Summer is Just Begining

Ok, here is another long awaited post. So it's nearly the end of June, and the summer has already been a lot of fun. Our most recent fun outing was our day trip to Ocean City yesterday. I took the kids down, with Rachel, Jim, J.t. and Valerie. At first it seemed like it was going to be deja vu from last years visit, as soon as we got there it started to rain. We decided to walk down to the beach anyway, in hopes the rain would pass, which it did. We did all the normal fun stuff, playing in the ocean (far enough out to make Scott mad) and in the sand (getting it in all those "lovely" places), hitting the boardwalk (briefly), and eating a pizza that, for the price, should have been gold plated. At the end of the day we let the kids go on a couple rides, got some ice cream (again, gold plated price) and went home. We got in the car to head home around 10pm, at which point Christian was being quite the nutcase, and went from hysterically laughing in the back seat to fast asleep within 45 seconds. Obviously the sign of a good day.

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Last Thursday, the 25th, we took the kids to the St. Mikes fair. Boy, does a fair bring out the weirdos... oops, sorry, went off course there. haha. Seriously though, I love fairs. Even more so, I love bringing my kids to the fairs. I just love to see them have a great time. We went there w/ Scott the kids, me and Allie, Aunt Rachel, Uncle Boo-Boo and J.T., and we met up with Aunt Chelsea and Baby Ow. Even Pop-pop and Mom-mom made their way up there. The kids were, not surprisingly, well behaved for the most part. I actually wanted to yell all the older kids at one point, but only because they weren't running wild through the fair. They seemed a bit too calm, I rather enjoy the over excitement and energy. Christian was super cute, at the end of the night when we were waiting for Courtney and Ryan to finish on their big kids rides, he went on this one ride 6 times in a row. It was a car ride that went around in circles and would go up in the air and drop down. He loved it so much, I think I might get it for him for his birthday. Although we had specified on the ride there that we would NOT be playing the fish game, Christian ending u

p coming home with one, courtesy of Aunt Rachel. But he loves it, and named it Itty, so it's fine.

I'm a Slacker...

So I know I haven't written anything in months, but I figured that I better write something soon or my Grandmom might beat me. There is so much that has happened since my last blog that I really don't know where to begin. I started a blog about Christmas, but never finished it. I started a blog about Christians 3rd birthday, also not done. I started a blog about random things, again, never posted it. Sorry about all my excuses, I will try to keep up w/ this. So I'm going to do a quick recap all the major events since December.

Christmas 2008:

My kids had another great Christmas. I don't know how dear old Santa manages to pull it off year after year, but he (she) always finds a way. Every year we spend Christmas Eve at Scott's sisters house, which is always fun. The kids get to see all of their cousins and they are all so close in age, which is wonderful. Scott's family is always fun to be around! Even I got into the spirit enough to have a few drinks, which is very out of character for me, but it was well deserved.

After all the festivities were done for the evening we went home to play Santa. Silly me thought it would be easy this year. I made sure to have all the gifts wrapped before Christmas Eve, thinking we could toss the kids in bed, throw the presents under the tree and be in bed by 11pm. hahahaha! Wrong. Somehow we still didn't manage to get to bed until 2:30am. I have no idea what went wrong. And on top of that, poor Christian was so anxious about Santa coming that he didn't sleep well at all, so he was like a zombie all Christmas day. The lack of sleep and all the excitement was just so overwhelming for him. (Don't worry though, the day after Christmas he was a complete nutcase to make up for the lack of crazy on Christmas day.)

Both Courtney and Ryan where such angels all day! They loved and appreciated everything, and they always enjoy the family coming over. My family always out-do themselves and it makes Christmas perfect. It wouldn't be Christmas w/out all the fun and chaos that a house full of family brings. Our dinner was great, the time together was great, the gifts were great. Even with a few bumps in the road, I tried to just be grateful for everything, and I was.


