Abba and Grammy both gave Lizzy non-candy gifts. She was not falling for it :) Thanks for trying.

Caden joined us for about seven houses. Lizzy said he was the best part of Halloween...oooh!
Lizzy was the Little Mermaid, and LOVED Trick-or-Treating. We walked from our house to Dave and Dianne's, making sure we stopped at every house. Lizzy kept asking if the house was "open" and didn't fall for Mommy's trick of saying the candy was for her. So...we gave in and gave her three, very small pieces of candy. Long story short...apparently when a child who never gets candy has candy sugar really does have to effect. She was CRAZY, and Mommy has volunteered to eat the remaining candy.

The Fam at the Pumpkin Patch. I am so rarely in the pictures that I had to post the two that I had.
Lizzy at the Lincoln Park Zoo with Katie. She LOVED the farm. We all kept trying to not have to go, but Lizzy's cuteness outsmarted us all.
Lizzy in a field of pumpkins. This picture makes me want to have a vest.
Lizzy and "Aunt Karen". My friend Karen is dying to be an aunt, so we are allowing her to pretend.

Okay...so I would like to apologize for taking so long to post something. I have been busy with going back to school at Washington and teaching at Ivy Tech. I know, I know...no excuse is good enough to stop blogging, but I hope it will do for now. I have been texting, so hopefully that still keeps me a little cool-OMG lol.

Luckily we have been taking pictures, so here is some of the fun stuff we have been doing in the two months since you heard from us.

The new GREAT band: Lizzy and Onie.
Driving the bus at the mall.
Playing at Butterfly Park.
Riding a pony with Abba at the Pumpkin Patch.
Wanting to be like Mommy...sad news for Lizzy :)

Cooking with Mommy
Meeting Baby Brogan our newest cousin. Apparently age doesn't matter. The O'Connors are always cute.
Getting ready for the Lil Kernel Race...she quit half way through. Caden took off and did great.
Going with Abba to Disney on Ice. We LOVED seeing Cinderella.

Tonight I was cooking, and suddenly I felt something run into my legs. This is a common thing for Lizzy to do, so it took me a second to turn around. When I finally did, this is how I found her :) Apparently she needed to use her bug net for something other than catching bugs.

Lizzy and I also wanted to show off her toes. Lizzy was having a little trouble learning her colors, but as soon as I put paint on her nails she learned blue, yellow, and she keeps saying her toes are pink. Who knew it only took a little beauty to bring her out :)

I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of one of my former students, and I got to go with my good friend and fellow English teacher Christi. Here we are all dressed up, and below I got to pose with one of the prettiest brides I have ever seen. You could just she her happiness and loveliness shine out.

Congratulations Hannah and Drake- Thanks for having me.
And tonight we were blessed to have the Walters family over for dinner. Lizzy has been going to the Walters house since she came home, and now she will be staying home with Daddy full time. We will miss seeing them all the time, and as you can tell Lizzy seems a little attached.

We are so lucky to have found people outside our family who love our little Lizzy, and I know we all feel like they are family now.

Good luck in college this year David, and we should all wish Danny good luck because he has me again this year-poor boy-for three hours a day :)

The family (with the Crowells-of course) at the Doodlebops. Lizzy LOVED it. Later, I learned that we could have had front row tickets if I had only called Lonnie Steele. Lonnie used to be the principal at Washington, and he runs the Porter Co. Fair. Well...there's always next year.

Here is the Lizzy with the prize that she won (with Daddy's help) in a fishing game. She is quite proud.
Okay...so this was our fourth trip to the fair. We HAD to go with Ione, and we had a great time looking at the animals and riding the rides. I love how Lizzy is even smiling perfectly while she lets Ione drive.

We have been going swimming a lot this summer thanks to our friends Natalie and Caden. Yesterday Lizzy talked one of our favorite lifeguards into giving her a lesson, Caden, as you can see did not want to be a part of it :)



Today we tried to go to the fair to see the dog show...it was a disaster. We had to beg for food vendors to give our hot, hot kids some food; the dog show was two hours later than I thought; but luckily Caden had his first ice cream cone-which was a huge success.

This weekend was a weekend where a lot of things changed-some more than others. Lizzy went to her first baseball game. I came armed with the heaviest bag ever full of toys, but I should have known that Caden as all the excitement Lizzy needed. Here there are eating their dinner-french fries. I know-Brittney has nothing on me:)

Also, we, okay me, were excited because this was the first time that Lizzy was able to wear reall pig tails. Prepare to see them everywhere.
We also got to see the Valpo Triathlon up close because the runners come right past our house. Matt caught the three of us watching the race outside Lizzy's playroom. Maggie was as excited as Lizzy was.
Mommy and Daddy go to a wedding. And this is the last big first this weekend. Justin and Melissa spent their first time together as marrieds (do I sound British?). I was part of introducing them a couple of years ago, and we were so excited that my only time matchmaking ended up in a happy ending.

Congratulations to the happy couple and thanks for letting us be a part of it.

Lizzy absolutely loves Caden Crowell, and she talks about him all the time. We have been having such a fun summer getting to see him more, and last night we all got to go to El Salto for some fun, music, and drinks (especially for the mommies).

We were very busy the last couple of days. We headed to Winamac twice to see Aunt Heather and cousins Connor and Chapman who were in from Atlanta. We were lucky enough to catch the county fair in Winamac when we were there. Lizzy needed her pig and cow fix.

Then, on Saturday, we were thrilled to head to Indy for Cousin Bevin's baby shower. Only seven weeks until Baby Boy O'Connor arrives-who can stand the suspense.

I spent most of my childhood dreaming, practicing, okay praying, that I would become a famous actress or writer (it didn't matter...whichever got me on Oprah) and that someday I would give an award speech. Well who knew it would be for my blog that I don't update as much as my mother would like. I think she wants to know what Lizzy is doing second by second:)

So my friend Sara presented me with an Arte y Pico award for my blog. Thanks Sara for the shout-out. I promise, in my speech, to be better about commenting on all of your blogs...I know, I know...it really is the best part.

Translated, it means "Peak of Art" and here, folks, are the rules of the Arte Y Pico award:
1. Choose five blogs you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2. Post the name of the author and a link to his/her blog so everyone can view it.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given him/her the award.
4. The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the "Arte Y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Please post these rules.

So here are my five. They are really just the five I check the most:

1. Natalie: both Bo and Sam and the Notables...where do you find the time to be so good about this?

2. Jenn: Ione is so great, and I just love that I am getting to watch her get bigger in person and in cyberspace.

3. Jacque: Ty is adorable and his blog just makes me wish we could see him more, and we are super excited about baby #2 joining the blogging world as well!

4. Quinn: Have you seen Avery's blog?!?! I was blown away with the "Over the Rainbow" montage, and I am still speechless.

5. Beth: For a new mom, and all that comes with it, she is great about letting us all know about Baby Alaina. And, I love the title!

Lizzy Lee has been enjoying her time with Josh, here from California. Apparently they are both really tough. I like how she is tormenting him with not only her muscles, but with the Gymboree bubble blower. Take that Josh.
And we all really enjoyed seeing Amy, Rob and all of the Bardons on their yearly visit. Here's hoping you come back to the Chicago area soon!