Just the Four of Us

Summer Fun!

2010-04-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know it's not quite summer yet but it was pretty warm that day. Caleb and Abigail wanted to swim in their new pool so I had to boil about five pots of water to get the water warm enough. I think they would have swam around even if the water was freezing.

Abigail Driving?!!!

2010-04-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

Abigail, Caleb and I went to get some "liquid study enhancement" (caffeine) from Tim Horton's. When I was putting the kids in their seats, Abigail was pointing to the front passenger seat and saying that that was mommy's seat. Then she was telling daddy where everyone else's seats were. Out of the blue she said that she was going to drive sometime and that daddy would sit in mommy's seat while she drove. I told her that she would learn to drive someday. She finished off the conversation by telling me that I would have to hang on tight while she drove. Great, only 13 more years to go!

The Verdict Is In

2010-04-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the doctor for the ultrasound to find out if Cheryl is having a girl or a boy. We are having a little girl. The boys will officially be outnumbered. It is nice being able to call the baby "she" instead of "it".

Abigail and the new baby.

2010-04-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Abigail always says that she wants a baby sister. Every night when we say prayers, we pray for mommy and the baby. Abigail loves to pray with mommy and daddy. I decided to start talking to her about the baby. I told her that the baby is inside mommy's belly. She got this puzzled look on her face like, "How did the baby get in there." It seems like a typical and understandable question. Now, Abigail seems to be scared of mommy. She would not let Cheryl hold her or anything. I can just imagine Abigail's little mind twirling around about how the baby got inside mommy's belly. We always commend her and Caleb on how good they ate their meals and saying that we can't believe how full their bellies are from eating. You can probably see the connection that our little Abigail might be making. If I eat my food and it goes into my belly and mommy has a baby in 'her' belly. Then logically mommy must have eaten a baby. I would be scared of Cheryl too.

There is one more funny story about Abigail. She has this little bible that she loves to carry around with her. The other night while I was at school, Cheryl said that Abigail spilled some water on her bible. Without missing a beat Abigail said, "Oh, crap!" Well, that is one of Cheryl's favorite phrases. It is amazing, the things that kids pick up on. If we wanted her to say that then, she never would. That is the second time that Abigail has picked up on mommy's little slip. So, we had to wash mommy's mouth out with soap.

Easter

2010-04-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter and Abigail and Caleb were very excited to collect eggs that the Easter bunny left them. Here are a few pictures until we can update more later.

Caleb is growing up fast.

2010-03-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, we put Caleb down for a nap and I went outside to finish the retaining wall. On my way out I heard a big thump but did not hear anything else so I didn't pay it any attention. Then, Cheryl called out to me that Caleb had fallen out of his crib. Caleb now sleeps on his mattress on the floor until I can paint the bed he will sleep in. He is getting Abigail's old pink bed and since I just can't have him sleeping on a pink bed, I have to paint it. I am going to be painting it Ohio State colors. Caleb loves sleeping on his mattress. I bet he will love it even more having his own bed. It seems like it has taken so long for him to get to this point and then I remember that he is only

22-months old. He is actually in a bed sooner than Abigail was.

Cheryl's Excitement

2010-02-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

Cheryl had an adrenaline rush on the way to school this morning. She was driving down Research Blvd and the snow had drifted into the lane she was driving in and before she knew it she was spinning out of control and ended up just off the road facing the opposite way that she was driving. A co-worker was driving behind her and she said that she did not know how Cheryl didn't flip the car over. She also said that it seemed like someone gently put the car to rest off to the side of the road. Now, Cheryl was off the road enough that she could not drive back to the road but we both know Who it was that gently placed her off of the road and protected her during the entire ordeal. Praise God for Cheryl and the baby's safety.

New Contest

2010-02-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

OK everyone. We are going to have a contest. First of all. Does everyone know that Cheryl is pregnant with our third baby? If not, SURPRISE!

The contest is going to have two parts.

