st. valentine 2016

Valentine's Day was a bit like last year in some ways and others not. Two years in a row that it snowed on Valentine's Day. This year it waited until the afternoon/evening, but we got a good 3-4 inches all said and done. We kicked off the day going to church and came home for lunch and naps. Below is the Valentine card we sent out to some of our family and friends. Melissa made the shirts and the kids cute faces made the moment.

We always get the kids a gift on Valentine's Day, so I picked out a book for each. I found Charlotte this updated compilation of fairy tales. They all rhyme and have a fun take on the old classics we all know.

When I saw this book I knew it was perfect for Ollie. After flipping through first few pages I was sold and Ollie has been loving this book since we handed it to him.

Our church rented out the local skating rink for a free community event. We braved the snow and got workouts holding the kids up by their hands and shoulders so they could skate. Everybody had a great time although Oliver spent most of his time looking at a really cool aquarium they had.

After we left the skating rink we headed over to Chipotle for dinner. Our annual tradition of Sweet Frog ice cream on Valentine's happened as well, but due to snowy weather they were closing early. So we got the kids their ice cream first and Ollie didn't mind gobbling down bites of quesadilla and ice cream one after another.

We love these kids so much and we hope they know it. Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas 2015

We had a lovely Christmas this year. Charlotte talked about her Christmas program for weeks and was so excited that Gibby and Miss Laura could come watch it with us!  Like always she sang with passion and gave it her all. It was a really cute program and it was fun to be able to see her at her class Christmas party.

This year the kids were a little more reluctant to talk to Santa, but we gave C a pep talk and she led O up holding hands. We enjoyed looking at the fish like we have in years past and got to see some up close.

Christmas cookies are a must and the kids and Jay had a blast decorating them. Ollie put edible google eyes on every single cookie he decorated. Jay and Charlotte were a little more deliberate about their cookie designs. We left some of these cookies out for Santa and he seemed to really enjoy them!

We had a great Christmas morning, we slept in until 7:30 and just had a very relaxing morning. I think we must have the slowest gift openers in America! The kids wanted to check out the cookies and milk from Santa, give the pets their presents and hand out the present C made us at school before they even thought about opening their own. Once they got started opening presents they were still pretty slow. Opening one at a time and playing with each toy as they went. We finally got to enjoy our North Pole Breakfast that Santa left us, Ollie must have had six doughnuts!

We are looking forward to 2016 and hoping it is as great a year as 2015 was!

holiday weekend 2015

Traditions are important to our little family.  We have been doing the same thing every Thanksgiving weekend since we have moved back to Ohio.  Between Thanksgiving, tree cutting and decorating and a visit from the Smith Family the weekend is one of the most fun of the year. Every year I make Thanksgiving shirts, here are this years shirts... Button Turkey and Football Turkey!

This was one of our best Thanksgivings to date, the food was yummy, the kids behaved oddly well and  everything went so smoothly.

We had a student from CCU come stay with us over break.  The kids really enjoyed Ms. Amanda and she was a big hit at Thanksgiving with all of the cousins!  We enjoyed having her over break and both kids cried when she left.

Charlotte was very interested in baby Corah and was so excited to get to hold her, she later documented the experience on her doodle pad.

Corsey's Tree farm was our first stop after Thanksgiving day. It was a great experience like always. This year we got a little further into the tree farm because the kids could walk a little further without getting tuckered out. 

Good thing we have such a strong daddy!  The kids are always so interested in the cutting process.

Over the river and through the woods....

Daddy is so strong!

Besides the Christmas trees, Corsey's also has animals...I am pretty sure each one got a cuddly hug from C.  

We had a great time with the Smith family as usual.  We always end up going to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  This year we also got to see Santa and got to go bowling.

Charlotte won on the kids lane (she used the ramp, so it wasn't exactly a fair game) and Josh won on the adult lane (he was pretty excited and he did not use the ramp)

Gibby and Grandpa came over for lunch and to decorate the tree.  Grandpa and myself hung the lights and the kids and Laura did most of the ornaments.

Hope everyone had as good of a Thanksgiving weekend as we did.  Now, onward to Christmas!

fall festivities

It has been over two months since our last blog post and part of that is how busy we have been.  I can not believe it has been two months since school has started.  Everyone is having a great school year so far.  Charlotte adores her teacher and has learned so much that she surprises me everyday.  Oliver has changed so much just since the summer.  He is talking constantly now and his favorite phrase is "that's what happened" after one of his stories that often only Charlotte can decipher.  Even though both Jay and I have been very busy with school and FPM we have had some fun trips to pick apples, pumpkins and of course all of the halloween adventures.  This year C was feeling a litter under the weather and it shows in some of her halloween pictures, she only made it to a handful of houses before wanting to come back home.  Oliver on the other hand, absolutely loved it and still today is questioning..."where all the candy is?" as we go for  walks.  He is confused where everyone has gone from our trick or treating adventure through the neighborhood and why people are not handing him candy on his walks like they did on Halloween!  Here are some pics of our adventures over the past two months.  Enjoy!