The Martin Family

Cedar Point Pond Fieldtrip

2011-05-24T14:42:00.000-04:00

This morning I took Benjamin on his last fieldtrip of the year to Cedar Point Pond, where we spent the morning fishing and learning about ecology and pondlife. I'll be honest...I was dreading this fieldtrip. In all of my girliness, I had a hard time imagining myself fishing...and enjoying it. But, I will admit that we had a really fun time. Granted, I employed a few of our male friends who were their with their children to help me with the worms (ie do it for me) and to assist us in reeling and casting but all in all it was a really fun time. And I'll be the first to say that I was told that I thrown a mean cast, if I do say so myself :). Now catching something is another story entirely. We didn't catch anything but we had a good time trying and Ben has already told me that he wants to come back again....with Daddy...but I can come and play with Abby if i want :).

Ben and Samantha learning the art of fishing before we hit the pond...

The whole class...

Ben with the pond specialist who helped us out (ie took pity on me and helped my poor son!)

Here we are enjoying the outdoors together...

Alyssa caught a fish...actually two!

Learning all about pondlife from Mr. Glen, the expert. He was great with kids and gave such a fun tour for them!

Sleepover!

2011-05-24T14:31:00.000-04:00

Last weekend our friend Regan slept over for a night while her mom and dad went to a formal event in New York City. We had been planning this for several weeks and the kids were so excited to have Regan with us for the weekend! Regan is in second grade so we got her off the bus on Friday, had some pizza for dinner and wenr to the family movie night at our church together. The next day we played at a park and played outside at our house. What a fun time!

Regan slept on an Aerobed that we set up in Abby's room for her so that the girls could have a sleepover together. it worked out great even though Abby went to sleep a few hours before Regan and the boys did. The next morning all I heard were giggles coming from the room :)

Here is everyone in their jammies the next morning.

And here we are at one of the local parks. Regan likes to "babysit" for Abby and helped her on the climbers and slides. What a great time we had with our little friend! The boys declared that our house is "sooo boring" and that "there is nothing to do here" once Regan went home :). I think we will have to have another sleepover soon!

IVNS Spring Program

2011-05-24T14:13:00.001-04:00

Benjamin had his final Spring Musical at Indian Valley Nursery School last week, as he will be graduating in another two weeks and heading to kindergarten at a new school in the fall. What a difference from last year! While he barely sang at all last year, he certainly participated in all of the songs and choreography this year. We were so proud of our guy! You can see him in the back row, the third from the right below. He made sure to tell us several times that he is the third tallest in the class, after Eli and Michael :)

Ben after his performance with two of his girl friends, Samantha and Alyssa. They all did great in the concert and were so proud of themselves! Ben looks afraid of them, don't you think? He has a few more years to get used to women, I suppose...or he can take some lessons from his little brother Nate who has no fear of the opposite sex :)

Well done, Mrs. Fretz's class! You put on a fabulous show and we cannot wait to get our DVD copy of the performance in a few weeks :).

Auntie Chang's Baby Shower

2011-05-24T14:05:00.000-04:00

Baby Boy Caulfield is due at the end of July and we are really excited to meet our first nephew! We are looking forward to his arrival and threw a baby shower for Chang last weekend to help her prepare for her little man. Here are somephotos from the day, Abby and little cousin Emily were the cutest little hostesses!

We hung up a clothesline with some adorable little boy things on it....

The beautiful cake made by our cousin April and the little baby shoe favors filled with blue and silver Hershey kisses that I made.

18 month old Abby with 23 month old Emily in their matching garden party dresses :)

Peek-a-boo!

Chang opening up some of her many gifts! We also had everyone bring a favorite children's book to start their library of baby books. This was one of my favorite things at my own baby shower 5 years ago.

The girls just chilling together, talking about what a hard life it is to be at a party over naptime :)

Chang cutting her cake!

Cool Dudes!

2011-05-09T23:57:00.000-04:00

The Easter Bunny brought new sunglasses to the Martin kids this year! Today was such a beautiful sunny day that we decked ourselves out and wore our new shades out for the entire day. Look at these three cool dudes heading out for an afternoon at the park!

Love That Face!

2011-05-09T23:51:00.000-04:00

Nate is becoming such a big boy and at three years old, it's become quite difficult to get him to sit still for a photo. But every now and again, I'm able to catch one like this, one that shows his sweet, innocent face and the pure joy that almost always consumes him. He's a heart throb and my favorite three year old little guy...and boy, does this guy love his Mommy :)

My First Yankees Tee

2011-05-09T23:49:00.000-04:00

Abby looks great in pink...and in YANKEES!!

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T23:18:00.000-04:00

Easter this year was spent in New Jersey at Pop and Nana's house. It turned out to be a beautiful weekend with gorgeous spring weather on Easter Sunday and we had such a nice time visiting with family, partaking in the Easter festivities and, most importantly, celebrating Jesus' resurrection!

Below we are doing the annual ritual of dyeing Easter eggs except that this year we are dyeing them Star Wars style. I picked up a Star Wars kit at Target that was a huge hit with our little fanatics. Oh, how wrapping pastel eggs in Yoda shrink wrappers could enliven two little boys" holiday so much more! :)

Abby, all smiles with her favorite Poppy and Nana!

I love my sister!

After all of the excitement of the day, the Easter Bunny came while the little ones were all sound asleep...

Here we are, all dressed in our Easter finest, enjoying some time with Pop, Nana, Uncle Mike and Aunt Chang before heading home in time for our evening church service where we had even more fun with some of our friends, celebrating the rebirth of Christ!

Our prettiest little Easter girl with her huge hair bow. Love her :)

The usual sibling picturre as of late: Abby looks beautiful, Nate looks bored and Ben looks constipated :). Nate's practiciting his James Dean look for when J. Crew calls him to model some of their kid clothing in all of his rugged, 3 year old masculinity :)

Our family of 5, doing the blue and purple thing :). I just love me a good color-coordinated family picture :)

Poor little Natey had a rough few days of no naps....here, he (and Daddy) are taking a rest after brunch while watching sports.

Finally, it was so much fun to see Uncle Mike and Auntie Chang for the day! Our newest cousin is only 3 months shy of making his appearance and we cannot wait for next Easter, when he will be here with all of us :)

Two boys, Two bikes

2011-04-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

You start to think that certain things are the norm when you have an extremely cautious child like Benjamin. Such as being terrified of even getting onto a bicycle until he is over 4.5 years old. But once he did, he took off and now loves riding his bicycle. In fact, he loves it so much that after having his first bike for only a year and really only riding it for a few months in the fall, it was time for our tall boy to get a new bike that was more size-appropriate now that he had gotten over his fear of the big and scary 12" monster.

Enter Natey, the three year old who will try so many new things (as long as it doesn't involve eating it!) and strives to do anything that his cool big brother does. So, what a surprise when I glanced out my kitchen window one afternoon to see him riding Benjamin's old bike across our driveway, never having had a single lesson at all. He just took off and has not looked back since. Benjamin's old bike has now become Nate's bike and because Ben only had it for such a short period of time, it looks brand new. Ben now rides a bigger bicycle that he got for his birthday this year, which will hopefully last him for a few more seasons.

So below are our two boys, spending a sunny afternoon in their regular fashion: riding bikes together on the driveway, having a great time at it!

So Grown-Up!

2011-04-26T22:01:00.003-04:00

At nearly 18 months old, Abby has become quite the little fashionista. She loves helping to pick out pretty skirts and dresses to wear and especially enjoys searching through her hair "pretties" for something to put into her locks. She just adores my shoes and handbags and we will frequently catch her trudging across the room in mismatched shoes from my closet. She is such a girly girl, as any daughter in a houseful of men and boys should be :).

Lately Abby has been getting into playing dress up, espcially when some of the "older" girls from church come over to play with her. She has a full fan club of 5-9 year old girls :). Here, Abby is playing dress up with her eight year old friend, Regan. This lovely ensemble, however, is all Abby's own doing; she watched Regan get dressed up and then once everything was back on the floor, Abby picked it up and started to put it all on at once. Doesn't she look lovely, purple fur wrap, mardi gras beads, floral flapper hat and all?

IVNS Goes Bowling

2011-04-26T21:38:00.000-04:00

Benjamin's preschool class took their second fieldtrip this spring to Earl Bowl Lanes for a morning of bowling. Since bowling is one of my true loves in life and something I really, truly excel at....I begged and pleaded for Andrew to take the day off and go on the fieldtrip with our guy :). Once he found out that some of the other dads were also going, he was looking forward to the outing even more and was excited to have some father-son time with Benjamin.

This was Benjamin's first time bowling and he really enjoyed it. They had the bumpers set up on the gutters so it was a great and encouraging first experience for him. Andrew was looking into options for joining the bowling league with Ben by the end of the day, reliving his youth :).

Here's Ben in action...wow, these balls are a lot heavier than our Little Tikes one at home!

The final scoreboard for Andrew and Ben's lane. Obviously, they are the bottom two names. Of course Andrew was the winner and Benjamin bowled a decent 68 for his first ever time at the sport. Hey, that's better than I probably would have done if I had come instead :).

Happy Birthday to Ben and Nate!

2011-03-25T00:34:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again in our house: March, otherwise known as "birthday month" around here. Both Ben and Nate celebrate their birthdays this month and we start hearing about how they celebrate their birthdays in March several months earlier :). So, the inevitable "no-day-all-year-is-better-than-this" event starts gaining excitment soon after Christmastime from two certain little boys.

This year, our theme for the boys' birthday went without question: DINOSAURS! They both just love these prehistoric beasts and I guarantee that they can beat anyone in a Name That Dinosaur contest. It may not be quite as humbling as challenging them to a game of identifying road construction trucks by brand and official name, but it comes close. Especially when these huge words roll so easily off of their little tongues. Veloci-what? Yes, they know. What-osaurus? They'll correct you. So with that, the theme for our party was formed and I just had to work my magic and come up with some fun invitations. Voila! Here's what we ended up with:

Tyrann-o-saur Ben is turning 5!

