At home

We've been busy taking Alex to pre-school in the mornings on M-W-F.  And I've been working Mondays and Tuesdays to help cover for some coworkers being on maternity leave.  Mom has been coming and watching the kids for the two days I work.  So it's no wonder that it's been 2 months since I last made a post!  But Alex is loving school and Adam can't wait for his turn.  Erin is getting bigger and stronger, yet she doesn't have any teeth and probably wont be walking by her first birthday.    She loves bath time and if anyone goes in the bathroom, she follows just because it's her favorite room to be in. :)  Her hair seems to be getting lighter, so we may have two blondes before we know it.    These pictures are just around the house the past month or two.  My favorite is the first. :)  If one boys has to pee, the other one all of a sudden has the urge to go too.   

The boys just had their annual check ups today.  Alex weighs in at 31.6 pounds and 40 in tall.  Adam is 35.5 in tall and 26.2 pounds.   I think they're both in or under the 3rd percentile for weight and height.  Although it's not surprising that our kids are going to be small!  Erin will have her yearly checkup after we get back from Florida.  But I think she's around 18 pounds or so.    We had her tear ducts cleaned out the end of August.  Unfortunately they both clogged back up within a couple weeks.  :(    But her right eye cleared up on it's own a few weeks ago, so I'm hopeful the left eye will also.  Until then, I'm glad I only have to massage one eye instead of two!

The highway we've been watching be built the past year or two is finally done.  Or at least the section by us.  They opened it up this week and we drove on it for the first time today.  Yesterday we had really warm weather so we packed a lunch and headed out to watch the traffic go by on the brand new road.   :)

Jackson landscaping

We briefly stopped by the Jackson house on our way home from Nappanee.  I hadn't been home since August and I wanted to see all the landscaping Mom and Dad had been working on.  We had the most perfect fall day you could ask for.  While the day before had been cold and windy, this day was sunny and warm.  The boys got to go for a wagon ride behind Papa's mower and of course wanted to play in the sand down by the lake.  So we spent most of our time there outside enjoying the beautiful day.

front yard, garage

back side of garage

view looking out from deck

middle of picture is sandbox, and garden is towards left

Fall Party

We went up to Nappanee last weekend so the boys could ride in the combine while Pop harvested beans and corn.   However, it seems all the rain we lacked this summer is coming in the fall.  So the boys got to go for a short combine ride in the hay field (since the beans are too wet).  :)    We had a fall party anyway, complete with wagon ride (bales of sawdust instead of hay), pumpkin decorating with markers, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, pinada, and of course fire to roast marshmallows.  It didn't rain that day, but it was cold and windy.  But all the kids still had lots of fun.  I dont have pictures of everything, but here's a few of what I did catch on camera.

Erin playing in a bucket of beans and bouncy balls

decorating pumpkins

Daddy and Adam

Alex going through obstacle course

Cousin Will on the petal tractor

Nat-Jeremy-Andy-Adam

Alex keeping Erin company

Watch your head, Jeremy!

Candy!

Summer fun

What's more fun during summer than camping (at a beach!), building a fort, and going to a baseball game?  We hit all those in August, and the boys thoroughly enjoyed it!  We've been to the Indiana Dunes a number of times, but this was our first camping trip there.  I must say they have very nice bathrooms and campsites.  Not only was the beach lots of fun, but camping with the Cripes is always a good time.  We will definitely be going back again. :)

The boys (Alex mostly) wanted to build a fort.  So Mimi and Alex built this while the other two took a nap.  I didn't get a picture, but it wasn't complete without a "No Bears Allowed" sign.  In fact, the sign was made first.  They are quite proud of their fort. :)

 We and the Bergers left right after church on Sunday to head to Indy for an Indians game.  They have grassy slopes behind the outfields where you can sit, which is really nice with kids!  But the boys dont really care about baseball yet, so me and Jessica eventually took the kids back a ways to where there was trees (ie. shade).  We spent most of the game back there with the kidos while the men watched the game in the hot hot sun.  The boys enjoyed the trip, but I think in their eyes the Steak'n'Shake stop afterwards was probably just as fun as the game. :)

Museum and Bye to Stu

Sorry a few of theses pics are sideways.  Not really sure why they did that.  But it's just been that kind of day I guess.  However, these pics are from last week.   We went to the Children's Museum in Indy and then to the Jackson's for the weekend.  It's Stu's last week in the US, and then he's off to Berlin!

The boys loved the museum!  Adam just wanted to stay in the train exhibit all day.  After we'd look at a different thing, he'd ask, "Time to go back to trains now?"  That boy loves his trains! :)  Alex says his favorite part was the whole thing. :)  We'll have to go again this fall when school is still in so maybe there wont be so many people there. 

We had a nice time at the Jackson lake house.  I was so excited to pack pants!  It rained and cooled off this weekend so it was such a relief to wear long sleeves a little bit.  The only bummer was it was too chilly to do the slide into the lake!  Oh well.  I'll take the cool weather gladly!  We had a nice visit with Phil, Chelsey, and Stu (and Mom & Dad!).    Hopefully we'll be able to Skype with Stu every now and then.   Have a safe trip Stu!  Miss you!

Hot Wheels exhibit

funny faces!

Chip and sealed our road today...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok so here's a cropped pic of Andy and the boys from the first museum pic.  At least you dont have to turn your head. :)

And this picture is going to take some explaining.  Thurs night/Friday morning Erin woke me up and I found police cars (with lights flashing) lined up on the road outside.  I looked out and there sits a house on the other side of the road.  I woke up Andy to ask if there had been a storm (tornado) that I slept through.  He came out and went down to check it out.  Turns out someone was moving a mobile home illegally, on a trailer too small for the size home, and with a truck too small for the load.  So at 3am when he came to the dip in our road right in front of our house, the trailer broke, jack-knifed the pickup truck and sent it across the road into the creek and then the mobile home followed.  It didn't quite make it as far down, so all you could see from our house was the back end of someone's old house.  All the junk from inside the house was strewn all over in the woods/creek and it took a very large tow truck a few hours to get it and the truck out of the woods.  So when we woke the next morning, we found our road closed with a house sitting in the middle of it.  This is right before we left to go to the Jackson's for the weekend.  When we came back this is what we found.  I think it will be here for a while.  I'm just so thankful that it did not land in our yard! 

On a brighter note:  here's one of our watermelons!