Retirement Party

Today we celebrated my mom & dad's retirement! I am so happy for them both, they can now 'enjoy' life together without the stress of teaching. My parents are taking Kaiya one day a week to spend time with her, and they/her couldn't be happier! Now its time to travel and have fun!! Congrats mom & dad!!

Landscaping

Well, we FINALLY have some curb appeal on the front of our house!!

Before....

During....

After....

We will survive...

Well today we had a great day and a really shitty one, all in one! We started off the day at a Brewers Block party. We got a couple Brewers signatures. Kaiya and Mommy might be in the west allis paper on thursday too! Kaiya had a blast and was SO good at it.

She got to go down a big slide with mommy and I THINK I had a fun time! The slide was VERY fast!! mommy was scared she was gonna kill Kaiya at the end, like we would just run into the wall - but at the end when the tarp ran out, we stopped very quickly.

Then we got home and got some very bad news - Josh received a letter, yes a letter in the mail stating he was laid off from MPS. WOW, a HUGE shock. I'm not sure how Josh is doing with the news, he doesn't show emotion well - me on the other hand, I spent a lot of the day crying. We will be ok, we have to make some changes to budget for awhile but we will survive, in fact it might even bring us closer as a family. He may be recalled as a teacher but we aren't sure when that will even happen. My first thought was sell the house and get out of Milwakee - but we'll see - we aren't making any big changes right away...need to not do anything on being upset emotionally.

Landscaping/Remodeling

We've been in our house for about 3-4 years now and are slowly starting to make improvements to it. We've installed laminate floors in the living room, that was WAY over due and I LOVE the new floors (especially now with a new puppy!!). We also installed all new windows to make our house much more energy efficient and allow us to open windows using one hand vs. force!

This year our goal is some sort of landscaping and possible a remodel of the downstairs laundry room and adding an egress window into a very nice room in the basement. The owners before us did NOTHING outside, and I don't have much of a green thumb....so its been a slow process. We are going to try to do some bushes/trees out front, I'll TRY to keep you updated on the progreess. So far Josh started to take these stones we had all around our house and put them out front to form a border - one way to save money - reuse!!

Next step, top soil delivered and installed and then bark and shrubs. Stay tuned!

May zoo trip

Not that going to the zoo has ever NOT been fun, but with Kaiya getting older, it is becoming even more fun going to the zoo. She recognizes animals and is learning the sounds they make.

She signs elephant, birds, loves the giraffes, growls at the bears, lions, and anything that looks like a bear/lion and can make monkey sounds.

Our new thing was feeding the goats - she did this earlier in the week with a friend so we decided to try it with her and she loved it!! She is not afraid of any animal (which can be good and bad).

Daddy had to take her over to the petting station, as they had a snake out. Mommy is TERRIFIED of snakes, but I didn't want to let her know that - so daddy took her over. She was fearless, even grabbed onto it (she doesn't know what a snake is yet....but hopefully she doesn't lose her fearlesenss, just keeps it in check and is safe around animals).

Family Dells Trip

A couple weeks ago Josh, Kaiya and I headed to the dells. Part of our trip was spent with Josh's softball girls at the Kalahari and then they left and the family spent one more night at the wilderness. We had a BLAST and will definitely be going back. Kaiya LOVED being with the girls, they kept her entertained and loved playing with her.

When we got to the Kalahari on Friday, there were cookies you could decorate in the lobby - so we decorated some very yummy sugar cookies. We also got to look at the lion cubs they have for you to take pictures with - to Kaiya they were 'doggies'. She got to touch one on Saturday, and loved it, they were very soft!

Kaiya and Mommy at the Kalahari

Hugging the rhino

Kaiya and daddy at the Kalahari

At the wilderness we got a two room suite, it was the best money ever spent! Kaiya had a room to sleep in and Josh and I could watch tv without bothering her. She has never slept so good, we wore her out every day!!

Of course we had to take the wagon ride at the Wilderness, as mommy LOVES horses!!

Kaiya wasn't too sure about the big doggies at first, but she warmed up to them a little bit....

While on our wagon ride, the driver spotted a baby deer laying in the woods!!! SO CUTE!!

After one more trip to the water park, we headed home sunday and she was passed out!! We had a great time and cannot wait to take another family trip!

First Hair cut (more a hair trim)

Kaiya doesn't have a TON of hair on her head, which is kinda surprising to me, so she hasn't needed a full out hair cut yet. However, as I have been told, in order to help the hair grow, so that's what we've done...taken her in for her first hair trim. I also was told that girls hair grows slower....so weird! Anyway, she did really well, of course why woudln't you sit nice when Toy Story is playing on the TV and you are sitting in a pink jeep!

And just like that, we are done! Sporting my new pony tail! Now hopefully my hair will grow!!