Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Subscribe by email!

Hi friends,
I won't pretend I'm good with computers because I'm certainly not but I just figured out how to add a feature to my blog that I think you might appreciate. Instead of having to constantly check back to see whether I've posted anything or not, you can subscribe to my blog and it will get delivered to your inbox (with the text and pictures exactly as you would see it here-although you'll have to come to the actual site to leave a comment) It's on the right hand side--just enter your email address. You'll have to confirm your subscription and then you'll be all set. And don't worry-you won't be getting a ton of emails... I post no more than once a week--and usually it's every two weeks!
Hopefully this will make me do a better job of posting regularly now that I know people are actually subscribed and waiting! :) 
Let me know if you have any problems.
Thanks, Jen :)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Grandma, Potluck and Evan

Grandma came down to see us for a couple days. We always love it when she visits! :) She helped me get things ready for MOPS (I had to make centerpieces for each table-thank you!) and we just had a great time together as always. Love you Mom!Out to McDonalds for lunch while we were running errands. Evan is eating more and more table food... I gave him some bun and he devoured it!
Of course we watched the Penn State game. They kept talking about the Rotel Velveeta cheese dip during the game and my mom got really hungry for it and luckily I had the stuff to make it!


Grandma taught Evan to sit up while she was here.
We have gotten so many new neighbors lately so we organized a potluck last weekend. We had a great turnout and it was fun to get to know everybody better.

It was really simple, everyone brought a dish to share.

The kids had a great time playing.
And everyone loved Evan!
Evan's photo shoot. What a cute chub! :)




Please pray for the little guy. This week, I had to take him the doctor for his second set of double ear infections... and he's ruptured his right eardrum both times. We have an appointment already to see the Pediatric ENT. I had the same problems as a baby because of a too short eustachian tube and we think he might have the same thing. Fortunately, he's such a good baby that he's dealing with it all really well but he's not eating and sleeping as well and had a high fever this week. He fell asleep playing one day which he hasn't done in months. Poor guy.

Natalie drew our family, from left to right: Natalie holding Evan, Blake, Daddy and Mommy

Labor Day Weekend

We went to Altoona for Brian's cousin's wedding. It was fun to see lots of relatives we hadn't seen in awhile. They actually had a nursery so the boys were in there but we'd been talking so much about weddings that Natalie said, "I want to see the girl in the white dress walk down the aisle with her daddy!" so she stayed with us during the ceremony.
Reception
Allie and Natalie
Bethany ready to catch the bouquet. :)Brian's cousins and the groom's brothers, Marcus and Matt (who we hadn't seen since he was in our wedding!)Blake definitely loved the ice cream!
We took a bunch of family pictures: Brian, Bethany and Chris
All of us


Chris and Michelle
Blake and Adam
The grandparents with their grandkids
We had recorded the Penn State game and invited everyone over to watch it with us. It was fun to catch up with some of Brian's relatives that we hadn't seen in awhile.

Sunday afternoon, we dropped the kids off at Ryan and Melinda's. They watched our kids for us this time so we could have an overnight away. We went out to dinner and a movie, slept in, went shopping and just enjoyed each other's company without the kiddos. Thanks guys. We appreciated it! On Monday, when we came back over, we had a Labor Day cookout with them and Mike and Courtney. Mike and Kierstyn--yep, that's the stadium right there.
Fun in the bouncy ball pit.
Some of the kids ready to eat at their table.
It was Courtney's birthday.
Fun hanging out with you guys! :)
It was a busy but great long weekend... one more post coming and I'll be caught up. :)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Quotes and Pics

Evan's first time in a swing... ... he loved it!


Picnic and feeding the ducks with friends.
Brian's masterpiece: Corn Hole! Didn't he do a good job? This set was for his parents... he's finishing painting our set. Way to go honey! You're so talented.
Scooching backwards under the couch... he can move himself where he wants to go but no real crawling yet.
Natalie and Blake have loved having new kids to play with... everyday it's "Can we please go play with the neighbors?" They worked on making houses out of these boxes for many days in a row.

Natalie helping give Daddy his haircut.
She'll be taking over my job pretty soon!
The latest quotes:
Me:"Do you know what fireworks are?"
Natalie: "They're kinda like really pretty stars"
As we put out a blanket on the field to watch fireworks (yeah, these are old!), Blake said, "Eat?" He's always ready for a picnic. :)
"Blake, you can play with the mint truck." (cement)
When we bought a half gallon of milk instead of the usual gallons, Natalie said, "Oh, that's so cute!"
"Can I put some of that dirt on me too?" (my face powder)
Blake is talking full sentences, it's amazing, although I don't really have any funny ones from him yet. He does say "Nahnee" and "Eh-vy" for his siblings and copies everything Natalie says.