Artist at Work

My first painting experience! I've been waiting and waiting to try the paints out that go with the new art easel. Mom has a sheet out in the middle of our family room and the easel is on top. So I've been playing with chalk, drawing with crayons, and using dry erase markers because the paint was just too messy. But she's finally ready and here comes the paint!

From The Rankin Family

My favorite color is blue and that's all I wanted to paint with. I'm into circles, eyes, and just drawing lines. I'm happy with my faces and the lines make up my maps. I take the maps with us in the car on our trips and am learning my directions really well. I'm not real fond of having to wear a smock but this is a must with the poster paints.

From The Rankin Family

Overall, mom has been a good sport with all of the creativeness I'm expressing. She's just hoping that I continue to follow directions and all of my artwork stays on the easel and paper.

Christmas Round One, Two, and Three

Merry Christmas everyone! After a wonderful Christmas Eve with church and all of my grandparents, I actually slept in a little for mom and dad. Had I known what was waiting for me downstairs, they may not have gotten the reprieve. Our stockings were full and there were a few presents for me under the tree and I was so excited to get started.

From The Rankin Family

I got to help mom and dad open their stockings, my stockings, and then I opened my small gifts. I got a lot of art related supplies to go with what is now my favorite activity. An art easel! It's out in the center of our family room now and it's the first thing I play with each morning.

From The Rankin Family

After a wonderful morning with just mom and dad, we headed over Papa and Gigi's hose for Christmas part two. We got there for breakfast (cookies and some healthy items, but I liked the cookies) and started opening some more presents! I got t help everyone and was very interested in playing with each item for awhile before moving on. (Mom really enjoyed seeing me appreciate each and every item and there was no rushing.)

From The Rankin Family

Trying out some more new art things. Mom says I get my creative art streak from her. Dad seems to agree.

I had a few wow gifts this year. Wow gift one, my new puppies (Bella and Bean). Aunt Trish got me a whole ensemble for the puppies. This set came with a stroller, back pack, carrier, and dog bed. I've had a lot of fun feeding, tending, and pushing my new friends around. Mom says it's good practice for what's coming in the New Year.

From The Rankin Family

Christmas part three began after my nap, what a busy day! We went over to Aunt Markie's and Uncle David's for Christmas with Nana, granddad, my cousins, and my aunts and uncle. Nana and granddad got me this really cool bean bag for my new big girl room. I read there now each day before my bed times. It's pretty big for me and almost swallows me up! I'm usually not this serious, but I'm starting to listen to stories and become much more intrigued by similar items.

From The Rankin Family

And here is wow two, Aunt Katherine got my cousin Chanie and me the same gift, a princess dress up trunk! I like to layer the dresses, Chanie was really into the jewels. We wore the dresses for the rest of the night playing tea party and doing other little girl things. Dad's been a good sport and has been known to pretend to be a prince for me and help me dance.

From The Rankin Family

I'm a very blessed little girl to have been able to spend my entire day with all of my family, full of love and excitement, and the joy of a few gifts in between.

Early Christmas

I had an early Christmas surprise from mom and dad this year. My dad has been playing hockey and for his birthday, mom and I got him hockey skates. I had been talking about ice skating since the moment I saw those shiny blades. On Monday, my prayer for ice skates was answered and dad even took me ice skating!

Here I am opening my brand new, double runner figure skates complete with pink laces. They are a little bit big for me now, but mom and dad said that I will grow into them. We'll just use double socks for the time being.

From The Rankin Family

Here I am opening my new helmet. Safety first on the ice. I helped pick it out, my favorite color right now is blue. Mom says I can use this helmet in the spring/summer too for our bike rides.

From The Rankin Family

Ready to skate!

From The Rankin Family

Out on the ice!

From The Rankin Family

Many thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Hausmann for letting us all come over for this early Christmas. They have an ice skating rink right out in their front yard that Mr. Hausmann built. That's where dad will play hockey this winter. It even has lights! Between their horses and now the ice rink, this is one of my most requested trips.

Evidence of dad playing hockey.

From The Rankin Family

Snow Bound

Well, the snow has really been flying here today. I couldn't wait to get out there and really give my new snow suit a try. The snow wasn't quite right for snowman, but it worked great for snow angels and a hike in the woods with my dad.

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

My favorite though was just playing around. I loved rolling, digging, and running in the snow. The ground sure seems softer with all this padding and the fluffy snow. Mom watched me purposefully falling down every once in awhile just for the fun of it and got quite a kick out of it.

