Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas, from our home to yours!


And a huge thank you to our families for all of the gifts! We miss being with you today. (More pictures to come ... hopefully!)

Six weeks: all smiles and coos

N. is really smiling and cooing all of the time now. It has been a fast six weeks since she has been born!

Backlog of blogs

The month of July went by fast and furiously. Hot and humidiously, too! Not finding any time to blog throughout the month made me believe that I may actually have a life. Either that or I am too tired and pregnant to withstand my normal late night blogging sessions. Let's pretend it is the former!

So do I suddenly have a plethora of time now that it is August? Unfortunately, no. But I do have our van getting repaired right now and it is going to be a 6 hour job. So I have to spend all day sitting at Bread Co, sipping a cool drink, and not having any children pull on my leg. What a painful predicament I am in. Maybe they will need to keep the van overnight and I will be forced to get a hotel room too ... ;)

A friend's spontaneous visit
One great event this past month was a visit from an old college roommate, Laurie. She came in town for the weekend and it was great spending time with her and our other roommate Becky. We went downtown to a children's water/sculpture park one day. The kids had a blast and it was great catching up with friends.

Birthday celebrations continue
Tyler's mom and stepdad came into town for S.'s birthday. They brought Cousin Ashlynn, too. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. S. received cards and gifts for more than a week after her birthday, so every time she saw a card of any sort (including some of the thank you cards I was trying to send out!) she would rip them open thinking they were for her. Her musical and message cards are on her dresser and still get daily use to give she and P. momentary dancing breaks!



Dancin' it up
Speaking of dancing, one of the gifts we got for S. was the "Just Dance" Wii game. All three of the kids love it and it is nice that they can all participate without actually needing a controller to feel like they are involved. Every time I put that game in for them, it just makes me laugh watching them trying to match the moves. It really is like having a dance party!




First Cardinals game
When we lived in KY, Tyler and I would frequent Reds games. Not having kids allowed us to be spontaneous enough to park along the river, walk the bridge, and buy $6 nosebleed tickets whenever we wanted. Being in the stadium and seeing the Cinci skyline and the Ohio River just made for a great time out. In Chicago, Wrigleyville was like nothing we had experienced before. We took E. to his first ever ball game there and Cubs fans are seriously die hard. The excitement and enthusiasm extended well beyond the stadium. We had nosebleed seats, E. was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't actually playing, but the experience was priceless and it had that memorable Chicago feel (with the trains going by during the game and all).

We recently have been brainstorming things to do with E. so that it is just the three of us. When Cardinals tickets were on sale for almost 70% the retail price, we snagged them. We thought he would absolutely love it. While he did have fun, and despite our good seats, E. had a hard time seeing where the ball was in the stadium lights. For the first half of the game I think he was more interested in the peanuts we were eating. During the second half of the game, he was so stoked about a baseball that he got that we joked that we could have just gone to WalMart and purchased him a new baseball instead of actually coming to the game! I hope it was a good bonding time for him with just mom and dad though. As for Tyler and I, the thrill of the baseball stadium has seemed to have worn off. We were so stinking hot that sitting in an air-conditioned car on the way home was our bliss for the night. We breathed a sigh of relief from the constant humidity while E. continually played catch with his new ball ... all the way home.
Summer camp
One of our last big events for the month was a week long summer camp. E. attended the sports camp and I volunteered during the mornings for the art camp. E. had a great time and he said the worst part about the camp was coming home each night. (I tried not to take that personally!) He got to show off some of what he learned during the closing ceremony and then we all enjoyed a reception. P. was particularly pleased with herself when she nabbed a green-frosted cupcake after the reception was over while we chatted with friends. True to the picture below, she only ended up eating the frosting ... or at least wearing it!

A little celebration dance

E. had his last soccer game this past weekend. He has been wanting a hat trick for a few weeks and this week he actually did it. Tyler took about twenty videos during the game and captured two of his goals. Note the "celebration dance" after his third goal. We were cracking up.





This was his first season playing soccer and he had so much fun that he doesn't want to try any of the other sports. So, right now, the plan is to sign him up for fall soccer. (Pending Baby Sparks arrival, of course. Not sure how up I will be for all of the practices and games with a newborn in tow!) Here is a picture of E.'s team after the game, ending with a record of 5-1-2.


Down on the farm
Earlier in the week, the kids and I went to a place called Suson Farm. (Basically, a small farm with farm animals. Very important for the city folk, who don't know what things like sheep are!) While we were there, the oddest thing happened. At the far end of the farm they have a bull, somewhat near the pasture for the horses, donkey, and mule. The bull almost scared us because he just carried on the whole time we were there ... stomping, snorting, etc. Well, a group of high school girls walked up to see the horses and immediately the horses, the donkey, and the mule all ran over to them. Very odd when there were 5-10 people already at the fence--including us--who didn't peak their interest at all for the prior 10 minutes. But the really peculiar thing was that one of the high school girls shrieked, "Oh, a cow!" and went prancing and mooing--literally!--over toward the bull. One of her friends laughed and said, "She really likes cows. She has a special connection with them." Yeah, special connection or not, that was one angry bull! The next thing I know, I don't hear the bull making a sound. I turned around, fully expecting to see him try and charge her, but he is up at the fence letting this mooing girl pet him! It was like he became a little puppy dog. So bizarre. If a cable network is ever looking for a cow whisperer, she would be just the person!

Packing it on

I received some bad news. I went to the doctor and found out that I gained 10 lbs this past month! (Let's not break that down to how much I was packing on each week.) I suspected that my "fat feeling" wasn't just a feeling! I do normally have at least one double digit weigh-in with each pregnancy; I was just really hoping to avoid it this time around. The really stinky part is that this 10 lbs probably isn't fluid and a significant portion isn't baby, so these pounds will be hanging around for quite awhile after delivery. Maybe I should start planning my post-pregnancy workout schedule now. [Thinking long and hard ...] Nah!

