Thanksgiving Kids

We went up to South Bend for Thanksgiving with our families, and unfortunately we only have kid pictures to show for it. They're cute pictures, but please don't be upset if you were planning to see Jill and I's smiling faces. I know you're disappointed. Get over it.

Here's Madelyn and her cousin RJ at my Mom and Dad's house in Elkhart. They were getting ready to go outside and play.
Here's Maddie saying goodbye to cousin Caitlyn, Uncle Randy, and Aunt Meredithe.
Maddie and cousin Rachel, hamming it up at Mammaw's house.

Downtown Indy on Friday Night

Every year the city puts Christmas lights on the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in the circle, creating the "World's Largest Christmas Tree". Every year we have to go check it out. The best part about that is that there is the happiest place in Indianapolis, on Market Street just outside the circle - Giorgio's Pizza.

Madelyn normally is a big fan of the sausage pizza, but tonight she was more interested in the cheese pizza. She enjoyed this piece. I love this place, but every time we go I have to laugh that our favorite New York style pizza is in Indianapolis, but in the Big Apple we went to a Sbarro. Go figure, right?

After the pizza we went over to the circle to check out the decorations. Maddie was excited to see all the horses with the carriages. I think my girls would like a carriage ride...
Jill and Madelyn playing at the monument.
At the South Bend Chocolate Company. South Bend Chocolate in Indianapolis. We toured their factory last winter up north. Yum. Maddie likes the whipped cream.

Halloween, Weddings, and Other Stuff

Back in September we were up in Granger visiting our peeps, and Maddie had the chance to ride in a real Cadillac with her cousin Kayla. It was hoodie weather. I like the look on their faces in this picture. Maddie is thinking "Help!", and Kayla is thinking "Did anyone see me back into Mom's truck?"

Alright, take it easy. She got in there on her own. This is no way reflects our parenting skills (or lack thereof). Chase is a social butterfly, he just was having company at his house. Now when we say "Get in your crate" we have to make sure the kid doesn't beat him to the punch.
Jill and Madelyn on Halloween, with our friend Lisa and her nephew Brayden (and Toby the Dog). It's a bit hard to tell, but Maddie was a ladybug. One lady actually thought she was Brayden's "little brother". Is there really a poor boy somewhere whose parents put him in a ladybug costume? I guess there are boy ladybugs, but c'mon... Two Saturdays ago we went up to South Bend for Brian and Sara's wedding. This picture is not from that one, because our camera died after 10 minutes, so it will have to live on in our memories :). Last weekend we went over to St. Louis (Troy, MO actually) for Jay and Kendra's wedding. I was a groomsman, so we took Friday off and stayed over there for the weekend. We had a good time, but I think Maddie had the most fun dancing it up on the floor. Don't ask about the pink vest and tie.

Covered Bridge Festival

Today we packed up the car and headed down the road to the Covered Bridge Festival. It takes place annually in Parke County, which is on the east side of Indiana, between Terre Haute and Lafayette.

Festival central is in Rockville.

There is a road on the east side of Indianapolis called "Rockville Road". Guess where it goes.

A small town diner in Danville. I would make a Matlock joke here, but I can't think of anything from the Andy Griffith Show.

Jill and Madelyn in front of the covered bridge in Bridgeton. This bridge was actually destroyed by arson a few years ago, but it was rebuilt in 2006. We have another picture from 2001 with Jill sitting in the Jeep in front of the original. I don't know if you can open the picture to enlarge it, but all of the covered bridges have the phrase "Cross This Bridge at a Walk". We did drive the Envoy across two of the bridges in Parke County, one of which was built in the 1860's. I bet they didn't have 4,000 pound SUVs in mind when they designed them, but it held up (a few creaks and groans notwithstanding).

Another shot of the Bridgeton covered bridge. This picture was taken from a window in the Old Mill marked "Best View in Town: FREE". If you look at the mill in the next picture, it was the 3rd window in from the left, 2nd up from the bottom.
The scene in Bridgeton. The festival was all on the south side of the bridge (the far side in the picture), while most of the parking was on the north side, so you walk across the covered bridge to get to the festival.

Good Girl

Maddie seems to be doing a lot of "talking" these days. She will say no, yea, wow, cheese, chase, momma, dada, and Boiler up (okay maybe not quite that). There is one question that she will answer the same way consistently. Watch this video and see!

Yesterday I went to the store to get groceries. Maddie loves to help put things away, although she usually ends up helping more to unload them!

We are heading over to the Covered Bridge Festival in Rockville. Chuck is in desperate need of a funnel cake and Maddie and I are wanting to get pumpkins! We will put some pictures up when we get back!

