Our new Chihuahua

OK, he's not really new OR a Chihuahua. That's our Shih Tzu Bailey-dog, who will be 14 years old this New Year's Eve. He got his hair cut this week and his fur was really matted so they had to shave him. He looks so different!

Bailey, before his G.I. haircut

And, with our recent cold weather, he's been feeling chilly. We have him wearing a sweater around the house (no kidding) but he needed a little more insulation for going outside.

Bailey, stylishly warm in a turtleneck sweater and a hooded fleece jacket

He borrowed a fleece hoodie from Colin's bin of too-small clothes. Who knew Bailey wore a size 6-9 months?

Happy Birthday, Bailey-boy!

Guess where we went yesterday

The girls and I went to the big city (well, not the REAL big city - we went to Philly) to do something fun! Can you guess where we went?

Here's a big hint - check out the guy we're posed with here!

I now have two little girls who won't stop twirling around the house, and I'm pretty sure they'll pay extra close attention in dance lessons next week!

Snow!

We didn't have a white Christmas. But had a VERY white day-after Christmas (what is that, Boxing Day?).



We were all pretty excited for the snow. We haven't lived anywhere with lots of snow for a very long time! Fortunately, Phil still has some great snow-shoveling skills, so our driveway is beautifully snow-free. Our yard, on the other hand, has gobs of snow.

This was really dry snow, so it didn't pack well the first day. Instead it just blew around all over the place. Our house/yard seems to find and keep all of that blowing snow, much to the kiddos' delight. Today the snow packed a little better, so Phil built them a little hill in the backyard and they all got to go sledding.

*Click the first photo for a small slideshow or any of the other photos for full-screen

Christmas morning

Here's a little time-lapse clip of the chaos that is Christmas morning in our house:



A few things we noticed upon watching it a few times:
Claire was very focused on the task at hand.
At one point everybody leaves the room but me. Where did they go??? Why am I still there?
Maddie needed several book-breaks in order to get through.
Colin was all. over. the. place! 1) We didn't notice him playing on the couch, and 2) he must have bumped the tripod and nearly knocked the camera over (you can see the change in camera angle). Silly boy.

We had such a great Christmas, though we sure did miss being around our "big" family (Claire's word for our extended family).

And a quick disclaimer: most of those presents are not from us! Our lucky kiddos have two sets of grandparents and aunts and uncles who love to spoil them very much! :)

Our 2010 Eco-Friendly Paperless Christmas Letter!

Here's hoping that your 2010 was joyous and blessed! This is our fourth fully electronic Christmas letter, welcome newcomers and enjoy the recap regular visitors. Be sure to click the links below to get the full stories...

Looking back at our adventures this past year, it's pretty clear that we have a lot to be thankful for. We started 2010 with an impromptu trip to Dallas for a few days while Altus recovered from a pretty big ice storm. Fortunately, our family and friends stayed safe throughout the storm, but the town was out of power for over a week! In April Maddie had surgery for a bilateral hernia repair. We were obviously quite worried about her, but she was incredibly brave and came through just fine. The very next month we packed up the family and moved to New Jersey. We'll be here for one whole year while Phil takes a break from flying and works on a Masters degree. Katie's sweet parents came out and helped us move in, and we were able to take in a few local sights while they were here. Things were going quite well until July when Katie's dad got some terrible news: he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The doctors recommended surgery, so in for surgery he went (and a ROBOT did the surgery! So high tech...). His post-op tests looked great, so we're praying that the cancer is gone for good. In August Phil's parents came out for a visit and we took a day to visit the Statue of Liberty (the girls had been begging to go since we moved here!). In September we took advantage of Phil's predictable schedule with a little trip to Disney World. Of course we couldn't stay nearly long enough (is vacation EVER long enough???) but we had a wonderful time. When we got back to New Jersey Claire started kindergarten (how did THAT happen?) and Maddie started at her preschool. Katie's parents came back out again in November and were here for Claire's birthday party as well as Thanksgiving. It was so nice to celebrate with family!

Our kiddos just keep growing and growing. Our biggest kiddo, Claire (age 6), rides the bus to and from big-girl school everyday. She's active in dance, gymnastics, swimming, piano lessons and Daisy Girl Scouts. She lost TWO teeth this year while we were on vacation at DisneyWorld, and this summer she started reading chapter books. She spends a good part of each day snuggled up with a book, and she can often be counted on to read out loud to her younger siblings. Our days of spelling secrets over the kids' heads are over!

