weekend

This last weekend was just perfect... Just the right amount of stuff going on. Not too busy, but not too boring. Two little friends were over on Friday and Morgan got to play with "her Lukey". She adores him and they play so well together. They were both feeling a little sleepy so they crawled on the couch together to watch Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.

Saturday was game day so we were all decked out in our gear. Morgan and Myles went to play at Carter's so we could go to the game. It was a not so exciting blow-out, but at least we got to go to a game this season - and really who can complain at a win, blow-out or not.

sweet boy

Myles is my big 19 month old... He's right in the middle of my favorite age, 12-24 months. It seems like everything they do at this age is so funny and their little faces are so cute turning from baby face into little kid. Here he is eating his pancakes and playing games with me... Every time I would try to talk to him he would shyly lay his head down on the counter keep it there until I stopped talking. I could stare at his little face all day - he's that cute to me!


And here he is trying to help me with the laundry. He really made the process 3 times longer, but I was in a good mood and it didn't bother me. I wish I could freeze him at this age - not forever - just a little longer.

visitors

My mom and sisters came to visit this past weekend - without kids!!! We had fun getting to be just girls for a couple days before stepping back into our mom shoes. We ate out, shopped, saw movies, and played games. There's nothing like eating Graeters while playing Canasta. We went to two movies, No Reservations and Becoming Jane. I would definitely recommend the very cute and funny Becoming Jane; however, No Reservations didn't do much for us. It was simply okay.

We did some damage shopping. We spent the day Saturday at Easton and came back with a full car. Luckily for Mike, I only had one of those bags on the table. The night before we got sucked into the Halloween department at Walmart. I found Morgan and Myles the best costumes... Pirates!! Morgan originally had another costume, but when she saw Myles pirate accessories, she had to be one too. They've been practicing their "arrhh" sounds already. Morgan still needs to work on her pirate slang - she says "shiver me matey" instead of timbers... We'll work on it.

Grandma Beckstead brought a large pile of presents for the kids. Each day of her visit they got to open two presents. They thought it was pretty cool having grandma in the house.

This was Myles favorite of grandma's gifts. He would run from room to room as fast as he could while these little key chain toys would clank together while he ran.

Mike watched the kids all weekend so I could be with my family without interruption. I found Mike downstairs asleep with Morgan after an afternoon of playing hard. He's the best father and husband there is without a doubt. I just hope he knows how much I appreciate him!

it's finished

YEAH!! It's finally finished. The carpet went down today and we are pumped. As promised here are the "after" pictures.

This is the kids favorite part of the basement. They run in circles through this little tunnel. The room wraps around and this little tunnel connects through to the other side.

Here is where the tunnel pops out. It's a narrow room, but it's big enough for them to ride their bikes around and around... and around...

Mike thinks he needs a flat screen to put up at the end of this wall. I don't even think he wants to watch it - he's just excited that it was wired up high for one.

Here is the main toy area. I was so excited to have a place for all our toys that I forgot to take a picture of the completed area before I started dumping toys down there.

our basement "before"

Our house is covered with toys in every room and it's driving us crazy... We decided we need to create a toy area. That is hard in our little house, so we decided to finish the basement. We are in the final stage today (the carpet guys are here right now)... I don't know about you, but I love having strange men that smell like smoke in my house.
Here are the before pictures of our basement... I'll post the finished pictures as soon as it's done...

morgan's 1st day of preschool

So I was reading my friend Stephanie's blog, and she had the best suggestions for new traditions. My favorite one was doing something similar to the 12 days before Christmas with school for your child. When I read it, Morgan was getting ready to start preschool, so I decided to start a new tradition - "the week before school". Every day for the past week the preschool fairy has brought Morgan a new surprise in her backpack for school. She loved it!! Every morning the first thing she'd say was, "Did the preschool fairy come last night?". By the morning of the first day of preschool she had a backpack full of fun princess stuff... folders, pencils, erasers, rulers... you know all the stuff she doesn't need for preschool, but I got her anyway. It was so fun to see how excited she was to take her backpack to school and hang it on the little hook. There were only a few kids who even had backpacks, but oh well, it makes her happy.

And here she is minutes before her first day at preschool.

the keetch's visit

This weekend had a few fun surprises. The Keetch's decided to come to Ohio for a visit... YEAH!! They came to see the Buckeyes play in their season opener against Youngstown State, (the bucks killed them by the way) and to see some of their "old" friends. We decided to celebrate them being in Ohio with a little Sunday Barbecue. It was delicious thanks to all of AnnDee's yummy sides she made. They really made the meal!
It was beautiful weather so all the kids ran around outside. The swing set got used a lot too... This poor swing set has been through a lot over the past two years.

The men kept busy with some healthy competition. For those of you wondering what in the heck they are doing, they are playing corn hole toss. I hadn't seen it before I moved to Ohio. (Notice how my camera is getting sick... It takes fuzzy pictures now and then. Not often enough that I need a new camera yet, but I have a feeling around Christmas time it will need to be put to rest... hint hint babe).

It's always fun being with the girls, but today was extra special. It just feels a little more complete when Jessica is around. I keep hoping that someday they'll realize that Columbus is their home and they need to move back... I'm sure eventually it will happen :) Right Jess??

We are the luckiest women around. Not only do we have the cutest kids on the planet, we also have the studliest men on the planet... Studliest is a word; I'm sure of it.

Thanks for the visit Jess. It was great to see all of you!! And CONGRATULATIONS on the new little one that will be arriving next April. We can't wait to meet him/her.