Visit with Santa

This is as close as Lauren would get to the big guy. She was so excited to go see Santa but she got so shy and could only nod her head to answer questions.    He was really sweet and talked to her and made her comfortable.  Santa tried everything to get her to take a picture with him. This was as close as she would get.  I am only an arms length away taking the picture.  Santa leaned way over to make it in the picture.  

Merry Christmas

Almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas!  Our elf, Benny, has been making the most of his time at our house.  Jake took a look at the game and said that Benny was really good at Monopoly and winning.  

My kiddos have been waiting patiently to decorate their gingerbread house.  

Matt's house

Lola's house

 The dessert house for the kids tomorrow.  Lots of chocolate.  Nonni decorated this one, lots of chocolate for the littles tomorrow

 Jake's train

Jake

 Nonni and Lola

 Josh and Nonni

Matt and Josh

 Josh

 Lauren

 Matt

 Josh's house

And So It Happened

I came upstairs the other night and found this on my bedside table.  It took a little bit for me to register what it was and who it belonged to.  And so it has happened...Lauren has cut her own hair.

Lauren had been saying that that she wanted big hair (her word for long hair).  I was excited to let her hair grow out.  Last spring she had gone in for a hair cut and I had requested a bob.  She walked out with hair MUCH shorter than I had asked for.  Her hair cut was adorable...but short.  I had been letting it grow all summer and it was just at that spot where it was about to be long.  And then she cut it.  About 2 inches off of the side.  It kind of looked like she was growing out bangs.  I think we were lucky.  She could have cut it at her forehead.

 Brought Lauren to the hair dresser who said she could angle it or do a blunt cut and let it all grow out.  I opted for the blunt cut.  Not a great picture of her hair ( see below) but she does look cute.  We have hid all the scissors and will be growing it out again.  Should take about 4 months to grow it back to where it was.

 Lauren loves her some shoes.  Here she is in my boots.  She actually walks really well in them.  Not sure how.

A Boat Load of Kids

Love this picture of my kids and most of the cousins this past summer.  We were going for the photo op after a fun day of crabbing.  We got all the kiddos in the boat and realized that between us all we have a boatload of kids.

Lemonade

The boys have had a fabulous summer.  The weather has been great and barely a rainy day.  With all the beach days they needed something non-beach to do.  They held a lemonade stand a couple of times over the past 2 weeks.  They filled up the cooler with a couple of gallons of lemonade and found a great spot where many walk by on the way to the beach and toward the center of town.  They had a great time. They raised money for St Jude's and will be sending a check to that great organization.  They made a good profit as well.  They are looking forward to getting some new legos.

Matt and Jake manning the lemonade stand

A night out with my guy

Phil and I got the opportunity to go out to dinner with some friends.  Beautiful setting.

So nice to spend time with my best friend.

A love for all critters

 Lauren loves all critters here at the beach.  She brought a caterpillar to the beach today.  It was held and loved on and carried around in a bucket.  It was given the opportunity to swim in a small cup.  Surprisingly it was still  able to move once we told her that it was "done" swimming and preferred to be on dry land.  She also had her daily catch of small crabs ( 4 today).  The crabs were sent home as we left the beach.  The caterpillar was brought to the pool and then set free in the flower garden.  Then...she found a frog at the pool.  She held it and gave it some love.  The frog was put back by the fence after some good quality Lauren time.  She is really gentle with her creatures.

Family Beach Pictures 2012

My boys first race!

We had our fantastic extended family vacation last week. On the last night there was a 5k road race. My sister-in-law Suzie and cousin Mike and his wife were planning on running. Phil decided to run the day of the race. About 1/2 hour before the race, the boys decided to run the race. There was an option of a 1K for the kids but my boys kept going for the WHOLE thing. NO training and basically no running since spring sports got out besides running to catch a wave. I was so proud to see them cross the finish line.

Josh just over the finish line

Matt cooling down after crossing the finish line

The 1st two boys to cross the finish line.

Jake after finishing the race.  

Shannon and Mike

Suzie with most of her crew

Congratulations all!

I was able to video Jake and Phil finishing the race.  I love the smile on Jake's face as we all cheer him home.

Heading home

Our mermaid

Lauren has LOVED the water since her first time in a pool at age 1.  We put her in all her swim gear and off she goes.  She loves the pool and the ocean.  She prefers to be in the ocean at high tide and loved the big waves. We started with swimmies on her arms with a front back bubble, took off the swimmies so she just had her bubble, then we started taking out some of the support form the bubble so she could build up her endurance.   She has been asking for a week or 2 to take off her last bubble because she wanted to swim underwater and dive for rings.  So we did and....she swam.   She is just 3 1/2 and we are amazed at her strength.

With the last of her bubble on.

Bubble off and officially a swimmer.

Lauren getting ready to dive