Kid Profile Grand Finale: Benjamin Little

Hi everyone!! So here we are with our third and final Little kid profile: Benjamin Little. I know that I'm getting this one in just under the wire, but I wanted to make sure that everyone was studied up on Ben before they got here. Ben just had a birthday on September 4th and he's now a big, bad 10 year old, as this picture shows. Actually, Ben is still a pretty friendly, nice guy even though he's officially a "tween" and he looks a bit tough in this picture. This picture was taken after a long day of playing at a waterpark, which may account for the tough guy look. Even though he's looking serious here, Ben is still an adorably charming, cheerful guy. Ben loves to draw and read. He loves the Percy Jackson books especially. He is a mastermind at assembling Legos, particularly Lego Star Wars sets. Hopefully you'll all get to see some of his work, both drawing and Lego while you're in town for the wedding. Ben really likes to help people and he's a great big brother. Ben is also a terrific soccer player and runner. I hope that you all get a chance to talk to Ben and find out for yourselves what a great kid he is!! (And can I just add, look at that cool blond hair!)

Kid Profile: Miss Caroline Little

This next kid profile is about one, Miss Caroline Full-of-Sparkle Little. Caroline will be nine years-old in November, which is a coincidence, (at least this year) because her nickname is Nine. Her nickname was given to her by her big brother Ben before he could say the word Caroline. There's a lot to say about Caroline, much more than I could ever cover in this blog so you all will just have to wait until you meet her, (which won't be too long now!) to get to see all of the elements of her personality. I'll just hit the highlights for you here: Caroline is very girlie, full of energy, and she loves to chatter. She is an amazingly fast little girl who is already a great athlete. Soccer and softball are her main sports interests. Caroline is going to be our flower girl in the wedding. She's an amazing dancer and singer and I'm sure that she will be sharing her talents in these areas with all of us at the wedding:). Here she is modeling a tiara when she and I went shopping for her flower girl dress. She looks absolutely adorable/beautiful in her dress and I'm so excited for everyone to meet her and see her at the wedding!

Update

Once again, it seems to have been a bit of a while since I last blogged:) The blogging seems to take a back seat when there's wedding planning to do, fun as the blogging may be. Things are going considerably well here in Topeka these days. We're a little under three weeks and counting until the big day! For the remainder of the three weeks I'm going to try to get on my blogging horse and post a few more times. I definitely need to add two more kid profiles!! Stuart and I hope that everyone had a great summer!!

Kid Profile: Happy Birthday Sam!!

Today is a big day here in Topeka: It's Samuel Little's 7th Birthday!!! We had a birthday celebration for him last night and here are some pictures we took. Stuart made him a Last Airbender cake because Ben and Sam LOVE Airbender right now and Stuart is an awesome dad:). I baked cookies and put up decorations. Although I haven't been following the Airbender kid-venture franchise I do know that there seems to be a heavy meditation component involved in it.

Behold, Sam will demonstrate:

Sam and his cake. Heavy meditation. Priceless photo op:)

And another, just to show the cuteness!!

Just to tell you a little bit about Sam for all of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet he is an extremely sweet, brilliant little boy. (But then I'm biased.) He loves to play Legos, especially Star Wars Legos, and Pokemon on his Nintendo DS. Sam will be going into the second grade this fall, which he isn't too happy about starting in less than a month now(!!) He's a great swimmer and he enjoys collecting rocks when he remembers to save them. He's also a fan of playing outside in the rain and hugs. He can dance and sing with the best of them and that's what he's planning to do at the wedding. He has snake charmer blue eyes and if you look into them for too long your heart might just melt.

Oklahoma Trip

Hi everyone! I promised I would become a better blogger so here's another blog! I've been really excited about sharing this blog topic because it was such a cool experience. Last month Stuart and the kids and I all went down to Alva, Oklahoma for a reunion of Stuart's dad's side of the family. Alva is a small farming community just south of the Kansas border. Both of Stuart's parents were from Oklahoma and they met, fell in love and got married while going to a small college in Alva. Stuart's dad's side of the family has lived on farmland outside of Alva for several generations. His Uncle Warren, who is his dad's oldest sibling, still has a house on the farm. Stuart and his brother Steve used to spend time there and on farmland that belonged to his mom's relatives during summers when they were young. It was great for me and the kids to get to see where Stuart's family was from and where he had spent time while he was growing up. Stuart's brother Steve, his wife Jill and their oldest daughter Allison were there and it was a great to see them again also since I didn't go with the kids an Stuart to Oklahoma earlier in the summer. It was also great to meet everyone in Stuart's family that I hadn't met yet. They remind me a lot of my mom's family in New Mexico.

