The Before

Well, this is sort of a before. Our kitchen is not clean enough for me to take a decent before picture of, but these pictures give enough of an idea of what is going on.

This is our current dining room, although it's almost totally cleaned out in the picture. For a nicer looking picture, please see our Valentine's party post. :)

As you can see, we have a wall that divides our kitchen from our dining room. You actually have to walk through our living room to get into our dining room from our kitchen. This wall is coming down.
Our new kitchen will actually be a combination of these two rooms. Without getting into too much detail (that will come I'm sure...) to give you an idea, our new kitchen sink will be below the current dining room window on the right. The opening on the right into the dining room will be closed off and the doorway on the left into the kitchen will be widened.

Lots of changes coming our way and hopefully they all start tomorrow! I will post pictures of the progress along the way, mostly because I enjoy reading other people's blogs about this sort of thing. :) Can't wait to see and enjoy the end result!!

Happy Easter!

Coming soon.... we are remodeling our kitchen! I will be putting pictures up on the blog of the progress and in the next week or so will blog our before pictures and plans. Can't wait to get started!

Spring Fling 2010

To give you a little insight into my (Jenny's) twisted mind, I came across a really adorable and fun dessert the other day and decided I wanted to make it. Of course, if I was going to put in the effort and bit of money to make it, I wanted to make it count. So I made up a family party. Called Spring Fling. The kids so loved our Valentine's Party that they got super excited at the idea of another family party. We made up a sign and had Emma, Elise, Ethan, and Aunt Dana over for grilled chicken shish kabobs, fruit skewers, watermelon, garlic bread, and this:

an ice cream flower pot dessert.

It was a surprise to the kids and they loved it. A little confused at first, but it didn't take long for them to dig in.
And it was messy.

Very messy. And Abby tried to eat her flower. :)

The evening ended with all the kids wrestling, the boys with their shirts off, and Abby sitting and reading books smack dab in the middle of the chaos. Spring Fling 2010 was a success.

Little Abs

Today, Abby had her yearly visit to the Allergist. Last year we knew she was allergic to peanuts, but since then she has had skin reactions to walnuts. Today was time for retesting.

Here's the sweet innocent girl, unsure of what's to come.

She saw the camera and felt the need to pose. Here's her pose. :)
Here's the skin test. They were also concerned about some environmental allergies for her, since she has had frequent sinus infections, so they did quite a few. Each number represents a different allergen, if you've never seen this testing before. This is a picture after the first few minutes. A little bit of redness is appearing...

She's not quite as happy at this point.

This is towards the end of the test. You can notice a reaction in five spots, one of which is the control.

The verdict: Abby is still very allergic to peanuts and also allergic to pecans, walnuts, and..... dogs!? We had no idea about that last one and it isn't a huge deal, but something to consider. The good news is that there's no allergy to a lot of other common allergens, including mold, dust, grass, and she's also not allergic to almonds, which is great. And, must to daddy's dismay, she's not allergic to cats. :) (No offense to the cat lovers, but daddy's not a fan).

Either way, we are very thankful for our daughter's overall health and the fact that these "special needs" are relatively minor and easily overcome. The Dr. was still optimistic that she would grow out of them, so that was an encouragement too. And, grumpy or not, she's still stinking cute.

Day of Love

Last Saturday was declared "Family Valentine's Party Day" and it actually lived up to the hype. To start the day, Abby and I got haircuts. My first in a year (yikes!) and Abby's second of her life. We are just a couple of low maintenance gals. :) Anyway, here are Abby's before pictures. I had to do two front ones because her poses were just too funny.

We said "Abby, stand still so I can get a picture of your hair."

"No, Abby, keep your head up."
I know, I know. How could I cut this beautiful hair? It was constantly getting caked with food and anything else she felt like being messy with. This was done for the sake of hygiene. The after.
Pretty cute, huh?
My after and also showing off the bump for those who are interested. And I haven't officially announced on our blog, but we're having another baby! A boy in fact, due July 20th. He's already starting to invade my space. :)

To continue to the party, we decorated our dining room and made some heart shaped pizzas for dinner. We also spoiled our kids with a rare treat of punch and also some angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Here is a fellow party-goer.

The kids pizza, cheese and black olives. They wouldn't have it any other way.

The decorated room. The kids did a great job coloring the sign and it looks so beautiful in there, I don't want to take it down!

Two out of the three Conklin boys.

And what better way to end the special day than a trip to the pool? Even though it was in the teens outside, the kids always have a blast swimming, particularly when the pool has a hoop as our gym has. This was such a fun day for us and hopefully something we make a point to do every year. We love our family! :)

Jonah is 4!

A few fun facts about Jonah now that he's 4.
- He absolutely loves his preschool and is doing very well there.
- He has suddenly gotten picky and will no longer eat anything that even hints at onions
- His favorite color is red
- He says something that makes me laugh out loud every day. Example, when Abby was repeatedly disobeying at lunch yesterday and I was dealing with it, Jonah said "Mommy, you're just having a rough day, aren't you?"
- He wears the Husker basketball uniform in the pictures below probably 5/7 days every week. Even in the winter.
- He loves his little sister and plays sweetly with her (most of the time). He is also very protective of her.
- He does not share Abby's dare devil fearlessness.
- He knew the baby would be a boy and was very excited to find out he was right.
- He is always talking about what he will help with when the baby arrives.
- He has an immensly tender heart and is the first to comfort someone he feels is hurting.
- He is very loved!! Love you buddy and so thankful to be able to see you grow these last four years.
A few photo highlights of Jonah's celebration below.

He chose the pink frosting with sprinkles. Daddy was OK with that. After gently being encouraged that he was OK with that. :)

Jonah's party was at a local rec center and involved a few of his favorite things.... basketball, swimming, presents, and cake.

December

We are so far beyond December, here is a slideshow of it. Just for good measure. Since my neighbors have their Christmas decorations still on the fronts of their houses, I don't feel as behind. :) To give a little info behind the pictures, we went to Elmo Live while Papa and Mimi were in town, made and decorated some Christmas cookies as we do every year, and went to a Christmas event at the police horse barn where the kids got some pretty awesome balloon animals. There is also TWO pictures from Christmas Day of the kids sitting anxiously at the top of the stairs. Enjoy!