Been bit by the Christmas bug

The boys have been overly cranky this week, something I am attributing to the lack of naps after a long weekend. So, yesterday when I had about enough of the screaming/crying/fighting/whining I popped in a Christmas CD and something magical occurred...

They stopped crying, started listening, and then, began dancing! Oh, the power of holiday music! I'll have to store this bit of knowledge away for years to come. Of course, I can't use this all year-round or else it'll lose its power, but for now, I'm happy to use it for all its worth.

The boys do independent dances, partner dances, and then start ice skating on the kitchen floor. If you ever get a chance to see it, I'm sure it'd put a smile on your face like it is mine.

No big thing

I think Meredith just officially rolled over...and no one even noticed. I put her on her back so we could pick up all the puzzle pieces and then, she was on her back! I'm pretty sure she has rolled over before, but because Kevin and I weren't breathing down her back with a camcorder in hand, we'll never know for sure. I promised myself that I wasn't going to have my children think I loved the first any more than the others because I documented his life better. How naive I was. It's not about the want, it's about the time and, of course, the ability of focus on five things at once.

She's doing so much! She talks about as much as Charlie does, without all the "static." She grabs and holds and SLOBBERS so teeth can't be far away. She smiles so brightly with those cute cheeks. She's changing each day, and one of the newest changes has been the extremely high pitch squeal that she's adopted. I call her Squeakers now.

We celebrated Meredith's baptism back on October 18th. Here are a few pictures to prove it (sorry, it's been so long since I've done stuff on the site that I forgot that when you're uploading pictures you have to do it reverse order. Here they are):

Meredith's delicious cake from BonBonerie (thank you, Aunt Erin!)

Four Generations

The whole family

The Godfathers, Uncle Jeff & Uncle Joe

Fr. Pat, baptizing Meredith

It Is November

My sister's wedding has come and gone and now I can start putting back together the blog that I have slacked on for...about a month. We have some great pictures of the last few weeks I want to share. I may not get too many details right, or maybe even at all. I don't want to spend the next month recapping!

Here is a picture of the kids in their Halloween costumes. They wore them about three times, even though they didn't officially go trick-or-treating. We went to our zoo's HallZOOeen, Ben and Lou each had a school Halloween parade, and then Joanie and Josh had all the kids wear costumes to their rehearsal dinner. I think everyone was worried that the kids were going to miss out on the holiday, but the definitely got their fill! In case you're not able to figure it out, Meredith was a giraffe, Benny was a skeleton (he wasn't able to wear his mask at his parade), Charlie was a monkey (Curious George that all three boys have now worn), and Louie was SpiderMan, probably the most popular costume we saw this year!

Check back soon for more pictures!

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.”

―Phyllis Diller

Please forgive me for not updating the blog. Things have been pretty hectic in our casa llena. I do have some fun pictures I'd like to share with you...if I ever get my household clean and organized!

My Birthday

My birthday was on the same day as my sister's bachelorette party and the best gift (two, in fact) was that I didn't have to worry about my kids for the day/evening. Kevin's parents generously took our boys to Columbus and my fabulous friend Stephanie came over and stayed with Meredith while the girls were out on the town.

On Sunday, Kevin's parents not only brought the boys back for us, but came with a wonderful dinner and cake that the boys helped make!

For some reason, Louie is attempting to be mad here (I can't remember why), but overall the three of them were very proud of their finished product, and I couldn't agree more!

Here, Benny "accidentally" put his fist into the icing. I love how kids do that. They're so quick to say "I'm sorry!" right afterward, but so excited to lick the icing right off. And don't doubt for one minute that the other two were having similar "accidents" as soon as they saw that Benny wasn't read the riot act for doing such a thing.


"Birthdays" may be the boys' favorite holiday. They don't care whose it is, just give them cake and candles and they're in heaven. Good thing we're all family because there is quite a bit o' spit on that cake.

Mere is just taking it all in with Grandpa. I imagine that soon enough she'll be mixing it up with her big brothers, but for now, she loves any and all of the attention she gets.

New Friends

How great is it when your new friend not only gets along with you, but also with your three siblings? From a mom's standpoint, it's great when this friend comes over! Jake is so good with all the kids--even Charlie and Meredith. He has a 13 month old sister, so he probably has some practice with the little ones.

In this picture they were showing me their vampire teeth made out of candy corn, so that kind of explains what Louie is doing. They all get excited when Jake comes over, whom they call by his proper name of Jakob. It's pretty cute.

Countdown 'til the Wedding!

Part of the reason I've be slacking on posting is that we're getting ready for my sister's wedding! I won't post a ton of pictures from our activities, but a few to show that I'm not fibbing, and also tell some stories.

Grandma just got back from Florida so that accounts for some of it, but I doubt that Miss Mere will ever have anything other than "fair" complexion! (Taken at one of Joanie's showers)

This was also at one of Joanie's showers. I saw this dessert a while back on one of the blogs I follow. It's a (new) terra cotta pot with a vanilla wafer covering the hole, ice cream, then finely ground oreo cookies for the soil. A straw is inserted into the ice cream before putting on the "soil" so that when the dessert is ready to be passed out you can insert real flowers. When I first saw it I put it on the back burner in case I wanted to use it for one of Meredith's future birthday parties. It turned out so cute!

The boys were in Columbus, but Meredith joined us for the bachelorette party. Joanie met her future husband Josh at Ohio University, so the theme of the party was "OU Tailgate." All I had for Mere to wear was one of the boys' old T-shirts. She looked so much like Lou when I put her outfit on that I put her pink ballcap on to ensure everyone knew she was a girl...and it didn't help much.

Nothing too special about this picture other than my sister's shirt matches my kitchen walls, oh, and cousin Katie who is also in the wedding is in the picture. I wish you could see how cute her veil turned out. One of her bridesmaids made it: a green headband with sequins, the veil was attached to it. The veil had little green flowers as well as bedazzled OU paw prints. Adorable!

So, the countdown is on. Benny is the ring bearer, so I'll be sure to update you on how that goes. We need to go in and have him measured for his tux. I have my dress, my hair appointment has been made, I just need to start working on my speech. Goodness. I need lots of help with that!