Glory Days

Ahhh...here we are in our Glory Days. No kids, no husbands, no jobs, no toilets to clean and no mortgages. Only trying to stay awake during class, pretending to study and good times in between. Ok, so college isn't really THAT easy. But it seems that way now.



The top picture is our first John Mayer concert ever. Circa 2002.
Freshman in college and oh so proud of our newly acquired independence.
Exidenced by the fact that we are all wearing college sweatshirts! HA!!

 Back in the day, concerts were our thang. We saved our pennies (quarters were for laundry) to buy the tickets and counted down the days on the dry erase boards on our dorm room doors. We were totally awesome. Last weekend was my first concert since I've been pregnant with Abi. Almost four years. It's shameful really. But if you have children, you probably understand. Especially if you had two kids in two years like I did. It was only fitting that it was John Mayer with all my favorite ladies. We sat in the lawn at Klipsch. And let me just say....for the first time....I felt old. While we were waiting for John, we spent most of the time commenting on the fashion choices of the twenty-year olds around us. And that's how you know you're getting old. When the current fashions don't make sense to you anymore.

But anywho, we had a great time together as we always do. And John put on a good show as he always does. Although, I was slightly disappointed he didn't play more of his older stuff. (Another sign I'm old) I love my BSU girls! Chirp Chirp!!

Life Lessons from a 2 Year Old

God has given us a very wise two year old. It's probably not just her. I'm sure it's just the same innocence and wonder that every child is born with before life and growing up get in the way. But because she's mine, it seems special.

Pretty much every morning Abi has toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Sometimes, if she's not too grumpy when she first wakes up, she likes to stand in the kitchen and wait for her toast to pop up. Judging by her excitement and anticipation, you would think she was waiting for the space shuttle to launch. And when the toast finally does pop up, she jumps and squeels with joy. Over toast. And one morning earlier this week I stood and watched her in awe. I don't remember when I stopped finding the joy in little things like toast popping up. But now I find myself trying to do just that.

The weather this week has been beautiful (which I stopped to appreciate the beauty and joy in). We've been playing outside a lot and going for walks. Usually when we walk Abi wants to push any combination of babies and stuffed animals in her stroller while I pull Madi in the wagon with Jack on the leash. Sometimes I get so aggravated with her because she is constantly stopping in front of me or slowing down. Until she said, "Mommy, look! It's an ant's house!" (an ant hill) I hadn't even noticed we were walking over a collection of ant hills. "Yes, you're right, that's an ant hill. Let's keep walking," I said. Then she hits me with, "Mommy, did God makes those ants?" And I realized that we are walking by God's beautiful creations every day and not even noticing. Talk about shame. So we stopped and watched the ants go in and out of the ant hill for a long time. I won't say I still don't get frustrated when she is constantly stopping during what will most likely be my only exercise for the day. But I do try to be patient enough to let her be curious about the beautiful world God created for us. 

This morning we had a couple errands to run. So I just threw on a hat over my unwashed hair, looked in the mirror and prayed we wouldn't see anyone we know while we were out. Especially someone I knew from teaching so they wouldn't think 'you left your career as a professional educator to spend your days getting your oil changed and not showering!?' I come downstairs and Abi says, "You look beautiful, Mommy!" Something she has never said on her own without Adam prompting her to first. My heart melted. She was right. Ok, no. I'm certainly not going to win any beauty contests today. But I'm spending the day with her and to her, that makes me beautiful. Way to put my priorities in order kiddo.





The reasons I never have to time shower, and the reasons my heart overflows with happiness



Birthday Bonanza

A few weeks ago we were invited to two kid's birthday parties...on the same day. We spent a fun day eating lots of cake (and the most delicious Belize potato puff things made by Lu's mom!), visiting with friends and going to bed early that night. Shew, partying is tiring. Although not in the same way it was 10 years ago.

First up was Kiyomi's Princess Party at KidsCommons. Then Finn had a Moustache and Bowtie Party for his first birthday that evening. We are so incredibly blessed by the friendships in our small church group. And even more blessed that our girls love all their kids.



Abi and the birthday girl! Isn't that balloon princess amazing!?





Adam took full advantage of, quite possibly, the only moustache he'll ever
be able to grow. And I just love Madi's Hitler moustache!





First Birthday cake smashes have to be one of the funniest things ever.
And Finn did not disappoint! That boy was all business when it came to eating his cake.
He's almost exacly one month older than Madi and I always get a kick out
of those two being total chubs together.



Cincinnati Zoo Trip

We wanted to have one last fun day as a family before Adam went back to school and our life became total chaos again. So we decided to spend a day at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was cloudy and rainy most of the way there and we were pretty nervous. What if we get all the way there and it's pouring down rain!? Should we go to the aquarium instead!? (Don't you just love when your biggest quandry for the day is whether to go to the zoo or the aquarium? Those are the best days.) We remained hopeful and The Big Guy came through. It stopped raining pretty much as we were getting out of the car. Which was great because we didn't get wet but it was enough to scare away the crowds.

