Staycation

So I guess you could call this past week a "staycation" for us. For those of you that have lived in Ohio you know that fall here is absolutely beautiful. The weather, trees, smell, football, etc. Unfortunately for us, this entire week was rainy! Last week was perfect, this next week is supposed to be fantastic, so of course the week Bryan gets off is rainy and damp. But believe you me, we didn't let that stop us. It really was so nice to just have Bryan home and be relaxed (even though I'm pretty sure Bryan doesn't know how to relax).

We did a few walks around our house. These girls are getting so stinkin' big.




I thought this picture was kind of cool. She was jumping off the rock and I caught her in mid jump. It kind of looks like she can do this awesome balancing trick on the tips of her toes.
We went and picked raspberries. I have never done this before. Audrey wandered through the raspberry paths and we lost her a couple of times. When I finally found her she had scratches all over her face. I suppose it was the perfect level for the prickly branches to get her. Nice that we had family pictures the next day. You can photo shop that out can't you Kara?
Julia was an expert picker. She filled her basket about a third full and ate the entire thing before we got home. They were so yummy. I can't get enough of them.

Since we were picking fruit we decided to keep our annual tradition and go apple picking. We first headed to the farmer's market and got squash, peppers and fresh peaches (amazing). Bryan also grabbed some hot pepper jelly. I though he was insane until I tasted it. It was fantastic! Who would have thought?
Audrey found a half eaten apple to start digging into, gross. We soon replaced it with an un-bitten one.
The trees were just filled with apples. Bryan mentioned that he could never be a farmer because the work is never done. That uneaten fruit in the trees would drive him crazy.


You just can't have too many pictures of your kids eating apples.

Okay for the past three years we have come to this same farm for apple picking. I have taken the same picture of Julia each year. This first one is Audrey's first "car seat" picture.

This is Julia's car seat apple picture this year and just for comparison's sake...

This was fall of '08...and fall of '07. Do you think she's changed much?
Now my laziness has come to an end and I must get back into the swing of things before my sister's wedding next week.

What a Difference a Week Makes

So last weekend was blah. Bryan was gone to work the entire weekend and I suppose I was feeling a little lonely. I am not a weepy person by any means, but I was actually weepy. Bryan woke up from his post call snooze to a weepy wife who's only response was "I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm just sad I guess." For any of you that know me, this is not me. I am not only writing about this so that all of you out there can feel super sorry for me and my weepy self but because as I look at this weekend in comparison to last weekend it is like night and day. This weekend we are starting vacation week number one of 2nd year residency. It is like I am a new woman. It is like I am walking on air. An entire nine days of Bryan being home. Tonight it was time to brush the girls' teeth and I told Bryan to go and do it to which his response was, "I'm on vacation." To which I responded, "So am I. Go brush their teeth." Yeah I'm a good wife like that, and if he ever denies me I just threaten to go all weepy again. That does the trick.

Well back to last weepy weekend...I did try to brighten the mood by taking the girls to the bunny fountains in not super summery weather. Julia would play in the water for a second and then sit on this big rock because it kept her warm. They definitely are cute little stinkers (right now I can hear Julia saying in my head, "Mom, we don't say STINKY!")

Isn't she beautiful? I just love this picture. Maybe it's because she's actually looking at the camera.
Audrey was much braver in the water this time. Maybe because she was too cold to know any better.
Well now we move on to this glorious weekend full of sunshine and flowers.
Our good friends the Gaileys, who grace this blog occasionally, came to stay with us and go to the temple and then we returned the favor and headed down there to hang out. I think it is one of the first times Dave and Bryan both had some time off. Cincinnati is really a beautiful place with so many trees and scenic spots to hike. A hike is not a hike without sticks.
I just love that Kristi. Not too many better than her and her sweet family. Even with Dave making inappropriate jokes. When they lived in our ward people would frequently get Kristi and me mixed up. I think it must be the hair. When Kristi gave a talk in church I had at least two people tell me "great talk."
Audrey was my uncooperative photo subject.
We made it down to the River Walk and had lunch. It was the most beautiful day. Thank you so much Gaileys again for the best time. So lucky to have such wonderful friends.
Now we head into a glorious week full of movie renting, apple/raspberry picking, going out to eat and whatever else this vacation week takes us. If you have any great ideas of things we could do this week send them our way!

