We had another wonderful trip to Brown County, IN for our annual reunion with my best friends from college. The 4 of us, along with or husbands and 2 kids apiece ( = 16 people!) settled into a beautiful log cabin for 4 great days of catching up! We all live in different states now so this is the one time each year that we get to see everyone in person, all together. We took turns cooking big meals and watched our kids play together. In the evenings, we enjoyed some wine and the great hot tub out on the deck. We had a couple days of bright sunshine and loved being surrounded by nature. It's always sad to leave, but I love knowing that we'll keep it up in the years to come. I'm sure someday, the kids will outnumber the adults! Here are a couple photos from our trip.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Won't be long now!
Gavin has been hard at work on his first steps! Here is a video of this morning's progress. I wasn't really expecting it so I'm glad I had the camera rolling!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday 2010
We had a wonderful Easter Sunday today. We started the day with a 7:30am church service. We figured with the kids up at 6am, why not go right away? It's so early that we had no problem getting seats just 2 minutes before the
service started - not usually the case on Easter! After church, we came home and played for a bit before heading out to Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house for an afternoon get-together. When we arrived, Cassidy spotted some Easter eggs hidden in Grammy and Grandpa's living room! She and Gavin had fun opening each egg to find 
what was hiding inside. We had a delicious brunch and lots of playtime outside. Cassidy particularly loved the fairy garden, the zip line, and running around with Cooper. Gavin liked the tree and porch swings and crawling around the yard looking
for sticks. We were very thankful for the gorgeous weather and for spending a great day with family.I forgot to mention that the Easter Bunny also paid a visit to our house! He came on Saturday, one day early since we had a a busy schedule on Sunday. We left him a plate of carrots and 4 jelly beans. All that remained on the
plate after he came through was a small carrot nibble! 
He hid 12 eggs with jelly beans all around our rec room. He also filled Easter baskets for the kids with fun things like marshmallow peeps and new spring PJs. Thanks Easter Bunny!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Decorating the Eggs
Cassidy had her first experience decorating Easter eggs today! What fun. We have been talking a lot about the Easter bunny lately and she thinks maybe the Easter bunny would like some of our colored eggs. We are looking forward to an early church service tomorrow and an afternoon with family. And of course a visit from the Easter Bunny!!!Here is a video to wish everyone a Happy Easter.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Spring has Arrived!
The temperature hit the 80 degree mark yesterday (first time since late summer 2009) - it was 
fantastic! We are spending lots of time outside and enjoying the bright sunshine. The tulip stems have popped up and the kids are having fun watching each day for the flowers to bloom. We are now making daily stroller trips over to the park and both kids are really enjoying the 
backyard sand table. Gavin continues to eat handfuls, and then grimaces and tries to wipe it out of his mouth with his sandy hands - one of these days he'll learn that he is bringing that yucky taste upon himself. Yesterday he nearly ate a tiny spider, and Cassidy was horrified - not out of worry for Gavin, but for the spider. She continues to adore animals of any kind, even bugs, and thinks of them as little friends that talk and play with her.
Cassidy is three months shy of her 3rd birthday, and she is officially done with naps. I tried my best to keep them going, but she is simply not tired enough during the days anymore to get wound down for a nap. We still aim for some "quiet time" every afternoon, and some days are better than others with that. The silver lining of this transition is that she goes to bed at 7pm sharp, and falls asleep within minutes. Before, she would chat and sing and call for us well into the 9 o'clock hour, so it is nice to have a relaxing evening in store every night. But wow, the days are like marathons now, I have to adjust to having no break! Gavin is also gearing up for a nap transition, preparing to drop his morning nap and move to one long afternoon snooze. Probably 1-2 days a week now, he ends up skipping it. I remember Cassie dropped that morning nap at 15 months, so I was expecting it to happen anytime. I actually prefer only 1 nap, since it allows us to fill our morning up with activities!
Also, Cassie is making her transition to a big girl bed, and she's very proud to announce that to whomever comes through our front door. The pest control man was asked to "come see my big girl bed!" Thankfully he acted extremely excited about the accomplishment. Right now, we just removed the front of her crib, so she is still on the same crib mattress but she can step right out. Soon, we'll be moving her into a full size bed with guardrails. She's so tall that the crib mattress is nearly too small for her as she moves around in her sleep.
