{bottom line}::

So usually when everyone is asleep at night, i have some time just for me and usually when i finally have that me time, even if it's just for a little bit, I usually spend my time thinking about my family, daydreaming about my family and loving my family. The bottom line is, I really love these people...they were meant to be with me and I was meant to be with them. Life is funny like that, you usually end up right where you are supposed to be. I really like that. i believe brody was plucked right out of heaven just for us...he is perfect. even with hard days, tired days and all the exceptional awesome days. its so worth it.

What makes a good life? I believe a happy family does.

{Christmas Glimpse} ::

Our christmas weekend started off by going to zoo lights and we also drove through the neigborhood to check out christmas lights. christmas eve we followed through on a nicholes (my family) christmas eve tradition of eating at the Olive Garden. we came home and watched the Polar Express (aka the Honker Train, as brody likes to call it). we put brody to bed and then made big mugs of hot chocolate and watched a Christmas Carol (another christmas eve tradition).







Christmas this year was pure magic. Brody was so delightful and was such a joy to watch! He loved every minute, as did we! When he woke up, he asked to go down stairs to see if Santa had come. His very first concern was to see if Santa and the Reindeer had eaten the treats we left them! indeed they did. and once Brody saw that the treats were eaten, he ran to the tree to see all his gifts!





we were all quite spoiled this year and feel so blessed and grateful! Brody reveled in all his christmas goodness! he "ohhh" and "aweeed" gift after gift. even when he opended a box of clothes he shriked with pure excited and said "YAY JEANS". funny boy that brody!







after presents we ate a yummy christmas morning breakfast and headed off to Church. After a beautiful Christmas church service, we came back home, changed into our jammies, and feasted on yummy food and treats for the rest of the day.

What a sweet Christmas it was. I never want to see brody ever grow up!

{all is merry and bright} ::

the month of december has been jammed packed with lots of fun stuff!

we kicked the month of December off by going to Brody's last gymnastics class of the season. we will miss gymnastics! he had such a great time!



our ward (church) had our annual Ugly Sweater Christmas party. a good time was had and brody did a good job with Santa. he wouldn't sit on his lap but at least he would stand next to him and of course getting candy helped too.



we've had some COSI (our science museum) fun and we also did our family tradition of St. Nick an old european tradition that takes place on december 5th. back in the day, children would write their letters to santa and leave their letter in a shoe outside there door, and Saint Nicholas would come around and collect the letters and leave children a treat. it's something my family has always done, you can read about it here.



i made "graham cracker" ginger bread houses, super easy! and we had our friends the Olsen's come over to decorate these yummy little houses. brody loved it! he got his very own house to decorate. pretty sure he enjoyed eating the candy more than actually decorating. i don't blame him, we had some pretty tasty treats!





we had a goodbye lunch with our fabulous friends the Humberts before they left Ohio for christmas break. brody and jaydn are so cute!



we went to an Ohio State Hockey game. for students and spouses with Buck I.D.'s you get in for free. our neighbors let us borrow one of there I.D.'s for brody and we had a really fun night! brody loved it, as always! he sat and watched the entire game! and of course we saw Brutus! we LOVE brutus! and pretty sure our family photo-op is priceless. just look at brody's face, isn't he thrilled we are taking a picture.





my wonderful friend Elizabeth invited brody and i over for a play date where we decorated christmas cookies and had lunch. she is amazing and had the most wonderful spread of goodies for decorating and for lunch! love her! she is also brilliant and she made frosting that the kids could paint on there cookies and had paint brushes for everyone to use. seriously a great idea!



i got tyson and brody tickets to a Ohio State Basketball game for Christmas. they had a great time! and had amazing seats! once again brody sat and watched the entire thing all while enjoying pop, popcorn and the game! he cracks me up. he won't sit still at the library for story time but he will sit for 2.5 hours at a sporting event. he's too funny!



we got our tree up and we've had lots of fun going to the store and looking at all the wonderful christmas stuff. i bribed brody at Target to put on the santa hat. i told him if he smiled, i'd let him touch the christmas lights on display. ha! it was win win for both of us. :)



it's been a great month so far... it's definitly been merry and bright!

{November Randmoness} ::

I take a lot of pictures...usually the pictures just capture the randomness of our day. There is a lot that gets left "unposted". Nothing exciting, nothing interesting, just us being us. Here is some randomness from November. We love that we get to spend so much time together as a family and have such fun adventures together!

let's not forget how we kicked off the month...i ran a half marathon with my beautiful friends! also notable tyson took brody to the osu vs. indiana football game (i had the camera, so they couldn't document there fun, but they had a blast together and our buckeyes won, woot woot!)



friday night outings...riding the bus and going out for smoothies & donuts!





every friday morning we had gymnastics aka "tiny tumblers". brody loved his gymnastics class!



painting! brody is my little Picasso! and oh how that makes me proud! i too am an artist and it makes me happy to see him exploring and usuing his own creativity! we paint a lot, and i love it!



in the words of Pablo Picasso ... All Children are Artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.


(Brody's two paintings "a cow" and "space")

one thursday night Ohio States Student Activities was...

