Bubble Bath!

Bubble baths can be so much fun! And just when you think the boys will never stop picking on each other, they make "bubble beards" for each other,
and then Dillon reaches over and gives Owen a big (genuine) hug. Sometimes they do surprise you...

Pump It Up!

Our MOPS group met for a monthly play date at Pump It Up! in Dublin today. It's basically a big warehouse, with different rooms you can rent out, and each one has different inflatable playhouses in it.

This one had a basketball game:

A big slide that I went down with both boys the first time, but Dillon was sobbing by the time we got to the bottom, it was too scary for him. Owen said, "AGAIN!!" so he and I did it again, and my friend, Kelly got this picture of the two of us:A jump house (Owen went in and loved it, but Dillon didn't want to go in, so he and I just watched from the outside):
And a neat inflatable obstacle course that we didn't do, because the boys were a bit too young for it. There were also a couple of these little cars that were ironically more popular than the big inflatable things, at least with the preschoolers...

Pretty neat place, but not anything I'd be rushing to go back to, at least until the boys are a few years older...

Owen's First Dentist Appointment

When I had Dillon in for his 3-1/2 year visit, I was asking the hygienist what the youngest age patient she ever had was. She said she had a 16-mo. old girl before who did really well, because she watched her older sister go first, and then wanted to get in the chair herself and do it. When she told me that, I knew Owen could do it, too, since his personality is MUCH more laid back and easy going than Dillon's. So I made him an appointment, and we went this morning. It went even better than I expected, I was so proud of our little guy! Not even 2 yet and he did so great. Maybe it's better that we start early, so when he really gets knee-deep into the terrible twos, he won't be so resistant. Anyhow, it was a really good experience!

First she counted his teeth (16 of them, total):
Then she used the "tooth tickler" (aka. toothbrush):
Then came the water and the suction:
Oooh, that tickles!!!
My new shiny chompers... CHEEEEEESE!!!!!!

Early Birthday Present

Dillon is a lucky kid - he doesn't even know what's sitting out in the detached garage waiting for him... His very first dirtbike, a Honda CRF50F! Joe just picked it up last night, and can't wait to buy the training wheels to put on it!

Just to put it in perspective, here it is next to Joe's CR125... Isn't it cute???

Loving the Snow!

This afternoon after church, the boys couldn't wait to get out and play in the snow again. They played while Joe cleared the driveway (again). Then they got out the sled, and Avery came over and joined in the fun, too! I didn't get pictures of them sledding, but after that fun was over, Owen came inside, cold as an ice cube (they had been out there over an hour at that point), and had some hot cocoa before taking a (long) nap. Then the kids started playing in their playhouse, and Joe decided to start a snowball fight - they were loving it! (In this picture, Dillon is the one right behind the snowball - to the right of Avery)
After about 30 minutes, they were resting in the snow...
Dillon came in shortly after, cold as could be!Had a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and called it a day!
I have to say, we (and by we, I mean the boys) have definitely enjoyed the snow more this year than the past 10 years combined! Yay for snow!

Winter is Here!

Thank goodness for our quad, or else I don't know how we would ever get our driveway cleared! I think I heard the weather guy say we got 15 inches of snow over the past couple days! Joe came home from work yesterday and got right to work clearing it. When he was finished, he let the boys come out to play for a while on it. He loves taking them sledding around the yard, and can't wait until they're older when he can pull them faster! He's a good husband, and a great Dad...

Welcome, Snow!!!

We finally received enough accumulation to warrant getting the quad and the sled out tonight. Joe took the boys out, and when I got home from work, I saw Owen being pulled behind on the sled, with a smile as wide as his (bright red) face! Dillon was playing in his clubhouse, and both of them were enjoying a nice cold icicle to eat! Who says you can't use a swingset in the winter?!?!

