ReAdY oR nOt

Last night was the elementary school Ice Cream Social. As we got out of the car, I asked Avery if she was ready to go meet her kindergarten teacher. She took a deep breathe and said yes.

 She then nervously grabbed my hand. 

tight. 

I'm not sure who was holding on tighter. 

me

 or
 her.

I am a baby. I am crying as I type this. 

I'm not ready.

Avery is an Angel, I love her so much.

Drew misses his best friend

Livi misses her best friend

and I miss my best little friend.

All day kindergarten is TORTURE! 

She did GREAT today. She LOVED it and said she can't wait to go back tomorrow.

Her favorite part was sitting at her desk and coloring.
Here she is, my little kindergartner!

It is a dark rainy day. My ISO was at 1000, F/2.8, ss 160 and it was still underexposed...outside!
I need to take her out for a real back to school photo shoot soon. 

Mandatory Picnic

At the end of Andy's first week of his Residency they had a mandatory picnic at the Base Lake. Kind of funny that it was mandatory. But hey, I would much rather be at the lake enjoying my family than sitting at home counting down the hours until hubby comes home. The days adventures included frog catching, boat rides, bubble popping, food, and of course lots of silly faces from Drew!

Blues and ABUs

Andy's family wanted to see him in his uniform, so here are a few pictures from COT (officer's training).

They call this uniform their Blues. He has to wear it every Monday

These are their ABUs. He wears these the rest of the week.

I still can't believe I am a Military wife, living in Nebraska. So weird! Life is full of surprises!

One Word

If I had to describe Nebraska in One word, it would be CORN!! There is LOTS and LOTS of CORN. My mom and I went exploring one Sunday afternoon and drove down the same road for 30 minutes and there was nothing but rows and rows of corn on both sides of the road. Everywhere you look there are Corn fields. I think it is part of what makes Nebraska charming, and about as "All-American" as you can get. My niece and I stopped by one farm to ask if we could take pictures there. The owner was just as expected. An adorably sweet, hardworking little old man wearing worn out Wranglers and his trusty old dog by his side. I love this place!

Just a test shot, but I think it is kind of cute!

If you had to describe where you live in one word, what would it be?? come on, you know you want to play along!

Amelia Grace

While I was in Utah, I went to the Heartshop. It was a photography workshop put on by the talented Becky Earl and Yan. They had some great models lined up for us so that we could shoot our little hearts out. It was really fun and I took a ton of pictures. I didn't want to clog the family blog with all the pictures, so one lonely night while Andy was gone I created a place to plop the ❤shop pics. I am calling it Amelia Grace Photography. Why Amelia Grace you ask? Well, first of all it starts with an "A" and that's how we roll round here ;). Really, it is a name that I have loved from the first time I saw it. My favorite place in Ohio is Chesterland. It is gorgeous, serene, and full of fond memories. On the drive out there, there is a quaint little assisted living facility called Amelia Grace. For some reason it spoke to me, made me giddy every time I drove by it. I would use the name for a kid, but Andy vetoed it, so it now has a new place as the name of my future photography business. I know the explanation sounds a little silly, but I love it. So for those of you who are interested in checking out my work, you can visit the new blog here. I will be adding new pics from sessions and such over there. Lots more to come real soon. Don't forget to leave me some love so I know you were there!

Couldn't Be Happier

He's Home!!!! Andy is back and we are so excited! The kids and I made a Welcome home sign for him. I think Livi had the most fun of all. She is quick and before I knew it she had dumped the paint all over herself and then smeared it on the poster with her bum. She wanted to make her mark on the poster too! 

We took the sign up to the gate and waited anxiously for an hour for daddy to come walking out only to realize he had some how slipped past us and was waiting on the curb for an hour thinking we had forgotten him!! (why didn't I just call him you ask? Oh, that would be because my phone has been broken for 3 weeks and there is no T Mobile stores in Nebraska!! :(  ) We finally found each other and it was a sweet reunion!

Trying to make a quick get a way!

☁Tornado Alley ☂

We get some CRAZY storms here in Nebraska. When it rains, it POURS and the Lightening is AMAZING!  It is a little freaky knowing we live in tornado alley, but the storms are fun to watch. Here are some pictures from one we had a week ago or so. These were taken at 9:30 at night. The sky went from being totally dark to this strange orange glow after the storm. And we got to see a double rainbow!

I've never seen anything like it. New adventures around every corner ☺

⑩ months

A post without pictures? what? Haven't had much time lately. I'll add one later :)

Livi is 10 months old!! I can't believe how much she has changed in the last month. She has learned so many new tricks and I feel like she has gone from the baby stage to more of the toddler stage. She is So much fun. I just love her to pieces.

