Our busy summer!

Well, so far our summer has been super busy! (But fun!). Obviously, we have been working hard on our house, but thankfully the inside is almost done! We are just waiting for the new carpet, which will probably be installed this week and then we can finally move from the guest room to our bedroom and finish unpacking! Hooray! Otherwise, the rest of the house is unpacked and we even have pictures on some of the walls! And I am very excited b/c this week we had the piano that was at my Mom's house moved to our house! It's been 10 years since I have been able to play everyday and I have really really missed it. There is something just so relaxing and stress relieving to sit down and play. The girls are excited to have it too and I often find them tinkling on the keys. We put it in the family room, which is perfect b/c the girls can play all they want without driving me crazy :) The only rule is that when Mommy plays, they can only watch.

Sammi also had VBS this week at the church I went to when I was little! It is just 5 min. from our house, so it worked out perfectly. They did Crocodile Dock, which apparently is the popular VBS to do this year since I've had a handful of people tell me their kids did the same VBS at a different church. Well, Sammi of course LOVED it. That girl gets so restless at home and has so much energy, she really needed something social to do! She told me all about everything she learned about Moses and she sings the songs she learned all day. I bought the CD for her and Maddie now loves to sing the songs too! She is going to do another VBS at her preschool in July.

And Maddie started swimming lessons 2 weeks ago. She goes every Monday night with Brandon. It's wonderful that she gets to do something special with just her and Daddy. She really seems to enjoy them and was excited that she went under water last week! Sammi starts swimming lessons this Mon. and has them every morning for 2 weeks. She is somewhat timid when it comes to being in the water, so hopefully the lessons will help her get over her fears and learn how to swim! Here is a picture of Maddie before her first lesson. She is so proud and grown up!

I wish I would have taken some more pool pictures b/c the girls are just so cute. We went to the local pool twice this week and I plan on staying after Sammi's lessons a few times next week. Abigail just LOVES the water! You should see her kick and kick and kick when she gets in b/c she is so excited. And if you try to take her out, she just leans way over trying to get back in! She's also the first baby I know who actually loves to sit in the grass. Most babies stick their legs up and are kind of weirded out by the grass. But not Abby! She loves to sit in it and watch us while we work in the garden. Speaking of which, the front garden is pretty baren and desert looking, so today we went to a dear friend's house and got a TON of perennial flowers to plant! Plus, my Mom is giving us some from her garden. So hopefully, next year the garden will look a little prettier. Although, I do have to say my Mom surprised Brandon for Father's Day and planted some pretty annual flowers for us while we were gone last week. So we at least have a little color from those. But don't ask me about what we are planting, b/c I have no clue about plant names!

On more random thing, Abigail can now do the pincer grasp! She has even gotten food in her mouth a few times, which is very exciting since she loves to eat so much. The sooner she can feed herself, the better! However, I was looking back at some old posts and I noted that Maddie was crawling all of the place by the time she was Abby's age. Abby doesn't seem to be anywhere near crawling, so I'm hopeful that she won't be a 9 month walker! She can pull herself up though if she is very motivated. Most of the time though she is just content to sit on her tush and put something in her mouth :)

Happy Father's Day! (And first tooth!)

This weekend, we went to DelGrosso Amusement Park and an Altoona Curves game, all as a treat from Brandon's Mom and Dad! We met Brandon's whole family there and we all had a great time. Friday, Sammi woke up with a fever, so I wasn't sure we would all be able to go, but amazingly she was fine Saturday morning and stayed healthy the whole time!

So, since it's Father's Day, I thought I would share how great a Dad Brandon was the entire weekend. While we are at the park, the guys (and Norma and Mandy) wanted to go over to the other side of the park to ride the go karts. Brandon was all excited and he looked to me to see if I would mind and I said "Sure, go have fun!". So he started to head off with them. Well, as soon as Maddie noticed he was walking away, she ran after him and said "Wait for me Daddy!". He immediately stoppped, and without even saying a word, picked Maddie up and headed back towards the kiddie rides to ride with her. As fun as the go-karts were, he would rather spend time with his little girl. Isn't he a great Dad! :)

Now for a few pictures of our fun weekend! (Although I didn't get too many b/c my camera battery died)

Sammi and Maddie started out on this elephant ride, but Sammi got scared on it and wouldn't ride on anything for the whole first half of the day. Maddie, who is a little braver, tried a few more rides after this one, but got scared on a jumping fish ride, so we took a little break at that point to eat lunch.

Abigail was so pleasant the entire trip! Despite the fact that she cut her first tooth!!! She is BY FAR our earliest toother. The other two didn't get a tooth till 12 and 11 months! I suppose it's b/c she loves food so much and just wants to eat! It's on her bottom right, and it's just a little sliver right now, but you can feel it with your finger and see it if you manage to get her tongue out of the way. And Uncle Nate won this cute little giraffe for her :)

So, after lunch, while it poured down rain, we stood under a pavillion and watched a special storybook time with Arthur and D.W. (From the PBS show). Sammi really enjoyed that! Then, it stopped raining long enough to enjoy some more, tamer rides! Maddie loved this race car one.

And then Sammi saw how much fun Maddie was having on the race car and this boat ride, that she decided she wanted to try it too. And of course she loved them! So, the girls ended up riding almost everything else again together.

They also really enjoyed the waterpark that DelGrosso had for about an hour before another storm hit. The bottom of the pool was rubbery, which was very nice to walk on and there were all sorts of small slides and water fountain things that were alot of fun. Even Abby loved sitting and playing with the rubber stuff that was on the bottom of the pool.

