Fun Filled Week

Boy, we crammed a lot in this past week. Emma had a great week at school. One day was "Pajama and Movie Day" at her school. She was very excited to wear her "sleeping coat" (this is what she calls her button down pajamas) and got to take her Elmo movie. She got to see Santa at school. Emma wasn't so sure about Santa, but when her friend Paige got up there, she did at least sit on his lap. The look on their faces tells all. Friday, we went to Zoo Lights at the Indianapolis Zoo. I thought it was beautiful. Emma was most excited to see the penguins.

She hasn't stopped talking about them. Today we are off to see Grandma Imy to celebrate an early Christmas. I realized we need to get some gifts wrapped because Christmas will be here SOON!

Holly Jolly Days

Oh, what fun it is to... dig for dinosaurs, go ice fishing, whip down the Yuleslide, bake lettuce. We did all these things at the Holly Jolly Days at the Children's Museum. I think Emma could have dug for dinosaur bones all day. That is always her favorite part. For me, I could have gone down the big slide many more times. Emma was hysterical in the "baking room" as she so carefully placed the fake lettuce in the muffin pans and "baked" it. She told us, "I cooked the salad!" Holly Jolly Days is well worth the trip!

Happy Second Birthday, Emma Katherine!

I can't believe Emma is two!! We had a fabulous Elmo birthday party in honor of the birthday girl. Check out the Elmo cake made by Momo. It was awesome. My niece, Hannah, said it best, "It looks like a real Elmo!" Emma received many fun gifts. She loves her new piano the best (Thanks Auntie Amy and Uncle "Gook"). Emma loves telling people she is two, but can't quite hold up two fingers. She does sing the birthday song very well. We are going to have a little celebration tonight on her "actual" birthday. My nephew, Carter, says you should have a gift on your "actual" birthday. I am ready to celebrate again because birthdays are BIG! Love you Emma!!

Computer Glitches, Tailgating, Bounce House & Potties

So, I learned my lesson. I was having a lot of trouble with the Internet connection our computer. After some trouble-shooting, we realized it was the Weather Bug I had uploaded. It was taking up too much space. I am very glad to have it resolved to get back to my blog and pictures. Here are recent photos of the excitement from our house. We have been cheering on our favorite football teams every weekend, win or lose. Thankfully the Colts have balanced out the Hoosiers. Either way, Emma still cheers for everyone. No matter who is playing she shouts, "Go Colts! Go I.U.! Go Ben (Ben Chappell, I.U.'s quarterback)." After going to the Bucket Game this past weekend she will now tell you, "I like the marching band" and requests the Marching Hundred C.D. I am not sure I know many two year olds that like this type of music over nursery rhymes.

We also inherited a fabulous bounce house from one of our generous neighbors. This thing is awesome. Emma bounced in it until it got dark. I love this picture of Emma with our neighbors. They girls are always so patient with Emma. The bounce house is the hot item on the block. We may have to start charging admission. Emma wants it out every day. We have told her it is sleeping right now.

One other exciting addition in our house is the mini potty. Emma was moved up a room at school and they do a lot of talking about using the potty. She was obsessed with it for about a week. We figured we should go ahead and get the potty to keep up the interest. We will see. Right now the only people using it are her dolls.

We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday. We have many things to be thankful for this year, including the newest member born this morning, Preslee Tauer. Congrats to my cousin, Ginny and her husband Andy. Can't wait to meet Miss Preslee!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Funny Girl

It doesn't take much to entertain Emma. As you can see, she had way too much fun hiding in this storage container. She also decided to read to Lamont. She thought he should play an instrument, too. Doesn't he look thrilled?

Happy Halloween!

I am not sure what Emma will do now without her "Geen Dragon" costume. She has talked non-stop about going "Trick-or-Beating" and wanted to go again this morning. She did get good use out of the costume and wore it to her school's fall festival, to ZooBoo, to her school party and trick-or-treating. At least we can leave out the "Funkin" through Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch! Life has been hectic at our house with school, work, family and football. I was worried we might not make it this year. Emma has had the Type A flu. Fortunately, we caught it early and she wasn't sick for long. Thank goodness! One of the dogs has been sick, too. I am hoping Matt and I can stay healthy. With everyone healthy for now, we ventured out to get our pumpkin. Emma wasn't too crazy about picking out a pumpkin. I think the big open field was a bit overwhelming for her. She did enjoy throwing hay on the hayride. Her favorite part was the picture cut-outs. She kept telling us, "I play beek-a-boo." It was too cute. We got to see some farm animals, too. The turkey put on a great show and Emma has her gobbling mastered. All in all, it was a fun trip. Emma calls her pumpkin, "Pumpkin Patch" and must tell it good-bye every time she goes to bed. She has a tiny pumpkin, too. She carries that one all through the house like a ball. We are getting excited for Halloween. I love this time of year!