First part is: Do you think Cheryl is going to have a boy or a girl?

The second part: Whether or not you think the baby will be a girl or a boy what would your favorite first and middle name be. (for a boy and a girl) Cheryl, Abigail, Caleb and I will talk over the name suggestions and see which ones we like the best. There will be awards for the most creative, funniest, names we like the most and whatever awards that we can come up with. We look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Caleb's New BooBoo

2010-02-06T16:40:00.001-08:00

Caleb fell off of the chair today and bumped his head. I did not see or hear him hit since I was sleeping but I definitely heard the aftermath. Cheryl said that it made a loud THUMP. He didn't cry for too long though. He is quite a tough little boy, even for being as sweet as he is.

2010-02-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

Abigail wanted a tent in her room so we decided to make one for her and it's been up ever since. I think that was about 3-4 weeks ago. You can also see how much of a mess that these two sweet sweet youngsters can make each day.

Something funny happened earlier tonight. Caleb broke one of Abigail's head band do-jobbies and Abigail walked over to him and said, "Oh buddy, you broke it. Sit in time out." Then she put her hand on his back and walked him over to the time out mat and sat him down and told him, "Sit in time out buddy." Caleb went with her and sat down and started to cry. Mommy then had to get Caleb out of time out and tell Abigail that it was just an accident and that mommy and daddy are the only ones who can put her brother in time out.

It's kinda funny, if Caleb will not listen, I sometimes tell him that if he doesn't listen then he will have to sit in time out. Then he starts crying and walks over to the TO mat and sits down before I can even get him to do whatever it was that I wanted him to do. Usually it's for not doing the dishes. I mean come on he's almost two! I'm just kidding. Don't start calling me Martha Stewart.

Rainbow Rice

2010-02-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

We decided to make some colored rice for the kids to play with. It was pretty easy. Get a ziplock bag and put a bunch of food coloring in, then pour in some rubbing alcohol and finally dump a bunch of rice in it and shake the hooey out of it and voila you have some rainbow rice.

We put the rice in a sand table toy of Abigail and Caleb's and put it in the basement for them to play with. Needless to say, we now have most of the rice all over the floor. But, they had such a good time doing it.

Some Misc Pics

2010-01-18T23:19:00.000-08:00

Our little princess!

Me and my little man.

They LOVE their play-doh

Is there something on my face?

This is the day the drive by shooting happened.

Don't worry the window was shot by the neighbor across the
street with his BB gun a few months ago.

This is my ball.

Hey Mommy. Is my hair getting too long?

It was just a question!

No turning back now.

Really. How does it look?

Piggy-back rides.

The two most beautiful girls in the world!

2010-01-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

ARGGHH!!!
I keeps a tellin' me parents to put more pics up or they be walkin' the plank!

I don't have classes on Thursday nights so I will try to post some stuff at least each week on that night.

2009-10-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

Sesame Street Live

2009-10-05T11:24:00.001-07:00

Cheryl has wanted to take the kids to see Sesame St Live for quite a while. My only reservation was that we would have had to go to Cincinnati, Columbus or Indianapolis. Well, finally they came to Dayton. So we bought some tickets and headed out for an evening filled with toddlers and dancing animals. I kind of thought that it would be somewhat torturous but it was really a great time. Caleb was mesmerized by everything going on and Abigail kept giggling and repeating different words and phrases back to us. At intermission they brought out the guy with the Elmo balloons. We knew that they would be overpriced but when Cheryl went down to get one she was in shock at the ten dollar price tag that she just handed him the money without even thinking about it. We'll have to try that at our next garage sale, overprice the merchandise so much that people are in shock and just hand over the cash.

9/12/09

2009-09-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Abigail swinging at the park! I love to talk to her :)

9/11/09

2009-09-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

Scott took the kids to Home Depot. View Caleb's reaction to the power tools... Scott was so proud!

More Boonshoft

2009-09-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

READY!

SET!

