We rang in 2019 next door with our neighbors with a low-key pizza party. Everyone, even the kids other than Reid (who was home sleeping) made it to midnight and beyond. We had champagne, hats, glasses, and party horns.
We’ve been making some updates around the house including our loft. While we really love our year-old couch downstairs in the family room it sure is easier to hang out with (and contain) the kids playing in the loft. Plus, the carpet makes it a nicer play area and I feel a bit better about any potential falls on the softer surface. Kevin had been hunting for sofas and narrowed it down to one particular one he liked at Macys. Then, however, he went to Costco and stumbled upon a nice sectional with recliners and decided with a much cheaper price tag we would go for it. Four trips to Costco and back in the van, he and Griffin picked it up. It should have been 3 trips, but Costco gave them 2 of the same box (!!) so we didn’t have all the correct pieces. Once we had them all home Kevin and I hauled them up the stairs together. We aren’t quite done yet with the arrangement, but for now it’s functional and Kevin and Griffin installed the new TV. We’re excited to have a cozy and contained family play space!
On New Year’s Day we headed to the Bethune’s home for our annual New Years Day pork dinner. The Buckeyes also played in the Rose Bowl so we were all suited up to cheer on the team. 
Later that week we hosted the Bethune’s for our monthly family dinner. Graham likely enjoyed dinner of lasagne, salad, and breadsticks the best as he relayed to me that “Iggy, dinner is delicious!”. 
Reid is always on the go and especially wanting to have what everyone else does. Here he is walking around in Griffin’s shoes. He regularly tries on mine too which is a sight to see.
I’ve been trying to be better about meal planning and eating at home. Life is such that eating out is “easier” but I’m wanting to eat “better” and be home more for the kids to get to bed earlier. Griffin has been demonstrating pretty sassy behavior over the last few months and I’m reaching my end point. Hoping that more sleep will be a good starting place for a more pleasant attitude. I asked Amy for good recipes of chicken/soup that I could make to take George dinner after Lynda’s passing. I went with Chicken Taco Soup which turned out delish. I’ve already made it twice since – it’s easy and tasty!
Hannah’s last day with us was Friday, January 4th. It’s been a real challenge to find someone new and it’s taking a toll on my mental state. I’ve found this time to be more challenging than ever to find qualified people who have experience and the right personality. Thankfully, Jim and Pat have come to our rescue yet again and have been up several times to watch the kids. We did hire a girl who came for one day, but it just didn’t feel right so I let her go on the second morning. So our search continues……
Kevin and I were able to go out for a late date night one evening during Jim and Pat’s stay. Kevin was sweet and gave me a card and flowers when I came home to pick him up :). 
My new phone has an awesome Portrait mode which takes really nice photos. While I sometimes look at our pictures and think they are crappy quality, I am thankful to have the pictures to capture the memories! Life on the move doesn’t always make for sharp and perfect pictures.
Reid REALLY does not enjoy getting his teeth brushed. He’s better when he brushes them himself, but he typically does it for about 8 seconds and then says “dah” for done. So I then try to brush his teeth for real and a scream fest ensues. The hygienist recommended I bring Reid along to Griffin’s visits in advance of when it is his time so he can observe and get adjusted to them playing in his mouth. Reid went this week for Finn’s (perfect) check up and was quite curious the entire time. Dr. Bob was great and playfully checked our Reid’s teeth while he was in the extra chair. He got a good couple of chuckles out of him. I decided since Griffin had no cavities, what better way to celebrate than to go get ice cream at Kilwin’s in Dublin. 
Griffin continues to make good progress on his sign words and fluency phrases. He’s gotten sticker number 2!
Griffin has been loving playing with Grandpa while they’ve been caring for Griffin and Reid. Lots of soccer and outdoor play time when the weather permits. Finn loves going out and shoveling or even playing by himself in the cold and snow. We ordered new undies for Griffin and Reid (both Paw Patrol) and when I unpacked them all Reid wanted to do was try them on. Below he has Griffin’s undies on over his pjs. He was pretty proud, even if two legs were in one hole!
