Halloween - the Star Wars Era

As I look back on my 7 years of having kids, there are definitely movies that define years or at least months for us - it started with Baby Einstein videos, then Sophia went through her Dora phase and her Princess phase and her HSM phase and Anthony had his Cars phase and this year has definitely been the Star Wars phase - not just for Anthony, but for Sophia too! Our neighbor Chloe (a.k.a Obi-Wan Kenobi in the pics below) got them into it just by telling them stories in the driveway - she must be a good storyteller! Well, when it came time to decide on Halloween costumes, there was no other option but to be a Star Wars character. I was so surprised when Sophia said she wanted to be Master Yoda. I said (to my shame), "why do you want to be an ugly little green guy?" and she looked at me in horror and said, "Mom, Master Yoda is good and wise!" How can you argue?! I think she made a pretty little Yoda! :-)

Some SCARY Pictures - Boo!

I mentioned our camera was on the fritz, right? Well, these are the only recent pics I have - the kids and I were having some fun with photo booth!

Soccer and Sickness....

....that pretty much sums up our late summer/early fall! Before we left for WI in early August, I came down with sinusitis (sp?) and it just kept going and morphing into other things (strep throat etc.) I didn't really start feeling better until about 2 weeks ago! Such a bummer because fall is my favorite time of year and I didn't get to enjoy it this year!

While I wasn't feeling well, life continued to roll on...the kids signed up for soccer and really have enjoyed it. I was able to work out something with a friend so that I only had to do practice 1 night a week and then the Saturday games. Overall, it has been a great experience - they have both improved so much over the season and enjoyed getting the exercise. Jon got to come to last week's game and it was so much fun to watch Anthony score 4 goals!

In other news, our camera is on the fritz, so that's another reason I haven't been blogging lately. I'm kind of freaking out because tomorrow is Halloween and as you may know, I'm crazy about costumes! So, I might be out shopping this evening! :-)

A Visit with Mama/Great-Grandmother

My grandma came from Florida to visit us - we had a great time with her! We had not seen her in two years and so it was fun for the kids to reconnect with her. This is my mom's mom and I call her Mama (as does Jon) and the kids call her great-grandmother. I've always had a special relationship with Mama. For several years ('98-'03), we were blessed to live only 30 minutes away from each other and we spent a lot of time together. We love you Mama! We'll come down to Florida to visit you someday soon!

First Day of School

Well, the first day of school has come and gone, and we are now officially done with our preschool years - it is so weird! We feel like we just had these babies - how is it possible that they are both in full-time school already?

Here are some pics from their first days (Sophia started on a Monday and Anthony started on a Thursday)

2nd grader

Sophia w/ neighbor friends Talia & Chloe

Kindergartner

going to the same school as big sister is awesome!

Anthony with neighbor buddy Jack

such a big boy!

High-View Neighborhood Extravaganza

The week before school started, Jon planned a night of fun for the neighborhood kids. We are blessed with some great neighbors and lots of kids that are all around the same age. Jon put together a fun competition for them as a last hurrah of summer.

Jon and Galen - the masterminds of the event

Sos & Chlo hammin' it up

DiCo-Ski 5th Annual Beach Trip

This summer marked the 5th year that we have gone down to the beach for a day or two with our friends the Skis. Somehow each year, we have been blessed with absolutely perfect weather! We always have a great time and it never seems long enough. Since it has become an eagerly anticipated tradition, I thought it would be fun to post pics from all 5 years and show how the kids have changed so much! The first year we did this, Sophia was 3, Lexie was almost 3, Anthony had just turned 1 and Noah was inutero!

We love you Skis! We're so thankful for great friends like you that we can share such fun traditions with - hopefully this is something that our kids will always look back on with fond memories!

Family Photo Shoot

This summer we had a family photo shoot. Our friend Joe Roberts of Joe Roberts Photography did these for us. I decided to make a slide show of all of the "fun" pictures! Joe is so funny and we really had a great time getting this photo shoot done. We also got some great "posed" pics, but these are truly my favorites - I think they more accurately capture the spirit of our family!

