selling and buying a new house

here's a picture the house we are buying in Ballwin, MO. We accepted the counter offer on wednesday, and yesterday the buyers on our house in spanaway accepted our counter offer. so the timing is working out pretty great with the spanaway house scheduled to close on may 1 and our new house here scheduled to close may 2. so as long as everything goes according to plan with inspections, etc we should be moving into our new home the first week of may.

Disney on Ice- Princesses!

We are used to going to Disney on ice in november every year, but here in St. Louis, it comes in march. So since that was part of Kiersten's birthday gift, she got a pretty cinderella dress to wear to the show. Ben got all the girls sno-cones in special cups. Evie's was a mickey cup. she made a huge mess with it.

Kiersten felt so pretty in her dress. She was a little sad that she couldn't get her hair curled, since our stuff has not arrived here yet, and I didn't have a curling iron. She got a rapunzel cup.

Silly Kara. We didn't bring very many dresses with us on the airplane, so she ended up wearing a skirt. she didn't mind not being too dressed up. she got a cinderella cup.

Evie got so happy and excited every time Mickey and minnie were on the ice. But when they would leave, she would really freak out.

the first story was princess and the frog. Evie was a little tense during the part with shadow man.



The middle story was Cinderella. Kiersten really loved this one. During the intermission, she did get a little sad, because she realized she doesn't have a prince to marry.

They really made the evil step sisters even worse than in the movie.

Kiersten waiting for her prince charming.


waiting to see if the slipper is gonna fit...

the last story was Rapunzel. They did lots of cool swinging around on these scarves (hair). unfortuately, Kiersten had to go out to the restroom during this part, and she and Ben missed most of it.

For Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding, (and the grand finale), all the other famous disney princesses and their princes came out. The crowd was really going crazy for each one, but Belle and Jasmine seemed to be the most popular.

This was a really fun show. The girls loved seeing all the princesses on the ice and in the crowd too. Kiersten was practicing her twirling before we left, in case they mistook her for the real Cinderella and made her skate in the show. Fortunately that didn't happen, and she just got to watch and enjoy the performance.

we moved!

We got to St. Louis on saturday afternoon. Ben had me call in an order to a bbq place on the way to our new apartment. It was a really tasty lunch, but crazy trying to get in that place to pick up the order. I had to shove through a line of people, and everyone was pushing right back. My mom was here for a few days helping with the kids and getting us settled in. She flew home monday afternoon, and I'll bet she's glad to be home after 3 weeks with my crazy kids.

We went house hunting on sunday, and narrowed our list down a bit. We are going again to see a few places on saturday. But for now we are in an apartment building across the highway from the zoo. Ben and I took Kara and Kiersten on sunday to see about half of it, and my mom and I took the girls again on monday. It is a really big zoo. We still haven't seen all the animals, as it was ridiculously crowded both times we went. I didn't realize this week is spring break, and this was the first really warm weekend here. So hopefully next week we can try going again, and it wont be so crazy. I took a few pictures the first day at the zoo. This first picture is Kara and Kiersten hanging out in our new apt.

Kiersten baby's 4th birthday!

Kiersten was really excited to get to be class helper on her birthday, monday. She baked some chocolate chip cookies the night before to share with her friends at school.

Here she is posing with her cookies, and her dancing Mickey she took for show and tell. She had a really hard time deciding what to bring for her very last show and tell at school.

Kara needed to get in the picture too. Kiersten was really excited when I picked her up to tell me all the special birthday girl things she got to do. she even got a big card signed by all of her class mates.

After dinner, we put the computer on the table so daddy could watch her open her gifts via skype. She had a lot of fun things to open.

After opening gifts, daddy told her about her special birthday surprise, tickets to disney on ice next weekend. She was really excited, and so was Kara. He sent a link for them to watch a youtube video all about the show. This year is a princess/love theme, so it will be right up their alley!

I wanted to use up the rest of her birthday cake, so we just put the #4 candle on what was left of it.


Evie was so cute cheesing it up for daddy. She definitely knew he was watching her and thinking she was adorable. She was the only girl to finish her cake all 3 nights that we had it after dinner. Kiersten just ate the fondant off of hers, and very little of the cake.

