Weekend Trip

Well, things have finally started to slow down after last weekend. We made a trip down to see family for an open house celebrating Dave's cousin, Jack, coming home from Japan and his cousin, Zach graduating college. It was a great weekend. It was so much fun to see everyone again. It is really nice to be close to our family here, although we do miss our monthly weekends with Laura and Josh.

We now have our back yard set up for the kids. We have the swing set, trampoline, slide and pool. Alaina loves having this all to play with and Leo loves being outside so it works out great!

On Thursday night we got there. On Saturday we went to the open house and then on Saturday night we went to McDonald's with Mark and Bonnie. They brought Alaina these really cool sunglasses that flip up and down.

We had a great time hanging out with my grandparents. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures with Great-Grandma Jan or Great-Grandpa Don, but I did get a few with Great-Grandma Shirley and Great-Grandpa Gary. Here is Grandpa and Alaina watching TV.
Grandma read to Alaina each night before bed.
On Sunday morning we went to the park with Grandma and Grandpa Johnston. It is a really neat all wood playground. It was so much fun!!

Alaina loves to swing at the park.
Under-Dog!!

Leo loves to hang out with Grandpa!

I love these pictures of Alaina and Leo!!!!

Alaina also is loving the sand!! We weren't able to play in the sand in Texas because you couldn't have sand without fire ants. She played in the sand for the first time (other than at the beach at the ocean) when we moved up here.
After we went to the park, we went to Great Grandpa and Grandma Hathway's house to visit. They gave us a great dress for Alaina and a really cool t-shirt for Leo from her trip to Mexico. Thank you again Grandma and Grandpa!!
We had a great weekend get away and are now settled back at home. Alaina played in the pool earlier today and will again tonight while we grill out for dinner. I can't wait for Friday...Alaina will be old enough to enjoy fireworks this year!!!

Sidewalk Chalk

So, we have more pictures again today. Tonight Leo wanted to take his nuk, but took a different approach than most babies do....

We went to a garage sale tonight that our friends were having. Check out what I got for $40!!!!

Today Alaina drew with sidewalk chalk. First she drew the letter "B":

Then she drew Mommy:
Then she gave Mommy a kiss:
And came up with a bunch of chalk on her face:
Leo didn't look amused.....
Hope that you all had a great day. Tomorrow looks like it will be a nice day so I think we are going to put a baby pool at the bottom of our slide to make a water slide. Should be fun. If we do it, I'll have more pictures tomorrow!!

Babysitting

So, as many of you know, I have been babysitting since getting back up to Eau Claire. I am watching Jasmine (6) and Trevor (4). They are really awesome kids! Alaina and Leo are having so much fun with them. Jasmine is so good with Leo. She helps me entertain him and even changes diapers.

This evening Alaina worked out with Daddy and Leo ate ice cream with him.

Here are the pictures from babysitting:

Jasmine, Trevor, and Alaina making cookies. They each got their own bowl to add whatever they wanted into their cookies.

Here are pictures from Alaina helping Dave work out:

Alaina tickling Leo:
Dave feeding Leo ice cream:
Alaina doing sit-ups with Dave:

I know a few of these are out of order, but Blogger is having trouble uploading pictures, so I'm not going to try to fix it. Hope everyone's week is going well!

Haley's Wedding!

My sister is now officially married! Leo and I were able to make it to the wedding. They will be having a reception up north in August so we will all be able to go to that. I think that Haley and Zach had the prettiest location for a wedding possible. It was gorgeous and perfect! Here is how and where it all happened....

The wedding.

The cake.

The table settings.

They house the reception was at.

The rings.

It was all beautiful! We wish you the best of luck! Congratulations Haley and Zach!

The Big Move

So we are now officially moved from Texas to Wisconsin! We are getting pretty settled, although there are a few odds and ends left to do. (Leo's room isn't finished yet and there is still a stack of random boxes to go through, but we are fairly settled and it is feeling like home!) The move went really smoothly and both kids did great with the transition. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks...


Alaina just got this dress from Grandma Bonnie. I had to bribe her to get her out of it to sleep.
Daddy and Leo were watching TV together.
Alaina trying to climb into Leo's chair with him. Leo didn't mind.
Alaina helped me mop.
Ok, here are the pictures of the house:

This is a view from behind the couch. The kitchen is to the left. The first door from the left is a big closet under the stairs that we turned into a pantry. The next door is the door to the garage. The room right behind the TV is the laundry room. Behind that is a hallway leading to the "front" door (which is actually on the side of the house. If you turn left before you get to the garage door you will be in a hallway that goes to the utility closet and then you can turn left again to get to the downstairs bathroom.

The back of the living room where we set up the computer desk. (I know it is a mess...give me time to find a spot for everything and then I will re-post pictures of a clean living room!)
Our bedroom

The stairway that you see when you walk in the door through the garage.
The downstairs bathroom. The upstairs bathroom is identical.
The kitchen.
Our dining room...
This is what the outside looks like. We are in a quadplex and in the outer-left apartment.

Our back yard is really nice. We are in a subdivision, but it is on the outskirts and still has a "country" feel out back.
Here are 3 pictures of Alaina's room. These are just the toys in her room...there are more in the living room! She has adjusted really well to her new room. In this picture, the doorway to the right is our bedroom and the doorway to the left is Leo's bedroom. On the wall inbetween Leo and Alaina's room is a linen closet. Directly to the right of Alaina's room and across from our bedroom is the stairway. On the other side of the stairway is the second bathroom.

We put a chair next to her bed for when we (mostly Dave) are up reading to her before bed.

Leo's room is not set up right now. He is still in a pack-and-play in our room. I will post pictures of it when it is set up. He has a bigger room than Alaina and less stuff, so we are setting half of it up as a nursery and the other half as a place with a futon, chair, and coffee table for Dave to study in when college starts if the kids get rowdy.

As most of you know, Haley got married last weekend!!! I have pictures, but I still need to go through them some more, but I will post them as soon as I do! Congratulations Haley and Zach!! I'm so happy to have another brother!!!

I hope that you guys have a good weekend! I'm going to try to get those pictures of Haley and Zach posted this weekend. I also have to get Leo's room set up, the upstairs bathroom set up, endless laundry done, and I think we are having a grill out tomorrow night. On a brighter note, Dave is taking us to dinner at McDonald's tonight so that Alaina can run around and play and I don't have to cook.