The Pinnacles

Our last day of vacation was wonderful.  We sported a long hiking trip to the pinnacles in Berea.  Beautiful!

Special Delivery

"Hey, Pop- let me check your teeth!"

We were gifted with another "Pop-By" yesterday.  Dad came into town for the afternoon to bring us a delivery and help us around the house with some work that needed done.  We had a wonderful time on our visit and feasted on pizza after all of our work was done.  What a treat!

Baby Aria

My beautiful family-  sister Elise and niece Aria.  She joined our world this past weekend and I couldn't be more excited to get to snuggle her soon. Look at all of that hair!  Apparently only select Wittes come out rocking the mullet. :)  Thank you, Myra, for the gorgeous photos!

Vegetation Graveyard

 



Just some fun in the sun... ish. More like fun in the shade of our maple tree! Our ash tree unfortunately doesn't look to make it the five years we will be here.  Last year it was full and plush and this year it's quite spotty and no longer provides good shade.  Sigh... We've also had a large bush die and my two rose bushes are puny this year compared to last year.  It's like a vegetation graveyard at our house! What gives?  

The Bird Poop Strikes Again

Sigh... our neighbors are moving.  They sold their home after only 20 hours on the market for over asking price.  Hopefully we have the same luck when we go to sell in a few years!  Emma, Ava and I went for a walk with them tonight and enjoyed the HOT weather we're already having here.  Solid 80s and needing the AC.  Whew!  And... side note- Emma got pooped on by a bird AGAIN on our walk tonight.  This must be one lucky girl!  I am so glad that she was yet again wearing her bucket hat. 

Emma, Zack, Ava and I went for a short hike this Sunday and enjoyed the more comfortable 60s that that day afforded us.  MUCH better!  The heat makes me wilt.  Emma loves walking in her backpack when we hike and smiles almost the whole time we're out.  I'm glad she enjoys being outside as much as we do. 

Who's That 12 Year Old?

Ahhhhhhhh garage sale season is FINALLY here! I LOVE it!  It is probably the only time of year that Zack is thankful for his busy schedule because I can't talk him into going with me (what a joke- like he would go anyways!).  How much fun it is looking for bargains.  CJ asked me when I stopped at a garage sale, "What are you looking for?"  It's not that you garage sale to look for something in particular (even though I always have things I keep my eye out for), you garage sale to look for those things that you had no idea you needed! :)  It's the thrill of the hunt.  What more can I say?

Zack shaved off the rest of his facial hair and now officially looks like a 12 year old boy.  He has had a beard for so long that it's shocking to me to see him without at least some whiskers somewhere!  He looks like a little boy without them but I do love seeing those dimples again.  It makes me feel like we're back in high school.    (Doesn't Zack look like Paula without his beard?)

Last Week 'Stache Week

The Fu Manchu... yucky.

 

The 'Stache

Even Emma tries to cover up the nasty mustache!

Oh yes he did! Zack's been rocking the mustache for a few days now.  The Fu Manchu was a one day event... luckily.  I like Zack with a beard so it's been weird seeing him (mostly) shaven.  At least he's having fun with "Last Week 'Stache Week" (his last week this month for night float at the hospital).

BIG NEWS!  Zack passed his board exam!  We got the results back amazingly early and he passed!  Whew!! His highest scores were in musculoskeletal and his lowest were in behavioral/emotional (no surprise there).  We are pumped!
Emma's invitations for her birthday are out in the mail.  I realized after mailing them that there is no where on the invitation that has any of our names.  Nothing.  My phone number is on there for RSVP but it doesn't say any part of any of our names.  Whoops!  Hopefully people can see the address and put two and two together. 

So I had a conflict with myself last night about Emma's napping arrangements.  She always gets rocked to sleep and then we put her down in her crib and she naps alone.  The only time we don't rock her is if we are driving or if she is already crying and won't stop with our soothing.  At that point I try to calm her and if it doesn't work I put her in her crib and let her cry it out on her own.  Yesterday I was trying to figure out if I should start making her go to sleep in her crib on her own.  Three phone calls for opinions later and one night of sleep and I decided that at this point in time, with no other children, I am going to keep rocking her.  It's the only time of the day that I get to sit down myself since I'm working on other things when she naps.  I love snuggling her and know that someday she won't want to snuggle anymore.  Or- she'll get too big and I won't be able to lift her into the crib.  Either way, I'm enjoying myself now and so is she so we're sticking with it.  Having said that, yesterday and today I made her cry herself to sleep for her afternoon nap (yesterday she cried for 45 minutes and then I went in to get her) today she cried for 10.  I rocked her and read to her for a long time, got her asleep and then she'd wake when I went to put her in her crib both days.  So I guess I'm doing a bit of both.  Rocking her until she's asleep (and then some more until I get my snuggles in), and then putting her to bed (whether or not she wakes at that point is her cup to tea).  I'm so lucky to be home with her.  I want to relish every moment.

Classy...

My beautiful niece, Jane.

Janie and Emma are looking at each other like, "Can you believe they want ANOTHER photo?!"

Spidergirl, spidergirl, does whatever a spidergirl does.

Kisses!

Just checking what flavor the thumb is this time...

Before (Exhausted)

 

After (Still exhausted, but with a stellar new 'do)

 

 

It's the thirteenth of the month and only two posts.  So sorry!  Being in Indiana for so long this time made it hard to put up photos.  But then again, I was WITH you guys so there was no reason to put photos up anyways. 

 

Our trip home was great!  Lots of time spent with family and even with a longer trip this time still not enough time was left to visit long enough with everyone.  Two birthday parties, two mother's day dinners, one funeral, and countless other dinners filled up our 10 days there.  HUGE congratulations to my girlfriend Amber who delivered her second sweet baby girl, Nora Jane.  We weren't able to meet, but I'm sure the next time we're home I'll get to hold the new sweet baby and get all the fun details of her arrival.

 

When we got home Zack decided to have some fun during his last week of night float this month.  His full beard disappeared last night and turned into a bushy goatee and stellar sideburns.  Tonight we're trimming the sideburns and shaving the goat into a full out Fu Manchu.  Classy...

 

 

Emma missed her 11 month photos due to being in Indiana so we are hopefully going to get those taken tonight.  I'll also work on getting her invitations sent out for her ladybug first birthday party this week.  Busy, busy!