Seiberling House

Please read post below for details.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We enjoyed family and turkey this year in three places. Once at Grandma and Grandpa Payne's, later that day at Brian's aunt Marlene's, then again at cousin Carol's in Seville (near Akron). All of the pictures posted were taken at Carol's farm. She has plenty of animals for kids to enjoy such as chickens, cats, dogs, rabbits, ponies, a donkey, sheep, white peacocks, uhhh normal peacocks, geese, as well as farm equipment to climb on! Isaac had a great time (as did we).

While up in the area, we had some extra time, and got directions to the house my Grandma Faye was born and raised in. This house was built by her Grandfather Seiberling, and still stands (as does the barn, even after being hit by a tornado in 1999) and is still inhabited! Unfortunately the farm is no longer in the family, but when we stopped by to ask them if they would mind if we could take some pictures of the front of the house, they invited us in for a tour! The house is amazing. The staircase doesn't even creak to give you an idea of how well this house was constructed. The family that owns it is trying to collect historical information so that he can register it with the Historical Society. I don't think he should have a problem gathering tons of info considering a large amount of the family still live in the area, and we have a huge reunion every year. I guess the big claim to fame for the house is that is was also the birthplace of my Grandma's cousing Frank Seiberling, the founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. I'm so glad that the house is in such kind, caring hands, and I hope it will stand for another 150+ years!

Off of the Thanksgiving subject, we have ordered Isaac's big boy bed! This is a HUGE step. It means no more putting Isaac in bed and forgetting about it. It means waking up in the middle of the night with a little boy in between of us. Worrying about the possibility of him walking around the house in the middle of the night while we are sleeping. Unfortunately it has to happen. They have to grow up sometime, and a new little sister will need to take over his baby bed. Hopefully the transition will be easier on him than it will be for us.

Isaac is expecting a ...

LITTLE SISTER!!! Several pictures from the ultra sound are below. Sorry that you'll have to turn your head sideways while standing on your hands, but this is how they were scanned, so this is how you see it! My favorite is the first on on the left. We took Isaac with us for the ultra sound and he really was pretty good. We told him that she was waving at him when we saw that one! The gender shots are the third and fourth on the left. Isaac was excited to report to his grandparents and aunt and uncles (and teachers at school) that it's a little sister! Most of the time he's excited about it, but he definitely has moods where he knows she means less attention to him..."No little sister!" he'll say. I think he'll be fine and be a big help when his sister does arrive! Of course Brian and I are very excited as well!

Isaac has had a great month so far... for his Daddy's birthday we stayed in Columbus with John and Steph (and Jill who is temporarily residing with them) and then went to see Playhouse Disney Live! on stage at the Palace Theater. I mentioned in the previous post that Isaac climbs a lot. I wasn't kidding...

So he was really, really good at the theater. He enjoyed watching the great big Mickey. The next evening we went to see the Wiggles concert at the Cintas center with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Anita. He stood on his seat and boogied! We all really enjoyed that show! Isaac has really grown up! You can hold conversations with him now. He likes to talk to everyone on the phone. He can count to 11 all by himself! That was a real shocker the first time we heard him do that! Prior we'd never been able to get him to go past 3! He also loves the Ohio State Buckeyes! He won't go out of the house withouth the Ohio State hat. Brian was looking at some pictures online the other night and a picture of a football game came up. Isaac could see it from his seat in the dining room, stood up and shouted, "Ohio State Buckeyes, Ohio State Buckeyes! Go Bucks!" It really is the cutest thing!

As for me, I'm feeling pregnant. I'm big. The second and all subsequent pregnancies are supposed to be worse than the first. Worse in that you get bigger faster, the aches and pains of tendons streching, the pelvis widening, and the Braxton Hicks contractions all start sooner and hurt more since your body has already done it before and knows what to do this time. The good thing is that my blood pressure has been much lower this time. Also labor should go much faster this time. That's actually scary since the last time was only about 7 hours.

Jamie, if you haven't given up on us and our blog, Brian would like to know how to do the slide shows and video. Do you use Picasa?

The reasons it has been so long since a post:
1. Brian and I work too much.
2. Isaac gets all the time he wants with us when we get home.
3. Brian has to work the comupter and the picture program.
4. I do the typing.
5. I'm pregnant and I'm tired.

I suppose we could do better, and I'm not expecting things to get any easier, obviously, but we will try to post more often.

I Know...

Yeah, I know it's been forever. I'll try to quickly catch everyone up (Jamie). So, in October we went on vacation. We spent a couple of nights in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave National Park. We took a couple of cave tours and went on a couple of hikes. Isaac doesn't walk much anymore. He runs. And climbs. And runs more. We managed to get him to take a short break with Daddy. We couldn't believe the crazy weather! In October it was in the 90's! Isaac even had a little bead of sweat running down his forhead.

So, after the short trip to Mammoth Cave, we spent some time with family in Jackson and Vinton. Dad has been working on Grandma and Grandpa Samples' house to try to get it ready for sale. We had a good time running around and playing in the leaves while Dad and Brian were putting a new storm door on the back of the house.

And of course Halloween... We asked Isaac what he wanted to be this year. We figured he'd say Mickey Mouse or Donald or Goofy. Nope. Cowboy! Where on Earth did he get that from? Anyway, he was by far the cutest cowboy we saw all night! He would answer "YeeeHaw!" when you asked what a cowboy says. And he named his horse Bo. He was very proud of his costume!

There was one other big thing we did in October that I don't want to leave out. We visited Chris, Luciana, Talyn and Hadley for their birthday party. There were quite a few of us there and we all enjoyed each other's company, good food, a great Buckeye game (projected onto the side of the house!) and exciting activities. For the girls to get their presents, they had to go on a scavenger hunt! It was really cute. Isaac enjoyed the "Jump-o-leen" and some finger painting. Andy, Kari, Talyn, Brian, and I went out to do some climbing. Kari and I didn't really climb, but the boys and Talyn enjoyed it, and I had an opportunity to play with the camera to try to figure out how to get it to work. I'm getting better...

What was I thinking! Other big thing! Erin and I flew to Atlanta to visit and shop with Kari. We had a great time catching up- definitely something we need to be doing more often...