At Least Some People are Enjoying the Snow

Growing or Shrinking

Either the car is shrinking or these kids keep growing!

New Year's Eve

We rang in 2011 at yiayia Rena' house. Samantha, Erin and Giovanni had fun stacking cups, making silly faces and then curling up on the couch for a movie. Everyone stayed awake and enjoyed delicious pork and sauerkraut at midnight, but the girls both passed out on the ride home. Rena even got me a birthday cake with colorful candles that the kids helped me blow out!

Turning 30

For my 30th birthday, my coworkers surprised me and decorated my desk. They also had some snacks and a cookie cake for me. It was a really nice surprise! After work, mom, Eddie and grandma stopped by for birthday hugs (and presents! Thanks guys!). Then we headed to Texas Roadhouse for my birthday dinner and beer :)

My birthday present to myself this year was a larger fish tank. I've been wanting one for while and thought this was the perfect excuse! We all love the new tank and all the great fish we have now, especially the angelfish!

Old 10 gallon tank:

New fishies that came with the tank on the car ride home:

New 35 gallon tank:

Visitor from LA

Uncle Matt came to visit for Christmas. The girls really enjoyed spending time with him and Erin took some great photos of his visit.

Christmas Day

The girls really enjoyed their Christmas this year! They were surprised with some of their gift's (Sam's netbook and Erin's Leapster) and loved everything they got! Erin loved the Tinkerbell underwear that nana bought her so much that she was changing her underwear 3 times a day. Sammie has been an email machine and loves being able to contact everyone. After opening gifts we enjoyed the breakfast nana and papa brought, which made our morning easier (Thanks guys!). Then the girls had time to enjoy all of their new treasures before we headed to Cleveland for even more, fun, food and family. Another successful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

After finishing up the cookies we headed to Nana, Papa and Grandma Great's house to kick start Christmas Eve festivities. We ate dinner and enjoyed the company before heading to Aunt Carol and Uncle John's. It was great to catch up with that side of the family and enjoy all of the delicious food. When we got home, the girls got to open their traditional Christmas Eve presents before heading to bed. Once they were in bed George and I set out all of the presents and I somehow managed to line up one of the sock monkey's eyes with red blinking Christmas tree lights. We were both startled when we looked over and saw a sock monkey with glowing red eyes!

Daddy's Surprise

I took the girls to Glazed and Amused to make Christmas presents for George. They both worked really hard on their projects and they turned out great! This was the first time I've taken Erin in awhile and she did most of the work herself. Her fine motor skills never cease to amaze me!

Sam's Christmas Concert

Sam's school Christmas concert was beautiful! We really couldn't get a good picture because of where we were sitting and the because of the dark. You can kind of see her in this picture. She's in the front row, 2nd one from the left. Her grade sang a really cute Grinch medley that Sam had been practicing around the house in the weeks leading up to the concert. We're looking forward to her first band concert that should be coming sometime soon. I'll let everyone know when it is.

It's a Dry, Dry Winter

Random Kitty Pictures

The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

We got our Christmas tree from the same tree farm in Zoar where we got last year's tree and although we weren't featured in the paper, we still had a great time. It was a warm (for Ohio), sunny day with plenty of packing snow on the ground. We had a snowball fight and the kids slid down the hills on their back sides while we looked for a tree. The kids were also building snowman pieces while we were searching and decided to build the snowman over the stump of the tree we cut down. Once we got the tree home, we decorated it, placing the bulbs and garland out of the kitties's reach and set up one of grandpa's trains that we borrowed from grandma. It was a memorable day that ended with Aunt Jill coming to watch the girls (by the girls' demand) while George and I headed to his work's Christmas party.