Charrel's News

Catching up...

2011-03-30T14:46:00.009-04:00

It has been awhile since I have posted pictures on my blog so I thought I would give a quick update on what we have been doing the last month. The kids are doing great. Kaylie had her kindergarten registration a few weeks ago. She is nervous about leaving her preschool where she has been for 2 years and absolutely loves. I know she will do great in kindergarten but I too am sad to see her leave preschool where I had so much fun helping out, going in to all the parties, going on the field trips, and just enjoyed the layed back atmosphere. Landon is signed up and ready for preschool next year. He is excited and can't wait to get a backpack for himself. The other day he said, "Next year sissy is going to kindergarten and I am going to preschool and you won't have anybody." That made me sad! I will love having 2 mornings tso myself but am very sad to see these younger years go by so fast. I am not ready for them to be in school full time.
Kaylie is enjoying gymnastics and has really improved in the last year. I love watching her and how happy she is. I also love that she is still and even more so into dolls and dress up. I want that to last forever. Landon did soccer at the Y this winter which he loved. He asks every day when he can play again. He is going to be my sports boy. He is very into soccer, basketball, football, and baseball. It will be fun to see what sport he chooses to play when he is older. He is also currently doing a mommy and me music which he enjoys.
So here are the pictures....
Kaylie had her St. Patrick's Day party a few weeks ago and Landon and I had fun going.

A few weeks ago we had some really nice weather where we could get outside and play. It is currently snowing! Yuck!

We had spring break last week so we went to Lafayette for a few days and did some things around here. We had a fun week!
We painted pottery

Went to breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast spots in Lafayette Triple XXX

We went to the park

Went to a bounce house place

Went to an indoor playground in Cincinnati

We made some yummy oreo popsicles

To end the spring break week, we met my parents and brother's family at the Indianapolis Children's Museum

After the museum we went to Rock Bottom downtown Indy. The kids love it because they can make their own pizza's.

Pumpkins

2010-10-25T16:37:00.007-04:00

We have had a fun fall. The weather has been great and we are enjoying our days outside while we can.
We have gone to 2 Purdue Games and have done some pumpkin decorating. Here are some pictures...

Purdue game

We have had fun decorating our pumpkins before we carve them this weekend...

Every year I take the kids pictures on the front porch. Here are the pictures from the past few years and this years picture. It always surprises me how much they have grown in 1 year...

10 Months

22 Months

Almost 1

Almost 3 Years

Almost 2

Almost 4

Almost 5

Almost 3

Apple Orchard

2010-09-15T14:01:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I took the kids to Tuttle's Apple Orchard in Greenfield. I lived in Greenfield for 9 years before moving to WL and we use to go to Tuttles to get our apples.
The kids really wanted to have the chance to "pick" their own apples, not just go buy them.

Tuttles also had a neat play area for the kids with 3 mazes and things to play on. It was a fun little field trip for the kids and I.

Purdue Game

2010-09-11T22:43:00.011-04:00

Today we took the kids to the Purdue game. This was Kaylie's 3rd Purdue game and Landon's 1st. The whole game he kept saying, "This is my first Purdue game!" It was cute because he was very excited, as was Kaylie.

We started the morning off with breakfast at Triple XXX. The kids love breakfast there because they decorate the pancakes to look like Mickey Mouse.

We headed to the game early. We don't usually go this early, but I am glad we did because we got to see and do some fun things. We headed over to Slayter Hill where the band was and we got to see the World's Largest Drum up close and the kids even go to hit it. They were also able to get into the Boilermaker Special and ring the bell which they thought was cool.

They enjoyed the game and had fun watching all of the excitement going on during the game. Landon even got the "1234 First down," part down pretty well. Kaylie of couse enjoyed all of the cheerleaders and practiced her cheers when she got home.

These pictures were all taken before the game started and people started coming, so it did fill in when the game started. :)
It was a fun day!

Catching up...

2010-08-24T16:16:00.008-04:00

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted anything. Where does the time go? I decided to add a new design and a new picture to the blog for something different. :)

Back to life...

We had a great summer.

Kaylie played tball again this year which she really enjoyed.

Landon was a great supporter..

Kaylie lost 2 teeth

Landon starting wearing big boy pants and is doing great now...

We did a lot of outside water activites.

We went to the zoo with friends.

We took Kaylie to the American Girl Store to pick out her 1st American Girl and she went to a Fancy Nancy Party in town.

Went went to Myrtle Beach at the end of the summer and had a great time. The kids loved the pool and beach. It was great to be with family.

The week before school we went to my parents for a big family gathering. We don't get to see my mom's family as much as we would like, but when we do, we all have a great time. We got a bounce house again this year which was a big hit. The kids also loved the slip n' slide.
Here are most of the great grandkids. We are missing 8 of them.

Now it is August and time for school already. Kaylie is in her 2nd year of Preschool and goes Mon., Wed., and Friday this year. She loves it and after the first day said she wanted to go every day. It made me sad that she was ready to be at school so much but happy at the same time that she loves it so much and it makes her so happy!
Here is her first day last year....

and this year...

Landon and I are enjoying our time together. I signed him up for mommy and me music class so we do that on Wed. while Kaylie is at school. He really enjoys the class.

We took the kids out golfing a few weeks ago. This was the first time that we have taken both kids. They both did great and really enjoyed it. Kaylie enjoyed hitting and putting while Landon enjoyed riding in the golf cart and being the flag boy.

Today I took the kids to an indoor play ground place in Cincinnati. It was a lot of fun.

The kids are growing way too fast.. I am enjoying each day as I know that soon they will be in school all day and I will miss doing all of these fun activities with them.

video

2010-05-24T17:32:00.002-04:00

Here is the video of Landon that I thought worked in the last post but did not come up. If it is choppy just stop it and start it again. :)

Now you can read on to the next post with more fun pictures...

"Celebration Day"

2010-05-24T14:30:00.006-04:00

Last week we had Kaylie's "Celebration Day" at preschool. This year Kaylie went 2 days a week and next year she will go 3 days a week. Next year she will have "Graduation Day." I was happy knowing she will return for another year because I am not ready for "real" school to start. She absolutely loves preschool (her teachers, friends, field trips, fun activities, etc etc.).

I can't believe how much Kaylie has grown and matured this year. My baby is really growing up and becoming so much more independent. I get a lot of "mom, it's o.k. I can do it." Like today, I was getting everything ready for lunch and she went and made her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She has done that several times in the last few weeks. She is a big helper to Landon and loves to help/teach him. I was so shocked when I looked at these 2 pictures.

Here is Kaylie on her first day of preschool... And her last day of preschool... Teachers Outside of school Friends Mami and Grandma Ceremony During the ceremony the kids sang about 4 songs and Ms. Sarah handed out awards. It was really cute because she made up awards that fit each child. Kaylie's award was "Most likely to be Ms. Sarah or Ms. Carie." Kaylie was very excited and it fit her perfect because she was telling us on the way to school how she wanted to be a teacher when she grows up. I could not get a close up video of Kaylie singing during her celebration day so I decided to have her sing one of her songs at home and take a close up video. :)
My big boy... Here is a video of Landon singing his ABC's. He has been doing it for awhile but I could never get him to do it for the camera.

Baptism and Field Trip

2010-05-01T22:27:00.006-04:00

Last Sunday my niece Caitlin was baptised. We were all able to go to the baptism and Jeremy was the god father. The kids enjoyed watching Caitlin's special day.

Kaylie and Landon love holding and helping Caitlin. They do a great job with her!

This week we also had Kaylie's last field trip of the year. I have really enjoyed going on all of Kaylie's field trips and they always do so many fun things. The nice thing is Kaylie's teacher is great about allowing siblings to come along on the field trips. Landon loves being a part of the fun and it is fun for all of us to experience it together.
For this field trip we took a hike through one of the local woods. The kids had fun talking about and exploring nature. After hiking, we went to the park to have a snack and play. It was so fun to watch Kaylie interact with her school friends. She had a blast and was all smiles the whole time. I thought she would want Landon and I to stay close by but I was wrong. :( She ran off to play with her friends until it was time to go. Although it made me sad at first, it also made me happy to watch how happy she was.

These are my favorites series of pictures because it shows the true happiness and joy on her face. :)

Landon had a great time as well!

Spring helpers

2010-04-14T16:09:00.005-04:00

We are having a great spring and loving this beautiful weather. The kids can't get enough of playing outside and Jeremy and I love it as well.

This past weekend we decided to freshen up our mulch. The kids always love to help with projects. I went to the store and got them some shovels and their own wheelbarrow. They were actually really good helpers. It took about 3 hours to get it done and they helped for atleast 2 1/2 hours of that.

