Life Down Our Lane

We love FALL!!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:53:00 +0000

I absolutely LOVE fall! The crisp feel in the air, hayrides, and campfire.

We also love going to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out that perfect pumpkin to take home.

We were lucky that we squeezed in all the fun before the big fat raindrops began to fall

Right before Halloween we bring in the pumpkins for carving. The kids draw their faces on a piece of paper and then Papaw and Daddy duplicate it onto the pumpkins. This year, Papaw took the traditional route using a knife and Daddy....well, he decided that was too slow. He busted out the power tools!

Gauge has a notorious week stomach and this year proved to be no different. He was happy to dig out the guts.....as long as none of it touched his skin!

Great job kiddos!

Every Halloween the kids Trick or Treat with their cousins. As they grow up, our group gets smaller and smaller.

Here are the kids with their baby cousin James.

And.....they're off!

This year our church planned a Truck or Treat. It was a great time and we didn't let the rain dampen our fun!

GOAL.......Soccer Season 2012

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:06:00 +0000

After taking a season off, Gracie decided to give soccer another try. This year was particularly exciting because they kids got to play on the same team. We enjoyed that rare opportunity to get to watch them both at the same time.

What a fun an exciting season!

Grace jumped back into things like she never missed a beat....and Gauge played with bravery. He wasn't intimidated at all!

and in true Gauge (ham) fashion....he would also take time to give us a thumbs up or some other silly antic during play.

Great Season White Team!

Proud Daddy (and Mommy behind the camera)

Gauge was especially excited because this was his first trophy ever!!

First Day of School 2013

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:41:00 +0000

Hard to believe another year is here.

They need to stop growing....NOW!

This year Gauge heads to his last year of Pre-K

It's his last year in the building that he's been in since he was 6 weeks old.

Such a bittersweet time.

and Grace to 2nd Grade.

She is so amazingly smart. I can't wait to see her enjoy another

year of learning.

I'm so thankful that Grace has amazing cousins that she rides the bus with every day!

She simply adores them and it makes this Mama's heart smile!

Off to the county fair....

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:29:00 +0000

When you live in a small rural community, the county fair is a much anticipated event.
It's a time to

:: eat all kinds of fried food ::

:: visit the diary barn for your nightly dose of butter pecan ice cream ::

:: stroll through the barns to see the livestock ::

:: watch crazy sports like Rough Truck and Demolition Derby ::

:: ride scary rides ::

:: get your face painted ::

:: and spend time with cousins and grandparents ::

This year Grace was especially excited because she got to show her oldest cousin's pig in the open show. She wore her best cowgirl jeans, plaid shirt and cowgirl boots borrow from another cousin.

I was so proud of her! She wasn't intimidated by that pig at all. She now proudly displays her beautiful green and white participant ribbon in her bedroom.

She is so excited to try her hand at 4H when she turns 9. There has been much debate about what type of animal she will take. Bunny, Duck, Goat.....we shall see!

Summer is meant for FUN!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:18:00 +0000

In addition to our family vacation to Cape Coral, Florida.....we managed to squeeze a TON

more fun into our summer!

:: Hiking in the Hocking Hills ::

:: Trip to Cedar Point ::

:: Visit to Amish Country ::

:: Day at the zoo ::

:: visit to a new playground ::

:: Drive in movie watching ::

:: Mommy & Daddy trip to Lake Erie ::

:: and LOTS of water fun ::

Cape Coral Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Right after Gauge's Birthday party we packed our bags and headed south to Cape Coral Florida with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids we so excited. It was their first time flying on an airplane. They did an amazing job. Not scared at all! Gauge was even able to fall asleep for a portion of the trip. Man, it sure beats driving in the car with two kids for 16 hours!

Upon landing in Tampa, we hoped in our rental cars and drove over to Cape Coral to our resort. Words can not even describe how amazing this place was! Gorgeous to say the least. Our room was on like the 11th floor with a screened in patio looking out over the bay.

The weather was crazy hot and humid but for an Ohio family that pretty much means perfect vacation weather!! We did some hiking....

ton and I mean TONS of swimming in the pool. The kiddos were both swimming on their own above and below water by the end of the week....as well as jumping off the sides and doing cannonballs!

