Fall 2012

This is our first fall in Indianapolis.  The weather has been great.  The trees are beautiful.  I have a very scenic drive to and from work each day.  I have loved watching the leaves change to brilliant shades of orange, red and yellow.  I'm soaking it in because I know much colder weather will be here in a few weeks.

We have been very busy.  Sam had flag football every Friday, which just ended last week.  Nick was one of the coaches.  He had a lot of fun.  I'm not sure I'm super crazy about football, but if he is going to be a NFL kicker, he needs to start early.  ;).

The girls are taking ballet.  They love it.  They have their recital in December.  I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.

We had some family pictures taken by my sister-in-law Stephanie last week. We took them at a park near our home.  The kids were great and we got  a lot of great shots.  My family didn't take family pictures growing up, so getting them done every year is very important to me.

We are loving Indy and are so glad we made the trip up here.

Ellie's 3rd birthday

I really am a bad blogger.  I noticed that besides my very last post, I hadn't blogged since Ellie's 2nd birthday!  My baby turns 3 tomorrow.  It's so hard to believe that 3 years have passed since the day she was born.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  I know that's cliche, but it really is true. 

Ellie is an amazing little girl.  She has so much personality.  She is so animated when she talks.  We love her to pieces.  I wonder what it's like growing up with twin siblings who are only 17 months older than she is.  Sometimes it is to her disadvantage because we can tend to expect her to act like they do in certain situations.  I'm sure it's fun too.  She always has someone to play with and take care of her.  Marley is very good at always making sure Ellie follows the rules.  I am so thankful to be her mommy.  She's is a blessing and a true joy. 

Since we live in a small apartment, my in laws were nice enough to let us celebrate Ellie's birthday at their house.  So we went there last night and had Y Not Pizza and cupcakes and ice cream.  Y Not pizza is yummy.  Their sausage pizza is like a pizza king stromboli.  We had cupcakes from the Vanilla Bean Bakery.  I had Minnie Mouse cut outs put on the kids cupcakes. 

Ellie's cousins, Madison and Colton came to the party, as well as Aunt Stephanie.  Ellie got some Minnie Mouse toys, which are her favorite at the moment.  She got 2 pretty tu tu's and some sunglasses and farm animals.  I love seeing the excitement in their faces when they open gifts.  I love that Ellie had a special day.  With 3 kids so close together, sometimes they don't get enough time designated just to them. 

Apartment life isn't so bad.

We recently made the move to Indianapolis.  Nick is from Indy and has always wanted to move back.  We both had the opportunity to start a new job up here, so here we are.  We officially opened the Indy branch of Action Staffing on August 1st. 

We decided to rent an apartment because we couldn't sell our house.  We went from 2600 sq ft to 1100 sq ft.  So, 2 adults, 3 children and 2 dogs are living in a much smaller space.  There are some great advantages to apartment life.  We have no yard maintenance and when things break inside the apartment someone comes and fixes them...for free.  I've enjoyed that aspect because it has helped me to adjust better to life as a working mom.

I work a few days in the office and a few days at home.  We put the kids in daycare for the 1st time ever.  I really thought it was going to be a difficult transiton, but it really hasn't been.  The kids love it.  And I really have enjoyed being back at work.  A friend from high school has a son in the same classroom. 

My biggest challenge is trying to balance work and cooking healthy dinners.  It takes an hour to get home from work because the day care is 30 mins away from home.  We usually don't get home until 545 and by the time you start a meal, it's going to be late before you can eat.  So I'm looking into some other ways to meal plan. 

I love Indianapolis.  I'm looking forward to this next year as we grow a business and look into building a home.  I miss home, but I know we aren't too far away. 

Ellie's 2nd Birthday

I can't believe Ellie is 2!  It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.  She has a great personality.  She loves to laugh.  Her most favorite thing to do is hop on 2 feet.  She does it all the time.  She loves Dora and Boots.  She is very easy going and brings a lot of joy to our lives.  I am looking forward to spending some one on one time with her while Sam and Marley are at pre-school. 

Ellie turned 2 on Sunday, August 21st.  We didn't have a big party. We had Nick's parents and my sister and parents over for dinner and cake.  Ellie got a Dora backpack, a Dora doll, a new baby doll and a lady bug that lights up at night.  Grandpa Steve also painted her a rocking chair that has Elmo, Dora and Boots on it.  All of her favorites.  Aunt Britt got her a Tickle Monster book and some clothes.  She loves her new toys. 

I started potty training her today.  We will see how it goes.  I started with Marley when she was 27 months.  It's a little bit earlier.  I'm ready to get these kids out of diapers!  Hoping to get her trained before BSF starts. 

Worst Blogger ever...

I may be the worst blogger ever.  I have been meaning to blog about our summer so far, and summer is almost over.  Where does the time go?

In July, we took a "vacation" to Indy to see Nick's mom and dad.  It was a busy weekend in Indiamackolis as the kids call it.  We left Friday evening and got up there pretty late.  On Saturday, we grilled out lunch with Nick's family  We also went to an indoor water park. The kids had a lot of fun.  When we left there we drove around for a while so the kids could take a nap.  Nick showed me around Fairland.  I find Indy so confusing.  It's so much bigger than Evansville!  We decided to take the kids to the drive in that night to see Cars 2.  The kids weren't as into it as I'd hoped.  It was nice to go though. 

Sunday we went to the Zoo.  Their Zoo is fantastic.  The kids had so much fun.  Despite the heat, we were able to enjoy seeing all the animals.  They were able to see a tiger up close and we got to see a dolphin show.  Hopefully we will get to go back soon. 

Monday, the 4th of July, we went to Steve's family reunion.  We don't get to spend a lot of time with his dad's side of the family, so it was really nice.  We spent the day swimming and playing yard games.  After that we went downtown to the Canal for fireworks.  Traffic was so crazy that it took us an hour and a half to get home.  If we ever move to Indy, I doubt we will go see the fireworks again. 

These pictures are out of order.  I'm still learning how to work on this site. 


July 4th cookout





Cookout







At the drive in

Tuesday, Nick had a meeting for work and his mom took us to the Children's Museum. We visited the Dora exhibit and then it was time to go home.  The kids had such a great time and were completely exhausted.  Looking forward to our next visit. 

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At the Zoo

Out of Order

I was going through my posts and found a bunch that I never published.  So I did that today and they are very random and out of order.  Sorry.  My goal is to do a better job with the blog. 

Christmas 2010

Here are some pictures from Christmas.  We went to Indy this year.  We took a trip to the Children's Museum as well.