14! Not possible!

The night we got to Dallas, we had a birthday cake for Hannah that her Mimi had procured for her.  Hannah got to do a quick decorating job with sprinkles and gummy bears.  

Before we left our house,, I had made her a candy bouquet, because there isn't much that gets Hannah more excited than a bunch of candy all for herself.  I put candies in the bottom of the vase mixed with nail and hair items, because she has become quiet the girl since going to a school full of her peers.  I have been awaiting the day when she cares a little about her appearance so she's not always wearing sweats and biting her nails.  She stopped biting her nails and so I also am taking her to get her nails done at a salon.  She typically paints and repaints her nails every single day that she doesn't have school.  However, as I write this, I am noticing that in these pictures she does have on sweats and basketball clothes, so the same ol' Hannah's in there somewhere.

It is a bit hard to see, but her candy bouquet is on the counter with Hershey bar "flowers.

On her birthday, she had her very first basketball practice.  After a week of tryouts, Hannah and Genevieve both made the Primary Team (A Team) which made them both super happy.  However, first day of practice, and Hannah broke her pinky finger on her left hand.  She told me it was just jammed on the phone (as we were still in Indiana,) but I knew it might be broken by the way she described it.  I broke my finger in the last game of the season in 8th grade, and Hannah broke hers in the first practice of the season.  I had better timing, I think.

The Amazing Bob!

 We got into the van one night to head home and a couple minutes into the drive he tells me, "Mommy, when we got in the car, I forgot to tell you that I love you."  

Over Thanksgiving break, in his usual fashion, Bobby had another first while I was not present.  I was in the shower while he was making a picture for the Christmas tree.  When asked if he needed help putting his name on his finished product, he replied that he could do it by himself.

The first B was backwards and there was an extra B in there, but my son who's never written a single letter or been shown how to write a letter wrote his whole name all by himself.

I actually kind of forgot to teach him to write his name.  He's been spelling it for a long time and he can recognize all his letters, especially the ones in his name.  He even criticized my fancy Y on his shelf that I fixed up for his duck collection.

He didn't seem to mind the other letters, but he thought the Y didn't look right.

Anyway, when I came downstairs and was showed his art and name.  I made a big deal out of how good it was, but Bobby said, "No, Judah said it was messed up and wrote it better at the top."

Here's the beautiful first time that my baby boy wrote any letter ever.  I'm a little proud of my boy, can you tell?

First Thanksgiving Back in the USA

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my uncle's house in Dallas.  It was a little lower key than I had been expecting.  My kids were the only ones there and I had been hoping for a Thanksgiving with cousins and second cousins, but for a myriad of reasons that was not in the cards.

Everyone's looking, smiling, and no one has a blurry body part, but, oh, the stick!!!

The very next day after Thanksgiving, we got up at 4:45am and got on the road to go visit Brian's family in Indiana.  He had stored some things up there and so we needed to pick up our stuff anyway.  We couldn't squeeze everything in the days that the girls had off from school.  We talked to Hannah and she said it was okay with her for us to miss her birthday if her Mimi stayed with her and Genna to take them to school and such.  Genevieve was actually far more bothered by the fact that we were going to miss the actual day of Hannah's birthday.  I thought I was okay with it, but as the day approached I began to regret my decision. It was very hard to leave my baby girls for six days.

Drawing with Mark Kistler!

Scary!!!

We drove 15 hours straight to Indiana.  The boys did amazing!  As usual, I barely had any issues to deal with at all and was able to read and take a few naps.  Brian got tired eventually and had me drive the last three hours.

The trip was fun and very relaxing, maybe too much so.  I felt like a lazy bum.  The boys had so much fun with their cousin!  We even had another Thanksgiving meal, and Brian's aunt and uncle were able to come.

What does a promise mean?

I have been putting it off for months longer than I should have.  Our three year old privilege is to move to a big bed.  Bobby is approaching three and a half and was still totally content to be in his crib and rocked like a baby every night.  What's the rush?  After all, there's no one waiting on his crib this time.  Nobody to push that little bird from his nest!   So I reluctantly started the conversation with him about the end game of moving to a big boy bed, but first we could take out some of the rails in his crib to make sure he was ready.  What I didn't say (out loud) was, "Those can be put right back in, if it's a huge mistake."  He talked about it with me, but didn't seem particularly interested in it at the time.

We had three nights in a row where he wet the bed.  He's been dry for months and out of night time diapers.  I had the sheets still off when naptime came around and so just started putting him in Isaac's bed for naptime.  He was fine with that and was still going right to sleep and staying put.  After three days of that I asked him, as we were walking up the stairs for bedtime, if he wanted me to just take the rails off his crib tonight since he had been sleeping in a big boy bed at naptime.  His response was so very precious.  His face lit up, and he exclaimed, "Tonight?  Yes, oh yes!"

