Take me out to the ball game....

Back in June we took Amelia and Madelyn to an Indians game. We went with our friends Chris, Lisa, Justin and Tracy. This was Amelia's first trip to Victory Field and she really enjoyed it! She stayed on the blanket for quite a bit of the time before getting hungry.

Madelyn enjoyed the company of our friends. She liked Tracy's glasses and looked super cute in them!

Lisa was kind enough to share her ice cream cone. Maddie hasn't really had much experience with ice cream on a cone and didn't quite know how to eat it. Luckily, Chris and Lisa coached her on how to properly eat it.

Unfortunately the Indians lost that night, but it was a fun night for everyone!

Pictures of the girls

Jill bravely took the girls to get their pictures taken last Friday. Amelia was awake the entire time, but Madelyn wasn't much in the mood for saying cheese to the lady with the camera. You can click here to access our picture proofs. You will have to put Jill Carnes in for the customer name when asked to. We ordered several prints to send out, so if you want to order some, please be sure to check with us first about what we got for you. We will have them back on the 27th.

Brown County Beauties

Brown County Indiana. It's a beautiful place. Home to Brown County State Park, the Nashville art colony, the town of Beanblossom, a piece of Lake Monroe. Anyone who has been there can attest to it's beauty, but I'm not writing about the flora and fauna. I'm writing about our little beauties, of course. Amelia (sleeping) was in the mood for a road trip, so we asked Madelyn what she thought about heading down south. She was jazzed.

It was a perfect day for a family picnic at the State Park. We packed the coolers and hit the road.

Our route took us through Martinsville, one of the cities hardest hit by the recent flooding of the White River. The Chrysler dealership had a sign out front that read, "No Flood Cars Here". The Ford dealership next door wasn't so lucky. They had a group of what looked like 75 cars encircled with caution tape. There's nothing quite like that "wet car" smell.

We finally made it to the park, which luckily was above water. We had our picnic, and Maddie got to play on the playground. Amelia got to go on her first hike.

We hooked up the baby carrier (first time) and I toted her around the lake, while Jill and Madelyn followed.

The trip was a success, the girls had fun, and crying and whining was at a minimum. That's what I call a good Father's Day.

Just out for a Sunday drive....

Many of you have probably heard by now of the record flooding that occurred here in Central Indiana over the weekend. It began raining overnight Friday and by about 1 PM on Saturday, 7 inches of rain had fallen in Indianapolis and about 11 inches just south of us. Needless to say, it caused some problems with the roads.

Sunday we were planning to go to Terre Haute and visit. Mom was in town and we were going to go have a cookout at Randi and Joe's. The problem that was affecting us was that I-70 westboud to Terre Haute was closed because part of the road had collapsed. Luckily we knew about this ahead of time and were prepared for a detour.

We set out at 11:00 am. We stopped in Plainfield for gas and a soda. We traveled on 70 to exit 41 where traffic was being sent North on 231. The line of cars as we exited on 231 was stopped and Chuck decided we should go South and try taking 42 over. We needed to go 20 miles before we could get back on 70 or take US 40. We drove about 12 miles and decided we had made the right choice and would be outsmarting traffic. Just after that we came to a field that was flooded on both sides of the road and the water was rushing across. Chuck turned us around and we headed back towards the original detour.

On our way back Chuck wanted to see the Cagle Mill Dam. So, thinking it would be just off the road we were on, he turned off and we drove a few miles on a gravel road and found the dam. We will be interested to go back and see what it looks like when there hasn't been so much rain.

By this time, it was about 1:15. We set back on our way and made it up to 40. It looked surprisingly clear so we turned west bound and were headed for Terre Haute again. We drove for several miles and were confident it wouldn't take us too long. That is until we came to Brazil. Well, we never saw Brazil because the line of cars were at a dead stop and were not moving any time soon. At this point, we decided to call it a trip and head back.

Now, it doesn't sound too bad right? It gets better (and funnier). We then went back and ended up at that same exit off of 70 in Cloverdale for lunch. Both the girls were ready to eat by now, so we ate at Chicago's Pizza. Great pizza, so we were glad for that!

After a stop for lunch, we were ready to head home. When we got back onto I-70 we saw the traffic that was being diverted onto 231 had worsened. The line on 70 was backed up for 4 miles to take the detour. Glad we didn't have to sit in that!! We were about 1/2 mile from the entrance to our neighborhood and we, yet again, encountered high water. So, we had to turn around and take a different road home.

So after 4 hours and 15 minutes, a half a tank of gas and 135 miles of travel we had only full stomachs to show for it. We were sorry we didn't make it to Terre Haute, but it certainly wasn't because we didn't try!!

This picture is from the Indianapolis Star. People submitted their own pictures and this one happens to be in our neighborhood. The fence you see on the left is the fence along Wicker Road that edges the golf course. They had to shut down the exit to our neighborhood and Wicker Road because of high waters. They have all receded and are passable, but looks like it was pretty bad right after the storm!

After we returned home Sunday, Chuck mowed the lawn. Maddie wanted to go outside so badly and when he finished, we went out and turned the sprinkler on for Maddie. She isn't a big fan of water, but Chuck got her to get into it a little. These are just a couple of pictures of her playing.

Amelia is a month old!

Friday Amelia was officially a month old. She had her one month appointment with the doctor and is doing great! In just 2 weeks she put on 2 pounds. Now she is 10 lbs. 1 oz. She is doing better with sleeping at night. We still get up twice with her, but are almost getting used to it!