To get ready for our new nanny (who didn’t work out) I went on a major house cleaning and tidying spree. I dusted every room including all the boys dresser shelves – that is lots of work as it involves moving all kinds of things. In the end, I put all of Griffin’s current lego creations on his dresser. He has quite a collection of his own creative cars and structures.
We finally got one good snowfall so Kevin and Griffin headed outside and shoveled our driveway. Toward the end I took Reid out, all suited up in his snow gear for the first time, and Kevin pulled them around in the sled. After a couple minutes Reid changed out his snow hat for Griffin’s bike helmut, which, honestly was a better choice given the slippery condition of the driveway. 
Can you spot the cardinal – we regularly have a few cardinal visitors in our backyard trees. 
This picture is my most favorite recent photo of Finn. He had been outside playing and wanted to have hot cocoa when he came in (and it’s one of the only ways to get him to drink milk). He chose a chocolate chip cookie to go along with it and quickly showed me how the professionals rest their cookie on their cup. 
The construction continues at Millcreek as the cold has finally hit. They needed some more earth, so they moved their original piles and the related topsoil to be able to get to the clay beneath. They also flattened and rearranged the 41 year old compost area – it has a whole new look!
As we’ve been looking for a new caregiver for the boys we’ve been enlisting the help of Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong and also Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein for the last few weeks. We’re super thankful they are able to come and care the for kids and the boys really have fun while they’re here. 
It’s so fun to watch Reid’s personality continue to grow and to watch him change before our eyes. He is babbling and talking up a storm – almost always repeating what you say or just babbling jibberish from time to time like he is telling us something – we just aren’t sure what it is. Around 18 months he was saying about 5 words and I was beginning to get concerned. Once he started talking so much I began documenting the words and here is just a sampling – as now he is basically repeating any word you say! Up, down (dah), done (duh), Dada (also DAH!), Mama (also MAH!), Bar (for snack bar), snack, more, uh uh (for no), no, light (ight), on, off, in, out (aught), doggy (dagah), ball, apple, book, all done (ah duh), choo choo (when he hears the train in our house), buckle (boble), cracker (cacka), wawa (water), milk, snow, cold, hot, warm, car, dog food, paci (he says it the same every time but I don’t know how to document it!), mine (as he hugs something, lol),
The last few days of January have had exceedingly low temperatures with nighttime lows in the negatives (-7) and daytime highs of 0. Yikes! With that, school was cancelled on Wednesday 1/30, Thursday 1/31, and Friday 2/1 (due to lots of snow and cold on Friday). Griffin was scheduled for school Wednesday of this week and they were to make their gingerbread houses (and I was to be the Mystery reader!) so all of that got moved to Friday – and school was cancelled again. Boo! But as it turned out, I got a bad cold that arrived on Wednesday and felt pretty terrible Thursday and Friday. With no school on Friday and with the help of Jim and Pat staying home with Reid, Griffin and I were able to head to Tyler Run to setup for the upcoming book fair this week. It was awesome, we arrived at school and were the second people in the parking lot which hadn’t been plowed! There was about 6″ of snow – which made it lots of fun to drive in!
These boys have been really goofy together lately and it’s a lot of fun to watch them play and be silly together. They love playing in the loft and bath time has been lots of fun!
Griffin has now brought home a few narrative pieces from school. I love seeing his creativity and drawing. I sometimes have difficulty making out his sentences (!) but love the story once he reads it to me!
In this story: We go to school. We are at the hotel. We are going to the pool at the hotel. In this story he was referencing our recent trip to Tennessee. 
Griffin’s class celebrated the 100th day of school on January 30th. Each kid was asked to fill a water bottle with 100 of anything of their choosing – the only parameter was that it was 100 of one item. Griffin chose Q-tips!
