I can do it!

The girls used anything they could to get the ornaments high on the tree. Nana helped re-arrange some, but Thing 1 and Thing 2 got most of the higher ornaments on the tree.

Christmas Time!

All the girls working hard on Christmas decorations. Nana and Becky got the ornaments out and lined them up while the 3 little ones decorated the trees. Everyone had a great time!

Shopping with Nana

The girls enjoying some quality time with Nana at the Yankee Candle.

My Little Pirates

Sailing on the Seven Seas

Nana's Little Helper

Ashley spending some time cooking with Nana and Becky in the kitchen.

4 Generations

The girls drove to Western Mass to visit with GG. They all had a wonderful time and GG enjoyed the visit with all her girls. Luckily they got the visit in before the weather made a turn for the worse this week.

Quiet time with Grandma

Grandma spending some quality time with Callie.

Which one weighs more?

The Turkey, by 1 pound.

Mmmmm.... Turkey!

Our 23 pound juicy turkey before being devoured.

Carving the Turkey

Our friend Shondra joined us for Thanksgiving Dinner. I'm carving the big ol' turkey here.

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

The girls were having a great time playing Playdoh and watching cartoons with Grandma and Grandpa while they were here. I think Grandma and Grandpa were enjoying the Playdoh too! :0)

Climbing the Walls

The girls were climbing the walls they were so excited their grandparents were here!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

The girls had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. They came out the weekend before Turkey before heading to Philly to visit Tim's fiance's family. This is a group cuddle watching cartoons before bedtime.

Caylor's, The Early Years.

Proud Daddy with Lily before the Race

We had an absolutely fabulous day today. It was a great bonding experience. At the end of the race, she decided she wanted to run the last .2 miles by herself. She actually ran better without me. There was a large crowd that was cheering at the end too that she loved. I can't wait for her next race! She was pretty winded after the 1 mile, so we may work a little on the girls overall fitness, but I am VERY pleased!

The Girls and Ryan before the Big Race

Callie, Lily, Angie and Ryan posing before Lily and Angie's first race. The two little one's did great considering that they were not racing. It was purely coincidence that their numbers were 1 digit apart. The weird part is I was born in '68 and Patty was born in '69.

Lily Finishing her first Race!

She finished the 1 mile race in 13:18. We had a great day and she had a wonderful experience with the race.

Pumpkin

I don't think Lily likes animals very much... What do you think? She still wants 'Pumpkin' from the Fall Festival this year.

Fall 2009

Well, we find ourselves in late September 2009. Callie celebrated her 4th birthday last month with a Wall-E and Eva themed party. (Eva is her middle name for those of you who didn't know that.) She had a great time and is so proud of herself. She is potty trained except at night, but that will come in time. And she's trying!

Lily has been in kindergarten for 2 weeks now, starting her 3rd. She is so excited about school. I have to remind her that the bus needs to stop before she runs out into the street to get on it. :) All 3 girls are bright so it isn't surprising that she loves to learn. Callie is even benefiting from the things that Lily is learning. I can see that her alphabet skills have improved as well as her writing.

We are working on the days of the week, the months and seasons. I have a calendar that they can update everyday to reflect these changes. It's fun. I can't find the picture of her on the first day of school right now but I will and will get it posted.

Great 4th of July weekend

We had a few friends show up to watch the parade on Saturday. If nothing else it was long, and the kids really enjoyed it. The dog did really well with all the noise. He didn't freak out once!

We also did a LOT of swimming Sat and Sun. Girls had a blast. Thanks for having us over Cheryl! We couldn't have asked for better weather this weekend! We deserve it after all the rain we've been having.

Update on Callie's tooth:

So far so good! Tooth is still there, no discoloring. We were blessed for hard boned, fast recovery kids!

Early Birthday Present

Callie also was able to ride her new bike this last week (early Birthday present from Nana and Papa)! She loved it! She took off like she had been riding a bike for years. She still needs to pay attention to where she's going though, but she has that problem when she walks... I'm sure she'll be riding it today - another beautiful day expected.

3 Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed

Our 3 little monkey's were just scolded for jumping on the bed, when we heard screams from their room after walking out... Callie had blood gushing from her mouth and one of her front teeth was at a 45 degree angle. Daddy pushed it back where it was supposed to be, but still, YIKES! The doctor said to take her to the emergency room, because there was nothing they could do. We decided the best option was to go see a Dentist instead of waiting for 4 hours in an emergency room for them to tell us to go see a Dentist. They took X-Rays, and it appears to be fine. Soft food for the next few days. The tooth will either stay, or it won't. It will either discolor, or it won't. Still left to be seen, but her gum line is healing up nicely. Somehow no bruises on her face either. What a tough cookie!

