where's the picture?

Does anyone else find it hard to find the balance between enjoying the moment and capturing it?  Whenever we are doing something new, fun, special, etc, I find myself wanting to just enjoy the moment rather than worrying about always having my camera or phone out to capture it (or asking someone else to take a picture, which I like even less).  I don't want to be one of those people who are constantly chasing their kid down trying to get a picture of every little thing they do... they always seem a little desperate or something?  Like they have to have pictures of everything to prove how much fun they are having in life?  Maybe I'm all wrong on this.  However, I usually look back and wish I had more pictures of whatever we did.  It seems that the more I enjoy whatever we are doing, the fewer pictures I have to remember the event.  Hum... this sounds backwards!

So... here are a few pictures to wrap up our summer, but there are many fun things we did that are going to go unrepresented on the blog, because I was enjoying myself too much to get out the camera.

Like the time we went to symphony on the prairie with a group of friends and listened to some great broadway hits and had some excellent food and drinks.
Or when we went to Mallow Run Winery with Neal & Leann and our kiddos and had a picnic in the grass while listening to live music, the kids ran free and we sipped wine.
And the weekend with Shane & Stef's family where we went to the zoo, had a picnic along the canal, and walked the streets of downtown Carmel before an outside dinner at a local burger joint.
Or a few dates Chad and I went on where we tried new restaurants, walked around Broad Ripple, sipped coffee, had good drinks, and chatted about our blessed life.
How about when we went to an Indian's baseball game with our small group and sat on the overly crowded lawn and munched on food while we chatted the night away, watching very little of the game.

Those things will have to just stay written memories, as I have few to zero pictures of any of these events... kind of sad.  Now on to a few random times I did decide to take a picture.  :)

a little slash in the fountain at Uncle Jim & Aunt Sheli's house (who hosted us for some amazing outdoor summer dinners!)

playing in the rain... or sprinkle, really 

I broke down and put on a baby show for the first time for Creighton.  sometimes it's just necessary  :)

climbing into bed with Creighton after a nap

brotherly love... although Creighton doesn't look to be enjoying the moment as much as Beck

swinging Daddy's driver... he's a determined little fellow and actually did pretty good with it!

the wild west

Way back when over Labor Day weekend (btw... I do intend to at some point in my life post things as they are happening or shortly thereafter! :) ) we went to visit Chad's sister Ellie, her husband Troy and son Cyrus, who live just west of Chicago.  The main event for the weekend was visiting a little wild west town... perhaps a little past it's prime, but still a big hit with the kiddos.

Creighton got to spend a little time getting to know his cousin Gramm.  I think this is the first time they've taken note of each other...

And here's one pic that Natalie took of Troy and Ellie's house.  I guess this room used to be a gross and outdated sun room but it's looking amazing now!  Troy has a gift for building furniture and doing creative projects to their house.  They've redone almost all of it and it looks great.. wish Chad and I were more talented in that area!

happy birthday to me

... only about a month ago. :)  I started writing this post when it was actually just past my birthday, but somehow it didn't get finished until now.

I celebrated the big 2-9... getting dangerously close to 30!  Which is fine - I really don't mind if I'm almost in my 30's, though it does sound kind of strange.  It was a nice birthday... low key and a blessing to spend time with my hubby and sweet little boys.

We (really I mean 'I' since it was my birthday :)) decided to have a nice little family outing Saturday morning and went to the zoo and then for a walk and picnic along the canal downtown.  Walking along the canal is one of those things that while doing it we ask ourselves, "why don't we do this more often?"  It's so pretty and we love being downtown.  It also makes us dream about living in a flat downtown in some city, walking to everything and enjoying the city life.  We're thinking maybe this will be our empty nest living situation since we didn't take advantage of the opportunity before kids :) ... or maybe we'll just do it with kids!

Our morning at the zoo was nearly perfect... the animals were out and about, the temperature was mild, and we got there early to beat the rush.  The only downfall was that my allergies decided to attack me for the first time this season that morning.  Sneezing.  Sneezing.  Sneezing.  Kleenex.  Kleenex.  Kleenex.  Good times.

