Catch Up

It's been a while.  I thought I would post a few things to catch up.

Guess what?   A has something to show you.

A's other top tooth came out.  Now she can ask Santa for her two buck teeth for Christmas.  This tooth came out on her own with no help from others.

It's been getting so cold outside.  I'd rather it be snowing than just plain cold.  E always darts out the door as soon as someone opens it.  He never complains about how cold it is, but I think this particular day was too cold for him.  You could see it in his face.

There were actually some flurries, but none of it stuck.  Colder weather means warm yummy drinks.  We received these cool mugs from my cousin and her husband  last Christmas.  I was so excited to pull them out of storage. 

Micky Mouse is a favorite in this house so these were a perfect gift!  Thanks Cuz!

I took the kids, by myself, to go get our Christmas tree.  We don't go anywhere special to get our tree.  We drive to our local Home Depot, we walk around the 6-8 ft. section, pick a tree from the pile, have the nice man saw off the trunk a bit, get the car and watch as the nice man ties it to our roof.  All done, it only took all of 15 minutes.  I look at the kids and tell them, "And that is how it's done!"  We drive home and Coach puts up the tree for the kids to decorate.

Growing up, I remember buying ornaments.  They were pretty and we used them every year till they fell apart.  Then I remember my mother having some homemade ornaments made which gave the tree a more fashioned look.  As an adult, receiving ornaments every year on St. Nick's day and then as gifts from family and friends for Christmas, I'm realizing the big deal about ornaments.  Some are homemade, some are bought, some are personalized, some are classy, some are funny.  I absolutely love taking out the ornaments and remembering when we got them, who gave them and the memories attached.  I still like the fashioned ornaments, but it is a must to have these family ornaments up.  My kids are appreciating it now at a young age, too.  If you see the Daisy Duck ornament in the picture, it was made by my husband as a child.  Cool!

Lastly, B has been moving all around the house these days.  I mentioned before her unique way of crawling.  She does not put her weight on her two knees.  She rather put one leg up and drag the other behind her.  It's so odd when you see her moving about, but so funny.

That's it for now.

Lost Tooth

A finally lost one of her top buck teeth.  It's been loose for a long time.  She started being excited about it, but then as it got in the way of her eating she started to freak out.  She didn't want me or her dad to touch it, however she didn't mind if one of the Kindergarten teachers at her school pulled it out because she heard she was a professional at pulling teeth.  It got to a point where her tooth was just dangling in the wind.  I decided to just leave her alone. 

One day, picking her up at school, I saw A with the Kindergarten teacher.  I looked at A and saw she lost her tooth.  The Kindergarten teacher looked at me and handed me over a small tooth.  I said thank you and grabbed Anne to congratulate her on another tooth gone!  However, I was getting kind of bothered at the thought that she would let someone else, other than her parents, pull her tooth out!  Geesh...

Just to let you know that her first two bottom teeth came out but never retrieved.  She might have eaten one while eating a bagel and the other was just lost at school somewhere so the good thing about this tooth is we actually have one to give the tooth fairy.  I thought the tooth fairy was very generous with the $2 she left under her pillow, however once A heard about her neighbor/classmate receiving $10 per tooth, she felt a little short changed.  Hmph.  I reminded her about the quarter I got for each tooth when I was her age and now she is saying that was how it was done in the "olden days". Got to laugh at that!

So watch out, the other upper tooth is loose and will be coming out soon. 

Killing Time

As the school year progresses, so do the play dates.  T, as I suspected, is making some great friends at school and is often invited to play dates.  After we dropped him off, the other four kids and I decided to enjoy some playtime outside while we waited for T's play date to be over.  A suggested we rake some leaves and jump into the piles we make.  Great idea!

She did most of the raking.

And the jumping.  Meanwhile...

...B found A's helmet and played with it instead of the leaves.

She got it on her head.

B was very pleased with herself.

P decided that biking through the leaf piles were a lot more fun.

E was discovering how much fun leaves could be.  Before we knew it, it was time to pick up T from his play date.

The Big Three

Happy Birthday, Eddie!

His birthday was really yesterday, November 21st.  He started the day with Mass, a trip to the park with Dad, a Redskin win, a party with both sets of grandparents and lots of cake and ice cream!  This is the most recent picture of him playing in the leaves outside.

Personality

B is still a tiny baby for an almost 10 month old, but she's got so much personality.  She is always so happy and she is an explorer!  She is now scooting around in the most odd way.  I'll have to post a pic of her scooting.  We now have to make sure all doors and gates are closed.  She is the one baby of mine that does put almost anything in her mouth to try.  Forces me to sweep and vacuum more often!

B was quietly playing with something she found on the ground outside and she took time to take a peek at me while I was shooting my camera.  Love this expression!

Coach

The 2010 SJC HS football season is now over.  Congratulations to my husband on a great season.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fantastic Halloween this year.  My kids were so very excited to go trick-or-treating.  It was even better that Daddy was able to join us this year.  Halloween is during football season and Daddy usually has to be at work, but it fell on a Sunday this year, wee hoo! 

This year we had an Asian Princess.  I was excited about putting dark red lipstick on her (to contrast her porcelain skin) and the fancy hairpiece that went with the costume, but she lost the hairpiece and she can't stand the feel of lipstick on her lips.  So, here we are, my very beautiful Asian princess!  She didn't need the lipstick, however the hairpiece would have been a lot nicer than the scarf I tied to the back of her hair.

