Okay, I know I've been a slacker on updating our blog. I will try to be better. We have had a ton of stuff going on here, everyone has been sick, and I haven't been feeling real motivated to get it done. Oh well, you are all up to date now on our life here in the great state of Ohio. In case anyone has not heard yet, Larry was accepted into the Pediatric Dentistry program here at Case Western and will be starting in June. He is very excited, and we are excited for him. The fact that we have an extra two years here isn't necessarily a joyous thing, but it's okay. We have enjoyed our time here and have good friends here, so I am sure it will be over before we know it. Time seems to fly by lately anyway. I can't believe it's already March! The kids are doing great in school, and Asher and Rhyan keep me busy and entertained at home. Larry works all the time, and we definitely don't see him as much as we like, but one day that will change. Life is busy and good, we have definitely have a lot to be grateful for.

BFF's

Asher and Rhyan have become best buds lately. I think that the fact that Mayson and Kaleb are gone all day has made Rhyan need a new friend. She is so fun to watch with him. He thinks she is hilarious and is always laughing at her, which of course encourages her to be even more silly. I love watching them.

Just Another Night in Cleveland

Well... this one is up mainly for my mom's sake. I know how much she loves the area here! It's always great when the neighbors start calling you to see what is wrong and you have no clue what they are talking about until you look out the window and have a van parked in you driveway and police cars all around. Apparently they pulled this guy over and he pulled over in our driveway. So, after they pulled him out of his car, searched him and his car, and had someone else come to drive it away the excitement for the night was over. Who pulls into someone's drive way when you get pulled over by the cops?? Only in Cleveland. After there were cop cars on the street again a couple nights ago, Larry and I have decided that this seems to be happening more frequently lately. We have been very lucky, we've had no issues since we've been here. Only two years and four months left. Hopefully we'll make it out unscathed!

My Snuggly Baby

Can I tell you how much I love having little babies who like to snuggle with me. Asher is so sweet. He loves to be held and will lay his head on your shoulder and snuggle with you. That, and he's kind of in love with his mom right now, which is totally okay with me. I can't believe he is almost nine months old. My baby is growing up! He is almost crawling, but he doesn't really need to because he can get pretty much anywhere he wants by rolling and pulling himself around. He is quite impressed with the fact that he can eat big people food now, and let me tell you... he loves to eat. There's a reason he is so plump. He has also figured out how to put a binky in his mouth all by himself, and as you can see in the last picture, he is quite impressed with himself that he can do it!

Chubby Baby in the Tub

Asher loves to take a bath. He has discovered splashing and toys and can't quite figure out the trick of where his hands go to when he puts them in the water and they disappear under the bubbles.He's such a chub and so cute!
Hmmm...what is this? It looks delicious!
Below you can see that Asher is quite pleased with himself for having successfully gotten Rhyan's Boots bath toy and no one has taken it away from him yet.
If Barbie could talk... "Someone help me please! My foot has been swallowed up by mounds of rolling flesh!"

Elmo Live

Rhyan got tickets to go to Elmo Live for Christmas this year. The whole ride down to playhouse square she was singing the Elmo's World song. Then, when we got there she was all full of questions. "Is this where Melmo lives? Where's Melmo? Is Melmo in the shower?" She was so cute. We got inside and she got her drink, and was eating her M&M's and having a great time watching Elmo, Ernie, Big Bird & Cookie Monster. Of course, all the other characters were there too, but those were the only ones she was very concerned about. At intermission she really wanted to go up and see Elmo and was pretty concerned about whee he went. Anyway, we finished out the show and then we were back to the "where's Melmo? Is he playing with his friends?" I tried to convince her that he had to go to bed too because it was late, so then it changed to "when can we come see Melmo again?" She is so dang cute. It is so fun when they are little like her and so excited about things!

Mayson's Winter Concert

The kindergarten kids had their annual winter concert at school, and as always it was fun to watch them sing. They sang and danced about penguins and snowflakes and such. Mayson was excited, and her and her friend Jenna decided we needed a picture of them to put up.

City Council Meeting

The kids were invited to the City Council Meeting and presented with certificates for their contributions to the community. Our school does the bear drive every Christmas and donates them to Providence House and Rainbow Babies Hospital to give to the children there. This year the school collected two thousand bears. The student council was being recognized for helping to put together this project, and Kaleb is his class rep for student council this year. Plus, they specially recognized those who brought in the most bears. Thanks to our bear collector neighbor Judy across the street, the kids brought in 42 bears each. So, Kaleb and Mayson were both recognized for their contributions.

Oxford is a Cool School!

Well, it's official. Oxford is indeed a cool school. The FOX8 news team came for a pep rally and they had a blurb on the news about Oxford. The kids were extremely excited about the whole thing, and Chick-fil-A was there giving them these little stuffed cows and free for certificates. As you can see, Rhyan was not impresses with having to sit for the pep rally, but she thought the cow was pretty cool.

Asher Pictures

Here's our cutie pie Asher. He is such a happy, smiley baby. He is totally intrigued with Ziggy, and anytime he is around just sits there and watches him. Or, if he is within reach grabs him or tries to climb on him. Thankfully Ziggy is very good natured about it.
As you can see below, the girls love to dress Asher up in fancy accessories. Here he has on Rhyan's hat... but sometimes its the pink bunny slippers or something equally as girly!