We also thought we would try our hand at planting a "garden." This year our garden will consist of strawberries planted on the mounds in our back yard and carrots, cabbage, and lettuce planted in boxes on the back porch. We also bought seeds for pumpkins and may try watermelon.

We have a pretty bush that blooms in the spring and I just love the flowers. Kaylie of course loved posing for a few pictures. :)

My mom and grandma came to visit at the beginning of the week. We always have a great time when they come visit us. On Monday we went to Miami Whitewater State Park in Cincinnati. We took a hike, played on the playground, rented a 4 person bike, and had a picnic lunch. It was a fun day!

Easter

2010-04-09T15:08:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures from our Easter...

Update

2010-03-24T21:20:00.008-04:00

Here is a little of what we have been up to the last few weeks...

The kid are growing and changing so fast...
Kaylie loves to pose for the camera...

Landon is getting so big...

Cuddling after nap time...

We went to Lafayette to visit with our friend's the Falda's. The kids had a blast together and we really enjoyed catching up with them. We wish we could get together more often.

Kaylie had her St. Patrick's day party at school. Her teacher is great and always does fun things with them. I didn't have a camera at school but they made cute hats, rainbow cupcakes with whip cream for the clouds, and did several activites.

Kaylie is still doing gymnastics and swimming and loves them both. Landon is a great brother and sits patiently while sissy does her classes. Soon he will be able to join in the fun.

We had spring break this week so we have tried to do some fun activities.
We made Easter baskets...

We decorated a bunny's house....

We went to the Columbus Children's Museum...

Last weekend I went to Chicago with a friend from high school to meet up with my friend from Elementary school. We had a great girls weekend full of shopping,eating yummy food, and girl talk. We were also able to meet Elizabeth's sweet baby girl Courtney. It was fun to play with her and bring her shopping. :)

The flowers are blooming and we are ready for the spring weather to stay! :)

Bowling

2010-03-06T21:16:00.002-05:00

We took the kids bowling again on Friday night. They love bowling. It was so cute to watch because they BOTH held their own ball and carried it up to the alley and threw it. I couldn't believe Landon especially was big enough for that. Where did my babies go? I told Jeremy that they are at such fun ages. I just want to freeze time. We are having so much fun with them and they are such good buddies.
gi

Museum and baby

2010-03-01T16:21:00.013-05:00

This weekend Jeremy and I took the kids to the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed our visit. Landon has been wanting to visit the new Bob the Builder exibit so we did that. We took Kaylie to see the new Barbie exibit a few months ago. We also visited the planetarium. Big Bird and Elmo gave the tour of the stars so the kids thought that was really neat.

Kaylie adores her daddy and her daddy adores her, therefore he will do whatever she asks. So this is how they walked through downtown Indy on the way to the restaurant. So cute! :)

We also went to visit baby Caitlin. She came home on Friday. The kids were so excited to hold her. Kaylie loved playing mommy and holding her. Landon really wanted to hold her but I was not sure how he would react since it was the first baby he had held. He did great and loved it. He would have held her all day if we let him.

I am trying to get a video of Landon counting to 20 and saying his ABC's but he won't do it for the camera. He is quite the jabber box and will sing or talk for you all day.

Kaylie has started gymnastics and is still doing swimming. She will hopefully have a full week of school this week for the first time in a month! She loves to tell stories and is very big into make believe right now, which is fun. Luckily Landon plays right with her, which is really fun to watch then play and interact together.

Snow snow and more snow...

2010-02-15T16:00:00.004-05:00

Well it has been snowing and snowing and snowing some more here. Kaylie has missed a lot of school lately, we have shoveled a lot, and staying inside our house a lot. Needless to say we have had to be creative and come up with fun things to do around the house. We had about 11 inches in 2 days last week and we are getting about 6 today with more to come until Wed. Needless to say we are ready for spring and the sunshine. :)

The kids have enjoyed playing out in the snow and painting the snow...

It has been nice to enjoy quality time with just the kids. The have become good friends and enjoy playing together. I love listening to them interact with each other and come up with creative things to play.
Kaylie loves reading Landon his nap time stories and he loves it as well. He sits on her lap and listens to her.

Dancing with the new clothes I got them..

We made Valentine's Cookies and the kids had a blast helping. I gave them each a bowl.
This was before we started...

And here is what happens when you give a 2 year old a bowl with flour. It was fun! :)

Daddy was very sweet and sent us all a special treat for Valentine's Day.
The kids got balloons...

and I got beautiful flowers...

Since we have been snowed in so much, we needed another form of entertainment so my friend and I took our kids bowling last week. The kids had a great time. They really enjoyed it.

Landon's new room

2010-01-26T18:09:00.005-05:00

This weekend we moved Landon to his "big boy bed." So far so good. He loves his new bed and has done really well. It was sad to see his crib go, as there will not be any more babies in this Raver house. Although I love the ages my kids are at, I want to freeze them because I know they won't stay little forever.
Jeremy's brother bought our baby furniture for their new baby. Landon said, "I give my crib to uncle David's baby." It was cute.

Here is what Landon's nursery looked like....

And here is his big boy room...

Winter Fun...

2010-01-17T13:39:00.007-05:00

Recently we have really been enjoying the "heat wave." It was in the low 40's this week and it was great. The kids loved getting outside to play on their swingset and to ride their jeep. Last weekend I helped host my sister-in-law, Dee's, babyshower. She is such a cute pregnant girl. They don't know what they are having. Kaylie went with me and it was a lot of fun. I love having my little girl to take to showers. I remember doing that with my mom when I was little. Landon is still growing up so fast. He is so fun to take places and have around when Kaylie is at school. We have a lot of fun talking and playing together. Kaylie just started Disney Dance and Swim Lessons at the YMCA. She is loving both of them. She is currently earning reward stickers to get a pair of dance/ballet slippers like some of the other girls. She is a fish in the water and not affraid to do whatever the teacher asks of her.

For some reason when I post videos they are really choppy the first time you watch it. Just let it play the first time and then if you watch it again, it will be smooth. Sorry!

Kaylie's New Room

2010-01-05T14:14:00.007-05:00

I feel like we are going through a lot of changes right now and I am seeing my babies grow up more and more (which is making me sad). We just took Landon's pacifier away, we are going to move him in about 2 weeks to his big boy bed, and we just got new big girl furniture for Kaylie. As I was downloading the pictures of Kaylie's new room, I thought I would go back and look at some other pictures of her room. It is amazing in just 4 years how much things have changed. Take a look...

When we found out we were having a girl, I was so excited to decorate in pink...Here is Kaylie's nursery.

When she was about 22 months and Landon was about to be born, we moved her crib to Landon's room and gave her my furniture that I had when I was little...

And now she is 4 and ready for some big girl furniture. We wanted to get her white because we thought it was more girly and she could keep it for awhile. Her bed is a trundle bed so she is ready for sleepovers and is already asking when her friends can spend the night. Man, how things have changed in 4 years!!

Daddy had lots of help putting the room together. :)

Christmas and New Years

2010-01-02T22:53:00.006-05:00

We had a great Christmas and New Year's. It's hard to believe it is already 2010. I feel very blessed and pray that 2010 is as great as 2009. The kids are at great ages and I just want to freeze them. I want to keep them little as long as possible because I know that each year just goes faster and faster.

Here are some pictures...

For New Year's Eve we went to friends house. The kids made party hats and glasses and then made a toast with sparking grape jello. We also went swimming in their covered pool. It was a great time for the kids and adults.

I wish you all a wonderful 2010!!! :)

Videos

2009-12-18T15:05:00.002-05:00

I have not posted any videos in awhile so I thought I would post a few. Landon loves to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and Ring around the Rosie these days, so I finally got a video of him singing one of his favorites.

Kaylie had her Christmas program at school this week. It was a lot of fun to watch them sing their songs. All of the kids did a great job.

Happy Birthday!

2009-12-08T15:17:00.008-05:00

This weekend we celebrated the kids birthdays. Today Kaylie turned 4 and on the 13th Landon will be 2. I can't believe the kids are this old. They are at a really fun age right now. Were in the garage playing the other night and I looked at Jeremy and said, It couldn't get any better than this. They are at great ages and I just want to freeze time.

Kaylie is still loving school and doing great. She mastered writing her first name so her teacher challenged her to write her last name also. By the next class Kaylie was writing her first and last name all by herself. The teacher wrote a very nice note about how proud she was of Kaylie for being such a hard worker. She is still very into baby dolls and dress up.

