Similar to the back patio, we had needed for several years to make improvements to our front walkway. The mortar was crumbling between the bricks and it was literally beginning to fall apart. Our single step had sunk a few inches, about the spacing of one brick, making going up and down the step more of a hazard as it was steep walking up or down!
One of the biggest changes Kevin wanted to make was to enlarge our steps and porch area so that it took up the entire width of the bump out at the front door. We also wanted a larger walk leading to the step itself. We are super happy with how it all turned out and that it was able to be done yet this year – in the month of December nonetheless! We also added up lighting on the house, down lights on the steps, and up lighting to a couple of trees in the front yard as well.
Choosing the color for the front was rather challenging as our brick is a funky color to try to coordinate with. Amy came over and helped us narrow down our options and we selected a particular paver only to find out there wasn’t enough inventory to do our project and no more was going to be produced. Ugh! So Matt gave us a few other options and we chose a new color, but it wasn’t going to be available until the 3rd week of December. However, after the walkway around to the back patio was complete we looked at how the walk looked alongside the chimney area we thought it looked like it went really well. So we yet again hit up 9Trees and asked to change the paver to the same Fossil color we used in the back.
2021 has arrived! Both boys made it past midnight in to the New Year. Though the party quickly ended and we all headed to bed. On New Years Day we had the traditional pork and sauerkraut while the boys enjoyed primarily mac and cheese and strawberries.
I’ve been finding hidden treasures, partially eaten or just the wrappers around lately, typically in the pantry. I just gives me a good laugh, really. I can just imagine the faces I would see had they been busted in action. The boys and I made Buckeyes to start off the New Year. They both had fun rolling and dipping them in chocolate, and sampling of course.
Are you noticing a trend in the photos I’ve been sharing? This is the latest installment in the series entitled “where we find Reid sleeping”. This kiddo really needs an afternoon nap (it’s pretty obvious?) but refuses to take one in a formal way. Instead, we find him asleep in random places around the house!
I really love to see the kids playing together outdoors. If Covid has been good for anything, I love that the kids have had to enjoy each other’s company outside which means no shows, screens, or electronics. Just good old fashioned play. They play long and hard and almost always some sport or game is involved.
Reid is the biggest snuggler of all time. Anytime he sits with you he wants to take your arm and wrap it around him or take your hand and put it across him or next to him. It’s too cute, if you move your hand he will move it back where he wants it :). And Griffin loves to snuggle and watch a show or sport at the drop of a hat
Being on screens so much between school and using them as a “babysitter” from time to time while Kevin is working, Santa gave them the blue-light blocker glasses for Christmas. They like to wear them and I think they both look cute. They don’t even know they are for blocking the blue light, they just think they’re fun to wear. Hopefully it lasts.
We moved Reid up to a full-sized Big Boy bed from his toddler bed this month! It makes me sad to think he’s growing up, but happy at the same time. He is young at heart for sure and loves to be a baby. But he was ready for his big boy bed! I took him to Target and he picked out the sheets and comforter (with just a wee bit of help from me, lol). We rearranged his room some and got him all set up. He was all smiles.
Reid loves to play and unfortunately through Covid has missed out on being in preschool and laying with same-aged friends. He plays with Griffin or the older kids in the neighborhood but he’s really mostly doing independent play even when they are all together. He loves barbies, babies, and the color pink.
We went to visit Haya, Mo, and baby Summer at their place. Summer is getting so big and the boys loved holding her and sitting with her. Throughout Covid and the quarantine, Kevin began giving the boys and himself hair cuts. They sit through them really pretty well and Kevin has gotten pretty good at it, doing them every month or so.
As a fundraiser for the PTO at Griffin’s school, Beehive, the local Powell bakery had pizza-making kits (amongst other things) that you could buy. So we made our own pizza from scratch one evening and it turned out great.
I love the quiet of the mornings and my routine of getting up early before anyone else, feeding Brutus, and sitting down to have my coffee before our morning walk. Brutus knows after I finish my coffee and get up that it’s time to get his collar on and head out the door. We have a good system down. And then once we’re out we often get to see cool things, like the full moon or a fresh snowfall.
Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein sent a valentine’s package to the boys before they headed out of town for Florida. Once it arrived there wasn’t any keeping it taped up! They were both excited to have lovies with their names on them and in their favorite colors (buckeye for Finn and pink/red for Reid).
We remodeled our first floor and kitchen area in 2014 and painted everything on the entire first floor and loft at that time in a color called Collonade Gray. Kevin and I both dislike how dark our house is, so in an attempt to lighten it up we decided to paint our family room and kitchen walls white and also update the baseboards from the cabinet/cream color to white in the kitchen and from the oak color to white in the family room. We also took down the ceiling trim piece in the kitchen along the long wall since we didn’t think painting that white would look great abutting the kitchen cabinets above the fridge. At the same time, I began to paint the unfinished trim around the new windows that we’ve now had for two (!) years. Yikes. Never thought it would be that long to start painting any of them but here we are. It’s not a fast process and as it turns out after doing part of it and then spring picking up at Millcreek the finishing is on hold!