You can speed up the slide show by hitting the + sign in the bottom left-hand corner

Micah Abi!

After a very long wait, my brother went to Ethiopia in April to get his second son Micah and bring him home! Danny, Krissy and Caleb have been enjoying every minute with the new addition to their family. We were finally able to get out and meet Micah a couple of weeks ago. He is such a delight! Unfortunately, I got very sick the day before our trip and really didn't feel well the entire time we were there. But we were thrilled to finally get to meet sweet Micah Abi and spend time with his big brother Caleb and his mommy & daddy.

We spent our first night at Danny & Kristen's house. Danny got a huge tent for the kids to sleep in and he and Jon camped out with Sophia, Anthony & Caleb.

The next couple of days we spent at Deann's house. We got to spend a day with my Grandma too - so special!

(Darla, you should be in this pic! We missed you SO much!)

Because of me being sick and the bad weather while we were there, we didn't get to do too much, but mostly just hung out - which is okay because we don't get to do that too often!

Lovin' on Micha!

he was checking out the pics we took of him - so cute!

Sophia w/ her beautiful older cousin Brittany

Our last day there, we did get out of the house for a little bit and Uncle Scott & Ryan helped Sophia & Anthony catch their first fish (if you click on the pics to enlarge them, you can see Ryan & Scott - somehow these are the only pics I got of them).

NYC & DC w/ E&P!

Our dear friends, Edd & Paulette (a.k.a. Eddie & Poppy to the kids) came to visit us the last week of July. Jon & I became friends with E&P while living in Alabama from '96-'98. While there, they "adopted" us into their family and we've been great friends ever since! Last spring, we went down to visit them, and our kids met them for the first time - there was instant chemistry - it's like having a 3rd set of grandparents!

Edd & Paulette came to visit us one other time in 2001 and we spent our time locally, but this time, we decided it would be fun to go the Big City and the Capital City! They had never been to either, so it was very fun to be with them as they experienced them for the first time.

NYC

We rented a mini-van so we could all drive up together. We stayed in a hotel right near Times Square (not worth mentioning the name because it was not so great!). We got a 2-day double-decker bus pass and hopped off and on to see as many sights as possible. Our favorite thing was the night tour where we went across Manhattan bridge and had great views of the city from Brooklyn. On our second day, we went up to Central Park and toured the upper East Side - after seeing that part of NYC, Paulette said she could understand why people would actually want to live there!

We had pretty good weather, except for a couple of times when there was a light sprinkle. Fortunately, the bus provides you with rain ponchos!



It was a fun jam-packed 2 days and we were ready to come home and rest! We were happy that Edd & Paulette got to experience a lot of the New York must-do's!

DC

We came home and rested for a day and then headed to Washington DC (in hindsight, we realized we should have had 2-3 days of rest). This was the kids' first time to DC as well. We stayed in Arlington at a nice Hyatt that was in walking distance of the Metro. On our first day, we went to Arlington National Cemetary, one of the Smithsonian Museums (Natural History) and some of the Monuments. We did A LOT of walking!!!

the kids at the base of the Washington Monument

Our second day was spent at Mount Vernon. E&P's daughter Marty and 2 of her children, Gracie & Tanner met us there. It was fun for the kids to get together again as they had met last year on our Alabama trip. Mount Vernon truly does take an entire day to see - quite an impressive place!

At the end of the day, we went our separate ways. Edd & Paulette stayed in the DC area for a couple more days with Marty, Gracie & Tanner, and we headed home. We were pleasantly surprised at how interested Sophia & Anthony were in history and learning all about our country. We will definitely have to go back to DC some time for an extended period of time as we did not see even 1/4 of what there is to see there!

It was such a great visit with Edd & Paulette - we are so glad that we have stayed in touch all these years and have enjoyed watching our kids get to know them too.

Thanks for visiting us Eddie & Poppy! We miss you already!