She's really off

Alyssa has been crawling around for a while. I have been trying to catch it on video for a while now, but haven't been able to. I finally got it today. She has a unique crawling style. She has been finding ways to get around for some time, but now she is everywhere. If you put her down on the floor she usually takes off to go see what her big brother is up to. That is her favorite place to go, his room. But have a look see for yourself how this little girl gets around.



I thought by now she would have stopped doing this, but she hasn't. She just gets faster and faster. She always has her left foot on the floor too and her right knee under her.

Fifty Nifty United States

On Friday Kaitlyn came home from school and begged us to come to her schools Stafford Showcase Monday afternoon. And all weekend long she kept talking about it and talking about it. It actually got to the point where we were like Kaitlyn if you don't stop we're not going. Of course we were going. Joe had the day off from work thankfully. So we were able to go. It was on the calendar. So yesterday afternoon we arrived at her school a little before 1:30 when the performance was scheduled to start. We waited outside with the other parents who were invited until we could go in. We went in and sat and all of the children began filing in. The principal kicked things off with a little music. "Celebration" to be exact. The kids danced around and then we sat through kids reading stories and poems and a little guess that number stuff. Finally it was the 4th grades turn. They went up there and sang a song called Fifty Nifty United States. I am going to warn you this song gets stuck in your heads. Kaitlyn should never forget how to say all 50 of her states in alphabetical order from this tune...

Veteran's Day 2011

Thank you to all of the past, present, and future Veteran's who have fought for what we have.

I think this cartoon pretty much says it all!

Go check out my other blog, Monica's Mom Musings. Natalie is guest blogging for me over there today. You can read her letter to the Veterans on Veteran's Day!

Princess Alyssa has her 9 month checkup

Hello everyone, it's me Alyssa and it's time for another update from me. It is November. If you remember back in August I was not looking forward to November. Well, I didn't remember that. Yesterday Mommy and Daddy took me to the doctor. Where strange people looked at me and made me cry. Then we went into this room and another stranger was touching me. I was stripped down to just my diaper and put on the scale which said I weighed 14 pounds 6 ounces. Oh yeah and I'm 26 1/4 inches tall now.

I got to play with some new toys for a little while and then that doctor lady came in. She seemed to be in a panic about something to do with my weight because Daddy took me out to the scale. This time I was 14 pounds 12 ounces, but that still did not make the doctor happy. I don't know why. They say I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be. Starting to pull to a stand, motoring around, laughing, smiling, babbling, feeding myself, and afraid of strangers. All totally normal for my age. I've been going along this growth curve I guess that the doctor was happy with right up until now. So now I get to eat more. Good thing I love to eat.

Then after the doctor did all this talking with Mom and Dad she started touching me. I was okay with it for the most part because she gave me this cool wood stick. That thing was really interesting and it sure tasted good too. I guess the doctor was okay with everything because she had my mommy get me dressed.

But then I had to get one of those sharp needles stuck in my leg. I heard something about a flu shot. Let me tell you all the bubble blowing and dancing toys in the world cannot make the sting of those needles hurt any less. Lets just say I was happy to get out of there. But there was some talk of me needing to get another flu shot in a month and a weight check. At least that time my big sister gets to get tortured with me though. I think my mommy scheduled us to go in together. I had a hard time sleeping last night though after that shot so I'm not looking forward to feeling like that again in a month. But I get to eat eat eat for the next month. I love that!

So until December...

CJ's 4th Birthday

I was just sitting here and thinking uh oh I haven't shared how CJ's birthday went this year. So the fact that we didn't have Halloween this year because of no power sure made it hard to wrap my head around the fact that it was my son's birthday.

He got up Tuesday morning and came into my room where I promptly wished him a happy birthday. He spent the rest of the day reminding everyone that it was his day. It wasn't easy giving him everything he wanted either. We had to go find some place that was open to get him a cake because I couldn't bake him one and while we still had one from his party it had been in a fridge that had no power for 3 days. So that was kind of out of the question. Not that he minds not having mom bake him a cake though. He just doesn't like my baking.

So we got him a cake and tried to figure out something that we could cook on the stove top for dinner that he would like. We convinced him to go with chicken alfredo. So we got everything for that and picked him up a little gift of cars and a launcher. The perfect thing for any 4 year old boy, right?

Then we came home hoping for power, but no such luck. Still cold and still without power, but CJ had his new cars and launchers so he was set. We had some lunch and the kids played some games while Joe, Alyssa, and I laid down for a nap. When we got up we started making dinner and the girls headed down to our neighbor's apartment to see if she was looking for some company tonight. She was. The girls stayed down there and we finished making dinner. When that was done we gathered the food, cake, lighter, candle, and headed downstairs to share CJ's birthday with our neighbor. She at least was able to keep her kitchen warm by being able to turn her oven on. Ours wouldn't light for us. We could only get the stove top to work on ours. So it was nice to at least get to warm up. We had dinner, cake, sang happy birthday, and played games by candlelight for most of the night. CJ was wiped pretty quickly after all the excitement and ended up falling asleep in Daddy's lap. After completing our game we gathered our stuff and headed back up to our cold apartment. And that was CJ's 4th birthday. One to remember for sure. Here are some pictures of his cake...

