Mizzou Tailgate Party

Allright, keeping to my motto. Less talk, more photos. Just let me say thanks to Mike and Jen for the invite. Weather was wonderful as was the food, and Mizzou won over Colorado an amazing 59-0! Go tigers!


























Hey, it's not funny, when ya gotta go,
ya gotta go!

October 17 Weekend

Been a while since I posted but to tell you the truth Mike and I have had a boring month--just busy with yard work and house chores. My new motto: More photos and less talk. We'll see if I can keep to that! Carol Chappel, Mike's sister from Oregon, was visiting family in the area and we drove her to St Louis on Friday to catch her flight back to Oregon on Saturday. We all stayed at Doug and Julia's on Friday night so Carol could visit with them and their girls. Altho the girls had already gone to bed by the time we arrived at Doug and Julia's on Friday everyone got a nice visit on Saturday before Carol had to leave for her flight. The girls are in that almost stage: almost crawling, almost sitting up without support, and almost cutting teeth. They're so much easier to hold as they support themselves almost entirely, and changing diapers is a breeze--they just lay back spread their legs almost as if they know exactly what's coming. Their toes continue to be an amazing new toy to them and they are getting much better at transferring toys from one hand to another. They also love to stroke Mike's beard. (And Mike thought that his beard might be a little scary to them!) They are beginning to eat some solid foods--cereal, green beans, peas, and squash so far with Julia introducing new foods every week. Oops what happened to my new motto? Anyway here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend. (And if I can ever get the photos from Doug and Julia's camera I will post some photos of Carol and the girls.)

Alyssa eating squash

Olivia-mmmmm!

Alyssa left, Olivia right in their bumbos

Alyssa playing with her toes, makes diaper

changing soooo much easier!

The best photo I could get of the girls,

Alyssa left, Olivia right

And another one

Here's the reason I can never get a good photo,

it will be nice when they can sit up on their own!

Going.........

Going......(with the help of the cat)

Going......

Gone!!!

Alyssa's New Helmet

Alyssa finally got her helmet about 3 weeks ago and we can already tell a difference. As she grows her head will fit the shape of the helmet making the flat side of her head rounder and making her whole head a nice shape. As you know since her birth one side of her head seems to be flatter and a little misshapen. This was caused by the way that Alyssa was laying in the womb probably against Olivia since it was a little cramped in there! At first everyone has the tendency to feel bad for Alyssa and we did too, but it doesn't take long before you realize that it's not bothering Alyssa at all. It does provide a nice hand grip for Olivia, tho! Alyssa is in the helmet pretty much full time with a few breaks for feeding and baths. The doctors say that she should be out of the helmet in about 4 months or less. I just love these photos:

Mike calls her Tron, I like to think
of her as our little Bionic Woman

Raylee's Birthday

Happy 10th Birthday Raylee! Raylee turned 10 last Friday and Rikki had a hot dog roast at Dan and Carole's on Saturday to celebrate. One of Raylee's gifts was an Easy Bake, hope you haven't burned anything yet, Raylee! We're expecting great desserts next time we're at your house! Thanks for the invite Mark and Rikki, we really enjoyed ourselves. Hot dogs always taste great over a fire! Here's the photos.

Raylee and a few of her friends

Mike supervising Mark's cooking. Good job, Mike,

the hot dogs and hamburgers were delicious

Gavin and Hayden, 2 wild and craaazy guys!

Roasting hot dogs and singing (not really)

around the campfire.

Gavin, Hayden, and Grandpa Dan

Dad, lighting all 10 of those candles

Happy 10th Birthday, Raylee!!

Blowing out the candles

Uncle Tim's Visit

It had been too long since Tim had seen his nieces so Uncle Tim requested a visit from Alyssa and Olivia. Doug and Julia just happened to be along with them! They met at our home Friday evening since we're about half way between both families. Steph was in Chicago and wasn't able to come.

A few new things Olivia and Alyssa are doing: eating cereal, babbling, squealing, and laughing, putting weight on their legs, sitting in high chairs, rolling over and over, pushing with their legs getting ready to crawl, becoming aware of each other...will be fighting over their toys soon, sleeping on their tummies and sides, holding their blankets when sleeping and feeding, and trying to hold their bottles. Both of them look like they will have strawberry blonde hair, and their eyes are darkening and will probably be brown or maybe hazel. But no blue eyes from the Ayers/Hays side. We think Alyssa looks more like Julia and altho Olivia does too she may have a little bit of Doug in her, too.

Just an update on Alyssa--looks like she will be fitted for a helmet in the next couple of weeks. Although she has improved somewhat her head is still a little bit flat on one side. The doctors left it up to Doug and Julia to decide but ultimately they decided that Alyssa should probably be fitted for one. Of course insurance decided it's cosmetic so won't be paying for it but we think Doug and Julia have made the right decision. We have seen the photos of Alyssa when the Drs were casting her head for the helmet. Altho it looks pretty spooky (photos later) Julia said that Alyssa was laughing thru most of it and didn't cry until the very end. We'll keep everyone posted.

Olivia, bonding with Uncle Timmie. Zzzzzzzzzz

(actually it's just Olivia sleeping, not Tim)

Playing with Uncle Tim

Alyssa eating cereal

Alyssa, Yummmmm!

Olivia, eating cereal

Olivia, mmmmm, good!

Both girls, napping!

Alyssa, hand over eyes, trying to nap!

Sept 11-14, New Carpet for Tim and Steph

Mike and I hadn't done much for Tim and Steph in the last year (blame the grand kids) so we took a couple of days off work thinking Mike and Tim would work on his fence that encloses his yard. Mike thought he was going to replace some posts, power wash the fence, and maybe restain it. Notice how I always just hang out while the guys are always working? Anyway, in the meantime Tim and Steph got new carpet which was going to be installed while we were there.

Because of the bad weather Mike and Tim weren't able to work outside so we spent a lot of our time moving furniture for the carpet installation. Steph was at work when the carpet layers were there and unfortunately the kitchen was so full of furniture I wasn't even able to help prepare dinners. Darn! The carpet layers didn't finish until late Friday evening and we thought for a little while that a tornado was going to come thru right where Tim and Steph live. Fortunately, the storm went a little north of Tim's home but for a while we were glued to the TV for tornado warnings.

The weather broke for a little while on Saturday long enough for Tim and Mike to replace a few posts in Tim's fence and the rest of the time was spent trying to put together their home again. Amazing, what a mess everything is when an entire house is recarpeted. There was furniture in the kitchen, the storage room, and even the garage. Here's some photos of the new carpet and Tim and Steph's home especially for those of you who've never visited him.

Taking up the old carpet

Getting ready for the new
carpet and pad

Installing the pad

Mike and Tim, taking a short break


The finished product:


The Family Room

The Front Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Stairway to the upper floor