Gavin just had his 1-year doctor check-up and is doing great! He's a lean little guy, only 20.5
pounds (10th percentile) but still fairly tall at 30.5 inches (75th percentile). Ever since around the 11 month mark, Gavin has traded out some fussiness for smiles. He is much more content these days and can even spend 10-15 minutes playing on his own while I empty the dishwasher, fold some laundry nearby, etc. His two favorite activities, by far, are reading books (he's a complete bookworm!) and playing chase around the house. He would do those two things all day if he could! He is still my little snuggler when he's sleepy. He is also still on all fours crawling around, but will walk if someone holds his two hands. I think he's actually capable of walking on his own at this point, but not mentally ready to take it on. I imagine it will be any day now.
Cassidy keeps us entertained nearly every second of her awake time. She loves to tend to her animals (she could play for hours in the stuffed animal vet center at our local kids' museum), play with My Little Ponies, work on crafts, and just have wandering conversations. She likes to ask us to "tell her about the..." Meaning, she'll pick something that has intrigued her lately, and then ask Erik or I to tell her about it (in story form) over and over and over again. This week, that topic is the car wash. She just can't get over the fact that cars go into this giant room with spinning things and take a bath. She could talk about it for hours.
Erik and I got ourselves cleaned up and enjoyed a night out at a new restaurant. Had to take a picture to remember that we actually do enjoy some nightlife from time to time. Ha!
We are looking forward to Easter this coming weekend, and a trip to Brown County, IN in April with my college roommates and their families. Can't wait.
fantastic! We are spending lots of time outside and enjoying the bright sunshine. The tulip stems have popped up and the kids are having fun watching each day for the flowers to bloom. We are now making daily stroller trips over to the park and both kids are really enjoying the 
backyard sand table. Gavin continues to eat handfuls, and then grimaces and tries to wipe it out of his mouth with his sandy hands - one of these days he'll learn that he is bringing that yucky taste upon himself. Yesterday he nearly ate a tiny spider, and Cassidy was horrified - not out of worry for Gavin, but for the spider. She continues to adore animals of any kind, even bugs, and thinks of them as little friends that talk and play with her.
Cassidy is three months shy of her 3rd birthday, and she is officially done with naps. I tried my best to keep them going, but she is simply not tired enough during the days anymore to get wound down for a nap. We still aim for some "quiet time" every afternoon, and some days are better than others with that. The silver lining of this transition is that she goes to bed at 7pm sharp, and falls asleep within minutes. Before, she would chat and sing and call for us well into the 9 o'clock hour, so it is nice to have a relaxing evening in store every night. But wow, the days are like marathons now, I have to adjust to having no break! Gavin is also gearing up for a nap transition, preparing to drop his morning nap and move to one long afternoon snooze. Probably 1-2 days a week now, he ends up skipping it. I remember Cassie dropped that morning nap at 15 months, so I was expecting it to happen anytime. I actually prefer only 1 nap, since it allows us to fill our morning up with activities!Also, Cassie is making her transition to a big girl bed, and she's very proud to announce that to whomever comes through our front door. The pest control man was asked to "come see my big girl bed!" Thankfully he acted extremely excited about the accomplishment. Right now, we just removed the front of her crib, so she is still on the same crib mattress but she can step right out. Soon, we'll be moving her into a full size bed with guardrails. She's so tall that the crib mattress is nearly too small for her as she moves around in her sleep.
Gavin just had his 1-year doctor check-up and is doing great! He's a lean little guy, only 20.5
pounds (10th percentile) but still fairly tall at 30.5 inches (75th percentile). Ever since around the 11 month mark, Gavin has traded out some fussiness for smiles. He is much more content these days and can even spend 10-15 minutes playing on his own while I empty the dishwasher, fold some laundry nearby, etc. His two favorite activities, by far, are reading books (he's a complete bookworm!) and playing chase around the house. He would do those two things all day if he could! He is still my little snuggler when he's sleepy. He is also still on all fours crawling around, but will walk if someone holds his two hands. I think he's actually capable of walking on his own at this point, but not mentally ready to take it on. I imagine it will be any day now.
Cassidy keeps us entertained nearly every second of her awake time. She loves to tend to her animals (she could play for hours in the stuffed animal vet center at our local kids' museum), play with My Little Ponies, work on crafts, and just have wandering conversations. She likes to ask us to "tell her about the..." Meaning, she'll pick something that has intrigued her lately, and then ask Erik or I to tell her about it (in story form) over and over and over again. This week, that topic is the car wash. She just can't get over the fact that cars go into this giant room with spinning things and take a bath. She could talk about it for hours.
Erik and I got ourselves cleaned up and enjoyed a night out at a new restaurant. Had to take a picture to remember that we actually do enjoy some nightlife from time to time. Ha!
We are looking forward to Easter this coming weekend, and a trip to Brown County, IN in April with my college roommates and their families. Can't wait.
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