January 2014 (so far!)

On New Year's Day, we visited the extensive exhibit of miniature electric trains at the museum center. (Grandpa Bill would have loved it!) The kids also got to ride on a little train just their size.




(Photo from www.cityprofile.com) 
The museum center (housing the children's museum, museum of natural history, and Cincinnati history museum) is actually an enormous train station and an amazing structure! This is the majestic lobby. It only has a few freight trains coming and going now, but it used to be a huge, bustling center with hundreds of passengers passing through every day.

It's really cool; come visit and we'll take you there!







Luke liked this big "Santa" chair

Luke preparing for his (short) bike ride to the library in the subzero weather. Thank goodness for the Ukrainian shapka!

Staying warm and entertained during many cold days (school started two days late after the break because of the temperature).




The morning when our car was dead and abandoned at a park, so we got to wake the kids up early and take Luke to work. Fun times! (Luckily, the car was eventually revived . . . 17 years-old and still hanging on by a thread!)


In a rare, harmonious--and really cute--moment, Sarah dressed up as "The Queen of the Fairies" and Alex danced around the house with her as her dashingly handsome prince.


In another extremely rare moment, the house stayed clean for close to 10 minutes after the Christmas decorations were put away.  :)  It had to be documented.


Nap time . . .


Story time with Mom . . .


The tumbling city finals: Katie received 1st place in Novice 6 and under! After she performed, she leaned over and whispered, "I was the only peach-skinned person in my group!" So cute. (Yep, it's quite a diverse city when we venture out of our suburb!)


Both girls did really well! We were proud of them, especially Abby coming back after a wrist injury to reach 3rd place in her age group on Level 2.


Katie's Girl Scout troop (with Abby in tow) visited an art museum . . . and got to create still life paintings of their own.


Katie-Bug turned 7!! She decorated this horse cake all by herself--isn't it adorable?








We had a fun party with some of her friends . . .


 . . . which meant another cake!




What a sweet group of girls!
Trust me, Alex was thrilled to be in this picture. He really was! Actually, he had a lot of fun at the party. We played a game at the beginning where each person had a label on their back with the name of an animal, and they had to ask other people questions to figure out what their animal was. Alex's was a cow . . . and a few minutes later, when we did introductions, he brought down the house with: "I'm Alex . . . and I'm a cow."

Christmas 2013

It was a busy, fun Ohio Christmas! We missed being with family but enjoyed being with each other and our friends.

In the nativity scene at our ward Christmas party, Abby and Katie were angels and Alex was a reluctant shepherd (front left-center, trapped in Mom's beige sweatshirt).  :)

Katie's class party, where Alex and I got to help out with games

Reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

Matching jammies on Christmas Eve

No lack of enthusiasm about presents here! (doll bikes and suitcases)

Sarah with Daddy and Baby Madeline

Abby modeling her new owl necklace

Katie with her new American Girl horse and filly

Alex testing out his ceramic dinosaur painting kit

Abby made these cute pom-pom critters

Alex sewed these rice-filled hand warmers for us at preschool

Katie made this ornament for us at school

We got to talk to Jennie on her mission in Spain!! This is what the Skype call looked like at the Kaelberers' house; we got to join in through FaceTime. She looked and sounded great!

Modeling new outfits

A few days after Christmas, we drove about four hours to Sandusky, Ohio, to meet our friends the Daytons at the Kalahari resort--the nation's largest indoor water park! 

Adrian, Natalie, Zeke, and Taylor

Movie time in the hotel room after a fun day of splashing and sliding

On the way home, we took a short detour to visit historic Kirtland for our second time. Despite the rain, we enjoyed visiting the sites and seeing the large collection of unique creches in the visitors' center.

In an unprecedented moment, everyone fell asleep on the way home (Dad too, after he snapped this picture!). 

December 2013

It's definitely looking A LOT like Christmas around here!

This is the view as you walk through our front door. (It's a split-level home, so you see down into a family room and up into the kitchen and living room.)

Alex got all dressed up for you to pose by our enormous tree. 

Ashley and Katie as reindeer . . . I love that Ashley's mom snapped this picture before enlightening the girls about the evils of drawing on your face with permanent marker!

Fun sledding at the school with neighbors on a snow day. (School has been closed twice already, for conditions a Northern Utahn wouldn't think twice about driving in!)

This is 10 minutes before Sarah realized her hands were cold and much screaming ensued.  :(

Katie enthusiastically joined her first-grade chorus in a fun concert!

Burrito baby. 

Abby did a great job in her first school orchestra concert, and I got to accompany the orchestra on the piano. (The enormous, gorgeous poinsettia plant was a thank-you gift that night.)

Happy Holidays!