Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers
Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Day

John and I couldn't wait to see Chad's reaction when he came downstairs to see what Santa had left him. We thought surely he would be interested in new toys and the train table that sat all alone in the corner on Christmas Eve. But as you can see from the pictures, the vacuum didn't leave Chad's side.

Not quite sure about Elmo Live in this pic

I don't think the vacuum's going to fit in there buddy!!


Christmas Eve 2008!!

Every year, my family, my parents, John's parents, and my brother and sister-in-law and their kids all attend the Christmas Eve church service and then go to one of our houses for the big gift exchange. This year it was at our house. Everyone arrived around 4:30 and after we finished eating dinner, the kids opened their presents first. This year John and I decided that Chad's big gift would be a wooden train table loaded with tracks and cool trains. Because we thought this would be Chad's favorite, we saved it until the end; however, a pretend Dirt Devil vaccuum that makes noise ended up being his favorite. And when I say favorite, I mean he could care less about any other toy he opened including the train set. In fact, he was obsessed with it. I hope his compulsion to clean continues on thoughout his life..hehe! Anyways, we all had a great time together and the kids behaved wonderfully!!



Intrigued by Elmo Live



Saturday, November 8, 2008

Job Perks

Last night instead of working on my normal unit of Post Partum, I had to float to Labor & Delivery to help with recoveries. After my work was done there, I was talking to some of the nurses and asked when is the earliest I could hear the baby's heartbeat. Since you can't hear the heartbeat until about 12 weeks, one of the nurses said let's just do an ultrasound. How exciting!! Although the baby (embryo) was super tiny, the nurse said she could see the heart beating (it was hard for me to tell because I was lying down and the screen was kinda far away). Since I won't see the doctor until I'm about 10 weeks along, it was nice to get confirmation a little earlier (just in case the feeling of being totally exhausted and nauseous wasn't proof enough). Unlike other jobs, we may not get free sporting event tickets or elaborate holiday parties, but at least we have access to the ultrasound machine...yeah!!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Trick-or-Treating

Chad and I went to Josh and Mandy's to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood last night. My mom and dad met us there, as well as Josh and Mandy's friends, Jake and Katie, and their two boys ages 3 and almost 2 years. All the kids seemed to have a great time and looked adorable in their costumes. After we finished trick-or-treating we went back to the house to have pizza and cupcakes (which John was finally able to meet up with us there after work). Although our little monkey fell asleep on the car ride home, we still took him to see John's parents. When we got to their house, Chad perked right up and didn't end up falling asleep until after 11pm. Whew...what a day!!

Jacob-a conductor; Avrey-a fairy


Chad's Going to be a Big Brother!!

Yep, you heard me...Chad's going to be a big brother!! I first found out I was pregnat on Oct. 17 before going to our friend's halloween party (had to find out if I could drink or not..hehe). I was a little surprised just because I had taken a test earlier that week and it was negative (guess I took it too soon). But anyways, since my family has so many birthdays to celebrate in October we had already planned on going to Bravo's last Saturday night. So after another positive pregnancy test (one that actually read pregnant or not pregnant..just for confirmation) we decided to order Chad a t-shirt and let everyone see it at Bravo's. Chad and I were the last ones to arrive and after we sat down at the table, we took his jacket off to reveal the shirt. Lynn, John's mom, was sitting right next to him and had even put on her glasses to get a better look at his "cute shirt" but didn't say anything. Josh and Mandy and their kids were at the other end, while my parents sat in the middle. Josh and Mandy noticed right away so we were laughing about it but our parents were still oblivious. Finally after about 15 minutes, my mom looked over and said "does Chad's shirt say what I think it says." Needless to say, our parents were very surprised and excited for us!!!

Prumpkin Carving

Last Sunday, John and I decided with less than a week before Halloween it was time to carve our two pumpkins. Of course we did all the cutting and let Chad help take out all the "pumpkin goo." He was so excited about it. He would reach in with his whole arm, grab a big handful of gunk and put it in the bag we told him to. We did have to watch him closely though because he tried to put a pumkin seed in his mouth a couple times. Yuck!


Admiring Daddy's work!!
The finished products: John's on the left, Mine on the right
(can you tell who the better artist is?)