The girls' last day of school was today. It was kind of sad. They made goodbye cards for everyone, and got some pictures from their buddies. Their teacher was really emotional saying goodbye. She gave Kara a final homework assignment to write a letter to the class from St. Louis. So I'll have to remember to have her do that once we're settled in. The packers showed up this morning at 8 and got started packing right away. my mom stayed behind to oversee things so I could take the girls to school. I also took Evie to the doctor, since she has run a fever all day yesterday and today, as high as 104.7 at times. She had to get a catheter to do a urine test, and that was horrible. she was so sad and crying, and then just wimpered in my arms after it was over. Then they couldn't even tell me if she had a uti or not, and said they wouldn't know til monday. So we'll have to watch her and if she keeps getting a fever, take her to the dr, in st. louis.
The packers finished up right as I was leaving to pick up the girls, so now my house is full of boxes waiting to be moved. We took the girls to godfather's for dinner, since I can't cook with everything boxed up. The movers will be here in the morning to load everything and send it off. We'll be in a hotel for the night, and then fly out at 6am saturday. so that should be fun flying with 3 tired and grumpy girls, especially if Evie is still sick. But it's worth it to bring us together with Ben again. We are all missing him like crazy!

Kiersten's party

Kiersten's birthday party was today at a candy store in the supermall called, Kid's Korner. We were all sad that Ben didn't get to be here for it, but I found another reason to miss him today as my mom and I tried to carry a heavy cake, plus all of our extra stuff for the party, while dragging the girls along side us. I can't wait to get my packhorse back :) As soon as we were shown into the party area, Evie insisted on putting on a party hat. There were 3 or 4 different designs, and all the kids switched and swapped hats the rest of the time.the kids had lots of fun with this pin the tail on the donkey. Kiersten really wanted to pose with it so daddy would see. the kids wanted to play over and over, which was okay since we were waiting quite a while at the beginning for the party person to come back there.Mom enjoying the festivitiesSweet Karalee. She really took it on herself to make sure Kiersten was the center of attention, and everyone was having fun. She kept asking the other kids, "what is your favorite part of the party so far?"Each of the kids got to choose an animal to stuff. Kiersten got a panda (or as she calls them, a bamboo bear). I was surprised, because she already has a stuffed panda on her bed at home. But apparently that one is a boy, and her new one is a girl. She named it "Beautiful Princess". the party helper couldn't write it on the birth certificate without laughing.These 2 little guys both picked out T-Rexes. There was a lot of growling, and smaller animals being chased or eaten, or attacked.Evie didn't weigh enough to make the machine work, so the party guy would step on it every time she poked it with her finger. She really thought she was doing it. After she had come back over to me, thinking it was finished, he decided it needed more fluff, and she booked it back over to poke the pedal for him. She picked out a pink bunny, and named it, "mine bunny"Kara chose a cat and named it "cute eyes Pip squeak Miller". Kiersten got to wear this birthday cake hat, which was way too huge, and she got to keep it, so we can use it again when our kids heads get bigger. She wouldn't wear it very long, because she thought it was messing up her curls.Here comes the cake. It was kind of heavy.She chose 4 individual candles instead of the #4 candle. She was proud to have blown them all out in one try.opening her gifts. She made sure to thank everyone at least twice.I wanted to take a group picture, but Zach didn't want his picture taken, and Evie was trying to not get tired, and therefore running around like a maniac. so I got a picture of the rest.
After the picture, they all got outfits for their animals, and a free bag of cotton candy to take home, though most of them had it eaten by the time they were out of the store. They also got little backpacks with playdough and a few small toys. I think it was a successful party.

birthday cake sneak peek

Yesterday Evie picked out a halloween shirt. I didn't want her to war it, so I put it back and put something else on her. She cried and kept getting it back out of the drawer, so I just let her wear it. guess she already has an oppinion about her style.The big girls hanging out.Ben is not here to hepl me with Kiersten's birthday cake. But luckily my mom is, and she helped out a ton. Kiersten wanted a Princess Celestia (from my little pony) cake. she also wanted a tiered cake. I took a few pictures so Ben could see before her party tomorrow. Spike the dragon took a dive as I was taking this picture. I'm still not the best with fondant, but it goes a little better each time. And I'm not super worried about impressing a bunch of 3-5 year olds.Here's the finished cake. I couldn't fit on all the ponies she picked out, so some ended up on the board.I put the worst fondant part in the back, but then I ended up writing happy birthday on the side because that big bow was on the front. So my awful fondanting will be seen, but owell.Kiersten is really excited for her party tomorrow, and her special surprise Daddy has been telling her she is going to learn about on monday!