Alex and her ABCs

March 30: We've noticed for a couple of months now that Alex recognizes almost all of the letters in the alphabet. She also is really good at colors, but the alphabet just threw us for a loop, because the other 2 were much older before they could identify all the letters (still not sure Katie knows all 26!). Alex loves to read and she is very observant...so it shouldn't surprise us, but she'll point out letters on our shirts, letters in books, letters anywhere, and she's almost always right...so I did a short video of her after she discovered the word whammer letters in a box...(ignore my messy countertop, I was in the process of cleaning out some cabinet space to make room for the baby bottles!)...

Easter Sunday

March 23rd: Well, Easter this year blew in nice and cold! The Easter Bunny came and filled baskets for everyone...of course, I forgot to take pictures of them with the baskets! Here are a few pictures...

Drew's...
Katie's...Alex's...
We went to Sunday mass and came home and Katie immediately stripped off her tights and skirt...Drew changed out of his dress clothes as well...all before I could get a picture! So the only one still left dressed for a picture was Alex...so here is Alex, looking all cute for Easter (as you can see, she's trying to head up the stairs for "comfy" clothes...we're not dressy around here at all!!)...

Looking like a little girl...where's our baby?

Easter visit

March 22nd: We made the trip over to visit with mommy's family for an early Easter celebration. We stopped at Aunt Allison's to visit and since Uncle Brad and Aunt Andi were also in town, they came as well. It was the first time all 4 of us have been together under the same roof in years, and it was just wonderful...we decided we would keep it up! Thanks Allison and Reggie for letting us crash your place!! I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was just crazy trying to keep up with the kids, they were running around and having so much fun! Here is a picture I did get of Ashlynne, Katie, and Halle... Here's another one...Halle is posing for me...she loves the camera (and the camera loves her...could she be any cuter?)...Halle is 2 months older than Katie...and Ashlynne will be 3 in July...

And here is baby Jocelyn...she is just over 3 months already...she has gotten so big since we saw her at Christmas...they get too big too fast!... Drew hamming it up with Jocelyn...
Drew had a lot of fun entertaining Jocelyn...he thought it was pretty cool that she would smile at him when he played with her, so he decided he wanted to hold her...he said "she's heavier than she looks!"... Halle popping in for a photo op as well!...
And here are a couple of videos I took...I was trying to do a short video or two since they didn't seem to sit or stand still long enough for pictures!...after one crazy video of chaos I was about to give up and then Halle asked me to record her so she could watch it...I got her to dance, but I couldn't get her to sing for me...



And here's a short video of Drew playing with Jocelyn...and, of course, Halle! Just cracks me up!



We had a great visit, we hope to see you all again soon!!!

Katie and Norah's 4th Birthday Day!

March 19th: Katie and her best friend from school, Norah, have birthdays two days apart. Katie turned 4 on the 18th and Norah will be 4 on the 20th, so Norah's mom, Trish, and I decided to take them to the mall to celebrate their birthdays on their in between day, the 19th. We went to Build A Bear and the girls picked out matching pink dolls to stuff and dress. And then we let them play in the play area, had a fun lunch date, and then headed off for Cheryl and Co.'s awesome iced sugar cookies...an absolute favorite of Katie's! They had a wonderful day together!

Here are the birthday girls in front of Build A Bear:

And here they are in the store, the ladies working there gave them birthday stickers and ribbons...and as crazy as this sounds, the two women who were working that day, one shared a birthday with Katie and one shared a birthday with Norah, and they had also commented that morning that it was their in between day too! How strange is that? These are the pink dolls they picked out, before stuffing them...
Katie, pushing the pedal that blows the stuffing into her doll...Norah's turn to stuff her doll...
Here they are getting their hearts ready to put into their dolls...
And here they are giving their dolls a bath before dressing them!Thanks for the great day, Norah and Trish! We had a lot of fun with you two!!!