Nate-o-saurus is turning 3!

Hope you can come to our DINO-MITE party.

Join us Saturday, March 19th

If you don't it's a crime.

'Cause we're going back to the Land Before Time.

The party's at our house. It starts at 3:30

We'll be digging for dinos and you may get a bit dirty.

Erupting volcanoes, cake, fossils and more.

Please call us today and respond with a ROAR!

So, yeah, we had some fun activities to live up to now that they were in print hanging on people's fridges. This wasn't going to be a neat party, that's for sure, but the prospect of bringing the dinosaur hunt inside sounded like so much fun to us. The house can always be cleaned, right? Just as long as the kids all have FUN!

My parents, Uncle Mike and Aunt Chang and 4 families we are good friends with joined us for the day and it was the perfect number of guests. There were 12 children, 3 of them being babies around Abby's age. All of the kids were able to particpate in some of the activities and they all seemed to have a great time with everything.

You are now entering the Land Before Time...

The boys wanted to set up their library of dinosaur books in case anyone wanted to look through them. They love reading their dino books before bed at night and have quite the library! They did make good props even if everyone was too busy to browse through them.

Look! A pteranodon left an egg for each of the kids to bring home. A papier mache egg, that is, stuffed with party favors from behind...

Of course the boys each needed their own birthday cake. Nate wanted the green stegosaurus and Ben wanted the orange triceratops.

I built a real volcano for the centerpiece and here it is stuffed with the faux smoke. Later on, we'll remove that for some entertainment. To be continued....

We played Pin the Pteranodon in the Air, which unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of since I was running the game. The main excitement was in the three activity stations we set up for the kids to try their hand at being archeologists. This is where the party gets really messy....

Each child got a bag in which to collect his/her findings. And out to the digging fields we go....

First comes the Dino Dig. Here, the kids got to dig through sand to find fossils, shells, coins, dinosaurs and bones. Ask me about making homemade fossils. I'm an expert now :).

Next the little archeologists got to make some fossils of their own to bake and bring home. With the help of Play-Doh molds and some plastic dino friends, we had lots of different fossils made by our little experts.

Finally, our paleantologists could go to the Chip Away to break away pieces of the block and reveal hidden treasures. Yeah, this proved to be a lot more difficult that it appears so luckily we had several dads on hand to intervene. To be continued as well....

Annnnddd....they're off to dig and chip away for treasures and to make fossils....

That's my girl....Abby was totally turned off by all of the gritty sand and dirt. She'd much prefer playing dolls or dress up like her mom :). What is this stuff, Mom??

Real men use real tools to reveal hidden plastic dinosaurs :). Yes, crowbars, mallets and screwdrivers eventually did the trick and the kids had fun chiseling away the plaster once the block had been warmed up....

Look at this guy, always the little heart throb! He stayed in the Dino Dig the entire party and even opted to skip out on opening his gifts so that he could go back and play in the sand. I think he was excited at the prospect of Mom letting him play with sand in the house, if you ask me :).

The continuation....we took out the faux smoke and set off a real erupting volcano for the kids before we ate dinner. They loved it! Ben told us that it was his favorite part of the party!

Dinner is served. I separated the "Herbivore" dishes from the "Carnivore" dishes so that the plant eaters could migrate to one side of the table and the meat eaters on the other :). Our menu consisted of:

Dino Nuggets

Brontosaurus PB&J sandwiches

Dino Dig Jello cups

Pteranodon Hot Wings

T-Rex Nest Candies

Velociraptor hardboiled eggs

Lava Punch

(and some boring sandwiches and Caesar salad for the adults) :)

The gang!

Everyone loved digging the plastic dinosaur out of their cup of Jello, even Abby! It was seriously the most exciting feat of anyone at the party when they finally revealed their prehistoric friend from the depths of their orange Jello. Nate was the first to do this; ironically, the one who usually doesn't like Jello. He ate it to his heart's content with the goal of digging out that dinosaur. I should bury toys in his meals more often. Hmmm.....

The Savignano gals :)

Cake time! I think the boys are enjoying themselves, don't you think?

How old are you, Nate?

THREE!!!

I'm FIVE!!!!

In case you forgot already, I'm THREE!!! Nate asked me the next day if he was still three :)

Finally, that night after everyone left and all of the fossils and dirt had been washed away in the bath, the boys opened some of their family gifts. Of course Miss Abby got a gift from Pop and Nana, too. Wouldn't want to leave out the princess when it's not even her birthday, right? :)

Dresses! I LOVE dresses much more than sand, Nana! :)

Happy 5th birthday to Benjamin and Happy 3rd birthday to Nate! We love both of you dearly and are so blessed to have you as our two sons. You make every day worth living! XOXO

Love, Mommy and Daddy :)

Yearly Pediatrician Check-Ups

2011-03-24T23:15:00.001-04:00

Wow, it feels like I haven't entered a pediatrician update for the boys in ages! I guess that is what happens when they are on the yearly schedule instead of going more frequently like they did when they were younger. At 5 and 3 years old, both of the boys keep us on our toes with their energy and curiosity. The "why" question is mentioned at least once every 3 minutes during the day :) and both of their imaginations are growing in leaps and bounds. Both of the boys are growing so much and have their similarities and their differences. Sometimes it's humorous how similar they can be and then the next minute you wonder how they can be the same gender, from the same family and be so different. It has been interesting to watch their little personalities bloom over this past year and the next year will have even more changes so I'm sure we will see even more strides. Benjamin has been registered to start kindergarten in September at Franconia Elementary School and Nate has been registered for his first year of pre-K at Indian Valley Nursery School. Wow, are they growing!

Below are the statistics from both of their recent trips to the pediatrician:

Benjamin:
weight - 39.5lbs (50th)
height - 43 inches (75th)
vision - 20/20

Nate:
weight - 32lbs. (50th)
height - 38 inches (53%)
vision - 20/30 (approximately, he was getting silly at the end of the exam!)

The doctor discovered a very slight heart murmur on Nate so we are going back in a few weeks to further assess it. She did not give reason for concern and told us that sometimes this will be the case if the child has been sick a few times recently, which Nate was this winter. So we will see what happens when we go back for our re-evaluation in April.

Benjmain's speech concerns seem to have dissipated with all of the progress that he has made this past year and a half. He will be evaluated by the Souderton Area School District in a few weeks to assess if he will need to have speech lessons during school next year. We have faith that whatever direction he needs to go for next year will be the right one for his ultimate development. He has made a lot of progress with his current speech therapist whom he sees weekly, but if he needs additional help next year then we will embrace that.

We will keep you posted on both of the boys and their follow-up evaluations. Never a dull moment around here for certain! :)

Tutu

2011-03-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

At just shy of 17 months old, Abby has already developed a sense of all things frilly and girly. She is instantly attracted to tulle, frill and lace and just loves wearing "pretties" in her hair. The other morning, I had her closet door open to get her dressed and as I was holding her, she started rummaging through her clothes to find a suitable outfit. Enter the fluffy, pale pink tulle tutu. It was like love at first sight :). Of course we had to put it on and she had so much fun all day twirling around and watching it flare out as she sat down . Here is our future ballerina in the making :)

Valentine's Day 2011

2011-02-16T22:45:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day 2011! We hope that your day was filled with as much love, laughter and heart-shaped food as ours was. It actually seemed as if Valentine's Day was about a week-long holiday in our house. From the task of supervising Benjamin as he signed his classroom valentines to the preparation for "Cupid's" arrival for the kids to the valentines we received in the mail from grandparents and aunts, it was a full week of celebrating red, pink, hearts and kisses. And we loved every minute of it! Below are our photos from the day and mainly from the Valentine's lunch we had with our group of friends after school that day. So, XOXO and here you go...

Our three little valentines waiting around for their friends to arrive for lunch, looking through some of their valentines that arrived in the mail.

Let the party begin....and we started with lunch. Ta-da, our heart-shaped spread: heart sandwiches, pasta salad with heart-shaped cheese chunks, spinach salad, and fruit hearts. We also had pink Love Potion punch.

Cupid shot his orange arrows right through these strawberries!

Favors for our guests: heart-shaped Krispie Treat pops with a pink chocolate drizzle for the kiddos and Dove chocolate for the mommies. Something has to help us survive the day with kids who are strung out on sugar, right?

Heart-shaped brownies...

After lunch we did a little craft before handing out our valentines. Everyone in this group knows each other well so it was fun to make valentines for all of our friends and hand them out. Our craft was a little mailbox in which to collect our valentines.

All set up and waiting for the kids...

Nate, concentrating on his decorating. These boys of mine just love their crafts!

Real men decorate pink crafts with heart foamies. These three are secure enough in their masculinity to take decorating with pink polka-dot foamies and heart-shaped bling seriously! What can I say? A Valentine's craft loses that Valentine's appeal when it's blue and green instead of pink and red...

Miss Abby's first real craft. She and her buddy Adriana sat at their own table and decorated. Abby did prefer ripping the stickers off once they were on, but we are working on this :).

Adriana and below her Gabby!

The whole gang (l-r): Brianna, Luca, Samantha, Nate, Abby, Ben, Tyler, Adriana, Alyssa, Tommy, Gabby and Hannah.

Handing our valentines. Abby liked to hand ours out to everyone...

What a fun, fun day we had celebrating Valentine's with our friends. So from all of us here in the Martin family:

Rose are red,

Violets are blue,

Hugs and kisses,

From us to you!

XOXOXO, Happy Valentine's Day 2011!

Little Helper

2011-02-16T21:59:00.000-05:00

What a little helper I have on my hands now that Abby is 15 months old! She has started to want to do things on her own and listens to directions so well. Here, she is helping me make lunch by getting some pretzels for the side. Of course she couldn't get the bag of pretzels without taking out all of the other snacks on that shelf (as witnessed in the background of the photo). But doesn't she just look so pleased with herself for being a little Mommy's Helper?

