Miscellaneous Photos of the Family

The two older kids have been taking tennis lessons at school, so we all went to play tennis as a family. The two littlest ones stole the show as they ran around chasing the ball and just plain looking cute.

There's nothing like raking all the leaves out and jumping in the pile when fall comes to Cleveland. The kids had their friends over that day, and they all took my nice pile of leaves and spread it all over the front yard.
This is Asher's new favorite place to read his books. He climbs into Ziggy's bed with him and looks at his books... very cute!
Here's Larry and the kids hanging out by the sea lions at the zoo. These are their favorite animals to watch, so we always spend a little time sitting there with them.
Here's Asher looking cute on the horse. He loves to ride the big hose we have too. He gets up there and bounces around and just laughs and laughs!

Dance Recital

The girls had their dance recital with their new teacher, Miss Lacee, and they both did so good. This is Rhyan's first time in dance, and she did a whole lot of wiggling her hips, but Mayson is to the point where she does a good job with getting her steps right in the dances. She also has just enough attitude that she makes the perfect dancer! They were both really cute and it was a lot of fun to watch them.

The King and I

Kaleb is in the show choir at Oxford and they go and sing at different places in the community. They sang with the high school in their production of The King and I, and Larry and I went to see them. They did an awesome job and we are really proud of him!

13 Years and Counting

So Larry and I celebrated our 13th anniversary on November 1st. Somehow I don't know where 13 years has gone, but luckily I think we like each other even more now than we did back then! Larry got me beautiful roses and a box of Godiva chocolates. He is such a sweetheart!

Halloween Fun...

The start of Halloween is going to the pumpkin patch to pick the perfect pumpkin. The kids love doing this, and as you can see, Asher was fully entertained by the weeds blowing in his face. Who needs toys??Rhyan walked around and around rejecting every pumpkin I suggested until she suddenly found the pumpkin, and then that was it, she wouldn't change her mind.

Kaleb now gets to haul his own pumpkin out of the patch, which is quite comical to watch. He always thinks he has to try and find the biggest pumpkin possible, so then of course he has to struggle the whole way out of the patch to move his pumpkin. We got to pick some apples while we were there in their orchard, and fresh apples are the best!

Of course once you have picked the perfect pumpkin then you have to carve the perfect face on it. The kids all knew exactly what they wanted on their pumpkins, and Kaleb got to carve his all by himself this year. They all turned out great!
Asher was totally intrigued by the fact the the pumpkins started to glow! He was crawling around trying to look inside and see what he could see. He looked so cute. He's at such a fun age. It's so fun to watch him discovering everything.

So all this kids then have to pick the perfect costume to wear, and they always know exactly what they want. Kaleb was Harry Potter, Mayson was Thumbelina, Rhyan insisted that even though it didn't fit very well this year that she needed to be the chicken again, and thanks to the Campbells Asher got to be an absolutely adorable Yoda! We all dressed up to go to the kids school the Friday before Halloween for their book character parade. At school it is officially not Halloween , it's the kids dressing up like a book character. Either way, it's fun and the kids love it. Rhyan loves to go to and get dressed up and join the big kids.


Kaleb and Mayson got themselves in trouble right before Halloween, so Halloween got canceled for them. They didn't get to go to the trunk or treat at the church or go trick or treating on Halloween. Rhyan and Asher did though, and Larry and I padded their bags so that when they came back they had lots of candy so that the kids felt a little worse about their not having any. Maybe next time they think lying is a good idea they'll remember their lack of candy and think twice about it!

Ramseyer Farm Fieldtrip

Kaleb and his class went on a fieldtrip to Ramseyer Farm. It's a really cool place and we had a lot of fun. They made us homemade potato chips and showed us their huge potato storage warehouse, we went on a hayride and picked a pumpkin, saw the animals in the barnyard, and lots more. It was a really fun fieldtrip! This picture shows Kaleb after he has come down the big corns shute slide they have. You go down the shute and land in the big bin of dried corn at the bottom. It was fun, I got to go down it too! Here are Kaleb and his friends racing their ducks. They had to pump the water into their tube to get the ducks to go.
Here are the kids in the corn maze. It is shaped like the state of Ohio, with the paths through the maze set up like the highways and interstates that run through Ohio. You use the ohio map and follow the road signs in the maze to find you way through. It was the best corn maze I've ever been through!

Lake Farm Park Fieldtrip

Mayson had her field trip to Lake Farm Park, and Rhyan, Asher & I went with them. Rhyan was really impressed with the balloon art display they had, and Mayson and her friends all got to help make apple cider.

