Fall Fun & Family

Friday started out with breakfast at Cafe Patachou downtown with my good friend Amanda.  Although I didn't get any pictures of our time together, she was very patient and read Phoebe every book asked of her and kept an eye on her every time she ran out of the restaurant.  I think I left breakfast more exhausted than when I woke up four hours before and I'm sure Amanda did too!  Phoebe and I then headed to the Children's Museum to meet up with YiaYia and Auntie Kate.  They had so much fun, I was able to run to the office for a couple hours to finish moving the rest of my stuff back after our renovations were completed the day before. 

Phoebe didn't seem to mind my absence.  She was too busy dressing up.  Like a dinosaur.

And reading about trains.

And looking at blown glass (but I was there for that part).

Auntie dressed barbies while Phoebe undressed barbies.

And then they got Phoebe to walk the cat walk.

Check this girl out!  She is stylin'!

They got to see the new penguins and polar bears exhibit.

And after a solid nap, we headed over to play in the leaves outside.

(Love my sister's face in this one!  Love how she loves our kid, too!)

Not sure what happened but at 10:30 Friday night, Phoebe threw up ALL over her bed, her animals, blankets, face and hair - guess that happens when you're fast asleep.  Three baths and two sheet-changes later, she was finally asleep around 1:00 in our bed.  It wasn't exactly a sound night's sleep for anyone, but she was back on the mend Saturday morning.  While Daddy went to a police auction, we headed out for breakfast (I think there were three bites of banana and three bites of plain pancake consumed) with my family and then off to Tuttles Orchard.

Uncle Steve got to entertain Phoebe on the swings.

On the monkey bars.

In the maze.

And every once in awhile, Phoebe would slow down long enough for a quick hug.

It was impossible to get the entire crew together for a single shot.  So here's one of Auntie Kate & me.

You'd never have guessed this girl was up sick just 12 hours earlier.  She had such a good time with everyone!

Here she is running through the hay maze.

And a pic of all the girls.

We did manage to make time to actually pick pumpkins.

By then, there was a lot of this.

But she was still happy to be there.

Just a bit pooped.

But not too tired to climb up the ladder and go down the slide a half dozen times before we had to head towards the car.

Of course, she had to stop and hold the puppy for sale.

And then decided she wanted to ride a horse after all.  This one was much bigger than the last one. His name was Gunner. And by the third and final lap, she didn't even want me to touch her.  Such a daredevil.

And just for posterity, Papou was there, too.  He was the guardian of the wagon, pumpkins and coveted apple slushies and my peanut-covered caramel apple.  Thanks, Papou!

It was sad to see everyone head out-of-town Sunday afternoon, but we're not that far away from Thanksgiving and will see my entire side of the family again.  Until then, it's back to packing up this house and attempting to sell it before our next little one appears.  And I think all the activity this past weekend has finally switched Phoebe's clock - she's back to sleeping through the night and in great spirits.

 She did say that her ear hurt this morning on the way to school.  However, she said that both feet hurt while she was getting dressed earlier (That was followed by a "CoCo did it..." - which we hear a lot, by the way) and last night during bath time, it was "My body hurts" but she meant her "booty."  Either way, we go back to her pediatrician this Friday for her weight check and I'll be sure to ask her doctor about all her other "ailments" as well. 

Country Living

Ok, so this isn't country living, but I had to post this picture.  We got CoCo groomed at a nearby vet on Thursday.  We're no longer sure she's a YorkiePoo!  Either way, we love the soft fur that no longer drags in half the yard when she comes in the house! 

Here's our cool girl with the magical color wonder markers as we head down to Princeton late Friday afternoon.  We've already been to MOPS, gotten our flu shots and she got to go have frozen yogurt with YiaYia while Ryan and I had our 16 week appointment.  She should be tuckered out, but she's just hanging out in the backseat.  She eventually took an hour nap around 4:00.

We stopped in Terre Haute for a quick dinner and a brief trip to Gander Mountain to get our feet working and burn some energy.  Phoebe loves to play in the tents and a stick pony just happened to be in this one.  Lucky us!

Regardless of our attempts to be wiped out once we arrived (an hour past Phoebe's bedtime) this is what we got.  We swiped YiaYia's bedrail in hopes that Phoebe would sleep well on a roll-a-way.  No such luck.  She fell asleep between us around 11:00.  It was NOT a sound night's sleep!

