Grandma comes to town!

We've been a bit giddy around here lately.  There's nothing like a visit from Grandma Kathy!

 First order of business - a quick outing to Georgetown Cupcake.

Do you see how happy they are?

The next morning we were off to "Build-A-Bear" to celebrate Grandma's retirement.  Because how else would she want to celebrate? :)

 Will filling his bear.

 Caden filling his leapard.

Special new friends.  Isn't Grandma the BEST?

Crawling into bed with Grandma (and her kindle) in the morning is the best.  Especially over the holiday weekend when it gave mom and dad more time to sleep!

The boys enjoyed showing off their new tricks at gymastics - which has been a major highlight this Winter (thank you certifikid).

Valentines Day - we enjoyed hosting our favorite ycf friends for dinner.

But not before some family valentine box time.

We enjoyed a dinner out the next evening at Medium Rare.  I'm still thinking about how good it was.

Dave thought our first pic was too posed.  So this is what we came up with...blurry, and I have no idea what we're doing.

Earlier that day we enjoyed a beautiful time at the Jefferson, MLK, and Lincoln memorials.  Pics of that to come soon!

bye bye crib

We had a major milestone in the O'Connell home just a few weeks ago.  For the first time in over 7 years, we had no children sleeping in a crib.  This one definitely tugged at my heart strings...a passing of a season in our home.

Andrew helping untie the same bumper pads he used as a baby.  Aggghhhh, how do they get this big so quickly? 

 Hammin in up, as usual.

All ready for bed.  Every morning he proudly announces: "I not get out of bed!".  It's been a very smooth transition. ;)

seminary friends!

We were incredibly blessed to have two sweet visits with dear seminary friends at the end of  January.  

First, we drove to Pittsburgh  to suprise our dear friends (and neighbors), the Scott's,  who are church planting in New Zealand and back in the states for a visit.  There were staying with the Prices's, and preaching (Travis, that is) at their PCA church that Sunday, so we pulled up late Friday afternoon for a quick overnight stay. Tears of joy, hugs, and the excitement of all of our wee ones abounded - such a beautiful time.

9 kids and 6 adults in one house - full and wonderful. 

We had never met any of the Scott kids.  It was such a joy to see all of our kids together.

 Will was really excited to hold a baby...who wasn't much smaller than him! :)

 Andrew enjoyed some Jerram time too.

 The best part of driving through a snow storm to get there was playing in it after we arrived. 

We got our winter sledding fix!

 They also had a zip line in their backyard!  Serious fun.

 Getting ready.

 The older OC and Price kids (younger ones were napping).

Love these ladies - savoured every second.

Group pic by Andrew.

Andrew and Ella.  I have a really cute picture of them reading on Andrew's bed when they were 3!

The 5 year olds!

The older siblings (the three youngest were sleeping).  We woke Will from his nap and got right on the road.

Driving home - there were candy faires that left bags of hershey kisses on their seats!  Very exciting.

And then a few days later, the Richter's (our other seminary neighbors) arrived!  Seriously, how giddy were we?  They stopped in DC for a few nights on their way to Boston, where they are starting (planting) a new church.

Yucky astornaut ice cream at the Air and Space museum.

Taking in Ai Weiwei's cube light at the Hirshorn.

Andrew couldn't believe the pearls were real - actual TREASURE!  A fun, full day downtown.

That night we got to sneak away (thanks Erica!) for drinks/dessert.  Love these friends so much.  And so excited about what's ahead for them!

Our boys love Sam.  They've talked about him ever since our VA beach reunion a year 1/2 ago.  When I told Andrew he was coming his mouth dropped open, and he said "What!!  I didn't think we'd see him until we died, or something!"  This was one last pic taken before our boys headed out for school.  They had a LOT of fun together :).

We are so thankful for the blessing of these sweet friends!  Sharing hearts and hearing their stories - such an encouraging time.

January livin

Just a little bit of life around here...

a fun date night on Capital Hill.

I looked around one afternoon and thought I'd capture the scene:

 Will doing dishes (let's hope he continues to love it this much!)

Caden creating an obstacle course...

all while Andrew was doing his homework (I'm impressed with his focus).

Pizza movie night.

One of our kitchen chairs succumbed to life in a house of three boys (literally breaking into pieces while someone was sitting in it).  I picked up this beat up ikea chair at a local thrift store, and painted it to match our other chairs:

                                           Before                                                      After

Andrew was thrilled to be selected as Young Author for the Winter Young Author's Tea

Laughing at his story while he reads :).

With his classmate Gracie

 Their creative writing assignment was to describe what would happen if the animals got out of their cages as the zoo.  Here is Andrew's story exactly as he wrote it:
At the zoo the animals got out of their cages.  Then the Lions charged down the rode.  And the snakes were out to.  The animals got in a taxi and went to a grocery store to find food.  The snakes frightened the shoppers.  The shoppers were so frightened that there was chaos in the grocery store.  Then police came and captured the snakes in a cage.  The snake mom came and got captured to.  Then Daniel came and saved them all and took them back to the zoo.  It was a crazy day at the zoo.

And then Tia came to visit!

 Playing our new favorite game - Spot It

 Sweet times.

Fun date night with the Choi's.

 At the newly opened Range - YUM.

 The first snow!

Temp was in the teens - we didn't last long.

And to end the month with a bang - we enjoyed some incredibly sweet time with seminary friends.  Pics of that to come soon!