3 years, 2 mo. - Oct. 16

We had such a mild Summer this year and had lots of opportunities to get out and about which is perfect for Emily since she loves the outdoors. Along with walking with our friends on Wednesdays at a local park, we also recently visited a park that Charlie found while geocaching called Wildwood Park.

Emily continues to be my little helper and we're excited to see if that continues once her brother comes along. She still loves to clean the dishes and also loves to help Daddy make breakfast on Saturday mornings.

Emily has always loved to sing and dance, but recently she has been more inclined to sing around other people. My Aunt Neva taught her the Little Cabin in the Woods song and she can now do the motions to go along with the song. Hopefully I can capture that on video.

Baby Shower - Oct. 1

Thank you to all my family and friends who planned, prepared and participated in my baby shower. It was a great evening!!! We are truly blessed!!!!!!

FunPlace Database website

My sister and I have a new website project: http://funplacedatabase.com/ and we need your help!!! We're trying to build a central place to find all the places in your area to get out of the house with your kids. There's no good resource like this on the web, but we are going to need lots of help to fill up the database.

It only takes a couple of minutes maximum to add a place- if you could add one or two (or lots!) and tell your friends we would be grateful! Thanks!

Trail Camera

I got some new trail cameras a couple weeks ago. I put one out in the yard to test it out for a couple of days. Tonight I pulled the card and this is what I captured on my first picture.

I guess that Emily's curiosity got the best of her. I'm not sure how she found it so fast. The time stamp was only 23 minutes after I put it out, and she wasn't around when I put it there.

The never-ending skills of my Mother

A while back I saw an item called Size It Closet Organizer in a baby catalog called One Step Ahead and thought how useful this would be for me in the new baby's closet. I mentioned the item to my Mom and she very creatively found a way to make these. I love these and if anyone is interested in the how-to, let us know.

3 years, 1 month

I call Emily my little inquisitor this month or "Curious Georgeina". I really should keep a tally of how many times she asks WHY in one day. She really does keep me on my toes.

It's amazing to watch Emily's imagination run wild. She recently began picking up stuffed animals or dolls and carrying on full length conversations with them. I'm excited to see what conversations she will try to have with her brother in a couple of weeks.

This month she received some new toys from the Grandparents and has had a blast playing with them. Mommo brought back A Barrel of Monkeys game and some Silly Puddy from her trip to the Velvet Ice Cream Factory in Utica, OH and Gimmy and Pappy brought back a snake from their visit to Montana - yes, a fake one, although Emily would probably love to have a real snake someday.

8 months and growing

Well, we're getting closer every day. Only 7 weeks left. It has been a lot of fun feeling movement every day and wondering what part is where, but I am ready to see this little guy in person.

Seafoam

Over the part couple months I have treated 3 vehicles with an engine treatment called Seafoam. This stuff is really amazing. First me and Dad added it to his truck. His truck isn't really that old, so we didn't notice that much of a difference.

A couple of weeks later, I ran a can through my wife’s Jeep. The results were really impressive. The engine idles smooth again, the throttle response was quicker, the throttle was smooth. Gas mileage was up a little too.

After a couple months I finally got around to adding it to my truck. I have experienced the same results with it as well.

I recommend it to anyone who has over 100K on the odometer, or their vehicle is a little older then most. I would also recommend it to anyone who is having engine running problems with their vehicle(s).

It's very easy. 1/3 of a can goes in the vacuum line, 1/3 goes in the engine oil (keep in there till you regularly change your oil) and the remaining 1/3 goes in the fuel tank. Run it through the vacuum line while the engine is running and warm, then shut off immediately and let sit for 10-15 minutes. While it;s sitting, put the remaining Seafoam in the Engine oil and fuel tank.

After 10-15 minutes, start your engine up. It will run really rough and should smoke (a little or a lot) for a couple or maybe even several minutes.

Enjoy.

"His Life for Mine"

Very touching song.

Zoo visit with friends

Rather than duplicating the same information, I'm sending you to the Snyder's blog to hear about our recent visit to the zoo. My Mom, Emily, Meredith, Jack, Kayla, Noah and myself all piled in my parents van and were on our way. If you look closely you'll see my big belly in 2 of the pictures.....yes, 2.

3 years old

Well, it's very hard to believe, but our little "burrito baby" as we called her is now 3 years old. She is such a blessing and we're so thankful the Lord has given us the privilege of caring for her. She has grown already into a lively, very curious little girl and we're excited to see what God has in store for her. Although we have no idea what she'd like to do in the future, if we heard right, this morning on our way to church we think she said "when I grow up I want to be an engineer".

As of Aug. 3 we finally were successful in ridding our house of all the fa-fas (pacifiers). Someone from Charlie's work sent him an idea involving a fa-fa fairy so we decided to try it. Quite a few months ago I had Emily decorate a box with paint and stickers and I wrote on it "for fa-fa fairy" and the plan was to box them up and actually mail them, however, knowing Emily I thought it would be best if she were to physically see them in someone else's hands. So, I asked one of our friends who recently had a baby if we could come over and pass on the fa-fa's to her new little one and see if this baby's Grandmother would agree to be the Fa-Fa Fairy. Emily played for a little while, and then reluctantly handed the Fairy (a.k.a. Mrs. Gayle) the box and watched her give the fa-fa's to the baby. Emily was a little upset at first, but was soon distracted when we told her we were taking her to a special playground as a reward for giving her fa-fa's to the baby. All in all I think this method worked well and even though we hear about the Fa-Fa Fairy every now and then, we are free of them, at least until baby boy Groff enters the world.