However, we were ready to go Saturday morning and after a waffle at the hotel, we headed to see GG (GreatGrandma) and Nana.  And then we headed to Dale's house where Ella, Alecia and Aunt Debi were staying.  We arrived and promptly went on a walk out in the country.

Since most fields have been harvested, we sent the girls off to run in another attempt to burn off some energy!  They did pretty well and we determined that Taffy (Dale's newest addition) was probably a herd dog as she liked to run back and forth between the two of them in an attempt to keep them together.

Dale has quite the gun collection so Phoebe got to see a few of his "trophies" as well.  Here's the lone bear amongst a room of deer-heads on the wall.  Phoebe wasn't scared in the least and loved the "gobble" (aka turkey feathers) as well.

Since Dale has a few acres (38 or so) a lot of shooting practice has been done on his property.  We all took a shot (or two, or three...) while the girls stayed inside playing ping pong.

Ryan finally got to shoot his sig.  I shot it once and wasn't a big fan.  Let's just say, any perpetrator that comes into our house while Ryan is gone - has a pretty good chance of escaping alive...

Here's Nana and Phoebe sporting pigtails (or as Phoebe likes to call them, "ponies").

Found a bird's nest in GG's front yard.

Even did some wheelbarrow action.

The real reason most of our family was in town was to go to a wedding.  Here are the girls reading before they headed off to Evansville for the ceremony.

And the main reason we stayed in a hotel...Phoebe got to try out the pool.  I was amazed that she wanted to get in without her floaters and eventually we coercered her into wearing them so she could reach the ladder on the other side of the pool.   She picked it back up in nothing flat and had a blast!

We took GG to dinner and then waited for everyone to arrive back home.  Here GG is showing off Phoebe's talent with stickers.   They rarely end up on paper - more or less they end up on her or you.

It's amazing how limber Nana is at 10:00 at night!

And here's Alecia trying to calm the girls down after a crazy long day.

Sunday morning, we headed back to GG's to see how Nana did sleeping with our wiggly worm.  Rarely does Phoebe sleep vertical.  We've been dealing with something at our house recently - she's been up EVERY night for the past week and has ended up in our bed - leaving us to get less-than-quality sleep.  We were thrilled that Nana wanted to have a sleepover and gladly obliged!

After breakfast, we got some pictures of the family before we headed back home.

Thanks for the fun fun fun this weekend!  I'm off to finish the laundry and hit the hay and pray pray pray that our toddler is so exhausted that she sleeps through the night! 

Friends (Old & New)

It doesn't seem possible that Monday is here already - it was a whirlwind of a weekend!  I must start off this post by saying that Ryan and I celebrated six magical years as husband and wife on Saturday and I couldn't be blessed with a better husband, friend or father to my child(ren).  Who knew that six years ago when we were in sunny Aruba, we'd be where we are today.  I love you, honey!

That being said, Saturday morning, I headed out (alone) to meet up with some of my oldest and dearest pals at Taylor's Homecoming.  It was my ten year reunion and I am still amazed how easy it was to pick right back up and truly, how little most of us had changed.

This sight will never grow old for me - Taylor's bell tower kept the time for me for four years on campus and didn't chime enough while were there on Saturday!

We toured our old stomping grounds on Third North and couldn't believe how little things had changed.  They did get new and improved bathrooms on each floor and the lounge furniture was newer, but other than that, it was still the "home" we'd known for four years.

This is the new prayer chapel that was erected after the five people from Taylor were killed in an automobile accident a few years ago.  They've done a lovely job remembering and celebrating their lives and pointing people to prayer in all circumstances.

I about peed my pants in this picture - didn't know I could still get my legs up that far at this stage in the game.  This is my ONLY friend from Taylor that lives in Indy and I am SO glad she does!

We hit up TOPPIT (The Only Pizza Place in Town) for dinner.  Their breadsticks are just as good now as they were ten years ago!  And of course the belly is bigger because of it!

We ended our night with laughs and ice cream at Ivanhoe's.  The best place on earth.

Sunday we came home right after church because the Colts played at 1:00.  Phoebe's friend McKenzie was over five minutes after we walked in the door so eventually, I put them to work in the kitchen and they made banana bread together.  It actually went quite smoothly - I just pre-measured everything into bowls and they dumped, mixed and scraped.

Of course they had to stop and eat the lone banana that was still worthy of being eaten in its natural state.

I feel like Christmas cookies are definitely in these girls' futures together!

And here they are enjoying their finished project while coloring with glitter markers (which are - thank the Lord - washable)!  Looks like their bread was a success!