Siblings

Jack and Audrey together are a trip.  They can certainly drive each other crazy, but they really do seem to love each other.
NOTE- I can't get the video to work, and now I can't delete it!  Sorry!

Jack is very protective of his sister and wants to take care of her.  Don't get me wrong.  He picks on her and takes her toys.  But overall, he loves her and loves to see her happy. 

And Audrey really does adore Jack.  She watches his every move and mimics everything he does.  

I'm thankful they have each other and that they're so close in age.  They are a blast to have around. 

Here are some of my favorite sibling pictures. 

Love-Hate Relationship

Christmas morning love

This was completely not posed.  He's just keeping her safe.  Sweet boy!

Vacuum

Jack is always willing to help me vacuum.  He loves the attachments and will wander around the house,sucking up Cheerios, dust bunnies, and anything he can find.

I found him doing this last time he was helping.  Is winter almost over? I think he's going stir-crazy.

Snowy winter

Cincinnati has had it's fair share of snow this winter.  It's been crazy out there!  We learned very early in the season that Audrey doesn't like to be outside in the cold, so we haven't spent too much time playing out there.  You can't put gloves on a thumb-sucker and expect them to be happy.  

Here are a few pictures from one of our attempts to get outside.

The best part of playing in the snow is the hot chocolate and popcorn afterwards, right?  

We caught you napping, Daddy!

My sister's family was in town last weekend.  Here's a picture of Jack and Drew all ready to go out in the snow.  (Actually, I think it was mostly ice, but they were ok with that.)

Getting artsy

What do you do when you're in a hotel room, trying to be quiet while the kids nap?  Update the blog you've neglected for two months!  Of course!  In my defense, our old computer crashed, so I've been learning how to navigate the world of mac.  So here you go.  My first post as a mac user.  

I just uploaded over 600 pictures from my phone. Thats ridiculous, guys.  But hey.  I love these kids and I think they're cute.  So I take a lot of pictures.  Many of them are fuzzy and some of them are pictures of the ceiling or the floor (Thank you Audrey). But I'll try to go through and share some of my favorites.  Or at least the most interesting of the shots.  

We do a lot of artsy things around our house. Notice I didn't say crafty.  Because when we do crafty things they don't turn out very well.  Like our Christmas snow globes.  Fail.  (See the first picture) Or our Relax Bottle.  (Don't be fooled by the name.  There is nothing relaxing or calm about glitter, glue, or glitter glue.) Big fail.  

So I've decided to keep it real and keep things simple for awhile.  Paint, stickers, crayons, coloring books, and the occasional bit of Elmer's glue and Cheerios.  There you have it.  

If anyone is interested in doing crafts with my kids (or selecting the activity and gathering and organizing the supplies), please let me know.  If not, I'm sure Jack will love being crafty in preschool next year!

Fail

No one gets the joke - "Your all that and a bag of chips" It's funny, folks.
Thank you Pinterest.

Eating glue

pigtails

Audrey's hair finally got long enough wear pigtails.  When the pigtails were in, they looked really cute.  But every time I looked away (or every time she was mad at me), she pulled them out. This caused a huge problem, since when the pigtails came out her hair was an absolute mess until her next bath.  We've since decided to trim her hair, but the pigtails were cute while they lasted.

Halloween 2013 (and 1984)

Here's a few pictures from our pumpkin carving this Halloween.  The kids liked their Ernie pumpkin, although I failed to take a picture, apparently.

We had a fun Halloween party with friends the week prior to Halloween.  This is the third time Susan and Jackson have hosted and it's been fun every year.  

Jackson

On Halloween we planned on meeting up with Aunt Christy on Fountain Square.  It turned out to be a rainy day, so we grabbed lunch with Daddy.  We thought that there was a break in the rain, so we ran over to the Square after lunch.  We missed Aunt Christy and ended up in the rain.  But the kids had fun!  

Meow!

Jack got to wear the same costume that Jacob wore when he was little.  Grandma Mink made this cat costume in 1984!  When we were trying to figure out what Jack would wear this year, Jack was pulling for Nemo.  But when Nana showed him this costume, he was sold.  He fell in love with the tail and was so excited to wear his Daddy's old costume. Here's a look back:

2013 and 1984

Our Reader

Audrey has hit that phase where she likes to read the same book over and over.  I remember Jack doing the same thing with Send It! She's a fan of a few of Sandra Boynton's books, like Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!, Blue Hat Green Hat, and But Not the Hippopotomus.

I'm happy to read to her as much as she'd like, and I love it when she pulls out her books and reads on her own.