Goodbye Summer

As it was pointed out to me recently, I have not blogged in a VERY long time.  So here is a quick re-cap of our awesome summer.  My one goal for this summer was to have fun with the kids and we did! 

My wonderful sister Janel came and lived with us and watched the kids on the days that I worked.  She did an amazing job and the kids miss her so much now that she is back in school.  They played, swam, went to the park and just had fun all summer long.  Here are some pics from our summer ...

My sister Alyssa grauated from UC in Fashion Design.  She is getting ready to move to Milwaukee to begin her careeer.



 Keenan graduated from preschool in May.  Here he is with his aunts, Alyssa and Janel.

For Mother's Day, my sisters and I took my mom to a fun new place, Paint by the Glass.

( Alyssa, Me, Tiffany, Mom, and Janel)

We took our annual trip to Hilton Head.  Michael and Jeremy showing off their dinners. 

Keenan and Bella in the ocean.

Beach beauties ... Addy and Bella

Keenan and Aidan getting ready for a dolphin cruise ... check out Keenan's face.



In July, we went on a long weekend trip to Chicago with our good friends, Kim and Tad.  We had a blast and can't wait to go again next year!

Trip to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

Aidan, Bella and Keenan - they are quite the warriors, aren't they?

Another trip to Indy to visit with college friends.  Nick, Michael, Brad and Chris

Alisha, Lisa, Me, Laura and baby Sawyer

 The boys had another great birthday party with friends. 

Good friends, Josie, Aidan, Shelby, Keenan and Bella

Golf outing - Benny, Aidan, Michael and Keenan

The crew getting ready to get on the bus. 

(Trent, Abby, Troy and Aidan)

Back to school for all - Aidan (3rd), Keenan (Kindergarten) and Bella (pre-K)

Michael and Aidan on the field at the Reds game.  Michael presented an award and was able to take Aidan.  He got a lot of autographs, won a signed ball - all on his birthday! 

The boys showing off their new hats (family birthday party).

Can you guess where we have been??

A couple of weeks ago we went to Orlando for several days.  This was our first trip there since Aidan was 2 and at that time we only visited Sea World.  We felt the kids were at a good age to go and they were!  We had a blast and hit all four Disney parks, spent time at Downtown Disney (especially at the Lego store ... Aidan was in heaven), ate at Rainforest Cafe and the T-Rex restaurants and came home exhausted!!!  Here are several pics from our trip ...

Aidan and Keenan near the Indiana Jones Adventure at Hollywood Studios

Our favorite day was probably at Epcot.  We spent the entire day there and enjoyed so, so many things there.  Stitch greeted the kids and this was just the beginning of the many characters we got to see. 

Keenan holding the world on his finger.

 The highlight of the entire trip for Bella was getting to meet Tinkerbell.  That is ALL we heard about for days before we got there.  She was in awe!

 The boys goofing around in Norway.

 Bella with Mulan

Aidan holding the Epcot ball in his hands.

M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E

 We were at Epcot during the flower festival and it was gorgeous!  Here is Bella with Tinkerbell.

 Had to take a picture of this.  Everest Expedition, the roller coaster at Animal Kingdom is in the background.  This was Aidan's first roller coaster and he loved it!!

Bella passed out and lounging back in her stroller - check out the open mouth.  She reminds me of how my grandma used to sleep.

All three with Rafiki

 Bella posing in front of Rainforest Cafe

Aidan snapped this pic of Michael and I ... I think it is the only one of the 2 of us we got the entire trip.

 Family pic at the Magic Kingdom

With my princess

Happy Easter!!

Every time I post I swear I won't wait as long to post again, but then even more time passes by.  So, I won't make any promises of when I will post again, but here is a snapshot of what has been happening in our lives so far this Spring!!!

Easter morning - my three blessings ...

 Aidan showing off one of his Easter presents - I am not even sure if he knows who Michael Jordan is - ha!

 Bella reaching for an egg ... how did it get up there?

 Keenan is so proud of his new basketball - he says he has "moves" now.

Family pic

Everyone came to our house to celebrate Easter.  The rain held off and we had a great afternoon enjoying fellowship, good food and one of the largest Easter eggs hunts around.  Here are all of the kids (Bella, Addyson, Ashlynn, Aidan, Keenan and Hunter).

 Keenan with his best buddy, Hunter (it was also his 5th birthday!)

We have also been back into sports this spring.  Well, when it isn't raining.  Keenan is playing T-ball again and would rather just hit the ball all day and not have to field it.  Aidan is back into soccer and is learning what it is like to play on some cold and nasty days.  We are all having fun and enjoying watch them when we can.

I also just completed my first 5K a couple of weeks ago.  This is a HUGE deal for me because I have NEVER been a runner.  I started the couch to 5K training program a few months ago and when I started couldn't run a lap (seriously).  Anyway, I ran in the Race for the Cure with my wonderful family.  We did it in honor of my precious grandma Alice, who passed away from breast cancer 14 years ago.  There were 40,000 who participated.  We had a blast and now I can't wait to do another one!

Here is the group (minus me).  Janel, Thomas, Jeremy, my mom Natalie, Tom, Tiffany, Alyssa, Will and Addyson. 

Part of my grandmother's legacy ... Janel, mom, me, Alyssa, Tiffany, Addyson.

Random Photos

This blog for us is a way to capture what has been going on in our lives throughout the year.  I haven't been able to keep up with it like I would like to, but here is a little bit about what we have been up to over the past month.

We have had so much snow this year!  The kids have had snow day after snow day.  They enjoy it, but I am ready for the snow to end and for Spring to appear!  We have had a lot of fun and have taken advantage of some of the time off indoors and out.

Evening with friends - the kids were rockin' it out!  (Btw, this is Bella's boyfriend, Bryson.  They adore each other ... it is just too cute!)

 Emy with all of the ladies of the house (Bella, Lily, Lola and Eva)

Michael gave me tickets to see the Blue Man Group for Christmas.  They performed at IU last week and we ventured out in the ice storm to see the show.  The show was amazing and we stayed in another beautiful Bed & Breakfast.  We even got to visit our favorite winery and visit with my sister Janel who is a student there.

Here is the fountain outside the winery.

Michael and the boys have been skiing almost every weekend this winter.  This is Aidan's 5th year skiing and Keenan's 2nd year.  Keenan is now taking on the black diamond slopes along with his big brother and daddy.  They LOVE going and can't wait to get back out on the slopes each weekend.

On MLK Day, we went to the Newport Aquarium with some of our new friends from our neighborhood.  I did not get many pictures because the place was packed that day, but here are a couple of my three kiddos posing for me.

 And as I was going through pics to post, I found this one that I took last February of Bella.  My, how she has grown and changed!  She is still as sweet and loving as ever, but she has become the boss of the house.  She is little miss independent and tells us to "stop" and often does not want our help with things.  She is proving just how much she can do on her own now.  She can say so many words now, but we still are working on her putting multiple words together in sentences.  She has a tendency to leave off the ending of words and rush through her speech.  She is amazing at putting puzzles together; knows all her letters; is doing simple maze puzzles; and is starting to learn how to write the letters of her name (as well as others).  I know I always say this, but when I look back, I really see how much she has changed in the last 6 months ... year ... and since she joined our family a year and a half ago!