Our almost daily walks

We try to go on a walk every day. Some days it just doesn't happen. Then other days we find time to go on two walks. Recently Morgan has wanted to take her own little stroller with her. We must look like quite the crew as we make our way around our neighborhood. This particular day she decided she wanted to push her stroller and the pink bear was the "baby" of choice. So off we went. You'll see from the pictures that she started out excited to push the stroller. This excitement came and went several times in our short 20 min walk. And at several points she tried, unsuccessfully, to convince me to carry her stroller. By the end of the walk she was holding the bear and dragging the stroller. It made me laugh because I have had similar experiences with my babies in strollers. I don't end up dragging the stroller, but I do end up holding my baby while pushing the stroller. So here Morgan was at 2 1/2 yrs old already learning how to juggle her baby and her stroller.

Girls' week

Let me just start by saying that my mom is awesome, and I don't know how I would have made it through this last week without her. Thanks Mom! Dave had to be gone for work most of the week. My mom was happy to come out and spend the week with us. I hate staying by myself with the girls and Mom always acts happy to have an excuse to come and stay with us. Thanks for being a good sport, Dad. :) Well, the week started out great, but by Tuesday I was starting to have some serious dental pain. I ended up having a really rough week involving several appts with my dentist, a hole in my tooth, a couple sleepless nights and some pain killers. My mom was great and I don't know how I would have been able to make it through the week without her here to help me with the girls around the clock.

So our week didn't end up going exactly as planned. But don't worry, we had some good times as we always do when it's just the girls.

We started off the week with a play date at the park. Morgan and James had a blast playing as they always do. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but these two really click. They have such a great time together and very rarely fight. I love it!

Adrienne and Lauren (James' sister) really liked the swings. Naturally Morgan wanted to help push them.Morgan got to take her Grandma with her to Kindermusik and I think they both had fun. I was told by one of my friends that when Mom and Morgan walked in to class Morgan did the "Vana White double hand display" and proudly announced "THIS is my Grandma!"

After class we headed to Shipshiwana were we rode on the carousel, stuffed ourselves with soft pretzels, and picked out fabric for the quilt Mom is going to make for Morgan.

I think it will be cute.

Morgan had a great time using the glitter glue pens she received as a party favor at Maya's birthday party. Thanks Maya!
Great Grandmas think alike. I laughed when Mom guided Morgan to play "church" with the babies on the stairs. Grandma Chupp had played the exact same thing with her when she was last out here. Morgan was so funny. She had to get the babies all dressed (usually they don't have any clothes on) and even took a book to entertain them during the service. She is at such a fun age now. I love watching her incorporate things from her life into her play.

Swim class has started again, and it's fun for the WHOLE family. Adrienne is in the class too now, and really seems to like it. Since Dave was gone Mom got to get in the water too. Lucky Mom - she was here the week they were having problems with the heater. The water is never very toasty, but these days it was FREEZING! Since we both have to be in the water I don't know if I'll be able to get any pictures of them in class. But this is after the coldest day - warming up after class.

It has been crazy beautiful here and we were able to spend some time outside on our play set. Now that we've finally given Adrienne a chance to enjoy the swing, that means Morgan has to be a big girl. If we could only teach her to "pump." When do kids learn how to do that? I have tried to teach her, but either she is a really good actor, or she just doesn't get it.

Mom had a lot of fun playing silly games with the girls. Along with the games came a lot of laughs.

Chase was one of the favorites. Morgan would run around and Mom would run after her holding Adrienne. They would all laugh and laugh and laugh. It was especially fun when Adrienne was really tired and in that silly mood.

Dad caught a ride out to Goshen with some friends from church. After they spent the weekend with their friends they headed back to Iowa together. They stopped by for a short visit before heading back. Although it wasn't long, it was nice to see Dad again too.

Thanks again for all your help Mom!

And thanks Dad for being willing to go solo so I didn't have to! :)

Giggles

Most of Adrienne's best laughs have involved her big sister Morgan. Of course this makes Morgan feel great - as it should. The funny thing is that most of the time she isn't doing anything special. Often she just says a word or phrase that makes Adrienne laugh. Naturally once it makes her laugh, Morgan will repeat it over and over again until it just isn't funny anymore. Sometimes this takes quite a while. The other evening she got the biggest kick out of "helping" push Morgan in the swing. The best part of this whole thing is that Morgan gets laughing too and they just seem to feed off each other.

