B,E,C,G,&J

Gymnastics with Gracie & Julia

2009-10-29T14:29:00.023-04:00

Gracie & Julia have really enjoyed doing Gymnastics this year. My mom got to come to one of there classes with us, and she took some great pictures! Here is our gymnastics fun...

Fall Fun

2009-10-29T14:18:00.012-04:00

There is a store near us called Country Junction that has a pumpkin patch & fall festival every October. We went a couple times this year and here are some of the pictures...

Pictures of the Girls

2009-09-30T13:13:00.024-04:00

We had professional pictures taken of the girls about a year ago (when Julia turned 1), so we decided to go ahead and have them done again. It's amazing how much they've all grown in the past year. Take a look at the pictures from last year to see the difference...

Chloe at 7...

Gracie at 4 1/2...

Julia at 2...

And some more of all 3...

More Soccer

2009-09-30T12:28:00.024-04:00

Chloe is really enjoying playing soccer this fall. Here are pictures from 2 of her games... (Chloe is #3)

Game #2 (Chloe got to play goalie for part of this game...) The coach said "Who wants to play goalie next?" and Chloe was so excited to volunteer. Chloe is usually pretty shy about trying new things, so we were proud of her for giving it a try. She did pretty well...stopping a few goals, but letting a couple others in. She's doing better too about going after the ball a little more. She still backs off when someone else goes for it, but she's getting in there more than she was at the beginning

Gracie's artistic soccer shots...

And here are a couple videos....

Apple Picking

2009-09-30T12:18:00.003-04:00

One day after school, we went to a nearby fruit farm to go apple picking. They had delicious Honey Crisps! As usual, Julia picked one apple and ate it while we finished picking! We enjoyed eating the apples, and made applesauce & apple butter...

Celebrating Julia's Birthday

2009-09-30T12:11:00.010-04:00

After we got back from Boston, Julia got to open the rest of her birthday presents. She was really excited to get to tear off the paper and had a good time unwrapping everything.

Julia didn't really understand about gift bags. She pulled out the tissue paper and kept tearing it into pieces, saying, "Here comes!!", but didn't understand that she needed to actually look in the bag to get the present.

Julia got this Ice Cream Playset for her birthday. This has definitely been a hit. Julia LOVES ice cream, and she (& Chloe & Gracie) have had a great time building different combinations on the cones.

In Boston for Labor Day

2009-09-30T10:14:00.107-04:00

We went to Boston over Labor Day weekend. It was a quick trip, but we got to fit in a lot of the things we really wanted to see.

We walked the Freedom Trail, which is a 2 1/2 mile red-bricked walking trail that goes past 16 key historical sites relating to Colonial America, and the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

There are several burial grounds along the trail. This first one has the graves of Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and the 5 Boston Massacre victims.

This mosaic marks the site of the first public school in America.

The girls had a good time following the red line. It definitely made it more entertaining for them and got them involved in the walk (& helped them to last a lot longer without complaining than they otherwise would have). They had fun dancing, playing follow the leader, and pretending to be robots along the red line.

Here is the Old State House. The Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in public from this balcony.

The Green Dragon Tavern was a regular un-official meeting place of many of the Colonials, and on it's sign it is called the "Headquarters of the Revolution"

This is a statue of Paul Revere on his "Midnight Ride" in front of the Old North Church (which is where the lanterns were placed "One if by land, Two if by Sea"). (On a side note, ever since we came back from Boston, the girls love to say "The Redcoats are Coming!!" when they're playing tag or running out to the car...)

A sign on the Old North Church, and the beautiful organ inside. There were several churches along the Freedom Trail, and it was amazing to look around inside and know that these churches have had active congregations for hundreds of years (and continue today).

The Freedom Trail crosses over the Charles River, and gave us some beautiful views over to the Bunker Hill Monument, and back at the North End of Boston (you can see the white spire of the Old North Church).

The USS Constitution (also known as Old Ironsides) is docked at the Charlestown Naval Yard. It was put to sea in 1798, and mainly was used during the War of 1812. We were amazed by the barricade keeping other boats away from the Constitution. I'd say they're pretty serious about protecting this landmark!

Chloe & Gracie in front of the Charles River.

At the Charlestown Navy Yard...with an anchor, and a huge dry dock. (The Navy Yard is no longer in operation...)

At the Navy Yard, we caught a water shuttle back to downtown Boston. While we were waiting for the ferry, this seagull swooped down into the water and caught a crab. Then he came and landed right next to us, and proceeded to break the shell and eat the crab.

Views of the North End of Boston from the water shuttle.

The Sunday that we were in Boston was Julia & my birthday. We had a nice, relaxing breakfast in our hotel...

The next thing on our agenda (& the thing we were most excited about doing in Boston) was to go on a duck tour. The duck tours are given in World War II era amphibious vehicles. The first half of the tour is around downtown Boston and goes past many of the Freedom Trail sites. It was interesting to see a different view and to hear more information about Boston's history.

