Lake Shafer and the tree

Whoa! Long overdue! Here are the pictures (finally) from the Mark Family Reunion. Every year we pack up and head to Indiana Beach for the weekend. When we were little this place was a very close second to Christmas. You ride the rides all weekend and eat the best junk food in the world. This year I was pretty excited to go and see Lily ride the rides. She liked them, but was totally thrilled about them. She was much more eager to eat ice cream.

When you get home on Sunday you just have this feeling. Tyler likes to call it the "Lake Shafer Hangover." Now, yes there are many who may have a hangover from the previous night, but even my pregnant body feels the Lake Shafer Hangover. You get home and you body just feels horrible because you ate fried food for 2 1/2 days straight with no vegetables or fruit. But it's all worth it. It was great to see everybody! Lily especially had fun because she had 4 other cousins there her age. At one point she took her cousin Elisa's hand, who is about 6 months old, and told her to walk. ha! Maybe next year those two will run a muck together.
Riding the merry-go-round with Daddy.

She is a motorcycle babe!

This was her favorite, the train. When she got off she clapped and said, "Yea!"

Yes, lots has happened since my last post! This past weekend we had a pretty bad storm on Friday night. Part of our tree fell down and hit our fence. Thank goodness it went toward the fence and not the house. Lily's room is directly in front of it.

Tyler spent all of Saturday cutting this bad boy up and after about 8 hours of work realized he needed some professional help. They cut the rest of the tree today and hauled it away. The whole day Lily proceeded to say, "Tree broke." She was very sad about it. Tyler mended the fence and it looks great! We lost a lot of shade in our backyard, but at least Tyler won't have as many leaves to rake in the fall.

Chicago!

Emily graduated from high school!!! We went to Chicago this weekend for all the festivities. She will be going to Univeristy of Dayton, so we're VERY excited she's only 2 hours away!

While we were in Chicago we visited Cosley Animal Farm. Lily got to see tons of different animals and made all the animal noises to go along with. But the part she still talks about....the horse pooping!

Lily attended her first White Sox game. She was absolutely thrilled that Grandma bought her this new t-shirt. This child was made for baseball games!! She was clapping and dancing through the whole thing. She had not taken a nap, so I thought it was going to be a disaster, but I was totally wrong. I think the best moment was when the beer man came by and said, "Who wants a beer?" and we hear a little, "I do!" Yes, it was our preciously little Lily Grace asking for a beer. Everyone within about 5 rows was turning around and laughing when they realized the little voice belong to a 1 1/2 year old girl.

First Swim of the Year!

These are from last Tuesday! Lily loves the pool and her sunglasses. I have a feeling we will be visiting Nana and Grandad a lot. Tyler also got a pool membership for his birthday. They have an amazing little kiddie pool.

We went to a wedding this weekend (forgot the camera). Lily stayed with Grandma and Papa Mayer and had an absolute blast. This was wedding #2 of 8 this year!! Tyler's friend Matt Moulis got married, so Tyler and all his crazy friends were together. They were quite the scene on the dance floor.

I'm officially 22 weeks this week and totally can't believe it. I kinda keep forgetting that we will be the parents of two soon!

Lily's last day of school is tomorrow and Tyler finishes up on Friday. Ty still works some in June, but it's not as crazy. Then we all have the WHOLE month of July off. We hope to take Lily to the zoo soon, because she is really into animal noises. Can't wait!!!

Mother's Day

Lily's new thing is to help me in the kitchen. I pull up a chair and she puts on her apron. In the picture below she is eating some batter of the cookies we made for Grandma and Grandpa. Tonight all she did was sprinkle cheese on some sandwiches, but was so excited about it. The picture right below is my trying to get a picture with Lily in our aprons. It definitely never happened, because Uncle Nick and Daddy had just gotten home with a brand new toy.

I had a WONDERFUL mother's day. The Mayer's were in town this weekend. We went to church and then enjoyed brunch made by Nick, Tyler, and Emily. It was delicious. It was a gorgeous day here, so we were able to eat outside. Then Tyler let me take a 2 hour nap!!!!!! I think it was my most favorite part of the day. Then for dinner we went to my parents and they had gotten take out. Lily had made an adorable little framed picture at school that is the cutest thing!

You also may have noticed that I posted this around 3 a.m. When I'm pregnant I seem to wake up in the middle of the night, for no apparent reason, for a couple of hours. Boo!!! It happened with Lily too. But on the plus side I did get all the bills paid without any "helping" hands! :)

Meeting Cooper

Lily and I finally met Cooper McFadden! Cooper is my sorority sister Courtney's son, that was born a couple of months ago. Lily LOVED Cooper!

She was super gentle when she held him!

And was giving him hugs and kisses!

When we took Cooper off her lap she started to cry. Maybe this little lady does have the potential to be a great big sister. She would bring him his binky and lie next to him on his play mat.

We went for our ultrasound on Monday. Everything looks GREAT! The little pumpkin was moving all over the place! Can't wait to feel him or her kick soon!!

New Happenings

1. Today is day #8 with NO binky! It has gone surprisingly well. She's definitely been a little more whiny and it has taken a little longer to fall asleep. The transition has been much easier than I expected.

2. Just found out Lily's crib has been recalled!!! BOO!!!! I have to go through all this mumbo-jumbo craziness to get a new one, but I guess it's better than losing any limbs! :0

3. Today we go for another ultrasound. This is the appointment where we would be able to find out if it's a boy or girl, but we're keeping it a surprise. I can't believe I'm 19 weeks along. Almost half way there.

3rd Generation Horse Ride

It's finally been GORGEOUS around here. The other day Lily and I had a picnic. I think this is definitely something we will do more frequently, because she loved it. But I must confess....I did pick up the picnic table off the curb. Yes, someone was throwing it out. It's in perfectly good shape, just a little faded. I just Magic Erased it and washed it down and it's perfect. I'm rather excited about my find.

Also, this week we watched my cousins while my aunt and uncle were out of town. In their basement they have the horse pictured above. Not only did I ride this horse when I was little, but so did my dad! Kinda crazy!