My favorite Christmas presents

The boys made Phil and I gifts for Christmas. They were so excited to put them under the tree for us. We feel so lucky to have such thoughtful gifts under the tree.

Jake turns 7!

Jake turned 7 yesterday! He is growing up way to fast. He is a fun little boy. We enjoy his sense of humor, enthusiasm for life and all experiences that come his way, his love of cats and dogs, generosity as a big brother, his sensitive side and his ability to organize and care for his things. We celebrated Jake's birthday in Maine this year. When we are at home, the kitchen is decorated for your birthday when you wake up in the morning. On the road, we didn't have all the usual hoopla. Phil and I used paper plates and my niece Emily's (officially know as the best niece in the world)nail polish to make a birthday banner. Jake had a birthday lunch at Rosette's and had birthday cake and opened presents. Then we hit the road or the looooong ride home. Jake did get to pick the restaurant for our dinner on the road as well. We thought he would go for Olive G@rden but Mc D's won out in the end.

Christmas at the North Pole

The day after Christmas we headed to the North Pole to celebrate Christmas with Phi's side of the family. Memere and Pepere live in Northern Maine but the kids think it is aho, skip and a jump form the north pole. It is a long ride so I can see why they think that:) It is always so fun for the whole family to get together. As the family has grown we have needed to rent a house for the time we are all together. The house this year was just a little down the road from Phil's parents. From our windows we watched the sunset over the mountains in Canada. Simply beautiful.


There was no tv or internet at the house we stayed in. Here Emily, Lauren and Jake are watching the Backy@rdigans on the laptop.


Phil, Matt and Kevin playing Kerpl0nk. Big cups and a game of getting a ping pong ball into a cup. Hmmm. I have seen this before.

Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!

Matt taking it all in.


Santa left nutcrackers for the boys.

Lauren and her Christmas apple. She didn't care if she opened any gifts...she was just happy to eat an apple.


Jake got what he asked Santa for. Lego star wars!


The boys helping Lauren open her gifts.

Josh finding the Number 1 present on his list. He sent no less than 5 letters to Santa this year to makes he knew that the ip0d touch was what he REALLY wanted.

T'was the Night Before Christmas...

We had a very fun Christmas Eve. We hosted my side of the family for dinner.
The boys tracked Santa and his stops on the computer/

Pregame snacks.

The merriment begins.

The swapping of the gifts.

Phil's birthday is on Christmas Eve. The kiddo's helped him blow out the candles on his cake.

Opening a present that Matt made for him. It was wrapped 5 times. All that hard work paid off with special coupons made by Matt. Anytime Phil wants to play cribbage or catch he can use his handy coupons.

We are a BIG Christmas birthday family. We call it Festivis (from Seinfeld). We kick off with my Mom and brother's birthday on the 23rd, Phil on the 24th, Jake on the 29th, Pepere on the 31st, ny Nana on Jan 1st(she is turning 95 this year), my uncle on the 2nd and then Lauren on the 5th. I am tired just typing that.

2 year Photo Shoot

Lauren had her 2 year pictures taken. I know that I am biased, but she is so beautiful. Her eyes are simply stunning.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family this year. We started our day off with the annual Turkey Trot which is a family friendly 3-5 mile run,walk, bike. I didn't go last year as Lauren was just home and for some other reason that I cannot remember. It was really cold this year. Phil, Josh and Matt ran and Pepere, Jake, Lauren and myself walked. It got a little too cold for Jake and about 1/4 mile in we turned around and walked back to the starting line( which is also the finishing line) for hot chocolate. Poor Pepere ended up walking most of the Trot by himself:(

We had a great dinner at Nonni's. The big boys played football outside and he Little's played with all of our old fisher price toys that Nonni saved from when we were little.

We are all doing well here. Life with 4 cuties is very busy. Lauren and I keep very busy while the boys are in school. Once we pick up the boys around 3 life just fast forwards with activities, sports, homework and dinner. Everyone is adjusting to school finally and Lauren is trying her hardest to make conversation. We only get 1 or 2 words out of what she says but is she ever passionate. I hope to post some of our other happenings soon.

Happy Gotcha Day Baby Girl!

Today it has been 1 year since I first held my baby girl. I cannot believe that a whole year has gone by. Waiting for Lauren felt like it took so long and now a whole year has flown by. One year ago I was blessed to be handed the most beautiful, intelligent, funny, feisty and sweet little girl. Last year on this day Lauren was so scared and so sad it broke my heart. I am happy that this year she is a happy little girl and calling me Mommy. We are celebrating this day with pink cupcakes. We will have a bigger celebration on our Forever Family Day later this week. The day that we were all together finally...forever.

Lauren you are the light and sunshine of our family. We love you so.

Family Visit!

We had a great visit with my extended family a week or so ago. My cousins came from far and wide to join us at the beach. The kids had a BALL. We had our group of big boys (Josh, Matt, Jake, Ben and Roby), our middle crew (Alex, Zach, Catalina) and the babies ( Lauren, Alyssa, Barbara, Ryan and William). We build sand castles, dug our own pools, dug forts to take on the waves at high tide, boogie boarded, body surfed and took in the wonderful weather. We had great family dinners outside and cooked s'mores and walked for ice cream. Even doing Laundry was a blast ( wink, wink). Here are some pictures from our week.


My crew.



Nonni and her grandchildren



Tracy and family




Suzie an the boys



Shannon and family


Uncle Joe and Nana



Lauren



Lauren and Ryan



Zach and Catalina eating feezepops.



Freeze pop break while creating a beach pool


Jake



Barbara



Alyssa


Tracy and her girls



Enjoying the beach



Playing in the beach pool



Uncle Joe, Nana, Auntie Barbara and Uncle Pete. I wish I had got my mom is this picture too.



The kids and I.




Most of the kids, at high tide, after we tried to have our own photo shoot.


All the kiddos.


Making S'mores


The big boys in the pool

Blueberry Picking

My crew at the blueberry farm

Lauren

Matt

Josh


Jake


Jake and the big box of blueberries.

Lauren picking blueberries

My nephew Ryan picking blueberries.

Matt nd Nonni's BIGGEST blueberry.


Auntie Suzie's BIGGEST blueberry. Not sure who actually found the BIGGEST...as they were eaten very quickly:)

Matt's haul

Josh's haul

Jake and his blueberry haul

We had a fantastic time picking blueberries with Nonni, Auntie Suzie, Uncle Paul, and cousins William and Ryan. We went out to lunch after where the young and the nap-needy gave us a run for our money. All in all...a great day.