By Geri Imler on 7/30/2009 7:24 AM

We are currently switching over to a different server and format.  Therefore, I have been unable to post anything new, but please check back soon as we hope to have this all worked out in the near future!  Have a great day!  :-)

By Geri Imler on 7/27/2009 7:17 AM

I just wanted to say HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my husband, Tim. 

It has been seven great years of adventures, memories, and love!  Here's to many more wonderful experiences together!

  

(Photos from going out to dinner this weekend to celebrate.  Yes, I am NINE months pregnant now!)

By Geri Imler on 7/24/2009 8:30 AM

It has been a while since the girls got a chance to have some bubble fun in our kitchen.  So I filled up the bowls yesterday, they picked out some toys, and together they had a great time with bubbles.  I am not sure what it is about the bubbles, but they love them!  They would play in bubbles for hours if I let them!  They played with the toys for a long time, covering them and then rinsing them off, and then stirring up more bubbles to cover them again.  By the end of their bubble time, though, they got the idea to cover themselves and each other with the bubbles.  So they "painted themselves" with bubbles on their arms, hands, faces, and heads.  The funny part was to watch them do it to each other, as they felt the need to help put bubbles in each others' hair.  Emma thought it was pretty funny when the bubbles would run down her face from her head, and Abigail made sure that Emma had plenty of bubbles on her head to entertain her!  Anyways, by the end of bubble time, they were both soaked and happy as could be.  Check it out:

  

Abigail playing in the bubbles and looking adorable!

     

Emma covered in water and bubbles (left and middle).  Both girls enjoying bubble time (right). 

By Geri Imler on 7/24/2009 7:49 AM

Since the girls used some of our umbrellas to play out in the rain on July 4th, they have been asking for umbrellas whenever it is raining or even looks like it might rain.  So the other day when we were out and about, we found some cute little purple ones that are just their size and have a large handle for them to hold.  Now they have their very own umbrellas, which they think is so cool.  We tested them out the other day when it was raining, and they were just too cute not to snap some photos of as they splashed around. 

   

Emma and Abigail with their new umbrellas (left)!  The girls splashing together (middle), and Emma with her umbrella (right).

     

Abigail splashing around (left).  Both girls in a puddle (middle), and Abigail playing in the water (right).

    

Emma's turn to splash around (left).  Both girls exploring a different puddle (middle), and Emma looking so cute (right)!

     

Look at our umbrellas (left)!  Abigail with her umbrellas (middle), and Abigail twirling her umbrellas upside down (right).

By Geri Imler on 7/21/2009 10:13 AM

This is a bit of an older blog that I never posted.  It is from July 4th, when it rained most of the day here for us.  After we went out to dinner together, Tim got out some umbrellas, and we let the girls run around in the rain out in front of our house.  They loved holding the umbrellas!  And of course they had a wonderful time splashing in the puddles and running around getting soaking wet.  It is amazing how kids don't mind getting wet or cold as they don't even seem to notice!  Anyways, Abigail and Emma played for quite a while outside, and then I just threw their clothes in the dryer so they could wear them to the fireworks later.  (You can read what happened then in the older blogs.)  Overall, it was super cute and fun to watch how they delighted in the simple pleasures of life, like rain, puddles, and umbrellas. 

    

The girls with their umbrellas (left)!  Abigail (middle) and Emma (right) upclose with their umbrellas.

     

Ready to go splash together in the puddles (left)!  Emma (middle) and Abigail (right) having a good time in the rain.

  

The girls enjoying the rain, puddles, and their umbrellas!

It was a great time splashing around! 

By Geri Imler on 7/19/2009 6:33 PM

Before my parents arrived for their surprise visit this weekend, the girls and I played both inside and outside of the house together.  And they just looked too adorable to not take photos of them!  Outside, they love to run around our front tree, thinking the mulch around it is like a mountain to climb and play in.  They give the tree hugs, chase each other in circles, and laugh a lot.  They were very loving that day, too, giving each other lots of hugs and kisses, especially if anyone got an "owie."  I just had to post photos from our time together!   Oh, and thanks Aunt Mimi for the pretty new shirts they had on -- super duper cute on them! 

