May Highlights

MAY is always a big month for us!

It starts out with Mike's birthday on the 5th, followed by Mother's Day and then my birthday on the 18th. Mixed in between; the end of another school year, Dayton Urban Night, the New River Gorge Rendezvous and the annual visit from our dear friends, The Cobbs. It's non-stop full and to top it off this year, we have been cleaning up the house to get it ready to be sold!
We've been busy to say-the-least!

END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR: Lucas finished up school this year with a family party day with fun and ice cream.

Arianna, Lucas' school love and best friend.
Ice cream sundaes.
Axel LOVES spending time at Lucas' school. As you can see, he has no problem fitting in.The Wii Just Dance for Kids was a huge hit too.
DAYTON URBAN NIGHT: This is basically a big downtown business promotion mixed in with lots of music and activities. The entire downtown area is transformed into a street party with the trolley used for transportation. Our dear friend, Kristina, was in town for a few weeks and joined us. This was a real treat because she came all the way from Hawaii!
We love Kristina!
Axel LOVED the trolley!
Daddy & Lucas checking everything out.
We stopped in at the library for a little arts & crafts.
MOMMY'S BIRTHDAY: I had the most wonderful birthday. It stared with a trip to the children museum with Axel, Lucas, Erin, Sarah & Ephraim.

Dino dig!
Then Axel helped make yummy ice cream cone cupcakes.
Kid tested and approved!
We then headed to the climbing gym before going to Don Pablo's for some dinner and wonderful margaritas.It ended at the Cobb's hotel with a sweet celebration by the fire.

Can you see the doubt in everyone on whether or not I could get all candles too lite?!
This is one determined Mom and guess what...
I DID IT!! (Thank you Lucas!)
And they were delicious!
Kristina even brought buy THREE Cheesecake Factory desserts one evening. Evil Woman!!! :)NEW RIVER RENDEZVOUS: This is a climbing festival in West Virgina that is chalked full of fun activities, movies, treats, music and tasty food. The boys love the fact that we get to go camping. The whole weekend that starts Friday night with Dessertapolooza! A million desserts all for free. Nothing like fueling up for some rock climbing competitions! (This is secretly why we go to the rendezvous!)
It didn't disappoint!Delicious!
Saturday morning kicks off the climbing competition. Mike entered this year and would be judged on his top 20 climbs and how they were climbed (1st, 2nd, 3rd try). Our friend, Paul, was nice enough to agree to be his belayer. We were there for support. Here he is getting ready to climb...as you can see, there are some steep climbs here too!This is one of the photos where my baby doesn't look much like a baby anymore. Sorry Axel, no matter how big you get...YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY BABY!
Here's my other baby....DUST IS MY PASSION BABY!
He was in Heaven.
Dirty boy!
Axel had a big day! Notice the "FREE BABY" sign above his head...I know nothing about that!That night, it was my turn for a little climbing competition. I signed up for the Dyno Comp which is a competition among climbers to see how high you can jump from one hold to the next. There are numerous options for starting holds and ending hold each given a point value. In the end, I took second place! Not bad for a 35 year old Mom of two. :)

Here I am in the qualifying round...one minute to do as many jumps as possible.
The party raged on and Lucas fell in love with Jade. She was basically our babysitter the entire weekend.
On Sunday, everyone was tired and we opted for a hike in the New River Gorge.
It was perfect!
Since then, we've had pool parties with the Cobb's, house work, a birthday celebration for Erin, house work, a girls evening watching the movie BRIDESMAIDS ...highly recommended!!!!, more house work and now we are getting excited to see Grandma & Grandpa Anderson. They will be spending the next 1.5 weeks with us here in Ohio.

Phew!!!

Welcome Summer!!!!

We hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

Quiet Blog...

