Grandma and Pampa

Grandma and Pampa flew in from Texas last Wednesday and spent a few days with us. We had a great time showing them a few favorite places in Cincinnati, but mostly just playing at home with them. They were able to see Reagan's preschool graduation and Addison's field day. We are thankful they made the trip.

We had a heart wrenching experience when we picked them up from the airport. We waited for their arrival next to a little girl, about 5 or 6 years old. She was holding a huge red, white and blue poster decorated with flags that read, "Welcome Home Mommy!". She was waiting with her grandparents to greet her mom who had been in Iraq for 6 months. It definitely made me pause to pray for troops and gave me a whole new appreciation for the price our soldiers pay.

Off to MARS

After 8 long and wonderful years working for Coca-Cola, Tommy said good-bye on Friday and he began his new adventure with MARS Chocolate today. It was hard to close the chapter on Coke, but the people at MARS have done an amazing job going above and beyond to make this a smooth transition. Last week, 4 giant boxes of various MARS swag arrived at our door, making my children VERY happy. There is enough candy in my house to last a very long time. It looks like we will be the house to come to on Halloween.

Who wouldn't want to go to work here. Wouldn't that just make you smile? Tommy also said the vending machines are free and well-stocked. That could get a person in trouble.

 Addison sure was smiling when she opened the first of many boxes of candy. This girl LOVES dessert, so she is feeling quite good about Daddy's new position.

 Gracyn with her orange swag.

 More piles of candy.

 Happy girls. They played with those M&M's all night.

The candy is fun, but on a serious note, we are thankful to God for providing this opportunity. We look forward to new adventures ahead.

Muffins with Mom

Just before Mother's Day, Reagan's class held a special party just for Mom's. We attended a special chapel all about Mamas, they made us beautiful, fancy hats, sang a few songs, and served us a snack of muffins and juice. As always, my favorite part was seeing the questionnaire each child had filled out about her mom. Reagan got almost every answer right....although she did age me a few years, saying I was 36. Her funniest answer was to the question "Where does your Mommy shop?". She answered, "She likes to go to Gymboree and buy clothes for me!". So true!!! With a busy house of 5 people, one on one moments are rare and precious. I was thankful to sneak away for this precious time with my middle girl.

Reagan showing off the flower art she made me.



 Ready to perform.

 They sang the most adorable song!

 I love my hat....looks like I could leave from preschool and head straight to the KY Derby.

 Reagan and her buddy Grace. Can you tell they are excited to have us.

At the end the teacher read a little quote from each child. Reagan said. "I love my great mom. She is the best mom because she plays Super Mario with me. We defeat the bad guys. She makes the best shell macaroni for me and  I love her because she is my great mom."

Thirty-Four

This week we celebrated Tommy's 34th birthday! The girls and I did a little decorating in the kitchen and made him some brownies topped with chocolate icing and M&M's. They were ready for a quick party when he came home from work. He opened his gifts from us, we ate a quick dinner and they sang Happy Birthday and ate dessert. Then, it was a rush out the door to get everyone off to swim lessons and gymnastics.

Daddy and his girls.

 Me and my handsome husband. How is he getting better looking with age, while I am just getting old? Not fair! And you will notice the rest of my family is perfectly dressed and I, at 6:00pm, haven't yet made it out of my sweaty gym clothes!

 The birthday dessert of his request.

 Saturday was my turn to get dressed up. We finally met someone here, who I trust to babysit and hired her for Saturday night. We have had a few nights out here, when we have worked trades with friends, but this was our first hired sitter since moving to Cincinnati. The girls loved her, so we are in business! Tommy and I had reservations with friends at The Melting Pot for dinner. The food was yummy and it was a long, quite (except for the VERY LOUD intoxicated man in the booth behind us), relaxing meal. It was great to have a night just to hang out together and celebrate his birthday. We are sure glad he was born.

Garden Party

This year, Addison requested a garden themed party at our house. Thanks to a nice day, a large yard and a few very helpful friends, it worked out great. She had 15 little girls come and we planted flowers, painted sun catchers and did a few relay games. Each girl received a pair of sparkly sunglasses, and we finished the party with a pinata. The girls had a great time and everything went smoothly. They came in the house briefly to sing Happy Birthday and to open presents, but the rest of the time we were soaking up sun in the backyard.

Everything is all set and ready to go.

Here, the girls are decorating bags to use later for pinata candy.

 Daddy's magical relay games. I have no idea what he was doing over there, but they had a great time. He was on the spot for it at the last minute, because we had planned for the girl to take turns on the trampoline, but we had a crisis with the tramp at the last minute and it was temporarily out of commission.

 Softball might be in Reagan's future. She had quite a swing.

 There's little Gracyn taking a swing at the pinata.

 After round 1, we have up on the blind fold and let the girls go at it. It took about 3 rounds to finally break it, but they loved it!

 It's raining candy!!!

 Happy Birthday to you.

 Birthday girl and Mama.

 Opening presents. They are hot but happy!

 We are blessed with great friends here who made her birthday such a special day.

