Birthdays and Baptisms

This past President's Day weekend, we made the trip to Perrysburg for Kyle's 3rd Birthday Party and also to Genoa for Nick's Baptism.  Kyle's party was on Saturday.  Brittany made a taco buffet for dinner and then we had Toy Story Birthday Cake for dessert.  He got some great presents and the girls always love to stay at Kaitlyn and Kyle's house!  Then on Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to Genoa for Nick's Baptism.  Matt stayed home in bed due to waking up with the flu!  Maely and Garrett then hosted over 50 people in the church gym after the service for a carry-in lunch.  Lots of good food!  Congrats to Kyle for making it through 3 years of life and to Nick on his Baptism.  It was great to see everyone!
Birthday

Baptism

My Baby is ONE!

Alli is now officially ONE!  We had a small celebration on her actual birthday (Jan. 2) at home with some great church friends.  Then, of course I had to get the official One-year old pictures taken.  Once again, we went to Portrait Innovations in Medina.  All 3 girls were VERY cooperative this time.  We got some good shots.  Here are the results... I highlighted a few at the top! Not too bad for 3 girls!

Lexi is SIX!

 

Our big girl is SIX already!!!  Time is just flying by for this family.  Her actual birthday was on Thanksgiving day this year, so we celebrated with family during our Turkey day gatherings.  Her friend party, however was pushed back to this past Friday evening.  She and 13 friends (including Jill) celebrated at Amazone!  She decided on six special school friends and then we threw in some family friends as well.  A mommy couldn't have asked for nicer, more well-behaved friends for her daughter!  A huge thanks to Addison, Anna, Emma, Reece, Jayce, Dominic, Logan, Kaela, Emily, Elijah, Ava, and Sophia (and of course Jill and Alli) for coming and for all the wonderful gifts you gave Lexi.  She said it was her best birthday yet!  Oh, and parents... Amazone is the way to go!  All we did was show up and bring the cupcakes - which of course had Star Wars logos on them!

Where has the time gone?

Wow! I guess I am slacking on the posts! It has been busy, to say the least. Lexi will complete her 1st session of swim lessons (every Tue. and Thurs. evening) at Copley High School Natatorium tomorrow. She has come a long way in the last 6 weeks! She now can 'bob' her head completely under water and even stay under water for a few seconds! She is learning to float and she LOVES her lessons! I think we will keep her enrolled for another session (beginning in January). Jill still loves her gymnastics classes. She goes every Wednesday and she also is progressing! Coach Joi (Joey) has all the girls in her class (there are 6 of them!) doing flips over the bar and also doing forward and backward rolls with no assistance! Jill has also mastered the jump-bounce-jump move on the trampoline (where you jump on you feet, bounce on your butt, then jump immediately back to your feet). She is one of the few in her class that can do this move! As for Alli, she now has EIGHT teeth and wants so badly to walk... just put her in her walker and she is all over the house! I fear this one will be into everything! It is a good thing that she is a go-with-the-flow kind'a girl. If only she would master the sippy cup?! This too shall come! Well, Lexi's 6th birthday party is Friday, so I will try to update with pictures. Check back soon!

Our Fall Family Pictures!

I finally got around to getting these up on the the blog... we only had them done the last weekend in September!  Again, I just want to send out a HUGE 'Thanks' to Kim and her amazing talent.  She got some good ones and it will be difficult to choose which ones to print out.  In these pictues, Lexi is almost 6, Jill is 3½ and Alli is 9 months old!  Enjoy!!!

October Fun!

We usually manage to get one weekend in the Fall and spend it with Brittany and her family.  Well, this was that weekend!  The Gurtz's came in on Friday evening.  After putting the 3 older girls to bed on the floor in Lexi's room in their sleeping bags and putting Kyle in Jill's bed (ah, a room to himself!), we finally got some sleep.  Saturday morning we were up bright and early for Lexi's LAST - freezing cold - soccer game of the season!  They pulled out another win against the Bulls making their record 8 - 1.  Lexi even got to be goalie one last time and after the game received her 'trophy' from coach Mike.












The weather warmed up, so we made the drive to Smithville where we went to Ramseyer's Farm.  There is so much to do there!  I think they add something new every year we go!  The kids loved it - even Alli!  We had to get fresh cut fries and of course Lerch's Donuts before leaving.  The older 2 girls were able to go on the "big" slide and the middle 2 kiddos enjoyed the playground slides.  All liked the wagon ride and the animals.  I think we wore them out, because they all went right to sleep Sat. night!  Up for church on Sunday and then the Gurtz's left for home. 


Then we costumed up the 3 girls and headed to the Akron Zoo to enjoy Boo! at the Zoo.  So cute!  We managed to get our visit in before the rain hit.  It was windy, but a warm 70 degrees.  I don't know about Brittany, but I am exhausted!  Love our get-togethers and am so glad our kids play (fairly) well together!  All in all a great weekend!  Enjoy the pictures.

Photo Session Preview!

This past weekend, we traveled back to Haviland for my dear friend Kim Troth to take our family (and Alli's 9 month)pictures.  It was a gorgeous day and we got some great shots.  Thanks Kim for taking time out of your busy Saturday to photo our family!  Can't wait til you get all the pics edited!  Click on this link to see just a quick preview of what we did on Saturday and check back in a week or 2 to see the whole shoot!