Olivia -- the gymnast

Olivia had her first gymnastics performance day. It was to show what she has learned in gymnastics to family and friends. She really loves taking gymnastics. She has really come a long way in 2 years. She used to really dislike the balance beam and the trapeze when she first started but now loves both! Here is a short video of her on the balance beam.

Pumpkin Patch and Pony Rides

We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago and to say the girls had a blast would be an understatement! They had their first ever pony rides! The loved it. After the pony rides, we went on a hayride to pick pumpkins. They got lots of pumpkins but unfortunately we never got around to carving them. Here are a few pics from the day!

Daddy and his girls

We had our church fall festival last Sunday and the girls went trunk or treating. Olivia was a gingerbread girl and Sophia was a baker. I am still a little undecided on whether or not I want to take them trick or treating tomorrow night since we don't live in a subdivision and would have to drive for them to go. We have been invited by some friends to go with them but I don't know. Decisions, decisions.

I have a ton more to update on -- Olivia's gymnastics program, going to the Pumpkin Patch, pony riding, Olivia's first field trip.......Whew! Until next time!

FCC Moon Festival

I and my dear friend T planned our local FCC Moon Festival. We had heard that most of the older kids didn't want to attend most FCC functions because it seemed that we catered to the younger kids which once we thought about it was true. So we thought and came up with some things that included both older and younger kids. There was a scavenger hunt, a hayride to the pumpkin patch, a corn maze and face painting. We also had a lantern parade. Since the Moon Festival is about family and thanksgiving, we decided to do something to honor our "Chinese" Families. We had red balloons and the children wrote a note to their birthparents. The notes were then tied to the balloons and released just before the lantern parade. Sophia did not quite like the idea of her balloon being gone but once we gave her a new one she was fine. We had a great time but are glad the planning and preparation is finished -- until next year that is.

Well, I am having some trouble uploading the pictures I want to but I will try again later! Update: I was able to add 2 before I got the error message. Also, I don't have many really good pictures since hubby was taking them instead of me......

Woo hoo!!! We are......

......a diaper free house ~~ both day AND night!!!! Sophia has been waking up dry most nights and even waking up in the middle of the night to go potty. So, when we ran out of her size diapers, we decided that instead of buying more we would just bite the bullet and make the switch and go panties all the time!! After 2 days, she is still dry and can hold it forever!! I hope the momentum keeps going! We are so proud of our girl.

A House Divided.....

GO BIG BLUE!!!!! Last weekend was the annual UK-UofL football game. In previous years, it has been played as the first game for each school however this year UK wanted to play it as the 3rd game. Well, as luck would have it that proved to be a wonderful choice as the Wildcats scored a touchdown with 28 seconds left in the 4th quater to win the game 40 -34!!! Louisville did well with a new coach this year but the cats came out on top! WOO HOO!!! I love those CATS!!!!

Just photos....

2 Years ago today......

.....we saw Sophia's face for the first time. It was an amazing day and one I will never forget. I was the second to post on our DTC yahoo group that had gotten the call - I was a close second to a travelmate of ours! I took pictures of Sophia holding her referral picture and I am amazed at how she has grown over the last 2 years.

Last year's photo

This year's photos:

Speech Therapy and Gymnastics

Well, first let's talk about speech therapy. Sophia has done amazing with speech therapy - so much so that she has tested out of the First Steps program! Her therapist is just amazed by her progress. She has one more lesson in this plan and we are finished. I don't know what she is going to do when Miss Dana no longer comes to the house.

Sophia has started gymnastics and absolutely loves it! She loves to play and it gives her some mommy time since it is a parent/tot class until she turns 3. Olivia continues with gymnastics and still loves it. She was asked last spring to join a developmental team that prepares kids for competitions. We decided not to start with the summer session but did start this August. She loves this and is continuing to improve. She was in a parade last Saturday - unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. Ugh! Her first parade and I missed it! Here are a few pictures of Sophia doing gymnastics.

