HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY 2014!

WHAT??! 2014??! How did that happen?! Happy Valentines Day to the hubby who graciously gave up pestering me about updating the blog some time around July 2013. To Chaney & Keaton: Girls, the year long gap in the record documenting the first years of your life is completely your fault. (Okay 80% your fault...)

February/March 2013

Wow - two months. How does that happen so quickly! February. Lets just say February was all about work for PJW and myself. The second month of a new year always seems busy. (seems like January is always slow to start and you play catch up in February!) This was true for us. For the kids, the big activity for February was counting down to March - vacation! March. We went to Anna Maria Island the first week of March with the Blackburns and the Wades. It was a great time. The girls took their first plane ride and loved it. We tried gum for the ears but Chaney swallowed two pieces before mom decided she wasn't quite ready for the responsibility of gum, "maaaannn...Mom, I swallowed it AGAIN, sorry." The girls played on the beach (our back door opened directly onto the beach, the house was great), made sandcastles (and destroyed sandcastles), ate new food, and collected seashells. I think those girls (Chaney, Ki, Lola and Regan) are going to have some fun times together in the coming years. Little Finn Henry better develop some attitude or those girls are going to run him over - maybe the Blackburns will give him a running buddy soon. :) Some clips from our big time : And this one is isn't going to be anything exciting for most, I just wanted to capture it as an example of Miss Chaneys, ah em, should I say tendency to "manage" ... as Jabet told her, “thats okay Chaney, someone has to be in charge”.

Pre-Soccer Photo Shoot

I have about 25 pictures in this series - I'm considering doing a flipbook and bringing it out for their first dates...

Christmas 2012

Okay, finally getting a quiet moment to get caught up with a little blogging...I have some really great videos I will post soon - but first things first. Christmas. It. Was. Awesome. (and just wrapped up for us last weekend) The first night at Pa-Pa Jim's Chaney said, "I must have been a VERY good girl!"...flash forward 5 Christmas's later, we have so much new stuff in this house it is ridiculous. So part of the Christmas tradition (at least for the last three years) is father/daughter shopping with Chaney and PJW. They go to mall, take pictures in the photo booth, pick out mom's gift (and this year sissy's too) and have dinner. This year Chaney wanted Jimmy Johns for dinner; PJW couldn't have been prouder. And yes, she ate the entire sandwich.

A couple days later it was KiKi's turn to go with Daddy...and they ended up at Blues City Deli (make a note all of you non-residents, a great place for a sandwich next time you are in the City). Blues City is one of those places where a line forms outside 15 minutes before it opens. Apparently KiKi led the line in a "let us in" chant that morning...

A couple more pics from the festivities - Santa saw this after Halloween and couldn't resist...

I love this picture. KiKi was falling off the stool and C reached over to try to hold her up. Ahhhh...see they DO love each other (most of the time).

And finally, my party girls striking a pose...

I'm Going to Miss Santa

So how long do you think we can continue to use Santa as leverage over behavior? I'd consider doing a Christmas in July just to be able to use the naughty list as a motivator. It would be worth whatever money I spent on toys. Sigh. I'll miss you Santa. Happy New Year everyone. Pictures to come of an awesome Christmas with two, mostly nice, girls. (once mom can get them downloaded from the camera) Until then, something from the old Blackberry to tide you over. The standard, "played with the box more than the toys" picture....

The Power of Granny B

So the hubby has been casually reminding me that its been a long time (yes I know its been 3 months!) since my last blog post. I even got a "Have you abandoned the blog?" text from Jabet a few weeks ago...I have been meaning to, I really have, but lately my evening computer time has been spent on a work project so it wasn't until a recent trip to Forsyth when I mentioned I've been neglecting the blog that a simple "I've noticed" from Granny B moved it up on my to do list. So here we go: OCTOBER - the girls were Unicorns for Halloween. We went trick or treating and they thought it was awesome all you had to do is walk up to someone's house and they would give you candy. Mom and Dad thought it was awesome that we ran into our new neighbors and instead of kids in their wagon they had a beer to share.

We also hit MU Homecoming - what a difference a year makes. Lets just say we went last year and almost lost our mind. This year was great. We even did House Decs in Greek Town which the girls loved.

NOVEMBER - well, what can we say about November. Job security for us lobbyists I suppose. We did have a great Thanksgiving. And in the first time in a long time we weren't traveling on Thanksgiving day so we went to the parade. It was so great; weather was perfect, girls had a big time. This pic is from a photo session at Nannys. The dresses were really a lot less Amish in person.

And finally December...more to come...

Catching up.

I feel like I have a lot of blog posts entitled "Catching Up". Oh well. So much to share from the past few weeks; here are some highlights. We started school a couple of weeks ago. Chaney and Keaton both go two days a week from 9-2. Sigh. So far they have done great; more tears from mom than them on the first day.

Lola and Regan also came to visit. (They brought their parents too) We went to the zoo - slept in pallets in the floor - had ice cream at Jerimiah's and then proceeded to run in circles for the next 20 minutes. (literally)

On Saturday we went to the GreenTree Parade in Kirkwood...

