Couch potatoes

Oh no, we've raised couch potatoes! These are pictures of the girls watching a movie before bed time. They are tired, but still, look at the open-mouthed, blank stares from Amy. Gotta say, my girls know when to enjoy a good show!


They sure are cute lookin' potatoes!

Cool Cats

I thought that it might be nice to post some pictures of "our boys." Our cats have been a part of our family from the beginning of our marriage, and they have brought hours of entertainment from the start. Dustin and I both have a deep love for animals, and we are grateful for these beautiful creatures that bring enjoyment to our daily routines.

Max is the one on Dustin's shoulders, and he has got to be the coolest cat ever. He will let you cradle him like a baby, or any way you like-he just enjoys the attention. His favorite person is Dustin, so any chance he can get he's trying to get some lovin' from Dustin.
One of Nemo's favorite hangouts is under the couch. He's your typical, lazy, fat, grouchy cat. But I love him just the same. If you don't already know, you'll have to ask me what my history with Nemo is, we go "way back." One of the funny things that Nemo does, is when he is thirsty he will lay down in front of his water dish and reaches with one paw to pull the dish to him, and then he drinks the water laying down. But one of the only times he is not lazy is when he is hungry: he likes to chase the individual kibbles of his food around before eating them.

Indiana water

Last night, Dustin was preparing to give the girls a bath. He turned on the water to fill up the tub and went to get the girls. When he came back he found the tub filled with orange-brown water. Here's a picture of what it looked like:

This is the tub after the water drained:

I think part of the problem is the pipes that come with the building--they're old, really old. The worst part is that sometimes when I do my laundry clothes will turn orange, and I haven't figured out how to take the orange out of my clothes. It makes me so mad! Anyway, all of our hot water was brown last night, so the girls had to take very quick, cold baths last night--they were not happy. I have never heard Amy scream in terror like she did last night! It was awful. Luckily she recovered quickly and was her happy self moments after being dried off. Indiana does have some nice attributes, but this is NOT one of them!

Conversation....of two 3 year olds

Adelynne:  "Mommy, I went poopy in the potty!"

Minnie: "I went poopy in the potty too!"  (proceeds to show me and use sound affects for how she went poopy)

Adelynne: "I went poopy like Minnie!"

Minnie: "Yea, we both went poopy!"

Adelynne: "We match!"

We like the Wiggles

Here's just a few clips of Adelynne dancing to the Wiggles. If you listen carefully you can even hear Dustin singing his own improv to the music. Amy is just purely mesmerized by the funness.  And you might even catch me singing along as well.

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An Artist

Adelynne drew this picture a couple of weeks ago I think after watching Curious George. The show must have had George at the dinosaur museum. If you compare her drawing to the dinosaur skeleton, you can definitely see where she got the idea. I don't know if you're impressed, but I sure am!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

We finally made it to the Indianapolis Children's Museum on Saturday with a group of our friends. This is a museum you have to visit multiple times in order to really enjoy it all. With five floors and endless exhibits, it is hard to fit it all in, and when you've got young children there is no way you can see it all. We started out on the top floor where the carousel ride is and some fun play areas are as well. There is a mirror maze and some giant size games and some houses for kids of all age to play, and of course a carousel ride. I got some cute shots of the girls dancing to the carousel music, Amy is crying in the one because Dustin had to pull her out of the way and she wasn't too happy about it, but it didn't stop her from dancing. Then they got to go on the ride, and this was the event that Adelynne and Minnie talked about most of the week. I was expecting smiles and laughs from Adelynne as she loves to go on rides. But as soon as the animal she was on began to move she was terrified and she cried the rest of the ride. Luckily the ride doesn't go very long, but I was quite surprised to see her in tears. And once Adelynne was off the ride she was happy and dancing again-so at least it didn't phase her long.

After the top floor we took the girls to a Curious George Play. Adelynne's first live play, and she seemed to enjoy it all. At least she sat through the entire 40 minute play. Dustin and Amy enjoyed the small aquarium while we watched the play. It was a very cute dramatization of one of the stories by Margaret and H. A. Rey. I'm glad we went. Afterwards we ate are sack lunches and then we went to the Curious George exhibit room.  Amy loved the rocket ship slide.

