Christmas Photo 2010

Today I took the kids to have their professional Christmas photo taken for the year and since it is nearly December, I thought I'd share.  Here's to a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas 2010 season to you and your family!

Thanksgiving 2010

Suddenly it's holiday time again!  I can hardly believe it; it feels like we just baked Thanksgiving pies and started to decorate the house for Christmas last year and now, once again, that time of year is upon us.  Earlier this week, as we prepared to go over the river and through the woods to Nana and Pop's house, the kids and I did some baking for all of the desserts and treats that we were bringing for the big Thanksgiving feast.   We made a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, turkey cookies and a pumpkin cranberry nut coffee cake.  Yum!  And how sorry for our scales that we ate all of them :)

Being that the turkey cookies are decorated with mini M&Ms and candy corn, they were, by far, the most popular treat to help bake.  Much more fun to make than regular baked goods!  Nate helped me to roll and cut out the actual sugar cookies while Ben was at school and then Ben was the biggest helper in decorating them during his quiet time while the younger siblings napped.  Nate and Abby helped finish up the decorating and then we all tasted them once they were finished.  Yummy!

As Natey rolled and cut his own ball of dough with mini cookie cutters, he informed me that my tools were just like the Play Doh ones!

Benjamin had such a fun time decorating the cookies.  He meticulously counted piles of seven candy corn and enjoyed placing them in patterns according to their colors (we had candy corn and caramel corn). 

Here's Abby playing with a can of decorating gel while she "helped" us decorate our turkeys.



Ta-da!  The finished gobblers... 

Thanksgiving day at Pop and Nana's house....we opted for the blue color scheme this year, based around the adorable smocked dress that Pop and Nana bought for Abby while on vacation this summer in Cape Cod. 

Brotherly love!  Get me outta here!!!!  Abby now says "Beh" for Ben and "Ne-Ne" for Nate.

Mike and Chang were with us for the day.

Finally, ending our photoshoot with some pictures of Abby in her pretty blue dress, since she's our only little subject who will sit still and smile for the camera!  Don't you love her turkey bow?

Ponytail!

Today I was playing with Abby's hair and had the brainstorm that I could probably put it all up in a ponytail at this point, she has so much hair.  Well, I tried it and it was a success.  So, here is Miss Abby in her very first full ponytail.  Doesn't she look so grown-up with all of her hair up?  She could easily pass for 18 months.  I hope they carded her before serving her those goldfish crackers :).

Lehigh - Lafayette Day 2010

This past Saturday was the annual Lehigh vs. Lafayette football game, one of the oldest rivalries in the country.  Since it just so happens that Andrew and I are both alumni of Lehigh University :), we caught up with a group of our friends and planned a day back at the 'ole alma mater to root for them Lehigh Engineers (Mountainhawks, whatever you want to call them....depending on when you graduated!).  It's so much fun that so many of our friends from college live closeby and are also married to each other with children.  So, it's extra special to get together with the people whom we lived with throughout our Lehigh days...ten years after graduation!

There were several of our friends who were not able to make it up, but even we "regulars" who did make it had a blast tailgating and then watching the game back at Tim and Andrea's house, since the tickets for the game were hard to come by this year and it probably wouldn't be the easiest thing to do anyways with so many children in tow!

We had such a fun day of cheering on our team (who won!), catching up with friends, eating great food and just having a blast back to those simpler days of college life :).  We even drove the kids through campus and showed the the exact windows that were Mommy and Daddy's rooms when we were in college.  We walked them through Ulrich Student Center and showed them our old mailboxes.  How surreal to be there so many years later with our three children!  (And how strange that I actually remembered my mailbox number!!)

Here's Miss Abby, all dressed up in her proper Lehigh attire to root for her future school :).

Such a silly guy this Natey Joseph is!! :)  The boys each packed their own football to bring along to the tailgate party and it was a huge hit amongst all of the kids. 

Nate, Tayte McGeary and James Greenley out on the field.

