Summer Fun

 Our summer has been filled with Vacation Bible School, Back to Nature Camp, "Let's Get Messy Camp" and lots of swimming! The girls love the water-pool, lake, sprinklers, splash parks, etc., they can't seem to get enough. We've stayed enrolled in swim lessons through the summer and they have exceeded my expectations! Last week, they even took the YMCA's 'deep end' swim test so they can go down the slide into the deep end. They needed to do one length of the pool without floaties and they did it. They were so proud of themselves and then did the slide non-stop for the rest of the afternoon. Aunt Cat visited from DC and spent some quality time with them--movies, shopping, swimming and lots of 'play' time!

We made a big purchase a couple weeks back and are now a mini-van family. We love our new Sienna and the girls can't get enough of the 'magic' doors and all the bells & whistles that come with a brand-new car. We are busy planning our first big road trip as we will head to Disney this fall.

Kindergarten will begin in just under a month and we have Daddy's birthday on the horizon and A & L's 5th birthday after that. We'll celebrate with a 'carnival' themed party at home this year! Enjoy pictures below from our lake trip with Aunt Cat, Aunt Maggie & Uncle Jon! Thanks for making the trip Aunt Cat--we miss you already!

Flower Girls!

This wasn't our first rodeo, Addy & Lilly had done this before, but this time it was different. It was UNCLE Jon's wedding. It was NEW YEAR'S EVE. It involved traveling to another state. There were other little people involved. We were the role models??? I really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into...

However, after a bit of anxiety, I calmed myself down knowing that the bride (Aunt Maggie) was laid back and LOVED our kids. This whole flower girl under the age of 8 doesn't work any other way. It also helps that my families are so intertwined, my in-laws and brother-in-laws and some great friends were all invited, so we had all hands on deck when necessary.

The girls were so excited to be a part of it, they loved the other bridesmaids, loved having their Aunt Cat in from DC and their favorite 'big-boyfriends' from Atlanta came too. They loved going to the salon for their first 'up-do', then they loved slowly pulling it out as the night progressed. They LOVED dancing. They LOVED sleeping in a hotel. It was one of those weekends when you look around and realize how lucky you really are to be in the moment (well, at least in the moment when you weren't about to kill a kid.)

The pictures are wonderful, some mine, some the professional photog. It will be tough to decide which to frame! Enjoy....

The Ash/Sadler Pic

Addy--just before midnight--these girls pushed the limits of bedtime!

Cat, Maggie & I

Lilly with my bouquet (they carried flower balls which I loved)

Cat, Jon & I

The girls in the 'green' room right before the ceremony!

Charlie, Maggie's nephew, was the victim of some serious stalking over the weekend!

Me & Lilly

They've never met a stranger....

Ten Holiday Memories (The Good, Bad & Ugly)

December was a whirlwind and I spent most of the month coughing up a lung with a respiratory infection that wouldn't quit. A & L fought it too, but not quite as bad. We tried to make the best of it and we had A LOT of highlights, capping the month off with the wonderful wedding of my brother, Jonathan and his beautiful bride Maggie. I'll save that post for another day as the girls rocked their flower girl duties, but I didn't want to skip a good holiday post. Here, in no particular order are 10 of our holiday memories!


10. A quick stopover at the lake house on the way to the wedding in Lansing, MI. The girls always think it is a special occasion when they get BOTH grandparents in one place...this day was no exception. The weather had been unseasonable warm, so long walks and snuggles in pj's were just the way to spend the day before the wedding festivities began.


9. The loot...they did pretty well this year, Santa was good to them. Some favorites include some new games for their leap pad, new dolls, a horse & carriage for the dolls, lots of learning board games (you can always tell grandma was a teacher with her gifts), pj's, fairy wings, dress-up supplies, craft kits and more.

8. The Indianapolis Children's Museum never disappoints. We ventured down to explore the giant snow slide, winter wonderland exhibit and meet the Mrs! They were so excited because Santa had told them she was at the North Pole baking cookies when they met him this year, so the fact that she was at the museum a week later, was pretty cool!

7. Jeremy & I pushed a favorite holiday memory on our kids. We were so excited to take them out to look at lights and bundled them one night, made hot cocoa and the night was a disaster! They whined and didn't understand why they couldn't get out of the car....they didn't get it...maybe next year! Jeremy & I had to lecture each other on not pushing our own 'favorites' on our kids, we had set our expectations much too high for the night! This was the 'bad'.

