Baby Swap!

Some friends and I do a baby swap every week that has been great! There are four families all together and each week someone takes a turn baby sitting all four kids while the other parents have a date night. So each couple only babysits once a month and get to go on dates the other 3 weekends. It has been great so far and luckily our group has been Blake's, and our, close friends. Now that the Holidays are here we have to end this fun group and we are not sure when we will start up again. Jess (my friend) is having her baby at the end of this month and I will have my baby at the end of January. So we won't be able to go out or babysit for quite a while. Hopefully as spring and summer start up again we can start another group or at least switch off. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted and has been great for Blake! Here are some pics of Blake and his friend that i often mention, i thought you might want to know who everyone is.

Brynlie (13 months), Mckenzie (24 months), Blake (17 months), and George (22 months).
Brynlie crawled away for this pic, but they each have a bowl of grapes and are watching baby einstein (a crowd favorite).

utensils

I can't believe how fast Blake is growing up! Sometimes i get really sad. Then i get over it when i remember we're having another baby in two months, and we get to start all over:) Blake is doing really well feeding himself and i just think its so cute when he does. In these pics he's eating with a spoon but my favorite is when he eats with a fork, there is just so much concentration it cracks me up. I love this little guy and am so excited to have more kids!

New Car!

About a month ago Tanner and I decided that we needed a new car. It was so sad to see the Subaru go but it is just not a family car. Our little compact stroller took up the whole trunk, there was no way we could fit two car seats in the back seat comfortably, and it just felt squishy. So here is a flash back pic down memory lane... dedicated to tanner (He misses the soob!)

Here is our new car!!!

Way more room in the front and back seat

And we can defiantly fit a double stroller in this trunk!

So far we are very pleased with our purchase!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we did not go to any family house because everyone is so far away! We were planning on going to Tanner's brother and sister inlaw's house, Christian and Kara, but Blake got really sick and was in no condition to travel. So we had to cancel, but luckily he as better by Thanksgiving day. It was sad we couldn't be with family, but ok because i had just got back from Utah to see my family. Instead we spent Thanksgiving with friends. We went to our friends Jordan and Ali Pond and they have a little girl only a couple months older then Blake named Jovie. Our other friends Mark and Ali were there too. It was so fun! Everyone brought something to contribute to the Dinner. Tanner and I brought homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, and Yams. Everything that everyone brought was so good! When we were finished with dinner we chatted and played games. Even though we don't have family close by its nice to have friends to spend the holidays with.

Visit to Utah!

A couple weeks ago Blake and i went to Utah to visit my family and it was SO fun! We went from the 10th to the 16th, so we were there for my moms birthday. It was so nice to see everyone, and my dad even came into town while we were there even though he was working in a different state! Im glad blake got to see his grandma and grandpa! We go there wednesday night pretty late so we just went to bed. Thursday my mom, dad, blake and i went to lunch with our friends, Gina, Sharon (Ginas mom), Aiden (Gina's little boy, 6 weeks younger then blake), Mercedes, and Lucy (Mercedes daughter, 11 months). I loved seeing them and their cute kids. after lunch i went to Gina's house so Blake and Aiden could play while gina and i caught up. My mom was in school and my dad had to run errands so that worked out nice. Friday i went shopping with my dad to get my mom a birthday gift, for her party that night. It was fun because alot of people came to her party and it was nice to visit with family. My family got her a macbook for school. she was so surprised and loved it! Saturday we went to the Park City outlets and went shopping! I told my mom before i came that, that was something i wanted to do. She bought so many baby new baby girl clothes, and some stuff for blake! It was so fun! We love grandmas! Sunday we went to church then went to salt lake for the christmas show at the convention center. It was fun to see all the crafts and decorations! Monday my dad left back to work so i went to lunch with my Auntie Tabbie while my mom was in school. Then we let blake play at the play place at the mall. That evening we went to dinner at california pizza kitchen with aunts, uncles, and cousin then visited for a long time at my uncles. I was so glad i was able to see everyone because i felt like my trip went by so fast! Tuesday morning Blake and I packed up and went to the airport. It was so sad to leave:( but I was excited to see Tanner! I love my family and was so grateful i had an opportunity to visit them one last time before the new baby comes!

