Growth & Gratitude.

We drove up to Renee's on Saturday. Our first stop was the downtown parade in which Sydney was marching with her school band. We were so proud of Sydney! She marched in the parade like she was a pro! It was beautiful to see! Band is so cool! Sydney is awesome! She will be 13 in January, I just can't believe that. When Tony and I were married, she was 15 months old. We had a tiny little dress made for her that looked just like Renee's dress, and it was the sweetest. See it here and here. Can you believe Renee is a redhead? I love it, it looks so good on her! She joked that she felt much smarter since leaving the blond behind. Ha!

Then we spent the day with my family at Renee's. We ate, we drank, we danced. It felt so much like Thanksgiving day that I have had my days mixed up all week. It's funny having Thanksgiving and then looking forward to Thanksgiving a few days later!

I was able to get these boys to freeze for ten seconds for a photo. This is Sam [Renee's boy, he will be 7 next month] and Chase [Jimmy's boy, 7] and Wyatt [my boy, 5 1/2].


Just for fun, look at this one below, it's from 2005! Three little boys, see how they grow! What handsome boys! I don't think I could find cuter ones anywhere [although I've heard the ones in Dallas are very cute]. Do you think they favor?


Gratitude. I'm full of it. I am deeply grateful for Tony and for my stinking awesome kids, for all my family near and far, for all of Tony's family and also for my friends. And most especially, I'm grateful to God who gives us more than we need and often more than we deserve. Happy Thanksgiving! Make it all good!

Don't Encourage Me!

In the nursery school yesterday I was sitting with Eva at the play dough table and all my bound up creativity just exploded into a masterpiece of hardly describable proportions. Check out my little orange man. The little children, and parents too were just doting on him [or laughing at me behind my back]. I think I have found my true talent. Ha!

It's over. Soccer season is over! We attended our last three games on Saturday!
After three pizza parties in five days our Saturdays have been returned to us! We are free at last, our Saturdays are free at last! I was proud of myself for thinking of this:
Emily has had the same soccer coach, Kim, who is also a friend of ours, for the last four years. I scanned all the team photos and put them all together on one page. I wanted her and all the other families to know how much of her time and incredibly good willed effort she has given to the girls, and us parents. She an amazingly genuine and kind person too. I hope she liked it. She gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received once when she came over and took my older kids away for an afternoon just a few days after Eva was born so that Tony and I could have time together with her and just our two selves. That gift really sticks out in my mind. I put little asterisks by Emily in each team picture so if you click on the picture to zoom it up, you can find her.

Tony and I went out to dinner [yay!] Saturday while the kids stayed at home with his Mother. I was so high [figuratively, of course] and happy that I wore two different shoes! The last thing I remember is standing in my closet trying to decide which pair to wear! Haven't I always told you I was a serious dork! We had a evening out and about, what a difference an hour and fifty-five minutes can make to a Mama's well being. Now say Amen.

Sunday we went to Tony's parents for lunch and look what his Mother has in her backyard:
What a beauty, that little heart, just thriving along so nicely with the other not so shapely cacti. Imagine how tasty she might be someday! Mmmmmm! Imagine how big she could get!

Parent teacher conferences today, that along with piano lessons and CCD should make for a nice full day. Catch me on the other side. Mom, Renee, get ready for some[thing] fun...were coming your way!

Peace.

Randomly Speaking.

We played games the other night. We decided Candyland should be first so Eva and Wyatt could play too. We didn't have all the little gingerbread men so the kids improvised with the tokens which I obviously found amusing.

I was the yellow Lego. The typically swift game of Candyland took the six of us almost thirty minutes to play. I was the loser, I think I got put back in the chocolate swamp [where I truly belong anyway] like three times!

I love this picture Wyatt made for me with his red crayon, I love how he made us holding our stick hands together. I only wish that I didn't have the male pattern baldness.

Some of his creativity doesn't please me so much though. Look what Wyatt did to every bedroom door in the house! The little vandal! No wait, the little door scrubber!

It is nearly impossible to keep clothes on my littlest one. She has this burning desire to wear a costume, preferably any princess, every moment of the day. She will not keep regular clothes on her body! So she more often than not looks like this:

I wouldn't mind so much if it were another month [July maybe] where it would be appropriate to be running around half naked all day! I'm getting tired of telling her to get dressed! What is it about kids anyway that keeps them from being cold? I'm freezing over here and they are running around with shorts on asking me to blow up the pool! Maybe I should just chill and realize that they are happy and having fun, which should [and does after all] make my job easier.

Here she is as farmer girl. I talked her into this one because it is mostly regular clothes, which I celebrated, but sadly it didn't last long. Can you guess what Emily was? The horse of course. In case you haven't visited us at home in the last oh, ten years or so you might not know that playing animals is Emily's favorite activity. I don't know if she is ever going to grow out of it! She is a really good horse, she even wore all brown, shirt, skirt, socks. I told her, "look you even have brown hair and brown eyes." You should have seen her smile at me. She loved that.

Today I think I'll take it easy and just go grocery shopping, buy new auto insurance, pick Eva up from school, take all the kids for the flu shot in far away Modesto, [try to] get new sneakers for Emily and Sarah, warden over my kids to get their homework done, and then go to a PTA meeting. Yeah, I think I will take it easy like that! Help! I hope Tony can do the feeding of the children tonight. Ahhhh, looking forward to Friday.

Pass the Puffs With Lotion Please.

I have been slammed by another round of allergies, or maybe it's a cold. Anyway, I think I am over the worst of it. It started on Monday and is lingering a little bit but much better today. On top of that,it's been a really busy week around here. I have managed to heap new things onto my plate and it is plenty full. I think I even became treasurer of the PTA this week and I am not quite sure how that happened! I must have been over medicating.

I see that my Halloween recap is late...


Sarah and Wyatt and Eva wore repeats of years past, Emily was Nancy Drew and we trick or treated our block with Nena [thank you for spending your Halloween with us] and Emma. We also squeezed in birthday cake and a trip to a fun little Halloween festival complete with dancing. I didn't dance, though I wanted to. It was hard to resist when Tony and Emily did the Macarena. The Chicken Dance and the Cotton-Eyed Joe were also calling out to me, but somehow I didn't give in. Eva was the sweetest little dancer and when another little princess dancer found her, Eva could not ever have been happier. I know that little girls who dress as princesses, sometimes think they are really princesses. It was also fun to discover that my friend Emma has got some great moves!


So now I see turkeys. Turkey art is already making its way home from school. I especially love the turkey art that is drawn from the tracing of a hand. These are from past Novembers:


I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving, we are going to celebrate it with my family the Saturday before at my sister Renee's because she is going to be at work on the actual holiday. I can't wait to spend the day with my family.

Wow, Barack Obama [I cried too] is holding his first news conference, he is a speedy guy, so far impressive I think. Dear God please help him be a good president.