On the way home from Columbus we stopped to get the kids an ice cream come. Driving along, Griff says to me: "hey mom, I think I'm done with my ice cream cone now. Can you please just take the rest for me?" Then he hands me this...HA! Made us crack up. Love the way a little dude thinks!

Ryan and I celebrated 14 years this month, on 12-30-14. We enjoyed a long evening away in Ann Arbor. Started with a tapas restaurant, walked around, shared soup/salad at Prickly Pear, and ended with coffee at Whole Foods. Gosh I'm thankful for this night. It was so good to just eat, laugh, talk, and ENJOY one another. So blessed and grateful to walk alongside this man.

Christmas 2014

Early December Date night with Griff. Mexican and sweet chats with our 4 year old. 

The tradition of tree decorating right after Thanksgiving...always a joy and a highlight of the season!

Studly boys with matching hair cuts. I mean seriously---pure handsomeness. 

And Christmas PJs? The bomb.

Lights at the zoo!! It honestly was a perfect night to go this year. Certainly cold, but not bitter. We stayed almost two hours and hit up all the fun stops, including hot chocolate by the reindeer. It's one of the things that we do that our kids absolutely love, despite the insanity of it all. ha!

Annual Christmas cookie time. I absolutely love baking with my kiddos- and we did a TON of it this year. (green cornflake wreaths, egg nog cookies, peanut butter hershey kiss drops, cut-outs, Linda's famous chex mix...). We do always love cookie time with the cousins, aunts, and nana too---but man is it messy and loud!! The moms just try to remind ourselves that the kids will love these memories someday because it's NUTS for us!

We started a new tradition this year. We invited a TON of people to meet at our house for donuts, caroling and a boat load of rich hot chocolate. We had approximately 30 people come and we moved door to door throughout our neighborhood. It was hilarious and awesome. Every kid who was there simply loved it and even though we didn't always sound good--the adults had a blast. Pretty cool.

Emma's first grade Holiday party!

FINALLY we got new, updated pictures of Grady this month. We can tell that he's walking more steadily (or at least it seems that way?) and that his sweet brown feet are still quite BIG. HA! We love it---maybe he'll be a runner like mom and dad? ;)

His puffed out tummy makes us a little nervous and that much more anxious to get him home with us. Not sure if a protein deficiency might be happenin in that sweet little belly. Either way, I can't wait to make him SMILE--something we have yet to see him do.

Christmas Eve service. So sad Griff missed out on this pic--he was off running around the church! We also started another new tradition this year. Today, before the Christmas Eve services, our entire family went to Kingston and visited with some of those sweet old souls for an hour. We took homemade Christmas cards that the kiddos all made, and cookies that Kiki made. It was the neatest thing to dress up and watch our kids just SHINE. They made so many people smile in those moments.

And then...they got loud again---and freaked over presents! :)

Emma's special Christmas morning gift--from Nana and Papa.

Nana made us all beautiful scarves!!

Papa's gift from all of us kiddos--a new guitar. :)

Sweet Kiki---one of the best people on planet earth

Schulers donuts---Ryan dreams about this weeks before he knows they are coming his way!

A few days after Christmas we enjoyed a 24 hour visit in Springfield with Grandpa Snowman and Ruthie. We enjoyed dinner with them at Sakura, then treats and time with Brandon and his clan afterwards. Loved some SNOW family time this holiday.

Bathtub convo

Love sitting in my room listening to Emma and griffin talk about "important things." For example, what kinds of donuts they will eat at the hot breakfast coming up at embassy suites in a few days. Chatting about what kinds of bathing suits are appropriate to wear in a pool. Discussing matters of but cheeks and rashes. 😳 

But then in all seriousness, griffin speaks up and says "I'm just sad Grady wasn't able to have Christmas with us Emma." 

It was so sweet and so random. Awesome to see him and observe him changing as he anticipates such big transition ahead. Love these kids. 

Turkey Day at the Lake!!

This was an awesome Thanksgiving Day. Ryan and I both got an early morning run in, we packed our family up, and met the Moan, Moore clan up at the lake. It was pretty much a beautiful day. We took two walks AND it started to snow. Was beautiful up there--and very cool that everyone could be up there together this year. Missed sweet Grady boy--but he sure was talked about a lot today!

MATILDA!!!!! Laughed up the ying yang with this one. Haha---loved it.

Line of the day

Me: "griff, do you see that picture over there? Well do you think you could really quick jump back into the picture and be as little as him again?"

Griff: "sorry mom. Can't do that. My powers won't let me do that kind of thing."

Random Fall Happenings

Ryan is an outstanding marathon runner. It's just the truth. Ha! BUT- this month, this time, this race, Ryan kicked butt. Instead of running a 20 mile training run for the Columbus marathon in October, he decided to register for the Akron marathon last minute and run it. And he PR'd. And he ran a 2:57. WOWZA

This was a perfect FALL night. I mean for real. We just love our moments at mom and dad's house where we don't have enough room for all of us and that's why we love it. Gosh these are precious times.

This is just right after school started--in  September. The warm days are still around and why not have...a GARAGE BAND! Ha. I think our neighbors hated US and the FROZEN DVD today

Last hurrah at the lake---end of September goodness. NEVER EVER want this season to go away

Tradition: trip #1 to Gust Brother's Farm...got rained out, but we ran around like wackos!



A very very quick visit from the Mitchells as they drove through town. They are prized people in our lives. We need them, we love them. Our kids just play so well together?! Man oh man it's cool. Lucas and Ellie run off, Emma and Nathan run off, Taylor and Griffin run off...haha...uh oh

Dressed up and ready for the church ho-down!

Griff sure has some cool buddies. It is really cool that one of them is his cousin. But it is also really cool that my best friends have boys, and they all love each other as much as us moms do. Gosh we are blessed with good people in this community!

Gust brother's farm trip #2. Today we pick our pumpkins!!

What a way to celebrate the Ethiopian New Year this year!!! Our family has been so so excited to try out the BLUE NILE restaurant in Ann Arbor, MI. We have been wanting a reason to celebrate, and it was quite evident that we had a reason to celebrate this Sept. 11! After receiving our referral (seeing Grady's face), we decided to try this place out the night before the Ethiopian New Year. We all loved it. Every single bite. It was quite the experience and our FIRST experience. I can't wait to bring other loved ones with us next time...and most importantly, learn how to cook some of these things for our family. :)

Oh wow. Getting these updated pictures of Grady---just melts our heart. All we can say is NO WAY! LOOK AT  HIM! LOOK HOW BIG HIS FEET ARE! HOLY COW I WANNA SCOOP HIM UP! We are ALL enamored with this little love. Approx 11-12 months old in these pictures. 

ZOO day with Charles. These boys love each other.

Feed My starving Children.  It was really cool to talk about Grady this year. Last year he was "out there," but unknown. This year- Grady, we imagined you and your buddies at the orphanage actually receiving one of these meals we packed. Gosh we wanted to snag a bag of this and direct mail it to Grady's orphanage...had to follow the rules!
Kids learned perserverance today---hard work!!

First Snow of the year....what? November? Not even Thanksgiving yet! Ha...well it sure was fun to march around with my little side kick. HE makes me happy

So many years of knowing this girl. Now we visit together with our boys in tow! What a blessing.



Date with my sweet cheeks. Took Ellie to Barnes and Noble for some peppermint hot chocolate. These moments are truly some of my favorites. We talked about life, friends, and choices we make to head in the right direction. JESUS help me to be the mom this girl needs!