Stuart's Uncle Warren took us on a great tour, via hayrack ride, all over the family land. He told us the story of how Stuart's family originally came to own the land and the interesting things that had happened there since it had been settled. Stuart's ancestors settled the land back during the Oklahoma land rush days. It was actually his great grandmother, (All Little family members reading this: please feel free to correct me if my lineage is off. I'm having Stuart fact check this too!) who had staked out a claim on the land and then lived there until she owned it. How's that for some 19th century girl power!!

There were so many cool things that happened while we were there for Stuart and the kids and I as a family. We had a great time together seeing all of the sights and spending time with family members. It was great for Stuart to see everyone again, great for me to meet everyone, and great for the kids to see their relatives and learn about their heritage. This brief synopsis of the trip really doesn't do it justice, but I don't want to make this entry too long! Just suffice it to say it was a great experience and here are some of our great pictures!

Here's a picture of everyone on the hayrack tour. We disembarked the hayrack to hear Uncle Warren tell a story about where Stuart's great grandmother first set up her homestead on the land. This is the very spot where she first camped out to claim her land.

The red dirt and the hills are beautiful.

Stuart and his brother Steve. Stuart and Steve's Uncle Ronnie is on the right side of the picture.

Steve, Stuart, Uncle Ronnie, Uncle Warren, and Stuart and Steve's Aunt Sherry.

We came to an old house that some of Stuart's relatives lived in some time around the 1930s. Sam, who is especially adventurous sometimes, wanted to go check it out so I went with him to explore while Stuart stayed by the road with Ben and Caroline. I thought the house was so cool!

The inside of the house. The nests on the sides of the walls are swallow nests. We also discovered that there was a bull snake living upstairs!

Here are Sam and Caleb, (my apologies if it's spelled with a "K" and not a "C"!), Uncle Warren's grandson. They were having a guy talk. I think it was about the snake:)

Sam and a dog regarding each other. (I just thought this picture was too cute, so I had to post!)

This is what they mean when they sing about "the waving wheat" in the musical Oklahoma.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures and have a great day!!

We Heart America!!

Greetings, Everyone!! Happy Fourth of July!! We hope that everyone is having a great holiday! We realize that a lot of you will be busy today with BBQs and pool parties and may not see this post today, but we wanted to wish you a happy holiday all the same. We're having a bit of a damp, rainy day here in Topeka, unfortunately. Stuart and I have been cooped up inside this afternoon, but we have some house projects to work on and some blogging to do:).

Stuart and I just got back from a trip to Washington, D.C. this past week. We went there for a convention that one of our clients participates in and to meet with elected officials from Kansas. When we weren't in meetings we had a chance to tour some of the National Monuments and the United States Capitol Building. We had a great time there and really enjoyed seeing all of the historical sites that are a part of our nation's capital. Our trip really put us in a patriotic mood for the Fourth of July! Here are some pictures from our trip.

This is the view of the Capitol from the street in front of our hotel. We were really close!

Here are Stuart and I in the Capitol rotunda while we were on a tour. Neither of us had ever been inside before!

The ceiling of the rotunda. The painting is called "The Apotheosis of Washington." It was beautiful. And really tall.

Here's Stuart just looking cute at the Jefferson Memorial.

Us at the White House!

The Lincoln Memorial after dark.

Shadow kiss on the marble:)

The Washington Monument shot from the Lincoln Memorial with the United States Capitol in the background.

Again, we hope that everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July!!

Yikes!! Time Flies!!

Greetings all!! I hope that everyone is doing well out there! I can't believe that it's been OVER A MONTH since I last blogged. Clearly, I am not a dedicated blogger. I had hoped that I would become a dedicated blogger when I started this blog, but not so much. Even though the Legislature has been done we've been busy with non-work stuff, but that's still no excuse for my neglect to regularly blog. I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf with this blog and that's why I'm dedicating my Friday night to this update. Oh, sweet, sweet downtime at the end of the week! Let's begin where we left off, shall we?

