Father's Day 2011

I found these pictures on my parents computer and thought they were so good. Perfect place to post them.....in a Father's Day post!

to my Pops (& Derek's dad.......I just don't have a picture with me here in Indiana)

My husband, who is an awesome father to our children (sorry we aren't there with you for YOUR day)

& my Grandpa

Looks like it was a good day for Dad! :)

The girls with their Garden stone that they made for Papa

and they made one for Daddy

Back in Indiana

We've enjoyed our first week here. The first couple of days were hot, but the rest has been really nice. (although it is starting to get warm again)
Enjoy these pics!

Helping Mony water flowers

I {HEART} this!

Getting ready for church

Bubble time

Smashing ants with GG!

Growth Spurt

I think Allie is going through a growth spurt!! For the past week or so she has been eating  A LOT, especially at dinner where she'll devour her food and even ask for seconds. This is so not like her. She's been sleeping in lately too. This morning though she slept until 10:45! Holy cow!! I wonder how many inches she will grow this summer???

More Ohio

A stop at the playground down the road from our old house after an AMAZING dinner at City Barbeque. We wanted to go to the cool wooden playground on base but it is all roped off for demolition!

Abby & Kaiya met up with us and brought some homemade strawberry ice cream!

Slip n slide at Abby & Kaiya's house. Avery finally mustered up the courage to go down.

Abby!

Dinner on our last night - the Cow's Trough at Young's Jersey. Derek and I devoured this thing and we're paying for it. We both felt awful afterwards. It was delish though!

27 Weeks

I just realized I have no pictures of my big pregnant belly on here! So much for documenting the growth! Oh well, I hate having my picture taken anyway - quite different from back in the day!

Here I am at 27 weeks.

Yep, I'm pretty much huge and look like I could be headed to the hospital any day now, but I still have a couple months left. Allie just got done hugging her little brother! :)

Now for more hotel pictures

Avery had the hardest time getting this refridgerator door opened. When she did she was pretty proud of herself!

Random car in the parking lot. LOVE TInkerbell!

Another sleeping picture. I just can't get enough of these! It shows how much they really love each other.....and they have their own beds so this sleeping in the same bed thing is new to all of us!

This shows how tired Allie is/was. Contstantly on the go, late nights, early mornings, all day in the sun.......takes a toll on all of us.

Wegerzyn Gardens

Oh, how we loved this place when we lived in Ohio!! So much for the kids to do......and a great way to cool down on a hot and humid day. It was great to visit it again and think about the last time we were here. (summer of '09)

A new little feature - a wigwam maze - the girls had fun running through it trying to hide from us

As soon as Allie saw this she immediately remembered it

These are a few of my favorite things

We're back in one of our favorite places........Dayton, Ohio area!! While Avery is napping (and I'm trying to cool off) I figured I'd update the blog. We got here Sunday afternoon and had an awesome dinner at TAKK's (their signature fajitas). The girls have had a lot of fun just hanging out with their cousins. They were so looking forward to it too.

They are also really enjoying being in a hotel. I guess it's been a while since we've been in one. I remember that excitement as a kid. As you can imagine, it's hard to get them to fall asleep with all of that excitement. But we figured out if we put Avery in a pack n play in the bathroom until she falls asleep, which only takes about 5-10 minutes), then we can get her back in the more comfortable bed for much needed sleep.

Yesterday we got up and going early.....for me anyway. We went hiking with TAKK at The Narrows, which is actually a place I remember driving by several times but never visited. It was a nice hike along the river.

Mid hike - Who wants water?!?

Time to cool off in the water

Allie was lifting up her skirt to keep it from getting wet. I guess Avery thought she needed to lift up her shirt to keep it from getting wet too!