Landon is really becoming a big boy. He is not short for words. He is so funny with what he says and can carry on a whole conversation with us now. He can now sing, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Ring Around the Rosie, all the way through by himself. He still loves to hang out with his big sister and also play with his trains and cars. Here are a few pictures from their Tinker Bell and Mickey party...
Showing off some of her birthday presents... 4 Generations Pa and Mami Grandma and Grandpa After the big party we had a popcorn and movie night. The kids got dressed in their new feet pj's and we watched Mickey's Christmas. Our Family Kaylie went to school on her birthday so I made cupcakes for her class. Kaylie was very excited that she got to wear a crown and be the birthday girl.

I have been trying to post some videos but can't get them to download, so as soon as I can, I will post some. :)

Florida

2009-11-23T21:46:00.005-05:00

We just returned from a wonderful week away in sunny Orlando, FL. It was a nice vacation with my parents and us. The weather was perfect. It was in the 80's and sunny every day.
We took the kids to Disney two days. They both LOVED Disney. Jeremy and I agreed that this was our favorite trip as far as Disney goes because both kids really enjoyed it this time and really got into it.
We also went swimming a few days, went to Downtown Disney, played putt putt, and went to Gatorland. It was a great family vacation!
Here are just a few pictures. I have almost 300 if you want to see more. :)

Landon's favorite ride was the tea cups!

Kaylie liked Dumbo

This was the first time we got the kids books for the characters to sign. Kaylie loved it and made it her mission to get as many princesses and characters to sign it as possible. Landon thought it was cool to have the characters sign his book, but was not a big fan of standing with them without mommy or daddy.

The castle decorated for Christmas was amazing to see. I thought it was so pretty!

We also went to a place called Gatorland that had hundreds of alligators and other animals such as turtles, birds, and snakes. It was a really fun and different place to visit.

While we were on our trip there was a shuttle launch. We walked outside of where we were staying and could see the shuttle taking off. It was a neat experience.

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-04T21:31:00.006-05:00

We had several events leading up to Halloween. The first one was Kaylie's Halloween party at school. She was so excited and Landon and I were so happy that we could be a part of it as well. Landon really wants to go to school with Kaylie. Now when I take Kaylie to school he says, "Landon go school? I excited!" It is so cute. Kaylie even said the other day that she wished he could come and she could play with him at school. Landon actually participated in a couple of the activities just like he was one of the kids. It was a lot of fun to watch Kaylie interact with her school friends. I am really happy with her school, teachers, and the behavior and make up of the kids in her class. Here are some pictures from the fun day.

We also did the fun job of carving pumpkins. I usually leave this job up to Jeremy. The kids give him ideas and he carves away. If you notice in the picture below, he enjoys using his drill to help with the carving.

We had a great Halloween. It was a really fun year because both kids really got into it. We took the kids to several friends in our neighborhood and then had them come home and pass out candy at our house. They thought that was a lot of fun.

This is Landon calling Mami to tell her about his night! :)

The week before Halloween I had the chance to take Kaylie to a Purdue game. Jeremy was traveling so my dad and I took Kaylie and Caden to the game. Kaylie had a blast and was a trooper. She wanted to stay until the end. After the game my dad found a place where you can play glow in the dark putt putt or putty as Kaylie calls it. The kids had fun and it was just the perfect size of course for them. So for those of you that are around Lafayette and want a fun family activity let me know.

Fall Fun

2009-10-14T21:37:00.005-04:00

We have had a very busy and fun fall. Although the weather today feels nothing like fall (40's and wet), we have had some nice days to enjoy outside. When we can't go outside we have come up with some things to do inside.
A few weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch in Indy with some friends. They have great pumpkins and the kids have fun finding their perfect pumpkin. We got 2 big pumpkins for a total of 75 lbs.

On fall nights we enjoy lighting our fire pit and making smores. The kids think this is so fun and we really enjoy this family time.

We also baked Halloween cut out cookies. These are my dad's favorite so we try to make some for every season. They are pretty yummy! :)

Since today was cold and wet, we decided to make a gingerbread haunted house. I gave each of the kids a side to decorate.

Kaylie's side:

Landon's side:

Now for our traditional fall porch shot... Each year I take a picture of the kids with the same decorations. It is really fun to go back and see how much they have changed. It is also sad to see how fast they are growing up. :(
Kaylie last year:

This year:

Landon last year:

This year:

Friends

2009-10-02T14:45:00.005-04:00

I have really been enjoying the last month or so because Kaylie and Landon are really becoming good friends. They enjoy playing together and about 90% of the time play well together. They both enjoy the others company and like being in the same room together. This has made it really nice for me because we can all do things together and when I need to get something done they can go in the basement and entertain each other. I hope this relationships stays and that they stay close.

Landon is a jabber box these days and just makes us laugh. He is so fun and can carry on a conversation with us. He is saying mostly 3-4 word sentences so when Kaylie is as school he just talks to me the whole time she is gone. Here is the first 5 min. of our ride home after dropping her off...
Landon- Where sissy at?
Me- School
Landon- Miss Sissy, bye bye, love you!

Kaylie is still loving school and doing great. She loves Thursdays because that is show and tell day. They get to bring in something that has to do with the letter of the week, so we enjoy coming up with fun ideas for the week. She now knows how to write her name all by herself with no help.

Here are some recent pictures... The kids love to help me with whatever it is that I am doing. As you moms out there know, this can add about an hour to whatever it is that you are doing, but it is fun to let them help whenever possible. The kids each helped me mix, clean the dishes, and check to make sure it was cooking just right. A lot of times when I am in the shower they will go in Kaylie's room and look at books together. This is what I found one day... Kaylie decided to dress up her bear and they were both reading to him. They are also really into puzzles and drawing Kaylie still likes to help daddy make waffles or pancakes on Saturday mornings. In Sept. we were very excited because we got to visit with some friends of mine and their little ones. Here is Kaylie and Annabel Here are the kids with Jackson and Ryne

New York!!

2009-09-14T14:34:00.004-04:00

As one of my 30th birthday presents, my mom took me to NY a week ago. We left on a Thurs. and came back on Sunday. Jeremy and my dad stayed with the kids and they got along great. When I got home Jeremy said all went well but, "I could have my job back, he didn't want it." Ha! He did great with the kids and my mom and I had the best time.
It was so nice for just the 2 of us to get away and spend time together.
This was probably my 5th trip to NY and my mom has been more than that so, we are familiar with NY and how to get around

Here is a recap of what we did....

Thurs.
-Arrived in NY
-Took a carriage ride around Central park
-Watched the filming of an Old Navy commercial in Central Park
-Went for dessert at our favorite, "Ellen's Stardust Diner." It is so fun because the waiters are all trying to get on Broadway so all night they are serving and singing. It is a fun atmosphere and always one of our favorite stops.
-Walked around Time Square and shopped on 5th Ave.

Friday
- US Open!!!!
- Saw 3 matches at the Arthur Ash Stadium
- Had a dream come true of watching Serena Williams play
- Overall just a really neat experience

Saturday
- Got up early to head down to the taping of the Today show. They are not outside as much as they are during the week but we still got to see them. We were also on TV 2 times! :)
- Shopped most of the morning
- Went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway (very cute).
- We have now seen, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Greece, Mama Mia, and Mary Poppins in NY on Broadway.
- Walked around and ate outside on the top of Rockefeller Plaza where they ice skate in the winter.
- Went to get dessert at a place called, "Magnolia Bakery." It was crazy because they are open from 9AM-midnight and there is always a line outside. They said they are only in NY. They have great cupcakes and desserts.

It was a great trip and I thank my mom and dad for such a wonderful present! I will never forget how special it was.
Here are the pictures...

Show and Tell

2009-08-27T09:13:00.004-04:00

Today was Kaylie's first Show and Tell day at Preschool. She was so excited and ready. The Show and Tell this week was "All about me." They were to fill their bag with 6 things that they could share that told something about them. Of course the teacher in me had her practice several times so she knew what she would say to her class. So here is the video... She woke up this morning with a big smile and said, "Mommy do I get bring my bag to school today?"

First Day of Preschool

2009-08-22T15:23:00.006-04:00

Well we have entered the school world. Kaylie started preschool last week. She walked into school the first day and didn't look back. She loves it, which makes me so happy! I can't believe how much she has matured in the last 6 months. We took her for her open house back in March and she clung to us and was really shy and said she wanted to wait until she was older to go to school. Now it is Aug. and she walked into school the first day and went right in.