     

Abigail (left) and Emma (middle) saying "cheese!" for the camera.  Both girls on the couch together (right).

     

Emma giving Abigail a hug (left).  Abigail giving a classic look of hers meaning, "What?!?" (middle), and Emma waving at us (right).

  

Emma blowing Mommy a kiss (left), while Mommy gives Abigail a kiss on the cheek (right). 

    

Abigail being silly while hugging the tree (left), and Emma giving Abigail a hug (right).    

   

Emma                                                                                     Abigail

By Geri Imler on 7/19/2009 3:56 PM

So Friday morning my mom called and asked what we were up to this weekend.  In wondering what she was up to, I asked her why and found out that my dad and her were planning to come to a casino in Indiana that is not far from our house, and then they wondered if they could stop by to see the girls.  Now it is always fun when my parents are here, and also very relaxing as they are so helpful with the girls and things.  And seeing as how Tim planned to moonlight anyways this weekend (meaning he would be gone all night and then sleep the next day), I told them they were more than welcome to come on over!  So my parents arrived Friday afternoon, and after hanging out a bit, we all went out to dinner.  The girls were hilarious at dinner as they are infatuated with my dad (I think it is the lack of hair they connect with!).  They would spontaneously wave and smile and yell hellos at him throughout the entire meal, which was too cute.  After dinner we all went to Best Buy.  Why, you may ask?  Well, Tim had this idea that for our upcoming 7th anniversary, we should get a Wii to play after the girls go to bed at night.  Thinking maybe I would be able to use it to shed some baby weight later, I agreed to it, so we got a Wii and several new games.  After the girls went to bed, we all played it, and I have to admit it....it was a lot of fun!  We played a lot of tennis, which took me a bit to get the hang of but was fun nonetheless.  Then on Saturday, since it was going to be unseasonably cool here, I thought we should all head to the zoo.  We needed to renew our membership anyways, so I thought it would be a good idea...until we got there and saw that most of the city thought the same thing!  Still, even with the crowds, it was a great day.  The girls loved showing MawMaw and PawPaw the various animals and places around the zoo.  They saw the "fishies" and penguins, walruses and sharks, a tiger, monkeys, bears, birds, ducks, flamingos, lemurs, and the list goes on.  Some highlights for them included playing on the playground there and seeing the dolphin show.  At the playground, they just kept running up the ramps to the big slides and coming down a twisty slide where MawMaw waited at the bottom for them.  Then they would say, "Again!" and run back to start of it, where PawPaw was waiting to give them a high-five.  They did this for quite a while, just laughing and giggling the whole time.  And usually Abigail is not a huge fan of slides, so it was fun watching her as she kept going down them!   At the dolphin show, we sat in the Splash Zone this time, which was new for us.  It was a really neat view of the dolphins, and we really got to see them upclose as they swam and jumped and waved at us.  The girls kept asking for "More!" when they would jump out of the water, and yes, we did get splashed a little bit.  After a picnic lunch by the White River outside of the zoo, we went back in for ice cream and to see the giraffes, zebras, lions, rhinos, and elephants.  By this point, the girls were getting pretty tired as we had walked around and done a ton there, so we headed home.  They were instantly asleep in the car, which I thought would happen.  Later that day, we all just hung out and played outside as we were all pretty worn out from our fun zoo day.  Tim even made us a "campfire" in his firepit, which was neat for the girls to see and watch.  My parents left for home early Sunday morning, and I realized just how much it took out of me to do all we did the day before, as I was just exhausted from it all!  I guess being 35 weeks pregnant will do that to you, but it was definitely worth the fun day we all had together!  Thanks for the surprise visit, MawMaw and PawPaw! 

The girls super excited to see MawMaw and PawPaw when they arrived.  Abigail is with MawMaw, and Emma is with PawPaw.

         

Running from the zoo playground slide back to the ramp for another turn: Emma, Abigail, Emma, and Abigail. 

  

Abigail (left in photos) and Emma (right in photos) checking out flowers at the zoo while waiting to get in line for the dolphin show. 

Emma with PawPaw and Abigail with Daddy as they look at an elephant.

