Wedding Day for My Niece

My niece, Megan, got married today (ironically it would have been my grandparent's 80th anniversary).  She and Ryan picked a beautiful location near Lexington, KY.  I took about 250 pictures today, so there is a lot to sort through, but I wanted to post a few that I knew I was happy with so far. We wish them a lifetime of happiness!  Oh and we just have Emma with us for the wedding trip.  The other two are spending a fun-filled weekend with friends.  We can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Emma's cool riding shoes.

Fabulous!

First time in a swimming pool.

My nephew, Nat, walking his little sister down the aisle.

The bride and groom.  Congrats!

Aunt Sandi and Emma sharing a bite of cake.

Tiny Fingers-A Post by Daddy

I love to watch my kids play with toys. Especially the ones that might move the little wheels inside their beautiful little heads a bit. Growing up, I had a friend who had an Erector set that had all the little metal bars, screws, nuts, pulleys and even a batter powered motor to make any motorized invention you could dream up in a 7 year old boys head. I hope one day to have toys like that for me and my kids to play with but more than that, I hope they are as passionate about the toys as I was when I was a youngster. Here are some pics of hands playing with toys. What are K, E, and C thinking about when they play with them?

Bats not rats!

We found some droppings that looked suspiciously like mouse or rat droppings in front of our garage door. We swept them away hoping it was a one time rodent block party held in front of our garage door. The next day to our unhappy surprise there was more. We then called our pest control guy and he put these little bait traps close to the area that are kid proof(a must because they get into everything) and we hoped that in a few days we would not see any more rodent poop on the concrete. I noticed poop on the house ABOVE THE GARAGE DOOR! That means the rodents are in the attic above our garage. Thankfully, the attic there doesn't connect to the rest of the house.
Tonight, I was talking to some friends in the driveway at dusk and out of the corner of my eye saw something come out of the gable vent where we thought the rodents were living (and where the poop bombs were coming from).  There were BATS flying out. I counted around 6 to 8 bats coming out of the vent. We are actually happy about the fact we have bats (instead of rats) even though they are mostly just rats with wings. So now we have a bat specialist coming to the house to see about the eviction of said flying rodents. That's right people Batman is coming to our house!

We have some terrific pics of Kendall feeding Clark some imaginary food and also Emma enjoying a cookie with Clark and Kendall and of course being the jet setter that she is, keeping her phone close. Don't wanna miss any calls from Elmo or Cookie Monster! Have an awesome Friday all! - Daddy

Holy Hot Wednesday Batman!

If you were able to stay inside today, you were lucky. We took a trip to the library this morning for toddler story and song time. They seemed to enjoy it. Kendall likes the social concept of all the new people around. Emma loves song time. Clark was just happy to be there. Here's a few pics of Kendall with her stethoscope and Clark and Emma hanging out this evening at home. TTFN!
- posted by Daddy

Pictures? What pictures?

I worked all day today and didn't manage to take any pictures of the kids once I made it home.  Instead, I went through some pictures from a week ago and found these.  They aren't the best in terms of any technical aspects, but I still like to see the expressions on the munchkins' faces. 
All three love to go "flying" after baths.  The hooded towels work best for this, but any towel will do.  They run laps in the hallway and in and out of the bedrooms squealing.  It's pretty cute until you decide that they have had enough and it is time to get dressed.  We usually get some protests at that point, but I'm learning new tricks (they love playing with Mommy's watch or being folded almost in half to touch their toes to their foreheads). 
I don't really know what Kendall was into when I took the one of her, but her expression is sort of interesting.  I love the intense look in her eyes.
And Clark is always happy to play with his cool trains.  The girls are big fans of the train box also, but he seems to be able to sit still when the trains are out.  He gets really focused and even tries to put pieces of the tracks together. 
That's all for tonight. 

Visit to a New Park

We tried out a "new" park today.  Nanny Barb suggested it months ago and I forgot about it.  Today I called her to find out where it is and we decided to check it out after a trip to Earth Fare for all things produce.  The kids seemed to enjoy it and the girls and I even took a little trip around the perimeter that is paved for walking/running.  It's a very small area, so I could keep an eye on them and even let them run on their own for a little while.  It was fun to see how proud Emma was to be jogging it alone. 

And then MORE EXCITEMENT when I had them in the backyard for all of five minutes (and took the two shots of Clark above) after dinner.  I thought we'd get in some outside playtime but Emma decided to drink from a cup of gross sand table water (that could have had any number of bugs in it, as well as mud, rainwater and sludge).  Once I noticed what she was doing, I went to get her cleaned up and tried to wash out her mouth.  In the meantime, the other two headed for the pile of yard waste (see picture of Clark poking at it with a stick as I shouted to get away from it).  They proceeded to dump grass clippings on each other and were covered in itchy grass and dirt, so we all headed inside for an early bath. 
Good times! 

Have you heard? It's Shark Week!

In honor of Shark Week (Discovery Channel):

I hope Auntie Deb doesn't mind if I share this, but I'm laughing so hard that I just don't want to wait to ask her!

Message from Auntie Deb to me today:
"I wanted to tell you this earlier, but since I just read your post about "discipline" this fit perfectly.  During one of Emma's fits (Oops-I mean unnamed upset child) I was holding her and it sounded like she said "do you want a spanking?"  I told her I didn't.  During another meltdown by the same unnamed child, I picked up her doll and asked   "I wonder why Emma is so upset?  Do you think she's mad about something or she doesn't feel good?"  After noticing that I was talking to the dolly, she came over and took the doll and looked at me like I was crazy.  But she did stop crying.  I tried REALLY hard not to laugh-but it was REALLY hard.  :)"

Who me????

It almost looks like her curls are gone, but I think it was the humidity.

Clark mastering the Barrel of Monkeys.

We finally took the kids for a FAMILY bike ride this afternoon!  I actually got on my own bike and had Emma in the trailer behind me.  Troy pulled Kendall and Clark.  I'm the biggest whimp and completely out of shape, so he was trying to give me a little extra help to handle exerting unusual amounts of energy.  We went from our house to a nearby portion of the area Greenway.  We took a break at the park for some slide and swing-time and then headed back home, but not without a lot of protest.  Kendall and Clark were silenced quickly by promises of raisins, but Emma was not taking the bait.  She continued to have a fit while I started to ride back and finally started enjoying herself enough to ask me to help her get the raisins. 
Hearing her yelling "weeeeeeee" behind me as we went rushing down the hills with the wind in our hair was SO much fun.  Troy is really enjoying the bike rides as well (and has taken some evening ones after the kids are down) and we hope to make this a regular family outing.  I do think I'm going to need to take bike rides on my own to build up my endurance/strength to be able to tow the kids behind me without the desire to throw up.  I think that the fact that they love it so much will be enough inspiration for me to try to get in shape for the family rides.