Tag Archives: cousins

November 30, 2014

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DSC_0176We have much to be thankful for, both now, in the Thanksgiving and Christmas season and throughout the year. Our sweet little boy just warms our heart, he is a true joy. We are blessed to come from loving, caring, and generous families who continue support us in many ways. We are thankful for our friends who love and support us and share life with us. I am thankful that God has provided such a loving, caring, and supportive husband who loves me day in and day out, no matter what.

Finn and I headed to Mansfield Tuesday evening in preparation for our annual Hosta Seed Planting and greenhouse covering adventures. Seems as though dad and I aren’t as productive as we once were – we only planted a small handful of trays on Wednesday – yikes! Finn was pretty spoiled as he was the only grandchild there on Tuesday evening. He was soaking up Grandma and Grandpa’s attention. The rest of the troops arrived on Wednesday. We were fortunate to spend time with both of our families on Thanksgiving Day. We enjoyed the Armstrong gathering at Dave & Gayle’s where Finn played with Grandma and Grandpa. He loved going outside to see Boogey and Joe, Dave & Gayle’s horses.  To this day if I ask Finn about Boogey (he refers to him as Booger, lol, which is somewhat telling I hear), he says “Doe”, for Joe. He has an amazing memory, heck, I often can’t even remember things that he does! We also joined the Beilstein’s for dinner and a short bit of play time before bed.  All of the food everywhere was delicious – we are fortunate to eat twice 🙂 Black Friday began with our traditional breakfast at Bob Evans, followed by lots of shopping at Polaris and then a bit at Easton along with dinner at Bon Vie. It was a packed day, but a fun one for sure!DSC_0007 DSC_0011 DSC_0015 IMG_20141126_175413233

These two went off on a few adventures together. IMG_20141126_190015762 IMG_20141126_190124912 DSC_0022

And these boys are two peas in a pod with their lovies. DSC_0023 DSC_0026 DSC_0032 DSC_0033 DSC_0036 DSC_0038 DSC_0042

This is Boogey (aka Booger, if you’re Finn). He’s playful and is sniffing my head here in our selfie. DSC_0046

And here is Joe. DSC_0050 DSC_0053 DSC_0056 DSC_0057 DSC_0068 DSC_0069 Lots of younger cousin play time happening!DSC_0070 DSC_0071 DSC_0076 DSC_0077 DSC_0084 DSC_0061 DSC_0063 DSC_0086 DSC_0087 DSC_0088 DSC_0092 DSC_0093 Oh, and I snapped this picture of an Olan Mills photo of the cousins from 1979. Kevin is the top row, left. He is 16 years old here! Todd is next to him, then Scot, then Sean. Middle row is Brett and Jason. Bottom row is Juan, Carmen, Ashley, and Jared.  Some cousins aren’t in the photo – as they weren’t born yet!DSC_0064 We jumped out of the car and snapped this photo on our way out of town. It is near farmland that was once farmed by Kevin’s grandfather. Pretty cool, right?DSC_0094 DSC_0101

Silly cousins….DSC_0108 DSC_0110 And Lily photo bombing this one……DSC_0112 DSC_0113All of the boys wanted to sit in the rocking recliner together!
DSC_0117 This is a pretty typical scene – Lily with a bone amid a bunch of toys!DSC_0119 DSC_0123 DSC_0129 DSC_0133

Let Black Friday madness begin!

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At this point we were reaching deliriousness – running up and down the men’s suit selection and hiding and giggling. Followed very shortly thereafter with screaming and crying as he was beyond done!IMG_20141128_192900168We ventured to Cackler Family Farms again this year to search for the perfect tree to cut. We were on a mission, as it was the OSU-v-Michigan game day! We walked around a little bit, but pretty quickly found the tree for us. A 13′ Cannan Fir. Finn loved riding in the sled. It was pretty breezy, but he was a real trooper, getting right up with Kevin to “help” cut down the tree.DSC_0135DSC_0138DSC_0141DSC_0147DSC_0155DSC_0164DSC_0171DSC_0176DSC_0157DSC_0177DSC_0179DSC_0181DSC_0185DSC_0187DSC_0194DSC_0198DSC_0201DSC_0202DSC_0204DSC_0206DSC_0213DSC_0216DSC_0221DSC_0222DSC_0224DSC_0226DSC_0235DSC_0237DSC_0243DSC_0245DSC_0247DSC_0248DSC_0252DSC_0253DSC_0305DSC_0278IMG_20141129_124742426_HDRDSC_0254DSC_0259DSC_0262DSC_0263DSC_0265DSC_0267DSC_0272DSC_0290DSC_0291And here are a few random photos from the week.  Finn brushing his teeth while sitting in a box I had just emptied. Then he decided to cuddle with Lily and a short while later he was playfully crawling all over Cameron, and testing the waters by standing on a bin in his rooms – arms up, none-the-less! 
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August 16, 2014

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DSC_1049That’s us – enjoying the 2014 Food Truck Festival on Friday night downtown at Columbus Commons. After a rather blah week, to say the least, we enjoyed some tasty treats including Bacon and Cheese Fries (you can sort of see here), chicken quesadillas, chicken gyro, and a few flavors of cupcakes.  The lines were long, but the weather was nice and there was live music too, so luckily that kept Finn’s attention while he spent some time in his stroller! DSC_1053 DSC_1026 DSC_1043 DSC_1028Oh, and this was our first attempt at the selfie – Finn and his silly squinty look 🙂DSC_1048

Finn really loves donuts.  Tim Horton’s Timbits to be exact.  Any flavor, really. And perhaps more so, he loves to say “doe doe’s” when you ask him what he’d like for breakfast, or if he is hungry! Here are a couple videos of him for fun. He certainly knows when the camera is rolling…


