This is what happens when Mom is sick on the couch for a day…

Ethan brought almost all his toys, and all the blankets and pillows in the house to his room to play with… Whatever keeps ‘em happy and quiet!

Categories: General
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Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. I’m not doing so good at managing my time well these days. And the blog is the first to get shoved to the back burner… I guess it’s better this then my family right. Well, we’ve kept busy this fall. It’s been an interesting one this year with our crazy Ohio weather… 30 degrees then back up to 80 and back to 50… I feel like our weather is constantly changing moods. Anyway, I don’t even know where to begin with what we’ve been up to for the past month… just the boys getting bigger and requiring lots of attention. Ethan is loving preschool and is doing great. So far I’ve only worked in the class once and it was a blast. I loved watching Ethan interact with the other kids and just watch him learn. Lucas loves everything Ethan does, loves to play with him and copy him. They’re really starting to become little buddies. If Lucas wakes up before Ethan he runs around the house “E-E, E-E” (that would be “Ethan” in Lucas language) and Lucas is the first person Ethan wants to see when he gets home from school. I love it.
Kevin has been busy with school and work. I don’t think I ever mentioned that he changed jobs… so… by the way, Kevin has a new job… as of May. He’s been working from home all summer and it’s been fantastic. We all love having him home and it’s really working out quite well. He just closes the office door if the kiddos are getting to loud but they LOVE to go knock on his door to say “HI” several times a day. What a blessing to have such a flexible schedule especially while he’s in school. I’ve been busy with 2 growing boys, church administration work and occasionally letting my creative juices flow into sewing bags and such. Fall is my favorite season and we’ve all enjoyed playing outside on cool, crisp, sunshiny days, picking apples, raking leaves and planting spring bulbs.

Here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to for the past month.

Ethan, and all the kids from preschool love to climb “the tree” after school everyday!!! If we “forget” to climb it, it’s not a fun ride home.

Marybeth and I threw a baby shower for our dear friend Melissa Hatch. It was a beautiful day to celebrate such a beautiful miracle … with 30 friends and family!

Ethan LOVES Melissa!!

Great Gram and Gramp reading to the boys.

Ethan’s first field trip at school was to the Pumpkin Peddler. He was so excited and just loved picking his own pumpkin.

They got to go on a hayride too… can you tell he’s excited!

We also celebrated Kevin’s 31st birthday with our annual trip to The Real Seafood Company for his free birthday meal.

Then my parents took him out for another great meal at Mon Ami in Cawtaba Island, Ohio

I finished a new bag this month… for my friend Melissa (a diaper bag). I was quite pleased with my new design. And hope to be making many more.

No fall season is complete without going apple picking…

We had to use ladders most of the day as the trees were very picked over, all the apples were left at the top!

Kevin’s family came in to celebrate Kevin’s birthday… it’s always fun to have them here for a visit

Ethan cuddling with Uncle Joel

Categories: Family, General
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This morning has been both fun and productive. Recently I’ve been stalking all sorts of blogs that have great ideas for kid-art at home. A million ideas and I want to do them all and well… it just gets overwhelming and I end up reading blogs more then actually doing the arts and crafts that I find. Well, today we actually accomplished a project that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time! It was both fun and productive. PERFECT!

Recycled Crayons… taking all those broken pieces and crayons with the paper torn off, etc. and making new ones. I did this as a kid but I think we let the crayons sit outside and melt in the sun and that took FOREVER! A while back I tried doing it in the microwave and that just ended in big mess with a stench that lasted all day. So today we did it in the oven thanks to Make and Takes Blog. Check out the quick and easy way to make chunky crayons here.

Yay, new, fun crayons!

Categories: General
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To our great surprise and excitement, last Wednesday (5/14), Ethan decided he wanted to say good-bye to diapers and start using the big potty! I had tried on and off months ago to get him to do this but he didn’t want anything to do with it and it was more frustrating for both of us than fun so I decided to just let it happen when he wanted it to happen. When he started using the potty last week I wouldn’t let myself get too excited b/c I didn’t know if this was really for real!!! Well after filling 2 charts of stickers (for using the potty) and very minimal accidents AND using public restrooms I figured this was it! And it felt great!!! So to celebrate his great success we went to Monkey Jump (a giant inflatable gym). He and Lucas had a blast!
Yay Ethan!!! We are so proud of you!

Training time… he came out of the bathroom saying… ‘mom i need you’… why does every kid seem to do this

Jumping Fun!

The big slide

They had a little craft time too… he made butterflies

Ice cream treat after dinner

Categories: Ethan, General
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So the past few days has been wonderful around here. The sun has finally decided to show its face and the weather has been pretty warm… warm enough to wear spring coats or no coats at all. Ethan wakes up every morning and the first thing he says is “I want to go outside!”. We’ve been outside whenever possible. Ethan love to dig in the dirt and run around the yard and yell as loud as he can. I love it! Lucas loves to ride his “bike” and slide down our little slide and play in the dirt too. I love boys!

Yesterday they were both outside playing on the steps that lead to our back door and Lucas took a tumble off the steps, landing in the dirt which led to lots of screaming, a bloody nose and a really fat lip! Guess it was time to come in. What a trooper, once we got him cleaned up and in the tub he was smiling and back to himself.

… And the bumps and bruises begin.

Categories: Family, General
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This past weekend we celebrated my 31st birthday and our 5th anniversary by going to Columbus to see Stomp! What a fun weekend away together! We got to Columbus, checked into our hotel and headed over to Easton Mall for dinner. Good thing we’re used to eating at 5:00 (thanks to kids) b/c we were able to get right in to the Cheesecake Factory with no wait. We had a yummy dinner (and took some cheesecake to go) and had time to browse around Easton before heading downtown for the show.
Stomp was fabulous and we had such a fun time!
On Saturday we headed back downtown to check out the North Market. Yum… the smell when we walked inside was amazing. Fresh bread baking, yummy cookies and wonderful smells from Italian booths to Mediterranean foods. It was fun to walk around enjoying the atmosphere … but a bit odd not having to worry about strollers, and do we have snacks and sippys for the boys, etc. … odd, but nice. After the North Market we drove up to the OSU campus to check it out. We walked around the football stadium and enjoyed the sunshine.
Here’s some pics from our weekend. Enjoy!
At the Cheesecake Factory

My latest bag (at the Capitol building)

Sporting my new bag on the Capitol building steps

Here’s to 5 great years!

Columbus

Go Bucks!

In front of the stadium

Categories: General, Sewing Projects
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As you can see we’ve upgraded to more “sophisticated” postings with our new You Tube account. I’ll still post pictures more often just cuz it doesn’t take quite as much time but it’s fun to see videos too. Here’s one of Ethan today on our way home from an Easter Egg Hunt. He loves the song “Whoo Hoo” by Newsboys and he was very into wearing my sunglasses. Enjoy!

Categories: Ethan, General, Movie Clips
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