Summer began here in Kansas hotter than it's been the past few summers (or at least to my memory). The kids finished up with school and Stuart and I recovered from the end of the session. We started to shift our focus to session debriefing, kid activities, home repairs, spring cleaning, and more wedding planning. Stuart, Ben, Caroline and Sam went to Oklahoma to visit Stuart's brother Steve and his wife Jill and their kids Allison and Kate. Stuart and I went to Kansas City for a weekend for a mini vacation, and all of us went to Alva, Oklahoma for a family reunion of Stuart's dad's side of the family. All were very good times. Added to the mix were softball games and soccer team tryouts, basketball and theater camps. Oh yeah, we also had a kid's fun run where all of the kids ran like champs!!

For Father's Day last weekend we celebrated by taking Stuart to Dave & Buster's in Kansas City. For those of you who don't have a Dave & Buster's in your area it's pretty much just an adult version of Chuck E. Cheese, except without pizza or furry animals. They have a ton of video games, Skee-Ball, etc. Stuart wanted to go there to unleash his inner gamer and of course there was no shortage of fun things for the kids to do either. Dave & Buster's has a really great casual dinning area and we had a great lunch there. The kids played (many) games of chance and won enough tickets to purchase 5-inch tall gummy bears, a furry blue and black zebra striped velcro tie, and several packs of pop rocks and Pokemon cards:) We had a wonderful day!!

We have tons of great pictures of all of our summer activities so far that I'm planning to share here. I'll start with some pictures from Father's Day.

Here's our man of the day playing a very intense and multi-rotational game of shooting skill.

Live action Skee-Ball shot. Can I just ask: is Skee-Ball a recognized childhood obsession? I used to love to play it too when I was a kid!

Here's a shot of Ben and Sam on a really cool video roller coaster "ride" that bounces and shakes and blows air at your face so that you feel like you're really on a coaster. Notice the bucket of tickets in the foreground:)

Stuart and Caroline decided to take a turn. I think they were on the scary coaster.

Such a good day!! We hope that you all had a great Father's Day and that the last month or so has been a good one. We'll keep you posted with more updates, (I've asked Stuart to make sure to keep on me about blogging) as they occur. I'll also keep posting pictures of our recent activities. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Peonies Are Almost Here and the Session is Over!!!

Great news, everyone! The legislative session is over for the year! It ended yesterday afternoon. It was a great birthday present! There's still work to be done, but now it involves more than watching politicians debate and waiting around for 12 hours a day. The session usually ends way before my birthday, so we had a long one this year.

On another happy note, it's about time for our peony bushes to bloom! Peonies are these great, beautiful flowers that happen to grow seemingly EVERYWHERE around the neighborhoods in Topeka this time of year. They grow in abundance and they are great flowers for decorating with indoors in a vase or what-have-you, as pictured below. I'd never seen a peony until I moved to Topeka. We have several bushes in the courtyard of my apartment building, which is where the top picture was taken. I love them and can't wait until they are here!! Just one of those little things that make my day!

Aren't they pretty little decorations?

I hope that everyone is doing great! Have a happy Wednesday!

The Speedvator and the Cage: A Tale of Two Elevators

So it's 9:00 pm on Friday night and I'm still at work. And I'll probably still be at work until 11:00 or 12:00 tonight until Stuart comes back over to the Statehouse to take over the late, late shift. We've had days and days like this since about the 28th of April. I've lost track. There hasn't been a night quite as late as tonight will be though. It's that time of year again, the veto session. This is the part of the legislative session when the House and Senate nail down their final budget and revenue bills or policy changes. It sucks. It's long, tedious, and filled with personality and party conflicts. I'd like to say that good laws are produced during this time of the session, but that wouldn't be true. This year has been especially rough due to the terrible economy. At this point, Stuart and I more or less hunker down, watch out for our clients' interests, and pray for the end.

