January birthday's

Well we have finally completed all our January birthdays. Our household has 3 January birthdays including mine and D's. He gets to claim that for 8 days I am the older woman. During those times I like to say I am the wiser one for having lived longer then him. We have fun with it. We all had great birthday's. Not anything big but some nice family celebrations. I wanted to go to an indoor rock climbing place but with basketball in full swing I will have to postpone that adventure. So we went out to dinner and for D's birthday we are going to go to a local comedy show. We spent Nathan's birthday at the local Magic Mountain. We will never go to that over stimulating, games that cost more than 2 tokens (they said 2 tokens but once you put 2 in it demanded more), and bad pizza place. It was so over stimulating for D and I. The kids had an OK time. It might have been better in the warmer months when we could do some stuff outside but the kids play scape and the video games were too crowded and loud. I would go to Chuck-E-Cheese any day over this other place. So we will have to suggest bowling or another activity next time, even if it is not about us.











Everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to me.

I can't believe that Nathan is five years old. He is such a sweet loving boy. He loves to play sports, pretend play with the girls, do his learning books with Stacy, snuggle and read books with me, wrestle with D, play the ipod, and do it all over again the next day. He really is such a great kid. I love spending time with him while the girls are at school.

Julianne started basketball season and after a few over emotional time outs she is doing well. She is still getting used to this more physical game and learning the flow of the game. She is on two teams this year and it is a lot for her but she is working through it. She is on a local girls team and a recreation co-ed league. The competition in the co-ed league is fierce but it is good for her. D is also coaching both leagues so she is learning the fundamentals and enjoying the game with her father. I am happy because that means less time taking her to these practices and it is something that they can enjoy together. She is doing a great job and picking up the skills and learning the game. She was really upset when she got her first foul and did not understand that it is OK. That means she is really in the game. She also was amazed that players really do steal the ball. She is working on her confidence and her aggressiveness. I must say that basketball is pretty aggressive and it would be hard to really get into the game. I think with time and interest she will learn to turn that aggressive power on.





Funny picture of coach D getting into the game.


Lindsay not really enjoying the game or my picture taking activities.

Mallory having fun with Nathan while they run underneath the bleachers.





Of course I have to post some pictures of Lindsay. She is growing and eating like a champ. She loves lots of different foods so I am hoping that will stick with her, but I am not optimistic. She still cruises around and loves to crawl. She is playing with the kids more and seeks them out. She tries to hang with the big kids and what they are playing with but they don't always want to play with her. She is saying mama and dada but not really to us, just blabbling. She can also clap and wave. She loves to clap and started doing that when we were at Julianne's ochrestra concert in December. She will be one next month which just sounds and seems strange. Time does really fly by and that seems sad to me but I am excited to see what kind of personality she develops.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-good yoga practices
-warmer January weather
-another birthday
-Julianne continually working on her emotional highs
-my warm comfy bed and house
-when I do sleep well

Holidays are over...back to life

Well it is the Tuesday after the holidays and things are returning back to normal. The tree is on the curb, other decorations are in the basement, the kids are back in school, our holiday desserts are almost eaten, and D went back to work. Well that is life and life does go on even when you really enjoy some rest and relaxation time. Going back to work tomorrow will be hard because I will miss the kids and the routine of being around the house with them. Our house will go back to being chaotic once basketball season starts, which is this week, but there is also fun with those crazier times as well. Seeing the kids participate in activities, helping them learn, and watching them with their friends are also special times. I just love having a simple life (not a lot of activities) and that just does not go hand in hand with four kids. So I will morn our simpler life, transition into that life quickly and will enjoy that as well...but I will miss the less chaotic times as well.

We had a great holiday season. It was full of lounging around, getting caught up on household items (like hanging pictures) and hanging out with the kids. The kids enjoyed themselves and we rarely heard, "I'm bored". Julianne watched the "Little House on the Prairie" show at school with week before school got out so we continued the movies at home. The library was full of the videos and we also noticed last night that one of our channels has the series running at night. So they may pick up more of those throughout the year. They also watched their first 15 minutes of "The Brady Bunch". What a great TV show for all ages. It does not have snotty girls on it, provocative teenage girls dressed in inappropriate clothes, materialistic images, etc. It shows a blended family and normal everyday brother/sister issues. So hopefully we will be able to catch that show more often instead of other cartoons. Granted the older girls do not watch those new Disney shows but their friends all do. The girls act and look like high schoolers and we think it is just not appropriate for our girls at this age. So age appropriate cartoons/movies and maybe the Brady Bunch is all they will be watching now.

