No Excuses!

NO EXCUSES!!!

Well It's been a whirlwind of fun for us over the last 5 months. I really can not believe what we have done. WARNING this is a long post but fun!

October came and went so fast it was not cool. It was beautiful here in Manhattan. Magnificant colors with even better weather to go along with it. We have a great time at our wards Halloween Party and Virginia went as Minnie Mouse. We had to. Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse Club house on Disney Channel. She can not get enough of that show.

For Thanksgiving Dan's sister Lovey and her husband Andrew with there new bundle of joy, Ashton, came here from Louisville Kentucky. It was really awesome to have them here for those few days and to finally meet Ashton. He is one chunky kid, but it's expected his father is incredible tall.

Right after Thanksgiving Viriginia and I flew to Orlando Florida for some fun time with the Griffin Clan, at the "Happiest Place on Earth"... DISNEY WORLD!! One of the best trips I have ever taken. Yes she was only 19 months but I will never ever forget how awesome it was for her. She got to meet Mickey, Minnie and the rest of the gang and she could not hold back. My little 19 month ran and gave him the first hug out of our group. She just loved it there. I loved it there. I can not wait to take her again with Dan. Magic Kingdom was by far the best Kingdom for her. She loved the tea cups and couldn't get enough of them. She also met Rapunzel and consequently "Tangled" is now her favorite movie to watch. Hooray cause I love that movie!

Seeing as that Mickey Mouse is her favorite character (at the time we were in Disney World.. now she will say Tootles is her favorite character) anyways.. Disney World is redoing Fantasy Land and I honestly can not wait to go to Disney World again and see the new fantasy land. It looks amazing! One ride that they have transformed was "Mr toads Wild Ride" in to "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh".. granted it was changed over a decade ago, but i have not been to Disney World since I was 15, so it was new to me. Once you are done with the ride it drops you off in a store! I had been so good at avoiding taking Virginia into one all day but Winnie was one of the last rides of the day and it had to happen sometime right?.. Of course Virginia went nuts with the store. She loves to grab things for me thinking i need them.. cause that is what you do when you shop. :) Well she found a Mickey Mouse Stuff Animal and would not put him down or give him to me. She continued to scour the store with Mickey Mouse in tow and if she came upon something that needed two hands she would put Mickey down ever so gently then grab the item, yell at me to come and grab the item from her, then pick Mickey up and be on her way again. Grandpa saw this and purchased Mickey Mouse for her. Thank you Daddy! She loves Mickey and pushes him around in her Shopping Cart, that we got for her for Christmas.

She loves Mickey! Look how happy she is and how she's cuddling right up to him!

DisneyWorld was AWESOME and if you ever have the chance.. save those pennies and take those kids cause they will LOVE ever minute they are there!

Ooooo... and my dad also so was able to get me on first class seating on the way home from Florida, cause he is awesome and the points were the same amount as coach. First Class was AMAZING and Yes I will be flying on First Class again when Husband and I go on our own trips, many many MANY years from now!

Right After we got home from Florida we drove "Home" for the Holidays. We went back to El Paso. I can't believe that I am going to say this but, I miss El Paso! I miss being close to family and the Ward was just awesome! I have made some great friends here in Manhattan, but I would rather be closer to family.. hopefully in the near future we will be.. Anyways... we drove to El Paso and took it very slowly. It's a 16 hour drive and we did it in 3 three days. We didn't want to overwhelm Virginia and taking it in three days was great!

We had a blast in El Paso. Seeing old friends and getting to spend some much needed time with family. It was also great to be away from the cold weather. El Paso was beautiful and we were so happy to have warmer weather! We were their for just about two weeks, we got a lot done and had a wonderful time!

After Christmas we decided to take a small detour and see my Dad and Veniece in Houston for New Years. We stayed for three days and then headed home. On new years eve day, we headed to Kemah for some boardwalk carnival fun. Virginia loved all the rides, but then she didn't once she got super tired. Her last ride she screamed and cried the whole time. It was great to see both sides of the family during the holiday season. Virginia was such a trooper! I can't believe how awesome she was during the long drives. It also helped that I have movies on my phone for her.

