Ryan and Casey plus 2

Whitney heard about weddings all summer as Ryan and I have traveled to three of them.  She is so curious and was very excited that she was going to be able to see what it was like first hand.   My cousin Nichole got married on September 14th in Indiana.  It was the most unique wedding I have ever been to; Nicole and James (and their families) spent so much time and effort into making this day perfect... You walk up to his parents house and see this corn field that they plowed an aisleway down, and at the end of the aisle were hay bales for people to sit on during the ceremony.  Waiting for you at the beginning of the aisle were mason jars to be filled with tea or lemonade and country music playing over the loud speaker.   The reception was in a barn with home made touches all around.  It was just a wonderful wedding and not to mention a beautiful day to celebrate the two! Whitney, never being at a wedding before, arrived at the farm and imm...

Sometimes it is a challenge to keep things new and exciting around here -- especially since we are home 24/7.  I try to go out several mornings a week to fun places or to meet friends; and in the afternoons, or the mornings we do stay home, I try to have fun activities to fill our time. Yes, the fact that I was a teacher helps with this...but then you have to take into account money, resources and patience hahaha:).    Pinterest is by best friend, I use it often!!!  There are some great ideas out there but even some of those are so time consuming and if you don't have the right materials at home, can become quite costly.   And to be honest, some of the activities I choose Whitney does not like at all.  I used to feel sorry for the parents that would come to me when I was teaching to say that their child "refuses to learn at home".... I TOTALLY get it.  No matter how much fun I make things she still refuses sometimes.  And you can forget a...

P&G Dividend day is what we look forward to each year.  Ryan and I haven't had passes since high school so this is a treat!!  And we are so thankful my parents and Kelley share their tickets with us each time.  Whitney remembers it from last year and has been dying to go all summer.  We pass it a lot when we drive to mason for certain things, and she just stares out the window remembering the rides she liked.  We didn't buy passes this year for several reasons.  One being that for most of the summer I was having troubles with the sun and didn't think standing in line or going to the water park with that condition would be very wise:).  And two, because Whitney hasn't been all that accepting of rides in the past.  This year though, we told her if she liked the rides we would buy a pass for her! Guess what..... SHE LOVED IT!!  She rode everything with a smile on her face and when she got off of one ride, ran to another!!  I wa...

We started off the weekend be going to the Loveland Homecoming Parade (yes homecoming was the second week of school.....crazy right???)  Which she LOVED.  She ended up standing on the curb blowing kisses to the floats passing by which made the kids melt and throw her extra candy....she was in heaven!!!  She was even happier there were no clowns involved with this parade!!  She even got to see her neighbor, Averee, in the parade which made her night! The next day was her very first birthday party for her second cousin, Drew at Chuck E Cheese's.  She was super excited to go because of the games/rides but very nervous about seeing the little mouse guy running around.  She all but forgot about that guy as she ran, maybe sprinted is the better word to describe how to got from ride to ride.  She was in heaven.  When it was time for lunch she was face the entrance for that lil guy to come out and boy she covered her eyes up faster then you could imagin...

Whitney has taken every class available at the Blue Ash YMCA (there are only a handful available for her age range), so we wanted to try something new until she is old enough for the swim classes she wants to take.  There is a dance company called, Tippi Toes, that comes into the Y to teach classes so we thought we should give it at try. I was a little nervous because this is a class that does not have parent involvement.  I am allowed in the class but should preferably sit in the chair to watch :) and in her last class she needed my help to pay attention and stay focused on the task at hand...two year olds right???? Well Whitney was so ready for this class.  In week leading up to it, she was teaching all of her friends how to dance and even showing her babies and thing or two.  We purchased new outfits and shoes, who knew it would add up to be this much hahaha:) By the time Tuesday came around, she was ready to show off her skills.  She was one of the old...

The summer FLEW by.  I thought I had fast summers when I was teacher but shew wee this summer just went by in the blink of an eye.  We had such a great time together, Whitney and I, and really made sure to pack things in during the month of August before it started getting cool.... (who am I kidding tho, its the middle of September and its scorching hot out there:)))) I finally found out what has been making me allergic to the sun after three years of suffering and completely cut out sugar from my diet.  After doing that, almost immediately, I could be in the sun with no itchy side effects, lost my acid reflux and could drink alcohol again without the same itchy problems.  Amazing right:))) So that being said, Whitney and I took full advantage of the fact that I could actually swim with her and went to the pool almost everyday for the last two weeks of the unofficial summer.     We also went as a family to the reds game and had a blast!!! ...