Family Christmas Card photo 2018! Many thanks to Amy for taking our pictures again this year. It was cold and drizzly and windy, but she was able to get some great ones. We’ve made a mental note to put our family photo session on the calendar in October next year!
The City of Powell collects letters to Santa each year and this year Griffin filled out his own letter! We helped Reid with his and one afternoon Hannah took the boys to the municipal building to drop the letters in the box. We are eagerly awaiting our replies from Santa!
On Monday I took Griffin to the doctor to get checked out from his hives. In the end he thinks it was the tail end of a virus and Griffin’s reaction to it was the hives. He really didn’t exhibit any symptoms of being sick so we’re thankful for that and I’m super relieved that it’s not a food allergy!
On Monday and Tuesday’s when Cole and Cooper are home with Brian and Lisa, Griffin and Cole are inseparable. They go from our house to Brian’s and back again. Sometimes they end of up eating dinner together. They’re fun and cute. And slowly, Cole is warming up to Brutus. Reid loves to be a big boy and have all the same food and utensils that the big kids do. I’ve been trying to capture Reid’s personality in pictures as much as I can. He makes the most expressive faces and loves to just babble as he takes things in and out – his most favorite thing to do at this stage. Brutus, as per usual, loves to insert himself in all the activity and just be there to partake in the fun. Reid is extremely observant and loves to mimic behaviors that he sees. Lately, he really loves to help feed the dogs. In fact, if you don’t let him help carry the cup of food (or carry by himself) he turns in to a screaming mess. This boy, he definitely knows what he wants, lol.
Growing up Amy and I had signs on the doors to our room that are still there to this day! This week Griffin painted a canvas sign for himself and his brother that he wants to put on the door to his room. They both turned out so great!
After the church musical on Sunday we headed across the street for a last minute dinner at Dewey’s Pizza. The Manning’s called us and came over and joined us and we enjoyed a last minute dinner with friends. I snapped this quick pic on the way out the door of everyone watching the pizza dough being made. 
In other fun this week, Griffin burned off some serious energy at his classmate Kaho’s birthday party at Buckeye Bounce. I enjoyed meeting and talking to other moms from school. After a long time of Kevin and I talking about how we should get together more often with the Bethune’s we threw out the idea of having monthly family dinners – and this week was our first one! We were treated to a nice mexican spread of food and the kiddos enjoyed sitting at the kiddie table and playing before and after dinner. 
For Kevin’s birthday, I planned a date night out to see For King and Country’s Christmas Tour, Little Drummer Boy. We made a quick stop at Hot Chicken Takeover for dinner and snagged a pedi-cab to take us super fast to the Schott in the frigit temps as we parked really far away! We had great seats and loved the concert. While we were out, Griffin decorated his Gingerbread house with Mara. He was so excited to show us the next morning.
Since I’m writing this post several weeks late, I don’t even recall why I was at the vet with Brutus! I think he had an ear infection, but in any case, I snapped his pic as he awaited the vet. For the first time ever they put a muzzle on him while they worked on him. He had growled at the tech and kind of barked/jumped as she put her hand out to be friendly. He really isn’t a fan of that! Anyhow, I totally understood why they wanted to do it and I actually put it on for them. He wasn’t being aggressive or anything, but at 112 pounds and with him being nervous the tech felt more comfortable handling him for the exam. He was fine with it and ended up doing great. 
Groundwork has begun at Millcreek as we are preparing to build a new Shipping and Growing Facility. The first step is draining the pond as we will be filling in part of it in order to move the structure further to the east. The 5 new houses in the I-pad are also beginning to take shape.
Griffin and I put together the party favor bags for his upcoming birthday party this weekend. We formed a nice assembly line 🙂
Griffin loves to go in and help Reid – whether that be getting his pacifier that fell or just talking to him if he is crying. I like to peek in on them via the video monitor 🙂
For my birthday Kevin gave me tickets to see Blake Shelton at Nationwide. We enjoy going to concerts together and this was another fun night of good music and fun with several artists including Carly Pearce, Brett Eldredge, Trace Adkins and Blake. It was a late night for a weeknight concert! 