And here is one from the archives – this pic showed up in my memories – it is of Finn when he was about Reid’s age now. Kevin and I both remember this day, he was laying on our bed watching Sesame Street. He has longer hair, similar to Reid’s, and look at his chubby cheeks! He’s been so lean for so long now it’s hard to recall his chubbiness!
These boys. Though the last few months have been somewhat challenging and stressful finding childcare it’s pictures like these that warm my heart. There have been many a days where I just want to throw in the work towel and just be home with both of them. And if I’m being honest, even when I have great child care at home I still want to do the same. Then there are other days when I feel like I’m a terrible Mom and it’s better for them to not be around me all day every day. Part of what I love about in-home care is that the days are flexible and full of adventure. The boys headed to the zoo this week with Hannah a couple of times and afterwards one day they went to the newer Duck Donuts for a sweet treat. Who would say no to that? 
Since we are new to Tyler Run this year I’m doing my best to learn about the school and get to know people and things about it. I decided I would go to the first PTO meeting of the year, despite my tendency to dislike situations where I may not know anyone and feel like the out of place new person. But I went, and my friend Claire was there as well as my neighbor Alex. And it was nice to learn about the PTO, what it does, and start making connections. I didn’t even know that Alex heads up Dads and Donuts, so I’m going to help her with that in a week or so and Clair and I may takeover the book fair as co-leaders. Yikes – I may be in over my head with that one. Me, leading a book fair? I can hear everyone now “she doesn’t even like to read”. Yes, I know, the irony. The upside of going to the meeting was being able to stop in to see Finn at lunch!
Finn passed his next level in his sight word book this week! Go Finn! He brings home lots of papers each day as they are working their way through the alphabet and numbers. I’m not sure what is normal and what isn’t in regards to getting all the numbers and letters correct at this age. He seems to struggle with 3’s and 5’s so we’re going to work on that. I know I gravitate toward pointing out mistakes and flaws, and I’m really working on pointing out the positives so we’ve been focusing on how well he is doing with so many numbers and letters.
Another selfie by Finn. I enjoy finding these in my photos since he’s learned how to take pictures without having to unlock my phone :). He also took a picture of his magnet creation. Baby gates are good for more than just safety!
Reid babbles a lot but still doesn’t have any words. It’s something I tend to be worried about since he’s 16 months only now. We’ve started putting Sesame Street on in the morning for the boys to watch. Griffin always loved it (and still does actually) and Reid will sit through it for 5-10 minutes before getting up and moving on to something else. He’s like me in many ways, he doesn’t seem to care much about tv in general whereas Finn will become glued to it if you put it on.
For Patriot Day, 9/11, the kids were asked to wear red, white, and blue to school and since I headed to work early that day, Hannah snapped this photo for me while they were waiting for the bus. Reid and Griffin have such different features, Kevin was trying to capture a good profile pic of Reid this morning. Everything about their faces is so different other than their eye color – they both have the clearest blue eyes, perhaps Reid’s are a shade darker than Finn’s. 
And I love this picture of Reid, kind of his half smile. This was at 6:30 in the morning when he was happy as can be to just be up walking around, screeching happily walking in our room and bathroom. 
Griffin frequently likes to empty out his “save, spend, give” bank and sort his money. I’m not sure why he does, but on this particular day he made this long design with his coins. It’s difficult to tell here, but each coin is neatly laid on top of the previous one – all in the exact same pattern. Kind of like dominoes. He’s big on observing and making patterns!
On Sunday, Todd flew in from LA to surprise Pat later this week for her 70th birthday. The original plan was for Kevin to pick him up at the airport and Brett to come up and take him to Enon. So we all hung out for a bit and the plans evolved and Todd ended up staying here a few days so the surprise would be bigger – as Sean was arriving Wednesday. Griffin was so happy to have uncle Todd here. He followed him everywhere and wanted to play with him constantly. I mean all-the-time. They spent plenty of time throwing the football and shooting some hoops in the driveway. Uncle Todd brought him a really cool hat, too!
