It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We got our Christmas tree decorated last night, Cara loved to "help" by taking the ornaments off the tree after we put them on

Cara and Santa 2007

We think the little boy that was in line right before us, who totally freaked out and screamed bloody murder when he saw Santa scared Cara, and there were no smiles to be had. She clung onto Daddy so tight and didn't even want to sit on Santa's lap, which is not our child at all. She usually doesn't know a stranger. We may try to take her again sometime, but since we were there and she was dressed up and ready we went ahead and bought this picture.

Here is her picture from 2006! Same Santa at the mall, just apparently different printer, as the newer picture is much brighter in color!

Counting our Blessings

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day celebration! Grandma and Grandpa F hosted the festivites again this year. The whole family, including Lisa's parents, Scott's parents, my aunt and uncle, and Great Grandma E attended! Cara and her cousins had a great time playing together. It is always fun to see them interact! The food was absolutely fabulous! Dessert was yummy! It was fun to watch Cara feast on her first turkey day meal (last year she wasn't eating solids yet).

Cara taking a bite of turkey, yum!

All 5 grandkids gathered around the table for the feast

Cara and Grandma A sharing some pumpkin pie. Cara got mad when Grandma acted like she was going to eat the bite instead of feed it to Cara!

Our happy family of 3 posing for a picture, Cara was not really into it :)


Thank you to my parents for hosting a wonderful meal! It is a lot of work to plan and cook for 20 people and you made it look so easy! Thank you!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family! We have so much to be grateful for this year!! We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving day! Especially Great Grandma A and Uncle Cyndi and Danilo, we wish we could celebrate this day with all of you as well!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Is it really almost thanksgiving??

Big cheese for the camera

Running around outside on this balmy November day

Sitting on the porch watching Mommy and Daddy untangle the Christmas lights

Supervising Daddy hanging the lights on the porch

Playing in the leaves in the backyard

Helping Daddy water our new tree that we got last week

What a day! Who knew it would be this warm two days before Thanksgiving. We took every advantage of the warm weather and spent the afternoon and evening outside. We got out the Christmas lights and got them hung up. We played in the leaves in the backyard, although Cara kept wanting to eat them. Cara helped Daddy water our new tree. Cara also went on a long afternoon walk with Grandpa this afternoon while Mommy was sleeping. It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and then turn COLD by Thursday with snow flurries, so good thing we got in outside time today!!

It's been a while...

Cara doing what she does best...exploring

Cara talking on the phone with grandma (it's on speaker phone)

I just realized today that it has been over a week since I last posted, not sure I have ever gone so long before. We have had nothing exciting going on. Last week Daddy had to be at school late on 3 different nights, plus had band events all weekend. So lots of Mommy and Cara time. Daddy went 3 days without seeing his girl (she was always asleep by the time he got home). On Saturday morning I got Cara up and she was walking around the house calling out for Dad. It was so sweet and sad at the same time. It had been since Wednesday night that she had seen him. So lots of Daddy and Cara hugs on Saturday night when they finally saw each other.

So nothing real exciting for us, but sometimes boring is good!

Pretty in Pink

Just thought I would post a couple of new pictures. We haven't done anything fun this week, with Mommy working the first part of the week, then playing catch up on cleaning and laundry the past two days. We went to visit Great Grandma E yesterday though. She had to have surgery earlier in the week but is doing really well. Daddy is very busy all weekend and left very early this morning, his school is a host school for the IBA Honor band concert tomorrow, with rehearsals all day today and then rehearsals tomorrow morning with a concert in the afternoon. He has been very busy all week with the preparations for the weekend, we know he will be glad when it is all done tomorrow.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy 15 months

Cara turned 15 months old last week. We thought we would share these pictures taken in honor of her 15 months of life. For the first year we took her for professional pictures almost every month, now that she is changing less we have decided every 3 months is probably sufficient. Especially since posing at a studio is not priority for her. We had trouble getting her to sit/stand for a pose because she kept wanting to grab the camera. Definitely made our decision on which ones to buy easier because we only had a few options :)

Cara fun facts at 15 months: has 12 teeth, walks/runs everywhere, gets into everything, is defnitely a big "helper", has to do whatever we are doing, has a vocabulary of at least 28 words (we counted them up the other day), loves to give kisses and hugs, and sleeps all night (usually)

Happy Halloween!!!

Our picture perfect princess, these 2 pictures were taken at the Picture People last week along with her 15 month pictures

Heading out for trick-or-treating

Daddy is videotaping our first trick or treating adventure

A stop along the way to check out the candy in her bucket

Hanging out at our house waiting to pass our more treats

We finally let her have some candy, she is thoroughly enjoying the Neslte Crunch candy bar

Yummy, chocolate is so good!

The pictures probably say it all! We had such a great time on this, Cara's 2nd halloween. She was running away from me when I was trying to get her dressed and ready. But once she was Princess perfect (well, without the tiara which she refused to keep on) she was enjoying every minute of it. We trick or treated to just a few neighbors on our street, and then played in the driveway while we waited on the trick or treaters. Cara had fun handing pieces of candy to the other little kids, but she was not above reaching in their pumpkins to help herself to their candy. Of course we always gave it back :) We finally let her have her some candy and she chose a Nestle crunch bar and loved every bite of it! I asked her to share a bite and she emphatically said NO by shaking her head and body and turning away from me.