Her new tricks:

*She graduated from the army crawl and can now crawl on all fours. She is getting pretty fast
*She can crawl up the stairs
*She can clap
*She loves music and rocks out to it
*She went from not babbling at all to saying mama and baby talking up a storm
*She waves Hi and says Hi
*She makes kissing sounds and it is So cute!
*She LOVES watermelon
*She has 7 teeth
*She can pull herself up on things and even started pushing the chairs across the kitchen floor while    walking
*She loves to talk to her daddy on the phone. Her whole face lights up. I can't wait for him to see her on                     Friday (yes, this friday!!! We are so excited!!)
*She yells at her bother whenever he gets in her space
*She has discovered dolls and stuffed animals and LOVES them. She has also learned to give hugs when you ask her to, and she hugs  the dolls all the time. Too cute for words.

Time to start planning her first birthday party :)

☆✭☆The Fourth of July

It was really sad to be without Andy for the fourth of July weekend, but the kids and I tried to make the best of it (2 weeks down, 3 more to go until Andy returns home from his officers training in Alabama). They had a carnival on the Air Force base complete with face painting, bounce houses, cotton candy, snow cones, balloon animals, and games. All I had to say was cotton candy and the kids jumped in the car as fast as they could. The flyer said FREE so I jumped too! :)

Fireworks are all legal in Nebraska, so the kids and I bought a few to entertain ourselves. They begged me all week to do them. I asked some friends in the ward where they go to watch fireworks and they all responded that they just hang out in their driveways. I was a little perplexed by this. I am used to going to big controlled shows put on by the city. But, sure enough, there was plenty of entertainment to be seen right from our front door. I can not even begin to describe what it is like. You really have to see it to believe it. People spend thousands of dollars on fireworks and on every street in Omaha there is a big show. It is a WAR ZONE!! So loud and smokey and OUT OF CONTROL! There are fireworks EVERYWHERE. Our neighbors started at about 5:00pm and literally did not stop until 11:30pm. Over 6 hours of CONSTANt fireworks. And, not just the little rinky dink ones, full blown fireworks going off in the middle of the street.  I was a little nervous being so close to them, but everyone else seemed to be fine with it. Wow, what a crazy night!

Of course we  can't forget Drew's funny for the night. We were sitting by our neighbors watching the firewroks and this really strange one went floating by. It looke like a little parachute type thing. It was lit up and just floated forever up in to the sky. We were all trying to figure out what it was and kept saying "how are they doing that? what is that?" over and over. Drew's answer to the question? He leans over nad in the cutest voice says "I bet Jesus is doing it. Jesus is doing fireworks too. huh mom!" :)

We had a few minutes to kill before church, it was raining outside, so the kids and I were hanging out in the garage. I grabbed my camera to get a picture to send to Andy. It ain't perfect, but I sure love it.

Especially since I am used to getting pictures like this:

and this:

Hope you had a great Fourth of July!! Having my husband in the Air Force now gave me a different perspective on things. I am sure Grateful for all those who serve our country and allow us to have the freedoms that we do!

Just Because

✈Utah

After we unpacked the house in Nebraska, we all jumped back into the car and drove to Utah to spend some time with Family. It was a blast as usual. Filled with lots of baseball games, treats, family bbq's, photoshoots, and no bed times. I spent so much time taking pictures of everyone else, that I didn't do a very good job documenting the trip. But, here are some random snaps from our Utah vacation 2010

We ate LOTs of good food. Here is Livi with the remnants of one of Aunt Julie's famous cookies on her face

And no Family BBQ is complete without a Red Punch mustache

We jumped on the Tramp (one of Livi's Favorite things to do)

We had a few lazy summer days at the park with grandma

And of course lots of snuggling with Grandma too

and fun with cousins

And we can't forget the birth of our first Ingersoll cousin Baby Ethan! The kids Loved him!

There was plenty of good times with cute Uncles 

and much much more. Thanks for the fun everyone! We miss you and love you!

A New Chapter

The day after graduation we finished packing up the truck and locked the doors to our first home for the last time. We were all SO tired and glad to be done that it masked some of the pain of saying goodbye. Cleveland will always hold a spot in my heart. There were so many things to love about it. We miss our dear friends so much. Tears fill my eyes as I think about all that we experienced in our 4 years there. Such amazing memories amidst the angst of school. I can't believe it is all behind us now. Nebraska has welcomed us with open arms though. We have only been here for a few weeks but cannot believe how nice everyone is. The day we arrived several neighbors came over to introduce themselves, and one even brought us dinner! Our next door neighbor mowed the front lawn today knowing that Andy is away (more on that later). So while it was/is hard to say goodbye, we are in a good spot here in Papillion, Nebraska. We really lucked out on our rental home too. I was so nervous about choosing one over the internet. We decided to go for price rather than comfort since we will only be here for a year. But, the house has exceeded our expectation. We had no idea when we rented it, but we are 6 houses away from the church! How lucky is that? So, we are starting a new chapter in our lives. For the first time in 7 years,  we are no longer students. This chapter is all about family life in the United States Air Force. Oh what fun adventures await!