The boys of the house are the shovelers of the driveway after each snowfall. Griffin and Reid like to suit up and shovel for a bit and then move on to playing in the snow and building a snowman if the conditions are right for it.
Griffin’s teacher, Miss Peacock, entered her class into a contest and won a Tonie Box for each kid in her class! I don’t even recall if I posted about that, but in any case Griffin really loves it and loves the different characters that you can put on the top to listen to stories or music. So after a while we decided to get one for Reid so that when we put him in bed at night he can listen to a story or song to help him get to sleep. We got him the Frozen character, which is his most favorite song at the moment and also Cars, Toy Story, and a Fox with Nursery Rhymes.
Mom and Dad sent us this selfie from the beginnings of their road trip to warmer weather in Florida for the month of February. I’m glad they decided to go and get out of Ohio for awhile and enjoy the sandy beaches of Siesta Key!
The Millcreek construction is moving along with the first floor framing, electrical, and networking cabling has been run and the HVAC is installed. The insulation is in and the drywall has been hung, the door trim installed and stained. The second floor will house our IT room – we will finally have all computer and networking equipment in one place rather than three!
Our H2A workers are scheduled to arrive and begin work on February 6th. So Fred, Shaina, and I went to Ikea and loaded up on furnishings for the three apartments that they will be living in. Dressers, night stands, lights, kitchen supplies, bath towels, you name it we filled up our carts. It was hilarious. Fred was done after an hour, lol. But we got so much done and off our list of needs. It was a great trip. Afterwards I took home all of the towels and washed them all. Fun fun! We will be ready for these guys soon!
Looking back on November, it flew by in an instant but was loaded with fun. Griffin continues with Distance Learning and Reid remains home. He often gets to do fun projects with Lexi, including this cute book with a few things he likes. He absolutely loves pink!
We ventured up to Mansfield on a warm sunny weekend so we could help Mom and Dad button up the greenhouse before winter, and before we headed south for vacation. It was the warmest day that I can recall in recent years when we’ve covered – we were sweating by the end! Dad installed some new vents in the greenhouse this year so we had a couple of new cuts to make and secure. The kids and Grandma made some tasty chocolate chip cookies that we were able to take with us to Tennessee.
Our neighbors down the street, Jane and Bryan, are such fun hosts. They invited all of the neighborhood kids to join in an afternoon of rocket launching! Everyone masked up, as there were quite a few of us, and man was it a warm day! Each of the kids were given a rocket and they were able to shoot it off twice. Meanwhile, the other kids tried to catch the rocket as it parachuted to the ground. It was a fun, and quite hot, day!
Afterward once we were home the boys were playing around inside the house. After a bit I noticed how quiet it was and suddenly couldn’t locate Reid. Quite literally I was running around the house, inside and out, yelling Reid’s name and Griffin and I could not find him anywhere. I was really getting worried that he wondered off. I finally went into his room and turned the corner and found him lying in his room on the floor asleep, naked! Poor kiddo was exhausted.
The following morning we left on our annual road trip to Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Before leaving, Griffin hopped on his morning meeting as he was the teacher’s helper for the day. He was able to help with the date, pick the character on the front page of the slide, and we’re not sure what else (lol) as I’m writing this post 9 months later. Miss Peacock was great with involving the kids, even through the virtual setup.
We arrived at our cabin and surprised the boys that this year our cabin had a pool in the lower level! We stayed in a new neighborhood for us just a short distance from where we typically stay. Our cabin was really awesome with three levels, plenty of games, space, and areas for everyone to spread out. Kevin was able to work from the basement lower level, Griffin did school daily from the kitchen area, and Reid and I moved around trying to stay quiet and not be a distraction to all the work that was going on.
In these Covid times we’ve been very cautious and have primarily dined at home or gotten carry out. Each year we visit Gatlinburg on the evening of our arrival and have dinner at Smoky Mountain Brewery. We decided to give get it delivered this year and eat at home. It wasn’t the same, but it was good nonetheless!
We ventured out to The Island and sat outside on the open air patio of restaurant for a short bit and then all of a sudden the power went out – to everything at the Island! Some things ran on generators, including the ferris wheel. It was weird to have everything go dark but also kind of fun.
Grandma and Grandpa sent us on the road with a fun book and car for Griffin and Reid. They loved them both and played with them a lot during our trip. One great thing about CDL (Committed Distance Learning) is that it can be done anywhere! So this year we didn’t need to fill out any forms and have Griffin miss school during our trip, rather he was able to do school on the same schedule each day! So while he participated in school, Kevin worked, Reid and I played and hung out, and once school was over we would venture out. “Recess” time was typically a quick dip in the pool or a lap around the neighborhood outside. Not a bad deal!
