Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving decorations.

The kids were Jack and Jill for Halloween this year. They were stinkin cute, in my opinion. I have to thank a certain Indiana resident for kindly lending Annika's bloomer things (what are they called?!) They were the perfect addition! All our neighbors commented on how creative they were (store bought, I was lazy this year) and Ezra couldn't believe that everyone knew who Jack and Jill were. I thought that was funny.

 The kids got tons of candy. Tons. I was quite impressed with them when the Great Pumpkin came and took it away to leave them a book and they were so excited! Ezra got King Bidgood's in the Bathtub. He LOVES it. I highly recommend it for your little one. Annika received a Corduroy book.

So since October is over and done with, I decided I better take down the Halloween decorations. I did not have a plan but I started finding things to put up on the mantel. I came up with this.  The Rothko doesn't have anything to do with Thanksgiving except for I'm thankful he painted it...and it's yellow and orange...and it was laying around the house.

This picture would look so much better with a roaring fire, don't you think? (Hint, Hint Jonathan!)

 A pot o' beans. I'm thankful for food. I found these pumpkin thingys last year on clearance. I can't remember where.

 Here is Plymouth Rock. You know, I always assumed it was a mountain or some kind of land mark but really Plymouth Rock was just a rock that the people on the Mayflower stepped on when they got out of the boat. They carved the year on it a long time later.

 I asked Jon really, really nicely to make me a boat. The Mayflower to be exact. Clearly, this was not something he wanted to do. So then I asked him to go gather me some bendy sticks from the backyard. He graciously did so. After a frustrating bit, I came up with this as my Mayflower. Don't laugh. It's my interpretation and I tried hard. Building a boat is harder than it looks. All together it only took me a few Monk episodes to get it done, so that's not too bad.

 Here is where we write what we are thankful for and we will read them on Thanksgiving day. The kids have already added lots of things. It should be quite entertaining to read them all!

 And here are some acorns from the backyard. I roasted them for a bit so not icky bugs crawl their way out. They scream fall, right?

 So there ya go.  My new mantel for Thanksgiving. The best part is that I spent zero dollars on this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a week!

Wow. What a week! I think this was one of the worst weeks ever, but I've decided to not dwell on what went wrong but instead on what went right. 


First of all, on Monday evening Annika decided it would be a good idea to take the next step in one of her favorite sports, "stair-sliding." Instead of sliding down feet first, her usual method, she decided to see what would happen if she slid down as fast as she could head first. We were clearing the dinner dishes at the time, so we didn't get to talk her out of this maneuver. We heard a loud thud and then a much louder "AAAAAAAAAH!" We immediately ran over to the stairs, where we both held Annika for a while, trying to comfort her. Now, Annika is a tough girl--she never cries unless something is seriously wrong. So when she wouldn't calm down, we knew we had to take her to urgent care. 


At the clinic, Annika got x-rays (which, thanks to the lesson from the "Franklin goes to the Hospital" book that she loves, she managed to endure bravely) and got to look at the "picture of her bones" that showed a broken collarbone. The doctor told us to give her some pain meds, keep her arm in a sling, and see the orthopedic surgeon the next day. 


There are various upsides to this story: 


1) An already adorable-beyond-belief Annika is even more adorable-beyond-belief in her cute little sling. She even does a little sad face that will literally crush your heart. 


2) The break in her collarbone was really minor. It could have been a broken arm, or a more severe break--so we feel really fortunate that she will make a full recovery in just 3-5 weeks. 


On Tuesday, we were taking Annika to her appointment at the orthopedic surgeon when, after pulling out of our driveway, we suddenly could not get the car into gear. Then we heard a "thump thump" and realized that the clutch just went out on our car. So we maneuvered the car back into the driveway, called the auto shop, and called the car rental place to get us a car to take Annika to her appointment. The upside here:


1) When the clutch went out, we were only one house up from our own house. It was really easy to get the car back into our driveway. Had we been on the interstate somewhere, or out of town, it would have been a much, much worse situation. 


2) Jonathan was home for Fall break, so it made it alot easier to get the rental car and get the car to the shop. And, as badly as it stinks to have to pay for a new clutch, at least the rest of the car is in good shape. It's always nicer to pay for some repairs on a car that you trust (and a car that's paid off!)


