Lily is THREE

Lily Rose turned 3 years old today!

(do you see Ryan in this picture? yes, that's him on the right and yes, he blew out her candles...tisk tisk! don't worry we know she will get him back in a few weeks when it's his turn to celebrate being 3!)

We celebrated Lily turning THREE on Sunday. It was a lot of fun spending the afternoon with The Clousers (Jen, Brent & Lily)! Lily was very excited to play with her cousins and friends. Ryan could spend hours playing outside in their back yard (it is fenced in) and upstairs in her playroom. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go and we had quite the tantrum to deal with heading out the door. He didn't have a nap the day before because of the pumpkin patch nor did he on Sunday. He was tired and overstimulated with play.

LILY got a great assortment of toys, clothing and crafts items. It is so neat to watch a little girl open her gifts! Girls LOVE to get clothing.

Lily tackling her mound of gifts! cute Ladybug outfit
Happy Birthday dear Lilyyyyyyyy......
(Lily helped make the cupcakes and she icing them herself!)

Kara had fun too!
Ryan playing quietly...
Doctor Lily bringing me medicine (and she insisted I drink it all!)
Lily's friend Sydney modeling Lily's new cooking outfit. TOO CUTE!

At one point, I found Ryan outside with Lily's cousin Katie and he HAD OUR CAMERA!! ugh...what am I gonna do with this child? I can't wait to celebrate his birthday so we can give him the childproof digital camera to use! Here are a few pictures from his photo shoot outside. I have to admit- they are pretty good even his self portrait. There is no denying he has talent for only being 3 years old. Enjoy.

balls

the slide

the picnic table self portrait (10.12.08)
Katie posing...

Fall Festival Fun

Keeping with tradition...Saturday we joined our good friends for some pumpkin picking, apple cider drinking, fall festival FUN at Weaver's Orchard.

It was a BEAUTIFUL Fall Day. The kids (all 5 of them) had a great time exploring the different children activities the farm had to offer. Ryan especially loved playing in the hay and corn. Picking a pumpkin in the patch was also a crowd favorite, as was the tractor hayride to the patch.

Ryan and Jaylin shared a car in the mini tractor pull. Aren't they the cutest blondies ever? We joke that they will be prom dates one day... Then came the real tractor ride!

Say CHEEEEESE!
Mommy, Daddy and sleeping Kara (in her baby bjorn)
Everyone was on a MISSION to find the perfect one!

Ryan found a BIG pumpkin!

Later in the afternoon, Ryan and Daddy enjoyed playing with these while...

...Mommy fed Kara and relaxed in the car.

Weaver's Orchard is a beautiful farm. This is just a snippet of the amazing fall beauty we saw on Saturday while walking and on our hayride. ENJOY. we did.

Ryan ~ My first Dentist Visit

On Friday, Ryan had his 1st visit to the dentist to get his teeth checked and cleaned. He was SO EXCITED and couldn't wait to see the "teeth doctor"- remember...he is obsessed with doctors so naturally the dentist would be known as the teeth doctor.

Mommy had her teeth checked first and she is happy to report NO CAVITIES! She is very proud of herself for making it 32 years, including 2 sets of braces in her teens and never having a cavity! It is quite the accomplishment. :)

Ryan was next and he went from SO EXCITED to very serious in .2 seconds! He did great though and listened to everything Dr. Fiset asked him to do. He even made his mama proud when he showed Dr. Fiset how he can spit in the sink. haha

Ryan is also happy to report that he has No Cavity Bugs! What can we say, he was born into good teeth genes. ;) Good Job Buddy! Mommy and Daddy are sooo very proud of you!

ummm....mama, what is going to happen now?

say AHHHHHH
Ryan the pro spitter!
His reward for doing such a great job! (he picked a bouncy ball)

Lake Wallenpaupack

Our first vacation as a family of 4, was enjoyed at Lake Wallenpaupack this year. We spent 5 relaxing and fun-filled days (Aug. 22-27) up at the cabin on the lake. There's a funny story about this lake. Growing up, both our fathers owned boats and drove them on Lake Wallenpaupack. Chris and I probably crossed paths numerous times while boating on the lake but never knew it! It was such a funny revelation when we first started dating and Lake Wallenpaupack came up in discussion. So this lake has a special meaning to us and we will make many trips up to the Poconos in the future to spend time on it with our own little family now.

Many thanks to Grandma and Pop-Pop High for allowing us to spend time at the cabin, taking Ryan on many boat rides (and tons of fishing on the docks) and for helping with baby Kara....those little breaks meant the world to a couple of sleep deprived parents!

