Thanksgiving

This year we had a delicious Thanksgiving with friends.  We gathered at the Stake Center were we ate and played.  Lots of good food, fun friends, and a craft for the kids and for the Moms.

Eliza's 3!

 Love this birthday girl!

Before we left to take Mckinlay to school, our sweet neighbor Pam came over with a present for Liza.  Pam and Archie never forget the girls on any holiday.  She is better at keeping track of their birth dates than I am!

 Matching, hand knit, sweaters.  I mean seriously. She is the best!

 It was our turn to babysit for out babysitting co-op, which worked out perfectly.  It meant an instant party!  {For the record, Ty was at work -- I babysat, served cake, and ice cream to 16 kids.  All by myself.  I think I deserve 3 cheers for not losing my cool.}

Eliza loves Cinderella right now {it's the blonde hair and blue eyes}, so she requested a Cinderella cake. 

I love this girls to bits.  Liza just oozes personality.  She is sweet and spunky  {with a dash of sass}and has the world's cutest voice.  She is very loving {she'd cuddle all day if she could}and LOVES her sisters -- especially Mckinlay.  She wants to be just like her. 

I wish I could just freeze her.

Family Photos

 Hazel -- 4 months

 Eliza -- 3 years

 Mckinlay -- 5 years and 9 months

Photos by Jenny Fitzner

Ohio Fall

 We complain a lot about living in Ohio because, generally, the weather stinks.  But when it comes to fall -- no complaints here.  It's gorgeous.   

Well, I take that back.  My one Fall complaint is that Romney lost the election.  The day after the election, my yard sign was gone.  Boo.  Way to be a sore winner friend!

In this picture Eliza is saying "Look Mckinlay!  This sign says Obama!"  

I quickly corrected her.  

Mckinlay came home from school last month just devastated that we were voting for Romney.  "But Mom!  One of my classmates said he will DIE is Romney wins!  And they all say Romney tells lies."  

We quickly set her straight.  

I took this photo right after voting.  I only post it because one day I'm gonna look back on these ginormous glasses and shake my head.  Ty calls them my "Angela Bower Glasses".  

Can't say I blame him.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy left us without power for an entire week due to this tree:

We had no idea it would take so long to get the power up and running again.  A good portion of the city lost power, so SOMEONE had to get fixed last.  That was us.  The last.  The very. very. last.

The first several days we toughed it out.  We spent the days away from home, then bundled up and went to bed.  It was kind of a fun little adventure.

Ty got to stay home the first day so we went to The Original Pancake House and spent the day at Barnes & Nobel using free wi-fi and reading books.

The next few days we hung out with friends (thanks you Russells for letting us invade your life!!), but by day 5, it wasn't so fun anymore.  We were done.  So done.  All of us.
So we checked into a hotel.

We swam.
We watched TV.

And we crashed.
Best. Decision. Ever.

We kept driving by our house in hopes that they power was on.  Sunday night we drove by and saw this:

I think it was the most beautiful site I'd ever seen!

Despite the crazy week, we feel really blessed that this is all we had to deal with.  So many had it so much worse.  We didn't lose anything (other than the food in our fridge) and we had people around us to take care of us.  In all reality it was so ridiculous it was comical.  Further proof that Cleveland Heights rocks.
Not.