Thank you to our neighbor for helping us keep warm and give CJ a good time on his birthday. I am relieved that CJ has never been upset by anything he didn't get to have when we were without power. It was a tough time for a child having the power go out during his party, having to not go out trick or treating, and then finally spending his birthday without power. But he seemed to enjoy it all none the less even though he didn't get exactly what he would have wanted if things were working the way they should have been. So I'm very proud of my boy for keeping positive through everything and embracing the power outage. The kids all did great considering.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday party

Well, CJ turned 4 two days ago and on Saturday, the day of a big October snow storm, he had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party. I had hoped the snow was going to hold off until after his party started, but no such luck. Around 12 big snow flakes came falling from the sky. We continued to prepare for the party. We had a few guests, but not everyone who had RSVPed. Totally understandable though. CJ had one friend from class and then we had some family friends here. It was a nice quaint little party. One which started out with lights flickering, to lights going off and on, to finally completely losing power to not come back on again for 84 hours. We made the most of it though and CJ had a blast. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

We started out playing a game of bean bag toss.

Then we had a break to play in CJ's room...

and eat...

Then it was time for Pin the Hat on Goofy

CJ got it on his belly

Waiting their turn to play Pin the Hat on Goofy

Where did I get mine?

Can't find Goofy

Did Spencer get it on?

Looks good

Another one way out in left field

Getting a lot of hats

Natalie takes the last turn

We have a winner!

Time for cake...

CJ and his cake

Singing happy birthday to CJ

CJ blowing out his candle

Time for presents...

He opened this Buzz Lightyear and said, "I wanted this all day!"

He wanted these Legos all day too

Opening another present

More Legos

I realized after the party that Alyssa didn't make it in any pictures so after everyone had left and we had nothing else to do but clean and wait for it to get dark and cold I snapped a few pictures of her in the kitchen...

I think from now on we'll refer to her as mini CJ.

So that was what a Mickey Mouse Birthday party looks like for a 4 year old with a power outage. Everyone had a great time. Quite the adventure. I don't think any of us will be forgetting the events of this party anytime soon.

Any October snow storm that ends with all of my family safe and healthy is a good one.

Alyssa is 9 months old

So not only did we celebrate my birthday today, but it's also Alyssa's 9 month birthday. I think I say this every month, but it feels like she was just born. So lets see, what is she up to these days?

She is trying to crawl. She does get up on her knees for a little. She can scootch herself around on her butt when she's sitting. If she's on her stomach she'll either army crawl or push herself backwards on the floor.

She loves to stand. She pulls herself up on things even. She is getting better at standing while holding onto something too without too much leaning.

She makes a kissing sound and will even repeat it back to me. She really looks at you and tries to pucker her lips and all. Well she does pucker them.

She would eat whatever you put in front of her if she could. As long as it comes from something we're eating. She hates actual baby food though.

She still doesn't have any teeth which is fine by me. As we are still breastfeeding.

She is fearful of anyone that is not me, Joe, or the kids. She might go to someone else for a few, but if I leave the room she'll flip for sure.

She has a smile that lights up the room. She has a smile that makes me laugh every time she does it. She has a pout that melts your heart. And a cry that breaks your heart.

Here are a few pictures of her from the past few days. I didn't take any of her today though. It has been a rough day with lots going on though and she's asleep right now. So these will have to do...

And that is how Alyssa is doing. She has a checkup tomorrow so I'll probably have an update with all of her stats. I think she's doing great though.

Happy Birthday CJ

Disclaimer: I scheduled this for CJ's actual birthday after the fact due to the power outage and not being able to get online on his actual birthday

Dear CJ.
What a crazy birthday weekend you had. It all started at your party with the power going out and lasted straight through a 3 day long adventure of no power. You probably handled it the best of all of us though. You said you loved the power out. That was until it was time to go to bed anyways. It is scary when it's pitch black though so I don't blame you. I think it's a birthday you'll never forget, but I hope it's not in a bad way.

You are growing so fast. It's hard to believe you are already 4. You are such an innovative little guy too. I love seeing how your mind works. So determined to do everything on your own now. You find a way to make everything happen. Like at school turning the light on with the broom handle. It blows my mind sometimes that you can come up with this kind of stuff. You do though and I think it's so great.

You have really come out of your shell this year. I love hearing about what you do at school and about your friends there. I love that you call your big sisters "your girls". And Alyssa is "your baby". You are such a great big brother to her always trying to show her the way and always wanting to feed her some puffs. Can't forget to take a few of those for yourself too though, right?

I do hope you enjoyed your birthday in spite of the no power and the coldness. We'll have to go all out for your birthday next year I think!

Happy Birthday sweet boy. I love you!

Love,
Mommy