Saturday night Finn and I enjoyed dinner with Amy, Andy, and the kiddos while Kevin was at the Crew game.  I asked Finn if he wanted to go play with his cousins and he just kept saying “Roro” for quite awhile!  They exuded plenty of energy dancing and climbing into all sorts of things. Oh, and the boys enjoyed showing me their new backpacks for school. DSC_1060 DSC_1054 DSC_1067 DSC_1063 DSC_1074We spent a short while at the zoo on Sunday. It was nice to get out and about and enjoy the outdoors, though it certainly was a bit humid! Finn and Kevin got right up close to the lions this time. The bottom photo is Finn wearing walking around his room in his diaper, or “nu nu”. He thinks it’s fun to run away when it’s time to put his pj’s on!IMG_20140817_181650521_HDRIMG_20140814_211325165And I had the pleasure of taking time to smell a beautiful arrangement of flowers throughout the week this week. So thankful for Debbie and the way she cares of our family! They still look this beautiful 🙂IMG_20140814_082147125_HDR The kitchen project started off with a bang this week and ended with a big “woh woh”. It was a frustrating week for sure. The counter installation began Tuesday. They were able to install the bathroom sink/counter, family room bar sink/counter, laundry room sink/counter and place all of the kitchen counters. If only it ended there! Unfortunately, two seems in the kitchen (one along the wall, another in the island) didn’t match very well color-wise. So after some back and forth the guys returned Friday to finish the project, however, the new pieces matched even less.  Ugh.  They ended up taking all the counters back to their shop and are getting things setup for us to see on Monday. I’m not sure how this will all work out – like is the lighting good where we view it (it’s obviously different than our house!) and so many other questions.  We’ll see how it goes.  They did install the dog bowl area and it looks great.  And on another front, our appliances had been ordered for 3 1/2 weeks and Lowe’s was still not able to tell us when they would arrive!  So, we ended up cancelling our order on Thursday, and the appliances of course arrived on Friday to the store.  So, now we will have to “re-buy” them.  It was a long week of frustrating progress.  On a happier note, the office flooring is now finished! And I was able to clean up the office and organize the counters (some of them for now).  I also organized the pantry with the foodstuffs that we currently have.  So things are slowing coming together 🙂  Below are some teasers of what the counters will hopefully look like soon!2014081295134012 20140812_095514 20140815_154444 20140815_154510 20140815_154451 20140814_115159 DSC_1078 DSC_1079

 

August 9, 2014

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DSC_0915Yep, we did a whole lot of that – relaxing! Our beach vacation began with a few days of rain, lots and lots of rain, which led to lots of time indoors enjoying a slow pace. Grandma and Grandpa read Finn plenty of books and built all kinds of things out of the super cool magnets. Griffin absolutely loved being around his cousins. He watched everything they did and tried to do the same. He loves to say “Roro” and he and Graham often enjoyed playing and dancing in the morning in their pajamas. Did I mention all that rain makes for good snacking and napping too?DSC_0838 DSC_0840 DSC_0836 DSC_0835 DSC_0831 DSC_0778 DSC_0782DSC_0797DSC_1003 DSC_1000 DSC_0928DSC_1007

Finn loved the ocean.  The sand and “wa wa” kept him busy the entire time. He never sat down. He enjoyed catching the waves and heading out into the deeper waters with daddy. Destroying sand castles was also quite a bit of fun. Even on the rainy days we were able to head to the beach in the evening for a quick trip.  DSC_0814 DSC_0815 DSC_0827DSC_0843 DSC_0950 DSC_0947 DSC_0844 DSC_0845 DSC_0846 DSC_0848 DSC_0850 DSC_0854 DSC_0857 DSC_0860 DSC_0862 DSC_0872 DSC_0877 DSC_0892 DSC_0896 DSC_0900 DSC_0902 DSC_0910 DSC_0934 DSC_0936 DSC_0940 DSC_0954 DSC_0955 DSC_0958 DSC_0964 DSC_0966 DSC_0967 DSC_0974 DSC_0981 DSC_0986 DSC_0994We did fit in a professional family photo session – though the only pic I have to share for now is prior to heading out when I was mobbed by the kiddos 🙂 And we had a family dinner out one evening at the Isles, where Kevin and I got engaged two years ago!IMG_0593DSC_0801 One rainy afternoon we headed for a bit of shopping followed by a trip to the Creamery for a sweet treat. A trick I learned is to get a cup of ice cream for Finn with a waffle cone “on the side”. Then I scoop a little ice cream onto the edge of the cone and give it to him to enjoy.  Makes for less of a mess and he loves to have the cone to hold!DSC_0783 DSC_0787 DSC_0790 DSC_0793 DSC_0795We had another fabulous family vacation in Ocean Isle and treasure the time we all were able to spend together <3. DSC_0924 DSC_0921 IMG_20140809_181124256

And here are a few shots Amy forwarded to me from our week in OIB!000023640008 000023670018 000023670003 000023620010 000023620015 000023680005 000023660014 000023660015 000023660027

Thankfully Debbie house-sat and dog-sat for us while we were gone. Unfortunately, Cameron became a bit ill (not sure why) and had bowel issues for a few days. Fortunately our vet was able to squeeze her in and Brett and Jim were able to take her there – were are grateful for that! She’s been on some meds and is much better now, but unfortunately it was a rough couple of days for Debbie 🙁 She is quite a trooper!!

Renovation update:  no pics this week! While I don’t have any new pictures to post we’ve made headway on picking out some details for items including the faucets. Kevin has done a lot of back and forth with the counter top installer so that will move forward quickly.  Brett completed the flooring in the dining room and front foyer. Only part of the office and the landing of the back stairs remain! And Jim continues to work on all kinds of details with the electrical and other miscellaneous items that pop up!