Where has the time gone?

Well, 10 days ago my first born turned 9 years old. It really made Tod and I stop and wonder where all of the time had gone... Don't get me wrong, we are thrilled that he is growing up, just a little bit sad that he's not our cute, chubby, no back talking, little boy anymore. He is growing up very nicely. We did have a rough year or two that I never thought we would make it trough, but we did and we have come out even stronger on the other side. Caleb really has become a delight and it is so wonderful to see him stretching his wings, learning new things, yet still looking back to take our hand when he needs it. Here are some pictures from 01/11/09:

The Birthday Boy and my mom (who shares her birthday with him), Caleb was making his wish in the first picture., enjoying his yummy Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake in the 2nd, and hanging out with Grandma in the third.

Finally, a picture of Colin who was doing his best to wait patiently for his cake.

Quick update

I know tha tI have been lax in my updates over the past few weeks, but I have been taking the time to play and read with my boys and doing my best to take less time on the computer. I will need to save my pic uploading and journaling for after they are in bed so that I don't miss out on anything.

My sister was home for the holidays and it was a GREAT 5 days to have her home! The boys couldn't get enough of Aunt Cate and I believe that we spent some time at my mom &
dad's every day that she was here!

Christmas Eve was a blessing. The big boys sang in the Children's Choir at the 4pm Mass and then we headed to my parent's house for our traditional buffett style dinner, crazy gift exchange, and general merriment. The best part of the evening is that my Grandfather's health was ok enough for he and my Grandmother to join us for the evening. That was not the case last year, and their presence was sorely missed at that time. Family has always been a very important part of the holiday season for us and we treasure every minute that we get to spend with them.

Christmas Day was wonderful, overwhelming, and a good day for all. After the boys woke us up. we opened gifts, had our cheesy scrambled egg breakfast, and hung out in our pajamas for a few hours before getting dressed and heading to Pendleton to see Tod's family. The boys couldn't have been happier since they were able to spend all day playing with their cousins that they don't see that often...as parents, Tod's brother and his wife, and Tod & I all received plenty of nagging from our own kids about why they never get to see their cousins. Aimee and I decided that we would do our very best to try to get the families together at least once a month for some downtime...we'll see how that goes.

New Year's Eve was pretty quite. We spent a few hours at our dear friends house playing games and then came home around 11pm (I did not want to be on the roads with my precious cargo and all of the rookie party-goers). I was exhausted when we got home and dozed on the couch while the boys played games right next to me on the floor and repeatedly updated me with the countdown..."you only have 156 more minutes to rest mom!", "Mom, it's only 5 minutes away!", "Mom, the ball is starting to drop!", "Happy New Year, Mom! Can we go out and bang pots & Pans?"...and they did.

We are now looking forward to this Sunday, it will be Caleb and my mom's birthday. Caleb will be 9, and I'm not so sure my mom wants me to let you know how old she will be!

I will post pics from the past few weeks later.

Baby,it's cold outside...

It has officially become frigid in Indy. Last Friday our roads were solid ice...seriously, you could've donned a pair of ice skates and skated on down the street. Well, noticing how icy it was, Tod decided to get out our sled and take the boys for a ride down the street. While he was getting it down the boys discovered how icy it was and were running and flopping on their bellies in the middle of the driveway so that they could slide down the driveway...silly boys!



Once Tod had the sled hooked to the rope the boys climbed aboard and off they went. I don't remember the last that I heard so much laughter and giggling...from ALL of them.

Later that night, Colin came upstairs while the big boys were

playing in the base

ment and asked if he could run the Christmas Train. Once he knew that proper technique (you

aren't allowed to make it go faster than 2 MPH in either direction unless Daddy is with you), he laid himself down on the floor and became one with the train. Out of all 3 of our boys, Colin has always seemed to show more interest in vehicles and the Christmas Train was no exception. He was on the floor for almost and hour and even went down to get some Lego Minifigures to act as passengers. I hope he doesn't outgrow this anytime soon. Time goes by too quickly and I want him to enjoy this stage for as long as he can...or maybe I want to be the one enjoying this stage..

How much longer do we have?

We spent the day at the children's Museum with Grandpa yesterday. The main reason for the visit was to see Santa Claus. The boys have been waiting so patiently to talk to him this year; they've been dilligently circling items in catalogs and making liswt after list. so they were definitely prepared for a talk with the jolly old elf!

As they were talking to him, my dad mentioned that this will probably be the last year for Caleb (he turns 9 in January!) to believe...it makes me kind of sad to think about that and I hope that once he does outgrow the childhood Santa that the "magic" of Santa will remain with him.

I remember when I learned "the truth", it made me so sad. However, my parents still had gifts from "santa" under the tree for me up until a few years ago, and I still get goosebumps when Santa pulls into Herrald Square for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade...there's just something about Santa that makes the season more magical. Perhaps it is because of the way that the stories say that every child woke to gifts Christmas morning, perhaps it is the idea of mankind being a little bit nicer and reaching out to those in need during this season, who knows?

No trip to the "Jolly Days" exhibit at The Children's Museum would be complete without racing doen the HUGE slide...as you can see, Colin was clearly the winner here.

We had to hit Colin's very favorite part of the museum as well. This carousel is AMAZING! It is over 100 years old and is on the top floor of the museum. During this time of the year it even plays oompapa Christmas music! All of the boys are now old enough to ride "jumpers" so it is nice for me because they all end up in the same row for a change.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I thought it would be fitting to start my journey into the blogosphere with a post about us getting our home ready for Christmas.

We picked up our tree on Monday and let it "fall" for 2 days before T put the lights on. The boys "helped" me put the ornaments on (with some creative rearranging by mommy). Watching the boys and their excitement as they unearthed the ornaments and started spouting memories brought back so many memories of decorating our tree while we were growing up, it was really neat seeing them create their own memories. After about a half hour the tree was ready for the star. T came out to put it on and the boys could hardly contain themselves as he lit it.

We also decorated the rest of the house, and while going through the boxes the boys unearthed their Santa hats. Of course we had to take a picture...or 2 or 3!