Behind...Again.

I really cannot get motivated to blog these days. Feeling a bit flu-like has me a little more contented spending the next hour in a chair; so, onward and upward!

Off to a brief but exciting overview of the last 2+ months. Hold on to your hats! I'm going to move quickly;)

Let's start off with a great time in the Heart of It All - Ohio.

We had another great time visiting Grandpa and Grandma Calihan's farm in West Salem, Ohio.

There was a reprisal of last spring's hit "water in a metal bucket". This continues to be a crowd pleaser.

We took sundrenched walks around the pond - clothing optional for those 3 and under;)

While spending time with grandpa and grandma on the farm was a top priority, we had ulterior motives as well.

The Wayne County Fair

We ate things that were ridiculously bad for us.

After last year's episode of "The Merry Go Round is Soooo Frightening", we never imagined they'd ride all the things they rode!

We played games and won prizes.

Vaughn tried to force-feed straw to every animal he met.

And then we were POOOOOPED...and so we went "home" to grandpa and grandma's.

Daddy and Mommy got to eat out with friends!

A LOT! ;)

This trip represented a very important milestone in Eva's life.

Her first trip to Audrey's Attic with Aunt Lori and mommy;)

On our way home from Wooster,

We stopped in Dayton to spend some time with Great Grandma Calihan.

So, we're back in Lexington, and fall has us as busy as ever with...

...lots of fun playdates with our buddies from i.m.MOM...

...the kickoff of football season - "GO STEENERS";)

I fed my Matilda Jane obsession with a Matilda Jane Trunk Show at our home. Food, fun, friends, and shopping - not sure it gets any better;)

While Eva and Cousin Annabelle went to the aquarium with Uncle Clint and Aunt Nina, we went on our first trip to Chuck 'E Cheese (aka: PBS kids) with the boys. It was as fun as I remembered it.

Now that the kids are a little older, I find it sooo much easier to get some really cute shots of the 3 of them together.

Like this one!

And this one!

Looove this one!

A personal Fav;)

They had me at matching jammies.

Who's Bev, anyway?!

Cuties.

We rode ponies again.

We rode tractors.

We met "Wild Hings"...

...and apparently fell in love.

Sesame Street Live was a smashing success!

Here's Eva waving to her hero Abby Cadabby.

Trick or Treating with the Wengers couldn't have BEEN more fun!

And if this wasn't enough excitement for you, let's not forget our friends Thomas...

...and Chloe - and the BEST birthday party ever.

They had a pirate party!

Complete with a pirate ship...

...and all the necessary accoutrements to make us feel extra "pirate-y".

"Argh! Me loves me pizza, Matey!

The holidays are fast approaching, and Eva and Mommy kicked the season off right.

Eva helped me decorate my table for our church's "Tabletops and Treetops" event.

She helped her "teachoos decowate her cwass", too. We had such a nice evening!

Lest you think the fun stops here - it may for you, but it won't for us!

We've got a lot more friends to play with, trips to take, and holidays to celebrate!

After all, how could the fun EVER stop with 2 two year olds...

...and a three year old?!?!

Yikes! What the heck am I doing?!?!

Just realized that it's been a loooong time since my last post. I suppose I could use the lame excuse that I've just been really busy (which is somewhat true), or just tell the primary reason why I haven't blogged in a bit - I just haven't wanted to. Weird, I know. Now I'm so far behind and feeling a little lost as to where to start. I guess we'll go with a quick re-cap that may or may not leave out important details;)

The most important news since my last update is the birth of Graham Ressler Calihan! He was born on August 20, and he is just beautiful - not that you could tell by this picture or any picture I currently have of Graham since we seem to be hiding this baby Suri Cruise style;) Must remember to get actual adorable face pictures tonight!

The rest of these events are all happenings up until Graham's birth. We...

...had lots of fun i.m.MOM playdates and events - including the one seen above at a local gymnastics center...and...

...we had fun picnics when Grandpa and Grandma Calihan visited!

