Lotions and creams

Heidi loves to put lotions and creams on her hands but usually puts too much on and ends up putting some on my hands and arms. Today, while I was busy doing some research, she told me her hands were dirty. I quickly glanced at her (not paying too much attention) while noticing a sweet smell which I initially confused with a coconut scented cream I have. I thought she had put too much cream on her hands again. I just told her to put some on my hands and while I rubbed her hands she had a huge grin on her face and then I noticed the texture of the “cream” was really heavy. When I looked down I loudly exclaimed “ahhhh ….. Is frosting!” she nodded and giggled. I then discovered she had been eating, while hiding under the table, the frosting we had for the cupcakes she had made with Ethan.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

What happened to Fall? Where did it go? As I was getting breakfast ready, a few days ago, I looked outside the kitchen window and there was a blanket of snow over everything. I could not believe it! Blizzard-like snow was falling. After a gasp and a WOW! A loud “Wooooohooooo!!!” followed. After an energetic celebration dance on the kitchen floor, I got the kids bundled up and sent them out to play in the snow. I love being the first one to step on a fresh blanket of powdery snow, but this time I let the kids be the first ones. I sat and watched. They made angels on the snow, built a snowman and blazed a trail. Watching their excitement was rewarding. Gavin had a hard time keeping up with the older ones and fell multiple times on the snow, face first and got his hands very cold. He was very, very, very upset. As for the Fall, well, I don’t know if we will have it back but we are getting our sleds ready! I put a movie under the pictures for you to watch.

One year

A year ago I gave birth to a boy with a strong will and who is all smiles. He has brought so much joy to my life and given me so much to hope for. Since the moment he was born he has been on the fast track. He could hold his head up at two months, was sitting up at five months, crawling at six months, standing at seven months, up and down the stairs at seven months, walking at ten months, saying seven words (mama, papa, yes, no, aha, milk, more) at eleven months and has seven teeth already with one more ready to come out. What impresses me the most about him is not his physical abilities but the strength of his spirit. I am grateful to have been a co-creator with God and to have been entrusted with him. I hope I can measure up to my calling as his mother. And he is a mama’s boy and that is just fine with me.

Fall Fun

Autumn brings a wonderful crisp cool air that I just love, beautiful changing color of leaves that put me in awe and delicious pumpkin desserts (our favorites are pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bread with chocolate chips in it). But what I love the most is how much fuuuuuuun we can have. It is a total blast!!! Or as my mother in law would say, we break the fun meter!!!
Dave came home one day in the middle of September and said to me, Hon the house looks really nice but it’s still summer, Not for long! I replied and kept decorating it with fall stuff. Having all the fall decorations and colors through the house setsthe mood for the season and planning all kinds of fun activities.
We have done quite a bit this fall. We tried to take advantage of the last semi warm days left and hit the park every week. It was fun talking to friends and the kids enjoyed their last days at the playground.








We went to a fall festival at a nearby nursery and had some fun pictures taken there.


During one of our family nights we made caramel apples.

We made a giant tarantula out of garbage bags, Ethan and Heidi loved making it and Gavin loved tearing it apart. It now greets our guests as they come to our house along with a giant spider web.
We visited a nearby cider mill where we picked our pumpkins from their patch and got some freshly milled apple juice.
My children and husband are addicted to sugar. So going trick or treating is a delight, they walked for one hour despite the rain and filled their bags with loads of sugar. And you guessed it, Dave eats most of it!
Here is dave as a Hawaiian man, I am a Victorian Queen, Santa Claus, the big pumpkin and captain america loved the party and the loads of candy and sweets they got!

On Vacation

We went on a road trip to sunny California. I had my reservations about the road trip given that sometimes taking my three children on a 10 minute ride to the grocery store sometimes becomes quite a heroic effort on my part. The prospect of driving over 700 miles with them was not appealing. On the way there and back Ethan would often ask, how many more minutes are left? I would reply, we have 10 half hours left and he would then say, what? What mom? Repeat that. So I would repeat it and he would then say, so it will take forever still!!! We had quite a few stops and did break up the trip in to two days getting there and two days coming back. We survived the long hours on the road but we are definitely flying in the future.
A loooooong ride!
As I unpacked our suitcases I made a horrifying discovery, Ethan’s bag did not get loaded in the car so he had absolutely no clothes except what he had on him which was his captain America costume!
Having to buy clothes for Ethan is an experience I wish not to remember. Most items were at full retail price (you may already know that I am a bargain hunter). I purchased the bare necessities for him, but I could not find a swimsuit. One would think that with average temperatures of 80 degrees you would easily find a swimsuit , but we kept getting the same answer,” it is out of season so we don’t have any”. To Ethan’s relief we found a pair at SeaWorld and you guessed it, premium price.
An all you can eat hot breakfast was included in our hotel so we pigged out every morning. I had enough eggs and sausages every day to raise my cholesterol levels clear to the high risk zone. Ethan filled up with hot waffles with plenty of syrup.
Ethan built a large collection of seashells and now tells everyone that he collects things from the ocean.
Shamu soaked us and we loved it! We tried sitting right on the soaking area because it was so fun, when will I get to be soaked by sea lions, killer wales, and so on. We did not even catch a cold!
Legoland had fun rides for Ethan, who got caught on camera several times with a horrified face but would come out exclaiming he was not even scared, not even one bit. We dubbed him mr. speed, even though I know he is scared of speed and precipitous falls.
The Zoo was an interesting experience, let me say I am glad Dave is an IT auditor and not a safari guide because we went around in circles through the same exact path three times! While there was still the rest of the zoo to see and the park was near closing not to mention that we missed the shuttle from the same stop three times!