Wow, with our Canada trip and all the chaos building up to and catching up after, I have completely slacked in the family blog.  I’ve done this every month since before Clara was born…and this is the longest stretch without posting.  It’s high time.

It dawned on me that I’ve essentially posted a blog update every month since the month before Clara was born.  This is the girls’ baby albums, it’s all of our life updates…and yikes – how the heck am I ever going to get this off the web and into a tangible album?  I’m dreaming of having DVDs of our family videos and a photo album to go through, but man, it gets overwhelming just looking at the past four years!

A few highlights in our lives…

• In July, Clara took her first dance class.  She made it up to the actual dance recital…and sat on the sidelines.  Ellie, however, we had to fight to keep from taking over center stage.
• Ellie will be two at the end of October.  Over our trip, she began speaking in full sentences.  Her absolute favorite sentence?  “e’cuse me Mommy!”  She says this over and over and over and OVER again.  All. Day. Long. Other sentences/words?
• A’ighty, see u ater!
• Here ya go!
• Were Cwara go?
• I yuv you too!
• Wha dat?
• Watch dis!
• Lookame!
• I poopy dipa (yes, it’s potty training time)
• (whispers) chocat chip cookie! (this is some funny thing Nathan taught her to do – he says “I have a secret…chocolate chip cookie.”  She loves the game and whispers it to everyone now. Hey, at least we’re teaching her to whisper. 

• We sold our Subaru Outback (our first “parent car”) and replaced it with a huge truck.  Our first eBay purchase for a car – Nathan bought it in Florida – flew down and was able to squeeze in a mini visit to see his cousin Scott in St. Simon’s on his way back.  This is apparently a limited edition truck, and it is decked out…um…with glass packs.  Seriously – I can hear the “vroom, vroom” when he turns on our street.  Goes so well with our “hippie” lifestyle.  Definitely our biggest contradiction, but oh so fun to have a truck – the amount of crap we’ve hauled…literally.  Nathan fills up with horse manure from the ag center down the street and our garden and flowerbeds are gorgeous.
  

  The girls definitely dig climbing in and eating tomatoes and basil.  For a long time, about the only green things Ellie would eat were if she picked them directly from the garden.

• We did a 2 1/2 week road trip to Canada.  ‘Nuff said, right?  Nope.  It was INCREDIBLE.  Every part of our trip.  It was more than a mere family trip, it was a pivotal moment this year, as Nathan and I talked and talked…together and with dear friends and family.  We talked about everything.  Most importantly, we looked at our lives and really examined what we like and what we’d like to change.  Many deep discussions, and ultimately, a new sense of purpose and passion as individuals and as an incredible family.  


• We stopped in KY first to visit Nathan’s Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rodney.  Had a great visit with them, and Kathy inspired me to write this post.  Then road trip to my Aunt Vi and Uncle Nate’s house…quick recovery at an empty house, as they were gone, and then headed up to CANADA!

• We drove up to Guelph, Ontario, to visit our new-found and very dear friends, Josh and Sarah Gordon, better known as The Nonconformist Family.  They hooked us up with some friends of theirs at Evergreen Ranch.  Dave and Cathy Loney were incredible hosts – their house was a gorgeous strawbale home with so many unique features – I took a lot of pictures of it in our album!  They were so gracious to welcome complete strangers into their home for a week, especially on the same weekend they were moving their baby out of the house on her own.  Empty nest with a whole crazy family coming in -yikes!
• We spent plenty of time hanging with Josh and Sarah and their sweet kiddos, Piper and Vienna.  Lots of down time letting the kids play and get filthy…fully embracing kid-dom.  It was great to hang with fellow “deep thinkers” and wax philosophical and really look at all the important things in our lives together.  We visited with both of their parents as well, got to meet sibs, and really got to know the Gordon’s all around!
  

  They were still our friends after Ellie chucked a handful of sand in Vienna’s eyes..and Nathan captured it in a priceless picture.