Waiting for Daddy

For me that hardest part of the day seems to be the time right before Dave gets home from work. I have to admit though, I'm not a big fan of getting up in the morning either. I'm not sure what it is, but often times even great days fall apart around 5:30 pm. So the other afternoon I grabbed a blanket, some toys and the girls and headed outside. What is it about being outside that brightens our moods? I don't have to be able to explain it to take advantage of it.

So this is how it happens. I put Adrienne on a blanket with some toys, even though Morgan is the real entertainment. I sit down close by and watch Morgan do her thing. She plays patty cake, sings, makes funny noises, and just plain acts silly to get her to laugh. Adrienne loves it! Their laughs brighten the mood and before long Dave is home.

Adrienne - 7 months

Well, Adrienne Grace is 7 months old - learning, growing, and changing every day. Today wasn't a very happy day for Adrienne (I'm blaming it on teeth), but on most days she continues to be a happy little girl. She has now mastered sitting up and is even able to bend over to pick up a toy and sit back up. I love this as I can plop her on the floor with some toys and she is content, for a while anyway. She has also mastered rolling over. Changing her diaper seems to be getting more and more difficult by the day. In the past few days she has settled in to only taking 2 naps - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With cutting out the 3rd nap she is more then ready for bed by 7:30. She has been going 7 hrs before nursing now at night. That's not perfect, but a whole lot better then every 3 hrs. Funny Adrienne fact - she gets the hiccups when she is really tired.

So what else makes this little girl tick? She loves her cereal and gets it three times a day. She isn't so excited about any of the fruit she has tried. She puckers up and sometimes even spits it back out. The other day after shuttering, she even had one full body shake. After that I tried the stuff. It's not that bad. We might have a drama queen on our hands. She is still sucking on/biting everything she can get her hands on. My favorite is when she grabs my face, one hand on each side, and comes in for the kill. Her favorite toy right now is anything we give her that isn't a toy - fruit snack package, cup, bib ... She loves music and always gets excited when we start to sing our prayer, "Johnny Apple Seed."

She has recently become interested in Abbey. I'm glad Abbey is a good sport.

Did I mention she loves, loves, LOVES her toes!?

We love, love, LOVE our Lemonadrienne!

Happy # 6

Dave and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend. We couldn't have been happier the day of our wedding. At least that's what we thought. Then we were blessed with little Miss Morgan and even littler Miss Adrienne. They keep us busy, and a little crazy, but they also fill our house with lots of joy. These two make it quite a bit harder for us to get out the door for a date now then it was 6 years ago. That's where Grandma and Grandpa Chupp come in. They came out to stay with the girls so we could have some time away. We had a really nice time on our kid-free outing. The best part is I know Grandma, Grandpa, Morgan and Adrienne also had a great time. Thanks a million Grandma and Grandpa!

I love 3 day weekends. It was so nice to wake up on Monday and know that we still had one more day with Dave at home. After a productive morning we took some time to enjoy our neighbor's pool. I have spent a decent amount of time at Terri's pool this summer with the girls, but that is usually during the day when Dave is putting in his time at Keystone. So Morgan was excited to swim with her daddy again! We tried something new - floaties! She used these in swim class last spring, so I guess new isn't the right word, but we haven't been using them this summer. SO anyway, she was all over the pool by herself. Eventually she was jumping in off the edge by herself! She has been getting more and more brave with going under, but this was a serious jump in the brave factor. She had such a great time, and so did we! Adrienne took her first long nap in days that afternoon so she missed out. I have to admit I wasn't too sad about that since it meant I was able to relax on a raft.

Ahhhhh

You tell me

Since Adrienne was born Aunt Jill has been saying that the girls don't look alike. At first Dave and I thought they did. After a couple of weeks we changed our minds. Although I don't see it, I continue to have people tell me they look alike.

So here we have a picture of each of them at similar ages, with hats, in the stroller, playing with their feet.

Now I want YOU to tell me what you think. Just click on the comment button and give me your honest opinion.

Thanks