Swinging

What kid doesn't love to swing?

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Ava loves "crazy ones" where I push her as high as I can, and do underdogs...

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Cohen's likes it a little more mellow...

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Chicago

Chicago is a cool city. The girls and I (and ALL our kids!) have gone up there three times now to explore. There is a lot to do. So far we've checked out the shopping (so good!), gone to Navy Pier, and the Shed Aquarium.

I took this picture with my phone, driving into Chicago. I can't say I love driving around or parking in this city. It's crazy busy! We've taken the train up to Chicago twice, which has been a highlight for Ava. She thinks choo-choo trains are so cool. Riding the train is more convenient than driving some ways - don't have to deal with traffic or parking, and it's more difficult in other ways - trying to hurry kids, diaper bags, and heavy strollers onto the train with only two arms, and having to do the same getting off! - that's a bit stressful.

This picture was the view from the Aquarium.

I forgot to bring my camera chargers out here, so I have been taking all my pictures with my phone now, so the quality isn't so good and I forget to take interesting pictures.

This is Ava watching the otters swim at the aquarium. It was really fun to take her - she's at such a fun age and gets so excited about each little thing. She spent like fifteen minutes staring at hermit crabs!
Navy Pier

Ava and her little friends, riding the train at the Pier... their faces don't show it, but they really did have fun on this ;)

I got to take Ava on the Farris Wheel on the Pier. She was SO excited about it which made it a really fun experience for me. We could see the whole Chicago skyline, lit up in the night.

The Farris Wheel in the light - it was huge

A view of the city from the Pier

Next trip to Chicago = H&M kids!

Bruiser

Now that Cohen is a walking baby, he always seems to have a bump, bruise, or scratch on his head. The other day was a doozy... In the morning we went to play outside and he fell on his face on the sidewalk, giving himself some nice red scrapes in the center of his forehead and nose. That same night, while he and Ava were taking a bath, Ava was covering him in bubbles. I had my back turned to them while I cleaned off my bathroom counter, and he started crying but not for long so I asked Ava to leave him alone and kept on washing the sink. When I turned around a minuite later, Cohen had a purple goose-egg just under his eye! I'm assuming Ava must have accidentally knocked him in the face while trying to slather bubbles all over his head. Of course the goose-egg turned into a black eye by the next morning. Poor little guy. He looks abused :( We went to Chicago the next day and I got SO MANY comments from people passing by on how sad my little boy looks! Most people would say, "What does the other baby look like?!" Ha. Ha.

Check it out...

I just HAD to post this for my couponing buddies who are all making me jealous back home in Utah, getting doublers all summer! I am still finding ways to stretch my grocery budget here in Indiana.

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This was part of my Walgreens run this morning:

I paid $2.00 for 4 deoderants and 4 body washes,

(usings 8 coupons to get the price so low)

and recieved $12.oo back in RRs!

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So, basically, I went to Walgreens today and made ten bucks :)

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Pretty cool, eh!?

Priceless

Got the kids pictures taken right before we left for Chicago... I wanted to hurry and get them done before we left to capture Cohen one more time while he is still a baby, and to get Ava's 3 year pictures done. And they turned out SO GOOD! Thanks to Stephanie at Blackbird Photo for doing such an amazing job. I love every single picture, and I posted a lot of them for ya'll because each one is so priceless.

Enjoy!

Days with Dad

Sundays are good days here. The kids are so excited to have Cody around all day. This afternoon we took the kids to a park and nature reserve. It was fun to go on a little hike with the kids - Ava was excited to be exploring the "forest". It made Cody and I think about what kind of terrain the early Latter Day Saints lived in around this region of the US. In church today, someone mentioned during their testimony that our Ward here grew from a Branch that dated to back the time period when Joseph Smith was martyred. I thought that was pretty niffty.

Ava was using the logs as balancing beams. Cohen was just trying to keep his balance.

Check out this tree! It reminded us of those walking trees on Lord of the Rings.

Mellow baby, after that strenuous hike! .

Last Sunday we headed down to the beach for a while. The kids had SO much fun. It wasn't hot yet and the water is freezing still, but they had a great time just playing in the sand and watching the waves.











Mud pies and sand castles... oh ya.

My Little BFF

Cody and I have gone out for summer sales before, 4 and 5 years ago, before we had kids. It's way more fun coming with kids, I'd have to say! They keep me company all day, and we have a lot of fun spending so much time together. Ava, in particular, is my little buddy. She is a really fun little girl to hang out with. Here are a few things about her lately:

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She has become my new backseat driver. She is all about finding and translating stop lights for me, and is now my light announcer. "YELLOW! Slow down, Mom. Slow down"... "Mommy! It's red! It's red!! Stop mom!" at every red light... Then, "It's green!! You can drive now. Go faster." She also announces the stores she recognizes. "Look Mom. Target!" and "There's Wendies! ... I want chicken nuggets, Mom."

