october 25

drop off for gavin's 2nd day of school went smoothly, but when i picked him up i got reports that he was pretty sad during the day.  he shed tears several times because he was missing me :(  i guess the excitement and the newness has already worn off.  it will be an adjustment, but i know he'll quickly come to love school.  thankfully, joey is in his class and is the sweetest boy ever.  he gives gavin lots of hugs and plays with him all day long.  knowing that gavin has joey gives me so much peace of mind.  brooke has also been so supportive of gavin.  she is like his little cheerleader, and it makes me so thankful for the relationship they have.

after school today we played on the school playground with jackson, joey and chase.  gavin was in his element with the big boys and had fun running around like a crazy man.  poor brooke is always surrounded by boys these days.  thankfully, she's handling it pretty well.

october 24

gavin turned 2 1/2 last week so today he was able to start preschool.  i still can't quite believe that my baby is already heading off to preschool 2 mornings a week.  i didn't cry, but i did come home and eat a lot of chocolate :)  the house was SO quiet... but i know this will be good for him.  he has spent nearly every minute of every day of his life with me, and i know a little separation will do us both some good.  he was all smiles this morning and even did a happy dance in the shower.  look at that big grin!  drop-off went great - i barely got a kiss in before he ran off into his classroom to wash his hands and start his day.

october 23

we kept the halloween festivities rolling today with a trip to the pumpkin patch at shaw farm.  we took brooke there when she was 1!  it was like i remembered but even better because there was more for the kids to do.  we ran into some of our friends and met up with family... same group as last night :)  we took an awesome hay ride through fields that were decked out for halloween; we listened to some good ole country music in a barn; we picked pumpkins right off the vine, and of course, the kids played... a lot.  i think their favorite thing was the train of little cars pulled by a tractor pretty fast in a circle around the field.  they begged to ride that again and again, and it was totally worth the $2.00 ticket to see those big, radiant smiles on their faces.

october 22

today marked the start of our halloween activities.  after a great, crisp Fall day we had heather, danny and stella over for dinner and then met up with the rest of the family for anderson's jack-o-lantern walk.  all of the cousins were there (minus chase) and even some of the cousins' cousins :)  brooke and sydney are always so happy when they get to see each other, and i love having an older girl around for brooke.  the kids all looked so cute in their costumes!  stella was the most adorable little witch i have ever seen, and my sister made/embellished her entire outfit (minus the hat).  loved it!!!  the kids had fun looking at all of the jack-o-lanterns, eating treats and getting their faces painted (which took most of the night), and it was so much fun to see them all together in their costumes.

october 21

i am loving Fall in cincinnati.  it is every bit as good as i remember.  today was another beautiful day.  brooke was at her friend lynn's house all afternoon, so i had a bit more time to myself than i normally do.  tonight tonda and will came over to visit for the first time since we moved back.  i had so much fun catching up with tonda and watching our kids play together.  it sure did make me feel so grown-up (aka "old" :)  we had pizza and wine followed by a nice evening outside by the fire.  the kids love our new outdoor fireplace because they can't get enough s'mores!  fun times.

october 20

today it was my turn to attend the fall festival at brooke's school, and megan had gavin for the morning.  another great luxury... swapping kids with my sister-in-law!  i loved being with brooke and getting a fun glimpse into what her days at school are like.  but this was also a special day filled with lots of fun games and activities and snacks and music.  brooke is thriving in her new school and learning so much every single day.  i really can't ask for more than that.  and i was struck by how independent brooke was compared to her classmates.  she was thrilled to have me there, but she clearly didn't need or want to hold my hand or have me help her in any way.  she is really growing up!  speaking of growing up... gavin turned 2 1/2 today!  unbelievable.

october 19

the guys were back trying to fix some remaining issues with our hardwood floors, so we had to be out of the house all day.  i took gavin to breakfast, ran some errands and then picked up brooke from school and drove to my sister's house in the pouring rain.  it didn't bother me to be out in the miserable weather because i was just so happy to be able to drive to my sister's house in the middle of the week and just hang out.  it feels like such a luxury and such a gift after being away for over 2 years.  and i love that stella and i get to know each other a little more each week.  today we played and read books and did a whole lot of nothing.  but it was perfect.

