4 Months!

Adelyn Jane is the most adorable 4 month old I have ever seen!  I am a few days late, but she just turned 4 months old.  It has gone by so quickly, but at the same time it is hard for me to remember life before her.  I love spending everyday with her and watching her learn and grow!

At her 4 month check-up, she received another round of shots.  :(  She only cried a minute and then was back to her smiley self!  She did get a fever this time though.  She weighs 14.2 pounds (48th percentile) and is 24.5 inches long (51st percentile).  The doctor said that she is perfect and I can't agree more!

Excuse the blurry iphone photo.  She was sitting and I didn't have time to run and grab my good camera.  I can't believe how big she is getting!

At 4 months:
-She can roll from tummy to back (but she doesn't like to do it often) and is working on going from back to tummy.
-She loves to sleep on her side and cuddle with her teddy bear.
-She prefers to sit up rather than lay flat.
-She can hold herself in a sitting position for a short amount of time.
-She drools like crazy and puts everything in her mouth!
-Her favorite toy is a pink ball.
-She is definitely a mama's girl but she loves her daddy too!
-She loves attention!  It doesn't matter who it is, she just likes someone playing with her.
-And she loves to laugh!

She was in such a funny mood this afternoon when I was changing her.  I tell Travis how much she laughs in the afternoon and he always tells me to get it on camera and this time I did!  Sorry you have to listen to my baby voice!

Wegerzyn Gardens

I was looking through my pictures and realized that I forgot to post about this outing.  This summer, Travis and I have been trying to find more things to do locally.  Everyone seems to LOVE Ohio and talks about everything you can do here.  We like it here, but have been missing out on things to do apparently.  With a little searching, we made a list of things to do in and around Dayton that have no or a low cost.

Wegerzyn Gardens is not too far from our home so we decided to go check it out.  It is a very kid friendly place with things for them to do and discover!

When we first got there, Travis wanted to drive around the whole area before we decided to park.  We continued past the gardens and found several great things.  We drove past a lake, a field to fly remote control planes, garden plots and a mysterious road.  As we came to the end of the parking lot by the garden plots, Travis noticed this road that had been grown over.  Where I would have turned around, he kept driving like there was nothing unsual.  The road ended up coming to a dead end in the middle of the woods, but we liked pretending that we were going to a secret place.  It was really beautiful and I am glad Travis kept going even though I was a little uneasy at first.  

 After turning around, we parked by the gardens and began to explore.  There were all sorts of beautiful flowers and walkways!  Travis was such a good sport with me taking tons of pictures!

 

 

 Over by the garden area, there was this really cool branch maze thing.  I don't really know how else to describe it. A bunch of branches were twisted together and formed into this huge fort type area.  There were little nooks you could go in and windows to step through.  It was pretty cool!

 

We then headed to the wooded area.  There were all sorts of dirt trails that you could walk on.  It was this trip that helped me decide that I really needed to buy an all terrain stroller.  I bought a BOB stroller and I LOVE it.  Now we need to go back and explore the areas that were too rough with the old stroller. This trip we had to stay on the more structured trails.  This picture shows how green it is in Ohio.  It reminds me a lot of Georgia actually. 

 The last place we stopped was the Children's Discovery Garden.  It was such a neat little area and perfect for the kids.  There were man made caves, streams, a pond, sand area, instruments and much much more! 

 Travis playing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

 

We thought this little guy was funny!

 

My secret hide-away on a hot, humid day.

 And, of course Adelyn.  This is how she was pretty much the whole time!  We will have to go again when she is older and can enjoy some of the things!

Dragon's Game

The Dayton Dragon's season has started up again.  Because of Travis' work, we get to go to a bunch of games.  We have already been to 4 games this year!  At Adelyn's very first game she was shown on the big screen!  I guess everybody loves a cute baby!

I love the atmosphere at baseball games!  Unfortunately I may never be able to go to a normal baseball game again because I have been spoiled.  Travis' work rents out a suite and we get delicious food and air conditioning and when I go to games with dad, he gets cushioned seats right behind home plate and they serve unlimited food. 

Last week we got there before everyone else in the suite so I got a picture!  Maybe one day we will get one with the mascot!

Manual

Yesterday, Leisy came over to my house to take pictures of Kera's daughter.  While she was taking pictures, she talked through some of the things she was doing to her camera.  After they were done, she gave me a crash course on aperture, shutter speed and f-stop.  She left her backdrops by accident and said I could use them to practice. 

I gave it a shot today and it is HARD.  I felt like my picture taking ability went way down.  All the settings confuse me!  I took almost 300 pictures (I know, ridiculous!) and only about 50 of them are decent.  It is so sad.  Most of them were either completely blurry or her face was blurry.  I just could not figure it out and finally called Leisy in frustration to tell me what to set everything at.

I have a feeling it is going to take a lot of practice to learn what to set everything on in different situations.  The hardest part is going to be not giving in and changing it to Auto.  I am excited to learn and eventually improve my pictures though.

This was before her nap.  She was so tired! 

 

This was after her nap!  She was in a much better mood! I love that she looks surprised! 

 

Not the best picture but I want you to look at her hair!  Could I have a red headed child? 

 My sweet, sweet baby

Oh Happy Day!

