George & Mandy's Wedding

We had the privilege of attending George and Mandy's wedding last Friday night (9/26)! 

Mandy was a beautiful bride!:)

It is so fun to see her so happy!

This picture is absolutely terrible quality, but I love it!  I had so much fun hanging out with my best friends of many, many years.

I love these girls!!!  We may not spend as much time together as we'd like, but I know that they are my friends for life.  We can go months without seeing each other and then pick up like we've never been apart.  I do not take that for granted!  Special friends, indeed.

While we were gone, the girls got to hang out with their auntie and unc!  Kate and Ty took them out on a little date and they had a blast!:)

Ava: 10 Months Old!

Our big little girl is 10 months old!:)

This girl can throw a back-arching fit with the best of them!;)

Ava, here's what you are up to this month:

• No stats this month, but you are definitely a growing girl!:)
• You are wearing mostly 9 or 12 month clothes.  You wear size 2 or 3 shoes and you wear a size 3 diaper. 
• We have dropped your late morning feeding, but you are still nursing 5 times a day (6am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm, and 8pm...approximately).  You eat 3 meals a day consisting of oatmeal for breakfast and then mostly whatever we are eating for lunch and supper!  You pretty much love everything that we put in front of you!  You do not really want to eat baby food any more, but you will eat it if that's what we give you.:)
• You have 7 teeth now!  Another one popped through on the bottom!
• You are a CRAWLER!!!:)  You have been SO much happier since you've started moving on your own.  You do the cutest thing where you crawl with one knee and then you use your foot to scoot yourself along on the other side.  You don't move super fast yet, but you manage pretty well on your own!
• You go to bed around 8:30pm and you have been waking up around 6am to eat.  You have had a poopy diaper at this time almost every day lately!  We change your diaper, you eat, and you usually go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8.  If we're home, you take a morning nap for about an hour or so.  In the afternoon, you usually sleep for an hour and a half, but sometimes you sleep as long as 3 hours!
• You definitely want to be with people that you know!  You prefer Mama most of the time, but you are usually happy with anybody that you are familiar with.  The church nursery and life group babysitters are not your favorite.:)
• You love your sister!  She loves you, too.  I love it so much when I hear you two laughing together!!!

Sweet Avey Lynn,

How is it possible that you are going to be a year old in two short months?!  We've picked your party theme and I've started making some plans.  Your personality is really coming out and you are proving to be quite the spunky girl!:)  You are sweet and sassy and we love you so very much!!!

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Bryan and Alexis got to have a super fun night together the other night!  Chick Fil A does special themed nights every once in a while and they were having a "Frozen" Daddy Daughter Date Night!  Bry got tickets and took his oldest princess!:)

They had a little photo session before they left!  Alexis got a special new Elsa dress just for the special occasion.  She thought she was pretty special...and she was!:)

Her daddy thinks she is pretty awesome!

And she's pretty crazy about him, too.

When they got there, they got to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride! 

They got to do some crafts while they were eating!

Alexis got to meet Elsa!!!  She was so excited.  However, she was NOT excited about the pink Chick Fil A cow that was there.  Bry said she freaked out when the cow walked over to her!  Ha!

She changed into her Anna and Elsa nightgown when she got home and took a picture with all of her special items from her date.  They had SO much fun together!:)

I got to have a night alone with this little princess while Lex and Daddy were out! 

We went to Fort Wayne and did a little shopping! 

I loved spending one on one time with my little sweetie!  I don't get to go places with just her very often and I loved being able to just focus on her.  It was a fun night for everyone!:)

Feeding the Ducks

We've been keeping this old loaf of bread in our fridge for a couple of weeks so that we could go feed the ducks at Lake Clare.  We finally managed to get there and do it!:)

Alexis has been saying hi to these ducks for months and months every time we drive by them.  She was pretty excited to be up close to them!

At first, they all scattered and went away.  (I'm not sure why they would be scared of a loud, crazy toddler?!)  After they saw the bread flying at them, they started to make their way back!

Did I mention that it was pretty chilly and raining?  We have impeccable timing.:)  This girl didn't care at all!

Our duck friends didn't seem to mind the weather, either!

This picture turned out blurry, but I still love it! 

We had such a fun time!  Now we need to let some more bread get crusty so that we can go back again!:)

Mandy's Bachelorette Party

A couple of weekends ago, I got to go to Mandy's bachelorette party!  We had so much fun!  We started out by going to Cebolla's for some yummy Mexican food and then we headed to Painting with a Twist for the evening. 

Kendra had this super cute cake made!  It was yummy, too!:)

Here we are before we started painting!  It was my first time to do the whole "wine and canvas" thing and it was so much fun!!!

Mandy got to pick out our painting for the night and she chose a sunset over a lake!  This was mine after we started the background...

...then we added the water and the sweet little heart reflection.:)

Then we added the setting sun and some clouds!

We finished it up by adding stars in the sky and cattails along the bottom!  Not too shabby for a very, very rookie painter.:)

This was the finished product by our teacher.  He wanted us to add those splotchy looking clouds in the middle, but I didn't really like those so I took a little creative license and left them out.

Here's our whole group! 

Me and my BFFs!  We missed Danielle, but we had so much fun spending the evening painting and laughing together.  These girls have been my best friends for many, many years.  We don't spend a ton of time together anymore, but when we do we always pick up right where we left off.  That is priceless!:)

Lex's First Tin Caps Game

Alexis and Ava participated in the summer reading program at the library and got free Tin Caps tickets for doing so!  We didn't think Avey would really enjoy the game so she got to spend the evening with Grammy and Grandpa instead.:)  We went on a Sunday night and had the best time!

Daddy and Lex!

The three of us!:)

Me and my girl!

She spotted Johnny very quickly and didn't take her eyes off of him as he moved around the stadium.:)

I was really quite surprised at how interested she was in the game and everything that was going on!  We sat in our seats through several innings before we went to the concession stand for some snacks.  After we ate, we went for a walk around the stadium and let her run some energy out!

We had to get a picture with this statue of Johnny!

Then, when we got back to our seats, Johnny came right over to us!  He tried to get Alexis to give him a five, but she wasn't too into him.:)

After the game was over, we got to watch fireworks!  They were sort of loud, but Lex still enjoyed them.  It was such a fun night and a great new experience for Lex!:)

Park Fun



We've been trying to soak up these last days of summer!  We went down to the splash pad one evening to enjoy some fun in the sun!:)

Alexis liked the splash pad much better when her daddy was there to play with her.:)

These two are two peas in a pod!



They had fun running through the rainbow!

This little peanut hung out with Mama in the shade...and tried her very best to eat some grass!!!

We've also been trying to get back to Evergreen to walk and play after dinner in the evenings.  It's so much fun, but the mosquitos have been SO bad!  Poor Avey gets eaten up!

Racing down the slide!

Daddy and his littlest girl!:)

And our big girl!  When did she get this big anyway?!

My three loves!  These times with my family are so precious to me and I'm sure they will be a big part of my memories of having young babies at home!:)