud our girls have that kind of good sportsmanship.

Sydney & Anderson posing with her trophy. That is the closet he has been to it since.

Birthday/Slumber Party

We celebrated Sydney's 9th birthday with a sleepover. When she first asked my first response was "Have you lost your mind? Do you not realize how small our house is?" Well I guess I had 2 responses. Basically, I was in shock because she had never mentioned it before. Lucky for me I did not have to tell her no. My Uncle Lou & Aunt Sally were to be in Florida at the time and graciously let us use their home.

So 4 giggly friends later, 1 little brother & 1 terrific Grandma (who hadn't been feeling well) the party was under way. Oh, did I mention 1 father who was ready to get the heck out of there?

Here is her cake. I decided that I would make my own icing and try to decorate it. Huge thanks to Elizabeth for sharing a recipe with me. She has made some awesome cakes. Well I had no plans on getting  that fancy. at least I know I can do it. For my first attempt I got the icing a little soft. But with as tired as I was and as late as it was I was happy with it. 

Everything was going great til some of them decided to get up at 6:30 am. I mean come on Anderson normally doesn't get up that early. I figured with them not going to sleep til 11:30 pm I would be good til at least 8:00 am. WRONG!!

The gang is all here!

The treat bags I decorated for everyone. They only cost a dollar at Micheal's. We decorated wooden frames and ceraminc animal statues. These are some crafty girls.

Grandma & Anderson playing.

Lucky for me all of the girls were great with Anderson and didn't mind him being around. They were constantly giving him toys & making sure he was happy.

Yeah for good friends!!

Well I wasn't sure I would ever see this again. A Fowler wearing the number 32. Sydney is playing basketball this year. Sydney decided she would wear the same number her Dad did when he played. Sorry it is a little blurry it is hard to catch them standing still.

Actually we are almost at the end of the season. She is really enjoying it. I think she would play entire game if she could. The girls are even running & shooting hoops at halftime. You think they would be tired they run ALOT! Her team is made up of third & fourth grade girls. The coach does a really good job of making sure they all play. Sydney has decided she like defense the best because her ball handling skills are not that great. Hopefully, Steve and her will work on that this summer. Right now she doesn't have alot of arm strength. She actually was practicing foul shots before a game and managed to hit 2 of her teammates right on top of the head. Those were consecutive shots by the way.
She has played against some girls that are quite a bit taller than her. She is not afraid to go after them though. They even played in the fifth grade tournament last weekend. It didn't go so well for them. The other girls were huge, but her team kept the score pretty close.

On the move again.

This was at the end of the game where she got her first basket. YEAH!!! Unfortunatlely Steve had to work & missed it.

Our tournament is in a couple of weeks so that should be interesting. Go Spartans!

Snow Event #1

At the beginning of the month we got about 18inches of snow at our house within 24 hours. This started a week off school for the kids when another snow came between Tuesday & Wednesday (more photos to follow).  So I figured I would take Anderson out for his first major snow fall & get some photos. Of course Steve being at work this proved to be harder than I thought. With so much I couldn't just set him in the snow as I would lose him. Lucky for me his big sister loves to help with him. Until she gets snow down in her boots that is.

This is a shot I got while trying to dress Anderson for outside. One might think this would be easy as he is only 8 months old. People who have children realize this is no easy feat. Especially, when the child does NOT like to put on his coat.

Sydney hopping into the snow to show how deep it was. What she really did was fill her boots with snow UGH! Which of course was followed with whining. After we emptied her out the photo fest continued.

Holding up her brother so he didn't fall in the snow. He did play with it a little but his gloves are so big he wasn't able to do much.

A couple of outside shots. One which you can tell was the walkway to  the house. The other I was trying to get a shot of how high it was from the ground. Didn't get it all the way to the ground. But the blue sky is awesome.

Lucky for us we didn't lose power. And did not get as much as our family & friends down in MD. Who ended up with over 30 inches of snow within the first 24 hours of the first storm.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Sydney's 9th Birthday

Monday we celebrated Syd's 9th Birthday!

It is hard to believe she is already nine years old. Lucky for her the school district also celebrated her birthday with our first snow day of the year. She was very excited about having off for her big day. This friday we will have her official party. So she choose to have brownies since she was having cake on friday. Any other normal person just would of had cake twice but since she is not a cake girl brownies it was. Friday we will be having a sleepover party. Yes, I said sleepover moment of insanity on my part. Just kidding I am sure it will be fine. All the snow just needs to quit so Mom is able to come down & help me out. I am sure I will have some interesting pictures to share with everyone.

Anderson helping her with her gifts.

Over the River & Through The Woods...

We didn't get to Mom's until 11:30pm Christmas Eve. As we decided to leave after Steve got done from work because bad weather was moving in. Amazing how happy a little boy be that late at night. Although, it was pretty strange to hear him babbling in the backseat in the complete dark. With his sister yelling for us to make him be quiet. What a good sport he was.

Even though we got in late Syd was very excited to see what Santa had brought her. We managed to make it to 7:30. This is Anderson doing his morning exercises.

Sydney with her new MP3 player from Grandma Terry & Roger. I don't even have my own yet. Aunt Jackie & Uncle Aaron got her speakers so she could play it in her room.

Sydney finally got a Wii. Well actually the whole family did. Thank you Grandma Betsy! The whole family had a blast playing the games.

Anderson in his new ride Santa brought him.

Sydney & Anderson after we were done opening gifts. She really does love her little brother!