Post Christmas Update

I love the days following Christmas!  We have all had so much fun spending time together and playing with all the new toys.  Before the big snow storm, we were able to get some outside time with the new bikes and cozy coupe.   Hannah got a new bike, (which she repeatedly asked for) but once she got it, she wanted nothing to do with it-she decided that she likes the cozy coupe that Ben got better.  This has caused all sorts of fights.  I'm thinking about exchanging the bike for another cozy coupe!

She has also reverted back to riding her little bike:

....which she used to hate!  Admittedly the new bike is a little bit too big, but she will eventually grow into it so I'm not all that worried about it. 

Today has been a little too cold to go outside so we decided to stay in and bake.  Caitlin got a cupcake set for Christmas and wanted to make cupcakes, so I let her go with minimal supervision.  She did really well at following directions-I got some pictures of the process:

Matthew decided to help too.  You can see how much help Caitlin thinks he is!

Preheating the oven

Checking the recipe

Scraping the bowl

Carefully measuring

Pouring the batter

Hannah had the very important job of sampling the batter

Matthew helped too

Icing with 'from scratch' icing!  Caitlin wanted to make it green.

The finished product!

And finally time to taste- They were yummy!

It was a great way to spend the afternoon, but we did make quite a mess.  I think we'll wait a few days to try out the brownie kit!

One of Hannah's favorite presents is her play-doh set.  She loves to get it out and make the animal shapes:

I've taken so many pictures with my new camera...but this is one of my favorites.  One of Ben's latest tricks is knocking on the door (which he gets to practice a lot because the big kids are constantly closing doors on him).  Daddy was outside grilling and Ben wanted to come out:

I'm off to make dinner...more soon!

Merry Christmas!

Blogging just got more fun thanks to my amazing Santa husband:

My own brand new awesome camera!!  (please disregard the morning hair/clothes/breath.  It was early)

So much fun!

So far Christmas has been great!  We went to Mass last night and then came home and let the kids open one gift (Despicable Me) which they then watched 'til bedtime.  We hoped this would help them to relax before bedtime...but they were still pretty excited about Christmas:

Eventually they did go to sleep though, and then it was my favorite part of Christmas..playing Santa!  We got to set up everything for the morning (which included assembling a CozyCoupe for Ben.  We way underestimated the amount of time, tools and temper involved in that.  Let's just hope Santa was not watching.)  However we got it done, stuffed the stockings ate the cookies and milk and were ready for Christmas.  We knew the kids were going to get us up early so we told them they could not get us up until 7am.  However we did not anticipate the 4:45 wake up from Ben, who decided it was time to start Christmas NOW.  That or time for a bottle, either way.  We opted for the bottle and crawled back into bed until Matthew got us up at 6:59:59.  We were a bit exhausted from the late night CozyCoupe assembly/Ben's wake up, but of course seeing their excitement made it all worthwhile-

First look at the tree....

Here's what they saw

Excitement!

Pea's new bike!  (eye's closed for the picture...she is her mother's daughter.)

Ben investigating the CozyCoupe

Already texting and driving...

Caitlin with her new American Girl doll Josephina

Matthew got a (you'll shoot your eye out) Red Rider BeeBee gun.  Daddy's pretty excited about it.

Signed Michael Montgomery print of Uga...my favorite gift to Matt this year.

MY NEW COOKIE PANTS!  Thanks Gin.  I love them!!

Life Without School

After two long years I can't tell you how good it feels to say that I am DONE with school!  Given the job market for teachers right now, I'm not necessarily sure that it was the right choice, but hopefully things will open up soon and education will become a priority in the budget once again.  And while I would love to start teaching right away, I'm also not sure if its the right time for Ben and Hannah.  Hannah never really warmed up to the whole daycare thing, and while Ben did just fine, I think his behavior suffered a bit.  So while I wait for a job, I'm really quite content taking care of my babies.

I'm sitting here at the table watching Pea color and Ben try to figure out how to open the door (please, Lord don't let him figure it out!) and listening to Matthew (who is a little bit sick) play the DS.  Last night and yesterday we had a few snow flurries and the coldest weather so far this winter.  Needless to say I am grateful for my warm kitchen! 

I don't have too much news to report overall...once I get back into the groove of things and start taking pictures I'm sure I'll have more to say.  For now I'm going to post some randoms that I've taken since the last time I posted pics.

 Student teaching!  I do miss it :)

 Random one from our trip to Edisto...Pea, Pat, Betty, Art & Reese

Daddy and TheBen.  Ben spent a lot of time the backpack...he loves to be carried around. 


Thats all for now.  Computer battery dying! 

Student Teaching

Happy Thursday!

This week was my first week of student teaching and Hannah and Ben's first week of full(ish) time day care.  Not surprisingly, Ben is home sick today with a lovely virus...the daycare plague we call it :).  Just a high fever and extreme grumpiness, but nothing that some motrin, tylenol and mommy hugs won't fix!

While I do enjoy spending the extra time with the babies, I really miss school!  I have had so much fun in the past three days in my class-the kids are great and I love my supervising teacher.  This week I am just observing and getting to know the kids but next week I'll start teaching science, then move into literacy, math and then the entire day.  I'm the most nervous about math since that takes up most of the day...three hours!  The classroom I am in departmentalises math and reading so that my teacher actually teaches math to two different classes, and the kids in our class go across the hall for reading.  I am probably the most excited about my science unit-which is about Georgia habitats and animal adaptation...I have some really cool activities planned and get to create my first bulletin board!!  (shutup!  It's exciting!!)

