Lovin' Summer

Due to lack of motivation and pure laziness I choose to bullet our summer events.  Sorry.

* The Toledo Zoo
* baseball games
* Beck Family Vacation
* Huber Family Vacation
* The Butterfly House
* The 577 Foundation
* lake day with friends
* Fireworks for the 4th
* pond and pool time with friends
* swimming lessons
* storyhour at the library
(as I type this the youngest in the family is standing on the dishwasher door and emptying it..)
* garage saling (of course!)
* thinking of selling our house
* play-dates
* shopping
* riding bike
* helping dad in the garden
* VBS
* facepainting

"new" gator                                                          

"smores"                                                                             

Dora! @ the zoo                                                         

VBS                                                                  

"helping" dad fill the pool                                                          

swimming lessons                                                

sparklers                                                                                

one of the first fish she caught on her new Dora pole                                 

tubing w/ dad                                                                 

Carter LOVES to float!                                                   

cousins!                                                               

Our Little Buddy is ONE!

Eleven days before Carter turned one he FINALLY began crawling.  He picked up on it very quickly, as we predicted and is very fast and was immediately pulling himself up to things.  Recently we have found him sitting at the little picnic table by himself pounding on it.  We have also found him "fishing", hand in the fishbowl and trying to grab Olivia's lone fish that is left.  Too simply put it...he is into
E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!  He also is saying "baw", referring to balls and balloons.  He LOVES to dance to music. 

          

Missing in action

So apparently I haven't posted anything for 7 months!!  Now I've been debating whether to do a quick recap of those 7 months (which for me, would not be too quick) or just start from today.  I have opened this blog so many times today, on this icey no school day, to post something and I have walked away not knowing where to begin...

June: ended with Friendship Days
July: began with July 4th get-together with friends at Lake Wilson, Carter starting to eat cereal, Me jumping into my new hobby of couponing (specifically Rite Aid), another zoo trip, Beck family vacation to Hamilton Lake, Huber family camping vacation to Bankers Lake
August: many play-dates with our new babysitter, Wauseon Homecoming parade, Sauder Village (Big Bicycles),  Emily's wedding, Carter's Dedication, the start of school, kids adjusted wonderfully to new sitter!!
September: Fulton Co. Fair, Henry Co. Fair, another zoo trip, Olivia started storytime at the library one evening every week, took Olivia to the circus
October: Pumpkin Festival, Monster Bash at Aeschliman's (for the kids), dressing up, playing in leaves
November: cutting our big tree down in front of the house {sniff, sniff}, Thanksgivings
December: decorating for Christmas (Olivia got her own tree in her room this year...PINK!), I got to see college friends, visiting Santa, Olivia getting sick 2 days before Christmas and then Terry on Christmas day!, picking out fish at the pet store (Olivia named them: Pink, Kookicknockick, Princess Pea, Super Reader, and Piggy), setting cookies and milk out for Santa, opening too many presents, attending many family Christmas's, an evening at the playland, Olivia's first haircut, New Year's Eve with church friends
January: one more Christmas on New Year's Day, going back to school, then I get sick and then Olivia again, sledding, visiting friends, building a snowman, and today was a NO SCHOOL DAY because of ice!

Phew..I made it and it really kills me not add more and be lots more specific. 

Now for a summary of each of us.

Carter: has 3 teeth, loves to eat, so close to crawling, has a voice, is NOT sleeping through the night!, loves to pull his sister's hair, loves to feed himself, loves the babysitter's cat, wants to get into everything he shouldn't, loves shaking his head "no" and clapping

Olivia: loves to pretend, enjoys watching Veggie Tales, Dora, Word World and of course Thomas, loves to take a pile of books into the bathroom and sit there on her potty FOREVER, loves to follow my around with her sweeper while I'm sweeping the carpet, loves playing in the snow, loves anything with babies, princesses, and trains, continues to love to wear "pretty" dresses, LOVES her backpack, loves going to the library

Terry: just started another grad class through Defiance College (this one is online), took a personal day last week to spend the day with the kids

Carissa: keeping busy with 2 little ones

Olivia is ALWAYS on the move

Going places...

Although most of May has been filled with rain days it is coming to a close feeling warm and beautiful!  We have been out and about FINALLY!  It's been a LONG winter and beginning to spring.  Now that I, especially, am feeling better and have more energy we have been leaving home much more.  The kids and I have been going out on play dates with friends every Wednesday morning to the Playland at Archbold Evan.  I looked forward to getting out of the house and being able to visit with friends and it's been good for Olivia to be around other kids.  May 2 we went out to Goshen to visit Brent and Jen and Wes (Evan was at a soccer game).  On May 8, we went to the Butterfly House in Whitehouse for Mother's Day.  What a fun experience!  None of us had been there before.  Olivia was so excited about going but once we got there she was a bit overwhelmed by the number of butterflies around her.  At the beginning of the month Carter had his 2 month wellness check-up.  Since birth he has shown signs of Torticollis.  Basically, he favor turning his head to his right and therefore has developing a flat spot on the back of his head on the right.  The doctor referred him to a Physical Therapist since this was not improving.  So Carter has been going to physical therapy once a week this entire month.  The Physical Therapist has been working on stretching and working those weak neck muscles.  She has shown me many things that we can be working with him at home on and we are seeing improvements.  Now for the upcoming month of June he will only need to go to therapy once every 2 weeks.  On Sunday, May 16 we went to the zoo for the first time this season.  It was so much fun!  Olivia is at a very fun stage now for the zoo.  She calls it the zoob!  Her favorite animals by far were the monkeys.  May 18 Olivia went to the ENT for a check-up.  Her right tube had fallen out on May 1 and the doctor removed her left tube.  He said she should be fine now and most likely not ever need tubes again!!  We're hoping for that!  On May 22 we went to Sauder Village.  Olivia's favorite part there was the "play cabin".  She played in there a long time and wouldn't stayed there all day!  She calls the Village the zoob, too.  We're keeping busy with graduation parties, 9 this year.  On Monday, May 24 Carter turned 3 months old and had his 3 month pictures taken.  He did a fantastic job smiling and being very content!  This week we bought Olivia a big girl bed!!  Now for school to finish and Terry to have more time to put it together.  Summer Olivia goals = transitioning to a big girl bed and potty training!  Yes, it's been a busy month but we are LOVING being able to get out and enjoy doing things as a family outside of our house!