Lake Erie Nature Center and "the Beach"

Took a little day trip to Lake Erie Nature Center, everyones been telling us about it since we moved here. It was actually pretty interesting and FREE too ! There was an inside and outside exhibit for us to walk through. Even a planetarium that we will have to come back and check it when its open. Suddenly Alistair is VERY enthralled with SPACE !!! and any SPACESHIPS!!
Turtle exhibit and the enormous tree that was hollowed out were two of his favorite things

Lots of fish, snakes, spiders and lizard exhibits too, a boy's heaven for sure

Outside exhibits had the animals dwell in the woods of OHIO
Alistair loves the outdoors like his momma
There was a little cabin where kids camps are held during the summertime, looks really cool inside
Saw a "live " mink for the first time, I've only seen minks you wear...yuck
Alistair started hoo hoo ing like an owl when he saw them
Jeff took this amazing picture of the bald eagle we saw
Another view of the cabin and bridge
Lots of kiddos came to see the turtle exhibits, lots of new baby turtles were there
NOW FOR THE "BEACH" Yes that is what the locals call it , it is in fact Lake Erie and if you look closely you can see the frozen shore line
Ice on the lake up until it reaches the deeper part of the lake...there are 100's of shipwrecks in this lake, amazing to hear the history of it
Now swint your eyes and you can almost see downtown cleveland..it was really cool in person, pictures don't do it justice


The old lighthouse at the beaches edge , can't wait to see this is in the Spring and Summer !

Some Home Decor'

Baby's room is finally completed and she's 3 months old ...haha! Mimi (my mother) sent over the remaining touches to Autumn's room on Friday and everything is just so chic' ! We try to incorporate panda's where we could , but couldn't find enough Panda items besides stuffed animals. I'm still looking for a Panda Mobile if anyone sees one let me know !All her furniture was Alistair's previously , so we had to "doll " it up. I found this poster board in Damask black and white and added her memories to it.
I love her window, its hard to see in the picture, but on her window sill is a little Panda family , next to her window is her barette holder that Kiera made for her. One of my favorite things in her room is the lamp Mimi made her. She also made the curtains and all the bedding as well. Mimi has some amazing talent, wish I had some of it.
Daddy hung up her princess wall hanging from her Aunt Ro, didn't want it too close to the crib, in case she stood up and took it down on top of her
I was inspired by another room I saw online and Mimi made these Ribbons that hang down with picture frames
Autumn's room is now complete, now for the rest of the house !

Alistair's First Day at Preschool

We found this amazing preparation for Kindergarten school right down the road called Fit by Five. We were able to stay and watch a whole class before we signed him up for it. After many hours and days of researching the perfect place for us financially, timewise and educationally we are happy to place him here till the end of the school year (May)

Each class is 1 1/2 hours long and he goes Monday, Wed and Fridays. It give mommy and Autumn sometime to run around and do errands or maybe even workout (once I find a nearby gym with childcare in it )
The schoolhouse is red brick and so cute, the teachers there are so kind and explain their entire class schedule before and after class so that parents can work with them at home.
Alistair's classroom is upstairs and has this giant playroom/classroom for about 15 kids to do gymnastics, academics and snacktime in

Alistair loves it so far and we are so grateful for him to get some social time with other 2 year olds

Alistair

Autumn's First Date !

The meeting of Jack was wonderful ! This weekend we took the road trip to Columbus and spent our superbowl Sunday meeting our Corrigan friends. Lots of laughter and good times were had. Best of all Autumn got to meet her new boyfriend. I just love Jack's big blue eyes, I think Autumn got lost in them...hahaha. We got the bouncers lined up for their afternoon snooze

Even had them both propped after lunch to discuss the game we were about to watch

Autumn was sporting her Little Sister outfit

Proud mommies and our babies, Autumn and Jack are 2 weeks apart. Jack was born on my birthday which I am very excited about sharing with him

We got to meet several of the Corrigan's friends , Danny made his prize winning chili, and I contributed to the food with my turkey pigs in a blanket

The Festivites began with a little gambling. Some of the Questions were: How long Christina Agulaira held her note while singing the National Anthem....Brave was the note and guess was 6 seconds longs...answer 12 seconds

We had to turn in a little early , cause Ms. Autumn had a little stomach ache . She and Alistair slept 5 seconds after the car doors were shut and stayed asleep the whole 1 hr and 40 min car ride home.

We didn't actually get to see the Packers win, but listened to it on the radio ....Go packers!! Happy they won . cause I sure didn't want the dirty Steelers to win....lol

Thanks Corrigans for such a great time !

Our First Ohio Visitor

Grandma came to visit us in the cold country and we sure loved her time here. We stayed in alot , because of my work week and the snow, but we found lots to do inside as you can see in the pictures.One of the big tasks at hand was to organize all the kids toys and that was about 3 big boxes worth. I tried my hand at the drill and quite liked that power tool. Here is the end result , we are offically ready for playdates now...no more boxes to unpack...well still working on Jeff's office area and got the shed to organize yet, but that will have to wait till Spring I think

Here are my two boys acting silly, they were excited to go visit the Cleveland Zoo, we only really went to the Rainforest this time because it was all indoors and actually really warm .

At the entrance of the rainforest. lots of monkey's, gross frogs and snakes to see there

A family picture is always hard, but we captured the moment we were having

Definatly a boys exhibit , I can't stand frogs as you may know , so I only took one picture of the nasty things

Named them Hansel and Gretel , an early birthday present for my sister I think

A giant turtle looking for his friend the crocodile

I liked the lighting on this picture, very studio

Grandma and Alistair are so close, its great to see them together

Here's Autumn not really knowing what to think of all the snakes frogs and monkeys yet

McNeill family picture

Like I said family pics are hard when you got an antzy little 2 year old an infant that won't quite look at the camera

Alistair loves his sissy and spent the afternoon playing legos with her on the floor, bonding time

Our little dude is so funny and loves to play with all his old toys that he had stored in Arizona and Florida for our big move to Ohio.

Grace has decided to charge us 3 bones an hour now to babysit Autumn for us. She's upped her charge a little bit for the extra new kid