Riding the Carousal at Kemah 

Once we got home we had to then drive out to Kansas City for a check up on Virginia's hips. Manhattan doesn't have the proper facilities for someone so small and something so specific hence the reason we needed to go to Kansas City. She is perfectly fine but for the next few years we will have to go in once a year to make sure that her rapped growth in her early ages, doesn't off set it again. The hospital was amazing! It caterers only to Children and it was like what a Children's Hospital should be. Fun, colorful and very very friendly. I was very impressed!

January and February was not super eventful... I did get a new job and have been working for two weeks now. I'm working at K-State in the College of Business Administration in the Student Services Office. I really like it right now. It's a temp job, which is perfect to see if I really want to be away from Virginia all day. She's doing great in Day care. Has been in it now for over a week and only cried for three days. She's sad each day we leave her now but she is also really excited by it. She loves her teacher and loves playing with other children all day. I'm happy that she loves it but I miss her so so very much. I feel like I am missing out on her growing up, but it's all good, I know that she is safe and is growing so so much in Day Care.

Here are a few things that miss Virginia is doing that I just love!

She loves to Dance! and dances to everything. If she hears any song, she will dance to it. It's so stinking cute and I can not wait to get her in to Dance... once more year! Her dancing has also turned in to jumping. She is just so good at jumping it's crazy!

She also loves to jump, instead of walk, when she is holding both mommy and daddy's hands.

Her favorite song right now seems to be the opening theme song for "The Big Bang Theory" She screams and jumps and runs around the front room when it is on and at the end they say "Bang" and she will fist pump and say "bang" with them. It really is the cutest thing ever!

She loves to brush her hair, by herself and be "pretty". She is now starting to love hair things again. For a while she refused to wear them but now she wants to be "pretty" and is always asking me to put them in her hair. She usually takes them out on accident, because she is constantly feeling them to make sure they are there and pulls them out at the same time.

She's starting to read to herself. She will sit on her rocking chair that Grandma Morgan got her and flip through a book and gab through the whole thing.

If she finds my wedding ring on our nightstand, she comes running out and make sure that I get it on. But she is the one that needs to put it on. I can not help her.

She loves to play Hide and Seek right now. She will cover her eye then go "Boo" it's so cute i love it. She mostly does this in the car when we are driving some where.

When I go and get her from her naps she loves to hid from me under her blankets. She will just giggle away when i come in looking for her. She will only come out when I start leaving saying "well i guess she is not in here, i'll have to go and find her some where else." She will get out from under her blankets so fast, just so i don't leave her behind.

I love this child of mine!

Even though it has not be very eventful for us over the last two months. Things I know will start to pick up with our first tornado season just about upon us and the new Kansas City Temple getting dedicated at the beginning of May. I can not tell you how excited I am to have a temple just two hours away!

Look how beautiful this place is!

