"Follow by Email"

At the very bottom of this page there is a "Follow by Email" option now. This basically means that if you enter your email, you will start getting notifications whenever we update this website. Great for those of you who are constantly asking if I've updated the page recently. ;)

Happy Halloween!

First we stopped by my grandparent's house where Charlotte got to see my dad (papaw) dressed up as a zombie. She thought it was great.

Then we went to our friend's house, The Ansells, and joined their family for Trick-or-Treating.

Charlotte did great following the other kids and saying "thank you" after receiving her treats.

Then things started to wind down, get dark, and Charlotte started to get very cranky. Thus ending our adventure in trick-or-treating. She did last an hour so that's something!

Click there for >> More Halloween Photos!!

In other news: Charlotte's crib has now been upgraded to a toddler bed! No more bars keeping her in. So far, so good. No sneaking out or unwanted house roaming upon waking up from naps/bedtime. We plan on heading down to TN for Thanksgiving this year and staying up in Indiana for Christmas. In the spring we're going to be visiting Australia! Excited about seeing family. Not so excited about the loooong plane trip with a toddler. ;) Now to get those passport photos taken...

Fall

What better way to celebrate fall than by posting pictures from Fall's Park in Pendleton, IN?

Rest of the album.

Charlotte turned 2!

We celebrated Charlotte's 2nd birthday first with family on her actual birth date and then with friends and family at a local state park 2 days later. Here are some photos from our family celebration:

Rest of this set: http://gallery.evilgeni.us/v/Family/CIA/year3/birthday/

The weather was beautiful for our Sunday event and we couldn't have asked for much more than that! Here are some photos from Sunday's event taken by a friend:

The playground was right next to our rented shelter and the kids spent a good hour playing on it. I think it was a huge hit!

I am pretty sure she stole that drink from Caleb since I never gave her a drink pouch. ;)

She got one of the largest slices and was in awe.

The rest of the Sunday set: http://gallery.evilgeni.us/v/Family/CIA/year3/ang2/ taken by our awesome friend Angela.

We have amazing friends and family and are truly thankful. Thanks to everyone who came and our wonderful family overseas!

Indianapolis Children's Museum

As usual she enjoyed all things water related..

and flowers..


and slides!

<Click here for more photos!>

piano

Guess it's a good thing we kept the piano. She appears to have taken an interest in it.

talking

Charlotte's talking a lot more. Some gibberish, some understandable - mostly all of it "toddlerese".

Have a picture. :)



..or two. She's currently getting over a double ear-infection. That's no fun for anyone involved.

E I E I O

Education

Anderson's education system is simply awful. I already have a good idea of what I want to do for Charlotte's primary education, but for preschool I have decided that I will "home school" her. I may do the same for Kindergarten as well since in Indiana Kindergarten is not required, but optional (this really bothers me). This is a huge decision, but I feel comfortable doing this.

Resourceful

Waahahaha

She is loud. Playing peek-a-boo. Warning, loud. I've warned you twice now!

The Dunes

We took a day trip up north, about an hour from Chicago to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Lovely place with a great beach - even if it is on Lake Michigan. There are also some nice hiking trails but try telling that to a 22 month old. Anyway, here are a couple of photos and a link to the gallery:

I'm pretty sure she'd live in sand if I let her.

Oh, hello there!

Even Indiana has decent beaches. Who needs the coast?

Looking like a big kid. :(

Click here for the rest of the photos in the set.

In sort of remotely related news: this year we're having Charlotte's 2nd birthday party at a State Park here in town so that should be exciting!

Talent

using the entertainment cabinets as a guiro

Look, an update!

It's been over a month so I figured it was time for an update. A couple weeks ago we went down to TN. We had a great time, as always! We enjoyed a boat ride, the zoo, a museum,lots of delicious food, and wonderful hospitality (like usual!). Here are the pictures from our visit:

Knoxville Photos 2011

And some highlights:


At the Oak Ridge Children's Museum


Playing in the park


At the Knoxville Zoo (with a friendly baby camel!)


This resulted in a complete outfit change and a very angry Charlotte (because we had the NERVE to take her out of the water)

She also got to play in a lake for the first time which she really enjoyed. Not a whole lot more has happened. Her birthday's coming up soon, so that's something exciting to look forward to! Her favorite things right now are dinosaurs, cars, balls, and counting.

Happy Father's Day! (a few days early)

Being Charlotte

Her 'alphabet' consists of "ee ah ee i" and sometimes an R is included and maybe a number or two.

The neighbor's dogs were out hence the barking and the howling early on.

As Promised

Here's a link to the Easter photos:

http://gallery.evilgeni.us/v/Family/CIA/easter2011/

and a preview:

She actually did really well and managed to pick up a few Easter eggs on her own during the hunt. We decided to not do the fancy Easter dress during the get-together mostly due to the nasty weather, but we did manage to get photos of her in her dress at home!

More of those can be found in the above link, as well. Enjoy! Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend.

Happy Easter!

Charlotte got her first Easter basket this year and she was pretty "meh" about it at first:

.. but then she realized that there was FOOD inside!

Looking forward to seeing tons of family this afternoon for the annual Easter get-together. The weather is dreary but we'll make the most out of it. 8)

photo dump

So, based on these photos Charlotte loves her pacifier, my iPhone, and the glider. :)

Art

Here's an adorable drawing our friend Chris Ludden (of Giant Turtle) made of Charlotte. Enjoy!




















inspired by this outfit:

Sailor Charlotte

Every girl has to have a sailor dress. :)

Photo

Just wanted to share!

Update

It's been a while so I've decided to update. Things are going well. Matt's on a business trip all this week and life at home is simply uneventful. My point and shoot camera decided to become glitchy and die for the most part so I purchased a new one! This is why there's been a lack of photos. As always, any photos I take are still uploaded almost immediately to our online gallery at: http://gallery.evilgeni.us and if you're looking for Charlotte photos specifically, those can be found here (in order by month newer photos are at the bottom of the page): http://gallery.evilgeni.us/v/Family/CIA/

Here are some pictures taken within the last 2 weeks.









As you can tell not only does she still have her blue eyes, but her hair's still curly even as it grows out. :D