Birdhouse

2011-02-16T21:52:00.002-05:00

Last weekend Andrew took the kids out to buy a birdhouse kit and also a bird feeder for us to hang on our porch. We have so many different birds in our yard and the boys have been really interested in the wildlife lately that we thought it would be a fun thing for them to observe daily.

Andrew and the boys assembled the birdhouse together. The assembly took place in our basement which is (1) dark and scary, being 160 years old; (2) where all of the tools are kept; (3) a place the kids are rarely allowed to go; and (4) dark and scary, being 160 years old. Oh sorry, I already said that! While the assembly was in progress, I heard Ben proclaim from the depths of down-under as he and Nate explored the real tools in Daddy's workshop, that "This is the best room in our whole house!" Alrighty then. Think of all of the extra time I will have if I aspire to maintain the rest of the house in the same, eh, laissez-faire manner as our dear 'ole cellar :). It makes me smile when I hear what really makes the kids happy, especially the boys in all of their adventurous, rock-collecting, dirt-excavating glory.

Anyway, back at the bird house...

After it was assembled it needed to be painted. Andrew was going to hang it up au natural but I insisted that a decent daddy-son birdhouse needed to be painted. By a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. With none of those washable paints, but instead with the *real* stuff that stains and makes a total mess. Acrylics.

So we donned some old tee shirts as smocks and embarked on our journey. I must say that the boys did an excellent job. They were cautious about painting only on the birdhouse and not on the table (much) and were excited to use all of their favorite colors. Ben seemed to keep this mindset throughout the course of the task whereas Nate determined that he could mix all of the colors together to form a beautiful new color....greyish brown. But he was just as proud of his side as Ben was!

Andrew is in the process of sealing the paint and then we will hang up our masterpiece. I will post some pictures of it once we get it outdoors for our feathery friends.

Escaped!

2011-02-11T23:49:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when I turn my back for a few seconds at snack time, now that Abby sits up to the table instead of using her tray on her high chair. How quickly she makes her escape! I guess I will have to strap her in every time going forward. Freshie!!

American Museum of Natural History

2011-02-11T23:45:00.001-05:00

Last weekend while Andrew was away on a Habitat for Humanity trip with our church, I took the kids to visit my parents in New Jersey. On Saturday, we took the kids into New York to the American Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur bones. The boys just love dinosaurs all of a sudden and have been talking about going to see the bones for weeks. What a great time we had, especially Ben who literally looked at and observed every exhibit in the dinosaur rooms. He was amazed!

Big 'ole T-Rex....makes me think of Night at the Museum . I just wanted to throw him a rib bone :).

A big skull....

This is Ben with the Velociraptor. His Show and Tell this week was the letter V so we took this photo and combined it with a mini plastic Velociraptor that he got in the souvenir shop and he had his homework all ready to go!

Stegosaurus...

The boys loved feeling the hands-on exhibits, especially the Stegosaurus scale...

Tricerotops...

Miss Abby at Nana and Pop's house before we had set out on our outing. What a fun day! Thanks, Pop and Nana, for taking us there!

Icicle

2011-01-31T07:23:00.000-05:00

Wow, isn't this icicle crazy? The kids had noticed some huge icicles hanging outside of our bedroom window and were busy looking at them from inside when Dad came over, opened the window and brought one into the house. They thought it was so neat!

Snow Day!

2011-01-28T15:32:00.000-05:00

We've had A LOT of snow this winter in PA, at least it seems that way. This past week we were hit with part of the noreaster that moved up the east coast and had about 15-18 inches overnight. Even Andrew was impressed, in all of his Buffalo upbringing! It was incredibly windy and we even had snowthunder, which was a first for me. I had never heard it before and it was really neat.

Our kids have never liked playing in the snow too much, especially Ben, but this year they have decided to brave it and we all headed outside. The boys got snowballers and snow castle block makers for Christmas so they have really enjoyed using them, as well as the kiddie sized shovels that I found for them at the supermarket. So out we go....

30 minutes getting everyone all bundled up. This is going to be fun! A blast!...

Nate loves it...Abby, uh, not so much.

Ben helps shovel and loves it!

Abby, uh not so much. 10 minutes later, here's her preferred seat to the snowtube. Happy and munching on some Goldfish, watching her dad and brothers play outside! "Hi!"

Abigail's 15 Month Pediatrician Appointment

2011-01-28T15:22:00.000-05:00

After a good trip to the pediatrician, who informed us that Abby was getting all four 1-year molars at once, and then having her get the two immunizations she was due to get, we had a few cranky days at home with our curly girly. So, I didn't get a chance to update our blog with her statistics. Thankfully, the teeth have come through and the after effects of the shots have died down, so we're back to normal around here. "Normal" nowadys is a smiley, happy, easygoing girl who gets into everything and is finally walking. She laughs all the time, is fresh much of the time, and is a sweetheart always!

Abby shakes and nods her head at everything, obeys 2 step commands and eats with a spoon and fork more neatly than Ben does! She is not talking much yet, but clearly understands us and uses gestures in place of words at this point. She says "Mama," "Dada," "Beh" (Ben), "Nene" (Nate), hi and that's about it and even those are not used all the time. The doctor didn't seem concerned. She seemed to think that maybe Abby had two spokesmen representing her at all times through the day, so she didn't have the need to talk much :)...if you get my drift. We've done the drill with the late talker before with Ben, so we know to keep an eye on this. The doctor said we'll see how she is doing at 18 months but it didn't seem like a concern.

Here are her statistics. She is still on the smaller side for weight, but her hearty eating habits have caused this to not be as slight as in other months. This girl can EAT!!

Height: 30-1/2 inches (50th)
Weight: 20lbs. 8oz. (20th)
Head circumference: 18 inches (50th)

Flower Headband

2011-01-23T21:50:00.000-05:00

Abby's new flower headband from her cousins Maddie and Sophia for Christmas definitely warranted a photoshoot. I can't believe that she will actually keep it on her head (for the most part) and will hand it back to me and pretend to put it back on when it does fall off. Definitely a girly girl! Thanks, Maddie and Sophia, I love my headband :).

Snow Day

2011-01-20T21:15:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week we had a snow day when Ben's school was cancelled due to inclement weather. So, we spent the morning in our play room while the snow came down and had a great time using our imaginations.

Here's Ben, getting some tasks done around the house to help Daddy. He determined that our door sticks so he would fix it.

Abby loves this rocking zebra! She is the first of our kids to really play with it a lot and will just climb up onto it by herself and start rocking.

Group pictures! (too bad I was interrupting their play or else maybe I would have gotten a few smiles out of the boys).

Blowing Kisses

2011-01-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

Abby is such an affectionate, loving little girl. She gives kisses galore and even kisses her dolls whenever she plays with them. Lately, she just loves to blow kisses...

Walking!

2011-01-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

FINALLY! At 14-1/2 months old, Abby is clearly on her way to walking on her own. We were hoping we wouldn't have another Nate on our hands, who preferred to remain my "joey" until almost 18 months old. We should have known this would happen when we used Joseph as this joey's middle name :). In actuality though, Abby has almost matched Ben's walking pattern to a tee, later than some kids but not noticeably so. Like Ben, she has basically been walking since about 13 months old, as she would walk all over our house with ease pushing her push toys and her doll stroller with hardly any reliance on these objects for actual support. The only reliance she did have on them was mentally knowing they were there since she (and Ben before her) would get nervous and fall to the ground once they realized they were "walking."

So, we did a lot of this around here for the past two months...

...and just over the past few days, we have seen a lot more of this....

Clearly, Abby is on her way to becoming more comfortable with walking, even venturing out to walk almost as often as she crawls at this point. Yay, I am so excited for this since it is much easier to put girls in skirts and dresses when they do not have to crawl with them. Soon our little lady will be keeping up with those two silly brothers of hers!!

Martin Mission #3: Toy Story 3 on Ice

2011-01-03T00:16:00.002-05:00

We haven't had opportunity to have one of our Martin Missions since September so when we got an email a few weeks ago with a special to buy Toy Story 3 on Ice tickets for only a few dollars each, we decided to take the plunge and purchase them for something to do the week after Christmas while Andrew was taking a few days off. Well, of course it never crossed our minds that 3 of us would have colds, one would be just over the flu and another one of us would now have the flu. What are the chances?!?!

I was the only one who really debated not going on the trip since I was the sickest. But after sleeping for close to 17 hours one day and then 13 hours the night before, I woke up with no fever and I felt well enough to get out of bed and go sit at the show. What a blessing, I was so sad when I thought about having to miss this!! So, even though that night I again felt pretty overrun and flu-ridden, for 6 hours I felt ok and had no fever at all so I was able to enjoy the show.

As our other Martin Missions, we kept this as a surprise until we were all in the kitchen that morning eating breakfast. We told the kids about it and they started smiling, asking if we were going to the movie theater to see "Buzz 3" again! Uh, no, it's much better than that, just wait!!

When we did get to the show, the boys and even Abby were entranced by the ice and the performers. The characters were all there and all of the familiar songs were sung. I even bawled my eyes out in the beginning and the end, just like in the movie theater!!

It was a fun family day and something we and the kids will never forget. Here's everyone (except me) getting ready for the show to start. Each of the boys got to pick a snack for us: Nate picked popcorn and Ben picked cotton candy.

The army men!!

Aliens!!!

Nate was so serious watching it and would just nod if I asked him if he was having a good time, no words at all!

Abby steals a sip...or ten...of Daddy's Gatorade. Given the Christmas photos you may have already seen, it's no wonder that they both have exactly the same cold!!!

I'm Nate Lightyear. I come in peace.

Boy oh boy, Ben loves cotton candy and knows just how to make the biggest mess EVER with it. Thank God he has it once or twice a year at most!!