Peace

Life In Manhattan

We have now lived in Manhattan for over a month now, and in the month we have

1. Gone to a pre-season Chiefs Football Game. It was the Chiefs vs the Rams. It was fun. We also had amazing seats. On the 35 yard line 8 rows up!!! We had a great time. Baby reached for everything. Got a hold of a few beer cups, those were immediately taken away, Seriously they just left them anywhere. It was all good the people just laughed and joked about it. We had a really good time. We also saw Sam Bradford play again. I have a weird crush on him and am constantly finding myself cheering for the kid. We also saw that Brady Poppinga and Bryan Kehl are on the Rams team and they sat on the bench close to us so I took my chance and yelled down to them and said "Hi" and that "BYU is the best and wished them good luck!" They said "Hi" back... *side note: Dan and I are huge BYU fans. I know most players names on the team and remember them too, even after they stop playing. I was the one that pointed them out standing on the side line.. I have to give myself some props.. Can I get a what what?.. Anyways, Bryan Kehl was also my Sunday School teacher long long ago.. okay not that long ago, 05 to 07. 
2. Went to Topeka for Labor Day and played at the Zoo and rode the train around the giant park they have there. We also visited the Mall. It's much larger then ours here in Manhattan. We went with some friends from our ward.
3. Celebrated a 30th Birthday. Dan turned the BIG three zero! It was epic.. not really. It was quiet. 
4. Virginia's gotten 3 more teeth!! :) Final! 
5. Have finally heard sirens for tornado warnings, it was a practice alert, no worries
6. Have made some great friends here in Manhattan, the Andes, There's Rik, Michelle their kids, Chloe, Hyrum, Kate (Katherine) and Annabelle. Rik works in the program with Dan and is also a photographer here in Manhattan. They are also in our ward. Seriously they are awesome! We love hanging out with them.
7. Gotten a new computer... My beautiful, lightening fast, mac!! Saved enough of my Photography earnings! Ha go me! 
8. Gone to the splash park several times. It's closed now which is really sad, *cue the sad bottom lip. Cold weather is approaching.. but i love me some changing fall color and I now live in a place that actually gets those magnificat colors! 
9. Dan got to go to a K-State game, for free. I was a little jealous but it was all good. I went over to the Andes while Dan went with Rik and the older kids. Those games almost always sell out and the cheapest seat are 75 buck-a-roos.
10. We gave talks in church.. I know, right? We had been here for 4 Sunday and we got asked to give talks.. crazy scary!.. I also know a calling is coming. Dan got his, he's in scouts... I'm sure it'll be like nursery or something primary related. I would love to serve in the Primary again. 

There is also this amazing park just a stones throw away from us. We've gone several times to play there and the other day I took my film and digital camera and grabbed a few of Virginia. I have not shot with film since school so it was a little nerve racking. I kept trying to preview my images. I totally forgot how much slower I am when shooting film. I love it!! I miss it and don't be surprised if you see some more images with film. There are a lot... again i do many images for my Grandma Cannon. I know how much she love seeing Virginia. I shot the film last so it's a little darker.. If you can't tell which images are film and which are digital.. the film are the first images and the digital images start at her big goofy smile.

 She loves to talk and say "uh-oh" and "Wow, wow, whoa whoa whoa!" I caught her in her "whoa" part. 

I love my little girls smile. Look at how cute she is! I love her. She never looks at the camera anymore so this was a rare smile caught by me on camera! This is her constantly, laughing, giggling, I love it!

Darth Vader for Tom Tom

I am the nerdiest of nerds.. okay some people do have me beat by a lot, but I LOVE Star Wars. The best movies ever created kinda nerd.. like, I went to all three of the new movies midnight showings.. camped out with friends.. I even saw the midnight showings of the rereleased digital versions of the original Star Wars.. anyways, we purchased the blu rays of Star Wars the other day and on one of the special feature blu ray discs, they have a Star Wars spoofs thing. It's about and hour and 30 minutes and I watched every one. It was fantastic. Here is where my nerdiness comes in.. the first skit was Weird Al's song about "The Phantom Menace". Yes.. i knew all the words. Sad, I know. They seriously saved the best for last.. and I might have been living in a hole for the last year, cause i had know idea about this video. I was laughing so hard i snorted and then eventually started to cry. It is ledgen... wait for it.. dary.

"You should have seen his face when I told him I was his father".....

Peace and Enjoy

Splash Park Fun!

On Tuesday, it hit just about 100 here in Manhattan, KS. To cool down, we decided, after Dan got home from work, to go to the local splash park. This has been our 2nd time going to the splash park in.... oh.. um 10 days. It's so cute and just the right size. In El Paso, at the outlet malls, they have a fountain type splash thing but it's not awesome like this little park. El Paso is to cheap to ever make something like this. Virginia loves it! When I pulled out her swimsuit she got really excited. She knows, with that outfit, she's going to have a good time. My little water bug! I also got a little snap happy. Sorry!