First Family Roadtrip

Our first family roadtrip came much sooner than we had planned for. Chuck's grandma passed away on the 18th, so we needed to go to South Bend for the funeral and all that goes with that. We left midmorning on Saturday and returned in the afternoon on Monday. It was a quick and busy trip, but the girls handled it all really well.

Maddie was content in the car with her DVD player. She watched Go, Diego, Go (Or Go Go and she calls him) pretty much the whole way there.

We let Maddie sit on my lap, Brittney Spears style, for a little while. Just kidding, of course. We had to stop in Argos and feed Amelia. Maddie enjoyed sitting up front with all the buttons.

On Monday we cooked out with Chuck's family. Maddie got to ride in a kayak with Daddy. She liked to try and row herself.

This is an up close look at Maddie in her Spideman life jacket. She really enjoyed wearing it!

A couple of cute pictures from around the house

These are just a few pictures we thought were cute.

Amelia got her first bath on Sunday May 18th. She did a pretty good job with the whole thing. We were surprised by how calm she acted towards the end of the bath.

Maddie is still enjoying being a big sister. She likes to be right there with sissy and gets REALLY excited when she gets to hold her.

Isn't this a sweet picture? Grandpa and Roberta sent this outfit and she happened to have just had her hair still in place.

Even though Amelia isn't sleeping in her room yet, she seems to be really comfortable and at home in her bed.

Jill's 28th birthday

Chuck did a great job of planning for my birthday. My mom was in town (who Maddie now calls Bugga rather than Grammy!) and watched the girls while we went to dinner. Chuck didn't tell me where we were going and we ended up at the Rathskeller downtown (which was appropriate since last year we were in Europe for my birthday). What he also didn't tell me is that several of our friends were meeting us as well! We had dinner and enjoyed catching up with everyone. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of the whole group before some had to leave.

After that we went out to the Biergarten and listened to music and enjoyed some drinks. It was definitely a fun night!

Here is a picture of Bugga and Amelia. Thanks for taking such good care of our girls!!

Our first (official) family outing

Monday we took Amelia to the doctor for her 1 week check-up. She is back to her birth weight of 7 lbs and her cord has come off already! The Dr. was pleased with what she saw and Maddie enjoyed showing off her new sister. After that we ventured to Target for a few things.

However, our first official outing as a family came Tuesday. We packed up and headed downtown for lunch at the City Market. It was really nice to get out. We started out outside, but had to go inside because it was just a little too breezy.

We sat and had lunch....even Amelia who was ready to eat at this point.

Maddie ate her hotdog without the bun. However, when she was done, she began eating her bun and was calling it a burger. She really liked her "burger". This was a first!!

After lunch, Daddy let Maddie pick out a cookie. As always, she said "mmmm, good". She certainly is a daddy's girl!!

A visit from the cousins

The Cousins

Amelia got to meet her Gormong cousins for the first time today. We cooked out and played for several hours. Amelia slept through most of it, but it was a fun time!!

The girls had a fun time playing today. We had a few minor sharing problems, but overall it went well! Imagine what it will be like when Amelia and Rebekah join in!

Rebekah makes the GREATEST facial expressions. We were calling this her "old man" face. Too cute!!

We need to get a boy in this crew......

Welcome home!

Our first family photo!!

Maddie continues to enjoy her sissy. She came to the hospital Wednesday in her "Big Sister" t-shirt and asked immediately about her sissy. She and Grandma spent a few hours with us in the morning. Aunt Randi brought lunch and visited with me while Chuck went home with Maddie and his mom for a little while.

We were released from the hospital on Thursday around noon. It was a weird sight to see 2 carseats in the back of the car! Amazing how fast we managed to fill up the Envoy!!

It was really good to get home. Maddie likes to be right there with Amelia to "help". As you can see, she has been practicing on her babies to be ready to help!

Our first night was busy. Amelia didn't want to be put down to sleep (although she will during the day, go figure!). She has had a good day today and we will try and get a little more sleep tonight!

Happy Birthday Amelia Ruth Carnes

Somehow it has been 2 months almost since our last post. Things have been so crazy that it takes the birth of a baby to make us update this thing!!


Tuesday, May 6 we welcomed Amelia Ruth to the Carnes crew. As with Madelyn, this was a little earlier than planned, but only by a week (We had been scheduled for induction on the 12th). We had what we thought would be a routine visit to the Dr. Monday. We soon found out Jill's blood pressure was up a little and since she was 38 weeks, she would be put on the schedule for induction Tuesday morning.


We spent Monday night at the hospital. They began the induction at 7:30 followed by the epidural at 10. At 11:30 we pushed (only 3 sets of 3 pushes, might I add) and at 11:54 we had a healthy 7 lb. baby. Amelia was very cooperative and made this (dare we say) almost too easy.

This experience has been completely different than what we had with Madelyn. She has been able to spend all of her time with us and we will only be spending 2 nights here in the hospital. We are so thankful to have things go this way for Amelia (and of course ourselves).

Maddie has been staying at our house with Grandma (Carnes). They came up after naptime Tuesday to meet her new sissy. She LOVED the baby. She held, hugged, kissed, poked, fed, and even tried to tickle Amelia. It will be interesting to see how she reacts when this new baby comes home with us for good.

We will continue to add pictures and updates as we can. For now, enjoy these couple of videos!