Home

We are home! Tyler is not, but he is due back Saturday afternoon. It was a fast week, and I have been able to email Tyler and talk to him on the phone. He is having a great time in St. Vincent. Who wouldn't, with temps topping out at the mid-90's, but a fresh ocean breeze sweeping over the mountain to help keep it bearable. I can tell he's happy about a new experience, and getting to know people from our church (and a few who are not from our church) better ~ people he didn't really know too well before. He has blogs and pictures posted on his link at bachelorcreek.com. His link is "student impact" and his blog is "pen to paper". Sorry I don't have the link to send you right there.

Despite the cold days here, we enjoyed the sunshine, which was nice for our visit to my parents. We arrived on Saturday, and came home this afternoon. Dad was able to be off until Tuesday night (due to the weekend and MLK Jr. day.). Then, Mom was off on Wednesday! My niece Claire turned 9, and had her birthday party on Sunday. We visited Grandma Ball on Monday, and were finally able to give her her Christmas gift! She was happy to see the girls, of course! The week was also full of good food....got to get the necessities...Skyline, a visit with Alli and little Ella at LaRosa's, O'Charley's with my sister, and Mexican with Grandma Manning, Mom, and the girls. So, we did a lot of visiting, resting, and playing (Lucy did a lot of watching the birds and the occasional chicken through the picture window). Emily had her first adventure on a frozen pond! My parents took Emily and Sara's kids out on their pond yesterday afternoon. Sara and I were shopping and were nervous about it, but Dad went out first on it and JUMPED on it to make sure it was safe. I'm glad I wasn't there!

The girls were so excited to be home after a day of packing up and the 3 hour drive. We celebrated being home with ice cream, popcorn, and a movie tonight. Emily was thinking we would see Daddy when we got home, so I had to explain that he won't be home for a couple days. It was nice to have the evening at home, but we're ready to get back to life tomorrow ~ have to hit the store tomorrow for milk and the basics, and send Emily off to pajama day at preschool! Saturday can't come soon enough, though, as we're anxious for Tyler to arrive back safely and pick him up in Indy.

Sorry for no picture this time! I have some good ones from the week, but need to get them from my parents.

Getting Bigger....and Sillier

Here's our little silly Lucy girl, getting so big and about to turn 11 months! Her personality is developing more and more, and we laugh all the time at her funny faces, and say OH NO to ourselves when she starts yelling at the top of her lungs. She is definitely becoming more vocal, and is wanting to be heard. I can picture the look of surprise on your face as you read this. I mean, she comes from such a quiet family! I told Tyler that I thought maybe our 2nd would be quiet. I guess our household will always just be lots of fun! Lucy last week got mad at Emily and yelled "BAAAA!" and waved her hands around. So it has begun. The little baby stage has gone so quickly and now Lucy is such a big baby. She's eating all table food now and is down to a few bottles a day. She seems to like everything we give her and would eat and eat if we let her. She walks just holding on to things with one hand, so she'll be ready to start trucking soon, I'm sure.

Here are the girls ENJOYING every bit of being outside last Monday. It was 60 here and we took advantage of it. We took a walk down to the park (to circle around the park, but it was too soggy to play), and then after lunch went outside to play. Emily once again said, "This is amazing!" while swinging. She has heard me tell people that she has said that, and now that's her thing to say. I like to get on a swing and hear Lucy laugh when she watches me swing by her. She has such a silly chuckle!

I welcome every single somewhat warm day in the winter, as I'm sure most people do! It's so nice to get out. I walked around the block another day with just Emily last week while Tyler was home, and I actually forgot I had a neighborhood! I get so used to just being inside, or just heading straight from the car to the house, anxious to get inside and get warm. Speaking of WARM, Tyler is heading to St. Vincent this Saturday for a mission trip! I am pretty jealous, but I am also happy for him to be able to go. Our church supports W.I.S.E. ~ Winward Island School of Evangelism on the island, and he is going this year to help do some work down there. It's a 2 week trip, but he will just be going for one. He didn't want to leave us or his job too long. The island is 45 miles from South America, and this time of year its around 90. It's where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. They'll be able to go to the beach a little bit, so that will be nice for him. Keep him and the team in your prayers. I always feel a bit anxious when he leaves, especially to go far away.

