It's bee a LONG time!!

I am back!!! It's been a long time since I've blogged. Life has been busy lately but I am back again. I caught up all the way back to where I left off - not that anyone really cares but it is for my own records that I decided to go all the way back to October. Enjoy the pictures!!

I voted!

We live in a great country! I really enjoyed going to vote yesterday. It reminded me how blessed we are to be able to go and vote. I was highly entertained by one woman who was EXTREMELY quick to anger and tore up her ballot because someone got in line in front of her and she began to rant and rave on how disorganized the polling place was (which it wasn't)! Oh my!

Lucas

So, what is our sweet Lucas up to these days? Here is a peek at his life. All of these things happen on a daily basis! He seems to live for the moment the bathroom door is left open, the moment the dishwasher is open, the rare time that all of the plates and cups are actually in the cupboards where they belong (he then does his baby duty of pulling them all out and throwing them all over the floor!), and he welcomes any opportunity to throw toys in the toilet!! You've got to love one year olds!!!
You can imagine where this toilet paper will be in about 30 seconds!!

Notice the giant mess of toys surrounding him. He dumps and moves on!
Where there is a box you will find Lucas sitting in it. Who needs toys when you have a box to climb in and out of!

What happened to table manners??!?! I mop the floor on a daily basis!! Lucas insists in feeding himself. He manages to get half of the food in his mouth and the rest on his clothes, floor, or bib. Oh, and he still refuses to swallow real food. He puts it in his mouth and enjoys chewing it but spits it out. He just won't swallow it unless it's baby food - nice and easy going down! Ughhhh! He goes through about 3 outfits a day!!! The good news is that this stage will pass.

More attempts to feed himself!!

Notice the marks on his forehead. He fell down teh stairs at my parents house. Poor baby!! His mouth was bleeding for many hours. He had cuts all over his head and Andy ended up in the ER with him. However, he was fine!
He loves to destroy whatever he can get his hands on!!! Any order I did have is gone for now!

What a mess!!

Lucas did turn one. We had fun celebrating his birthday and he enjoyed the frosting on his cake. I did have a major memory block and celebrated his birthday 4 days early!!! Yeah, I have problems!! It took Andy and my mom to convince me that his birthday was the 7th not the 4th!!! oops!!!

Happy New Year!!

We had a fun New Year's Eve party. We had two parties - one before the little kids went to bed and then Mark and Janae's family showed up to play games. The little kids had tons of fun with their party hats, noise makers, and dancing!!

Grandpa even sang Peggy Sue for everyone!

Mark and Janae and family!! It was soooo good to see them again.

Yeah!!! Happy New Year!!

Lucy, Lydia, and Emma

Even the twins enjoyed the party!

That's my crazy sister!!

Ethan is bringing in the New Year in style!

I love family

Here I am with my cute twin sisters. I love these girls!!!

All of the sisters and sister-in-laws with Crazy T!!! (mom)

Go Jazz!!!!

My dad had 2 tickets for the Jazz/Celtics game and Andy and I were the lucky winners of the drawing. Not only did we get a night out with free babysitting but we were about 15 rows back from the court. It was sooooo much fun!

Sledding

My parents live on a mountain so we had a great sledding hill right outside the house. The guys really got into it and built up walls and a tunnel along the sledding hill and built a giant igloo at the bottom of the hill.

Yes, Adam was really sledding in shorts!!

Ethan, Lucy, Amy, and Andy

This is the spectator box! There always seemed to be a crowd standing in my parents bathtub looking out the window.

Home for the Holidays

We had a great time with my family over the holidays. After Christmas everyone but Keri's family was at my parent's house. This is the group that was around Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We had a great trip and for the record Andy and I even got to go skiing over the holiday with some of my siblings and dad. We have never been skiing together so it was fun to finally hit the slopes. (Thanks to mom who watched the kids) And, while skiing I got frost bite on my nose!!! It was -5 degrees in the afternoon!!! COLD!!!

Adam dressed for the occasion in his Christmas sweater and turtleneck!! Yeah nice Adam - dressing like this you will have NO problem finding a wife!! Ha! Ha!

There were a lot of stockings to be filled this Christmas!!Here are the cute grandkids in their new PJ's grandma and grandpa gave to all the kids.

Lucy and Ethan were so happy to be Mary and Joseph. Ryan the donkey was the biggest hit and had to give rides to everyone after. What a good sport.

Ethan, Lucy, and Lydia on Christmas morning.

Grandma and grandpa

Great Neighbors!

We are so lucky to have such wonderful neighbors. They came over a day before we left for vacation and gave the kids gifts. They are always spoiling our kids.

Fry party anyone?!??!

I guess it is a guy thing because all the young men and Andy included were so happy to have their activity in our freezing cold garage and deep fry anything from captain crunch to potatoes to pickles.....you name it they fried it and were soooooo happy!!

Let it SNOW!!

After a year in Brazil I almost forgot what snow was!!! The kids love helping daddy shovel the driveway!

holiday baking

This year I tried making English Toffee which requires a LOT of stirring. So, I took advantage of the time and got some reading in!

Turkey Time!!

Matt and Camie came to our house for Thanksgiving. We had a great time and delicious food!!

The cooks!! We worked hard to have a great dinner. Matt and Andy were so nice to clean EVERYTHING up while Camie and I went to take naps!!!

We enjoyed going to the children's museum. Camie and I weren't sure who had more fun - the kids or Matt??!?!?

Matt was meant to work on the radio!!

Lucy and Lydia attempting to give the weather forecast!

Ethan

It just occurred to me that Andy is not in Any of these pictures. He was at work while we were at the museum and took the picture of all of us at the table!! For the record - he was around for Thanksgiving!

A trip to Matt and Camie's house

We had a great trip to Matt and Camie's house. Andy went to interview for MBA school and we made a weekend trip out of it. It was of course, tons of fun. How can it not be fun with Matt around?!?!? We did a letterbox hike and Matt couldn't quit talking about the hot chocolate he had prepared in his little thermos. He thought he was so cool. He was so happy about it that he pulled it out and started pouring less than 15 steps from the car. Although we all gave him a hard time about it it was a BIG hit with the kids!!

Clayton and Camie

More hot chocolate anyone??!?!?

It was a perfect day for a fall hike

"Did I mention I brought hot chocolate?"

One last cup of hot chocolate before getting on the road!!