Family Time

Things have been rolling along in the Patterson house!  The kids are still smiling from the joy of the Christmas season.  The Christmas tree is down, the decorations and the many nativity scenes have been put away and all the pine needles swept, however I still get a few every time I sweep the floor.  I think we are going to go fake next year!

An update on my mom, she's doing much better!  I was able to visit during the Christmas holiday and spend time with her.  She was given a tracheotomy and  put on a ventilator.  With the trache and nourishment, she had improved enough to travel to Florida - Yeh!  She was put on an air ambulance and arrived safely to a health care facility near my sister's house.  She has improved so much since arriving that she is now off the ventilator, breathing and eating on her own.  She is now able to voluntarily move her foot - giving us hope that she will regain more voluntary movement.  So now, the plan is for her to move into my sister's home and begin the alternative treatment for her cancer.  Hopefully, deo volente, she will continue to progress.

The New Year has gotten off to a great start, I think!  January seems to have some long weekends built into it because of holidays and teacher's "Professional Development" days.  But what has been really great is that my husband has been home and available to hang with us. 

What a difference it makes to have him home.  There are always responsibilities of a coach and a teacher (grading, recruiting, meetings...) that fill up time, however this year there seems to be some more time available.  The dynamics in the house are so much calmer.  There is more laughing, more help, more smiles all around!  Yeh!

The weather, I always seem to talk about the weather, has been so up and down.  It really reminds me of a yo-yo.  It's unseasonably warm one day and then we are having snow flurries the next.  What is going on?  One day, I wasn't expecting it, but it started snowing outside.  I knew it wasn't going to accumulate but it was the big fluffy kind and it was so pretty!  The kids went outside and enjoyed it while it lasted.

Like I said on Facebook, if it's going to be this cold we should be having some snow.  Please say this isn't going to be the only snow we see this Winter!  Let it snow, let it snow already.

Since we had a long weekend we thought we would plan a small day trip to this city and see it's zoo.  Can you guess which city this is?

Philadelphia!  It was so cold!  However, the small crowds were definitely nice.  I made sure to layer the kids very well and then bring the necessary additional layers just in case!

The Philly zoo had a lot of neat animals that our zoo doesn't have.  My kids love animals and know so much about them that we had to visit. 

This was very exciting for Patrick!  He loves the American Alligator and we got to see it being fed.  Unfortunately, the African animals were not around for us to see.  We were looking forward to some hippos and giraffes.

We took a pretzel break between the mammal house and the gorilla house.

They had these peacocks every where, but none were showing us their pretty feathers.

We were at the zoo longer than we thought.  We were also planning on going to the Children's museum in town, but after a long, cold afternoon outside we were pretty tired.  I think we were the last family out of the zoo. 

After the zoo, we headed off to Museum of Art, not to see the art, but to have the kids run up the steps that Rocky ran up.  We got it on video.  I had to hum the Rocky song up the steps.  Even though the kids had no idea who Rocky was, it was still fun!

I never knew there was a statue of Rocky at the Museum of Art. 

The kids have smiles frozen onto their faces.  They just wanted to get back into the car and watch their movie on the way home.  We also had the Liberty Bell on the schedule, but just drove by it instead since everyone was so tired and cold.  However, we did stop by one place before we left for home - Geno's Steaks, for the best Philly Cheese steak in Philly. 

Picture not taken by me.  I was the funny tourist with a video camera.  I felt really stupid in line and everyone seemed to order as if they were regulars.  I was looking at the menu for more choices, but you could get just one size, with just onions and a choice of whiz, American or provolone.  So, ended up buying two cheese steaks with provolone.  To tell you the truth?  It wasn't all that great.  I prefer a Jerry's steak and cheese over Geno's, but nonetheless, I'm glad I tried one.  Thanks, Geno.

With the Martin Luther King holiday, we planned on doing something rather simple, but fun, locally.  Another cold day, but more windy.  We went to Gravely Point Park in Alexandria, VA - my old stomping grounds back in the day.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't dress as warmly as I did going to Philly.  I didn't dress the kids that way either, but should have because it was miserably cold.  I think I can handle any weather as long as I'm dressed for it, and I wasn't prepared.

This place is great!  The planes are landing at Washington Regan Airport and we are sitting right under them as they land!  It's just amazing.  The kids loved it and were able to run around while waiting for the next plane to land or take off.  The best part of it was the Potomac River being right next to it so they could throw rocks and sticks into it.  Not to mention the beautiful view of the city.  We were also thinking of seeing the new MLK memorial, but there was a line just to see if you could park and we thought we would pass on that.  We can always come back another day and visit.

It's been a nice start to the year! 

C'mon, bring on the snow already!

