Mother's Day & Brian's Birthday

We celebrated Mother's Day and Brian's birthday in one big afternoon this past weekend--and judging by how well the kids have slept ever since (they were in bed by 7:45 tonight!!), I would say that they had a great time! Drew discovered that his new favorite past-time is lifting his legs up as his tricycle rolls down the hill in the driveway, over the curb and into the street--besides the heart attack that it gives me every time he does it, we all thought it was hilarious to watch him try it over and over!

Playground Fun

The kids have a great time at Mama and Papa's every time they go--they love going to the park and playing on the playground. I think it's pretty fun that Drew (at age 2) thinks of new and interesting ways to go down the slide and then shows his big sissy (at age 4) how to do it! Monkey see, monkey do!

Hot Rod Chloe

Quite possibly the highlight from Easter was Chloe taking the wheel of the neighbor's race car--I don't think there was anything more hilarious than watching her go from Miss Timid to Little Miss Danica Patrick!

We had a great time at Easter with Julie & Adam in town and watching the kids go from egg hunt to egg hunt--I lost after Hunt #4....and I finally just got rid of the last of the candy!

Reds Fever!

We've been having a lot of fun with getting the kids excited about the Reds this year--Brian took Chloe to her first "real" baseball game where they sat in the stands, ate peanuts and Dip'nDots and watched Joey Votto--Chloe's self-proclaimed favorite player!!

Fun in the Snow!

We only got about 3 inches from the snow storm system this weekend, but it was enough for the kids to have tons of fun outside in the snow! Chloe was dying to make "Chloe and Drew Snowmen" so we rounded up all the extra hats, mittens, etc. that we could find and we made matching snowmen--doesn't she look so proud? And yes, that is Drew still carrying his shoes....ahhhhh....sighhhhhh.

January Catch Up #2

A few more pictures as part of my January catch up post...we are still cracking up at Drew's latest attachment (he has been going through a phase where he attaches himself to something for a few days and then moves on)....his shoes! He has to carry them around the house everywhere he goes, and he even has to take them to bed with him (which makes us question the cleanliness issue of this attachment, but in the end we gave in to the screaming for "shoes! shoes!") I took the kids to a very humid Krohn's Conservatory yesterday where they had fun running through the cave and throwing pennies in the waterfall--I just wish that Drew could tolerate sitting in the stroller for more than 30 seconds because he is a handful to take anywhere these days!

January Catch Up!

Just catching up on some fun moments from January--I think we were so overloaded with picture taking over the holidays that we really cut back in January, but we did manage to dust off the camera a few times and take a few pics. We couldn't resist Chloe showing off her Hollywood sunglasses in the middle of winter or eating her "snow cake"! I wish we would have had more pictures of Julie & Adam's visit a couple weeks ago....hopefully next time everyone will be a little more healthy! And I almost forgot to document Chloe's first successful trip to the dentist (her first trip 6 months ago didn't go so well--but she was an awesome patient this time around!)

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!