There is a little pathway that goes right from the zoo and across the canal to the white river park downtown... perfect place to stroll and have a picnic.

in case you were wondering, Beck's stick is a leaf blower and he's blowing the leaves, of course :)

oh-so-easy banana treat

I'm always trying to come up with different ways to use up ripe bananas... not really brown, mushy bananas that can only be redeemed with banana bread, but bananas with lots of brown spots that are past their eating-plain prime.  Lots of them go into smoothies for Beck and I've discovered a new banana pancake recipe (with just bananas, egg, almond butter, almond meal & flax... so good!) that's also a great way to use them up.  Then yesterday I remembered an easy little treat I saw on pinterest - chocolate covered peanut butter banana slices... sounds too good not to try it out!

And it was very easy and quick.. just a little messy!

 Here's the steps:

1.  Lay 1/4"-1/2" banana slices on a parchment or wax paper lined pan and spread a little peanut butter on top of each slice.

2.  Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave (I used about a 1/2 c. of chips for 2 bananas and also added a couple tsp of coconut oil to the chocolate for flavor and to thin it out a little).  I had to re-melt my chocolate half way through the dipping process, as it got too thick.

Spoon chocolate over the banana slice and then use the fork to drip off the excess chocolate.  This is the messy part! (or at least it was for me :))

3.  Lay the chocolate covered banana slices back on the lined pan.  Refrigerate to harden chocolate and then store in the freezer.

Hurry and eat some because they won't last long!

Oh, and be sure to make them in the company of a cute little baby.. it makes it much more fun. :)

Any other ideas for using ripe bananas??

5 months

This post is arriving quite a bit more timely... right on time, actually, as Creighton is 5 months today.

These are some of the things that Creighton has been up to the last month:
+ rolling from back to tummy and waking himself up in the process during naps and nighttime (yes, it is very fun to be woken up and have to roll him back over at 1:30am... hopefully he gets the hang of back to tummy rolling very soon :))
+ grabbing for everything, which makes eating dinner with him in my lap much more challenging

+ Loving the bumbo.. and also enjoying the swing and bouncing seat he didn't like the first few months

+ taking note of us eating and enjoying his first bites of cereal
+ growing more and more of this wispy, stick straight hair that is much different than Beck's wavy texture

+ wanting to be rocked to sleep... I think he's digressing and I'm going along with it?!  I am so different with Creighton that Beck.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I rocked Beck to sleep and it's becoming a daily occurrence with Creighton (although I do always lay him down awake and only rock him if he just won't settle down and sleep... and I quickly stop if he fights it and doesn't fall asleep fast).  I guess I have "could be my last baby" syndrome. :)

summer nights

I love summer nights spent outside together as a family... especially lately when the weather has been so moderate!

A typical night outside consists of things like me feeding Creighton, tending to the garden, Chad and Beck hitting golf balls, playing the sandbox, reading books...

he was about ready to cry in this pick.. you can kind of see his lip starting to pout :)

cleaning the golf clubs

my blue eyed sweetie

might as well immerse yourself in the sand, right?!

4 months

haha.. ok, well Creighton turns 5 months in 6 days, so this post is just a tad bit late... I'm going to blame that one on getting ready for vacation and then going on vacation.  The pictures were taken really late too, so really nothing about this post is Creighton at 4 months!  But I just couldn't miss one month of posting (although these posts are not very exciting and more for my benefit of remembering what he was doing when).

So here's Creighton at a late 4 months.  Getting cuter and cuter by the day!  I can't really remember what he was doing around 4 months since it's now blending into 5, but I know it included starting to roll from tummy to back, more smiles, reaching for toys, lots of hand chewing, and still no consistent sleeping through the night (yea that one post a long time ago that said he slept through the night?  definitely wasn't the start of anything consistent.. nothing like his brother Beck when it comes to sleeping! :)).