"Breaker 1-9, Breaker 1-9, I've got a silly PaPa."

I think we had a little too much fun with the walkie-talkies. At one point, Lucky kitty was wearing them and meowing to the little girl on the other end. Ryan and Ben pulled off that ruse quite well.


They fit Addie a little better than PaPa.

Walker, Michigan Baby

We had some fun video of Margaret discovering her walker and terrorizing her sister and I, but I think the following video will trump that. We knew that she was getting close to walking on her own. We also knew that with Emily babysitting our friend's son, Carter, Margaret would be working hard to keep up with him, despite being a few months older.

Last night seemed like the perfect storm of being ready and slightly cranky. We present The Amazing Walking Baby.

More photos!

With some help from my dad I now have the photos that I took from this past weekend with my parent's camera. Here are a couple of them. The rest on Flickr. Thanks dad!

Yes, that is a carrot from my mom's garden!

Fall Harvest Fun

This fall we have been busy with lots of fun activities. Below are some photos of some of the adventures over the past week or two. Addie had a school field trip to see them make apple cider and a hayride back to a pumpkin patch where she was able to pick out her own pumpkin.



Last Wednesday Margaret got up the courage (or she was just finally ticked enough at me) to crawl from the living room to the kitchen. Since then there has been no stopping her. She finds everything that she is not supposed to have and puts it straight into her mouth. It's amazing how much trouble a 9 month old can get into in a days time.



Over this past weekend we all went home to celebrate my mom's birthday. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner as with my family. We also had a chance to spend time on the farm and time with Michael's family as well. Margaret and I stayed with my parent's and spent Monday with my grandparents. Margaret LOVED grandma Suiter's food. It was a nice treat for her (and me). On Tuesday my mom helped me take to her follow up appointment in Cinncinati. Good news on that front. The doctors released her from follow up status! We will only have to take her back if we or her normal doctor feel like she needs to be seen by them. I'm glad to be able to close that chapter of Margaret's life and move on.



Enjoy the photos! If you would like to see more of them check out our flickr site.

We've been a little distant lately

Especially here on the blog. Life always seems crazy, then they somehow become more so.

First, our camera died. Attempts to revive it were fruitless. Then Mom came to the rescue and lent us her old one. Well, I'm not sure if we ever got around to telling you, Mom, but it lasted about a week - maybe two.

But we weren't totally cameraless. We took some great video of the girls... and never got around to posting it. Ug.

Then, we thought we had this whole bathroom redux planned just right. I do think that it would have been... had the plumbing not proved to be too much for me. Even though the plumber was able to come out the next day, it set us back just enough to throw off the weekend, then I was out of town on business. It's taken a lot longer than we would have liked. But we're getting there.

On top of that, our roof leak has returned.

Well, we finally replaced the camera. After much research, out past experience and our new priorities, we finally settled on one. We like it a lot so far and I'll post some of the first pictures at the end of the post.

The bathroom is nearly functional again - we'll be showering at home this weekend. We still have some drywall and flooring work to do, but that will come along.

During one of my many, many trips to Lowes, I found an elasimeric product for sealing roof leaks. I've applied two coats already and am hoping to get one more on before it turns too cold.

Despite all of the crazy projects going on, we have made the choice to slow down from time to time. We've been thoroughly enjoying Addie's soccer games. We'll be signing her up for the spring league, so there's more to come. She loves it and is one of the best on her team. Emily has been taking Margaret once a week to the Bouncing Babies story hour. They both have fun with it. I've signed up to play league basketball this winter on my department's team. We've been playing pick-up games this summer and had a lot of fun. I must say that I am one of the very few who shows up with his own cheering section - complete with pom-poms!

We also got a nice surprise the other day. Lynn and Marv Freeman, our friends from Austin, were in town. They were here visiting some family, and discussing how nice the area is. When they were told that a lot of it was because of Whirlpool, they though, "Maybe this is where Emily and Michael live!" A quick review of the phone book confirmed it. We had a nice visit. Short. But it was great to see them.

