Summer 2011

As always time is moving so quickly, and I can't believe summer is almost over.  We've had a great summer, getting to relax some weekends and spend others catching up with family and friends.  After 5 years we were able to get together with Nick's college roommate and his family, along with a few other guys from the college days.  We also spent our annual weekend at Indian Bear Lodge with the whole Latta family.  For us it was the best year yet.  Autumn was in absolute heaven with her cousins and we are happy to report that Paige is sleeping through the night and did so both nights there! That was a big relief for us so we are more comfortable taking weekend trips as a family now.  Nick and I also had the opportunity to get away for a few days in June/July in Florida.  Grandma Latta got some quality time with the girls and we got some quality time with the beach and ice cold drinks, so everyone was happy!

Paige is getting too big too fast and we are having a lot of fun watching her experience all of her firsts (teeth, eating rice and vegetables/fruits, swinging, swimming, going to the zoo, sitting up, etc).  She has been trying really hard to crawl for the past few weeks, so we're expecting that any day now.  The girl just wants to move and is not happy sitting still.

Autumn has also had a few firsts this summer, like riding her tricycle by herself and riding a pony, both which she's very proud of.  A big first coming up for her next week is pre-school.  I can hardly believe she's starting already, but so far she is very excited.  Let's hope that is the case come Aug 29th.

Overall the girls are doing great and seem to adore each other more every day.  Again, I know this may come to a screeching halt when Paige starts having opinions of her own, but for now it's fun to watch and we are choosing to live in our happy state of ignorance :)



Our first family trip to the zoo with Paige.  Our friends Brian and Michelle came down to visit with their daughter Hannah and it was so nice to see them.  It was a hot day but all the little ones did great.

Grandma and Grandpa Church with all four of the grandkids.  Hmm, can you tell which two are half Italian?! By the way, that cute tiny one that Verna is holding is the newest member of the family - Riley Grace Young!  Riley was born on May 4th and she is absolutely adorable.  From what we hear Brady is an excellent big brother too.     

Paige at about 5 months old....still looking like a mini female version of my Grandpa Flynn.

We went to downtown Westerville at the end of June for their street fair.  They have it the 4th Friday of every month during the summer.  Autumn got her face painted for the first time and has been asking when she can get it done again.  She talks about the girl who painted her face like they are old friends :)

Paige's first time in a pool.  Hard to tell from the picture but she loved it! 

Paige at almost 6 months old...making silly faces and making Mommy smile on her birthday :)

 Move over Doogie Howser!! Autumn loves playing doctor and giving us all check ups.  According to my last check up I weighed 6 lbs.  I like this doctor!!

Macy and Autumn have become best buddies in the past few months.  This new relationship is primarily based on Autumn chasing Macy around the house with whatever torture method she chooses that night....the vacuum, baby stroller, toy leaf blower (which she does while dressed in a catepillar costume), etc.  We tried to make her stop for a while until we realized that Macy kind of likes it and it's good exercise for them both.  We can tell Macy approves because she used to go into our bedroom during storms, but now she goes right into Autumn's room.  So cute....

Just chillin' on the 4th of July.  Hey...where's my margarita guys?!

We stayed home for the 4th of July weekend and had a nice little family cookout.  When we explained to Autumn why we celebrate the 4th of July, she asked us how old America is.  When we told her she thought it would be a good idea to make a cake like we do for our birthdays.  Notice the cupcakes in the background with the 235... 

Paige's first time swinging.  Hilarious to watch her smile and snort for 15 minutes straight.  And although it's a little tough to see, she's also showing off her first two teeth on the bottom!

Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, boouunce, booouuunnnccee, and I'm out.  Goodnight.

Smiley girl at 7 months old.  Her hair is getting more awesome every day.  Love the spike!

Last weekend Nick's company had a big celebration for their 60th Anniversary.  It was nice to see Autumn be so fearless on the huge bouncy slides and have a blast.  That evening she also got to experience her first concert as the company had Blake Shelton perform.  She was showing us her best dance moves that night! 

   

Autumn's 3rd Birthday and Easter

Autumn turned 3 on April 4th and we pretty much celebrated her birthday for an entire week starting with her party on March 26th. We did something a little different this year and, rather than having the party at home, we had it at a kids gym called The Little Gym. It was SO much fun for her and we were able to invite so many kids who seemed to have a great time too. It was really nice to be able to do something big for her this year and give her a special day since so much of our time has been devoted to Paige lately. I have to say that we have been very impressed with what an amazing big sister she has been to Paige. She loves on her and is right there any time she needs a pacifier, needs snot wiped off her nose, needs help getting rolled back off her tummy when she gets mad, etc. We know the sibling rivalry will kick in when Paige starts stealing toys but so far I have to say that Paige hit the jackpot when it comes to big sisters.