October

Now that its the end of November, I figured I should probably catch up on things I've been wanting to post about since October! Wow, slacker! After our ward trunk-r-treat Blake and I went with our friends Natalie and Mckenzie to the Spring Street trick or treat! This is a street in New Albany, IN, about 20 min away, that does a trick or treat every year for kids. I didn't think it would be a big deal because i found out about it from a flyer on the door of the candy shop and never heard anything else. When we got there It was so packed! All my pics turned out bad because it was so dark. The line was 2 blocks long so it was nice that we were there with friends (our husbands were studying for tests). It was fun to see all of the costumes and celebrate this fun holiday with a such a huge crowd.

The next weekend, Halloween weekend, we went to a chili cook off/ halloween party at a friends house. i was so bummed because we forgot our camera and they had so much fun stuff to do! They had a bounce house for the kids, games, food, costumes and friends. We had such a great time!

This month was busy and fun!

Trunk-r-Treat

This week we had our ward trunk-r-treat at a family farm. We had hot dogs, hay rides and the trunk-r-treat! Since Blake was a Dalmatian puppy Tanner and I decided to be fireman!

Family pic at the farm. Surprise face is Blakes favorite right now.
Here's our trunk and it says fire station. we had a emergency light that was going and reflector from our car emergency kit:)
Blake was done trunk-r-treating after he got one sucker.
He loves to play with George and they looked so cute in their puppy and lion costumes.
We are on the hay ride with Kolby, Jess and George! It was a fun halloween trunk-r-treat!

Fun at the Park!

Blake and I went to the park with a few friends (not an unusual occurrence) and my friend Paige decided to bring her camera and snap a few pics. Then she gave me a copy of the ones she took of Blake. Here are a couple that I thought were cute.

I love that you can see all 6 of his teeth!
Surprise face!
Sweet little boy! He loves going down the slide! that is when she got most of his pics with him smiling.

Boo Zoo

The Louisville Zoo has a trick or treat in their zoo every weekend in October. This past weekend we got Blake a costume and took him to the zoo. This year he is puppy because he loves dogs! He says "pupp, arf, arf!". He doesn't love the hat but he keeps it on for a while before he gets sick of it. We have a few things we are going to this month where he can wear his costume so he should be use to it by halloween:)

I fell in love with this costume when i saw it because its so dang cute. I got it at pottery barn kids and probably paid to much for it since its little kid costume, but i justified it by saying he will wear it a bunch this month. tanner said its ok, he will just be a puppy for the next three years! JK:) Both of his grandparents sent him surprise packages this month with money for a costume so he could be the cutest puppy on the block! Its great to be the only grandson!
can you find the puppy(Blake) in the hay maze?
I didn't get a chance to take very many pics while we were at boo zoo because i notice about half way through my camera was missing! i was so sad:( It had so many pics i hadn't downloaded yet. So i called sunday, they didn't have it; i called monday, they didn't have it and i was worried; when i called tuesday they had it! I was sooo grateful that someone had turned it in! I'v had my camera for years and love it! So we went today (wednesday) and picked it up. Since we were already at the zoo blake and i stopped in for a visit for a couple hours. Here he is staring at the tiger. I think he thought it was the biggest puppy he'd ever seen!
This was a statue of a pig he was scared of... so i sat him on it and took a pic! He wasn't scared anymore.

sunny acre farms pumpkin festival

Tanner, Blake and I went to sunny acre farms for their pumpkin festival this past saturday. It was only about 20 min away and they had animals you could pet, bounce house, hay maze corn box, little tractors to ride, and pumpkins everywhere!

Here is Blake and Tanner checking out the horse. Blake was so interested especially because it kept neighing. He wanted to put his arm through and pet it but whenever it got too close he would get nervous and pull his arm back. It was a huge horse!
Blake the farmer on his tractor and daddy the work horse pushing him through the fields.
Blake in the hay maze he kept getting stuck at the dead ends. This is his surprised face he does. I use to do it to him all the time and didn't realize it until he started doing it back to me:)
this pic cracks me up! mommy is having way more fun then blake here! i dont think he wanted to be a cow right then.
ohhh look at those muscles! he thought he was so cool cause he could lift the little pumpkins over his head.