The boys helping Abby walk around after the show....

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T23:57:00.001-05:00

Is Christmas really just over a week ago at this point? It seems like weeks have passed since all of these festivities, even though our tree is still illuminated downstairs as I'm typing this and we are never ones to let it stay up more than a few days into January. Well, it's been a bad week and a half at our house with Nate catching the flu just before Christmas, myself catching it by Christmas evening and the others in the house getting colds. Hello, year-end flexible spending account!

The last time I had the flu I was pregnant with Nate and remember it being very difficult to care for Ben, who was then less than 2. This time, it was near impossible to care for three young children when I couldn't even get out of bed myself, so luckily we were at my parents' house for part of the time, Andrew was off for part of the time and Ben can now help out with a fair share of chores around the house when needed. So, it was rough but I survived and am still recovering.

However, as I looked through my Christmas 2010 photos, I was at first saddened by the limited quantity of them this year. I know there were so many other moments that could have been captured, if sickness and therefore parenting duties hadn't been on the forefront. Poor little Nate is hardly in any photos at all, since he was napping/resting for a good portion of the day on the 23rd when G and CC visited, and then also on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day when we were in NJ at Pop and Nana's house, due to being so sick. We didn't get a family photograph this year, also because of Nate being sick and me not even thinking about taking photos as I was caring for him.

This reminds me so much of a Christmas in 1982 (?) when I was about four. My mom, brother and I all had a horrific case of the flu and there is one photograph I still remember of us all looking haggard, pale and ill in our robes on Christmas morning. However, my brother and myself were still smiling because he had just found a gigantic Pepsi truck underneath the tree with his name on it and I was just happy that it was finally the much-awaited Christmas morning, illness or not. So, my regret at not having captured more or better photographs this Christmas weekend with my own family is softened when I ask the now-healthy Nate if he had a good Christmas this year. Like the younger, smiley me in that photo, he says to me, "Of course, I did, Mommy! It was FUN!" No laments over fevers, headaches, chills, upset tummys. Only rose-colored glasses allowing him to see the true splendour of the day. Oh what we see through the eyes of a babe!

Below are our Christmas photographs. Despite all of the illness, we had a lovely Christmas season being together, seeing both sides of our family, several of them up from Florida to visit, and rejoicing in the news of our new cousin and niece or nephew, who will be with us in July and make my brother Mike and his wife Chang parents. What better way to spend Christmas!

I pray that you and your family had a joyous Christmas season that beheld that same wonder of the first Christmas so many years ago. I just pray that your plans involved a little less Theraflu and Kleenex than ours did :)

December 23: G and CC Visit:
G and CC were spending Christmas in New York and Pennsylvania this year so they came for a daytrip to celebrate Christmas with us on the 23rd. We had a great time visiting and the kids had so much fun seeing them.

Poor sick Nate didn't even want to open presents at fist but after some rest, he got a little energy to open some and take a photo.

Abby started taking her first unassisted steps this weekend but is still sort of unsure about it. She was doing about 4-7 steps alone by Saturday but does still prefer holding on to someone's hand for dear life! :)

December 24: Christmas Eve in NJ
We were in NJ at Pop and Nana's house for Christmas this year and spent Christmas Eve with Aunt Catherine, who visited from Florida as well, and Mike and Chang.

Abby in her Christmas Eve outift pretending to be an elf.

Auntie Chang just loves playing with Abby (and shopping for her - hee hee!)

Aunt Catherine came to visit us from Port Orange, FL and here poses with Ben, one of her favorite young men :)

Pop with Ben and Abby in their festive outfits. Again, poor Natey is feverish and asleep :(.

The Nana Pose - lol!

Step 1: Abby sits on Daddy's lap.

Step 2: Abby warms up and sneaks a piece off of his appetizer plate when his head is turned. "No, I didn't take anything!" Good thing for loose-fit dresses, this girl can EAT! :)

Step 3: Daddy gives in and shares his other food. Yum, mozzarella!

Nate finally awkens and feels a lot better after his fever has broken. In fact, I am kicking myself I didn't snap just one photo of him that morning in his Christmas sweater before he took his nap. I didn't, thinking he'd maybe feel better when he woke up instead, and he did, thankfully. However, he also sweated through his Christmas outfit during this whole fever breaking process and was just drenched when he finally did awaken. We were going to dry his outfit but instead opted to just let him wear sweats and a casual shirt and be comfortable. Poor little man :(. Here he is with his Uncle Mike, working on some Toy Story Legos together.

December 25: Christmas Day. Again, we were in NJ and today we saw my mom's family and also Aunt Catherine, who was staying with us at the house.

Abby with her new American Girl Bitty Baby!! We were so surprised that Pop, Nana and Aunt Catherine went into New York City to the American Girl Place to buy her for Abby, along with a few different outfits for the doll. Good thing the matching outfits don't start until a 2 or 3T or else Abby would have had several of those, too, I'm sure. Ha ha! We love her and Abby kisses her constantly and plays with her all day long. I cannot believe that we are American Girl owners! I can't wait to introduce her to the historical girls in a few years but for now the Bitty Baby is perfect.

Walking her around in her new doll umbrella stroller, which also came with a portable crib and a high chair. Super cute! Even at 14 months old and not walking on her own quite yet, Abby would push her and then peek her head around to make sure the baby was ok, sometimes patting her head. How cute!

Nate didn't get a chance to shave while he was sick in bed. :)

All dressed up and still pushing her doll....

...well, that is until she discovered that she could also fit in the stroller and wait for someone to push her!!

Merry Christmas everyone and a happy and healthy 2011!

Annual Christmas Tree Cookie Making

2010-12-21T22:45:00.001-05:00

Tonight we did our annual baking of the Mirro cooky press green Christmas tree cookies that Andrew always made with his mom while growing up. Our tradition is that I make all of the other cookies and candies by myself or with the kids, but Andrew leads the making of the Christmas tree cookies. So, here we are all suited up in our Christmas aprons, which the chipper Christmassy person in the red shirt and gingerbread man apron made the entire family wear. Andrew's confident enough in his masculinity to go along with my whims.

Would have made a great photo...if it weren't for the front row!! Uh, which photo is worse? Both belie the fact that the boys actually were having a good time making these with us and instead make them appear either miserable...or constipated. Come on, people, this is what I have to work with for my nice family photograph of us decorating cookies together! And one that I spent time setting my automatic timer for, too :)

Well, moving on....the posed picture is history and we are now onto making the actual cookies. As I said, Andrew takes charge and I just go along with whatever he says for these. I almost got put into time out for suggesting we use a different type of sprinkles for the decorating! :)

Our annual serious shot of Andrew and the boys, concentrating very hard on making perfect Christmas tree shapes. I told Nate that he looked like he was about to fall asleep, at which he told me he wasn't tired and instead did what you see in the next picture....

How funny that Andrew and Ben are eyeballing him at his immediate change in demeanor! That Natey, always a character :)

Decorating....with lots of sprinkles!

Ta-da! The finished cookies....well, decorated and ready to be baked.

Waiting patiently 7-9 minutes for them to bake...

Post-cookie-eating....and ready for bed!

Daddy and Me

2010-12-21T22:31:00.001-05:00

I LOVE this picture of Andrew and his little girl! What a coy little cutie she looks like in her daddy's arms, knowing that he is her biggest fan (and easiest guy to wrap around her fingers!). ;)

Organizing the Pantry

2010-12-21T22:28:00.000-05:00

This pantry needs to be reorganized...badly. Or so Abby seems to think!

The Freshie, caught red-handed! :)

First Hot Chocolate

2010-12-21T22:23:00.001-05:00

Today marked the day when I offically let go of all inhibitions - both parental and neatness - and gave my nearly 14 month old baby some hot chocolate and a chocolate covered spoon to enjoy with her brothers. What can I say? I tried to pull the wool over her eyes when I gave her brothers mugs of hot chocolate with peppermint-clad chocolate covered spoons and gave her plain milk and Wheat Thins. Uh, no luck there, Mom. She gave me big sad eyes and just started to point at her brothers' snacks. So I felt bad and caved. To redeem myself, I did only give her about 1/4 packet of cocoa but oh, that chocolate spoon!

Here she is, happy as can be :)

Child Labor at Its Best

2010-12-21T22:05:00.002-05:00

Nate and his little friend Brianna cleaning up the counters for me while I was watching Bri one day. I swear, I didn't have anything to do with this, they wanted to clean entirely on their own. Of course I'm taking advantage of this, though :).

Piano Playing

2010-12-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

This post is for Auntie Marian, whose antique player piano we currently have at our house. Usually it stays closed but every so often, the kids ask if they can play it and they always have a fun time doing so. This is the first time that Abby has joined her brothers on the piano. I think she's having fun, huh? How convenient that she was all dressed up in a pretty dress that day. Looks like she is having a recital :). So you'll see, Auntie, that your piano is being shown lots of love while it's down here in Pennsylvania!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

2010-12-21T21:41:00.002-05:00

I suppose it's safe to say that the very content of this post - preparing for Christmas - is the reason why I have not put too many posts up recently on the blog. We've had a great month of December, putting up all of our Christmas decorations, baking, preparing for visits with family later this week and seeing many of our closest friends. We've watched some Christmas specials with the kids, done some Christmas crafts and talked to the kids about Jesus' birth many times this month. And finally the BiG DAY is almost here.

Below are some of the highlights of this past month as we prepared for Christmas. I love Christmas and just love going all out to make the holiday extra special. I pray that you and your family have the most blessed and merry Christmas day!

Getting our tree. We always go to Hague's, a local Christian-run nursery that hosts several events for my MOPS group. So, we like to go there and support the owners and we think they have fantastic trees too. This year, we opted for one main tree and a smaller tabletop tree for the kids.

The boys with their Charlie Brown tree. So proud!

Decorating the tree is very serious work. Nate immediately took ownership of the little tree and dictated where all of the ornaments should be hung on this one.