We also made a visit to the dinosaur exhibit, and on our way down we ran into the craft area and Adelynne wanted me to help her make a dinosaur out of clay. I know the pictures are blurry, but you get the point. Then we made it to the actual dinosaurs, and Adelynne might not have been so scared had Aubree not been talking about how scared she was. But Adelynne was definitely intrigued by these giant skeletons. Of course it was dark and there was some sound affects that were not helping with the scariness. I actually have a drawing of a dinosaur that Adelynne drew that I need to post. Next post. I think Adelynne's interest in dinosaurs is actually from watching Curious George. Well, we couldn't leave without seeing the comic book exhibit, and since Adelynne is also a fan of Spiderman, we thought she'd enjoy it. She did. She liked dressing up too. She wanted to try on all of the costumes, but of course I couldn't get her to leave them on long enough for me to get some good pictures. The girls were pretty much on their last leg by now, so we took them one last time up to the carousel floor. Adelynne went through the mirror maze one more time, and Amy danced to the carousel music some more. We had a fun time with our friends, and watching the girls explore. We'll be going back again, hopefully soon!

Here are a bunch of videos of Amy dancing and walking around. She was so happy to be out of her stroller!

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Lafayette Zoo

On Wednesday I decided to take the girls to the zoo because Adelynne and Amy both had a doctor's appointment, and the doctor's office is nearby the zoo. Its hard to believe, but we have lived here almost 2 years and have never been to this free attraction. The Lafayette Zoo is nothing grand or spectacular, but it is enjoyable just the same. The best part is walking into the zoo and there are these little fountains to entertain the children. There's no need to rush because there isn't much to see anyway, so you just let the kids enjoy themselves. The best fountain is the big globe of the earth that rotates. It is covered in water, (as that is the mechanism making it rotate). Its just really cool. After convincing all the girls that we'd be back we headed over to the animals. Amy was so excited to see animals, she does this funny little laugh. I think you can hear her in one of the videos. We saw the monkeys, and they smelled terrible. Aubree was bothered the most by the smell and she seemed to influence the girls the most on holding their noses and complaining about the bad odor. We also saw a lynx and a porcupine (kind of, it was hiding in the log). Then we headed over to the petting zoo, and on our way we ran into the miniature horse which the girls were excited to pet. At the petting area, Amy once again was excited about the critters, and the first one she saw was a chicken that she wanted to chase, but I quickly distracted her with the herd of goats in the petting area. Her excitement was encouraging. Adelynne also loved the goats and she was not afraid to be in the middle of them all. She didn't want to leave, and I assured her we would go back, however we never made it back in our visit-next time. The rest of the time we just had lunch and let the girls play in the water and on the frogs. We all had a great time at the zoo.

After the girls' doctor's appointments, I decided to take them to Target for some shopping time, and bribed them for good behavior with an icee. It worked, the girls were pretty happy with their refreshing treat.

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Back in Time-Again

I let this one go to long, sorry. But I needed to put these pictures up from Amy's birthday that was on April 22nd. I just didn't get them up before we left on our month long trip in May, and then we came back and I thought I wouldn't put them up. But I was looking at the pictures and I was reminded again of how cute Amy was on her birthday and I knew I needed to put them up. So enjoy! It was a great day!

Pictures of the girls

Here are some cute pictures of the girls from Sunday. Who needs a reason to post pictures! Enjoy the pictures!