   

Sound asleep in the car!  Abigail is on the left while Emma is on the right.

By Geri Imler on 7/16/2009 7:04 AM

For a while I have had crafts laying around that I thought would be fun for the girls to do.  So yesterday, I decided we should try one of them: painting t-shirts.  I had gotten them just plain white little shirts and some fabric paints to use at Michaels.  So I spread out some paper on the kitchen floor, put them in old shirts of mine, and let them get to work.  For these paints, you had to squeeze the bottle to get it out, which they quickly caught on to doing.  Abigail went right to work, putting some paint on her shirt and then rubbing it around in circles or making dots with it.  Emma, on the other hand, took a while to warm up to the idea of getting messy from the paints, which is funny because she doesn't mind getting messy when we play outside!  Instead she watched Abigail for a while, and then finally decided to give it a try.  At first she just did little spots of paint, but by the end, she was spreading it and squeezing it all over her shirt!  Abigail kept trying to make handprints with her paint, and even got the idea to stand up and make it "rain" on her shirt.  When they had a lot of paint on their shirts, I told them they should walk on them to help spread and mix the colors.  Though they weren't sure they should at first, once they started stomping on the colors, it was hard to get them to stop!  They liked walking on them!  In the end, I had to tell them time was up with the paint, or they would have just kept pouring it on the shirts.  I grabbed some soap and washcloths, scooped up a girl, and took them outside to get cleaned up.  I filled their buckets with soapy water, gave each a washcloth, and let them got to town scrubbing their hands, arms, legs, and feet.  They thought this was just as fun as playing with the paints!  Overall, they had a great time with this new activity while creating some really fun shirts (that are still drying at this moment)!  Here are some photos from our craft time yesterday:

    

Abigail (left) getting started by making green circles on her shirt.  Emma (middle) trying to squeeze some out of the pink bottle. And Abigail (right) squeezing some purple onto her shirt.

  

Emma (left) getting the hang of it and putting some blue on her shirt.  Both girls (right) working hard on painting their shirts.

    

Abigail (left) and her final creation.  Emma (middle) and her final creation.  Both girls (right) with their finished t-shirts. 

By Geri Imler on 7/15/2009 7:50 AM

So it has been a slow process of growing out the girls' hair, and yesterday I decided it was long enough for pigtails.  So I got out the elastic hair bands, had them sit down, and pulled up their hair into some pigtails.  And let me tell you...they looked ADORABLE!  The photos below do not do them justice because they were just too too too cute!  They were pretty proud of them, too, as they showed them off to all of their friends at the YMCA.  Of course I had to take a lot of photos of them for their first pigtail experience.  Later in the afternoon, we got out our pool in the backyard, and the girls had a blast splashing around and taking in some of their plastic animals and dinosaurs.  At the end of the day, when I took out the hair bands, their hair stayed up and in the shape of the pigtails, which was funny to see.  Overall, I think they liked being pretty in pigtails, and since we have enough hair for it now, I am sure you will see more cute piggytails in the future! 

    

Abigail and Emma in pigtails (left).  Emma (middle) and Abigail (right) looking so cute!

The girls sitting around before heading out for the day. (Abigail on the left, Emma on the right)

     

Pool Time!  The girls playing with their toys in the water (left).  Abigail (middle) and Emma (left) enjoying the summer fun.

  

Aren't they just too adorable in their piggytails?!?

  

Abigail                                                                                                          Emma

Abigail (left) and Emma (right)

By Geri Imler on 7/14/2009 7:50 PM

Just wanted to post a few fun photos of the girls!  The girls got these adorable shirts from one of my friends, and they just loved wearing them!  They kept telling me (and anyone else who would listen) that they had unicorns on their shirts.  Thanks, Maria, for the cute shirts!  And while I was trying to get photos of them in their new fun shirts, they girls started acting silly and giving hugs to each other.  They were just giggling and hugging, and it was just too wonderful to watch!  I was glad I still had my camera out, so here are some snapshots I got of them being loving sisters. 

Abigail (left) and Emma (right) showing off their new unicorn shirts.

     

Hugging Sisters!  (Abigail is on the left, Emma is on the right in the hugs)