America's first library & a Beacon Hill neighborhood

In the second half of the tour, the Duck goes into the Charles River.

The Longfellow Bridge has sculptures of Viking Ships on the pillars.

In the river, our tour guide let all the kids come up and take turns driving the boat. The duck tour was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!!

This is a new bridge in Boston, and was part of the "Big Dig" project (which put the main highway under downtown Boston instead of through it). They made the towers of the bridge to look like the Bunker Hill Monument...

For our Birthday lunch, we went to the Barking Crab. It was a neat restaurant right on Boston's Inner Harbor, and they had really good crab!

Our trip to Boston wasn't complete without going to the Public Garden. We love the book "Make Way for Ducklings" which takes place in Boston. The girls were excited to see a lot of the places from the book come to life, and were really excited to go for a ride on the swan boats.

In the Public Garden, they have statues of Mrs. Mallard and her 8 ducklings...

Celebrating our birthday with Ice Cream (Julia's FAVORITE!!)

Before we left Massachusetts, we went down the coast to Cape Cod, and found a beach. This was Julia's first time at the beach, and she was definitely mesmerized by the water and the sand.

The girls had a good time playing in the waves. The water was pretty cold, but that didn't stop the girls from getting completely soaked.

The beach was covered in beautiful multicolored rocks. It was so different than the beaches we're used to, but was definitely beautiful.

Recent Julia-isms & Gracie-isms

2009-09-18T16:28:00.007-04:00

Julia has really started talking a lot over the last couple of months. She's really starting to communicate well and can tell us pretty much whatever she wants to tell us. And she loves to imitate her big sisters. If they say they're cold, she'll say "I feezin, momma", or something will fall and she'll say "Ohhh Noo, Momma". She likes to tag along, so she's always asking "I with you, Momma?" (Yes, she does add "momma" to the end of almost every sentence, so I've been hearing that word A LOT... )

Her new favorite sentence is "I on't ike is" (translation I don't like this...).

She likes the color purple apparently because everything she sees is purple... She'll say "Car... purple?" Me: No, that car is red; Julia "That's right, red"

She's also started saying "licious" (as in delicious) about things. She doesn't say this quite as much as "I on't ike is", but she does say it some... She's doing gymnastics this year along with Gracie, and is excited for her class. All during Gracie's class, she asks me "I turn?" (Of course as soon as it IS her turn, she freezes up and doesn't want to do what she's supposed to. She loves jumping on the trampoline and climbing the ladder, but as soon as the teacher tries to show her how to do a forward roll, she either throws a fit, or else closes her eyes and feigns deafness). I'm hoping she grows out of it and realizes that it's fun to do the other things too...

Here's Gracie's monkey "Hang-y". She goes everywhere with us, and Gracie has various names for her. She calls her "Monka-monk" or "Monkey"

Some of her other sayings

"You're a fine lookin fella!" (Which started out as her saying it to herself in the mirror, but we laughed enough, that she now says it randomly to stuffed animals & people)

"Don't step on a crack or your mother will crack!!"

"When I'm a grown up ...I'll have 5 kids

...I'll tell my kids whatever they want to know

...I'll buy my kids everything they want

...I'll work at Walmart!"

She comes up with things fairly regularly of what will happen when she's a grown up. She's a fun girl and there's always something interesting coming out of her mouth. We're always interested to see what she says next.

Chloe starting 2nd grade

2009-09-16T17:23:00.008-04:00

Chloe was really excited to go back to school (she was asking for weeks before "How much longer until school starts? NINE DAYS!?!"). She's in class with several of her friends from Kindergarten & 1st grade, and has a very nice teacher. She loves Mrs. Bierman!

We're happy to live within walking distance of school (at least until winter comes). We just have to walk a block & a half.

At Meet the Teacher night. We got to see Chloe at her desk, and meet Mrs. Bierman...

SOCCER!!

2009-09-16T17:16:00.008-04:00

This fall, we're entering the wide world of soccer. Chloe is part of a local soccer team. She's had fun and made some friends, although after her first practice, she told me "soccer is hard work, mom".

Here she is at her first soccer practice.

And her first game. She definitely has somethings to learn still. She's a little too nice. She'll try to go for the ball, but when someone else comes for it, she'll just let them take it.

It's been fun to get into practices & games, although so far, she's only had a few practices and 1 game. She's had several practices and games cancelled because of rain. So, we'll look forward to getting a little more into the routine in the next month and a half of the season...

Chloe's 7th Birthday

2009-09-16T16:31:00.007-04:00

Here are pictures from Chloe's birthday. We had waffles with blueberries & strawberries for breakfast, and had a nice day together. Then, Chloe opened family presents, and we had a little more cake... It was a fun day to celebrate our 7 year old girl!!

Chloe's 7th Birthday Party

2009-09-16T16:10:00.012-04:00

Chloe has decided that she really loves horses, and wanted a horse birthday party. We made a pasture cake with lots of horses in it. Here's Chloe with her cake.

We had her party at the park near our house. It was a beautiful day, and she had fun playing with her friends... from school, from playgroup, and our neighbor...

