Chatterbox & Water Bug

What?! What in the world could that title mean?! Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything and those were the best words I could find to describe our girls these days. Peyton is a little chatterbox. We still can't quite understand most of what she's trying to tell us, but she's talking! There are several words though that are recognizable now, her most frequently used word is "done". She says this whenever she is finished doing anything, but usually it's when she's done eating. It does not necessarily mean she wants to BE done, she has simply eaten all of the food on her plate and is waiting for more. She also holds up her plate to show you she is "done". She occasionally says "thank you" to her babysitter and has said it a time or two at home. She also says, "bye bye", "mom", "da da", "Ally" (or something close enough that we know she means Ally), "go", "ball", "bubble", "no" (I'm not a big fan of this one), "nigh nigh" (for when she's ready for bed)and "car" (which sounds more like cow-er, but then she makes vroom sounds so we know she means car). I'm telling you, this kid makes us laugh!

Allison is also a chatterbox, but she's been that way since she was Peyton's age! Allison is once again our little water bug. She is back in swim lessons after a summer hiatus and is doing awesome! This kid was meant to be in the water...she is fearless. She swims with her face in the water, can swim without the teacher helping her float on both her stomach and her back, jumps in without anyone catching her...you name it, she'll try it. We are so proud of how well she is doing and how hard she tries. I'd attempt to post pictures from swim lessons, but you can't take pictures without having permission ahead of time. I'm guessing so nobody's kid ends up in someone else's pictures without parental consent and then on somebody's blog for the whole world to see...

She's as sweet as apple pie!

I had so much fun with Allison this evening. After putting Peyton to bed, Ally and I headed into the kitchen to make apple pies. We bought a bunch of apples at the grocery today and decided we wanted to bake pies. Ally used the apple peeler and slicer (which is a HUGE time saver) while I gathered all of the ingredients, bowls, pie tins, etc. We used Grandma Burns' recipe for the crust and the filling. This meant making our own pie crust which Allison couldn't wait to roll out with the big rolling pin! This might have been her favorite part of making the pies. I was amazed at what a great job she did, making sure to roll out the crust in all different directions to try to get a round crust. Then when she mixed the cinnamon and sugar mixture on the apples, she did a great job digging down under the apples as she mixed to be sure each apple was covered. She also liked getting a bit messy when she helped mix up the crumble topping with her hands. By the time we finished assembling the pies it was after 9pm. We decided to let them bake and we would enjoy them on Sunday afternoon.

While we were working, Allison asked me about the show I like to watch with the kids who couldn't walk. At first I had no idea what she was talking about because it seemed so random, but then I realized she was talking about Extreme Makeover Home Edition. One evening when I was watching the show, Allison caught part of it with me (about 5-10 minutes). On this particular episode, the family had three children, two of whom were wheelchair bound and they talked about their struggles because the parents had to carry the kids up and down the stairs in their house. She asked me a lot of questions about the kids and what she saw. She struggled a bit with how the kids on the show were so happy even though they couldn't walk. Eventually she decided that God loved them, so they could be happy. When I tucked her in bed, she wanted her bedtime story to be about the kids who couldn't walk, but were happy. She's as sweet as apple pie!

And we're starting to understand...

Peyton has been "talking" for a long time now, but we're finally starting to understand some of her words. She is ALWAYS trying to tell us something. When she talks, she looks at you and uses lots of expression, it's just that most of the time the words are in her own language and we just stare at her trying to figure out what she's pointing at or something. It's kind of cute to us, probably frustrating for her, but she is certainly trying to communicate. The following are the recognizable words she uses:

Mom Mom
Dada (sometimes she says this and looks at me...guess she's a little confused!)
Ah-yee (pretty sure this is Ally)
baba (sippy cup)
ball
bubble
go

She also shakes her head "no" and is now nodding her head "yes". It's amazing how much she understands when we speak to her. We can tell her to go get something (shoes, jacket, toy, etc.) and she goes and gets it. When we ask her yes/no questions, she acknowledges our question and answers by shaking or nodding her head. Peyton is a smart little girl with quite the personality!

A Rustic Weekend in Michigan

Does it get any better than time spent with your best girlfriends? Since we're spread out, not only around the country, but also around the world, this doesn't happen very often for my IU girls. For approximately an eternity, my college girlfriends and I worked on planning a girlfriends getaway. It all came together this past weekend when we made the trek to Allegan, Michigan. Tara's husband's family owns a cottage on Lake Sixteen and graciously allowed us to stay there.

We arrived on Saturday around lunch time and started cooking. Jen couldn't wait to have a beer, so we opened a few Blue Moon Harvest Ales and toasted our girls weekend. Even though we were only five ladies, we literally could have fed a small army with the amount of food we brought. Fortunately we've all improved our culinary skills since our time at IU! The food we made was amazing.

Following lunch, we headed outdoors for some fresh air. We took out a canoe and paddle boat and went out around the lake. Jen, Michelle, and I were having some issues steering the paddle boat. According to Jen the handle to steer the boat was "sensitive"...we'll go with that, Jen. :)

Tara and Kristy seemed to have much better control over the canoe they were in. We were going to try and catch some turtles, but only saw one on a log.

What trip to the wilderness would be complete without a campfire? Of course we had to have a fire, the only problem was we had some trouble getting it started. It was a good thing we had Tara and Jen to help us out! Since Jen was an Indian Princess back in the day, she managed to get the fire ablazing. When it started to die down, Tara knew enough to blow on the fire to reignite it. Thanks, ladies!

After some star gazing, we headed indoors for the night. The fun wasn't over yet though, next on our agenda was an indoor fire and s'mores. Yum! Kristy is a rockstar marshmallow roaster.

When all was said and done, it was time for a group shot before heading home on Sunday. It was a bit tricky getting timers set on the cameras and everyone in the photo, but we managed to get a few good shots. Thanks for the memories, girls!

You can read more about our weekend on their blogs: Tara, Jen, Michelle, and Kristy.

Auntie Kerri comes for a visit...and Gavin too!!!

Last week Sunday, Kerri came out to visit for the day. She surprised the girls by bringing Gavin along with her. It's always fun to get the cousins together to play. It was a pretty hot day, but we did get outside for a little while to test out Ally's hoola hoop and Gavin to "drive" the car. While we were inside, Ally was playing stylist for Aunt Kerri. She got out the curling iron (which she "plugs" into the couch!) and some clips. I believe Aunt Kerri's visit to Ally's beauty salon wasn't too painful and she managed to leave with a mostly full head of hair.
Peyton had fun pushing her babydoll around in the stroller. Peyton is FINALLY walking on her own now! We're very happy for that.

Michigan

Darren, the girls, and I took a weekend trip to Michigan. We stayed in the Grand Haven area for two nights. The weather couldn't have been any nicer for us...sunny and warm, but not too hot. We went miniature golfing, Darren and Ally rode go karts, did LOTS of swimming at the hotel, and spent an afternoon at the beach. Everyone had such a fun time!Here come the Speed Racers!

Ally's first time playing miniature golf.

Peyton enjoyed the beach. She didn't mind getting sand on her and had fun in the waves.

Ally & Daddy being silly.

Peyton takes a break by the pool at our hotel.

A bedtime snack and Peyton is all smiles.

She's just too darn cute!

A few weeks ago we went to an ice cream social as part of the Three Rivers Festival activities. Allison wore her "Hannah (Montana) Hair" and got her face painted. She's just too darn cute!