Wednesday, nothing good happened. Nothing good at all. Okay, I guess I can think of a few things. I got locked out of the house without my cell phone, but I did have the car keys. I'm still trying to figure out any good that came out of what happened on this day. I had to go to Jonathan's office to get the house keys. On the way, I saw a man on the sidewalk doing something unbelievably obscene. It was really traumatizing. The upside to this is that the kids did not see what was happening. I also found Jonathan at his office and he gave me the keys. I got a parking ticket as well. But, since we were in a rental car and NKU does not follow up on parking tickets, I decided to stick it to the man and throw it in the garbage. 


Thursday, we got the estimate on how much it costs to put a new clutch in our car. It turns out that it costs a lot. The upside to this is that we still have a good car and it was not so much money that it would devastate us. 


Friday, not much happened. We went to a community halloween festival a few towns over. We drove around for an hour trying to find it (it turns out the community park is off an unmarked dirt road in the middle of nowhere). The upside to this is that the kids had a good time for 5-6 minutes before it got too dark and we had to go back home. I was still in a bad mood about Wednesday. 


Saturday, I had this conversation with my doctor's nurse (who commutes to the doctors office from her home in hell):


Me: Hello?
Nurse/Devil: Is this Christina?
Me: Yes.
Nurse/Devil: Did you get my message?
Me: Yes, I'm sorry. I'm been having a really bad week and I forgot to call you.
Nurse/Devil: Well, it would have been really nice if you had (imagine if Satan himself were spewing these words at you with a fiery dismay)
Me: Why, what's the matter!? (here I'm imagining the somehow found out in my file that I had cancer or something).
Nurse/Devil: Well then I would have known if Annika had been taken care of or not (we called the doctor to let them know what happened since our doctor is Annika's doctor as well. They didn't call until a day and a half later, after Annika had already seen a specialist). 
Me: Oh. Well, I'm sorry, but it's been one thing after another this week. It totally slipped my mind.
Nurse/Devil: Did she get taken care of then?
Me: Yes, of course she did.
Nurse/Devil: Well, it would have been really nice if you had called and told me that (again, Satan spewing these words at you with a condescending voice that comes from years of practice on many sinners).


Take it easy lady, I'm having a crappy week!!


The upside here is that I will think this is funny someday. 


Today is Sunday, a day of rest. This day has been very nice. Tomorrow is a new beginning--we're really excited for a much better week. Hopefully, the "sidewalk perv" is spending his week in jail. 

My hospital stories.

This summer I was really busy. I worked constantly on the house. I painted almost every room and did minor repairs and organized and decorated and on and on. I was dedicated to making this house being as near perfect as I could make it. 

I'm not sure when it started, but I started getting back pain. I thought that maybe I pulled my back from carrying around a heavy diaper bag with me all the time. I bought a backpack diaper bag to relieve some of the strain so the pain would go away but it didn't. 

When I started laying on heat pads turned up as hot as they would go before I could function enough to do anything, I knew it was time to get it checked out. Since by this time the pain felt more like an internal pain than a muscle pain I made an appointment with my regular doctor. My first visit, they knew that I had some somewhat raised lipace levels but since I was not withering in pain and a day without food seemed to help that was all that was done then.

The next week, I was way more in pain and went back to get checked again. 

Now, this was a busy week for me. I had just been called to be the Activity Day leader and I was getting ready for my first activity and had no clue what to do. Also, we had an appointment to put in new blinds throughout the house and I was frantically trying to paint every wall that we wanted to paint before the blinds went up. This was hard to do because my back was hurting so much and I only could work on it by staying on a steady dose of Excedrin back and body pain meds and of course laying on the heat pads for large periods of time throughout the day. 

We had been working on the house all summer and having the blinds put in was the last major thing we were going to do for awhile. So, I felt like if I could only get to Thursday afternoon, which was when the blinds would be in and everything else, like painting, would have to be done too and I could lay down on the couch and relax. 

As fate would have it, an hour after the blinds guy left after installing the blinds my doctor called me and told me that my lipace levels were insanely high and I should go check into the hospital right away.

I got the rest I was hoping for, but not quite the way I was expecting it. I was put on a IV to stay hydrated and wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for five days. 

Then to make it all a short story, I was put through a bunch of tests and they figured out that my gallbladder wasn't working properly and was causing the pancreatitis. I then had surgery to remove my gallbladder on August the 26th. Oh and it turns out, there were five gallstones in there which were the reasons for my troubles.

Here's a picture of me with my babies. I look horrid but look how sweet and happy Ezra looks. This whole thing was pretty hard on them, I think.

The reason I am writing about this is because 1) It will be good to remember all the details later and 2) It was interesting and ironic how and when it all happened. 

Three years ago, Jonathan and I lived in an apartment on the second floor in Indiana. I was pregnant with out second child and I really wanted to move to a downstairs apartment. I wanted to do such a crazy thing because I did not want to carry my then 18 month old child and a newborn up and down steps everyday. Also, I wanted to be able to take the kids for walks everyday. We walked everywhere we could and I knew I wouldn't be able to get the double stroller, Ezra,  a new baby with car seat and a diaper bag down the stairs very easily. So I was able to convince Jonathan that it was necessary to move and we were fortunate enough to be able to move into a downstairs apartment just one door over. 

I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when we were able to start moving our things into the new apartment. I worked like a crazy lady that day putting things away as fast as I could. I thought it would be a pretty easy move since the apartment was identical to our previous one, I just had to get the stuff and put it away where we already had it. That was not as easy as it sounds. It entailed moving every single thing we had. However, I had one end goal: I wanted to sit down on the couch with my feet up and a glass of water and have every single thing in place and every picture on the wall and everything perfect for the new baby. 

Well, with some help from some kind neighbors we were able to get everything put away and all but two photos on the wall by the time I went to bed. The next morning, I woke up at 8am and had a baby by noon. Here is a pic from that day (August the 26th).

I just find the similarities in these two events so interesting. Both involve me working like crazy to finish a house project and both end up with me in the hospital. The first time I received a beautiful baby girl and the second time I received a gallbladder??  Not as cool. So I am thinking that this gives me grounds for not working too hard around the house. 

Also, I think Ezra might be a soothsayer or a wizard or something. Check out this picture he drew of our family one month to the day before I went into hospital. I am grey and look like a ghost while everyone else it red and smiley. Weird.

Closet re-do

When we bought our house we were impressed with the size of the closets. There are two large closets in each bedroom. The one with the window in a little bigger than the other one and has room for shelves. They were in pretty good shape, but they needed a little updating. In the closet in the kids' room the previous owner had installed a dresser in an unusual place. See pic. below (I had already removed the drawers at this point).

 And this is the view of the other side of the closet. 

Here is what we did with them.

We, with the very generous help of Jonathan's Dad, installed some Closetmaid shelves. I also spent hours in here this summer painting and caulking every crack and baseboard in sight. You can't tell, but it's true.

 The other side of the closet in not so inspired, but holds the kids couches and a chest of their dress-up clothes.

 I attempted to organize their junk, I mean toys (hehe),  by getting some Ikea storage buckets. Then I  printed off some labels on the computer and taped them to the side with double sided tape to be able to see where everything goes. Not everything fits in those unfortunately.

 And if you're like me and can't figure out what to do with all of those puzzles laying around, I solved the problem by putting them in large zip-lock bags and storing them in a bin vertically.

I can switch out the buckets that the kids have in their reach easily by sliding them into the Ikea shelf (see the upper left hand side of the photo below). I think it works great because they don't have all of their toys out at one time. This makes my life a lot easier by not having to clean up all those toys all the time.

The end.

Something strange is happening...

Giant spiders are attacking our home! And there is a mysterious visitor on our front porch who is creeping us out. I think he may have come from the disturbing cemetery that has suddenly appeared on our lawn. What is happening?? There may be more strange things happening here in the days to come...

Tis' my favorite season...

We are really excited for Halloween! I have been doing my best to pass on my love of Halloween to my kids. We already have the costumes (well, for the kids anyway- they are going to be Jack and Jill) and we are anxiously awaiting the big day.

I have waited patiently for many years to have a house of my own and to be able to decorate a fireplace mantel. Since Halloween is my all time favorite holiday, I was particularly excited to be able to decorate this right now. I don't have a ton of knick-knacky type things so I didn't really have much to work with. I found 4 or 5 jars at Goodwill for a couple of bucks and either made or found the rest of the stuff around the house. Here's a tour if you are like me and are interested in this type of thing. 

I got the pumpkin lights a while back at the dollar store or somewhere like that. The wreath was made by my mother-in-law a few years back. I really love it.

I found the idea of candy jars on another blog. I copied a few outright and came up with a few on my own. Here we have hollowed frog eyes (they are really those green gummy rings) and bat droppings (black wrapped chocolate Kisses). I made the photos last year. I just printed off some old black and white photos of the internet and glued some googly eyes over their eyes. 

I found some books at a second hand store and spray painted them black. Then I painted the letters with gold craft paint. The tea cup is filled with small bags and pincher thingy to get the candy out of the jars.

Here are Goblin Crowns (peanut butter cups) and Pumpkin Teeth (candy corn) and some more googly eye photos.

In this photo we have the green Love Potion #9, some monster eggs (peanut m&m's in the holiday colors) and Slimy Worms (gummy worms) and some black crows of course.

I found a salt shaker at a second hand store for a quarter. I washed it, printed the label on brown paper, modge podged it on the jar and distressed it a bit with brown ink. Then I tied some twine around the top and added the "drink me" label. I could not find a cork anywhere in the house, so I folded up some brown paper and rolled it up and stuck it in the top. Oh, and the green liquid is just water with green food coloring. I really liked how it turned out.

Here is Jonathan with his best "pondering professor" look. Next to do on our to do list is get that fireplace up and running...I seriously cannot wait.

Oh, and I'm still pondering what to do on the front porch. I'll add some pictures of that when I figure it out.

My day with some silly kids.

Here's a run down of my day.

Early this morning I had to go to the doctors office for a quick checkup. While we were waiting my baby girl decided she needed to go potty. We all headed into the bathroom there and while we were washing hands Ezra saw the tampon/pad coin operated thingy that are in most public restrooms. He pointed at the tampon side and asked "Hey mom, do we need batteries?" 

I love that kid. 

Later, after my appointment we headed to the library to renew our stacks when the kids spotted some books on tape. Pretty soon, they came across A Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which we let them watch last weekend. Annika got really excited and said "Mommy, can we get Diarrhea of a Bumpy kid?!"

Classic.

When we got home we spent some time playing a board game together. We heard the garbage truck outside and the kids jumped up to watch out the window. It was garbage day and the kids never tire of watching this process. Ezra especially watched the garbage man closely. He noticed that he was the only garbage man on the truck. He had to drive the truck and then get out and attach our bin onto the back of the truck and push a button which picked up the bin, dumped it, then set it back down. I mentioned that it looked like a hard job and was probably pretty smelly. Ezra watched the man get back into his truck and drive to the next house and said "That is a hard job, you wouldn't even get to watch shows."

Probably true.

That afternoon we all went outside to try out some new sidewalk chalk I recently scored on clearance. I was reading through some papers when Ezra called my attention to something he had drawn on the sidewalk. He showed me a colored in circle in which he told me you were to yell into. Connected to that was a long line drawn up the sidewalk to the driveway. From there he had drawn some pretty decent sound waves that went all the way up the driveway, turned around and came back over to where we were. He explained that was sound. It reminded me a lot of a Dr. Seuss drawing. 

He'll do better in science class than I did. For sure.

Then after Jonathan got home I helped Annika get ready for the date he asked her to go on. He took her to eat ice cream and read books at the bookstore. Meanwhile, I stayed home with Ezra. We were going to order a pizza, but that plan soon fizzled when I learned that Jonathan had taken my wallet with him on accident. Ezra was quite upset by this but then his mood changed quite dramatically when I made him his favorite "egg toast" and let him eat it sitting on the stairs with a chair for a table. We listen to a Magic Tree House book on CD while I did the dishes. That boy was in heaven. Then we cuddled on the couch and read the book Willie Monroe for a bedtime story. The book is about Willie, the strongest lad in Tennessee. This inspired Ezra to try his hand at lifting up stuff around the house. Then he went to bed. 


And to top it all off, while I was typing this Annika woke up crying. She wouldn't be consoled but instead laid on the ground whimpering. After a few minutes I asked her if I could hold her. She let me pick her up and rock her. She settled right down, just like the day she was born.

I have the best job ever. 


And sometimes I even get to watch shows.

Annika the ballerina

So I think I'm pretty much all healed up and back to normal from being sick and ready to dive into all the projects I've started. I thought I would try to update the blog a little since I'm way way behind. I'm going to start with Annika's dance class because she started that today and because she looks so stinkin' cute.

Annika did really well on her first day of dance. She watched the teacher the whole time and could do all the moves. 

I think she was really proud of herself.

Here we are looking for Annika's name on a star outside.

Our little ballerina.

the cause!

They have finally found what is causing the pancreatitis! It's my gallbladder. It's not working. I've never been so excited to find out I have a diseased body part. I'll just get it taken out and then be done with all of this being sick business. It's no fun at all.

The best and worst of pancreatitis

Best things about being trapped in a hospital with pancreatitis:

1. I don't have to make my own bed.

2. If I lay around all day reading books, no one judges me as lazy. In fact, that makes me a good patient.

3. I don't have to drink water to stay hydrated. I'm hooked up to a machine that does that chore for me.

4. People ask me if I need anything a million times a day. And if I say yes, they go get it.

5. Losing the extra "food storage" around my waist from not eating any food for days and days.

Worst thing about being trapped in a hospital with pancreatitis:

1. Not being able to be with my kids when they wake up, take baths, go to bed, etc. etc.

2. Not being able to sleep in the same bed as my husband.

3. Having bruises all over my arms from being poked with needles. And getting woken up everyday between 5 and 6 am to get my blood drawn.

4. Having to lug around an IV machine with me everywhere.

5. Not being able to eat any food for days and days.

Home improvements, among other things.

So if you read the last post, it was spawned by hearing a book review on NPR about the book Super Sad True Love Story in which the author paints a picture of what the near future may look like. It sounds very interesting. Oh and I might add-- Jonathan wrote that post in like 10 minutes. That would have taken me an hour or a day, so I was impressed.

Anyway, moving on...

Music has made its way back on to the blog. We added this for your listening pleasure. Also, I am planning to post a series of "Home Improvement" blog posts to document what we've been up to for the past few months. First off is the wall calendar that I finished today. I'll try to post something everyday for awhile (no guarantees this will happen everyday, but I'll try.)

This is in our kitchen. We started by painting the wall with chalkboard paint. Then, using a lot of painters tape, I painted the lines on with an off white paint to make a 6 week calendar, so now I can just write on the months, dates, and events with chalk and erase it easily. I totally love how it turned out.

And this if for Ezra to see when he wakes up in the morning. Jonathan took this picture of this Katydid on our bedroom window (it was on the outside, thankfully.) Weird but cool. It's pretty much life size.

iThink

I remember reading about Richard Feynman's experience splitting the atom, leading to the first explosion of the atomic bomb. For Feynman, and other physicists like him, splitting the atom was an interesting theoretical question--the only thought going through their minds was, "can we do it?" It wasn't until they succeeded, when they watched in the New Mexico desert as U.S. military officers celebrated the first successful test of the atomic bomb that they looked at one another and collectively thought, "crap. What did we just do?" Feynman argued that the atomic test was a triumph of means over ends, where the only important question was, "can we do it?" and not "should we do it?" or "what will it mean if we do it?"

Yesterday, as Christina and I sat with the kids at the doctor's office, we noticed a mother and her early-teenage daughter sitting near us. The daughter was absorbed in a game on the iPad, and the mother was similarly absorbed punching keys on her blackberry. Neither one appeared conscious of anything they were doing, and, although sitting but 10 inches from each other, they could have easily been in a different room or town. They had no consciousness of their surroundings--they literally gave themselves over to the device in their hands. Now, I'm not one to necessarily shun technology--I'm writing on a computer, after all--but I think there is a similar triumph of means over ends concerning our consumption of technologies. As the physicists who developed the first atomic bomb thought "can we do it?" I think the prevailing thought of contemporary human beings vis-a-vis technological devices is "can I buy it?" Buried amidst the hundreds of articles on the wonders of the iPad were a scant two or three articles that addressed questions of whether the new technological device will improve our lives. I think most consumer technologies are a wash--I mean, the computer has done some amazing things, but it also feeds some terrible addictions. Cell phones have made it literally impossible for us to be by ourselves. Video games further blur any kind of distinction we could make between reality and fantasy. When we add this seductive consumer setup to our collective (and recent) fear of letting our kids go outside lest they be snatched up, we find ourselves always indoors, always having to justify the small fortune we spend on our technological devices by giving them most of our precious hours.

This leaves me with a few thoughts: Have we lost our ability to critically assess technology? Since technologies outdate themselves before we can fully assess them, does the speed with which we consume keep us from ever being able to appreciate or assess the value of things? And, if we are losing our ability to critically assess our surroundings, what else are we losing? I teach students who are increasingly unable to read a basic textbook or sit through a 50 minute lecture because they have never had to read a book or listen to someone speak without doing something else. Life is a permanent distraction. As an educator, I wonder what sort of youth we are raising if they have no ability to assess the value of consumer technologies and have long lost their ability to concentrate. If I have one fear for my own kids, it is that they will live in a world where they cannot--literally CANNOT--reflect on anything. Life is too fast for reflection. To me, that's the scariest thing.

Mixed emotions

Today we celebrated Annika's Big Girl party. It's been really hard for her to give up the cup that she uses to help her fall asleep. We've tried numerous things; one time we "lost" the bottle for four days but caved on the fifth and gave it back to her. This time we are trying to explain to Annika that as she grows up she no longer needs her cup. We constructed a super-natural being called the "Baba Fairy" to deflect all the blame. The Baba Fairy's job is to take little sippy cups and give them to needy babies; in return she leaves a few presents to help big girls fall asleep.

