Happy Father's Day!

ON A BIT OF A SIDENOTE:

Last night was Meggan's first dance recital - what fun to watch our little girl, who has blossomed into quite the performer when it comes to her dance class and also in the choir at church. We never would have guessed that she would be so excited and ready to head up to the "center of attention" back when she was 3 ... wow, has she grown up a lot in the last couple years!!! It's so fun to see her so excited for people to watch her and how proud she is of herself (and how so proud we are of her)! They did a great job, and she really loved it! We'll see what's next in store for her - she has been wanting to try a gymnastics class, so we'll have to see what we can find out about that.

Meggan and her favorite "ballerina" pose!

Meggan and Maggie with their teddy bears (their number was called "Teddy Bear" and was pretty cute)!

Meggan with almost all of her dance class! I think we're just missing Megan and Devon...

Meggan in her Finale outfit after the performance was done! She had to have some flowers (the hot-pink roses are from all of us and the yellow carnation is from her teacher)!

Just had to post some of those dance pictures - the girls were so adorable!

NOW ON TO THE TOPIC OF THE DAY:

Today was such a nice day - we spent the whole day just the 4 of us! We headed to church and then Meggan went on to Sunday school. After that was over, we grabbed a quick little bite to eat and headed to the YMCA to do a little swimming. Meggan has figured out that she can touch in the big pool at the shallow end, and so she's been trying out all the new things she can do and LOVES it! She had to show Daddy everything, since she just figured it out yesterday when the kids and I were swimming for a little while after I did the aerobics class (Jason had to work yesterday morning).

We love our Daddy!

To my wonderful husband ... I know that I don't get the chance to say it enough, but I hope you know what a great daddy you are! I appreciate you every single day for the husband and father you are - and I just want you to know that. This parenting thing is hard work, and I couldn't do it without you!!! We all love you so much, Jason - you mean the world to us!

Hope all you fathers out there enjoyed your Father's Day! What a wonderful day to get to really show how much we love and adore our #1 SUPERHERO that we call Daddy!!!

As Promised...

Here's a few pictures of the big-boy "buzz" cut!!! We're loving it! He's looking quite BLONDE for sure after this haircut. :)

Enjoy!

Lots of Fun!

We have had a pretty busy past week or so, even though I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it!

Meggan had VBS at our church all last week from 9:00-12:00 noon, and she had tons of fun! I was off a couple days last week and didn't even have any pages of transcript out to work on, so we did a little swimming at the YMCA and had lunch with some friends, etc. It was fun! They did a little performance of the VBS program at the Sunday school hour on Sunday, and she was up there singing her heart out and doing all the moves. It's really so fun to see her going up to the front of the church with the Cherub Choir and when they do the VBS every year ... I wasn't sure she would ever be "brave" enough to do that, but she has proven me wrong! It's like once she turned 4, she was a different kid and completely came out of her shell. (She wouldn't even go up to the front of the church and listen to the children's sermon before that...)

We had a fun and busy weekend, as always! The guys had a base ball game about 1 1/2 hours away on Saturday, so they headed for that around 10:00. They got home just in time for Angi and I to leave and meet the ladies to go to dinner and see the Broadway show "Wicked" at the Murat Theatre downtown. WOW - was that fun or what! It was so much fun to be a "real" adult and have a nice dinner at Palomino and then get to witness my first show ever...

Sunday was church and then we had to get Meggan all dolled up for her dance recital pictures (I can't believe I didn't snap even ONE picture of her all dressed in her tutu and tights and her hair in a bun with her bangs curled.) She looked so pretty! She has dress rehearsal tomorrow evening and then the recital is Saturday starting at 4:30. Looking forward to watching her first dance recital performance! Once we got done with pictures, we headed to the YMCA to swim. Of course, no more had Jordan plopped himself down into the little pool than the lifeguards blew their whistles and said everybody had to clear the deck due to thunder/lightning. It was such a bummer! We headed to the indoor pool and swam for a while, but it's just not the same. Jordan wanted to get down and walk around in the water like he can in the little pool outdoors, but since the shallow end is 3 1/2 feet deep, that wasn't possible. We still had some fun splashing around and then headed home! Below are a couple pictures of swimming this week - the kids with Jason at the indoor pool on Sunday and then the kids at the outdoor pool on Saturday before we went to Brady's (our neighbor that just turned 5) birthday party. On Sunday evening Jason went paint balling with a couple of the neighbor guys, and they had a fun time doing that ... he had never been paint balling before and said it was a blast, albeit hotter than you-know-where!

This week, other than dance class on Monday night, we've been just laying low and just hanging out. I called Mom up yesterday afternoon to see how late she was working and if I could bring Jordan over to get his hair cut. His "bangs" were starting to get close to getting in his eyes. We got there and decided to go for it --- WE BUZZED JORDAN'S HAIR OFF!!! I was a little nervous, I have to admit, but I'm SO glad that we did it! He looks so cute --- and looks like Jason, everybody says! Of course, didn't get a picture of that either other than on my phone to send it to Jason, so I'll have to take one this evening when I pick them up at Nancy's and post it up here.