I can't believe my little girl is ready for school! I am glad she is having so much fun at school, but Landon and I miss her when she is gone. When I dropped Kaylie off the first day, Landon walked around the house and said, "sissy, sissy?" It was cute. So here are the pictures from her first day at school...
After we picked Kaylie up from school we all (Mommy, Daddy, Landon, and Mami) took Kaylie out to lunch so we could hear about her first day. After we ate we did one of Kaylie's favorite summer things which is to get ice cream and eat it at the fountain in town.

Here are some other pictures from the past week. I am recovering from gall gladder surgery so my mom spent the week here helping us out. It was so great to have her here and she was such a big help.

The kids love to go to Wendy's and sit at the little tables. They seemed so big to me sitting there all by themselves while my mom and I sat at the big tables next to them.

So this is Landon's black mail picture for later in life. Kaylie loves to dress up. I turn on her music and she dances around. Well, little Landon wants to do whatever his big sister is doing these days so here he is following along. Don't worry he loves his cars, trucks, and sports too. :)

Catching up....

2009-07-31T22:07:00.011-04:00

We have been very busy the last few weeks. We are trying to get everything in before summer is over and school starts. I can't believe Kaylie will start school in a few weeks. She is very excited, which makes it easier on me. I still an nervous about my "baby" leaving home to head to school but know she will love it! Here is some of what we have been doing... The kids are just getting older and older by the day. The fun part is they are really starting to play together a lot more. I can now leave them in the basement for a short time and they will keep each other entertained while I make dinner which is really nice. This is what happens when Landon is left with me, Kaylie, and my mom. For my 30th birthday Jeremy invited a few of my friends and neighbors and their families over for a cook-out to help celebrate. We had a great time. Jeremy rented a bounce house because there were 12 adults and 14 kids. It was great entertainment for the kids and allowed us adults to talk and catch up as well. Here is Kaylie and Landon bouncing before everyone arrived. Here are my friends who came (minus one who left before we took this picture). I have not been to Lafayette all summer with just the kids to spend a few days so we wanted to make sure we got that in as well. I packed them up and we headed North last week. We had a great time and it was jam packed with activities. My mom wanted to take the kids to Indiana Beach. The kids had a blast!! They both rode all the kid rides for almost 2 hours. They had so much fun and I couldn't get enough of the smiles on their faces. On our way home from Lafayette we stopped by the Indianapolis Zoo to visit with a friend of mine from where I taught and her daughter. It was great weather and there were not a lot of people so the kids had a great time. Other than that we have been playing outside a lot and enjoying each and every day. I have had a couple people ask for some videos so I decided to post some. Both kids love to make videos and even Landon now says, "video, video." Here is a video of Kaylie talking about school... Landon is talking a lot now and is saying 2-3 word sentences. He repeats everything and is now able to ask for things and tell us what he is thinking which is a lot of fun.

Chicago

2009-07-14T21:58:00.004-04:00

Believe it or not this post is not about the kids but about Jeremy and I. We were blessed to get a weekend away just the two of us last weekend. My parents were wonderful enough to keep the kids for us and of course they had a great time as well. Those of you that are parents know that you don't get very much quality time with your husband once you have kids so it was really nice to have time with just Jeremy. Of course we missed the kids but enjoyed the time that we had together.

On Friday we headed North and stopped along the way to golf. When we got there on Fri. we just walked around and grabbed some dinner. On Saturday we got up and went to breakfast at Lou Mitchell's which is one of Jeremy's favorites. It has become one of my favorites as well because they give you donut holes while you wait, and ice cream when you are done. Does it get better than that? After that we headed to the Sears Tower to visit the new glass balconies. I was very nervous about going up 103 stories (which only took about 18 seconds) and then stepping out onto an inch and half piece of glass. It was very hesitant but once I got out there it was a great experience and I am glad I did it. The whole view from the building was amazing.

View from 103rd Floor

Glass Balcony

After walking about 10 miles up and down Michigan Ave. and to Navy Pier we got ready for dinner. Our hotel (Conrad) had a bar on top of the building that was open so we sat out there and had a drink. It worked out that on of my friends was having dinner with her husband to celebrate their 1 year Anniv. across the street so they came to join us for a drink before dinner.

After dinner at Lowery's Steakhouse we went on a night boat tour of the city. After a tour we sat out on the lake and watched the fire works from Navy Pier.

So now we are back to reality but enjoyed the weekend that we had.

Lots of Fun!

2009-07-05T14:39:00.006-04:00

We have had a great end to June and start to July. We have been very busy but having lots of fun along the way. The last few weeks have been filled with activities.

We went to Cincinnati Zoo with some friends. It was in the 90's the day we went but we went in the morning and stopped for Frosty's on the way home so it was not too bad. The kids had fun any way.

Last weekend was the opening weekend for the blueberry farm that is down the street from us. Although I am not a blueberry fan, Kaylie likes them and loves to pick them. It's a great experience for the kids. This year Jeremy and Landon were able to go with us and they had a great time as well.

This weekend was the 4th of July. Luckily we had a cook-out with my family on July
3rd which ended up being a great day for a cook-out and fireworks. The kids had a great time. Kaylie loved the fireworks (except for the one that went crazy and hit her toy box and burnt most of the toys in it. oops!). Landon liked the sparklers and some of the fireworks, but he was not a big fan of the loud ones.

We were planning a cook-out with friends on July 4th but because of the rain we had to change our plans. We decided to take the kids to the Children's Museum instead. It was a lot of fun and both kids loved it! We got a membership because the kids enjoyed it so much. If anyone wants to go, let us know. :)

Hope everyone had a great Holiday weekend!

Water Water

2009-06-23T16:32:00.007-04:00

It has been pretty hot out so we have been enjoying a lot of water activities. We have used the sprinker, pools, water ballons, and slip and slide.

Kaylie is still loving t-ball and looks forward to it every week. She loves swimming and is a fish in water no matter what type of pool we are in.

Landon is keeping us busy as most 1 yr. olds do but he is still a sweetheart like Kaylie. He loves being outside! As soon as he hears the word outside, he is at the door with his shoes on. He enjoys the water but not as much as Kaylie yet. I think as the summer and year goes on, he will grow to like it more.

Here are some pictures from our summer fun!

The kids love helping daddy and mommy wash the car. They are good helpers!

Swimming in our pool.

My little helper

It's hard to get good pictures of both of them together these days. But this one was pretty good.

For Father's Day we went to my parents and the guys got to go golfing while the kids had fun playing with their cousins at Mami and Pa's house.

Kaylie loves playing with her friends and here she is with 2 of them.

Pictures and more pictures

2009-05-31T21:26:00.006-04:00

It has been several weeks since my last post so I decided to update some pictures. We have been keeping very busy playing outside and enjoying this beautiful weather. We have been in the sprinkler twice and actually went to a pool party today. The kids love being outside. Landon will run to the door if he even hears the word shoes and will cry. "outside, outside," until we go outside.

Both of the kids are doing well and growing up way too fast. Kaylie started t-ball last week. She was beyond excited. She could not sleep or function she was so excited. It was the cutest thing ever to watch and literally brought tears to my eyes watching my "baby" out there playing t-ball. She really isn't old enough is she?? I was a bit nervous she would get there and be shy and not want to play but boy was I wrong. She jumped right in and did great. She has asked me every day since her last game when her next game is. I decided I am not going to tell her until we are walking out the door to head to the game. :)

Landon is growing and changing as well. He is talking up a storm. He pretty much repeats anything you tell him and is now saying 2-3 word phrases. Some of his favories are, "Hi Mommy, Hi Daddy, Hi Kaylie, lawnmower grass daddy, Daddy hit (he is refering to the golf ball incase you were wondering). :)Currently he is in a yelling phase where he loves to yell, "MOOOOM!!!" as loud as he can even if I am standing right next to him.

The other big news here is that Jeremy graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati with his MBA degree. He went to night class 2 nights a week for almost 3 years straight. We are SOOOO happy to have daddy home and not having to go to class and do homework on the weekend. We are also very proud of him for all of his hard work.

Here are some pictures of our favorite activities...
Landon loves to "hit ball" as he calls it. He actually has a great swing!

Kaylie loves to skate and she really likes it when Daddy or Mommy skate with her.

Here are the cool dudes I get to drive around every day.

We eat a lot of our lunches outside on nice days. The kids love sitting at their picnic table.

About 2 weeks ago I decided that Landon's hair was too long and even though he gets it cut every 3 weeks it was still stuck up all over. I took him in and told her I wanted it cut short so he got his first, "buzz cut." I think it is adorable on him and makes him look so much older. It's hard to tell in these pictures because it's still longer in the front, but I think next time I will have her buzz it all.

My 3 and 1 year olds driving...