Tim and Andrew were roomates in Lehigh and Jim lived in their dorm.  And for anyone with keen eyesight who may notice, yes, Andrew is wearing his finest LAFAYETTE colors...and we still allowed him to join us for tailgates despite his fashion faux pas when getting dressed that morning!

Miss Abby, so happy and resilient.  She went the entire day with a 30 minute nap in the car and was happy the whole time!  She especially enjoyed the chili at the tailgates :).

Nathaniel Birdsall, Jim and Jenn's little guy.  He'll be a big brother in a few days so he was alone with dad for this trip.

The girls: Andrea, me, Judi and Missy.  I lived with Missy and Andrea my senior year and also with Missy for a year after graduation before getting married.

The kids!  As I said, some of our other friends who are married to each other weren't able to come this time so the growing group of future engineers is even larger than this!  We have (l-r): Jonathan Greenley, Olivia Schoen, Abby, Nate, Ben, James Greenley, Nathaniel Birdsall, Amelia McGeary and Tayte McGeary.  Ben was impressed that he was the OLDEST out of the entire group!!!

Posing....Ben and Nate had their best "cheeeeeeeeeese!" chorus going as the paparazzi moms and dads took photos.

A happy Abby at the McGeary's house, eating lunch!!

Close to Walking

We're getting close to walking around here!  I'm not holding my breathe since the boys were such late walkers (15 and 17 months), but Abby certainly shows more of a desire to walk and stand by herself than either of her brothers ever did.  Guess she needs to keep up with the comedy duo!!

She has been loving our walking toys lately and just loves walking all around the house with them.  She's still prone to applying too much pressure, which causes most of these toys to tip over, but this Parents Magazine one we have is awesome in that respect.  It's so heavy that it is very difficult to tilt over, so she can press down as hard as she needs to without it causing her to topple over.  Look proud she is of herself!



Our pretty girly cruising around the family room.  She's into EVERYTHING now that she is on the go!  Just wait until she no longer has to lean up against the furniture for support and has two free hands to get into trouble - ha ha!

Poor girl gets such bad eczema on her chin in the late fall/winter.  It was the same thing last year so we lived on Aquaphor from November through January.  It doesn't seem to hurt her and we try to keep it moisturized but it's so sad looking to me :(.  Of course the excessive drooling from teething and the obsession with sticking her tongue out lately doesn't help the situation either!! :)

Freshie and Her Helper

Abby is so freshies now that she is so close to walking and gets around via crawling more quickly than I can walk.  Everytime I turn my back for a second, she is heading up the full flight of stairs (how exciting for her that we have 3 of them in our house!).  When we catch her, she smiles at us and continues to go faster, as if she will beat us to the top if she moves just a little more quickly.  What a little freshie!  :)

Of course, the boys think it's hilarious that she defies my "no's!" and continues to be naughty!  They think it's the greatest to tell on her when they spot her heading upstairs again.  But, they do love to help her, too, so when I'm right behind them, I let them give her a helping hand up the stairs.  Not that she needs it, but they are so nurturing to her, just keeping their hands on her bottom in case she slips or needs a gentle push.  Nate is probably the biggest helper of all in the area.  Here he is, assisting Little Miss as she masters climbing up the stairs.

Baking Muffins with Brianna!

This morning my friend Amy helped out in Ben and Samantha's classroom for their annual Thanksgiving Feast and Brianna came to play with Nate and Abby.  Of course we had to make our own "feast" for lunch by baking blueberry muffins together.  Nate and Bri had such a fun time being "big kids" while Abby napped.  What good helpers they both are...and so eager to wear their aprons, too!

So Many Visitors, So Little Time!

Last week was definitely a week to remember!  It started out wonderful and escalated into not-so-wonderful due to something quite contagious called Pink Eye by mid-week.  Who knew my favorite color could ever be so undesirable?  But throughout the entire time, we were hosting a houseful of family members so the company could not have been better. 

