By Geri Imler on 9/25/2009 9:37 AM

O-H-I-O!  Go Bucks!  That's right...we are Ohio State fans in this house!  And the other day the girls looked super cute for the game, dressing up in new Ohio State pink shirts and pig tails with ribbons.  They have Ohio State cheerleading outfits, but we put them in these shirts for the game as they were going to be helping to rake leaves with Daddy later that day.  Even though OSU lost to USC the week before, they looked much better than last year.  And this past week they beat Toledo pretty badly, and I think it is because the girls got the hang of saying "O-H" and "I-O!" together, as well as yelling out, "Go Bucks!"  In the afternoon, the girls helped Tim rake up the leaves in the front yard.  They each have their own little pink rake, which they absolutely love.  Once they had a big pile together, they got to jump in the leaves and have a great time.  For a while they just sat in the leaves and looked at them, chatting with each other.  I remember jumping in our leaf piles when I was a kid, so it is neat to see my own kids enjoying the same thing.  I think the girls are really going to enjoy this autumn season!   Plus it is nice to have some helpers with getting up all of those leaves! 

     

Emma & Abigail hugging for the camera (left), and then posing in their Ohio State shirts (middle).  Sophie in her "My First Buckeys Tee" (right).

    

Sophie ready for the game (left), and the girls all together (right).

  

My Ohio State Buckeye Cuties:  Abigail, Sophie, and Emma (left).  Emma & Abigail sitting in the leaf pile (right)...aren't they adorable?!?

  

The girls doing a great job raking up the leaves with their pink rakes.

  

The girls enjoying some sister time as they sit together in the leaf pile.  So cute!

By Geri Imler on 9/25/2009 9:11 AM

In an attempt to catch up this month, here is another older blog.  This one has to do with Sophie meeting her great grandma, as well as the girls having some fun with the water hose.  First, it has been really nice that our kids have gotten a chance to meet so many people that love them.  Earlier this month, Sophie got to meet her great grandma, as well as a Haitian friend named David.  Of course they thought she was super cute!  Sophie slept most of the time, but did open her eyes occasionally to check out what was going on.  Later that day, since it was warm out, the girls were allowed to play with the water hose. They are so funny when they are allowed to do this because they take turns holding it and trying to get the other one wet.  They usually end up spraying themselves with it while the other one runs around trying to avoid it, often screaming and laughing the whole time.  They love playing in the water!  They put their toys under the water, often pretending to give the animal toys a drink.  They like to fill things with the water, like buckets or any container they find, and then they pour it out to fill it again.  And they try to water the plants.  It is just super cute to watch!  Check out some photos from the visit and water fun!

  

Sophie with Great Grandma (left), and a group photo (right).

  

The girls having fun with the water hose by giving their hippos and turtles a drink.

  

Abigail (left)                                                                Emma (right)

By Geri Imler on 9/24/2009 9:07 PM

I am going to try to play a bit of catch up for the month of September in the next few blogs.  In this one, I am going to combine several fun activites together.  First, on the new playset, we added the "Bronco Rider," and the girls LOVE it!  They call it their "horsey" since it is like riding on one and has a horse face on it, and they have already gotten a ton of use out of it.  What is nice is that Tim put it so that you can take it down easily and put up the baby swing so we can switch them in and out for when Sophie gets older.  Another fun activity around here has been Playdoh.  I realized that our Playdoh has been hidden in a box behind a ton of other toys for a long time, and most of it was dried out or was just plain gross.  So my mom and I got some new Playdoh for the girls, as well as some Playdoh "toys" for them to use.  And now that is all they want to play with when we are in the house.  They love to be creative with it and make new things, and especially to combine the colors together.  Lastly, Sophie made her first trip to the zoo when my mom was here visiting.  It was a nice day, so we all headed there, seeing the giraffes and playing on the playground.  Sophie slept some of the time, waking up to eat and look around a bit before going back to sleep.  I am sure it is the first visit of many for Sophie!  Here are three fun September activities to check out! 

     

On the Bronco Rider: together (left), Abigail (middle), and Emma (right).

  

Playdoh Fun! Abigail is on the left, and Emma is on the right.

     

Going into the zoo (left), Sophie waking up in her car seat (middle), and Sophie with Mommy in the Snugli (right).