Christian Turns 3:

I don't want to talk about it. The end. haha, j/k. So our baby may not be a baby anymore, not something I'm thrilled about. But watching him grow and learn every single day makes up for the lack of baby-ness. He is so smart, and getting smarter every second. (And quite active too, although I'm sure that comes as a shock to most of you! haha.) We had a big party at our house for him. Both our families came, plus a few of our friends and their kids. It was quite a happening lil party, considering it was for a 3 year old. Christian had a blast playing pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, and just rough housing w/ all the other kids. He was so funny, for weeks leading up to his birthday he kept telling us that all he wanted was Handy Manny underwear. hahaha. He's so random sometimes, I love it. So we got him his H.M. underwear, a few other things and a bike. He was so excited about the bike. He's gotten really good at riding it too! All the kids are just getting too big. arg.


Our Newest Pet Additions:

Courtney and Ryan both wanted new pets for Christmas, so that's what they got from their Aunt Sandy. Ryan got fish and Courtney got a hamster. Of course Christian was all over them, he's such an animal nut but he's like Lennie from Of Mice and Men. (For those of you who haven't read it, basically he's just a tad too rough with them. haha) Christians fascination w/ them is slowly fading. So being the brilliant parents that we are, we decided to get more animals for Christian to torture. We got a fish tank from Scott's father for downstairs and got some fish. My first few attempts at fish keeping didn't go exactly as i hoped. But I'm a fast learner and now my fish are doing rather well! This last group of fish that we bought included some mollies, which I had later come to learn are live bearers. We woke up one morning and there were teeny tiny little baby fish in the tank. Christian went coo-coo for them. For hours he just kept saying "I love them soooo much, they are sooo cute! I just want to hold the baby fish!" This turned into quite a few floor kicking tantrums, he just did not want to hear that you can't hold fish. He finally wrapped his head around that, and now he loves taking care of them. We managed to save 3 baby fish from being eaten, now they are 3 1/2 weeks old and getting big. I'm so proud of myself! We also got Ryan a turtle, a red eared slider to be exact. I got him that because I killed his fish. Both him and Courtney have been taking excellent care of their pets. But our first batch of fish had one fish that started to be attacked by some of the others, so me not knowing that could make a fish sick, I moved it into Ryan's tank, which then got sick and got his fish sick and killed them. I'm the worst mom ever, Ryan's fish would have been fine if I would have just stayed away from them. So i definitely felt obligated to replace them, and this time he chose a turtle.


Ok, so that's as much as I can write right now. Sir Christian is up and I have to make dinner and get Court and Ry to their games. But I will write more and add pics later.

That Boy Can Run!

This time every year the kids ears seem to work miraculously better than ever before. They can hear the sirens from miles away, and they get crazy waiting for the fire truck to come down our street. As the sirens get louder so do the children. They know that Santa is on that fire truck and they just can't wait to see him, even my older two who know he's not real still get just as excited! Little Christian isn't used to this yet, his memory is just starting to get better. But Courtney and Ryan got him plenty crazy reassuring him that Santa will be on that fire truck. His eyes lit up, the magic of it all is so alluring for a 2 year old. He stood at the curb jumping up and down, yelling "Santa, Santa!" for like 15 minutes till they finally came to our street.

He was mesmerized by Santa and I was mesmerized by his enthusiasm. It's such a beautiful sight, seeing a small child who believes and delights with every ounce of his being. The look on his face was truly priceless. As Santa slowly drove by Christian is waving and yelling "Hi Santa, I want a fire truck!" and "Bye Santa, I love you!". After he passed, Christians awestruck face turned to me and said "Mama, I wanna see Santa again!" Immediately falling in love with that look on his face I told him we could go down the street to see him again, not really sure if we'd be able to catch up to him though. Boy, did I underestimate the excitement that was running through his veins, because the second I said yes he took off down the street after him. I ran behind Christian, barley able to keep up with him, his little feet moving a mile a minute. I've never seen such tiny legs move so damn fast! Santa's fire truck stopped down the street so that the kids could come sit on his lap, and Christian kept pushing the other kids out of his way. When it was finally Christians turn he sat up on Santa's lap with a goofy grin on his face and didn't say a word. It was adorable!