Autumn starts preschool this August and she's so excited about it. She can see her school from her bedroom window which she thinks is so awesome! She continues to amaze us with what she learns every day. She's got her alphabet down pat, is spelling words, counting to 30, and writing her name. She has a memory like a steel trap...that can be good and bad. We have to be VERY careful about what we promise or threaten because the girl doesn't forget anything!

We know this year will be interesting since she's 3 and acts more like a 13 year old, but she has become quite the little girl and is a blast to be around.

Theme for the birthday this year...Minnie Mouse! Of course she picked out her clothes for the party :)

We had about 14 kids at her party and they all helped make it a very special day for her.

On her actual birthday we had a low key celebration at home. We made cupcakes in the shape of a #3 and she got to help decorate them to take to her friends the next day.

We had a great Easter and were able to celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa Latta, Shannon, Brian, Maddie and Jacob. All the "big" kids hunted for eggs at Shannon's house and had lots of fun at Sunday school together.

Unfortunately we weren't able to get together with Nick's family, but there was a very good reason for that. Sara has been on bedrest for the past 7 weeks and just yesterday gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Riley Grace! She was 4-5 weeks early, but weighed in at 5 lbs 10oz, 19 in long, and is completely healthy! More pics to come once we can get up there and see her in person!!

Paige's first 4 months

I told myself not to do it again, but here we are four months in already and I'm just getting around to an update. Paige will be four months old this Sunday and I can hardly believe it. Time has flown and, other than the first 6 weeks which are always tough, she has been a very laid back baby. She's always happy and smiling, even at midnight, 2am, 4am, etc when we wish she was sleeping instead :). If we could get the sleeping thing taken care of, she would pretty much be the easist baby in the world!

At 5.5 weeks of age she gave us her first smile, which was such a great reward and so cool to see the first glimpse of her little personality. Then when she was just over three months old we got to hear her laugh for the first time. Her timing couldn't have been more perfect as she saved her first laugh for daddy just three days after Nick's dad very unexpectedly passed away. It was just what he needed that day and I believe she knew that. Her latest milestone happened just last weekend when she started rolling over! We just can't believe she's doing some of these things already. I remember saying every month from 4 months on with Autumn that I wish we could've stopped the clock at that age because it was so fun, and we have begun saying the same thing with Paige.

Probably by our next update she will be sitting up all by herself, and I HOPE sleeping through the night too :)

I don't know what is with our children but they like to smile with a wink. Autumn still does it and it looks like Paige got that gene too!

Most people have said she looks like me, my mom, or my grandpa Flynn (my mom's dad). Sometimes we think she and Autumn look so much alike and other days they look totally different. We can't wait to see how she continues to change as she grows.

Well, I was hoping to be able to call her my little peanut but as you can see she's not such a little peanut. She actually weighs more than Autumn did at the same age. Hopefully this means she'll be a good eater when it comes time for vegetables!

I must confess, she is watching Mickey Mouse in this picture. We do our best to keep her away from the TV while her big sis is watching Mickey, but when she gets a glimpse of it she gets so flippin excited....scary!

Welcome Paige Ellyson!

We are officially a family of four now!! Paige Ellyson was born on January 8th - 8 days early. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Everthing went very well and everyone is healthy so far, so we feel very blessed. Quite different from Autumn, Paige didn't waste much time once she decided she was ready to join the world. We got to the hospital at 2:30pm and she was born at 5:40pm. It took us a while that morning to decide whether it was the real deal, and looking back we're sure glad we went to the hospital when we did. Things progressed very quickly once we got there. Nick had to leave the room while I got my epidural and by the time it was done I was fully dilated. I actually had to call him to get back so he didn't miss anything. At that point we were basically waiting for the doctor to get to the hospital to deliver her, so it was a pretty interesting 30 minutes.

It was a wonderful experience and now we're home and adjusting to the balancing act of having two kids. Autumn has been a great big sister so far which has been a big help. Of course we've had our moments, but overall our biggest issue is helping her understand what she can help with and what Mom and Dad need to take care of.

Getting warm after her first bath at home...

Christmas 2010

Happy 2011 everyone!!! This will likely be our last update as a family of three...kind of crazy to think about the fact that next Christmas the baby that we haven't even met yet will be almost one year old. We had a wonderful and relaxing week between Christmas and New Years, which is exactly what we all needed. Autumn was in need of some quality time with Mommy and Daddy and she definitely got it. We had such an awesome week hanging out with her and we felt like the old Autumn was back. We know things will get busy again soon, which made the time with her even more special.

Our families were great about traveling our way this year since we weren't able to leave town. Nick's family came down the weekend before Christmas, and we celebrated Christmas with my family New Years weekend. As always Autumn was totally spoiled by both families with lots of cool gifts! Christmas weekend was just the three of us. It was a little weird to not be with family for the first time ever, but it was nice to spend the weekend in our pajamas. Autumn was more into Santa this year and was excited to see that he ate the cookies and drank the milk that we left for him. At first she was concerned that someone else had eaten them and she thought we should leave more out for him Christmas morning, but once she saw that he had left gifts she realized he was the one who ate them :).

