Baylee officially inducted as a Lowe fisherman

Last Saturday we decided to hit up the reliable old Airport Pond fishing hole. We are proud to announce Baylee caught not only the first fish, but the most fish and by herself. While we do cast it(her casting invovles throwing the pole usually) and we take the fish off, a one year old and hooks don't make a safe combo, she sets the hook and reels on her own. She even was jigging her line, maybe not purposely but it was working. Amazing. We had so much fun. Unfortunately I didnt think to video the first one, I got her third one, so she was over the super huge excitement. At this point it was almost more of a chore. She would much rather pull the fish onto the bank than reel it, but she's one, we forgive her :) We are looking forward to many more fishing trips!

Easter, a little late

I know it's late posting. But we had a fun Easter. The Easter bunny came and Baylee hunted eggs. We had a big turkey lunch. It was nice to have Cody home for the weekend. It was not super eventful! But of course we have pictures!

I posted videos of the egg hunt on our Youtube. Had to do it in two sections and I apologize for the crazy photographer. ... I'm not good at it yet. Warning for the weak stomached: take a dramamine first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p3VgE6NU9U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdNcn4NDQ0&feature=channel_page

The Norths visit Mattoon

We had the privilege of having Brian, Kelly and Caleb park in Mattoon amidst their travels. It was so incredibly good to see them. Baylee and Caleb had fun playing together, of course, the wagon was a hit as well as the puppy. Add in the puppy chasing the wagon....all those two little ones could do was laugh. While it was quite the workout pulling them in the grass, it was so worth the buns of steel bootcamp session to hear them crack up nonstop. (thus the 2500 wagon pics I took)

We also out of pure tradition had to make and decorate cookies while they were here. This time, it was nice for Baylee and Caleb to be able to join in and help out, though it still ended up with Kelly and me putting our artwork on most of them. We were a bit out of practice since neither of us have made cookies to decorate since our splitting up last year when we left Georgia. You know it's just not the same without someone to make fun of your latest artwork!

Kelly and Brian were nice enough to take us out for Mexican food for dinner(Thanks again for that!). It was so nice just to go out and hang with old friends. We really enjoyed the visit!

Catching up

So yes, it has not gone as planned on the blogging side of things. I will attempt to bring everyone up to speed pretty quickly though.

Mid March, Cody's sister, Erin came to visit for a few days. We enjoyed her visit. We got to go check out the big helicopter one day, of course Baylee loved it too. While she was here, we also went fishing on Sunday with Amber and Tyler(our new neighbors). I got skunked that day, but no big deal, the guys both caught a few good sized bass that we brought home. We then got the fixings together for fried fish and burgers. We had fun spending time with Erin.

We had a little bit of nice weather in between last post and today....as I watch it still flurrying outside :( We hit up the park a few times and took the wagon for some strolls. Those tires are going to get a lot of wear on them.

Our most recent big news is the new puppy addition to our family. At the rate we are adding to our family in the pet dept we will have the Lowe family zoo up and running by mid summer. We got a steal on a full blooded white German Shepherd puppy who we registered as "Odin Buri Lowe". He's almost 2 months old now. He is an extremely well tempered puppy. He is close to being fully housebroken. He loves to be covered up by blankets and his favorite spot to sleep is on my pillow. However, I decided my sleeping on my own pillow was worth the accidents that would happen if he slept on the floor next to the bed. Proud to report last night, our little Odin made it through the night without leaving me any surprises. Happy was I! He's been a lot of fun, a lot of extra work since he's still so much puppy, but worth it. And oh yes, Baylee LOVES him.

I am having to adjust to the idea of a big dog and the white hair, but so far, I'm handling it better than expected. We are hoping he will be a somewhat average size German Shepherd. His parents were quite the opposite match hope so we are hoping for a happy medium. His mom was only about 60 lbs and on the small side. His dad however, I mistook for a small pony. He weighed about 120 and was HUGE! With all of our rain lately, I've learned to contain him and clean water and mud off before he makes it in the house and then I don't have to swiffer mop 49 times a day. I have already shampooed the carpets because my mind wasn't handling seeing the mud that had been tracked in very well at all.

We have been hanging out a good bit with our neighbors Amber and Tyler. They are so much fun. And it's been nice and convenient to have them here. One Saturday night we had them over for pizza and cards. One game of Spades lasted us all night and proudly, Tyler and I kicked Amber and Cody's rears! And I didn't even have to cheat (haha). Baylee still very much loves their puppies and gets excited every time she hears them outside and has to run watch if not go outside and play.

As for everything else, things are going well, just look at our pics. Baylee is talking up a storm and loves to copycat everything still. She can be found mocking you at any given point. We have had Keenan and Julia over some. We've still been going to playgroup, though this week is spring break and we won't get to have it. We had Keenan and Julia's familys over for dinner on Saturday night. We also had some new friends over as well. Sarah, Dave and Thomas. They are new to Mattoon from nowhere other Orangeburg, South Carolina. To most of you reading this you are thinking "and?". We actually lived there for a time and it's rare that you meet someone from a place so "large". Though they are not originally from there, it still counts. Little Thomas is a few days younger than Baylee and is such a happy little chap all of the time, though I'm sure Sarah would argue that. But we are excited about having new friends.

We are definitely hoping for a little pick up in the weather department. We do take advantage when it's even somewhat warm. Baylee and I eat lunch outside on the patio most days and have been getting our exercise by exercising Odin. We took Odin for his first walk on Saturday. It took him a while of being dragged to figure out the leash thing and then he tired easily and would have to ride with Baylee(she just hated that).

We are looking forward to many more walks and much more sunshine!