Happy First Birthday Liam!! Part 1

Our sweet little Liam turned one today! Joy and Scott threw his birthday party at a park near our house... They put together a yummy lunch with sandwiches, chips, fruit trays, veggie trays, mac 'n cheese, potato salad, etc. for lunch and cupcakes for dessert. Liam, however, got an extra special birthday treat. His very own Schmidt's Vanilla Cream Puff.



Going in for a BIG bite!


Gnawing on it. :)

Barb, Anthony and Brayden


Liam and Grandma Rogers

Liam's First Birthday! Part 2 - "The Death of a Cream Puff"

Check this out - Liam by himself obliterated that enormous cream puff!!


Heat to toe - he was a mess!


Natalie, Nate and me


Abbie, Avery, Haley, and Mac.


Myself, Liam, Ashley, Brayden

Natalie apprehensively goes down the park slide.

Peppers!

Check out our peppers! The yellow banana pepper we cut up and ate on a pepperoni pizza. As it turns out, Yellow Dye #6 and Vinegar make a big difference in the flavor of the banana peppers that you buy in a jar. This one tasted a lot like a bell pepper?!

Putting her hands on her face should've been the least of my worries!

So what started out as a normal evening having dinner with Steve and Caren and their girls ended with a dead toad, "the kiss", and a bath...

EWW...

Ohio State Fair - Trip #2

On our first trip to the fair, we focused on fair food, drinks, walking around and riding the Ferris wheel. Today's trip was a lot more in-depth!

We started out by arriving between 9:30-10 to get in the fair free as had been advertised in the Dispatch. Well, turns out that the article was misprinted and then never modified online! So Dad ended up buying our tickets full price. Aaarr... We started our adventure by checking out the foul/bunny area. :)

Here's Natalie:



Here's what Natalie was laughing at: Have you ever seen such a hairy chicken in all your life? These birds were hysterical!


My big girl and me after getting slathered in sunscreen.


Abbie's first time fishing! Grandpa's a pro, but her little fishing hole seemed void of all fish, so she unfortunately didn't get a bite. Turns out that Grandpa used to come back to this little area of the fair when he was a boy and catch fish with my Grandma and Grandpa.


Getting a drink after planting a flower to take home in the agricultural museum.


Abbie really loved watching the baby chicks trying to hatch. It was pretty neat.


That's right - I'm a potato head.


On to ice cream from the dairy barn. Yum!


After a day of (all of us!) being spoiled by Grandpa, Abbie had still really wanted to do a fishing game like she had when we had come with Aunt Joy and Uncle Scott. We looked, but couldn't find the one that she had been to before. We passed this one as we were just about to leave and it was disgusting. I mean, really, really yucky. And expensive. The fishing spot she had been to before was $3. This one was $5. And the toys sucked. But, because none of that mattered to Abbie but the chance to do a fishing game, Grandpa more than willingly shelled out the $5 to let her get a really uber-cheap toy. Now if you know my dad, you know that that is love. It was a great end to our 2008 trips to the fair.

The little garden that could.

Top view of our banana pepper plant, jalapeno pepper plant, and rows of bell peppers:


So how cute is this little jalapeno pepper?

Happy Anniversary!

Nate came bringing me home the most beautiful bouquet of two dozen roses for our anniversary. He stopped and picked them up from one of my new favorite flower shops and found roses that really closely matched my favorite variety of rose in shape and color. It was so thoughtful and very unexpected. He even cleaned all 24 of them himself! We celebrated with an absolutely delicious dinner at Cap City. I highly recommend the Chicken Pot Pie on Tuesday nights... So very yummy!

Happy 8 years of wedded bliss Nater! It really has been such a blessing to have you in my life and as my partner in crime. You are an amazing dad to our daughters, and a loving husband to me. You mean the world to me and my life would not be near as fun, hysterical, or enjoyable if you weren't my husband. I thank God that he chose you for me. I love you!

Ohio State Fair - Trip #1

So I still need to get some of the really good pics that Joy took (I didn't realize we even had our camera with us until we were almost done for the night!), so here's what I do have...

We went with Joy, Scott, and Liam to the Ohio State Fair for some rides and, of course, the food. We got there at around 7ish and then pretty much shut the fair down.

The one ride Abbie really wanted to go on was the Ferris Wheel. She loved it. Natalie, not so much.




Aunt Joy paid to have the Guesser guess Natalie's birth month. He guessed May (perhaps due to her significant lack of teeth), so Natalie picked out a soft puppy. Thanks Aunt Joy!!


Little Liam, muching on a Cheerio.

We were so tired, Abbie was forced into some child labor. : )