Football Fanatic

We made it to Bloomington on Saturday to cheer on our Hoosiers against Ohio State. Even though the end was not what we wanted, we had a fabulous football day. Emma was so good and loved sitting in "Papa's Chair" at the tailgate. She had her own box of I.U. cookies and a new book about dinosaurs. What more could you want? Emma loved the cheerleaders, band and The Walk. At one point in the afternoon, someone said to me, "There's your picture opporotunity." I turned around and Emma was playing catch with Tom Crean. As he gave her the ball, I heard her say, "Thanks Coach." I am assuming she picked up on his name as everyone was speaking to him. Coach Crean graciously asked us if we wanted a photo. What a great guy! Today we cheered on the Colts to another big victory. This was a good excuse to wear our new Peyton Manning jersey. Poor Emma has seen so much football in the last couple of days she is getting her teams mixed up. In Bloomington she shouted, "Go Colts!" and today she shouted, "Go I.U.!" Finally she just shouted, "Go Football players!" Hey, whatever works as long as they win!

Cousins

I had the chance to baby-sit my niece and nephew for a short time last Saturday. I will admit that I was a little nervous going about having three little ones to watch, but the afternoon went great. I couldn't resist taking a picture. We had tons of fun watching Little Bear and playing with ALL of the toys. Hannah and I even made a lovely necklace. Good times!

Best Weekend Ever...If you are a Toddler

Emma had the best weekend ever. You will quickly see why in the photos. First, her daddy went out and bought yummy doughnuts for breakfast. After every bite, Emma would tell me, "Mommy. Yummy." She ate the whole thing. It took 45 minutes. It was our neighborhood garage sale weekend. It is always a big social time for all the neighbors. I drove around to see if I could find any bargains and found the deal of the day. I got Emma this great Elmo chair for $2! It was brand new. The people I got it from said their little girl got it as a gift and never used it because she was scared of it. I saw a brand new one at Babies R Us for $30! Emma loves it. When she comes in the room she has to say, "Hi, Elmo Chair!" and when she leaves the room she says, "Bye, Elmo Chair!" What a great deal. We made about $160 at our sale. All in all I would say we all had a wonderful weekend.

Posing...Sort Of!

I took Emma to get some cheap pictures taken in her pretty dress that Momo got her. She is at the age where she doesn't really want to cooperate if she doesn't feel like it. You can get a good idea of that in the photo of her running away and the one where she is acting like a monkey. Overall, there were some good ones. That is all I could ask for, right?

Snapshots

These are a few snapshot of Emma from the weekend. The first one is for all my family and friends in Poseyville. We are ready for when Coach Gengelbach brings the boys to Lucas Oil Stadium. The second one is Emma trying to get one of the dogs to come to the slide. Now she claps and hollers for us just like she does for the dogs. The last one if Emma enjoying her ice cup. It was more like a snow cone with no syrup. She didn't care. It was a treat to her! Happy days!

State Fair

It's that State Fair time again! I couldn't wait to go and hearing that State Fair Train whistle each day made the wait even longer. We ventured out to the fairground on Saturday, despite the heat. We all enjoyed some homemade chips and a couple of corn dogs. Emma was in awe of all the goats. The 4-Hers were showing their goats on Saturday. Matt had so many questions about what was going on as they showed the goats. I think he was a little impressed that I knew what all the protocol. We took Emma to the Little Hands on Farm. She got to feed the livestock, gather eggs and cash it all in for money. She even got a Pioneer Seed hat. She now wears it all around the house. As always, we had a good visit. On the way out, we tried snooping around the Keith Urban buses hoping to see him, but no such luck. Now if I could just get to the free M.C. Hammer concert on Thursday...