Maddie (now 4) participated in her very first dance recital this spring, performing a ballet and a tap number quite well. She showed NO fear of the stage and actually seemed to have fun up there! Maddie also completed her very first year of preschool this spring and seems to have discovered that she likes boys (Eek!). Her teachers tell us she is quite the social butterfly at school and she keeps busy with dance lessons, gymnastics, swim lessons, and piano lessons. She and Claire both had a wonderful time when they got to wear beautiful dresses and be flower girls for two weddings this year (which also meant a solo trip for Katie and the kiddos to Kentucky).

Our little Colin continues to get bigger and bigger, and he's experienced so many firsts this year. He learned to crawl, took his first steps, celebrated his first birthday, and he even got a big-boy haircut. After tearing up the waiting room at the gymnastics gym for several weeks, his mommy decided to throw in the towel and signed him up for a gymnastics class too. He never fails to bring a smile to our faces with his goofy antics and the girls have trouble staying mad at him, even when he's trying to steal their toys. It's hard to believe he's already 1.5 years old. Isn't he supposed to be a baby?

So to sum it up, 2010 included four grandparent visits, 1,500+ miles for Phil and Bailey from Oklahoma to New Jersey, 3,000+ miles in a minivan for Katie and three kiddos (OK to IL to IN to NJ - pause...whew - NJ to KY to NJ), almost 18,000 pounds of boxes and household goods, two weddings, two surgeries, seven days without power, one eight and a half-foot tall Frasier fir (what a great tree!), and more blessings than we can count or deserve.

We don't know yet where our next batch of Christmas cards will be sent from -- the Air Force will probably let us know sometime in the spring where we'll be moving to in the summer. It sure keeps our lives exciting, right? We hope 2011 brings you health and happiness.

Merry Christmas!

O Christmas Tree

We decided to go with a real tree this year because there are just so many around here. Which one to choose...



Colin seemed to like this one:

Looked good to us, too.

It's that time of year again...

...the time of year when my kids ask and beg and ask some more to make sugar cookies until I finally say yes. First we have to make the dough, cool the dough, let the dough warm up a bit again, roll out the dough, cut out the cookies...

...this is Colin's favorite part -- really! He actually dug out some cookie cutters from the play kitchen and brought them over to us so he could participate in the cookie-cutting. And yes, we let him use them...

... then bake the cookies, let the cookies cool, and THEN (!) we can finally do the girls' favorite part: decorating the cookies.

But it's all worth it because I have some budding artists here, just waiting to express themselves with beautiful cookie-art.

Leaves

It's cold outside. REALLY cold. The wind is blowing and there are snow flurries in the air. BRRR!

I got to looking at our photographs, though, and discovered I had never posted any of our cute "autumn leaves" pics. Doesn't it look lovely and WARM in these pictures?

Maddie begged to rake the leaves. I promise. We don't actually force our children to do manual labor. Yet.



I think she had an ulterior motive for putting those leaves in a pile, though.

Pretty soon her siblings looked out the window and decided to join in the fun.

Then I did the unthinkable and FORCED them to take a few cute pictures.



I'm such a mean mommy.

But I've got some pretty cute kiddos.

OK, OK...

I know I haven't been blogging much lately. What can I say? The mood has not been striking me. It's not my husband's fault. He has been dutifully downloading pictures for me on a semi-regular basis. That's very nice of him and all, but it definitely ruins my I-don't-have-any-photos-to-post-and-no-on-wants-to-read-a-bunch-of-words-from-me excuse.

Anyway, since I don't have many words to say AND since I do have some cute photos just sitting here... Well, here you go:

Colin is the e-trade baby

And he's stylin' too, yo

But I guess he really is an Oklahoma native at heart.

Grandma and Paw-paw

Finally! Here are some highlight photos from my folks' trip! As always, more photos are available for your viewing pleasure by simply clicking on a picture. Phil's not here right now to make it link directly to a neat-o slideshow, but I promise they're there somewhere. :) (edit: Phil's home so the slide show should work!)

Gratuitous Grandma-Reading-Bedtime-Stories photo

Gratuitous Colin-Sleeping-on-Paw-paw photo

At the Clara Barton schoolhouse in Bordentown

Paw-paw and Maddie get silly with a Thomas Paine statue

Buddies

Birds of a Feather

Shannon and Dan came down for a visit! Doesn't she look great with a baby in her arms?

Princess tea

Our little Claire FINALLY had her 6th birthday. Of course she's been planning her party for months, thanks to the lovely folks at Party Express and the catalogs they send us on a regular basis. She settled on a Cinderella theme and then I had to come up with activities to keep a bunch of little girls busy. Inspired by a party Claire attended at a local boutique, I decided to do a tea party here at the house. With my good china. Using our white-upholstered dining room chairs. Perhaps I was a wee bit crazy, but it seemed like a fun idea and much cheaper than the cute boutique.