• On our treks both up to Canada and back, we made it a point to stop and play along the way…at the Longaberger Basket Factory, at the best restaurant ever in Cleveland (we’ll so go out of our way to eat here again), at “Mentor-on-the-lake” on Lake Erie (stopped there on the way up and the way back), Niagara Falls… The pit stops were splendid – we all stretched our legs, explored new places, and really embraced the journey and not just our final stops. 

• Niagara Falls.  Incredible.  Breathtaking. The park was beautiful.  The falls were gorgeous. And then…Gatlinburg took a ton of steroids and exploded in the town.  The town of Niagara Falls is insanity – seriously, Gatlinburg on crack.  We hit up the Hershey store and then hightailed it outta there (with a 1/4 lb Reeses cup, of course). 
• Spent some amazing quality time with Aunt Vi and Uncle Nate in Ohio – they took us to Amish farms to see all the animals, insisted we try “fry pies” (which yes, are the best things ever), took us to the creek to play, and genuinely made us feel at home – we loved spending time there – it was a perfect ending to our trip.  The highlight of our visit was going to the Yoder Amish Farm – incredible, and will be a required visit when we go back over the years for the girls to learn about their Amish history.   It wasn’t gimmicky – it was actually where you could really learn and understand how things are for the Amish – all run by Amish and Mennonites.
• Our last stop was Xenia, Ohio, for John and Shelley’s wedding.  We played a pretty big part in it – the girls were flowergirls, I made the wedding cake, and Nathan officiated!  It was a beautiful celebration, even if it was over 100 degrees!
  

  Nathan, Will, John and Clay on the Bachelor party – hiking to Gregory’s Bald and camping in the Smokeys

   

• There are a TON of pictures…so, here is the full album – you can look through them and read the captions instead of me posting stuff here: 

• Nathan did his second Jailbreak Triathalon and beat his previous time by 28 minutes!  Seriously!  3.5 miles of canoeing, 8.5 mile mountain biking, and 2.5 miles trail run, and even without a relay partner, he made 8th in the relay, 3rd out of his grouping.  I was amazed – he kicked butt royally, and I think he would have dominated and won if he had competed with a teammate.  I was so, so proud of him!  

• I also did my second 5k ever, the Tomato Art Fest 5k, and beat my time from 28 min to 26, so I was happy with that (14th in my age group). Nothing like Nathan, but hey, it’s a start!

My running buddy Kate

• Clara’s biggest fascination lately? The human body. She loves watching youtube videos on the skeleton, especially.  And, the digestive system.  We got a membership to the Adventure Science Center and there is a whole section on the human body – she loved it!

•  She also loves to pose now…funny enough – goes well with this blog post from one of my favorite mommy bloggers: Smile! Or, taking photos of children 

• I have been a busy bee lately – we’ve had two 48 Days events since we came back from Canada, plus our house was in the Crieve Hall Tour of Homes.  I’ve painted, sewn, cooked and created all kinds of things!

•  What have I learned from all my craftiness?  I am not a hairdresser.  Neither is Nathan.  Clara has been complaining quite a bit about hating when I comb her hair.  So, I said we should cut it.  Nathan decided to take both girls in and chop their hair in the bathtub one afternoon right before we got a home visit from the National Children’s Study.  I decided to “fix” what he did the next day, and go all out and give Clara bangs so they weren’t in her face and I didn’t have to pull her hair back every day.  Um…I didn’t do a good job.  I goofed.  I have to say, I still think she looks adorable, but yep, bangs aren’t really the way to go.  I got some cute pictures, though.  Memories, right? It’ll grow back!  (please.  soon.)
  

  For El, we just chopped her mullet so it’s all one length.

• Ellie is a funny girl.  Seriously.  She’s a hoot.  As I’m writing this, shes in her crib, thirty minutes after we’ve put her to bed, singing “Twinkle, twinkle, wittle sta!” at the top of her lungs.  She loves to perform, she loves to say hi to everyone she meets, and she loves to laugh.  She lives life full throttle (and thankfully sleeps that way, too – I cannot believe she isn’t climbing out of her crib.  She’s fully capable of it, she just doesn’t care to).
• Ellie is definitely in “monkey see, monkey do” stage, and Clara is her idol.  She will mimic anything Clara does, and now her biggest thing is, we put her to bed first, then put Clara to bed.  Then Ellie yells and yells for us to come back in simply to ask us “Is Cwara sweep (asleep) now?”

