New Year's Eve

What a great New Year's Eve! We meet up with Uncle Don, Aunt Cate, George, and Henry at Fort Rapids. It is an indoor waterpark located in Columbus. We hit the waterpark immediately. After a few hours we went to the room and cleaned the kids up. They went down for naps. After they woke up, we relaxed while they had a snack. Later we headed to the arcade for some games. Then we went to dinner where my sister Jamie, Mark, Morgan, Jake, and Joey met us. Once we got back to the room and gave the kids baths, it was 9pm!...WAY PAST THEIR BEDTIMES! The kids crashed and Patrick, Don, Cate, and I relaxed until the New Year. We were bushed! The next morning we grabbed some breakfast, hit the waterpark again, and then packed up and headed home. Grandma and Grandpa Barker were on their way to our house from St. Louis so we needed to get home and let the kids get some rest. Thanks for such a great New Year's Eve!

Christmas Morning!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! The kids were ready to go this morning....unfortunately they didn't want to sit for a picture, so they were the happiest at that moment...Ahhh memories!


The twins started out strong, ready to open any and all presents.

They started to slow down towards the end because they wanted to open and play with every toy they got. Next year I'll have to remember to have them open and clothes

To Nonie's House We Go

After we opened presents and had some breakfast, we packed up and headed to Nonie and Poppy's to meet up with the rest of the Osborne family. The twins got a lot of great presents, everyone was too generous...THANK YOU!

After everyone opened presents, we just hung out and relaxed. Mom made a great dinner...prime rib. It was delicious! By the time bedtime rolled around the twins were beat! It was a great Christmas. The crazy thing is we still have to celebrate with the Barker's! How will we fit everything in the house?!

One More Day!

It's Christmas Eve! Today we hung around and just enjoyed time with each other. Elaine couldn't hold back her excitment for Santa's arrival while Ethan preferred to reflect on the past year in a relaxed state.

Christmas Eve

Tonight we celebrated Christmas Eve with the kids.
We went to the Children's Christmas Eve service at
church. After church, we headed back home for
dinner. The kids tried crab legs again, but still
didn't care for it. Charlie enjoyed a special meal too!

After dinner the kids opened their presents from Patrick and me. They LOVED their new pjs! We gave them baths, put on their new pjs, and headed to bed. They were tired and fell asleep right away. Tomorrow is a big day!

A Family Day

Today we all went to the Children's Museum for a day of fun. The kids ran off to the water area first. It is Elaine's FAVORITE area! She started to get a little too wet so I had to pull her away and we headed to the tots area.
Patrick and Ethan headed over to The Woods. It is an indoor playground with trees and bridges that the kids can climb up and run around.

The kids headed over to the play in the dress up area. It was a great morning. Afterwards we headed back home for lunch and naps. We all needed to relax a bit after an active morning.

Bye Bev, We'll See You Next Year!

Today was the twins' last day with their sitter Bev for the year. They'll go back on the 4th when I go back to work. She gave them presents today and they loved them! Elaine got a baby and she spent the whole night feeding it. Ethan got two monster trucks and had a blast pushing them around. Both kids had to bring their new toys to the table for dinner....BIG MISTAKE! Elaine spent way more time feeding her baby then feeding herself. We now have a new rule that they cannot bring anything to the table.

A Night Out To Start The Season

Tonight we met Lizzy for dinner. Patrick was getting over the stomach flu so he decided to stay home. The same flu had already gone through us so we were ready to get out of the house and enjoy some good food. We had a great dinner.

The kids got their first presents of the season. They both ripped into their presents like they were experts. They got the cutest fleeces. With the upcoming cold weather they will definitely use them.

A Frozen Treat

After dinner we stopped by the mall for our
favorite treat....Yagoot! It is a local treat.
Imagine TCBY frozen yogurt, with the regular
yogurt tangy taste. It is frozen yogurt, but with
active cultures. It is so GOOD!

