Happy 4th Birthday Addie!

Here's a trip down Memory Lane- Addie's 3rd year! Happy 4th Birthday Sweeeeet Girl!!
(yes, I realize this is a tad early, but she is with her Grandparents in Florida, visiting Mickey Mouse for the week- that's an amazing birthday gift!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving, we had lots of fun with our friends, the Hunts. The morning started out with everyone having brunch at our house while we all watched The Thanksgiving Parade.



After the Parade and naptime, the kids got to work on making some Christmas ornaments.



For dinner, Mr. Jeremy carved the perfect turkey!


The Little Turkeys waiting for dinner to start!

Dessert was a huge hit!

Finger lickin' good

Getting into the holiday spirit- Addie is playing Santa....

Addie's Home 4th Birthday Party

Because Addie is going to be at Disney World for her actual birthday, we decided to celebrate a bit early. We totally embraced today as her birthday!

We started off the day with the traditional Dunkin Donuts!


Then we had a Disney themed party- Tinkerbell, Lightning McQueen, and Mickey Mouse cupcakes, served on Tinkerbell and Lightening plates!



Most of the crew that came to celebrate- only 3 kids didn't want to sit on the stairs!


Playing Pin The Bow on Minnie Mouse for the girls, and Pin "95" on Lightening. We skipped the blindfold- just taping itself was challenging for this group of 2 and 3 yr olds!

Showing off her Tinkerbell napkin while munching on PB&Js, strawberries, and grapes.

Loving everyone singing to her!

Gifts Galore! She got so many great gifts- and notice all the friends ready to jump in and help!

Elijah was jumping her was so excited for her!

The Wild and Caring Sides of Addie and Alden

We have had some cute and touching moments around here....

Addie loving Dottie and needing to rock her in the rocking chair...


Wild Thing! Growling at his reflection


Alden being kind to Madelyn- helping her have all the cheerios she wants!

Fun Around The House

We have had an interesting week....

Playing in our flooded neighborhood- this was taken on Sunday- 2 days after it had stopped raining and this is a HUGE improvement....


Addie and Avery went around playing "photographer"- Addie would tell Avery to pose somewhere, Avery would hop on over and say "Cheese!"- so cute!


Addie showing off her writing- she's getting pretty good! These are all connect-the-dots, but she'll get there!


Alden is fully in touch with his inner Guido (aka gaudy Italian)- he was given these beads (there is a silver strand, too) by a friend and he hasn't taken them off!

2 Little Pigs

The dreaded Swine Flu has entered our household and strangely, it only seems to have affected the women- Alden and Al both ran low-grade fevers but that is it. Addie and I sound like we have smoked for the last 20 years and are hacking up our lungs. It's been a great time to just lay around and play together and watch more TV in the last few days then the kids have probably watched in the last year combined! The end is in sight, thanks to Tamiflu.

Some lessons I learned from Swine Flu:
1. Never give your daughter her Abuterol before nap time if you expect her to sleep
2. I can only handle 5 episodes of Elmo's World in 1 sitting
3. My kids will drink anything that I do- they both guzzled Gatorade for the first time ever!
4. Alden is 100% boy- and he loves to tease his sister when he knows that she can't get him back
5. There is nothing sweeter than a sick kid needing a snuggle with their Mommy
6. It's okay for the house to be a disaster- I will feel better soon and can clean it then
7. Breakfast food is great 3 meals a day for a few days...

Here are some pics of what H1N1 looks like in our house:

A couch taken apart by a PJ-clad little boy watching his own movie on the portable DVD player. At this point, we had 1 show on TV (for Mom), 1 show on the laptop (for Addie) and 1 show as seen here, for Alden.


Alden, who has yet to get sick, is full of vim and vigor. Here he's make a Choo-Choo with all the couch cushions and pillows. He was crushed when I took 1 cushion back so I could sit on the couch.



Here is 1 of our many "picnics"- the kids loved lounging and eating. We did consume almost an entire container of Clementines in 3 days- can't get enough of that vitamin C! Addie is the only one who got dressed on our PJ day- she gets that from her Dad! Alden was thrilled to be in his PJ's all day!


Fort building- about 1 hr into a Motrin dose, Addie is happy-go-lucky and happy to "camp" with Alden between the coffee table and couch with the cushions and pillows providing the "tent." Notice she took her DVD player with her- they sat side-by-side and watched Elmo- so sweet- just don't breath on your brother!

Play-doh time! I just love the small individual sized Play-dohs- no need to share any germs! Plus they were able to play quietly and peacefully.

We aren't out of the woods yet, but I am grateful for the time to just sit and be with my kids. The pile of essays in my in-box to grade can wait- snuggling with a sick kid cannot. Thank you, Lord, for this special time!

Christmas A Little Early...

I know this is crazy early, but there are some great deasl to be had on Christmas calendars and prints! Here are a few pics from my attempt at getting some cute Christmas pics....