Santa was talking to him, and the first question he asked was "What's your name?" Worst idea ever Santa. Later that night after all the excitement, when we were putting Christian to bed he was talking about his experience with Santa. Then suddenly he got an incredibly distraught look on his face, so I asked him what was wrong. His reply... "Santa didn't know my name... I'm Christian Michael MacDonald!" Stupid Santa. But he did eventually forget about that, and he's super excited to go get his picture taken with Santa tonight. I can't wait til Christmas morning!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving of 2008 has come and gone, so I now get to brag that I survived it. It may sound like my mindset on thanksgiving is completely opposite of what it's all supposed to be about, but you'd understand if you knew the circumstances, which I will not get into right now. Also, I don't like the holiday as a whole for 2 reasons; it's based on a complete fabrication in every sense; and even the moral of the fictional story is a bit ridiculous, we shouldn't have to feel forced to be grateful for/want to spend time with our loved ones just one day out of the entire year. If that's the case, creating a holiday for it won't suddenly make everyone open their eyes and be grateful. Please don't get me wrong, I know that I've got a pretty good life in every sense of the word, and I most certainly am grateful, I definitely don't take it for granted, or at least i try not to (we all have our moments). But picking one day out of the year and giving it a name doesn't change those who are ungrateful. Anyway, that's the cliff notes version of my thoughts on thanksgiving. I'll stop now, you get the point, (and if you don't lets pick a day and call it "We're All Geniuses Day"). haha.



Christain loved playing inside the ottoman!



Christian does NOT like fake poop!

The kids with Scott's parents.

Cousins



Love

He insisted upon making the potatoes... then refused to eat them.

So in actuality this blog is only being written because I have some cute pictures of the kids that I wanted to post. Being as that a blog is about writing, I felt it necessary to write a little something in addition to my pictures. So there ya go... and Happy Thanksgiving.

My Computer Is Back Up!

Most of you probably aren't aware of this because I really haven't complained about it, but my computer crapped out on us last week right before our refrigerator did. What a week for us and our stress level. But we got a new refrigerator and HP finally sent us a new hard drive. So we are now back up and running. Lets begin, shall we?

First I would like to write about how unfair life is in the sense that children are only children for such a short period of time, after which they move on and have to be responsible adults for what seems like forever. Confused on where this is headed? Well I guess I'm a bit unappreciative of the fact that my baby boy is officially no longer a baby, there's no denying it now, for he has moved out of his crib and into a big boy bed (a fire truck toddler bed to be exact). I know you might be thinking that he should have been out of that crib a while ago, but I think I was in denial. As happy as I am for Christian and how excited he is about his new bed, I really don't appreciate the short life cycle mother nature as imposed upon baby-hood. Has anyone happened to come across the fountain of youth yet so that I could keep my children young and in need of me forever?

Secondly, but still connected to my previous train of thought, my niece, Autumn, turned one on the 17th. Happy 1st Birthday Goober-pants! My how the time has flown by. She's such a cute little goober, and although I know that she is still a baby, that too will come to and end all too soon. It seems like just yesterday her mother was in labor, pacing through the halls of the maternity ward and about to beat the crap out of a slow moving janitor. haha. Her birthday party was at Chuck-E-Cheese, and she had a blast! She looked so freakin' cute, as usual. Courtney and Ryan were very well behaved, they had tons of fun and won a LOT of tickets. Poor Christian was sick and had a fever, but even through all that he was really well behaved! (He even tried his best to have fun.) He's such a trooper, he reminds me a lot of Ryan when he was that age. Here I go again, reminiscing and getting all sentimental. I'll just stop myself now or this could end up being a very long blog. Lets move on.

I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW! Sheri and Johnny's beautiful, healthy baby boy was born on November 16th at 7:09 pm. His name is Jaxen, he was 7 lbs 14 oz and 21 inches long. He has the exact same ears as my brother and he's so adorable. Congratulations to Johnny and Sheri! I'm so happy for them, my brother's been wanting to be a Daddy for so long! Holding him, so tiny and innocent, makes me want to have another baby. Once again, I suppose this is also connected to my first train of though, so once again, I'll stop before I get started.