We took the kids to visit Purdue over Memorial Day weekend. Kaylie loves to see the fountain and the bell tower because she seems them in her Purdue books at home. Even though the kids are starting to get to that age where they have their sibling fights, they do love each other and this is how they walked around most of the time on our tour.

T-ball

Photo Shoot

2009-05-06T16:20:00.004-04:00

My mom and I took the kids to Portrait Innovations yesterday to get their pictures taken. They did a great job and I thought they turned out cute. Here are some of cute ones.

Easter 2009

2009-04-14T15:43:00.008-04:00

We had a great Easter. We spent the weekend at my parents and then came home Sunday and had dinner with Jeremy's family. The kids had a great weekend playing with their cousins and all of Mami and Pa's new toys.

All of the kids loved riding the cars and golf cart. Kaylie was happy driving and riding along. Landon was really funny because he loved the car. He would go up to the door and pull on it and say, "go go"

We also took the older kids bowling. Kaylie really enjoyed her first time bowling and thank goodness for bumpers. :)

Here are the kids all dressed up for church and showing off some of their Easter goodies.
We just signed Kaylie up for T-ball so she is all ready with her new pink bat and glove. She also has pink golf clubs at Mami and Pa's so she can play with the big guys.
Landon got some a new broom. His favorite thing to do is "swee" aka sweep. He also got some new shades.

Spring Fun

2009-04-05T19:27:00.008-04:00

I thought I better hurry and write this post about "Spring Fun," before it starts to snow! Can you believe that they are calling for snow in April! Anway, we have been enjoying the great weather the last few weeks and esp. this weekend. Here are a few pictures to update you on our happenings around here.

Here are just a few pictures from the kids around the house goofing around...

If we are outside Landon almost always has a ball and golf club in his hand. As soon as we go outside he says, "off ball, off ball." His dad is starting him early.

Good or bad, probably bad, but Landon loves Fruit Loops. He now goes over to the cabinet that they are in and says, "ott loop oot loop."

Just like mommy, you must always have your sunglasses on.

Kaylie is almost done with Gymnastics for the year. This makes both of us sad because she loves gymnastics and the little girls that are in her class. She also adores her teacher and this past week she even picked out her clothes and the way she did her hair because she thought Miss DD woud like it. That was the first thing she did when she got there was show Miss DD her outfit. It was so cute.

Jumping into the big pit of foam blocks.

Stretching

Great balance.

Doing her favorite "Tip Toes," dance.

Landon also loves playing at the gym while Kaylie does her class. Sometimes he will even join in with the girls.

This past weekend I took Kaylie to the city Easter Egg Hunt. There were a ton of kids there so Kaylie being so shy, she was only able to pick up 2 eggs with all of the other kids running around her. She was sad that her basket only had 2 eggs so while she was napping the Easter bunny came to our house put out eggs for her. She was more than excited about this and talked about it all day. It made Jeremy and I smile so much to watch her true excitment. I don't want this
stage to end! We gave Landon his Easter basket as well but he was more interested in just running around the yard watching Kaylie. Next year will be even more fun when he is into it as well.

We started off Sat. morning by coloring Easter Eggs.

We also made these treat bags for Kaylie and Landon's friends.

Stitches and More...

2009-03-24T21:56:00.006-04:00

So most of you have already heard by now, but last Monday was an eventful trip to Lafayette. I was putting Landon down for a nap and when I got done and came into the kitchen I heard Kaylie crying and just assumed she had fallen and didn't think much about it. I was surprised when I got there and found my mom holding a bloody cloth on her head and telling me she needed to go get stitches. I took one look at it and was in shock at how deep of a cut my baby had on her forehead. She had gone to get the paper with my grandma (her great grandma) and tripped on the rug and hit her head on the brick at the bottom of the front door. So to make a long story short, my grandma stayed with Landon and my mom and I took Kaylie to Urgent Care. My mom helped remind me that Kaylie was looking at me to be calm so I had to go into "mom mode" and be the strong one. Kaylie did get 17 stitches (2 inside and 15 out). She did AMAZING! They always put kids in these straight jacket looking things and tie them down and Kaylie didn't cry one time and was just so brave. We were so proud of her, I would have been scared if it were me but she acted like such a big girl. It hurt me more to watch her laying there. Needless to say, since she did so well we took her to the store and my mom let her pick out new clothes for her baby, new clothes for her, and several other things. You have to spoil them after that. :) The stitches are out and she is doing great. We are praying there is not a big scar. I said God knows when to let things like this happen because we had the support we needed and it all worked out better than I would have imagined for such a scary thing.
Here are some pictures from a few days after she had stitches.

This picture was taken before we went to a baby shower of one of my good high school friends. It was really fun to take Kaylie with me and great to see my good friends.

Landon is doing well. He is working on his 1 year molars and they are not treating him so well. He has been working on them and they have been so swollen for about a month now. I can finally see the first one coming up. Otherwise he is still talking a lot and just amazes me with all the fun things he is learning. He is a sweetie and I love his cute smile and hugs.
It is funny because now when I get out the camera he sits on the floor and says, "cheese."

Of course we are cheering really hard for our Boilers!!

He also likes to hold his phone up to his ear and say, "ello".

While Kaylie and I were at the shower Jeremy put together his new mower. He loves to push this around.

Landon loves to jump on the trampoline. He usually does this while I am working out on the treadmill. This is his workout. :)

My little helper (Kaylie) loves to help me feed baby Landon. I thought the look on her face was so cute and Landon is thinking, "why did you let her do this?" :)

Florida

2009-03-10T09:27:00.003-04:00

We just returned from a week in Orlando,Florida and had a great time. The weather was a little cool at the beginning of the week (low 60's) but it did get nicer as the week went on (upper 70's). The great thing is it didn't rain so we were still able to do everything we wanted to do. We enjoyed our trip and being with family. We went with my parents.
We took Kaylie to Disney one day by herself. She remembered everything from when we went last year and she is at a really fun age to really enjoy everything. She is really into princesses so she enjoyed watching them but would only take her pictures with the statues, not the real thing. Another day we went back with my parents and took Landon to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. He has fun watching all the animals and riding some of the rides. He knows who Mickey is so he had fun seeing his friend as well.
We went to the beach one day. We took a picnic lunch along and had fun just playing in the sand and splashing in the edge of the water. Kaylie is a beach babe and would have played in the sand and water all day if we would have let her. Landon was not so sure about the sand on his feet at first but once he got use to it he had a great time as well. It was a fun day of relaxation and just simple fun.
The other days we just hung out and went to the park, Downtown Disney, and some other fun adventures.
Once again I have several pictures so I will put them up on a slide show. Hopefully this time it won't play the music like it did last time. Sorry about that.
Enjoy...

Valentine's Day and more...

2009-02-22T14:56:00.007-05:00

We had a great Valentine's Day. We woke up and since it was Saturday that meant that it was "pancake day." In case you haven't heard about "pancake day," it is every Saturday at our house. Kaylie and Jeremy get up and go downstairs and make pancakes for all of us. Kaylie loves to help her daddy. When Landon gets up, I get up with him and we go downstairs and all eat pancakes. It's a fun tradition that Jeremy started with Kaylie and believe me she knows that after Friday comes, "pancake day." After we ate our breakfast we gave the kids their presents. Kaylie got some utensils to use in her kitchen and Landon got an Elmo doll and book since he loves Elmo right now. Daddy got the kids balloons which they loved and he got me beautiful flowers. We ended the day by heading to Indy to have dinner with my brother and Kady. My parents were kind enough to offer to watch all 4 kids while we had a nice dinner out.

Here are some other pictures from the last few weeks. Kaylie is really big into playing mommy and playing with her baby dolls. You rarely find Kaylie not holding a baby doll during the day. She is so fun to watch because she is a very caring little mommy and loves to dress, feed, and have parties for them. Here is one of her favorite dolls, "Lucy." Her other favorite doll is one of my old dolls, "Sally."

Landon is still learning new tricks. He is now trying to use a spoon. He does well but if it gets too slow he will drop the spoon and go back to using his hands.

Here is a picture from bath time. I just thought it made him look so old. :(

Our little boy is turning into a boy who loves to climb and get into my cabinets. We now have locks on every cabinet and have to make sure the gate is always closed or he is up the stairs in no time. He is almost 15 months now so he decided that he needs to walk up the stairs like his big sister. We usually find him walking up the stairs like the picture below. He actually does really well with it but the problem is he tries to come down using the same technique and it scares me he will fall head first.

And here are my 2 babies...