Ben, on the other hand, decided to take control of the big tree and hang some ornaments on this one. This was the first year that both of the boys were really into decorating the trees and looking closely at the ornaments.

'O Christmas Tree...

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Our Snow Village! Andrew's mom started us on this village when we first got married, and before she passed away, so it is very special to us to put it up each year. The boys love looking at it...and turning it off and on!

The centerpiece I made at my MOPS Mom's Night Out. Live evergreen, winterberry and pine cones.

Andrew and I sometimes like to pretend that we are grown-ups :) and have formal parties. This year, we had a dinner party with the eight couples we see most often We had a great time and it was so nice to get dressed up for once. Good times!

I had these little favors to hand out to everyone as they left: hot chocolate bundles. This included packets of hot chocolate, chocolate covered spoons and homemade marshmallows.

The guests all dressed up. Us - woo hoo!

Corey and Angie...

Randy and Julie...

Manny and Toni...

David and Barbara...

Mark and Heather...

Nate and Jen...

Steve and Amy...

Dave and Crystal...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :)

Souderton Christmas Parade

2010-12-06T14:47:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, Andrew's company marched in the Souderton Christmas Parade so Andrew and Nate set out on a father-son outing to join in. Ben didn't want to go and instead stayed home with me and Abby for the morning. Nate was the littlest guy in the group and walked the entire parade! He threw candy to the kids in the crowd and waved and said Merry Christmas to everyone. There were a few laughs, supposedly, when Nate flung the candy backwards a few times instead of throwing it in front of him, due to the clumsiness of his large mittens! He also threw candy to the curb a few times when there were no onlookers for about 50 feet. Ha ha, what a cutie! Here's our little helper in his Santa hat. Ho ho ho!

Getting to the finish line....Natey is getting just a little tired out!!

Gingerbread House

2010-12-03T23:04:00.001-05:00

This morning while Abby napped, the boys and I put together a gingerbread house. Well, Nate got bored after the roof was finished and took off to play, but Ben had fun with the whole thing and really enjoyed deorating it. He helped with everything from squeezing the icing "glue" onto the cookie pieces and pressing them together to holding my hand while we both piped on the decor to adding the scrumptuous candies to the outside of the house as decoration.

He's so proud of his masterpiece and even decided that we would never eat this house since he wants it for decoration. This is saying a lot for the usually-eager-to-eat-any-sweets guy!

Wow, did I really make this?!?!

Ok, Mom, pictures are now OVER. Ha ha!

What a great morning activity for the kids. It was easy to make and fun to decorate. I cannot wait to make gingerbread men in a few weeks. No baked good says Christmas to me more than gingerbread!

Little Freshie

2010-12-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

My gosh, what a little freshie we have in our house lately! Is there anything that Abby doesn't get into?

She has discovered our sticker box in the craft room, filled with tons of foam stickers. The boys love to decorate the outside of their craft chest with these stickers....and Abby likes to peel them back off for them! :)

She paints. She colors. She's a regular little Matisse. Too bad she's a bit height-challenged at this point in life for our easel :).

And she climbs. Boy, does she ever climb. She goes up and down the stairs, climbs on chairs and toys. Lately, she's discovered the step stool in the powder room and likes to mimic her brothers washing their hands. What a surprise it was to find her on top of this stool one day when I heard her enter the bathroom and just assumed she'd be going through the vanity drawers again. Uh, maybe not!

Christmas Photo 2010

2010-11-29T19:31:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-28T20:43:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-11-24T15:01:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-21T23:17:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-18T13:06:00.001-05:00

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!

2010-11-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-11-17T15:25:00.004-05:00

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!

Cashmere

2010-11-03T13:31:00.000-04:00

A girl can never have enough cashmere, can she? Thanks to Auntie Chang, Abigail received this beautiful hand-knit cashmere dress for her first birthday. Blue is one of our favorite colors since it matches her eyes so well and has always been a favorite of mine in general. So, it's perfect in color and material, soft and smooth. Miss Abby got many compliments on her new dress and her coordinating Baby Legs leg warmers (thanks, Aunt Chel!) at Ben's school this morning!

Happy Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T15:16:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween 2010! It's funny to think that yet another Halloween has come and gone; it seems like only yesterday I was sitting at the kitchen table with a 6-day-old Abigail and my mom, as we watched the boys go off trick-or-treating with Andrew and my dad. Now, here we are again, another year passed and our favorite orange and black holiday upon us again.

Last year, we had some fun festivities for the boys, but the excitement was really in the fact that we had a new baby in the house. We didn't have a Halloween party or even attend any parties, and I wasn't able to participate in much of the Halloween fun. So this year, we had two (and a half, since Abby isn't too aware of holidays yet) kids excited for the big day and we went back to incorporating some extra fun into our October 31st. The kids love to see their friends so we had a little Halloween party this year with a few families who the kids see and play with the most frequently. The kids dressed up in theme costumes (how could I resist?) and the whole family went trick-or-treating this year, along with some of our friends.

Here, Miss Abigial is all done up in one of her few Halloween outfits. This was actually on October 30th, but she had enough outfits to be able to wear them for several days prior to the actual event! So far, all three of our children have worn this gender-neutral Halloween shirt. However, with the boys being so much bigger than Abby is at her age, they actually wore this when they were 7 months old! And here is our 12 month old in the same thing. The little coordinating pants were too short for her but we had other orange and black pants as a stand-in. You can't see it too well since her ponytail has calmed down by the time I took this picture, but the hairband she has in has candy corns on it. Amy and I bought matching ones for our girls when we went shopping this summer.

And now, presenting for the first time in Technicolor :).... The Wizard of Oz! Thanks to Nana, who sewed Abby's costume, and my friend Mary's mom, who had sewed the scarecrow costume for one of her kids, we have three of the four main characters plus a stuffed lion to make up for our missing friend without courage.

Presenting our Halloween party. This is the 3rd Halloween party we have done since Ben has been born. Basically, we have had one every other year since 2006. As you know, I enjoy doing crafty things and have the mentality that I would rather make something if I can than buy it. I try to make things that we can use again, so many of the decorations and games you see have been things I have been able to re-use at our various Halloween gatherings. It's so nice to pull out our collection each year and see how it has grown.

Joining us for the party was my mom (Pop has Bronchitis so he had to stay at home!) and then our friends the Kriebels, the Liples', the Savignanos, the 2nd Savignanos (yes, related), and the Browns.

A view of the dining room. You can see the desserts and some of the games and decorations that I have made for the party.

Dessert consisted of scarecrow cupcakes and pumpkin cakepops in candy corn buckets. I don't like the scary side of Halloween, especially with little children but actually just in general, so we incorporate a lot of pumpkins, scarecrows and friendly ghosts into our Halloween decor.

Cake pops. Yup, I'm officially addicted to making these guys and they are so yummy too!

Scarecrows!

Decorations. BOO!

Trick-or-treating baskets from Pop and Nana.

Halloween beanbag toss. We didn't officially play this one, but the kids were throwing the beanbag through the holes and (even more fun!) sticking their heads through the holes themselves.

Pin the Nose on the Scarecrow. I had made this for Benjamin's preschool class when I helped at his Fall Frolic and volunteered because I knew we could re-use it at the party. So much fun! The kids had a blast being blindfolded, spun around, and seeing where everyone placed the nose.

My homemade pinata. I have always wanted to make one and since they are so expensive to buy (when they will soon be smashed apart), I spent 2 nights doing this instead. Sooo easy and so much fun! I do know for next time that it will turn out more sturdy than it seems. I was convinced it would fall apart when I filled it so I put on another layer of paper machier. It was too hard to break then and it barely even broke when one of the dads ended up having to whack it after everyone had two turns!!

Nothing says Halloween like a big friendly streamer spider hanging from the chandelier!

The food. We had some cold-weather goodies and some festive Halloween treats as well. The menu was:

Sloppy Joe sandwiches

Open Face Bologna and Cheese 'O Lanterns (for the kids)

Hot mulled cider

Apples with caramel dip

Pumpkin dip with ginger snaps and Nilla wafers

Pumpkin cheeseball

Fruit Cup 'O Lanterns

Scarecrow Cupcakes

Pumpkin Cakepops

Our first activity was a Costume Parade. We live on a fairly busy street so it was cute to have the kids parading across our front lawn for all of the passers-by to see. There were definitely some honks and cars that slowed down. We cranked up some fun kiddie music and Andrew led the parade holding "Dorothy." Someone pointed out that it is sort of ominous that we live across the street from a cemetary so this was the backdrop in some of our pictures. Good free Halloween props, I suppose!

Next up was Pin the Nose on the Scarecrow. Here I am, securing the bandana onto Hannah's head. Everyone had a good laugh seeing where their friends placed their noses!

Next up after begging and pleading from Benjamin and a few of the other kids: the favorite game, the PINATA!

WHACK!

Finally, after one of the dads hit it off of the string...and it still didn't break...I had to open it by hand and dump the treats everywhere. That's all that matters anyways, right?? :)

Candids!

There's no place like home...there's no place like home...

Abby and her little friend Allie.

Natey...the cutest scarecrow around!!

Brianna the giraffe!

The Savignanos!

Before we headed out trick-or-treating, all of the kids watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Now this was a huge hit! They were all laughing hysterically the entire show! Note to self: Great idea, Mom...and it gave the adults a few minutes to relax and eat dinner, too.

We headed out trick-or-treating at 6pm and were out for about an hour. We live adjacent to a side street with about 12-16 houses on it. So, it's perfect for the kids at this age, especially when they are all walking and it's cold and dark outside.

Daddy and the scarecrow! Best line of the night:

(Lady presents candy to Nate)

Me: What do you say to the lady, Nate?

Nate: Ummm...I think I want that one instead of this one you gave me! And by the way...thank you!

Ben leads the trick-or-treating efforts at this house.

