Hurricane Ike

I never expected to deal with a hurricane in Ohio, but on Sept. 14, we were hit by a huge windstorm (the remnants of Hurricane Ike) taking down many trees resulting in a widespread power outage in the Dayton area. It was a Sunday and we lost power around 3pm. Thankfully, even though we have woods right behind us, we had no damage from trees and relatively few limbs in the yard, although our neighbor had a tree fall on power lines. We spent most of the week without electricity, which for us also means without water since we're on a well. About this time a week ago, we still were without power when I heard a truck next door. I was giddy when I saw it was from the local power company! Another truck arrived and they proceeded to take care of the tree that had fallen at the house next door. We went to bed still without power, but woke up around midnight and noticed we were back on! Mark and I were so excited we got up and cleaned out our freezer and fridge. I'd saved most things from the fridge, but the freezer was emptied.

Being without electricity wasn't nearly as bad as I would have imagined... especially when we found out our good friends did have power and we were able to get a few hot meals and some showers/baths at their house. The weather was great, so no need for AC, although I didn't let the kids play outside since I knew I couldn't give them baths! We went to an indoor play area at the mall and took some other excursions just to get out of the house. Not horrible, but we are extremely grateful to have the power back.

In other exciting news, Mark has been promoted to General Manager and is at the Chipotle right down the road from our church! Of course, his first day was the day after the storm when the restaurant was one of only a few with power, so it was a crazy start to the new position. He's loving it, though, and is excited about his crew and store.

I don't have many recent pictures as our camera is acting up. Thankfully, it looks like Canon will fix it free of charge. Here is one of Carter, who recently has decided he wants to feed himself with utensils. I know he needs the practice, so from time to time I leave him alone and let him have at it. This is the typical result:

More pics from Maryland!

I got a CD from my Dad with more pics from our trip and we just got a new laptop so I can actually pull pictures off a CD (our desktop is having some issues).

The kids have not been well trained on the importance of sleeping in on vacation... instead they were up around 6am every morning. We'd often end up on the front porch swing and glider and a few mornings, we got to see the farm animals across the road close up (this same morning, a horse came right up to us and as Mark was petting it, I foolishly took a picture which scared the poor thing since it was still dark out and the flash went off).

One day we went to the Land of the Little Horses in Gettysburg. A bunch of the horses are out and about, ready to be fed... or hugged.

There were also wagon rides, tractor rides, swimming, bubbles, and general fun with Nana and Pap. You can check out the web album for more pictures of all that or see them scrolling in the corner. Toward the end of our vacation, my brother arrived with his family. Here's Ava with her cousin Abby. (We had to convince them they'd both fit in the car).We ended the trip with a Cartzendafner family reunion.

Vacation!

We spent the first week of August in MD with my (Amy's) parents. I wanted to post sooner, but was having a problem getting our computer to read the disc I'd burned.

First we headed to Ocean City for a few days. It was the first time either Ava or Carter had seen the beach and both loved it (although Ava would NOT put her bare feet in the sand)! They loved the sand and the water. Here are some pics from our adventure.




We did have some issues with Carter waking up far too early (and once he's up, he's up... and so are we), but the upside is we got to see the beautiful sunrises outside our window!

I have a bunch of other pics from our week in MD that I'll post soon. It was a great time with very few plans - my kind of vacation. We finished up the week with a Cartzendafner family reunion. A fabulous week!

West Virginia, Mountain Mama...

We headed to WV over the weekend to visit the Button side of the family. It's been far too long since we've seen everyone! I'm starting to get a little nervous about our long trip to MD for vacation in a few weeks. I really need to be planning out some car activities to keep the kids happy. Ava does okay, but Carter hits a wall after about 1.5 hours and wants nothing more than to get out of that seat! He'll just have to get over it, I guess :).

Here's some pics from the trip:

Uncle Chris with Mark and the kids.

Ava & Aunt Susan

Uncle Paul with the Ava & Chloe
Poppy with his girls.

Neena & Ava

Carter and cake.

