Cincinnati

Last weekend Bryan surprised me with a weekend getaway to Cincinnati! I have to say, this is the first time in our marriage he has been able to pull something like this off without me finding out or without just telling me out of excitement. He's never been good at keeping secrets from me. :) On Thursday night he told me his Mom was flying in and she would be here in a few hours. Wooo Hooo..... A weekend without the kids! How sweet of her to come all the way out here to give us some much needed vacation time.

We stayed at the Westin Hotel right in the middle of downtown so we were really close to a lot of fun places!
We went to the Palomino Restaurant for dinner.

We visited the Krohns Conservatory. It was fun to visit the different gardens like The Rain forest, Desert and tropical rooms. For a minute i almost forgot it was winter!

On our way home Saturday we stopped by the Outlet stores and went crazy shopping. We just couldn't pass up all the good deals! We got the Kaitlyn a cute little hat for $1 (can't beat that) and sunglasses for the girls. Kaitlyn loves her glasses so much she doesn't care if we are inside or outside, she always wants to wear them.

I love this picture of Ashley! She likes them too :)

Kaitlyn got her first haircut while Grandma was here! It was just a little trim.

We didn't want Ashley to feel left out. She wanted one too so Grandma gave her a pretend haircut :)

Thanks so much Cindy for coming all the way from Utah to watch our girls.

They loved spending time with Grandma and Bryan and I loved being able to spend time with each other.

COSI

January was a pretty uneventful month. February has been a little better so far, although the snow has put a damper on things a little. Mostly because Ohio rarely plowes their roads so you don't really feel like ice-skating through the streets in your car :). I had my 29th Birthday on the 2nd (man I'm getting old) :) I have such a wonderful husband and friends that made my Birthday so much fun!
I have to say i haven't taken any pictures since we returned from our trip to Utah so i thought i would post some from our outing at COSI (science center) in December.

Kaitlyns favorite part...playing in the water

Bry took Kaitlyn down into a little submarine. I don't think she liked it very much :)

Christmas in Utah!

This year Bryan and i were lucky enough to be able to fly back to Utah for Christmas and take a 3 week vacation! Wow, 3 weeks seemed like a long time but we still didn't get to see and do everything we wanted. We had so much fun! It was so hard to come back.

Here is Kaitlyn reading the airplane security pamphlet. :). The kids were good on the plane as always but man are we exhausted when we finally reach our destination. How do you keep the 2 busiest kids on earth entertained for a full day of traveling.

This little girl can fall asleep anywhere. :) We really wore her out this trip!

Kaitlyn and Ashley were such good helpers to Grandma Hendriks. They helped decorate the Christmas tree (and un-decorate it) and helped grandma make dough in the kitchen. Don't you love Kaitlyn's fake, little, cheesy smile she always does for pictures:)

Christmas Eve and morning was spent at my parents house. The girls had a blast opening all of there presents and helping everyone else open theirs too.

After visiting Bryans family for their little get together of opening presents and lunch, we went to my brothers house for Christmas dinner. (Tara, Rachel, Lisa, Larissa and Carter lounging around)

We finally were able to get all of the Grandkids together for a picture. We found it is impossible to get them all to sit still and face forward let alone smile. Doesn't Kaitlyn look enthused!

Kaitlyns very first time bowling! She had a lot of fun until about half way through when she lost interest.

Date night with the family was a blast! We went to dinner then bowled for a couple hours! I have to say i finally beat Bryan in a game!!!

Oohhhh look at the happy couple! My little sister Tara got engaged a few days after Christmas. She is the last to fly the coop. We are so excited for her and Matt!

New years eve with my sisters! We spent the evening playing games and drinking martinelli's!

I wish i would've taken more pictures, but this always seems to happen. I'm sure this summer when i go back for Tara's wedding i will be plenty camera happy. I can't wait, i already miss everyone. Rachel and i became addicted to Super Mario Bros. for Wii. I miss playing with you Rach. I think I'm going through withdrawals..he he. Thanks everyone for such a wonderful Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I have been such a slacker this month. Although November has been pretty uneventful, I didn't even take pictures of the few things that were considered "blog worthy".

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, thanks to our good friends, Chad and Kate. Kates parents live here in Ohio and they were so gracious to invite us over and let us be part of their family. yummmm, what a wonderful meal. I attempted to make candied yams for my first time and they turned out deliciously!