The post-trick-or-treating party back at our place. And...out come the basket of veggies starring Luca as the pumpkin and Gabby as the peas! Cousins, only 2 1/2 weeks apart!

Amy with baby Luca.

Abby and her little buddy Adriana, aka Minnie Mouse (without her ears at this point). Sharing...

All of the kids (minus Isaac and Allie Brown, who had left) on the couch. Note the two "veggies" next to Abby. How CUTE are they, completely oblivious to all of the chaos around them!!!

Riding Bikes

2010-11-02T07:39:00.001-04:00

These Martin boys just love their bikes and could literally stay outside for hours riding them around our big driveway. It's such good exercise for them and I just love the fall, with the crisp but sunny weather. They always come back inside all rosy-cheeked and ready for a big mug of hot chocolate! We're taking advantage of this beautiful fall weather before Old Man Winter hits us in just a few weeks.

Here they are, scooting around on their bikes together while Nana was visiting us this past weekend for Halloween.

Ben's a big showoff and loves strutting his stuff on his bike, now that he is so comfortable riding it. Here, he is doing one of his favorite tricks - standing up while riding. Good thing for helmets!!

Little Natey basically taught himself to ride a bike. We worked with him a few times to teach him how to do it but at the time he was too short for the trike. Then, one day I looked outside and he was zipping around as fast as Benjamin. After it taking Ben over 4 years to really get comfortable on a bike, we are happy to see Nate scooting around at just 2-1/2!

Pillow Pet

2010-11-02T07:33:00.000-04:00

Awww, Miss Abby loves her new Pillow Pet from Aunt Lyn for her birthday!! She keeps it in her crib and cuddles and talks to her ladybug friend. These pillow guys are just too cute and cozy, we love it!!

Thursday Playdate

2010-10-28T20:57:00.000-04:00

My friend Amy and I have a childcare swap set up, where we each watch the other's children who aren't in school for one Thursday each month and then we each get one Thursday without any children. So, it's a nice break to have one day a month without the kids and it's also nice for the little guys to have the regular playdates set up.

Today, I had her youngest, Brianna, at our house while Amy enjoyed her day of freedom! Ben and Amy's two older kids are all in school, so we took Brianna home with us at the morning school dropoff at 9AM and then brought her back at the afternoon pickup at 3PM. The kids enjoy a day of playing, having lunch and napping at the other person's house and they just love it!

Here are some photos of Nate, Abby and Brianna playing this morning. Brianna and Abby were having a tea party at our little diner kitchen and Nate and I were the chef and waitress. Take note of the BEAUTIFUL hand-knit dress that Abby is wearing from Auntie Chang. She makes the kids all sorts of knit clothes and blankets - they are just lovely! Abby has gotten so many compliments on this dress! Thanks, Aunt Chang, for being the knitter that Mommy isn't :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Abigail Nancy!

2010-10-26T14:56:00.002-04:00

We cannot believe that it has been one year since our beautiful Abigail Nancy joined our family back on October 25, 2009. What a fun year it has been, learning what it's like to have a girl in the family and, specifically for me, a daughter. Abby is the sweetest, calmest baby and is just such a joy to all of us. We have recently started to see glimpses of her developing personality and are really looking forward to seeing it emerge even more during this second year of her life. We love you, Abigail! You are truly a blessing to us and, as Daddy would attest, you live up to your namesake of being "a Father's joy!"

This morning Abby had her one-year pediatrician appointment and, as usual, she was so good the entire time. She smiled at the doctor and the intern who saw us. She sat still and didn't fuss when they checked her vitals, she cried for, oh, maybe 10 seconds after her shots. And she performed on cue when asked to say "Mama," to wave, to stand and to clap. What a little well-behaved performer we have on our hands - ha ha!

She is still our little tiny girl and we love that she is so little and petite. Here are her current statistics:

Height: 29-1/8 inches (40th percentile)

Weight: 18 lbs. 13 oz. (10th percentile)

Head circumference: 17-3/4 inches (50th percentile)

Finally, some photos from her actual birthday yesterday at home. After all of the ladybug excitement on Saturday, yesterday certainly paled in comparison. But, the laid-back, quiet day at home was a nice rest for all of the kids.

Miss Abby's birthday surprises. If you read my Proverbs 31 Chronicles blog, you'll know that, yes, I am grinning ear to ear at the new wooden toys to add to our collection :). The doll stroller is from Grandpa G and CC (Abby sends a big thank you kiss!!), the baby high chair is from Mommy and Daddy and the doll Anywhere Chair is from Ben and Nate. I love Craig's List - I got both of our gifts NEW in the box for less than half of the actual cost! The real Abby got her own Anywhere Chair from Pop and Nana on her party day so of course Abby the doll couldn't not have one, could she?

Abby the doll in her new chair :)

...and her other new chair :)

...and her stroller!

Wait a minute! Now, here's the real Abhy in the new stroller! How functional...for now, she can be pushed in it and later on when she learns to walk, she can push it around. Love those Haba toys :)

Finally, one picture of Miss Abby at her birthday dinner at home. How convenient that she happens to love some of Mommy and Dadd's favorite foods...and that she requests them for her birthday dinner :). The menu was Chicken Marsala, Eggplant Parmesan, broccoli and buttered noodles. We were all caked-out after the party this weekend so for dessert we opted for another family favorite: Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundaes. Below, Abby enjoys a squirt of whipped cream with some fall sprinkles :)

Happy birthday to our little princess! You make every day just a little bit brighter :) We love you!

Our Little Lady's First Birthday Party

2010-10-24T10:08:00.002-04:00

Little black spots and polka dots,

That's what ladybugs are made of.

Won't you come and join the fun?

Our little lady is turning ONE!

Only a few days shy of having our little "lady" in the family for an entire year, we celebrated Abigail's first birthday party this morning. And what better way to celebrate our precious little girl than a ladybug-themed party. With two older brothers who dote on her day and night, Abigail has certainly become quite the little lady of the family this past year so it seemed such a fitting theme for our little sweetie.

Pop and Nana and our good friends the Kriebels and the Saunders were here to celebrate Abby's big day with her. What a fun, fun first birthday party we had and, of course, what a pleasant, happy girl Abigail was throughout the entire day. She went with the flow, watching the bigger kids do crafts and play games that she is just too little for right now and she crawled around and played instead of getting fussy when naptime came a lot later than usual. Our little ladybug had such a fun time at her big party!

Happy birthday, Abby! We love you and cannot believe that you have been in our family for a year already. What a sweet, precious blessing you are to us!

Her invitations, ladybug style.

The gift table with the first 11 months of Abigail Nancy showcased...and one of her one-year photographs framed. My, how our little girl has changed over the year!

Abby, the morning of her party, after just having seen her very own Anywhere Chair from Pop and Nana!

Our sweetest little ladybug, all dressed up in her red and black for her big day. I love this little face so much!

I have always thought that Abby has the sweetest profile, with her curved forehead and petite nose, so I just LOVE this one of her.

Happy birthday, Miss Abby! Your big brothers love you :)

Nana and Pop with the kids. We're so happy that they were able to be there to celebrate Abigail's big day.

Some fun little crafty ladybug favors I made for the kids, that they all got in their goody bags.. "XOXOXO Love the Little Lady."

Miss Abby's ladybug cake that I made for her with homemade buttercream and fondant. The top layer is actually to be removed for a separate "smash" cake for Abby!!

Our table setup. All of the kids got some fun antennas that I made for them - the girls got the headband version and the boys got the red visor version.

Miss Abby's place setting, equipped with her personal cake onesie that I made for her with transfer paper. "This little lady is "1" (cutie pie)"

Our first activity as we waited for all of the guests to arrive was to have storytime with the adorable little book, Ladybug's Birthday. The ladybug in the book had all of her little friends join her for her party and she was so happy to have all of them there to celebrate with her.

Our craft for the day went with the whole nature theme...we made ladybug or bumblebee nature jars out of coffee cans that I had spray painted. The girls made the ladybugs and the boys made the bumblebees. Here's the sample (aka Abby's) that I had made in advance. We didn't have a bee sample but you'll see pictures of the boys with theirs later on. They had such a fun time making these and I know it's something that my kids will use when they head outside to collect rocks, sticks, leaves, etc.

Miss Abby in her ladybug antennas with her Daddy during craft time...well, while the bigger kids did their crafts. One year old parties are fun to plan but unfortunately, the guest of honor usually can't participate in most of the activities. But the bigger kids enjoyed them. Next year, Miss Abby :)

Next on our agenda, as we let our crafts dry (we will be using them later on for our game), was lunch and present opening. Lunch needed to cook for a few extra minutes so we decided to distract all of the kids for a few minutes by letting Abby open her gifts. At times like this, I am glad that we have smaller birthday parties for our kids since having just a few gifts was completely manageable for a one year old.

First, a sneak peak at lunch...and then the gift opening.

Of course I couldn't do a theme as cute as a ladybug one without having some theme food to go along with it! Actually, it's part of the reason why I chose this theme. ladybugs just scream "cute" to me. So here are our goodies....I had such fun making everything!

Menu:
Homemade pizzas (BIG hit with the kids and adults!)
Salad
Fruit ladybugs
Ants on a Log
Ladybug Buckeyes
Ladybug Cake Pops
Birthday Cake

My first attempt at making the hottest trend in baking: Cake Pops. I am officially addicted!! They are so much fun, they look adorable and they are yummy to boot! Basically, they are cake mixed with icing, rolled into a ball and covered in chocolate. Ummmm....are we having fun yet?? :)

Not enough fun yet....and so we add Fruit Ladybugs, made with strawberries, grapes and mini chips. Enough ladybugs?? Well....

...we're not tired of ladybugs yet, are we?? Because who can resist Ladybug Buckeyes?? Ummm....nobody! They were a big hit....

