Christmas 2010

We decided to spend our Christmas in Utah again this year! Bryans parents bought him a ticket to ensure that he would be able to leave and come back when he needed to for school. That meant that i was left flying stand bye with the girls on my own again. I've done it so many times now, i feel like I'm beginning to be a pro. Luckily we made our flights ok, the girls were "pretty good" and Bryan was able to fly out 2 days after us.
When so many of our family on both sides live within an hour of each other, it makes for a lot of driving around, visiting relatives and a little bit of tug-a-war. Thankfully this year Bryan and i were able to compromise and come to an agreement of where were were staying and how we were going to spend our Christmas. We spent Christmas morning with Bryans parents and his Brothers family. Unfortunately i am horrible at taking pictures and didn't do very well with my picture taking that morning. Bryan got me something that might help me out with my bad picture taking.....a Cannon Rebel Camera! I am so intimidated just looking at it that it took me a couple weeks to finally sit down and figure out how to use it. Now that i think I've figured out the basics, I'm pretty excited to start using it!
Bryans parents got all of the grand kids these little sleds that look like little snowmobiles. Bryan, his Dad and brother took the kids out sledding to try them out. They had a blast!



Christmas evening was spent at my sister Lisa's house with my family. We had a Delicious dinner and played a fun little gift exchange game. Bry and i walked away with a gift card and the most comfy, fuzzy snuggy I've ever seen :)
Love my sisters! I wish i would've gotten a picture of all the girls :( Sorry Mom, Aunt Carma, and the little ones)

I love you too boys!

Every time we are in Utah we get to hang out with our wonderful friends, the Offrets. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures with them but we got one of Ashley and their 2 adorable kids Everett and Scarlet.

We were able to go bowling 3 times while in Utah! Kaitlyn is a pro now!



While we were at the nail salon waiting for Grandma Cindy to get her nails, the nice lady said she would paint the girls nails while we waited. They even got to pick the color they wanted. Soo cute!

It was actually really hard to come back to Ohio. I don't miss living out out of a suitcase and having to rely on others for things like transportation, but i miss having lunch dates several times a week, playing with my family and friends and having babysitters. Our last week there i got the WORST cold of my life. It really put a damper on...well, everything. The stupid cold followed me home and is still in full force. Hence my laziness in taking my sweet time to blog about our trip. But here it is.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Halloween!

This year for Halloween Kaitlyn was Tinker Bell and Ashley was an OSU cheerleader.
They had more than enough fun activities where they got to dress up. They also received more than enough candy. Since i don't really like my kids to have sugar, i guess i will just have to help them eat it :)
We went trick or treating again this year with some of our good friends. The kids had a great time despite the cold weather.Our friends, the Bowcutts, had their annual "Boo Fest" Halloween party. We don't enjoy dressing up as much as some people but hey it's only once a year. It's fun to see every ones costumes and fun ideas.

October Utah trip

Since Bryan was so busy this month with school and tests, i decided to take the girls and go on a nice long 3 week vacation to Utah. We had so much fun hanging out with all of our friends and family! The girls sure missed their Daddy though and Bry could barely stand having us gone for so long. I'm sure he was able to get so much more accomplished without our distractions.

The girls helped Grandma and Grandpa rake the leaves. Actually more like scatter the leaves they just raked :)Grandpa Hendriks let the girls ride his horse "Red"! Kaitlyn had no fear. She looked like a natural . Ashley did ok but would get a little nervous at times. While we were in Utah the girls had their Birthday (Oct 12th) . I can't believe Ashley is now 2 and Kaitlyn turned 4! We had a little Birthday party for them. It was fun being able to celebrate with family! I made 1 cake mix in the 2 round pans so they could each have their own. Then we sang happy Birthday separately. I hope the don't end up hating sharing a Birthday as they get older. For now it's just fun for them to have a big party together.

