A part of me is gone (but not for good)

Sorry for the weird title! You know how some people are absolutely, completely lost without their cell phone/hand-held-computer-thingy? Well, that's the way I am with my camera. I think part of this reason is that my memory is so bad that I think I'll forget something if I don't record it in some fashion.

Yesterday the boys and I had a great time driving out with our friend Abbe to Jamie's house, her sister and my friend. Unfortunately, amidst all the fun and then the craziness of packing up our stuff and the boys I left my camera :(

Not sure when I'll get it back, so the pictures I have of the Festival of Lights may be a bit delayed, and you won't get play-by-play action of the boys daily activities for a bit. (Though, some may be relieved!)

~Have a safe and happy new year!~

Celebrating Christmas (Part V)

After opening gifts and playing at our house, we head over to Grandma and Grandpa R's for brunch of orange whip, cinnamon cake, and goetta strata.

Benny & Louie take a picture with Great Grandpa and the Christmas puppies: Rudi and Bullet. Maybe next year Moses can join us!

The cousins (a few are not pictured) from my Mom's family with Grandpa.

Once again, Charlie gets laughs out of the crowd.

The boys are loving their new slippers! (Charlie: Thomas; Lou: Lightning McQueen; Ben: SpongeBob)

Celebrating Christmas (Part IV)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Santa must have been getting full. The boys wondered why he couldn't finish his snack.

Tools are a big deal at our house, and Benny received something like a 50 pc. set. There's nothing they like better than copying Daddy.

I had the boys hold their favorite gift from Santa and Benny held up his set of Mickey Mouse figurines.

There was no better reaction than Charlie opening up his ultra-soft panda bear stuffed animal. He immediately gave it the biggest hug you've ever seen.

Louie's favorite gift from Santa was actually a Bengal tiger that was given to Charlie. Luckily Charlie is a good share-er.

This is a gift Louie got (and all three are enjoying). It has discs like a Viewfinder and shines down an image that you can trace, then color.

A couple of quotes from the morning:

• "I guess Santa must not have gotten my letter," says Louie in the saddest tone he could muster. (Apparently, the one thing he really wanted he didn't get.)
• Louie taps me on the shoulder after all the gifts have been opened, "Santa must have thought we were pretty good, afterall, huh Mom." Yep, Lou, you guys can behave however you wish and in Santa's eyes you'll still be good. What are we going to do with these guys??
  

Celebrating Christmas (Part III)

On Christmas Eve we go to Mass then go back to someone in my Dad's family's house. This year it was at my parents. Great Aunt Mary have a grab bag of gifts, we do a cousins gift exchange and an adult gift exchange, then a special surprise at the end of the night!

Baby Cousin's first Christmas photo.

Kevin's artsy shot of all the girl cousins.

The boy cousins just don't have it together.

SURPRISE!

No fear from this guy. He was very excited to Santa Claus!

"Is this for real? Is Santa really here?!"

Benny could not wait for Lou to get off Santa's lap so it could be his turn. Before this, he was on the sidelines jumping up and down.

Maybe because it was getting late, maybe because it was loud and everyone was watching, but poor Charlie wasn't as excited to see Santa as his brothers. Notice the death-grip on Kevin's tie.

Celebrating Christmas (Part II)

Uncle Jeff lives in D.C. now, so he wanted to make the most of his time in Ohio and come visit with us! We went down to the Museum to see the Holiday Junction display.


They also have a "Toys Through the Years" exhibit and for some reason or another, the boys were enthralled with this (what some would call boring) video explaining how the toys worked.

Daddy and the boys on the last remaining Cincinnati street car.

Celebrating Christmas (Part I)

We began Christmas week on Friday the 19th when Daddy got off of work and his vacation started. We drove up to Grandma and Grandpa's house and the boys were all sorts of wound up with the decorations, treats, and piles of presents they saw!

All the family was together on Saturday and we did our annual picture in front of the tree.

Charlie opened his gift and he doesn't know that he has the right to tell his older brothers to back off! Being bigger, they thought it was their job to inspect everything he got to see if was neat enough for them to play with.

This is one of many times throughout the next week that Charlie put some odd thing on his head. He'll probably grow up to be the guy that thinks it's funny to put a lampshade on his noggin.

Louie & Benny each got a kid digital camera and patient Uncle Nick volunteered to get it started for them. They hovered in anticipation.

This quickly became Charlie's favorite toy.

Mommy & Charlie playing with the Little People house (with a "working" toilet!).

Charlie and Aunt Jill.

All's Well

I called the neighborhood heat & air guy, he came about an hour later and fixed our furnace!! I actually think it works better than before, which is great because our bedroom was usually like a fridge.

Kevin has a full day of work today and then we head up to Grandma and Grandpa's in Columbus to start Christmas Week. As you can imagine, the boys were ready to go when they woke up! Good news, though: my great friend Katie is in town from LA and we get to spend the day with her! The boys love her, so that'll keep them occupied until after rush hour :)