Another Fun Weekend!

Crystal and Jackson (well, Jesse too, but he went on to Bristol for the NASCAR race) came to visit us this past weekend! What a fun weekend that went by WAY too fast! It's always so fun when family comes to visit us, but it's getting busier and busier with all these kids dancing/running/crawling/laying around everywhere...

It's hard to believe that Meggan has completed almost 3 1/2 full weeks of school. She is doing awesome! She really likes her teacher and seems to like school a lot! She battled a bit of a stomach bug pretty much all of last week, which Jordan finally picked up and over the weekend when he vomited on Jason. His seemed to last just 24 hours, so that was at least a plus! Poor things!

Meggan will start up gymnastics classes again starting Monday evening (we decided to take a break for the month of August and just enjoy the last few weeks of summer and get her back into school mode and all that entails), and she has choir practice at our church on Wednesday evenings. That should keep us busy for a while! She is sigend up for an 8-week session, but I have a feeling she will want to keep going - she really seems to love the gymnastics classes!

Tonight we met Jason at Home Depot and purchased a new grill. I will have to post a picture on here soon - it is pretty sweet! Ours decided to stop firing up, so we decided it was time. We use the grill a lot, and especially when it's nice outside. After that we stopped at Chick Fil-A and had some supper and, of course, got Meggan's face painted since it was kids' night. It really is cute!


Meggan's princess face paint!

Sorry that I don't have too many pictures from the weekend - sometimes I am terrible about grabbing my camera. Maybe my sister, Crystal, can e-mail some to me (hint, hint) and I'll post them up here!

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week! I'm all caught up on work (yippee!) and ready to head to Terre Haute for my job in the morning!

Perfect Weekend!

Jason didn't have to work on Saturday morning AND there wasn't a base ball game this weekend!!! How exciting!

To short-circuit the grocery shopping and get it done before the weekend was officially here, we met Jason at Buffalo Wild Wings for supper on Friday after he got off of work. After a yummy supper disappeared off our table, we headed to Wal-Mart to get the groceries we needed. He took off from there to head to Sam's Club for diapers and a few other things we normally buy there instead of at Wal-Mart, and the kids and I headed back home. Now we could enjoy Saturday and Sunday and not have to squeeze grocery shopping into the mix!

We made plans to head to the Indiana State Fair on Saturday with the Johnsons, and we all had a blast! We made the rounds through the animals and the little farm experience (where the kids gather eggs, pick vegetables, "milk" the cows, etc., and then at the end they can sell their stuff to the market and get "money" to buy one item). The kids had fun walking through there and picking out there goodies, Meggan a carton of orange juice and Jordan a little box of Pops cereal, and then it was time to head to the rides!

Meggan wanted to try some of the bigger rides, but after riding the Crazy Mouse roller coaster with Jason, she's more than perfectly happy on the smaller section of rides! She did love the caterpillar roller coaster, and I even caught her with her hands in the air during the second or third time that her and Maggie decided to ride it!

The kids in the garden picking their veggies!

Riding the motorcycle ride together!

There's Meggan in the fourth row back with her hands straight up!

After the fair we came home and then Dawn and I got to go out to dinner and to the mall by ourselves! What a great time! We shared a meal at Cheesecake Factory (so that we could have a piece of cheesecake) and shared the cheesecake too ... then made our way into the mall and came out with a few new pairs of shoes and a new shirt! It was a really fun time, and nice to get the chance to talk to Dawn without the kids screaming in the middle of us... :)

In the meantime, the kids and Daddy had popcorn for supper and watched a movie that Jason took Meggan to the movie store to pick out, The Singing Princess. Looked like they had a good time (sorry, but the pics were a little blurry)!

Popcorn for supper? On the living room floor? Daddy, are you feeling okay??? :)

After church on Sunday we decided just to come back home and hang out for the day. We filled up the kids' pool in the backyard, and they swam for a while after we ate lunch and before Jordan was ready to lay down for his nap. Then we all ended up laying down for a while, until it was time to eat some supper and head to ChristCare Group in the evening!

It was such a great weekend spent together as a family! :) How thankful I am for these 3 wonderful people!

Mommy and Jordan's Day to Hang Out!

Woo-hoo for Friday! Our baby-sitter took today off so that she could go out of town for a long weekend, I think to visit family. Anyway, since we don't really have any kind of back-up childcare, that meant I just HAD to sign out for the day and stay home with him (you like how that works?)!

We started off a little rough, as he was crying and whining for a while and I was worried that I might regret this day...

Then it was like he hit a switch. I don't know what it is about this boy, but oh, how I LOVE him!