So this is all the latest news around here. Change is now, and will forever be, on the horizon. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I used to think I was a fan of change, but now that I have children everything has, well... changed.

The Election

I just wanted to write a quick something about this weeks presidential election. To everyone who voted in this historic election, I am proud of you. No matter who you voted for or your reasons behind it, you made your voice heard in this momentous election. To everyone who didn't, shame on you! I may be disowning you, I haven't decided yet. haha. I voted for Barack Obama, as I'm sure you all guessed, and I am so excited about his win. I really hope his lives up to our expectations as a country, and I think he will. In my opinion, this country desperately needs a change, and we got it. We are in a hole and need someone to help us find our way out. Onward we go, with a new president and hopefully a new era.

Halloween

I love Halloween, it's possibly my favorite holiday. Some day I will have the house that is so scary it sends children screaming and crying. I always loved those extra scary houses. So of course I get excited on Halloween, every year. This year Halloween was extra special. As an added bonus the Phillies finally won the world series again, after 28 years of waiting, two days before Halloween. The Phillies parade was on Halloween, so we had a quite an exciting day. It was the first time I have ever allowed my children to skip school, and with the exception of another world series win by the Phillies, it will also be the last.

Scott was originally going to take the Courtney and Ryan to the parade and I was gonna stay home w/ Christian. However, after dealing w/ the massive and rowdy crowd at the train station, as train after train continued to pass right by because they were packed full from the very first stop and working off only 2 hours of sleep, he decided to come home and have me give it a go. So the kids and I drove into the northeast and hopped the El down to city hall. I had no delays or problems (until the journey home). Let me just warn you that these words will not do it justice, but the city was INSANE! Every sidewalk, street and corner were packed full of crazy Phillies fans. I wouldn't let go of my kids hands for fear of loosing them in the crowd. We tried our best to get w/in sight range of the parade, to no avail. It was an impossibility, this coming from one who believes that nearly nothing is impossible. We were packed in there like sardines in a can. The only time the kids were able to see any of the players was when the random lady next to us offered up her rather large husband to lift the kids up. It was nice to finally see some kindness from strangers in Philly. That day the kindness was not exactly as prevalent in the city as the fans were. I think that that many Philly fans, so excited and drinking so early didn't really bode well for their reputation. Regardless of that, or the fact we didn't get to see much of the parade, it was awesome to have the kids be part of it. Who knows the next time this will happen, and they can say they were there.

Then of course our Halloween festivities. The kids looked awesome, as usual. Courtney was a devil, and she was a beautiful one. Ryan finally settled on Jason Vorhees, he loves the scary stuff (especially scaring the pants off his sister). Christian was a dalmatian, and he was adorable. He carried that costume with him everywhere for the entire week. We did all the normal stuff, stopped by Aunt Junes and Uncle Craig's a few days prior, stopped over Great-Grandmom's, then came home and went trick-or-treating. All the kids enjoyed themselves and were surprisingly well behaved considering all the excitement. Aunt Chelsea came over with Autumn (or Baby Ow as Christian calls her), so that she could be with her cousins on her first Halloween. Lil Miss Autumn was a skunk (how appropriate), she was so cute I just wanted to squeeze her til her head popped off. haha. She was loving all the attention! After we were done begging the neighbors for junk food we came home to give out candy and play out front. Sandra, although she did come over my house, didn't celebrate with us, instead she fell fast asleep in my bed. She must have been pooped from working the parade all day to have missed out on Halloween (she's also a Halloween lover). Then after a few other visitors, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sheri, and Mom-mom Karen, I got my little puppy into bed. Sounds like a long day for my older 2, but it didn't end there. At that point Scott took them over to Uncle Boo-boos house for a bit so that he could try to scare the crap out of them. They finally got to bed after hanging out there for a little bit. Those 2 were beat! In short... it was an awesome day!