Shaving Cream Fun

We're going private

After many discussions with friends and family, we have decided to make our blog private. This means that our blog can only be viewed by those that we invite. I personally love reading so many people's blogs, many whom I don't really know other than in the cyber world, but for the safety and security of our children, we feel this is best.

If you have any issues logging in or find this a bother, please let me know! I aim to please :)

Matthew 3 Months ~ Tummy Time

Matthew is becoming much more like a baby now and not as much like a newborn. He "talks", he rolls over from his belly to his back, he smiles a ton and he loves to watch his sisters act silly.

Ella, the photographer in training

The official 3 month picture.
Thanks for the adorable monkey sleeper, Aunt Kay.

It's a ZOO over here!

On Friday, Laney was given the huge responsibility of taking care of her preschool class pet, Silly. Silly is my kind of animal--he requires little to no attention, he doesn't want to eat, he doesn't whine and just sits there and looks soft and cute!

Well you guessed it...he is a stuffed seal. Laney is in the Seal Class at school, hence the class pet being a seal. Laney was so proud to take Silly home; she made him a bed with a pillow, give him toys to sleep with and even tried to feed him. Luckily for Silly's fur, I stopped her before she fed him peanut butter :)

Silly's new bed

It turned into a family production as Ella made Silly a pillow

Laney pretending to drive Silly to school



The only safe place for Silly in our zoo is under the trampoline

Who doesn't love to fall asleep belly up?
Silly in his new bed.

Thanks for coming to visit our zoo, Silly!

I *heart* my new lens ~ video

I found this fun video option on Picassa and boy did it make processing a slideshow movie easy! While in TN, Jason and I really got a chance to play around with our new camera lens, and we are so happy with some of the pics we got. Not every picture in this video is with our new lens but you can sure tell which ones are :)

Horsey Time

The girls favorite thing about vacation was riding a horse. We did this last year and although Ella was excited to go, once she got on the horse she cried and lasted about 10 seconds before wanting to get off. But this time, she loved it! Her horse's name was choco and Laney's horse's name was fireball. Laney has always been more adventurous than Ella but I think seeing her big sister ride the horse got her even more excited to ride. For once, the sisterly influence was a positive one instead of the usual-- Laney ending up in a time out :)

Getting ready for their ride

Trotting along the path

The owner was telling us that they have 28 horses in their stables.
The horses were all so well taken care of and enjoyed seeing visitors.

In 2008, right before Ella started balling and
begging to get off the horse.

She looks a lot happier this year.
2009

Nothing better than a family photo

This horse just followed Laney and my dad around.
Luckily there was a fence protecting us or
else this horse might have followed our van home :)

2008

2009
What a difference a year makes!

The horse riding went off perfectly, and we all had a great time! Thanks mom and dad for your patience with us; everything seems like an adventure with these kids :)

Here is a tree house Jason should build

My parents came across this odd Tree House last year and we decided it was worth the 30 minute drive to check it out. It is located in Crossville, TN and is called The Way Tree House.

A minister who owns the land was spoken to and decided to build this 5-story tree house/church, which is quite a thing to behold. In a way it reminded me of Noah's Arc, as strange as that sounds. Although there were many "no trespassing" signs upon the entrance we trudged forward since we heard this was something we had to see. Boy was it ever!

Everything was made from scrap wood so the corners are not precise (to say the least) and there are some off-kilter stairs and weird angles throughout--a paranoid mother's nightmare. In fact, my mom was with us and we made sure she had Ella's hand, Jason had Laney's hand and I was so nervous I took myself and Matthew down after making it only to the chapel (yes, a chapel) on the second story.

There is a wedding being performed in the Way Tree House in October of this year. In this chapel were pews, a stain glass window, a nail sticking out of a pew and a pair of dirty socks by the altar--not sure the last 2 are things you see at all chapels. Jason and I chuckled because we could only imagine the bride telling her Grandma that she would be getting married in a tree house where if you make a wrong turn you could end up 1) in a room with an old, rusty bathtub 2) a stair well with empty cans of kerosene 3) an opening where you could fall out of the tree house (literally). But definitely a place to consider if we renew our vows ;)

At the very top of the tree house, there are chimes you can ring (or so I was told since once again, I was way too paranoid) and as you look over the beautiful fields you can see Jesus written in flora. There was a swing made of rope, duct tape and an old lawn chair for the kids (or adults) you can get on! Ummm yeah, I opted to not let the kids ride this....it was comical though.

