School days

Javin's had some fun times at school lately. I got to come along for the Thanksgiving party this year. Which also happened to be Pajama Day at school. The kids had fun with the games and snacks. Everybody loves party day.

In December Javin's grade was part of the school Christmas Program. He got to sing lots of songs and had one line to recite. He was really excited about the performance. They were all colors from the coloring box, that is the reason for the cone hats. It was a cute program.

Snow much fun

Winter has begun in Ohio. We have had snow all day today and cold, snowy weather for the past week. However, it is too warm to stick, so there's not much to talk about but coldness. One day last week school was delayed for 2 hours, which prompted a sledding run for the kids. Even though there was barely enough snow to cover the ground, the sled did slide. Especially if you put the sled ON the slide, Javin discovered. I actually saw him exercise some caution and give the sled a test run without any passengers. It passed his standards and he hopped on for a fast ride down the slide.



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Kailyn's dream in life is to get married and be mommy. It is so amazing to see how God made us to with such a precious hope in life. She constantly talks about when she is a mommy and how many babies she is going to have and is fascinated with weddings. We scored a bride costume for her on the after Halloween sale rack. So cute.

Kailyn finished up her swimming lessons last week. She enjoyed swimming each week and improved her skills. She sure loves the water. Several weeks ago she overcame a big fear and jumped off the diving board in the deep end with her swimming belt on. Yeah for, Kailyn. Then on the last day of lessons she was really brave and took it off and jumped in. Way to go!

I seem to be short on pictures of Javin, maybe because he is always on the move. Here he is flying out of the jousting hut at the fall family festival. What a busy guy. He is taking drum lessons, which he loves. And he is finishing up his Tae Kwon Do commitment, which he is not as enthusiastic about anymore. A full year of lessons is a big commitment for a little guy. Well, he is not so little anymore. Did you know that his feet are almost the same size as mine??!! Okay... I have little feet, but he is only 8 years old. I can't imagine how big they will be one day!!

Here's a little video of Kailyn at swimming lessons. Don't mind the noodle battle going on the foreground. (The class was a bit out of control at times.)

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Flashes and Wheels

It seems that everyone is taking pictures this month. School, Preschool and Church. Javin seemed to have something against the camera though. Several of the pictures came out with some interesting faces. Sigh! This one turned out alright. The one from school he is not even looking at the camera.

The big excitement at our house has been getting a new car. What a long process! All in God's timing though. I had previously stated that I was going to get a CR-V. Well, that didn't work out. Then I was back to the drawing board to decide what I wanted to get. There are a lot of nice car out there these days. Making the desicion rather hard for me. I finally narrowed it down to the Nissan Murano. Then the hunt began to find a good used one with leather seats and low miles. My search took me as far as Texas and Minnesota on ebay. But I finally found one in Cuyahoga Falls that was just perfect for me. I am so loving this new car.

The other great news is that I had a buyer for my car even before I bought the new one. God's timing sure is great!

leaf piles

This year Molly joined in the leaf jumping fun. She was a crazy dog, tearing around in the leaves. The kids had fun with her, as long as they didn't get hurt. Which happened when speed dog crashed into sitting child.

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Pumpkin Patch Freeze

Last week was Kailyn's Preschool Field trip to the Pumpkin Patch and farm. In case you haven't heard, near winter weather has set in here in Ohio. So it was one frigid day for an outdoor event. I was wishing for my warm snow boots even though there was no snow. The kids had a good time despite the miserable cold. (I am such a complainer.)

They got to ride in a horse drawn wagon to the pumpkin patch and pick their pumpkin. Then tour the barn and see the pens and pens of goats and cows. The goats were very entertaining with all their jumping and tricks and trying to eat their coats. The young goats could jump on the momma's back and balance. The cow licked everything that came near him including your coat when you were least expecting it. Kailyn got to hold a 1 week old goat and bottle feed a pot belly pig with milk that she helped milk from a goat.

It was a very memorable trip for the kids, however my toes did not return to normal until late that afternoon.

Fall Smiles

My 2 sweeties, who I love dearly, even when they drive me crazy! It's been one of those weeks. Sigh! I need a breakthrough.

Antique Festival Parade

Kailyn was in her glory riding atop the royal carriage in the Antique Festival. Even better, there was a queen in the back who had a wand. This queen absolutely made her day by letting her hold the wand. It was a real wand, she told me.

She was so adorable waving to all the people at the parade. Poppy said she talked the whole way through.

By the end of the parade when I was watching her, she was so exhausted that she let out a big yawn in the midst of her waving.

Too cute.

Javin was so gracious to share the top seat with his sister this time. He has been the miniature driver for at least 4 years.