First 'real' hair cut!

Blake had his hair trimmed when he was 11 months old but that was just around the sides, none off the top. A couple weeks ago we started to notice just how long his hair was getting not only around the sides again, but especially on top. So we borrowed some clippers and tanner got to work!

Here is how long his hair was in the back before we cut it. I probably could have put it in a ponytail!
This was a better shot of the front and how long it was. Its also morning and he just woke up so the bed head doesn't help. He is playing with halloween stickies for the window.
We let him feel the clippers so he knew they were not scary. He thought they tickled his hand.
Still a little scary but he did great! Didn't move or complain the whole time tanner cut his hair.
Finished product! He's a little traumatized! Just Kidding we don't even think he noticed his hair was gone this is just his surprised face he does when we thinks something is cool. Anyway, i LOVE it! I think it makes him look sooo cute and older! i can't believe i kept it that long, for so long!

Schimpff's Confectionary (Candy Shop)

We went to the cutest candy shop in Indiana about 20 min from our apartment. It was open in 1891 and is still in the same building and has the original machinery. We were able to watch them make 12 inch suckers, get a tour of their candy museum (not of old candy but of containers, machines etc.), buy some yummy candy, and get a scoop of the best pumpkin pie ice cream i have ever had! When we first got there they gave us a sample of their chocolate and Blake stuffed the whole thing in his mouth then tried to grab mine out of my hand! The lady gave me two because im eating for two:) We were able to go with our friends Kolby and Jess and their son George, one of Blake's good friends. Unfortunately i forgot my camera so i was not able to take pics. of everyone. The candy shop is located on a cute old street right near the river and they are doing a trick or treat on the 25th we might go too. It was a fun and yummy trip!

Deere Farms

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday Oct. 9, 2010 called Deere Farms in Indiana. It was so fun! We went with our friends Keith and Natalie and their little girl, McKenzie, who is almost 2 and one of Blake's friends. The farm had a hay maze, corn maze, corn kernel box (like a sand box), jump house, tube slide, ponies, hay ride, and a pumpkin patch! We got to do everything and Blake just loved it!

Here he is in the hay maze stuck in a dead end. Blake would run through it as fast as he could then all of a sudden get stuck at a dead end, his face is so confused.

Blake and Mckenzie in the corn Kernel box. They could have played in there all afternoon. What a good idea it was so nice to not have to clean sand off the kids. I want one of these in my back yard!

Here are the two pumpkins we picked at the pumpkin patch. We had to pull his socks up all the way to his knees cause the pumpkin patch had tall plants we had to walk though.
Here we are on the hay ride on our way back from the pumpkin patch to the hay ride.

24 weeks

I went in for my 24 week appointment and everything looks good! The baby is moving so much now! It already feels like she's doing flips in there. I feel good, not sick anymore, and not too uncomfortable yet.

15 months

Blake had his 15 month check up and i can't believe he is getting so old! He's still a baby but its still surprising how fast he is growing up! Here is a little about Blake... He loves puppies, the wii, outside, park, running, reading, bath time, fruit, friends (george, kenz, brynlie), playing in dirt and puddles, laughing, dad, and many more things but thats what i could think of off the top of my head. He has 6 teeth now, 4 top, 2 bottom, blond hair and brown eyes. Says momma, dadda, hat, and ba for bottle, bath, ball and bug. Theres a slight variation between each b word so i can tell the difference but i don't think anyone else can. He starts a word but has a hard time finishing it. i think he says more but i can't think of any right now. He moo's for a cow and arf arf for a dog/puppy. i can't decide what he should be for halloween a puppy because he loves them or a monkey because the costume is so cute! decisions, decisions... We have lots of fun things planned for the month of october so many fun posts to come!

Its finally starting to cool off here in louisville. We are so glad to be breaking off from the 90 degree weather.
Blake loves books! i often catch him in his room by himself looking through all his book or he follows me around the house saying momma momma trying to hand me a book. Of course i stop what im doing and we read a book, hopefully this love of books lasts!