Building with Daddy

It rained on Saturday, so some outdoor activities were postponed, and instead we all headed to Lowe's for the "build it yourself" project they have every 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month. (And for those of you who didn't know, Lowe's does this all across the country, so check out your local Lowe's--this is a totally free activity! The kids get a free apron and goggles and they earn patches and certificates when they complete a project). This Saturday's project was building a dune buggy. Dustin and Adelynne jumped right in to building their buggy. Amy wanted to build too, well actually she just wanted to hammer on the table and make lots of noise-not that there wasn't enough! But she had some fun too. Adelynne worked very hard and seriously as you can tell from the pictures, and yes, she did get Daddy's thumb at one point. When she was hammering a nail she'd sometimes get distracted and look away as she continued to hammer. When it was all hammered together Dustin let her do the sticker work herself, hence the perfectly placed stickers. Adelynne really seems to enjoy doing these projects with her Daddy. This was only her second time, but we'll be going back again. It is a lot of fun to watch her build too.

Swimming summer

I took the girls swimming over at the Beaux Jardin Apartments where Minnie lives at, its actually something we've been doing at least once a week. Its a great pool to go to because we practically get the pool to ourselves during the time of day that we go-late morning to early afternoon. Adelynne asks about every day, "Can we go for a swim?" I wish it was easy enough to go every day, but when you have to grease up, suit up, and buckle up 3 girls, it takes a good 45 minutes. And usually I pack a lunch as well, so that takes extra time. Then with all of the towels, water gear, lunches, and diaper bag I am usually hauling 3 to 4 large bags with me. I feel like I'm packing for a weeks vacation when I go to the pool. But I'm working at becoming more efficient at the process so that it is not as difficult. Once we are there, it is a lot of fun though. Yesterday I finally remembered to not only bring the camera, but to take pictures as well. Yesterday was also more warm than it has been, though it was still a pleasant day to be outside. So since the sun was out, the water was refreshing because it cooled you down, but it wasn't as cold as it has been the last several weeks either. Because it was warm, Amy actually got in the water and stayed in, and enjoyed it, and I got in all the way too. We were there for about 2 and a half hours just soaking up the sun, (a little too much-oops!) and enjoying the water. It was fun to see Amy really have a good time in the water. Usually she will get her feet in and then get out as fast as she can, and then she spends her time wandering around eating snacks and watching everyone else. Also, every time we've gone, Adelynne has been getting more and more brave, (thanks to the influence of Minnie-who is the bravest 3 year old in the water, no fear whatsoever-she's awesome in the pool)! This time Adelynne swam out into the deep end all on her own. She is also beginning to dunk her head under water, but she doesn't like it very much. Anyway, we had a great time with our friends, and we are always anxious to go back! See you at the pool!

Gymnastics

Yesterday I decided to take Adelynne to a gymnastics class and see how well she liked it. Well, you can see from the videos and pictures that she loved it! She was a very willing participant the entire class. There was a very cute moment when the instructor was trying to teach the girls a new stretch, and she was telling them, as they were sitting on the floor, to put their knees up and give them a big hug. When the instructor said, "Now give a big hug," Adelynne jumped up and gave the instructor a really big hug, arms around her and everything. Unfortunately, I did not get that on camera, and I practically missed the entire event myself, but I did catch the hug part. Adelynne doesn't even give me hugs that big. But she was so fun to watch, and did very well, so I signed her up for the rest of the sessions. Maybe we'll have a little gymnast!

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My Accomplishment

So I like to think that I am just like every other woman when it comes to what I call "the weight loss roller coaster." Weight loss is something that I am constantly battling with, at times faithfully and at times not. Well yesterday I hit a major milestone for myself in that after a little over a year, after having my second child, I have finally lost all of the baby weight that I gained during my pregnancy. And so you know, when I am pregnant, I pack on the pounds, 58 lbs, to be exact. But now that is all GONE! I'm feeling great about this goal, so great that I have decided to show you two pictures to compare. Though I think I look great in both pictures, I am very pleased to see that there is a big difference. For anyone else going through a similar challenge, don't give up, just keep on going!




And of course you can compare Amy's growth as well--okay, so her bald head is still the same, but look how cute she is!

Robust?