6. The pre-school holiday program was my highlight. The girls sang "Up on the Rooftop" and memorized every word, all 3 verses. They were so confident, so proud! I may try to post the video online during a snowy winter day, but it wouldn't let me during my last attempt. It was a proud mama night!

5. Aunt Cat visited! In preparation for the wedding & the holiday season, she spent 9 days with us. The girls were in 7th heaven, asking one day during breakfast "Aunt Cat, do you live with us now?". They have so much fun when she's around--going for 'carrots' (aka frozen yogurt, but they tell mom they went for carrots), visiting some local kid hot spots and of course going to the movies. They love their Aunt Cat and can't wait until they are 'big' enough for a trip to the nation's capital!

4. Daddy was an elf. Yes, we had a visit from the Elf on the Shelf, but that's not what I'm talking about. Daddy's company had a contest to see which managerial "pod" could raise the most money for their holiday service project. The group that raised the most won the right to dress their boss as an elf....Jeremy lost and this was the outcome. This was the 'ugly'. We had to go to his office to surprise him and see it for ourselves.

3. The girls baked and daddy baked. But between my coughs and the girls coughs, we threw away a lot of germy cookies! Dad distributed all that were deemed healthy (cooked after bedtime) and the girls ate their fair share over the month. We'll all need to lose a few pounds in January.

2. The night before Christmas, we went to church, gathered at Jeremy's parents, opened gifts, then got in our jammies to write a letter to Santa and read the classic. Always look forward to this tradition each year.

1. Each year, we are honored to host a crew of 25 (give or take) for Christmas dinner. After a rough round of health issues for Great Grandpa Bill & Great Grandma Mickey this fall, Jeremy & I were so grateful Addy & Lilly could see their great-grandparents on Christmas. The girls don't know any different as this is how they have spent all of their holidays, but we count our blessings for this and all our family this holiday season! (This was very good!)

Guest Blogger--Aunt Cat's Holiday Perspective

Christmas at the Zoo--we braved the cold and it was worth it!

The girls with Aunt Cat before Christmas Eve service at church

They loved the lights!




Addy & Cat

When you see my Aunt Cat, yell "AUNT CAT!" Walking out into the Indianapolis Airport Concourse and hearing two tiny voices yelling "AUNT CAT!" and having two tiny little people launch themselves into my arms was one of the highlights of my trip. Visiting Addy & Lilly is always an adventure, they never disappoint. After we left the airport we went to the Indianapolis zoo but not before receiving instructions from Lilly who said "Guys, guys this is the plan when you see more planes yell 'more planes!'" They were both in rare form at the zoo, petting the dog sharks and exclaiming "Ohhhhhhs and Ahhhhhhhs!" at the Christmas light displays.

They received "Elf on the Shelf" on the first day of December, the elf, who they named "Bubba Fiji" served as quite a tool for Aimee and Jeremy. Any instance of bad behavior was immediately reported to Bubba Fiji who apparently has Santa's ear.

I will never forget the singing, Addy and Lilly know the words to nearly every Christmas carol that exists and have no problem correcting anyone who sings one word incorrectly. We all went to church on Christmas Eve and the reason for using electric candles instead of real candles was made abundantly clear by Addy and Lilly collecting an entire church pew's worth of candles in one of their cups.

We left a note for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer and then headed to bed. At about six o'clock AM Lilly said she thought she heard sleigh bells on the roof which is pretty much the only sentence that can melt your heart at six in the morning. After stalling for as long as we possibly could until Grandpa and Grandma arrived to watch them open gifts Addy & Lilly opened countless presents ranging from pillow pets (a dolphin for Addy and a doggie for Lilly) to a pretend grocery store & cash register that quickly became Lilly's favorite toy of all time. I don't think that I have gone grocery shopping for real as many times as I pretended to grocery shop in Lilly's store. I have to give it to the kid though she is quite an entrepreneur, as she charged me $6.00 for a tiny container of milk. Luckily for me she accepts credit cards.