Speaking of which, I'd better get to working on this job. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Trip to Iowa!

My mom's 6 grandkids (3 girls and 3 boys)! Didn't they do a GREAT job sitting for a picture??? From left to right: Olivia (Matt's daughter), Lucas (Dawn's son), Lily (Matt's daughter), Jackson (Crystal's son), and then Meggan and Jordan (mine, of course).

At the new pool (even though the water was FREEZING)! Doesn't it look tasty? :)

Meggan and Jess in Jared's semi!

Jordan's "cheese" face on the swing and Meggan and Jess building sandcastles in the background! Got to a few parks in the couple days we were there!

Jordan's signature head rub (he does this to Lucas multiple times a day)! I think that means he loves them?!?!?!

We got home at 1:30 a.m. today - but we were just glad to be back! The kids all did great both on the way to Iowa and on the way home last night! Dawn and I were able to have some nice conversation (while they were sleeping at least)!!! No, seriously. They did do a great job on that long car ride! What a fun-filled visit to Iowa, for sure, but I think we are ALL glad to be home! :)

Crystal and Jesse have themselves a keeper, for sure! He is so cute and so sweet - and he seems to be a good eater and a great sleeper! Let's just hope he keeps that up for their sake! It was so fun to see them and get to catch up with everyone else while we were there as well.

Meggan went to the circus that happened to be in Grundy Center TWICE on Wednesday night, stayed overnight at Uncle Jared's house with Jess and Jo-Jo, then had them stay overnight with her at Grandma and Papa's house the next night, then stayed overnight at Uncle Matt's house with Lily the next night, and then finally stayed overnight just her and Jordan at Grandma and Papa's house the last night ... she's quite the social butterfly, huh?!?!?! She had a blast getting to enjoy all the playing time with cousins and Grandma and Papa! She also had a great time riding the "new" bike that Aunt Crystal found at a garage sale for $10 ... it looks like it's brand new. It needed a little fixing on the back wheel and was out of commission for a few hours, but once Papa and Uncle Jared got their hands on it, it was good as new! That will see many, many blocks of riding in the years to come.

Jordan had a blast too once we got there, mostly enjoying the playing time with Grandma and Papa and also with the cousins outside! Saturday was a treat as we went to get pedicures and manicures since Meggan was still at Lily's house playing and Jason's parents kept Jordan busy (or was it him keeping them busy?) while I got some nice time with my mom and sisters and holding the new baby too!

After a busy weekend and the long drive back, VBS kicked off at our church this morning at 9:00. Meggan has grown up so much in the last year that I can hardly even believe it. Her poor teacher last year pretty much walked around with Meggan on her hip last year, and this year she just dove right in and started singing the songs and having fun! I'm sure having both Maggie and Cami in her group helps a little bit there, but she ran off and never looked back! I was off work today and have gotten caught up on all my pages, so it was fun to take them both along with me to VBS and then go to the pool at the YMCA and swim for a while this afternoon (and not even feel guilty in the meantime that I should be at home getting some work done)! Not something we get to do every day, so it was a real treat for all of us!

We are happy to be back in Indiana and back to "normal" everyday life! Now we just look forward to the end of this month when we go down to West Baden/French Lick for an adults-only base ball tournament the guys are playing in that last weekend (which also just happens to land on my 29th birthday)! We all have made arrangements to escape down there with no kids, and it should be quite enjoyable!!!!!

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as we did!

New York City!

So we're back from our little getaway together to New York City, and we had a GREAT time! I had to work on Friday, from about 9:00-4:00, but the rest of the long weekend was ours. Jason even met me for lunch when we took a lunch break during the deposition - that's something we don't get to do very often! :)

We did one of the bus tours that takes you all around and you can get on and off at any time you want. That enabled us to see everything, and anything we wanted to see a little closer, we could jump off the bus and check it out and then jump on the next bus that came around. It was really fun - and we felt like we really got to see everything! We also paid to go up to the Top of the Rock, which is the 70th floor of Rockefeller Center. That was well worth it! Other than those two "tourist" things, we walked around a whole lot and just took in the City - and walked and walked and walked and walked... :)

This week is another busy one. My little sister had her baby boy on Sunday morning, and we are planning a roadtrip to Grundy Center to see the little guy. My mom and Meggan took off this morning to Iowa, and Dawn and I and the boys (Jordan and Lucas) will be leaving tomorrow evening after work and then coming back home Sunday afternoon/evening to go back to work on Monday. It should be a fun - and exhausting - time!!! There's nothing like a little newborn baby; right?!?! :)

I'll post pictures of the "adventure" to Iowa next week sometime. For now enjoy a few of the views of the Big Apple!

Jason & me in Times Square!

Jason & me on Top of the Rock!

Times Square (see the ball that drops on New Year's Eve?) from the Top of the Rock!

The Empire State Building from the Top of the Rock!

Jason & me in Central Park!