So much else has happened. Too much to list.

Fear not, family and friends - we're still here and we'll keep blogging.

Oh, yeah. Emily has been canning apples. She and a friend are splitting the duties and using their own kitchens. Emily plans to do 50 quarts for each family. Her friend has been canning pears and will do apple pie filling. That's three cases full of apple sauce next to Addie. The new camera has a wide-angle lens which allows us to get so much into this shot taken from the dinning room table.

Deer feasting on the apple scraps. Emily's big requirement for this camera was a large zoom. It has 10x zoom and she has already put it to good use. Taken from inside the house.

Margaret is growing and changing all the time. She seems to be taking a parallel path on the walking and crawling. She seems to get better at both at the same time.

Our soccer star! Before the game, getting ready with her team, and some warm up kicks before-hand.

The last piece of cultured marble going up and a close-up of the Mountain Granite pattern that we chose.

More pictures here.

Goal!!!

Addie is the super star of our house at the moment! During her first game she made a goal and was the "player of the week" from her team (Green Butterflies). Then she scored 3 goals during the next game! She is really good at soccer and is LOVING every minute of it. We have some fun video of her first game/ practice that we will have to edit down and add to the blog when we get a chance.

At school she was the "student of the week" last week also! She is loving all day school. In fact, everyday when Michael comes home she does this little chant thing saying "All day kindergarten, all day school". And to top it off, today is her 5th birthday. She took to school today, cupcakes her and her best friend decorated yesterday.

Margaret is a super star in her own right too. She is starting to crawl, but only when she is really motivated. For the most part she is content to just sit watch everything around her. Today she also stood on her own for a good 5 seconds . It was really cute because she didn't realize that she was holding onto two toys and not my hands at first. When she did realize I was not helping her, she decided to sit down carefully. I have some adorable video of Margaret playing that we will edit down add too.

We hope that everyone is safe and sound and not flooded. I'm just thankful that we our house is up high on top of the ravine since it is still raining for the 4th day straight.

Back to School

It's amazing how fast the summer can fly by! We have been nonstop busy this summer and then our camera died on us! So the lack of photos is due to the lack of camera. Michael's parents are letting us borrow their old camera (thanks!) but due to battery issues we can only take 2-3 photos and then it needs to be recharged. BUT we do have some new photos to share.

Addie started school yesterday and these are photos from her first day of Kindergarten. She was very excited about school this year. Her first day went well. She likes her teacher and can not wait to dive into the reading and writing. Each child in her class has their own journal to draw/ write in every day. I'm sure she will love that part. Next week she will start going all day. Addie's excited about taking her lunch to school and spending the whole day like the big kids.

Addie is going to play soccer this fall. Her season starts on Saturday and goes through mid-October. She talks about it everyday and is ready to get on the field. We will have to update everyone on this topic after her first game.

Margaret is growing and changing everyday. She is eating all sorts of food and loves her sippy cup. Her main goal with her sippy is to get the little water that is in it out and all over herself! Margaret is trying hard to keep up with her big sister. She is not crawling yet but she is rolling and pushing and pulling to get where she wants. Her favorite thing to do right now is to hold onto your hands so that she can pull herself up and walk around the house. She is getting really good with walking. Michael and I both think that there is a chance she might walk before crawling. But who knows!

Addie's Bike - Without Training Wheels!

The other day, Addie's best friend, Moira, had been working on riding her bike without training wheels. I didn't even know that Moira had a bike other than her trike, because she never rides it. Anyways, I heard all about it and how Addie wanted to ride hers without training wheels, before I even got home.

The wheels came off and down the driveway she went!

Since then, The girls have really gotten fired up about this. One day, they were waiting for me when I was driving home from work. I didn't even get to the door. They were fired up and ready to ride. That evening, not only did they take turns going up and down the driveway, but they went around and around the cul-de-sac that Moira lives on. Addie did something like 13 laps in a row. It's a big loop too.

