Columbian Park

Columbian Park is the place to go to in Lafayette. If you search for things to do in Lafayette this place will come up #1 (well Purdue might come up in some cases). This was the place to go when I was little, but a lot has changed. The playground is much bigger now - but I do miss the old school slides and climbing contraptions. The zoo is also ALOT bigger and there is way more to do (it's still FREE). The rides are still there - minus a few of the best ones (the cars and the train). The biggest change from when I was little is the HUGE water park, Tropicanoe Cove. Although it's too cold to go to the water park right now, I'm anxious to take the girls there this summer for their first water park experience.

Of course we hit up Columbian Park while we were here. Allie loved the animals and the playground. She really wanted to ride the rides too, but they aren't opening up until next weekend.


Dino Dig!


I'm a veterinarian

First Ride in the New Boat

Last Saturday we took the boat out for a little drive. It just happened to be about the windiest day ever. We were bouncing around everywhere because of the massive chop. Despite all of that the girls were somewhat happy - which hopefully means that this year will be a good one on the LAKE!

Avery ~ 9 Months

Our little bugger is 9 months old now - 3 short months from being ONE. Her latest accomplishment was crawling. She had been doing somewhat of an army crawl before and since we've been in Indiana this past week she has decided to get up on her hands and knees and GO.

She's such a doll baby! I love her thick, curly hair...so cute. Avery loves being held or at least having someone within eyesight. If no one is around she'll scream the shrillest little scream. I don't remember Allie having that loud of a voice. We love her growing personality and that irresistible smile!

UPDATE from Avery's 9 month well baby visit: 17.2 lbs (18%), 27 in (48%)

Our 3rd Child

No, I'm not pregnant! Not even thinking about another little one anywhere in the near future. Our third child, really Derek's third child, is the boat. Derek has been dying to bring it home from the storage lot and get it ready for the lake. He finally brought it home yesterday and he was up until late in the night working on it and then up early this morning working on it some more. I know that he got the cd player installed on it, both engines purring and the new cobra jet fins put on. He still has to clean out the fuel lines and the boat definitely needs cleaned! Other than that, I don't know what all he has left to do. Shouldn't be much more because we're planning on taking it out for a spin on Saturday! He did order some hyrdo turf to replace the carpet and it's not supposed to get here until next week - but should be pretty cool once it's put in. Derek is trying to come up with a good name for the boat, but is being very picky and can't decide on anything. Anyone have any ideas? Here are some of the ideas we've come up with: BAAD's Jets, Jet Duster, Wave Duster, Jetty Betty........I can't remember the others! We really like Hydro Therapy, but Derek doesn't want to use it because he found the name on a forum he goes to about jet boats and that was what someone else named their boat. Anyway, here is a pic of the boat.......and one of Avery in the drivers seat just like the pic we took of Allie when she was this age (I hope to find that pic and post on here too).



Plus a couple pics from the park yesterday....

Garage Sales Are Awesome!

Well, we had a garage sale this weekend...our first. We've been saying we were going to have one for a while and set the date for it. I wasn't sure if it was really going to happen or not because Friday was here and the day set for it was Saturday, but we still hadn't tagged anything with prices and almost everything was still in the basement. We stayed up until 1 am bringing everything up, pricing everything and making signs. We really weren't expecting a lot from it....it was supposed to rain all day and our only form of advertisement was our signs and an ad on craigslist. Our goal was to make $100 and we'd be happy. Well, I'm happy and excited to say that we surpassed our goal and made over $300!! The weather was beautiful and everything turned out perfect. We took a big box of stuff to Goodwill last night and a few things to Once Upon a Child and Plato's Closet. We didn't expect to get much from either of those places because the most we ever get when taking something there is a few dollars. Of course we didn't get anything at Plato's, but we got $11 from Once Upon a Child (and they only took 2 outfits and a toy)! So, I just have to say that garage sales are awesome and you really do make money at them! We were tempted just to take everything to goodwill and I'm glad we didn't because I know that we sold things a lot cheaper than what they will there. Now, who wants our left over clothes?

Hiking, Climbing, Animals & More

So I've been a little behind in my blogging........I'll briefly try to catch everyone up on our happenings. Two weekends ago we went hiking with some friends at Clifton Gorge. It is a beautiful place with waterfalls and cool rock formations. It's also a bonus that it is only about a 10 minute drive from our house (it's connected to John Bryan State park, which I've mentioned before). After we hiked for a little while we decided to grab our climbing gear and go climbing over at John Bryan. We were originally going to drive but after a quick vote it was decided that we would hike. I should probably mention that we didn't start our adventures until around 4 pm that day because Derek was stuck at school until 3 pm. I don't even know what time it was when we started for our climbing destination, but we figured it wasn't that far and we'd have plenty of daylight left. Well, it took a lot longer to get there than we thought it would and Avery was NOT HAPPY. She was tired and hungry. I stopped to feed her and told the others to go on and I would find them. When I found them Allie looked exhausted and she was starving! Anyway, we got the climbing in and we had to hike to our cars in the dark........but it was fun.