Oh that's right! Sweat'in to the Oldies! i worked out with Richard Simmons! not only did i work out with him, but i worked out with him on stage!! when he first got on stage he started picking people out of the crowd and i was choosen! it was fabulous and he is SO NICE! I want to workout with him everyday! it was a blast!!! at the end of our workout he had everyone sit down and he gave us a pep talk, he told us about his life and growing up and how he got to where he is today. he also encouraged everyone to take care of their bodies. to make goals in life and to follow on them. to be nice to everyone. he really emphasized on how God made only one YOU. and how we need to have confidence in ourselves and to remember that God loves us and that he thinks we are special. he told everyone to be healthly and lead healthy lives and be examples to all those around us. seriously he was amazing! i loved every minute of it!





my friend Caroline's little boy Theo turned 2 and i helped make cupcakes for his birthday party that was a monkey theme! i think the cupcakes turned out super cute and they were very tasty! Theo's party was at an indoor blow up play place. Brody wasnt too sure of it at first but after about 45 minutes of me forcing him to try everything out he LOVED it and was very upset we had to leave. it was a great party and we had so much fun!!





our fabulous friends Kelli and Neal watched Brody while Tyson and I went to our last Ohio State football game of the season. we played Penn State and ugh we lost. whatev. but we had a great time! before the game we walked down and enjoyed the

"pre-game" festivites. pretty sure i can't get enough of brody in his bear suit with his ohio state gear on. he is just so yummy and fluffy! so cute! you seriously would not believe how many people ask to have a picture with him! after watching the skull session (pep rally), we walked brody home and then walked back down for the game.











one of our random afternoons at the zoo. we got lucky and had some pretty nice days in november, so we took full advantage and would go to the zoo. i love this picture of tyson and brody, we were watching the Lions.



we kicked off thanksgiving week with going to Ohio States Michigan Week Pep Rally. we really only went for two reasons 1. see the marching band and 2. see Brutus. both were accomplished! and we had a lot of fun eating yummy free food, winning prizes and showing off our ohio state pride.



along with Thanksgiving week, i hurried and threw together a little "thanksgiving" play date with a couple of friends. i made everyone a "turkey drum stick" with some little treats inside. all the kiddos got a yummy turkey apple. and lunch consisted of PB&J pumpkin shaped sandwhich, fruit and cheese cubes. the mom's had a yummy lunch of homemade chicken noodle soup, salad and garlic bread. so good! it was a success! i also made little indian hats for the kids. i think that was my favorite part!







Thanksgiving also consisted of our "Thankful Tree". it was so festive and we loved looking at all the things were are grateful for. Brody loved this activity and actually really got involved when listing off things we are grateful for. for a 2 year old we very simply tried to explain to him what it meant to be grateful and the words that came out of his mouth were... "kelli and neal", "brutus", "papa (grandpa nicholes)", "uncle jeremy", "chocolate milk". just to name a few. we really do have so much to be grateful for and i love having a reminder of how good we really have it!





we had thanksgiving dinner with our good friends the Humberts. they were fantastic company and we enjoyed a delish thanskgiving lunch! we later ate leftovers at there house and then had dessert. we were SO STUFFED!!



I love these two! How great are they? the best things ever! one thing is for sure, i am so grateful for brody and for all the happiness that he brings me! i can't imagine not being a mom. Tyson and I both agree that Parenthood really is the best thing ever, even with hard & exhausting times :) It's all so worth it!! and of course tyson is amazing! he sure does love us and we love him! i am very lucky!



so there is some of our november randomness! awe, november was good, really really good.

{Yes, another visitor and Ohio State vs. Wisconsin}::

we've been lucky to have so much family come to visit...and next it was my brother jeremy's turn to come have some fun! we were so happy he came to visit us and we had the best time!!

of course right after picking him up from the airport we headed straight to campus to show him the football stadium. ONLY because they close the gates to the public two days before home 'game days' and i wanted him to see what the stadium looked like empty and then what it would look like on the night of the football game. so of course we had our photo-op momments and then headed down to German Village for dinner where we are at Schdmits Sausage house. It was delish, jeremy loved it and we even enjoyed the live poka band, brody especially loved the music! it was pretty much rad!



we took a day and drove out the Amish to take him to Heini's cheese factory and the Amish farm. we did Heini's but the Amish farm was closed for the season (lame!)...so we continued on to do what we do best...eat! and eat we did! we had a yummy lunch at the Durdutchman and walked around the Amish grocrey store, which by the way is pretty amazing! and on top of all the good food, we got to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and colors!





we also took a few minutes downtown to hit up the replica of Columbus's Santa Maria...let's ohhhh and awwwweee shall we??



we ate breakfast at the North Star Cafe and Jeremy also joined us at our ward (church) Halloween party. He's the Army man (obviously!)



we of course had to get some pictures with Brutus...



and this little guy ADORES his Uncle Jeremy. and that's exactly what he calls him "Uncle Jeremy". Brody asks almost every other day for his "uncle jeremy". on as ide note: just the other day at the grocrey store brody's in the cart and all the sudden out of no where screams "uncle jeremy!!!!!!", "uncle jeremy come play!!!!!".



other mentionables that i didnt take pictures of (shocking i know), we also hit up COSI (our science museum), the ZOO, a few more tasty places to eat, a tour of campus, jeremy went and watch tyson teach. pretty sure we gave him the full Ohio State experience!

but most importantly...the best part of Jeremy's trip...was going to the OSU vs. Wisconsin game! This game was a heart attack waiting to happen! it was AWE-SOME!



We started the evening off by walking down to campus and hit'in up the SKULL session, we love our marching band...



after the SKULL session, jeremy and i headed out for some dinner. and brody and tyson headed home. it was brother sister bonding time at it's finest my friends. awe, did you just feel that big warm fuzzy! ;)

Like I said, this game was a heart attack waiting to happen...one minute we were ahead the next minute wisconsin ahead and then it was tied...it was crazyyyy! but in the end we WON! and everyone rushed the field...as did we! SO. MUCH. FUN. We cheered till we had no voices left! there is nothing better than a happy adrenaline rush! not only do we love our buckeyes...but jeremy does too!









Thank you for coming Brother! I love you so much and I am so happy you were able to come out and spend some much time with us! it was seriously so much fun! i wish i could press rewind and experience it all over again! in the words of brody "COME BACK...COME BACK"! youre the best and we love you!!and GO BUCKEYES!!!

THE END.