Hello Paint Chips and Bananas, Goodbye Shoes

Hello all, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, the weather here was so beautiful! We played outside, David made a new friend at the end of our building and they had great fun playing basketball together. Lauren got to test out her new sun hat, and even got to wear shorts! She is a big fan of grass and sunshine (although she keeps trying to eat the grass, I told her it is for scrunching her toes in ~ not eating!) David and I are very excited that our sandals have finally gotten to make an appearance again, our toes are very happy :oD Lauren is not a big fan of wearing shoes either, although she does like to chew on them. Poor Chris has to wear shoes at work all day, but he got to wear sandals on our trip to the grocery store last night. We are all very excited to fire up the grill tonight and sit on the porch and relax!

Our home inspection is tomorrow, so David and I made a trip to Lowe's on Friday to pick out paint chips to take with us. David is very excited that he gets to decorate his room (with a little help from mom and dad) so he had great fun with the paint colors. At the moment his first choice is very very dark green. (Or bright yellow, or navy blue, he's not sure.) Chris and I are thinking maybe a tamer shade for his walls, and then let him go crazy with accents. David also has very big ideas for his sister's room, I had to burst his bubble a bit and tell him that we weren't necessarily painting Lauren's room dark chocolate brown. I told him I thought we'd go more for baby-appropriate colors :oD

David's old high-chair has finally made an appearance, and Lauren loves to sit in it and play with (drop on the floor) her toys. Her favorite foods so far are carrots, oatmeal and bananas. Last week while we were in Cleveland I made the mistake of trying to feed her bananas in the van while we were driving around. I quickly realized that it wasn't my best idea ever. In between bites of banana Lauren kept trying to chew on her shoes, so I tried covering her feet up with a blanket. She decided to chew on the blanket instead. By the time we were done, the entire carseat needed to be washed! At least it kept her happy while we were looking at houses :oD

My meeting for Team In Training went well, and I am really excited to run for them. Unfortunately I may have to wait until the fall training season. I still plan on running on my own, and am planning to do the Chicago or Columbus marathon. I was informed at the meeting that jogging strollers are not allowed at TNT training runs and since Chris will not have weekends off for a while I wouldn't have anyone to watch Lauren (or David, for that matter.) By the fall season Chris' schedule should be better and it won't be a problem. I'll keep you all posted on my progress for Chicago or Columbus, though. My sister is going to run Chicago so I am leaning toward that one at the moment.

I have to go pick up the little man from preschool now. I hope you are all having a wonderful spring!! We love and miss you all!! We'll talk to you soon :oD
Love and hugs,

Megan, Chris, David and Lauren

Home Sweet Home (Almost)

So our house-hunting trip on Tuesday was successful, at least so far :oD We found a cute little house in a nice neighborhood, it has great sidewalks for taking the kids for walks and bike rides and there is a great park just down the street. The house is super clean and very well cared for, and David is very excited about the finished basement because he will have a great playroom! (He is also pretty happy about the garage, he loves garages.) Chris won't be getting his riding-lawn mower for some time since the yard is a bit small, but the great park down the road makes up for the lack of lawn. If all goes as planned, we close on May 31 and can start moving in! Chris is excited to finally have an office again, and Lauren will finally have her own room!! David's room is a nice sky-blue color at the moment, and he says he wants to leave it like that for now :oD I am excited about getting to decorate Lauren's room, at the moment it is tan with teddy bears (the old owners had a little boy in that room) so I'm sure a visit to the paint store will be in the works. We'll keep everyone posted as far as moving dates, and we'll send out new contact info soon as well.

I have (finally!!) gotten myself motivated enough to get out the door again and run!! (The warmer weather has helped a little!) I am excited to be going to a meeting for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "Team In Training" program on April 21. The Team In Training (TNT) raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and trains participants to run a marathon or 1/2 marathon of their choosing. (They also do triathalons and century bike rides.) I haven't decided on the location of the marathon that I'd like to do with TNT yet, but I am considering Chicago (on October 7) or Columbus (October 21). I'll keep you all posted on my progress, which marathon I choose, and I'll also put up a link so that anyone who wishes to help me out can donate to TNT! (Every participant agrees to raise a certain amount of money, depending on which marathon location they choose. I'll find out how much I need to raise when I go to the meeting.)