Lunch with Friends

The kids had fun on Thursday for lunch - they invited their Brutus' to join them! The boys had McNuggets and apples, and Brutus #1, Brutus #2, and Buddy the cat all enjoyed a fruit & yogurt parfait!

Go Bucks!!!

Even though our kids had their annual pep rally for the Buckeyes bowl game, they weren't able to pull out a victory this year. Although, at least it was a good game the whole way through (minus the 3rd quarter where it got a little shaky), and they didn't get totally creamed like the year before. Oh well, there's always next year!

Dillon's First Date...

How appropriate that Dillon's first date was with the same girl that gave him his first kiss - his precious Avery...

(June 2006)

We went out to dinner on Monday night with our friends, the Bautsch's, and the kids had a ball eating with their buddies. Dillon ate such a good dinner that Daddy got him ice cream for dessert! Avery wanted some, too, but her Mommy and Daddy said no, they could have some at home. The sweet little girl just put on her best pouty face, and flashed those big beautiful eyes of hers, and Joe caved. He just couldn't take it - so he gave her a spoon and they both shared the ice cream. Good thing, it was enough for 3 people! (Joe told me later that it's a good thing we don't have girls, he wouldn't ever be able to tell them no when they looked like that!) Good luck, Julie! :-)

Pinching Pennies

It seems to be what everyone is doing nowadays, so we're doing it, too. This posting will be more of an FYI for any homeowners who are looking to save a few bucks on your monthly utility bills.

Joe gets Family Handyman magazine, which is an awesome one for those that don't get it. It's published by Readers Digest, and makes a great gift for any do-it-yourselfer husband you may have. (It's also a great gift alternative to Maxim or like magazine!) Anyhow, there have been a couple articles in the past about energy audits. They mentioned how you can get one done on your home by your energy provider, and they can find air leaks, poorly insulated spots, and give you tips on how to increase the efficiency of your home. It mentioned that they can run anywhere from $250 - $400, but some energy companies will provide discounts. So I decided to call ours and potentially have one done. When I talked to our provider (Union Rural Electric), he told me everything he would do, and that it could take anywhere from 1 - 4 hours, depending on what we wanted done. I asked how much it costs, and he asked me, "do you pay your electric bill on time?" to which I replied, "yes, of course!" He said, "then there's no charge." Great! Sign us up - when can you come out? As an added bonus, he said that he would bring out 48 CFE bulbs (compact flourescents) to replace every incandescent bulb in our house - FOR FREE!

Long story short, he came out within a week, found out that our house was pretty airtight, and gave us a few suggestions to improve it. One of them was to insulate our crawlspace better, which had a few cracks in the foundation, was missing insulation on some spots on the wall, wasn't installed properly in others, and didn't have any along the floor above. (That was our lovely New Year's Eve project) I have to say, there is already a huge difference - the air coming out the vents into our family room is now warm instead of cool, the room stays warm, it isn't as drafty, and there isn't a 10 degree temperature difference between the basement and upstairs anymore.

Step 1: Hook up the big fan to a door to create a negative pressure inside the house, equivalent to 20mph winds blowing on all four sides of the house. It makes it real easy to detect leaks that way...

Up close view - the computer on the side monitors how much air is leaving the house. Ideally, a 1/1 ratio of the size of the house is what you want. For our case, our house is about 2000 sq. ft, so we would want a rating of 2000 cfm (cubic feet per minute). Our actual reading was about 2400, so it was pretty good, but could be better...

Step 3: Using the infrared gun, we went around the house and he checked all the walls and typical problem areas (attic access doors, exterior doors & windows, outlets on exterior walls, etc.). The screen visually displayed temperature differences, and also measured the actual temperature at the point where the laser beam was pointed at (bottom left corner of the door in this case).
Overall, he was here for 3 hours, but he liked to talk, and was a very knowledgeable guy, so we were interested in what he had to say. If you're interested in doing something like this, call your energy company and see if they offer any similar programs! It will be interesting to see if our next month's gas bill is any lower than our average...