"EEE!" Since he doesn't say S or CH, that's what he says for "Cheese!" CUTE!!!

We rode on my bike to a big park that's a couple neighborhoods away (which means it was probably a good 8-10 miles total of riding)! He played and played. It wasn't even a big park, but he just kept going up and down the slide, up and down the slide, anywhere he could RUN. I think he could have done this for hours if I hadn't made him leave so we could eat some lunch! We had Mac & Cheese with some fruit for lunch, and then we played upstairs for a while. We wrestled (consisting of him jumping on me and me throwing him back onto the floor, just for him to get back up and jump on me again). At 1:30 it was time for him to lay down and get some rest.

Meggan will be home around 4:00 from her first week of kindergarten! She has done so great and made such a wonderful transition back into the all day, every day swing of things!!! Sure, she is tired in the evenings, but she's just done so awesome - and we're so very proud of her! What a year she's going to have...

Tomorrow we are going to hit the Indiana State Fair, and then I'm going to have dinner and probably walk around the mall with Dawny (kid-free, yippee!). Then Sunday is church and we might try and hit the YMCA and swim at the pool for a while. Hard to believe it's just a couple more weeks and the pool will be closed until next summer! Lots of fun to be had this weekend!

I wish I could join Jordan and take a snooze during naptime, but I figure if I get some work done that I will feel better and enjoy the fun weekend a lot more!

Mommy and her little man (don't mind the no makeup look ... I did manage to squeeze a shower in since I got all sweaty riding the bike with 27 pounds behind me, but forget about the makeup today)!!!

She's Off!!!

Our little kindergartener (with her High School Musical backpack she picked out)!

So the morning went just fine! Meggan was so excited that she couldn't even eat all her breakfast. She told me her "belly was hurting" ... but then a minute later she told me that it was because she was just too excited! I'm really glad that she was though - if she would have started crying or telling me she didn't want to go, I know I wouldn't have been able to hold it together!

It helps to have "distractions" too. Katie and Cami were down here talking to her while we were outside waiting for the bus to come. Dawn even asked her boss to let her go in to work late so that she could see Meggan get on the bus for the first time - her and Lucas were a great distraction for Meggan (and her mommy) as well! That was so sweet and thoughtful of you, Dawn - THANKS for being there for this special day!

Katie, Meggan & Cami (look at those blonde beauties - YIKES)!

Just Meggan & Cami this time!

And then there's Jordan, who was much more interested in playing in Daddy's car (and that "cheese" again)!

I did have to hold back a couple tears right after she left, but it went pretty well actually! It does seem like it just happens so quick ... all of a sudden the bus is pulling away down the street and they're gone! I'm so excited for her to tell me about her day this afternoon!!! :)

And they're off!

Wow, she's officially a kindergartener! Check that one off the list of MANY things that we'll have to make it through in her lifetime...

From Kindergarten to Married...

We got home from going to church this morning, followed by a couple hours of swimming at the YMCA, and Meggan went straight up to her room. Here is how she came out:




"Mommy, now I look just like a bride!"


"Mommy, take my picture like a bride with her flower."

Seriously? Doesn't she know I'm already having enough trouble getting over the fact she's heading off on the bus to kindergarten tomorrow? As if I needed her to start talking about her getting married..........

"Jordan, say cheese!" :)

He wanted in on the camera action, so this is the result. He still has the eye-closing thing going on!!! He is SOOOO funny!

With all the talk about Meggan heading off to kindergarten these days, I probably have left Jordan in the dust. He is turning into a 2-year-old nowadays, as his second birthday is quickly approaching and will be here before we know it! He really can say more words than I tend to give him credit for (no, they may not all be pronounced perfectly), but I think I don't give him as much credit for the words he can say because he still only uses them when HE chooses to - and at NO other time! He's a stubborn one, that boy! :)

They were both swimming like fish today! Meggan has little diving rings that she loves to swim after, and one day she will even go in and under the water without her nose plugged! I don't mind that she does this, but I know she would learn to swim so much better if she would just use both hands. Jordan even jumped in and out and was kicking his feet around in the big pool - that's kind of a first for him over there. He's getting braver and braver in the baby pool, but usually when we head over to the big pool, he freezes up and just whines for Mommy the whole time (even when I'm standing right there HOLDING him)!

Long story short: Not only my baby girl, but my baby boy (who's not such a baby at all anymore) even seems to be growing up before my very eyes these days..........

So now Jordan is napping and Meggan and I are going to finish watching the Strawberry Shortcake Christmas (don't even ask) movie that she wanted to rent at the video store last night (hey, the kids' movies are FREE)! On this her last day before she's officially a kindergartener, I'm going to lay down and snuggle up with her and hold on tight (before she doesn't want me to do that anymore)! That day will come soon enough ... and these transcript pages that I need to get done can wait until later tonight!