GO!

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Boonshoft Trip

2009-09-09T00:43:00.000-07:00

These are some pics of one of our Boonshoft trips. We tried to see one of the planetarium shows with Abigail and Caleb and it did not last very long. We were surprised that they lasted that long in the dark.

I think we were looking at the ducks or turtles in the animal exhibit.

Mommy and her little man.

Do you think Cheryl will be smiling when they actually start driving?

But, I want that!

Daddy and Abigail climbing the net. It goes up three stories I think.

Funny, Funny, Funny!

2009-08-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading Abigail and Caleb a book about different animals and I was imitating the sounds that they make. When I got to the elephant (which is in my opinion the hardest animal sound to make) Caleb was trying to make the sound and even rearing his head back just like dad was. I will try and get him on camera or video doing it again but it seems just like his sister when any recording device comes out he just stares at it like a deer in the headlights.

Cox

2009-08-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

I (Cheryl) took Abigail and Caleb to Cox for some pictures, I think they turned out pretty good!! Follow the link :)
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1015796012/a=97732539_97732539/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

2009-06-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

You will NEVER believe who Mom and Dad let feed me!
My sister!
Can you see "hoo" is looking at you???? He was in our tree :)

We had this concrete pad poured, Scott put in the retaining wall you see to the left, and he has begun siding the garage...makes it look like a completely different place, doesn't it?
Walking about...
Holding his bottle on a trip to Young's Dairy
Abigail enjoying her very yummy ice cream at Young's
Riding the cow at Young's

2009-06-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

What a cute smile!
I have a book! Caleb loves books just as much as his sister did, now that he sees they are for more than just chewing. He will waddle over a book to you and say "boo" (book without the K sound...)
Opening one of his presents on his birthday. Cousin Ciarra behind him!

6/16/09

2009-06-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

I know it has been way to long since we have posted! Caleb has started walking and is even talking a bit (dog, dada, mama, all done, ball) and Abigail is doing a great job talking herself. Caleb just turned 1 on June 6th and I will post pictures of his birthday in a bit. Most of these pictures are from a trip we took to Cox. Above and below you will see Caleb and Abigail on the butterfly seat there.

Daddy found a frog and Abigail was so excited to hold it. She kept saying "more frog"
This is a picture of Caleb's new toy for his birthday, as you can see Abigail likes it a bit too!

3/7/09

2009-03-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

We went to the park today! We had lots of fun. Caleb turned 9 months old yesterday!

2/11/09

2009-02-11T18:38:00.000-08:00

Big news! Caleb officially crawled for the first time tonight. He started sitting up by himself at the beginning of January (I think he would have in December had I not been afraid of him falling over and bumping his head on the wooden floor!) and for the last two weeks he has been doing somewhat of a swimming crawl/commando crawl. This past week he has been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking. Sure enough, tonight he took his first few crawling "steps" He is growing up soooo fast! He just turned 8 months old on Feb 6. I will try to post some pictures soon.

1/26/09

2009-01-27T11:27:00.002-08:00

It has been quite awhile! We have bunches of photos to post to catch up, but here are some more recent pictures until then. Caleb starting sitting up like a pro the beginning of January and I think he could be well on his way to crawling by next month! Abigail is saying a bunch of words, we are waiting for the sentences to start! She is very good with colors and knows quite a few of her letters including A,B,C,E,I,L,M,O,P,R,S,T,W,Y...

11/26/08

2008-11-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to the Newport Aquarium today. We had such a good time. Here are some pictures from our trip

Abigail and Daddy in the gift shop playing around

Caleb and Grandma. Caleb had the best seat in the house on our trip around Newport!

Abigail and Grandma looking at some fish

The sharks...

Grandma's watch was a great source of amusement for Abigail and as it turns out for Caleb too!

What a lucky boy, a kiss from Grandma!

Looking at the sea otters! They are so cute

Riding the frogs at the Frog Bog

Grandma and Abigail. Abigail took a lift for awhile.

