Caroline the Pirate turns FIVE!!

When we asked Caroline what she wanted for her 5th birthday, she said a pirate party -- of course! So we did...everyone dressed like pirates, we had a treasure chest pinata, pin the treasure chest on the "X", a scavenger hunt and freeze dance. She loved every minute of it and luckily it was a beautiful day so we could hang out outside. The kids practiced their "Ahoy matey's, shiver me timbers and arghhh!" all day. Hard to believe my baby is turning five already!

Run like the wind!

Caroline did her first race before she even turned five. Our church was sponsoring a 1K fun run and she was excited to do it. She started off quick at the starting line and ran the entire thing like a champion. She was so proud of herself as were Mommy and Daddy. It was very exciting to see her do it!

Grandma and Papa came to visit!

Grandma and Papa came to visit from the cold midwest! We were able to enjoy the beach, eating outdoors and hanging out with all of the grandkids. We loved every minute and were said to see them go. Thanks for a great visit!

Hannah, her mermaids, her sock and her fingers

Where do we begin? Hannah is the sweetest thing you've ever met unless of course you mess with her mermaid, her sock or taking her fingers out of her mouth. She LOVES mermaids. I don't know where the obsession came from but she must always have something mermaid. We have two mermaid shirts which I have to continously wash. We have two mermaid dolls with us at all times. Her sock...well she has always had a sock as her lovey and nothing has changed. We have tried to regulate the sock to only sleeping times but sometimes that doesn't work. The fingers...well what are you going to do. They are attached to her and she loves to put them in her mouth. They pacify her and she is attached to them. What to do! Like I said, she is the sweetest thing if she has those three things!

Cheese!!

I have never met a child that loves the camera as much as Andrew. Seriously. He knows exactly where I keep the camera and he will go in the cabinet point to the camera and say "cheese" and will proceed to pose for a picture. His favorite position is to back into the Christmas tree and ask for a picture to be taken. Not only does he love to have his picture taken. He loves to make great faces for the camera. It is hilarious and you just can't resist taking his picture. So I literally have at least 100 pictures of Andrew posing for the camera. These are just a few. Maybe it is his way of making sure I have enough pictures of the third child!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! What a fun age the kids were for Christmas. Hannah and Caroline woke up so excited to see what was downstairs and of course, thanks to Santa and a million thanks to the grandparents, our kids were thoroughly spoiled. Present after present was opened with Caroline super excited with her guitar, fire truck, bathrobe and her suitcase. And Hannah, well Hannah had a mermaid Christmas complete with the Little Mermaid movie, washable doll, shirt, coloring books, reading books, well you get the picture. Andrew, well he was just happy to open the presents and throw the paper into the trash can. After a few hours, our living room was destroyed, the kids overly excited and Mommy and Daddy exhausted. It was a lot of fun! Later that afternoon, our friends, the Kings, transplanted from Long Island and without their families as well, joined us for a little Christmas dinner. I made Linda's Pozole recipe (a Mexican stew) and it was FANTASTIC!! We all couldn't get enough. We ended the night making s'mores outside in the chiminea as it was a beautiful night outside. Caroline said, "I really like the s'mores, I just don't like the burnt marshmellow inside"! What a great end to a really wonderful day.

Christmas in the sunshine

We stayed home for Christmas again this year and lucky for us, our very good friends (from my high school, in fact) moved down the street. They have lived within ten minutes of us for a long time but they just recently moved to our neighborhood and we couldn't be happier. We celebrated Christmas Eve with them at their house, first going to Mass with all the kids... I think I remember singing Joy to the World and that's about it!....and then went to their house for dinner. We had a great dinner and the kids played very nicely including a game of stick the Rudolph nose that even the adults participated in. It is always hard to be away for the holidays but spending it with good friends made it that much easier!