We also got to have a brief but enjoyable visit with Grandpa Lasher and Grandma Linda!

Next - we celebrated our friend Jorgiana as she turned 2!

Since it's fall and school is back in session - we got to spend time with the Wengers as Kirsten came back for her Junior year at Asbury and Haley began her freshman year.

We celebrated Daddy's 34th Birthday with a backyard picnic!

We're still going to Gymboree every week...

...and we still can't get enough of the Children's Museum/Explorium!

Getting to and from the Children's Museum is half the fun. Here they are in the "secret tunnel" (pedway), and they also love the "magical" (glass) elevators.

This is Eva doing her "jazz hands". Most dances end with this move.

The babies are pretty much kids now. I've started keeping a written log of some of their best lines from recent days. I'll give you a sample from each one.

Eva: "Mom, I going to wear my shades today so the daytime won't get in my eyeballs."

Vaughn's favorite phrase to yell while playing Guitar Hero with dad: "Wok da houuuussssssse!" (Rock the house)

While introducing Bryce to an old friend recently, Bryce corrected my saying: "No, I'm Super Bryce." He continues to do this almost daily. Guess I'm not a fast learner;)

So baby Graham arrived (more pictures forthcoming), and we continued on with our summer of fun.

Vaughn and Eva took their first pony ride at the Kentucky Horse Park...

...and so did Bryce!

Grandma came, too!

The weather has been amazing all summer long;)

We even managed to make a family trip to Evans' Orchard!

We raced...

...and slid...

...and played...

...and hid!

Check out Grandma Calihan on the slide!

Even baby Graham came!!!

So, there you have it - the 2nd half of summer in a nutshell. Thank you God for all you've given us!!!

Summer Update

I hope you're enjoying the music.  Yes, it's from "Hello, Dolly."  No, the kids have never seen it.  But they HAVE seen "Wall-e"  - about a thousand times by now.  This song opens the movie, and the sounds of their sweet little voices singing along and belting it out could make a mommy melt.  The best part is their translation of the words.  I'll have to make a video of it.  There's a lot of muttering (when they don't know the words) punctuated by loud bursts of words like "Farby" (Barnaby), "parkles" (sparkles), and "omicos" (DelMonacos).  Bryce even likes to sing "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" before naptime.  Speaking of Bryce, he is really growing up a lot this summer.  His hair is getting blonder and his sentences longer.

He loves swimming at the pool with his buddies, and he asks every day if the pool is open.  

He's become quite a little "reader".  He has a remarkable capacity to remember books.  Once we've read a story 2-3 times, he's got it very close to memorized.  His favorite stories are "Joshua and the Big Wall", "Blind Bartimaeus", and "The Boy Who Shared His Lunch" - which for some reason he calls "boy who came to his lunch."  I dunno.

He's on the far right in this picture.  We were at his friend Liana's birthday party at Gymboree.  The kids had a BLAST!  He and his buddy JD (sitting next to him) had fun dressing up as police astronauts - I think it has something to do with securing the earth, but I'm not sure.

He's been riding his tricycle for a while now, but only recently he's begun using the peddles.  He likes riding it around the house and is really good at steering through tight spots.  He kind of developed this ability overnight.  One day he was pushing it Fred Flintstone style, and the next day he was cruising around steering through a toy obstacle course like a champ.

He's also becoming "master of the throne".  With the exception of sleeping times, I can declare Bryce potty trained.  Let me say this took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it's good to be here.  

Vaughnie continues to be our adventurer.  He looooves to be outside, and I'm constantly losing him to his need for new adventures.  Not sure if you can see the little brown bear tied to his right shoe, but that's my Vaughn locator.  This device is ABSOLUTELY necessary for any and all open spaces where Vaughn is concerned.  He can quietly drift away like no other, and I have to be ever vigilant.

