Christmas Cookies!!

December 15th: Nana braved our crazy winter weather to come and bake cookies with us! The kids had a lot of fun...Drew helped the entire time and Katie sort of came and went. Alex was just really good at sticking her fingers in the cookie dough! Drew and Katie both ate more sugar and toppings than probably made it on the cookies, but they had lots of fun!

Here is Drew decorating the poinsettia cookies...he did a great job!

The finished product, along with the peanut butter blossoms Alex and I made while everyone else went to gymnastics! Alex tried to help put the kisses on, but she just kept eating them (or at least licking them, ewww...don't worry I didn't put those on the cookies!) so she got to watch a few minutes of Dora instead!


Drew worked very hard decorating these Santa cookies. Nana or I would dip them in the white chocolate, then he would sprinkle the red sugar and put the eyes and nose on! Katie wasn't too interested in this project, other than using her finger to scoop up red sugar and eating it!

When Nana got here a few hours earlier, it had just barely started flurrying!
Rich took some pictures of the huge flakes...one landed on his arm that was about two inches across!Drew decorating the sugar cookies, we decided to skip the icing this year since Nana needed to get on the road before the ice/sleet started.


Katie, waiting for her turn to sprinkle...eating more sprinkles as she goes!


Think they could use a little more sprinkles, Drew!!

Sorry for the blurry picture...here are the cookie makers in action...And, the finished sugar cookie product!

Festival of Lights--Columbus Zoo

December 11th: Well, so much for all of that snow! It was 65 degrees today! It rained some early on and melted most of the snow. It was so warm we decided to hit the Festival of Lights at the zoo...here are the kids in front of their favorite animal at the zoo...the elephant. Baby Boddhi is getting so big! He is one month younger than Katie...we've watched him since he was just a few months old and now he is almost as big as his mom! He was inside behind the glass so we couldn't get any good pictures of him this evening! But here is the lighted elephant...

A picture of Daddy, Drew, and Katie walking toward the pond...the lights are just so beautiful!
Rich was able to take a few pictures with our night mode...but you have to keep the camera extremely still so none of mine turned out, but his did...


We cannot go to the zoo without stopping at the carousel! Katie was disappointed that the real ponies weren't out, but you can only ride them during the warmer months, so she settled for the carousel!

Alex was terrified, absolutely sobbing, that I was going to take her onto the carousel...she wouldn't calm down so I had to take her outside of the building so we shot a little video of the lights...she's so funny, everything is a "mommy animal"!

Every year, they have a really cool, huge model train display. Drew just loves it, of course. Katie thought it was pretty cool this year too!

I tried to get a picture showing the whole train set-up...

Drew is fascinated playing with the controls that make the trains stop and start...

Here's a video of the train that Drew wanted me to take so he can watch it whenever...the Trans-Siberian orchestra is just for you, dad!

And the last picture of the night...Katie got tuckered out and I foolishly didn't bring the double stroller! She was not happy about having to walk all the way out of the zoo, but somehow we managed...but she is showing her extreme unhappiness in this picture.

Oh to be almost 2 years old again...

December 5th: A day in the life of our almost 2 year old! First, a lot of nekked running...then grab some accessories, a backpack or boots or a hat work well. Refusing to wear clothes is so much fun! Oh, to be that free again! Couldn't resist taking this picture...

December 10th: A typical dinner with Alex...always something entertaining...she is currently obsessed with being "stuck" or from her favorite Pooh book, being "stuck in the woods"...as you can hear...

Winter Wonderland

December 7th: Alex was looking out the window and saying "Woof. Woof. Dog" so we all looked and found that she was barking at deer! If anyone remembers, we had two fawns back in the summer that would hang out in the little wooded area beside our house and the mom would come and nurse them and take them back across the street into the woods. We wondered if these were our same fawns? Katie, however, thinks they are Santa's reindeer but Drew told her that his reindeer stay at the North Pole!

Rich ended up home from work early today, so he took Drew sledding (Katie was at our friend Reggan's birthday party) so here is a picture of him on top of the Scioto Park hill.
And a video to go along with it...he had tons of fun with daddy!

The first snow of the winter!!

Well, I suppose it's technically still fall! But winter came in roaring like a lion Tuesday night and we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland Wednesday morning. Drew actually had school (he was very worried he would have a snow day!) and once he got home, we bundled up and headed out!

