Ooops! It has been forever!!!

Ooops!! It has been forever since I posted! I changed the blog to a more summer like background bc after a long and cold winter we are all ready for spring/summer!!!

A lot has happened since the beginning of Jan so I will sum it up:

Hailey turned 6 on Feb 1st - she celebrated with family and some friends at a Paint Your Own Pottery place. Joshua turned 4 on March 23rd and he too celebrated with family and friends at Port Discovery in Baltimore (a childrens' museum). They both had fabulous birthdays!!

Scott and I went to The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL the end of Feb for 5 days and had a great time. We are headed to the Four Seasons in Maui on April 25th ~ this is where we honeymooned almost 9 years ago!!

Kyle is becoming such a little boy - no more baby!! He loves to chase after his siblings and even 'hit' them (he holds his own very well) - he actually enjoys being rough and wrestling! He is starting to talk more and LOVES to dance and make us laugh. He can get into things but overall is a really good little guy :)

Hailey started lacrosse and is loving it (mouthguard, facemask and all) and Joshua started soccer clinic and loves it as well. Kyle just loves chasing and throwing a ball.

The kids are starting a countdown until our family vacation in June - we are heading to St Thomas, USVI for 3 days and then onto St John with my family for 7 more days. We are all very excited for this trip!!

Kari and Syd are coming to visit for a few days and we are all so excited for their visit - Syd is getting so big and is now giggling all the time!

I promise to try and keep this more up to date .... Happy Easter to all!

HAPPY 2009!!!!

I can't believe how fast the month of December went by!! The kids continued to enjoy the 'adventures' their elves got into esp when the elves hung our underwear all over our Christmas tree one night! The elves took a trip to NJ the weekend before Chirstmas and continued their fun up there - they toilet papered Gramma and Grampa's tree and 3 ft santa!!!

Santa was VERY good to the kids this year and they pretty much got what they wanted. They really enjoyed Christmas this year ~ even Kyle was into opening his gifts.

Kari had her baby (finally) on Christmas Eve ~ Sydney Elizabeth Cooke was 7lbs, 13oz and 20in long. She is absolutely beautiful and we were very fortunate to spend time with her over the holiday.

Meghan had her baby girl on Sat. 12.27 ~ Maggie Elizabeth Still was 7lbs, 1 oz and 19.5 in long. She too is a beautiful little baby girl and we have spent some time with her.

We wish everyone a very healthy and happy 2009!

Thanksgiving fun and the Elves have arrived!!!!

Last week we took our yearly family photos ... the kids were so cooperative (unlike their dad who I had to bribe to go). Then we celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and my parents and Chris and Cindy joined us. The kids all like the dinner and the next day we went to Homestead to see all the Christmas decorations. We also began decorating our house and putting up the tree.

Speaking of Christmas .... Gramma & Grampa told Santa the kids would love to take care of some of his elves .... so 3 of Santa's elves arrived at our house special delivery from the North Pole!!

Hailey's elf is Cinnamon (named after her favorite beach on St John), Josh's is Jingles and Kyle's elf is McKinley (the only elf who kept his name from Santa).

The elves sleep all day and get into mischief at night while we all sleep. We have awoken to find the elves playing Candyland, having drank a whole can of soda and eaten candy. They also found their way up onto our kitchen island where they helped themselves to Thanksgiving leftovers!

One night Kyle's elf was found in the manger holding baby Jesus! All in all the kids think it is hysterical and are having so much fun with them.

We hope everyone enjoys the wonderful holiday season .... Happy December!!!

It has been a few weeks and a lot has been going on .... Kyle is officially walking, he now uses a sippy cup (no more bottles - they are out of our house for good!), and he is cutting/has cut all 4 molars and some of his eye teeth.

Joshua is thriving in preschool and learning so much. He wants to go to school every day like his sister and his teacher says he is ready so after the holidays he will be going every day from 8am-1pm. He thinks everything is silly and funny these days .... he has also gone back to tumbling and is having a lot of fun. Since he has been going to the mall with me to shop for xmas he has seen Santa now 4x and everytime he is sure to tell him how good he has been and that he really wants the batman castle :) He has also become my little helper - he helped me today make the turkey cupcakes for his class feast tomorrow.

