Happenings at our House

1. Nora is soooo close to crawling.  I'm not considering it crawling yet, but she has taken a few 'steps' forward on all fours.  She gives up too easily and pushes back to her bum.  

2.  She gets up on her knees now to reach her toys! I'm sure she will be standing soon.

3.  Ethan has resumed the dance parties...in his rain boots.  

4.  We have a painter.  Ethan has been wanting to paint and we finally went to WalMart to get some paint.  He was very excited!

Michigan City 2012

We just got back from our vacation to Michigan City, IN.  We went there 2 years ago and it was a blast, so we did it again.  Soooo much fun!  We rented 2 houses in the beautiful Beachwalk resort.  This area has the most adorable colorful houses on a lake/pond, with a pool, playground, putting green, and a short walk to Lake Michigan and the beach.  Lots of family made the trip.  With so many schedules to work with, some were only there for a part of the week, but there were 27 of us total (including babies)!  Our time basically consisted of trips to the pool, the beach and lake, the outlet mall, eating, relaxing and golfing (by some).

*Warning*  There are A LOT of photos coming up!

Just a few of the many homes in the resort

Some pictures from our time at the beach

Jared and Ethan

Abby and Alex

Ethan and Haley playing in the sand

Ethan and Scout collecting rocks

Jared with Finley and Haley while Ethan chases them 

This is one of my favorite pictures!

Josiah, Tyler, Finley and Ethan playing in the lake

The adults supervising/relaxing :)

Snack Time

Tyler and Stephen

Nora and Katie had a visit to the beach...albiet brief!

Now for some pool and playtime pictures...

Nora loves to swing

Ethan and Paige on the giant, green slide

Just talking with Grandpa Bob.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of Ethan and Gpa Bob...Ethan would just talk and talk and talk to him.  It was pretty cute!

Just hanging out, waiting to eat again

Happy Nora...who is very close to crawling. 

Josiah and Ethan.  They have so much fun together. 

This was a common scene.  The road that separated our 2 houses  wasn't too busy, so the kids had fun playing in the street.  With supervision, of course.

Nora loved the pool.  

All ready to swim.  He was pretty excited about these new goggles.  

Nora and Katie had their own private, porch pool. 

Pop and Ethan

We had a great time and I look forward to doing it again next summer!

Happy Independence Day from (5 of 8) Blair Grandkids! 

The Blair House (minus Grandpa Bob, he wasn't there yet)

8 Months

Nora is 8 months old today!  She is so much fun and such a good baby.  She is very laid back and will usually be content sitting on the floor playing with her toys (or her brother's toys).

She has 4 teeth...both lower centrals, upper right lateral and upper right central.
She isn't crawling yet, but would like to.  She can lean pretty far to get to what she wants, she can roll anywhere and can make a full 360 circle while on her belly, but just no forward movement...and I'm okay with it ;).
She pulled up to standing yesterday.  I was laying on the floor and she just grabbed my side and used me for support and stood up.  I didn't help her at all, so I consider that pulling up!

She naps well.  If we stay home she usually gets a 2 hour morning nap and about a 2 hour afternoon nap.
She is nursing 4 times a day still, eating oatmeal and bananas for breakfast, yo-baby yogurt for lunch and a veggie (and sometimes fruit) for dinner.
She is usually in bed between 8:30 and 8:45 and has been getting up around 6:30.
I weighed her this morning and, according to our scale, she weighs 18.5 lbs.
She is such a sweet girl.  Ethan loves to hug and kiss on her (sometimes too much) and he can still make her laugh very easily!
Happy 8 Months sweet girl!  Time has flown by!

She wants to crawl so bad...

...at least she's happy trying :).

Children's Museum

Ethan has been wanting to take his daddy to the children's museum for a while now, so we decided to go this morning. We spent quite a while there and had a good time.

This is one of Ethan's favorite things to do there...not so much Jared's.


Changing a tire...


Now on to checking under the car.


Nora couldn't sit on her own for the last trip, but she's a pro now.


Checking out the garden.


Our 2 farmers :).