Well, the kids are calling (actually, one of them is crying :oD) so I'm off to rescue them from each other! I will put up more pictures this weekend!!

Love and hugs to all,

Megan, Chris, David and Lauren

House hunting!!

Hello everyone :oD I hope that you are all doing well and hopefully enjoying better weather than we have here! Chris, David, Lauren and I are off to Cleveland again on Tuesday to look for houses. This is our second house-hunting trip (and hopefully our last!) I'm excited, there are quite a few houses on our list that are really cute. Hopefully they are as good in person as they are on-line!

The kids are both doing well, but getting tired of this crazy weather. (We had to drive home from church in a snowstorm last night!) The weatherman says it is supposed to warm up this week, I think I'll hold him to that :oD At least the weather is supposed to be nice on Tuesday for our trip. David has been "camping" in his room the past two days, he has his bumble bee tent set up and some games and toys. Poor little guy, he just wants to go outside and play, but it's been too cold out for Lauren (not to mention the rain and snow.) Lauren hates to be covered up when we go outside, but she's not crazy about the wind and cold either. Yesterday she got snowed on because she kept pulling her blanket off on our way into church. By the time we got inside she was a bit wet and cold, and not too happy.

Chris is doing well, he is anxious for the move and to start his new position. I am excited, but sad too. We have made a lot of good friends here, it will be hard to leave them and move somewhere where we don't know anyone. As soon as we know what suburb/area we will be living in we are going to get David signed up for summer soccer and hopefully t-ball too. By the time school starts up in the fall he should have a good group of friends, and hopefully Chris and I will too :oD

Well, it's time for jammies and snuggles with the kids. I hope you all have a wonderful week, we'll keep you posted about the house hunting!

Love and hugs,

Chris, Megan, David and Lauren

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!! My sister came to spend the weekend with us, she had a take her MCATs in Maumee on Saturday and, needless to say, is very glad that she's done with the endless studying. (Well, kind of :oD there is still med school!) David had a wonderful time coloring Easter eggs last Thursday, and he was so excited to see that the Easter bunny came to visit even though it was frigid out, much too cold for bunnies he thought.

We went to visit my dad last weekend, it was nice to get out to the farm and away from the city. We were able to go to lunch at the Turkey Farm (no, it's fun, really!) with one of my oldest friends and her son, who is David's age it was such a nice time to catch up. My Aunt and two cousins came up for the weekend as well. We got to celebrate early Easter. I wish we were able to spend more time with the fam! David had the best time with his cousin Kara! He followed her everywhere and just adores her :oD Hopefully we can all get together again soon. (And hopefully Chris will be able to go next time! Poor daddy had to work all weekend last weekend and this weekend too!)

Well, spring break is officially over at our house, I'm off to get David up and ready for school. He had fun last week but is ready to see all of his friends again! I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter!! We miss you :oD

Ha, ha! Typical attempt at a family photo!! :oD

Hooray for Spring!!

It's that time of year again, time for spring cleaning and everything looks bright and green. Too bad it's supposed to snow on Thursday! I hope that all of our family and friends are enjoying their (hopefully) last days of cold weather and looking toward warmer weather and lots of outside time. We are house hunting (still/again) and very impatiently awaiting the move back into a house. David has a new bike that he wants to ride all day every day, and Lauren loves to play outside, when the weather permits. Hopefully we will be spending more time outside very soon. To everyone who lives far from us, especially those of you that we haven't seen in quite a while, we miss you and hope to see you soon! Have a wonderful Easter and we will post more pictures and updates soon!!

Love,
Megan, Chris,
David & Lauren