Vaughn's penchant for wandering has been a sign of things to come.  He has become VERY independent lately.  His favorite phrase is, "No, Vaughnie dood it!"  It could be the simplest thing such as buckling his seatbelt or closing his door - he wants to do it all!  I suppose this is a good thing generally, but for a mom often running late, it becomes a little frustrating - because I can do it faster! ;)

Here he can be seen in his cape having a ball at Liana's party.  He tends to play independently, but this doesn't mean he can't enjoy a crowd.  We've called him our good time guy because he just likes to have fun!

He still tends to talk less than the other 2.  Quiet in nature but strong in will, Vaughn is often heard telling us, "No, ganks" (no, thanks).  Normally a child saying a defiant "NO" would be enough to get my blood boiling, but "No, ganks" tends to elicit a chuckle every now and again.  He cracks me up when he takes his play salt and pepper shakers and walks around pretending to be a cat saying, "Yeeeowm, Yeeeeowm."  I think that's "meow" backwards, but I'm not entirely sure.

Always the mischief making "master of disaster" as we affectionately call him, he knows how to make us smile.  He's becoming quite agile.  He amazes me sometimes as he carefully walks across the high balance beam at Gymboree or does one of his new "twicks" on the couch.  Like his big brother, he's becoming quite a "reader".  I'll have to video him reading the story of Joshua.  It's precious.  He has the funniest pronunciations. 

He's still our best eater.  If Vaughn turns down a meal, we know something is wrong.  From salad to "snake" (steak), he'll try pretty much anything.  His new "job" is to help mommy take Woodrow out in the morning.  He looks so cute standing in the driveway, holding the leash, and waiting for Woodrow to go.  He's enjoying his new big boy bed, and he's only fallen out 3 times so far - which is actually less than I expected!

Then there's our Eva Girl.  She speaks like most 5 year olds - perhaps that's an exaggeration, but her vocabulary continues to astound.  EVERY day she uses words I didn't know she knew!  The other day I heard her telling Bryce, "Bwyce, I no share because I'm a stinker."  She couldn't have said it better;).  Today while painting she told him, "Gwate job, Bwyce!  I so pwoud of you!"  Like big brother, she's a pro on the potty now.  Her current favorite crazes are her sparkle ball (silly bouncy ball that has sparkles in it - it goes to nap and bed with her, and they play together at the pool), "spicy juice" (during a recent cold I started giving her Emergen-C fizz packs mixed with her juice), and going to the pool.

One day we attempted to go to the pool only to find it raining and closed when we got there.  They were all extremely dismayed.  She kept saying through tears, "Mommy - jus unyock it, pweaze!"  She figured if it was closed, I could simply unlock it, and we could swim.  Not bad reasoning for a 2 year old.  She recently started jumping into the "deep" end of the baby pool all by herself!  

She's got a real sweet tooth and will choke down most dinners to get to dessert.  She loooves ice cream.  Last night while eating some strawberry vanilla she declared, "Oh mommy, dis sooo tacy for my mouf!" I'm assuming you can translate that;).

Eva loves animals and lets out the craziest giggle when we see one somewhere.  Here she is at her friend Taylor's birthday.  There was a petting zoo.  She was beside herself.

Before I close this out, I must mention our friends the Cadys.  They recently moved and will be sorely missed.  The picture above is of my kids, Alison's (Cady) kids, and Jocelyn's kids at the pool - our favorite hangout.  This was our last day there together.  

We had our last "Mom's Night Out" together at Dudleys.  It was delish with an order of sadness on the side.  We're so excited for Alison and her family as her husband (you might remember this blog entry about his performance in La Boheme http://thecalihans.blogspot.com/search?q=opera) joins the Army Field Band Chorus and they move to Maryland, but we selfishly wish they'd never left.

Best Summer Yet!

Since the babies have been born, I've not been a big fan of summer.  Here's what summer meant to me: extreme heat and humidity, sunny days spent INSIDE b/c of said heat, babies too little to enjoy playing outside, pale skin, and the most vicious mosquitos known to mankind.  Praise the Lord, that has all changed!  We still have the heat, but we can go to the pool or play in our backyard pool.  

