the neihousers...

too much lifting

2012-02-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

One of Dela's favorite things to do is lift things that are at least size if not bigger. Its pretty funny too watch and also hard to figure out how she is doing it. How can those tiny legs carry it?! Yesterday she came around the corner carry the runner for the stairs that just came in the mall.

I know! pretty crazy huh?!

my perfect little subjects

2012-02-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

I've started a photo class through ICC and we have weekly assignment to practice some of the things we're learning. Blair and Del quickly became my backyard subjects and they did great!

uuum...blackberries

2012-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

cruzin...

2012-01-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

Adela got a baby stroller for her birthday but instead of pushing her baby in it...

She would rather be pushed in it by daddy! Hilarious!

Whooo's 1?

2012-01-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

We had Dela's birthday party friday night. Here's a few pics. It was a owl theme.

1 yr. Pics

2012-01-05T14:48:00.000-08:00

Since Adela is officially one year now, I needed to get some 1 year pics of her.

I can't believe she's one already!!

(birthday pics to come)

Cruzin' in Florida

2011-12-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

We got a chance to go to Florida last week with our friends Dane and Kim for some much needed R&R.

We left Dela with Gma and Gpa Neihouser. We flew straight out of peoria to st. Pete/clearwater. It was soo nice to fly direct and not have to drive to Chicago. We stayed in a nice two-bed condo right on the beach, which Kim and I love bc we are such beach bums.

We found out that this time of year is very empty!! So there wasn't a wait for restaurants and we had the whole beach to ourselves pretty much (except a few old-timers walking :)

Since we didn't rent a car and just got a taxi/shuttle thing from the airport, we rent bikes to go get our groceries. I thought the place to rent bikes was right across the street but it turned out that it was a mile or so down the road (in the wrong direction of the grocery store :)) my mistake! but it was a fun adventure and we got our exercise in for the day. (dane has the pics)

We ate out every night and went mini golfing one night.

Here we are walking to dinner. (no car :))

The last day we rented scooters, which was definitely the highlight of the vacation. We drove them to supper and mini golf.

Here is the mini-golf course. When we first got there, I was like "Man, those are some real looking alligators." and then Blair was standing watching the ones in the water and then one just floated to the top! "They're real!!" we all screamed and I was quickly off the looking dock. But I braved a trip back to snap a few pics.

After supper we went on a night ride up to clearwater. It was a lot of fun!

Dela at 11 mos

2011-11-30T15:54:00.000-08:00

Adela is 11 months and she's...

-walking like a maniac.

-saying a few words which consist of:

Hi (to anyone she meets, and usually multiple times)

Hot (when she around the stove)

"Oh no" (when something goes wrong)

No No (to all the things she not supposed to do)

DA! (for daddy)

Mama (for me)

And a few animal sounds...

OooHaHa (monkey)

Bmoo (for cow)

ARf arf (dog)

Meow (Kitty)

-she is listening to commands like "give that to me" and "come here please"

-still only 2 teeth-

-she is getting more and more playful by the day.

Leaves!

2011-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

This was Dela's first pile of leaves!! Granted they were really blown from the neighbors yard... but we took advantage of them! I think she was pretty overwhelmed by them.

Its so hard to decide which one to grab. :)

Dela and Obie

2011-11-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

Adela and I visited Livvy and Obie yesterday and make some molasses cookies. Adela and Obie were very excited to see each other. Adela kept saying "Hi" and Obie just wanted to pounce on her. :)

Obie really liked getting his picture taken. He smiled really well for the camera.

I think you can really tell that these two are related. Liv and I think they look alot alike.

Weekend fun

2011-11-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Our college friends Chris and Natalie came to visit last weekend. Saturday we bought some pumpkins and had a bomfire. Sunday we just hung out. (thanks Chris for the pics)

Dela really helped in picking them out. :)

We used some wood from a pallet that we broke up and it was the most amazing fire.

Blair is eating one of the LARGE marshmallows we have. I think the ratio is 4 to 1 compared to the regular size ones.

At one point during our bomfire, Chris tells us that he has juggled hot coals in the past. And he decided he would try it again. We all didn't have a very good feeling about it (especially Natalie) but he processed to show us. All was going well till the hot coal bounced into the collar of his shirt. Needless to say, it left a pretty good size mark. Natalie, I guess you were right to be worried :)

Chris and Natalie brought Dela a present and she quickly feel in love with it. (as you can see her swipping it out of the picture)

Thanks for coming out guys! We had a GREAT time.