We had some bumblebee friends during our craft time and later we'll have some inch worm friends, too. So, the ants had to make an appearance at lunchtime...no, fortunately not real ants!! :) Just the celery and cream cheese variety. Believe it or not, most of the kids ate at least one of these. So, yeah, that makes up for the sweets in my book :)

Next up: the gifts! Miss Abby thanks all of her friends for all of her super girly, incredibly fun gifts!! Thanks especially to Elaina, Sammie and Bri for applying their keen girl-sense and picking them out for their little buddy :)

Natey was one of the kids who wore his antennas for almost the entire party!! Cutie pie :)

Next after lunch, we took our nature cans we had made for craft time and headed outside to play our party game. Of course we had to use our cans to collect fun things outside, right? So, I planned this cute little scavenger hunt for the kiddos and they had a BLAST!

First, I had spray painted these little ladybug, bumblebee and inch worm friends. OK, are these guys not the CUTEST?? The kids loved them! I hid them around our patio and the object of the game was to go on a scavenger hunt to find one ladybug, one bumblebee and one inch worm each. I thought this would cause confusion and surely someone would appear with 6 bumblebees in their can...but surprisingly, these kids are smarter than I give them credit for! :) Everyone did great and did exactly what they were told. They had such a fun time. Both Ben and Nate told me it was their favorite part of the party!

Once the kids had found their three rocks, they had to head back to the steps and stand with Pop and Nana (and Abby). Here's Ben, on his way back to show off his loot!

And here is the group photo (plus Pop, holding Abby!!) after everyone had found their rock friends. Note the ladybug and the bumblebee cans that everyone proudly displays.

The final activity on the agenda -- well, of course! -- is the birthday cake. I had specially made Abby the two-tiered pink ladybug cake because (1) every one year old girl needs a pale pink tiered birthday cake :) and (2) because I just loved the idea of putting the top tier - the happy ladybug - on a separate cake board so that I could remove it to use as a "smash" cake for Abby.

Her blouse is off and she is in her special birthday-eating onesie. Abby is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her lighted cake.

Here is comes! Happy first birthday to you, Miss Abby!! :)

I want that cake NOW, Mama!!!

Ok, now I'm getting the hang of this...and it's so yummy!!

You want some??

So, so very happy...and surprisingly very neat, even when having this entire cake in front of her for about 10 solid minutes. Such a difference from her two messy brothers - lol!! Happy first birthday, sweet Abigail, we love you to the moon and back again :)

Abigail's 1-Year Photos

2010-10-19T13:33:00.001-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, we took Abigail for her 1-year photographs. She had been fussy due to teething all morning long so I debated cancelling our appointment. But after some consideration, I decided to at least give it a try. I am glad that I did!

Happy birthday to our (soon-to-be) one year old! We can't believe how quickly this past year has flown by with our princess in our family :).

Varner's Orchard

2010-10-14T23:58:00.001-04:00

This past week, we took a trip with our Mother's of Preschoolers (MOPS) group to Varner's Orchard in Collegeville for some fall festivities. We went on a tractor ride, picked apples, used pedal tractors, went through a hay maze, looked at some tractors, saw how apples are processed, visited the farm animals and had some apple cider for a snack. Phew, what a busy day! We all had a great time taking part in the fall activities and also spending some time with some friends.

Here are the majority of the kids on trip, less Abby and another little baby who were with their moms via baby carrier.

Couldn't leave out Abby and Jocelyn!

This is our tractor we went on for our scenic farm tour.

Some of the moms and kids on the tractor ride.

Nate was our diligent apple picker for the trip. He was so excited to pick apples for probably the final time this season and to place them into his bag. Poor Benjamin had a stomach ache at this point in the trip so he didn't want to participate in the apple picking. Luckily, his stomach problems were very short-lived.

These funny pumpkinheads were all over the fame. The kids loved seeing them!

The hay maze was a huge hit!! The kids kept racing through it again and again!

The pedal tractors were another fun activity. I think Benjamin and his friend Tommy stayed on these longer than anything else!

Nate also enjoyed the tractors, although he was a little too short to actually pedal them.

...But he did like the real tractor! There were about 5 or 6 real tractors - all of the different - set up around the farm to explore.

Can we go and see the farm animals yet, Mommy?

Ah-ha, here they are! Ben and Nate with their two friends Tommy and Hannah, as they discuss how the goat would go about walking up the ramp to the lookout point. Unfortunately, no goats gave us a visual example this time, but when we were here with Ben's school last fall, a goar did actually go up the ramp and put himself on display at the very top for all to see.

Pulling Up!

2010-10-10T19:52:00.000-04:00

Finally, after almost an entire year of life, Abby has started to pull up on just about everything. She pulls up on tables, I find her standing in her crib most mornings and after naps, and she pulls up on me all the time. She seems to be testing the waters for cruising, too, but still seems a little nervous to go for it. We'll see what happens and if she takes off now that she has discovered this new view of the world or if she will be content not moving on her own two feet for the next few months, like both of her brothers.

So proud of herself as she pulls up to check in on the bathtub that's filling up for the evening bath...

At Home Pizza Night

2010-10-08T22:29:00.005-04:00

Tonight I decided that we'd have a Make-Your-Own Pizza Night for dinner since it would be fast and easy and also fun for the kids. So, we made some dough in our bread machine and then let our creative sides shine as we topped our pizza crusts later on. Dinner + craft = perfect!

For the full recipe for the pizza dough, see my Proverbs 31 Chronicles blog. Be creative with your toppings - anything goes! We opted for one large pizza with everything on it (for Mommy, Daddy and Abby) and a personal pizza for each of the boys to top.

Chef 1 and Chef 2 go to work. I took owndership of spooning on the sauce and (surprisingly) this didn't cause so much as a stir. I definitely expected a "Me do it!" from Nate or a pout from Ben. I guess they were so enraptured by the prospect of doucing their crusts with a large bowl of shredded mozzarella that they let the moment pass.

Annnnnd....we're off! Who could possibly put the most cheese on their pizza?

I got this pizza-makin' thing down pat, Ma! (~Nate)
Come here, cheese, I do not have enough of you yet!! (~Ben)

Lookin' pretty cheesy...and so's your pizza, Nate :)

Sooo excited!!

And our winner for the cheesiest pizza in town...Mr. Benjamin Thomas. Can you see the cheese actually falling off the side of the pizza?

Did I mention that this activity was Dinner + Craft + Letter Recognition? Hello, Ben's pizza!

Oh, hello, N, I see you also have a pizza to be baked...

All done! Yes, his pizza is actually mounding, he has so much on it! Holy pepperoni!!

Waiting for Daddy to get home from work so that we can eat our creations. And the consensus - Nate ate more than 1/4 of his personal pizza, Benjamin ate more than 1/2 of his personal pizza and Abby ate an entire slice of the big pie. Yeah, I think this was a fun time for all :)

IVNS Fall Field Trip

2010-10-07T22:31:00.000-04:00

This morning was Benjamin's first field trip of the year with his Indian Valley Nursery School class. We went to Freddy Hill Farms for a farm tour and to pick pumpkins. What great time, he had been talking about this for the past week and was so excited to get to do something special while his brother and sister were at a friend's house.

Here is Mrs. Fretz's whole class with Mrs Fretz in jean and Mrs. Bishop in black. Benjamin got a little friendly with Lydia as the field trip went on :)

First, we took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. Ben selected a big orange one and a small green-speckled one.

My attempt at an artsy pumpkin picture. I see it on an orange scrapbook page...

After pumpkins we went through a gigantic corn maze and it was challenging enough that even a bunch of the moms (including myself) got lost inside! It took us about 15 minutes to get out of it. Seriously, this was no piece of cake and was actually a maze with deadends and all.

After the maze, we went down a giant slide and then had a homemade ice cream cone. What a fun day with beautiful, perfect fall weather!!

My New Blog

2010-10-06T14:31:00.001-04:00

Have you seen my new blog yet? It's entitled The Proverbs 31 Chronicles, since it contains items of interest for all women and moms, in categories as diversified as the Proverbs 31 lady herself. I have a link in my blog list to the right so give it a try! Let me know you're a reader by logging in with your Goggle id and clicking on the link to become a follower. Writing is one of my outlets when I need a break from life in general, so I hope you enjoy it!

Lunchtime Candids

2010-10-06T14:27:00.000-04:00

Today at lunchtime, I realized that I have not been taking as many pictures as I usually do, so I got out the camera and started flashing. Surprisingly, all three of them were in the picture-taking mood (for the most part) so I got some good ones. Maybe the trick to a good picture around here is to give them food and corner them in our breakfast nook- ha!

Isn't it fun when you're not even one yet and you can get fun hair accessories like this one to stay in place? Abigail got this last Christmas and at the time, it seemed as if she'd never have enough hair to hold it in place. Until - ta-da! - a purple shirt today warranted a fun purple hair accessory and we gave it a try. I think it works, how about you? :)

Nate the Charmer strikes again. Below, his suave, ladies-man face in one picture....and his silly guy face in the other!

Handsome Mr. Benjamin, stopping for a quick picture and looking like such a grown-up boy in one picture...and completely done with the photo shoot in the other!

Siblings!

2010-10-04T12:41:00.001-04:00

The boys just love pushing Abby around in the little pushing car. And apparently she loves it, too! :)

Just Hangin' Out

2010-09-18T20:40:00.000-04:00

Just hangin' out, as Mom realized I had no more diapers on my dresser in the middle of getting me ready for bed, so she had to go and get some from the closet. Seriously, clothes are overrated, don't ya think?

Martin Mission #2

2010-09-18T20:35:00.000-04:00

Andrew has been working quite a bit lately, both at his full-time job at CHL Systems and also part-time in the real estate and general contracting business (Marban Homes) that he is starting. He is currently working on a large project for Marban that is set to end over the next few weeks, so he has been very busy keeping everything in line with the project timeline and budget. So, he's been out most nights and many weekend days and nights.

