Visit to Ohio!

This weekend myself and the kids headed to Ohio while Todd went to his annual FL vs GA football game with his friends. We had a nice time visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Nikki, Uncle Jeff, and cousins Jacob and Lucas!  Hannah and Drew woke up Saturday morning to decorating pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa.

 As you can see... they were "scary". The kids had fun and put faces on both sides of the pumpkins. It was cute.

The kids got to spend a lot of time with their cousins this weekend. Pizza Friday night and play time, we were able to watch Lucas play his last soccer game of the season Saturday afternoon which was quite cute, and then played at their house or at grandma and grandpas the rest of the day. And.. back to their house on Sunday too. Hannah and Drew just loved being with the cousins, they had tons of laughs, giggles and fun. 

Here are Hannah and Lucas, which were two peas in a pod being the closest in age to eachother. Hannah loves anyone who is super silly, and Lucas certainly fits to bill. I think Hannah got a real kick out of Lucas. She is already asking when she can visit again!

As we left, and headed back to the airport Hannah was full of tears and sadness and didn't want to leave. I keep letting her know she can come back in 13 years to go to Ohio State :)

Thanks everyone for a great weekend, we had fun and look forward to seeing y'all soon!

Weekend fun!

This weekend was as action packed as the last few, barely having time to take pictures are write an update lately. I am quickly realizing the older the kids get, the busier we get, just in different ways. More sleep, but more on the go weekends. Friday started with Hannah's East Side Elementary fall carnival. Hannah was so excited to introduce us to all her little friends, it was pretty cute. The kids loved all the rides, the face painting, slides and fun they had. Nothing like leaving for the night at 8om with cotton candy on the go!

On Saturday Hannah had a softball game while I took Drew to his little buddy Marshall's 3rd birthday party at the park. It was pretty darn cute, and a gorgeous fall day. This is the best picture I could get of Drew and Marshall since they were constantly on the move.  Later in the night, we had a few families from the neighborhood over for dinner and fun with the kids.  We had the fire pit going, gator football on outside in the gazebo, and lots of drinks. It was so fun to hang out with all out new friends, and the kids all get along so well.

And finally, this weekend Hannah and Drew realized they actually did like the Barbie jeep that has been sitting in our storage room for the last year. We picked this up at a garage sale and was never used until this weekend. They loved it, rode in it all weekend as did all the neighbors. It was cute how much fun they had in this!  One of Todd's friends boys are grown up and done with theirs, and are dropping off the boy version of the jeep this week for Drew. Hopefully we don't end up with bumper cars :)

So, not a lot of photos lately, but certainly a lot of fun. It is hard to keep up with everything lately, but we are al having a good time and enjoying the gorgeous atlanta fall we are having. I love the 75-80 degree weather through October, I will take it :)

A taste of Fall!

Over the weekend we experience a little bit of summer on saturday with weather in the 80's, then a little of fall on Sunday with weather in the 60's. I guess we got the best of both worlds.  We visited Burt's pumpkin farm with Holly, Maddie and Lily while Todd and Zach were thoroughly enjoying themselves at the FL vs LSU game.

Someone likes to ham it up for the camera these days.

My two favorite little people.

The hayride we waited an entire hour to ride! It was worth it, the kids loved it.

And two friends being completely silly.

We had a great day with gorgeous view in the north georgia mountains. And when I say mountains, there were mountains, each of us even got a little car sick on the ride with all the hills.   We are starting to see some fall colors in north georgia, and excited to get us in the fall spirit.  The kids are really looking forward to Halloween this year. We will have a little Batman, and Batgirl. Should be fun!

Happy 3rd Birthday Drew!!!

Yesterday was Drew's 3rd birthday!! Look how big my lil man is already!! He had such a great day and was so excited about his birthday, it was cute. In tradition, I had the kitchen all decorated with balloons and streamers for his birthday morning. Hannah came downstairs and saw it, so of course, ran to wake him up. He took one look and started jumping up and down yelling "I'm 3, it's my birthday" !! It was really cute, and so fun to watch his excitement. He quickly starting tearing into his gifts from mom, dad and Hannah.

Birthday morning...

Drew's favorite gift from mom and dad, the Stomp Rocket Jr. It is a little foam rocket on a stick, and Drew would go running all the way from the back of the driveway to jump on the pedal which shoots to rocket into the air. He did this for hours yesterday morning. The best part is that he got a lot of energy out.

Here is his little birthday party all set up and ready to go. He wanted a gator football theme. Todd swears he did not have any influence on this. Todd and Hannah brought Drew to publix while I was in China to pick out his cake and below is what he picked up. Even Hannah told me that Drew picked it out all by himself.

I actually thought this was pretty cute.