New Years was pretty low key too. We had a crazy night at home making chocolate fondue and drinking sparkling grape juice at midnight. I know, you're all jealous.

Enjoy the pics and hopefully next time you hear from us we will be introducing a new member to the family!

Here's Autumn in her Christmas dress. It was a pretty hilarious scene at my sisters house trying to get the kids dressed. Autumn was crying because she didn't want to wear a dress, Maddie was crying because Shannon had her try Autumn's dress on as an attempt to get Autumn to wear it and then Maddie did NOT want to take it off, and Brian was dressing Jacob and hiked his pants up so high he looked like Urkel! Eventually we got the dress on by telling Autumn that we were going to Jesus' birthday party and you had to wear a dress to get in.

I can't believe how grown up she looks in it!!


...checking out her new ornament for this year

Autumn and Nick have read through her "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book every night for the past few weeks. She thinks it's the coolest thing ever because Grandma and Grandpa Church and Latta all recorded themselves reading it, so it's like they are there to read her a book every night. I have a feeling we'll be reading it well into February.

Okay, a few things about this picture:

1. We are all wearing handbands as demanded by Autumn. There was no taking them off that day. Lucky for Nick he got the blue one, but Rog doesn't look too shabby in yellow either!

2. Please note my parents' sweatshirts...that's right, they pulled out the ol' puffy painted Christmas sweatshirts that my sister and I made for them...in 1990!! Personally I'm impressed that they still fit!

Santa brought Autumn a pack-n-play, stroller, bouncer, etc for her baby dolls. She then discovered that she fits into it too and spent most of Christmas weekend eating snacks and watching tv in it. Autumn and Macy became pretty good buddies over Christmas break too.


Decorating Christmas cookies...a two year old with a container of sprinkles is a recipe for disaster!

Hanging out with cousin Brady on their new snowboogie boards from G&G Church!

Amazing how pulling out the Mickey Mouse chairs can get three kids to sit down and smile all together!

Halloween and Thanksgiving 2010

Yep, it's December 27th and I'm just doing our Halloween update. I guess I know what my New Years Resolution should be for 2011...

We aren't quite done celebrating Christmas yet so I'm hoping that baby Young gives us another week or two before she arrives so I can do another update going into the new year. As most of you know 2010 was a very eventful year for us from beginning to end, and we are very much looking forward to beginning 2011 with such a wonderful (and planned) change for our family.

Since my last update was while Autumn was still in her cast, I'll start with a progress report on that. The cast came off after 6 weeks, which we were thrilled about! That was on September 29th, so by Halloween she had been a free woman for about a month. The process of taking off the cast was quite an ordeal, and not something she enjoyed, but as soon as it was done she was totally giddy and didn't stop smiling and laughing for days. It was pretty weird watching her legs move around involuntarily for a while - she had no strength or muscle control and they wiggled like jello. The best way to describe the rehab process is like having an infant all over again and watching them go through all the normal stages, but at an excellerated pace. First she could only scoot or army crawl, then a few days later she started crawling on her knees. The next week she began pulling herself up on furniture and eventually walking along side of things. Overall it took about a month before she could stand on her own and take some steps by herself. (Most of our trick-or-treating was done in the wagon). After about 6 weeks she was walking and running a little bit, but it probably took 8-10 weeks to really feel like she was back to normal. We are very thankful to have that experience behind us :)

With Autumn's new found freedom we were all looking forward to the holidays. For Halloween we did the usual pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, etc. We were also able to spend some time with both families including going to pumpkin patches with both sets of grandparents and cousins. For Thanksgiving we spent time both in Napoleon and Toledo eating way too much as usual. We also had a special weekend in November at Great Wolf Lodge with my parents and my sister and her family to celebrate my parents 35th anniversary and my dad's 60th birthday.

Here are some pictures, mainly from Halloween. I guess I didn't do such a great job of capturing Thanksgiving this year...oops!

We went to Boo at the Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Latta and the Howmans. It was fitting since all the kids were wild animals this year. Who are we kidding though - regardless of their costumes they fit right in at the zoo :)


Happy girl with her chocolate!

After we were done trick-or-treating, Autumn did a great job of helping daddy pass out candy to all the other kids.

We weren't able to trick-or-treat with Brady this year, but that didn't stop the kids from wearing their costumes for half a day.

The first weekend in November Autumn graduated to her big girl bed! We were just getting ready to make the transition before she broke her leg, and then had to delay it for a few months, so she was more than ready by the time we felt comfortable doing it. It was a big weekend because the way she earned her big girl bed was to give up her pacifiers. We sat down and wrote a letter to Santa telling him that she was a big girl now and she was mailing her pacifiers to him so he could give them to a baby girl or boy who needed them for Christmas. It went much better than we could have imagined and two months in she still won't get out of her bed until we come get her. Gotta love that!