Here is Chloe trying out some of her new presents...

Swimming in August

2009-09-16T16:04:00.006-04:00

We were swimming at a friend's house, when Chloe & her friend Lydia decided to put on every ring they could find. We didn't think there was any way it would work to swim that way without them flipping over, but they made it work. They thought it was very funny and were giggling the entire time!!

Fanning Family Vacation in Tennessee

2009-09-16T10:02:00.097-04:00

Towards the end of July, we met up with the rest of the Fanning family at a lake house in Tennessee. We had a great time catching up and hanging out together for a week. As usual, there were LOTS of pictures taken. Here are a "few" of the highlights.

Here's the whole Fanning family...

Joe & Jenny were there with us for a couple days at the beginning of the week, with their dog Bliss.

The house was lake-front, but we had a couple hundred (steep) steps to go down to get to the lake. It was fun to be so close, and we went down to the lake to swim almost every day.

My dad brought his kayak and windsurf-board...

Our swimming dock was just perfect for throwing rocks. The girls (especially Julia & Clara) thought that was great fun, and wanted to do it over and over again.

The big girls were all sitting on the jet-ski dock, kicking their feet in the water, when Gracie kicked a little too hard and fell in the water (which was 8-10 feet deep right by the dock). Thankfully, Mom was able to grab her and pull her back out. Here's the pre- and post- rescue pictures! (We weren't down at the dock at the time, and Audrey was the first one to tell us what happened, but she didn't tell us much... she told us "Gracie fell in the water, and her hair was floating out behind her" (and she demonstrated what Gracie's hair looked like), but she didn't tell us much more than that. We had to get the whole story later from Mom & Dad...

We had lots of fun times playing Settlers, Blokus, and having some delicious meals around the table. Everyone took turns fixing meals, so it was fun to try all the different types of food that people made.

The grandkids all enjoyed having good quality time with Grandmama & Grandaddy!!

The grandkids are all born in pairs...

Chloe & Emma are the oldest. They both are turning 7 this year...

Next are Gracie & Audrey. They are both 4.

Julia & Clara are next. They were both almost 2 when we were together. This was the first time that they really played together. They had a great time, and it was fun to watch them interact.

And finally (for now), are James & Caleb. The first boy cousins were born this year. James is 4 months here, and Caleb is 1 month.

James and The Giant Peach...

Chloe & Gracie both had a great time playing with the babies. They had fun tickling them, talking to them, and showing them toys.

Here are some more "cousin" pictures. It's always fun to watch the dynamics when all these kids come together, and they really get along remarkably well (especially since they're running on less sleep, and more going on around them)

One day, we rented a jet-ski. We had a good time taking it out in the lake. At the very end of the day, I took it out with Chloe & Gracie, and flipped us off. I was doing a donut and went a little too fast, and it tipped us right off. The girls were a little scared at first, and it was a little complicated to get all 3 of us back onto the jet-ski. But by the time we were headed back to dock, we had decided it was a cool story to be able to share. Although, Gracie informed me that next time she was going to go out with Daddy, because he was a better driver...

On another day, we rented a pontoon boat. We had fun sliding off the slide (from the upper deck), and swimming next to the boat.

We also went to a nearby bridge where people jump into the lake. We had a good time jumping in from the bridge a few times!!

My Aunt Carol & Uncle Randy came to stay for a couple days towards the end of the week. Randy helped the girls carve initials into their walking sticks, and was definitely a big hit with our girls.

We took walks around the resort almost every day. It was a very hilly area, with lots of great views of the lake and lots of wildlife. We got to see deer on many of our walks (although we didn't see as many as we would have if we didn't have a bunch of running, talking kids with us...)

We had a great time, and were sad to have to leave to head back home...

Mid-July - Olympus Picnic and Blueberry Picking

2009-09-09T12:07:00.008-04:00

On July 10th, Olympus had their company picnic. They had face painting, bounce houses, food, and some fun relay-type games. All 3 girls advanced to the finals of their activity, but then lost out at the finals. Chloe & I raced in a sack race, and Gracie & Julia both competed in a sock relay (where they had to throw socks into a laundry hamper). I wasn't sure if Julia would understand the concept, but she did pretty well. She wasn't very consistent about picking up the next sock, but as soon as she got it she was a fast runner to go throw it in the hamper.

We also went blueberry picking a couple times at a blueberry field near us. We picked some good blueberries (although most of Julia's blueberries ended up in her mouth and not her bucket). The girls had fun playing hide and seek amongst the blueberry bushes once they got tired of picking!

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-09-09T11:23:00.042-04:00

One of the good things about living where we live, is the fact that we are close enough to do day trips to a lot of interesting things. Over the 4th of July weekend, we did a couple different quick trips.

On the 3rd, we went to New York City. We went to the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum. This is an old aircraft carrier that has been converted to a Museum. We enjoyed getting to see planes from all the way back to WWII and up to the present. It was a good reminder to us (especially as we were celebrating the USA over the weekend) to be thankful for all the people who have fought to allow us the freedom we enjoy...