Country for a Day...

Take a peek at the country line dance I was in at church. Yee Haw!! It was THE most fun dance I can remember doing.

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Second Half....

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But then again, I don't remember the dances I have been in very well... So it was the most fun piece I have done recently, that I can remember. How's that?

Angie's update

What happened to September? It feels like I missed a month and Fall is here already. Wow! I love Fall but I love warm weather too. It's all good. So you have heard about the kids and all the soccer games, preschool adventures and fair rides, but what has Angie been up to, you wonder? SCRAPBOOKING has been the main event.

In September I helped to coordinate our annual fall overnighter scrapbooking event. I love to do this sort of thing, but then why do I get so stressed out? I tried really hard to be calm and relaxed but I don't think I pulled it off. It all stems down to my drive for perfection. If only I could accept the fact that there will be glitches and bumps in the road and be okay with that. Anyway, we had 3 consultants come together with 55 people this time. The Amish Door was wonderful, of course. The food was a hit. The scrappers were happy and productive, so that is all that really matters. And I even got to work some in my own album! 15 more pages done! Yeah! So I am looking to the future for the next time we all come together - March 27 and September 18, 2009. Mark it down ladies!

On another note, I am heading out to my friend's overnight crop today - minus the overnighter part for me. Can't wait to get some undivided work time on my albums. I hope I have enough pages laid out and pictures printed to last till midnight. If not, then I guess I will be home early.

And now the best news for last. I am now the proud owner of a Cricut (pronounced cricket)Expression die cutting machine. For those not in the scrapbooking world, it is the most wonderful machine around! I love it. This machine will cut out any phrase or word that I want in a multitude of sizes. The deal clincher for me was the software that you can get to go with it. With this added bonus you can link all your letters together and end up with a whole string instead of individual letters. Yippee. That will save a lot of time, I am hoping. I haven't actually used the software at home yet. At the overnighter I tried out a friends and was hooked. So hopefully once I get the hang of how the software works, it really will be a time saver. And the addition of a laptop to use in the basement would really help. So if anyone sees a great deal on laptops, let me know. So next time you come to my "House Of Scrapbooking," you will be able to try it out for yourself. Double Yeah!

So happy creating to all of you!

Rides are so FUN!!

It was a hometown fair type of weekend. This past weekend we headed out to Sugarcreek to experience the joys of greasy, over priced food and rides at the Swiss Festival. I was shocked to discover a ride pass came at the cost of $14 a child. That is ridiculous IMHO! We managed a few rides, cotton candy and the traditional apple fritter, accompanied by lots of begging for stuff from the dear children!

Monday for some crazy reason I subjected us to another day of greasy food and rides at the Coshocton County Fair. This time it was $8 a person so we made out better, I guess - you see this time I had to pay too. Oh well, we had more time and Kailyn rode lots of rides for her money. Poor Javin was stuck in school. Oh the joys of preschool freedom.

She loved the Dizzy Dragons and managed to make Mommy very dizzy. She kept asking if I was bizzy instead of dizzy. It was so cute. Her other favorite was the super slide. Wheee!

Kailyn's Preschool World

Kailyn is just loving preschool these days. She goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 2 hours and 15 minutes. She has made several friends already. Although she can't remember their names, so she calls them all by the same name. It is cute.

I got to go to school to be the helper last week. So Kailyn was the special helper. She declared what the weather was outside and counted all the days with a pointer for the calendar. Doesn't get much better than that. She loves to dress up in her skirts to go.

Kailyn's favorite part about preschool is the dress up clothes and the housekeeping area. Speaking of dressing up, she just came downstairs, after I had put her to bed, with a lady bug costume on, a pirate's eye patch and hat and a hook arm. So much for going to bed early. :(

It has been kinda weird for me to come home to an empty house during preschool. Although I am usually out running around on some errand. Times are definitely changing around here.

Here she is on the first day with her new pink backpack.

Soccer in full swing

Javin is getting out all his extra energy at soccer these past few weeks. Not that he has a lot of energy left from school, but he does manage to find some to spur him on.


Run, run and run some more. He sure sleeps well on game nights.



It has been fun to watch him play and have a good time. Park District soccer is great because they don't put the emphasis on winning but having fun. Cause if we were keeping score...it wouldn't be good. BUT they are having fun and learning how to play as a team.

Go Black!