Next, a very cute Bugs Bunny.  We had an issue with the people I bought the costume from.  They forgot to send the headpiece, which was a huge Bugs Bunny face, that sat on top of his head.  They had sent it (after I reported it missing) priority and it never arrived!  Some where out there is a rabbit head in a box.  T didn't seem to mind.  I ended up making some rabbit ears which he ended up not wearing (except for our photo shoot).

Our Hippo is back for a second year in a row!  P really loves his hippo costume.  That was fine with me!  He is so darn cute in it.

Next, we had E go as a Lion.  We've had this costume in storage.  Thank God we are able to repeat some of these costumes we spent money on!  I personally love this costume, because there was a button on his left ear that, when pressed, would let out a mighty roar!  The other great thing about this costume is how cute E looked when he was running from house to house in it.  This little body with this huge head!  E didn't remember what Halloween was all about (CANDY) and this year he was pleasantly surprised by all the free candy people were giving away.  I think Halloween has made it into his long term memory now.

And lastly, B was Santa Claus.  Each of my kids were Santa Claus as a baby.

They started with so much energy.  They ran to each house.  Then they slowed down, dragging their bags, complaining how heavy they were and then they decided they wanted to head back to the house.  This was after going around two blocks!  They each had three pieces of candy and then off to bed for school the next day.

Here are some pictures of the carved pumpkins.

A carved her own pumpkin, the ghost with candlelight.  She did a superb job.  I carved the other two.  I like happy, friendly faces.  We had a fun evening carving and scraping out pumpkin seeds with all the goopy pulp.

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween!

Preparation

Second grade is a big year!  My daughter will be receiving two very important sacraments this year, her First Reconciliation and Holy Communion.  I have a meeting about Reconciliation tonight at her school and I'm so excited for her!  Not only is she growing up physically but spiritually as well.  What an important time in her life this is.  As her primary catechist, I am determined to prepare her the best I (we) can.

This picture was way over exposed, but I loved her expression.  I tried my best to salvage the shot.

I am taking B with me to this meeting at at A's school.  The rest of the kids will be hanging out with their Dad at his work.  That should be a good time for them.

Happy Birthday

Six years ago, my first son was born.  Happy birthday, T.  I love you!

Sibling Love

The boys are so nice to their baby sister, it's so sweet to see.  T & P like to make B laugh and she plays along with them happily.  It makes my heart melt.

Look at those hands grab his face!

Help

I have three boys.  I birthed three boys.  While I was very pregnant, I unloaded the groceries from the car.  The boys are old enough to help me (& Daddy) now.  Yeh!

I'm posting a picture from a previous post.  I adjusted the colors a bit.  It's more vibrant.  I think.

Visit to Fort Valley

This past weekend we went to visit my parents in Fort Valley.  It was short, but a great visit.  We had perfect Autumn weather.  The foliage was not at it's peak, but the hint of colors were just teasing me all day.  The kids had a fantastic time.  They kept saying how beautiful everything was as we were driving up, down and around mountains.

They were pretending they were on a roller coaster, wheeeeee!

We started our day with breakfast.  Then we went to Mass.

Then we were off to find a pumpkin patch.  We found it next to this beautiful driveway.  I love the trees that line the road.  I told Coach this was my dream driveway.  I want one, please.

Sigh....Then it was off to pick some pumpkins.  I'll have to show you the pumpkins my kids chose, that's another post in itself.

T pulling our pumpkins in the wagon.

I had to put B somewhere!

I went a little overboard with these pumpkin shots.  B's expressions are funny.  She was busy playing with the pumpkins around her and every time I could get her to look up, this is what I got.  What Mom?

My mom bought me some beautiful mums.  I love them.  She got me two of the bright yellow ones.  Thanks Mom!

Then we were off to the corn maze down the road.  This maze was a decent size.  We've never done one this large before and it had a game to go along with it which A was excited about.  I didn't think it was going to take long, but it did.  I had no idea where we were inside that maze.  We didn't even find all the markers we were supposed to find.  We took some shortcuts because the boys were getting tired.

We went off the beaten path.

A view from one of the bridges in the maze, pretty.

We were all tired afterwards.  We went and got lunch, had donuts for dessert and said goodbye to Lolo & Lola.  Thank you for a great weekend!!  Love you.

Two Wheeling

When I brought A to the doctor's office for her 7 year well-visit the doctor said she should be able to do three things by now, 1) tie shoe laces, 2) swim and 3) ride a bicycle.  I left the doctor's office thinking I had some work to do. 

Today, the stores I shop at sell sneakers and even dress shoes with velcro.  It seems sensible to buy those shoes when you're in a rush and especially if you want your kids to put on their own shoes!  A is definitely up for any challenge and she learned to tie shoe laces rather quickly, practicing on Daddy's shoe's.  We bought sneakers recently that have laces so she doesn't have to worry about losing her new ability.  Check!

This Summer I was determined to get my little girl swimming like a fish.  Swim lessons?  I didn't put her in any this year.  I was thinking that she could learn under the tutelage of her parents on our trip to Florida this past Summer.  She was excited to learn and I was excited to teach her.  It didn't happen, unfortunately.  A doesn't like putting her head under the water.  This is going to take time and perhaps some help from professionals.

Biking.  Another challenge that A was excited to take on.

We didn't have to wear these large helmets when I was growing up.  This particular helmet (garage sale find) makes her look like she's going to be launched out of a canon!  Safety is key, especially for new riders and for worrisome mothers like me.  Perhaps, I should get elbow, wrist and knee pads as well.  Oh, and a mouth guard! 

I tried teaching her, but didn't have the patience.  Daddy taught her and he's got all the patience!

She learned very fast, too.

#3, check!