So….that’s us in a nutshell.  I took pictures of our home for the Tour, so I’ll do another post with those soon for ya’ll to “tour” the house if you haven’t been here.  Or at least when it’s nice and clean and pretty.  

Our summer has been absolutely splendid, and for all of you who have contributed to hosting us, whether it was for a week or merely for dinner….

I’m not sure how many strawberries Ellie actually put IN the basket…

Let’s just say not everyone was a fan (thanks, cuckoo bill!) 🙂 I’d say I can be queen of the cobbler, but fudge and jam still escapes me. I’m determined, though – I’ll make it perfect one day!

Ellie seemed to think it was perfectly normal to have it rain mulberries.

Clara found a froggy friend

After mulberry pickin, we had ourselves a delicious feast!

Even Grammy and Papa D joined in the fun. And by the way, this is love: allowing a completely butt-naked 4-year-old to ride on your shoulders. Grammy, you’re awesome!

The family we visited made incredible barns, playhouses and playsets, and gazebos.

 

 

 

 

 Yes, this is Clara running through YiaYia’s yard with her typical birthday suit on.  Thankfully she opted for an apron, at least:

Again, at YiaYia’s/Papa’s, Clara is forever finding frogs, turtles, cicadas, and other animals to play with.  This was a cute little tree frog she found…

 And a cicada…

Speaking of cicadas, Clara is quite infatuated.  She collects them by the dozens, plays with them, hugs and kisses them, and has even been known to put them in her pocket and let them climb up in her shirt.  Yep, gives me the willies just thinking about it.  I’m so skittish with the sound of cicadas now because I have no idea where they may come crawling out on her!

After much discussion, Clara and I went and got our hair chopped.  After watching Tangled, it was not the easiest to convince her to get her hair cut!  Clara’s looks awesome.  I’m not so thrilled with mine, but I’m giving it time–I’m tempted to chop it shorter.  Speaking of Tangled, the haircut at the end is pretty stinkin cute….

 Clara and Ellie love our hammock swing.  This is a heavy-duty swing – the rope is about 30 feet up in air, so we literally swing them up over our heads.  They are so spoiled with what a “real swing” is.  I’ll post some video of this monster soon – it’s awesome!

Love Ellie’s face here…

The cute little mohawk chica.  In all honesty, she has a little “party in the back” and that’s about it.  I’m still holding out for a little curl in her hair…please, oh please….

 Clara has a full Indian get-up…the shirt was something special of Nathan’s when he was a little boy…and he got her the necklace and headband to make together for her birthday. She loved it.

At the movie theater, they were sold out of the movie we wanted to see (good thing, too- heard that African Cats was a little too spooky for Clara), but they did have Pirates of the Caribbean tattoos.  So not friendly kid tattoos, but the girls were pumped:
 
We had to at least draw angel wings on their backs…

 I love the “cheese” faces…

We visited with Grandma Polly a bit on Mother’s Day, and got a few good shots in….

 This is so Ellie.

 Four generations here…

I ran my first ever 5k to benefit “Girls on the Run” .  This is such a great cause, and goes well with the blog I just posted HERE.   We did the run as a family, with Nathan pushing the double stroller (he’s such a stud).  Actually made pretty good time, with about an 8-minute mile.  We want to push a little harder next time, as we started at the back of the line behind a ton of middle school kiddos that ran/walked, so a lot of weaving a big stroller through. 

Nathan doesn’t hesitate to get  “in the zone” with playtime at the house.  And yes, that is Obama on his African apron.  Thank you Angazas. 

 And….on to the cutest pictures ever of my most favorite little girls.  Everybody, feel free to insert “awwwww” after every picture.  I know you want to. 

Only four more updates to go before I’m caught up.  Geesh.  Loving grouping them like this, though…hopefully it’ll make for more frequent (and fun) posts!