The most eventful thing of the vacation was when Gracie hurt her foot in the ocean. Shawn surprised me and rented a jet ski at Fort Myers Beach. The kids played on the beach and swam in the ocean with Grandma and Grandpa while they waited on us. As we rode the jet ski back into shore we could see Grandpa holding her and something wrapped around her foot. My heart sank. As it turned out she has stepped on what they believe was a broken bottle in the ocean and sliced open her foot. Lots of bandages, liquid band aids and gauze were in use the rest of the week. But, we didn't let it damper her spirit or ours.

Our resort had a ferry service that would take you over to Fort Myers. We took advantage of that and had a great time.

Did I say how much we love Fort Myer's Beach!! Gorgeous!

On one of our last nights there we all went out to dinner and enjoyed a great sunset meal.

Since Gauge had just celebrated his 5th Birthday with a Pirate theme....Grandma and Grandpa surprised us and bought us all tickets to ride the Sunset Pirate Cruise.

We had so much fun....

The evening was perfect!

We capped off our trip with some outlet and school supply shopping and one last visit to the beach. Earlier in the week the kids buried some gold coins they got from the Pirate Ship. They wanted to see if they could find them. They did!

Our vacation was filled with TONS of fun, laughs, beach, sun, swimming pools, ice cream and olympic watching. Can't wait for the next vacation!

We had a ROARING good time!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:56:00 +0000

Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet Dinosaur loving boy!

My Journey to the Color Run Columbus

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 02:58:00 +0000

In January we took a family vacation to Florida. Upon arriving home and uploading those pictures to my computer....it hit me. I needed to do something about my weight and getting back in shape. That spurred on an intense desire and motivation to make it happen. In the past I had made excuses about why I couldn't work out. I was too tired, not enough time, who's going to watch the kids? blah blah blah

I had enough of the excuses and began waking up every single morning at 5am, putting on my workout clothes and lumbering to the basement to the treadmill. I started using an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal to log all and I mean all of the food I ate. Amazingly the weight began to come off. The more that came off, the more determined I was. My goal was a loss of 20 pounds (which I hit in May). In the process of all this exercise and weight loss I was also using the program Couch to 5k. It was my goal to run the Color Run when it came to Columbus.

That morning we woke up bright and early and headed to Columbus with my parents and the kids.

It was a sea of white clothes and excitement. Because there were so many runners and it takes a while to get through each of the color stations....we didn't get to start right away. Unfortunately that also meant that we lost the cool morning air and ended up beginning the race in the hot July sun.

The kids played around and had Mamaw take pictures of them while they waiting on us. We instructed them where to stand so they could see us cross the finish line.

The race was hard...I'm not going to lie! I still don't claim that I ran a 5k simply because the way the Color Run is set up. You come to a complete stand still going through each color station. Still, it was hard for me. But seeing the sweet smiles and cheers coming from my kids as I ran past was the best feeling in the entire world!

I'm SOOO thankful for the loving support of my husband throughout this entire process. I have always joked that the only way I would ever run is if it was a life threatening situation. Never in a million years did this non-athletic, anti competitive girl ever dream of attempting a 5k. Shawn stuck with me even when my run was very literally a walk for him. He never once complained or made me feel inadequate. He was my constant encouragement from day 1!

At the very end of the race they have a color celebration. We took the kids in the middle and let them get all the color on them that they wanted. It was amazing!

The race ended at the Columbus Jazz & Rib Fest. So, we celebrating by eating some yummy BBQ, letting the kids play in the fountains

and sitting along the Riverbank listening to some cool jazz music.

Will I run another 5K......well.....I've learned to never say never!

Hey batter batter batter...

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:06:00 +0000

This year was Grace's first season of coach pitch and her Daddy (much to his chagrin) got elected to be the go to guy.

It was a year of learning for these girls. Coming off of 2 years of tball.....it's a lot different.

It was so neat to see how far they had progressed from the beginning of the season to tournament time.

Grace became a wonderful 1st base player....giving it her all every single game.
During all these games, Gauge was content to play with his friends....snack....play with his friends....snack.....play with his friends.....nap. lol
Oh, and he did have a very short stint (as in 1 game) as the team ball boy till he got bored!

I love watching Grace progress over the years and get better and better. She is such a good little ball player!

Great season Purple Team!

and what's a celebration without Ice Cream and dumping water on the coach?!?!

