Have I mentioned...

 … well, a few things really… did I mention that we have a girl in the house? It's SO fun. I think she is the most fun for me (esp all of those middle-of-the-night hours we spend together!), although Wyatt did tell me today he thought she had a beautiful smile and in this picture on top, Henry actually dressed her. So I guess I'm not the only one having fun :)





And did I mention we had a snowstorm just last week… then about 3 days later it was 61 degrees. So fun to be having snowball fights wearing short sleeves… at least that is the boys opinion. Our opinion is that it's not great hearing our sump pump working every 45 seconds! Yikes!










































And Tessa girl is eating some foods these days… always love this stage… well, kind of… not really, but since she is most likely my last, I'm actually enjoying it a lot more!!

My Babies

These two are keeping me young and giving me my first gray hairs all at the same time!!! ;)

Monday night DESSERT night

Jonathan is in class late every Monday night. The boys and I mourn his absence by having dessert on Mondays before bedtime... Makes us all feel better :)

2nd Street Market

Took a family outing to the 2nd Street Public Market/Trader Joes this morning. The market is downtown Dayton - we get our local raw honey and local maple syrup there. We shared a pretzel the size of our head! We even saw a train on the way out. And of course, we love Trader Joes. With the new budget, we still go once a week, but are now much more strict about sticking to the list :) The kids love finding the cow... b/c they get a sucker... all organic and cane sugar... so much healthier, right?!? Ha ;)

Basketball

When Henry was 5yrs old, we told him he could play basketball when he was 7yrs old. I'm not even sure how serious we were, we just figured that was 2 years away and he'd probably forget by then. He did 15 months of swimming, and he would still remind us that he was playing basketball when he was 7yrs old. Well, guess what. He turned 7yrs old in November, and guess what reminder we recv'd from him.... remember, guys, you said I could play basketball when I was 7!!! Now, of course, we could have exercised our parental authority to say no :) But, we didn't have a really good reason to, so we decided to start looking for our options of where to play. Where we live, there are basically 3 different leagues for this age group. All are about the same price. All seem to have good reviews, but we chose Upward Bound for this first time round. Not necessarily b/c it's a 'christian' organization, but they also seemed to give you the most bang for your buck. We had a very good experience - and Jonathan was able to coach which was very fun too! This was low commitment, and what was nice was it gave the boys some time with Jonathan (Wyatt would go to practices). As far as Henry goes, he had a wonderful time. There were a few kids he recognized from school on his team and other teams, and he even knew some of the cheerleaders :) He took this very seriously. And it was a great opportunity to work with him on making others more important than just playing the game. Over the course of the season, he had multiple fans. Uncle Devon, Aunt Beth, and Reuben/Theo came to games, his first grade teacher, Grandma and Grandpa Berry, his close friends... it was very meaningful and we are always reminded of how THANKFUL we are for the community we have here! Fun stuff! 

Grandparent visit!

 Mom and Dad were making a few rounds to visit kids this month -- and we happened to be on their list! Yay! We had a really nice time with them… probably one of our nicest! Henry had a snow day on Friday - and they got in on Thurs night, so that worked out great! We worked on electricity, made homemade gum, took a big walk on Saturday, stopped for ice cream for my Dad's b-day, read books together, ate chinese, watched a movie, played a riviting game of monopoly with the kids, and even fit in Henry's basketball game! The boys were really looking forward to this visit -- as they get older, they anticipate visits like this much more than they used to! We were thankful for the time Grandma and Grandpa put into them -- it was a fun wknd!


Oh, and thank you Mom and Dad…!!! They did a lot of baby holding, changing diapers, finding pacifiers, reading books (or I should say listening to the boys read!), and so on.. I figure it's keeping them young :) And it's much more relaxing than the stuff we used to have them do…. like tear out drywall, build swingsets, cut and sand trimwork, etc.



 We are heading to Indiana for a spring break visit in March -- so maybe they'll put us to work :)

We are COLTS fans..

 … in case you were wondering.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hmmm....??

I just opened this container of applesauce. I just bought it last week - exp date is 7/22/14. Here is what I found... Thankfully I was using it for baking and all of the kids were in bed -- so I wasn't rushing as usual to get it in a bowl for Myles. Anyways... Just an FYI to always check your stuff!!

The other new kitchen helper

I got a new blender over Christmas... The real deal blender that I've been drooling over for the past few years! I love it!






























I've been blender-less for a year now b/c I outlive every blender I buy. And this last time I just decided I'd sit tight and wait. Thanks to some generous family members.... my wish has come true.

So... since I've got this new blender, I've also acquired some more kitchen help. He is wonderful. He loads the blender, taste tests everything BEFORE we've even started the blender (of course we don't tell our customers that!), and turns on switches. Of course today he also threw a ceramic bowl on the floor, but that's beside the point... he's still in training.

Anyways, today our smoothie consisted of cucumbers, broccoli, lemon, kiwi, and apple. We were supposed to also add green grapes, but they were too exp at the store. So the plan was to add in a little honey or banana to sweeten it up. But my helper was so busy taste testing and throwing bowls on the floor, that he forgot to add our secret sweet ingredient.

So... Our customers weren't super thrilled with the taste of their drinks. However, we made it right by telling them this one was on the house! They finished the entire smoothie while guessing all 5 items that were in it. Whew... The helper and I will be doing some more training before the next round.

*this is just a bonus picture... she is not old enough to be a kitchen helper.... YET*