Visitors

We were so lucky to have Bryan's mom, sister and brother come out to see us. Even luckier was that they came when Bryan had a long weekend, which is a rare luxury indeed. We did so many fun things. We went to a pig roast (yummy), Galaxy Game and Golf, the mall and the zoo. Julia and Audrey were in heaven being spoiled by Grandma, Aunt Amanda and Fat Phil and loved playing with little Alli. It was a great visit and we can't wait until they come again.

I am a little frustrated with myself because apparently the entire time they were here I only took pictures of our visit to the pool. I hope Amanda and Phil have more pictures that they will share with me. Until then...

Here we are undertaking the impossible task of catching three little girls looking at the camera at the same time. As you can see we were unsuccessful but they are still as cute as can be. Alli was so fun to hang out with.Cute Alli. She is so full of spunk and personality. My girls absolutely loved playing with her. She also looks like she has enormous hulk muscles in her awesome floaty swimsuit. She will crush you.
So sad to have the last pool day of the summer. It just seemed to fly by.
Thanks again grandma and co. for the wonderful visit! Today Julia drew a picture of "my grandma and Uncle Fat Phil." Obviously you are missed. She hasn't stopped talking about any of you.

Dancing Fairy Princess

I just got these pictures from Kara and couldn't love them more. Thank you Kara for capturing my sweet little girls so perfectly.

Pretty School

I have this distinct memory of when I was ready to start pre-school I thought it was called "pretty school." I seriously had this image in my head of this school covered in flowers and gardens and being surrounded by pretty things. Obviously that was not the case, but it is hard to believe that my little girl is now going to pre-school and looking and acting so big. She is in pre-school four mornings a week now and I can tell it is going to be something she enjoys very much.

We attended an open house the night before she started school and got to see her classroom and meet her teacher Mrs. M. She found her name all around the room and found her little cubby.

The classroom is wonderful and her teacher is fantastic. We feel so fortunate to be able to have her in such a wonderful program and we can already tell she is going to learn so much.
We went school clothes shopping before school started because honestly is there anything better than new school clothes? Okay, maybe it was more for me than her, but this was the only outfit that she insisted on having. Whether it was the pink or the bedazzled rhinestones, she saw this shirt and it was love at first sight. She calls the shirt her "rock shirt." I think she means rock star? Either way I may be in trouble. She also requested that I straighten her hair. She was definitely working it.

Don't you love my tiny little Audrey trying to be just like her sister?
Look at how long that hair is!Here we are with the back pack all ready to roll. It is pretty early when we have to leave but I have found that I really enjoy it. It is so nice to be up and out and get so much accomplished in the morning.
Here she is in the hallway of her school where I dropped her off. Julia loves new experiences and approaches new experience with so much enthusiasm. She didn't even look back or hesitate but walked right in her classroom ready to get started. We are so proud of you Julia and are excited to see how much you learn and grow this year.Just because Julia refuses to talk on the phone to anyone I thought I would save her grandparents the trouble and do a little video interview of how her day went. She was eating lunch so don't mind that her appetite got the best of her in the middle of the video.

Irrefutable Evidence

Dear Julia,
When you give your sister a little friendly push/shove you should try a little bit harder to hide your evidence.
Caught "wet" handed. Granted, I know you were trying to keep your pajamaed little sister from climbing in the tub with you but next time maybe dry your hands before the said push/shove. Maybe it's the lawyer influence in the family, but I'm afraid this is a crime for which you would be easily convicted and found guilty.
Glad that even with this minor offense you are still friends.