Here are his little party goers. Lily his girlfriend, Connor, Maddie, Hannah and Ansley.

Finally time to sing happy birthday and blow out those candles. Drew insisted that he had a party hat to wear when they sing happy birthday.

The result of Drew taking down his birthday cake. Lily and Connor followed suite and they were all covered in icing.

I am just happy that our little guy had a great day. Even Scottie was in town over the weekend as he went on a 104 mile bike race on Sunday in Atlanta. Drew was so excited to have Scottie here too! The first thing Drew did when he woke up this morning is asked for Scottie!

Happy Birthday to my handsome little Drew. We love you more than words can describe. You make us laugh on a daily basis, warm our hearts with your hugs and smiles, and amaze us with your energy and stubbornness.   We love your passion for sports, cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and dancing, your ability to take over a crowd with your lively personality and charisma,  and your energy that makes just about anyone tired about a few minutes.  We love that at the young age of 3, something tells us that the sky is the limit with what you can accomplish in life. Your wit, hilarious sense of humor, determination, energy, and competitiveness will hopefully be put to good use one day.

We love you little buddy!! May your 3rd year be as happy, healthy and adventurous as the last.

XOXO,
Mom, Dad, Hannah & Murphy

Ni Hao! 我愛中國

I made it there and back again. My first trip to China. Eleven long days, with a little fun in between all the work. The flight there was LONG. Atlanta, to Seattle, to Tokoyo to Shenzen. 22 hours later we were in China. We started in Shenzen with a lot of work, and little free time. After 7 days in Shenzen, when we were all ready to leave the humidity and pollution we headed to Shanghai, which was pretty cool to say the least. 25 million people and counting live in the city. It was huge, and kept on going. Beautiful city with amazing skyline views.

Here are some of my co-workers I was with. From left to right, Stacy, Kate, Jen, me and Elizabeth

Here is a temple at old Shanghai from the 18th century, it was amazing and beatufil.

We think the rock says "shanghai"  Included in this photo are our co-workers from the Shenzen office. They were so fun and great co-workers. They were great tour guides and made sure we didn't get lost anywhere too!

I just thought the architecture was amazing at the temple, hard to believe they did all those so long ago without any technology.

My new friend Kathy and I. Kathy  completely cracked me up all trip  and taught me a lot about Chinese culture. She was as funny and sweet as they come. She works in the home depot shenzen office and has a daughter the same age as Hannah.

In between work, we got traditional chinese foot massages, 2 hours, $50, worth every penny.

I got to know Tsingtao beer pretty well on the trip, especially enjoyed during our 2 hours massage.

Traditional chinese formal dinner our last night included duck. Head and all. I didn't take pictures of the other items, there was plenty to capture though. I pretty much ate green beans, white rice and bread.

Apparently all of China was going to know we were in town. Across the street from that building is where all our work meetings were held.

We spent  A LOT of time in the care traveling to Chinese factories. I am pretty educated on the materials, construction, assembly of blinds, garage shelving and furniture at this point.

This is what most of Shenzen looked like outside the city walls. And, where we spent a lot of our trip. We are very lucky to live in the United States!

And what's a trip to China without brining the kids back some goodies. They loved their chinese outfits.

Drew the dragon warrior and Hannah the chinese princess.

And a panda hat!!


Overall, it was a great trip  but very happy to be home. An amazing experience to learn a new culture, new friends and see new sights. But always happiest to be home with my family.   Until next time, Ni Hao!

Go Mt Bethel Cardinals!!

Today was Hannah's 1st softball game. She is playing at Mt Bethel Church on the K-2 girls team. There are 3 Hannah's on the team which Hannah thought was pretty funny. Also on the team are Hannah's friends from the neighborhood Camden and Alexandra.   Camden is on Hannah's right side and is in 1st grade, and Alexandra is in the second row on the left, she is in second grade. The 3 girls are becoming good buddies.

Hannah played 3rd base and did EXACTLY what they do in practice. She would run and catch the ball, and throw the ball back to the pitcher, regardless of where runners were or where the ball needed to go. She wasn't too worried about getting back to third base to out a runner, she would just throw is right back to the pitcher :)  Oh, and the picture of Hannah above would also be a picture of her watching the soccer game on the field next to the softball field :)

We are exactly sure how Hannah managed to actually see the ball she was hitting, but she did hit the ball. All the girls helmets were falling over their faces and like the picture below, they all ran holding their helmets up. It was pretty funny and cute.

And she runs, and runs. The first time she hit the ball, she was a little unsure of running to first base, then just stopped. She made is to second base after the hitter after her passed her. Entertaining at best. By the second inning, she was in full swing and knew what to do with a little help from the coaches.

Here is Hannah's biggest fan. He did a lot of clapping, yelling go Hannah, and played with the girls in the dugout.