Happy Girl

Well, Maddie is up and walking now, and we recorded a few videos just to put one on here, but for some reason Blogger isn't letting it upload, so we'll keep trying.

Here are a couple recent pictures for everyone. Sorry we haven't updated as frequently, things have been pretty crazy since we both started our new jobs.

Maddie in her favorite (ok, our favorite) PJ's.

Helping me fix the sink. We replaced the original faucet with a nicer one - because the original one was leaking :(

A sign of the times at the Notre Dame/Purdue game last Saturday?

An homage to a portly roommate?

A social commentary to those enjoying litigation?

Maybe all of the above?

Little Miss Cool Pants in her Peyton Manning jersey.

Boiler Up

Madelyn is a happy girl - because it's game day, and her Boilers are playin' tonight. We had to put her to bed before the kickoff (9:00 p.m.), but we let her sleep in the Purdue t-shirt (gotta support the team). As you can tell, she had a fun day getting ready for the game.

At the time of this post, Purdue's ahead of Minnesota, 31 to 17.

Are you ready for some football??

Maddie is! She has her Peyton Manning jersey AND Purdue jersey ready to go! We had a hard time getting her to hold still for a picture in them, but you can see them here!

Boiler Up!!

Check out the dance Maddie does at the end of this video....She's Too Cute!!

Going to the fair, going to the fair....

In case you weren't aware..........


Randi, Joe, Rachel and Rebekah made a trip to Indy to go the Indiana State Fair. It was a really fun day and one of the first days in awhile it hadn't been 90 degrees!



Maddie and Rachel always have a good time together.

Maddie, Daddy and Tina



Maddie had the opportunity to get her picture taken with the award winning pumpking. It weighed in at 1,468 pounds. Man, I would hate to carve that one!

Now we can add video!

We are just experimenting with the video upload a little bit.....

Here's Maddie practicing good dental hygiene.

Man, it has been a long time!!!

It has been far too long since we have put pictures on here! Hopefully this will satisfy everyone!!

These pictures date back to early August, just before school started. I was able to go and be with Joe and Randi as they brought Rebekah home from the hospital. So tiny she is in her car seat!!

That same week Maddie and I went to do some fun things before it was time for her to go back to daycare full time. This is Maddie making friends in the pool at the YMCA.

We also went downtown to the city market. Maddie left her hat on the whole time and had so much fun seeing all the people and scenery.

It was a bummer to go back to work, but Maddie is glad to be back at daycare with all of her pals!

Welcome to the family Rebekah Mae!

Chuck, Madelyn and I made a short, but sweet visit to Terre Haute last night to meet our new niece/cousin Rebekah Mae Gormong who was born Friday at 4:04 pm. She came a little early and is only 4 lbs 10 oz, but she is doing great and has been in and out of Randi's room!

Rachel is pretty excited about being a big sister. She did a great job visiting with Rebekah several times with Grammy.

Maddie loves her new cousin! She doesn't quite know how to be gentle yet, but we will work on it.

One Year pictures

On Maddie's birthday I took her to get her pictures taken. She did awesome, especially since it was nap time! Anyways, here are a few samples of what we had done. You can view all of the pictures by clicking on this link https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0807110471JCP and entering Jill Carnes in the customer name. We ordered quite a few pictures for everyone, so don't order any until you get yours from us!

Happy 1st Birthday Maddie Lou!!

At 7:47 this morning, Maddie is officially 1 year old! It is so hard to believe, but it has been a wonderful year. To celebrate, we went to South Bend for the last weekend to have birthday parties. We spent Saturday with Chuck's side of the family. It was a hot day, but we made do. We had a cookout and then cake and presents....everyone's favorite photo opportunity!

After that we went for a pontoon ride. As you can see, all the kids (young and old) had a good time!

Sunday we headed to church with Jill's side of the family and then had a cookout at Mammaw's house. Again, it was a lot of fun. Maddie got a little more into the cake smashing, but can you believe that after all this cake smashing, she didn't eat but one bite of it?? I guess that is a good thing that she isn't a sweets lover yet!

Sunday evening Chuck had to leave and go back to Indianapolis to start his new job Monday. I stayed on until Tuesday. Monday I had lunch with Alanna (who I have been friends with since the third grade...that means almost 20 years! Oh my!) After that, Randi, Mammaw, Rachel, Maddie and I went to Battell Park to play in the "shower park". It was fun. Maddie is becoming a water lover and Rachel had a fun time running around!

Monday evening we had dinner with Mom at a favorite local haunt....Doc Pierce's. Yum. It was a great trip and great to see everyone. We hope to do it again soon!

We are getting Maddie's pictures taken this morning, so be sure to check back for some photo previews again!