We got the biggest sized rental truck available because we didn't want to worry about cramming things in. When we fist picked it up, we thought we were only going to fill up like half of it. By the end, we used every last inch and still had to leave a few things behind. We gave our neighbors a desk, the bbq, our lawn mower, and the rest went on the tree lawn. 

The last picture at 4030 Ellison Road

patiently waiting

A tiny peek. Thanks for being so patient guys!

Isn't he beautiful? Andy's cousin Jayni is the proud mama of little T. Ray. I could seriously eat him!

The Gorgeous J Family has the most amazing blue eyes! Check out his peepers!!

This Handsome guy is Andy's little brother Aaron and I was lucky enough to capture his cute mug for his senior pictures

Stay posted, more to come!

9 months

I am up to my ears in editing and needing to update the blog, but I thought I better take a moment and wish our sweet grumpy buns a happy 9 months! I'm not sure how a baby can be so sweet and lovable and yet be the grumpiest, most spoiled thing ever. crazy girl! 

Livi is just starting to venture out and army crawl. Today she got into the kitchen cupboards for the first time and had a blast sliding the pans across the floor. She is also little miss snaggle tooth. Her right lateral incisor came in last week. I'm hoping her front teeth come in soon to balance it out :) 

and a post about Livi would not be complete without a picture of her adorable chubby little feet. Andy says she is a monkey because she uses her feet like her hands. She feels everything with her toes! Livi is our feisty red head and we couldn't love her more!!

Is there a DOCTOR in the house?

Introducing

Captain Andrek J. Ingersoll DMD

 After four long years of hard work we are finally done. Graduation was amazing. I think Andy and I both had perma-grins the whole day. It was just such an amazing feeling of accomplishment. We couldn't be more proud of you hon!!

Newly commissioned Captain in the United States Air Force

We were lucky enough to have Andy's parents and grandma come to help us celebrate

Andy and a few of his buddies 

Avery and her future husband Talmage :) hanging out before the ceremony

I Got a Dollar, I Got a Dollar, I Got a Dollar, Hey Hey Hey Hey!!!

We signed Avery and Drew up for the spring toddler soccer team. The weather was terrible for the first 4 games. It was so cold and windy that the kids did not even want to play. The weather finally decided to cooperate for our last game, and Avery had such a great time (Drew was too sick to play)! I think she was showing off for Grandma and Grandpa :) We told her (or bribed her, how ever you look at it ;)) that we would give her a dollar for every goal she scored and boy did she deliver. Especially for a little girl who thought it was too mean to take the ball from the other team :) She scored 2 goals and had one assist!!! It was so fun to watch her dribble down the field with a serious look of concentration and her tongue hanging out :)

So Andy gave her 3 dollars for her goals and 1 dollar for playing so good. He looked at his grandma and jokingly said "Is that bad parenting?" As he was saying it, Avery handed Drew 2 of her dollars because he was sick and couldn't play. Andy's grandma smiled and said "I'd say that is good parenting." What a sweet girl she is!!

Drew-isms

I have a ton of updating to do, but for now I wanted to write down a few things before I forget. I say this all the time, but Drew is So funny. He keeps us laughing! Here are some Drew-isms from the last week:

Yesterday in the car he says to me "Mom, do you know who President Erying is?" I said " Yes,  do you know who he is?" Drew says "Yes, he is the president of the country of our church." I say "You think so?" to which he adds "Ya, and do you know who Elder Bednar is? He is the one who makes everyone go to sleep." I chuckled and asked him why he thought that. he says "Duh mom, he is Elder BEDnar!!!" with extra emphasis on the Bed :) I got a good laugh out of that one. 


Last week when Andy was being commissioned a Captain in the Air Force Drew leans over to Grandma Cindi and says "um, I think this is President Obama's house." So Random! What 3 year old says that?!?




Grandma Cindi was playing robot with the kids and Drew really got into his role. He was robot blue and Grandma was the Commander. He was playing mean robot bear and got a little too wild so grandma pushed his nice robot bear button and he changed instantly to a nice robot. Cindi calls me yesterday and jokingly says "being a mom isn't so hard. All you have to do is push their nice button." To bad it only works for Grandmas!! I tried to push his nice button yesterday and he says "Mom, I'm not a robot anymore. I don't have any buttons. you can't push my buttons Mom!" Like nice try! :)