Don't get me wrong, it's still incredibly cool to get to work at the Capitol, it just requires a little bit more thought to remember how great a job this is most of the time. I've been saving a particular blog topic that reminds me of how much I like working in the Kansas Statehouse for a night just like tonight. A few of my favorite things at the Capitol are the cool elevators. The main part of the Statehouse building is five stories tall so elevator rides are a daily occurrence. There are two different elevators that I particularly like that represent modern and old: theSpeedvator and the Cage.

First, we have the Speedvator. Speedvator is a name that Stuart and I came up with to call this elevator. The reason that we call it the Speedvator, as you've probably guessed, is because it's really fast. The Speedvator is a brand new elevator that just opened this year. It's a part of the multi-million dollar renovation at the Capitol that I blogged about earlier. The Speedvator is great because it's brand new, shiny, sleek, and kind of luxurious. It also serves part-time as the Governor's own private elevator. Whenever he needs a lift, he or his security detail just wave their magic key card over the sensor and he gets dropped off or picked up right outside of his office door on the second floor. I like the Speedvator because it feels great to have it wisk you down to the first floor at the end of a long day. The only problem with the Speedvator is that once the word got out about its amazing elevator speed everybody started using it, which makes it not so fast. It is still very, very pretty. And did I mention that there is a talking elevator lady voice that announces each floor that it stops on?

Next, we'll talk about the Cage elevator. The Cage is truly cool. The Cage elevator is as old as the building itself. I love the Cage elevator because it is charming and elegant. You can see all of the weights, belts, and pulleys working as the elevator raises and lowers. The Cage elevator is run manually by an attendant. I also love the Cage elevator because I love most old things and buildings. I've lived in an apartment building that was built in 1883 for the last 5 years and I really think that historic preservation is great.

In 1976 the Kansas Senate passed a resolution to keep the Cage elevator maintained in working condition in perpetuity. The resolution hangs on a plaque next to the elevator on each of the five floors. I took a picture of it to include here. I think that it's pretty cool and interesting. And if you'll notice, there was a Senator Bell who co-sponsored the resolution:).

And with that I think that I'll close to keep listening to more debate. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!!

Happy Weekend Wake Up Call

Hi everyone! I hope that Monday has gotten off to a good start for you all. Is anyone else having a case of the Mondays today, or is it just me?

Something happened this weekend that I wanted to blog about, but I didn't get a chance to do it before today. It was a little event that was near and dear to my heart and my New Mexico roots.

On Saturday, Stuart and I had just woken up when he told me to listen to a noise outside, because it was a hot air balloon. As soon as he said it I heard a propane tank blast. I knew the sound immediately from all of the times I'd gone to the Balloon Fiesta as a kid. I also knew that it was really close by to be as loud as it was. I ran out to our deck and sure enough, there it was, RIGHT above our house! Then I ran to get the camera to take a picture!:)

I was so excited to see the balloon floating over our house because I hardly ever get to see hot air balloons anymore now that I live in Kansas and I miss them. It was a really sweet little way to start the day on Saturday. I hope that you all had a happy little moment or two, or three or more, this weekend also!! Have a great week!

Keeping Busy: Wallpaper and Paint

Hi everyone! How's everybody doing today? We hope that this blog update finds everyone doing great and hopefully enjoying some spring weather! Stuart and I just wanted to say hello and give you a little update on what we've been up to the past couple of weeks. As I mentioned in our last post we had a little break from the Legislature that we used to get some wedding planning and work around the house done.

Our biggest project by far was stripping the wallpaper in our bedroom and then painting the room white. I helped with some of the wallpaper removal and painting, but it was mostly Stuart. He did a great job! I took a few pictures of the project that I'm posting here. Things never got too hectic or out of hand, but the bedroom was a DISASTER during the process as you will note from the pics.

Beginning of wallpaper removal project. Total chaos.

Stuart doing a great job (and happy too!!) with the wallpaper.

Me lending a hand. (I had an unfortunate wedgie in this picture

which is why it's only from the waist up:)

Stuart rolling some paint. Notice that I am watching

the Barefoot Contessa on Food Network while he's painting. Not a bad deal:)

Ironically, I don't have a picture of the finished product to post although we ARE done painting!! I'll work on that and post it at a later date!