Gettin' Crafty

I am not sure what came over me this summer, but I feel like I have become somewhat of a Martha Stewart (that might be pushing it a bit). I am proud of what I finished. I made two sets of curtains for some ugly cabinets in my classroom. Those cabinets have been bugging me since I started teaching in this building. The best part is that this project cost less than $15 dollars! My neighbor and I spent the afternoon one day making the birthday chair covers. Now when a student has a birthday, they get to let everyone know by covering their chair. Emma is excited about her new toy. I took left over laminated scraps and cut out shapes, letters and numbers. I put magnets on the back of them and stuck them to the refrigerator. She loves it! The bear is one I knitted for the Mother Bear project. I am very proud of this project. I am working on a girl bear now. Finally, I had to show off my bulletin board. It took way too long to finish, however, I think it is cute. It says, "Look Who Popped In!" and all the kids names are on pieces of the popcorn. I hope the students like it. Now I need a vacation from my vacation! Too bad school starts on Monday.

Who Needs to Buy Toys?

Emma has proven that there is no need to buy expensive toys to keep her busy. For the past couple of weeks, she has kept herself busy playing with things that cost almost nothing. She wears her Fishers Fire Department hat on a daily basis. Her "noculars" are a permanent fixture with every outfit. She uses them to look for dinosaurs. The dinosaur mask came from the back of a cereal box and she goes around shouting, "Roar!" as she wears it. She is pretty funny with all her props. You have to give her credit for being creative!

BEARS!

I took this video when we were at the zoo on Friday. It is currently Emma's first request when she sees the computer. You can hear her say in the video that they are dinosaurs, but now she shouts, "BEARS!" I thought you all should enjoy the video, too.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Last weekend, Matt planned a get away for us to St. Louis to celebrate our anniversary. This was a true gift to me because I am a HUGE Cardinals fan and he is a Cubs fan. What a sacrifice! We had a great time visiting the new park. I somehow found our family brick on the sidewalk. That was pretty cool. I did get sort of close to my friend, Albert. What a guy. Only bad part of the weekend is that the Cardinals lost. Oh, well. As long as they are still playing and winning in October, that is all that matters!

Children's Museum

Last week, we ventured out and visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum for the first time (well, for Emma that is). I have many fond memories of this museum. My grandparents would take me here every summer when I would visit. At that time, the museum used to be free! Many things have changed at the museum, but there are several things I remember. I got a little choked up when I took Emma on the carousel. As soon as I heard the music playing, a flood of memories from my visits there came rushing back. Emma loved every part of the museum. She is obsessed with dinosaurs and was in heaven when she had the chance to "dig" for dinosaur bones and dress up like one. She knew exactly what to do when we saw the trains. She started pumping her fist up and down and saying, "Choo! Choo!". My Grandpa Harold would have been so proud! (My grandpa and great-grandpa were train engineers and my great-great-grandpa was a conductor. Is it safe to say it is in her blood?). Emma might be the next Danica Patrick after seeing her handle the wheel in the Indy car. She was a natural. I tried my best to encourage the teeth brushing in the healthy exhibit. I am not sure that worked. Auntie B. was along with us during our visit. I am so glad she came and know Emma was happy, too. She shouted, "B!" all day long. Auntie B. and I enjoyed the Children Who Made a Difference exhibit. It told the stories of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges and Ryan White. We bought a membership to the museum, so we need to take Daddy soon. I know Emma would gladly go tomorrow!

Kane County Cougar Celebration

We made a quick trip up north this past Saturday to help a good friend of ours celebrate her retirement. Our friend, Jeanne Tyms, retired from teaching after 33 years. I worked with Jeanne in Forest Park. She was our always energetic, forever creative P.E. teacher. Jeanne had been planning this party for some time, so we knew we couldn't miss it. The celebration was on the beautiful party deck at the stadium for the Kane County Cougars (Minor League Baseball team located in near Geneva, Illinois, outside of Chicago). What is better than a party at the ballpark? Jeanne got to throw out the first pitch. What an arm! Ozzie the Cougar came to the party. Emma fell in love. She had to visit Ozzie several times. She ended up with a stuffed Ozzie by the end of the night (Can we say that Daddy is a sucker?). "My Ozzie" now goes wherever she goes. We had a great time visiting all of our old friends. The weather was beautiful and the game was great. Congrats to Jeanne on her retirement. We hope she gets to play alot of golf very soon. We are working on getting those I.U./Illinois basketball tickets so she and her husband George will come and visit. Thanks for including us in your wonderful party!

Summer Fun

In the summer, there is nothing better than hanging out in the front yard and visiting with the neighbors. I put the chair in front of the bubble machine and Emma kicked back and watched the bubbles. Then she got the chance to sit in the kiddie car with her friend, Elizabeth (Emma calls her Sizzy or Yizzy). They never moved an inch, but Emma thought is was the greatest thing. We love the summer evenings!