The cutest little thief

March 16th: Well, Alex has committed her first crime..."funny" stealing...but somehow I doubt Miss Lisa will press charges! Alex calls bunnies, "funnies", and she found Miss Lisa's pink funny on her front porch (Miss Lisa always has a fun holiday display on her front porch) and she decided she wanted it for her own. After about the 5th time of her taking it and me putting it back, I decided to document on camera so Miss Lisa could see for herself what her little goddaughter was up to when she wasn't around!

Here I am telling her to go put the pink bunny back on Miss Lisa's porch...that is her typical "I think not, Mom" look...

Here she has the pink bunny all the way back to our garage. She proceeded to put her "funny" on her tricycle and push it around a little bit, and then she let us persuade her to return it to it's spot on Miss Lisa's porch and head inside to warm up!!!

Katie's 4th Birthday!

March 16th: Katie's 4th birthday is March 18th, so we had her birthday party today so that everyone could be here. Unfortunately, that's very confusing for a 4 year old, so Katie pretty much thinks she had a week-long birthday! Here she is, with her special cake...she requested an Ariel cake, and she was very excited that mommy made her one!

Here's a close up of the cake...it turned out a lot better than I thought it would! It took quite a while to complete, but it was worth it, she just loved it so much...though I'm pretty sure she enjoyed eating it the most!
Here she is, opening presents. She couldn't wait for her party to open the gifts from Nana and Papaw, so we don't have any pictures of those! Here is her Sleeping Beauty dress from Bob, Lisa, Kelly, and Matthew!
Lacing cards from Doug, Paula, Colin, and Megan! Katie loves crafts!
Trying on the Sleeping Beauty dress...
"I'm a princess too!"...Alex had to put on Katie's princess dress from last birthday...whenever Katie dresses up, Alex does too!

And her gift from daddy and mommy...her new princess bike...is that a happy face or what?

If you thought that was happy...check out the video...

And here she is...dressed up warm and ready to ride...

And Alex had to show her bicycle too! She kept saying "I ride my bicycle too!!" She's so funny!

Fun at the Urbancics

March 9th: A bit reminiscent of Pa Ingalls playing the fiddle with the kids all dancing around...in our version, Drew plays the piano and Katie and Alex dance! Oh the fun!! This was seriously too cute...we only caught the tail end of it on video, they had been playing and dancing while we were cleaning the kitchen after dinner. Today (the 10th), Drew didn't have school and Katie put on her princess dress and begged Drew to play for her so she could dance at least 10 times! Even as I type this, they're in there playing and dancing!! In the video, Drew his playing his Mozart recital piece--Eine Kleine Nachtmusik--(his recital is April 27th and he's playing this song as a duet with another student, he's very excited!) and he's been practicing it for about a week now. (Oh, and we're not sure what is up with the sunglasses...he's channeling Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder...hoping it's just a quick-passing phase!)

Blizzard of 2008

March 9th: Here are some more pictures from our blizzard. I was way off with my guess yesterday, according to the news, we got 20.4 inches of snow! 15.5 of those inches fell on Saturday, in about 12 hours! Our average snowfall for March here in Columbus, OH, is 1.9 inches...so we well blew that away! We also set records for the most snowfall in one storm, as well as the most snowfall in one day on Saturday. The previous record for total snowfall was 15 inches and that was in 1910! Our street still hasn't been plowed, but enough people had made it out that we could follow tracks and get out today. We went to church, 12:15 p.m. mass, and then to get some lunch and the piles of snow in the parking lots were impressive! The roads were okay, but the parking lots everywhere were a complete mess. Let's hope this all starts melting very soon!

The big winter storm...no quotes this time!

March 8: So much for making fun of the big winter "storm" we were supposed to get a month ago...the storm they predicted for this weekend actually hit! We had blizzard-like conditions that started around midnight last night...I would guess we got well over a foot of snow, and we have some areas, especially in the backyard, where the drifts are about 3 feet high, up to the bottom of our windows. The snow plows have not been through, we called and they said they would not be doing residential streets until some time tomorrow, so we're not sure when we'll get out of here! We, of course, bundled up this morning and headed out to play...the kids loved the snow! I took so many pictures I had to put them in a slideshow...and a couple of videos to boot! In some of the pictures you can see the snow blowing sideways. We haven't seen this much snow since we lived in Michigan!

