Merry Chistmas!

I think, by far, that the Twinlser's were the best gift that I received in 2009.Merry Christmas & Happy Hollidays to you and yours... Have a safe & happy New Year!

-tinny out

the Motherland

Several weeks back, Rach and I ventured north for a family reunion. We went with Nate and Whitney back to my hometown of Wauseon. This is the place where I grew up and spent the first 18 years of my life... the motherland.

My parents do not live in Wauseon anymore either, so this was a great opportunity to spend some time with them and introduce some of my extended family to the Twinsler's. This was also the longest that we have tried to travel with the girls (normally about 3 hours). So, thanks to the patience of Nate and Whitney, we set out with 2 cars, 4 adults, 2 Twinsler's, 3 dogs and 3 bikes for an adventure.

Everything went pretty well in terms of travel, and it was great to see a bunch of family that I avn't seen in literally years. The funniest thing that we heard (often) was "Wow, Ava looks just like Nick!" - poor girl.


-tinny out

Halloween

Better late than never! Here are a few pics of the Twinlser's first Halloween.
Here are the girls posing with their cousins Grace, Jocey and Grant. Our plan to have Ella be a bear for Halloween didn't quite go as planned. Rachel and I always call her Ella bear, so we thought that it was a perfect fit, then, a couple weeks before the holiday, we tried on the costumes and it didn't fit because the girls have grown so much. So, a little last minute switch-a-roo and Ava was a bear, and Ella was a penguin.
Here are Rach and I with the girls.

-tinny out

The Twinsler's First Race

A couple weeks back, the Twinsler's came with Rachel to see daddy race. Grandma and papaw came as well to watch - OK, lets be real, they came to see the girls...Here is Ella telling daddy good job after the - "Don't get any mud on me!"

-tinny out

Ella wants to say hi...

She has been talking for a while and I finally captured it on tape.

What we've been up to.....

Stay-at-home mom
Well, this is my third week taking care of the girls full-time and it is going well. The first week was a little rough as I was trying to get them to nap at the same time without waking each other up. Ava really likes to nap for two hours twice a day and Ella prefers three one hour naps. This means that mommy only gets a break for 1 hour in the morning. We have been having so much fun hanging with friends, walking/running with Giro and shopping. In my time at home I have realized that their are two inventions that I could not live without, the running stroller and the baby swing. Below are pictures of both.

The girls in the running stroller

They like it when Whitney runs with us

Ella in the swing
Ava Swinging

Go Bearcats!!
For the past couple of years my family's had season tickets to UC football and this year is proving to be very exciting!! The twinsler's don't get to go to the games, but they have a lot of fun hanging out with Katie while mom and dad get time away.

My niece and nephew cheering for the Bearcats!!

Hanging with the neighbors
This summer we have gotten the opportunity to hang out with and get to know our neighbors. We love having so many kids around and it is probably the only reason we continue to live in our extremely small house. Below is a picture of the twinslers hanging with our neighbor Lilah.

Dedication

The Twinslers and their cousin, Jocey were dedicated at church on Sunday. Here are some pictures:

The Rindels Family

Ava



Ella and Papaw