The Cincinnati Zoo is so awesome. There is sooo much to see. We were there from 11am-3pm and still could have seen more. But the girls were wiped out (and so were we) so we called it quits before anyone had a major meltdown. It was a great way to end our already awesome summer.



entertainment while Adam bought the tickets





petting a savannah monitor



feeding a giraffe a cracker



"Mommy, look! There's Simba and Nala!"





I managed to squeeze in a terrified smile while keeping an eye on the devil birds.





fish gazing (notice madi who never wants to be left out)





Hands down, Abi's favorite part of the day. Some
incredibly intelligent person had the brilliant idea to let kids
brush the goats in the petting zoo area. All the kids were in love
with these goats. Abi made sure she brushed each one several times
and would have stayed here for hours. Seriously, how can brushing a
smelly goat be that much fun!?



County Fairs

I always look forward to the fair. Mostly because of the Pie Contests. I was feeling the pressure this year since I was the Grand Champ last year. But alas, it was not my year. I worked for months to perfect just the right recipe to submit. For the open class this year I did a Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie. But I overcooked it and knew it didn't stand a chance of winning. I mentally smacked myself all the way to the fairgrounds. It got a blue ribbon. For what I like to call The Big Pie Contest I decided on a Blueberry Lime. Adam proclaimed it his new favorite pie and my test group (our small church group) all enjoyed it. I was sure it would place. But apparently the judges didn't like blueberry pie. It also got a blue ribbon. I was so sad and defeated. That's ok, I'm already plotting planning for next year...




My Blueberry Lime Pie. A big fat loser pie, but still extremely delicious.

  We walked around the Bartholomew County Fair for an evening. Abi loooves the fair. The animals, the tractors, a lemon shake-up, a funnel cake and a balloon. What's not to love!?

we had to walk through every building to find where they were giving out the free balloons




Madi in her chariot

 
This year we also hit up the Jackson County Fair. Its a wonderful little fair. Well, it's actually not little at all, which is part of what made it so great. We rode some more rides and checked out the big variety of animals. And of course had another funnel cake and lemon shake-up.



Future Farmers of America??




Abi was pretty fearless, even on the ferris wheel



Abi and her "new friend" for one minute. ha!

Birthdays (Mine & America's)

Well I'm 29 now. Only one more year before I'm officially old. Although I have to say, I certainly don't feel 29. Maybe 25? Time just flies (another sign I'm old, I say things like that). Anywho...I had a great birthday. I always try to stretch it out to a birthweek but Adam's not very cooperative. On my actual birthday he let me sleep in and made a big breakfast. It was rainy so we spent the day relaxing at home and Adam cleaned the whole kitchen. Best gift he could ever give me. Later that night, Adam and I tried out The New Day Meadery in Fountain Square followed by dinner downtown. In case you didn't know, a meade is a wine made from honey instead of grapes. It was a super fun little place and I would highly recommend it. It's always awesome to have a break from being "mommy." Especially when I get to spend it with my main man.



 

meade tasting

As it does every year, America's birthday comes two days after mine. This was probably the weirdest Fourth of July ever. Our plans changed about 12 different times and usually at the last minute. Mostly because of the rainy weather. Most years, we have people over or I ate least make a red, white & blue dessert. Not this year. We went down to dad's in the morning and picked blueberries with Traci, Courtney and their kids. Then went home and waited out the rain. We were concerned it was going to rain during the fireworks and didn't want to be stuck in a field with two kids, all of our bags, coolers, blankets, stroller, etc when it started pouring down rain. So we went over to the Andresens for an impromtu dinner and had our own toddler-geared fireworks show in their cul-de-sac. It turned out to be a really nice night and the sky was beautiful. The kids loved the fireworks (snakes, sparklers, roman candles, spinny globes) and we loved not having to fight the crowds.

berry pickers

American Beauties



the kiddos



beautiful Fourth of July sky

The first burst of the sparkler scared the begeezus out of Abi
and after that she wouldn't have anything to do with them.

enjoying the show

"Who cares about fireworks. Where's the food!?"

Also this week, my amazing friend Fionna passed down this wagon to the girls!
I've been wanting to get one for awhile and the looove it!!

Abi's First Movie

About a week ago, Adam and I were talking about whether or not we thought Abi is old enough now to enjoy a movie in a theater. And by enjoy, I mean sit that long and actually watch the movie. There are a couple of kids movies out right now so we thought this might be a good chance. We also thought it would be fun if we both took her since she rarely has both of us all to herself anymore. My mom watched Madi and we made a big deal out of the fact that "only big girls get to go to movies." And you could tell she thought she was pretty cool. I made some popcorn at home (and I'm one step closer to becoming my mother), grabbed some fruit snacks, stuffed them in my diaper bag and we were set! We saw Monsters University and she loved it! She was entranced by the whole thing, and sat in her seat pretty much the whole time. Towards the end she got a little squirmy and sat in Adam's lap for awhile. Right when it started, the classic Disney intro came on with the sparkling logo and Cinderella's Castle, you know the one. And Abi yelled, "Look Daddy! We're watching Lion King!" HA! Uh...no. Apparently, that's the only Disney movie she's seen. I'm not sure if it was the movie she loved or having Mommy and Daddy all to herself. Probably a combination. But I know it felt like a special morning to Adam and I too. When did she become so grown-up!?



feeling excited!



movie buffs