Over the river and through the woods....

...to Grandmother's house we go! We had a great Christmas in Fairborn this year spending time at both Grandparents house and even making and appearance at Christmas Eve church service (Savannah may have tried to eat the manager but we will leave that out! :) )

We of course took a TON of pictures but its a mix of my new lens (you can tell because they are more close up shots), the wide lens (original) and the iPhone. I am still playing around but we have some great memories to share.

Here is a fun little slideshow of the week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp6EnbmqweA&feature=youtu.be

Hope everyone enjoys their time off! We have a Christmas Vacation bucket list we are working through which includes sleep training, painting, new fireplace, a few movies and working out (what!).

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! We have definitely been trying to get in the festive spirit around here. I feel like I am further behind than ever on everything including blog posts! I need a few elves to help me catch up. Regardless here is a recap of the last few weeks. We wrapped up November with Heather's 16th birthday. She had a paint ball party with her friends and most importantly got her license! A life changing experience for all of us :) Go Heather!



Everyone managed to get the stomach flu right before Thanksgiving and Scott ended up with a kidney stone which definitely made it a memorable holiday weekend. We did manage to fit in a few visits with Great Grandma though and all the Grandparents. Thankfully the girls slept pretty decent on our trip which hopefully fingers crossed will lead to a non-eventful Christmas! They loved playing with all the dogs (Katherine giggles every time Gracie runs around her).



The girls are walking everywhere, chasing each other and learning all kinds of sounds and how to make faces. Katherine's favorite is to snort like a pig! After Thanksgiving we jumped right into Christmas and started to decorate and most importantly visited Santa. This was their first visit as we didn't take them last year. (Im pretty sure we hadn't left the house yet last year!) Katherine is not a fan. Completely freaks out everytime.  Savannah, seems unphased.  I guess we will keep working with Katherine! We picked out our tree last weekend and saw Santa and this weekend went to the Franklin Park Conservatory and had breakfast with Santa. The best part of the breakfast was we got to walk around the conservatory. Its such a gorgeous place. I hope to take the girls back again!



We decorated outside quite a bit too but I just realized I haven't taken any pictures! Coming soon. :)



Poor Katherine. Savannah actually enjoyed the Santa experience.



It should be noted Katherine also ran herself into a wall right before the first Santa visit so I don't think that helped much. They love looking at the Christmas lights and we had a fun time decorating this year.  I also got a new camera lens so I have been playing around with some close up pics of the family. (As if I am already not taking enough pictures...this has amplified the effort! I just love it!)



Those sweet faces I just can't get enough of. And they change so fast! Another benefit was getting some cool pics of the plants and decor at the conservatory.



The poinsettias were just amazing. And so bright and colorful. And of course Santa...this time both were not 100% sure.

  

Santa was so nice and accommodating. I think his beard was real too, which makes me believe just a little bit in the magic of Santa :) Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. There you have it...a few weeks in review...and lots of pictures!

Happy Holidays!

Funtober!

I can't believe it's officially November today. October or "funtober" as I have called it is officially over and the girls are 1! What a month of adventure. We kicked off the month with the girls 1st year pictures.



We haven't gotten the pics back yet, but this is a sneak peek. It was so cute to watch them and really a fun day. Hard to imagine the first photo session was this!



Next we were on to some pumpkin picking. (Not sure they enjoyed it as much as we did!)



The next week we celebrated their first birthday. We celebrated their actual birthday at Hocking Hills. It was only my second trip and while it was a little cloudy the leaves were amazing. The girls seemed to really enjoy the backpacks and a lot of scenery to take in! (Plus a great workout!)



A few days later we had their birthday party with just close family and friends. The theme was barnyard fun and I got pretty creative decorating. I probably went a bit overboard and am still recovering (i.e. I just took the last decorations down today) but hopefully they will at least have some cute pictures to look at when they are older! I think everyone enjoyed it as well. And a big thanks to everyone who helped us. Cooking, cleaning decorating etc. was no small feat.



Half way through the month now, Scott and Heather headed off for D.C. and had a great time exploring the city and a few colleges. They had amazing weather and event managed to fit in a few museums between the college visits.



We ended the month with trick or treat. I am convinced that we should have family costumes every year. It was way too much fun! Who knew an old OU costume (thanks to my friend Charlotte) would come in handy 15 years later!



 

What a month of adventure. Hard to believe I am watching a Christmas commercial as I type this...Hope everyone has a great weekend! The countdown to Heather's sweet sixteen begins. T minus 19 days!