This was our first trip where Julia wasn't happy to just ride in the stroller. She wanted to WALK! While we were walking around the deck of the Intrepid, though, she decided she didn't want to walk anymore, so she sat down right in the middle of the deck! So, Ben and Chloe went up onto the bridge to explore a bit while Julia, Gracie, & I took a little break. There was a band on the deck playing typical 4th of July kind of music, so it was a nice break to sit and listen to the music for awhile.

We also spent time doing a couple of things in NYC that we'd been wanting to do, but had always run out of time on our previous trips. We went to a Peanut Butter restaurant we'd heard about a couple years ago. They have all sorts of Peanut Butter sandwiches (made with different kinds of peanut butter, along with other ingredients like marshmallow fluff, bananas, chocolate, or different kinds of jelly). It was fun to finally make it there, AND to have a restaurant where we knew the girls would actually eat the food!!

We also went to Belvedere Castle in the middle of Central Park (we'd been to the north side of the park, and the south side of the park, but hadn't walked around in the middle much before this). It was fun to climb to the top of the castle, watch the turtles sunning at the turtle pond, and play at a nearby playground... Here are Ben and the girls at the top of the Castle.

The day that we were in NYC just happened to be a "First Friday" and the Children's Museum had free admission that evening. They have a whole floor dedicated to Dora & Diego. It was fun to get to climb around and "play" with Dora & Diego, although Julia was more interested in saying "hi" to all the Dora's, instead of actually playing with any of the activities.

After the museum, we were ready for a little break and some dinner (at the Shake Shack...another restaurant we'd attempted before, but never managed to make it to) before heading back for home...

The next day (on the 4th), we went to a little neighborhood carnival near our house, went to Penn's Peak for dinner...these are pictures of the girls on the deck, overlooking the area around our town, and then went back home to watch the local fireworks show.

Then, on the 5th, we went down to Philadelphia to go to the zoo (one more time before our passes expired). Here are a couple pictures of us with the animals, and doing some of the fun activities they have at the zoo.

A few more June pictures

2009-07-07T09:28:00.007-04:00

A couple Julia pictures...

In early June, Ben, Chloe, & Gracie went to Knoebel's (a kid-friendly amusement park near us). I was sick, so Julia & I stayed home. They had a great time, so we definitely need to go back again when we can all go.

Chloe loses her first tooth!

2009-07-07T09:19:00.009-04:00

Chloe finally got her first loose tooth at the end of June (after months of wishing and trying to see if they were starting to get wiggly). On June 28th, she decided it was annoying enough that she wanted it pulled. (She also was enticed by the promise that the tooth fairy would bring her a gold dollar coin if she did). So, Ben tied a string around it (it took a couple tries because it kept slipping off), and then Chloe pulled and out it came!!

She was so proud to have lost a tooth, and wrote a little note to the tooth fairy. She's been so excited to show off her gold coin that the tooth fairy brought her.

Strawberry Picking & Father's Day

2009-07-05T22:30:00.020-04:00

June in PA means it's time to go pick strawberries. Chloe & Gracie are both pretty good at it. Julia this year tried to "help" pick also. She found some good ripe berries, but she'd take a bite out of them before she put them in the bucket. I found quite a few half-eaten strawberries as I was cutting them up.

On Father's Day weekend, we went to a train-themed mini-golf place that's not too far from us (apparently we're making this our Father's Day tradition, since the last time we went was last year on Father's Day). We had a fun time riding the train, playing mini-golf, and eating ice cream.

Playing mini-golf. Julia kept chasing down the balls, picking them up, and handing them back to us. We had to keep track of where the ball had stopped so we'd know where to start our next putt from.

The girls making silly faces while we waited for the next hole to open up...

Watery Fun in June

2009-07-05T21:59:00.016-04:00

We've had a few opportunities to play in the water already this summer (in spite of the cooler & rainier than average June that we've had this year).

At the Promenade fountains. This is one of the girl's favorite activities in the summer. They love to go see the Family summer movie at the Movie Theater, have lunch with Ben, and then go play in the fountains.

Here are the girls swimming at our friends house. They have a great pool where we love to go swimming.

And our 3rd summer water place is the lake near our house. The girls have a great time playing in the sand and playing in the water (even when it's COLD).

What a difference a (school) year makes

2009-07-05T21:50:00.006-04:00

Chloe on her first day of 1st grade vs. Chloe on her last day of 1st grade!

Chloe had a great year of school this year. She really made some major advancements, especially in her reading. She now can sit down and read most any kid book. It's amazing to see her loving to read, and is especially special to watch her reading to Gracie & Julia.

A few more May pictures...

2009-05-29T13:21:00.011-04:00

Here a some more pictures from May...not really enough for separate posts, but thought I'd just throw them up here altogether.

The girls love pushing Julia around in our doll strollers, and she loves it too! She loves the attention, and loves to play along. She pretends to drink out of a doll bottle and enjoys being chauffeured all around the house.

