Fun at the Fair!

I LOVE county fairs!! I grew up in 4-H, riding horses, showing dogs, and going to 4-H camp. I remember spending long, hot, days at our county and state fair just hanging out with my friends and the animals. It was great, clean, fun!!! I learned one thing about 4-H, in the past 20 years...nothing has changed!! Technology has advanced, but 4-Her's are still making those record books, booth's, banner's, etc... So below is our second trip to the county fair this week and the first for Wyatt. As soon as he saw the lamb, he yelled out Ba Ba and wanted to touch it. He had a ball and was in a great mood the entire time. We also took both kids to a play today at our local arts center preformed by the local college students. It was called "Story time with the Wolf" A play narrated by the Big, Bad, Wolf describing all the fairy tales from his perceptive. Chloe really liked it, Wyatt enjoyed it, didn't mind the loud noises, and fell asleep in the middle of it!! This is a much improvement to yesterday when my parents took both kids to see the Little Red Hen play at our local library. Wyatt had to leave the play, because the loud noises bothered him. While my mom stayed with Chloe to watch the play, Wyatt stayed with my Dad in the library. I heard he was extra fussy:(( So I was relieved today when he had a great time at the play and fair..

Click here for last years pictures.




On our short trip home, both kids fell asleep in their car seats holding their umbrellas... Chloe's princess umbrella and Wyatt holding his spider-man umbrella. I thought it was cute!!

July Birthdays

July has been a busy birthday month!! We want to wish my grandmother who turned 87 in the beginning of July, my mother-in-law, and my mother (who turned 61)a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

My Mom's birthday was yesterday and we had a tiny party for her. She wanted a simple dinner so we made bacon-wrapped shrimp for the appetizer, pot roast, corn, herb mash potatoes from my garden, poppy-seed garden/berry salad, and a caeser salad. For dessert my mom's favorite cake- tiramasu and coffee ice cream. Birthday parties are always wild and crazy so here are some pictures...

My in-laws moved just 15 minutes away from us and my sister-in law Tori and brother in-law Dani stayed with us this past week. Here are a few pictures...


Aunt Tori and Uncle Dani playing with the kids...



Aunt Danielle and Chloe sitting on the driveway looking at bugs...


Abby wishing the electric fence would let her go that far:))


Sibling love......


Having fun on Daddy's shoulders....



Looking at the clouds, making animals out of the shapes.. with my sister- Aunt Danielle



Enjoying dinner...




My mom got a kitchen floor for her birthday, so here she is picking out samples...

Wyatt's Stats...

Can you read this...???

Well it says (drum roll...) Wyatt weighs 26 lbs (45%) and his height is 33 1/4th(49%)!!! Yipee!!! He started below the chart, hovered around 5% for a LONG time, then moved to 10 percent and now he is in the middle. Go Wyatt!!!

Chloe's Room

We had a mural painted in Chloe's room a couple of weeks ago. I wanted a garden scene that will grow with her. I want her to be able to stare at it while she lays in bed and imagining herself in the garden exploring many magical places such as a forest, meadow, creek, tree swing, branches, clouds,etc... and encountering little animals along the way. Here is the product. We are going to add more, such as a sign that say's "Chloe's Garden" and a few more "magical places" listed above and little animals to keep her imagination going!!!




Can you find Chloe, Wyatt, and Abby in the mural??

Weekend Update!

Chloe did not have an ear infection and her fever went away the following day... good news!! BUT now, Wyatt seems to have caught the mysterious virus! He was fussy all day and has a low grade temperature. I am hoping it will go away tomorrow. However, we don't let any sickness stop us from having fun!! On Saturday, I took both kids to see the real Franklin the turtle and story time at our library. On Saturday evening, Chloe and I saw Seusical the Musical. Chloe LOVED it!! We sat in the front row near the pit orchestra. She said to me, "Mommy, did you know violins have chin rests?" Go figure??? she is only 2 (3 next month). The character Cat in the Hat was her favorite. She sat on the edge of her seat just staring at the stage for two full hours. Next week, we are going to see the The Three Little Pigs, perspective of the wolf. Today, my mom, sister, and grandmother came over and we were planning on taking both kids to the county fair, but Wyatt did not feel good and took a nap. So my mom stayed to be with him, while we went to the fair. Since the fair is all week, I'll take Wyatt so that he has a chance to see some animals and experience the 4-H fair!! (surprisingly, I did not take any pictures this weekend:((

