First Day of School

No, no, Adeline is not starting school yet.... Abe is! Today is Abe's first "official" day of AFIT. I am kind of sad, because he has had a pretty laid back schedule, and now he is going to be gone a lot. I guess even though he has had a lot of free time, it's not like we have gone and played or anything. Abe has been living in our basement trying to get it finished. Sometimes when Abe isn't home, Adeline will go to the basement door and start pounding on it and say "da da!". I think she truly believes that Abe LIVES in the basement.

Here is Abe's first day of school picture all dressed in his blues. He didn't really want me to take it, but I insisted that we document :)


Talking about our basement, here is the latest progress:



We have all the sheet rock up and we have been mudding and taping. We still have a couple more rounds of sanding and mudding and then on to the next step!

On Friday night, Jackie, Brian and Tillie came to visit from Cincinnati. We had some pizza and then we all went to Young's Dairy in Yellow Springs to get some ice cream. They also had some pumpkins out, so Tillie and Adeline ran around the pumpkins and liked playing with them. We also got to see the animals there. They have cows, goats, a pig, sheep, chickens and a big turkey. Tillie didn't seem scared at all and she loved it. Adeline on the other hand has been scared of the animals lately. Hopefully she will get over that. Here are some pictures of our fun night.

I did it!

I did it! I ran my first 1/2 marathon yesterday (13.1 miles). Abe's sister Roni came into town on Tuesday so that we could run the USAF (united states air force) 1/2 marathon together. It was so nice running it with her and to have someone to keep me motivated. It seemed like she didn't have any trouble running the 13.1 miles, just another run. In fact, she was even dancing to her music the last couple miles. I just needed her to give me some of her energy. This was her 4th 1/2 marathon this year!

The first 7-8 miles I felt so good and we were running just over a 9 mile pace. But then I did something I shouldn't have... I ate a gel pack to boost my energy. At mile 11 I was pretty tired and so we decided to walk for the first time... just for a couple of minutes. At mile 12, I had to make an emergency bathroom break. I don't think my stomach like the gel pack so much. We ended up finishing in 2 hours 18 minutes (about a 10 min, 38 sec mile). Of course I am mad that we ever walked a couple of minutes now, because I probably wouldn't have had to go to the bathroom and we would have finished in less than a 10 minute mile pace. Oh well. All in all, I feel pretty good about it and we had a great time!



The first day that Roni was here, we went to a park nearby. There was a pretty big slide that is built into the side of the hill. Of course Abe made Adeline go down it all by herself. Who knows if she liked it. She just had a serious face on the whole time and never cracked a smile. But when Abe would take her to the top, she would try to go down again. There was a bump in the middle of the slide that I thought she may fly off of because she was getting some pretty serious speed. She was a good sport and she didn't get any injuries :)



We are sad that Roni left this morning. We miss you already!

Remnants of hurricane ike

So Hurricane Ike decided to come this way and rip through our back yard. The winds were up to 60 Mph around here and a bunch of large trees and branches are now all over our backyard. I am happy that none of us got hurt and that all our windows are still intact. Our neighbor had a tree go through their window. We are lucky that we still have power, because apparently most people in our town are without and the School District is closed tomorrow. These trees are so big that we are going to have to use a chain saw to help clean up the mess!


Abe just planted this Crimson Red Maple Tree yesterday (bad timing), but he survived the strong winds! Good thing...he cost a pretty penny.

On Friday I drove down to Cincinnati and met Jackie ( a High School friend) and her baby Tillie at the Children's Museum. It was fun seeing Jackie and catching up on life. I loved meeting her little girl Tillie as well. She is such a doll. Her and Adeline act so much alike, and I think they kind of look alike too! Here is a picture of the two girls. Of course they both wouldn't look at the camera!

So tonight Adeline was playing so well by herself. I love that she will do that now. At one point, she was very quiet, so I looked over at her and she was just sitting in her little chair holding a wrapper. Immediately I knew what the wrapper was from. At church earlier, Abe ate a chocolate chip granola bar that had melted quite a bit. Well, he threw the wrapper in Adeline's little bag and she found it tonight. When she saw me looking at her, she stood up and ran away from me so I couldn't take it from her. She was loving it. She would smash the wrapper on her face and lick as much chocolate off as she could. She had chocolate all over her hands and face. What a cute little girl.

Our Basement-- Our Little Munchkin

Today has been pretty lazy and relaxing. Abe and I didn't get out of bed until 10am. He doesn't have to go to school until 11am, so it has been very nice. I am going to be sad when he actually has a "normal" schedule. After the 2 hours that Abe actually has to go to school right now, he has been coming home and working his butt off trying to finish our basement. So far, he has made pretty good progress. He framed the entire basement (including a closet we added at the end of the room), put the recess lighting in, wired the light switches, and installed all the outlets. Today we are going to finish insulating the basement and then hopefully we can start on the drywall. It will be nice when it is finished!

Here are a couple pictures of our basement before we did any work:


Here are some pictures after Abe did framed and did the electrical in the basement:


We will post some pictures when it is finished!! Abe has to start his program at the beginning of October, so we are trying to get the majority of it done by then.

Alright, on to our little munchkin. This girl is hilarious.

ADELINE LOVES...... to put anything and everything on top or over her head. One of her favorite things is to go in our bathroom and play with all of my necklaces. She will put as many as she can around her neck and walk around like that. It's pretty funny.


It's funny how Chloe and Adeline are alike sometimes. One of Chloe's favorite things is piles of clothes. It doesn't matter if they are dirty or clean. She will carry them around, play with them and make a little nest and lay in them. Well, Adeline loves that too. I had a big pile of laundry this week and Chloe and Adeline were having a hay day in them. Here is a picture of Adeline enjoying the laundry pile.


A couple new things she's done this week:
-She says "uh oh"
-When you tell her not to do something, or she knows she's not supposed to do something, she shakes her head side to side...sassy little thing. Adeline is not allowed to go in the laundry room because that is where Chloe's food and water is. Adeline would A) eat chloe's dog food and B) pour her water out. So we try to leave the door closed. BUT, when the door is open, she will run over there as fast as she can and move her head from side to side before running in. I can't help but laugh. -She also learned how to take her pants off all by herself. How??, I don't know. I just found her running around this morning with her arm through the leg of her pants.

Let me introduce you to the cutest girl I have ever seen....

Adeline is the cutest little tweefie. My dad was in town this weekend for a "work trip". He chose to take pictures at the Utah vs Michigan football game so he could come and stay with us. On Saturday, my dad and Abe drove to Michigan to go to the game. They had a blast. I would have loved to go, but Adeline would have never made it. It was a 3 hour drive each way, a couple hours early to the game and then the game. They didn't get home until about 1am.

It seems like Adeline has been getting bigger and learning new things every day. She is starting to learn new words. The other day she said "Chloe", three times. Funny how her first real word (besides mama, dada, baba, doggy), is the dogs name. And she said it so clear and perfect. She also says "done" once in awhile when she is in her high chair, "night night" and today I swear she said "shoes". We will see if she forgets these, or if she keeps saying them! Other than that, she just says dada all the time.

We found this amazing sunflower field close by our house (thanks Sassy for the recommendation!), and so we went and took some pictures. They turned out amazing and Adeline looks so cute!! Thanks dad! Now we can possibly use these for Christmas cards :)


Here are a couple--






Adeline loves Grandpa Smart!