Gracie got the game "Guess who I am" from Joe & Jenny for Christmas. We've had lots of fun playing it, and Julia loves to try to play along, but always holds the card backwards. Here's Julia's version...

And here's how it's supposed to look... It's basically like 20 questions, but reversed. You hold the card up and ask questions to figure out who you are. It's a fun game! (Although mostly, for Gracie, it turns into us giving her hints, since she can't quite come up with the right questions to ask on her own, but we've had lots of fun playing it...Thanks J&J!)

Here's the girls all ready for a movie night...they had a fun time together...eating popcorn and watching Bolt!

And here are my 3 sweet girls on Mother's Day. (I can't believe we didn't take any more pictures than this...) I happened to bring my camera to church that day. The girls had colored flower pots for me for mother's day and then all 3 sat down together on this bench in the hallway. It was a picture perfect moment! Glad I had the camera!!

Some outdoor fun...

2009-05-29T10:55:00.015-04:00

We got some new bikes (& a bike trailer), so we've been enjoying taking those out for rides on the trails near our house (there are lots of them around us...) We've just been going on short rides so far (around 2 or 3 miles). It had been about 10 or 12 years since either of us had ridden, so it's been fun to be getting back used to riding and switching gears and all of that. Julia's been riding some in the bike seat on my bike and some in the trailer with Gracie. (A couple times, she's climbed right up into the bike seat all on her own...she's a little monkey!) Chloe has been doing really well riding. She's been riding her own bike and has enjoyed it immensely. It's been a fun family activity for us!!

We've been out walking the trails some too. Here are pictures from a weekday when Gracie, Julia, & I went out on a trail to the dam at the lake near us. Gracie & Julia had a great time running around and throwing rocks in the lake before we headed back down the trail.

You can see Julia started out on the edge, but progressively got more and more into the water.

I couldn't believe she got this far into the water. It was COLD!! It was only in the 60s outside (& had been down around freezing for a few nights before this), but she didn't seem to mind the cold water. She was having a blast finding rocks to pick up and throw. (Thankfully, I had spare clothes with us...otherwise she'd have been miserable on the way back to the car)

April Fun...

2009-04-29T13:41:00.019-04:00

Playing mousetrap... Gracie has been loving Mousetrap lately (she wants to play it almost every day). We have fun playing it (although I don't get to do much, since she rolls for me, moves my mouse, and sets up the pieces for me...) They like to test out the pieces all along the way as we're setting up, and Julia especially likes to dump the marble down the staircase over and over again.

SUMMER IN APRIL

We've had a stretch of 4 days of summertime temperatures (it got up into the 90s Sat-Tues of this past week). So, we've been eating watermelon, playing on our new slip n slide, and trying to stay cool...

Gracie's Birthday

2009-04-29T13:01:00.016-04:00

We had a fun day celebrating Gracie's birthday. She was walking around all morning singing "Today is my birthday" over and over. Here are some of the highlights...

Gracie's picks for her birthday meals... breakfast-oatmeal, lunch-peanut butter and jelly, and dinner-pancakes (with rainbow sprinkles & eggs).

Gracie trying on some of her new clothes...

Gracie's 4th Birthday Party!

2009-04-26T21:07:00.011-04:00

We had Gracie's birthday party on Saturday at the park near our house. It was beautiful weather, and the kids all had a fun time running around and playing together. It was a fun and relaxing way to celebrate Gracie's 4th birthday!

Gracie's purple butterfly cake. (It was hot enough that by the time we ate the cake, the flowers were all melted off the cupcakes)

The whole crew at the party... Chloe, Corrinn, Serena, Gracie, Lydia, Andy, and Sami.

In Toronto

2009-04-23T22:33:00.020-04:00

After Niagara Falls, we went up to Toronto. We didn't end up getting to do as many things as we had hoped (between some things being closed still from the winter, and all of us (& especially Julia) being tired, we couldn't do quite as much as we had planned.

We did walk about 9 miles one of the days we were there (Chloe & Gracie walked all that way too). We got to walk along the Harbourfront of Lake Ontario, rode subways, and did lots of walking between our hotel, the CN Tower, and a Tex-mex place that we found a few blocks away that we just had to go to...

We went up into the CN Tower...

They have a really cool glass floor up on the observation level that you can stand on and look down the leg of the tower to the ground far, far below.

Julia walked right across the glass at first, but then looked down and realized how high she was, and then she wasn't so sure about standing on there anymore.

We also went to the Toronto Zoo. A lot of the exhibits were still closed for the winter, but we got to see some of the important animals, like giraffes (which are Chloe's favorite land animal...her favorite sea animal is a dolphin, and her favorite farm animal is a horse...)

Here are Chloe and Gracie asleep in the hotel the last night we were in Toronto. They were so exhausted by that last night that they went right to sleep, and when we looked over at them, we noticed that they were holding hands... Such sweet sisters. They really do love each other...most of the time!!

