Charli Suttyn: 22 Months!!

 Wow! Just a month or so and you will be 2 already!! Geez. I'm going to go rock myself in the corner now.      :(

*You talk a lot now!  Just about every word we ask for you to repeat, you say on command in your own sweet way!  Woo hoo!  You love to go around the room and say each person's name out loud.  Ansley is "Ehee" and the best is when you say "Arli" for Charli.  You love to see our reaction to the way you say it.

*Your spunky and sweet personality shines through so much now with you facial expressions and eyes.  You love to give a quick smile back when you're told "no" just to see if you can get away with it.  Your cute dimples of course, showing up from across the room.  Most of the time we stand our ground, but then there's those times when that adorable smile is too cute to NOT let you have your way!  You know how to work us, that's for sure!  Your "side eyes" are our favorite glances too!

*Your laugh is so contagious!

*Usually you can share with Ansley nicely, but there are times when you have recently been letting out a huge squeal if she gets anywhere near your toy at that moment.  What can I say....you are spunky AND still learning the rules of sharing.  Ansley is always a good sport about it, but soon enough she's going to call your bluff I think!

*You've been showing a lot of interest in potty training lately.  You tell me when you've pooped or peed pretty much when it's happening and sometimes before, so we've recently pulled the potty chair out to see what happens.  You will usually tell me and head to the bathroom, so I think you're learning to put it all together!  Time and practice will tell!

*Your first love is reading still, but drawing and coloring is a close second, especially with Sis always writing.  You will NOT be outdone.  My favorite is when Ansley holds up her artwork and then you are soon to join in with showing off your own.  You love to see our reactions and pride just overflows from your sweet face when you do!

*You are starting to become more attached to your fuzzy blanket and your plush, blonde baby doll.  Thankfully, we were gifted several of these said baby dolls so if you do become really attached, we won't have a Beatrice situation on our hands. Whew!

*You like to do knucks with Daddy and blow it up.  Cutest thing ever.

*We have recently noticed a more tender side to you.  Usually you are going 90 to nothing, so getting much attention from you is sometimes hard.  Lately, you are giving loves, hugs, and lots of kisses and we just can't get enough!

*You are wearing size 6-7 shoe and size 2T/3T clothes.  Still rocking the size 4 diapers.

*You love to be outside these days.  We can't swing you enough and you are a rockstar at climbing the stairs of the swing set to get to the slide.  You would play all day if we could!

Love you, girl.  Love watching you grow and being your momma.  Every day is a blessing with you in it!

Day 4:Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was our Day 4!  We immediately ran to get our fast passes for the Rock'n'Roll coaster and then back to ride the Tower of Terror.  It was fun to see the settings of that time-it was literally a time warp for me as we watched the beginning segment of the Twilight Zone inside the hotel (something I vaguely remember watching as a kid).  I loved the thrill of dropping several floors in the dark and was hoping it would keep going!  After a few rides on that, we headed for the Rock 'n' Roll coaster starring Aerosmith.  I will say....the initial 0 to 60 start took my breath away and finally I regained my stomach and was able to sing along to the Aerosmith song while zooming thru the ride.:) After the adults did all the fun rides, we headed for lunch at Hollywood and Vine. We dined with several of the Disney Jr. characters including Handy Manny, Agent Oso, June from Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  The kids LOVED it!  They were singing and dancing with all the characters and barely sat long enough to eat!  It was worth going for sure.  We also wanted to go see the Beauty and the Beast performace, so we headed there after lunch.  It was great.  Afterwards, we headed to Toy Story Mania, the Muppets Show, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Disney Jr.Live on Stage, and The Magic of Disney Animation.  I would say the kid's favorite ones were the Little Mermaid and Toy Story Mania for sure, but the others were close behind!  We left from Hollywood Studios to eat dinner at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.  This stop was totally worth it, as we used our dining plan points for it and the food was delicious.  It was almost too much to indulge in to be honest and the visits from Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy were so fun for the kids.  They were absolutely beside themselves!  After dinner, we took the Monorail back to the Magic Kingdom and to wrap up our big day.

Ansley and Charli patiently waiting outside of the Tower of Terror for us

The big kids before the Aerosmith ride!

Lunch with some characters

Toy Story Mania!  How gross that Charli has the glasses in her mouth.  Ew!

After all the Hollywood Studios fun, we had dinner at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary resort.

Mickey and Minnie were a big hit!

Who am I kidding?!  They ALL were!

Can't forget Mimi and BB!

Since we hadn't had a chance to ride the monorail, we jumped on and rode back to Magic Kingdom to catch our bus back to the hotel. The kids loved the Mickey shaped lights and riding the "train".

Our view of Magic Kingdom before we took off.

Magical day 4 was amazing as well!

Brrrr!!!! It's cold AGAIN!

We just recently got in from Washington DC and upon our arrival we had an update that there was a freeze advisory in effect and most likely snow.  What?!!!  Yeah, you heard me right.  Here we are in the middle of April with possible snow!  So in honor of more cold weather, I thought I would post about our January trip to the outdoor rink that I never got around to posting.  We visited one of my favorite locations in St. Louis....Steinberg ice rink in Forest Park.

