Christmas with a lego twist

The boys are sharing a room and it is scheduled for it's makeover next week. We call their room the pink palace. Why you say do the boys have the pink palace and the house princess does not. Well the room is quite large and accommodates all 3 boys while we have Uncle Jay staying with us. The room had pink walls and pink carpet. We took up the carpet so we could take advantage of the hard wood floors underneath. I have been holding off on any kind of decorating until the painter comes through and de-pinks the room and paints all the woodwork white. Normally I would be more than mad if someone put stickers on the wall never mind stickers of Leg0 st@rwars action figures. This is what I found above Jake's bed.





It is kind of cool. Luckily it peels of easy:)


We continue to get settled into our new home. Unfortunately our house has not sold yet. We had lots of activity. It is a really nice house and has come in 2nd place twice:( However, in October the market just tanked. We are now renting our house to a nice family in town that is between houses. We are thankful to have someone staying at the house through the winter and happy to help another family caught in a move.

1st Day of School 2011

Lauren had her 1st day of school today! She is going 2 days a week and has been so excited about going. The school is right next to Daddy's new office so we go by it a lot and she yells "my school". Today she met her teacher and some new "friends" in her class. She had a good day and her teacher loved her. She asked if Lauren could stay longer because she was so fun to have in class. It is so nice to hear sweet things about my sweet girl. She really is an amazing little girl.







We have survived the first day of school at our new schools. Josh and Matt are at the same school. They both seem to like it. It is a much bigger school than we were at previously. The 1st day of school fell on Matt's birthday as well. Matt is officially 10 and in the double digits. After making through the big day we went out to a great pizza place in our new town. Nonni and Uncle Paul also joined in the celebration and joined us at the restaurant. Living closer to family has its perks.




Jake started the 2nd grade in a separate school. He had lots of neighborhood kids at the bus stop which is also a new thing for us. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. Jake is warming up to his new school. His teacher last year was probably the best teacher I have ever met so she is a hard act to follow.

Summertime

The kids and I at the beach this summer.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been crazy busy here for the few months. What have we been up to? Well, on top of going to the beach, vacationing with extended family, enjoying the kids summer break and working part time, we have been preparing to move. We are not moving all that far but it does entail moving to another state. We are converting my mother's house into one that will accommodate our big family and give her an in-law suite. We are excited to be closer to family and to try a new town and new schools. But with all the excitement comes a lot of stress.

Selling our house with 4 kids home for the summer is tough. Poor dears just want to hang out and I really don't enjoy having to make my house picture perfect EVERY night. We have cleaned out our house and moved quite a bit of stuff (all things that need to be stored in the attic and things needed for daily living). We do not need to move everything at once so we are using the house as our storage unit ( and keeping it staged) as we wait for a buyer. We are still going through all the rooms at my mother's house and helping her part with what is no longer necessary. It is a TON of work. My Mom has embraced the "purge" and we are making progress. We did a ton of stuff very quickly so that we can partially be in our new space for the start of the school year next week. Lauren's room is in good shape ( but not decorated yet), Phil and I have a room that is close to done.

The boys space is still being worked on which is a bummer. Luckily the kids are okay with "camping". Makes me nervous to not have everything set for the first day of school. Not too much I can do about it unfortunately. I would rather have them in the new house before and after school, meeting new friends, then going back to the old house and not feeling like they belong. We are hopeful that we will be more settled in a few more weeks.

Here is Miss Lola on the beach this summer.

My baby girl on Mother's Day

Little girl with a big ball.






Miss lauren looking so pretty in her yellow dress.



Oh so cute.



Happy mother's Day to me:)

Snuggle Buddies

Matt and Lauren sharing some snuggle time and watching the Scooby Doo marathon.



Jake so loves his little sister. Love to see my baby boy and baby girl snuggling

This was a good one

So Lauren had a great day at her cousin's house today. My Mom was watching my 2 nephew's at my sister-in-laws house. We are very excited that Suzie and Paul are expecting a new baby this May...or so I thought. I picked up Jake from school and went to pick up Lauren. we hung out a while at Suzie's house and then headed out to the car to go home.

Jake gets into the car and says: I think Auntie Suzie is going to have a baby.
Me: Yes, She is going to have a baby.
Jake: What are they going to name him?
Me: I don't know. Did you ask Auntie Suzie?
Jake: No. I didn't know if she was having a baby or eating alot of sugar foods.

I have been laughing about this for hours.

First off, I thought he knew she was having a baby. Second, Jake is only 7 but is really not good with hiding his thoughts. He has asked many inappropriate questions at inappropriate times. So as funny as his reaction to Suzie's big baby belly is, it is very impressive that he didn't want to hurt her feelings in case she had just gotten fat.

Yi Yuv You

I tell Lauren that I love her everyday more times than I can count. On Monday, for the first time, she said it back. A happy day.

And it just keeps coming...

We have A LOT of snow here. The kids have not had a full week of school since before Christmas. Early release day from school today and most likely no school tomorrow as they are forecasting 12-15 more inches. We have accomplished all of our fun snow day activities. We may bake tomorrow. Fun for the kids, not so great for my "getting back in shape" endeavors.

Look Who's 2

Our little Lauren turned 2 on January 5th. I cannot even believe that she is 2 already. When I think about the amount of time that we wished for her, longed for her and waited for her I feel like our time with her has been so precious and so short. We celebrated her birthday with big cupcakes and presents. It was a crazy day here with the boys having back to back basketball and Phil being the coach for both of them. Lauren enjoyed her birthday celebration. She has her first friend party on Friday. It was so fun to go and pick out pink decorations and favors.







After Christmas Lauren "gets" what a present is all about. She loves her new metal pots and pans. I think they look more real so she thinks she really is cooking