We ventured in to Gatlinburg and decided to dine indoors at Ole Red where we could take in some live music. I was rather nervous as we really haven’t dined indoors at all much, but it turned out to be ok and we all survived. Afterwards we walked around Gatlinburg and stumbled upon a chili cookoff event where they also had some live music.
It’s kind of funny looking back at these pictures 9 months after the fact, but when doing a load of laundry (located in a closet) I was closing the closet door and heard something fall. I opened up the door and saw that the iron had fallen out of the top door organizer, so I picked it up, put it back in, and when swinging the door closed it happened again only this time it landed on the bridge of my nose causing a bit of a bloody gash. Ugh. So for the remainder of vacation I had a nice mark on my nose.
Dollywood continues to be our favorite amusement park. It is so clean and there are so many things for young kids to do. We frequently slathered the kids in hand sanitizer after riding a ride and had fun walking around outdoors doing all the amusement park things.
We stuck primarily to outdoor activities, which is pretty normal actually during this trip. We played Hillbilly Golf and each of the boys did really well and had a lot of fun. Griffin got a hole in one!
Kevin made a really nice charcuterie tray as an appetizer on our Anniversary. It was devoured pretty quickly by big and little hands. Later that evening we headed to a later showing at Dolly Parton’s Stampede for the dinner show. Reid got to go down to “chase the chickens” but in typically Reid fashion, had a bit of stage fright and stubbornness and decided he didn’t really want to do it! Made for a good memory.
We went to Smoky Mountain Brewery in the late afternoon and enjoyed our traditional pizza dinner, dine in style this time. The restaurant did a good job spacing out guests and tables. And while I was a bit nervous, everything was fine. It’s kind of crazy how once you become accustomed to not going indoors places when you begin to do it again it’s kind of nerve wracking. At least it was for me!
More of the normal: mac and cheese, computers, school, computers, school, more computers and school…..
Our neighborhood this year was great for getting out and walking and also a bit of climbing on the huge rock. Each of the boys tested their fear-factor and made it to the top for the victor stance. They are strong and brave! It’s hard to really see from the pictures just how huge this rock really is!
Lexi stayed at our house with Brutus while we were away. She took great care of him and sent us pics while we were away 🙂
Once we returned home it was back to the grind of the everyday.
Sadly, we didn’t gather with family for Thanksgiving this year. So while we were home the boys and I made pecan and pumpkin pies. And we had a ginormous feast on Thanksgiving day. Leftovers for days. Thankfully, we were able to facetime with family later in the evening.
Here we have evidence that boys will be boys, lol!
During the nice fall warm days the neighborhood kids have been playing football games. Kevin took advantage of the warm to put up Christmas lights on the house this year. It looks great! The boys and I decorated for the Christmas season and got in to the holiday spirit. Each year Griffin, in particular, is so excited to help decorate! We went off on our annual adventure to cut down a Christmas tree but this year we struck out! The farm we typically go to did not have ANY tall trees this year, so we sadly left without a tree. Of all places, we ended up a Lowe’ to get a small tree for our foyer area. Then we decided to go the artificial route this year for our 12-13′ family room tree due to the tree shortage in general this year. First time ever for a fake tree. But it is a nice one and we added scent sticks to fill the house with the smell of a fresh cut tree. Not the same, but that’s ok.
It has taken us several years, 5 1/2 actually, but we were finally able to get our family headstone and Nathan’s headstone installed at the cemetery in Dublin. We are happy with how they turned out and are relieved to have them there to more finitely be able to find our plots.
Millcreek renovations have begun as we are converting our former shipping warehouse to additional office spaces. We’re removing the overhead doors on the North and South sides of the building and converting half of the open spaces into a conference room, new larger lunch room, a new growers office, and three additional private offices along with a new customer lobby. Bring on the construction!
We remodeled our first floor and kitchen area in 2014 and painted everything on the entire first floor and loft at that time in a color called Collonade Gray. Kevin and I both dislike how dark our house is, so in an attempt to lighten it up we decided to paint our family room and kitchen walls white and also update the baseboards from the cabinet/cream color to white in the kitchen and from the oak color to white in the family room. We also took down the ceiling trim piece in the kitchen along the long wall since we didn’t think painting that white would look great abutting the kitchen cabinets above the fridge. At the same time, I began to paint the unfinished trim around the new windows that we’ve now had for two (!) years. Yikes. Never thought it would be that long to start painting any of them but here we are. It’s not a fast process and as it turns out after doing part of it and then spring picking up at Millcreek the finishing is on hold!