Andrew's cousin Jeff lives nearby and was getting married so that prompted the visitors from both Seattle and Buffalo.  The Arcara family from Buffalo stayed with us for the weekend and Andrew's sister Michelle and her family stayed with us for a full week.  We also had to chance to see lots of other family members and friends throughout the wedding weekend so it was a great time of catching up with everyone.  That's not to say it wasn't CRAZY at times with 5 children - ages 4 months to 4-1/2 years - living under one roof for a week.  And that was even before everyone started to get sick!  But, our kids had such a great time seeing their two cousins and I know I loved seeing my two nieces for a full week.  We miss everyone who came to see us already!



The two youngest cousins, only 8 months apart in age: 1year-old Abigail and 4-month-old Sophia.

 

Three-year-old Madelyn helping to clean up the counters after lunch one day.  I'll tell ya, this kiddie spray bottle we have is a high-demand toy.  I actually had to take it away, it was causing so much drama in the house (not to mention so many wet surfaces, but it's just not as much fun without water inside, is it?).  So note to self if you have Christmas shopping to do for any 2-5 year olds, boys or girls!!

Our dress-up area in our playroom hosts our old Halloween costumes.  This has become a favorite game around here and Abigail thinks it's a total hoot when her brothers run around like orangutangs, frogs or blue monsters.  Maddie got in on the fun and the three of them streaked across the house in their furry threads, laughing and acting silly for quite some time one night!!

Pictures of the newly married Jeff and Becky Martin!  Most of my pictures came out dark and grainy :( but I did capture a few good ones from outside and the reception ones look alright on blogger but are too grainy to print :(.  The wedding was at the chapel at Valley Forge Christian College and the reception was at the Limerick Country Club.  Probably the most beautiful ceremony we have ever been to - everything was so personalized and just lovely - and the reception was awesome.  So much fun and just perfect!

Kurt and Michelle.

The Arcaras - Uncle John, Aunt Tina, Peter and Joy.

The wedding was fall-themed with a vintage feel to it.  Beautiful!

Mother and son dance.  Aunt Loretta looked amazing!!  That foxy lady in red.... :)

Me and Andrew enjoyed a night away from the kids for some good food and dancing.

So now that the wedding festivities are over and the Arcaras have headed back to Buffalo, the week went from wonderful to....awful!!!  Pink Eye struck, there was some coughing and sore throats, sleep was not on the forefront of the children's minds and Kurt left with his brother to drive cross-country to Seattle with a new car that they were bringing home.  So, Michelle was alone with the girls and sickness was spreading rampantly through the house.  FUN TIMES!!! :)  Lucky for the basically continuous brew of coffee that Michelle and I kept going and for the kids being basically in good spirits and happy to see each other during waking hours!

Our one outing we did all week, prior to our house being hit with "the plague" was a trip to Mr. B's Cafe at one of the larger local churches in our area.  It's a fun cafe with this huge indoor climbing structure for the kids.  Everyone basically had fun there, at least off and on!

Even Abby wanted to try to go up inside the climbing structure!

Love these kiddos!  Thank goodness for the three girls to give me nice smiles when prompted since the boys want nothing to do with this and intentionally give me their cheesiest smile when asked to pose nicely for a photo.

I love this picture of Maddie giving Ben the hairy eyeball about something.  Sooo funny!  We determined that these two could definitely pass for siblings with their big, round, dark eyes and their light hair.

Abby and Soph!

Bath time for the babies.  How sad do they look?? Pink Eyes on both, eczema rash on Abby's entire mouth area.  Good grief, these poor girlies!

On our last night, we had a Family Movie Night with the three older kids.  We watched Lady and the Tramp.  Madelyn was sooo excited for Movie Night and the boys were so excited to have their cousin join them for one.  Here are all of the kids together, before we put the babies to sleep.

And finally, the three big kids getting all excited for Movie Night with their personal popcorn boxes!