By Geri Imler on 9/24/2009 8:21 PM

Tim turned THIRTY yesterday, and we all had a great day together celebrating.  When he got home from work, the girls helped him open his presents and cards.  The girls each got him a gift, which included a Colts football to throw with him, a new long sleeve Colts shirt, and a tie with photos on it of all three girls to wear to work.  From me, he was surprised with tickets to the Colts vs New England Patriots game in November.  To say the least, he was excited!  Then, we all sang to him, which was absolutely ADORABLE hearing the girls sing (they don't sing all that often).  And we decided to have cake and ice cream before heading to the park to take a hike together.  After that, we ran to Best Buy so Tim could get something more for his new Wii game (he got a tennis game from his parents, and he wanted this motion thing to put on the wii-mote), and then it was to Max and Ermas to pick up our carry-out dinner.  After dinner, Tim got to play his new game while the girls read and Sophie slept.  Overall, it seems he had a great day, even though he was basically mourning his new age all day long.  The girls thew the football with him last night and today, he wore his tie to work today, and he seems to already be addicted to his new Wii game, so overall I think everything was perfect for him.  And we still have the game to look forward to! 

  

Abigail and Emma helping Tim open his presents (left), and Abigail showing Tim his new Colts football (right).  Notice his cool tie?!?

  

The girls helping Tim open his new Wii game (left), and Tim with his Colts tickets (right).

     

Emma and Abigail reading together (left) while Tim plays his new Wii game (middle) and Sophie sleeps in her swing (right).

By Geri Imler on 9/23/2009 9:29 AM

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!

WE LOVE YOU!

~EMMA, SOPHIE, & ABIGAIL

By Geri Imler on 9/16/2009 8:05 AM

An ongoing project around here has been a new playset outside for the girls.  We got it shortly after Sophie was born as we found one we really liked while out and about.  It has: a swingset, a climbing wall, monkey bars, a bottom play area, a bench and table, a slide, and a fort on the top of it.  Tim has been working a lot on assembling it and all of its construction, and finally it is pretty much finished.  The girls have been helping, of course, along the way.  They helped us unload all the boxes and wood, helped carry things from the garage to the back yard for each step (there were 48 steps!), and would give things to Tim as he needed them, like a screw or piece of wood.  It was super cute to see them pretend to work on it as well by hammering on the wood or using a socket wrench to tighten bolts or trying to measure with Daddy's measuring tape.  They also spent time coloring on it and decorating it to make it their own while we worked on it.  We still have a big swing thing called a Bronco Rider to put on it, and it needs anchored into the ground, but overall,  it is ready to go!  And the girls LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  They climb all over it, slide and slide some more, and have a ball on the swings.  They like to be on their bellies and go around in circles on the swings, as you will see in some of the photos.  They also like the telescope that came with it, pretending to look all around at things.  And the name was all Tim's idea, if you didn't already guess that!  Here are a bunch of photos of the various stages of construction of the playset.  We didn't take one each day, but you get the idea.  Overall, it is a great addition to the backyard and our lives!  Oh, and the girls will tell you that Sophie is "too little" to play yet on it, but she does have a baby swing waiting for her when she gets bigger.  And the other day, Abigail and Emma just sat at the bench and table while eating a snack, just chatting away with each other.  It was SUPER adorable!  I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time in the back yard! 

  

After the first day of construction, the framework has been put together.

    

More construction!  The girls enjoyed playing below (see the toys?) as we worked above. 

  

The "fort" is just about done!  This is Labor Day weekend so the girls had flags from Gramma.

  

Abigail and Emma enjoying the window in their new fort.   

Peek-A-Boo!  Abigail and Emma

       

The slide is done!  Abigail and then Emma sliding down for the first time.  Abigail seems to like it (right)!

     

Abigail (left) and Emma (middle and right) LOVED sliding down the new slide!

  

With the slide and fort done, the girls enjoyed some fun playtime on it. 

 

After the swings were put up, the girls had a blast going in circles on their bellies.

 

The completed playset, front and back, with the girls swinging on it.

Abigail and Emma with their new playset.  It is much bigger than their last baby one (in the background).  I think we are going to spend a lot of time out here!