Okay, quick side story on the bike. I decided to get it last minute, and I was looking at different sites, price checking and seeing what was out there. I also looked on ebay which is where I found the bike. But I've never bought on ebay before, so I had a lesson to learn. I made a bid on a bike, just like Adelynne's, but after I made the bid, I realized that the bidding wouldn't close until the day before her birthday, and that wouldn't be enough time to get her the bike. So then I just went and did the "Buy It Now" option on another bike. I looked at the picture and all the info it had on the bike, and it looked like it would be perfect for Adelynne. The stickers on the bike had flowers and butterflies and the word "Pretty." Very girly, but perfect. When the bike arrived we had to assemble it, and after putting Adelynne to bed, Dustin got to work with the tools. When I took a good look at the bike, I noticed that instead of the word "Pretty" on the stickers, it said "Robust." That's right, "ROBUST." I wasn't sure what to think. The box said "Made in China" so I could only assume that "Robust" is a chinese translation of pretty. But I was not about to let Adelynne ride around on a bike that had "Robust" on four different places on the bike! Call me crazy, but I didn't think that was a very flattering compliment for any girl of any age. Though of course, about 90% of our neighbors are from a different country, and probably about 50% of them are Asian, so maybe none of them would think anything of it. Luckily, they were stickers, so I peeled all of the stickers off that said "Robust." And now it is just a pink bike with flowers on it. But I actually think it looks a little better with just a few flowers instead of all of them. Oh, and on Monday, the 7th, I got an email from ebay, congratulating me on winning the bid for another girl's bike. Hope that one doesn't say "Robust" too.

Adelynne's Birthday

It was Adelynne's 3rd Birthday all day yesterday, and we started celebrating right away. She put on a new outfit from Grandma Biggs and before Daddy went to school she got her first present; a new bed! Adelynne calls it "my big girl bed." Its actually just a toddler bed, but she's been sleeping on just a mattress for several months now, so having an actual frame for her bed is a pretty big deal. (FYI, I found it on Craig's List for $15.00 and when we got to the guy's house to pick it up, he was so nice and just gave it to us for free! Not bad for my first Craig's List experience). Anyway, she was pretty excited about it. I spent the rest of the morning rearranging the girls' room to try and make it fit in just the right place. Dustin went to school to teach his class, and by the time he got back Adelynne had put on a pink dress, changed back into the outfit from Grandma, and then changed into a completely different outfit. If you watch the slideshow you can see that Adelynne changed into another dress by the time our guests arrived for the celebrations. I don't normally let her change throughout the day, but since it was her birthday...

Dustin came home mid morning, so we got on web cam so that Grandma could see Adelynne open up the other gifts that she sent. Adelynne opened up five presents which included barbie dresses made by Grandma, stickers, and princess chalk, and two different leapfrog refrigerator magnet sets. Aunt Amy and Uncle Joe also sent Addie some new sheets to go with her bed. As I watched Adelynne open up these gifts one by one, I was worried that she wasn't very excited about them, but then I started to realize that it wasn't that Adelynne was unhappy with her gifts, it is just that she is a lot like her Dad. (For those of you who know Dustin, this will make a lot of sense). So watching Adelynne was very interesting. I kept waiting to see big smiles and some shouts of exclamation, but nothing. It was hard enough to catch a smile on camera. But after Adelynne was done opening her gifts she was eager to play with the new toys.

The rest of the afternoon I spent baking Adelynne's cake. It was time consuming because I had to place the dough in a special frame for each layer, and then just bake it one round at a time. My stove/oven is not a full size so in order to make sure that my cakes baked evenly, I only baked one layer at a time. I am no cake artist, but I enjoy decorating all the same. I really only go all out for birthdays, so I don't get much practice either. Of course I'm terrible at writing on cakes, and for some reason I thought I would write "Happy Birthday Adelynne" on her cake. The best part was cutting into the cake and seeing all of my hard work in the coolest checkerboard cake ever! And it tasted great too! Adelynne enjoyed everyone singing to her, actually she sang to herself too. I think it was a big deal for her to realize the entire day was just for her. Pizza seems to be the only dinner we don't have to bribe her to eat, so that's what we decided to do for her birthday dinner. With our friends the Aagard's and the Bench's we were a house full of little girls.