The girls each came dressed as their favorite princess. They used their best princess manners and there were NO spills or broken china! They were all so cute and the party went really well. And it wasn't nearly as chaotic as I thought it would be (mostly because we had both of my parents here helping to keep the girls organized!). Now both girls are planning their parties for next year...

Mom & Dad!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we were busy with my parents in town! Yay! Actually, we weren't terribly busy . We mostly just hung around the house. I'm feeling a bit guilty for not showing my parents many of the local sights this visit. But Dad's back was hurting him, Colin was sick for a few days, we had Claire's birthday party, Maddie had a Thanksgiving thing at her school, then it was Thanksgiving, and then it was cold... But it was so nice to just relax and visit with my parents. And they got to really play with the kiddos and see them in their element. Fun!

They left for their home this morning and we sure do miss them already. Poor Colin wandered around the house all morning saying, "Paw-paw. Paw-paw! Paaaawww-paaawww..." For the record, he can say Grandma (it sounds like 'Gaamah' -- too cute) but apparently Paw-paw is his go-to grandparent phrase. I sure hope we can see them again soon. Living far away really stinks sometimes.

Here's one little preview picture, until I can sit down and do a real blog post:

Halloween

This Halloween proved to be another fun one, and we had lots of opportunities to dress up. Both girls bailed out on the Statue of Liberty costume idea in favor of princesses with hair glitter. Claire was Cinderella and Maddie chose Ariel. Colin was a monkey, which is not much of a stretch for him these days.

Dress up opportunity #1: Each of the girls got to wear their costume to school for a school parade.

Dress up opportunity #2: They got to wear their costumes again to trick-or-treat at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware with our friends stationed down there. Phil was out of town and my friend's husband was out of town, so we figured we'd team up for the trick-or-treat! The kiddos had a great time and received way more than their fair share of candy. And we had a nice visit with our friends too. (Note that Maddie has changed her costume to Sleeping Beauty):

Dress up opportunity #3: Finally on Sunday we got to trick-or-treat here at home. We joined up with one of Claire's classmates and visited a bunch of the neighborhood houses, then came home to hand out candy. Whew! We were all pretty exhausted, but the kids stayed up late to meet one last trick-or-treater. They were so excited when this guy knocked on the door:

Be sure to click on any of the above pictures if you'd like to see some more!

Bye-bye Baby Curls

Baby Mullet

My little baby is growing up WAY too quickly. He walks. He talks (well, he says words...). He has a mouth full of teeth. And now he's gone and gotten his first haircut.

Before (look at those cute curls!):

His daddy took him to the barber and they each came out with a haircut (though Colin had quite a bit more to cut than Daddy). Colin was still groggy from his nap when we got there (read: cranky), so he sat on my lap and watched his daddy get a haircut first. By the time Phil was done, Colin was feeling more at home in the barbershop and was ready to sit in the chair.


Here he is sporting the new 'do:

One cool dude

Just a few pics

I've been a little slow on the updates, so here are a few pics:

Colin's new favorite place to nap:
OK, so it's not new. Now it's just the only place he'll nap. He marches to his own drum! Sure wish that drum was nearer to his crib...


...and here are the girls after their bath tonight. Claire wanted wavy hair tomorrow, so she asked for a braid. Of course Maddie wanted a braid too. Usually Maddie's hair is too wispy from all of her twirling, but not tonight. You're looking at Maddie's first french braid, ever! She has been doing a great job of NOT twirling her hair and there was enough there for me to braid -- just like her sister's. Hooray for Maddie!

Fun Things This Fall

We've done a few things around here to ring in the new season. First, the girls noticed that there are lots of acorns all over the ground. My girls, who both love to collect various oddities (rocks, leaves, stickers from the dentist, junk from birthday party goody bags, Happy Meal toys, etc), insisted that they gather a bunch of those acorns and keep them. So I took them over to the big oak tree and had them gather a few there.


No, we're not putting them away to sustain us through this coming winter. We're trying to sprout them. Don't ask me where we're going to plant 15 or so oak trees. We'll figure something out. Do oak trees grow in pots? I'll have to investigate that, given our current move schedule.

Next we went to a pumpkin patch near Princeton. We petted goats, kitties, and a horse, we found our way through a corn maze, we ate apple cider donuts, and we found some pumpkins. I'd call that a successful trip.


Then we went to the other side of the farm and picked apples. Yum! I was going to use some of them for applesauce and a pie, but I'm not sure if I'll have any left over after the kiddos get their fill. I think Maddie ate four whole apples by herself yesterday! And Claire isn't usually an apple-eater, but she had so much fun picking them that she decided they're not too bad. Even Colin enjoys them when they're cut up.

(Click any of the photos above for more shots from the farm!)

So, hooray for fall and fun things to do!