A Dam. Beautiful Day!

Yesterday we went to El Dorado and spent the evening with my parents. But we COULDN'T pass up the opportunity to sled down the GIANT dam a mile from their house. It is AWESOME sledding!
Mom and Dad totally wiped out coming down. It was funny.






Even Lily went down with Joel!



After, we went and hung out with mom and dad and my sister--here's Lily with Aunt NeeNee. Ollie and Joel went with my dad to the fire station for a fun evening with food and trucks.

And here's Lily's trick that she learned last night:



And here's a few clips of sledding. It really is a GIANT hill. We highly recommend sledding here!

Joel's run...


Ollie and Joel...


And Lily's ride down...

It's Not Just a Box...

It's a PLAYHOUSE!

Love this Little Guy

Blond.
Precocious.
Completely hilarious.

Calvin cracks me up.
One of my ALL-TIME favorite book series are "Calvin and Hobbes" books. Ollie has become quite interested in them and so, the last week or so, we've been 'reading' through some of them. He LOVES them. And it's reminded me again of how much I love that kid!

I love my two, too.

Ollie helped me make cinnamon rolls yesterday...

And here's a picture of them playing together this week. They LOVE each other. But the 'bugging' has started. This is short-lived, right???

And tonight, on our way to Wichita, Ollie asked Joel, "Daddy, are we going quite fast?" He gets a bit concerned about that when we drive, always asking if we're going on a fast road or not. I guess he IS a first child. And MY child. What else should I expect!?

A MURDER!

Last night, our Community Life group witnessed a murder. And all of us were suspects! Sarah and Justin hosted a "Murder Mystery" supper...so we all dressed up as our characters and enjoyed a really fun night together--accusations, suspicions, questionable alibis...it was great.
I was Mary K. Trairie--reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper. Joel was my photographer.
Dave was a pilot (?) and Amanda was Princess Idelle.

Wyatt and Laurel shared the part of Mal...a questionable character, to say the least!

Matt was the princess' bodyguard. Doesn't he look tough?

Rachel was Barbra--a lively partying girl.

As dinner started, we began to sort through the myriad of evidence...everyone seemed suspicious.


Oh yeah, Cole got to come along, too--with Aaron and Shannon--Shannon was our 'waitress' for the evening...

Some things were AWFULLY puzzling...
Bill was a commander and Olivia was a gossip column writer (can't remember their names though!). Sarah (by me) was a pilot and her husband, Justin, was a spy for the British.

I can't tell you who the murderer ended up being...because then I'd have to kill you....

Let's just say it was SO much fun! We decided that we'll have to have more dress-up parties!

Fiesta Numero Tres

For Lily's 3rd and final 1st birthday party, we had a 'Pink Piggy' party. We invited all of her piggy friends...
and my family. She also wore her new piggy shirt.
I baked her a piggy cake...
and 3 piggy cupcakes for the 3 kids (Samuel, a friend from El Dorado, joined us)
And then we sang, and she ate. It was lots of fun! I think we're finished partying now.

Ollie

This little guy of ours is something else. We honestly do NOT know where half the stuff he says comes from. Really. It's just totally out there. Here are some quotes from him from the past couple months:

"My Sunday School teacher told me I could call you Joel and Kendall."

A conversation:
"Mommy, why does Daddy scratch?"
"I don't know..."
"Because that's just what big boys do!"

"I'm a milkman. I bring milk to teeny, teeny babies."

"Mommy, someday when I'm a girl, I'm gonna eat Frosted Mini Spooners!" (he actually talks about becoming a girl quite often...)

"When I go to work, I gargle. Because I have stuff in my throat: bugs and grasshoppers and squirrels..."
"Mom and Dad, look at the hair on my arms! It's because I'm growing so much. Sometimes my hair hurts."

One day while eating lunch with JUST me.."I'm just chillin' with my girl."
While Joel was watching football one evening, "Someday when I'm big I'll watch football. And someday I'll have a remote."

And this morning, while playing with some sticky tack on a photo..."God sent me to do this."
And here's a video of one way we've been 'getting rid of excess energy' during the cold winter. Because literally, he is BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS.

Smith Side

As I mentioned earlier, we drove to Indiana to celebrate Christmas with Joel's side of the family--his parents and 3 sisters. It was a house full of people--but SO much fun! And it's great now that the cousins are getting old enough to play well together--Ollie would disappear for an hour at a time--he was upstairs playing! (He actually really enjoyed playing with Brooklyn and Brianna's "Baby Alive" dolls....feeding them water, then making them pee into a cup...)

Anyway--whenever we visit, there's a few things we can always count on: eating a LOT, playing games, and having a super time.

Lily playing with Grandpa Smith

with cousin, Clara...and with cousin, Drew
The games:
Joel and Ollie...
The 'big' people...The kids game...Breakfast with the cousins...(there are 8 now!)Reading a book...
Playing with Ollie and Lily's new puppet stage! (with cousin Abi)
No trip to Indiana is complete without some good SLEDDING!!!

Finally, no trip would be complete without vising the New Carlisle Public Library. This is ONE SWEET LIBRARY. Plus, Roanna works there...as well as Roglenda's friend Amy. But we went to check out the model trains, eat some candy and read in the reading hut:
(At this point, Ollie was "reading" so loudly his cousins had to ask him to be quiet...)

Lily played with a rocking chair there...
And of course, we ended the trip with Lily's party.

We had such a great time! And if you are one of the few who actually read this WHOLE POST, congratulations. You get a prize!