Big Baby and Little Baby

Grace and Ellen playing.

This is a really gross photo but so typical of Sam that it may make you laugh. He woke up with a bloody nose (and had no idea) and proceeded to go through his morning routine not caring (I did clean it up - don't worry!), eating his breakfast with milk off of his chin, and the plastic bag from the newspaper on his foot as his "boot." The shirt on top of it all is classic.

House update....

I can't write too much on the blog (never know if the sellers are reading this!) but we countered back and forth FOUR times and WE walked away. Stay tuned!

We did it!

Our offer is in on the house... will keep everyone posted!

Kid Free for the Weekend!

I spent the weekend with my 6 of best friends from college. This is our third year in a row doing this. It is a child-free weekend full of quality time spent together talking, sharing struggles and events from the year, crying, shopping, praying, eating, working out and very very little sleep. Every year I leave this weekend being SO thankful that I went to a Christian university where I developed lifelong Godly friendships. These woman are such beautiful examples to me. I love you all! I am posting a lot of random, funny photos because most of my blog followers are these friends of mine. I hope you enjoy them.

Thursday night I flew into Dayton Ohio (and met an amazing woman on the airplane - that is another story) and Kelly and Pam met me at the airport. We went back to Pam's house for the night and spent some time with her 2 girls, husband and seeing her BEAUTIFUL home. I brought some hand me downs for her girls and we laid them out on the fireplace mantel. When they woke up, they thought it was Christmas morning. They were thrilled!! We also found a frog and talked about paint colors. We spent some time with her parents who live nearby. It was so nice to spend some time one-on-one with Kelly and Pam to begin the weekend. Kelly lives in Scottsdale (and Seattle) and just graduated from dental school. She is such a strong yet sweet person - just love her.

We picked up Erin at the airport and headed to a little cafe. Erin lives near me and we spend a lot of time together already so it was extra fun to have her there. We couldn't find Erin at the airport and kept having her paged. That was really funny. At the cafe, Jenn's boyfriend David joined us. It was great to see Jenn and him together as a couple. David is from Ohio and is a "MK" from Africa. Jenn and him compliment each other nicely - looking forward to see what the future holds for them. Here is a photo of David.

David left and Allison arrived. We went to Christy's house and talked on the couches for hours. Christy has a gorgeous home that is newly built in Cincinnati. Christy has two little girls and is a teacher. We were roommates in college. She is such a fun and loyal friend. We all made dinner together and ate at about 10 PM.

Here we are making bruschetta. Christy is a wonderful cook - we had delicious food for the weekend! Jenn was napping in this photo.

During our weekends, we always do a "clothing swap." Everyone cleans out their closets and we swap clothing, shoes, accessories. It is a fabulous idea and really helps with our clothing budget. We are all (pretty much) within the same size range so swapping is very easy! Here is Christy with her garbage bag full of clothes that she had accumulated over the year. I got some great scores from this swap and my closet is once-again full of fall clothing. We also do a book swap and share a book that has meant a lot to us in the past year. That was a precious, intimate time of sharing. Here is Erin auctioning off her clothing. Erin was the rookie this year - her first year joining us so she was NOT prepared for all the clothing that she would bring home to fill her closet. Kelly shipped her clothing out from Scottsdale and we all brought extra suitcases on the airplane full of clothes. Everyone has some story behind each piece of clothing and combine that with it being 1 pm - it makes for a fun and funny night. Jenn slept on the couch and missed a lot of the swap. The next morning she kept saying, "what did I miss?" It was another funny highlight of the weekend.

I brought out some of my ribbon stash and we did a round robin picking out ribbon. I hooked the girls up with a lot of ribbon goodness.

The next morning at 8 AM (after Starbucks), we headed to the Gap Clearance Center. I am probably the one that enjoys this the most, Allison enjoys it the least. But EVERYONE was so helpful and honest in the dressing rooms and we scored some great finds. We were armed with reading material (for those that don't like to shop), almonds, water and granola bars.

Here is Jenn - ready for the morning!

After Gap, we went to Skyline Chili - a Cincinnati favorite. Most of us had never been so this was a big treat. Allison eats there three times a week - she loves it. We laughed so much. Here is Erin with her Skyline chili.

That night at 11 pm, we decided to go out to dinner. Here we are all dressed up and sad to say, we did not get a lot of photos of all of us other than this one. This was another precious time of sharing, laughing, crying and interrupting!
Cheers to a wonderful weekend!

First Day of Preschool!

Rita told me today that it was a day that we needed to "focus on her." Well... here she is! First day of Pre-K (preschool!) She was very excited to go. No tears at ALL! They ease them in slowly so she only goes 1 1/2 hours this week.

Walking up to school.

Waiting on the bench for the doors to open...

Almost 9 AM!

Rita and her precious teacher Mrs Townsend

Happy First Day of Preschool Rita!

Ellen Bellen passed

She passed! Thanks everyone for your notes and emails!

no hair

We got rid of our tv and canceled the gym membership.

Bittersweet to see them go...

I will keep the blog updated on our home search.

Ellen has her hearing test this morning. Pray that she passes.

I am flying away this weekend to spend a long weekend with six of my best friends from Cedarville. I can't wait to see them. Everyone is flying in from around the country (New Jersey, Seattle, Arizona, Ohio and DC). If you are local, feel free to check in on Nate and check on the girls' hair! Nate doesn't do hair.

Last Summer Days...

Nothing like a hotdog for a princess celebrating a baseball birthday.

Elle Bell bathing...

First Grade!

Today was the first day of FIRST grade! Grace and company were so excited!

Here she is about to walk into the school.
Almost there... on the elevator11

Grace and her teacher Mrs Tyler. So precious!

happies...

Happy Birthday to Lilly, Alayna and Lindsay - all the same day!

Happy Anniversary to Nate and I. We went out on a date - rare treat these days.
This is where we went for dessert. It is a new place in our town that sells little desserts. So Delish!

Lobstah!

Happy Anniversary...

more beach photos...

There are more beach photos on my sister in law's blog...

click here.

We saw a house we loved last night... check the other blog.

1st grade open house today!!!!!!!!

beach photos

Living in an RV? It can be done!

We have some family friends that sold their house and life and bought an RV and travel around the country doing fun things. They were here this past weekend and Mr W was telling me all about HIS blog at the pool. To see the photo click here. If you "follow" his blog, he will give you a shout out. He is trying to get up to 150 followers. It is a neat one. Some of you will like to see his budget on how they do this RV-thing... that is very impressive... see here.

We look at another EIGHT houses last night! If you are interested in giving us feedback, send me a note and I will email you the link to our "house hunting" blog that our agent made for us. I love hearing the comments.