>
This was a cool turtle we saw

Caleb likes looking at the turtle

Wait a minute, I think I can make that face!

Perfect, just like it!!!

Abigail and Daddy at the entrance, if you go back to an old post you'll see them in the same spot the last time we went. Abigial looked so much tinier and it was just 3-4 months ago. Our baby is growing up! At the end of this post, I posted two pictures of Abigail and Scott in the same spot. She looks like such a baby then!

Abigail sitting on a bench. She is starting to look so grown up!

Mommy and Caleb!

11/23/08

2008-11-23T19:48:00.001-08:00

Abigail absolutely loves the nursery at church. She made a crown and was very proud of it!
Abigail didn't have a nap to day so as you can see she was less excited about taking a picture with her brother on her lap!

Well, as you can see both Daddy and Caleb are very excited about Ohio State's win!!

Rewind to 11/4/08

2008-11-23T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well, back on election day we took a trip to the park. Abigail loves running around and being outside. She is getting FAST! Caleb also enjoyed himself I think!

Rewind to Halloween

2008-11-23T18:36:00.000-08:00

This picture cracks me up. Doesn't it look like he thinking. "I'm to heavy to fly, I'll just lay here"

For Halloween we went to Grandma Lil's. Abigail was a skunk and Caleb was a bumble bee (Abigail's costume from last year!) Cousin Terri Lynn took Abigail trick or treating and she made out pretty well from just a couple of houses!

Rewind to 10/12

2008-11-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

We took the kiddies to Young's Dairy. Abigail absolutely loved it! She realized all those animals in her book actually exist. It was too funny! You'll see her blowing a kiss to a cow in one of the pictures (though the cow is not in the picture).

Rewind to the Garlic Festival (9/28) and a recent hiking trip

2008-10-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the Garlic Festival and tried garlic ice cream. Not as gross as one would think, but not as good as chocolate chip...

On a recent hiking trip to Sugarcreek Reserves :)

Rewind to 10/6

2008-10-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Caleb turned four months old on the sixth. We also happened to capture pictures of him rolling over also. He can roll from his back to his belly and from his belly to his back.

Funny, Abigail has NEVER been one to fall asleep anywhere but her crib or in the car. Today was amazing then, as you can imagine, she feel asleep at the high chair. I think we are beginning to wear her out successfully!

Rewind 9/27/08

2008-10-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Reading and listening to books!!!

Rewind to September 23

2008-10-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Abigail has developed a new skill. She can only do this with her brother's crib (so far) because his mattrese is up higher than hers. We took pictures of her doing her new "trick"

TA-DA!!!!!!!!!

Rewind to 9/21

2008-10-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

The many faces of Abigail:

Cutey Caleb

Miss Abigail showing me her tongue

Brother and sister :)

Fastfoward to present 10/13

2008-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today is my dad (Cheryl's) birthday. Happy birthday! By the way, if you want to see what my dad looked like 61 years ago, see above. Even down to the two fingers Caleb has in his mouth.

Rewind to 9/16/08

2008-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

We ventured out to Target during the beginning of the power outages. A lot of places were closed for quite awhile. Target was open but using a generator.

Rob and Deb fed us dinner during the power outage! Thanks Rob and Deb! While we were in their backyard, Abigail found a tree limb and ate a berry off of it. I was talking to Deb on their back porch when I noticed Scott with his finger literally down Abigail's throat. You will see the plant in the picture above. Rob went in and googled it and hackenberry is not poisonous.

We also went to the park one day. Abigail loved the fountain.
Abigail running around the fountain :)

Look at those gorgeous blue eyes
With all the things at the park to play with, Abigail's favorite is the mulch, don't ask my why!
Big girl on the swing!
She is getting so big!
Caleb isn't sure if he likes the swing.

Caleb really has some cheeks on him! By the way, he picked out his own outfit!