How can it be that our first born is turning 5! On Friday we celebrated Griffin with a super fun day. I was able to take the day off work so the day began by taking Griffin to school. Then I surprised him at lunchtime with his favorite – Jimmy Johns for lunch and rice krispie treats for all his classmates. After school we headed to the zoo for a short bit of exploration and then we headed to PINS Mechanical in Dublin for some Jenga, Duck Pin Bowling, Pinball games and then we headed home for gifts and cake. Reid took a bit of a nap and then we headed out (at almost normal bedtime!) for a birthday dinner at none other than Rooster’s, Griffin’s favorite restaurant. 
We are having a basketball hoop installed in our driveway for Finn’s birthday so we gave him some accessories to go along with it and to fuel his buckeye fever. 
On Sunday we met up with our neighbors at Dave and Busters for some gaming fun and lunch. Griffin loved it and Reid and I hung for awhile before we headed home for nap time. 
This week Kevin and I had fun with friends on a trip to see Chris Stapleton and Hank Williams Jr at Blossom Music Center. It had been planned for quite awhile to celebrate Chris Howards birthday and it was nice to hang out and have some fun after the recent passing of Chris’ dad. Six of us headed up for the night to hang and have some fun. We had lawn seats and as you’ll see – it poured rain for about 20 minutes just as we were parking in the grass lot. So, that meant quite a soggy experience and muddy feet (for me)! But the show was great and the company was lots of fun.  Finn had a fun night with Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein! He and I headed there Friday morning and after I got picked up to head north, Finn and Papa did some hosta watering (or as it may have been – jumping in the mud puddles!). Grandma and Grandpa also built a cool tower almost as big as Finn! This is really only the second time we’ve left Finn for an overnight without us (ironically the last time was when he was 1 year old and that was at Mom and Dad’s too, when we went to see David Nail in concert in Medina – something about concerts and northern Ohio!). 
Earlier in the week, Finn and I took our Lils to the vet specialist to have two of her teeth checked out at the recommendation of our Vet who did a dental cleaning a month or so ago. Turns out she had an upper large molar extracted and a lower molar root canal! She was a champ and Finn really enjoyed being able to take her in and hold her leash while we talked to Dr. Tom (who by the way, is an awesome vet). Walking in to his office in Hilliard is almost like walking through a tropical garden, apparently he has quite a green thumb. 
The night we returned from Ocean Isle there was a huge rain storm that dumped a couple inches of rain. Our skylights in the loft have been leaking during large downpours for the last 6-12 months and this day it was even worse! I setup 4 cups to catch the rain water, and even worse it had begun leaking in the great room vaulted ceiling near our new light fixture! We’ve got roofers scheduled to come give estimates – a new roof can’t be avoided any longer as we also have a leak in the large guest bedroom near the wall to Finn’s room. Ugh  – the joys of owning a home!
Here are a few other pics from our week: Finn wanted to help me clean, he had a nice bath (which is a treat for him as we usually have him shower!), and him scooping up the pepper seeds one night when I was making dinner. I’m attempting to be a better cook and make more dinners at home – this is not my gift, but dinner on this night was quite tasty!
On Saturday, after we returned from the concert, we spent the day and night in Mansfield to celebrate Rowan’s 5th birthday at the Infield in Lexington. It was a fun afternoon of video games and go cart riding – until the downpour arrived! Thankfully we were given vouchers to come back another time since we got rained out! So Sunday after church we headed back again for more go-carting and Finn’s first miniature golf experience. He did really well, but also got really frustrated at certain times as he just wanted to “do it by myself”.  He did, however, get a hole in 1! You’ll see the photo where Kevin helped him tee off and he was SO excited his face is priceless. 
Finn also wanted to take some photos this week so here are a couple of his – one of me and one of Kevin’s shoes!
c