Trip to Ohio
The kids and I spent Memorial Day weekend with my family. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so the long weekend and my nephew's 8th birthday party gave us a good excuse to make the trip. Unfortunately my fanatical weather-checking obsession didn't rear its ugly head and I packed for 70 degree weather while upper-80/90 degree weather was dished out. Regardless of the heat and the plethora of capri pants on hand, the kids had a great time playing outside, cooling off on a Slip-n-Slide, and having sleepovers with their cousins. And until our very long drive home, I had a great time too.

One humorous note was that once we got off of the interstate on our trip in, we saw quite a few farmers out working the fields. S. was so intrigued by the tractors. I hadn't thought about the fact that she probably didn't remember ever seeing tractors before. So I told her that maybe she would get to ride on Papa's tractor. To the joy of the kids, Papa had saved mowing his side field until we were in town.


There was a pinata at the birthday party and P. was chosen to be the first to take some swings. She could have hit that thing all day without making a dent, but she sure had fun trying!



On our last morning there, we got E. up and going on a bicycle. We bought him a new bike a few months back but don't have any flat land around us for practicing. So one of my big goals for the weekend was to get him on his cousin's bike and get him going. After a handful of bailouts in the grass, he was doing great. Next feat: teach him how to turn and, most importantly, stop!

My spontaneous moment

I am not a spontaneous person. Scheduling something two days in advance is spontaneous to me. But when I saw the great forecast on Tuesday morning and knew that my husband needed to sleep all day to recover from his back-to-back midnight shifts, I decided to get out of the house with the kids. And, thankfully, it was a good decision. So much so that I might even try being spontaneous again, but not any time soon!

With numerous options open, we decided to go to a local attraction called Grant's Farm. S. absolutely loved it and just kept saying, "I love this, Mom!" We have been there numerous times since moving here, but E. was the only one who remembered visiting. We rode the tram, watched the elephant show, brushed the goats, and saw some really cool animals. (Grandpa, we even saw a 5 week old mustang!)

I tried a few times for a group photo. P. was more interested in finding her water bottle though!

At the elephant show.
In the goat pen. There are easily over 100 young goats in there! I try not to think about where the goats go when they outgrow this area ... because there are no other goats located on the farm. Goat cheese ... goat meat ... glue ... maybe a secret ingredient in Budweiser ... ewww.
A free-roaming peacock that met us out on the road as soon as we arrived on the tram. It was stunning!
After gathering up his courage, a video of E. feeding a camel. S. wouldn't even think of it--she was certain he would bite!


At the zoo
While Grant's Farm is pretty cool, we also like visiting the zoo. We went one day back in March when the temperature reached 70 degrees. We were there with thousands of other people ... on a Wednesday morning at that! But going early on a spring morning yielded a lot of active animal encounters. One of our favorite parts was the penguins. We had just watched Happy Feet the week before and the penguins were very chatty during their breakfast. Again, S. was amazed. It is like she is discovering the world and everything is really coming to life for her.

With the penguins.


On the carousel. Can you catch a glimpse of Ty and the kids?







P. speaks
P. is becoming quite the little talker. She will come into the room, walk up to me, and proceed to tell me a story about ... well, something! Just this week she said S.'s full name for the first time. She can also say the dog's full name and is now choosing what she would like to eat and wear by pointing at her choice and saying, "that one." It is really cute. She also follows the dog around the house telling him, "no, no, no." Chester doesn't think that is so cute. It is amazing how fast she is growing up and how her personality is really emerging.

Awana highlights

E. just had his last Awana night this week, complete with singing, awards being handed out, and tons of cookie eating. E. got his Book 1 Award ... and he flew through it. Of course, it helps when the leaders don't know you can read yet and you are doing 4-5 verses a week by reading them over their shoulder. Little stinker. I had to put a stop to that! Here are some photo highlights from the night:

While my laptop was still sizzling from the burn and crash, E. also took part in the Awana Grand Prix and I never had the chance to post any videos or pics. So, a few months late, here they are!

The derby car and its design team

The weigh-in
The competition
The cheerleaders ... or did they just come for the snacks?
Actual race footage!

Christmas highlights

Merry Christmas! We had a very relaxed day with present opening, food eating, and toy playing (in that order!). It was really great watching the kids open their gifts and thoroughly enjoy them today. Tomorrow, before the break of dawn, we are traveling to Ohio for a visit with our families. So, in a way, the holidays will continue for the kids for almost another week. Hmmm, I think we needed this day of quiet, reflective family time!

One of E.'s favorite gifts was skateboarding gear.
All of the kids breaking in one of P.'s gifts.
One of my favorite photos from the day!
We bought Chester a new chew toy, which kept him busy all morning. And his teeth are cleaner, too. Mission: Accomplished!
S. loves everything pink. So did she like her new pink Pony? I think so. =)
Poor thing. Opening gifts is tough work!
This is the game we spent over an hour putting together today. It was worth it though ... a fun marble race, and it stands almost as tall as E!
S. loves wearing my shoes, sneaking into my makeup, and putting on Tyler's deodorant (his must smell better than mine!). So we got her a little clothes chest with outfits for three princesses. She is absolutely adorable all dolled up!

The biggest hit with P. today is what Tyler began calling, "The Freaky Horse." This present was a dumpster dive. I normally abhor pulling things from the trash, but I am so glad that I "saved" this little guy. P. enjoys it so so much.