Abby's girl scout friends!  Somehow I ended up a troop leader, but we are having a lot of fun.  What sweet girls.

I love this picture Abby drew for Matt for his birthday.  Unfortunately, Matt spent his birthday last week in the ER with our sweet Connor.  The way he was breathing was a bit concerning so Matt took him to urgent care after dinner.  They also were concerned and so they sent them on the ER.  I am so thankful that my sister is close and was able to come over and watch the Abby and Charlie(and encourage me to drive down our snow covered hill) while I visited Connor in the hospital.  He was such a tropper despite having to get an IV.  The silver lining is that we have now convinced Connor that he needs to wear a coat in the winter.

Abby and Connor were in stitches experimenting with static electricity this morning.  The poor torchered 3rd child.  Luckily, Charlie is such a good sport.

Christmas morning face painting.  We had such a great Christmas.  My brother and his girlfriend flew in from Colorado and we got to spend a ton of time with our beloved cousins and grandma and grandpa Ott.  

I love the pictures of babies fascinated with Christmas lights.  Charlie was very intrigued, but his time with the lights was short lived because he kept trying to eat the lights.

Abby and Connor share a room now that Charlie has come into our lives, but they were so excited to sleep in the big bed in the guest room together the other night.  Here they are snuggled up the next morning.  

A day at Cosi with daddy.

Watching "Call Me Maybe" performed by Jimmy Fallon, Carly Rae and the Roots with school instruments and loving it!  We had to watch it one more time a trillion more times.

Abby is so sassy and we love it(most of the time)!

They have to do everything exactly the same way!  

Morning snuggles

   Our mornings ususally consist of the kids climbing into bed with us while we beg for just a few more minutes of sleep.

Connor is such a sweetheart!  Look at that adorable face, I could just eat him up!  He loves his big sister and follows her around everywhere.  When she is not around he is constantly asking, "where did Abby go?".  He is such a good talker and we often get comments from strangers about how well they can understand him.  He has to work hard to keep up with big sister.  He is such a lover and cuddler, although lately he has also become a screamer.  He loves to scream for us when he wakes up at an ungodly hour of the morning and now when we get in the car to drive anywhere.  This I could do without.  Although with a face llike that he can pretty much get away with anything!

Abby was the flower girl in her beloved Uncle Lee(Matt's childhood friend) and Aunt Krista's wedding this past February.  This is the dress she wore for the wedding and now she likes to wear it everyday we let her.  She twirls and dances in it and is very careful to keep it stain-free.  She looks so grown up in this picture and I can't believe it won't be long before our little girl is four!

A picture a day

I am an awful blogger.  I have decided to try a new approach to the blog to see if just maybe I can improve my blogging skills.  I have seen a lot of people post one picutre a day on their blogs and that is it.  One a day.  I think maybe even I can handle one a day!

DAY 1

Abby and Connor love jumping.  We jump off the couch, off Abby's bed, on Abby's bed, into our summer inflatible pool.  Their favorite is jumping off our bed into every possible pillow we can find in the house, and a few comforters for added softness.  We do this every night before and after bath.  So much for a nice calming bath to get them ready for a deep night of sleep.  I love the expression on Connor's face as he counts to three before the big jump!

Trick or Treat

Abby had a great Halloween party at her school and I was lucky enough to be the parent helper. I found these adorable oranges that you carve like pumpkins and fill with fruit on the family fun website. They were a big hit!

Trick-or Treating in Granville is always an experience. The center of town closes a few streets and families and teens take over. There are haunted houses and haunted schoolbuses and an obscene amount of candy. This is definitely a time when we appreciate the benefits of the small town that we live in.

We love fall

We have been outside every opportunity we get. This fall has been pretty rainy in Ohio, but being back reminds me of falls growing up in Ohio. The leaves are so beautiful and the air so crisp. I love sharing this with my kids.

Pumpkin Time

We went to a local farm to pick our pumpkins this year. If you showed up in costumes admission to the festival was free. Of course since we are always looking for a deal we obliged. After spending some time picking out the perfect pumpkins, we went home and spent the day with our cousins carving pumpkins, raking leaves, and making candy corn cookies. What a beautiful fall day!

Harper's birthday party

Shortly after we moved to Ohio our friends from Colorado moved to Cleveland as well. I met Jen through a mom's meet up group in Denver and I have always enjoyed spending time with her and her family. Of course, we had spent so much time at my parent's house in Cleveland when we first moved out, but as soon as they moved to Cleveland, we settled into our new house in Columbus. They have now moved on to Chicago where Jen's husband Andy got an opportunity to work for a great organization and they are really happy. I wish we lived in the same town so we could play with them often. I feel we have really similar ideas about how we want to raise our kids. We were so glad that we were able to go to Harper's 3rd birhtday at her grandparents house before they moved to Chicago. Abby quickly fell in love with Harper's grandfather. She is now asking if she can have her next birthday at Harper's grandparents house. Connor was as adorable as ever. He is such an easy going little boy as long as his mommy is near he is happy. I love my little mommy's boy.

Maddie and Kelsey visit

This October we got a special visit from my cousin Diane, her daughter Maddie along with my aunt from New Jersey and her other grandaughter Kelsey. My other cousin, Chrissie, Kelsey's mom, was at a wedding and my aunt was going to be watching Kelsey anyways so when they found a cheap ticket they decided, why not? Kelsey is 4 months old and Maddie is a year and a half. Abby was so excited for our visitors to arrive and kept talking about how she was going to help take care of the babies. She did just that. She loved holding baby Kelsey and playing with Maddie. She is such a good little mommy. Connor was so excited to have visitors, too, and kept saying baby, baby!!! We had a great weekend catching up.

Fall Fun

Here are a few pics of the kids having fun this fall playing outside and being silly. It has been such a rainy year since we moved here so our time outside is a little less then I would like. It has been so nice having such a big yard to explore. I am hoping we can get a swingset next summer because both kids could swing for hours!

Our house

We are finally settling in and we are so ready to be in our house together as a family. Although we are still unpacking boxes and getting situated, Matt and I are thrilled to be together as a family. Abby is thrilled to have a pink room and Connor is just happy as usual! We love the house( although dream of someone coming in while we are sleeping and updating everything) and the yard is amazing with almost 2 acres. We are so grateful to my family for all of their help and for putting up with us crashing with them for so long!