Christmas preparations and the big day!

Merry Christmas! We hope you had a great one! Here are some highlights of our Christmas 2009. It has started off with a bang as a blizzard hit us right about the time everyone usually starts the festivities and it has continued for 3 days! At least we are home now. What a Christmas to remember!



Advent preparations...
Our new outdoor nativity set in front of our new house...

Here I am letting Xavier take our picture again. Will I never learn? Otherwise though, there aren't many pictures of mom with the kids. Also this day (Dec22) Zachary got his first major haircut by yours truly.

I think he likes it. He looks so grown up. He's not a baby anymore.

Catching the boys and their smiles... Dec 23

Making gingerbread cookies... Dec 24

And we got PLENTY of SNOW!!! Here is a picture taken from our backdoor. (Dec 27) Check out that drift!

Dominic is King of the Mountain!

After Christmas with Daddy !!!

Here are my little elves.

Christmas Eve we went to 5p.m. Mass at St Patrick's because we weren't sure if we would be able to get out the next day with the blizzard on it's way. Afterward we went to my parent's for dinner and the boys and I stayed for 2 nights because of the snow. Tom had to work both nights and the roads were terrible but we really made the most of it. Here is a video of Christmas Eve at my parents house. I'm glad we all exchanged presents that night so everyone could be there. What a party!!

Now the countdown to next year's Christmas begins right? :) Woohoo!

Happy Halloween!

This year we went to ICC's party. It's such a great time and very educational too. We learned about some saints we hadn't heard of before. People are really getting creative and doing their research.

This year Dominic chose St Michael the Archangel.

Blaise went as St Francis of Assisi

Xavier was St Patrick


and Zachary was St John the Baptist.

Afterwards we were able to go around to a few (5) houses too. Between the party and the houses, we reaped a lot of candy!

The week before was busy with costume creation.

Here is Blaise helping sew his costume. It kept him from bouncing off the walls for a while anyway.

First snowfall

Our first snowfall at our new house! 10-10-09

It didn't take long to make tracks. Let it be very clear that we are a home with children!

Pumpkin Patch

October 6th at Vala's Pumpkin Patch

Their 25th year running

my pumpkins

S'mores were provided by Bag 'n Save


The boys' favorite part was panning for rocks

We found all kinds of rocks! ...quartz, crystal, fools gold and others.

Zachary was there for a while then my mom offered to take him to our house.

That was a big help. We were there 6 hours total! It was free because UP paid as a company party. So yeah, we really got our money's worth!

In cinderella's pumpkin carriage..

Getting to see my children enjoy it as much as I did, makes me get to enjoy it all over again~ http://www.valaspumpkinpatch.com/

The new kitchen table!!!

Here is our new kitchen table! Can you tell I love it? :) I am so happy to own it and thank you for letting me show it off. It just came this morning and I just couldn't wait for you all to see it in person. The stools are new too.

The table is 42"wide x 70"long with two 12" leaves that store inside. We have 8 chairs to go around it. With this table and the 3 counter stools we will be able to feed lots of people in our kitchen -comfortably!

Out of the old...

Yes! We moved!!! It's been busy but I am finally getting pictures up. The whole thing was a huge process so this post will be of the packing and moving. Our next post will be of our new house. Have to keep this thing complete.

The boys are ready to go...

Dominic is old enough now to be a big help. Here he is packing the spices. He even labled some of the boxes for me.

And of course they made forts with all the boxes laying around before they were used. Oh, did they make forts! Here they are showing Uncle Mike how cool it is. (Yes, he fits anywhere)

Dominic in our dining room closet.

The last two nights in our house we slept on the mattresses in the living room.

Here are Xavier and Zachary

Moving day has arrived!

We had to load all our things into one truck since we were to be homeless for 4 days.

Here are Mike (bro) Mark (cousin) and my dad fitting it in. I'm glad they like puzzles!
Staying at Grandma and Nanoo's before we could move into our new house was super fun! And I am so thankful for the wonderful break between the packing and the unpacking. I couldn't have planned it any better.

And now we are in our new house!!! Here are the boys helping Daddy put together an end table that came last week.

Stay tunned for the next post.. OUR NEW HOUSE!

Camping at Two Rivers

We all went camping last week with my parents and brother. The boys got to fish with their Uncle Mike, play in the sand, catch toads, find sticks for the fire, roast marshmellows and throw peanut shells in the fire. We even took a walk after dark to peek at the fish and the stars! My parents make it so easy on me by taking care of the meals. It was a great birthday for Dominic who turned 7 the next day. This is what memories are made of!

Zachary's first time camping ...

While packing up the camper, Dominic and Blaise found a resting spot.

And all the boys fell asleep on the 4o min drive home (except Daddy of course)

I think that is the sign of a fun camping trip! They can't wait to do it again!