I can remember that it was a BEAUTIFUL day and not blistering cold like it had been.  This was Ansley's third time to grace the ice and second time to Steinberg.  Charli got to join in on the fun this time too.  She didn't do much, but it was good to get her out there and see what she could do and watch her big sis!

Ready to go!  If only the sun wasn't so bright!

Charli too.  She did pretty good at walking around in her boots.

My mom and dad usually join us if there's anything to do with skating and the girls.  It's just like old times for them!

I started off just trying to get Ansley to march with her skates on.  Unfortunately, the outdoor rink doesn't have any skating aides for the little ones, so the job of helping her around was mine.  It was a little daunting at times on the old back and arms, but she finally got the hang of it!

She did LOTS of falling, but she learned how to properly get up and after a little bit she was doing it all on her own.  Have you ever seen a newbie skater trying to get up and falling all over themselves?!  Yeah, it can get pretty dangerous sometimes, so there's a right way not to hurt yourself AND the others around you.  

Charli and Daddy got some snuggle time in watching Ansley.

Eventually, she was rocking and rolling!

Danielle made the trip too!  She was a lot of help when my arms and back were getting tired and she took most of these pictures of us.  She's a skating natural too.  :)

We had a wonderful day and our next trip will most likely be Ansley's 5th birthday party!  She is adamant about having a Frozen themed skating party, so we will most likely do it.  How can this skating momma say no to that?!

Construction Has Begun!!

AHHHH!!!!!  Construction has begun here at the Bandermann abode!  

This whole process has been in the works since last year (talking and discussing plans) and we've finally begun (3/19/14)!  We've already had some major delays....snow, rain, freezing temps, and more rain!  We've actually had water in our basement around 8 or 9 times since Christmas because of a crack in our basement wall that decided to flood everything and NOW we have water coming in because of construction to the house.  Oh the JOY!  We've spent countless hours vacuuming up water, ripping up flooring, shifting all our stuff, and cleaning off water logged items.  Thankfully we've had help because it's been a mess!  BUT we are thankful that there is an end in sight....now if we can just get some good weather!

Here's the front plan and renderings of the house.  We are adding on a dining room, foyer, bumping out the girl's bedroom (all in the front), and adding two closets/sitting area in our master bedroom.

This image shows the master bedroom closet addition

Our floor plan.  The areas with dark black lines will be the addtions

Here's a picture of the side of the house before demolition.

He's placing drain pipes in the front and sides of the house to help some of our water issues.  

Here are the big slabs of concrete from our sidewalk!

And here's little Charli meandering around the job site while my dad is sealing the basement wall. 

Our house with the front porch railing tore off

And then our whole porch came off!  This stage was a little hard for me knowing this is really happening and that our house is getting ready for a facelift.  Can you tell I don't do well with change?!  Ha!  

This is the construction team pouring the footers where the house will set.  Jason is a little devastated about his beautiful lawn.  He's still shocked over the damage that a lot of rain and just being under construction can cause. :(

A look down at the footers

We do a lot of this...

And as if house construction isn't enough....our solar panel project is finally underway (we've been waiting since October for this to happen).  The panels will be going on our barn in the back.

The plan is to have no electric bill!  Let's hope that really happens.  

So as you can see....lots of work going on here!

Happenings Around Here

I've been awful about posting our everyday happenings, so I thought I'd post A LOT today. Ha! Be prepared.  I'm so far behind.


Here's just a typical day here.  Princess outfits and umbrella!

We saw Peter Pan at the River Campus recently.  It was so great!  Unfortunately, Ansley wasn't feeling right and told us "she was going to try not to throw up" while we were in the front row.  WHAT?! Thankfully, I had a plastic bag in my purse and was prepared to use it just so the Orchestra pit didn't get vomit on them!  Geez!  Life is never dull!  

She made it and at this point, she was feeling much better!  Whew.  And she got some pictures with one of the stars!  Libby played the part of Jane!  She did so great!

Next up....Father/Daughter dance!  Jason mentioned Friday night that he might want to take Ansley to their first dance on Saturday night.  We didn't have any plans, so Saturday I went in search of a dress for Ansley.  I didn't want to spend much on it, so I went straight to the clearance rack and found one for $5 at Macy's! It was purple and because of that....I knew she'd love it.  It was a hit!  

These were some of the photobooth pictures they came home with.  So great!

My friend Kristen (who lives in St. Louis) had asked if I wanted to meet her at the zoo on a Monday recently.  It was supposed to be our first 70 degrees and sunny day, so of course I said yes!  I mentioned I was going to take the girls to Heather one day and she said she'd come along too!  Yay! We piled in my car and headed for the city.  It was quite a bit of work with 1 year old's in tow, but we did it AND we had fun!      

I hate that we missed Maeryn and Natalie in this picture!

Thankfully, Charli fell asleep in Maeryn's carrier (on Heather's back) and Maeryn got to ride in the stroller pushed by all the kiddos.  Of course, everyone wanted a turn pushing!

My only attempt at getting a picture of the kids and an animal.  Fail.

As if we didn't have enough going on in our lives....we picked up and went to see our favorite group, All Sons and Daughter's in St. Louis.  They were AMAZING, of course! We were all glad we made the trip!  Here's a picture of us in front of the pallets and lights covered stage.  We loved it!  Too bad we didn't get a picture of the entire group. :(    

That's enough for now!  More to come soon.