At the Butterfly Conservatory

2009-04-23T09:49:00.033-04:00

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the butterfly conservatory in Niagara Falls. The girls had a great time seeing all the different kinds of butterflies and all the amazing flowers.

Ben got some great shots of the butterflies (although I think we annoyed him to death trying to get him to catch pictures of certain butterflies that were close by).

Swimming pictures

2009-04-23T09:36:00.009-04:00

We got a new camera before our trip that is waterproof, so we had some fun playing with it in the hotel pool...

Chloe

Gracie

Julia

Niagara Falls

2009-04-23T08:53:00.038-04:00

We went to Canada over Easter weekend. It was Ben & the girls first time to be outside of the US... We went first to Niagara Falls. It was an amazing thing to see and provoked some good discussions about the awesomeness of God's creation.

Here are a couple good views of Horseshoe Falls.

Us with the falls... Gracie called it "Niaga-ga Falls"

Spring at Niagara Falls. (Actually, we were a little early for most of the flowers. There were rows and rows all over the place of tulips that were a couple weeks away from blooming. I can imagine that Niagara Falls is an even more beautiful place once all those tulips were open)

Some ice shots. We were amazed by these huge chunks of ice at the bottom of the falls. It was in the mid-40s the whole time we were there, but there was ice all over in the river and by the falls.

Chloe & Gracie with a Nikola Tesla statue, and a letterbox we found near there.

This is the second day we were in Niagara Falls. Right after we took this picture Gracie threw up in a nearby flower-bed (which continues her exploration of bodily-functions at tourist spots...last summer she peed in her pants in the middle of Times Square in New York City...) She wasn't really sick, but all she'd eaten for breakfast was watermelon and apple juice and lots of it...she'd had a waffle for breakfast too, but apparently she hadn't eaten much of that.

In the morning, there was even more ice everywhere, including big pieces that were going down the falls. It was cool to watch them go over the edge. Here's an icy view of the American Falls, and then the flying mist at horseshoe falls.

The girls watching the ice and the seagulls. And all the ice accumulating at the bottom (Ben thought it looked like Lime Pear Jello down there in the inlet)

We took the "Behind the Falls" tour. It was amazing to see the falls from a tunnel underneath, and then from beside it down at the bottom. It was a different view of the amazing power and sound of all that water. It was so loud, Julia kept saying "Loud loud?"

That evening, we went on the Sky Wheel. It was fun to get even another view of the Falls from way up above.

Julia talking & some of her first words

2009-04-23T07:41:00.009-04:00

I thought I'd put up a couple videos of Julia (these are from March 29th). The first is of Julia running & chasing a ball in our living room.

I wanted to put up a list of some of Julia's first words. She was saying a few words earlier, but most of her words have come in the last couple of months. Between 18 & 19 months, these were the words that she started to say... She started saying "gacie" for Gracie and "coe" for Chloe, but then that also turned into "LoLo" or something like that. She says a little of both for Chloe now. Here are some other words... ball, mine, puppy (she uses this for cats & dogs), this, bye-bye, baby, boots, backpack, lolly (for lollipop), cookie, tickle, bite (as in "can I please have a bite of that?"), down, trash (she loves to throw things away...), ow, uh-oh, go (as in "here you go" when she hands us things), nose, bubbles, eyes, shoes.

Her vocabulary really exploded over the last couple of months. She really likes any word that ends in "s" and adds an "s" to a lot of words... so, instead of ball, it's always ballsssss, etc.

Here are a few videos of Julia talking. (Well, really of me going through some of her favorite words with her).

Early Easter Activities

2009-04-22T22:18:00.025-04:00

Since we were going to Canada over Easter weekend, we did a lot of our Easter activities early.

Decorating Easter eggs....

Julia broke at least 3 of our blown Easter eggs (instead of coloring on them, she threw them across the room...). But eventually we got her to scribble a little bit on one.

We had a couple different Easter egg hunts. Here's MESSY Julia (after eating lots of chocolate), and Gracie with her friend Serena.

Here's Chloe with her friend Lydia ready to hunt Easter eggs (or re-inventing the Easter bonnet).

Here are a couple random pictures. Chloe has been really into horses lately...here's one of her drawings.

Chloe and Gracie checked into the hospital to have babies...Here they are after the delivery...

And Julia's new place to hang out....between the window and the back of the couch.

Singin' in the Rain

2009-04-22T22:13:00.007-04:00

Chloe learning to ride her bike without training wheels (March 8th)

2009-04-22T21:36:00.015-04:00

Chloe & Gracie have been riding bikes a lot lately (we've been walking down the street to Chloe's school, so that the girls could have a nice, level place to ride). Chloe REALLY wanted us to take her training wheels off. We were a little unsure of how she would do, because she's sometimes a little fearful.

But she was so excited. We took the training wheels off, and off she went. Ben helped her start a few times and she really got the hang of pedaling really quickly. It took her a little longer to figure out how to start on her own. But after about an hour of practicing, she was riding like a pro. We were so proud of her and very impressed by how quickly she picked it up.

We took a break to play some basketball...