From The Rankin Family

It was pretty cold out there for both mom and me. When we came in we had rosy cheeks and cold feet. So, mom told me there's nothing like warming up in front of the fire and a good cup of hot cocoa (and chocolate donut). I even got to use a grown up hot chocolate mug. It was my first effort with a no lid cup and I did great!

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

Giving the Tree a Trim

We got up our tree this year with much help from Aunt Trish. Thanks Aunt Trish! It was fun to get all of the decorations up at once and mom let me hang all of the special ornaments on the tree myself. I even got to hear a special story about each ornament.

From The Rankin Family

The finished product!

From The Rankin Family

Since the tree has been up, I've enjoyed pointing to each ornament and repeating the story. I have also enjoyed seeing how much my hands have grown each year and frequently put my hands down on the tree skirt. Mom's got me hand prints from this year to add and we've talked about how there will be a new set of hand prints that our smaller than mine next year.

First Snow, 2009

It's winter here, that's for sure, and the snow is beginning to fall to the ground. Mom got me all bundled up and I went out to see the snow. You'll see I have winter crocs on, stay tuned for posts with boots, the weatherman says we'll be needing them in a week. It sure was cold, but I loved trying to catch the snowflakes with my hands.

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

I can't wait for enough snow to fall to build snowman and snow angels. I talk about that and going for a walk in the woods to find animal footprints all the time. This could be a challenge for mom, so we'll have to call for some reinforcements when the time is right.

Mom stayed in the garage while snapping these photos. Baby is growing more and more each day and mom can't button her winter jacket all the way. Even with dad's fleece under her jacket, I think mom and baby were pretty cold. Speaking of baby, we received the good news from the Dr. that mom's placenta previa has moved. In fact, it moved the full distance necessary for mom to go full term and have a regular delivery. SO, baby may share my birthday with me after all!

Big Girl Room, Big Girl Bed

Well, it's official. After having my room semi-ready since March, I have finally decided to make it my own instead of just "The Pink Room". Mom's been telling me for about a week now that I can let her know when I'm ready to sleep in my big girl bed and today was the day, October 24th, 2009! (Yes, I'm a bit behind in posting this.)

Here I am taking my very first nap in my new bed.

From The Rankin Family

Some details on how it has been going. After a rough wake up and climbing out of my bed without permission from mom, I finally got this down and agreed to mom's rules. Stay in bed till I open your door. There was no negotiating on this though I tried my hardest for about 40 minutes that day. We've been very successful since that day in following the rules, taking naps, and sleeping mostly through the night. My wake up schedule has been a little off and mom doesn't think my quality of sleep has been quite the same yet, but we've had no relapses and we continue to press forward with the move.

Here's a couple pictures of my completed room. Mom refinished the bed for me, it's an antique and took her a lot longer than she had hoped. Papa helped her with the painting and some of the sanding. The dresser was my mom's when she was little, she's updated it a bit and made me some hand-painted knobs for it too that match my room perfect! And then there's my reading corner, my favorite. Thanks Nana for my bookcase! I'm hoping to get a chair at some point, but right now I love to lay on my rug and read with the butterflies.

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

Monday Mom's Play Group

Here is a rare picture of all of the kids in our "Monday Mom's" play group.

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Mom started this play group back in the spring and it was and is a combination of our friends from the library and gymnastics. We've got a pretty steady group now and even more exciting is the fact that we'll be adding 3 new babies to the group in the next 3-4 months. So with that, we celebrated the new ones on the way with a baby shower!

From The Rankin Family

Here's a rare picture of mom from the side. Check out that baby, it's sure making mom's belly big! (And yes, that's a fork in her hand, the chocolate cake was amazing!)

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Halloween Trick or Treating

This year we went to my cousins house again for the annual Halloween party and the trick or treating. It's always a late night packed with loads of fun and I couldn't wait. It was an unusually warm day, but pleasant for everyone when it cam to the evening activities. Here I am getting ready for the trick-or-treat run.

From The Rankin Family

I was a big time runner, track star almost, as we dashed from house to house. The only problem was, I kept forgetting to stop to go to the house! Good thing there were people there to remind me, or I probably would have missed out on all of the candy! I kept looking for my cousin Will, but he's even faster than I am and I just couldn't keep up.

From The Rankin Family

Mom and dad both came with me this year along with my cousin Chanie and her cousin Keely. I looked a little misplaced among the princesses, but I didn't notice.

From The Rankin Family

It was a great night and I came home with a small bag full of "hot-chocolate time" for my after dinner treats.

Pumpkin Carving 2008

Oh no, not again!

