Drew Dancing

Drew is a dancing fool...until Chloe distracts him and he ends up smacking right into the glass door--oops!!

Santa brings Chloe's dollhouse

Christmas morning

The kids had a great Christmas morning--Chloe was so excited about the dollhouse which was such a great thrill for us, because we had prepared for a mediocre reaction or even worse, a complaint that the dollhouse wasn't pink. But she surprised us all and was completely in love with it, so that made it all worthwhile. And Drew was just in love with the packaging and saying "cheese" for the camera whenever he could!

Christmas Eve

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve--Santa's first visit to Chloe and Drew was full of excitement! Chloe and Drew "just missed" seeing Santa when they drove out looking for him, but he left lots of packages for them to open when they got back to Tom & Cheryl's house. While Drew amused himself with bows and countless jumps up and down on all the packages, Chloe had fun with her remote controlled car and new bean bag chair. The jack-in-the-box created some touching moments as they played so well together with it, but then ended tragically as Drew just couldn't take it anymore and let Chloe know exactly how he felt. Ahh, yes, what fun!

FINISHED!!

The dollhouse is officially finished!! We can't believe that we made it....the official hours total is over 60...30 of which came within the last 3 days! Now we just can't wait to see Chloe's face tomorrow morning when she sees it!

Dollhouse Update--the race is on!

Only 2 more days to finish the dollhouse--yikes! It certainly has come a long long way from when we started. At this point, Santa could give Chloe the dollhouse along with a bag of "extra" parts that the elves didn't finish...but then Brian would have to work on it after Christmas, which I am quite certain there is no way in the world that will happen!

First Snow

Chloe was never more excited to snow in her life--and we were completely shocked when she woke up on Saturday, rushed to the window, and wanted to go play in the snow IMMEDIATELY! She's come a long way from the last 2 winters when 5 minutes in the snow was more than she could bear. Looks like we'll be in a fun winter if we get a lot more of the white stuff!

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas preparations have definitely been underway at our house--December has completely flown by thanks to all the holiday activities and events! Chloe was a great helper in the kitchen this year for making cookies (and I actually mean that), and we had a great time at the Columbus holiday party (yes, Brian is a beautiful Hannah Montana!). And the visit with Santa was quite memorable!

Dollhouse Update: Hours 3-20

Well, we are about 20 hours into the dollhouse project so far. These pictures were taken at the beginning of the weekend so they actually don't do justice to all the progress Brian has made in the last few days. The roof is almost completely on now, which I think means that the process of gluing the 1,000+ shingles will begin any day now. 19 days and counting to Christmas! Think we'll make it??

Who-Dey!

Slugger Drew

Chloe's new haircut

What a diva! Chloe, who was supposed to be taking a nap, was instead making herself right at home playing "sleepover" with her dolls and blankets all over the floor in our room...which was all a complete surprise to me when I stepped out of the shower! Honestly she was just too cute in her favorite little hat for me to be too upset--and she actually agreed to smile for the camera if I wouldn't make her go back to bed---what a deal maker she is turning out to be!

Dollhouse: Hours 1-3

When we decided to buy a dollhouse kit for Chloe's big present from Santa this year (ok, ok, when I BEGGED Brian to buy this dollhouse kit for Chloe's big present from Santa), we knew it was going to be a lot of work from the looks of the house on the box. But it wasn't until I heard Brian laughing out loud when he read the first sentence of the instruction book...this dollhouse will take approx. 30 HOURS to build...did I realize that we were really in trouble!! We are now 3 hours into the project and we've successfully unloaded the millions of pieces in the box and checked them off to the parts list (the instructions say this is actually the most important step), and we've bought the supplies we needed--so much for the box saying that everything you need is included!! In case you can't tell from the pictures, NOTHING is painted, there are over 1,000 shingles and 200 spindles for the porches, and there is WAY more than 30 hours worth of work here! Any guesses on what the final tally will be? Any guesses on what the final number of beers that Brian will consume during the project will be?? :)

Raking Leaves

We had some fun playing in the leaves this weekend--and despite how it looks, all of "work" that Chloe and Drew were doing was completely voluntary, and completely for the purpose of making the leaf pile higher so they could jump it. Drew was quite clever and figured out that his bat is easier to use than a long-handled rake. And we appreciated the fact that he was not trying to navigate a big rake around too!

Halloween 2009

Trick-or-treat was a lot of fun for us this year, but it was an exhausting night as well. Despite all the excitement and anticipation this year, Chloe sort of lost interest after just about 10 houses. That's about the time when Drew just started to figure out how fun it was to hold out a bucket and have people put stuff in it--and he started to really get into it. He could have kept going all night if not for his big sister practically begging to go home!

Back at home, Drew got his first taste of candy---and I think it's safe to say that he is a fan for life. He physically tackled anyone and everyone who stood in the way of him getting another piece--and let me just say that we paid the price with some pretty awful diapers! But he also had so much fun handing out candy--the scary costumes didn't even phase him, he was so happy to put candy in buckets--it was so fun for us to watch. The next day can only be described as Halloween Hangover in our house as the kids crashed from their candy highs---but it was worth it for the laughs we had!