Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

Grandma Ann came up this weekend to help watch the kids on Friday since they didn't have school. She gave the kids little Halloween treat sacks. Grandma spoils the kids around the holidays and brings them a bunch of goodies. Thanks Grandma!!




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What a beautiful evening Halloween was this year. The evening was clear but cool, no rain or wind. Phil walked with the kids for 2 hours and came back with pumpkins full. This was the first year that we Trick-or-Treated with my nephews. The kids had fun walking with their cousins.
Pirate Clare


Trying to hold Ruthie for a photo.


Knight-Brett


Scream-Andrew and Kip was I-Cub Soriano.


Ruthie getting her first treat from our neighbor. She only went to a few houses then I took her back home.


Double fisted with suckers.


Olivia decided early on that she wasn't going to Trick or Treat this year. She was excited to hand out candy and ask the kids coming by their jokes.

Olivia and our neighbor passing out the candy.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Has it been...

3 years already???? Yep. Today marks our 3rd year living in the DM area. Hard to believe that Clare was 3 when we first moved here. When Phil and I decided to move here June of 2007, it was HUGE risk and a big decision for us.
1. I had a job and then Phil had to let his job go in Omaha and search for a new one.
2. Sell the house (which took 3 months, now looking back this doesn't seem SO long in today's housing market but at the time, it seemed like forever) Phil remembers this time of our life not being very fun. He basically was a single dad living in Glenwood raising our children, and I'd travel home on the weekends to visit. This lasted for 2 months.
3. Kids switched schools twice in one school year, but survived well and have made some great friends.
4. Starting a new life, in a new city, new jobs/school for all of us. Moving away from what Phil, I and the kids have all known, home... Glenwood for 10 years.

Sadly, we left behind some dear family, Phil's brother, Dan. Dan would come to GW several times a month to hang out to watch football and to play with the kids. And also break a few things around the house or injure a kids or two. HA, but we still love ya!!!! Now, that we moved away, we all miss our times with Dan and his family. With both of our schedules it makes it hard to get together.

We also left behind some wonderful friends and colleagues which was like our second family from home. I loved the people I worked with as they helped me so much in my teaching career.

Moving away from what we were all use was scary. We weren't sure if we made the right decision. We knew at one point, we'd move b/c our house was getting too small. With me having a job offer in DM this opened the door for us. Who knew if this door would open again??

Now, that we are all settled, a lot has happened. The kids quickly made friends. We LOVE our neighborhood and neighbors, another great group of people to work with, a bigger house for our family, Phil got another teaching job, Ruthie came along, and Phil decided to advance his career to become a principal. We are closer to my brother and family now. There isn't a week, that the kids don't see their cousins, Kip and Brett. Andrew and Kip are in the same grade and both LOVE sports. They play together outside non-stop either playing kickball, baseball, football, wii, or talking football stats. They are quite the best of buds.

Ruth took off out of the picture before we could get her in it. This just shows how fast she is and wants nothing to do with posing for a picture.

Plenty of Hugs

This past weekend we had Raye and Joseph visiting along with Gramma Mary. Phil was at grad class on Sat., and I needed help with all of the kids' activities. It is hard to be on the go with a very busy toddler. Gramma helped to keep Ruthie in her routine while I was off to take Clare to her soccer game, work the concession stand, take Andrew to his last football game, and finally take Clare to a birthday party and pick her back up. Raye joined me in watching Andrew and Clare in their games, which was nice to catch up on life. We haven't been together since July. It was great seeing her along with seeing how BIG Joseph has gotten. He is now 6 months old and sitting up. The kids loved holding and playing with their baby cousin.


Ruthie loved giving Joseph hugs and kisses. She has been actively playing with her dolls. At times she was a little rough but it was very cute how she showed him her lovin.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

10-10-10

Today was another beautiful day here in DM. The boys were going to be busy with Andrew's football game, so I thought I'd take the girls to a local pumpkin patch. With the weather in the 80's, and it being Sunday afternoon, I knew it would be busy. We haven't been to this particular pumpkin patch in a long time. Many years ago before we lived here in DM, Sara brought us here. Anyway, there were more attractions now at the farm. We didn't do a lot of them due to the heavy crowd. There were plenty of pumpkins to pick from. The girls each picked a pumpkin, and I bought a pretty purple mum.




Clare immediately wanted to ride a pony. We all waited very patiently 20 minutes to ride Lady for 3 minutes.


Olivia wished she could have ridden the ponies as well. She exceeds the 80 pound limit.


I'm always looking for a place to put the kids to have their picture taken. This wasn't the best spot or the best timing on Ruthie's part. The sun was beating down and too bright for the girls to look at me. And Ruth wanted nothing to do with posing as you can tell from the photos. She is a movin' and a shakin'. Olivia and Clare are trying to keep Ruth there but every time we put her in place, she would just run off. I gave up! Ha



Just Playing with My Puter



Happy Birthday Phil!

We managed to squeeze in a little time to celebrate Phil's birthday on Thursday. Our evenings are usually busy with running a kid somewhere. After our running around, we celebrated before bedtime.




Ruthie running off with the Whoppers. Heee

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite boys...the other is Andrew.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Afternoon at the Park

Today was an absolutely beautiful fall day. After Ruthie's nap, I took the girls to a nearby park to play. This was Ruth's first time at this park. I knew she would like it since the equipment is low to the ground. She LOVED running to the different parts on the playground and going down the slides. Olivia liked showing Ruth around and how to play on it. It was really cute to watch. Clare did her usual monkey bars and hang-glider.

The boys were at Andrew's football game. The game lasts about 2 hours. Ruth can't sit through all of that. We played at the park for awhile then headed to Andrew's game for about 45 minutes. Then it was time to go home and fix supper.










This week, Ruth had her 15 month check-up. She is growing up so fast. Just like our other children, Ruth is high in percentile for height and weight-97%. She weighs 26 pounds, and is 33 inches. She wears 2t tops and pants, size 4 diapers, naps twice a day, likes to drink milk and eat food that everyone else eats. Not a fan of grilled cheese.




My beautiful girls!!