It was a cute little game. All the kids would go up to bat, and just keep swinging until they hit the ball. They all got the run the bases one way or another. They made it a lot of fun.   Later in the evening, we went to dinner with our neighbors and all the kids. We had an adult table of 6 adults, and a kids table of  5 girls and Drew. He seems to get a lot of attention from all these little girls and seems to like it :) We had a great time and are so grateful that we have such fun neighbors and friends!

And now, I get ready to say a little "Ni Hao" for the next two weeks as I head out to China for work. I will be in Hong Kong, Shenzen and Shanghai. Wish me luck, or better yet, wish Todd, Grandma and Grandpa luck with the kids while I am gone. I am sure going to miss them a lot, but also look forward to the opportunity to see a new culture and different part of the world. I'll be signing off for a few weeks unless I figure out how to load pics from China. I'll be signing back on in October. Stay tuned!

Field of Dreams

What else to do on a Sunday afternoon but create Field of Dreams right there in your front yard?   Todd needed to mow the grass, but before he did, he mowed a little baseball diamond for the kids. They loved it. They had so much fun taking turns hitting, pitching and running the bases. It was pretty cute.

Here is Drew making is way to first base after a pretty strong hit off the tee :)   Monday night after a little more playing, the field got mowed away, there were a few sad faces and tears from Drew, but we promised a new field in no time.

Later Sunday we went to the Atl Airport to meet up with Aunt Andrea, Cash, Drake and Ashley during their layover on their way back from the UCF vs OSU game. They were good sports and even got the kids shirts and accessories despite their UCF loss.   It was also Andrea's birthday Sunday, so we surprised her with some cupcakes at the airport to wish her a happy birthday!

As you can see, the kids loved their shirts, as they continued wearing them the next day to school too! They are pretty happy little Buckeyes at 6:45am on their way out to the bus stop.  Thanks for the t-shirts guys!!!

Labor Day Weekend 2012

We had a great labor day weekend this year! We planned a last minute getaway to Florida to see the Renick Family. Todd and Scott attended the Gator game in Gainesville while Amanda and I entertained the girls ( and Drew) for the day. Todd and Scott brought the kids to Home Depot workshop Saturday morning to get them out of our hair for an hour or so before we took them on for the day. It was pretty cute, they loved wearing their aprons and they built football goal posts.   We had so much fun seeing the Renicks, it was all Hannah and Drew could talk about all week. When I asked Hannah her favorite part of the weekend tonight before bed, she initially responded that her favorite part of the trip was seeing Layla, the Renick's adorable Boxer dog. But then went on to tell me that she just loved seeing friends and family, and sea world too.

Sunday we headed to SeaWorld. The kids love it there, and we went in April we were there for a short time due to the weather. This time, we wished we were there for a short time given the 90 degree heat and crowds :)   The kids loved every minute of it though. Drew is still obsessed with dolphins and watches the movie Dolphin Tales about once a week.  We went to all the shows, went on rides, splashed around in the water at the splash pad to cool off, and saw all the animals.

Here is Hannah and Drew while waiting for the Shamu show. We got there early and sat and ate lunch in there so we could get good seats. The kids choose "the splash zone" and wanted to get wet. We didn't "luck out" and get splashed, Shamu kept missing us.  So Drew ran down the stairs and went closer to the water, thus Hannah and Todd followed. I sat right where I was. Still, Shamu barely missed them and did not get the tidal waves they were looking for. Next time.

See the excitement on Drew's face?  We bought about $30 of fish for that smile :)  He indeed got to feed the dolphins and kept asking where Winter the dolphin was from Dolphin Tales.   It was cute, worth the overpriced fish.

After the really hot, humid, and sticky day at Seaworld, we headed to the hotel which had an awesome pool and lazy river. The kids swam their little hearts out. They went from 8am to 9pm with no naps, lots of walking and lots of swimming. Finally, lights out at 9:30pm last night. Mom and Dad were just as tired as them!

Monday morning, we woke up early and met the Steinemann family for breakfast. We appreciate everyone waking up early on their day off to come say hello and have breakfast with us! It was nice seeing everyone as it is pretty rare everyone can get together at the same time.  

Here are the cousins, Hannah, Drake, Sean, and Drew. Ashley couldn't make it otherwise we could finally have a picture with all the cousins together!  Next time!!!

It was so nice seeing friends and family this weekend, and Shamu too! :) The kids had a great weekend, as did we. It is so nice to just get away and spend true quality time together as a family rather than focussing on everything in the house that needs to be done, or errands to run, laundry or work. Just good quality fun and time together.  

And now, back to reality. School and work tomorrow. Gearing up for a busy week. We hope everyone had a great labor day weekend too!!!