Just call me Dorothy!

Last night, around 11:00 p.m., a F3 tornado touched down in Manhattan. I had just laid down to go to bed and the tornado sirens sounded so I woke up Jake and we went to look outside and saw our next door neighbors coming up to the door. They have a house with a basement but they heard that we have a storm shelter down in the basement so the five of them brought their pillow and blankets and we hunkered down and waited for the tornado to pass. Thank goodness the only thing that happened to us was that our power was out for a few minutes. While we were downstairs we couldn't hear anything going on outside. I was just praying that we didn't hear "a train coming"! Everyone around here says that when a tornado is coming it sounds just like a train. The kids handled the whole situation pretty good for two reasons. First I had to wake them up to move them to the shelter so they were still kind of out of it for a while and then they thought that having their neighbor friends over "for a sleepover" was pretty fun. After the tornado had passed we looked outside and their was no sign of damage to our home or property. Come to find out the tornado touched down about 2 miles north of our house and if you look at the link you will see that it left quite a path of destruction. I have heard that 30 homes were destroyed and many more damaged. A True Value store was totally destroyed and the gymnastics place we sometimes take the kids to is missing a side of the building now (It shows a picture of this in the link). Also, there is quite a bit of damage on K-State Campus. Thankfully there were no fatalities in Manhattan, mostly due to the advanced notice of 15 minutes.

Kennady's Birthday Bash and I mean BASH!

Kennady's birthday was yesterday and I can't believe that she is already two years old!  We started out her special day with a severe thunderstorm that came through Manhattan.  For the first ten minutes, the storm just produced a lot of rain and penny sized hail.

Then the tornado sirens went off in town, not because their was a tornado but because there was reports of the storm dropping golf ball to baseball sized hail! And they weren't kidding!!!   I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Both of our neighbors vehicles got bashed by the hail, causing dents and broken windshields. Jake had our car at work and luckily nothing happened to it. The rain gutters on our house got banged up pretty good though. 

After the storm passed and we all got settled down, Tyler and Brooke helped me finish making a pinata for Kennady's birthday. Then, when Jake got home from work we opened presents and invited a couple of neighbor kids over to break the pinata and have some cake and ice cream. 

Memorial Day Weekend

For a while we had about 12 new pets at our house, 11 toads and 1 water snake.  The kids discovered these toads in our window wells.  We kept them for a few days outside in a large tupperware tub and even fed them some crickets. After a couple of days my kids decided that they weren't so gross after all and it was hard to convince Tyler to let them go. 

My sister, Valerie, and her family came to visit us for seven days.  They came on the 20th and wouldn't you know after being at our house for just one hour, we had to make a trip to the ER. Kennady was running around outside with my nephew, Max, and fell on some metal landscape trim.  She got a pretty good cut on her forehead and had to get three stitches.  

The next day she was back to her happy self again, enjoying playing with her cousin.

While my sister was here we let the kids have fun at the zoo and at a gymnastics fun center. We also got a babysitter one night and went to eat ribs at Famous Dave's and afterwards went to see the new Indiana Jones flick.  A few times during the week, Val and Jarred witnessed the awesome thunder and lighting storms that we have here in the spring/early summer. We would put the kids to bed, sit out on our front porch and watch the storms roll in. One night we were even under a tornado watch. I think that the highlight of the week was when we all went to Kansas City on Saturday.  First we went to some historical church sites.

Liberty Jail

Independence, MO Visitors Center

Then we went to "The Legends at Village West" which is a huge shopping outlet plaza in Kansas City, by the Kansas Speedway. We were there for a couple of hours but we could have spent all day there. There was so much to see and so many awesome outlet stores! There was a place to eat called the T-Rex Cafe, which must have been really good because it was packed. So we ate lunch somewhere else but Tyler was happy just getting a picture with this T-Rex.

We had a busy, fun-filled week and it was great to have family visit. Now I just have to find the motivation to get back to the daily grind. 

Changes at the Crosby's

April brought a couple of changes for us. Brooke had been wanting to get her hair cut for months and I finally decided to let her. I loved doing her hair in braids and ponytails but her long hair was also beginning to be a lot of work. I took her to some place in the mall and it took the girl a hour and 15 minutes to cut Brooke's hair!  Let's just say I won't be going there again anytime soon. I think the haircut turned out cute but I don't think that Brooke could sit there that long again.

The biggest change is that last week we got a dog, a rat terrier. Call us the CRAZY Crosby's!!

His name is Eddy and he is 4 years old. We got him from the animal shelter here in town. I'm surprised that Eddy survived the first couple of days because the kids would not leave him alone.

Tyler and Brooke are so excited.  Kennady has warmed up to him too. The first day she would cry every time the dog would walk by her. She loves him now, almost too much.

 We went to a carnival here in town a couple of weeks ago and the kids had a lot of fun.  They went on a couple of rides and Tyler and Brooke got their faces painted. Of course, Tyler wanted to be Spiderman and Brooke wanted to be a fairy princess.

Congrats Jake!

It's finally official!   Jake took his board certification exam last week and this morning we got the good news that he has passed. He is officially a CRNA(Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist). I never thought I would see the day!  Actually that is not entirely true.  I have always known, from day one, that Jake could do this. I am so proud and happy for him for sticking with it and accomplishing his goal.  He has had to devote a lot of time to school and although it has been a sacrifice we are both happy and think that it was all worth it. Way to go Jake!!!

Kennady

   I decided that I need to dedicate a whole post just for our crazy and cute Kennady.  These past    few weeks she has definately done some things that are worth sharing.  One morning I poured her a bowl of Cinnamon Life cereal(one of her favorites) and then I turned around to get her some apple juice and she had decided that she needed to share with Elmo. She was so proud of herself and I'm sure that Elmo was thankful for her generosity. 

 Another time I had just got Brooke and Kenna out of the bath when Kenna decided that the only items of clothing she needed was her new shoes and her towel.  Brooke thought this was hilarious. Kennady's favorite activity lately is strutting around in everyone's shoes.  

Last week Kenna had to take a trip to the dentist because she recently fell into a cement step and fractured her front tooth. She had to have it pulled and I hear that she handled it pretty good, unlike me.  Thank goodness Jake was able to come with me to the appointment so I could leave the room.  I just stayed for the numbing part and let me tell you that was enough! I felt like I do when she gets her immunizations(times ten).  After a week of seeing her sweet toothless smile, I can now say that her missing tooth is growing on me. She'll be the coolest kid on the block when she is four years old.

Brooke's B-day and Moving to Manhattan

We are finally settled and all is well in Manhattan, KS. We love having space and living in our new home. I have discovered that unpacking isn't as difficult when you actually have places to put things and everything has it's place. With moving and not having the internet set up I have not been able to post for awhile but now that we have the internet I don't have an excuse. Hopefully I can get my act together and update the blog more often. Sorry if our blog seems hard to follow, I am still trying to figure it all out.

Brooke turned five years old on Feb. 21st which was the day before we picked up our Uhaul to move. The day before Brooke's birthday I came down with the flu and so between being sick and getting ready to move it was quite a challenge to make sure Brooke had a happy birthday. Luckily we had awesome neighbors who let us come over to their house for cake and ice cream, helped us pack and move, and watched our kids. I honestly don't think we would have made it to Manhattan in time to close on our home if it wasn't for their help. Thank goodness for the Bagleys. Here are some pics of Brooke's birthday and us at home. I also want to wish a happy b-day to all of my sisters and Cherish this week. We love you and miss you.