Our little Ashley has a new favorite hobby, and that is climbing on anything she possibly can. Her favorite is our kitchen table and chairs. She has taken a couple little falls that you would think would maybe dissuade her from climbing back up again, but nothing stops her. We have now resorted to tying the chairs to the table with bungee cords so she can't climb up. A few weeks ago we had a chair that was not tied to the table, so of course in the 10 seconds we weren't watching her, she climbed up and took a little fall. She got a little cut on her eyebrow that we thought could possibly leave a scar. Of course these things always happen at night and on the weekends when your doctor is not available, so i took her to The Children's Hospital where i got to spend a few hours of my night. She was such a brave girl!I think it was harder on me watching her get her 4 stitches then it was on her.

Hopefully my next post will be full of pictures of our trip to Utah! We leave on the 15th and will be there for 3 weeks! We are excited to have Christmas with our family this year (last year was a little lonely hear all by ourselves) and we can't wait to see everyone!

October!

A couple of weeks ago, i was given the experience of becoming Bryans very first patient! I don't know how i ever got so lucky. Jk hun :) This checkup was a 4 hour event. (not Bryans fault of course) He had to do a lot of poking and prodding and checking around for who knows what. Does this picture look posed or what. He didn't really work on me sitting up :) I considerd this good quality time spent together..he he I'm so proud of you honey! I was honored to be your first patient.



When we bought our house,we were lucky enough to inherit a hot tub with it! We finally decided to check it out and see if it worked. After changing and fixing a couple parts, we had it running! Kaitlyns favorite thing to do now is swim in her pool with Daddy!

One thing i never did in Utah was go to a pumpkin patch, but they seem to be a really big thing here. We happened to go on the COLDEST! day of the year (so far). We went on a hay ride to a field where we got to pick out a pumpkin and go through a little corn maze. The kids also got to pet a little bunny. Normally there are more activities and animals for the kids but we were so cold we just wanted to grab our pumpkins and go. We'll try again next year and maybe have a better experience.

The other day we went to "Boo at the Zoo" at the Columbus Zoo. The Zoo was filled with fun decorations and places set up for the kids to trick or treat.

Halloween has been a week long event for us. The kids have had to dress up 5 times for various events and activities. Thanks to Kaitlyn and Ashleys Grandma, they both had super cute Halloween costumes (thanks Cindy).

Kaitlyn and her friend Mason "trick or treating"
These two love birds held hands most of the evening.
We got together with a big group of friends and took our kids Trick Or Treating together. The kids had a lot of fun and ended up getting way too much candy. I guess i will just have to help them eat it all...mmmm

On Halloween night we went to a Party at our friends, the Bowcutts. Thanks for all the fun and food.
Bryan dressed as Ron Burgundy from "The Anchorman" (minus the mustache, it kept falling off) and our friend Nate was "Napoleon Dynamite"
Me, with my good friends britni and Allyson

This last month

My girls turned 1 and 3 yesterday!! They are both so much fun and i don't know what i would do without them. I feel so blessed to be able to stay at home with them and enjoy every new thing they do and learn. Lately Kaitlyn has been talking in full sentences and saying the cutest things. We are still trying to get her potty trained. She tells me potty like 30 times a day. Sometimes she goes, sometimes she doesn't. It's making me crazy!!!!!!!! Ashley has been walking for about a month now! It's so cute to see someone so little walking around. Well, as we all know she's not so little :) but at least she is on the growth chart now and her weight has actually gone down since her last appointment. Her 12 month Dr. appointment was today and the stats showed she is 24 lbs (85%), height is 95% and head is 92%. She received 6 shots today, poor thing :( Not to mention her molars are coming in and have been very painful for her. Not such a great day for her.


Bryan and I went to our first OSU Football game! They played Illinois and beat them 30 to 0! Go Bucks! It rained almost the whole entire game. But while everyone else was wet and freezing, we were warm and dry in our full body rain gear (coat and pants). he he...I wish we had taken a picture. YES i know i am wearing a blue shirt. (An absolute no no because it is our rivals color) but i just hadn't put my red jacket on yet. (luckily i didn't get yelled at or beat up) :) Football for Ohioan's is like a Religion. They even change the days you trick or treat (Nope we don't trick or treat on Halloween) because they don't want that to interfere with football if it happens to fall on the same night. CRAZINESS!! Kaitlyn is turning into such a big helper. She wants to help us do "everything". Daddy let her help mow the lawn. Kaitlyn is also such a good big sister! The other day Ashley fell asleep on the couch and Kaitlyn took her "favorite" blanket and put it over Ashley. It was the sweetest thing!

They are peaking out the window of there new little play house. My girls are starting to play so good together. Kaitlyn is aways saying, "Ashley come here".

At the Zoo with the Gorillas.