And to top it all off, tonight on the way to church, Emily out of the blue said, "Mom, I want to see the lighthouse again!" I asked her if she was talking about St. Simons (our fun getaway in Georgia, thanks to Linda and Joe!). She said, "Ya, I want to go to the blue and white house where we ate princess snacks." She was talking about the condo and yes, now that I think about it, I took along some princess fruit snacks for her (that was well over a year ago!). She talked about how she wanted to play on the beach again. Seems like we're all dreaming of warm weather and fun this time of year!

A Work of Art

Emily loves to draw, even more so now that we found dry erase markers of Daddy's up in the cabinet. She sat in front of her easel for about an hour today! She told me about everything she was drawing ~ ponds, hills with trees (she's coloring in her hills and trees in this picture), all the letters in her name (but not in order), kitty cats and doggies, and funny faces. I must say, I think she is going to take after her Grandma! She takes time to add the cutest details. I am a little biased.


Her creative side also includes interior design. :0) I rearranged the living room today, and she was right along side me, moving her and Lucy's stools around and their toys baskets to just the right spot. I have a new (old) cabinet ~ new things in this house are usually old. For the 1st time in 5 years, I rearranged the living room to open it up more by moving the couch way back to square it off with the cabinet. The girls have a play area behind it, which has been there for a while now, but it seems like they enjoy being back "behind the couch" now in their little nook. Dad will appreciate this new arrangement, since he mentioned moving the room around like this when he was here to help with the cabinet in December. See, it runs in the family! Ha!



I suppose Lucy will love to design and draw...I think she has an eye for it. :0) I heard Emily yell, "GET HER AWAY!" so many times it drove me nuts. As you can see, Lucy kept sneaking up on Em wanting to get in on the action. Oh, I mean, she was sneaking up on "Cheetah Girl". Emily got a Cheetah Girl dress up outfit for Christmas from Great Grannie and Grandpa, and wears it all the time.











The little stubborn girl is finally asleep. She has not napped all week, though in desperate need. After about an hour of being in her bed today, she was yelling for us and woke Lucy up. Tyler marched upstairs and put her back to bed because she was "in trouble", and she would just have to stay in bed longer for yelling in the hallway. It sure did get quiet quickly, and though I didn't want her to nap so late, I let her go. I turned on her light and took this picture, and the tired little artiste was too tired to even budge.


I, once again, am pledging to blog more often. It has been almost 2 months! I think one thing that keeps me from doing it more often is that it takes forever to load the pictures, and I know pictures make it more fun! I will do my best!

Stating the Obvious

I was trying to think about what to write, and there are so many things that have and have not (due to illnesses) gone on around here, and not much exciting to mention. But once I started to think about it, I realized that the things that have been ordinary are still not as ordinary as I thought. Hard to explain! If that doesn't make sense, I guess I have had too many antibiotics lately and I'm a little loopy from the vert strong one I started last night that cost $102, and had too many side effects to mention. All I've experienced so far is not being able to sleep, and saw flashes of light as I laid there in bed trying to sleep. So, let me go ahead and state the obvious:

Obvious #1 ~ My kids are cute in their Halloween costumes! Em was Tigger and Lucy was Minnie Mouse. Emily had a blast at our church's trunk or treat. Then we had to make a stop at Kroger and everyone loved seeing them dressed up in there.

Obvious #2 ~ We are sick of being sick. Lucy got bronchitis at the beginning of October. Since then we've all had fevers, colds, and ultimately bronchitis, except Tyler. He's been well, thankfully. Last week I had a fever for 4 days. This week I am still coughing and called the doctor because I still have bronchitis and as I mentioned before, I'm on my 2nd round of antibiotics. Lucy woke up with another cold yesterday and had a fever last night.

