Kallen turns TWO!!

Once all the excitement of the holidays had died down, we were thrown into one more party event as Kallen's birthday came fast--January 10th! Kallen officially weighed nearly 24 pounds at her check-up and the doctor was thrilled with her growth despite some who believe she hasn't grown at all in the last few months. She says many words and phrases now and is at the perfect age for Eric to teach her all sorts of "precious" things. Luckily, he hasn't yet taught her to say "Mommy is a witch!" (one of Katherine's first sentences) She does regularly tell her Daddy "I love you the most!" He's endlessly pleased...

Kallen LOVED her kitchen. She wasn't too certain what it was at first but once her sister's got in and started playing, she quickly became interested and a little possessive. Her cake, while not so lovely appearing, was thankfully edible! We all enjoyed it this year. I found a recipe that I will use again that contains no eggs, butter, or milk, of course. Kallen, naturally, never really dug into the cake. Instead she ate the berries off of it. She was happy.



Once we lit the candles, Kallen really had no idea what to do. She stood and watched them for a while until finally her sisters joined her to show her how to blow them out. She has now learned the words to the Happy Birthday song and will spontaneously sing it to her toys.




I believe she has now decided that opening her mouth really wide is how you smile big. She's been doing that rather often these days.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2009!

Merry, merry Christmas! What a fantastic thing, Christmas morning! Kallen was slow to awake and wondered what the excitement was all about but soon got into the fun. Kora and Katherine apparently woke around 3 AM and waited desperately for the fire and the lights and the music that signals Santa's visit. By 9AM, Eric and I were back to sleep for a perfect Christmas morning nap.

The girls ended up spending most of their day in the basement trying out Beatles Rockband. By the end of the day, the whole family was hooked. Incredibly fun!





Kallen's favorite toy, aside from the drums, was her giraffe bike and her Dora doll that Kora got for her. Katherine was thrilled to have a new iHome to make sure she can wake up to her favorite music and Kora got the juke box to play her iPod. Everyone had a very nice, very low-key Christmas day!

Cincinnati Children's Choir

Kora decided she wanted to join a choir group this year. She ended up having a great time meeting some new friends and going to practices every week but she really loved the excitement of the performances. Throughout December, we got to head downtown to the University of Cincinnati and watch Kora sing as part of the Cincinnati Children's Choir. Thanks to her lack of vertical blessings, she is always in the front row and easy to spot. You did a great job, Kora. She now looks forward to the choir starting up again next month.

Festival of Lights--Cincinnati Zoo

We actually scheduled it and made it to the festival of lights at the zoo this year. We always enjoy going and usually end up remembering too late that we never made it. This year we took Beau along with us as he is somewhat of a prodigy when it comes to light shows--he's got a show of his own in his front yard that made the news this year.

We all had a pretty fun evening and ended up picking a good night for it--not too terribly cold and not too crowded. We look forward to more trips to the zoo once the weather warms up a bit.

Katherine makes it to 14 Years!!

Unbelievable...Katherine is now 14. She enjoyed a day of whatever she chose to do, starting with nutella crepes at Ihop and ending with hours of playing with her new phone. Really? Hours? A phone? Yes, if fact, hours. It's so bizarre but she was happy. It's now actually a couple months since the actual birthday happened and I still can't think about it for too long or I get pangs of fear/anxiety/sadness and the like. She's a fantastically wonderful daughter. It's just too bad you can't all have her ; )

Happy Birthday, Dad! Playing catch-up in your honor!!

Well, it's Groundhog Day. My Dad's birthday. And since I know how he enjoys finding new posts on my blog, I have decided to try to catch this blog up today. Hopefully Dad hasn't given up hope and will check this sometime soon! Enjoy and have a great day, Dad!

Thanksgiving Weekend

So, Thanksgiving day was super relaxing and fun. We stayed home, just our little family, cooked up lots of food--ended up with a fine turkey--and just spent the day hanging out. As if tradition for us, we headed out the next day to find the perfect tree. We found a great one and apparently terrified Kora strapping it to the roof of the van. We spent the rest of the weekend decorating the house for Christmas!