Since then, Emily has taught Addie to take off on her own, and the next day, Addie taught Moira. Other than our documented one above, I don't think sh'e hardly even wrecked. She is doing really well. So well, that we went with some friends to a bike trail in South Haven, where she rode her little bike 3 miles. Yeah. We had quite a time convincing her that she could not ride her bike to school. Across town and through traffic is a bit different.

Princess Margie

Today Addie and her friend Moira decided to include Margaret while playing. Margaret was their baby sister princess. They even put a tiara on her and named her Princess Margie. Margaret loved every minute of it. Even at 6 month's there is nothing better then getting to play with the big girls. When Michael got home and saw the girls, he commented that he did not know that Margaret was a princess. Moira informed him that Margaret was BORN a princess. I hope you enjoy the photos of Princess Margie!

What did you do this weekend?

We worked our butts off in the kitchen, but not cooking or canning.

before

before

old countertops out

color going on

our painter

yes, that is a black handle on the dishwasher

finished product

Prep work for the walls took longer than expected, but it was worth it. The electrician came back out on Monday to finish the wiring. We were 98% done on by Monday night with everything functional. Just a couple loose ends to tie up.

In an odd twist of fate, our supposedly black dishwasher turned out to be stainless steel. But once we got to installing it, we found that a black handle had shipped with it, instead of one that matches the stainless. Correctable (and I already have a lead on one), but annoying for the time being. Fortunately, the dishwasher works very very well, and is dead silent.

We love the black countertops, though it and the cabinets together make it look a bit like a chemistry lab! Unforeseen, but we still like it. After a crazy weekend of getting all of this done (we started on Friday), we're getting back to normal. We've passed a head cold around, with Michael and Margaret still suffering a bit. More pictures of the remodel are up on flickr.

Kitchen Update

We did it! We as of last night we have a functioning dishwasher in our kitchen. Last Thursday we started our large weekend kitchen remodeling project. We actually had all of it done for the most part by Sunday night but we had to wait for the electrician to come back and put in a new breaker box for our house (goodbye fuses!). It felt great to be able to wash dishes in the dishwasher last night.

Michael will be expanding on the remodeling project soon including before and after photos. What we did was move some cabinets (already posted that info), installed new countertops and sink, added a disposal, hot water dispenser, and dishwasher. We also painted the kitchen while the countertops where off. The only other things we have left is to replace the one light fixture and put new outlet/light plate covers on. It was a big project but did not take as long as most of our other projects seem to take.

We are both every happy with the finished kitchen. And of course the best part is... the dishwasher. :)

She Can Read!

The big news at our house is that Addie has started reading! For the past week she has been working on reading the first two Dick and Jane books. She is doing really well and we just keep going through a new chapter ever day or two. She has even started to read the words she has learned while we read her other stories. Michael and I are both super proud of her. The best part is that she is proud of herself.

Summer Time Fun

Before summer leaves us longing for more warm sunshine we've decided to make summer time fun a priority at our house. Don't get me wrong, the dishwasher/ kitchen project is still the number one priority (and should be done in the next week or so). But we need to enjoy our summer while we can.
On Wednesday us girls packed a picnic and went to the brownbag lunch concert at the bandshell on the bluff. We enjoyed our lunch with some friends. The kids enjoyed dancing and playing to the music. That night we eat a fast dinner so we could hurry off to the beach. It was a beautiful evening and we spent several hours relaxing on the sand. Addie dipped her toes in the water but it was really to cold that night to get in.
Thursday late afternoon us girls took our books out to the hammock and hung out there until Michael came home. Then he took my place while I cooked dinner.
Friday morning us girls meet up with a couple other moms/kids at the beach. Us mom's enjoyed visiting while the kids played. Then we all enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch at the beach.
Saturday Bill and Peggy joined us for a day at the beach. We where able to eat lunch in the shade of our beach umbrella and then spent the day jumping waves and building sand mountains.
Today we spent our day freezing corn. Okay, maybe that is not as glamorous as a day at the beach but we still had fun doing it as a family. I'm not sure what all we will be doing in the coming weeks but we are hoping to have some more fun filled summer days together.