Katie and daddy actually dressed up in the morning and went out while it was still snowing! Katie woke up and ran downstairs and told us "I need a carrot!" and she desperately wanted to build a snowman, but the snow was just not packable yet! Here she is getting bundled:

And here she is in the backyard...

Here is Alex, after nap (hence the crazy hair!), getting bundled. We thought she looked a bit like an oompa-loompa in her snow pants!

And here is Drew, picking up right where he left off at the last snow! Our little snow shoveler. He helped daddy clear the rest of the driveway (Bob had done most of it already, thanks Bob!) and then Matthew and Drew thought it was great fun to stand in the line of fire from the snowblower, so as Rich snowblowed they would get hit with the flying snow! Then Drew shoveled the sidewalk and front porch, and then he went around back and cleared most of the patio as well!

Alex just loved the snow! Neither Drew nor Katie were fans of the snow at this age, but she absolutely loved it. She loved it so much, she kept eating it! Crazy baby, that stuff is coooold!!

A little video clip of Alex eating the snow...

And here is a picture of Katie walking through the snow, and there's Drew in the background, clearing the front porch!

Alex got bored with playing in the snow and decided to ride her bike. She just couldn't figure out why she couldn't go. She tried one bike, then went and got another, and as you can see in the video, she doesn't understand the sidewalk is too slippery to get moving!

Sneak Peak at Baby #4!!

We had our ultrasound today and we got some cute pictures of our new little blessing. We managed to not find out the gender of this little one, as hard as it was, especially when the technician and the perinatologist both looked!! Here he or she is...

A profile view:

Looks like this one inherited daddy's long legs! The stretched out legs look so long, but Rich says they're probably only 2 or 3 inches long!! The tech thought it was cute that he or she had their feet crossed!
The best news, of course, is that baby is perfectly healthy! We had our ultrasound done by Maternal Fetal Medicine and their technician and machines were amazing and we left feeling very confident that every last bit of this little being checked out perfectly!!!

Chatty Alex

November 27th: Rich and I continue to be amazed at Alex's verbal skills, we're not used to having such a talker at this age. She wakes up in the morning and starts yelling "Katie! I want to go play with Katie!" and she's very good at telling us "I want ____" and of course, she has learned the fine art of "That's mine!" and "I want that", which refers to anything anyone else has. Can't imagine where she learned those? She has taken on the "cartoon character" talk and she runs around a lot in the purple skirt you will see her wearing and she just cracks us up. Whenever I get the camera out, of course, she has nothing to say, so I had to make her repeat some of her favorite phrases, but these are all ones that she uses spontaneously, and frequently! I can never catch it on video, but the cutest thing is that she will just randomly go up to Drew or Katie, throw her arms around them and say "I love you, Drew" or "I love you, Katie" and then kiss them. She says that to mommy and daddy a lot too, but she also says it to her Dora dolls and her books, but seeing as she does love those too, we'll take it!!!!

It's surprising she doesn't just get confused with both Rich and I trying to get her to talk at the same time! I had to get his help to get her to say her "Nooooo", which is too cute. She's very attached to mommy right now, so Rich will tell her "No mommy" when she is crying for me in his game voice, and she'll actually stop crying and start playing along. This is such a fun age!!

Indian Summer Day at the Park

November 20th: We had some unusually warm weather so we took the opportunity to head to the park (even though we have been known to go to the park in freezing weather as well, so really not that big of a surprise!)...our kiddos just love to be outside! Here is Alex, playing peekaboo across the bridge with Daddy...Peekaboo, Here I am!





Now I'm over here!!!



Katie going down the "bumpy" slide while Alex goes down the curly slide to her left.

