Toddler Tuesday: Comedian

Our little girl is so funny--she keeps us laughing all the time, especially when she makes funny faces.  Check it out!

Flashback Friday

I missed last week and am sliding in this evening with a late post.

This week's flashback honors my two favorite things:  Gary and Eliza.

Let's start with Eliza.  Here she is, looking adorable, 1 year ago:

Polka Dot Princess

Sleeping Beauty

It's hard to remember her this little!

Moving on to Gary.  On August 22, 1997 I asked Gary (through a friend of course) to be my boyfriend.  It's been 15 years, and I'd say we both made a pretty great decision at that RHS Zebras football game.  So, this portion of the post is dedicated to our middle school selves.  Yes, I'm putting these out there...

Spring 6th Grade Dance.  I was going for a 60s look.  I had some baby fat, and was bigger than Gary.
We weren't together, just placed this way in the picture.

My birthday party in 7th grade.  Gary was obviously thrilled to be there.

7th Grade Basketball Tournament.  

Spring 7th Grade Dance.  My first updo.  Gary missed the smile part!

 Did you notice a theme in the above pictures?  Even though in all of those pictures we weren't ever boyfriend/girlfriend, we always ended up in pictures together!  I think we were drawn together by the universe so one day when I needed to make a wedding slideshow or Flashback blog post, I'd have all these pictures of us standing next to or near each other.  ;)

Finally, here's a picture of us actually together, in the spring of 1998 at our 8th Grade Dance.

Cheese!  One of the first of many pictures like this...

So, happy anniversary, Gary!  I'm glad we aren't 13 anymore!

Toddler Tuesday: Photo Round-Up

For this week's post, I wanted to share several pictures of our increasingly mobile and curious girl!

Three generations!  

Climbing in the new-to-us toy cabinet

I fit perfectly!

Cutie Pie!

Someone loves cans--thankfully this one was unopened!

Enjoying the Beatles music at Conner Prairie

So excited for a wagon ride!

Fun Friday at the Zoo

We bought a family zoo membership in the spring and with the heat we haven't used it too much yet.  But, a couple weeks ago we decided to head to the zoo on a Friday evening after work.  There is a dog frisbee show that we thought Eliza would enjoy.  It was still quite hot that evening and Eliza didn't enjoy the show as much as we'd hoped--but she loved getting up close and personal with the dogs afterward!

Waiting for the show to start

Let me pet him!

Nice doggie

Probably pointing at another doggie!

Gary and  Eliza also enjoyed the new tropical bird aviaries (birds make me too nervous to go inside).  Eliza just stared and stared!

Too cute

Watching the birds fly

Not big enough to stick her head in the parrot's!

We rounded out the evening with ride on the carousel!

Wee!

Chicago Trip: Part 2

On our second day in Chicago, we spent the whole day at the Shedd Aquarium!

Watching fishies

What's that?!

Taking a break in a tent

Getting a good look

Look at that fish!

We had so much fun!

Being silly with Daddy

Serious girl with Mommy

No more pictures!

Beautiful view and relaxing spot while baby napped

We're thinking we might make this trip a yearly tradition.  Chicago in the summer--beautiful!

Chicago Trip: Part 1

In July, we took a family vacation to Chicago.  We left on a Friday evening and returned Monday afternoon. We stayed downtown near the Hancock building off Michigan Ave.  Our plan involved walking quite a bit, going to Millennium Park to a family fun event, checking out a French market, meeting up with several friends, walking through the American Girl store (for my nostalgic sake) and the big reason for the trip:  visit the Shedd Aquarium.  Gary and I were quite excited ourselves for the Shedd, partly for ourselves and partly because we knew Eliza would love it!  And she did.  We spent over 5 hours at the Shedd on Sunday, and she really enjoyed it and even took a nice nap for us while we ate lunch and relaxed.

Thank you Josh & Lauren, Linnea, and Vanessa for hanging out with us!  We wish we could do that more often.

I'll let pictures do the rest of the talking!

Ready for the day!

Cool girls

Looking at boats

Pretty girl!

Meeting a new friend at the family fun event at Millennium Park

Crouching seems like a fun thing to do

The two of them stayed crouched down for an entire song!

Reading a book in the giant chair

Playing in the crayons

This is so much fun!

At the Bean

Looking at our reflection

Touching the baby!

What is this green stuff?!  

Playing in soft grass is fun!

Watching the Zumba in the park class going on

due to the all the pictures we want to share, the rest will be in the next post!

Toddler Tuesday: Our Little Mimic

Lately, Eliza has been a master of the mimic.  Whether it's making pucker-up faces and smacking her lips in a kissy noise, or pretending to put on lotion she's trying to be like Mommy & Daddy.

We discovered her ability to "put on lotion" recently.  She'll put her hand on the lotion spout, though she doesn't press down on it thank goodness, and then rubs her hands together.  On Sunday, she and I were sitting on the floor as I put some lotion on my legs and arms.  She again put her hand on the lotion spout and then rubbed her hands on her legs!  Just like Mommy!

Another funny mimic Eliza does is blowing her nose.  She will find a kleenex (once a dollar bill sufficed) and put it up to her nose and blow.  She's not actually blowing her nose--she still despises having her nose actually wiped--but she definitely likes pretending!  Gary can tell you that I blow my nose non-stop (thank you drought and seasonal allergies).  So I like to think she's trying to be like her Mommy by also blowing her nose!  Haha!

It's so fun to see her learning and trying out new things.  We're rubbing off on our sweet sweet girl.

Flashback Friday

Practicing sitting like a big girl

Favorite napping spot

Trying out a barrette!

These are from about a year ago.  Look how little she was!  And so little hair.  Slow down, baby girl!