Stuart moved into his house in October of 2008 and since then he and I have been working on little things to make it our own. The more time that's passed, the more we've done. Although we've already begun our home projects I don't live with Stuart yet. I've kept my place that I've had since I first came to Topeka for law school in 2005. It's a cute, huge apartment that's in a building that was built in 1883 . It's a great place, but that's a whole other blog post!!:) Stuart's place is also great and we're very lucky to be living there. His house is a very unique mid-century style house that we're enjoying updating and living in. I'm planning to move in with Stuart sometime this summer when we have more downtime from work. I have to say that we're both getting very excited for the move, although I am going to miss my old apartment!

We did a few other things over our break to help feather our nest and I'll post more on those later. I just wanted to say hello to you all and use this opportunity to give kudos to the boy and his undying dedication to wallpaper removal and painting before the opportunity got away from me:). We hope that everyone is doing well!!

Hotel Reservations

Hi everyone! How's everyone enjoying spring so far? Stuart and I have a little break time from the legislature right now, but we've been keeping busy with wedding planning and home improvement projects. Stuart (that dear, sweet boy) has been stripping wallpaper in our bedroom, which I helped with a little bit, and I have been looking for bridesmaid and mother of the bride dresses among other things. Our weather has been a mixture of gorgeous, humid, cool, sunny and rainy-- about par for the course in Kansas this time of year!

I wanted to let you all know that we now have a block of rooms reserved under the Bell-Little Wedding at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka. Our block is reserved for two nights, Friday, September 10th and Saturday, September 11th. We figured that most of our out-of-town guests would be arriving on Friday and leaving Sunday. The rate for each night is $89 for a standard room with two queen-sized beds. Once (and if) our block gets filled the hotel will continue to honor the room rate on an availability basis. In order to receive the group rate reservations need to be made before Friday, August 20. Here is the phone number to the hotel: (785) 431-7200 and a link to their website: www.capitolplazahoteltopeka.com. I think that you will have to call the hotel to set up your room reservations under our block.

The Capitol Plaza is a nice hotel in a very central location in Topeka. It's close to both the Statehouse, our house, and the place that we are thinking about holding our rehearsal dinner, to which we are inviting all of our family and out-of-town guests on Friday. It's a place where Stuart and I would enjoy staying and would feel comfortable having guests stay. It's a little ways to our wedding location, but really so is any hotel in the area.

There are several other good options for accommodations in Topeka. One of those options that Stuart recommends is the Lake Shawnee campground for those of you who are coming out in an RV. Here is a link to the website: http://www.snco.us/parksandrec/lake_campground.asp. It's both close to Topeka and to Stonypoint Hall.

If you have any questions about either of these places or if you want to know more about other options please let us know and we would be happy to help you find a good place to stay. We want you to enjoy your time here in Kansas!

Topeka, Kansas: The Biggest Little City in the World Today (This is not an April Fool's Day joke.)

My cousin Ashley just informed me that today, instead of seeing the bright, multi-colored Google logo at the top of the page when she tried to google something, she saw a different bright, multi-colored word: Topeka. That's right everyone, Google has officially changed its name, (for today at least), to Topeka. How crazy is that!! No kidding, although it is April Fool's Day. Check it out for yourself!! http://www.google.com/

March Birthdays!!

Hi everyone!! Hope you all are doing well today! Before the month of March gets away from us, we wanted to wish a very happy birthday to all of the March birthday family members. I'm sorry that these wishes are belated, but we hope that you all had great birthdays!

Sunny Day = Cake = Happiness

Happy Monday, everyone!!! Today is a beautiful day in Topeka, KS! March gave us two whammies on Saturday: a big snow storm and a tough loss for KU basketball. Today, March is making up for it's temperamental behavior by giving us an absolutely glorious sunny day! Ahhh, makes Monday so much better!

Maybe it had something to do with the cheerful sunshine, or maybe it was because I didn't eat breakfast this morning, but I decided that today would be a great day to tell you about our yummy wedding cake baker.

A few years ago a cupcake store opened here in Topeka. It was right about the time that the whole cupcake craze was getting started. Being one to follow trends, and loving cake and frosting (FROSTING!!!) as much as a person could possibly love them, I immediately started patronizing said cupcake store. Frequently. They make absolutely delicious cupcakes!! The name of this wonderful little piece of heaven in Topeka, KS, is Daddy Cakes.

