Boy Oh Boy!

Don't get too excited yet, I'm not talking about Baby Allsop...we won't know whether we're getting a boy or girl for a few more months yet (however, we are down to less than 100 days to go!!).
I'm talking about our friends Heather and Andrew who are adding a little boy to their family sometime around August 29th! Some girlfriends and I celebrated with Heather last night at a very fun girls' night at my house.

Our theme was "Pickles and Ice Cream" and we based our menu on some of Heather's cravings during this pregnancy. We had an appetizer of spinach & cheese dip, make-your-own pizzas for dinner and a sundae bar for dessert.

Heather's sister, Heidi, had a friend make all the decorations and favors which were super cute.

Thanks, girls, for coming and making our time together so much fun! Congratulations, Heather, Andrew and Corinne! We are so excited to meet your little boy who will be here soon!

Drummond Island, Michigan

Our group, minus Erik who was running and Cindy who took the picture.

Last night Erik and I got home after a long weekend on Drummond Island, Michigan. We had a great time with an awesome group of friends and are so thankful to the Wengers for opening their house to us and allowing us to use their boat/jetski. Oh, and we did make some great progress on an action plan for Connection - the church service where we are on the Leadership Team.

We had a deal that the girls would prepare food if they guys would clean up. It worked out very nicely!

Some male bonding and game playing took place.

This crew took the boat out on the first day. Erik chose to nap a little during the afternoon instead.

The girls' bowling team. Even though we lost to the guys (despite having Cindy Sheppard on our team who was awesome and a 100 pin handicap), we probably had more fun! Josh and Raquel proved that 9 years of marriage has paid off by winning the Newlywed Game.

Boating, day 2. The muscles had to push us out before we could get the motor started.

We found out that Alicia is a really fast swimmer when she, Cory and Christina flipped the jetski. Christina was fearless!

Erik second-guessed his desire to ski when he felt the water temperature.

We didn't let Raquel get on the jetski - she couldn't even sit on the boat without falling out of her seat! Ed held on to Erik as he untangled the ski rope from the boat's motor. We didn't have as much success untangling it from the jetski.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the lake on our last evening.
What a fun and relaxing weekend! We enjoyed every second of our time together, but also really missed our boy. Malachi's been in Tennessee with his Yaya and 'Buelo and warned me that he wouldn't have time to miss me because he was going to have so much fun. I think he really has enjoyed himself that much because he hasn't even wanted to talk to us on the phone! You can see some pictures of his adventures on Aunt Jessica's blog. Now I'm off to get him and bring him home!!

July 4th Weekend

What a fun weekend! We started early on Saturday morning with a trip to Hillsboro so that Erik could run in a 5K. He did a great job and won his age group! He came in 5th overall, with only teenagers beating him. We then relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon at the Lloyd household, waiting our turns to hold Adeline. Around dinnertime we headed up the road to the Knisley's for friends, food and fireworks...oh and water basketball for the boys! It did rain on us a bit, but that didn't spoil the fun or the fireworks!

Run, Erik, run!

Malachi liked running around in the rain and then found a friend inside who would play puzzles with him all night - thanks, Katie!

The fireworks were great as usual, but the kids were just as happy to have the sparklers.

Yesterday was also a nice and relaxing day. We didn't do anything special to celebrate our anniversary, although a date is in our future!

We are so happy to celebrate 6 years and all the blessings we've experienced together!

Visiting Adeline

Yesterday Malachi and I were lucky enough to spend the whole day at Adeline's house. Megan, Kelsey and I had made some food for them the day before that we took and put in their freezer. Meg and I did some cleaning, Malachi played a lot with Uncle Blake and Kelsey did a photo shoot with Adeline - look for some great pictures to come! We had a great day! Thanks for letting us spoil Adeline so much!

A Trophy!

T-Ball is now officially over. There was an awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon and Malachi was ecstatic about winning a trophy!

Malachi's Summer...so far!

Malachi has been having a pretty fun summer so far, and I thought I should let everyone know what he's been up to lately.

T-Ball. He's had fun being on the team and has definitely improved over the last two months. He also really likes the snacks after each game!
Running with Dad. He likes to challenge Erik to races to "see who's faster." They even ran together from our house to Grammy Jane's last week (about 1/4 mile).

Learning his letters. He's known his alphabet for a long time now, and we had been working on the letter sounds when a friend suggested the Leap Frog video The Letter Factory. I think he's slightly addicted to it, but I must admit that he knows how to write each letter and what sound each makes. He can even sound out and spell simple words! The other day he was in his room "working" on his "spells" - that's what he calls words - and yelled for me to come see. He had used this puzzle lid to recreate the words "moms" and "babies" on his wall!

Up next - swimming lessons. He loves being in the pool so hopefully he'll enjoy learning to swim without flotation devices. I'll post pictures when he begins!

Happy Father's Day!

Instead of sleeping the afternoon away (as Erik had hoped he'd be able to do on his Father's Day), we got to drive to Columbus to meet our new niece! Adeline Makenna Lloyd decided to give her daddy the best Father's Day gift ever and was born this morning just before 9:30. She is a beautiful little girl, weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and just 19 inches long. Although Kimberly and Blake are a little tired, they are doing great.

The new family -

Uncle Erik, Aunt Erin and Aunt Meg taking turns holding Adeline -

Malachi with his new cousin (he doesn't understand yet that now he'll have to share the spotlight!) -

Here's what Malachi had to say about her name. He and Erik have been reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe lately, which explains his choice for what to call her.

Congratulations, Blake and Kimberly! We're so excited for you and can't wait to visit Adeline again soon!