Christmas with two 3 year olds is something I encourage everyone to experience because I don't know of anyone who has ever opened gifts with such exuberance and excitement! Ribbons were quite a challenge for our little ones but nothing was really going to stand in the way of them opening toys! Addy and Lilly both enjoyed Christmas dinner and have quite a taste for filet mignon. They both like the finer things in life, nice cheeses, nice meat, fancy cookies. But they are the sweetest little people, Addy has an "I looooove you" ready all the time. The three of us went on a special adventure to get some frozen yogurt and honestly you would have thought I was taking them to Disneyworld, the way the poured over their choice of toppings was a bit dramatic. Spending the holiday with Addy & Lilly was fun and exciting, I miss them terribly but as a person who has never been a big fan of six AM I don't miss the wake-up call;)

Blessed Beyond Measure-Christmas 2010

I'm procrastinating putting the decorations away and still eating leftovers, not quite ready to kiss the holiday good-bye. It was a good one. Magical, to say the least. A & L's excitement and anticipation had me awake at 5:30 on Christmas Day. I lived my best holiday through them. A great benefit of being a mom, I guess. We had visitors and gifts and I'll surely rank their favorites on a later blog when I see which span the test of some time. I'll get to my thank-you notes, clean the fridge and edit some pictures, slowly ticking off the to-do list. However, my biggest hope is that the feelings revisit my heart and theirs again before next December.

The tree-taken at about 6:30 a.m.--just before the girls walked down!
Letter to Santa--written verbatim--gotta love the potty reminder!

Evidence that he had come and gone and taken that silly Elf on the Shelf with him!

Bedtime stories with dad!

Holiday walk in the snow with Uncle Joe

Christmas Eve before church--Daddy post-lasik! It's still weird seeing him without glasses! (Lilly, on the other hand looks like she might need them :-)

Picture from the Ash grandparents holiday card!

Picture from the Sadler holiday card (yes, A & L graced 3 holiday cards in 2010-we are really trying NOT to let the popularity get to their heads!)

Humbled to host this crew at our home for dinner every year! We feel the love!

Guest Blogger-Aunt Cat Visits

Mommy Dearest--Growing up I always felt that, between my sister and me, I was the melodramatic one. My thinking changed during this visit when my sister stopped the car on the side of the road, got out and proceeded to unleash the mommy dearest fury on Addy for taking her seat belt off. This was a Mommy Dearest moment. It wasn't the first or the last I witnessed, a few more occurred during this visit. I adore my nieces, but they do know how to bring out the crazy in people. It's because of the crazy that I started to understand having the Mommy Dearest moments, because, I admit, I had one too.

A & L were fighting non-stop over this awfully loud karaoke-type-toy, accusing each other of taking their turn on the machine. I took the karaoke machine and yelled that I was going to throw it in the trash if they couldn't share. Not my finest "fun aunt" moment, for a minute, I turned into Mommy Dearest. Later in the week, Aimee's friend Jenny visited from North Carolina and shared in the Mommy Dearest moments, threatening to take the car through the car-wash (something the girls hate) if they couldn't behave in the car. Perhaps we all have a little Mommy Dearest inside? Living with 2-year-olds can't be all parks and playgrounds.

All-in-all Aimee & Jeremy have the patience of saints, I'm so impressed for their tolerance for how LOUD this house can get. I love visiting my nieces, but there were certain points during this last visit, I felt like I was on SURVIVOR--more accurately, I felt like I was losing SURVIVOR.

I am a really proud Aunt...the girls are completely potty-trained (accident free during my visit). They are smart, inquisitive, so bright, and, of course, loud. They are amazing swimmers, showing no fear in the water. Lilly is a force to be reckoned with and is so stubborn. I am not sure I'll be visiting during the teenage years--it terrifies me to think about! There is no way Lilly is ever not going to do exactly what she wants when she wants to do it. Anyone who gets in her way--good luck.

Addy is fiercely independent and adventurous. I envy her zest for life! She is the girl who will follow her own path. I'm certain the path will involve a lot of running, dancing and loud music. I "Looooooovvvvveeeee" you both Addy & Lilly and I hope for the sake of your parents' sanity, your terrible twos come to an end soon!

Guest Blogger - Aunt Cat visits for the holiday

Three generations of red-heads on Christmas Eve

Addy & Lilly have said "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!" approximately 400 times since I arrived last Wednesday. On Christmas Eve we went to church and they walked up to the nativity and wished Baby Jesus a happy birthday and then proceeded to have a little wrestling match over who got to hold Baby Jesus. They also enjoyed the electric candles at the service and kept turning them on and off. All in all I think they were very good at church; however, the irony of the two of them singing Silent Night was not lost on anyone in the congregation.

We left some cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer and an Addy & Lilly dictated note that said (verbatim):

Writing our letter to Santa...

Dear Santa, Will you please bring me & sissy some gummis and some toys and some wine for Grandma and some french fries? Give Rudolph some carrots and enjoy the cookies and milk!

