Lauren and Ethan's check-up

Lauren's 3 year Stats:
Height: 39 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 30 lbs. 12 oz. (50th percentile)
According to the doctor, she is in the 10th percentile for height/weight ratio, which means that she is very tall and skinny. She is growing so fast! I tried to put her tennis shoes on the other day and they don't fit her anymore! I think she has grown 2 sizes just over the summer! She is doing great with going potty. She can even go by herself on the big potty! Yeah! I've waited a long time for that! She has been staying dry all night long, so I think we are done with pull-ups! She loves artsy things and is very precise with them. I think I'm going to enroll her in an art class this fall. She is such a little girl and can turn on the tears instantly. We are working on getting her to talk about her problems instead of crying about them. It is a long process, but hopefully we will get there someday! I love my little sweetie!


Ethan's 15 month stats (about a month late):
Height: 31.75 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 23 lbs. 12 oz. (55th percentile)
Head Circumference: 48.8 cm.
He is just average for both his height and weight. He is very active and keeps me on my toes. His hair is so curly, I just can't cut it now. I think it's adorable, especially when it's humid outside! He is growing up so fast! He wants to keep up with Dylan and Lauren, so he is learning things very fast. He climbed up on the computer desk the other day and was so proud of himself! He looked at me with this excited expression on his face, Look what I can do! He can open doors now, which is not such a great thing. So far, we have been lucky with the bathroom! He is my little wild child, but I love him dearly!

Mammoth Caves

My parents and sister had planned a trip to Kentucky and invited us along. Ricky had to work on Saturday, so he took Friday off and stayed home with Ethan and Jack to make it possible for me to take Dylan and Lauren. Dylan, Lauren and I headed south to Mammoth Caves right after swim lessons were done on Friday. We stayed for the pool party day, but it rained again! Poor kids didn't get to have their pool party either session. It was a little over a 4 hour drive, and the kids didn't have to stop to use the bathroom until the exit before we got off. They did great and the drive wasn't too long. When we got there, we went straight to the Mammoth Cave. It was beautiful and COLD. It was only 54 degrees down there. Luckily we brought jackets for the kids, so they could enjoy it.Looking down into Mammoth Cave.The whole group! The next morning, we went horseback riding on a trail through the woods. Dylan got to ride with me and Lauren rode with grandma. It was nice and relaxing and all the kids had a blast! (Grandma has the pictures, so I will update with them soon!)We camped at Jellystone Park for the weekend. It was really fun other than the big rain storm we got on Saturday afternoon. We were lucky and our tents and supplies were ok. Others, not so much(as you can tell by this picture)! We weren't able to cook after the storm, so we ended up eating out for dinner. The kids didn't mind at all! After the storm, we went to this rock shop up the street. They had a Mystery House that we toured and had a blast. The kids took turns balancing on this chair with the front 2 legs not touching the ground.
And this part of the house made my sister (5 foot 2 inches) look taller than her boyfriend (over 6 feet tall)!
Dylan and Landen showing off their muscles in the fun mirrors.

Sunday morning we packed up camp and headed to The Lost River Cave for a boat tour. It was beautiful and we got to hike down to the cave.
Here is the boat that we rode. To get through the cave, you have to duck down at the beginning. It was something I had never seen before! The kids had so much fun together! Thanks for a wonderful weekend!

Lauren's Party

We decided to have a little birthday party for Lauren. We had family and a couple of close friends over to celebrate with us. Lauren thought it was really neat to have her friends over for her birthday. Too cute! My good friend Wendy made this AWESOME castle cake for Lauren. I love it and it was perfect for Lauren! Thank you so much, you are very talented!
Lauren had fun opening her gifts. She got a cute, homemade skirt from my mom. She immediately took her skirt off to put it on. She loves skirts right now! Lauren and the grandmas!Lauren and Kiah (they are 3 days apart)!Lauren and Sean (they are 1 month apart)!
Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate Lauren's 3rd Birthday! It was so much fun getting to party with everyone!

Happy 3rd Birthday Lauren!

Today, my little girl is 3! I can't believe how time has gone by so quickly. For her birthday, we made pink pancakes for breakfast. She got to open a few presents to play with during the day. She was so excited to get a barbie movie and a princess to play with! After breakfast, we headed over to Happy Hollow Park to play for a while and Lauren said she wanted to go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, so we all got to enjoy the weather and have fun!
We met some friends at the park and the kids had a great time!If you know Lauren, we had her favorite, macaroni and cheese, for lunch with friends. The kids played outside and got all of their energy out. Lauren, Dylan and I then watched Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses. We ordered a pizza for dinner, so we could go swimming after we ate. My kids are little fish and love the water!
We came home and had presents and cupcakes with grandma and grandpa. It was a great day and we had fun celebrating all day long!
Happy Birthday to my favorite little girl! I love you so much!

South Carolina

We had a wonderful time in South Carolina for our family vacation. I think this was the first family vacation we have taken outside of Chicago. Yeah! It was very hot, but great scenery. We stayed with my best friend Jaime for half of the week and then we ventured to Myrtle Beach for a few days. Thank you to the Brown Family for hosting our crazy family.

We were pretty lazy at Jaime's house. We played TONS of games and the boys had a blast playing together. One of their lazy moments! Sunday, we went to church with the Brown's and then just hung out. It started raining, so Ricky took Ethan out in it. He loved it and made the cutest little faces!It stopped raining by evening, so we set off a few fireworks. The boys loved it, Lauren thought it was too loud, and Ethan was shaking, but still excited.
For the 4th of July, we went downtown Greenville. It was beautiful and had a waterfall right next to us! It was really hot outside, but we managed to have fun anyway! The fireworks show was amazing!
The only family picture we got the whole vacation!
On Wednesday, we headed out to Myrtle Beach. It was a long drive, but totally worth it! Aside from a mix-up on the hotel, we had a great time and ended up right on the beach. Perfect for little ones and nap time! With the mix-up, we got some good shots of the kiddos. Too cute!We finally made it to the beach after dark, but had to go in the water anyway! (This is the only time that Lauren would get in the water. She was scared of the waves and kept saying they were going to get her. Silly girl! I guess we don't get to the beach much here in Indiana!)
We had a great day on Thursday. We played in the sand, we went in the ocean, we took naps, we just had a great day. Dylan loved the water, he takes after his dad! My boys enjoying the waves. Ethan wouldn't stay out of the water. He would just run in and fall over and then crawl out. Then he would repeat many times. We had to constantly hold onto him so he didn't get taken away into the ocean! The beach was so nice and relaxing! I loved every minute of being there! This was the first time at a beach for all three kids. Overall, they had a great time. Lauren liked the sand more than the water. Ethan just loved every minute of being there. I am already looking forward to our next trip to the beach.