It’s that time of year again where Kevin finds us fun costumes to wear to our friends Halloween Party! This year we were players from the movie Dodge Ball. Claire and Eric hosted another great party this year. We went over together with our neighbors Brian and Lisa – and Wyndbend Blvd took home some awards! We won for “Funniest Costume” and Brian and Lisa won “Scariest Costume”. It’s always a fun night. 
Griffin tagged along with me to the mall for a second time within a week. He’s always excited to play in the play space, wanting me to watch his every move as he happily jumps off the animals and runs at high speeds. Today we also brought home Tracker, his new Beany Boo. 
Griffin was so excited that he received the accessories from our Dodgeball uniform outfits. He’s loving the sweatbands for his wrists and head as well as the dodgeball itself. 
Hannah did some cute artwork with Reid this week while Finn was at school. So cute!
Cole and Cooper will not be with Brian and Lisa for Trick or Treat, and since our tradition is to walk around the neighborhood together we weren’t going to be able to do that. Brian and Lisa invited us over to their house for some pre Trick-or-Treat fun of dinner and decorating cookies. The kids exchanged some candy and had fun playing together. 
On Saturday Griffin went to another birthday party for his friend Jonas, who goes to Tyler Run but is in a different class. They play together on the playground and also were classmates at Locker Soccer for soccer lessons. His mom, Laura, sent me the cutest picture from the party which was at Jonas’ house, a small gathering of friends. He had a great time!
We celebrated Lily’s 10th birthday on Sunday. Our girl is definitely aging, she has a constant limp from the arthritis she has in many of her joints (elbows, knees, shoulders, ankles). But She’s a tough cookie. And when she’s excited about something or someone arrives home she jumps right up and darts to the door like a young pup, and a loud obnoxious one too! Her alert barking is still very much on point. And she is the best tattle-tale, often barking a signature bark when she is alerting us that Brutus is getting in to something or has something that he shouldn’t. She’s a smart and sassy one. She loves to be cuddled and finds peaces in the smallest and quietest spaces. Happy Birthday sweet Lils!
October 28, 2018
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We’re just moving on from on birthday to the next as our highlight this week was having my parents in town on my Dad’s birthday! Perhaps not the birthday he’d envisioned? I requested their help to watch the boys on Thursday or Friday this week as we knew when we hired Jenn she wasn’t available on these days. Turns out they chose Thursday which is my Dad’s birthday so he spent his day watching the kiddos AND making a delicious dinner of cheese and mushroom stuffed chicken breasts, steamed cauliflower with a homemade cheese sauce, and a tasty salad. Poor guy didn’t get a break on his birthday! And the peace sign actually indicates a “2”, as in 72, hahahaha. 
You aren’t going to believe this, but on Friday I took the day off to be home with the boys. In the early afternoon we decided to head to the zoo for a brief visit and walkabout. We no sooner arrived in the parking lot and it started to downpour. As in torrential downpour. We waited 10-15 minutes in the car and after looking at the radar decided to bail and head home to start packing for our weekend adventure to Mansfield to celebrate Dad’s birthday with the rest of my family. So, we stopped at Graeter’s on our way home to pack up. Ugh. All of these posts is making me realize I’ve got a problem with Graeter’s. But at least I got some pics of the crazy rain. 
I pulled the van in to begin loading up and as I was walking to put some things in the back I nearly wiped out on the floor. I’d seen a puddle pooling on the floor and in my head just through it was water from the air conditioning system. As it turns out, the van is leaking oil, which led to a complete change of plans. Griffin thought it was so neat that his bike wheels were making rainbows in the driveway :(. Kevin was working as this was a huge weekend for his work project so I texted him and he said I shouldn’t drive it and needed to take the Jeep. Hmmm..well that was an interesting feat to pack two dogs, tons of baby gear including the stroller, suitcases, two kids, and me into the little mini-jeep. Whew. I made it work but it was not easy, and probably not the safest, as Brutus is so big he could easily decide to just hop into the back seat from the back of the car. Thankfully after we got going they laid down together in the back for most of the trip. They did, however, completely remove the blanket I’d laid down so my black back is now Lily-white. 🙁
We arrived at Mom and Dad’s and not long after the Bethune’s arrived too and all of the kids began having all sorts of fun. They built a car that they all rode in together.
On Saturday we ventured to Kingwood, we thought we’d beat the rain but as it turns out we didn’t! But we still enjoyed walking all around and looking at the Big Bug exhibit and feeding the ducks. After a brief rest at home we then headed to the Infield in Lexington for Dad’s birthday shenanigans including racing in the go-karts and a round of putt-putt. We had a tasty pizza dinner along with cake and presents too. It was a great weekend!
Each of the older kiddos also gave a concert on the piano. It was quite entertaining to listen to each of their styles. Well, I guess Brutus might have thought otherwise.
On Sunday the crew went to Bob Evans for a tasty lunch. To speed things along we sat at two separate tables. For some entertainment Amy was showing me how to use the filters in Instagram and I happened to get a couple of cute pics of Finn and Reid.
And one night at home Finn put all of his animals on his bed (they are normally hidden behind his chair where they are safe from Brutus) and it seems he’s got quite the collection these days!