Friday, October 24, 2008

Decorating Chad's Pumpkin

Chad had fun picking out the facial pieces to decorate his pumpkin this week. I first tried to let him put the stickers on himself but when he put the mouth where the eyes go and the nose on the floor, I decided it would be best if I let him pick which eyes, nose, mouth, etc.. to use, arranged them where they needed to go, and then let him push the stickers in place. He was so excited about the stickers that we ended up decorating more than just his pumpkin with them and he even said the word "sticker" (although he hasn't repeated it since). We plan on carving our other larger pumpkins this weekend....we'll see how that goes.


Chad learns to eat with a spoon

Chad is learning to do new stuff all by himself everyday. Although he's a bit messy still, at least the contents on the spoon make it to his mouth about 75% of the time. Ollie sits next to the highchair at every meal just waiting to catch the other 25% that falls on the floor. At least I don't have to sweep or mop near as often...hehe!







Little Boy's Bestfriend

Chad and Ollie are really becoming great buddies. Chad loves to chase him around the house, play fetch with him, and always wants to give the doggie hugs and kisses. And Oliver is a great dog...he pretty much lets Chad do whatever he wants to.

I had to add a few pictures of Chad riding his Little People school bus. He has finally figured out how to make himself go forwards on it, although he still prefers to make it go backwards and run into everything in his path.



Costume Party 2008

Last Friday John and I went to our friend, Courtney's, 3rd Annual Halloween Party. Chad stayed home with his grandparents while we were able to enjoy a night out as Howie Mandel and one of the suitcase models. We had a lot of fun although staying up late isn't nearly as easy now that we have to get up earlier and try to entertain a 16 month old all day. But all in all, we had a good time!!! (it's too bad we didn't actually win the million dollars in the case)


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Pumpkin Patch with the Family

My parents; Josh, Mandy, Jacob, and Avrey; and us all went to a church in Fishers to let the kiddos pick out a few more pumpkins. It's not really a pumpkin patch per se, just a fenced off area in front of the building with rows of pumpkins...which was great. The kids were all so cute but of course it's next to impossible to get a good picture of all three of them.

Jacob's pick: the albino pumpkin???


A Day at the Beach....I mean Pumpkin Patch!

Last weekend a lot of us girls from work and our kids got together at Waterman's Farm and Pumpkin Patch. Had we known this particular day in October would have been about 90 degrees when we planned this event about a month ago, we may have decided to meet at the pool. But despite the heat, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Chad had fun climbing in the haystacks, playing with the "play" bulldozers and dumptrucks in the sandpit, and walking through the pumpkin patch.


Bulldozin' takes a lot of concentration


For a job well done!


"This way to the pumpkin patch"

Kayleigh must be telling the little ones something important!

A sea of pink....and one red

Monyae and Makayah maybe showing Chad how to pet the cow? Chad's learning at a young age to listen to women because more than likely they'll always be right. Hehe!

Future Painter???

We recently painted our kitchen, so of course being the helpful little boy that he is, Chad wanted to participate. Although we painted and put away all the supplies when Chad was sleeping, he still managed to find the two things that were out...a stepstool and a small paintbrush. He had a blast "pretending" to paint with a clean paintbrush.



So Many Expressions...

Priceless Smile :)

Peek-a-boo, I see you

He's all set...stick in one hand, cup in the other

Two sticks...even better!!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Chad's New Boat Bed

John and I have always liked the "nautical theme" and particularly loved the boat bed from Pottery Barns kids. However, since the pottery barn bed was just a little more than what we wanted to spend, we were so excited when we found a great deal on this "boat" furniture through JC Penney.com. We don't expect Chad will use it for awhile but we couldn't pass up the bargain. The four different boxes of "parts" arrived last week so John and his Dad put together the bed right away. Then on Tuesday night, John and I decided to put together the dresser and nightstand (couldn't be that difficult, right?). Finally at 2am, after a few "words" were exchanged, and parts that had been originally screwed on backwards were now in the right place, Chad had new furniture. The next morning Chad was so excited when he saw his "new room" for the first time! Althought it's not officially done yet (still need to paint the walls and add some extra nautical decor), he likes to go in there and play. I was hoping to get a few pictures that showed how happy Chad was about his new furniture but of course, he wouldn't sit still long enough to get a good one so I finally gave up.