Here are a couple videos of Chloe riding all on her own!!

This is one of the first tries.

And about an hour later, here's our pro rider!!

The Please Touch Museum

2009-04-22T21:09:00.014-04:00

At the end of February, we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. The girls had a great time playing in all the different parts of the museum.

Here they are playing at the water table...with ducks, boats, and waterwheels...They had a great time splashing in the water.

They had a whole storybook playground. Here they are with the goose with the golden egg.

They had a supermarket, a construction zone, and a hospital. Here are Chloe & Gracie as Dr. and patient.

Gracie & Julia had so much fun playing at the front porch. Julia especially enjoyed vaccuuming, sweeping, and mowing!!

We had a blast. It was definitely a cool museum with lots of fun activities for the girls!

Random pictures from January & February

2009-02-24T21:08:00.020-05:00

These are some pictures that don't really fit into their own separate blog post...

We had a box from something and the girls had a great time playing in the box...

Julia got this bowl for Christmas, and she had a lot of trouble getting food out of it. It was funny to watch her figure out how to get cereal out of it.

Chloe took this picture of Julia playing with her cash register.

And Gracie took this picture of Chloe making faces

A few cute pictures of Julia... here she is sleeping in the dog bed.

The girls playing on the couch. Gracie is in the "I don't know how to smile for pictures" phase. She makes the craziest faces...

Our Valentines

2009-02-24T20:52:00.011-05:00

Sledding in January

2009-02-24T20:31:00.012-05:00

We had some good times sledding in January.

These first pictures are from one day when we walked down to Chloe's school. There are a couple good hills there that are fun to sled on.

Then these next pictures were another day that we went over to a friend's house to sled. It was a "warmer" day, so we got to stay out a little longer.

Julia was not happy. She didn't like being all bundled up and she definitely didn't like sledding. I went a couple times with her on my lap and she was not happy about it. (She's such a daredevil about other things...climbing on the back of the couch, standing on the table, etc, that I thought she'd really enjoy it, but I was definitely wrong). She's sitting in the sled with Amanda (who was born about a month after Julia)

Here are the girls ready to sled. Chloe with Gracie, and then Chloe with her friend Lydia.

The Pennsylvania Farm Show (January 16th)

2009-02-23T13:05:00.021-05:00

On January 16th, we went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show (in Harrisburg, which is about an hour and a half from our house). We had a great time seeing the animals, buying honey and maple syrup from local vendors, and sampling some locally produced food.

This huge horse was getting his hooves painted before he was shown. We got to watch a horse get a manicure!!

There were all sorts of chickens...Some with very crazy, fluffy hair on their heads (like this one)

They had a whole display of tractors big & small. The girls had fun climbing on and pretending to drive. Most of the time, the first thing they did when they hopped up was to buckle their seatbelts.

There were a couple of HUGE tractors with gigantic wheels. We came across this one first and took the girls picture and then walked a little further and there was an even bigger tractor with wheels that were taller than Ben. The girls thought that was amazing.

That evening, we went to a rodeo. We got there early and got really good seats. We were just a few rows back and down at the end near the bull pens. So, we got to watch the rodeo as well as a lot of behind the scenes wrangling. It was fun to see, and the girls thought it was cool at first, but before long were bored (apparently the different events are all similar enough to not be intriguing for that long...)

The thing I think we'll remember the most though is the walk to the car afterwards. We were not parked very far away, but the wind chill was -10 or something, so we were all freezing by the time we got to the car. We were very happy to get into the car and out of the wind!

First Snow of 2009 (January 11th)

2009-02-23T12:26:00.012-05:00

We had a lot of snow & cold in January. This was our first snowfall of 2009, and we got out to play in it (even though it was cold and windy)

Izzy LOVES the snow. She loves to run through it and shoves her nose down into it. She has a great time (we had about a month where we had snow on the ground, and then it finally got warm enough to melt it all off. Then a couple days ago, we got snow again, and Izzy was so excited to see the snow again that she just raced around and around in circles in the snow...)

But back to this day in the snow. The girls "helped" shovel the sidewalk, and then were ready to build a snowman.

They started stacking some snow (it was too powdery to pack and roll it). But before long, they decided that it was too cold and wanted to go inside. So, we brought out some decorations so they could finish the snowman (even though she was just tiny)

They made a snow princess (baby carrots for her crown and nose, butterscotch chips for her eyes & mouth and pretzel sticks for her arms). Isn't she precious?

Over the next few days, her pieces were scavenged by Izzy. Every time she went outside, she'd grab another piece or two off of the snowgirl.

Gracie's Build-a-Bear Trip

2009-02-23T11:38:00.013-05:00

When Chloe was 3 (right before we moved to Pennsylvania), my mom took her to Build-a-Bear workshop and got a pink poodle (named Lucy), complete with a recorded message from Grandmama. Chloe has treasured Lucy ever since (and listened to the message so much that it stopped working right before our TX trip). So, for Christmas, Gracie wanted a Build-a-Bear of her own from Grandmama.