Obvious #3 ~ Yesterday Roscoe got a haircut, and Emily was obsessed with him. "Mom, his haircut is beautiful!" she said. She was constantly looking for him and wanted to pet him all evening. Also, last night after I put Lucy to bed, I let Emily stay up a little while I mopped the kitchen floor. It was OBVIOUS that I don't do it too much because she was fascinated. She gawked and wanted to walk on it, and couldn't wait for it to dry. This morning, when she came down and found me in the laundry room around 7:00, she said, "MOM! The dry floor is dry!!!" Then we immediately went to let Roscoe in and she said, "MOM! Roscoe still has a haircut!" I went straight to the little journal that I have written things in off and on, and wrote those things down. She loves simple little things, and she states the obvious without even knowing.

Obvious #4 ~ Tyler has been great through all of this. He has picked up so many prescriptions, and last week he even stayed home one afternoon to help because I couldn't function. A couple weeks ago, when I woke up feeling awful, he said, "What's your dream day?" I wasn't sure and had to think about it! He said, he knows that when he gets sick, he just likes to think about his dream day and that usually makes him feel better. That weekend, he took me on a surprise trip to Cincinnati. Thankfully, everyone was feeling better that weekend before it all started back up again. Mom and Dad were in on it, and they kept the girls. He took me on the "Date of my life" and I was thrown for a loop! Everything had to do with when we met up till now. He took me to CCU where we met, shopping, was going to take me where we had our first date to O'Charley's but our plans got thrown off a little and that didn't happen. He took me to the restaurant where we went the night we got engaged, and we had gotten the code to get into the church where he used to work and where we got married. He also gave me a necklace with the girls' picture on it. That was such a big surprise, and when I look back, I realize that was a dream day. It was perfect timing amongst all the sickness and sitting in the house. It's something fun to look back on!

"Dr. Went-Well"

I was thinking about what to write the other morning for my blog, and the ideas came to me as I sat in front of the computer.....with a "Tinkerbell" tiara in my hair, my jammies on, and the girls playing on the floor around me. I thought, "What am I doing with this thing still in my hair?!?!" Emily wanted me to wear it ~ she had her Tinkerbell dress on and I decided to keep it in my hair because it was keeping my hair out of my face. I just decided to write about all the funny things that little Miss Emily has been saying and doing lately. She has such an imagination, especially while in her dress up clothes, costumes, whatever you want to call them. I have had to be quiet lately because I was going to scare the sleeping tiger if I didn't. I have had to get the witch and the snake out of her room, even at 3:40 in the morning. (To be honest, that specific time I didn't actually go down to her room, but she did come and wake me up because she was scared...."just pretending" she said, but still wanted the witch out). I think we watch too many princess movies, and too much Jungle Book (hence the snakes and tigers). She was also going to teach Sher-Con (Jungle Book) how to dance yesterday.

Now, for "Dr. Went-Well". Tyler and I got a good laugh in at lunch today. The girls had check ups today. Tyler came home for lunch and asked, "Doctor went well?" I said, "Ya, they did good, we didn't have to wait long and Lucy's bronchitis is cleared up." Emily said, "Dad, it's not Dr. Went Well, it's Dr. Lyons." Ohhhhhh, duh!

Yesterday Emily and Lucy went to Mrs. Hammel's house to be watched in the evening, while we went to a dinner we were invited to. Mrs. Hammel is one of Em's preschool teachers, and Emily LOVES her. She was so excited to go, that after her "nap" (she didn't nap yesterday, she was too excited), she said, "Mrs. Hammel NEEDS us!" She wanted to go right then. She also informed me that "I'll be a good nice attitude!" Of course, they ended up having a blast. They love going there... Nancy Jo and her husband, Cary, had a nice dinner waiting, an old Fisher Price school to play with, fish out in the pond to feed, and "Chip the Wonder Dog" to play with.