Seriously? She's a Kindergartener???

Can this REALLY be happening? How can my little baby girl be ready to get on the bus and go to kindergarten already?

Well, we had kindergarten orientation last night, and Meggan got to meet her new teacher, see where her seat will be (she's at the red table, which has a pretty vase with red flowers in it), and meet some of her new friends. She truly did seem to be on Cloud 9 ... hopefully she will stay there through the weekend and when she hops on the bus Monday morning! That will make it easier for both her and her mommy!!! :)


Meggan at her desk (notice the new "bob" haircut she got from Grandma yesterday afternoon ... she even blow-dried it and curled it under a little for her)!


Meggan and her new teacher, Mrs. Schoch (pronounced Shock), and Chester the raccoon from the story they read!

Meggan and Sara in their classroom! It will be so fun for these two to get to spend time together again!

I really, truly am NOT looking forward to Monday morning and sending her off on the bus for her first day of school. I just want to keep her under my wing and protect her from anything bad that could happen to her. I just want her to be happy and for this transition to be easy for her! I pray that God will help us adjust to her going to school on the bus and that everything will work out smoothly and easily for her to get on and/or off the bus at Nancy's house and no confusion will result!!!

On another note: Here's a picture of Jordan "helping" Jason put together a shelf we bought last weekend for the closet. It's just to hold more junk and keep it all off the floor (mostly blankets and/or pillows). It really does make a difference in there! And Jordan loved getting to help Daddy build it!

Of course, then Meggan wanted to go up there, but we told her that it probably wasn't really built to hold quite 40 pounds. Since Jordan only weighs 26 pounds or so, we thought that would be all right! She helped too, but she just had to do it with Daddy lifting her up there! :)

Jason is getting ready to head to Dearborn, Michigan, this weekend. They aren't leaving until tomorrow around suppertime, and then they will head home sometime on Sunday, even if they have to drive late at night. He wants to be here to watch Meggan get on the bus for the very first time!!! They will be playing in the World Tournament of Vintage Base Ball - I hope they have a great time, and play well!

Thanks for checking in on us. Check back on Monday, and I'll post her getting-on-the-bus pictures then! Until then, have a great weekend!

August Already?

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything, but it's been crazy busy around here!

We had a wonderful visit last weekend with Jared and Sonny and the girls coming out to spend the weekend with us!!! The girls (and even Jordan too) had a wonderful time playing together, and it was just a nice time to get to hang out with them all!

On Saturday we went downtown to walk on the Canal in the morning, but since it was misting rain (and then started raining a bit harder after that), we decided to turn around and head back down to the south side. We ate lunch at O'Charley's and then headed back home for naptime.

Meggan danced at the Marion County Fair later in the afternoon, and so everybody came and watched her there (Jas and me & Jordan, Jared and Sonny & Jess and Randi, Dawn and Jer & Lucas, and of course the Johnsons were there watching Maggie dance too)! After they did their little Teddy Bear performance, we headed over to the rides. We bought the kids a wristband so they could do as many rides as they wanted to, so they had 1 1/2 hours to ride as many as they could! Jordan and Faith just got some tickets, but they had fun too!!! :)

The girls performing Teddy Bear!

The kids enjoying their first ride at the Fair!

The girls on the ride that goes around and you can make it spin!

Jordan on the Nemo ride!

The guys all went to the Brickyard 400 race on Sunday, and they had a lot of fun! The weather was actually pretty nice, so it was an enjoyable one for them - not raining and not 100 degrees either! In the meantime, the girls and the kids all went to the YMCA to hit the pool. It was really so much fun! The kids all enjoyed swimming, and Meggan even figured out how to get little diving rings off the bottom of the big pool!!!

Allstate 400 at the Brickyard - the view from the guys' seats!

Then came the start of this week. I was asked on Thursday afternoon of the week before last if I would be able to cover a trial ... THAT WAS STARTING ON MONDAY. Of course, I said I could, and so Pat and I were off to the races (literally). We started on Monday morning with jury selection, and it was a pretty exhausting week. I'm glad the weekend is here for a little bit of a break, and then we're back to it Monday morning at 8:30. The case is supposed to be submitted to the jury for deliberations on Monday, so one more day we go!

It's been a busy week, but it will be worth it in the end! :)

Hope everyone has had a great last couple weeks since I've been a little bit removed. Sorry we don't have better pictures, but I'll share a few of last weekend anyway. Until next time.....