January sillyness

January was not too busy, we just kind of got back into our regular schedule after the holidays were over. David started taking gymnastics and really likes it, he also continued with swimming and karate. Lauren likes to play in the kidzone at the YMCA while David takes classes and mommy and daddy work out.

Bathtime is always a favorite activity in our house :oD (Aunt Lauren, notice what little Lauren is even wearing in the bathtub?!)

gotta make sure those little teeth are clean . . .

After Lauren gets a little energy out playing "daredevil", it's snuggle time!!

The Update, continued . . .

Chris went to the Smokey Bones' in Cincinnatti to help out for a few weeks (about 6 :oD) in November and early December so it was just me and the kids for a while, but we tried to stay busy. We got to go and visit him over a weekend and had a fun day in the city.



The view over the bridge was beautiful! David loved it.



David really liked this giant fish, but he was not so sure about the mime. He wouldn't go closer than this :oD



For David's birthday instead of a big, crazy party he picked one friend and we took them to Chuck-e-Cheese (on a Saturday!!) It was great for the boys, they got to run and play and be loud :oD The boys were too interested in the games to eat much, but Lauren chowed down on her pizza!



This is the birthday cake that I made for David. We took it to our home group and David shared it with the kids there and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him and had a great time.




We spent Thanksgiving in Columbus with my Aunt Jodi and cousins Kara and Jamie. Lauren liked playing with the big girls and coloring with Kara (with a little help from daddy.)



After Lauren got done coloring she got down to some serious business, looking for food!




December we were busy with shopping, mailing Christmas cards and all the other holiday craziness. We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of food, and played with the kids. Here is an attempt at a picture of me and Chris (maybe I should get a tripod for the camera :oD), Lauren with crazy hair and mommy's shoes, and David coloring his dream house. Maybe he'll follow in Aunt Ashley's footsteps and become an architect . . .



Here is our little baby cheerleader helping daddy watch football and getting ready to go out in her pretty purple coat. She reminds me of that little kid in "A Christmas Story" in this coat :oD She can barely move her arms, and if she falls down she can't get up by herself.



We went to the Fletcher farm the weekend of December 15 & 16 to bake Christmas cookies (somehow most of the pictures ended up on Deb's camera insead of mine :oD I still have to get copies!) But here is David entertaining himself and Lauren helping get out the baking supplies.



We had a great Christmas at Grandma Deb and Grandpa Jim's. It was so nice to spend some relaxing family time, and I always love when I get to spend time with my sister :oD David had fun playing Santa and handing out presents, with a little help from daddy. Lauren had a lot of fun once she figured out that if you tear the paper off the boxes there are presents inside! She got four baby dolls and hasn't stopped playing with them yet.



When it was time to go home we found a stowaway trying to hide in the car, though not very successfully. Once we convinced him to stay at the farm we headed back home with our loaded down cars and full bellies :oD

We didn't really do anything exciting for New Year's this year, pretty much just tried to stay awake long enough to watch the ball drop :oD (The exciting lives of parents with two small kids!) And now you're all caught up with 2007, I'm going to regularly update you on 2008!! Well, Lauren is about done with her cheerios, she's starting to just toss them on the floor now and that's my cue to go :oD I'll update again soon!!

Love to all!!
Chris, Megan, David & Lauren

An update . . . Finally!!! (Really)

I have to download more recent pictures but I thought that I would at least post up through Halloween really quickly to start to catch everyone up on what we've been up to since I posted last. I can't believe that it's been about 6 months since I updated this website!! I apologize, but I am very glad to say that I won't have a problem keeping out website current any more as we have finally updated from our OLD and SLOW computer :oD

The three pictures above are from August 6th when we were in Florida for Chris's GM conference and my 10 year high school reunion. We went to New Smyrna Beach and had a great time. David loved playing in the waves and Lauren had a blast playing with/eating the sand.


Here are David and Lauren having more fun in Florida. David LOVED grandma Schel's pool. He'll have even more fun the next time we go because he's been taking swimming lessons and is much more confident in the water now. Lauren loves playing in water, especially taking baths. She had great fun in grandma Jan's bathtub :oD


David started kindergarten this year and just loves it! He is always excited to go to school and is learning so many new things every day. He's working on reading and writing and is finally starting to get the hang of it. He's even started helping to read his bedtime stories at night sometimes. I just can't believe how big he's getting!!

Lauren turned one on September 25!! She is such a cute, funny little girl. She is definately a girly girl, she loves bracelets, purses and shoes! Her first real tantrum was over a pair of black patent-leather maryjanes at Stride Rite! Lauren and David get along pretty well, for the most part, but like any siblings they have their fair share of "arguements" too. Lauren isn't talking much yet, but she does try to mimic sounds quite a bit now and we think she'll be talking soon.

Here are some more pictures from the summer, Lauren posing as a baby gangster; David playing his favorite game ~ Candy Land; Chris and david taking a shoe-tying break from playing basketball on a nice sunny day.

The kids had a great time at the pumpkin patch picking out pumpkins!! Quite a few of the pumpkins were just as big as Lauren and she had a great time exploring. I only got one picture at the pumkin patch in which you could actually see David's face because he was too busy inspecting pumpkins to hold still for a picture!

Here is David in October at his Advanced White Belt test for Karate. (He is an Orange belt as of December, but of course I forgot my camera at that test!) David loves karate, he is starting to pick it up faster and we're hoping it will help him learn to focus a little better with homework :oD

Last (for now) but not least, here are our Halloween pictures!!! David went as a Sheriff and had a great time and got LOTS of candy! It was kind of cold that night, but he wouldnt' wear his coat or mittens because they didn't look like a cowboy would wear them. Lauren went as a bunny and was much more interested in stomping on the dry, crunchy leaves than in walking up to people's doors and getting candy. By the time David was ready to go home, Lauren had been asleep in her stroller for about 30 minutes, such a tired little bunny! It was a fun night for all.

I hope you all enjoy the quick update, I promise I will fill you in from Halloween to now in the next few days!! I am going to try to update once a week so that all of our family and friends in faraway places can stay current on what we are up to. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Love,

Chris, Megan, David & Lauren