I will post some videos in case you would like to watch some of their new tricks.
Here is Kaylie saying all of the sounds to her letters. We are now working on recognizing what the letter looks like.
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Here are 2 videos of Landon talking. These are a few of his words that he says often. He just learned the word blue and yellow the other day during bath time.

Update

2009-02-11T21:42:00.001-05:00

I just realized that the last post I did posted before I was done with it. So now you can view it with the captions and corrections. :)

Pictures and more pictures....

2009-02-11T15:58:00.007-05:00

Hello! We have been staying busy here. Between all of the snow, activities, and planning for Jeremy's big 30th birthday we have been very busy.
This past weekend I surprised Jeremy by inviting two of his best friends down to stay with us for the weekend and help him celebrate his 30th birthday. He was surprised and enjoyed the weekend. We had a great time. Our friends have a little boy Landon's age so the boys had fun playing and Kaylie had a lot of fun playing mom to both boys. We even talked Jeremy's parents into babysitting Sat. night so we could all go out for dinner at a winery in town. It was a great night out.

Here are some pictures from some of the other happenings in our house...

Can't help but love the little naked babies before bath time. They love to stand on the stool and look in the mirror.

Here are my helpers. The kids LOVE to help me sweep. Landon goes crazy when he sees the sweeper and says, "swee, swee." I love my little helpers too and they actually do clean well also.

Kaylie loves to dress up. I turn on her dance music and she puts on her dress up clothes and dances away.

Landon got money in his Valentine's Day card and you would have thought he hit the lottery. It was so funny how he ran around with a smile on his face holding his $5.

Kaylie and her Mami (my mom) had craft time while she visited. She made this cute jewelry box that she was very proud of.

I feel like the kids are growing up so fast. They look and act so big.
Landon is now talking up a storm. I have some video I will post later of his new favorite words. Some of them include his few friend Elmo. He loves finding pictures of Elmo and saying, "Elmo Elmo," he says, "hi", "yes", "yandon" and several other words but those are some of his new ones.

Kaylie is growing so fast as well. Her new "trick," is that she has learned the sounds to all of her letters. She is very interested in learning what letter words start with and how they are spelled so it's fun playing, teacher. :)

Snow Day

2009-01-28T16:52:00.004-05:00

Just like many of you out there, we are snowed in for the day. My friend said it best though when she mentioned that unlike everyone who got off from school and work, stay-at-home moms don't get a snow day! ha!

I took Kaylie to Jeremy's parents yesterday to go sledding. She had a great time! We went out on Mon. night to get her a new sled in case it snowed like they were saying. Needless to say she was very excited to see snow so she could use her sled.

Landon has never seen snow (that he remembers). He has had a cold so I didn't want to take him out for long. I did get him out for a few min. today and he was a little confused at first but then he warmed up to the snow and I think he would have played in it if I would have let him. He didn't have boots so he couldn't get too close.

The reason Landon is wearing pink gloves is because he lost his and I didn't want his hands freezing so he had to wear his sister's old gloves. Sorry buddy!

Since we could not drive anywhere today, Kaylie and I went ahead and made our Valentine's cut out cookies so we can freeze them and have them ready in a couple weeks. She loves to help mommy bake.

Believe it or not I did not pose this picture. Kaylie loves to walk around with her arms around Landon. She is really into playing with Landon these days.

Can you tell which ones Kaylie decorated? Yes, she loves sprinkles.

So the snow is pretty for awhile, but I am more ready than ever for spring and warm weather so we can get back outside for longer periods of time!

Update

2009-01-15T16:09:00.004-05:00

Hello, nothing major to report here just trying to stay warm! I am not liking this cold weather. We try to get out at least once a day to have a play date, go to gymnastics, go to the library, etc. but this weather makes it no fun to bundle up and go anywhere.

The kids are doing well. Landon continues to grow and change every day. I am amazed at how much he has changed in the last few weeks. He is talking so much more and comprehends so much. He is pretty much down to one nap a day and decided on his own that he did not want his night time bottle anymore. No more bottles, my baby is growing up too fast!

Kaylie is still enjoying all of her activities and most importantly her social life with her friends. Here favorite phrase when she wakes up from both bedtime and nap time is, "where are we going to go today." She just said this to me after playing with her friends for almost 3 hours this morning.

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks...
The kids are having fun trying to playing together. They are doing pretty well. Kaylie really wants Landon to play with her babies, cook, build, draw, etc. with her and sometimes Landon will follow along and other times he would rather do his own thing which is typical of this age. When they do play together it is really cute to watch them interact.

I have not taken a bath time picture in awhile so here it is...

Landon discovered pasta and from the picture you can tell that he loves it. When we get it out he says, "hasta hasta."

Kaylie got new boots for the winter. We have not had a lot of snow and it's been so cold that we have not been out playing in the snow, but she likes to wear them when it's wet outside.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-01T20:59:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We had a great Christmas and New Year! We enjoyed spending time with all of our family and catching up with some friends as well.

I had so many pictures I wanted to share so I decided to put them on a slide show. If you click on the "view all images" below you can view all of them. (Thanks to my friend Megan for teaching me how to do this). I promise I won't do it like this often, but because it was a big holiday with a lot of picture I opted for this version this time.

These are pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family and then Christmas night with Jeremy's family.

Before Christmas one of Kaylie's good friends came over and they painted aprons together. The kids had a lot of fun and they turned out really cute.

I hope everyone is blessed in this new 2009 and all of your hopes and dreams come true and this year brings you much health and happiness.

Santa

2008-12-17T22:32:00.006-05:00

This is the fun time of year as a parent because you get to watch the excitement in your kids eyes as they await Santa to show up at their house. Kaylie is really into Santa and Christmas this year. I was not fully prepared the other night when I read, The Night Before Christmas," to her and she started looking at the pictures and asking me how Santa carries all the toys down the chimney and how he climbs back up, how the reindeer fly, etc. I need to get in full parent mode and begin coming up with wise answers when given such hard questions as those. ha! Jeremy's work had a kids Christmas party on Tues. night. Kaylie was all excited sit on Santa's lap and tell him just what she wanted, and she told me she would smile so I could take her picture. Well as with most kids that sounds great until you get to the big and scary Santa and they freeze and realize they are not as brave as they thought. :) So with the help of daddy we did get a picture of the kids with the Mrs.. I forgot to get Santa in the picture, can you believe that? oops!

Kaylie got a doll to dress up and Landon got a car that makes sounds. They were both excited and have enjoyed playing with their presents.

This is our attempt at a family picture. I was trying to distract Landon from the balloon but he was more interested in trying to figure out why I was hiding it. :)

For all of your Purdue fans out there, Kaylie has learned the Purdue fight song and loves running around the house singing it. How can you not be proud to be a Boiler when you hear this...

Here are some other random pictures from the last week...

Landon looks so big here. Where did my baby go? He is changing so much each day. He continues to enjoy walking, eating big people food, and we just started him on "real" milk so he is enjoying that as well. He is also learning new words. He now says, "all d (all done), and eeee when he wants to eat. He says something that sounds like drink also.

Kaylie contines to love to play with her dolls and is starting to realize that Landon can now play so it's cute to watch them try to play together. She is also really into drawing and doing anything with the arts.

Happy Birthday

2008-12-07T21:43:00.008-05:00

This weekend we celebrated Kaylie's 3rd birthday and Landon's 1st birthday. I am not sure where the last 3 years have gone but my babies are growing up too fast! Kaylie's birthday is Dec. 8th and Landon's is Dec. 13th. We try to do them the 1st weekend in Dec. so we can stay as far away from Christmas as possible. Just like the day my babies were born it was snowing and yucky out. Kaylie was born in an 8 inch snow storm closing all the schools for a couple days and the day we brought Landon home from the hospital it was a snow emergency as well. Luckily everyone traveled safely and all of our family was here for the special day. Here are a few pictures. I did 2 cakes because I wanted the kids to each have their own theme and cake to enjoy. Kaylie had a Cinderella party and Landon had a 1st birthday party. Kaylie wanted white cake with purple icing and loved every bite. Landon really enjoyed his cupcake and already has a sweet tooth.

Here are Kaylie and Landon opening presents. Kaylie was really into her birthday and understood exactly what it was about. Landon being 1, just went with the flow and watched and enjoyed the benefits of new toys.
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Of course the kids got plenty of toys to fill our basement and it's not even Christmas yet. Kaylie is enjoying her new clothes, digital camera, easel,doll house,and garden tools. Landon is enjoying is clothes, ride on toy, ball toys, and cars.

Not only will Landon turn 1 on the 13th he also learned how to WALK!! He figured it out and is off to the races. I still find it funny when I walk in another room and he follows me just walking along. It's so cute and I am loving it. It is sure helping my back because he wanted me to walk with him all day. So that is our big news of the week. Here is a little video.

