Howdy Halloween!

Here are the cowfolk who decided to brave the cold and rain and collect candy! Lilly is striking her "cowgirl" pose and Zach is wearing boots 3 sizes too big. He insisted on wearing these for the entire time we trick or treated- slipping and falling the entire time! He needed a horse (which turned out to be me towards the end)! Lilly was the one that ended the trick or treating, surprisingly, because she was cold (even with her winter coat on). Thank goodness, so there's not as much candy for me to eat!

Acts of Kindness

For my sister, Sara's, birthday, she wanted to do 38 random acts of kindess!  What an awesome idea!!  Here is a link to the video of our acts of kindness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dfBlNGWjjKY

Lilly is 6!

Little Lilly turned 6 in August! She is so old!! She actually looks much older now since she just yesterday lost her third tooth (the first one on the top).

Zach, the next American Girl Doll:

Lilly had a gymnastics party at a really fun gym- I didn't post any pictures of her friends since this is a public blog, but here's her cake!

First Day of School

Lilly started Kindergarten this year! She started mid August, but I am just now getting the pictures up. Lilly LOVES her teacher, her class, and her friends. She practically jumps out of the car and runs to line up every morning when I drop her off. Zach is at a loss without her! He is not liking his "school" as much and there are tears every morning he goes, but the teachers say he is liking it and not crying at all after I leave!

NYC!!

Pete and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this month.  We went to New York for a long weekend.  It was such a wonderful trip!  We had great weather and walked A TON.  Here are some pictures from our weekend. 

Hanging out with our friend Kevin:

The Statue of Liberty and a view of the city as seen from the Staten Island Ferry:

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge:

Going to see a show- Jersey Boys was awesome!  It has fun Frankie Valli songs and was just a great show to see:

We took a bike tour of Central Park and ended up riding about 6 miles.  This was SO fun and a great way to see everything in the park and get fun information about New York:

Hanging out at the fountain in Columbus Circle.  Pete and I had so much fun on this trip, we are trying to figure out when we can go back! 

Lilly's bike!

 

Lilly recently learned how to ride her bike without training wheels.  She is super fast now and constantly wants to go on bike rides.  Yay for Lilly and yay for Pete who worked with her for weeks on this!

Funny  video of Zach:

Summer so far...

Lilly's preschool Graduation

Mrs. Kuechler

Mrs. Clapp

At the beach!

Chillin with dad

Lilly and Jane

Danny, Lilly, Jane, Peter, Zach (crying for some reason), and Laura

Sprinkler Fun

More sprinkler fun

This summer has been great so far.  Above you'll see several pictures (I was trying to post them below this commentary, but I can't figure out the newest blogging set up).  Lilly graduated from Preschool in May and we will really miss her teachers- they are awesome!!  We've had great weather so far and have been able to go to the beach and also play in the sprinkler a few times.  Both kids LOVE the sprinkler, so it's great.  They both love drinking from it for some odd reason, but whatever keeps them occupied!  We also had Grandma/Grandpa camp this summer when Pete's sister and her 4 kids came to visit for a week.  The kids had a great time just hanging out and playing.  Look for another post coming about my fun time at Football 101! 

Easter

For Easter this year, we traveled to see my parents in Evansville, IN. It was a 6 hour drive and both kids did fabulous in the car. We stopped in Bloomington (slight detour) to show L and Z the wonderful IU campus! Easter was very fun and the kids had a great time hanging out with all the Jacksons in Evansville.

Gran and Papa Michael:


Easter egg hunt:


Playing cards:


Coloring eggs:




All dressed up for church:


At the Evansville zoo:


Helping Brigid feed the cats (Pete found Z one morning under the table, feeding the cat it's food one piece at a time):


Lilly, Fiona, and Mercy at the Children's museum:


Eating at Dagwood's at IU:


Future Phi Mu!


Sample Gates:

Spring

Here are a couple new pictures:

Finger painting:


Zach's first hair cut! (compare it to the finger painting pictures- his hair was super long)

Finger painting again:

The St. Patrick's Day parade with Grandma:

New hair cuts for both kids!

Allergies!

We took Lilly to the allergist yesterday since we think she may have a walnut allergy. Turns out she is allergic to all tree nuts (except peanuts). It was a prick test on her back and the nurse wiped the stuff off about 7 minutes into the testing- she was supposed to wait 15-30 minutes, but I guess her reaction was really positive, so they stopped it early). I'm bummed about the results since she does like almonds (this one only had a small reaction, but the doctor told us to stay away from them anyway). I didn't realize how many things are processed in a plant/bakery with tree nuts. Lilly has to stay away from granola bars and peanuts in a jar (processed with tree nuts). Now we have to have an epi pen for her! At least we now know why she avoided nuts for so long!

Florida!

We went to Florida last week! We were hoping to be able to get away from the cold for a bit- but today in south bend it's 64 and sunny! No winter here right now! Here are a few pictures from our trip. We spent most of the time at the beach. We went to Animal Kingdom for one day (thanks, Mark, for getting us in!!). Both kids ended up getting sick (Lilly with some weird fever thing that turned into an ear infection and Zach with a horrible cough/cold that is still lingering). We had a great time anyway!

Lilly and Goofy (her favorite part of the trip was meeting the characters)







At the zoo (so much fun here)







The beach!!