The mosquitos are still nasty, but we've found a great spray to annihilate them.  Better said, summer is fun when you can get out and enjoy it - especially when you can enjoy it with the 3 cutest kids that ever were.

So far this summer we have...

Gone to the zoo with buddies, 

 

(The rain didn't dampen our spirits!)

AND we...

...had a play group event at Evans' Orchard,

and the biggest event yet,

...the boys moved into big boy bunk beds!

Vaughn loves his full size McQueen bed!

Eva had to help Bryce try out his new Wall-e top bunk.

Leo was happy about the move, too.

Daddy set up the boys new beds while we were away for the afternoon at the orchard.  I got a bit misty as we walked up the stairs and I saw their cribs all disassembled and leaning against the wall in the hallway.  Our boys really aren't babies anymore - heck, they're hardly even toddlers.  At some point, they morphed into kids - I think I blinked and missed it.  Tonight is night #2 in the new beds, and they're doing really well.  Vaughn has only climbed out once so far as compared to the 2-3 times per night he like to climb out of his crib!  Bryce has been seeming so much more grown up since our last trip to Wooster.  He's using so many phrases now that are really unexpected.  After dad set up his bed, Bryce said, "Good job, Dad.  I so proud of you!"  Eva's been even MORE of a chatterbox lately, too.  Upon seeing the new beds she exclaimed, "Wow!  That's awesome!"  And after Woodrow did something unmentionably disgusting this evening, both Eva and Bryce told him he was "gwoss" and what he did was "dicusting."  Vaughn is speaking more, and finds it fun to intermingle a whole bunch of jibber jabber with actual words.  If we listen closely, we can often pick out enough words to form a complete sentence!  If you're wondering about Eva's bed, she's still in her crib - but only because her big girl bed hasn't come in yet.  It's kind of nice to do one room at a time though.  Now we get to have 2 very special nights celebrating how big they're getting!

Well, on with summer.  Here's to looking forward to more fun with friends at the pool, cookouts in our semi-mosquito free yard, playdates with our playgroup, and any more adventures summer might have to offer!

Vacation time!

I use the word "vacation" a bit loosely as we only drove 5 hours north to Wooster, Ohio.  But let's face it, any place that means I don't have to cook, clean, or do laundry might as well be a resort for me.  I might also add that the kids love to visit new places and spend time with their grandparents.  Their enjoyment alone made the whole trip worth the effort to get there!  Here are some pictures from our adventure.

It was great having daddy around for 3 days straight!

The weather was amazing.  We played outside on the farm nearly the entire time.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky the whole time we were there.

We went to breakfast at one of my favorite breakfast places - Buehlers downtown.  We got to visit with Lori and Michelle!

While their sullen faces don't indicate it, they had a good time.

Speaking of faces, these are 2 of my favorite pictures from the weekend.  I just love Vaughn's expression in this one...

...and Vaughn and Shawn's expressions in this one - two smarmy peas in a pod.

It's so fun watching the kids grow a deeper love for their grandparents.  They actually remember them now when the see them - which is only a few times a year.  Eva looooves Grandma Calihan!

Grandma bought a Sesame Street train set from a garage sale.  I think the kids had more fun cleaning it than playing with it!

We had a nice visit with Grandpa, too!  We spent many hours enjoying the fresh air and playing with the kids.

We went out to dinner with our friends the Millers and the Doerflers - afterwards, a few of us went for ice cream where this happened...

...then this.

Yep - you JUST witnessed it - actual sharing between two 2 year olds and a 3 year old.  Bad news was, she was sharing mommy and daddy's ice cream. ;)

Then back outside for more fun.  They spent many pants-less hours in and around this bucket.

The sprinkler proved fun, too!

Bryce took pantsless-ness to a whole new level.

Time for the pre-bedtime bonfire...

...and s'mores!

Great Grandma Wissinger joined in on the fun.

Don't touch my s'more.