The Latest

We've been on the go so much lately I don't even remember half of the things we've been up to. I mentioned that my parents were here last week and that was sooooo great having them here. I'm really going to miss those visits (and us going to their house) when we move next year. We've been so blessed to have been stationed near family both times so far! But anyway....my brother, Bryan and his girlfriend, Kim came for the weekend last week too! We love having them visit (wish we saw them more often...hint, hint). Our plan was to spend Saturday on the lake but it rained ALL day! They got their pics taken by my friend that night. She was so great to just be open to take them whenever the rain stopped! We also got Allie's 3 year pictures taken. They ALL turned out AWESOME! You can check them out on Nicole's photography blog.

Oh, I almost forgot......another perk with being close to my Mom and Dad...they love to spend time with their granddaughters and I'm pretty sure they would rather have that one on one time with them so Derek and I almost always take advantage somehow and leave the girls with them and go out and do something ourselves. Well, this time we took our jet ski's out. We don't get them out very often, first time this summer in fact. It was a lot of fun. We've decided we're going to sell them though.....just because they are so impractical with little ones and we still have the boat. So, if anyone knows of someone that might be interested let me know!!

Sunday was our niece Kaiya's 1st birthday so we spent the afternoon over at their place celebrating the special occasion! Again, so great to be CLOSE to family!
Tuesday, we had a "girls day" shopping without the kids at the Gap Clearance Center (twice in one week for me!) Can't get enough of 25 cent swimsuits and $1 pj's though. Derek was a brave soul and watched all 5 girls while we were out!!

Last night we went camping with friends. We set up tents and stuff and then headed out to the lake about an hour or so before sunset. Just enough time to get some wakeboarding and tubing in. Then headed back to camp and ate a late dinner and s'mores. This was Av's first time camping and she was great. Allie acquired a battle wound while running around in the dark. It looks really nasty! Every time we camp at this place, Caesar's Creek, there are always tons of raccoons around. They were fearless little buggers last night! The girls and I were all getting a little scared and the boys were having a blast going after them. It was a good trip, although camping is always so exhausting and a lot of work for one night. I would love doing a 2 or 3 night camping trip sometime!! Anyway, that's the latest..........

Avery ~ 11 Months

I'm always usually about a week behind when it comes time to posting Avery's monthly status....at least I evenutally get to it though I guess. I can't believe she's going to be ONE next month!! Crazy, huh?!
Her latest things:

• waving hi and bye (it even sounds like she's saying "hi" and "buh" while she's doing it)
• standing up anywhere without holding on to anything
• she'll stand in place for long periods of time with her cheesy little grin and then get excited and fall
• she took one step on her own .... she's soooo close to walking now!
• she'll walk with just holding on to one of my fingers really well
• she really likes to clap now
• when she hears music she'll start to dance and shake her head
• she eats ALOT, I don't know if she knows when she's full because she seriously keeps shoveling everything in!
• she is finally sleeping a straight 10-11 hours through the night (sometimes even 12 if she is up later than usual)
• naps are still great..she gets two 2 hour naps a day
• she goes down for bed and naps with no fuss whatsoever!
• she broke out in her first rash from poison ivy a week ago :(

I'm sure I'm fogeting a lot, but it's been a big month. She even just had her first camping experience last night! She was GREAT!

this is the only pic I've been able to get of her while she's standing (at cousin Kaiya's b-day party)

Coco Key, shopping and Children's Museum

Well, to start off I don't have many pictures because my new camera quit working while we were at the zoo. I was hoping it was just batteries, but I put new batteries in and still nothing. Then while we were at Coco Key our older camera quit working!! Derek ended up getting the new camera working....thankfully....but after our little trip.

So, we changed our minds I don't know how many times on what we were going to do on Wednesday and Thursday. We finally headed out the door for Cincinnati around 10:30 Wednesday...way later than we had originally planned on. Because of that we decided to go straight to Hebron, Kentucky to the Gap Clearance Distribution Center. We spent a few hours there and I definitely over did it BUT got great deals on tons of clothes. I got 3 pair of jeans, 4 shirts, and 3 tank tops for myself plus 2 capris, a dress, and 4 shirts for Allie AND pjs for Avery and a couple dresses for a friend.....all UNDER $100.

After we were done shopping we headed to the Sheraton hotel where we stayed the night. There was a waterpark in the hotel...Coco Key which is why we stayed there. We really thought Allie would love it since she's becoming quite the water bug, but boy were we WRONG! From the minute we stepped in she was crying and saying she was sick and wanted to go back to the room and take a nap. I made her go in the shallow pool to wade around and then took her under the mushroom waterfall (which she liked once we got to the other side). Then I forced her to go down some of the smaller waterslides with me. She sreamed her head off everytime we walked up there but once we were going down the slide she would laugh. I will say, she could have been scared about going up to the slide because the first time we went up there a HUGE bucket of water dumped right on our heads and some kid started spraying us with a water gun! She has never liked water dumped over her head! Anyway, the waterpark itself wasn't all that impressive but it had been a LONG while since I've been to one so I still had a good time even though the girls didn't really enjoy it. Oh.....Allie's favorite part was swimming in the deeper part with her life jacket on while my Dad and I played basketball.

The next day we could have went back to the waterpark, but Allie didn't want to so we headed to the Children's Museum in Cincinnati. It was pretty neat...way better than Boonshoft here in Dayton. Luckily we had my Mom's camera to get some pics!!

Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

So this week is going to be filled with lots of fun and exciting things because my Mom and Dad are here for the ENTIRE week! I know I'll be taking tons of pictures so I better update each night or I'll have one HUGE post! Today we went to the Columbus Zoo.....a couple days late for getting in with the free military deal, but we still got in 50% off with my Boonshoft membership card. I didn't really know what to expect because we were so spoiled with the St Louis Zoo (being free and fairly large) but this zoo really is pretty nice. It is big, there are a lot of animals and other fun things for the kids to do as well....like rides a huge playground, shows, and petting areas in almost every little area. We didn't even get to a couple sections of the animals and to the "ride" part of the park and we spent practically all day there. You'll see that our favorite part was the monkeys!!
When you visit the kangaroos they are all out in the open and could come right up to you if they really wanted!! baby Beco is only a few months old
Allie & Baby BECO
orangutan
gorilla

boat ride
carousel
The day wouldn't be complete without Dip n Dots!
LONG DAY!

More fun on the lake

Mom & Dad, Laurie and Kevin watching the little ones
Sol, Allie and Abby ready to tube!
Tami and Nicole
Rough Riding Joe
Lisa and Preston
Joe and Tami braving the front of the boat
First time riding double....and it was fun!
Abe, Adeline and Derek......where are you???

4th of July

We headed to Indiana for our 7th annual Brooks RiverFest at Camp Pierson. We brought along our friends, the Barkers. We decided to go ahead and camp 2 nights. The weather forecast wasn't looking too promising for us but the first night was great. We woke up the morning of the 4th with the sun shining and things were looking to be in our favor. Well, soon and I mean very soon after that the clouds started covering up the sun and the next thing you know it starts raining. It was a light rain and so we were pretty protected from it sitting under the trees. Slowly family started arriving and eventually the rain started coming down harder. We had planned on a float down the river around 10 and that obviously didn't happen. As the day progressed a few of us were really itching for that float trip and so WE DID IT!! Yes, it was raining (probably the hardest of the day) but so what it was an experience we'll never forget (or probably ever do again!) We did have fun despite the fact that we were freezing. Allie actually fell asleep on the float trip! I have no idea how. She had to have been exhausted. Despite all of the rain we still enjoyed hanging out with family and the Barkers. The fireworks were awesome as usual and camping was lots of fun. We're glad that Kevin and Tami could join us for that last night! Looking forward to more of that this summer! Because of the rain we didn't do our usual cornhole tournament (we didn't want to risk ruining the bags) so instead we played ladder golf...lasso golf or whatever you want to call it. My Mom and Craig won.......as usual. Congrats you two! Below are random pics from the two days.

Random Pics

These are just some pics that I came across that I liked and never posted before.

Beach - Tattoo

We had a really busy Friday........it was sooooo much fun!! We spent a good portion of the day at the lake, taking turns on the boat and watching the kids. I had the most fun I've ever had tubing! The weather was perfect, the water was just right, everything was great. The girls had a blast. This was Avery's first time to the beach and she loved the sand. It was so cute watching her bear crawl through it. She wasn't a big fan of the water at first but she warmed up to it really quick. Allie loved the water! She headed straight for it when we got there and didn't want to get out.....she also didn't want any help. What a difference a year makes!!
Speaking of that, I can't believe how quickly this past year went by. I remember last year's military Tattoo just like it was yesterday and this year's is already here! We headed there after our day at the beach. Everyone was really tired, but it was still nice and relaxing. Enjoy our pics from the weekend. There are a few in there from yesterday when we took the girls over to Kevin and Tami's for some slip n slide fun.

Catching up

A lot of things have happened in the past couple of weeks and I've been behind on blogging. We enjoyed the few weeks that Derek had off of school....spent a lot of good fun family time together. Derek's brother and his family moved to Ohio (just a few minutes down the road actually)and so we've been trying to help them get settled. Derek did a much better job at that than I did, it's hard with kids and preparing for a party and family to come in town, but I'm glad that he was able to do all that he did. It will be a lot of fun hanging out with them. It should be an enjoyable and memorable year! I have started taking Allie to some outdoor adventure toddler class things. This one we went to last week was all about how animals protect themselves from danger. There were sooooo many kids there that it wasn't really all that great of a learning environment. We did play a game of hide and seek in the woods with everyone near the end of the "class" and Allie and I were the last ones to be found!! We're going to try another one tomorrow on silent fliers(owls). We'll see if it will be worth it to go to anymore. Lets see.......the girls have been kind of sick. I think they are finally just about over it. I started getting a scratchy throat the night before Allie's birthday party and haven't been feeling that great ever since. I'm actually really hoarse today.

So we had Allie's party......you can read more about that below......and Avery is now 10 months, which you can read more about her milestones below too! We really enjoyed having family over the past few days. It was a lot of fun and great to spend some time with them. It was also nice to be able to see both Dads for Father's Day.....just wish I wouldn't have been feeling so sick so I could have made the most of that time.

Oh and Derek and I are getting really addicted to LOST!! Our friends talked about it all the time so I went and borrowed the first season. Derek started watching it half way through and then kept watching it with me.....now he's on Season 3..I'm still at the beginning of Season 2. It's great!

On another note......this is my 100th post!!!

Princess Allie is 3

I can't believe our little girl is already 3! She is growing up right before our eyes. Allie loves all things princess so we thought it would be fitting to have a princess themed birthday party for her. She talked about it for weeks and weeks up until her party....and actually still talks about it. I thought she might enjoy a princess castle cake, but figured if I tried to buy one at the store it would be really expensive......so I made it myself. It definitely didn't turn out like I had pictured or hoped, but then again I am no cake decorator so it worked. All that really mattered was that Allie liked it (and I put a lot of love into it). Allie had a great day, she was soooo happy. She loves all of her gifts. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family that made the trek all the way to Ohio to help celebrate with Allie on her special day! We can't thank them enough for their sacrifice, support, and love!