And thanks to Aunt Amy for capturing some awesome photos of Finn, Reid, and all of the cousins! She took these on Sunday morning, right inside our parents front door with her background setup. It was about 100 degrees and 90% humidity and we were all sweaty in about the first minute. I was doing jumping jacks, leg kicks, screaming giggling, flailing, pretty much anything you can think of to get Reid to look at the camera and remain still for more than 2 seconds. It was quite the challenge but as always Amy captured so many great ones! I’m thankful to have these awesome photos! And these are just the highlights. I need to get the rest and add them here in the near future. One of my favorites is Finn’s fierce football face – so you’ll have to re-visit the blog at some point to see more. 
We have a 1-year old! Our little man Reid turned one on Sunday and we’ve had quite a busy week leading up to his big day. The end of Griffin’s school year is near and they’ve begun to send home some school stuff including pictures and name tags so I’ve included some in this week’s post. 
Griffin really does love being a big brother. He’s regularly wanting to help feed Reid, share his food with Reid, give him his bottle, pick him up (which Reid does NOT like usually), give him hugs and snuggles. 
Griffin has rediscovered his Magnatiles recently and has been making all kinds of creations. He made this awesome heart for me and when he showed it to me and said he made it for me because he loves me. Awe, love this sweet boy! The second photo is of him in his room after bedtime, yes he’s asleep, and he made all of those creations after he went to “bed”. 
Mom, Dad, Jim, and Pat were again our saviors this week as they helped us by watching the kids while we were away at work. We couldn’t have made it through this period between caregivers if not for each of them! The photo of Finn on the couch asleep is from Jim and Pat – he fell asleep on his way home from pre-school in the car and they brought him in to the couch and he continued to sleep! He was wiped out as he rarely naps these days!
Kevin and I have been on the Generosity Team at church over the last year and a half. Our team led the capital campaign to raise the funds to pay off the note on the building by May of this year – which thanks to the faithful contributions of our congregation was a successful effort and the building was actually paid off early in April. Our team planned a celebration to thank our church and coupled it with a party also celebrating the 25th anniversary of the church. We had a worship team from another church come and give a concert, there were games, food trucks, and the official burning of the church “note” in the back yard fire pit. Kevin took the day off on Friday to run all of the errands to Costco, Aldi, etc., and gather the necessary food and drink items. The church provided drinks and side-items as well as “tickets” to the food trucks for each attendee. Kevin made 15 pounds of pasta salad at home (and it was delish – and we ate it for the next week as there was plenty left over!) and we had other items including a green salad, strawberries, apples, grapes, and cheese trays. On Saturday morning I went to our neighbor, Lisa’s, bridal shower downtown and then quickly headed home to change and head to church to help with the final prep and laying out the food before the official event began at 4 pm. The weather was looking dodgy and it poured rain at 3:30 but it cleared up just before our event began! Yay! It was a great time and really well attended and the food trucks were all great!
After our busy Saturday we headed into an even busier Sunday – Reid’s first birthday! This picture is from Reid’s party on May 28, but I wanted to include it here as it is the best shot I have of him with a huge smile on his face 🙂 When we got Reid from his room on his birthday he was in fun spirits. He’s loving the fan and enjoys crawling all over our bed and trying to escape your reach. Sunday morning I headed with Griffin and Reid to Finn’s football bowl game to conclude his season with i-9. They played at Liberty High School’s football stadium this year. The kids had a great time and it was a nice morning to watch a game. Simultaneously Kevin was at the special church celebration service – which ended up being nearly two hours! We didn’t want to both miss the service as it was a special one which celebrated the 25th anniversary as well as the conclusion of the Generosity initiative. Whew, Kevin made it right at the end of the game and although Finn was finished playing he was there to see him get his trophy and grab a team photo. It was a fun season as Cooper, our neighbor and Finn’s buddy, was on the same team – go Ninja Bulldogs! This same day last year I was in the hospital after just having had Reid and Kevin went to Griffin’s Bowl Game with his parents! Time flies!
After the game we headed home for a short bit and then I left to meet two potential nanny’s to watch the boys this summer. I met with one at 1:30 and the next at 2:30 – both went well and since we knew we needed to act fast we ended up setting up second interviews for later that evening at 6:30 and 8! It was such a whirlwind, but we ended up hiring Jenn (who we interviewed first) and she agreed to start the next day. Whew, basically 24 hours after interviewing her she was at our house. But I spoke with her references and reviewed her background check, got her BMV record, and feel really good about her. We’re super thankful it happened so quickly! Just before the interviews Finn and I decorated Reid’s cake and as soon as I got home we hopped in the car and headed to Dublin to watch Greta’s Dance Recital! She did a lovely job and it was cute to see so many dancers on the stage doing different routines :). 
After the recital Mom, Dad, Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan, Greta, me, Finn, and Reid headed to Max and Erma’s for a quick dinner. Kevin headed off to meet with the two interviewees so we could get that done over the weekend rather than trying to figure out how to do it during the workdays. Reid was pretty tired by this point as you can see, lol, and Finn really enjoyed his sundae for dessert. 
This poor boy – after Kevin got home from his second interview it was nearly 9 pm and it was the first time we’d all been home together where Reid was awake and our first chance to do gifts and cake. I was actually rocking him in his room thinking we would just do it the next day when Kevin arrived home and we decided to just go for it. So he doesn’t look the most spunky in these pics but here they are!