Here's a link to their website: http://www.daddycakescupcakes.com/. I do caution that if you choose to go to their website you may start to drool. At least if you like frosted baked goods.

Now just to be clear, we are going to have an actual cake at our wedding and not just cupcakes, although I've seen lots of people doing that lately. We're very lucky that this sweet little joint bakes cakes as well as cupcakes. They also make the MOST AMAZING butter cream frosting ever. So much so that they actually sell individual "shots" of frosting in little cups at the store as well as cupcakes. (I'm practically drooling right now just thinking about it!!) We're really excited that Daddy Cakes will be baking our wedding cake and that we'll get to share this little Topeka gem with YOU! Until then we hope that you enjoy the website. Happy drooling!!:)

Where We Work: The Kansas Statehouse

Hi everyone! I hope that everyone is doing well! Stuart and I have been busy this week with work as usual during the months of January through March. The Kansas Legislative Session runs from January to May in a normal year, but we get a little break in daily legislative action during the month of April. Although we're really busy from January through March the weather is generally too cold and gloomy for us to do much outside of work anyway. The picture above is of the building that we spend most of our time in during these months: the Kansas Statehouse. It's actually a pretty nice place to work although it looks like a prison with all of the fencing and barbed wire surrounding it. The Capitol has been under renovation for about 10 years now. A lot of the renovations are done and look terrific, but there's still a lot of work left to go. I took this picture when I was walking into the building the other day. I thought that you all might like to see the place where Stuart and I sometimes spend more time at then we do at home during the legislative session. On the top of the dome is a statue of a Kansa Indian warrior called Ad Astra. He's the representation of the state's motto: Ad Astra per Aspera-- To the Stars Through Difficulties. If you're interested in reading more about the renovation project here's a link: http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/renovation/index.htm.

We hope that everyone is having a great week. We're also getting excited here for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. If it weren't for our KU Jayhawk basketball it would be really hard to get through the winters here! Don't forget to fill out those brackets! Rock Chalk!!

Six Months To Go Until the 11th of September, 2010!!

Hello all! How is the Albuquerque gang enjoying all of the snow today? As of today we are exactly six months away from the wedding!! Very exciting and kind of overwhelming when I think about all of the things that Stuart and I still need to get done. That isn't to say that we haven't been getting a few things done up to this point. In the spirit of keeping you all informed about our exciting wedding plans without giving too much away(!!) we wanted to give you a quick update on our progress.

As you probably know by now, Stuart and I will be getting married at a location called Stony Point Hall, which is about 20 minutes from Topeka. The reception will be there also. Here's the website again in case it's been a while since you've looked at it: www.stonypointhall.com, and the picture above is another shot of Stony Point.

In early December I found my dress at a little wedding dress store in Kansas City. My mom and I had gone dress shopping while she was in town in October, but it took a little while longer for me to find what I was looking for. No pictures of that though because I want it to be a surprise:).

After much deliberation, Stuart and I found our wedding photographers. We will be working with two gentlemen who own a company called KC Wedding Pros. Their website is: www.kcweddingpros.com. They have some really great pictures of their work up there and I think that some of the pictures that are up right now might have been taken at Tamaya, on the golf course. Anyone recognize the scenery?

And some of our most exciting news: we have a wedding cake baker!! We will be having our wedding cake made by a yummy cupcake store here in Topeka, called Daddy Cakes. More on that to come......

Lastly, we found a stationer in Oregon who is going to make some save-the-date cards and wedding invitations for us. We are in the process of getting those made to send out to all of you, but for now we hope that this blog post will serve as a reminder of our wedding festivities next September. We know that people have started to think about travel and hotel arrangements and we will be reserving a block of rooms for our guests with the Capitol Plaza Hotel here in Topeka. We've got a few special activities planned for our out-of-town guests here in Topeka before the wedding.

And with that I think that I'll sign off for now! We hope that everyone is doing great and we're looking forward to celebrating with you in six months!!

Greetings from Topeka!

Hello all!! Stuart and I want to welcome you to our blog!! We are putting together a blog to keep everyone updated on our wedding plans and share some of the things that have been going on in Topeka this spring. We'll try to keep this as current as possible with our busy work schedules. We hope that you enjoy it!!