3 months 3 years

Emily's 3rd Birthday

Emily had a lot of fun spending time with family this year during her birthday party. She did a lot better ripping into the packages this year than last year, but she was not too keen on moving onto the next gift. Thank you all for making Emily's party so much fun.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More from our trip to PA and Idlewild and a few more to come

The ultimate family vacation spot

This past weekend we had the opportunity to visit with the Groff's and Byers and also to experience Idlewild - an amusement/water park that Charlie and his family have been going to in Pennsylvania since Charlie was little. On Friday we visited with Charlie's cousins and then Saturday some of us headed to the park. This park is amazing and honestly has no comparison to any park in Ohio. It has something for the entire family all at one location and very reasonably priced. We all had a blast and of course Emily did not want to leave. There's more pictures to come, but here's one of Emily and her cousin Cameron riding the cars on the kiddie side of the park.

Thank you Gimmy for the tickets and thank you Aunt Kristen for capturing this moment on film.

35 months old - July 16

Emily tells us quite often that she's a big girl, but then is sly enough to say that she's still little when she wants her pacifier (fa-fa) which we have finally successfully weaned her from except during nap time and night time.

There have been many funny "Em-isms" this month, but one that stuck out.... Emily was over at her friend Micah's house and during lunchtime Micah was evidently paying too much attention to his food because she told him in this very adult manner, "Micah, when we sit at the table we're supposed to talk to each other".

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Charlie!

We love you!

New Room and New PJs

Since Emily is our little wilderness girl by picking up every leaf, rock and stick she can find, we thought it was appropriate that she have a wilderness big girl bedroom, complete with deer mount, wooden curtain rods and a wilderness quilt that was one of mine and Charlie's wedding gifts (no, Emily will not be sleeping on this quilt come true potty training time - it's a one of a kind).

Timing could not have been better with the transition to this new room because July 1 was the very first time that Emily climbed out of her crib. All of a sudden I hear from atop the stairs, "Mommy, I'm awake". Talk about a little shock to my system.

Gimmy and Pappy surprised Emily with a gift for moving up to a "big" girl bed - a pair of bubble gum pjs. You can see how excited she was.

Show Me the Proof also!

I don't know about you, but I agree with this article. It's time that we start getting answer my friends. Click HERE for the article.

6 months and growing

Cornhole or Dominos - you decide

My very creative husband finished our cornhole set this past weekend and we enjoyed quite a few games over the holiday. This set brings a flood of memories to me because growing up I had the privilege of playing Dominos with my Grandfather every time we went for a visit. Thanks Mom for making the bags.

Another fun Zoo trip

It's nice when you have a zoo pass because you can roam for a couple of hours and go home when you need to. We had another fun trip this past Thursday. Emily had a blast on the boat ride and of course did not want to get off. She also did not want to leave the carrousel when the time came. You can read that expression right on her face.

3D tells all

Two weeks ago Charlie and I had the opportunity to view our little one on a 3D ultrasound. We saw the 4 chambers of the beating heart, the perfectly straight spine, the arm and leg bones just the right length, even the little bladder and two kidneys formed as they should be.

I had thoughts before going into the ultrasound that I did not want to know the gender of this little one unless it was 100% identifiable. As soon as the ultrasonographer reached the private parts she said they were none too private. Little boy Groff will be here before we know it. Aunt Kristen says he already resembles Charlie in the first picture. We're so thankful for God's gift.

(click on the picture to enlarge)

Happy 5 year Anniversary

34 months old - June 16

Yes, very soon I will be out of the months old stage and enter into years. Emily will be 3 this August and I can't believe how the time has flown.

I know they say kids say the darndest things, but you never really understand that statement until you have a toddler around your house. She constantly brings laughter to our house with the things she says and does. For example, one day she was sitting in her car seat preparing to go somewhere and she says "Mommy, I'm worried about you". She never said why she was worried, but the fact that she had that thought made me giggle. Then the other day we were talking about the baby in Mommy's tummy and she said "Mommy, I love you and I love the baby in your tummy". We've been emphasizing what a big helper she's going to be for Mommy so hopefully that sticks.

This year Emily was in the class I co-taught for Vacation Bible School. I was a little concerned how she would do with me as one of her teachers, but I think she did great. She had a blast until story time on the first and second day when Miss Sarah and I brought out the puppet. Emily and another little boy were scared to tears of this puppet. Consequently the puppet was put out of sight the rest of the week.

Daddy and Emily relaxing by the new sandbox. For those with potential ant problems in your sandbox, I read recently that a good home remedy is to sprinkle 1 or 2 cups of dry grits down.

Needle Sized Art

This is incredible!

Needle Sized Art Very incredible story! Not only is this mans art cool but he got a ton of cash for it!