Hailey had a fantastic first marking period in kindergarten and is reading on her own - she is doing very well. She has started gymnastics and loves it. She walks around practicing her 'bridge' (backbend) and trying to do a handstand. She is also excited for xmas and her new baby cousins. Hailey has also joined Daisies (which is the group before Brownies in Girl Scouts) and is enjoying it so far - she keeps asking when will she sell the cookies?!

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Halloween and some....

It has been a busy last few weeks ... Kyle had his 1 year checkup and weighed in at 24 .6 lbs (90th%) and 31 3/4 in (95th%) - he is following his big brother almost exactly!

On 10.28 Scott and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary!! He sent me 2 dozen absolutely gorgeous roses (Hailey later told me she told her dad to send me flowers :-)

On 10/30 Hailey lost her 1st tooth at her school's fall harvest, I was lucky enough to be volunteering so I was there for the 'big' moment! The tooth fairy came that night leaving her $5 and a pack of stickers. She was soo excited and just told us today that the next tooth over is loose now. Scott told her he thinks the tooth fairy always leaves more money for the 1st tooth - he got himself into this!

That same afternoon Kyle took his first real steps to one of Scott's co-workers while we were visiting Scott at his office. He took 3 good ones, paused and caught his balance and took 2 more. He took a few more on and off to the coworker but still isn't sure about it.

Josh had a western day at school on Fri - he was a cowboy (he wanted to be an Indian with a boy and arrow since he has become obsessed with guns and bows and arrows). Hailey had a parade/Halloween party that we all went to Fri afternoon. She also got her 1st report card and scored Mastery in most of the areas, we were very proud of her.

Halloween night was a beautiful fall night and the kids had so much fun - even Kyle hung with the big kids for the whole time! He even left his lion mane on the whole time. Josh was so happy with all his candy (he LOVES candy).

Today (11.1) was over 75` so we took the kids for a boat ride ... we had lunch and the kids had fun fishing as well.

Enjoy the extra hour of sleep tonight!

Kyle John is ONE!!!

We have been very busy the last week or so.... on Saturday we had Kyle's 1st bday party with lots of family and fun. He had so much fun eating the cake ... he actually put his face into it to eat it! He was covered by the end. Kyle got lots of nice gifts and officially turned 1 on Tuesday 10.14. He celebrated by having some pizza and gelati at The Italian Market in Annapolis.

Hailey had her 1st kindergarten field trip on Monday ... I chaperoned and we went to a pumpkin patch/farm where there were lots of activities. Her favorite was a corn maze.

Joshua had his 1st K3 field trip on Tuesday ... Scott chaperoned and they had a great time at the pumpkin patch. He had a lot of fun on the hayride.

Last week I took Kyle for his 1 year photos and also got some of him in his costume - he actually 'growled' at the photographer when she asked him too ;-)

Enjoy!!

Busy Busy Weekend!

Last Thursday night we headed to NJ for a fun and long weekend. Hailey brought home the class bear "Benny" to spend the weekend with us ... Benny went EVERYWHERE we did! On Friday, my mom and sister and I took Hailey and Josh to NYC .... we went to Mars 2112 for dinner (took a space ship there and met aliens) and then to see The Little Mermaid on broadway. The kids had a blast and the play was amazing! (Hailey told us we had to take a cab ride for Benny - we drew the line here and just did the subway ... we were so worried about losing that darn bear! :-)

Saturday was my dad's bday so we all went out to dinner, my parents, Kari and Jon, Chris and his girlfriend Cindy, and all 5 of us, oh make that 6 bc Benny the Bear came too :-)


Sunday we had Kari's baby shower - it was fun and she got a ton of nice stuff for little baby Cooke. You guessed it Benny celebrated at the shower too!!

Yesterday I ran out of formula for Kyle and rather than wait the 2 more weeks until he is 1 I just gave him whole milk. He had no allergic reactions and devoured the whole bottle immediately (like his older sis and brother did) ... so we are officially off formula!! Yeah.... now I can't wait for 15 months so I can get rid of the bottles :)

Happy October!!!!
Hope you all have a good rest of the week and weekend!