I could write for days about this, but I'll stop here...hope y'all have a great day!!

KidsStuff

Today I'll start with the youngest:  The Ben is getting so big!  At almost fourteen months, he is definitely one of the kids.  He doesn't have too many words (mama, dada...randomly.  He also does the 'da-doo' for thank you...but he does it when he gives YOU something.  Doesn't quite understand the word yet!)  but in spite of this, he still makes sure he is heard.  He is very opinionated and one of his favorite things is his shoes.  If he sees them, it's over.  He wants them on his feet RIGHT NOW.  In fact, if he had his way, this is what he would wear every day:

...maybe minus the diaper.  I think he knows that shoes=outside, and this kid LOVES going outside.  Particularly if the wagon is out there!  Nothing better than 'bumpin' up and down in [his] little red wagon'!!  He still goes to bed with a bottle (i CANT take it away.  He loves it like he loves his shoes.) and his blanket, and usually sleeps through the night.  We did finally move him downstairs, where he seems very happy.  Matt and I love having our closet back!!

Pea:  Hannah is still a little mommy's girl-but loves to 'get' daddy-she pokes him, or jumps on him...she is completely fearless!  She has recently started showing an interest in reading books, instead of having me read them to her.  Today I went in to her room during naptime, and she was laying in bed 'reading' Ms. Piggle-Wiggle-and tonight when I was trying to read to her, she took the book away and started reading it her own way! (guess mommy was not doing a good job...)  I love seeing her evolve from a toddler to a little girl!!

Matthew is doing so well at school-he has a good group of friends, and has gotten a dragon award (a schoolwide reward system) for being a good citizen.  He has mentioned having a girlfriend, but fortunately he was an unwilling party in the deal (...that's what he told his mommy anyway).  He said, "K told her friend M that I was her boyfriend and I was SO. EMBARRASSED."  As long as he stays SO.EMBARRASSED. instead of SO.ENAMOURED. I'll be okay.

 He is playing flag football again this year and seems to love it!  I caught a couple of pictures this evening during practice:

One handed push up?  He's on it. 

Future Dawg quarterback!

Caitlin continues to grow up too fast!  I mean, is this my little baby Caitlin???

Matt and I are so proud of who she is becoming every day...she is such a bright and happy child!  She does still worry a lot; whether it is about when Mommy is coming home from class, or if Daddy is going to go outside after she goes to bed-every night before bed we go through this routine:

M&ML: G'night C!  Sleep well!

C: G'night!

C: um, youre not going anywhere, right?

M, ML: Nope!

C: um, youre not going outside for anything, right?

M, ML: Nope!

C: Good!

And then, about 10 minutes after bedtime, she always comes out of her room to find out what time it is.  I'm pretty sure she's just making sure we did not actually go to Mexico :)

Overall though, she is a sweet little girl.  She and Matthew are still best friends and it's so entertaining to listen to their conversations...almost like they are speaking their own language!!

That's about all I have for now...more soon!!

Baby Backpack

Ever since our trip to Tallulah Gorge, I have been completely obsessed on a quest to find an inexpensive backpack carrier for TheBen to replace the one I backed over (what?!  at least there was no baby in there!)  I found a lot of used backpacks on ebay and craigslist, but they were all really, really nice, and really, really expensive.  However after a few days of searching I finally found a nice, basic one for $20!!!!!  Except it was in Greenville, SC.-a good hour and a half away.  After seeing the ($200) alternatives, I decided it was just what I wanted and the price was right, so I'd make the trip.  However when I contacted the seller, she said she would meet me halfway-bonus!

So this morning, Matt, Ben and I got in the van (big kids are at the Nana's) and drove up to pick up the backpack.  It was perfect!!!  So great in fact, that we couldn't resist stopping along the way to try it out.  Fortunately there were THREE state parks on our route home...we decided to stop at Tugaloo state park, on Lake Hartwell...it was so nice!!   We will definitely go again.  Here's the only picture we got-enjoying the new backpack:

I think he's as excited as I am-

Pictures!

The weather has been great around here so I've been very busy with the camera...today I think I'll stick to captions to tell the story.  Warning: The pictures go from adorable to creepy....

First  up: Tallulah Gorge! 

Caitlin has gotten quite good with the camera..hardly ever cuts off our heads anymore!!

If we learned anything from this trip, it was that we need to buy a hiking backpack.  People were laughing at us...

Down the steps was the easy part!

Hannah was ready to give up

Looking down at the Gorge

Caitlin and Mommy-you can't tell here, but I am trying so so so hard not to die laughing...just a second before the shot was taken Matthew hurled a pebble...trying to get it down the Gorge.  Unfortunately Matt's forehead was in the way.  Matt was NOT amused but it was HILARIOUS!!! 

Matthew helping Pea along the trail.

The rest of the pictures are a random assortment....

Matthew is about to lose that front (your) right tooth...I wanted to capture the full set before he becomes a jack o' lantern!

Ben and the Swiffer

"Well SOMEBODY has to keep this place clean!"

Little Red Wagon=Big Fun

Squeezing in for a ride

More squeezing

Benben.  Daddy says it's time for another haircut...

Eating a "peejeyey sammach"

I tried taking it away and he buried his face in it...

On to Creepy...this morning we found this critter hanging out in the grill cover:

And what is that??

Yep!  A giGANtic black widow...ew ew ew!!

We, ahem, disposed of it.  Apparently they kill toddlers.