Here is another visit with Santa. We went with my parents and had a great time. My mom was able to join us with her fiance it was a great time.



Nathan was still not sure but at least got closer to him.


Christmas Eve dinner with Mom, Gigi, Mimi, Roger and our family. We had Ohio raised, grass fed steaks, Martha Stewart's "Perfect" mac-n-cheese, salad, Bob Evan's mashed potatoes, banana cream pie and Marci's peppermint ice cream cake.

Our Christmas Eve pajamas





Christmas morning wake up. We got them up at 7:00. Julianne was up in no time the others took awhile.


We woke Lindsay up after the kids opened most of their gifts. Sh... don't tell her.


Santa gifts. Julianne got an American Girl violin, Mallory received a nutcracker, Nathan a guitar and Lindsay a handmade doll.




Nathan got the girls earring/jewelry holder

Nathan and his guitar. Too bad no one knows how to play it.

Christmas dinner at Lisa's. The kids had fun. Santa got them a Wii so the kids enjoyed playing that.

Gigi received an iPad so she was excited when she opened it, even though I think she knew she was getting it. I think she was overwhelmed but hopefully she will get the hang of it.


Some Gigi watching a movie time.


Lindsay taking a bath in the sink.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Holiday celebrations and traditions
-Spending New Years with the kids (we made pizza's, ate chocolate fondue, played Monopoly and all laid on the floor to see the ball drop.
-Having Nana and Gigi come for a visit
-Lindsay's first Christmas

Holiday celebrations

Well we have been busy celebrating early Christmas activities. We had a great Thanksgiving with our family and that was followed by an early Christmas celebration. The kids enjoyed connecting with their cousins and it was great to see everyone again. The atmosphere was stress and drama free. So that was great. The weather was great. D and I also ran the local turkey trot and had a great time. I think it was the first time that we officially ran a race together. So that was nice. His goal for us (or me) was to run the 5 mile race under 40 minutes. We did succeed. We made it at 39:39.




Some Let's Dance fun



The next weekend Julianne's class sang in the local Holiday Tree Lighting gathering. This is the first year we attended and it was really fun. They had smores, hot chocolate, carriage rides, and caroling. Julianne was really excited and the class did a great job. Santa even came to visit the gathering.


We brought Mallory's friend along.

Mallory dancing the night away. I think she learned some of those dance moves from Let's Dance.



That same weekend we were able to visit the real Santa. This Santa knew everything about the kids. We all walked in to the room and Santa said "Hi Julianne". She was floored and her uncertainty about Santa turned to reality. She is on the brink of trying to figure out everything about Santa but this kept her believing a little longer. He talked about her class, Mel and Tucker, playing basketball, etc. He knew all this information about the kids that surprised all of them. We did not sign up to see this Santa last year so it was great to be able to make it this year. We also visited the talking tree and he is always fun and tells lots of jokes. He can also secretly see the kids so that was fun for them also.



The Talking Tree. He could not hear us because he had too much sap in his ears. :)

The entire gang.

Mallory chose to be the first to sit on his lap.

She is thinking hard about what she wants for Christmas, which is a Nutcracker.

Lindsay is not too sure about this fellow. Nathan refused to go up to Santa or really talk to him but he still knew lots of stuff about him.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-running a fun/competitive race with hubby.
-Having a fun eventful holiday extravaganza with family
-our great warmer weather (except for yesterday which rained all day)
-Keeping Julianne believing in the spirit for one more year (it may be the last)
-Our spinning bike bending and calling the customer support and they sent us a free crank arm and petal. Very nice and friendly. We were finally able to fix it after it being more difficult than first thought it would be. We learned a lot about crank arms in bikes.
-Lindsay's starting to play more with the kids. She now crawls away from the kids when they chase her and she laughs.