Friday, February 27, 2015

Harbour Trees Halloween Party

A Queen Elsa with Daddy...
 A sweet Iva May enjoying the festivities as well....


Halloween Treats from the Schroeder's!




Car Seat Cutie...


Pumpkin Heads

My sweet Iva May...

Another fun side-by-side...Iva on the left and Mymy on the right:

Dodge City

This was a blast from the past for Jeff.  As a child, he went to Dodge City to visit his Grandma Sealey (Marie) for many summers.  

As an adult, he's now had to travel there for business - and on one of the trips, he went to the old / historic portion, Boot Hill, to do some shopping for the girls.  He bought them each a wagon wheel doll and wandered the area to bring back memories.

Those Cheeks!

This was Iva and I enjoying some beautiful weather while daddy and Mymy were at the Ball State game.  Gotta love those cheeks!

Daddy/ Myra Day

 Daddy had tickets to the Ball State game one Saturday and thought it would be fun to take little Mymy along.

They really had a good time - no meltdowns by either of them!

Love this pic daddy sent to Iva and I that afternoon...

 She got in some bouncy time in their kid zone...
Then, they came home and decided to clean out the fire pit to build a fire on that beautiful Fall evening...

Mymy dressed herself that morning - complete with leg AND arm warmers!


Enjoying the view...

School Fall Festival

Mymy's pumpkin creation!
 It needed to be painted as well...

 They had the best face painter there!  LOVE

Who needs changing now???


Just Hangin'



Iva's First Day of School

It was October 20, 2014.

She looks a bit scared...

But...Myra told her it would be okay and that she would be at the same school all day with her.

 She passed with flying colors!

Queen Elsa / Iva?

Mymy felt Iva needed to wear her Elsa crown while having some lunch one day...

We Have a Supported Sitter

This was in mid-Oct right after we got back from the baptism.  So...she wasn't quite 3 months old here:

A Squirrel Story

So...when we first moved into our new home, we were having some men install TV's in the living and basement.  They kept telling us that they heard something in the ceiling down there - and then..a walnut fell on their heads when they had to cut into the ceiling!


Hhhmm....something was up!

Then...Jeff would be sitting in the dining room and could hear some scratching in one of the corners, but as soon as he would try to locate the noise again in the basement or by going outside to see if it was a critter scratching to get in via a vent, it would stop.  This kept happening and even our wonderful handyman, Howard, knew something was going on as well.

Jeff started calling all kinds of companies that could come determine what kind of animal was deciding to make our home their home as well.  He got so worked up and HAD to have someone come out that day!

A guy came out and definitely suspected squirrels due to the high number in the neighborhood and with our (now gone) black walnut tree, they were a good guess.  He set some traps and also placed a vent over the dryer vent as it was wide open!  We waited...

and waited, but nothing showed up in the traps for over a week AND we were still hearing things.  At this point, we knew it was a squirrel or squirrels b/c when Ga Schro visited, she saw one peek it's head out from a hole in the basement ceiling, which has since been closed!

The poor squirrel would visit us about every other day and was stumped.  He even place some powdered donuts around the traps to entice them.  I had no idea squirrels loved donuts!

After a couple of weeks, we asked the squirrel guy to do more investigating around the outside of the house.  He found a couple of new holes - still not sure how this happened - ugh!  Anyway, he plugged the holes and put in some more traps.  The next morning we got one!

We thought we were done with these pesky little critters - wrong!  We kept hearing them off and on throughout the days.  Our squirrel guy came back again.  We thought he had thoroughly investigated the crawl space, but I guess not.  He found a squirrel super highway down there!  There about 3-4 holes in there where they could run in and out - and store their nuts -  as they pleased!

I am happy to report that once we closed the highway, there haven't been any more - AND Jeff made sure that walnut tree was cut down immediately as well.  It was a beautiful tree, but was getting a little out of hand with branches over our house and our neighbor's house - not mention all of the walnuts that make a huge mess in the Fall - and attract squirrels!  So, now there's one less tree on the Harbour Trees golf course - ha!

I actually found much of it pretty comical with just how upset Jeff was getting about it all.  The squirrels didn't do any harm, but I know they could have eventually - and I really didn't want a surprise squirrel running around on the house a la Christmas Vacation style!  Needless to say, it's been a pretty funny joke around here.  Jeff rec'vd a couple of squirrel gifts for Christmas and Grammy just happened to have a squirrel shaped cut-out from her school days that Myra continues to trace for daddy.  She colors and puts faces on them and we hang them in places that surprise daddy.  It's quite fun!

And...here's a pick of what I would see every day on maternity leave.  We had soooo many squirrels run across our deck.   I actually think he's pretty cute w/ that walnut in his tiny little pesky hands!

Reminiscing

This was 14 years ago!!

As I was unpacking the new house, I came across these pics from when we first moved into 19051 Stockton Drive. I am so happy to have these to remember what our very first house looked like right when it was built.
 Steve and Jeff busy putting up the blinds....
 The original office / sports bar room.  When Myra was born, it turned into the guest room and then when Iva came along, it was her room for a couple of months.  Now...Jeff gets to see all of sports paraphernalia in his very own sports bar basement of his dreams!
 The original look of the living room from the loft...that old tube TV and old coffee table that always slanted b/c Jeff put it together - ha!
 Jeff and his mom on our front porch.  This was long before she was our Grammy!

And...notice in the background that there were no other houses on the side street.  It's all built up now!

Good memories!

Papa / Iva Usie

Papa took care of this little one while we closed on our new house!  They got a little crazy with the phone camera - ha!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentne's Day 2015

Iva's First Valentine's Day!
 Photo shoot on the #4 tee box...

 Daddy love!

 Sister love!


 Oh these frogs....singing frogs from Aunt Luana - so funny!



Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Cute Cardinal Carvers

It was a Cardinals playoff game night when the pumpkin carving took place, so all had to wear their baseball gear!
 Daddy did the carving, while Myra squeezed the 'guts' as well as pulled out the seeds.

 The finished product!  I must say...it's pretty awesome!


 Getting the seeds ready for roasting...
Washing and drying them....over and over again....

With a little seasoning, they turned out great the next day!