Birthday Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:20:00 +0000

Shawn planned a wonderful weekend getaway up at Lake Erie for my birthday

We rode the ferry to Put-in-Bay

and wasted the day away trolling around on the golf cart, visiting vineyards and enjoying the peace of just being with one another.

We enjoyed sunsets, ice cream, small little towns and farmers markets

Sometimes going away without a set agenda

is one of the best ways to do it.

I'm blessed!

Dance 2012

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sat, 19 May 2012 19:08:00 +0000

This year Gracie decided that she wanted to try tap dance in addition to hip hop. Here she is in her tap costume before we left for her dress rehearsal.

The Hip Hop Group dancing to "Let's get it started!"

and the Tap Group

So proud of my little dancer!

Posing with Daddy and Bubby

What's a recital without flowers!!! :)

Pictures with her cousins and teachers too.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The annual Trike-a-Thon at Gauge's preschool is well.....kind of a big deal! These kid's practice, raise money and man do they put their game faces on as they race around that track!

It is the highly talked about event of Spring! Gauge couldn't wait to get that Lightning McQeen helmet on and tear up that course!

I LOVED watching him zip past with the biggest, proudest grin plastered across his sweet face!

He had quite the cheering squad!

Good job Gauge, Mommy and Daddy are so very proud of you!

Easter 2012

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:56:00 +0000

::THANKFUL::

for sweet egg coloring memories,

bountiful baskets,

our beautiful family,

traditions,

and most importantly, our RISEN SAVIOR!!

Hoops for Him 2012

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:20:00 +0000

::Hoops for Him::

learning the basics of basketball....

dribbling, shooting, passing.

while your little brother enjoys the food and hanging out with his friends.

Great job Purple team!

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you Gracie!

Florida or Bust!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Even though we had a very mild winter here in Ohio, by time January rolled around we were ready for a break. We decided to take my in-laws up on their offer to join them on their timeshare in Florida. We arranged to get all of Gracie's classwork so we could take it with us since she would be missing a week of school (she thought that was pretty cool). Since she's a really good student we didn't have any worries. We actually lucked out and how only 1 rainy day which was perfect for her to get all of her work done.

Since we had all been to Florida many times we decided to do some things and go some places we had never been before. One day we decided to check out Anna Maria Island. This cute little island was the perfect retreat in January. We literally had a whole stretch of beach to ourselves. We built sandcastles, read our books in the sun, walked along the beach, and had a picnic on a nearby table.

As evening drew close we took a walk down to the boardwalk and had lunch at their restaurant. What an amazing view!

We follwed that up with ice cream and window shopping in the little town. On our way off Anna Maria we stopped at the larger more well known beach just in time to watch the gorgeous view of the sun sinking into the ocean!

Part of the kid's Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa was money to go to Busch Gardens. We were in luck....they were having a buy one get one free day. We couldn't pass that up. The kids were thrilled! We got to spend 2 whole days riding rides,

looking at animals, and eating yummy food. There were absolutely no lines in the park. At one point we were the only family on the bumper cars!

We loved Busch Gardens in January!

On our last full day there we decided to take a little adventure to a town called Tarpon Springs. They are world known for their sponge docks. Because the weather was cool and slightly rainy that day we didn't get to go out on any of the boats but it was still fun touring the little town. We walked away with some real sponges and homemade olive oil bar soap.

We had such a wonderful time! A time that none of us will ever forget. There is just something about exploring new places with my kids that I love so much. Watching the look of amazement and delight on their faces makes my heart sing!

On a side note: This is the trip and pictures that sparked a major change in my life.....but I'll get to that in another post! :)

Peace Out

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:30:00 +0000

Grace's birthday has always been a tricky one to plan because if falls smack dab in the middle of Christmas and New Years. This year we opted for a New Years Day party. Some may think this is crazy but I know our family. We're not a wild and crazy partying bunch so I had no worries that everyone would be able to show up and in good shape!

Gracie requested a Peace party for her 7th Birthday. This party fits her so much....She is such a wonderfully colorful, sweet, caring, friendly...and peace making (just ask her little brother) little girl.

Instead of going with a traditional tye dye peace party we opted for the Hippie Chic theme of peace signs and owls. An adorable combination! She loves the pink sparkly hat that her cousin gave her! She wanted to wear it all the time.

Make a wish.....