By Geri Imler on 9/14/2009 8:36 AM

There are still some things to catch up here on the blog, but I wanted to post the photos from our "Colts Day" that we had yesterday.  All of the girls have the cutest little Colts outfits, including a dress with a turtleneck.  But yesterday we went with the Colts jerseys for Abigail and Emma, and a Colts hat for Sophie, as we were heading to the park in the morning to walk.  At the park, the girls enjoyed throwing rocks into the water, seeing wildlife, and just spending time outdoors.  Sophie slept the whole time in the sling on Mommy.  Later, when we got home, the girls posed for some fun Colts photos.  Though they didn't really watch the game as it was during naptime, I think their spirit was with the Colts as they won over Jacksonville.  Looking forward to next week! 

     

Emma & Abigail at the park:  walking together (left), exploring (middle), and throwing rocks into the water (right).

     

Sophie: asleep on the way to the park (left), looking adorable (middle), and ready for a touchdown (right).

Abigail, Sophie, and Emma -- Our Cute Colts Girls

By Geri Imler on 9/11/2009 1:20 PM

In honor of Sophie turning a month old today (already!), I wanted to post photos we recently had taken as a family and of the girls.  They are super cute, and we are very pleased with how they turned out.  Enjoy!

FAMILY PORTRAITS

  

SISTERS: Abigail & Emma

  

Abigail & Emma with Sophie

 

More of Emma & Abigail with Sophie

    

SOPHIE

      

SOPHIE

  

SOPHIE in Daddy's Hand

 

By Geri Imler on 9/10/2009 8:11 PM

Still playing catch up on the blog, so I will make this short and sweet.  We took the girls, all of them, again to the state fair while Tim's brother Dan and his parents were in town visiting.  This time around, though, it was not nearly as hot, and we even had a rain shower part of the time we were there.  The girls loved going through the little farm pioneer village again where they picked fake vegetables to later "cash in" to get a treat.  And of course riding the ponies was a must for them.  A new thing for them this time was seeing the huge horses that were there, as well as watching a bit of a horse show where the horses were all dolled up and driving carriages.  Sophie was asleep in her stroller car seat most of the time but did get quite hungry by the time we left.  I ended up having to almost sprint to the car to feed her as she went from sound asleep to starving in like sixty seconds!  Overall, it was a fun day together and another great experience for the girls.

     

Abigail (left) and Emma (middle) collecting fake vegetables at the Little Farm Pioneer Village.  Both of them walking togehter as they look for more "food" (right).

     

The girls collecting "food" (left), and both of them riding mini tractors with the help of Gramma and Grandpa (middle).  Emma and Abigail with a large cow (right).

    

The girls trying to drive a real tractor.  (It was huge compared to them, and no, they didn't really drive it.)

    

Emma (left) and Abigail (middle) loving the pony ride again.  Both girls watching a horse show (right).

Sophie at her first state fair.  Doesn't she look cozy?!? 

By Geri Imler on 9/5/2009 2:19 PM

Sophie had her first outing when she was only six days old.  It was nothing spectacular....we all just went to Meijer's & Costco to see if they had any outdoor playsets left.  At first Sophie did not like being in her car seat, but she soon relaxed and enjoyed the ride.  Sophie slept pretty much the whole time, including when she was in my Moby wrap at Meijer's and in her car seat/stroller at Costco.  Sad to say, we did not have much playset luck at either place, but it was fun taking everyone out of the house.  Abigail and Emma were super excited to get a playset, so they were a bit bummed and disappointed when we didn't find anything.  (But don't feel too bad for them as they eventually got one -- details to come in a later post.)  After running into those two stores, we also made the car trip to the airport to pick up Uncle Dan, but we didn't get out of the car.  So though it was a bit uneventful, it was still Sophie's first outing with her family. 

    

Emma (left) and Abigail (middle) ready to go look for a playset.  Sophie (right) heading out and about for the first time. 

Another fun first for Sophie included a visit to a local park that has a playground that Abigail and Emma love.  We went when Sophie was a week old, and again she slept most of the time, staying in her car seat/stroller for the majority of the time.  Abigail and Emma had a blast, of course, going down the slides and swinging high into the air.  Check out our fun park visit below!

  

Abigail (left) and Emma (right) enjoying the twisty slide.

  

Abigail (left) and Emma (right) having fun swinging. 

  

Sophie fast asleep while Mommy pushes the girls on the swings in the background (left).  And Sophie still asleep later as Daddy takes a turn pushing Abigail and Emma on the swings in the background (right).