You've Got A Friend In Me...

I think Andra and Pudge are having more fun together with each passing day! So here's a video of Pudge being his typical crazy self, which of course, Andra finds very entertaining. (and it's got SOUND!...thanks to our new camera. yay!)

Boiler Up

We took a little day trip up to West Lafayette today to visit my little bro Jonathan, a freshmen at Purdue. It's still SO weird that my baby brother's in COLLEGE. That makes me old.

We had such a fun day! Jonathan showed us around campus. There's this one spot where you can stand and clap, and there's this weird chirp you get in your ears! It was totally weird...Jonathan says the smart PU engineers figured out a way to make the sound waves cause that?? It was probably someone's senior thesis project. :) Campus was beautiful...Dave and I wanted to pretend we were college students again.

We also took him out to lunch and checked out his dorm room. Andra had fun hanging out with her "Uncle J." Here he is entertaining Andra in her carseat.

Goofy girl. I wonder if she'll be as goofy as her Uncle J?

In front of Jonathan's historic dorm :) Tarkington Hall. Love those freshmen dorms!

Headed home. Shew! What a day.

Autumn Afternoons

Have I mentioned I love autumn? I'm pretty sure I have. :) I actually found it in myself to rake a few leaves today (I typically never rake leaves. What's the point? More are going to fall. And they'll all blow away without the help of my rake. Just let Mother Nature do her thing.)

BUT...I remember going to my Grandma's house as a little girl and "helping" rake leaves into a HUGE pile. And our reward was to jump in them! So I decided to rake a small pile for Andra to play in. And she seemed to like it. She did her typical 'wrinkle nose face' that always makes me laugh.

And I had to include this photo too. I was cooking dinner tonight, and Andra usually hangs out with me in the kitchen emptying cabinets and drawers while I get dinner ready. But tonight, I noticed she'd disappeared and it had been mysteriously quiet for several minutes. I called for her. Silence. I listened for her. Not a sound. So I decided I better go see what she's up to. This is where I found her. Under the dining room table snuggling with her big bro Pudge. Don't they make a cute pair?? Pudge is an excellent big bro. He lets Andra climb all over him, play in his food and water bowls, and apparently use him as a pillow too. I'm sure they'll be buddies for a long time to come.

Four Years and Counting...

Our four year wedding anniversary was last week, so we wanted to do something special over the weekend to celebrate. We took a little day trip down to Oliver Winery in Bloomington. It was the PERFECT fall day...warm, but not too warm, and lots of sunshine! The leaves were beautiful and the grounds were gorgeous. I knew it was supposed to be a nice place, but it definitely exceeded our expectations. If you haven't been there, you should definitely go. We're certainly not wine-o's, and we still had a great time.

We took a tour of the plant and learned how they make wine there, then we had a free tasting, which was a blast. The only thing I know about wine is that it's usually red or white, and I don't know how to pronounce the names of most of it. So it was fun to look at a list of wines and be able to try a sip of any of them. We apparently have the same taste, because we both didn't like dry wines...and thought the sweet wines were TOO sweet. All the wines we tasted that we liked were in the semi-sweet or semi-dry category. We ALWAYS buy Oliver's soft red and soft white at the grocery store, so it'll be fun to know different wines we like now!

After our tasting, we just walked around the grounds and sat on their beautiful deck out back. It really was a gorgeous place.

This is the stash we came home with...a half case of newly discovered wine that we REALLY like! Riesling, Camelot Mead (the wine that made them famous in the 1970s), Soft red (our old standby!), Muscat Canneli, Beanblossom Hard Cider (so yummy warm!), and Catawba. Our taster lady said their wine lasts for about two years unopened. That's about how long it will take us to drink all of this. :) And those are some roses in the background that this handsome guy bought me. :)

Playin' Around

We've been trying to savor the warm weather while it's still here. Despite my obsession with fall, I know it means winter is right around the corner...and the cabin fever that comes with it. So since Andra's walking now, we took her on her first trip to the playground, and she really enjoyed it! (And it gave me a chance to break in our new camera!) She even went swinging...in the past, she's always started crying when we tried to get her to swing. She seems to be a fan now. So here she is hitting the slides and just enjoying the fresh air!

Daddy even took me on the BIG slides. Mommy was a little nervous about that, but I loved them!

Peekaboo!

Hey Grandma G., check it out! I've figured out how to CLIMB my rocking chair you got me...all by myself! Forget rocking...climbing's WAY more fun!!

Say Cheese! Or Anything that will make me grin!

I took Andra for her one year photos a few weeks ago, and I must say, it was somewhat of a bust. This girl REFUSED to smile. The first photo I posted is the ONLY smile that crossed her lips the whole time we were there...and it's really not that great of a shot. She wasn't upset, she just wasn't smiling!

Andra's a very observant gal. She definitely knows when she's in an unfamiliar place, and she likes to sit back and take it all in before she makes any moves...or smiles. :) It's just her character. It's completely opposite of me, but similar to her dad. I love her and all her perfect little personality traits. So naturally, when we got to the studio, she sat quietly and stared. And stared. And stared some more. Taking it all in. She made a couple beelines for the door, but I patiently brought her back. :) After about 30 minutes of trying everything to make her smile, I was exhausted and called it a wrap. So...here are the not-so-smiley results of her photo shoot. If you just glance at the second photo, you might mistake it for a grin. :)

Walkin' on Sunshine!

We've decided that Andra is officially WALKING. I looked back at our posts, and it was late August when I posted that she'd taken her first few wobbly, uncertain steps. For about a month, she perfected her form and gradually became more confident...but it was a slower process than I thought it would be.

Within just the last week or so, she started to walk a LOT. Across an entire room! Now she's definitely up on her feet more than she's crawling around. I'm so proud of her, but I'm going to miss that little diaper bottom up in the air scooting around our house. So here's video of Andra's new talent--walking!

Don't mind her messy room. She was involved in one of her favorite activities...emptying her drawers. And there's no sound on the video either, so nothing's wrong with your computer. :) Our digital camera doesn't record audio, but we just ordered a new digital camera that records audio too! So stay tuned...we'll be posting videos with sound!

Andra Faith and the Great Pumpkin

I have a confession to make. I get down right giddy in the fall.

It's my FAVORITE time of year. It always has been. I think it must have started in my childhood when my parents always took us to Turkey Run for trails, family cookouts (S'Mores!) and just a chance to enjoy the crisp, fresh air. I still remember playing in the leaves on those family trips. Then came my teen years, when fall meant MARCHING BAND SEASON!!! For a proud band nerd like myself, there really was no better time of year. So much excitement, fun with my friends and the culmination of a summer of hard work. And I'll always remember watching the full harvest moon during our night practices. At college...loved studying outside on campus with all the leaves changing! Then came our autumn wedding...and our autumn baby. Fall's so nostalgic for me.

So when the first truly cool day arrived, I was desperate to take Andra to the pumpkin patch! So I convinced Dave to leave work early, and we had a great family outing at Waterman's Farm. Have I mentioned I love autumn??? I wonder if our little gal will inherit that from me?

She even got to go on her first pony ride!

About 2.5 feet tall!

Hm. Not quite sure what to think of this hay.

I think I like this one! Just my size.

This is the one, Mom.

Until our next autum adventure!....