Weekly Dinner with the Martins

2011-10-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

Almost every week we have dinner with our next door neighbors...the Martins. That is Daniel and Megan Martin and their two kids, Abe and Emery. Abe is 2 and Emery is about a month a half younger than Adela. They came over last night and we had a blast watching the kids play together in the living room.

Emery was not having such a good time. (as you can see.)

Abe had a fascination with this lamp. He kept saying he was eating it. He would pretend bite it and laugh hysterically. And we finally asked him what it tasted like and he simply said "chicken!"

We thought it was hilarious! :)

Oorangge... you a cutie!

2011-10-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Dela decided she wanted some of my orange today. She loved it and did pretty well sucking the juice out of it.

Whenever Dela cries she has those cute little teardrops that just sit under her eye til you wipe them off.

New Look

2011-10-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Blair and I have slowly been changing the front of our house so I wanted to post a before and after picture. The house had an old storm door in front of the front door. The front door was a creamy/tan (which we figured out didn't match when we had the new storm door put in). The front door is now a brick red color that matches the brick along the bottom of our house and the chimney. We (actually I) also painted the shutters black, they were originally green.

I think its a nice improvement, but you can decide for yourself. :)

Mini Shoot

2011-10-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

I took a few pictures of Dela this morning. A few turned out even though she wasn't in the mood for a photo shoot. I'll try again another day when I have a helper (its very hard by yourself).

You can see her one little tooth in this one.

Here is her deer in head lights look.

Trying on daddy's cowboy boots.

I'm taking my first steps!

2011-10-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

Adela is 9 MONTHS now and taking a good few steps between us. She hasn't completely mastered it yet, but she on her way!

She is cruising right around everything and occasionally just takes off walking with no one there to catch her. (which, needless to say, ends in a face plant)

She has gotten her first major bumps and bruises. One under her right eye that has healed up already. And a few good size welts on her head.

She was playing with Abe here when she got her bruise under her eye.

(she hit her cheek right on the corner of that wood box thing she's playing with in the picture...OUCH!)

Also, her new favorite thing to do is put her arm straight up beside her ear and look at you over her arm. It is sooo cute!!

She also loves when daddy come home to play with her!

And of course she loves her mommy!

other new things:

barking like a dog (in a high pitched "arf, arf") and its usually when she sees Syd or Zoey.
like i mentioned before, doing a sort of hil Hitler arm raise
crying when you take something away that she wants (mostly when she hasn't had good naps)
following mom around crying while she trying to make supper.
taking about 6 steps from one person to the other.
jabbering like crazy
doing "how big is dela?...SO BIG!!"
drinking juice out of a sippy cup
eating table food

Lakehouse

2011-09-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Indiana to our friend's lakehouse. We had a BLAST! (to say the least)

We stayed up late and played games. Created tons of memories. This is the morning after a late first night. (tamara you even look photogenic even when you just wake up!)

Josh and Natalie

On Saturday we went out on the lake. We had fun even though it was freezing and a little rainy. It gave me the opportunity to test out my new camera lenses and practice taking sports pics.

We all bundled up to stay warm.

In the 50 degree rainy weather, Matt Widmer went wakeboarding first...needless to say...he was screaming when entering the water. (even in a wetsuit).

He did really well.

Eric went next. He was a little less experienced but was EXTREMELY gutsy!

Right before he took a BAD spill.

with the wind being so strong, there were alot of sail boats out... all wondering what we were going out. :)

Then Blair went. Looking good baby!

Last, Chris finished off the wakeboarding with some big air!

We all snuggled together and stayed warm and had a spectular time!

This is Chris and Natalie, our hosts!!

They did a great job making us feel at home! (THANKS guys!)

Out of all the games we played, I think everyone enjoyed a new game called NINJA the most! Here is everyone striking a sweet ninja pose.

There were 5 couples, and we all know each other because all these guys were is the same major together at Purdue (BCM). Starting at the left we have, Matt and Tamara Widmer, Josh and Natalie Hochstetler, Eric and Laura Gelatt, US( Blair and Natalie), and Chris and Natalie Palmer.

