Family Pictures

Babies!!!!

This past weekend the girls and I went to Lafayette to see the two newest additions to the family. It was great fun and the babies are all sooooo cute!!

Avery Elizabeth

Conner Brooks
Jenna Paige
Jenna, Conner, Avery
Conner - 1 week; Jenna - 1 month; Avery - 3 months
GG w/ 3 newest great grandkids
cousins
Morgan, Mason, Allie, Trenton
Allie and the Boys
The Grandma Bracelet

There is a story behind this video. My Aunt Sandy got Avery's sock stuck on her bracelet and couldn't get it off. So she came up with a new bracelet, called the Grandma Bracelet, where you always have a baby bootie attached to you when in need!! As we were shooting the commercial for it.......the bootie came off!

This trip was so unexpected and that seems to always make things that much more fun. Uncle Bryan and Aunt Kim were even in town and Allie spent most of the day with Bryan on Saturday....just the two of them (and Bella & Gage). I think Allie really enjoyed her time with Buddy and even taught him how to change a diaper! GG spent most of the day with Avery. Avery was in such a good mood that day too! Papa worked and then Mony, Kim and I scrapbooked from 8am until 8pm! I know, I'm crazy......I was ready to leave as soon as I got there, but toughed it out and stayed the whole time since I haven't had time to do any of it since having Allie. I'm still nowhere close to being done, but I'm just going to do their birth to 1 year books and then go month by month from there. The weekend was just so much fun and I can't wait to see everyone again in about a week!!

Avery ~ 3 Months

Avery is already 3 months old!!! She is such a happy little girl. She loves to coo and has a smile that makes your heart melt. She holds her head up really well and I find her trying to lift it up to see what's going on all the time while she's laying down. I've caught her watching tv a few times....guess it's time to break out the Baby Einstein dvds! She still has the tiniest little feet and hands, just like Allie did......but tons of cute rolls on her thighs and wrists. She loves baths, sleeping on her tummy, watching her big sister, rattles and she's even starting to enjoy her tummy time a little bit more (looks at things like her fist or the fish on her mat). I have a video of her in her boucner that won't load so I'll try it again later.......along with a couple pics of her rolls!

Hodge Podge

Just a little bit about what is going on with us in the past couple of weeks - I chose hodge podge for the title because it's been in the subject line of our family emails for the week and that's all I could think of!!

• The girls and I are all feeling better, but still have a little cough


• Avery went to the Dr yesterday to be seen for her cold in her eye and to get nasal drops


• Allie goes to the Dr next Thursday to check on her ears (she says they don't hurt anymore), but she has been complaining of her belly hurting


• Derek bought a boat....it's really nice....thankfully our Christmas shopping is pretty much done.......it's big and so we're going to be ghetto and keep it in our driveway (he's picking it up tonight)


• Allie has been doing a pretty good job of going potty like a big girl (she had a bad couple of days this week, but is back on track today)


• Avery LOVES to play with the giraffes on her bouncy seat and gets soooo excited


• My cousin, Christen, had her baby girl on October 15th......JENNA PAIGE


• My cousin, Ashley, had her baby boy yesterday, November 6th.......CONNER BROOKS

That's all I can think of for now! Here's some pics, Enjoy.

TRICK -OR- TREAT

Thursday night was Beggar's Night (trick or treating) here in Xenia. We were so thankful to have such a beautiful night for it! Allie seemed a little more excited to go out this year.......she knew she would be getting some candy! There were several houses in the neighborhood that were really decorated and Derek said she got really scared at one house, saying "That scary." I stayed at home with Avery to pass out candy but no one was coming to our door. So I got the stroller out and we went looking for Derek and Allie but we never found them. I figured out why no one was coming to our house though....we're the 2nd house into the neighborhood and so all of the kids were coming from the other direction and then they would stop at the house next to ours and hit the culdesac and then turn around to go on the other side of the street. Besides that, everyone that was passing out candy was sitting outside.




Friday my Mom and Grandma came to visit for the weekend. It was also my Mom's birthday so we took her out to eat. Allie, Avery and I have all been sick for the past week so I hope they don't get what we have! We actually took Allie to the ER on Saturday night because she was coughing so bad and complaining that her ears were hurting. She has a double ear infection. Poor girl! I probably should have just been seen while I was there, but felt bad about it since I didn't think it was an emergency. I didn't have a voice yesterday and I barely have one today. Avery is just really congested. We went in the bathroom this morning with the hot water running and after about 5 minutes she sneezed out some of the junk. Hopefully we will all get over this soon. So far it's been 10 days!!!

