Happy Birthday Clara

Clara turned six this past week! She had a great day and relished every birthday moment! She is a sweetheart!

"Big Boy"

This week brought some changes, for James. For quite some time now, he has informed me that he is "a big boy" and now I am starting to realize that fact. Yesterday we took down the crib, put away his car seat (replacing it with a booster) and last Sunday he graduated from nursery to primary. This is scary, my children are growing up!



James loved his crib! He slept in it until he was three and a half - and never once tried to get out. He called it his "cozy bed". Just last week, he decided all on his own that it was time to move to his "big boy bed". This crib used to be mine when I was a baby. Jim sanded and painted it before Emi was born and it has been in use for the past nine years! It now lives in the attic :)


"Jesus want me for a Sunbeam!"

Jim's car post

(This post is especially for my Dad and brothers. They all love cars, and think it's absolutely heroic, and hilarious that Jim has driven the Taurus for so long).

Well, Jim finally did it. He bought a new car today! The poor man has been driving the Ford Taurus for nine years now. Don't get me wrong, the Ford was a great car and it served us well. But it was definitely time for a new car. The gas gauge hasn't worked for years (Jim would fill up the tank and then reset the odometer, and he knew that he could drive approx. 250 miles before he needed to fill the tank again.) This method only backfired once, when one of my friends and I decided to track different walking routes throughout the neighborhood. I set and reset the odometer several times to record how many miles each route was. But, I forgot to tell Jim of my little exercise, and he ran out of gas later in the week!

The passenger window no longer rolls down, the car is pocked with acorn dents - we park it outside in the driveway underneath 90 ft. tall trees that drop strawberry size acorns each fall, and lastly the doors have some issues as well. Last winter, the driver's door would just randomly fly open without warning - while driving! Jim used a couple of bungee cords to solve this problem (who ever heard of tying yourself into your vehicle?) This winter the doors won't open. They freeze shut every night. One morning, I looked out the window to see Jim climbing through the back door and over the console into the drivers seat! Recently, the heat went out. This is absolutely unbearable in CT. Jim had the radiator flushed, and that helped to increase the "heat" from frigid to cool.

Thus, he finally gave in and began the search for a new car. We don't buy cars often (yeah, like every 10 years). We buy them, and drive them until they die! After weeks of research, looking from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, we finally found the perfect car and the perfect price. Mission accomplished. Phew!


Here's an old pic of Jim and the Taurus when it was "new" - notice Emi is in a baby carrier!



Jim and his new Maxima....standing with Clara - she loves the moon roof :)

Christmas Fun

Every year, Jim and the kids build a gingerbread house. Here is this year's creation. You can't tell from this picture, but Jim installed lights inside the house. He used his Dremmel and cut out the windows, then used parchment paper for iridescent window coverings. Then, he wired tiny flickering lights inside the house. With the magic push of a button, the lights turn on and off!

Every year we visit Yankee Candle Company's flagship store in Deerfield Mass. It's a gigantic Christmas paradise! The kids love all of the displays and they love visiting with Santa in his little workshop. He was a very real, a very nice and a very thorough Santa. He literally spent 10 minutes with every family. Thank goodness we visited on a Monday night when there were only four or five families in front of us in line! :) On the way home, we stopped in Springfield Mass. to visit the Bright Nights light display (another fun tradition).

Dressed up in our Christmas attire for church on Sunday!

Christmas crafts

It's so terribly cold outside today, that I figured it would be a great day to stay home and get some crafts done. I bought some adorable Christmas fabric in Utah and I really wanted to sew some pillowcases for the kids. My dear friend came over this morning to help me out. They turned out soo cute! I feel very crafty! :)

Leaf Peeping Pics

I realize that it's now December, and Christmas is just around the corner.....I'm just a bit behind on my blogging. I know no one likes excuses, but seriously, I had swine flu for the first 2 and a half weeks of November, and now I'm finally better and still playing catch up! So, here are a few of our family leaf peeping pics from October! (Where has the time gone!)

I absolutely LOVE fall in Connecticut! It's totally worth living in New England, just to experience the gorgeous fall colors and fall events each year. Leaf peeping, pumpkin putches, fall carnivals, apple picking etc. Oh, the simple beauties of Connecticut!

Halloween

Clara wore her super cute Halloween dress to school this week. She looked adorable and was a big hit in her class!

Clara as Snow White - marching in the Kindergarten Halloween parade!

Family pumpkin time - carving our jack-o-lantern. The only requirement was that everyone had to put their hand in the pumpkin to touch the goo. James loved it!

This pic is turned side ways (and I don't know how to fix it). Anyway, we hosted a little Halloween party on Halloween night, complete with spooky food. Here are the "mummy dogs".

This was probably the favorite..."Bones and Blood". The kids thought it was great!

Our last spooky main dish was "Mummy pizza's".

All the kids ready to go trick-or-treating! What a cute group!

The morning after trick-or-treating! Clara put her candy in piles and then pretended to open a candy store, selling each piece for $3......what a business women!


Emi organized and counted all of her candy. The winner candy was 15 packages of whoppers!

James put his candy into rows (like a parking lot). Gee, playing with all of this candy is soo much fun!