200 Can It BE!!??

Crazy as it seems this is my 200th post. I started/created this blog July 2007 right before Julia turned two. So it not only is my 200th post but just over two years since this blog worked it's way into my life. I remember well that fateful day when some unsuspecting ward member invited me to view their blog and I was introduced into this new world. It has consumed more of my time than I would ever like to admit but it is also so fun to go back and look at all that has happened in the past two years of our lives. So many family events are forever recorded and remembered from taking the binky away, starting residency, sleepless nights, triumphs and disappointments. I really wish that I had some type of big event or celebration to commemorate this momentous occasion, but as I checked my camera and thought of the happenings of this week I was disappointed.

So instead I'm going to give you an exciting list of things that annoyed me this week:

1. Taking Julia to the bathroom that is 1/4 mile away from the Bunny fountains only to have no success because she is afraid of "yucky toilets."

2. When people type lol. I don't know why this makes me want to pull my fingernails off but I just drives me crazy. Especially when paired with a comment like this: " I just went to the store and bought some cheese lol." There is absolutely nothing "lol" about that comment.

3. The fact that my one year old's favorite words of the moment are "mine," and "no." Why oh why must they learn those so quickly. She has gone from my sweet little angel to this little bully. You should see her little tiny self boss her big sister around. Then again you wonder who she learned these bad habits from.

4. The fact that I just mopped the floor and there is smeared oatmeal on it not ten seconds later.

5. I went out to go on a jog and the tire to the stroller was flat and then my ipod battery was dead.

6. That "shirt sticks to your back" humidity that you cannot escape, even with air conditioning.

7. Smokers at the pool. Really? There are little children around and you are just puffing your nasty smoke right in their face. Don't mind us though, just go ahead with your gross little habit.

Okay, okay that was a little negative. No offense to any out there that smoke at the pool or type "lol" at the end of every sentence. Here is a list of happy things that happened this week:

1. Julia can now dunk under the pool and swim all on her own. Her swimming is still pretty weak but the fact she will put her head under the water is a huge accomplishment. We are very proud of her.

2. Audrey and Julia are playing so well together. They just laugh and laugh and it makes my day (even though sometimes they are very loud). I hope that they always love eachother so much.

3. Bryan had a week without a single day of call. I can't even recall the last time this happened. He was actually home every single night for dinner.

4. We got to spend four hours at the pool on Saturday, it was wonderful.

5. I finished a huge project this week and am feeling rather accomplished about it.

6. Julia and Audrey share a room and when we told Julia that we were going to have Audrey sleep in our room tonight in the pack and play just to give her a break (we were kidding), you should have seen Julia's heartbroken face. She said, "Then I'll be all alone! Audrey keeps me safe."

7. Julia loves to sing and loves primary songs.



8. Bryan found this wig from an infamous Halloween costume and we put it on Audrey. I haven't seen anything as funny as her tiny little body running around with this enormous red wig bobbing up and down.


Well there's my 200th post (I know it was a lot of words and I know some that refuse to read a lot of words, I don't blame you). Now here's to 200 more...

Old McDonald Had A Fry?

Since family has left things have slowed down considerably. We have just been doing some dancing...dressing up...
and being silly.
Julia has always called McDonalds "Old McDonalds." When we were driving by the restaurant the other day Bryan asked her if they had cows in "Old McDonalds." Julia of course laughed at the idea. She then said, "They could sing "and on that farm they had a fry or a hamburger or something."

She makes us laugh.

Speaking of the farm, Audrey is getting her animal sounds down. I thought we would get some video footage.

Snotmallow

When you make banana boats at our house, marshmallows make it into interesting places. Let's just say there are few dull moments at our house.


And I think it's safe to say that Bryan has a bad influence on those around him.
Even the children were getting involved. We just had to make sure no one shoved a mallow up their nose.

Oh how lucky we are to have friends that don't judge us. Now don't you want eat yourself a boxful of peeps or a whole bag of marshmallows? (Few things in this world sound less appetizing than that to me).