Some of her gifts this year included an American Girl Doll, bright fun and funky pillows, money, clothes, and a new bedspread for her bed.

Gracie Girl I love you so very much! You bring such a smile to my face. Mommy loves your kind heart, sweet spirit, helpful attitude, and bubbly personality. I am so proud of the little girl that you've become! Happy Birthday Punky!

7

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:18:00 +0000

7.....

You are growing up so fast! I'm amazed at the changes and how quickly it all seemed to happen!

I love that you're able to brush your own teeth...but I miss your sweet gum filled smiles

I love that you take yourself to the bathroom...but I miss that cute little tushie wearing fat diapers

I love that you can comb and brush your own hair...but I miss pulling that long gorgeous hair up into pigtails.

I love that you can write sentences that tell a story...but I miss your baby scribbles

I love that you can buckle your own seatbelt...but I miss seeing you all curled up in your baby carrier

I love that you're getting so tall and even more beautiful...but I miss your short chubby little baby legs

I love that you want to wear nail polish and lip gloss...but I miss just putting baby lotion on you

I love that you can now read me a night time story...but I miss reading you Baby Books

I love that you feel confident enough not to hold my hand at the mall...but I miss pushing you in your stroller

I love that you come downstairs from Children's Church all on your own...but I miss you sleeping on my shoulder during service

I love that I don't have to carry a diaper bag anymore...but I sure miss feeding you your bottle

I love that you have awesome style and can pick out and dress yourself (and even your brother)....but I sure miss putting onsies and tiny outfits on you

I love you so much sweet Gracie! I am honored and so very blessed to be your Mommy!

Happy 7th Birthday baby!

Purposeful Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

*Catch up post.....be warned this post is picture heavy! *

Despite the cold and snow, December has to be one of my favorite months of the year! I love all the stuff that comes with the holidays. Spending time with family, baking, sweets, shopping, decorating, and the list goes on and on. This December I was on a quest to help take the commercialism out of the holidays for my family and try to focus more on giving and spending time together. Our church was hosting a weekly scrapbooking night, so I took advantage of those nights to get away and construct my 25 days of Christmas bunting. Each pocket contained one activity. This activity could be to do something for someone else or it could be something for our family to do together. The kids would take turns pulling the ticket each evening. A few examples of items were: Go see Christmas lights, make Christmas candy, bake Christmas cookies, delivery candy anonymously, donate coats/hats/gloves to the needy, go Christmas caroling.

This helped set the tone for our holidays. It helped us all put things into perspective and I think truly begin to enjoy it more. My husband was a little reluctant to do something every single day (and yes there were a few days we just couldn't fit it in). I think in the end he would tell you that he was less of a Bah Hum Bug this year because of it!

This year Gauge was the only one who had a Christmas program.

For whatever reason our local Elementary School doesn't include 1st graders in their holiday program (sad face). Even more sad was the fact that Gracie didn't get to go to Gauge's program because she had the Chicken Pox! Crazy huh? She had the vaccine.....but apparently she was one of the exceptions that can still contact a mild case. We were so thankful for her older cousin Jenna who stayed home with her.

We are very blessed to have both of our parents living in the same town. This means we divide up our holiday visits. We usually visit his parents a week prior to Christmas

and my parents on Christmas Eve.

This year our family was one of the Advent families to light candles and read scripture during the Christmas Eve service. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to get matching outfits for us!

We generally don't get home until late on Christmas Eve. This sometimes proves to be a challenge for poor Gauge to stay awake long enough to put out cookies for Santa but he managed to stay awake (barely).

Our kids had a wonderful Christmas morning filled with all kinds of goodies.

The highlights were brand new bikes. We had such an uncommonly mild winter this year that the kids got to ride their new bikes on Christmas morning. That's pretty unheard of!

What a blessed Christmas we had with all of our loved ones!!!

Wow....seems like yesterday!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:13:00 +0000

I can hardly believe that next week will be one whole year since Shawn and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a cruise. I also can't believe that I never took the time to blog about our wonderful experience.

I always thought that I would never be able to go on vacation for a whole week without my kids. And I never dreamed that vacation would put me "off the grid" and unreachable to my family for a whole week. I'm not going to lie, I was extremely nervous about it. Just ask my Mom and Mother-in-law who had a good 3 pages of notes. However, I'm thankful that they were in very loving, and capable hands in our absence. We could not have done it without the support of our parents!!