Finally, one more story. I love all the funny things Emily says and that Lucy does, but this was the best. On Tyler's birthday (Monday), he came home from work early and we went to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time looking at (and holding) the goats and donkeys, eating pumpkin bars and cider slushies, and picking out apples and pumpkins. Later that evening after dinner, before it was completely dark outside, Emily and I went out to put the pumpkins in their places. She said, "Mom, it's a good day!" She has been saying that so much and I love it. It reminds me to slow down and think about the day, and how, yes, it has been good!

The "Amazing" Swingset!

This fall we finally got a new swingset, and it's been great! It was really inexpensive ~ purchased at an auction of a swingset place going out of business. We only have 3 swings, and have yet to get a slide, glider, etc, but it'll do. It provided a lot of entertainment for us while Tyler was in Colorado, and we go out as a family in the evenings. One evening, Emily was so excited when I pushed her really high. She said, "This is amazing!" Even though we have had it for a few weeks now, she still tells me how nice it was of Daddy to get the swingset for us! Also, if you can tell at all from the picture, Emily loves to go out and swing in her "dance dresses," "costumes," or "ballerina dresses," ~ whatever she's calling them for the day! She likes to say that she's playing "dress upping".

The walnuts are finally off the tree....for a while there we would have to go inside because they were falling too much right over the swingset. The squirrels would notice us out there and they made sure they positioned themselves up in the tree right over one of us, and dropped the walnut shells right onto us. One of my shirts is ruined by walnut stains (that do not come out) because a squirrel aimed right for me and dropped quite a few pieces all at once!

Hopefully we'll get a lot more use out of it this fall. The weather has been so warm, and even though the temp is going to drop, we'll still be out there! If not, we'll be inside playing with the dollhouse....as you can see Lucy is playing with the little girl that belongs to the dollhouse!

Fall Is On Its Way

Fall is definitely on its way. We have tried to squeeze in all we can of summer, but it's fading fast. We swam on Labor Day at Tyler's parents (Mimi and Pa's), Emily stayed a few days last weekend with my parents (Grandma and Poppie's), and we will make one more trip to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo as a family next week. But, fall is definitely right around the corner. As you can see in the picture, Emily started Happy Days Preschool this week! There she is, holding her bag that she got at school. You would think by the picture that she was really excited about me taking a picture! She had to be tricked into taking a picture so I could have something to post on the blog and for her baby book! For some reason she did not want to get ready and go this morning, but she has come back both times this week saying she had a really great time! I think it will be a lot of fun for her.

Another sign of fall....our walnut tree started losing walnuts and leaves last week. Normally I don't enjoy picking up walnuts, but this year I've been able to turn it into something fun. Emily LOVES to find the walnuts and put them in the bucket. Yippeee for me! We made a game out of it ~ walnut bowling. I drew a line on the sidewalk and she "bowls" walnuts to see if she can get them past the line. Meanwhile, Lucy sits in the grass and enjoys watching, or picking at the grass. Here is a picture of the two of them enjoying our "walnut bowling" day, and then a picture of Emily in action!

We have been able to focus a lot on Lucy lately! It's amazing how with 2 kids, our time and attention is so much more divided. That's pretty obvious, I guess, but I didn't really realize the lack of "quality time" and lack of time I have just to get to know Lucy. When Emily was at my parents', Lucy got our undivided attention, and we got to remember what it was like to get out of the house with just one! A lot easier! I also have time with Lucy while Emily goes to preschool 2 days a week. Lucy has been crawling (army crawling) and is getting faster by the day. Time is flying by with her. She has been "moving forward" about a month earlier than Emily did, so I didn't expect her to be doing that by 6 months! Here is a picture of our happy little baby doing what she likes to do best ~ playing!