After the yogurt we stopped by the fountain so the kids could throw in some pennies. They thought it was so much fun. I'll definitely have to remember to dig into Patrick's change jar the next time we go to the mall.
Thanks to Lizzy for such a great time and the awesome gifts.

A Future Picasso?

Today the kids took some time to sit at the table and enjoy some coloring time. Ethan definitely has more patience and determination to color while Elaine still loses interest quickly and likes to collect the crayons and sometimes checks out how they taste!

Festival of Lights 2009

Tonight we headed to the Festival of Lights. It was a little chilly outside so the kids were dressed in extra layers and bundled up. This year the zoo switched to LED lights. They were really gorgeous! They didn't photograph very well though. We had a great time running around the zoo and checking out the animals. Unfortunately, the polar bears were not out and the manatees have been sent to Florida to be released in the wild. We were all a little disappointed but we still had fun. After we got home, we had some dinner and the twins went to bed. We all changed into our pj's and snuggled up on the couch watching tv enjoying the warmth of the indoors.

Festival of Lights Weekend 2009

Tonight Morgan and Jake came down to spend
the weekend and go to our annual trip to Festival
of Lights. We headed to Red Robin for dinner....a
favorite of the kids.

After dinner we stopped off at an awesome local ice cream parlor. The ice cream is french churned....so good. Ethan had a few bites, but quickly had more fun running around...we were the only people crazy enough to eat ice cream while it was cold out. Elaine, on the other hand,

Surprise!

Today we paid a visit to Dr. Deblasis to get Ethan's ears checked. If he gets one more infection we will probably have to get tubes. Today the ears looked fine, but the twins were surprised when they were given a flu shot! We go back in a month to get a recheck and booster shots.

Here comes Santa Claus

Tonight we went to the mall to get the twins picture with Santa. The twins were excited to put on their holiday outfits. They were treated to Chick-fil-a for dinner...I love that place!

You can guess how this went if you look at the picture.

It was less than 20 seconds later in our arms and they were totally fine. Here they are maybe 2 minutes after the trauma.

George Recovers!

The next day the kids were rearing to go...well, Elaine takes awhile to wake up! :)

Once she was up, she was ready to go. Today George was feeling much better so Uncle Don, Aunt Cate, George and Henry were able to come over.

The twins had a blast playing with all of their cousins! What a great weekend!

Ethan has been studying his episodes of Handy Manny and was ready to show off his stuff on Grandma and Grandpa's workbench.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Today is Thanksgiving! We woke up rearing to go!
Ethan was all fun enjoying dress up with Elaine's
hair barrettes!

After their naps, we got the twins changed for the family Christmas card picture. We wanted to do it quickly to send them out with our new address.

After pictures, the twins had a blast playing with all of the toys and books at Grandma and Grandpa's!

Unfortunately, George was feeling under the weather, so they could not make it. The twins were completely upset, but before we knew it Aunt Melissa, Uncle Timmy, and Phillip arrived!

Phillip looked dashing in his Thanksgiving gear. I will definitely be there on his prom night showing this pic to his date!

The twins enjoyed their time with Phillip, but they definitely can't wait until he is a little more durable to play with! :)

Cleveland, Here We Are!

We got into Cleveland tonight. The kids were ready to get out of the car. Ethan was definitely ready for some more juice, while Elaine was ready for her spotlight with Grandma and Grandpa!

Hunchback of Baywind

This morning we awoke to a very scary looking Elaine. Due to an eye infection, her left eye was swollen and caked shut with eye gunk! I got her eye open with a warm wash cloth, but it was still really swollen. (it reminded me of the hunchback)
We got her and Ethan to the doctor and they are both recooping with eye drops.

No Longer a Hippie

While we were waiting for the twins' prescription to be filled, we ran over to the Kids Kuts and got Ethan's hair cut....he NEEDED it! It actually went a lot smoother than I thought. I probably shouldn't have gone since they are contagious for 24hours after they start the medicine, but the place was empty and I was desperate.