That's right, there are 3 Natalies. It was a little confusing at times! :)

Thanks all for a wonderful weekend. Your friendships mean more than you know to us! Thanks for being great Christian examples to us!

Chilly Weather

2011-09-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Now that its fall we had to pull out my favorite hat of Dela's!! Cute isn't she!

I really like this one too...

P Fest

2011-09-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Andrew Huber came out for the Pumpkin Festival here is Morton. We had a great time going to the P fest, having bomfires, and just hanging. Since Blair had to work Saturday morning, Dela and Andrew had some time to bound over breakfast and they are now great friends.

...about to go to dinner at Monicals...(where Del was the worst she has been in public so far ;( )

Saturday night, we headed out to our new firepit in our backyard. Dela has really taken to the campfire thing.

Although, I think she's just in it for the smores...

Needless to say, we had a great time!

branson, mo

2011-09-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

We went to branson with the fam (minus Chad, Heav, and Beckham) about a week ago. It was a good time out on the water. It was a little chilly some days but fun none the less. We also got to welcome Troy to our family vacations! He really enjoyed wakeboarding and surfing. Adela did pretty good except she kept wanting to take over driving the boat.

Adela had a great time playing in the sun with her adorable swim hat. (I like it but I don't think she's a big fan) Del is now completely obsessed with eating whatever we eat so here she is covering herself (and ALOT of the boat :) ) in crumbs as she eats crackers and cheese.

Dela fell asleep...FINALLY!

Grandpa and Grandma Hoerr and their friends Earl & Pat Gerber were in Branson too and came on a boat ride with us. We are watching Blair "try" to surf. :) hehe

There's Dela emptying her diaper bag for the umteenth time.

One night we went out to a REALLY good mexican restaurant in town. Del had fun looking like a walrus while playing with her straw.

...and Blair trying to eat his weight in Mexican meat..

and of course we have the newly weds...

The last day was a little chilly so we ate breakfast at TRUMANS (they have the BEST breakfast buritos) and played some volleyball (that lasted about 2 seconds because Ellie felt faint...).

We then moved on to shuffle board where Dela thought she would cheer us on from the sidelines. Which proved dangerous when Troy and Seth decided to launch the pucks by pushing them at full force to hopefully hit the other person in the leg.

Well...thats it from beautiful Branson...

2011-08-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

Adela's New Accomplishments/Interests

She is 7 1/2 months now and in full motion.

crawling more and more skillfully.

climbing up on anything and everything. (including her crib when she ready to get out)

feeding herself a bottle

getting into everything

wearing her PJs like a nun hat

following mom wherever I go
interest in whatever mom and dad are eating or drinking (some favorites are watermelon and corn!!)

Screaming in delight
reading books at night
going swimming (but the pool's now closed :( )
playing with the neighbors Abe and Emery.
Playing with dad when he gets home

Excitedly grunting at Zoey (Jeff and Sue's Eskipoo)
waving bye-bye
we have been trying to get her to say "Meow" but its not really get through. She sometimes responses with "Mow". (but I don't think its on purpose ;) )
she is babbling all kinds of sounds...mama...dada...gadabuzpu(razz sound)...
working on some teeth but we haven't seen anything pop through yet.
Her newest trick is dancing on her play gym. I'll post a video soon

Overall she is ALOT of fun right now and we are enjoying every minute of it

Adela's 6 month photo shoot

2011-06-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

The picture is a link to Adela's 6 month proofing album.

Family Pics

2011-05-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

We were bored the other day so we set up the camera and got a few pictures.

Sit-ups

2011-05-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Looks like their both having a good time... Blair gets his workout and Adela gets a free ride!

ELLIE'S ENGAGED!!

2011-05-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

Exciting news... Ellie is engaged to Troy Steffen!! Troy, welcome to the family. We are so excited to have you! Congrats and God Bless!

Trip to Indy!

2011-04-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Mom and I went to visit Chad, Heav, and Beckham for a few days. We got a few pictures of Beckham...

and some of them together...

- trying to figure each other out...

Adela ~ 3rd month

2011-04-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

3 months - She really loves her hands.

Look at those BIG eyes!! Don't they just make your heart melt!?!

Thats our Purdue girl!!!

Someone's got a full stomach.

I got this at a garage sale!! can you believe it!! What a cuteness monster!!