Waiting Patiently

As we wait for this baby to make his or her grand entrance, we've kept busy with playdates, errands, some crafty projects and a lot of fun with daddy in the evenings.  Amelia loves to talk about her grandparents coming to visit when the baby comes, but that just might be overshadowed by reviewing the details of each playdate. This kid reminds me of who came, what they did, where they sat, etc for days after each playdate.  Not to mention the fact that she goes physically berserk when friends come over, suddenly running around like a crazy kid for the first 30 minutes that they are together. If you ever met an extrovert, our Amelia is one indeed.

Not to bore our readers, but we did go to the 4H fair for a third day with friends.  It was just as much fun as the first two days, but with a treat and lunch afterwards at our house added in! Here are some more photos of their fun that morning.

Petting turtles

 

 Pretending to milk goats

All of the older kids loving the photo cut outs. I promise Sawyer is actually happy; he was grinning after the photos were taken.

Who doesn't love holding hands with friends and running around wide open spaces?

Oh yes, the corn box was a must

They had this contraption where kids could make bubbles around themselves. They pretty much all popped around knee-height, but I had doubted that Amelia could figure it out and get it that high before popping.

Everyone petting a rabbit.

Funnel cake - what fair trip is complete without it?!

And yes, we did visit the excavators again and Amelia watched as each of her friends operated them. I reminded her that she had a single try and that she could sit in my lap if she wanted. She did insist on being in my lap, but this time she held my hand to manage the controls for one of the excavators and took the controls for the second one. I was proud that after three days of visits, she conquered fear!

Photo that a friend caught of us on an excavator

Besides the fair, I tried French braiding some ponytails one morning. She was relatively patient while I did it (while she was eating breakfast). But I don't think I'd do it again anytime soon since she plays so hard that they were completely out within 2 hours.

We've been eating a lot of homemade raspberry lemonade popsicles!

Because a vacuum is good for getting belly button fuzz out.

Dress up with hard hats!

A little cuteness one Sunday morning

What you don't see in these pool photos is Patrick telling me that I made the right choice in not getting in - it was cold water even in the hot day!

I picked up a noodle for Amelia at the dollar store; she basically spends all her time pouring water on it.

Daddy convinced her to float around for about 2 minutes.

I was playing with my camera settings and thought this one of catching the water in mid-air was fun.

We've been doing lots of baking and cooking! We just finished making muffins for some friends coming over - we love our matching aprons from Mrs. Barbara!

Seven Years

5 apartments/houses

3 states

1.9 munchkins

 

in 7 years

 

We have so much to be thankful for on this anniversary. God has continued to provide for us and grow our marriage. We are surrounded by supportive families and friends and encouraging mentors. Our life together so far has been characterized by a lot of moves and changes, but we are grateful for how it has strengthened our marriage.  This month also marks 14 years that we have known each other and we were recently discussing how much we have changed in the last 14 years, and that growing up and growing older with your best friend is pretty awesome.


For those of you who like the cheesy flashback photos on anniversaries...

Fall 2000

 

July 2013

4H Fair

Our county 4H fair was just a few blocks from our house, so Amelia and I set out to walk over one morning and check it out. We had so much fun that we had to go back for a second day and have plans for a third day with friends!

We started at the 4H Prep tent, meant for young kids and Amelia made her butterfly.

Explored some pulleys

Then we started with some animals. Here she is so excited about the rabbits that she's signing and saying "bunny" at the same time.

 

Petting a bunny

When she saw the face painting on the first day, she asked for it, but then completely chickened out when it was her turn. So I had the girl paint a pink heart on my hand and then she painted one on Amelia's hand. Amelia was pretty proud of it and sad when it washed off when we got home.

 

 

The second day, she asked for a purple star on her hand as soon as she saw face painting line again. And then insisted that the gal paint Mommy's hand too. (Do you like the elbow bracelet? She insisted that it go on her elbow all day rather than her wrist.)

She loved all of the booths - the airplanes, remote control cars and trains were big hits. She was pretty sad to leave the train booth.

 

 

She asked to get out of the stroller to see this train, then immediately went behind it and posed, saying "cheese". Quick learner.

As soon as she saw this equipment, she went crazy over them. We stood in line on the first day to get into the yellow one (they were letting kids move the shovels up and down onto piles of tires). She talked about it and grinned while waiting, ran up the platform stairs....and then completely panicked when I tried to lift her into the seat. Of course, as soon as I carried her down the platform stairs, she begged to get on, but I explained that we weren't going to hold up the line. She talked about the 'backhoe' and 'digger' all the rest of the day; I kept reminding her that we could try to sit again and she could have another chance, but if she said no her chances were done.  So when we arrived at the opening hour on the second day, I had us head straight for them again and there was relatively no line. She was okay with sitting on my lap for the yellow one, but didn't want to touch anything. Then we headed over to the orange one and I convinced her to hold my arm while I operated it. She was pretty pleased with the experience at the end.

 Waiting in line

Here she is showing that the shovel goes up and down.

 

And showing that she held Mommy's arm to control the shovel.

We pet a lot of animals and Amelia had no fear of them at all. She was very gentle, although she had to be reminded to wait for Mommy to ask somebody which animals were okay to touch.

Sheep

Cow

Milking the pretend cow

Watching the horse competition 

Goat 

A little bean bag toss

Chicken

She exhibited the same desire to see/be close to the fire engine, but did not want to get on it. So we explored the outside.

 A little frozen yogurt treat

She had to be pried away from the corn box.

I must admit that I had no idea how much fun the 4H fair would be and definitely plan on making an event out of it in the coming years. It was perfect entertainment for a toddler for a few hours, and best of all, free!

Two Year Old Photos

We had photos taken of Amelia right after her two year birthday by a local photographer, and we are so pleased with how they turned out! We haven't particularly trained Amelia to smile for a camera, so we are glad that Alex was able to catch some ones of her smiling, but also just her playing and being her normal self. We requested some family photos to remember this particular phase and were pleasantly surprised that Alex wanted to do some 'maternity' photos also.

Here is the link to the photographer's blog:

http://www.idaliaphotography.com/monmouth-county-photographer/

And some of our favorites: