The last few weeks

Fourth of July

So I didn't think I had any pictures from the fourth of July. However, they don't really have much to do with the holiday. We actually did stuff that day too even though Nate worked for half the day. The girls and I went to a pancake breakfast with some friends, a parade and festival in the morning. Nate met up with us at the festival and then we headed home for naps. That evening we went to a party and watched the fireworks. Both of the kids fell asleep during the fireworks show. This picture is while we were barbecueing at home. Kali made her apron, well of course she didn't write her name but she did all the rest by herself. We made Nate and apron for barbecueing for father's day and the girls each made one of their own too.

Bristol and her apron.

I am not sure where her pants went. I am not sure if you want to trust this chef.

Helping daddy barbecue. It was raining all afternoon and evening on the fourth of July. It was so crazy because that is something I am definitely not used to. I have to say I prefer the sunny weather of California. It just seemed too weird to be almost stuck inside on the Fourth of July.

Youngs Dairy

We headed out to a dairy farm the other week with a playgroup. The kids loved petting the animals and feeding them food. The best part was that they have a restaurant and ice cream store and have great ice cream from the milk they get from the cows.

Kali loved feeding them too.

Feeding the baby goats.

Kali loved pretending to drive these tractors.

Bristol trying to convince Kali that it would be ok for them to share the steering wheel and to smile for the camera. Kali was not having it.

I came out of my room the other week and this is what was happening. Bristol had pushed the chair up and had washed her painting bowl and brush and Kali was up there helping her wash dishes.

What can I say I guess they are learning at an early age how to do dishes.

This has become my new problem. Kali can remove most pants, especially pj bottoms, and immediately will take her diaper off. She then heads to the bathroom and tries to go. However, she has yet to produced anything on the toilet. I don't want to discourage her, but after putting her diaper on about ten times in twenty minutes it gets a little old. I also love this picture because of her major tan line. Can you tell we have been swimming a lot lately.

So Kali asks to watch my pilates video every few days. I think, "really are you serious". So moments before the picture was taken Kali was laying down doing pilates too. Pretty funny if you ask me. Bristol knows all the moves it is so funny.

Running

So I have never been a runner. I especially have not been able to run since 2002 when I broke my knee cap and had to have major surgery to nail it back together. I had tried running after that and came to the conclusion that it was just not possible for me. So I have just walked to get exercise.

So Nate and I are trying to commit ourselves to some sort of exercise routine. We would trade off in the mornings, when he has been out of school, of going out and running (Nate) and walking (Me). Well since moving our routine has suffered a bit. So I have recommitted myself to start it up again. So I went out walking almost a week ago and just wasn't feeling like I was getting the same workout like I had in Vallejo. (My theory is that Vallejo is super hilly and it is relatively flat in our neighborhood) Well so I decided to start to run. It was crazy! My joints felt fine and I didn't have any pain afterward either. So I have now been running four times in the last six days. Granted I am seriously out of shape so I can't run for too long with out getting winded, but I am working on it. I am running about a mile and half now (not straight) and walking about a mile. I will keep you posted on my progress. However, I have to wait for Nate to get home to go out so the days I can't run I am going to be doing pilates. Which by the way is awesome. However, I haven't done it for a month now and am not looking forward to getting my butt kicked again at first.

Random post I know, but I thought if I post about it then maybe I will have more of a commitment to keeping it up.

Ohio Rain

So just a little note about this crazy weather. So I knew it rained in the summer in Ohio, but it is still crazy to have it completely down pour. About a week ago one night there was a thunder and lightening storm and pouring rain. I mean pouring rain, it kept me up for seriously like two hours. There was also constant lightening. It was crazy, when I woke up in the morning I went and looked in our backyard at the kids pool that was empty the previous night. It was seriously full, at least four to five inches. Pretty impressive for just two hours of rain. This would be why nobody has sprinkler systems here.


Oh and the night before I had placed the random items in the pool because while I was making dinner I see the pool lifted up by the wind and fly across the yard.

Some Good Ol' Ohio Fun

One of the days after we had pretty much unpacked we took a trip with my parent's to an Air and space museum here in Dayton. There was a hands on section and the girls loved it. I had a picture of Nate in the astronauts suit too, but somehow it was deleted.

Mound Park by our house.

Here is the mound made mostly for burials. We hiked to the top and had a good look around at the city.

Unpacking and setting up the barbecue. Kali wanted to try on Bristol's helmet and knee pads.

Our New Home

So here are the long awaited pictures I have been promising people of our house here in Ohio. Since we are just renting all of the wall colors are exactly the same, which if you have ever been to our house in California, you know I like lots of color. However, I love the floor plan and it is perfect for us.
When you walk in the front door, to your immediate right is our bedroom.

Another view of our bedroom. We also have a walk in closet and a master bath that has a separate shower and bath and two sinks! I am so excited to have our own bathroom and two sinks at that. Our bathroom in California was so small and only had a pedestal sink and a mirror from the medicine cabinet. I actually have room to get ready in my bathroom now.

Just past the entry and the stairs to go up, is the dining room. As you can see we still need a table. We actually have our dining table in the kitchen right now and are going to be getting a new kitchen table. So in the meantime it is an empty room.

The half bath by the dining room and family room.

The family room. My favorite was all of the windows. It just feels so open. (Michelle you can see the quote above the windows.)

Looking back from the family room towards the front door. You can see the stairs on the right hand side.

Our kitchen right next to the family room. Oddly enough about a half an hour after this photo, the ceiling light came crashing to the floor. The glass cover had one screw not screwed in all the way and so I guess it just gave out. I was in the other room and the kids were watching cartoons in the family room, luckily they did not run into the kitchen or anything because there was glass everywhere. I think when it hit the ground it just exploded. The kids were just staring in shock as to what had happened. I then had to try to clean up all the glass and little shards. However I kept finding it places all day long, like on the counter and in the sink.

Heading upstairs.

This is once you have reached the top. I just loved all of the windows because it makes the stairway so open and light.

The girls room. We are going to be getting Bristol a new bed soon, so bedding and curtains will be changing, but for now this is what it looks like. They have a small walk in closet too, so we put their dresser in it so their room would be more open.

Michelle this is for you.

Nate's office, doesn't have much in it. However, once again things will be changing once we save up for some new furniture.

My laundry room. I love having a laundry room and not having it in the garage, it just feels cleaner.

The girls bathroom. It has two sinks too!

One of my favorite parts about the whole house is the playroom. It is just a large open room at the end of the hall upstairs. I still, once again, need to get some sort of shelving and storage furniture to keep all of their toys in, but for now it is just an organized mess. The room is huge though, so I love it. I don't have to look at it if I don't want to and they can play all they want, which usually consists of dumping out their toys onto the floor.

This is the fourth bedroom. It will be my craft room/sewing room until we have another baby and then it will become the babies room.
A little bit of the backyard. We have a lot more grass and a little patio. However, as you can see it backs up to a little forest. I see little wild bunnies everyday running by.Last but not least is the basement. This is about half of the basement. The other half is empty and I plan on just letting the girls run around and ride their bikes in it in the winter.

Well there you go. Sorry there were so many pictures, but I hope you enjoyed them. Now you can imagine where we are living. I will try to keep you updated with any changes and new improvements to the home.

The last month

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we have been crazy busy with first packing our house up, packing the truck, Nate's graduation, then moving out to Dayton, and finally unpacking.

This was just a little fun we had in our backyard. When we were packing boxes we found we could only neglect our kids for so long during the day. So we would try to actually do some sort of activity in the afternoon. This video highlights Kali's fearlessness.

The weekend before we moved we had a BBQ at the park by our house with all of our friends. Thank you Anne for organizing it.

After we packed up our stuff in our truck for it to drive out to Ohio we went down and stayed with my parents. We then came up on Sunday June 7th for Nate's graduation from medical school. So now he is technically a doctor.
Nate with his brother John and his Dad and Shari.
Nate with his Mom and John.

After the three hour long ceremony we went back to our vacant house and had a little party with food and fun. Thank you Mom and Dad for organizing and putting it all together. It was delicious.
Kali loved the strawberries. You could see her little hand go up onto the table to reach another one. She also would go around and try to steal them from other people's plates.
Nate secretively bought me some nice earrings as a thank you gift to me for enduring the last four years. Thank to my sister Lora in assisting him with the selection process.Lora and Nate
The girls all loved playing with each other. Nate's brother John and his family came down. Bristol loves her cousins.
Nate's grandpa also came up from San Diego. It was so nice to visit with him. Also his sister Jaime came with his mom from Utah.
Bristol hiding in the bushes.

Well the last month was a whirlwind. I am going to miss all of our family and friends in California. I also will miss the weather I am sure, but am very thankful for AC. I will be posting pictures of our new house soon so keep checking back.