Then Katie runs over quickly to catch Alex at the bottom of her slide! Such a good big sister!
Drew was extremely bored, guess he's outgrowing the playground, which makes us very sad. He spent a lot of time taking pictures with the camera to entertain himself. Mostly he took pictures of leaves and mulch, but here is a cute picture he took of Alex swinging away.
And here's a picture he took of me trying to keep Alex from breaking her neck by climbing into her stroller...a huge play structure and she wants to climb into the stroller all day long. Anyway, 17 weeks pregnant in this picture, baby #4 has been very kind to me and it has been an easy road so far. I hope this speaks well to his/her personality after they join us as well!!! I am still wearing non-maternity clothes at this point and with the very little nausea I had I am thinking that we might just be having another boy (Drew was the only other one I was not in maternity clothes with at this point), but considering I've been wrong the first 3 times, you can all be assured it is another girl! We will find out in April!!
Katie, catching Alex again! She loves to catch Alex on the slide, even though Alex would be happier if no one caught her! She usually just turns around and tries to climb back up the slide anyway!
Katie, monkeying around...Rich and I decided we would for sure break something if we even attempted something like this!
Here's the side view of her craziness!
Drew and Katie always ride their bikes to the park, and now Drew spends most of his time at the park riding his bike around the paths.
Here's to another happy day at the park!! I'm sure we'll have lots of winter park pictures as well. It takes a lot to keep us indoors!

Games and Dog Bones

November 15th: Drew will sometimes play pbskids or nick, jr. games on the computer in the evening while we are getting the girls to bed. After Alex is done with her snack now, she will run over and climb on the chair next to Drew to watch him play. Sometimes she points to things on the screen for him, sometimes she just watches. It's very cute!

November 17th: I forget to take Drew's picture with his dog bones the first time he got all 5, but we got a picture this time! Drew's kindergarten class has a chart on the wall that has Clifford dogs with each of their names on one, and if they follow all the rules and don't get into trouble, their Clifford will stay out of the dog house and on every Friday, if their Clifford dog is still out of the dog house, they get to bring home a dog bone for their bowls. When they collect 5 dog bones, they take them back and trade them in for a special treat from the treasure chest! Drew has brought home a dog bone every Friday so far! We're sure that will continue!

Katie and Alex

November 13th: Katie decided today that she was wearing shorts to school. After trying to explain to her that it was too cold outside for shorts, and getting nowhere, I somehow got her to agree to a skirt with tights...so she picked out this outfit, and looked so cute, we had to take pictures!

Then, Katie said "Take a picture of me doing this!" So I did.
Then Katie somehow got ahold of the camera and managed to take these cute pictures of Alex (of course there were about 20 pictures that were unidentifiable as well!)...Alex, doing what she spends most of her day doing...looking at books!Alex, presumably saying "cheese" for Katie...she has that cheese look...
And a cute self-picture of Katie. She's something!

Drew's 1st piano recital

November 11th: Drew had his first piano recital! He was a little nervous, but he did great! He, of course, was the entertainment of the day. As soon as he finished, he got up to do his little bow, and he wiped his forehead and said "whew" before he bowed. Always the entertainer! I have video, but it is on the big camera and I have to figure out how to get it on here, so stay tuned!!

2nd Riverbox

November 2nd: It was a nice day today, so we decided to check out another Riverbox, since Drew's journal about his first 2 Riverbox experiences was due on Nov. 20th and you never know what the Ohio weather might bring. This Riverbox was located behind Donegal Cliffs, an older subdivision a little bit north and east of ours, just across Dublin Road. We actually ride our bikes through this neighborhood and have visited the playground near the river here on many occasions. The trip to this Riverbox, however, was not an easy one. We had to walk down a very long service road that sloped continually down to the river. Once we reached the end of the service road, we had to count 40 steps into a wooded area, turn right and take about 20 more steps toward the river, and then we had to climb down the side of a pretty steep hill that had some "natural" steps on the side. Needless to say, the stroller could not make it in the wooded area, and trying to maneuver myself and Alex down this slippery hill was not pretty! Luckily, we managed to not fall! It was quite the adventure, that's for sure! Drew and Katie thought it was pretty cool. Here is a picture of Drew with the Riverbox, which we had a hard time locating because it just looked like someone threw their trash on the ground! I think they were trying to send a message about recycling.

Here is what is inside this Riverbox. There was a story about Indians and how they lived off the land...so there were things inside that were "natural" and, quite frankly, it was all a bit confusing and Alex was about to jump off the side of the hill, so we took some quick pictures and then took off!! When I showed Drew this picture on the LCD screen of the camera, he said, and I quote "Whoa! There was a river behind me?" Right.
Here is a picture down the hill and off to the side of where we were. We didn't actually make it all the way to the river, it's out there somewhere!