One very early morning, we packed our van and headed to Columbus to catch out flight. After a few layovers and planes changes we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale to board our ship.

Here we are with the beautiful Florida sunset in the background.

We spent a day at sea on our way to our first destination. I can't even begin to describe the amazing beauty of floating out in the middle of the ocean with water as far as the eye can sea. What a relaxing time!

The first island that we visited was Princess Cruise Line's private island called Princess Cay. For this adventure we had to board the smaller boats that ferried us to the island.

The day started off a little overcast and rain threatened to dampen our plans. Thankfully it blew over and it turned out to be a gorgeous day of relaxing under the clamshell we rented

and just simply basking in the sun.

We took another day resting and lounging pool side with a day at sea. The next island that we visited was St.Maarten where we hopped on another boat to take us to the beach.
Talk about the perfect introduction to the Islands, check out this video.

Here we enjoyed walking around and looking in all the shops and doing some swimming. We then dried off and hopped into a taxi cab that took us to Dawn Beach on the Dutch side of this island. It was beautiful and a bit more secluded.

The next island we visited was St.Thomas. We had heard that on St.Thomas....going to Megen's Bay is a must. So that's what we did. We boarded a taxi bus that took us up and over St. Thomas. Talk about some amazing views from the tippy top!

Megen's Bay is sort of like a gated community. We had to pay admission to get in. It was very secluded. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful!! We got there early in the morning so we were pretty much the first people on the beach. Scenery that will be in my memory forever!

One evening we were up on the top deck watching the glorious sunset and taking some pictures when a lady asked if we would like to have our picture taken together. We said sure and then she made us kiss for one of the pictures! :)

Our last stop was the Island of Grand Turk. Here, we collected some really beautiful sea glass on this beach. Gorgeous shades of blues and greens.

Rather than hang out at the big party at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville we opted for a guided dune buggy ride. Shawn drove of course because that thing scared me!

I can't think of a better excursion to pick. We drove all over that tiny island. Saw views that the majority of those on the cruise never got to see.

including a beautiful sunset view of the lighthouse

and driving back to the ship as we watched the sun completely sink into the ocean.

Spectacular!

Ever since we got home from that trip...we have said that we can not wait to do it again. We missed our kids intensely but I have to tell you...it was so nice to be able to reconnect with my husband and have fun together without a worry in the world!

I love you so much Shawn and I'm so thankful that we got to spend that time together!

We're rollin'

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:34:00 +0000

on two wheels now!

Learning how to ride a bike in the country

without paved roads and driveways can be difficult!

Thank goodness for her Aunt & Uncle's (our neighbors) concrete.

She will be an old pro before long.

Oh, and pay no attention to her Lightning McQueen helmet.
Daddy couldn't find her princess helmet so she had to wear Bubs :)

Halloween Fun

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:53:00 +0000

Faces designed by little ones. Meticulously sketched & carved by Daddy and Papaw

Insides bravely scooped out

and lit up for all to see.

Cousins gathered

decked out in costume

to parade the streets

in the hunt

for sweet delicious

candy and treats

We even ran into some familiar friends dressed up for the festivities

We had a fun Halloween and hope you did too!

Wordless Wednesday: So Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:33:00 +0000

Nothing tastes better...

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:50:00 +0000

Than fresh

Crisp

fall apples

made into

homemade applesauce!

Wordless Wednesday: It's the Great Pumpkin......Show!

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:55:00 +0000

We took our annual trip...

noreply@blogger.com (My2Gs) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:51:00 +0000

to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Since Ohio weather is so hit or miss this time of year...you can't hardly plan too far in advance. So, one day after church we made the spur of the moment decision to go. This limited how far we could go so we decided to visit Pumpkin Patch called Hidden Creek Farms that is just down the road.

The weather was a little chilly but perfectly clear and beautiful. The kids had so much fun riding the hay wagon out into the field

to pick their very own pumpkins.

even if they were too big for them to carry themselves. Thanks goodness for Daddy & Papaw!

Say cheese!

Some other fun things they had at the farm were a hay maze inside the barn as well as some cute animals to visit with.

and of course the ever popular ~~sand~~cornbox

We had an awesome day!

Happy Fall everyone!