This past Friday, we went to Carriage Hill with friends. It's a cute little "working farm" set in the 1800's. Allie was thrilled to be spending time with Adeline, "Cole", and Laurie. We saw some animals, had a picnic and went to the little country store for some penny candy where I got Allie a good portion of chewy candy and one piece of hard candy......and a sucker for myself - and when we got in the car Allie asked if she could try my sucker, so I let her.......I never got it back! She did trade me her candy though. She's a smart little cookie. So, I didn't take a whole lot of pics, but you can find more on Nicole's photography blog. She takes such AMAZING photos! If any of you are ever out this way and would like some photos taken of you and your family I would HIGHLY recommend her!


Friday night Mony and Papa came over! Allie was really excited about this. We met them at Chic-fil-a so we could eat and Allie could play. Saturday we went to Allie's favorite playground. The weather was sooooooo beautiful! It's always nice to have Mony and Papa visit!

Avery ~ 8 Months

Our little bug is now 8 months old! She's starting to be a little more active and kind of looks like she's losing a bit of her baby fat. Our favorite new thing that she does is (drum roll, please)..........sleep through the night!!! I don't know how it happened, but when we got back from Easter she must have been so exhausted that she just slept the entire night and has done so since. It is extremely nice. She's even doing better with naps now too. It's a lot of fun watching her and Allie together. Avery giggles at just about any noise or silly face Allie makes. She just recently started clapping her hands together. Pat-A-Cake is her new favorite thing to do. In order to get around she will just roll or scoot backwards. She has started to get up on her hands and knees so crawling will probably be in the near future. In fact, Derek caught her on her hands and knees in her crib the other morning trying to push the button on her Ocean Wonders Aquarium! She's eating really well. Her least favorite food would definitely be peas..and favorite would be any orange veggie, but she really likes fruits too (especially banana). I think she is really starting to like the finger food sized things too. She loves baths and story time! She is just an all around happy baby.........as long as Mommy's around! We love our Avs.

Easter Weekend

We had a fabulous Easter weekend back in Indiana! It was great to spend time with family (I think we saw just about everyone this time!) We started the day off with an Easter egg hunt that my Dad's work put together. Allie found the GOLDEN EGG!!! It had a $20 gift card to Meijer in it (thanks for helping her "find" it Dad!)

89 cent bowling was a lot of fun. Allie looked so cute in her little bowling shoes.

Sunday was filled with family, food and fun.
I was proud of my little bird's nests (and thought they tasted pretty good too!)

The Easter egg hunt was a success and the silly string was a lot of fun for the kids. We already miss everyone and can't wait until our next visit.

The Babies!

Growing Up

After reading a comment on my last post from my sister-in-law, Tami, I've started to realize how much my little girls are really growing up. Allie, in fact, is looking less like a toddler and more like a little girl. I never really noticed it until I read the comment.....but I am with her every day so things start to blend together (if that makes sense). She must still look enough like a toddler to get flight attendants to think we're crazy for buying a ticket for a child under two though! {on our trip to Idaho the flight attendant was going to give Allie's seat away and we were like, uh no, we paid for that seat......why? b/c you made us, she's 2........if you want to give us our money back we would gladly put her on our laps!} And she must still look young enough for people to think that her and Avery are a lot closer in age than they really are.

Not only is she looking more like a little girl, but she's acting more like one too. Her FAVORITE thing to do now is to play school. Every time Avery goes down for a nap she'll ask, "Wanna play school?" in a very excited voice. We're going over the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. I try to get her to write them but she's not quite there yet. I've been trying to teach her some sign language (just one or two things a week) and she is soooooo good at remembering them! She knows: I love you, music, hat, cup, more, all done, cat, help me, and rainbow. She also loves to do crafts. Here are some of her latest projects (with Mom's help, of course):


Now on to Avery........I can't believe she is going to be a year old this summer! These past 8 months have gone by way to fast. She seems to be progressing at about the same pace that Allie did when she was a baby. Looking back at things, I think I'm babying Avery way too much! She should be ahead of pace since she has an older sister to watch...at least that's what I think. I do spoil her rotten though by running to her every little cry and holding her way too much.

She can get around now mostly by scooting backwards along the floor or by rotating in circles and eventually moving forward/backward a little bit. She says da da although I'm not sure she really knows what it means. She'll say ma.....again don't know if she knows that's me. I'd like to think so though! The other day I tried to get Avery to roll a ball back and forth to me......and she did!! She was doing it a lot and then Derek got the camera and she was more interested in the silver shiny camera than the ball then......but did manage to roll it a few times ;)

Magic Castle

Mony and Papa came to visit for an extended weekend and we had lots of fun! Monday was especially fun @ Rollandia - The Magic Castle. There is a ton to do there (putt putt, water wars, arcade - Chuckie Cheese style, regular golf.....and soft play - basically a giant indoor playground like you would find at McDonalds). The soft play is really cheap and even half the price M-F (expect this week b/c it was spring break for some of the schools). Allie went right in at first, but I think she must have been a little overwhelmed b/c she came out and wouldn't go back in unless I went with her. It probably would have been impossible for her to get to the very top if I wouldn't have went with her anyway.
The arcade was lots of fun too. Allie even got 50 tickets on one game!

Other highlights were bowling and the Golden Jersey Inn.


Today, we went to an activity at church. Allie got to hunt for Easter Eggs.....she's quite the observer. She only ended up with 4 eggs because she was too busy watching everyone else find them. A couple of the kids shared with her after it was all over. She's already finished off all of her candy!
Avery made a mess today while she was eating!!

Okay......this was all really RANDOM.