After dinner Adelynne opened up more presents from Dustin and I, and Amy too, and one from Minnie. She enjoyed them all. We ended the night with Adelynne's grand finale gift--her new pink bicycle, with a basket! Now for the bike we got a pretty good, split second, smile of excitement which you can catch on the video. And after all of her friends went home, Dustin took her outside to ride her new bike. All of the neighborhood kids commented on her new bike, which I think made her even more excited. I finally got her to come in right before 9pm and get ready for bed. She got to wear her new Little Mermaid nightgown that her Amy gave to her, and I got some pretty happy smiles from her on the camera. All in all, I think Adelynne had a pretty good birthday.

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Our 4th of July

To celebrate Independence Day, we got together with our friends and ate and ate, lots of food. The kids played on the playground nearby and the grownups talked and socialized. Some of us even got out the frisbee and tossed it around. We all had a great time just being with our friends. I realize that I didn't get any pictures of anyone but our family, but I got some good ones of us. We didn't stay up for the fireworks because we were so tired-not just the girls, and Dustin and I just figured it wouldn't be worth it this year. Maybe next year when Adelynne is just one year older. I think she will appreciate them better when she's almost four.

We hope everyone else had a great day. And we just want you all to know how grateful we are to live in this country. Although we may not always be pleased with the leaders of our country, we still love this country. We are grateful for the founding fathers who put together our Constitution under the divine influence of our God. And we are grateful for all those past and present who put their lives at liberty to keep us free. May God bless you all!

Today's Story

I don't have any pictures for today, but I just thought I'd write about our day: today Minnie got to stay home with her Mommy, so Adelynne, Amy, and I had a quiet morning at home. Of course the morning did not pass without Adelynne asking if Minnie was coming, (they can't survive without one another). After Amy's morning nap we took off to go swimming with Minnie and Mary, (see, none of us can survive without our daily dose of Minnie-we love her too much). The sun was high in the sky, but unfortunately there it was quite windy, and the water was too cold, at least for Mary and I. Minnie is fearless in the water and she was jumping in the pool before we could blink, and Adelynne slowly followed. Amy was not too fond of the water either, she didn't like the temperature. Mary and I sat and talked and soaked up some sun, Amy ate snacks, and Adelynne and Minnie played in the pool. Adelynne eventually walked away from the edge of the pool and was standing in the middle-a first for her! She was really excited about that. After swimming we went and had lunch at Mary's apartment. It was great to spend the afternoon with our wonderful friends.

After hanging out we went to the store to pick up a few things and then we headed home. We got home and Amy took another nap, and when she woke up we all went outside to play at Adelynne's request. Dustin had come home as well, so he came out to play too. Adelynne jumped on a friends bike and went riding off. She was pedaling down the sidewalk and I was walking beside her, and we were coming to the end of it when Adelynne said, pointing in the correct directions, "That way is right, and that way is left." It kind of took me by surprise, but then I know that Dustin has been trying to teach her too. Then I asked her which way she wanted to go and she wanted to go to the right, so we did. When we got to another cross section of sidewalk, I pointed to the right and told her we could go right or left. "This way is right," I said pointing down the sidewalk to our right, and then she said, pointing back to the "original left" that was behind us now, "And that is left." I thought that was an interesting development. So she doesn't quite get it at each turn, but she's getting there! On our walk Adelynne reminded me, "I almost 3." I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and like every time I ask her, the first response she gives is, "A bike!" And then she adds, "And it has a basket." Today I figured out why she is so determined to have a basket. Adelynne told me, "Aubree's new bike has a basket too." Aubree is Adelynne's friend. So now we know why she wants a basket.

Our day ended as usual with food, tears, and unrelenting parents (almost). It was a good day, nothing too out of the ordinary, but just a day worth writing about.

Back in Time

I was looking through our old photos and videos and I found this one, which is just precious to me. It is one of my favorites by far. When I watch this video, I feel an immense amount of love for my firstborn, and a small amount of sorrow that she has grown so much. I love my Adelynne!