..then Chaney, Mom and Dad met back up with everyone in Columbia for some tailgating and Tiger football. (Ki Ki got some QT with Yia Yia and Poppy) Its funny what you accomplish when you do pre-game with a toddler. We did the "Tiger Walk" - my first time ever to line up and high-five the players as they crossed the bridge to the field-who knew this existed? We watched Marching Mizzou warm up - the drumline was Chaney's favorite. And we were actually inside the Stadium in time to see the players (and most importantly Truman) take the field. Huh, I feel like I accomplished more at that one game than I did in all I attended during my collegiate career.

And once the fun was over, as you may have expected, we had two sick little girls. No school tomorrow.

Nerds.

The photographer sent this picture with the subject line "nerds". Truer words may have never been spoken...

Text Santa & "She Started It..."

This morning Chaney suggested I "send Santa a text message" to let him know she would like an Ariel princess for Christmas. Also this week, I got my first "she started it" from Chaney. Sigh.

Sunday Night Dinner

There has been a lot of trash talk lately about who has the best bbq...(those involved you know who you are). Just thought I would share this picture of last night's dinner.

"Look at Mom and Smile"

Some catching up...

So yes, I know I've been neglecting the blog; thank you for noticing Honey. July was pretty crazy. Seems like we were traveling nearly every weekend and work for both PJW and I was pretty hecitc. I know we aren't any busier than anyone else, so long story short, all is good at the Werner house! I've been wanting to post this picture since a trip to the "farm" at the end of July. I was shocked when C told Laurie she wanted to ride by herself - clearly a love of horses not inherited from her mother. (she did take two laps by herself!) Ki Ki rode too but had no desire to take a solo ride - or a second lap.

The girls also helped with an AFP mailing we did in July. C was very particular about her work (stamping) - and was very concerned about the quality of K's folding. (K folded donation envelopes) They were actually very helpful; we have been waiting years for this! C refused to stop until she had all her stamps placed perfectly. (ok, well kinda perfectly)

We also went back to the Butterfly House last weekend. What a differnece since our last trip! We actually looked for specific butterflies pictured in our guide, had a little picnic in the nearby park, and at the carousel both girls rode horses-not the bench seat in the sleigh...sigh.

...and maybe I'm reading a bit much into it, but something about this picture makes me very nervous for their teen years...whatcha think?

Election Night Commentary from a "Political Expert"

"No YOU soaking wet!!"

MOM: "Keaton get back inside, its raining, you're soaking wet!" KEATON: "No YOU'RE soaking wet!" This might not mean anything to you all; but pjw and I wanted it documented for historic reference. A glimpse into KiKi's teen years perhaps?

Trash Day.

Who are these people that only have one bag of trash out at the curb on trash day?!

Michigan!

We love Michigan. (we especially love it when it is 107 degrees in St. Louis!) Two weeks ago we took our first family vacation with the girls. I am a little embarrassed to say that pjw and I have been on several vacations without the girls these last 3 years, but this was our first real trip with Chaney and Keaton in tow. Chaney talked about it for weeks, "vacation yet mama?" "How many more sleeps until vacation mama?" Finally the day came and we set out on our 7 hour drive to South Haven, Michigan. Yes, I was dreading this drive, the girls have been known to be bad travlers..BUT, turns out the newly purchased over-the-headrest video screens were well worth the investment-the girls did great! Not one peep from the backseat as long as we had Lady & the Tramp, Rio, Princess in the Frog, etc running on loop. In Michigan we met up with two of PJWs college friends and their families. The Dirksens and the Krases. We had 6 adults and 6 kids. This was our first real experience with group parenting and it is awesome. Between the extra adults and the Dirksen girls (Molly 12, Maddie 9, Mia 5) parenting was easy-peasy! We had a great house just across the street from the beach. We went to the beach every day, cooked in every night, roasted smores in the fire pit and even got off a few fireworks. The girls had a blast. Patrick and I had a blast. Some pictures from the trip...

Chaney Loves Keaton (and vise versa)

Best Friends...can't you tell by this picture? (more from our trip to Michigan coming soon...)

This About Sums it Up...

Just in case you were wondering what life is like at the Werner's these days...we spend about 80% of our time doing this...

"Baby Ball in Nose!"

So we are minutes before bedtime last night and I hear K start screaming, "baby ball in nose"...Yep, she had stuck a little bead/ball up her nose. I could barely see it at first; it was way up there. We made considerable progress in the attempted extraction after some strategic blowing, but the stubborn little thing just wouldn't come out! So off to the Urgent Care at 7:30. (Girls are usually in bed by now, in fact C was naked ready for jammies. So now everyone gets dressed, etc...) Oh, did I mention PJW was working so at this point its just me and the girls. (PJW did meet us at the Doctor's office as we were chekcing in.) ANYWAY...all ended well. In fact, it came out as we were waiting for the Doctor. No need for the tweezers-thank goodness! I've heard stories of kids doing this, but it always seemed too funny to actually happen. Leave it to Keaton.

We Heart Summer!

We have been making the most of the nice weather. Sprinkler, swings, and dance parties in Dad's "man cave" nearly every night. (ha! hows that man cave thing working out for you honey?)