The Wyndbend crew at the bus stop! Brian texted me this picture and I thought it was a great one. It was one of the coldest mornings yet waiting for the bus! This week Griffin’s school had their Holiday Sing-a-long concert. It was on a Thursday, and Griffin doesn’t go to school that day, but I took him so he could participate with his Kindergarten teacher and the “blue” class. I was surprised, only one of his classmates from his “yellow” class came! The kiddos sang through numerous songs which highlighted many different winter holidays and Griffin’s favorite, “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas”.
Even though it is a super busy time of year for Santa, he was able to quickly write a reply to both Griffin and Reid. Their letters arrived this week and they both made it on the nice list 🙂
In preparation for Christmas all the boys needed to get their hair cut. We decided to all go together to Sport Clips. This was only Reid’s second hair cut, his first was at Cookie Cutters which is a place for kids. He did really well watching a “show” on Kevin’s phone (other than when he hit the buttons and turned off the screen numerous times!). It wasn’t the best cut of all times, but we were happy he did so well :). Griffin got the deluxe treatment this time with a heated towel and head massage. Kevin declined a photo op, lol. 
Griffin’s class party was this Friday, the last day of school before winter break. I arrived home early from work, picked up Reid, and headed to Tyler Run. The kids had a great day – it was Pajama Day where they each wore jammies to school, they watched the Polar Express and had popcorn, and then their class party! All of Griffin’s buddies absolutely love playing with Reid and following him around the classroom. It was a very fun last day of school. 
After school I took the boys to Kohls for some Christmas shopping before we headed north to Mansfield. Prior to leaving Kevin and the boys gave my my Christmas gift early, a new iPhone XS. Yay, so excited to have a better phone with more memory and better cameras! Kevin stayed behind to do some secret elf work while the dogs and kids and I shoved off to Mansfield. We purchased an air hockey table for the boys for Christmas and he hired someone to come take our pool table apart Saturday morning and move and store it in our storage area. They helped Kevin assemble the Air Hockey table also such that it was ready to go for Christmas morning! The Bethune’s arrived on Saturday and Griffin was excited to play with his cousins. Greta and Graham love following Reid around and playing with him. On Saturday evening we went to Linden Road to watch Mom perform with the choir in the Cantata. Somehow I didn’t take any pictures, but Kevin did snap a cute one of Reid downstairs at the church while they were off exploring in order to keep Reid entertained :).
The earth moving at Millcreek is moving along at a great pace. They will be moving the drains and filling in a bit more of the northwest corner of the pond, but it is otherwise pretty close. 
Reid is really beginning to chatter a lot more. He’s starting to say more and more words. This particular night in Target he was being silly so I wanted to snag a video of him saying “car”.
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. 
This happy guy is so excited when you go into his room and greet him after his nap. And he is such a great sleeper, sometimes so much so that I think something is wrong because he sleeps SO much or at least seems as though he’s always ready to go back to bed! This week we were certainly thankful for the help of Jim and Pat on Monday and Friday and my parents on Thursday of this week to care for the boys. Since this post is after-the-fact, it turns out the Debbie has decided to quit and gave no notice. Rather, she told us she was “sick” for several days, texting at crazy hours of 12 and 1 am that she wouldn’t be coming. Friday of this week was her first “call off” but next week they continued until she quit via text on Wednesday afternoon. I had reached out to her mom as I was genuinely concerned about her and her behavior of calling off for nearly a week, at strange hours of the night, a couple times via a “friends” phone as she spilled water on hers. It just kept getting more and more strange. It turns out she didn’t appreciate the conversation that Kevin had with her on Wednesday of this week, and even though as a part of that conversation we setup a time to meet on Friday to discuss some things – that is when her call offs began and she never actually came back to work. It’s a shame and it’s upsetting that she chose to quit in such an immature and unprofessional way after 4 1/2 years of being with our family. I’m upset at the manner in which she departed and that she lied to us over several days saying she wasn’t “feeling well” even though she basically also removed all of her belongings from our house the last day she was here. It will be a big change for Griffin moving forward, not only for Debbie no longer caring for him each day, but also for him not having his best bud Sam around either. But we remain grateful for our parents who have really helped us out in a bind this week (and next!). Somehow I didn’t manage to get any pics of the Armstrongs :(. 
This was the week before mother’s day, aka one of my most busiest weeks of the year, especially with the years odd April weather our May has been busier than “normal”. It was so great to arrive home to a tasty meal made by my parents, including dessert of angel food cake with a homemade blueberry reduction sauce. Yummers! Dad and Finn have developed a hobby of running to the store together to get the days dinner stuffs. If you know my Dad, you know he doesn’t like to sit still (or when he does he’ll end up napping – now you know where I get it, lol!). 
I so loved going to NPCA for the Moms and Muffins morning with Finn. We played connect four (he is really good!) and he showed me around his classroom. We played with some toys and then Mrs. Laura read the paper that each kid completed about their Mom. He’s pretty much got me down. Well, he could have just stopped at my mom is really good at “working”….and left off the “out”. This boy has my heart! 
Later during the school day the kids went to a nearby pond for a nature expedition where they looked for frogs and various insects. My friend Laura helped chaperoned and sent me these pics 🙂
Good old Brutes. He has ruined so many things from shoes to clothes to toys, lovies, and so much more. This puppy stage is always a long one with labs. But underneath it all he has the sweetest disposition. It’s not often the first thing you notice about him, as he can be overbearing, he has a deep and scary bark, and when he’s full of energy he can be a handful. And eventhough I’m sometimes cautious with him around strangers or people who are uneasy around him, I have no concerns at all about him with the boys. He let’s these kids do any and everything to him and he’s never once reacted poorly. They climb on him, wrestle him, pet him, push him, tackle him, and on and on. And when he’s tired he’ll just lay there and take it all in, like the picture below (which is terribly blurry but you get the point). He could care less that Reid is smothering him, crawling over him, and dumping all kinds of things off the shelf all over his face. He just lays there and lets it all happen!
After Griffin’s football game on Saturday we headed to Mansfield for Mother’s Day. Not wanting to always show the highlight reel, I included this one of Reid (and check out Greta’s expression) not really digging my photo request. 
We explored Dad’s hostas and he showed Finn lots of his raised beds. And I love the photo of Reid up in the tree looking at Dad 🙂
And here are a few photos from Mother’s Day with my Mom! We are in front of the Coral Burst Crabapple tree that Amy and I gave them several years back. This might be the best year yet for flowering 🙂