I want to congratulate, Vicki and James for their new addition to their family.... a baby girl named Anika (isn't that a cool name!!). Big brother Jack (Wyatt's best ECMO buddy at Hopkins) is thrilled to now have a little sister. Anika is happy and healthy and very beautiful. Congratulations to the Jensen family!!!!!

More Summer Fun!!

I had a great day today!! If you know me, you know I went to Space Camp THREE times in my life... the last time was just before Chloe was born. I dreamed of being an astronaut... but I became a science teacher instead. Today, I got to listen to a guest speaker who was a retired astronaut at work today. He applied to the Astronaut program FOUR times... so never give up!!

This evening we went to a carnival and Chloe and Wyatt had a blast. Chloe rode on a horse, pink car, fire truck, and inside a bear... she thought it was the neatest!! Wyatt loved wearing my sun glasses (which he lost) and dancing to all the music. Then we ended the evening with a funnel cake... who could ask for a better day than that???

Evolution of Little People

One of my favorite childhood memories was playing with Little People. I had the school house, Little People home, barn, etc... I was playing Little People with Chloe and Wyatt yesterday and realized that we had four versions of Little People that we were playing with. I love combining my old toys with Chloe and Wyatt's new toys and they love playing with them. We have the "angry" Little Person made of entirely wood. He is probably our oldest at about 30ish years old. Then we have the wooden bodies and plastic head, then the plastic bodies and plastic head, and now we have the new versions... Chloe and Wyatt's Little People have arms!! They are super big (probably for safety) and they seem to have more personality. But I miss the old versions!! and then there is the weeble... Do you have any favorite old toys???

Thirty years of Little People...




Our oldest Little Person... "the angry boy" made completely of wood.


Today's version of the barn and a new princess house...



My old "clubhouse" that had a tire swing, trap door, slide, etc... My favorite!!!


Do you remember Weebles??

Walk Wyatt Walk!!

Wyatt will be two in October and still has NO desire to walk. He scoots really fast around, but not yet walking. We are working hard to give him every opportunity to walk. He knows what "stand up" means and when we say it and hold him up, he deliberately holds up his legs!! So his PT brought him this walker for him. He hates it and cries when we put him in it... Chloe loves it, she thinks it's a bicycle. So since Wyatt adores Chloe and looks up to her, our plan is for him to watch her play in it and then hopefully he will too!! So please keep saying Walk Wyatt Walk chants and hopefully one day he will:))

Friends Forever....

Gosh am I lucky.... did I ever tell you that I have the best friends in the world??? On Thursday I hosted a lunch for my best friends from college. We all went to Lynchburg College, we were all Hall Directors, and we all became teachers. We make a point to get together every couple months with our kids to talk about the good old college days!!! Thank you Laura, Stacy, and Whitney for a fabulous and fun lunch!!!

Laura...


Stacy, Whitney, and Laura...


Kaitlyn and Ethan..


Chloe and Jack...


Jack, Chloe, and Ethan..

Happy Birthday Gran!

For Gran's birthday (Benji's Mom) Chloe decided to draw her a picture. It was the first time that I noticed that Chloe ever drew an actual picture, rather than scribbling. In the two pictures below, are three people. The green, shortest one is Grandad, the middle person is Gran, and the end is a little girl.. Chloe. She even used a cup to trace circles for their head. I am so proud of her!!

Play Day!!!

On Wednesday, My mom, sister, and dad took the day off to play!!! I went over their house with the kids and we went swimming in my uncle's pool (who live next door). We played the entire day and ended the day with a summer cook-out!! These are not the greatest pictures....

Mom and Sister...




Chloe hanging out on the steps with my sister...