Eureka Days

Our town had their little festival on September 11th. We decided to participate and headed down there for about 45 minutes! It was long enough for Emma to get her face painted (for the first time!), ride the carousel, and get her picture with the firetruck! She had a blast in the short time we were there!

Pickle Springs

We spent the actual Labor Day on a hike at Pickle Springs. This was quite the workout and was much harder than I remembered it being. Probably because I have never done it while hauling either a six month old and/or a two and a half year old! Lucky for me and unlucky for my mom, mid-way through Emma only wanted her Grandma to carry her! It was strenuous for anyone much less being a grandma and lugging Emma but my mom was a real trooper and only got lightheaded once! Nothing a little water couldn’t fix!

The hike was full of nature complete with a snake which made me want to quit! I don’t think we will be going back anytime soon, at least not until all children can hike on their own. Oh, and the almost 12 year old Catherine wore flip flops and required some assistance as well at times!


In case you were wondering what the heck Emma is wearing, let me explain. Earlier that morning my dad had been to Wal-Mart. Apparently he got sidetracked in the summer clearance aisle. He came home with a twelve pack of Sam’s Choice Cola Zero (that he only paid $1 for; we heard all day about what a great deal it was!) and this lovely ensemble for Emma. He had called to ask what size she wore so I knew he was buying her some sort of clothing and was expecting a dress of some sort. Instead, he went for Thomas the Train! The best part of the entire story is that he still believes that this is a girl outfit! The lady in the check out line said “Oh, do you have a little boy at home?” and my dad said “No, my grandaughter!” She then proceeded to tell him how Thomas was for boys but my dad was quick to inform her “No it is not, we watch this show together on TV!” (So it MUST be for girls!)

Labor Day Weekend 2010

We spent most of Labor Day weekend at my parent's house just being lazy. Is that what you are supposed to do on Labor Day? Adam and I did get some away time as we headed to southern IL for Adam's friend Jason's wedding.

We met up with Eric and Erin at the wedding. I brought along my camera with a dead battery and Erin’s memory card was full so these are the only two pictures we have! However, I did manage to snag one of Adam dancing off of facebook! Give him $20 bucks and he will do anything! (He told me he is always trying to make extra money for our family and I guess that includes embarrassing yourself on the dance floor if it is a paying job!)





We spent some time OUTSIDE of the pool as it was too cold to get in (though Catherine did, she would get in when it was snowing if we let her!), went on a hike, and ate lots of food!


To entertain the children (actually it was quite fun!), I traced everyone in sidewalk chalk then colored their clothing on them. I also traced Adam who complained about his image and said that I messed up his foot. I was only drawing what I saw. (Anyone who knows Adam and sees this picture of the left foot will probably see the resemblance!) He then traced me and gave me no neck. I like to think that was because my hair was in the way and not because I really look that way! Also, I started getting tired so Adam and I are not clothed! Sorry if this bothers you!

Papa Buck and Ally’s Birthday Party (August 28th, 2010)

We spent the day visiting Papa Buck and hitting the Piñata at Cousin Ally’s birthday party. It is always fun to see my grandpa and he gets really excited to see the girls! He gets a kick out of Emma and is always measuring her up to see how big she is. He has always been pretty blunt about our looks; commenting on whether or not he likes how I am wearing my hair and how my weight is going as well! He is delighted because Emma is “starting to slim down” and says that Audrey “sure is a BIG healthy thing”! It makes me laugh to think that he would even notice such a thing at his age!

We celebrated Ally’s third birthday party complete with swimming, cake, and a Piñata. Emma was in heaven and crashed on the way home from her major sugar high!

We also got to meet our new cousin, little Eli, who was born on July 23rd. He is a little cutie!

Cute Baby Girl

Some photos of Audrey right before she peed all over our bed! Good thing she is so cute!

Stephanie's Baby Shower

The girls from my work got together to have a shower for my friend Stephanie who is expecting her first baby, little Ryan, in late September. The shower was tons of fun and the food was delicious. I brought Audrey along because I thought now I can tell her that she was at her husband’s baby shower. Won’t that be sweet? I can’t wait for Halloween 2011 when I plan on dressing them up as a prince and princess! Those will be priceless photos at their wedding!