FHE-Armor of God

So last night being Monday, it was time for Family Home Evening. Since Adelynne and Amy are so young and have very small attention spans, we have very, very short lessons to teach them more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. Our helping companion in these lessons is a book called 52 Weeks of Family Night. It has very short little lessons and stories about one topic. Well last nights lesson was on the Armor of God which we can find more about in Ephesians 6:11-17. I decided that I would help Adelynne put on the Armor of God, but of course I had to improvise with things around the house. Dustin's toy sword was about the only thing I didn't have to improvise with, and Adelynne was excited to get to play with it. Adelynne was dressed with the breastplate of Righteousness, the belt of truth, shoes to help her walk in gospel paths, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. Adelynne enjoyed being involved with the lesson in such a fun way. And when she was done, Amy wanted her turn as well.  Behold, our warriors of Jesus Christ!

P.S. Adelynne has a blue mouth from a piece of candy that she was eating before the lesson.
And this is Adelynne singing along to our opening song: "I am a Child of God." I was only able to get the chorus on camera.

Amy's cupboard

This is Amy's favorite cupboard in the house. She used to get into it so often that I had to move the dangerous cleaning chemicals out of it, and thought it would be a good idea to store snacks in it. That worked out really well because when she was hungry she'd just get in there and get what she wanted. She's pretty independent. But then we had a small flooding problem one night, and all of our boxed snacks and cereals got ruined, so we had to change that around too. Now it just stores odds and ends that aren't harmful to her. Dustin snapped these the other morning when she was just doing her own thing.

Superheroes or Supervillains?

We rented Meet the Robinsons last week, and Adelynne loved it..... as much as Dustin and I did! Of course like most kids, she wanted to watch it every day, sometimes more than once. She called it the "bad guy movie." And I think that the movie is the mastermind behind these pictures. Dustin does a pretty good imitation of the villain, but Adelynne said she was a hero, and she wanted to fly. We watched it all week long, and Dustin and I were still laughing the last time we watched it. If you haven't seen it, you should go check it out and watch it, even if you don't have kids.

Visitors

On Saturday, June 21st, my Aunt Jill and cousin Lisa-Marie came into town for a visit on their drive from Virginia to California. It was so exciting to have family stay and visit since most of my family lives in California and therefor we don't get many visitors. Well, with our visitors, we planned to show them Purdue campus, and then to go to Columbian Park and go to the zoo. However, despite a week of beautiful weather, Saturday became a day of storm clouds and rain showers. So we had the chance between rain showers to go show them the wonderful fountains at Purdue, but then it began to rain again. We weren't sure what we should do, but then my Aunt said, "Let's go to a thrift store!" Dustin graciously took the girls home for naps, while my aunt and cousin and I went to the local Good Will store for some shopping. I have never had a chance to really browse at the Good Will, and I didn't realize what fun clothes you can find there with some companions and lots of time. We were there for almost 3 hours, and on the way home we stopped at the Silver Dipper for some ice cream. We called Dustin to let him know we were coming home and us girls decided to play a little trick on him. Before we had gone to the Good Will, Dustin "jokingly" said, "Don't buy any big furniture." So when I had Dustin on the phone I said, "Do we have any rope, because we are going to come home and get some for this thing we bought." There was a moment of silence on the phone before Dustin answered me. But we put his fears at ease when we came home with a few bags of clothes. Oh, and Aunt Jill treated Lisa-Marie and I both to the clothes we picked out, Thanks Aunt Jill, you're awesome!
Later that evening Aunt Jill treated us to dinner as well. We ate out at Christos city grill. None of us had been there before, so it was fun to try something new, and it was really great food! The appetizers weren't anything special, but I tried a Gyro-and I would eat that again. My cousin got some tasty ribs, and I tried them and they were great too. AFter dinner we came back to our place and put the girls to bed. Then we had some grown up time and watched August Rush-a cute movie. And of course we three ladies talked late into the night. Yeah for late night chats with the ladies! I had a great time with my aunt and cousin, and I'm hoping it will happen on their next cross country tour. And who knows, maybe the weather will behave next time.