Sisters

I just had to put these pictures of my girls up. They can be so dang cute sometimes, and as you can see, they love having a sister to play with. They were wrestling and tickling each other and I just thought they were too cute to pass a up on a picture.

Mayson Loses her 1st Tooth

Mayson came down one morning and said her tooth was really loose and going to fall out. It was really loose, so I asked her if she wanted me to give it a yank. After a little of Larry's topical anesthetic and a few twists it was out. She was so proud. She called dad up to let him know and showed everyone at school. The tooth next to it was loose too, but not anywhere near loose enough for me to want to try to pull it out. Anyway, two days later on Saturday while we were cleaning the attic, her and Rhyan were playing and apparently Rhyan head butted her, because the next thing I hear is Mayson telling me that Rhyan knocked her tooth out with her head. So, we couldn't find the tooth so we vacuumed, and Larry went through the gunk and found the tooth. So, as you can see in the next picture, Mayson is now down two teeth and quite proud of the bigger hole in her smile.

I love cornbread!

Here's our cute boy Asher. It was his first experience with cornbread and he thought he was pretty neat... as you can see. He is such a cutie and such a chubby little guy. He is right about 8 months in this picture, weighing in at 21.4 pounds.

The Cruise...

Lacey and I decided we needed some sister bonding time last year, so we decided we were going on a cruise together. We had a lot of fun, and let me tell you... oh how I enjoyed the sunshine!! We went through San Diego, so we got a chance to hang with Becky before and after the cruise which was a definite bonus. As you can see, Axel was enjoying having another little person around to hang with. Becky said there was once or twice she found Axel straddling his chest sitting on him and Asher not quite sure what to do... just trying to breathe I guess.

Our first stop on the cruise was in Acapulco. We went shopping at the old Acapulco flea market, and somehow picked up our own personal walking tour guide(below) who took us around all afternoon. He was very nice and was telling us all about old Acapulco. I am sure he was getting a cut of whatever we spent at the flea market, not to mention the tip at the end!

That evening, we went to see the world famous Acapulco cliff divers. It was really pretty cool. They scale this rock wall that was 106' high in bare feet, go to the little chapel you see at the top and pray they don't die, and then have to push out 21' to clear the rocks at the bottom and dive into this chasm that is only about 20' wide. All in all it was pretty cool. After that we went to the new Acapulco for dinner. It was a lot of fun, and definitely a very touristy place. Below is our boat sitting in the bay at Acapulco... we thought it was pretty with all the lights on at night.

Next we went to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. It was beautiful and had a very old Mexico feel to it. Here is the bay that we were in. We took a catamaran and went snorkeling here. It was awesome!! Below you see us with one of our snokeling helpers. He was great. He was catching and bringing up sea life for us to touch and hold. We got up close and pesonal with some star fish, a sea urchin and my personal favorite... a couple of puffer fish. He was great and we had a blast.
The best part of the whole thing was the comic entertainment that comes from watching a man in a bright blue brazillian cut speedo with a very hairy butt shimmy up the mast to secure the sail. (trust me, the picture doesn't do the hair justice!!!) It was great!

Below you see Lacey and I enjoying karaoke while there was not anyone around we would ever see again to remind us of the moment. We, along with some other girls we met on the cruise, had a great time singing and dancing to Baby Got Back by the esteemed Sir Mix-a-Lot. Oh... you all missed out!


And here we are at our last destination, Manzanillo. This excursion was probably our favorite. As you can see we got to get all prettied up to deal with the dust, and then we took our ATV's through the jungle and down to the beach. It was so much fun!! We were there for about four hours, and by the time we got back we were so covered in sand and dust that we were brown pretty much everywhere except where our goggles were. The beach was so much fun to ride on, and thankfully neither of us got stuck in the sand.
They had all these trails from where people got to ride up and down this dune/hill. You had to gun it to get up and then came flying down the other end. Did I already say how fun this trip was!! We were so glad we did this one when we got done, especially when we got back to Manzanillo and tried our luck at downtown Manzanillo and shopping.
And below... I show you the best of what downtown Manzanillo had to offer. This big old fish sculpture was pretty cool. Other than that, the shopping was terrible, there were no beaches in the downtown area, and there really wasn't anything else to do. Luckily, our ATV trip had taken up most of our time at this stop, so we used our time in town to call home from the trusty local payphone shop, and went back to the boat to eat ice cream.
Next is a picture of the people we were at the table with for our dinner seating. Apparently they saw two girls going on a cruise together and thought we must be single, because we got stuck at the young single table. The first night they were pretty trashed and annoying, and we actually requested a different table. But, we gave them another chance the second night and they were all really nice. We had a great time with them and it gave us some other people to hang out with and do things with on the boat.
And last but not least, we can't leave off the picture of our cabana boy/. Before we went on the cruise, Lacey & I were teasing our husbands about how we were going to find a cute cabana boy while we were gone. Larry said if I found one he could rub my feet for me. Anyway, being the good wives that we are, this was the extent of our cabana boy experience. We had to get a picture for our guys to let them know what kind of competition they were up against!!
So, we had a great time on our cruise, I loved getting some sunshine, but it was good to get home. I have an awesome husband to be okay with me leaving him for ten days, an amazing mother in law who flew out to freezing cold Cleveland in the middle of January to take care of three of our kids so I could go, and a wonderful best friend who took great care of my sweet little baby for me while I was on the boat. Thanks so much for all of you, I love you guys and am grateful for your help so I could go!