My good friend Holly and I went to Gardener Village to check out all their fun stores and Halloween decorations. It's fun having a friend that you can go months without seeing and just be able to pick right up where you left off . Thanks for all the fun Holly! It was fun hanging out with you too Steph. Next time I need to snap some pictures of us. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

We will see you all again at Christmas. This time i will bring my hubby with me. No one deserves a vacation more than him. :)

Gettysburg

It's been quite a while since we have been able to go on vacation so when Bryan's parents came out we decide to go on a little trip. We rented a van and drove 6 hours to Gettysburg. After a short movie and walk through the museum at the visitors center, we decided to get a tour guide to drive us around. We are soooo glad we did. This man knew so much about the war and Gettysburg, it was like he was there himself. There's no way we would've known who was who and what happened where without this man. Bryan and his Dad watched the movie "Gettysburg" before we left so they knew a little, but i was completely lost. And after 3 hours of our guide feeding us non stop information, i am still lost :) ha ha...maybe this war stuff isn't really my thing. I think the guys really enjoyed it though.I don't think this war stuff was for Ashley either. :) They call this "The Valley Of Death". (self explanatory)

I love this picture of Kaitlyn watching a bug.

Hello Mr. Lincoln!

Zoo, tomatoes and friends

There is nothing more fun than getting together with friends on such a beautiful day and spending it at the zoo. . The kids had so much fun playing with each other and seeing the animals. It was nice for us Moms to play with our friends too :)

I love my girls in glasses! Soo cute

These are the 3D glasses we got from "Toy Story 3". That was their first movie in a theatre and they actually did pretty good. (As long as they had popcorn to shove in their faces :) ) They even kept the glasses on most of the time.

I love the hair! Ha ha. Kaitlyn is jumping on her little enclosed trampoline

My little cutie!

Ever since we moved into our house i have been wanting to start a garden but kept putting it off because i didn't even know where to start. I had never grown anything. My wonderful neighbor stopped by with 3 tomato plants so i decided to plant them and see what happend.

I actually grew something and they turned out great! i don't really like tomatoes but Bryan and Kaitlyn have been loving them. Maybe next year i will get daring and try squash or some other veggies too.

Last month Bry and the girls went with our good friends, the Murdocks, to the Ohio State fair. Unfortunately I was not able to go because of a sprained knee. But it was nice to get some alone time and it looked like they all had a blast.

In August i hosted a "Diaper Shower" for my good friend Britni who was expecting her second boy. What a fun group of girls! I am so lucky to have found such wonderful friends here in Ohio

Kirtland Trip!

A little over a month ago, two of my sisters came to visit me for a few days! Unfortunately their 5 day visit turned into a 4 day visit because of a cancelled flight. :( We spent 4 days traveling all over Ohio. Our first stop was the Prime Outlet stores in Jeffersonville. Lets just say we over saved (especially Rachel :) ) The second day we traveled to Kirtland Ohio to see the Temple and some of the church sights there. Day 3 was spent relaxing and included seeing the 3rd Twilight movie "Eclipse" with some friends. The last day, my wonderful husband took the kids for a whole entire day while us girls traveled to Cedar point amusement park in Cleveland! Like usual, i wish we would've taken more pictures of our week but we did take plenty of Kirtland..
These are some of the rooms in the Whitney Red Store

These are some of the rooms in the N.K. Whitney store.

This store was very significant in church history. It was the place where the school of the prophets was held and where Joseph lived with his family for a while. The table shown actually belonged to Joseph Smith and that room is where he translated some of the Book Of Mormon and received many revelations for the church.
The many cute faces of ashley!

At the beginning of our tour, we received little comment cards to fill out and return to the missionaries afterward. Kaitlyn was so cute with her card! Every place we went she would stop and write on her card (little circles and scribbles) Sooo cute!

The Kirtland Temple! Unfortunately the "Community of Christ Church" would not let us take pictures inside but it was an amazing experience to be able to see inside and hear about it's history and the things that took place there.

Oh Tara, this was just too cute to not post! lol

I had so a fun week with my sisters! It was just too short :( Love you girls! xoxoxo Thanks for coming!