As described online, this tree house is awesomely weird.

To put the enormity of the tree house in perspective.
That little dot is Matthew and myself.





The chapel



The girls and Nana Kay swinging in the chapel.
Do all chapels have a swing?

First Day of School--revised!

Today was the girls first day of school; a day they have been looking forward to for months! They were excited to meet their teachers, Ms. Kelley and Ms. Linda, and see their new classrooms (we missed the open house last week).

Usually the teachers come to the cars to get the kids but today most of the parents walked the kids in so we could grab some pictures. Although they weren't the best pics, at least this day is documented :)

In true Laney fashion, she ran into her room and gave her teacher a big hug (mind you, she had never even been in this school or met the teacher). Ella walked into her room and was a little shy around the kids but I know she will warm up to them. Neither one had tears or any sadness in leaving me and Matthew behind and both were ready to go play with their new friends.

Do you think Ella is telling me to stop taking pictures?



They love that their backpacks have their names on them



We were ready a few minutes early and got to walk
Ella's friend, Carly, to the bus stop.



Jack and Laney



Outside of their school



Laney hanging up her backpack outside her room--the Seal room

Hanging her backpack outside of her room--the Orca room

Ella gets to ride a big school bus on her way to speech
on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It is a great service that our school system offers that if the parents aren't able to take their child to the elementary school for speech, a bus will pick them up wherever the child is.
So on Tuesdays, the bus goes to her day care and on
Thursdays the bus comes to our house!
The bus is even equipped with a 5 point harness car seat for Ella.

She was beyond excited for Mr. Bill to take her to school in the big bus although she keeps calling him Little Bill (like the cartoon--although the bus driver is not black nor is he little).

Nashville Zoo

For our family vacation we went town to Crossville, TN where we stayed at my parents' timeshare. I have been going to Crossville since I can remember (my parents bought the timeshare when I was like 2) and now my parents bought their own condo so they are there a lot! The drive takes about 6 hours from Indy which we broke up into two days. First we drove to Franklin, KY where we had two adjoining hotel rooms. Ella, Matthew and myself in one room and Laney and Jason in the other. To say it went perfectly is an understatement. I was shocked how well this all worked out! The girls played in the hot tub before going to bed (in attempt to wear them out) and when Matthew got up at 2 am to eat, Ella didn't even move a muscle.

We then woke up the next day and drove 45 minutes to the Nashville Zoo. The last time we were at this zoo, Ella was about 9 months old and for a 9 month old, she loved it. Her favorite exhibit then (and now) was the meerkats, which cracks me up. Meerkats..really?

If you haven't been to the Nashville Zoo, add this one to your list. It's one of those zoos that you can cover in a day or less, which I really like. Growing up in Cincinnati, the zoo was so big that you just couldn't see everything in a day. But Nashville you can (not to say we saw the whole zoo...we were worn out, but we could have). We didn't take a ton of pics but here are a few to share.

The infamous Meerkats

This was the play set that was at the zoo.
It was awesome and kept the girls well entertained while
I fed Matthew.

I love this sign!

In the tree house



Jason crawled through the lizard with the girls.
They were all having such fun until both girls
stood up and bonked their heads on the inside
of the lizards' mouth. It was rather comical to see the girls
go from such happy sounds to crying within less than a second.
Nothing a daddy's hug can't cure!

Ella and the stork
A mom next to us was telling her daughter the myth of
the stork delivering babies to their moms and dads.
The next thing Ella asks me "can you tell me about storks
and how they get babies out of your belly."
I guess my answer led her to this expression.

At the bird exhibit you can actually feed the birds.
The girls loved it!
When we were there a few years ago a bird landed on Jason's head.

At the petting zoo



Up close and personal

I loved this covering

After a few hours at the zoo, we were back in the car for the remaining two hour drive to my parents' place.