From The Rankin Family

I ran from it, I cringed at it, and then I said "No thank you." Yes, similar to the year before, I had no desire to get messy or participate in the carving of the family pumpkin. In fact, I wouldn't even get close enough this year to feel that it was messy. Dad did the messy part and mom carved the face. It was exciting though that I got to pick the design. It's a pretty good resemblance I think.

From The Rankin Family

Baby Rankin - 28 Weeks

Hi everyone! We had another Dr.'s appointment today to check on Baby Rankin and to see how mom's placenta previa is doing. We are happy to report that the placenta is moving! We aren't in the clear yet (it still needs to move at least 1.3 cm) but the Dr. seems to think that our chances are good for a normal delivery. We'll check again in 4 weeks to see if there has been any further progress. Praise be to God for that wonderful news. We also saw that baby is keeping up on his/her growth, measuring exactly to date and weighing in currently at about 2.6 pounds. Baby Rankin also has some visible hair on their head already!

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

We want to thank you all for lifting up our family in your prayers. Please keep praying that the placenta would move and mom can carry this baby to term without any complication.

Boo at the Zoo

What a cool idea our Kansas City Zoo has. They do "Boo at the Zoo" where we can go trick or treating and see some of the animals get a few teats of their own. This year was the first time I've gone and boy did I fit in. My favorite animal lately has been...

From The Rankin Family

Yep, you guessed it, a giraffe. And that's what I am for Halloween. I let mom know that my neck isn't quite long enough to be anything more than a baby giraffe. And of course, I also said that I prefer candy over leaves.

I also got a chance to ride my friend the giraffe on the carousel. I thought we made a really good pair. He sure was nice to me. Much better than my friend the live sumatran tiger who was eyeing me up like dinner. Hmmm, could it be because I was in costume?

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

Mom and I had a good time at the zoo together and then it was off to the pumpkin patch with my dad. Here we got to ride on the train, feed some animals, go one a hay ride, and pick out a pumpkin. But the best thing of all was my big surprise for sleeping in my big girl bed over the weekend, I got to ride a pony! I've been waiting for a whole year since there's an age limit usually, but not here. It was definitely the highlight of my whole week!

From The Rankin Family

Halloween Baking

Mom has started the holiday baking. No, not Christmas, but Halloween. We had a cold spell here and some rainy weather and I've been making pretend recipes for dough so she made some homemade cookie dough, my favorite! We made some Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns complete with orange sugar decorations.

I love rolling the dough. Mom's been letting me help everyday in the kitchen. But this was a real treat, I got to bake with dad. We had so much fun!

From The Rankin Family

And of course, though I love the finish product, I'm just like mom, I really like eating this cookie dough unbaked. For some odd reason, I really like plain flour too. So, I had my fair share of both, in my mouth and on my shirt!

From The Rankin Family

Here's our finished product. These pumpkins sure are a lot friendly then some of the ones I've seen lately.

From The Rankin Family

Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm

Today my play group went to Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm for there special play group time. There were lots of things to play on, a special scarecrow story time, a hay ride, and a pick you own pumpkin at the end. Mom and I had such a good time! Mom also can't believe that these next couple months are the end of the "free activities," a perk of still being just 2 years old. I'm excited to turn three though, a pony ride is in my future at that age as well as that new baby "that's going to come out of mommy's tummy and right into my lap on January 19th". (This is what I tell everyone who asks if I'm going to be a big sister.)

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

"Check it out, I'm 3 feet tall!"

Some of my favorite activities outside right now are seeing horses and swinging. I was so excited to see barrel rocking horses to play on and horsey swings as well! I spent quite a bit of my playtime on these two items alone! Yee-Haw!!

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

Here's mom and me on the "red hay wagon with blue tractor." Here lately baby and I have been competing for lap space. Baby pushes out from the inside and I push back from the outside. Mom's been a pretty good sport sharing her lap with the two of us. I love feeling baby so I always make sure I get right in front.

From The Rankin Family

The corn maze was a bigger hit than mom thought it would be for me. I loved running around and trying to find my friends. (Luckily, it was kid-friendly and mom could see above all of the corn stalks.) I got lost a few times, definitely made my own path a few times, and loved finding and being found by my friends.

From The Rankin Family

The highlight of the whole trip though was going out into the pumpkin patch. I got to pick out me very own pumpkin to take home with me. I walked around for quite awhile before finding a perfectly orange, perfectly round, only slightly dirty pumpkin. I checked under all the vines, tested the weight, and then decided I needed to carry it "all by myself" to the car. It was heavy than I thought and mom carried it half-way for me.

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

From The Rankin Family

I can't wait to go back with dad and pick the pumpkin's we are going to carve this year! Plus, I know I'll get cider and donuts too on that trip.