Sculpture Park '09

We figured it's been about 2 years since we've been back to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. Just as last time, the art was subject to all kinds of fun interactions with we viewers - but this time Clara was old enough to enjoy it and Sabrina was traveling cozy in the front pack. Even the pavement was seen as art through the eyes of our kiddos! Life is Beautiful!

Boone County Fair

Went to the Boone County Fair tonight with the kiddos. We watched the
horse show, ate a funnel cake, and eventually got to ride a ride.
Here's a photo of Christopher and Clara doing their thing. Afterward,
Clara said she wanted to ride again bit this time on the yellow one.

Owensboro

Two weeks ago we headed down to Owensboro for the wedding of Alex and
Beth (Alex is a cousin on the Howard side). While in Owensboro, we
hit the highlights of the John and Sharon Howard Tour and took in a
little Moonlite BBQ. The burgoo was delicious.

Here is a photo of Clara and Adam at the Moonlite buffet. If you've
never been, Moonlite is one of those places you simply must visit in KY.

More info

Babo and Sabrina have a special kinship. Every time Adam takes the
kids there by himself, the older two manage to spend most of their
time asking for cookies or on the potty. Therefore, Babo and Sabrina
spend time together.

Sent from my iPhone

Night at Babo's

Took this from the iPhone the other night at Babo's. This is the first
post from the iPhone using it's remote post ability.

Loophole

So, we've started a behavior jar with Christopher to encourage good behavior. When he does something good, he gets a token for the jar. When he does something bad, we take one out. Whenever he lies, the whole jar is dumped out and when it's filled up, he gets to go on a "date" by choosing a place to go and the person he wants to go with (on Friday we went to BassPro per his request).

This morning I discovered he's found a loophole. He got up before Annette and I were functioning and went out into the kitchen to snag some M&M's leftover from the weekend. Annette asked him what he did this morning and he replied that he had eaten a little snack. Annette said we'll have to take away one of your behavior tokens because you're not supposed to sneak food in the morning to which he replied, "But I should get to keep it for telling the truth!"

Your Mama's Tutu

My parents are fond of periodically cleaning out their basement and sending whatever 'treasures' they find from my childhood over to my house. When some recent nuggets made there way into the dress up box, Clara took no notice of the 30 year old tulle - a tutu's a tutu, no matter how old. Isn't she cute?! (Doesn't the yellow band-aid make the perfect accessory?) I guess there really are some treasures that come from Grandma & Grandpa's basement!

Your Father's Corn Hole

What a wonderful group of dads we have in our family! All the men seemed to have a ball with their little ones. Congrats to Paul on his first Father's Day! Whada ya say we celebrate with some corn hole? So the kids didn't quite get the idea of the game... or maybe they improved it?!

Father's Day

So I suppose you could say it was a new Father's Day for Papa this year, as he is a father to three for the first time this Father's Day. Here is one proud Papa with his beautiful children!

Indiana Holiday

We wanted to share some of the images of the fun we had a recent trip to Indiana. Wonderlab, in Bloomington, was a particular favorite... second only to the s'mores. But I suppose that's as it should be!

Master of Her World

Sabrina has pretty much mastered grasping objects - and even manages to help them find their way to her mouth most of the time! What will she master next?

More Claraisms

"Dis BROH-en" (This broken - usually whenever holding one of Mama's necklaces in her hand.)
"You pit me up pwease, Daddy" followed up by, "Dat too hi."
"One, two, fwee."
"Yewoh is mine favrit tolor."
Where are you shoes? "I don know; dey're hidin."
"Let get on road toad."

Clara-isms

I (Adam) have been meaning to post this for a while. Clara-isms are those little sayings that are unique to Clara. I know of a few, but I'm curious what you've heard. This past week, according to Clara, we stayed at Ratoon Rids (Raccoon Ridge). Here are some other Clara-isms:

"Me otay" (I'm okay)
"Me do it mineself" (I'll do it myself)


I know there are more, but I've misplaced my list. So, add a few of your own!

Park visit with Grandparents

Almost a month ago, Grandma and Grandpa Hoeben joined us for a little park time. Clara spent much of her time on the swing while Christopher made friends and explored the entire place. As you might have expected, when it was time to leave it was the parents and grandparents who were exhausted.

Flower child

These were taken in the backyard yesterday while practicing with a new lens.

Airplane

This was taken sometime last week ... when the sun was still shining around here rather than all this stormy weather we've been having. Papa and Christopher are playing airplane in the backyard hammock.

Sleeping time

Sabrina is spending her first night in the crib as we type this blog post. We put up the crib yesterday and so far so good. We'll see how the night goes. You may find it interesting that at 10:23 p.m., her sister is clonked out in the big girl bed but Sabrina's not quite ready to hang it up just yet. If you click on the photo you can probably see her little eyes between the bars of her new crib.



Wonder what he's dreaming about....

Basement

So, here's what our basement looked like on April 8th. This weekend we started the process of "moving back in" as our stuff had been in the garage for the entire time. Actually, in the garage, in the living room, in Clara's room, in our bedroom, in the kitchen, and just about everywhere else except for in the basement. In a few days, we'll post photos of what it looks like now.





Sabrina looking at Papa in early April. Wonder what she's thinking...

Child of God

Another celebration we held this weekend was the Baptism of our little girl. God bless you Sabrina-bean! Thanks to all the friends and family who joined us for this blessed event - especially her Godparents, Gina and Tim.

Celebration

We're so excited for Katie and Paul who are expecting their first baby in one month! This weekend, the ladies got together to Shower Katie with blessings, advice and, of course, presents. Thanks to all who came to help Katie celebrate!

Turkey Ridge

Our annual trip to Turkey Ridge Farm in Nashville, IN. was awesome! As you can see, we had many wonderful adventures.

Announcing Sabrina!

Toddler love

Sabrina Smiles

We've posted far too few photos of our little girl... without further adieu, here are a few papa caught of her smiling and cooing at mama... that's right, she's smiling already! What a beauty! More to come as soon as possible.

Sabrina

We've had a few things going on lately, sorry for not posting more frequently. There are some photos of Sabrina when she was much younger but they haven't been posted yet (obviously). We'll try to get some up soon.

CorningWare

So, in the garage (which formerly belonged to Adam's grandma) there was a shelf above the minivan which held a 20 year collection of Pyrex, CorningWare and glass dishes. One quiet afternoon during nap time, Annette heard a loud CRASH. She got up and discovered that the shelf had broken free from the wall and all the dishes came crashing down. A really really big pile of broken stuff was ALL OVER the garage - and several pieces landed on the hood of our minivan causing some pretty nasty dents.

This all happened in late March. Fast forward several weeks to last Thursday ... Adam is taking grandma (aka Babo) back to her home when the discussion about the dents on the hood is brought up. Adam said, "Remember all those dishes you had in the garage?" She replied, "Uh, no."

"You know, the Pyrex and CorningWare stored on the top shelf in the garage?"

"Nope. Don't know what you're talking about."

He insisted saying, "They're dishes you used to bake with." She still shook her head. He went on, "Well, the shelf fell down and all the dishes dented the hood of my wife's van." Without missing a beat, Adam's 90 year old kind grandmother shot back, "Well, I'm not gonna pay for it! You broke my dishes!"

Seriously folks. You can't make this stuff up.