And here is Molly the Koala. Gracie had a great time making her with Grandmama (and while were were there, we also got a new voicebox message for Chloe's Lucy). Now, many nights we can hear 2 sets of Grandmama's voice coming out of the girls' room at night.

Christmas in Irving

2009-02-23T10:20:00.060-05:00

We got to Irving just in time for Christmas morning. We had a fun time with the Fanning family. Highlights include lots of fun with cousins, our annual Christmas pageant, going to the Gaylord Texan to see the Christmas decorations, playing lots of games, going to the park, and taking LOTS of pictures (at times, there are up to 7 or 8 cameras, so there are always LOTS of pictures). We had a great time with both sides of our family. It was a long drive there and back, but the girls (mostly) did really well in the car, and we were glad to have fun Christmas memories built in Houston and in Irving.

Christmas in Houston

2009-02-23T09:20:00.023-05:00

I'm seriously behind on my blogging, so I'm trying to play catch-up. We went to TX for Christmas and first went to Houston to spend time with Ben's family. We had a great time visiting with them. Highlights of our time there include... playing with Maycee (the girls are still talking about how much fun they had with Maycee), Chloe LOVED spending the night every night with Maycee, Mindy cooked us some delicious meals while we were there, Gracie playing lots of games with Grandma, we went to see Christmas lights (which were spectacular), playing Pictionary Man, going out to eat at a Tex-mex place, introducing Julia to Grandma, PaPaw, Aunt Mindy, & Maycee, and just hanging out with our family.

Julia at 16 months

2009-01-09T22:09:00.012-05:00

I was just realizing that I haven't done an update about Julia lately. She is 16 months old now and is very entertaining! I thought I'd put up a few recent pictures and a few tidbits about our sweet baby (although she's not really a baby anymore)

Julia had only 2 teeth for several months. She finally got her two front top teeth over Thanksgiving, and 2 more top teeth while we were in Texas for Christmas.

Julia tries really hard to keep up with her big sisters. She loves to run with them, dance with them and is quick to dodge out of their way to keep from getting run over. She's quick to join in with the laughing or screaming even if she doesn't know what's going on (our girls like to scream when they're excited, and Julia will look around and see Chloe & Gracie screaming and join right in)

Here's a sample of her dancing...

Julia is starting to talk more. Her first words (in addition to Mommy & Daddy) were "Baby" and "Puppy" Soon after that, she started saying "My" and "Me" (as in "don't forget about me", or "where's my milk") We've thought we've heard her say a few other words (including something similar to Gracie & Chloe, but she hasn't started saying them very regularly. (Chloe swears that she's heard her say 20+ words...she's keeping a running tally)

Julia is a very good tantrum thrower. If we tell her no, she will very dramatically throw herself on the floor. Thankfully, she's fairly easy to distract still.

Here's another video of Julia with her cousin Clara (while we were in Texas)

Julia is very independent and likes to do her own thing. We have to watch her closely if we let her walk. Here's a picture of her in a park. We were walking on a path, but she was just wandering all over. The path meant nothing to her...

Julia is a climber. If a chair is left out at the table, she'll be up in the chair and on the table in a flash. She likes to climb onto the back of the couch and wander around. And she loves playing at the park and being free to climb around.

Julia is a sweet and fun girl. She's always doing something silly to make her big sisters laugh, and if they laugh at her, she'll keep doing it over and over. She's definitely turning into our little clown.

Gracie's Writing

2008-12-19T04:16:00.005-05:00

Chloe has been trying to "teach" Gracie to write for awhile now, but Gracie's never really had any desire to write letters (or "numbers" as she calls them). But this week we made a couple of cards, and she decided she wanted to sign her own name. So, I pointed out the letters, and she wrote her name.

This is a "thank you" card she made for her gymnastics teacher, and the first time she wrote her name. (She likes to write LOTS of lines for her E). The picture is of her and her teacher (who has long hair...can you tell?)

Then, for Ben's birthday this week, she wanted to write her name again, and also wrote "daddy". She was very proud!! And then on the back of the card is a birthday cake. She was so excited to give the card to Ben!!

A Chilly Hike by the Lehigh River

2008-12-19T04:09:00.007-05:00

We went hiking by the Lehigh River again on Sunday afternoon. We've been wanting to go ever since Thanksgiving (Ben had to miss out on our Thanksgiving Day hike here, so he'd been wanting to go see it). It had been really cold the several weekends we'd tried to go, so finally we had a little warmer day (it was 45, so WARM is a relative term here), so we decided to head out and have a picnic lunch.

We've had lots of rain the last week or so, so the river was really full and really moving! It was interesting to see the difference from when we were there just a couple weeks ago.

Here's Julia having our picnic. I thought she looked so big, sitting there at the picnic table all by herself...

Here's Ben & the girls. We even got to see the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway train go by. The girls had fun waving at all the people on the train. It was the highlight of the day (especially since the wind started to pick up during our picnic, making us all extremely cold).

We were ready to head back after our picnic and get to the warm car...