Catching up- June

Here are a few fun things we did in June before we left to Utah for vacation.

 You can't tell, but there are buffalo behind Ethan. We went to Big Bone Lick State Park with some friends and the park keeps a small herd of buffalo there.

 This is a picture of Ethan on a rocky river bed not far from our house. He loves throwing rocks into the river when we're down there. The next one is a picture of Lydia and me at the same place.

First trip on Anderson's Ferry

Having fun on the volleyball court at our favorite park....that's about the only place you find sand around here

Ethan sat on this bench and said, "Take a picture of me." Ok, I will. :)

We visited Krohn's Conservatory and tried to catch butterflies on our white cards. Afterwards we ate a picnic lunch at Eden Park in Cincinnati.

We didn't have any butterflies land on us until right before we were about to leave.

Ethan "swimming" on his own for the first time. He loves his new puddle jumper.

Ethan loved this book so much he memorized it after a couple of reads and then would retell it. Super cute!

First and only week of swimming lessons. He did ok but doesn't like to put his face in the water. I don't blame him, neither do I! I think we'll try again next year.

 Ethan can sometimes write his name if he really tries. Here is one time that I captured. And of course a silly face to go with it. :)

Ethan had fun with a bag of bows that were handed down to us for Lydia. :)

Fun times at the park

 This girl loves to play with the iPad, but she's kind of rough with it, so she doesn't get it often.

Lydia 16 months

Memorial Day Weekend -- Trip to Kirtland, OH

For Memorial Day Weekend, Jason took a day off work so we could take a little trip. Early Friday morning we drove 2 hrs to Columbus, Ohio to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI). It's a neat museum with a great Kid Space. Ethan and Lydia easily played in the children's area for two hours and after a picnic lunch watching the construction workers outside, we all went and saw some of the other exhibits. Ethan was fascinated by the Gadgets exhibit and played for a long time with the ball cannon.

Ethan loves trucks and was happy to sit in one his own size

Lydia loves to walk around and push herself around on cars

Ethan loved trying out all the various percussion instruments lining the sidewalk to the museum

Ethan just laughed and laughed to see thing fly up the wind tunnel

He spent a lot of time here at the ball cannon

Lydia loved trying to catch the balls suspended in air

Ethan was hanging on the other side of the fulcrum to lift the Honda Civic off the ground

Lydia likes putting the balls into this machine that would launch them out the top again.

Ethan was really interested in this wind tunnel and so we finally consented to let him try it with Dad, but then he was so scared he wouldn't stand under the wind.

We left close to 4:00 and drove another 2 hours to our hotel near Kirtland, which is really where Ethan wanted to go since we left in the morning. :) It was bedtime by the time we got there and fortunately the kids slept pretty well through the night.

Saturday we went to the historic sights at Kirtland. Lydia had a hard time with the long tour, but we enjoyed seeing and learning more about what we're reading about in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Kirtland Log Mill and Ashery

Newell K. Whitney Store

Kirtland Temple

We enjoyed our tour of the Kirtland Temple as well. I volunteered to play "The Spirit of God" on a piano inside as part of the tour. It was a neat experience. We let Ethan and Lydia walk around the temple grounds afterwards and caught a few cute pictures of them as well. After our tour we drove home, stopping in Columbus for dinner on our way. We were grateful the kids traveled well.

She has quite the personality :)

Ethan 3 1/2 yr  & Lydia 15 months

On Memorial Day we went to a ward activity at a park where they had a 5K and then potluck breakfast. Jason ended up getting 1st place in his category, although he didn't have much competition. :) We stayed and played frisbee and played on the playground at the park. Later in the afternoon we got all ready to swim at our community pool only to find that it was broken and didn't open as scheduled. Jason was a trooper and ran through the sprinklers a few times with Ethan and Lydia instead.

Ethan trying to cover his face from getting wet

Ethan and Lydia recently started thinking it was fun to hold hands in the car. One afternoon Lydia held Ethan's hand until she fell asleep and then Ethan started getting mad because "Lydia won't hold my hand anymore." I love these two cuties!

Holding hands

May

Today was the last day of school and summer break is officially here. I feel like I forget to take pictures a lot, but here are some things that happened in May.

Lydia hit her 15 month mark. We had her well check and here are the stats:

Weight: 20 lbs 9 oz  (40%tile)

Height: 29 in. (8%tile)

Head Cir: 18 in. (50%tile)

Lydia has made a lot of progress over the last couple of months. I officially stopped nursing her this month and have kept her on a pretty strict diet without eggs, milk, wheat, or peppers. What does she eat then? Well, it's been tricky to figure it out....oatmeal, rice, chicken, green beans, and lots of fruit. She drinks a blend of coconut and almond milk and seems to do well with that too. With a consistent diet she has felt a lot better and slept a lot better, finally being able to sleep from about 8:00pm to 7:00am on her own. Part of this was helped this month by having Jason help her during the night if she needed it so it would reinforce that she wouldn't get milk. She of course hated the new nightly helper and would throw herself on her bed as soon as he entered the room, but I think she's finally accepted it and we're all getting a lot more sleep around here. It's not perfect, but much improved!!

Lydia isn't one much for words yet, but she is definitely mastering her large and small motor skills. She can walk fast, climb, balance, and can walk up small steps, and putting together duplo legos. She is also handling slopes, uneven ground, and grass better and better. She imitates Ethan a lot, much to his chagrin, and she can play independently for quite a while if she isn't bothered or has her toys stolen. It's cute to see Ethan and Lydia play a little more together. Lydia loves to be chased, she has started to try to dance to music like Ethan, and she of course loves to climb on everything she possibly can. I have to watch her at the library because she quickly climbs from the chair to the table and will try to stand up on the table. We're all glad that she is eating, sleeping, and feeling better and better!

14 1/2 months

I couldn't pick between these pictures, she has the cutest smiles

Ethan lining up his cars and racing them down the tracks

One day Dad helped Ethan time the cars and then line them up on a large graph to see which one was the fastest

Ethan pretty consistently finds rocks to add to his collection

Lydia loves walking around the playground and exploring

Learning to step up

A rare picture of her sleeping. I love how she cuddles her lamb as she sleeps.

Ethan loves to go with our neighbor Pete to this pond across the street from us and behind Pete's yard. Pete lets him use his net to fish "treasures" out of the pond where the overflow water empties.

Lydia has now joined the Junior Mowers Club and loves to push the lawn mower when Daddy is out.

I delivered a Mother's Day treat to some friends...a yummy yogurt parfait. I wish I did stuff like this more often...

One night we went to the library for a fun MadCap Puppet presentation about monsters playing baseball. Both Ethan and Lydia enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother's Day

 We had to get our pictures separately since it was pretty impossible to get both Lydia and Ethan to sit still, look at the camera, and smile at even close to the same time.

Ethan 3 1/2 years old

We love our trips to the zoo. The hippos were fascinating to watch on this particular trip.

Walking and exploring every time I set her down

The meerkats were also really active. Ethan was in the bubble and they were climbing all over it.

Ethan with ears like the African painted dogs

Our old microwave died so we bought a new one. We are very grateful for it and really missed it when it was broken.

One afternoon we had fun making names with our sugar cookies and then decorating them

I love Lydia's cute face. She makes me smile....

Especially when she eats black beans and look like this! :)

Lydia loves being pushed around on this car. Ethan and Daddy were taking turns racing her around the kitchen table.

One day at work Jason did an escape room with some coworkers and they made it out before the one hour time limit.