More pics

I realized that most of the pics were of the babies, so here are some more of the older kids for you to enjoy.
Love,
Em

Christmas 2007!

Ok, so you might think this will be my last Christmas post, but not so. This is just from Christmas with Joe's family. We have yet to do Christmas with my family so more to come!



Anyway, we had a wonderful time in Murrieta, CA where Joe's sister and family live. They have a little boy, Gavin, just one month older than Nico, so we had lots of fun with all 4 boys. We of course had a visit from Santa, but thrown in there was a birthday party for uncle Benjy who turned 30 on Christmas Day, and Daddy Joe who turned 25 (again) on the 23rd. We spent a lot of time setting up presents on Christmas Eve (we have learned that there is pretty much nothing worse than getting a toy and NOT being able to play with it immediately) and just hanging out. We went to a place called Mulligans where they had go carts and lazer tag and lots of other fun stuff for the kids (and grown-ups too) to do. It was a wonderful time together and we look forward to seeing my family in a few days. We always miss the family and friends we can't see this time of year and pray that you are all happy and healthy and heading into 2008 renewed and refreshed.



We made cookies, listened to Christmas music, watched the Grinch, It's A Wonderful Life, and of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The kids were ready to come home, however, and set have their new toys meet their old ones and just get back to their routine. The babies were adorable together and while cousin Gavin seems like he is certainly taking strides a bit faster than Nico (he walks and talks already) we are learning that Nico is a constant observer and takes everything in and can be pretty sneaky at times. He is quiet when he needs to be and babbles constantly other times.
Here are just a few pics from the festivities.

New years changes

Ok, so I have a LOOOONG list of resolutions, too many to share here. I will share one, however. One was to be more spontaneous. So, I started early. New hair is a risky but great way to be spontaneous! Plus, I was tired of Nico constantly pulling mine whenever I picked him up. This was I can be cute and not get my hair ripped out all the time! Just wanted to share. Oh, Joe cut his hair too. No pics to show, you will have to imagine it yourselves. Short, shaved, the usual buzz cut, but I like it!

Christmas and Spiderman (men)

Only a week to go. I am not sure if I am simply exhausted and a bit delirious or simply so excited I feel like I am walking on air. I think it is probably a little of both. While the craziness of Christmas shopping has taken its toll and I am definitely tired of looking for parking spots and standing in line, I am still ready for the cookies, egg nog, family, and coziness that Christmas brings. Here are just some pics of the kids doing what they do best, being kids. Enjoy and if I don't post before Christmas I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.
Santa's newest elf.

Spidermen

It's Christmas time, still

Christmas is in 14 days. My initial reaction is, nu uh! But oh yes, this month is almost half over and I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards or finished shopping. I feel that three kids has slowed me down a bit. I can't imagine why.

Well, regardless of how behind I may be in pretty much everything I always have time for photos. This weekend we took pics with family friends and here are just a few of my favorites. I left some out as they will be surprises in your Christmas cards! I love you all and I hope you are enjoying this season. I am not sure what is better, the anticipation or Christmas actually arriving. And I am not talking only about the presents and egg nog and Christmas dinners. No, I am talking about the Eternal gift we celebrate this time of year. How lucky we are to know Jesus and even luckier to be able to express that love. Let's not forget that the greatest gift has already been given, for all of us. Praise the Lord.

Just some pics

Just wanted to post some pics I took recently of the kids. Enjoy.

All I want for Christmas...

As I said before, there will be many Christmas posts. This isn't necessarily a Christmas post per se, but since it is Christmas time, that is what we will call it.

I am sitting here in my sunny kitchen on a lovely 72 degree San Diego December day. I do love where I live, I do. While snow would be ever so lovely, being able to take my kids to a playground any day of the year really does make this mommy very happy. I know if I lived somewhere else I would adjust, find things to do with the kids, but for now I am happy to be here.

The kids are trouble today. After an hour of struggling to get them down for naps (all 3 that is, usually the baby is asleep lickity split) I did some cleaning and now I am relaxing by writing our Christmas letter and shopping online for a few more gifts. This time of year always brings to mind family and friends who we don't get to see very often. Of course the dream is to have all your loved ones close, right? In theory. But the more I think about it the more I realize that the dream isn't nearly as great as the reality. Is the ideal really to try and gel everyone into the same mold? I don't think so. Of course years ago people just didn't travel all that far from home, that is why families stayed close. Is this the demise of our culture? I don't think so. At least not from my perspective. I love that my children get to visit grandm and grandpa in Minnesota. I love that I get to visit Minnesota. I love that they get to go fishing with grandma in any number of lakes near their home. I love that they get to rake leaves and play in the snow and see horses down the street. Those are things they will never get to experience here. It makes the journey to see family more than just a trip, it makes it an adventure, one they talk about for weeks after returning home. I love that when we visit Joe's family in Arizona there are cactus and mountains. Grandma Nonna always wants to go bowling, and so we do. In Bakersfield grandma and grandpa have a pool and spa and a big back yard where the kids can run for hours! Imagine trying to mesh all of this into one place. It just wouldn't work. That place would lose so much of the magic that the individual places hold. There would be none of the excitement and anticipation we all feel when getting ready to visit someone. Whether it is because we get to fly on a plane or ride in the car and watch movies on the DVD player (something that only happens on long car rides). Whatever the case may be, we have come to appreciate our family much more because seeing them is such a gift.