So big!

2008-11-21T16:11:00.011-05:00

Well a lot has happened since our last post. Over the past several months I have learned that no child of yours is the same and does not do everything the same time your first child does things, this could be a girl vs. boy thing or the fact that with your first child you have a lot more time to sit and play and with your second one there is not nearly the same amount of time. We have been waiting months now for Landon to move on his own. He showed no interest in crawling but loved to walk and was great at cruising anything that he was standing around. Last week he took 8 steps across the floor so we were sure he was going to walk in the next few weeks. Well after boycotting walking on his own, I decided we were going to have "baby bootcamp," and he was going to learn to walk or crawl. So needless to say the next day he was crawling, sitting up and standing up in his bad all by himself. I was so excited. I know this add more craziness to our day with 2 moving children but this takes away his and my frustration. :) Here is a little video. Don't worry we don't use food to make him crawl. I was just updating the blog and he was eating a snack so it was a good time to get a video real fast! :)

Along with crawling he is also talking a lot more. He now says, "Ma Ma" to me and "Da Da" to Jeremy so he knows who we are, he also says "dae dae" when he sees Daisy our cat and will try to say diaper and other words we say. He is beginning to eat more table food and loves any meat we give him. He polished off 2 chicken nuggets the other day.

We are not loving this cold weather, and getting ready to leave the house takes us another 10 min. to get the kids all bundled up and out the door. Luckily Kaylie is really good about getting her shoes, coat, and hat on herself. We just moved Landon's car seat around so he is much happier now facing the way everyone else is. He just kicks his feet and laughs.

Kaylie is in gymnastics and loving it. This is the one thing she will do completely by herself without me standing by. She loves her teacher. Her favorite thing is the bars so here she is on the bars.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. We feel so blessed with what we have and all of our family and friends that we are surrounded by.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-04T15:31:00.008-05:00

Here are some pictures from the kids Halloween experience. Kaylie really got into it this year and was loving all the candy she was getting at each house. Landon enjoyed riding around in the wagon looking at all the funny looking kids walking around. It was wonderful weather so we had a great time. It did get cool by the end of the night so we set up a bon fire and hung out in the drive way. Here are some pictures...

Kaylie had fun carving her pumpkin with Daddy. As you can see Daddy found it easier to use the drill on the small parts...

Kaylie and I enjoyed doing crafts during the fall and here are some examples...

Now to the cutest little trick-or-treaters...

This last picture is from our tailgate at the Purdue game this past weekend. We went to the Purdue game with some friends from Chicago. One of the couples have a little boy Nolan who we have already decided will be roomates with Landon. We decided that they could live in a co-ed dorm and Kaylie would be there to watch out and let us know what is going on. Ha! The first picture is Kaylie entertaining the boys with all of her songs.

Disney on Ice and more...

2008-10-22T22:04:00.004-04:00

We have continued to stay busy with all of our fall activities. We had a fun weekend last weekend when Kaylie and I got to have a "girls night out" and go see Disney on Ice with one of her friends and his mom. It was so fun to get to spend time with just Kaylie while Landon was getting one on one play time with Grandma (daddy got a night out in Chicago with some friends). We had a lot of fun and Kaylie really enjoyed the show. I went to these shows when I was little so I was excited to take Kaylie and see her excitement.

We passed up the cotton candy but did allow them to get flavored ice.

Landon continues to love to stand up and walk around. I have become Landon's personal walker. We make several laps around the house and yard daily. I discovered 2new teeth that came in today that I didn't even know he was getting. He got his bottom 2 teeth when he was 5 months and has not gotten any new ones until this month the poor kids has gotten 6 new teeth in the last few weeks! He is a trooper! He now has 8 teeth!

Here are a few pictures of our monkey's before bedtime. Landon enjoys pulling himself up to the railing and jumping and of course Kaylie loves to jump along with him.

The kids enjoy being outside, although it is getting a little cold these days. Kaylie loves riding her bike and Landon enjoys "driving his car."

Last night I raked our leaves for Kaylie to jump in. As you can see we don't have very many leaves but she still thought it was a lot of fun.

Fall is here...

2008-10-03T14:20:00.006-04:00

I hope everyone is enjoying fall and this beautiful weather, although it's a little chilly for me. We are excited to do some fun fall activities over the next few weeks which includes, going to a pumpkin patch, apple orchard, and trick-or-treating at the zoo. I will have pictures when we make each trip. Each year since Kaylie was 10 months I sit her on our porch with our fall decorations and take her picture. I enjoy looking back and seeing how much she has changed over the past year. As I took her picture today and looked back at the past few years it made me really sad to see how fast she has grown up and how much she truly does change each year. I see my "baby" not looking like a baby anymore and looking like such a young little girl. Although I love each new stage, when I look back at these pictures, I remember those fun stages as well. I am excited to start this new tradition with Landon as well and watch how much he changes each year. I am not ready for him to grow up either. He had his first fall photo shoot today. Enjoy.

10 Months

22 Months

34 Months

Landon- 10 Months

Brother and Sister

The other big news here is that Landon still has no interest in crawling but loves to walk, so we have been walking all around the house. He wants to hold our hands and walk all day or sometimes when I get tired and he is forced to use the walker he does that as well. So hopefully before long he will be walking on his own. Here is a little video. I think it's so cute when they are learning to walk.

Go Purdue!

2008-09-17T14:03:00.006-04:00

We went up to West Lafayette last weekend to cheer on Purdue. Unfortunately we didn't cheer hard enough because they lost in OT. OH well hopefully this week they can pull off a win. Despite the yucky weather on Fri. and Sunday, Sat. was actually really nice for the game. We decided to take Kaylie to her first Purdue game which she loved. My parents were babysitting for Caden and Olivia so we took Caden with us as well. They both really enjoyed themselves and we enjoyed taking them.
Here are a few pictures from the day.

When we got home on Sunday we had some really crazy weather. The effects of Hurricane Ike decided to visit and give us 70 mph winds. I have never seen anything like it. We were without power for 3 hrs. and we were lucky because as of last night (Tues.) there were still several people without power in Batesville and Cinci. When we drove around there were a lot of houses damaged and huge trees uprooted. It looked as though we had a tornado. We had house damage along with most of the people around us and a tree blown over, but we were lucky.

Zoo

2008-09-02T16:05:00.004-04:00

We had a great Labor Day weekend! It was kicked off on Sat. by nothing other than shopping at the Edenburg Outlets (Jennifer watch out!! :) ) I love that place. We found some winter clothes for the kids and of course Jeremy and I walked out with only 1 shirt each. How did that happen?? Oh well, it's fun shopping for new cute clothes for the kids. Sun. was spent by Jermey golfing with his dad and brother and then we all headed to a cook-out at a co-workers of Jeremy's. Sun. we packed the kids up and headed to the zoo. I found that going to the zoo with Jeremy's help versus me taking the kids and a friend and their kids is so much easier. It was so relaxing being able to tag team and walk around the zoo with Kaylie and push Landon in the stroller. Jeremy said he wondered how I saw any animals by myself between bottles, snacks, bathroom breaks, etc. I said, "exactly!" This time we went through the zoo with ease, no crowds, and lots of animals sightings. It was so fun! Kaylie loved it and Landon enjoyed it as well. It's so fun to see the excitment in their eyes.
Here are a few pictures.

Landon enjoyed relaxing in his stroller and eating his bottle. We are so blessed with a happy "little man" as we call him.

After a hot walk around the zoo everyone needed a snack so what better than cold ice cream. Kaylie loved sitting next to daddy and sharing her ice cream with him. I hope she enjoyed the zoo as much as we enjoyed taking her and watching her excitment.

Poor Landon was wondering how he got stuck with Puffs when we were eating the good stuff. Soon he can have "fun" food.

Baptism

2008-08-23T16:34:00.004-04:00

Last Sunday we celebrated Landon's baptism. It was a beautiful day and Landon did geat. Our minister carried him around the church to meet everyone and he was a trooper. He was done being social however at the end and was ready to just get baptised. It was great to share this special day with our family. After church everyone came to our house for a cook-out where we were able sit outside and the kids could run around and play. It was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from the special day.

Update

2008-08-11T15:42:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures from the things we have been up to over the last week or so. We have been keeping very busy hanging out with family and our friends. We are sad to see many of our friends here go to back to school this week. Luckily most of them are only in preschool.
Jeremy and I decided to get our rackets restrung, knock off the dust, and head to the courts last week. We took the kids with us. Kaylie enjoyed running around for a little while and then she was great entertainment for Landon while Jeremy and I played. It was a lot of fun and made me excited to watch the kids play in the future.

