Serving Others

A couple of my friends and I really wanted to find something that our kids could do for someone else during this Christmas season. We know that they are very grateful children but we still wanted them to focus on giving something to someone else. They made up stockings full of goodies and gifts to give to a local retirement center so they seniors could enjoy a little Christmas gift. They worked quickly to fill the stockings and wished they could have done more. They delivered the stockings to our local YMCA who then took them to the Senior Center. I think the kids really had fun making something for someone else and perhaps for a few minutes forgot about their own Christmas wishes!

The Polar Express

We went on a Christmas pajama train ride this past weekend. The kids loved climbing aboard the train. They loved that they could sit facing each other. It was cold when we first got on, but warmed up perfectly! We enjoyed hot chocolate during our ride and the kids all got to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus who gave them all some treats and surprises. Our friends the Haymore's came with us and Heidi B. joined us as well.

A night at the North Pole

We went to a local hotel for a night of Christmas fun. A few other families came with us so it was a great party time! It was all set up for the kids to enjoy a bunch of Christmas activities. They enjoyed making crafts, visiting Santa, shopping at Santa's workshop, pizza, donuts, grabbing prizes in the blizzard booth (Gabriella was especially good at this) and of course swimming in the pool and enjoying some down time in the hotel room. It was a lot of fun. We love getting away and we hardly had to hear anyone say,"are we there yet?" because it was only 10 minutes from our house!

I guess Gabriella wanted a really good seat to view the strange cartoons they had at the hotel!
Joshua worked so hard on his craft projects, I have hardly ever seen him so focused.
Gabriella liked to empty as many bottles of glitter glue as she could. Her poor sisters were very patient while helping her make a pretty tree.

Halloween

Halloween is always such a fun day! It started off with a parade at the kids school. This is Mariah's last year to walk in the parade and that made me a little sad. Where do the years go? I was also able to peek in on all the kids Halloween parties in their classes. Wow, there was a lot of sugar consumed! I got to Mariah's class in time to watch them all have a donut eating race. Mariah actually won! It was really funny to watch the boys reaction to her winning. One girl said, "but you are so girlie, how can you eat that fast?" It was a proud moment to be her mother, I think? At least I was glad I was able to watch it.

Sweetest witch in the world!
Go Vikings! If I had to hear Mariah say one more time "I can't believe you used to fit this uniform" I was gonna give her away! I try to make myself feel better by thinking that it is because I am 7 months pregnant that she can't believe it--but whatever!
Joshua has wanted to be Robin since May. I am so glad we found him a costume that he had in mind, he is very particular. No matter how tough he thinks he is, I think he is ADORABLE!!!
Mariah and her prize winning donut eating!
I am sure anyone who knows Gabriella thinks that a devil costume would have been more fitting for her, but we are trying to bring out positive qualities in her. One lady suggested I just add a devil tail to her angel costume, that would have been funny--but I didn't so we will just pretend she is all angel!

Pumpkin Carving

Always a good time. Smelly pumpkin guts and messy kids, it doesn't get much better than that. Joshua has been counting down the days since last Halloween to carve pumpkins again. We weren't sure it was going to happen because he was having a rough week. He got his carving privilages taken away because he was struggling with his behavior. He would not listen to a word we said. It was like he wasn't even in the room as we gave him directions and tried to tell him things. It got really bad and so after a few days we had to start to take privilages away to try to get him to focus and listen to us.

To make a long story short it turned out the poor kids had 2 VERY bad ear infections and in reality could NOT hear us talk to him. I asked him if it sounded weird when we talked to him, like if he was under water or something. He said "No, it sounds like this" and then proceeded to move his mouth without making any sound come out at all. To say that we felt like the worst parents in the world is a huge understatement! Although I am sad that his ears were hurting, I am so glad that there was a fixable reason to his behavior. When I explained the whole situation to his teacher she nodded her head and said, "Oh, that explains a lot". Apparently we were not the only ones being ignored!

Too many leaves!

I know I post fall leaf pictures every year, but what can I say in Upstate NY we have a lot of snow and leaves so we have to work with what we have.



I am not going to mention any names, but someone is not pulling their weight around here. Well, ok so it is Kris:) He has been really busy with work and studying for a big test this weekend so he is forgiven. Anyway, the leaves needed to be moved off the grass and with him tied up that left me to do it. Gabriella insisted on being outside with me while I took care of the leaves and she also insisted I hold her while I blew the leaves. Maybe Kris could take some cues from me on how to multi task! I am kidding of course, but next year I want to see him do the leaves while holding a 2 1/2 year old AND be 30 weeks pregnant.

Actually not the last part, that would just be weird.

Just the Girls

I have so many pictures I want to post, but I just haven't found the time. Here are a few pictures of just the girls in our family.

Kris took the girls with him to "work" one Saturday when he was working as a physician at a bike race. Hopefully no one got hurt because from the look of the pictures they were no where near the bike racers. He keeps telling his job is really hard, but I had a few questions after this day. The girls had a great time with Daddy!

This silly face is Gabriella's newest trick so we get to see it a lot in pictures. I wonder who she learned it from...



Here I am at about 24 weeks working on another girl for our family. This pregnancy has gone so smoothly and quickly. I feel great and hope to continue to do so. We are all excited about her arrival. Joshua loves to have me lay down and feel the baby move around. The first time he felt her it really surprised him. Now he can't get enough. He says she is having a dance party in there by herself. Although he is sad he is not getting a brother , I know he already adores his new sister.