october 18

i got to babysit chase for several hours this morning while megan attended jackson's fall festival at school. as of two months ago poor chase barely knew his aunt tara, but i'm happy to report that he was perfectly happy with me today :)  thankfully he sees me several times a week coming and going at school.  gavin loves his little cousin and is so sweet and gentle with him.  he even turns on his sweet baby voice when he talks to "baby chase."  i absolutely loved having my nephew for the morning, and i hope i'm called on to babysit again soon!

october 17

i love how much the kids like to be in the kitchen.  this evening when i was preparing dinner, i gave brooke and gavin their own bowl and a handful of ingredients to make their own creations.  they love doing this.  it reminds me of my childhood when my brother, sister and i would make up some concoction and then want my mom to taste it.

and seeing all the stuff crammed into our family room in this picture will serve to remind me that after being in the house over a month, our floors are still not "fixed."  c'est la vie.

october 16

we had the pleasure of attending my cousin shannon's wedding today at the manor house in mason.  it was a beautiful morning for a wedding, and it was great to see my aunt, my uncle and my cousins that i don't see very often.

october 15

what a great day for football!  it was UC's homecoming game against Louisville at Paul Brown Stadium.  bob and kaye came down, and we took the kids to the game with us.  the morning started off really cold, so we bundled up and packed all kinds of winter hats and gloves and blankets, but luckily we did not need any of them.  it turned out to be a beautiful day.  UC won, and for the first time, the kids made it through the entire game.  gavin even took a little nap in my lap during the game.

october 14

brooke and lynn became fast friends on day 2 of pre-k.  now we're in a regular rotation of play dates with lynn, and today was the first one at our house.  i am so happy that brooke has made a new friend so quickly, but i have to admit that it felt a little weird to have a girl in the house other than hanna.  it was different... for me and for brooke.  but as anastasia reminded me, brooke and hanna had A LOT of time to get to know one another.  and i reminded myself that things weren't so smooth in the beginning.  so, different isn't necessarily bad.  it's just different.

tonight we rekindled our friday night pizza tradition.  we ate at mio's and then came home and had our first fire in our outdoor fireplace.  we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores, and it was the perfect ending to the week.

october 13

tonight was observation night at brooke's new ballet studio.  i always love watching her dance.  they did some really cute routines tonight, and i got to take lots of pictures.  i'm very happy that we found a great dance studio right down the street, and brooke seems to be pretty happy with it, too.

october 12

we have this little thing going on that is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a curse.  gavin has started getting out of his bed and coming into our bed.  sometimes it's 2:30 in the morning, and he wants to be in our bed and on my pillow.  sometimes it's 6:30 in the morning, and it's a blessing that he'll crawl in and cuddle up with us until a reasonable hour.  sometimes he plays games on our iphones or watches a show on them.  on rare occasion he falls back asleep.  this morning happened to be one of those occasions, and he slept until almost 9:00am!  i couldn't believe it.  poor thing must be so worn out from our trip to chicago.

kaye came down today to watch the kids so i could get a facial (my b-day present from them).  i had a wonderful facial and got my haircut while the kids had fun with grandma making halloween cookies.  i call that a good day!

october 11

this was gavin's dinner, which became his breakfast.  we stopped at outback in anderson last night because we got home late and needed to eat.  as soon as we pulled in, gavin recalled getting sick the last time we were at outback (because of a lingering stomach bug, not the food!).  what a memory!  perhaps that is why he didn't touch his dinner of steak, carrots and broccoli.  who knows, but i told him if he didn't eat any of his dinner he would have to eat it for breakfast in the morning.  i stuck to my guns.  we came downstairs for breakfast, and i gave brooke cereal and gavin his warmed up dinner.  he didn't eat it.  we dropped brooke off at school and stopped at the grocery store where gavin did not get any treats because he had not eaten his "breakfast."  after coming home and playing outside for a while, gavin finally declared that he was ready to "eat his veggies."  and he did.  then i fed him whatever he wanted :)

october 10

we packed up and headed home today.  what a great weekend!  on our way out of town we stopped and did some shopping for the house and had the most delicious burgers at epic burgers.  yum!  we ended up shopping for entirely too long, which made our trip home seem that much longer.  we did manage to fit a new desk for kevin into our car (with all of our bags and 2 kids' bikes!) and ran into kevin's best "girl" friend from college.  this kind of stuff always happens to us!