Misty's Birthday

So, the kids and Larry always spoil me and treat me like a princess for my birthday. We all went to BD's for dinner and had a great time, and I had plenty of help to open my presents. I got a fancy new pair of red shoes, and as you can see Rhyan liked the shoes!!

Psi O Camping Trip

Every year the Psi O fraternity has a camping trip for everyone to go to. It's always a lot of fun and we have a lot of friends to hang out with when we go. We take Ziggy with us, and what can be more fun for the kids than spending a couple days playing in the dirt? They love the lake that is next to the campsite. It is beautiful there!! They have a big playground for the kids, and lots of thing to keep you busy.Though this was a really cute picture of Mayson. She was having fun climbing around on the side of the hill that led down to the lake.
Rhyan is such a daddy's girl. Here she is looking cute as can be hanging with her dad!
The kids love climbing around on all the trees and rocks. We thought they all looked pretty cute sitting on the log here.

Okay, so speaking of climbing on the logs, lets explain this picture. So, Rhyan found this tree that had broken off at the bottom and the trunk was at an angle. She was standing on it walking up it like she was walking up the hill. I told her to get down so that she didn't fall and get hurt. So, being the good girl that she is, she sat on her bum and went to jump down. Well, when she jumped off her back hit the log and it bounced her forward. So, she fell face first onto the log that was lying on the ground in front of her. I felt so bad for her, and I'm sure it hurt. She cried and was sad, but the best part of the story is when we got in the car. Larry put her in and asked her why she was so cute. She looked at him and said, "I'm not cute, look at my nose." So Larry tells me this and I turn around and tell her how beautiful she is, that she is always beautiful. No joke, she looks at me and says "look at my nose. My nose is not beautiful." As much as I was trying not to laugh, it was also sad. It's sad that at three a little girl would even think about the fact that her nose is red and think that it means that she doesn't look beautiful. She got lots of love and assurance that no matter what her nose looks like she will always be beautiful!

A minor fix up....

So, the kids were outside playing on the slip and slide and of course, running across the grass barefoot. Well, Kaleb was running across the neighbors front grass and cried that his foot hurt, and as I looked at it and realized it had a slice on the bottom that was hanging open I called dad to see how close to home he was. Luckily, he was about five minutes away, so instead of taking him to the ER we got it fixed up in the bathroom. Kaleb was kind of a whiner about the shots (knee in the back holding him on the floor while dad held his foot so he could get the shots) but after he was numb he was very brave. A few stitches later it was all better... this is the only picture I have & it already had a blob of neosporin on top so you can't really see it very well, but you get the idea.

Pittsburgh Science Center

Over Labor Day we decided to take a trip to Pittsburgh. While we were there we went to the Science Center, the Children's Museum and of course, you can't go to Pittsburgh without going to IKEA.These pictures show the high flying excitement we had while doing the bungee trampoline. It was a lot of fun and the kids though getting to do flips and stuff without being able to fall on their head was great!
Here's Asher checking out one of the many robots they had on the robot level of the museum. They had robots that did all sorts of different things for the kids to watch. It was pretty amazing what some of them can do.

These pictures are of the amazing model train room they had set up. It was a huge display that as you walked around the scenery changed and to you through all four seasons. it was very cool and the kids loved it!
This is a picture at the hotel. For the kids, the fact that they get to stay in a hotel room is normally the highlight of the trip.

Pittsburgh Children's Museum

Asher loved the big water table at the children's museum. Him and the rest of the kids were all soaked by the time we got done with it but they were so fun to watch!
This is what the kids decided to do in the building center. They had all sorts of building stuff and each of them built a boat... but apparently dad was being a little too bossy and there was some mutiny!
This was a big board with all the little pins in it like the metal ones you do your hand print in. It kept the kids and Larry entertained for quite a while!
Asher loved this train in "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." It was the same as the one that they had on the show that went to the castle. He kept watching it go back and forth through the tunnel and loved it.

First Day of School

The kids started school this year on September 1st. They were excited to get back I was ready for them to be back. They both have the teachers we were hoping for this year, and I'm sure it will be a great year. Kaleb get pulled out every day to go to his math and reading class with the gifted teacher, and with be starting violin lessons through the school. he is excited to start learning. Mayson is already getting me signed up for my day helping in the classroom, and can't wait until it is her turn to bring Timmy the turtle home!