Santa Visit

Every year we head to Town and Country Mall to get our Santa pictures-He is the best Santa around and you bring your own camera, take your own pictures - how nice to not pay $25 for 2-31/2X5's and 8 wallets to document that you saw Santa. This year, we got our wonderful step-sister-in-law and hubby, along with their 9 month old, to join us and my mom came along too. Josh, Jenny and Abram are in Covington but it is so nice to have Jenny come up and visit us once-in-awhile and let me enjoy my nephew. We got there at just the right time, a short wait, and the kids were fine until we planted them on Santa's lap and then the photos will show you exactly what happened. I guess Santa can be a scary man for the younger population. Had to document it though!

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Madeline Elizabeth

My dear friend, Mary, had her 2nd child - a beautiful baby girl who weighed in at 7lbs 2oz and is absolutely perfect. She is a true blessing as many of my friends are aware and I so enjoyed holding and meeting her.

Trick or Treat Night

This year we decided to go back to the old neighborhood for trick-or-treat because we didn't realize Morgan would have a few friends nearby this house and we knew we'd all have fun back with our friends in Beavercreek. We went to the Humphrey house and had pizza and got the kids dressed after that. So glad we went, it was so good to see all those familiar faces and I know we would've felt a bit like strangers in this neighborhood except for the surrounding ones we know. Next year, I am sure we will have met more of them but it was nice to go back. Chloe and Morgan have gone around together since they can remember so it is hard for them not to have each other. Ryan was dressed as a dog and the Humphrey dog, Roxy, was a bumble bee and she seemed to like Ryan being a dog - she was quite interested in the cute dalmatian in her house! They all looked so cute and the weather was much better than expected, although still chilly! Perfect for the firepit in the Greening driveway afterwards. The kids spent most the eve inside sorting and trading candy and we hung out with the grown-ups!

Raspberry Dolphins Soccer Party

Morgan just finished her fall soccer season and I had to put the name of their team as the title for the entry because it cracks me up that the girls came up with the name dolphins for their official color of raspberry(although I always cheered "go pink" because raspberry doesn't fly out of the mouth as easily). Kirk coached the girls and his assistant coach threw the year-end party. His wife made a beautiful cake for them and they gave them all awards and trophies. They finished up about 1/2 way down the bracket in their league but it was fun season and the girls looked forward to all of the practices and games - the parents stressed that to the guys all the time. As a treat for the girls who hairsprayed their hair pink for the tournament weekend, they got to do the coaches at the party - lucky Kirk - he didn't even like to wear the pink coaches shirt after he left the field and here he is with pink hair - good sport! Way to go Morgan and Kirk!

More fall fun!

Okay, so I love fall days and taking pictures outside on those days so here are some of my favorites - FYI, Ryan's Aunt Jenny has a name for a certain face he makes - she calls it "stinkface" and I think you will know what it is when you see it - perfect name for it and it is quite a common face of his when I take pictures of him - not sure why? We have had such beautiful days lately. I just get the kids outside as much as I can because I know our days are numbered - cold, cold weather will be here soon. Morgan is with another little girl in her class in the bike picture - she has Joe the monkey from her class that came home with her this weekend and he is tucked inside the one helmet- hard to see. We are very lucky to have 2 of Morgan's classmates living very close to us - hopefully they can keep up a good friendship to help both her and myself out!

Preschool Halloween Parade

Bradley had his preschool parade today and he was so excited for their party. He thanked me several times for making his class cupcakes and cookies that were safe for him (egg-fee/peanut-free). He kept wanting to go on Thursday and I told him he had to wait until Friday b/c his class wouldn't be there until then. They walked through the halls and out to the steps and sang "5 Little Pumpkins", their teachers introduced them by class and costume and then we got to go home. My neighbor watched Ryan which was nice so I could completely focus on the poor middle child who never gets sole attention.

Fall Fun and Leaves-oh my!

We love our trees at this house but knew there would be some sacrifices that come with them - LIKE FALL! Lots to rake as you can see but the kids have so much fun with them too - they filled the tunnel slide with leaves and then slid down through them - Morgan got a new classmate, Lauren, that moved in right next door so she is in the picture of them in the tunnel slide - she is seriously the size of Bradley and there's only 6 months difference between the 2 girls - crazy, huh? Also, the kids found the sled in the shed so they got a little creative - no injuries to report as of yet!

Ryan's boo boo

Well, Ryan got his first of what I am sure will be many bad boo-boos. He was diving around on the couch and overshot the arm of the couch and hit the corner of his eyebrow into the end table. Of course Kirk wasn't here and I am trying to decide whether this is worth a probably 6+ hour wait at Children's Medical Center if we don't even need stitches. Thankfully, across the street, we have a pediatrician and sports medicine doctor so I talked to her and she said whichever one of them got home sooner would come over and check it out. In came Mr. Corey with his rubber gloves, steri-strips, and glue to hold them on. I restrained him while he checked it out and thought it would be fine with just the steri-strips. How much easier than the ER! Love our kind neighbors!

Brownie Hayride

Morgan joined a brownie troop that is made up of Cline Elementary 2nd grade girls so she just stays after school once or twice a month for meetings. Her first outing was a trip to Windmill Farm Market and they got to go on a very fun, bumpy hayride, stop at a pumpkin patch, and get back on for the rest of it. Bradley went along too and he LOVES hayrides. The group shot is actually 2 troops, a 2nd grade troop from a neighboring elementary that they do some of their outings with. Morgan has a few girls from soccer in the 2 troops so that makes it nice since she already knew a few.

Fall Campout-Cowan Lake

The kids go to Cowan Lake each year and camp with my dad, "pappy", and his wife, Barbara in their camper. They have a great time decorating and it is a huge deal at the campgrounds - it is like Christmas except with Halloween decorations on all of the campsites-some even make walk-thru haunted houses with tarps, fence posts, etc. We went down on the trick-or-treat night to hang out and the kids had a good time - Bradley really got into it this year. Ryan just rode along in the stroller and our good friends, The Wolf's, were there so Morgan went around with AJ aka the grim reaper in the picture of them together.

Zanesville Family Picture Weekend

We had a busy weekend in Zanesville. Kirk's dad and his wife decided it would be nice to have a BIG family picture since we've just had a slew of grandbabies,(my 3 kids, 2 twin girls who will turn 1 on Halloween, a 6 month old and a 6 week old) 7 in total in case you weren't counting. Fun is not the correct word, stressful would be. We hope to have a few good ones but there wasn't a lot of cooperation from the little ones. We also had bangs cut back into Morgan's hair - squeezed in a trip to the hair salon before the pictures, basically so they could trim and blow-dry her hair so decided to try bangs again. In addition to all of this, it was Aunt Jenny's 30th b-day so we celebrated it a few weeks early and caught her off guard. Kathy made us all a family of pumpkin faces and I love the ones she painted of us, even through in Nanny Cherry's face. I think she basically did caricatures of us on pumpkins! We went the next day to a hayride/ corn maze and had a lot of fun there before we returned home to Dayton- can't wait to see those pictures!