october 9

this picture makes me happy.  we had another wonderful day in chicago including a trip to a local farm and an afternoon at the beach.  who would have thought it would be warm enough for the beach in october in chicago?  it was amazing.  brooke and gavin were over the moon.  i just let them go for it in their clothes and all.  brooke and gavin waded out waist deep in the water fully clothed, and by the end of it, gavin was wet and covered in sand from head to toe.  and the smiles... the smiles on their faces made it so worth it.  this was definitely one of my favorite days - ever.

october 8

are these three not the cutest things?  we were waiting on the train to take us into the city, and the kids were very excited for our big adventure.  it was a glorious day in chicago.  i've always thought that there is nothing better than a perfect fall day in the windy city, and it felt good to be there.  all of the excitement of the day really lied in our modes of transportation - train, water taxi, our own two feet, a real taxi and a very crowded return train ride.  i'm pretty sure that brooke and pierce held hands most of the day.  it was easy to see that pierce loves his cousins!  it felt so good for us all to be together again.  i loved that brooke brought her new sketch book along and drew pictures of all the things she saw during our trip into the city - tall buildings, a woman riding a bike with a dog in the basket :)

october 7

we made the drive to chicago today for our first visit with carl, mercedes, pierce and london in their new home in winnetka.  it was a long 6-hour drive, but it was beautiful out, and the trees were beautiful shades of fall, and the kids were really great.  we arrived at carl & mercedes' in the late afternoon, and we were all so happy to be there.  it was our first time meeting our new niece/cousin, london, and brooke was very excited to meet the newest girl in the family.

october 6

i love my iphone for helping me to capture priceless moments like this one.  my boy.  all boy.  warrior, sword-fighting, super hero.  his imagination is super-charged these days, and i just love to watch and listen to him at play.  i think if i could freeze him in time, it would be right at this age.  i can't get enough of it.

october 5

gavin had a play date with jack mcghee this morning at beech acres.  i sure do miss having a park right out our front door, but i love having this great park just a couple of minutes down the road.  there is so much for the kids to do and play with at this park, and the sand area is great any time of year.  gavin and jack didn't have a lot of interest in playing "together" but that's not really a surprise at this age.  i did love how gavin kept asking me, "where's my buddy?"  i think he totally got the concept :)

october 4

we made the most of a beautiful day with lunch at beech acres park with heather, megan and all the kids.  i love that we get to spend so much time together.  the kids love it, too.  so far october is making up for what september lacked in gorgeous fall days.  i'm looking forward to a great month!

october 3

today i slowed down.  i forgot about the to-do list, and i played with my children.  we built towers and knocked them down.  it was good for my soul.  theirs, too.

october 2

brooke and i went to our neighbor's house this afternoon for a family game party while kevin and gavin made chili in preparation for our dinner with the lemoines.  when we left, gavin had run upstairs to get all of brooke's chef gear and was sitting on top of the counter watching daddy.  when we returned 1.5 hours later, gavin was still in the exact same position!  i could not believe my eyes.  kevin said gavin had been completely engaged in the cooking of the chili the entire time we were gone and actually helped with a lot of the cooking.  i love that he takes an interest in cooking, and i love his girly chef get-up even more!

tonight we finally were able to have antje, randall, lexi & kenzie over for dinner and to see our new house.  it was so much fun to watch the 4 kids together.  lexi and kenzie really warmed up once they saw all of the toys upstairs :)  they loved brooke, and by the end of the night they were jumping into her arms so she would hold them.  so adorable!

october 1

tonight we had the pleasure of taking brooke and gavin to gram vicki's condo for their first sleepover.  it makes my heart happy to be able to do these things now that we're close to family again.  brooke and gavin were very excited to be at grandma's, and kevin and i were very excited to have dinner alone at nada :)