2008 Lake Memories:

• watching Ryan fish with his Pop-Pop and Daddy on the dock
• walking Kara around the wooded tree line and along the stony beach seeing nature in all it's beauty
• boat rides!
• Pop-Pop being the only BRAVE one to ride his new Gladiator tube (thank you uncle Mike and Daddy for bringing him back safely to us!)
• Ryan's 1st campfire
• Ryan's 1st splinter (it took 4 adults to get it out! poor guy)
• Ryan's 1st shower (took it like a champ...well sorta)
• Ryan's 1st time sleeping in a bunk bed
• Did you know that lake air causes poop-a-thons? It does, two kids = a lot of diaper changes (especially miss Kara!)
• watching Chris and Mike kill mosquito after mosquito in the cabin
• Uncle Mike being named "our Hero" because he brought up Kara's swing
• Ryan swimming in a kiddie pool (doesn't everyone while lake vacationing?)
• catching up on some good books (Chris did more reading than Bobbi... I am still working on that Harry Potter book!)
• Ryan insisting on wearing his life jacket everywhere
• sink baths with Kara
• being on the lake at night and seeing the beautiful starlit sky- it was so clear that the Big Dipper looked touchable...it was great to experience the stars with Ryan
• Ryan feeding the ducks (he instantly became their best friend and knew when he was on the docks every time!)
• spending time with the ones you love

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our lake trip this year. I also created a montage of pictures (at the end of this post) from our week at the cabin....ENJOY!

The "High boys" love to fish off the docks.

Pop-Pop's boat

(still unnamed...we think he should name the boat 'High Voltage'- HIGH for obvious reasons and VOLTAGE because Pop-Pop works as an electrical engineer for PP&L electric company.)

Ryan and Pop-Pop caught a (little) fish!

BATH TIME! (I love this picture of Kara)

Bonding time between Kara and Pop-Pop...she loved that he took her for many walks through the woods! This picture is so adorable. She has him smitten already!

Just relaxing in her swing. (Thanks for bringing it up uncle Mike!)

Ryan's 1st campfire marshmallow. (surprisingly, he didn't like it)

Ryan's 1st splinter boo-boo! (it was big and in deep- ouchie!)

Kara was pretty much cranky the entire time and wouldn't let Grandma hold her until 15 minutes before we left the cabin. Boy was Grandma happy to finally get "cuddle time!"

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Door Master

Do you see these?....

They are getting put on all our exterior doors, the basement door, the pantry door and finally Ryan's inside knob on his bedroom door. WHY...you may ask? Well here's a little story for your enjoyment...

A little flashback ~ In the past week, Ryan learned how to finally turn the knobs to make a door open. He is quite excited about this, as any 2.5 year old would be. He's been practicing his new talent instead of taking naps and in return, we have a cranky kid on our hands which hasn't been fun.

Today ~ It's nap time and I decided to catch up on some much neglected laundry. As I was about to turn on the washer (our laundry room is on the 2nd floor of our house- yes we know how lucky we truly are!), I hear his door knob start to rattle. I quickly jump over the laundry and grab his door knob from the outside and hold it tight! Hah HA!

We play tug of war for at least a minute (he has no clue that mommy is holding the door!) and finally he gives up. And this is what I hear... "Hmmmm....it's stuck." Then he mumbles something I don't understand and I hear him climb back into bed. SUCCESS!...hope this teaches him to stay in bed and take that nap! Doubt it...but a mommy can dream, right? :)

So today's score is:
Mommy ~ 1 Ryan ~ 0

The Fire Is Out

That's what the booster button for our game against Purdue said....and it was right! Penn State once again played a WINNING game against the Purdue Boilermakers (do you get it now? Fire is Out and Boilermakers??! heehee) on Saturday afternoon. The final score was 20-6. I have to admit, I was a little nervous going into this game. Our schedule is starting to get more difficult and the Nittany Lions didn't exactly play a flawless game yesterday. I think we were lucky to even have a mini blowout this time around. So that makes our tally 6-0 and we are currently sitting in sixth place across the board. WOW...it's been a few years since we made the top ten listing. I hope our winning streak continues and we go all the way this year!

(if I could, I would be X'ing out the helmets one by one!)

Up next? We are headed to cheese land Wisconsin to agitate the Badgers and bring home a 7-0 victory as we anxiously wait for Homecoming against Michigan on Oct. 18th! GO PSU!

WE ARE..........PENN STATE!

Pictures of the Day

I wanna be a....

Cowboy

and you can be my....

Cowgirl

Happy October!

Is it really OCTOBER...already?! We all know what this means....summer is definitely gone and winter is just around the corner. Boo. I am not a fan of all the cold days and early nights that fall/winter bring. BUT on a sunny note, this season brings lots of birthdays (on my side of the family and friends including mine and Ryan!), Halloween, Thanksgiving and my favorite time of the year CHRISTMAS! Yay! I just LOVE LOVE this holiday....it seems all the world is happy even if it is for short period of time. So I will try to concentrate on the happy things and hopefully the days will fly by without me noticing how cold or dark it is outside.

As promised last week (I must say I am "a little" disappointed in the small response of comments...come on...games are FUN! play along next time people!! pretty please...haha), here is the winner of the Caption Fun game.

CHRISTY D'ANGELO

Christy came up with the funniest caption ever. Her prize? Being recognized on the best blog ever created...that's right-

The High Family blog! :) Way to go, Christy!!

If you get a chance, please stop by her blog (click here) and leave her a congratulations comment. I am sure it will put a smile on her face and brighten her day!

"a glimpse of a breast-milk hangover"