Addison's 7th Birthday

Since both little sisters have birthdays just a few weeks before hers, Addison is always especially eager for her birthday to arrive. The birthday buzz is in the air for a month around here, and her day is the last in the line for the little ones (but 5 days before Daddy and a few weeks before Mommy). She COULD NOT fall to sleep the night before her big day. She lay awake much too excited. We have started a little birthday tradition of late night decorating (Lil' Smiths I think you planted this seed), so the birthday person can wake up to a nice surprise. I finally, around 10:30, had to close her bedroom door and decorate the outside of it, knowing she was lying awake in her bed listening to me work. Despite the late night, she woke around 6am the next day. We didn't want her to come downstairs and open gifts without her sisters, so she snuggled in our bed and we watched the home movie of her birth and first days in the hospital. She loved seeing that....it made me realize we should pull those out way more often.

Finally the sisters awoke, and since Daddy is using up some vacation days we still had him with us. We made our way downstairs where she found a new bike and scooter from us (desperately needed for her current 52 inch stature) and many American Girl accessories from her grandparents.

 Loving the sister love, laughing at the hair.

 We sang a quick happy birthday and had cinnamon rolls and then it was off to get ready for school.

 She rode her new scooter to the bus stop. She was super-excited to share Skittles with her friends in class and to have Gracyn and I joining her for lunch.

After school she had a few minutes playing with her neighborhood friends and then it was off to Reagan's make-up soccer game. The game was on again/off again because of showers and lightening so we were at the soccer field a bit late. We finally arrived at her favorite pizza place for dinner at 7pm, to be told they had a one hour wait. We bailed across the street to TGI Fridays, because they had a 15 minute wait. The food was expensive and terrible, but we were too starving to care. We finished the night with the traditional Greater's Ice-cream. She was finally tucked happily into bed with visions of a big party with all her friends coming later that weekend.

Bumble Bee, Cheetahs

Reagan is playing soccer this season and Tommy is having his first adventures in coaching. Their team is gold and black. They never could decide if they wanted to be called the Bumble Bees or the Cheetahs, so both names can be heard shouted from the sidelines. We have had beautiful, gorgeous weather days for all of their practices, games have been another story. The first game was rained out and the 2nd two were miserable cold and wet. Finally the past two weekends we have had nice, sunny Saturdays, making great game days. Our little team is doing great. They play hard and they play well together. Reagan's little neighborhood bestie, Olivia, is on the team and we begged her Dad into being our assistant coach. Those two love playing together and even have a secret handshake. Reagan is one of the youngest on her team, but as with anything physical, she is doing quite well. She is aggressive and fast and she works hard to handle the ball. We have been impressed. We are about midway through the season and loving it!

Addison and Gracyn sneak in a little playground time before the games.

 Reagan's cheering section.

 Here she is going after the ball!

 #3

 That is Jeev....I put this picture in so Tommy and I could look back and laugh someday. Jeev is NOT liking soccer. If Tommy can get him on the field, he stays right next to him, holding his hand. Funny though, the minute he is off the field, he runs around like a mad man on the sidelines!

 Coach Tom working hard....Reagan and Olivia having a chat!

 Gracyn sneaking off to the playground.

 Here are a few pictures from one of the early games. It was freezing! The fields are in big open space, so the wind is brutal. Our team didn't fare well this game. We only had 5 of 8 players show up and they were all too cold, tired and miserable to play.

 Freezing kiddos....no jackets allowed over uniforms.

 See that lumpy blanket on the sideline. Reagan is under there. By midway through the game her cheeks and hands were purple and she wouldn't go back on the field.

Fireman Visit

Last week, during chapel at Reagan's school, the local firemen came for a visit. Gracyn and I stuck around. We learned fire safety tips, the girls got to talk to the firemen up close with their gear on and we got to explore the truck. Our little town has recently had several house fires caused by lightening, so we were all ears and especially attentive as we learned from them this year.

The recent fires and their visit did prompt me to do some inspection of the smoke detectors in our house. What I found was not good and even prompted me to call the inspector, who toured our home when we bought it a year ago. Including the basement, we have a little over 4000 square feet in 3 levels. I was a little surprised to realize we only had 3 alarms in all that area, one on each floor. The inspector informed me that our area of Cincinnati didn't have any codes regarding the number of fire alarms required in a house until very recently (a very clear example of how the Mid-West can be a few years behind the rest of the world). Unfortunately if your house was built before the codes were established, it is not required to meet the standard. So, our house does indeed pass inspection with so few alarms. Pass, yes. Safe, no. Tommy spent a good part of Friday afternoon installing 4 additional smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Thanks firemen for your visit and for prompting us to get things done around our house!

Poetry Celebration

Addison's class hosted a poetry celebration, where all families were invited to visit the classroom and hear the children read a favorite poem they had recently written. First, as we arrived we were able to browse poetry books throughout the class. We read poems all the children had written and wrote comments for them to read later. Then, the party moved on to an open mike portion. The children took turns going to the microphone and read a poem to the audience. Finally the parents had an opportunity to share any poems we might have written. We finished the afternoon with an awards ceremony and snacks. Addison was glad to have us there and her sisters loved being in the audience.


I found this sweet poem in the back of Addison's poetry book. She had written most of her poetry about animals. This treasure was my favorite. My grandmother was such a special person in my life, and though she was older and far away when they were born, she loved my children (and all her family)dearly. It means so much to me that Addison remembers her and thinks of her.

The Lion Class

Gracyn was so sophisticated while dining on her dessert. I think she licked every last sprinkle and crumb off of that plate!

Sweet girl was glad to have us!

Here she is having her turn at the mike.