Admiring Uncle Kevin's pet minnow

Last night was Abby's birthday party. Can't believe she's SIX!! It was a water theme and a good thing too because it was 'stinkin' hot'. ;)

And this morning (or maybe last night) the exhaustion from the non stop festivities for the past week must have got to me. I think I could have slept most of the day today!! Avery got up at her usualy time of 6:30 or 7:30 here. Luckily, I think she was still tired enough to sit in bed with me and watch cartoons until we had to wake up Allie right before 9am so we could grab some breakfast. Unfortuntately I had an awful headache so I took some Tylenol and tried to get some rest. After that we met TAKK at Orchardly Park. It's a cute little park with a splash pad, sand area, and a few different playgrounds. We had been here 1 or 2 times right before me moved. Today it was packed! I think because it was the last day of school and there was a school party going on. The girls still had a lot of fun! Avery is now wiped out and I am enjoying the ac until she wakes up!!

The Things They Say

gotta get this written down before I forget. I know I've already forgotten a few of the things Allie has said in this last week.

The other day we were having lunch at Wendy's and Allie had a hamburger. She was almost finished with it (probably 3 bites to go) and she said, "What's this yellow stuff?" Derek told her it was mustard. "But I don't like mustard." Then she started whining and saying she didn't like it and wasn't going to eat it. We told her she didn't even notice until she saw it and she had already eaten most of it and seemed to like it so far. "But I didn't know there was mustard on it then and now I know and I don't like mustard so it doesn't taste good." We laughed and she actually laughed too! This is a huge step because whenever anyone laughs at something she says she immediately starts crying. We've tried explaining to her that we're not making fun of her and we're laughing because it's cute. And that it's good to laugh. Maybe we're finally getting through to her.

Another thing she's been saying every night as they get in bed, "I'm SO STINKIN' hot!!!" I'm guessing I've probably said that a lot lately and she's picked it up. It's pretty funny when she says it though.

Also Avery is quickly picking up the art of manipulation .....but it doesn't work very well with us. Every single night she gets out of bed with new excuses to try and stay up. Either her tummy hurts, she has a headache, she's hot, she has to go potty and the list goes on. Unfortunately telling her we'll take her to the Dr. doesn't magically make her feel better anymore.

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school! Allie has been talking about it for a couple weeks now. She is so sad for it to be over! I told Derek we should be glad that she feels that way because it probably won't be too long until she is excited for school to be out. But, no, this girl is ready to start Kindergarten tomorrow! Luckily we have a busy summer planned to keep her from thinking about it too much.

She had her class party this afternoon. Unfortunately, they split everyone up into 4 groups so we didn't get to hang out with the whole class. At least Allie was in a group with her good friends Lorelei and Kayla Li.

Popsicles - great idea for the heat, although they were melting FAST! Three of the 4 activities were outside which i wasn't prepared for. So hot! Here they were given bubbles and chalk to play with. Avery should know quite a few kids when she starts PreK next fall. Next to her is Lorelei's sister, Mia, who will be in her class.

Lining up for the water activity. I love that they let the little sisters participate in everything!

These two were almost always together like this or else holding hands.

Decorating cookies

Allie's cookie! And Avery eating the yummy fruit that Mommy brought. :)

Allie & her teacher, Ms. Bellah

Trying to get a picture of Allie & Mrs. Flores -- but school was already out at this point and we were blocking the doors. Ms. Bellah and Mrs. Flores were her favorite teachers and we always heard about Mrs. Flores. I think they had a special little bond. I know they always signed the I love you sign to each other. And Mrs. Flores was on the verge of tears as were were leaving. :( Avery even gave in and finally gave her a hug, which she was thrilled about.



Memorial Day Weekend

We had yet another very busy Memorial Day weekend. Full of birthday parties, celebrating our 7th anniversary, shopping, and Derek even took the girls to the pool for an hour or so. And what holiday wouldn't be complete (for us anyway) without a trip to the Dr? Yesterday we decided, after talking to a nurse friend, that I needed to be seen right away. After calling our insurance to get a referral to go to an Urgent Care we finally got the call back from a nurse to get an assessment to see if it was necessary. I explained what was going on and she said I absolutely needed to be seen right away - within the next 4 hours. Everyone had me so worried. Turns out it was Cellulitus. It's some sort of a bacteria and if I would have waited too long it could have got in my blood stream and become fatal!! Thankfully I caught it early enough and didnt' have to have anything cut open and drained. I was just prescribed some antibiotics and it seems to already be working!

Pictures From The Birthday Party