I reminded him that he had to stay in his bed though and followed it up with, "Promise to stay in your bed?"

He said still very excitedly, "Yes, I pwomise!  Pwomise means you weally will."  Gotta love those w's replacing the r's!

Melt my heart.  I don't even know where he learned that definition, but I love it.

He is doing great and never ever gets out of bed without Isaac or I telling him it's okay.  He loves to remind me that he can get out of bed all by himself.

All Saint's Day Party 2018

On All Saint's Day, the day immediately following Halloween (origin of the word...All Hallows Eve, meaning the night before All Saint's Day,)  we went to a party with the homeschoolers in the park.  I say we, but only the boys and I were able to go because the girls were in school.  Brian was on a plane on his way to a conference at the time.

I really did an awful job of getting photos!  Isaac was Padre Pio and had his hands were bandaged up with red dots for the stigmata.  He used the same Jedi robe that he wore for his Harry Potter costume, but added a rope belt.  Judah was St. John Bosco, a priest, who we have been studying this year.  Drew is, once again, St Andrew the Apostle with fish tied around his neck and a tunic with sash and rope.  Bobby is, once again, St. Francis of Assisi with a hand-sewn bird pinned to his brown robe.

There were games and cupcakes and candy prizes.  The kids got to run around and play at the giant playground/park too.  Judah saw some boys swinging over big puddles on their tummies and started to run for the available swing above another puddle to do the same thing.  I called to him to give him fair warning that if he got wet, I had to other clothes for him.  He listened attentively, and then decided to give it a try anyway.  He jumped onto his belly on the swing and swung across, but his body kept going forward when the swing made it's return trip, causing his hands and upper body to pass the puddle and the rest of his body to flop right down into it.  :)  I just laughed and helped him wipe off the leaves and mud.  It was a learning experience...I hope.  One I quite enjoyed.

We all went to Mass after picking up the girls from school.  We celebrated with a very late dinner of Chick-fil-a which is a rare treat these days.

Pumpkin Carving

The Sunday before Halloween, we bought pumpkins outside of our church for each of the kids.  Isaac carved his own creepy eye.  

Judah took out the pulp and seeds for me, but requested I carve a Batman signal on his.  In the end, I drew it on and Isaac did the carving for it.

Drew was virtually no help, because "It is gross!"  He doesn't like to get his hands dirty, but he had no problem requesting the most difficult carving.  I saw some pictures on Facebook after I carved this that people somehow use a picture on a paper as a guide.  This girl's not that smart.  I hand drew it on the pumpkin.  Oh well!

Bob requested a PJ Mask Gecko pumpkin and I was so worn out by the time I got to his mini pumpkin that I used marker and my linoleum cutter to do a quick job of it, with no actual cutting and carving and dealing with seeds.

Genevieve carved and designed her emoji pumpkin all on her own.

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Bench

You'll notice in the group picture of the pumpkins, Hannah's is missing.  It's because she never carved or decorated hers.  She had planned to use markers and decorate it, but she never got around to it.

Here's Hannah's pumpkin keeping Our Lady company by the front door.  I couldn't resist these pictures of Bobby!  He is such a joy!

And a charmer too!

Halloween 2018

Our First Ever Halloween with cousins was a fun one.  I made spaghetti, and my brother and sister brought their sons over for trick or treating.  I ended up staying behind to hand out candy, and Brian walked the neighborhood with the group.  Brian enjoys the trick or treating more than me.  Plus, who could pass up an hour or a quiet house, at least in between the doorbell ringing.

Catboy borrowed this costume from his cousin.

Judah used his Ninja Turtle Jammies that he got last Christmas.

Luke Skywalker reused last year's costume.

Harry Potter also made his costume from what we already had in the house.  Hannah is credited for the scar.

Princess Leia pulled her own costume together from things we already had.  Mom is credited for the hair do.

A Ninja AKA a teenager who really wanted candy, but didn't want to wear a costume

My nephew, An Aggie Football Player

My other nephew, the Greatest Showman

The kids all promptly emptied their buckets to do the "Great Candy Exchange of 2018."  Bobby was pretty adorable putting his candy in two careful piles of what he likes and what he doesn't like.  Then at the end when Brian and I called bedtime, he dumped his hard work all back into the same bucket.

By the way, this girl got braces the day before Halloween and poor thing could barely eat any candy or much of anything.

Wearing the "Harry Potter" glasses that dad made by popping out the lenses in an old pair of his glasses.