Ady is Growing Up So Fast!

Last week Ady went to a Birthday Party for her friend Macie and had a wonderful time.  (I borrowed this picture from the party off of Macie's family's Blog) It was a Princess Tea Party.  They all dressed in their princess dresses and had a cute little Tea Party and Danced to a Princess Dance DVD. It was really cute!  All these sweet little friends of Ady's are getting so big!!  I can't believe they are all turning 4!

At the party Macie's mom showed us how Macie is now writing her name.  I hadn't tried with Ady in a while, but the last time we had she wouldn't even try to write letters, just scribble then say that the scribble was her name.  It frustrated her, so I didn't push her too hard.  The night after the party we tried again to get her to write her name and she did it on the first try!  Now she is writing it everywhere!  She was excited to be able to write it at church, since her teacher always spells it wrong.

Sometimes it seems like they just grow up over night!  Ady has matured a lot in the last few months.  She is more independent and she is accepting my answer more when I have to say no to her.  She is doing a great job picking up after herself.  She is even wearing big girl underwear and staying dry all night!  A few months ago I thought we would never get to this point.  She has been such a stubborn little cutey, but lately she is so much easier.  I love having her home with me all day.  I am glad we have a few more years to enjoy each other before she is off to Kindergarten!!

Pixar

This weekend we have been watching this DVD that I rented on netflix and the kids love it.  We have watched it over and over.  Looks like we will be buying it.  Check it out here.

Basically its the compilation of the short films that Pixar makes and airs before their full length movies.  Dave has always loved the one called "For the Birds" that aired before Monster's, Inc. and it is on this DVD.

I know, I know!

For any of you tired of hearing about this wedding of someone you don't even know, just ignore this post.  But if you are like me and enjoy a good set of wedding photos, my cousin's wedding photographer has posted some more pictures on her website here . See if you can spot Ady.

Holiday World

In July we went to Holiday World, and somehow I never uploaded all the pictures from the video camera.  The still shots on the Video camera aren't quite as good as the regular camera, so these are a bit blurry.  I wish we would have taken more pictures, but we were too busy having fun! Dave uploaded all the videos to our external hard drive a while ago, so I need to get those too as soon as I get the hard drive back from him. I will post videos later.

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I don't know why, but my family never went to Holiday World when I was little.  Probably because my siblings are much older and Kings Island was a better option for them at that point.  We went to KI nearly every summer of my childhood.  Since we have been back in Indiana we have heard a lot of good things about Holiday World and decided to try it out this year.  We had a fantastic time and we are looking forward to going again next summer and spending more time there.

There is so much for younger kids to do and the park is very clean.  All the staff were very friendly and cleancut and the price was very reasonable.  You get free unlimited drinks all day long and the prices for food are very inexpensive.  Kyler was tall enough to ride everything.  He loved riding the roller coasters with us and had a great time.  There was plenty for Ady and Tayden to do as well and we all had a great time at the fantastic water park.  If you are in the area and have younger kids, this is an excellent place to go for some summer fun!!

Labor Day fun

I am so annoyed that I did not take the camera with us on Labor day, but I want to record our activities anyway because we had such a great time!

A friend of ours invited us to come down to her lake house for the afternoon to go out on their boat and go tubing and swimming.  Dave had to work in the morning, so we headed over there at about 3 and had the best time.  They have a double innertube shapped like a figure 8 that pulls two people, so Dave and Kyler went out on it together.  They stayed out for a long time until Tayden decided he was ready for a turn.  Ady sat in the boat with me and watched.  She enjoyed having the wind in her hair and watching the boys take their turns.  Ady, Tayden and I then went back in to let some other people have a turn on the boat.  We swam near the dock and Ady and Tayden really enjoyed just floating around with their life jackets making them extra boyant.  We had yummy hamburgars and hotdogs on the grill with lots of great sides and then we headed back out on the boat.  We took a nice slow ride around into each of tha alcove for a tour and then the boys went out on the tube again, this time together instead of with Dave.  It was so cute to see them out there with their huge grins bouncing along.  It was getting late and we were about to head in when Ady decided she wanted to give it a try.  So pulled the boys in and Dave and Ady went out  on the Tube together.  Our friend, Teresa, was nice and went very slow at first so Ady could see if she liked it, but soon Dave gave us the signal to speed things up and we drove them around a bit more before heading in.  I couldnt believe that Ady would be so brave to ride on it, but she seemed to really enjoy it.  I wish I had taken pictures!!!  It was so cute.

Thanks for inviting us Teresa!! We had the best time and it was just what I needed!

A few more

I had taken a few pictures with the video camera and I just uploaded those.  Here are  2 of all the kids at the Cocktail Hour having their Sprite with a purple rock candy swizzle stick.

L-R: Ady, Sydney, Kristen, Natalie, Kelly, Nevada, Tanner, Nick, Tayden, Nick, Kyler

And here is one that I thought was amusing.  I took a picture of all the bobby pins that I took out of Ady's hair at the end of the night.  I believe there were 24.

Wedding Video

My aunt just told me about a link to a brief video of the wedding here.  The videographer they hired posts a video of each wedding they do on their website along with a sweet little blog post.  I spotted Kyler in the video pretty clearly.  See if you can spot him.

The Wedding Wreath mentioned in the blog is part of the reading that my sister and I did at the ceremony.

If you are into checking out beautiful bridal portraits, you might enjoy seeing my cousin's posted by her awesome photographer here.

I just found out about another video on the DJ's Blog here. Just go to the videos and video sample 1.  He wrote a nice blog entry about their wedding as well located here.

More Wedding Pics

During the ceremony the younger kids were allowed to sit down on the front row after they had walked down the aisle.  This was smart thinking.  They would have been very wiggly.  Dave was sitting behind the flower girls and my Sister-in-law, Beth, had the honor of sitting behind the boys and holding their bells during the ceremony.  Here are some more pictures during and after the actual wedding.

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That's all the pictures from that camera.  I still need to upload things from the video camera.

Primping

Ady getting her hair done for the Big Day.

On Saturday morning all the little girls and their moms gathered at my Brother's house to get our hair done for the wedding.  A friend of my sister's is a hair dresser and had been hired for the day.  It was a lot of fun (and a LOT of hairspray!!)   After we all had our hair done we went to the church to get the kids dressed and have some pictures.  There was a woman there doing makeup. The photographer they hired was so good with all the kids.  She hung out taking candids of everyone and I cant wait to see the results.  She took several of Ady with her doll.

While the little girls were busy getting all dolled up, the little boys got to play and watch Spongebob.  I am sure they got a little bored waiting, but they all behaved themselves.

Here are some pictures of all the primping.

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(I know there is a lot of pictures of Ady, but she was so darn cute!)

Rehearsal

Here are some pics of the Rehearsal.  It was a lot of fun.

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The Bridesmaid Luncheon

Here are some pictures Ady and I took at the Bridesmaid Luncheon

Nevada and Ady

Ady took this picture of me at the Bridesmaid's Luncheon

 My sister-in-law, Beth and my sister, Cara

 My mom with Ady

 My cute Grandma