Our Cyndi's Home!!!

 

Cyndi came home for a long weekned visit last week. It had been almost six months since we'd been together so we had been looking forward to this for quite a while. We visited GG and Gpa and a partial Lower clan on Wednesday (pics are courtesy of Ben). We took the kids to an apple orchard on Thursday which was a hoot and followed it up with lunch which was hilarious - kids in restaurants are always good for a laugh (again pics are courtesy of Ben). On Friday we took advantage of a way overdue girls day. There may be no other place I feel as comfortable as when I'm with my mom and sisters - what a blessing!!

Happy Halloween!!

I didn't get any real good pictures, but here are our two little trick or treaters; Snow White and Buzz Lightyear. As you can see the whole family was in on the action - there were about 10 of us walking the streets. Macy refused to wear a coat, but she basically sprinted the entire way down the street and back so no worries of getting cold!

Happy Birthday Ben!!

Our little Ben is not so little anymore! He turned 3 last Monday. We had a little party with just the four of us on his b-day and then a larger celebration this weekend for he and his cousin Natalie (whose b-day is this week). He has yet another party to look forward to on the White side. We really like to stretch out the celebrations.
 He is a joy and we are so blessed to have him!!

Fall Fun

Just a few cute pictures of the kids having fun on one of our last nice days of fall. NAtalie and Sophia were over so we went to the park and had a lot of fun. Chad even found a toad for the kids to check out, we safely returned the toad to the woods afterward!

Water Park Weekend

We had a great time with our friends Molly and Evan at the waterpark a few weeks ago. The kids had never been before and they loved it. Ben took a little while to warm up, but soon was enjoying himself. Macy owned the place as soon as we walked in. It was also a nice time for the Mommies to visit as well. We will definitely do this again!

Trip to Grammy's

We had a great time at Grammy's last weekend. We picked up Mom and Amanda on our way so it was a bit of a trip, but a great one! I love visiting with Gram and the rest of the family and we don't get to do it as often as we'd like. Being at Grammy's house reminds me of being a kid. My sisters and cousins and I would play outside, in the barns and make up a ton of other games to keep us busy all day! Many great memories!

We also got to see my Uncle Jim and Aunt Bren and Uncle Mike and my cousins Michelle and Amy and (some of) their kids. It's funny to think about our days of playing war at the farm and now we all have our own families. It was a great visit and it makes me realize how much I miss everyone!

The kids had a great time! Since Grammy lives on a farm they were able to see cows and horses, which they think are the coolest things ever! She also had plenty of kitties and a new little puppy for them to pet. It was also a beautiful (just a little chilly) day.

I had to include this great picture of Macy and Aunt Amanda. Loved their smiles - we had a really good day!

Meet our New Family Member

We welcomed a new member into our family about two weeks ago, her name is Penny. This is our first cat and we're all still getting used to sharing the house with her, especially Farley. The kids have been crazy for cats for a while now and always go crazy over Aunt Mee-Mee's cat when we're back home. This cat and some of its siblings were found by someone who works with Chad's mom. She called us thinking we might be able to make a home for one. Well, how can you say no to an orphaned cat? So far so good, she's very frisky though, and I think we've all fallen victim to her claws. We will have to have her declawed pretty quickly or I may not have curtains left!

Notice that Penny is nearly at the top of the stairs making herself as small as possible. Farley hasn't been at all aggressive toward her just nosy. Penny is not a big fan of Farley.

The kids could not be happier to have Penny; she's been like new toy and new baby all at the same time! in this picture you'll see that Ben and Macy have made Penny a bed and then covered her up like a baby. Please notice the cat's face - she's practically begging for help!

Snow Day!

What a great day to be outside! Well, if you live in Indiana and it's February 1st and you know you have two months of winter left, it was a great day! The sun was shining and the temperature was 30-something with no wind so we managed to work up a little sweat hiking back up our hill. The snow packed great which made for a quick trip down the hill and put together a pretty nice snowman (forgot to take a picture of that). It was a great family day - one that makes you wish your kids would never grow up. We were walking in and Macy said, "I'm cold as an ice cube!" I don't really think she was cold at all just buttering me up so I would make the hot chocolate. :) After all that fun outside and bellies full of cookies and hot chocolate our little eskimos were out for the next two hours!

A couple of sillies!

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures of the kids having fun. It's always something with these two! In these pictures you can see Ben's new favorite hiding place - the cabinet of the entertainment center. Macy and Ben get quite a kick out of each other as you can see in the pictures of Macy carrying Ben through the house and Ben pushing Macy in the baby stroller (baby doll mind you). Our favorite picture is the last one. Ben got some new boots to get him through the end of winter and he loves them. He loves them so much that the other day as I was changing his diaper he ran to put them on before I even got a diaper back on him. When I looked up this was what I saw! It was so funny I had to get the camera before I could grab his clothes!