When choosing options for our kitchen, we decided to get the standard appliances.  As we were looking for a fridge, someone offered to give us one (thanks again!).  It is stainless steel and everything else was black so Travis asked if I would mind selling the black appliances and upgrading to stainless steel.  I agreed with the terms of him doing the dishes until it was replaced. 

We wanted to sell everything as brand new so I wasn't allowed to use anything.  We didn't know how long they would take to sell so we went ahead and got an stove/oven to use.  Just last week someone finally bought the dishwasher, stove and microwave. 

This past weekend Travis went and got a new dishwasher and microwave.  He installed them yesterday and I couldn't be happier!  It has really cleared up our kitchen because there are no dishes in the sink and no microwave on the counter.

Cass, West Virginia

On our way back from North Carolina, we decided to stop halfway to split up driving for Adelyn.  As we were looking at different places to stop along the way, we discovered the small town of Cass, West Virginia.  It had a steam engine locomotive that I really wanted to go on so Travis agreed to stopping there even though it was a little out of the way.

Once we got to West Virginia it felt like we drove on windy back roads the whole way.  It was beautiful, but got tiring after a while.  Rather, my stomach started to turn.  I felt like we were never going to get to Cass, much less any sort of civilization!

This is what the whole ride looked like!

I was surprised as we drove into Cass.  I expected a little town based off of what I read on the website.  It literally had one inn, one lodge that had a small grill, a general store, a couple cabins and the train station.  That was it!  No hotel, gas station, diners, or stoplight!  That is when I started praying that there would be a room available somewhere!  Adelyn had begun crying at this point and I was exhausted!

We drove up to this tiny inn and luckily there was a room left.  Travis said it looked a bit sketchy, but I didn't care at that point.  I just wanted to be assured that we had a place to stay. 

 It was a home that had been turned into an inn 6 months ago.  Our room was big enough to fit a double bed and it had a tiny bathroom.  Once we got in the room, we realized that our door wouldn't even latch!  Travis was so stressed out at that point that he expressed that he wouldn't be able to sleep that night.  I asked him how it was different than camping where anyone could come up and unzip your tent but he insisted that it was different. 

After laying down in bed, with Adelyn in between us, Travis jumped up and said he had an idea.  He moved the dresser in front of the door and checked to make sure all the windows were locked.  Then he was able to fall asleep.  I couldn't stop laughing!

The next morning we got up and explored the 2 stores in town before going on the train ride.  The train took us up to the second tallest point in West Virginia.  The guide told us all sorts of interesting information about the history of the train and tracks. 

I enjoyed the ride and I am glad we did it, but I don't know if it is something that we will do again anytime soon.  I guess that Travis has influenced me because now I love doing more active and crazy things rather than sitting and watching.  We did meet some really nice people that told us more about things you can do around the area that are more up our alley. 

Travis and Adelyn going in to get our tickets.  

At the station, there was a train that you could go on and explore.

 

 Waiting at the station!

 

Keeping Adelyn out of the sun and away from the smoke.

On the train!

 

Passing another train on the switchbacks.

 Watchtower at the highest point.

 

The view from the second highest point in West Virginia.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous!  I couldn't get over the blue sky, fluffy clouds and green trees!  It really was breathtaking!  I think the earth is one of God's greatest creations!

 Beautiful colors!  I could just stare at the scenery all day!

 We discovered this beautiful river as we began the rest of the journey home.

West Virginia is a beautiful place to see!  We would love to go back and go camping/hiking/canoeing/biking sometime!

4th of July

I have decided that holidays are way more fun now that I have a child!  I love dressing her up and doing fun things even if she won't remember it in the future!

Yesterday was a pretty relaxed day.  Travis had the day off so we tried to get lots of things done around the house.  It is still a work in progress.  It was a full downpour pretty much all day so most of the festivities were cancelled. 

We ended up going to the church for an indoor picnic.  There were tons of people there and I loved going around and talking to everyone.  That evening we went over to a friends house for games and sparklers. 

In between the two activities, Adelyn had a little photoshoot.  My sister-in-law sent me some photography books and I couldn't wait to try out some of the tips found in the books.  I just love taking pictures of my sweet little one!  Here are some of my favorites!

 The first two are from the day before.  She had the cutest little outfit on from one of Travis' sisters. 

 She is learning how to ham it up for the camera!

 I love her little bum!

 This one is my very favorite!  It really captures her personality!

Misc. Emerald Isle and Family Picture

The Whole Gang!

This is the first family picture since my wedding.

All of the siblings from Oldest to Youngest.  It is also from shortest to tallest but Nathan is on his toes.  

All the Grandkids (Sam, Frank, Adelyn and Owen)

 Lindsay's Family

 My Family!

 Nathan and Adelyn

Here area few random photos from the beach that I just couldn't help but share.

Trying to be a little more creative with the framing. 

 This outfit kills me!  You can't get much cuter than this!

 Chillin' with Grandpa!

I just can't get over this face!

 And these toes!

 The last day we were there, the red flags were put out because the ocean was so rough.  I decided to play around with my camera that day by changing aperture and iso. 

 Walkway to the ocean/view from the porch

 

Ocean

 The boys spent the day playing bocce ball.  I didn't play this year so they wouldn't be embarrassed getting beat by a girl again! I don't think there was a clear winner! :)