First Day of School

The first day of school went off without a hitch! Olivia asked every day after we went to the open house and met her teachers if she got to go to school that day and I always said no not today but you will go on Monday. Well, Sunday night she picked out what she wanted to wear and what Sophia was going to wear before heading to bed. Monday morning she woke up and I could hear her skipping through the kitchen saying "I get to go to school today" over and over again. She is going 4 days per week and Sophia is going 2 days. She has since decided that she doesn't like going to school when Sophia isn't there. Here are a few pics of the first day:

State fair and good friends

Today we went to the State fair and met up with friends, The Hedden Family, we met through our DTC group while waiting for Sophia. I would link their blog in this post but I have no idea how to so I will just say see the link on the side under Emma and the Boys. They come to our lovely state fair every year and this is our second year of meeting. We got to meet their new son Sam for the first time and he is a real cutie! Olivia and Robbie (their 5 yo son) picked up right where they left off last year. At one point I thought I was going to look back and see them holding hands! Sophia and Emma were opposite each other - when one was in her happy phase the other was not so I didn't really get any good pictures of them. So without further ado, here are some pictures.

Jack, Robbie, Sam, Emma, Olivia, Sophia and ColemanRobbie and Olivia last year

Robbie and Olivia this year

The only half-way decent pic of Emma and Sophia I have.

Swimming

Olivia is taking swim lessons with a friend of hers in a semi-private lesson. She is doing so amazingly well. She loves it and is becoming fearless of the water which is kind of scary. My mom, my brothers and their families came over last Sunday for a cookout and swim party. My brothers were throwing both Olivia and Sophia up in the air and Olivia would come back to the top and swim either to the side or the nearest adult. Sophia they would catch since she can't swim yet. She loved it as well. I was able to take a few pics.

Speech

Sophia's speech is going so well. Here is a short video of her saying her name.

Camping and Holiday World

We took our annual camping trip to Holiday World last month. We usually take the tents and rough it but after fighting to get the kids to take a nap in the heat last year our group decided to rent cabins. It was nice! We drew the short straw and got the futon while our cabin mates with their 3 kiddos got the bed and bedroom. We ended up putting our air mattresses up in the loft with the girls and it wasn't half bad - unless you needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Friday afternoon everyone arrived and after supper the dad's took the kiddos to the swimming pool. David is so impressed with Olivia's swimming. So am I for that matter. While they were gone, the moms/wives made the camp fire. Yea us! We had S'mores and after we all put the kids to bed we stayed up and talked around the campfire.

Saturday morning we went to Holiday World. We had planned on spending the day at the water park but it was kind of windy so we decided to devote the day to riding rides. Olivia has just amazed me at the things she will try. She rode the scrambler which she liked until it started going real fast but she stuck with it and didn't cry or scream. She rode a ride called the Turkey Whirl twice and rode the roller coaster. Sophia will try almost anything one time. She rode the roller coaster too but didn't like it one bit! When it was time for a nap, we all went back to our cabins. We took our cars over to HW and rode the shuttle back to the campground since it takes longer to catch a shuttle at night. Well, that turned out to be the WRONG thing to do. Olivia was fine until she got off the shuttle and got to our cabin door and it was like a light bulb went off in her head. She realized at that moment that her beloved Taggie was in the car and she would not/could not/can not go to sleep without it. Our good friend and cabin mate, Mr. B (as the girls call him) went back to our car and got the Taggie for Olivia. I think he did it as much for his kids (so Liv would quit crying and his kiddos could sleep) as he did for Olivia. She was so thankful and so was/am I! Thanks, Mr. B! We went back and rode more rides - including a log ride for Olivia (she loved it) and mommy - and we closed the place down! Olivia did an awesome job all day! I was really nervous about not taking a stroller (took one for Sophia) or wagon for her because she has not walked a place like that for an entire day. She walked all day and did not complain until we were walking to the car to go back to the cabin.

Sunday we all packed up our cars and went to HW again. This time we did spend much of the day at the water park. Sophia takes a while to warm up to the water attractions. We stayed until just after naps and got home late Sunday evening. I need to load the pics from my camera to my computer and I hope to do that this evening.

