furniture

Hallelujah! Yahoo! Yippee yee! Our furniture is here from Rustic Hutch (owned by Dan's sister's husband's parents) and WE LOVE IT! We've been living without furniture for so long that we almost forgot what it was like to have a place to sit! (We tossed our 14-year-old pieces of junk when we changed our paint and carpet because they were covered in hair and urine and ripped to shreds from our former dogs.) We figured no furniture was better than that furniture, but we are THRILLED to have these wonderful new pieces!

Our house had looked like this for months...

Bill arrived on Tuesday with a truck of goodies for us!

Thanks to our neighbor, Joe, for coming to help this SUPER HEAVY piece up the stairs!

And viola! Our downstairs looks so different! We were actually a little worried we wouldn't have any room for the girls to run around, but there is still plenty of room! The furniture isn't set up the most feng shui way, but it allows us to have room for all of the toys and play time during the day. Oh well! We are saving up for a side table, some artwork on the walls, and a huge canvas on the fireplace.

We ordered everything out of catalogs so we really didn't know if it would be comfortable... but oh, is it ever!!!

And our upstairs....well, let's just forget about the bland metal cheap ikea college dorm room furniture and let's just go all out!!! We still have to hide our TV cords and hang some artwork here, but I just love, love, love the way this totally changed our room!

THANK YOU, Rustic Hutch, for providing such quality amazing furniture and customer service to help us pick out exactly what we wanted!!!! I don't even think these photos do it justice. We will be back to order a few more pieces very soon - we just have to figure out what we want first!

shoulder rides

We often put the girls on our shoulders... this night we were having fun helping them give each other shoulder rides! They both had an absolute ball! Fun times!

dressing up

Just a typical day at home!

natalie can use a spoon

Natalie is learning to use a spoon and fork! She usually gives up on the fork but with a spoon she does really well! She ate her entire cup of yogurt all by herself!






Good job, my little munchkin! You are growing up so fast!!!

snow, snow, and more snow...

...and more snow, and more snow, and... wanna know how we all feel about it?


Okay, so a little snow is fun. Like, for a day. But we've had months of it now and this household is READY for some sunshine!!!! Especially Natalie. Samantha actually loves playing in the snow. She loves being outside year-round. But Natalie has not much cared for the snow any of the times we have taken the girls out. She just cries and cries when we stand her up in it.

Samantha thought it was funny to throw more snow at her...

...and at me!

Natalie tolerated being outside as long as she was held, while Sammi ran and ran around in it covering herself in snow!

After about 20 minutes, Dan came in with Natalie and they watched Sammi through the sliding glass door... She played by herself in the snow for another 30 minutes before Dan made her come inside to warm up!

So, I don't know about Sammi, but the rest of us are READY for some sunshine and warm days around here! I am SO GLAD we don't live on the east coast! I have my fingers crossed the warm long sunny days will be visiting us soon......

dan's superbowlthday party

Happy 30th Birthday, Dan! Happy Superbowl! Well, okay, in the end it wasn't so happy - but going into it we thought it would be fun to host a superbowl/birthday party for Dan since they fell on the same day! (Above are all fraternity brothers of Dan's.)

We all watched (some of us in horror) the game on the big screen...

I was pretty proud of the cake I made... note the 30 yard lines marked for his 30th birthday! :)

We had a football cake too!!

I asked everyone to bring a dish to share and their own drinks (I mean, could I have possibly been a lazier host?) - BUT, everyone brought amazing dishes and we had so much incredible food! Thanks to everyone for chipping in to make the party fun and delicious!!!
So...the Colts lost. And Dan was a little sad about turning 30. Definitely more than he expected. But, at least we have tons of wonderful friends to share in all of life's good and bad times!!!!! :) Thank you so much to everyone who came and everyone who sent Dan well wishes! He started p90x recently & is already feeling stronger and younger... and we are already getting geared up for next year's COLTS BABY!!!!

sarah b visits

Sarah B! About twice a year Sarah comes to stay with us for a few days and we loooooooove it when she comes!!!! Sammi is attached to her hip every time she comes, and it's easy to understand why!!!! Sarah (an art teacher, and a wonderful one) brought art projects to do together!

To celebrate Valentine's Day, they made clay hearts with faces and little legs and arms for them to stand up. They were adorable!

Snuggling on the couch showing Sarah her iPhone games...

Sarah, thank you so much for coming to visit!!! You are so busy and it means the world to all of us to have you come visit! We are excited to plan a visit to see you in Dayton soon too!!!! XOXO

visits with friends

I am SO far behind blogging! We have been busy working on the business site and so I've gotten really lazy about updating the personal blog! Over the last month we have had so many wonderful visits with friends - many of which I forgot to take photos, but this blog has some highlights!

My oldest friend in the world, Jessie, (our friendship is old - she's not old) :) came to visit from Texas during the playoffs and her son Cooper and Sammi got to play a little!

Love you, Jessie!

My amazing friend, JoAnn, also came in for a last-minute visit to a Colts' playoff game! They only came in for the weekend so she arranged for all of her friends to meet at MCL for dinner together in the banquet room. (JoAnn & I met while working at MCL about 8 years ago -ahhh, the memories!) Dan and I are going on a workation to Arizona and are staying with JoAnn in about 2 weeks. I CAN'T WAIT!

Lucky for us - some of JoAnn's friends are ours too! Including Radka & her girls - we were SO excited to see them at dinner!!!!!

Sam absolutely LOVES Sierra, Radka's daughter. She admires her so much and follows her around everywhere! Sierra is sooo good with her! I think we have a future babysitter lined up.... :)
SO many people came to dinner and it was awesome to see everyone!

This is Keller, my dear friend, April's daughter! She and Sam love to play together! They especially loved dressing up together on this visit!

April is expecting her third in June!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! I am soo excited. Can't wait to meet Keller & Caleb's new little sibling!!!

And of course we ALWAYS love seeing Bree and Kate! Becky, thanks for coming over & having us to your house too! Love playdates with you!!!! (Next time we'll have furniture.....) :)