Superstar

Sam took first prize in his private swim lesson!

Train time

Jon won a train ride with the Cuyahoga Valley Rail Way. Not only was it a train ride, but a wine tasting trip! My first thought when hearing this was semi classy, grown up kind of night.  I was very wrong!  We sat down and the announcements started.  They planned music, dancing, drinking and lots of disorderly conduct. 

We "sampled" 5 south american wines and had an hours d' oeuvre to go with each wine. I've never been to a wine tasting where a sample consisted of a full glass of wine and refills if you like, but we went with the flow. The wines were good, but I think I was expecting a little more exotic flavors.  The food was ok, if you like your food to look like doll hair.

Once we got into the swing of things, it actually turned out to be a fun night.  It probably would've been boring if we didn't have the music and dancing.

I would definitely do it again, but I would definitely bring a (spit) bucket next time!

Birthday Gram

Yesterday was Grams birthday.  She's on vacation this week and is spending half of it in Cleveland.  

Jon just happened to find some crab legs on sale so half the group feasted on crab legs for dinner last night and the other half of us had some stuffed shells made by Corrie.  

Gram blew out her candle before we all enjoyed some AMAZING creme brulee also made made by Corrie.

The boy who despises mashed potatoes, ate 2 stuffed shells and enjoyed every minute of his "pudding."

You can't take a picture of Zach and not take one of Ellie!

Happy birthday Gram.  We hope it was "grown sexy" enough for you!

No bites

We've officially had the house on the market for 1 month. We've had a ridiculous amount of showings and have received all kinds of feedback.  The house is too big, the rooms are too small.  They don't like the kitchen, they don't want to live by a duplex.  My wife loves it, but I don't.  My husband loves it, but I don't want to live in Lakewood.  You name it, we've heard it.  We dropped the price by $5k.  We wont go any lower than that right now.  Once we sell the house, we'll lose close to $20k in realtor fees, taxes and insurance.  It wont be worth selling the house if we can't at least break even.  I was hoping since the market is smaller in winter, we'd have an easier time selling. Lakewood is full of 3 bedroom houses with less square feet, but apparently nicer kitchens.  The nicer kitchens seem to be winning.  I know its only been a month and I know it will be perfect for someone, I just wish we'd find them sooner than later.  Although, there's still nothing out there that we like so we'd be in a jam if we did sell the house now.  Its great to have to luxury of not being rushed or in a must sell situation.  I want our next house to be it for us and I'm happy to be extremely picky and wait for the perfect house.  For now, we'll keep the house much cleaner than the kids would like and say a little prayer every time someone comes through and we'll trust that God is getting our perfect house ready for us.

Good morning

Bowling

Cross Point had a bowling night last weekend to say thank you to the leaders in the church.  We all took a dessert to share, spent some time chatting and eating and then got down to business.  

The kids had bumpers and both boys had their highest games ever.  They were both in the 70's.

Ellie refused to smile for a picture.  She spent most of the night sitting in my lap and looking miserable.  I didn't realize she was actually "sick" until she threw up about 5 minutes after this picture was taken!

I say "sick" because she was almost back to normal after she threw up.  She slept 12 hours that night, which never happens. She woke up the next morning completely normal--eating like a champ, running laps around the dining room table and acting like her usual ornery self.

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet boys

Corrie sweater

Ellie got a new sweater made by aunt Corrie.  I've been meaning to get some pictures of her in it.  Of course, the one time I think to take a few pics, she did not want to sit still!

Wagon

One of Ellies birthday presents was a baby doll that has her own wagon.  She's been giving her babies rides, but decided she wanted in on the fun.

Of course, if Ellie gets a ride, Zach wants a ride!

Finally thawing

The past week in Cleveland has been a rough one.  We were hit with several inches of blowing and drifting snow and then a few days later we were hit with sub zero temps with wind chills anywhere from 30-50 below zero.  I'm not sure how much snow we actually got because of all the drifting.  Some spots only had 3 or 4 inches, some had almost 2 feet.  

We were stuck inside for much longer than the kids would have liked. We had a pipe start to freeze and my car completely froze shut.  We ventured out for the first time yesterday.  All the doors were frozen and it took 20 minutes to get the layer of ice off the window. Thankfully, we are back above 0 and a heat wave is coming our way. We should be in the 40's this weekend.  It was nice having Jon home for all but one day of our crazy weather to help with the restlessness. We're slowly falling back into our routine of school, play dates and Jon going to work every day.  

The only good thing (I think) that came out of all of this is we have a chance of seeing the northern lights tonight.  A sun flare mixing with the polar vortex blah, blah, science, science is making this possible.  I'd like to see them before I die.  Its great that I might be able to see them from my back yard!

Wordless Wed.: Armpit toots: What happens when daddy's in charge!

One dapper dude

Ben insisted on wearing his new bow tie from aunt Prasti.

Party

I just realized I forgot to put up pictures from Ellies "party" last week.  We stayed very low key and had aunt Corrie over for dinner and brownies.

Ellie happened to have a couple presents to open including a tutu from aunt Corrie.

I think she's showing off her tattoo in this one.

Happy third birthday baby girl!  

Stats

Ellie had her 3 year check up today.  It's so cold, I took her up myself while all the boys stayed home.  It was nice being out with her alone.  Even though she didn't want to go to the doctor, I think she liked the fact that she was the center of attention.  Ellie weighed in at 26lbs (9th %) and 34inches (still not on the chart). Her blood pressure, eyes and ears were perfect.  Other than being crazy feisty and stubborn, we didn't really have anything to discuss. She eats completely random foods, meaning nothing that we would have for dinner on any sort of regular basis. Other than that she's "normal", healthy and right on track!

Expensive start

I know that with the possibility of buying a new house in the next few months, we're going to have a few expenses coming up--inspections, radon tests, repairs, and random new house items.  Unfortunately, we started racking up other expenses today.  While on their way to go sledding this afternoon, the boys got a flat tire and then the battery died.  I'm glad it happened all at once and I'm very grateful a friend was right around the corner to help, but this makes me nervous about the car.  We've been putting off some repairs because they aren't small repairs.  I have a feeling we've just started down the slippery slope of car repair bills.  Of course this comes just a couple weeks after Jon took his car in for an oil change and walked out $1000 later with other repairs.  2014 is shaping up to be a very expensive year!