Cornmaze, Grant's birthday & YMCA Fall Festival

So many events in October is has been hard to keep up. I guess that is why this is always my favorite time of year. First, I will explain a few of the pics...the one to the left is Kate dressed up as a princess. It was "Princess & Pirate's week" at school and on Friday, everone had to dress up either as a princess or a pirate. Since we already had Kate's costume, we made do with what we had in her dress up bin. She was so proud and too cute for words! The other picture in the attachment is her actually costume...a 'nice' witch! We will be wearing that a few times this week for some Halloween events so I am sure there will be MANY more pictures of it!

We were out of town most of last weekend, which explains the lack of postings. Ryan and I made the trip to Lexington last Saturday for a few events: Bluegrass Gymnastics reunion, Keeneland, and Melissa's 40th birthday. I remembered my camera but forgot the battery. I would normally blame this on 'pregnancy brain'; however, I don't know if my brain ever really returned from the 1st pregnancy :) One of the girls I did gymnastics with at Bluegrass gathered up a group of us for a reunion. It was incredible seeing so many of the girls I spent 40+ hours a week with in my junior high/highschool years. A big thank you goes out to Robin for organizing the entire event. Afterwards, we met a group of our friends out at the Thoroughbred Club for a few hours and then a great dinner at Baker's 360! Exhausting but fun!

Sunday, we headed to Winchester to help wish Melissa (our sister-in-law) a happy 40th! It was great of her family to host us for lunch! Happy belated birthday Melissa!

This weekend was jam packed too! At least I was able to get a good nap in Saturday. Right after work, Kate and I headed to Harrodsburg and met my mom, Bob, Judd, Jenn, Sawyer, Cam, Kara, Jo, and Tripp at the Cornmaze! This place was amazing. It was dark before we got there so we didn't get to enjoy the 10+ acre Cornmaze, which supposedly takes 45+ minutes to get all the way through. In stead, we enjoyed the slide, petting zoo, marshmallow roast, and hay ride! It was great to see everyone, especially Kara, who only has 10 weeks or so left until #2 arrives! Kate enjoyed playing with the girls and Tripp and we both enjoyed a little R&R at my mom's! Kate had a big time Saturday morning helping PeePaw cook breakfast...it was delicious! Ryan was busy training for his marathon and got a 13 mile run in with Jon on Friday night! He, Jon and April went out for dinner but puttered out on staying out for drinks afterwards due to the exhausting run.

Later on Saturday, we all helped Grant ring in his 3rd birthday. I was on camera duty with Ann's new camera during some of the party so I didn't get many pics myself! I will try and steal some of hers from her facebook page!


Today, we had the Fall Festival at Kate's school! It was great watching Kate play with some of her school friends! There is a great picture of Kate and one of her main teachers, Miss Tammy, attached! She just lights up whenever she sees any of her teachers! What a great feeling!

I hope everyone has a great week! We have a few Halloween activities this week so it should be fun. I am on jury duty so hopefully I will survive all the action. The only good part of jury duty is that it keeps me in Louisville. I have been in either Cincinnati or Lexington every work day in October, which I think may be contributing to me feeling a little more tired than I should at 18+ weeks! Therefore, bring on some jury duty :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/CornmazeGrantSBirthdayFallFestival##

Why I love our house...

Here is one of the thousand reasons I love our new house. This is the view from our kitchen window every time I look outside! I LOVE IT!!!

King's Island

The long awaited trip to Kings Island occured on Saturday. Aunt Granny and Uncle Pal were generous enough to buy each of the girls a ticket to Kings Island for their birthday's this year! We could not have planned it for a better day...60 degrees and sunny! We were trying to wait until the weather was a little cooler than July and in between UK football games. Our timing was perfect. This, along with our annual trip to the Louisville zoo on Derby Day, will be part of our annual outings that will always provide such great memories.

The day was full of a few firsts...Kate's 1st trip to an amusement park, Aunt Granny and Uncle Pal's 1st trip to Kings Island; Kate's 1st face painting experience, and our 1st trip to the kids section of the park. Last night, Kate said her favorite was the Backyardagain's Swing-Along and the Blue's Clue's ride. The girls looked sooo cute with their faces painted. There were a few meltdown's, all at different times of course, but all in all, the day was PERFECT.

I think Kate is going to be a roller-coasting expert by the time she is big enough to ride the big rides. She was a little too short to ride the big ones in the kiddie area but LOVED the ones that she could ride. The picture of her on the small roller coaster says it all. Beast...here we come :)



Thank you again to Aunt Granny and Uncle Pal! We had so much fun and look forward to next October's trip!



As for the baby, we are all doing well. 16 1/2 weeks and feeling good. Still able to work out most mornings, thanks to my support system April. Went to the doctor last week for my 16 week check-up and all was normal. The heart rate was a slow 130 bpm, which according to the old wives tales...it is a boy. I asked Dr. Nett what the odds of that being correct and she said 50:50! Ha! Guess only time will tell. I have had a feeling it is a boy all along so again, we will see. Kate is coming along with the idea that it could possibly be a boy. She even said the other day that she wanted a brother. We have been given the advice to take her along with us to the ultrasound so she can see for herself. She is still so excited to be a big sister she can hardly stand it :)



Enjoy the pics from King's Island!

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/KingSIsland#

Huber's Farm

It is that time of year again...Huber's Farm to pick pumpkins! I remember going there ever year as a kid with my parents and we have carried on the tradition with Kate. On Saturday, we ventured out to Huber's with the Sherman's to enjoy the pumpkin farm as well as the delicious buffet lunch of chicken n' dumplings, fried chicken, and biscuits with apple butter. Fattening I know but well worth it :) I don't know if it is because I am 15 weeks prego or what but I think the food was even better this year.

We met Alyson and her boys, Luke and Maddux, as well as Marcia and her kids, Davis and Caroline. The kids had a blast running around, playing on the farm animals, and picking out a few pumpkins. Due to the extra rain this year, the pumpkins were not in the best shape. We opted out on buying one and will go for one of the good (and cheaper) ones we saw at Kroger last week!

Later on Saturday, Ryan's dad and Opal Ann came up for another visit and we had a great time visiting. The boys enjoyed the "fancy" car show this afternoon while Opal Ann, Kate, and myself enjoyed a little shopping therapy at the mall. We were looking for some shoes as Kate is now in a size 9. We found a pair of new running shoes as well as some new play clothes from a store called 'naartjiekids'. If you haven't been there yet, I highly recommend it. By far some of the most perfect play/school clothes I have seen. Kate was too cute in the store as she picked out "the perfect outfit for her little sister". I told her as soon as we found out the sex in a few weeks, we would come back and buy him/her a little outfit. She said, "ok mommy, I know it might be a boy but I still want a sister." Too cute.

The family is enjoying a little R&R now. I am actually feeling well; I guess I can contribute that to the 2 hour nap I got yesterday and the 10 hour of sleep last night! Oh, the joys of being pregnant.

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/HuberSFarm#

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneymardis/CarShow#