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween night! We wish all of our loved ones could have spent this halloween night with us, we know all of her grandparents would have loved to take her trick or treating with us! But hopefully the pictures will make up for it!!

Getting Ready for Halloween

Although it will mean an end for some of our fall fashion choices like this outfit, we are so ready for Halloween! We will be taking Cara trick or treating to a few neighbors! We know she will love helping us pass out candy at our house and seeing all the kids come visit! We know our little Princess will enjoy seeing everyone! On Saturday we went to cousin Vince's birthday party which all the kids came in costume, so we got to see all of Cara's cousins dressed up. Look for more pictures very soon of our Halloween fun!

US Army Jazz Ambassadors

On Thursday night the US Army Jazz Ambassadors visited Scott's school for a special performance. The Jazz Ambassadors of The United States Army Field Band is the Department of the Army's official touring jazz orchestra. Since its formation in 1969, this 19-member big band has received great acclaim both at home and abroad performing America's original art form, jazz. Scott contacted the US Army Field band approximately 3 years ago to request a performance be held at his school, and finally this spring he received an email stating they would be available. They are currently touring the midwest with only 2 stops in Indiana, and will not be back in this area until 2010.

It was a FABULOUS concert. They are such talented musicians! Cara was so good and sat on my lap while she enjoyed the concert. Scott was presented a placque recognizing his school's efforts in hosting the US Army Field Band.

Daddy's Fall Concert

Daddy conducting the middle school band

Cara enjoying looking at the ceiling while the concert is going on

Daddy introducing the high school band

Cara watching through the open doors

Cara hanging out by the wall right outside of the auditorium, luckily the doors were open so we could watch and listen

Cara sitting on a bench after the concert

On Tuesday night we went to Daddy's school for the fall band concert featuring the middle and high school bands. I let Cara have the run of the place for 1/2 an hour before the concert to "wear" her out so she would sit on my lap during the concert. In fact she was walking up and down the aisle and when Scott first appeared on stage she yelled "Dad" and headed down to see him and was halfway up the stage steps when he saw her. So she got a big hug and kiss from Daddy, but he had work to do so we headed back up the auditorium. So when the concert began we sat in our seat, in the back row to make for an easy exit if needed. About halfway through the first song she decided she wasn't done walking around, so off she went. In the sound booth and back out, outside the doors, up and down the ramp, laying on the floor, etc. You get the idea. At least she was quiet when she was busy walking. This is a really rough age to make it through a concert on Mommy's lap. But soon she will realize this is Daddy's job and she will enjoy attending! One can wish can't she!!

She's So Smart!

Yesterday, I was cleaning the little half bath off the kitchen. Normally, we have to keep this door shut because Cara thinks it is fun to go unroll the toilet paper all the way to the cardboard. So while I was cleaning the sink and the mirror, Cara went over to the toilet paper holder and unrolled it to the end which it had only a few squares left. She so she "uh oh" and proceeded to open the cabinet and remove a brand new roll of toliet paper and handed it to me and pointed to the toilet paper holder. Of course I did not place it on there until I was done cleaning so she could not unroll the brand new one, but I thought she was so smart to open the cabinet and hand me a new one.

I had to recreate the moment today so I could take a picture, just so I could share the story with all of you.

IU and the Oliver Winery

Sitting on steps on the campus of IU, part of the Memorial Union is in the background

At the sample gates, the traditional entrance into Indiana University off of Kirkwood

Letting Cara roam by the beautiful mums right behind the sample gates

At Oliver Winery enjoying our picnic with the beautiful background scenery

Cara and Mommy laughing in the winery tasting room, and no! we did not let Cara taste

Cara and Daddy at the winery

With the sunlight streaming down, Cara is posed in front of the waterfall

All the grounds at Oliver Winery are impecable, gorgeous flowers, greenery and perfectly set with pumpkins and gourds for the season


On Saturday we headed down to Indiana University with our friends Jay and Julie. Julie had a choir rehearsal with an orchestra in the MAC for 3 hours, which gave the rest of us lots of time to walk around and enjoy campus. It has been several years since we have been on campus to just walk around and enjoy the scenery, and this was Jay and Julie's first time to see campus. So after we dropped Julie off for her rehearsal we headed off to see the buildings, walk around the union, headed to shop on Kirkwood, and got on lots of photo ops of the three of us on campus. It was at IU where Mommy and Daddy met 14 years ago, and without that, there would be no Cara. It was IU's football homecoming on Saturday, so there was lots of energy in the air, but few people on campus, which was nice to walk around without it being crowded. It would have been fun to go to the game, but Julie's rehearsal didn't end until 1 pm, and the game started at 12. But we thought of another great idea. We stopped by a deli, grabbed lunch to go and headed to Oliver Winery which is just north of Bloomington.

Because of the beautiful fall day we were enjoying, with the leaves on the trees beginning to turn, apparently a lot of people had the great idea to go to the winery. It was very crowded, but we just joined the crowd. We ate our picnic lunch outside, with a view of the lake, and the crisp clear skies, it was a perfect setting to enjoy ourselves. We stopped by the tasting room after lunch and sipped some new wines. For most of the wine tasting session, Scott had to keep Cara occupied on the porch because she was a bit bored. We stopped to take some more pictures on our way out and joined up with the football traffic to head back home.

Cara' s schedule was quite messed up with the days festivities, napping was not priority because she may miss something, but she was such a trooper and handled it gracefully. We had such a fun day!