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She is also my backseat DJ. "I don't like that song..." So I change the station, "No, not that one..." Change the station again, it's Beyonce - "I like that one."

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And she sings along. Her current favorites on the radio are "Boom, Boom, Pow" - Black Eyed Peas, and "Halo" - Beyonce. She's getting pretty good at boom, boom pow. She tries to sing along to most of the songs, and catches on pretty well. It's really cute to listen to her. So I have to be careful what radio songs I let play - No All American Rejects for us - "Gives You H..." That would be awful if she caught on to those lyrics! I change the station immediately when that one comes on.

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Ava is also the little "babysitter" around here. And lovin' it. She is at least twice the age of just about every other kid out here besides two. But it doesn't bother her. She loves playing with Marli and Noah, who are both 18 months. Today she was dressing Marli and helping her try on all her shoes. She threw a little fit tonight because she wanted to help Melanie give Marli her bedtime bath, but I wouldn't let her. The other day I wasn't feeling well and had to lay on the couch most of the day, half aware of what was going on. Ava totally stepped in and took care of Cohen, in her own 3-year old way. Carrying him around, giving him toys, feeding him snacks. I think she was secretly glad I was useless that day. My house was a wreck by the time I could function enough to take over, but it didn't matter. There is a little 7-week old baby out here, baby Lou, who Ava adores. Every time Lou is around around, both my kids are magnetized to her. I think Cohen has a crush. Tonight, Ava got to hold her for the first time, and was so thrilled. Cohen was jealous.

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As I was getting the kids ready for bed, Cody called and I stepped out of the room to get my phone. A few minutes later, Cohen came walking out of their bedroom looking like this:

Ava, once again in mommy-mode, got a bit carried away with the diaper powder.
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She also has a cute imagination. Sunday morning, Ava woke up jabbering on to Cody and I about the "hot bridges." We had no clue what she was talking about, but she was so excited about them. You have to wear socks to walk on the hot bridges so your feet don't get burned. The hot bridges are so colorful... blue, and red, and pink, and purple. She kept asking when we were going to go to the hot bridges. I asked her where they are and she just says "far away." She has been talking about these mysterious bridges ever since Sunday, and I still can't figure out what they are. She was even telling her friend, Jayden, about the hot bridges today. Asking if he wanted to go too! When her and I are getting ready in the morning she says to me, "After we go to the store, then we go to the hot bridges! I so excited! Mom, you so excited too?!" Is this a dream she had that seemed so real, or is there something out there she would think are hot bridges and I am just not catching on? Any ideas?
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She and Cohen are sharing a room out here. I was nervous about it at first, wondering if any of us would be getting sleep, but they have both adjusted to it so good. I think they like being in there together, actually. At night when I put them down to bed and leave the room, they usually spend a few minutes "talking" to each other. Cohen will make silly noises and Ava will laugh. Then they both fade out and fall asleep. I just sit outside there door and listen. It brings back memories of the good ol' days of sharing a room with Tawny when we were little kids - we had so much fun. It puts a smile on my face to hear my two babies in there just being 'brother and sister', and knowing that they love each other so much. What more could I ask for?

Unexpected Visitors

When Cody got home last night, he found these two frogs leaning up against our front door!! It is a good thing I wasn't the one to find them - if I would have opened up the front door they for sure would've come jumping in! And I most likely would have wet my pants. But anyway, they were just sitting there waiting for Cody to get back from work. A smaller one and a big, fat one. Cody borrowed a net and caught them, and we put them in a box to save them for the morning so we could show Ava. There is a pond that runs all through our apartment complex... it's basically our backyard here. Every night you can here the bull frogs croaking. At first I didn't know what it was, because it's such a low, loud, noise. I thought maybe it was an annoying pump of some sort. But, no, it's the frogs! They are loud! And for some reason two of them decided they wanted to come to my house!!

We took Ava out to see them this morning, and she thought it was so cool. This was her first time seeing frogs in real life - so it was a learning experience. The fatty frog just sat in the box all lazy, but the smaller one was jumping all around trying to get out! It made her laugh :)

She even got brave and poked the fat one a little...

And then got braver...

She actually liked holding him!

We let them go at the pond on the other side of the parking lot, so there are now two frogs less at our backyard pond. Just doing our part to reduce the night-time noise ;) Bye frogs!