Christmas Time

Hello Everyone!  It is that time of the year when we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ our Savior!  It's usually very easy to get into the spirit of Christmas, but there are always distractions that keep us from the true meaning of the Advent season.  This year, despite my mother being very ill, I had to remember that Christ is even more important and even more meaningful than ever.  We must still celebrate this most awesome gift of his birth.

My mother is currently in the hospital with a very advanced stage of cancer.  It is terminal.  She is currently in Virginia and hoping to be stable enough to get to Florida to receive alternative treatment for her cancer.  It's been a long month for her trying to overcome the current hurdles in front of her.  She has remained strong, peaceful and faithful throughout.  I've visited my mom, spent Thanksgiving break with her and have visited this past weekend.  My father and sister have been by her side day and night for the past month.  Please keep my mom in your prayers.  Thank you.

While at home, I am keeping busy with my five kids.  Their joy through this advent season is so comforting.  I turned on the Christmas music and let the joy and laughter flow throughout the house.  We started with the Christmas tree.  We all went to Home Depot and bought a tree.  Unfortunately, this year we chose a really icky one, however once it was decorated it wasn't so bad.  The tree was picked totally randomly and the needles pretty much hit the floor as soon as my kids were done with the tree!

I had the guy at Home Depot trim off some branches while he was cutting off the bottom of the trunk and as soon as that first branch hit the ground, I knew it was a mistake.  I had him stop and our tree is sort of lop sided.  We faced that part against the wall.

The kids were really excited about decorating.  I usually like to be involved and in the middle of it all, but there seems to be so many other things to get done, I let them go to it all by themselves.  I watched all the kids find the ornaments that they made in school or the ones that were given to them the year of their birth or the ones with their baby pictures on them.  Ornaments are so cool and I will try to pay more attention to them in the years to come.

After a while they sort of teetered out with the gobs of ornaments to put on.  That was fine with me. 

I had ornaments that were so dated - standard ornaments that I bought when I was a single lady.  They were breakable, so I had to replace them with ornaments that do not shatter.  I bought these - I love Target.  After the kids were alseep, I spent time on the tree spreading the ornaments out more evenly around our bald tree.  White lights - they make everything better.

The next thing the kids love to do are gingerbread houses.  This year we did a house but we also did a train since we like those in our family!  I wonder if Disney thought of making gingerbread Cars characters?  We would buy them for sure.

Who actually eats these things after they are made?  I know they are edible, but once they've been out on display for a few days and have collected dust, who wants to eat that?  Yuck.  This particular kit has been in my closet for a year.  We never got to it last year.  The icing was really hard, but after massaging it for a few minutes, it was good to go.  I told them they couldn't attempt to eat this one.  However, the candy still seemed to be fine. 

I think the boys were only interested in helping to sneak in some candy in their mouths when they could.  We also made a house - they can eat that one if they want.

It has been a while since I've posted.  My little boy, Eddie, celebrated his fourth birthday in November before Thanksgiving!  He has done so much growing up this past year.  Not only physically, but in his speech as well.  I don't remember if I've mentioned that Eddie has Oral Apraxia or not.  It's a neurological condition where his brain cannot communicate to his facial muscles to produce words, but through speech therapy he can get help.  This time last year, he had very few words, but this year he is now speaking three word sentences.  He's come a long way and I'm so proud of him.  He still has a way to go, but he's on his way!

I am still way behind where I'd like to be in my Christmas shopping, but that is ok.  If I don't get back here before Christmas, I pray all of you have the most blessed, Merry Christmas ever! 

Things That Make Me Smile

This is like my ode to Fall.  It's gone by so fast and the leaves are pretty much all over the place but the trees.  It's time to look forward to Winter, folks!

We had a couple of weeks of just beautiful fall weather where the sun is bright, the temperature is just right, the air smells of leaves, the wind is blowing a shower of colorful leaves over the streets...ahhhhhh - love it.  It makes me happy.

I would just walk outside and look down the street and see those trees and it made me happy.  I love how the sun makes the trees so vibrant! 

I went out one day to rake our leaves.  I didn't have leaf blower, perhaps I should get one?  I don't have time to rake every day.  I keep laughing every time I pass a lawn service blowing leaves and then see the lawn the next day be completely covered again!!  Ha! 

Have you ever seen anyone take as many pictures of leaves as I have?  Here's another one...

...and another one...

Life is moving along at home.  Here are some pictures that make me smile, too.

On one of those rare occasions that I wear heels on a night out, I immediately take them off once I'm home because my feet are tired and I need to let my toes spread out from being squished together for so long.  I left them out in the living room to find my baby wearing them around the house the next morning.  So cute!

On a lazy Saturday morning...

