Weekend Visitors

We've had a good Labor Day weekend around here.  On Friday night Abby and Alex came up (with Moose) to spend a couple days with us.  They had hoped to go to Starved Rock State Park (a couple hours north of us), but hurricane/storm Isaac had different plans.  I think we got about 4 inches of rain this weekend.  So, we spent our time indoors.  Saturday we ventured over to Springfield to Scheels sporting goods store.  Ethan LOVES these kind of stores.  He could (and has) spend hours on the putting greens in the golf section.  This store has an indoor ferris wheel, so Abby, Ethan and I rode.

Big Brown Bear and Ethan

(First 2 photos are borrowed from Abby's instragram)

When we got back to the house, Abby and I decided to try a recipe claiming to be EXACTLY like Auntie Anne's pretzels.  They were delicious, but it also promised to be quick and easy...not so much.  It was very sticky and messy- with a lot of PAM spraying going on :).

I was the dough roller...

Abby was the pretzel twister :)

They were so tasty that they were gone before we could take any good 'after' photos!

Abby and Alex stayed until Sunday afternoon, and then headed home.  Sunday evening, Grandma Karen and Grandpa came up to have dinner with us and play with the kids.

Building a fire house

Such a cute kid 

Nora and Grandma Karen

The Whole Group of us!

 Thanks for coming up.  It was a great evening!!

Double Digits!

Nora is 10 months old today!  She is growing like crazy and usually too busy to 'pose' for photos.  According to the bathroom scale, she weighs 20 lbs now.  She is crawling really fast now, pulls up to everything and sometimes cruises along.

She is learning to sign a little.  Tonight, she pointed at the snacks and made the sign for 'more'.  Jared isn't sold that she knew what she was doing, but I'm going to take it :)!  She waves at everyone, loves to clap and has learned 'so big'!

She is very intrigued by the fast, black, fur-ball we call Max.  And he tolerates her, for the most part.  She will still laugh at just about anything Ethan does (unless he is taking a toy from her).

She is very ticklish, and we probably torture her with tickling more than we should.  She has 7 teeth...4 on top, 3 on bottom.  She drinks well from a straw cup, except for actually swallowing!  One day, she went through almost a full cup of water just sucking it up and spitting it out.  She loves yogurt, fruit and finger foods (especially cheese) but she will eat just about anything I give her.

 

She is a sweet and sensitive little girl.  We are so excited to continue to watch her grow and learn.

Just one more picture...I was playing with the camera tonight, and we got a family shot :)

Some Fun

We haven't been up to much lately, but I do have some pictures to share.  I have taken inspiration from my good friend Elizabeth, and I'm trying my camera on manual... This means a lot of blurry, dark or really bright photos for me.  But I'm working on it, so bear with me :)!

Ethan has embraced his sandbox!  It took a while for him to actually sit in the sand instead of the edge.

 I put the water/sand/bean/rock table in the tree house yesterday and filled one side with rocks we got from the Dollar Tree.  We've put beans in it before, and I thought this was a really good idea, until the beans sprouted.  It was kind of gross...so we've moved to rocks.

Now for some of Nora recently...

Max is such a good dog!

Happy girl, standing at the couch.

Here she comes!

Leaves in her mouth...this is a constant battle.

Hanging out next to the sliding doors, one of her favorite spots in the house.  

Playing outside

Taking off across the yard

Look closely...there's some hair sticking out!

StL Weekend

Jared took Friday off from work so we could take a 'mini vacation'.  We spent the weekend in St. Louis trying to fit in everything we possibly could!  I don't think we could have asked for better weather, the entire weekend!  Friday we headed to the zoo with my cousin, Libby and her girls (along with the entire population of  St. Louis, I think)!  It was crowded and we didn't stay too long, but we got to see lots of animals and the kids had fun!

Waiting to go in to see more penguins!

She wasn't too sure about this place...

Ethan enjoyed it though!

Libby and Katie Sue on her 1st Birthday!

Nora and the penguins

Haley and Ethan before we left...they thought they were going to fall in, so they have  a death grip on each other!

Saturday was Katie Sue's 1st Birthday Party.  Again, the weather was perfect and the Mehrle's did a great job hosting everyone!  The party was a success!  

I don't think she got too 'into' the cupcake...

Opening presents with her Mama

Pretty Birthday Girl!

The 'Big' Kids at the Party

Nora had fun celebrating too!  It will be her turn soon!

Ornery boys!  Seriously...look at those faces!

After the party wrapped up, we stuck around to hang out and let the kids rest.  Then headed for an early dinner, swimming back at our hotel and an early bedtime!

Sunday we checked out of our hotel and met at the Magic House to open the place up!  It had been years since I had been there and I think the place has doubled in size since I was a kid.  The Mehrle's are members so we scored free passes!  Thanks guys!  Abby met us there and we were off for a few hours of children's museum/pretend play fun!  

First stop...fishing!

 

Playing some drums

This construction area might have been his favorite

Digging with Daddy

Katie, climbing the stairs!

Nora's trying to climb up the slide

Ball pit

Very determined girls!  Both trying to climb up the slide.

The static ball is a Magic House, must see!  I told Ethan about it and that's all he wanted to get to.  Once there, he was a little nervous, so I helped him out :)!

He thinks this is a pretty cool picture...and I agree!

I didn't shake my head enough to get it to stand straight up...

Abby did though!

It was a great weekend and we had so much fun!