Jeremy stained our swing set last weekend which took a long 7 hours. He is hoping to not have to do that again for awhile. The kids continue to love playing on it.

Yesterday was beautiful so we headed to Miami Whitewater State Park which is in Ohio. It was a lot of fun. We did a 7 mile bike ride. Jeremy pulled the kids in the trailer behind. They enjoyed the ride. The best part was when we were almost done and plain as day Landon said, "Mom." We were so excited. Jeremy wondered why he said, "mom," after he pulled him for 7 miles, but I explained that I carried him for 9 months and gave birth to him. :) Of course he won't say it today and when I ask him, he just smiles at me. Silly boy. We also had a picnic dinner, fed the ducks, and played on the playground. It was a great family day.

Landon's other new trick is he loves eating crackers. This is great when we are eating or out to eat and he needs to be entertained. He does a great job holding it and feeding himself.

Kaylie has been begging for Landon to play with her. Every day she wakes up and says, "Mommy, is he big enough to play now?" It's really cute. Now that Landon can sit and play more they like to sit together and this morning Kaylie she even decided to do Landon's hair. Good thing he is such a sweet and patient little boy. He just smiles and does whatever.

This weekend we are celebrating Landon's baptism so I will post more on that soon...

Reunion

2008-07-29T17:11:00.004-04:00

This past weekend we had our 10 yr. high school reunion. It started off Friday night at Harry's. We were on our way out the door to go but Kaylie must have known we were leaving and decided not to sleep, so we skipped that part. Sat. afternoon was the picnic and school tour which we didn't make it to either. We did however go to Sat. nights event which was at Nine Irish Brother's. It was a little disappointing that only about 25 people showed up to this event. This was probably due to the fact that we only heard about the reunion a month ago. Here is a picture of some of the girls that were there. We are missing a few. I don't have a picture of the guys. I thought some of you WL people might be interested. Sorry for all of the videos but I had to post this one for my parents who can't see them on the computer unless I post them. Kaylie loves reading and she has memorized "Pat the Bunny," so I thought it was so cute then she began reading it on her own while I was changing Landon. I had to run and get the camera.

Big Day

2008-07-25T07:37:00.004-04:00

I couldn't resist posting about our big day yesterday. First of all, on Wed. my friend asked me if Landon was still having trouble sitting for very long and I replied, "yes." Well I have learned that your kids always prove you wrong so of course I sat Landon on the picnic blanket and he sat there just great for about 15 min. Since then he is sitting all time and loving it. I love it as well because it's something else he can do on his own while I get cooking or something done. The other news from Thurs. was that Landon and Kaylie got haircuts. This was Landon's first professional haircut. His dad cut his hair once but it needed some improvement so I took him in to get it done. The lady commented on how much hair he has. So here is a picture of Landon's new haircut.
Kaylie had about an inch taken off. This picture if from the other day. For some reason I just started doing her hair like this. I realized I better start now or she will be too old for it. :(
The other big news around here yesterday was that Landon fed himself Puffs. We have been trying for a few days now but he got it last night and fed himself about 5-6 puffs. Kaylie and I cheered him on so I think he thought we were pretty goofy. My little baby is growing up. :(

New Tricks

2008-07-22T14:01:00.005-04:00

First of all, I would like to say that I am alive and kicking after what turned out to be my 10 mile bike ride on Sat. It was actually a great ride. It was not near as hilly as last year. We all enjoyed ourselves and are gearing up for next year. I am going to post some videos and pictures of the kids newest tricks...

Here is Kaylie saying her ABC's. We are very proud of her for learning these since it is not what a 2 yr. old needs to know but she picked up on them pretty fast.

This is also a video of Kaylie singing one of her nursery rhymes which is one of her favorite things to do around baby Landon.

Here is Landon's newest trick... sitting on his own. He can still only do it for a short time completely on his own but he is getting much better.

This is just a cute picture from after bath time today.

Birthday

2008-07-17T22:32:00.003-04:00

Well I turned the big 29 on Tues. Scary to think that next year I will be 30! I am going to enjoy this last year in my 20's. I do have to say though, entering 30 knowing we have 2 beautiful children and our life is pretty settled is nice. For my birthday I enjoyed spending the day with my mom, grandma, and the kids. We went to lunch and did some shopping which is always fun. That night we just hung out here and Jeremy got me a cake. Jeremy also got me a digital picture frame which I love. Kaylie finds it very entertaining as well. Putting it next to the dinner table is a good excuse to eat her food slower than she already does. :) On Wed. night we went to a cook-out at our country club with Jeremy's parents. We sat outside which was really nice.
Kaylie was excited about my birthday and loved singing to me. :)

Here are some family pictures we took before dinner Wed. night.

Wish me luck!!!
This weekend is the big German Festival in Batesville. People come from all over to go to this. There are bike races, walkes, run, activities, lots of food and drinks. At night they have a big "party" with a German band. We have friends coming in town for it and they are going to ride in the bike "race" with us. It is 7 miles. Last year I was pregnant and Jeremy did it pulling Kaylie. The path is nothing but hills so you go up one and it's time for another. It's a killer if you ask me. So my training this year has consisted of pulling the kids 2 times for a 30 min. ride. Do you think I am ready??? NO!!!

Wedding

2008-07-14T10:19:00.003-04:00

This past weekend I had the honor of being my good friend Elizabeth's matron of honor at their wedding in Chicago. It was a great weekend and really nice to hang out with Elizabeth,her family, and friends. We were also free of children (they stayed with Jeremy's parents), so we could stay out late and not worry about naps and eating schedules. Here are some pictures from the fun weekend.
Elizabeth and Rich

Elizabeth and I

bridemaids

It was great to hang out with my family as well...

The beautiful room...

Growing

2008-07-10T14:58:00.004-04:00

Today we went to the doctor for Landon's 6 month check-up, however he is really 7 months old next week. Here are his stats: weight- 19 lbs. 2 oz. and height 28 in. The doctor said he is tall and skinny and right on track for where he should be developmentally and physically so that is always nice to hear. Here are some pictures of Landon eating his fruit and veggies. He now eats cereal, fruit, and veggies. He is a big fan of them all. He does not like peas though! He is a very happy baby which we are very blessed with. I just love walking in to his room and seeing him smiling and so happy to see me.

When we left the doctor I told Kaylie we would get her favorite McDonald's since she was a good girl sitting patiently with us at the doctor while Landon was being checked out. We came home and had a picnic outside which is Kaylie's favorite. Luckily her picnic table is shaded until early afternoon. We then washed the van. Kaylie is a great helper and loves to help Mommy and Daddy with whatever we are doing. After we washed the van, Kaylie decided she needed to wash her bike and scooter. Here is Kaylie helping. The one picture looks like she is going to the bathroom but she is really looking at the tires and washing them. I thought the reflection was neat. I also thought her daddy would be proud of the extra attention she took on the tires. More than me! :) Landon was also a great support in his stroller.

July 4th

2008-07-05T22:30:00.002-04:00

We had a great July 4th weekend. We started off Thurs. by celebrating Jeremy's cousin's little girl's 1st birthday (Jeremy's God Daughter). It was fun to see them because they live in Nebraska so they do not make it home very often. On Fri. the
4th we had a cook-out with our friends down the street and their 3 kids. We all agreed that this was the coldest July 4th we remember. We were all wearing sweatshirts and pants. We came back to our house so Jeremy could let off fire works for the kids to see. This was Kaylie's first fire works show and she loved it. Landon liked them as long as they were not loud. We had a great time. Sat. we did some shopping with my brother and his family. It was great to hang out with them for the day. I think we may take the kids swimming tomorrow since it will feel like July again and be in the upper 80's. I hope everyone had a great 4th and long weekend!

Zoo

2008-07-05T22:20:00.003-04:00

Since I am new at this, I am a little behind on my posts so I will try to catch up. We went to the Cinci. zoo on Wed. with some friends from town. Kaylie loved the animals and riding the train and carousel. Landon was trooper and just hung out in his stroller with no nap. We are blessed to have a very laid back second baby that goes with us wherever we want to take him and does not complain. I pray this does not change! Here are some pictures.

Peer Pressure

2008-07-01T21:11:00.000-04:00

Well I am attempting my hand at blogging. After many of my friends and some family members began blogging, I have found that it is a great way to stay in touch with everyone. I love reading everyone's blogs so I am going to try and attempt to be half way interesting so someone might want to read about what is going on in our life. We are headed to the zoo tomorrow so I am sure I will have plenty of stories and pictures to share...