How Time Flies By...

I'd like to start by saying we are sorry for not posting in so long. This has been a busy summer for us, so busy we have not had the time to post many updates on the blog. I also wanted to let you know that our camera is acting up again (yes, the same problems we had last year that they "fixed"). So we don't have as many photos of the fun stuff as we would like but when your camera doesn't work there is not much you can do! I think that we will be looking into buying a new camera very soon.

Here is the update:
The last weekend in June Michael, Margaret and I went to, my college roommate, Betsy's wedding in Chicago. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time. Addie skipped out on the wedding spending her weekend instead at my sister's house in Ohio. She had a blast and ended up going to my parent's house instead of home! She had fun with her one on one time with the grandparents for three days until we all were together for the 4th of July.

For the 4th we had a wonderful cookout with family at Michael's parents house. After that most of us went to Fowler to watch the fireworks. Addie loved them, Margaret slept through them. The photo is of one of the new wind turbines by my parent's house. They put up a flag for the 4th on the one closest to the highway.


After the holiday weekend we joined my parents and my "aunt" Ava's family for a week of camping at lake Freeman. My siblings joined us for a few days each but was not able to be there at the same time. Grandma and grandpa Suiter also spent a few days camping with us. We all enjoyed our relaxing vacation. Addie loved going to the "ool" (no P in the pool) every day with grammy and Ava. She also enjoyed the daily s'mores. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I enjoyed the daily s'mores also. It was nice for me to get a little break from Margaret and I think that she enjoyed having other people around also. Michael enjoyed the slow pace as well. Ben and Jen brought the boat over to the lake and we where all able to go boating. Addie and I had fun on the tube. She did a great job for it being her first time on a tube. It has been several years since I've been tubing but I managed to hold on through some rough horse play from Ben. Michael and I took Margaret and the dogs for a walk along one of the canal trails just outside of Delphi. It was a very nice smooth trail. We enjoyed reading the historical information they had posted along the paths. We hope to go back again next summer and do some more hiking and spend some time at the local canal history center. The best part of the vacation was just being able to visit family without feeling rushed. We came back to Michigan well rested and feeling great.










When we got back though we found our garage had been trashed. It appears that an animal had gotten into our garage and knocked almost everything off the one wall, eat all the cat food (including the bag), and also tore into my bags of dried molasses and corn gluten meal just for starters. What a mess! It took us a while to get it all cleaned up but I think that we now have the garage put back to normal.


We also had surprises in the garden as well. Some good, some not so good. The bad news what that the weeds had taken over and the deer had recked havoc on my tomatoes, peppers, and some green beans. The good news was that I had lots of veggies ready to be picked. In the last two weeks I've harvested several bushels of green beans, yellow summer squash and zucchini. I have also been picking lots of blackberries. So as one can image we have been living on fresh veggies since we came back. They have been so yummy this year too. I've been busy freezing enough to last us through the winter and also making baby food from some also. Margaret loves the pureed zucchini.


Some of you might remember the transparent apple tree my parent's had at our hold farmhouse. It was by the driveway. The apples from that tree made the best applesause. I've been trying to find an orchard that grows transparent apples. They should be in season at the moment but I have struck out for the second year in a row. This year one of the orchards had them but they had lost there crop. When I started to go into my sad sob story about how much these apples mean to me, he said that he did not know of any other orchards that would have them BUT he did have two small transparent apple trees he could sell me! As you might imagine I was very excited. I had actually looked into buying them last year but was not comfortable buying them online. The trees around 3-4 feet tall and actually had a couple small apples on them when we went to pick them up. As you can see in the photos, we did take the apples off. They were making the tree hang really low and we did not want have the tree damaged from the weight. Addie and I had a great time planting the trees. She has already figured out which one is her and Margaret's tree and which one is Michael and I's tree.


I'm sure I'm leaving out lots of fun stuff but that is the shortest catch up I can do for the month that we missed. I know Michael will be adding more later! We did go to some WWII reenactments that where done here locally and he will have some video of that as well.