DREAMING

Allie woke up from her nap this afternoon and I asked her if she had a good dream? She said, "Yes." (I've noticed she's been saying yes instead of yeah....if she does say yeah she will correct herself with yes.) I asked her what she dreamed about.....she said, "Bubbles and Mony & Papa. I asked her what she was doing with Mony and Papa. "At the store." So then I said what were you doing at the store.....she didn't answer me, she just continued to tell me what she was dreaming about......"Avery's blessing & Kaiya's blessing." Wow, Allie....what a good dream!! It's so cool to be able to have a little conversation with her now!

GAME NIGHT

Woo Hoo! We finally have a Game Night up and running again. Derek and I were soooooo craving it (and adult interaction). We really wanted to start one up while we were at Scott, but we didn't really know too many people that liked to play games. Luckily, we started hanging out with Ben and Clara towards the end of our stay there. It was fun hanging out at their house, having dinner and watching UFC.

Game night came about while we were in college. We would hang out at the Allen's until about 1:00 in the morning once a week just playing games (usually the boys playing video games and us girls just chatting or playing a board/card game). It was soooooo much fun! Miss you guys! :) After the Allen's moved away to Wisconsin we still continued game nights with the Hauperts and Asays. We would usually go to Buffalo Wild Wings every Tuesday for wing night and then head over to someone's house for a friendly game of poker. Every once in a while we'd order a pizza, but no matter what we always had a great time!

Times sure have changed, we definitely don't stay out as late as we used to now that we have kids. But, none the less, we are LOVING having Game Night once again! The Barkers and Hinsons are becoming GREAT friends and we enjoy hanging out with them every Monday night. We're rotating houses each week and so far we've played Settlers of Catan (really fun), ping pong, Dr Mario, and watched re-runs of SNL and The Office. The host is also fixing dinner (another change of the times) and so that's a lot of fun. Although, everyone that knows me really well knows that I can't cook and so I'm always afraid of the dinner part of the evening when it's our turn!

Anyway, this is a tribute to GAME NIGHT......oh how we missed you and are glad you have returned. We have such great friends.....old and new!!!!!

B Dubs Game Night Gang

The Sesame Street Experience

Tonight we went to see Sesame Street at the base theater. It was kind of like a mini Sesame Street Live.......but for the military. We were really excited to take Allie since she loves Elmo so much. We got there 45 minutes before the doors were to open and we were the first ones there. Since it was so cold out we decided to go shopping........Allie went potty 10 times and so that meant she could pick out a toy. After we got her toy we went back out and Derek got in line while the rest of us stayed in the car........well, I had the tickets with me so we lost our spot! We still got front seats, but off to the side instead of the middle. This turned out to be a good spot because it was that side that the characters kept coming down on!! Allie was scared at first and she was crying, but she eventually got excited and was dancing around. Zoe even came down and shook her hand!!!

Bug! and Talking on the Phone

Here are a few fun videos. They are kind of long. The first one is of a fly trying to eat Allie's crackers.....and she's not too happy about it, but she is still very polite and even manages to ask him how he's doing! The next two are of Allie talking on the phone. I have no idea where she gets her pacing and talking with her hands from!! If you look closely you'll see Derek getting the fly that you saw in the first video! Oh, and I missed videoing the best part of Allie on the phone. She kept saying, "Right, Mony?" I think to make sure she was listening! Excuse the messy house :)

One Last Time

We're selling our boat!!! Or, I guess I should say we've sold the boat....it's not out of the garage yet but it will be by November 10th. Derek says it's so we can save up and get a bigger one. I was just excited about the possibility of parking the van in the garage for the winter! Of course, Derek is really excited to start boat hunting again and has already found several possibilities which could ruin my chance of parking in the garage :(
Anyway, so we had to take it out for one last time especially since I haven't had the opportunity to ride it much with being pregnant for most of the time that we've owned it. We took it out when my family was here so they could watch the girls. It was supposed to be for just a couple of hours, but ended up being longer because the jet ski broke down and Kim was stranded! We finally found her and it took FOREVER to get the thing towed in. Despite all of that, it was still fun to ride it one more time and take a shot at wakeboarding again. It was a good boat and it will be missed!!!!