I absolutely love this picture. Just looking at it makes me tear up. Scott is such a good dad and I envision many future games playing basketball with Abigail and Caleb.

Ready to dunk!

Abigail very sleep after her day at the park!

9/14/08 Yikes Ike!

2008-10-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Rewind back to the mid of September. We had a giant windstorm on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Our power ended up being out for 10 days! I am so thankful for electricity now. Thanks to Grandma who fed us many dinners during those days. We feel like we are just finally starting to get caught up from being out those days. We drove around and took some pictures of our neighborhood the day after. There were a lot of downed power lines. A light post even snapped in half!

2008-10-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

Cheryl promises she will update the blog this weekend!

9/8/08

2008-09-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

We went to the Italian Festival Saturday evening. We had a good time and ate lots of yummy food. Here are some pics on the way back to the car :) Abigail enjoyed people watching but got a little tired by the end of the evening. Caleb slept through most of the festivities. Good news! He has slept through the night for the last two nights in a row! We have given him a bottle around 9, put him to bed an hour after that and he slept anywhere from 6:30 to 8!!!

Abigail has recently become attached to the kind of blankie you see her pictured with. She likes the silky on one side, soft on the other. This has just happened in the last couple of weeks. She wants to walk around with one of them. I don't know if it is coincindence but it seems to have started around the time I went back to school...maybe I am giving myself too much credit.

9/1/08

2008-09-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

WELCOME TO OUR NEW WEBSITE!!

Sorry it has been sooooo long folks. It was a crazy month in August. At the beginning of August Scott's grandma passed away. It was an unexpected passing and very sad for those she left behind. We were in Toledo and southeast Ohio at the beginning of the month and went pretty much straight from there to go to Gatlinburg to meet my folks for a previously planned vacation in Gatlinburg. We had a lovely time there. The cabin we all stayed in was beautiful and it was nice to spend time with the fam. Below are some pics from our vacation.

This picture was taken on our way to Gatlinburg. Abigail enjoying a taste of her first milkshake. Don't worry, we didn't let her drink the whole thing...though she wanted to.
I took this pic of Scott holding Caleb while we were waiting to be seated at Tony Roma's in Pigeon Forge. I thought it was sweet.
A close up of Caleb eating.

The family waiting to be seated. No sooner were we seated and Abigail had enough for the day. Scott and I ended up getting our food to go and went back to the cabin. She ended up running a fever which went away on Monday. (This was Saturday evening)

Caleb sleeping on Daddy's shoulder

Abigail waiting to be seated at Tony Romas. She can now identify her tongue!

I love you Aunt Megan- Caleb

Ahhh, back home again. Some pics we have had in the camera finally making their way to the website!

Picking grapes. We have a grape vine on the side of the house and we ended up with lots and lots of grapes. Scott made 16 jars of grape jelly from them. It is sooooo good!
Daddy puts the grapes in the bag, Abigail takes the grapes out of the bag...

and eats them!

Abigail is such the daredevil. She climbed onto the roof and jumped to her Daddy :)

Abigail's video of "Three Little Piggies" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" She loves it!

Abigail eating a tortilla. Wonder what she is thinking.

Aunt Kelly taught Abigail how to make these eyes. Cracks me up every time she does it.

Such a handsome smile!

Abigail can climb on to ANYTHING now. Chairs must be pushed in these days. Just sitting something on the table to keep it out of her reach doesn't work anymore.

I love those cheeks!

Abigail giving her brother a kiss.

Tummy time!

Abigail hangin with her brother. Don't worry, only under adult supervision!

Abigail sitting in her new toy while playing with it.

Caleb likes putting his fingers in his mouth.

Below, Caleb sitting on Abigail's lap. I included both pictures because if we could somehow morph them together they would both look happy.

Abigail's pigtails.

All right, this may make us bad parents. But you know those Pop Rocks we used to eat when we were little. I(Cheryl) wondered what Abigail would do...see below.

Caleb after bathtime!