We love this vacation each year. We go in to it with no agenda and take each day as it comes. We enjoy a lot of lounging with no where to be other than the beach, the pool, or the house! And we did our best to capture life for the week doing a whole lot of relaxing 🙂 This was our first vacation with a pool at our house and though before arriving I was filled with nerves and anxieties about a pool and young kids (even though we wanted the pool!) we were all put at ease once we realized the pool was quite secure and on the lower level of the house. Whew. We explored the beach during the day and a couple of times near sunset. Finally toward the end of the week we had the perfect beach day – calm winds and waters and sunshine.
Everyone had their turn at showing off their skills jumping in to the pool. Griffin, and all of the kids actually, made great progress during our week in the water. He went from being timid and wanting to hold on to someone to getting rockets off the floor of the deep end (5 1/2′ feet maybe?) to swimming laps on his own! I put several videos in this post, all at the bottom. Be sure to watch Griffin’s water skills and also the cannonballs of Kevin, Andy, and me. You can judge who had the best form and water spillover.
Great could always be found near Reid playing with him and making sure he was safe. 
The Bethune’s and Beilstein’s have been in to puzzles for quite some time and on vacation they brought a box of a dozen puzzles. The Armstrongs jumped in on the action and together we all completed a puzzle almost every day. They can be rather addicting!
Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching all of the kids one night so we could go out on a Date Night. We were sitting on the patio of Columbia when all of a sudden these “strangers” walked by and wanted to pose for a quick photo in front of the restaurant, lol. We literally didn’t see them coming – check out my face in the second photo. 
The kids spent many hours playing together, building magnet creations, helping with puzzles, playing baby, and watching some shows. I think they really enjoy the time each summer. 
For our “On Your Own” night we went to Phillipi Creek Seafood Restaurant again. This place is where Finn discovered his love of Red Snapper. He wanted the same fish again so he and Kevin split that for dinner. It was huge and it made Finn a happy boy!
These photos are from the nicest day we had at the beach. Warm sun, little wind and waves. Some of these photos are from Amy 🙂
Amy took our traditional Family Photos. This year we were in the pool area of our house which had awesome large tropical trees. 
Another periodic check in on the pups and I found Brutus being all rough and tumble with the blanket. I can pretty much guarantee he was playing hide and seek with his nylabone :). 
Our flight back to Ohio didn’t leave until 9 at night so we had all of Saturday to explore. We started with breakfast at The Broken Egg and then we drove north to the Mote Aquarium. It was h-o-t! We saw a lot of fun ocean creatures and enjoyed the exploration. Griffin loves stingrays and wanted to pet them. They can be rather shy but they do occasionally swim up the sides of their enclosure. Finn and I were surprised when one swam nearby, only to have a spat with another stingray, and he ended up getting soaked with water! He was initially upset and a bit embarrassed as everyone chuckled. But we then began to laugh ourselves and thought it was pretty cool. 
Our drive to Tampa was a quiet one as both boys fell asleep in the car and took in brief naps. We encountered a big storm shortly after we arrived at the airport – but thankfully it was after we’d taken the tram and arrived inside the terminal. Shout out to the airport personnel for directing us to the “express” security lane where we were able to by-pass a huge line in order to go through security and get to the gate. Yay for traveling with young kids!
We arrived home around midnight and moved the boys from their carseats to their beds. Sunday morning Kevin and Finn quickly hopped on the mower to whip our yard into shape for the days visit from Jim, Pat, Sean, Max and Charlotte. Sean and the kids were in town from New Mexico for the week we had been out of town. Luckily we were able to enjoy the day together before they headed back on Monday. Griffin and Charlotte spent a lot of time driving around the yard. Max is a bit too big and heavy to drive the car, so instead, Kevin hopped on the mower and let Max drive. He thought it was awesome :). And no worries, they are both safely seat-belted in.