Christmas time is here!!

I love Christmas. I do. I know a few posts ago I said I loved fall, which I do, but I REALLY love Christmas. We have our decrations up, the boys helped as much as they could. Those of you with kids, did you or do you rearrange the ornaments after the kids put all theirs in the same 4x4 square inches of tree? Well, I did, but it is worth it to watch them get excited each time you unwrap an ornmanent and hand it to them to put up. It is fun to have kids who are old enough to understand Christmas, what it means, and how special it is. It is exciting to be able to start traditions and and have the kids help think of new ones as well.

Of course there is much talk about Christmas lists and what we want Santa to bring. Everyday the boys' lists change, but Santa already has their gifts locked in. I think they will be pleased. This year I am trying to focus on the real gift, Jesus. We will make a cake and sing Happy Birthday.

The boys all have matching jammies for the season and they are just adorable!

There will be many more Christmas posts to follow. Hope you are all well.

One door closes and another opens

Literally, we closed our old front and side doors for the last time this past weekend. We finally replaced what we liked to refer to as the cricket vortexes. Our originaly doors were just that, original, and they were bowed and had termite damage and probably weren't all that safe and definitely weren't energy efficient. So, with some anniversary money we purchased a new front door and side door. I was nervous, I will admit. Pretty much any time we do a project on our house we run into the same issue, NOTHING is square. Granted, the house is 50 years old, of course it has settled and probably withstood a few earthquakes, but it sure makes hanging a door tough. But Joe did it and did it well! I am so proud of him. We also did some interior things, like replacing some interior doors and painting them, new lights in the kitchen and new trim in a few places. The boys stayed with Joe's parents while we pulled some late nights and got as much done as we could. Anyway, I just wanted to share the pics of the new doors, they are kind of like our new babies at the moment. As you can see, it doesn't take much to make us happy, just having doors that actually shut is enough to put us over the top!!!

Las Vegas and bars of soap

I know they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but not this time. Our family, Joe's parents, his sister's family and his sister's husband's parents went to Vegas this past weekend. I know, it seems like a lot of people, alot of kids, and what in the world would we all do in Vegas? Well, let me tell you, we had fun. And not the kind of Vegas fun you might think.

It started out with a long drive during which the kids asked about a gillion times, "are we there yet?" We finally arrived after dark which Joe and I thought would be a huge hit, but the lights were not nearly as entrancing to the children as they were to the adults. I was hypnotized from the moment we arrived. The first night was pretty uneventful as we had two babies and a couple of toddlers who didn't have naps that day. The second day held much more. We took the kids to the 4 story M&M store which was a HUGE hit! You wouldn't think there could be 4 stories of M&M merchandise, but surprisingly, there is!!! Even the baby liked it. Although the older two were petrified of the man wearing the M&M suit outside the store. Pretty funny. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which was again, a huge hit with the kids. They have animoatronic animals that move and every 20 minutes there is a virtual thunderstorm. Very cool, and the food was pretty good too. We went to the Bellagio and watched the fountains, which was so amazing!!

Amidst all the Vegas stuff there was plenty of hanging out and of course, wonderful observations made by the children. The first night a few of us went to eat while Grandma and Grandpa stayed with the kids. Upon returning Grandma told us that Dom had gone to the bathroom at one point and was getting ready to wash his hands and was immediately confused. You see, at our house we use Purell or foaming soap. The hotel only had bar soap. He watched his brother open a bar of soap which, I will admit, did look a lot like a piece of cheese and asked where his cheese was. Grandma explained that it wasn't cheese, it was soap. She told him to rub it on his hands, which he did, all the while looking confused and frustrated. He told Grandma, "it doesn't work." She looked at his hands and realized he was just rubbing the soap on his dry hands. In between the laughter she explained to him that he needed to get his hands wet first. So, he did that, got the soap on them and proceeded to wash his hands as usual. Grandma told him to smell his hands, she said they smelled like oranges. He smelled his hands and said, "smells like cheese." So yes, I admit, my child had never seen a bar of soap before. He has also never seen a cassette tape, but that does't make me a bad mother!

On our last day we went to Circus, Circus and went to their Adventuredome where they have rides and games and kids stuff galore. They played a few games, rode the carousel

and had a great time. Nico slept through most of it. That night Joe and I celebrated our 8th anniversary and hit the town. We had dinner at the Venetian in a restaurant that looked over the canals. We walked around the Venetian and fondly remembered our honeymoon to Italy. Then we hit Caesar's Palace and gambled a bit, ate gelato, and people watched while I rested my achy feet. We were up by about 50 bucks and one point and so we went to the Paris and went to the top of the Eiffel tower, which was so cool! You could see the entire strip AND we got a glimpse of the Bellagio fountains again, albeit from behind a group of very selfish folks who decided no one but them should be allowed to view the beauty from a good spot. We gambled a bit more and ended up on top in the end. So, we headed home and called it a wonderful night.

All in all it was a great trip. The kids had fun, the adults had fun, a good time was had by all.