I have to apologize for another blog lull. We have been so busy getting our house ready to sell that I've barely had time to get on the computer at all. It hasn't been all work, we have had a little fun mixed in. My birthday, which was awesome and a recent trip to West Virgina to the New River Gorge Rendezvous climbing festival. I will be posting photos of both super soon. I hope to have a little free time when we list the house June 1st!

On another note...my sister-in-law, friend and wonderful Aunt to our boys, just lost her father to cancer this weekend. Please keep Aunt Kate and her entire family in your prayers and thoughts as they deal with the loss of a great man. Kate - We love you so much and know how hard times like these are. Trust that he is with God and enjoy the wonderful memories you have of him in your heart. Big HUGE hugs!!

Love, Janelle, Mike, Lucas & Axel

Mom's Day!

My big mom's day wish this year was to work on the house! I know...exciting wish huh?! Knowing that we need to get the house on the market in a few weeks has created plenty of To Do List Items along with some unwanted anxiety. We made a huge dent which is wonderful and there is finally a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Don't worry, it wasn't all work. We squeezed in a few bike rides (one alone, one family), a trip to the climbing gym and a few trips to the local parks.

All in all, we had a great day/weekend!

My day started out with fun pancakes...as you can see, we got creative.
The spiral.
Smiley Faces too.
After a little house work, we headed to Carriage Hill Metro Park. This is a favorite for the boys because of the wonderful candy store. $o.25 can buy quite the pile at this place!
Quick photo with Mom to prove I was there. :)
On our way to the farm.
There were lots of baby animals but I was too busy distributing candy to remember to take photos of them. Oops! Checking out the horses.
I love this old oak tree.
For dinner we had homemade pizzas and root beer. Our dear friend Kristina was also able to join us for dinner. She came in all the way from Hawaii to celebrate. Yahoo! The boys love Kristina...okay, we all do! :)
Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's and Mom's To Be!!! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, loving family. I cherish the time we spend together and have a whole new appreciation for alone time. :) I love you all! Thanks for making my day special.

Just for the record, I received some awesome crafts from the boys to include; homemade cards, potted flower plant, hand print poster and little green hand print bag. They made my day!

Daddy's Big Birthday!!!

The BIG 34! Daddy has caught up with Mommy and is now 34 years old. Today, the sun came out which was probably the best gift he could have ever wanted. After weeks of rain, the sun sure was an amazing sight to see.

We took full advantage of the sunshine and Daddy's birthday.

Starting the celebration the night before, we had a tasty dessert. Axel made sure he wasn't missing out on anything.
Everything checks out!
He had handmade toast with super special birthday butter for breakfast before riding his bike to work. For lunch, we meet him outside his work for a Quizno's sandwich picnic and split a big, fat chocolate cupcake.

Waiting for Daddy.
Checking out possible trees to climb.
A special cupcake treat.
Nothing like a big, fat pile of frosting to kick start your birthday.
Axel jumped right in, he was certain it was all for him.
Lucas headed straight for the extra frosting we put in the box.
Our cupcake thief!
He did let Daddy have a bite but not with out some fussing.
It was a quick bite.
Axel gave Lucas a turn too.
While at work, the boys and I wrapped presents, made cards and purchased an ice cream cake.

When Daddy got home, we headed off for a family bike ride.
We ran into a little water.
Okay, a lot of water!
So much, that we had to turn around but it was fun for sure.
Axel was a little unsure.
At home, we made sweet pork tacos with homemade flour tortillas.
So delish!
Can you taste it?!?!?!
Moments after dinner, the boys quickly helped Daddy open some presents and then to the birthday cake. Axel is all about birthdays and when I told him about Daddy having a birthday, he was super excited. He sang Happy Birthday all day long so when it came to the real thing, he was ready to perform.
Happy Birthday Daddy!
Mmmm...cake!?
Unfortunetly, the cake was a huge disappointment. We don't know if it was old or not but it had no flavor. It didn't ruin the day, Daddy got a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory so we made up for it the next night with some super awesome dessert!!

What a great day and check out this adorable card from Lucas.