The Downing Family

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Turkey Time

We spent last weekend in Grant City so Josh could attempt his luck at Turkey hunting. He has done it in the past but lets just say he wasn't very successful :) We were able to leave a little early on Friday and we spend all day Saturday and most of Sunday there. Harper was also up with Vanessa and her and Isla always have fun! So much fun that when it was bed time and we laid Harper in the crib and Isla in the bed, Harper dove out of the crib and we found her with wild hair sitting on the bed with Isla! She was fine so we had a good laugh and tried out letting them sleep together. They giggled and rolled around for a while but eventually they fell asleep and it worked just fine. It was a little chilly on Saturday but the girls too many golf cart rides with Papa and we roasted hot dogs over the fire. We were really really hoping we would have some showings on the house this past weekend but we didn't. Every week I'm hopeful but nothing yet so I guess we will just keep hoping!

We have a lot of exciting events coming up over the next couple weeks so I will do my best at keeping everyone updated! Aiden will turn 1 next week, my sister Amanda will graduate from college and Josh's sister Vanessa will also graduate from college! Then Josh goes out of town for work, my Nana will move into her new house, my Dad is quickly recovering from his hip surgery and I think Josh and I have an anniversary in there somewhere!

Here are some pictures from our weekend------

Trying to wrangle them down for nap time!

And this is the end result of a fun weekend at Papa's

And he got his Turkey!!!!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Sibling Love

Isla is such a sweet, loving, kind hearted, beautiful girl and she loves Aiden with all of her heart. It is precious to watch. Although she does get frustrated with the occasional hair pull or hit, her patience with him is amazing. I want to bottle up these sweet moments before the are ended by fighting over toys etc! I hope that once they grow out of that, that they will come back to these sweet loving moments between them. She is so concerned about his well being and she is right there with us to congratulate him when he accomplishes something new. This morning Aiden clapped on his own for the first time and she overpowered our excitement with her own shouting, "Good job! I'm so proud of you buddy!" As any new parent of two, I was so nervous that she would be jealous but we are very lucky. I truly feel like our kids know how much they are loved individually and I'm happy Isla hasn't felt like she isn't important!

This is a picture from Easter of her kissing his head as she drove him around in her barbie car. It melted my heart :)

And here she has her arm around him...so sweet!

I love these kids!!!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A wonderful day

Life has been pretty hectic lately with Josh in school so we were very thankful to have a day like Sunday. We woke up, Josh and Aiden went to the store to grab some things for breakfast. I actually slept past 6am and enjoyed a little snuggle time with Isla. Josh has been wanting to make these cinnamon roll pancakes for a while so that's what he did! We should have cut the recipe in half...it made enough to feed an army! In fact, the kids and I have eaten those pancakes for 3 days now but they are good : )

Then we just hung out and played, ate lunch and had ice cream at Dairy Queen, played some more and ate dinner. It was a nice relaxing day that we desperately needed!

Isla took a spill off the slide into the wood chips at school!

Aiden was mesmerized by the movie

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Photo Book Posts

The photo book posts are our family album from 2011...... I know, I know I'm a little behind but finishing that album was a big accomplishment and I got to cross it off the list of unfinished projects! I didn't realize the posts actually came through but I wanted to share it with everyone. Enjoy!

A Day in the life of grocery shopping with 2 kids!

Somehow, someway, I have avoided grocery shopping with both kids until yesterday. Our unwanted roommate in the attic returned so I had to wait for the exterminator to arrive before I could go grocery shopping. This is what the exterminator found......

A huge hole that the squirrels have chewed in the siding to enter our attic!

I was planning for just Aiden and I to go while Isla was at school but the exterminator took too long to get here and then it was nap time and by the time we left the house it was time to pick up Isla so we all went together. It went just fine although we did have to drive the "bus" carts which always catch a few looks. And is it just me or do those carts weigh like 100 pounds?! As we were finishing up in Price Chopper, we were walking by wine and spirits which prompted my 3 year old daughter to say "Mommy, we need to get some beer!" That would be the most embarrassing part of our trip! And we don't even buy beer very often so who knows why she felt the need to yell that. Here are a few pics from our adventure.