Sisters Who Play Together

Lately the girls have been very interested in each other. Today I vacuumed the entire house while Audrey was in the Johnny Jumper and Emma was playing underneath her! They both thought it was very funny. Every day they spend a good 30 minutes rolling around on the floor together but it usually ends with Audrey pulling Emma’s hair! It is so nice that they are starting to entertain each other and that their closeness in age is starting to pay off. Can’t wait till they can go downstairs and play and I can catch up on my soaps! Just kidding (kind of)!

Emma has a headband on her head....

I don’t know if you are familiar with them or not but one of Emma’s favorite DVD’s is the Laurie Berkner Band. They sing all kinds of silly songs one of them being “My mom has an alligator on her head” and then it goes on to naming all the family members and all of the silly items on their head. Today Emma walked downstairs with this blue headband on singing “Emma’s got a headband on her head, Emma’s got a headband on her head!” You have to know the song to appreciate this but I am sure all of us who have suffered through watching it with Emma can get a chuckle from this! So here she is in her blue headband!

Michigan

I have been putting off this post because I have an overwhelming amount of pictures to sort through but it is important that I document it so I will try!

Every August, we spend a week on Lake Michigan with Adam’s IL family. This year there were around 44 people of the 72+ family there! It was crazy but tons of fun. We spent the mornings at the beach, followed by some pre lunch swimming, then headed into a lovely Chalet for lunch. After lunch we swam, napped, and ate some more. Every night ended in our cabin with a large group of people playing “Mafia”. We have decided that the family has a sick addiction to the game. Ali and her family were in for the weekend so it was nice to spend some time with them before Baby Andy arrives. Here is my best attempt to capture with week without an overload of pictures. I promise I am only using a small amount of the 300 I took!

First, the pool photos….

Then the beach photos….



Hanging around photos…

Lana and Audrey (looking forward to next year when these too little buddies can play together!)

Mafia…

And sunset photos (a tradition!)…

That’s it! Hope you made it through!

Belated Birthdays

We missed both my mom and dad’s birthdays so last Friday we had a belated birthday celebration complete with Apple Pie. Emma and Catherine had fun decorating for the party and when they were done, Emma looked at the table and said “cool man!”

Softball, Baseball, and Vacation Packing

Though there are no photos to document (Adam threatened me so I was not able to bring my camera), Adam has spent every Monday night this summer playing softball in Forest Park. He is on a team from his work and I think the girls and I showing up a few nights with the stroller, dolls, and McDonald’s was enough to embarrass him so I tried not to make it worse by photographing the ordeal! Even though his team was pretty much horrible, (sorry to any fellow players who may be reading this but it is the truth) he really looked forward to it every week. Since there were no game time photos, I did take a post game photo of the girls (Emma does not get the concept of looking at the camera as you can tell). I wish I would have taken a picture of Emma’s feet to show how filthy they were! She really loved playing in the dirt.

Now onto baseball. We got all ready one evening to go to a Cardinal game only to have it rain like crazy. This would have been Emma’s 3rd (we have taken her to one a year) and Audrey’s 1st. Since it was raining so hard, we decided not to take them but we did grab one photo of the girls though it is not the greatest. Emma has also been really into feeding Audrey. It would be helpful if she was interested in doing it for more than 20 seconds!

And here they are while I was trying to pack for our vacation. I thought I might lose my mind. Emma took things out of the suitcase as fast as I could put them in. And then when it came time to load the car, I thought I might die from a heat stroke. Thankfully we left for vacation during the hottest week of the year. Unfortunately, so did the lawn watering, which turned our grass completely brown while we were gone!

Notice Audrey’s hand in Emma’s hair. Recent hair pulling has been causing some drama in our house as of late. Emma screams and Audrey belly laughs. It reminds me of the youtube video “Charlie bit my finger”. And like the video, Emma keeps coming back for more!

And two more photos of my little ladies…..