I had one of Aunt Lori and Carter, but she had her tongue sticking out and I thought she may not want that published for public viewing (to be fair, Carter started it).

We really should do this more than once a year!

Carter is 1!

Carter turned 1 on July 3. That year went by quickly! He also took his first steps on his birthday and has been taking some here and there ever since. When I picked him up from the nursery on Sunday after church, several of the ladies were telling me I had to stop him - walking means moving up to the next nursery and they don't want to lose him because he is always good for lots of snuggling.

My parents, my brother and his family, and our good friends came over for a cookout on the 4th to celebrate his birthday. While he wasn't afraid to touch his cake (like Ava was on her 1st birthday), he took a few bites and was done. No messy baby pics for us!

That evening, Ava got to see fireworks... WAY past her bedtime. The park down the road from our house hosts fireworks every year, and every other year, she's slept right through them, but this year, some of the tests they sent up woke her up and scared her, so she sat with her Pap for a while watching tv and then we decided to walk down to the park so she could see what the big booms were.

The next day, we headed to the zoo. Ava's favorite things were the train (she didn't need to ride it for excitement... simply hearing that it was coming and waving to everyone riding was a blast for her!) and the goats. They let you get in the pen with the goats and she was not shy at all. I think she would have enjoyed Young's Jersey Dairy equally as much.

It was a somewhat tiring weekend, but good. Now we're all fighting with runny noses, though. This weekend, we'll be heading down to visit Mark's side of the family. We haven't been for a LONG time, so we can't wait!

Spring!

Here's Ava looking for an airplane - she had a little trouble blocking the sun AND seeing the plane at the same time.

Then we have the assembly of Ava & Carter's new swingset. Ava got to "help," but Carter only got to watch.

He got to enjoy it later, though!

And here's what happens when kids are forced to take pictures. I love it! Ava continues to act more grown up all the time and amazes me every day with how smart she is - I definitely think we're going to be in for trouble.

Carter just started standing on his own this past weekend, and I'm guessing he'll be walking soon, although he's such a fast little crawler, he may stick with that for a while! He does love to walk behind things. He also continues to be affectionate, and hugs & kisses on stuffed animals as well as us from time to time. There's a face on that pillow he's attacking.

This face

How can you not love this face? Poor guy gets kissed on all day long.

Mark and I have been busy - I keep waiting for things to settle down, but I guess that won't happen for years to come. He is helping at a new Chipotle and was working long hours and long weeks. His schedule is a little more normal now, for which I'm thankful. For 2 weeks, Ava went 4 days without seeing her Daddy. It was hard on both of them (and me!). I've been busy working part time for a friend who has an eBay business. I was only shipping items, but have taken over pretty much the whole operation except for packaging items. Things are slowing down significantly for the summer months, though. It has been a blessing to have a way to earn some money working from home.

Carter is crawling all over and into everything. The bad part is he is VERY quiet! So, we have to keep an eye on him constantly. He like to crawl under things and climb over things. One day he crawled under a little table we'd gotten for him and Ava and got stuck under a chair, but he kept on crawling taking the chair with him... right toward the kitty dishes - the water dish is far too tempting.

Just last week, he learned how to sign, "more" after several weeks of me attempting to teach him and basically giving up. (I don't want to compare kids, but Ava picked up her first sign in one day! I was beginning to think he might never "get it.") I have it on video, but need to find the right cable to download it to the computer.

Ava is so happy that we can play outside! She even asks if we can go out and play in the rain - we keep telling her it's not quite warm enough for that, yet. We got a "Finding Nemo" book from the library about a month ago and she LOVES it. Has it memorized, sleeps with it, recites lines from it randomly... it will be a sad day when we can no longer renew it, but I have been looking at it on eBay, so I may go ahead and get her a copy. She also love Cinderella and talks about being a princess and wearing pretty dresses and dancing. It's especially fun to see her act out scenes with her dolls and stuffed animals. Sometimes she tells me she's Cinderella. If Mark is there, he, of course, is the Prince. When he isn't, I get to be the Prince. She continues to make us laugh all the time.

Even on the days they make us crazy, we couldn't imagine life without them!