Overall, DelGrosso was a really nice little park that was perfect for the girls age group. It was clean and small, yet had enough fun things to do to make a day out of it. And there were a few rides and water slides for the adults to enjoy. And it was much cheaper than Kennywood! (Just $10 with a coupon). It's just a little further away! But, I would definitely recommend going there if you have a chance and have small children.

In the evening, the weather cleared again and we went to an Altoona Curves game. I was amazed at how well the girls behaved at the game, despite no one having a nap, except for Abby. They had these hilarious bubble character things in between innings for entertainment. I think they were called zooperstars and they did funny dances and silly things. This clammy guy in the picture actually ate the ball boy! Then, he spit out his helmet and shoes and then his pants and then the ball boy with just his shorts left on! It was really something to watch!

We stayed in a hotel Saturday night and Sunday had a nice breakfast out with everyone for Father's Day. The girls made Brandon a pencil holder and gave him Transformer's M&Ms. It wasn't quite as exciting as what they did for me on Mother's Day, but I think he liked it and I know he had a great time with his girl's all weekend.

What Happened?

To my sweet, quiet, little baby??! Ok, so she is still sweet, but not quiet! She has now entered the "it's fun to scream and yell" phase, especially when it comes to food! This girls LOVES food. She can't get enough of it. She gets so hungry and so mad if I don't give her some real food. Nursing is definitely not enough for her anymore! I bought her one of those mesh feeding things that you can put chunks of real food in, and she went nuts for it. Here she is eating some banana in it.



Uh oh! She dropped it! Here comes the screaming! It's a very loud, high pitch scream that only a 7 month old can make.

And then this is what happens when Maddie tries to feed her some yogurt

"It's messy Mom, but I sure do love it!"

We're back!

To the land of the living that is!! I can't believe how fast all these pictures just uploaded! Very exciting :) We were supposed to get our Fios on June 1st, but there was a mix up and didn't get it till today. Although, I really wouldn't have had time to do anything on the computer the last week anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter in the end! We have been so busy painting and cleaning and unpacking. The previous owners of the house smoked, so we have painted every single room, including ceilings and closets and have removed all the carpet. The cleaning was so gross! There was yellow nicotine just running down the windows when we sprayed them. Yuck!! But, it is pretty much all clean now and we are living in it, even though every room isn't done. So, here is a tour of our new home!

When you walk up the front steps, we have a little fountain/pond. The girls bought fish for it last night and they go look at them every chance I give them.

We can actually fit our van in the garage! Yeah!

This is the front entrance. There used to be stinky carpet on the steps, and we of course painted. The door straight ahead leads to the laundry room and also access to the garage.

Up the steps leads to the living room. The picture didn't turn out too good, but we painted two shades of blue and removed the carpet. We are keeping the hardwood floors in here and just need to finish painting trim and clean up the floors. Oh, and buy furniture! Ashley loves watching the kids from the neighborhood (and barking at them) when they get off the school bus in front of our house.

Next is the dining room. This is yet to be finished as well. We painted the walls and ceiling and removed half the carpet.

The other half is still a wreck and has plywood underneath since it used to be the kitchen. So, we are most likely going to be putting down engineered wood in here.

Up the steps are the bedrooms. First on the right is the guest/kids bathroom.

And the guest room, where Brandon and I are sleeping for now is across the hall.

Sammi and Maddie's pink princess room!

And one of my favorites, Abby's room. I just love the yellow color we picked. And it is so much bigger than her old tiny room.

Eventually, this will be our room. We still have to finish painting and are getting new carpet. We also probably need to do some work on the bathroom that is in this room. And of course clean, clean, clean!

There is a built in vanity and you can see where the bathroom is in this picture.

And there is this built in dresser. I don't think we even need the dresser we do have!

Back down the steps and next to the dining room is the kitchen!! I'm still not used to how big this kitchen is! The girls just love to sit at the island :) Oh, and we bought a new dishwasher and stove/oven unit for the island. The old ones were very old (and ugly) and did not work too well at all.

This is the only room we didn't paint. We just cleaned and cleaned and cleaned it! Brandon's Mom spent a lot of time cleaning it just so we could put some things away and then my Mom spent another whole day cleaning more! We can't thank both our parents enough for all the help they did! Brandon's parents came for an entire weekend and helped clean and paint and my Mom spent all last week with me painting and cleaning!

Next, out onto the deck! We love having the woods behind our house and the neighborhood is so quiet and peaceful. All of our neighbors have been really friendly and nice too. One neighbor brought us fruit and another brought us cookies!

Here is looking at the house from the backyard.

And this is the lower part of the deck. The girls are excited to try out the campfire pit. And it is nice that the yard is completely fenced so the girls can go out and play whenever they want!

From the lower deck you can also get to the family room.


This is looking into the family room from the other side. The girls have tons of room to play. And I am really looking forward to when we move my piano from my Mom's house into this room.Then we are back to the entrance! There is a small (ugly) powder room to the right in this picture.
And that is our new house! It is starting to feel more like our home, but we still have a lot to do before it is done and life is completely back to normal. The kids really love the house though and having all the open space is great. It seems to make us all a little less on edge since we aren't stepping on each other's toes every second. We can spend more time together as a family and yet still have our own space. Our dog Ashley really loves it here too and doesn't spend all day barking and whining anymore to either go in or out. She just lounges in the sun most of the day and brings me her Frisbee whenever I go out. We feel very blessed to have this home and live in this neighborhood!