Farrah Fawcett

Farrah will be missed!!! I don't know of a boy growing up in my generation that didn't have a poster of her on their wall at some point. She fought a horrible disease very bravely. She was even willing to show it for what it was, ugly; that coming from one of the most beautiful women that made it through the 70's. I feel bad for her family that her death will always be surrounded by the death of the most famous pedophile in the world. May her family find some peace and may her son look back at this and pull him self out of the pit that he has dug himself into. God Bless.

Michael Jackson

My thoughts, although nothing was ever proven in court, there was something wrong with that guy. My prayers go to his friends and family, and if there were 'victims', may they find a way to heal from their experience. If nothing else, he brought beautiful music to the world, some a little off, but he truly was an incredible entertainer. Let's put things in perspective and realize he has a soul like the rest of us. We all will see our maker someday, let's pray we've made the right choices in our lives.

June 2009

Well we find ourselves here at the end of June. Next weekend we celebrate July 4th with all the pomp & circumstance, bbq's & parades, fireworks & good times that go with it.

I have to take a minute to vent my disgust with America and how they are falling over themselves to mourne Michael Jackson. Even typing his name disgusts me. The man was a pervert and should have been in jail to protect the youth of America - not to mention how screwed up his own kids are going to be. The only reason he wasn't locked up was because he was allowed to buy his freedom. I hope he burns in Hell for all eternity for what he did. No amount of musical talent can excuse his moral and social obligation for what he did. OK. I feel a little better. Thanks.

Now, on to my wonderful children...

Lily had her screening for kindergarten last week. They had her say her alphabet, do some balancing exercises, stack some blocks and a few other things that I couldn't see from peeking around the corner. We got the notice in mail this week that "your child performed all tasks within age appropriate limits" - of course they had to pick that box because they don't have one that says "your child is a genius!" . Let's face it, we all know she's brilliant!

She's going to attend dance camp next month and VBS in August. There are some activities that the Recreation department is running at the fields down the street from us and you only have to be 5 years old to participate so we are going to send her to that a few weeks this summer too. Sadly Callie is still a bit to young to participate in that. But Callie does get to go to VBS.

Speaking of Callie, she's doing and AMAZING job of potty training. I forgot how much work it is to help train. I think that Ashley is going to be the easiest of all of them becuase she already sits on the training potty, wipes, and magic soaps her hands. (Magic soap is code for hand sanitizer in our house.) But I think that at 17 months she's really too young to understand the sigals her body is sending. But I have taken her diaper off and tried having her sit. It would be AWESOME if I could get her trained by the holidays too... hmmm...

Ashley is still a peanut. She's barely 20 lbs. and she's 17 months old. She still wears 12 month clothes. Yesterday she had on an outfit for 6-12 month olds. YIKES! But I'm sure she'll be happy to be so petite when she's a teenager. :)

It's scary to think about any of them getting older. I dread then turning into teenagers. I heard a line on tv last week that really made me kringe... "pretty girls never pay for pot..." I know pot is everywhere but I know our girls are beautiful so it is my/our job to raise them to do the right thing and be able to say NO. Pray for us!

Family Update

Well here it is the latter half of April 2009 and I am just making the time to sit down and blog. How awful is that? Wait, don't answer that, I don't really want to know. :) What can I say, it's tough to make the time with 3 little kids.

So I guess you want to know what's been going on since my last post - back in December. Well, Ashley turned 1 in January. She is a bright loving and tiny little gift from God. Lily calls her "itty bitty". She is loved by both of her big sisters and of course us. Lily turned 5 in March. Let me tell you that party was THE social event of the season. There were 2 unicorns that showed up - from out of the magical forest. OK, so Jeff came walking down the street with them but to a 5 year old, it was a magical forest and Daddy was her hero! The truck bringing them broke down a few blocks away and Jeff went to find them and bring them over while all the kids were out in the yard looking for clues. It was awesome when they saw them come down the driveway.

We are making plans to head back to AZ for a couple of weeks this summer. I figure that we will have 3 little swimmers by the time we come home. I bet they will have lovely tans too. I suspect that we will spend a good portion of our days lounging around the pool, or taking naps to recover from lounging around the pool. It will be a nice break for us too. Jeff could use a little time away from the office and I could use a little time with some adult conversations. :)

Jeff and I are also going to be celebrating our 19th wedding anniversay next month. Look for pictures...