Taken on Veteran's day.  Tommy wears a star honoring my grandfather and offers a Mass for him at school.  Another smile on my face...

Just a random idea of mine.  I let all the kids have a water balloon and toss it outside.  These simple treats make for a lot of smiles. 

My little one...

Well, hello there...

We also got through Teach/Parent conferences, some field trips and school projects.

Sometimes, I just have to step back and just remember how blessed I am. 

Cookies! Hot Chocolate!

It was a beautiful Fall Saturday morning and a lot was going on.  My kids were trying to raise money for the Gabriel Project (a charity that helps raise money for pregnant women in need) and we all came up with an idea of selling hot chocolate and cookies outside of our house.  I thought it would be so yummy to be walking in the chilly weather and see hot chocolate and cookies!  Oh yum.  We had done it the night before and to my surprise people are very generous!  My daughter made the poster board sign and I did the rest, the baking, the making of fresh hot chocolate, carrying the table outside and making sure she had change for all her customers. 

So we spent our time outside selling cookies and hot chocolate until it was time for to leave for Coach's football game. 

I don't know what it is about jeans, but I think they make my little boys so handsome!

Now Tommy was very excited about today because he was going to his first sleepover.  Not only was he going to be spending it with one of his best buds, it was going to be a camping trip!  He was so giddy, but I was surprisingly calm considering it was the first time my son has been away from home.  I thought I would be so against sleepovers until the kids were older, but for some reason I felt ok about this one. 

I can't resist whipping out my camera on a beautiful day. 

The kids did some biking/pushing.

Have you ever seen a tricycle ridden like that?  Silly boy!

They were picking for worms, too.  I used to do this to when I was their age.  I rather not touch them nowadays.  Don't worry, Anne was in charge of handling food and drink.

Most often, people think these two are twins when we're out and about.

We ended up winning that football game, Tommy had a great time at his camping trip but came home sick (recovered quickly) and we made out pretty well for the Gabriel Project.  A good weekend overall!

Trick or Treat!

This year, it was just the kids and me.  Joe has a huge game this weekend and Halloween fell on the night he has his long meeting.  The last three years, it's worked out well for us trick-or-treaters having Daddy around.  We missed him! 

This was my bunch this year:

Anne decided not to do a princess costume this year.  She is deviating from her 7 year trend and going for something more traditional - a witch.  There were many she  could choose from and she chose a rather stylish costume, I thought.  She was far from spooky - which I liked.

Tommy and the boys are now into Chuggington Trains.  He wanted to be Wilson.  Not many people out there know what Chuggington is, but they know Thomas the Tank Engine.

Patrick loves alligators, however a lot of people thought he was a dinosaur, a dragon or a crocodile. 

Eddie didn't mind being a hippo, a costume that Patrick wore last year.  People really like this costume.  Following these photos was a animal face-off between hippo and alligator.  Each got tired of fighting each other and decided to eat the cute pig.  Just joking.

Bernadette ended up being a pig since it is the only costume I have she fit into.  I thought the best part of this costume was the tail...I didn't quite capture it very well in any shots that I took.  This is probably the first Halloween she had a clue what was going on.  She really surprised me at how quickly she got the hang of it.  She wasn't shy about knocking on strangers' doors and taking their candy.  She got mad at me if I tried to slow her down in any way.  She had a lot of energy for one who hardly had a nap that day.

My kiddos were so excited to go trick-or-treating.  I like to go when it's dark but we went right before it turned dark, around 6:30 pm.  We covered about three blocks, not even, and they were tired.  They were asking me to go home already.  Their bags weren't even filled all the way and their bags were getting too heavy for them!  I had more energy than they did!  I was following five kids around in the dark by myself.  We headed home.

We carved our pumpkins the night before, right after the Redskin's game. 

I love pumpkin carving.  I'm realizing I enjoy doing it more and more every year.  Thank God Joe was around to help carve this year because I can get a little crazy with perfection.  There were so many cool pumpkins out there.  There is more stuff to try next year.

Anne really enjoys doing them too.  She carved her own pumpkin with no help at all.  Very focused young lady.

Patrick decided to carve an alligator on his.  He had such a cute little pumpkin.

Eddie couldn't get passed the scooping of the goop.  Tommy ended up doing an alligator as well.

We were able to get all pumpkins carved before bedtime!

These were the pumpkins on Halloween night.

My pumpkin on the left (I like friendly faces) and Eddie's on the right.

Anne's pumpkin on the left, Tommy's in the middle and Patrick's on the right.

My little piggy wiggy enjoying her candy after trick-or-treating.  I think I ate about 10 pieces of candy during the day.  Yikes!! 

Hope everyone had a great Halloween...