Out with friends

A couple weekends ago tanner's dental school held a ball on a boat called the bell of louisville. Its a landmark for louisville being 95 year old cruise ship. Now people can go on it for dinner and tours, and events. We were so excited to go until we found out it was going out on the water at 8pm and not coming back until 11pm. Then we found out there was not going to be dinner but light snacks and an open bar. Since we didn't have any to watch blake that long and we didn't find the open bar appealing, we decided not to go. Instead we went to dinner with all of our friends in the same shoes as us. It was a great restaurant right on the river. There was a big deck outside where most people ate that lead right down to the water. The boats even docked at the restaurant and you could get off and eat there or they would bring your food to you on your boat. It was such a fun atmosphere and we had a party of 10 good friends. After we ate dinner we went and got ice cream with everyone and by the time we were finished we had to rush home to pick up Blake from the baby sitter. Its always fun with food, friends, and freedom!

staying busy...

I have done a few projects around the house to keep busy, and because i just liked them and thought they would add a little to our apartment. Here are a few...

I saw the idea for a Alphabet wall on someone's blog and thought it was such a good idea for a childs room. I changed it to what i wanted, and decorated them all different so the letters would catch Blake's interest. I made this before i found out i was having a girl, but at the time i didn't know so i made sure to make it gender neutral, and luckily i did!
When i had blake i had the hardest time finding crib bedding that i liked so i decided to just make some! It was quite the task since i don't sew very often but it was fun! I finished the bumper and the bed skirt a long time ago, but just recently finished the quilt. Its been put together i just was waiting for it to be quilted and then i had a good friend teach me to bind it. The binding was super intimidating but when i finally started doing it, it was so easy! and actually kind of fun!
Here is a close up of the fabric i used.
Here is my Halloween Trick-or-Treat banner!!! When i finished it was my very first halloween decoration up. I saw something similar on potterybarn's halloween decor and thought it was so cute but slightly over priced:) so i decided to just make one it didn't look too hard and it wasn't! I called a few friends to see if they wanted to do them with me and they did. We each did a banner but all of them are decorated differently to our own personal taste. They all turned out so cute and it was so fun to do with everyone!

Its a GIRL!!!

I had my 20 week appointment today and we found out we are having a GIRL!!! We also decided my official due date on the doctor records is 1-28-11 and I am 19 weeks 6 days today! We are so excited!!!

tan lines!

Blake has the best tan lines from his sandals! Its like he has his shoes on all the time! People get a kick out of it when they see his feet! He wears his shoes all the time when we are outside. Even at the pool. I had to take a picture because its so cute on his little feet!

puppy fun!

Blake loves dogs! We have a couple friends who have puppies and blake thinks they are the best and loves to play with them. The only bad part is that he loves all dogs so he tries to run up to any dog we see when we are outside and it makes me nervous. He doesn't understand why he can't play with every dog. Some friends came over the other night and brought their puppy. Blake ran around the house laughing and playing with the puppy! By the end of the night they were so worn out!

Tanner's 25th Birthday!

Tanner turned 25 on August 30th! We had a birthday party for him with some of our friends and had dessert and and played volleyball! It was so fun and we are so grateful to have made such good friends since we have been here.

Sorry about the bad picture, it was almost dark when i took it. I would have taken more pictures but my battery died after 4 pics! i was so sad!

White Coat Ceremony

Tanner's mom and younger brother Johnny came out to ky to visit us a couple weeks ago. Tanner had his white coat ceremony so they came to support him. A white coat ceremony is when the dental students officially get their white coats to represent their commitment to serve the patient the best of their ability (or something like that). Every dental school does it, but they all do it at different times during their schooling. Louisville does it the first year because they feel the students should start living this commitment as soon as possible. It was fun to have Tanner's family in town, and Blake just loved the company/attention!

Johnny and Grandma Jane. We went to eat at a crazy restaurant! i can't remember the name right now, but just look at the background!
Tanner with his mom after he got his white coat!