In this video, the kids are all laying in the snowblower's "ditches" and letting the snow blow over them...Matthew from next door, and his friend, Christopher, are playing with us. I love how Matthew gets in between Alex and the snowblower so she doesn't get hit by the snow! Thanks Matthew!



And here's a short video of Alex playing in the snow with Matthew...she just loves Matthew!

Katie's Dad's Night at Preschool

March 6: Here is a picture of Katie's class from Dad's Night...
And here are 3 videos of their songs...I couldn't choose so put all 3 on here...Katie doesn't sing much but she is so animated and just so cute. Her best friend, Norah, is standing right beside her...they are too cute!!

The blanket ride

This is the fun we have around the house...I was fixing dinner and Katie and Alex were playing and I heard squealing and giggling and found this...

Back to the zoo!

March 3rd: Today was beautiful...low 60s and sunshine, but the rain and cold weather is heading back in tonight, so we took advantage of the early afternoon and hit the zoo! Just being out in the fresh air did wonders for us all! Here are Drew and Katie checking out Boddhi...he is our baby elephant that is one month younger than Katie...he has gotten so big over the winter!

Katie and Drew checking out the sun bears..."They're always sleeping," says Katie. She's right, they are always sleeping!
Our buddy, the lion, is almost always in this exact spot checking us all out. Unless he's pacing back and forth and roaring...but he usually does that in the spring!Katie doesn't consider any trip to the zoo complete without a carousel ride. Alex is still terrified of the carousel and despite my holding her, still sobbed up until it started moving. Luckily, she stopped crying once we were going around...I'm sure the people around us were very thankful for that as well!
Katie in action...she yells "wheee" every time she goes up!
And we had to stop and check out Uncle Brad's favorite animals, the penguins, on our way out...just for you, Uncle Brad...

Riverbox #4...River Garden Riverbox at Amberleigh Park

March 2nd: In contrast to yesterday, today was much warmer! For the next Riverbox, we had decided to hit the one that is in a park just a couple of miles north of our house. Rich and Drew decided to bike there, and Katie wanted to come along. Obviously, I sat this one out! This one is in a garden behind Amberleigh subdivision...I guess there were a lot of stairs that led down to the river, and Rich said it was just beautiful back there, so we plan to head back in the spring to see the gardens. Here are Drew and Katie on a bridge...at the top of the stairs...
...on another bridge...
...a scenic picture of the river...
...another river picture...
...and finally to the Riverbox...Drew didn't have too much to say about it...except there were a lot of stairs. Glad I sat that one out!

Riverbox #3...Vigilant Vegetation at Kiwanis Park

March 1st: Time again for the next Riverboxes. Drew's school wanted them to visit 2 in the fall, 2 in the winter, and 2 in the spring...but they waited until just a few weeks ago to give back the kids' journals so time was very limited! Drew's journal was accidentally sent home with a Drew in the other kindergarten class, and by the time we got it in our possession...we all ended up sick! So, suddenly it was due back by March 3 and here it was the last weekend to find some Riverboxes! We picked this one at Kiwanis Park because it didn't seem like too far of a walk and there were no stairs involved (very important for poor 8 month pregnant mama!) and so here are Daddy, Drew, and Katie walking along the very long bridge beside the river...unfortunately the bridges were snow and ice-covered for the most part, so it was a little tricky for Alex and I. Lucky for her, daddy carried her all the way back!
We found the Riverbox easily, but it was full of ice! The contents inside were stuck in a huge ice block that filled the entire bucket. Even the stamp was broken, so we didn't really get to explore the Riverbox.
Here's the ice bucket...a bit disappointing...
...but the scenery was beautiful and despite being chilly, the sun was out and it was a really lovely walk in the park!