Color options

An update on the car...it hasn't happened yet. I love not being pressured to make a decision as all car salesmen would like me to be. So here's the deal, I don't really care that awfully much about the color as long as it is a good car. But I need to pick one, so what color do I pick? Augh! I don't know. The options are: Nighthawk Black Pearl, Glacier Blue Metallic, Borrego Beige Metallic, Whistler Silver Metallic, Tango Red Pearl, Royal Blue Pearl, Green Tea Metallic, and Taffeta White. Who in the world comes up with these names? What is Borrego? I have no idea. I looked it up in the dictionary and it is not in there. Why would that make me want to buy that color? No idea. Needless to say, the Borrego is my least favorite, absolutely will not buy color. The Whistler I am steering away from because I just had a car that color and want something different. So, what color do you think is just so Angie and crew? Here a link to look at the colors: http://automobiles.honda.com/cr-v/exterior-colors.aspx Click the comment link below and submit your color ideas.

Cavernous explorations

It was a hot and muggy day...but we discovered a whole new world below ground.

On a whim Mom and Dad and my crew took off for Delaware, Ohio and the Olentangy Caverns on Labor Day. As we descended the steep stairs to the underground world, we were met with wonderful, natural air conditioning. Caves are always 54 degrees no mater how cold or hot it is upstairs. We had a fun time exploring the various rooms, like Catherdral Hall-it had a really tall ceiling. Some of the rooms were very spacious and some of the passageways were a tight squeeze to get through. We learned about how the Indians used the cavern for protection from enemies and as a meeting place. We also found out that the caverns flooded 3 times this June from a sink hole on the property. Pretty interesting stuff.

We added a picnic lunch, some hiking through the woods and a replica of an old town to the menu. Topped it off with Handles homemade ice cream and it turned out be a great little adventure.

Back to School

School is back in session! We are trying to get ourselves adjusted to being back to the school routine. Summer sure wrecked that - none of this get out the door or you're gonna miss the bus; you better run like the wind she's waiting! :) Javin loves his new teacher and enjoys being a 2nd grader. His favorite special activity is gym, his favorite subjects are math and science, his favorite thing to do at recess is play tag, and his favorite non-learning activity is lunch.

Kailyn is gearing up for her first full session of preschool on Tuesday. She is excited to go and most importantly to wear her new pink backpack. She goes Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours or so.

We had a fun day today at the Coshocton Water park with some of our friends. It was the last day of operation and we had a beautiful day to enjoy it all. Tomorrow we are planning a day of hiking in Mohican State Park.

My past week or so has been consumed with researching new compact SUV's. I came up with a broad list of possibilities and began narrowing it down based on mpg, size and reviews. And the winner is Honda CR-V, America's number 1 compact SUV. Okay so that was one reason it began fairly low on the list to start out, because "everyone" has one (no offense to all you CR-V owners out there who are reading this). That drives me nuts, but what can I say? It has the right mpg, the right size, a great track record on reliability and looks sporty. The models that almost made it were: Nissan Rogue, Mitsubishi Outlander and Saturn Vue. Which one would you vote for? Someday soon I will be joining the masses as a CR-V owner. I haven't bought one yet, but I am relieved to have finally decided on what I want to get. I'll keep ya posted.

New Mexico

After the Mexican heat had zapped all our energy and robbed us of our sleep, we headed north to air conditioning and swimming pools - New Mexico. We had a wonderful time hanging out with the Carignan family. The kids swam in the pool everyday, several times a day - not much else to do outside in New Mexico. We learned very quickly what the "smell of money" was - they are surrounded by mega diary farms that put off quite a stench but are very prosperous. Josie and I got to do all the fun girl stuff - go shopping, drink coffee, get pedicures in a massage chair. Ahh vacation! Brad got to go to work and babysit for us! HeeHee! The kids played and played. Kailyn and Jordana were the absolute cutest little girlfriends. They played together nonstop!

We made it home through 3 layovers almost without a hitch. Well... it happened in Denver. We had a 34 minute layover which I was kinda nervous about. Every airline person assured me that was enough time and it would have been. However, I didn't get my boarding passes until the flight before and the plane was already booked up so we didn't have seats together. We arrived in Denver with a few minutes to spare but had to wait while a very harried airline lady tried to swap seats around for us and 3 other groups who wanted to sit together. Finally she handed us our passes and boarding begins. By this time I have had to go to the bathroom for awhile so, I decided to sneak away thinking we have some time while they board. Well Kailyn turned ultra-friendly with every lady in the bathroom commenting on how nice their shoes were and taking a very long time washing her hands. Needless to say we got back to our gate and the only people left were just getting on. Close call!! After telling my life group this story they gave me a hard time about the whole "hand washing thing". Their advise: next time skip the handing washing and make sure I get on the flight and honestly the kids won't die from the germs! Truthfully, I didn't think it was going to be that close. Oh well we made it.