Vacation

Well, our vacation was wonderful. There were a few melt downs by the girls and well one from me too. We went to Myrtle Beach with my in-laws including my SIL, BIL, his girlfriend and their 2.5 month old baby. Here is the rundown of the week:

• Sunday - It rained some so we just hung around the condo and went swimming in the indoor pool.
• Monday - We tye-dyed t-shirts. We did it last year too and Olivia loves it. Sophia really didn't care one way or the other. More rain and more swimming in the indoor and outdoor pool (when it wasn't raining of course). The 5 adults went out to dinner and to see a show (Legends in Concert) while the kiddos stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.
• Tuesday - We went to the beach!! The girls picked up right where they left off last year. We only stayed about 2 hours as it was hot, the girls were getting hungry and cranky. I had to take my FIL their extra set of keys because the ones he had were gone - we think in the ocean. That evening me, David, his brother and his girlfriend went to the outdoor terrace and listened to some Karaoke. David even sang 2 songs.
• Wednesday - David, his dad and brother went deep sea fishing while me, the girls, sil and M went to Broadway on the Beach. I wish I could have stayed longer but the girls were cranky, Sophia wanted me to carry her and I couldn't rent a stroller as they lost the keys and couldn't rent me one. It seems the shoes she was wearing rubbed little sores on her toes.
• Thursday - We went to the beach. After supper, we played putt-putt. It was the first time for the girls and they LOVED it! Did they do it exactly as they were supposed to? No but they had a great time.
• Friday - We actually got to meet up with some friends from our travel groups there. We traveled to China with this family both times and Olivia and Sophia had a ball. They were at a different resort and we went up to visit with them. We went to the beach where some of the kids started building The Great Wall of China. David saw a bigger picture and built a sand castle complete with roads and cars. I don't know who had more fun David or the girls.
• Saturday - We drove home and made it in about 12.5 hours.

So that was our week in a nut shell. I will do another post with more pics tomorrow. My next installment will be CAMPING. I must admit I am a bit apprehensive about camping this year after how our camping trip last July ended.

A little preview...

I know you are just waiting to see beach pictures so here is a little preview. I am hoping to post tonight a recap of our trip.

New look

I know I said the next post was going to be about our vacation but I changed the look of the blog and wanted to make a post about it. I have been wanting a new look for quite some time but me being the non-computer savvy person I had to find an easy template to download to change it. I would have liked to have a banner of the girls picture but I found this and liked it so there you have it. Tell me what you think!

Next post really will be about vacation - I promise!

AHH picnic

Well, I was a little disappointed with the AHH picnic this year. They moved locations - too far out of town - and changed the way food was done - no longer catered. They had food vendors that were supposed to be there until 6:00 pm but as luck would have it they were sold out and gone by 2:30! The were supposed to have more bouncy things but they actually had less than previous years. It didn't seem like there were as many people there this year either. I could name probably 20 families that I know that didn't go. Those are just a few of my disappointments but on to the good things!

We had a good time hanging out with our friends all weekend. We arrived at our hotel Friday afternoon and went swimming while we waited for some friends to arrive. We met a travel mate (D) and her darling daughter (M) at a restaurant for supper and had a good time catching up with her. Unfortunately her hubby (J) was out of town and we didn't get to see him but their daughter is getting so big I think it might be time for them to move her out of the sink and into the tub for baths! ;-)

We arrived at the same time as our two time travel mates the Elkins family. We hadn't seen their oldest (AK) since we returned home from China and it was wonderful to see how she's grown. Sophia had a great time hanging out with their youngest (L). We got to meet their boys and see their oldest daughter again. (She went with them on their/our second trip to China.) We saw my DTC buddy Laurie and her family and it was great getting to see her again. We went through so much together while we were waiting and I loved seeing her. Love ya Laurie!!

After the picnic, we went back to our hotel. We swam a bit, ate pizza and the kids played outside together while the adults talked and caught up some more. I hope the Elkins' can come back soon! I love all of our travel groups and miss them terribly. I will share just a few pictures from the weekend.

Olivia, Sophia and M playing at the pool

Olivia at the picnic

AK and Olivia swinging

This is how I found Sophia Sunday when I went looking for her to eat lunch:

Up next: VACATION