Yesterday, though, he decided that he was going to take the day off today and plan to only work at night. So, we decided that with the weather forecast being very favorable, that we would do our 2nd Martin Mission. This is where we decide together on a place that we will visit as a family and then tell the kids that we are going on a secret mission, not revealing the location until we have arrived. So, when we told the boys, they were so excited. Actually, first they were excited that we'd be going to the Lego store again - our first Martin Mission - but when we told them that we don't visit the same place each time, they were filled with a new anticipation of this mystery trip we were taking today.

So, at 10:30AM the Martins set out on Martin Mission #2. Destination: Solebury Orchards for apple picking followed by a visit to the Peddler's Village Scarecrow Festival. Shhh....don't tell the kids until we get there :).

Andrew and I were actually really looking forward to this as well because we realized that Daddy has never come fruit picking with us before! I have always brought the kids either on a school field trip, with a playgroup or by myself when Andrew has been busy doing work around the house, to get everyone out from underfoot. So this made our decision to do this even more fun since everyone knows that Andrew is the most scrutinizing produce selector around. We knew we'd come home with a bag of the best, reddest and biggest apples that Solebury had to offer :)

The drive to Solebury is about 45 minutes so the kids were getting antsy asking why we were going far away today. But, as soon as we pulled in and they saw everyone carrying large bags and baskets of apples, Ben started smiling ear-to-ear and Nate started to tell us that he likes to eat apples. They were excited!

The excitement continued when we found out that the variety of apples in season today - Honey Crisp - were quite a far walk so Solebury was mandating that everyone take a tractor ride to the trees. How fun!!

Can you tell that Daddy and Abby are having a fun day out, waiting for our ride to arrive?

Here it comes!!

Here we are on our tractor ride to the Honey Crisp orchard!

Let the apple picking begin! The boys had so much fun selecting perfect apples, using the ladder (with Andrew) to go up and get them, and also sitting on Daddy's shoulders to reach some perfect ones, too.

Of course we couldn't go the entire day and not let Abby pick an apple! :)

After picking 20 POUNDS of apples, some of them seriously the size of softballs, we had a picnic lunch together. Then, on to the second portion of Martin Mission #2: The Scarecrow Festival. Really? Why don't we just drive around Telford if we want to see some scarecrows out by people's gardens or as part of their fall decor? Why go all the way to Peddler's Village to see that? Well, I never thought this festival would be too exciting either. I much preferred to save my Peddler's Village trips for the Strawberry Festival or the Apple Festival.

Well, was I wrong! I saw some photos of the scarecrows and just knew the kids would love it. I always love Peddler's Village in general so it seemed like the perfect leisurely Saturday outing for us and I knew it was within 5 minutes of Solebury Orchards, so the idea for Martin Mission #2 quickly formed.

On display throughout Peddler's Village are scarecrows of every genre, which will be there for all of September and October and then judged at the end of October for a prize. Most stores create their own unique scarecrow for the event and leave them outside their shop, such as a cupcake-shaped scarecrow from the bakery, a scarecrow strewn with grapevines from the winery, etc. Locals can also submit scarecrows for the contest. There are also some fun scarecrow building workshops and other fall-themed activities, along with the usual live music and festival feel of all of Peddler's outdoor events. We didn't partake in any of the extra activities, just because it had already been a long day for the kids, but merely just walked around and took in the sights.

Below are some of our favorite scarecrows. Enjoy!

Nate loved this "muscle man" since he is always showing off his big muscles to everyone - lol!

My personal favorite! Mr. Angry Eyes.
"I'm packing your angry eyes just in case." ~ Mrs. Potato Head, Toy Story 2

Andrew's favorite - Straw Trooper :)

Ben couldn't decide on a favorite but really liked these three. He loves Woody and has recently started liking The Cat in the Hat show on TV so he got a kick out of that one. Plus, he likes pirates so he spotted the pirate one himself and was very excited about it!

Lunch Bunch

2010-09-16T22:30:00.003-04:00

Here's Ben, dressed in his favorite new school shirt, which he picked out himself; with his backpack next to him filled with his homework (!!) - optional, but homework nonetheless; and holding his lunchbox, all packed with his lunch for his first Lunch Bunch and kindergarten enrichment session of the year. Wow, when did my baby turn into a little boy who picks out his own clothes, has homework and brings a bagged lunch to school since he'll be there from 9am-3pm??!! Well, all of a sudden this big boy is here at the Martin household and we don't even know where the time went.

But, boy oh boy, is he excited to be growing up. He has fully embraced this "big-boy-ness" and just loves the idea of being at school all day long one day per week. He'll have his regular schedule on Tuesday and Wednesday - being picked up before lunchtime - but every Thursday he will stay for the afternoon kindergarten enrichment session with his 3 buddies - Tyler, Samantha and Alyssa (among some other kids). He is enrolled in the art session, since Ben could do projects all day long if we let him and it works best with my schedule for Thursdays to be his long day.

After his morning preschool session is over, the kids who are in his enrichment class all eat lunch together in the kindergarten classroom (wow, now that is very exciting to Ben!). They have indoor play, outside or gym recess, and a half hour of rest time, where they lay on a mat and listen to music. Then they do their art session, have storytime and head home at 3pm.

Ben had such a wonderful time today at his Lunch Bunch and art session. He was so excited that he didn't have to do his quiet time in his room today and could instead do fun things at school. And of course he let Nate know about all of the fun he'd be having while Nate was napping...ohhh, about 10 times :).

We're looking forward to next Thursday already!!

1st Day of School Lunch

2010-09-14T23:07:00.004-04:00

Today was the first official day of preschool for Ben so we went for a celebratory lunch afterwards with some friends. Something suitable for the occasion, something really classy and chic. Yup, McDonald's. They do have a McCafe bar now with lattes, frappucinos and the like, so that brings it up a notch (or two or three) to me. Have you tried the frappes yet? Uh, you just may change your opinion of the Golden Arches once you do.

But alas, Amy, Dave and I took the kids to their favorite restaurant for a fun after-school meal and, of course, some play time in the outdoor Playland. Crystal has been home two days after having Baby Luca Anthony, so dad was represented from the Savignano household while mommy got some rest at home.

The whole gang giving their biggest and brightest cheesy smile! It's amazing how silly a group of 2 to 5 year olds can be when you get them together! I believe only moments before this, they were using their imaginations while eating; that is to say that their apple slices and french fries somehow became claws! They all did manage to eat just about everything, though, so that always marks a good meal :).

Nate and Brianna are also in this photo, the two 2-year-olds who dream of going to school like their older siblings and are in denial that they have to wait a whole 'nother year :(

Hi, Sammie! Sorry Nate stole your seat with the "big kids" and you are peeking out at the bottom of the photo! Will you look at all of those smiles? It must have been a great first day today. They are off to a bright new year of learning new things, making new friends and having a new teacher. It looks like they all should be singing "It's the mooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the year!" with the moms and dads :)

Abby's Wild Side

2010-09-14T22:51:00.002-04:00

Grrr! She's crawls everywhere with speed. She has crazy bed head in the morning. Every morning. She eats peas, beans, broccoli and (gasp!) dare I mention the dreaded meat. She wears leopard print. She's wild. She's crazy. She's Abigail and she is developing such a fun little personality on her own as she nears her first birthday.

She loves to pose for the camera. She loves to make silly faces when she's playing. She will look at you and shake her head "no" whenever you use the chiding tone of voice - "Abigail...no!" And then she will continue to do whatever it is she just shook her head "no" about! She laughs at just about anything, especially the daily entertainment we have here at home called Ben and Nate :). She just may be developing a head of auburn hair and she has those beautiful blue eyes. She's our precious little girl and is such a joy to our family! Can you believe that she is nearly 11 months old? We certainly cannot :)

Stairs

2010-09-08T16:51:00.004-04:00

I love trying to go up the stairs and almost have it completely mastered. Don't I just look so proud of myself?

1st Day of Pre-K 2010

2010-09-07T13:29:00.004-04:00

Today was, well, kinda the first day of Ben's second year of pre-K. Actually, it was his orientation and his first day of school will be next Tuesday, but he is convinced that today was the first official day of school so we're calling it just that! And so Benjamin's final year of pre-K begins and he is really looking forward to his year in Mrs. Fretz's class. He knows 3 girls in the class already and always makes friends easily so he is excited to see who else he'll get to know this year.

This year Benjamin will be going to school three mornings a week and will be staying for a full day on Thursdays as part of Indian Valley Nursery School's kindergarten enrichment program. He'll be staying with the other full day kids on Thursdays in what's called "The Lunch Bunch," where they eat their bagged lunches together and then have recess. Then, after recess he will be doing arts and crafts all afternoon until 3pm. His three friends will be doing it with him and it will be a nice break from having quiet time at home once a week. Something special for the big boy to look forward to.

This year, since Ben is now an "upper classman" :), his classroom is on the second floor of the building. There is another Benjamin in his class this year so our Ben will officially be Benjamin M. during school and the other little boy will be Ben S. Knew that would inevitably happen one day. I remember being one of seven Liz's in high school....and I survived! :)

He will have the usual subjects of gym, library, art, show and tell, Bible time and will have some fun field trips again this year. They will hone in more on handwriting, letter and number recognition and other skills to prepare for kindergarten. We have been so pleased with Indian Valley Nursery School this past year and are looking forward to another wonderful year with them! And in one year, we'll have a kindergartener and another pre schooler in our household. Nate is practically counting down the days until he can go to school like Benjamin :) Actually, he is in denial that he has to wait another year to start and insisted on being a part of one of Ben's first day of school photos this morning!

Open Wiiiiide!

2010-09-06T00:10:00.003-04:00

Here is Abby enjoying a piece of leftover banana coconut cream pie today. Well this certainly beats finger foods and canned pears anyday, now doesn't it? We don't think she could have opened any wider!! And you should have heard the protests when it was finally done! :)