In Annika's case, the Baba Fairy gave her a pink cake, a big girl cup, a pink pillowcase, and a Knuffle Bunny to hold at night time. Tonight was the first night without her baby cup. It was a night full of whimpers, disbelief, bargaining, distraught looks, going boneless, and questioning the intentions of the Baba Fairy. But, ultimately, it was also a night of sleep. Very few tears were shed--which in our book counts as success!

Annika's letter

Well, this morning Annika heard back from the Baba Fairy. She found this letter on her door this morning. Both of the kids were very excited to see this letter. Looks like we'll be having a fun going away party for the Baba on Saturday. Mommy is wondering if the Baba Fairy also brings Xanax (that's a type of anxiety drug, right??) to these types of events. How oh how we'll we get through the first minute, day, month, year? without the treasured Baba????? I'm really worried! Heaven help us!

An Ode to Northern Kentucky

*I don't know why this post is all messed up toward the bottom. Sorry!
Well, we've been here a year (technically, it will be a year in residence around August 1st, but close enough). We've had a lot of time to experience the highs and lows of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region. We thought we'd commemorate our first year as Kentuckians with an Ode to Northern Kentucky. Here's a list of some of our favorite things about the area (in no particular order):

1. Kentucky is a different kind of beautiful. Growing up in Wyoming, we were used to the wonderful mountains and the dreary plains, which served as a model for what beautiful was like. Kentucky is so beautiful, but in a much different way. Today Ezra and I marveled at the trees that never end, and the hills that permeate the landscape. The grass stays green most of the year, we found out more trees exist than pine trees (that's all there is in Wyoming!), and we get a good mix of nature and city life. We can drive a few minutes through the forest then we can drive along the Cincinnati skyline at night and get a taste of two types of beautiful. 

...and did we mention Kentucky in the autumn? Beautiful! When the leaves change color and fall is the best three weeks of the year. No doubt.

2. Museum! The Cincinnati Museum Center, with the Children's Museum, Cincinnati History Museum, and Natural History Museum, is definitely one of the best things about the area. The kids (and us) love to explore the riverboat in the Cincinnati history museum, play in the miniature city in the children's museum, or explore the caves of the natural history museum. This is the place we take anyone who comes to visit (so far, just our parents!). 

The Cincinnati History Museum usually has several people on staff who dress is period outfits and tell you about what Cincinnati was like during the time. Did you know that, for instance, for a long time in the early-to-mid nineteenth century Cincinnati was the foulest-smelling city in the United States? If you went to the Cincy History Museum, you'd know that because more pigs were slaughtered here than anywhere else, things got awfully smelly. They don't call Cincinnati "Porkopolis" for nothing!


3. One Fine Zoo. We've been to the Zoo at least 15 times since we moved here, and we still have not seen everything the zoo has to offer. It's that big! The habitats are incredibly well thought out--for instance, there is not one spot for "turtles." You see turtles throughout the zoo--alongside any other animal with which a turtle may live. The same thing goes for other animals. They are opening new exhibits all the time and the kids (obviously) can't get enough of it. It's one of the best zoos in the United States with good reason. 


Of course, one of the best things about the zoo is the carousel, where all of the animals onboard are animals that they have at the zoo. The kids absolutely love this--if you have a zoo membership, you can ride the carousel as much as you want. The kids also love this aspect! oh- and it's 5 minutes from our house so that's awesome.

4. Nooks and Crannies. Cincinnati has so many fun things to do that we are constantly finding new things. There are wonderful parks everywhere--under the "Big Mac" bridge that connects Cincinnati to Newport, for instance, is 1000 hands park, a really phenomenal play park that also has a nice walking park alongside. We love to discover fun things to do and have had no shortage of things to try since we moved here. 






5. Our Town. This year we moved to a cute little town a few miles from Cincinnati. It's an authentic community of old homes and plenty of space for walking (and most nights the entire town goes out for a walk!). We fell in love with the town when we made our first visit to the area and were determined to buy a place here. We're really glad we did--it is still close to work for Jonathan and has the best schools in the area. 
6. Our House. Duh. Our house is awesome. 

7. It's Home. 

It's where we make new friends.

It's where we celebrate birthdays.

It's where we love each other.

It's where we get creative.






















































It's where we are!