We had a little bit of a discussion about what Santa would like to drink, Lilly thought Santa would like a "cold beer." I think maybe someone needs to have an intervention with Addy & Lilly's mom & dad and grandparents.

On Christmas morning they were really excited to see if Santa ate the cookies and they got a note from Santa that thanked them for being such good girls and told them to have fun on their new bikes! So they ran into the family room and saw their new bikes - no tricycles here! They figured out that a much more fun way to ride a bike is to be pushed on the bike by an adult and have a race with sissy all over the house:)

The loot...Santa was good to everyone!

Lilly loved opening all her new books and gave them a quick flip through to make sure the books were to her liking. Addy loved opening up all her dolls for her dollhouse. They quickly zeroed in on their interests. They loved their magic fingerpaints from Uncle Jon - the fingerpaints only work on the magic paper - otherwise I think Mommy would have put Uncle Jon in a timeout. We made cupcakes together which was a little bit like the blind leading the blind - I told them I would have been better off making toast. A Christmas miracle happened and the cupcakes actually turned out pretty good!

Addy with a few of her new dolls

Baking Christmas cupcakes with Aunt Cat

Lilly with her new blanket from Jeremy's Aunt Cindy

Sadly they refused a nap on Christmas Day - but they were troopers through our 20 person dinner! They had a wonderful time at the party and seeing their family and "helping" to open up more presents.

My brillant, beautiful nieces are growing up though - they have opinions and god help you if you don't listen to them. They do operate on the whoever talks the loudest gets to speak rule. They each have a bit of a dictatorial streak in them and I think there is general consensus that they get that from their mom! They are so kind and loving - always giving hugs and kisses. I think we need to get Addy & Lilly run & hug on tv! They actually run at each other (olympic speed) and crash into a hug - all the while screaming at the top of their lungs "RUN AND HUG - RUN AND HUG!"

Addy & Lilly - I love you two! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - Happy Birthday Baby Jesus! I cannot wait until I see you again - don't grow up too fast and try for the sake of your mommy and daddy to get some sleep - I think if you slept a little bit more mommy might need a little less wine and daddy might need a little less cold beer:)

Grandpa Ian with Lilly, Aunt Cat with Addy, checking out Baby Jesus in the church nativity

Lake Tippy Vacation 2009

As the summer quickly got away from us, we decided we needed to hit the brakes, slow 'er down a bit and head north. Lake Tippecanoe in Northern Indiana was our chosen spot--the place where Grandma & Grandpa Ash have a lakehouse and Addy & Lilly would be making their flower girl debut (more on that in an upcoming post). A mere 2 hours away, but just enough 'vacation' for us. The weather was PERFECT and we brought in a few friends! Grandma & Grandpa Sadler rented a place so we got to see them, Aunt Cat came from DC, Uncle Jon from Indy and a wonderful family friend, Joyce Tiley, from Atlanta. The entire Ash family was on hand for the wedding, so, we had both sides of the family merge together for some fun. My pictures are endless and will be coming to me through a few different sources, so I'll probably dedicate a few posts to this trip. To start off, some tips on things you MUST do if you are headed to Tippecanoe/Wawasee lakes anytime soon.

Invite a friend and head to the Fort Wayne Zoo.

Rated in the top 10 by Parents Magazine, it is pricey but worth it. Here the girls are on their actual birthday hanging with their "lake friend" Savannah

Spend a bit of time everyday on the water.

The girls have no fear of the water at all and LOVE hanging on the boat. "Boatride" was usually the first words out of their mouth in the morning!

Stop in at Maria's House of Pancakes for breakfast.

Entirely too much food for anyone to eat, but a good spot nonetheless. Both times the girls went, they ate more than I had ever seen them eat. Lilly amazed us when she said to the waitress "More bacon, lady." --Seriously, Lilly?

Get a boating lesson.
Uncle Jon seemed to be the most patient with the girls and driving the boat, letting them honk the horn, play with the radio and sit on his lap.

Jump off the pier, again, and again, and again.

This trick didn't seem to get old for Addy or for Aunt Cat.

Jet-ski

No, we never went above an idle, but doesn't Lilly look like a pro?

Don't forget about tubing

Addy loved this with Dad, scared at first, but then kept saying "again", "again", "again".

All-in-all, a great trip/vacation/time spent with family! Can't wait to share pictures from the wedding, if you have any, send my way! I was too preoccupied to take many with my camera! Thanks to all who made the week one to remember!