The Bear Climbed Over the Mountain

Well, the bear might not have but we sure did! This year we packed up the car and headed to the Pocono's with Byron's family to celebrate Thanksgiving. Jay and Jen had all of us up at their mountain house and we had a great time! It was fun being away and there was even snow on the ground when we arrived - think the kids were excited? We celebrated Ryan's birthday, had a yummy Thanksgiving meal, tried our hand at Black Friday Outlet shopping (twice), went snow tubing and just relaxed. It was a great get-away - thanks guys for having us!

Ryan and his Snowman

I let them go out and play a bunch of times, just making them promise to stay close to the house. Then Jen came up and told me to watch out for bears... not sure why that thought never occurred to me but they didn't go out much after that!

The 3rd Football cake

Emma sportin' her new do after Aunt Jen braided her hair

And posing with Uncle Jay

The midnight shoppers, minus Eric was was either too cool to get in the picture or didn't want to admit he was going shopping with 6 girls!

Poor Tyler... with 2 sisters, he doesn't stand a chance!

The snow tubers... sadly I wasn't allowed in to get a good shot at the action and my camera is as old as Ryan and doesn't zoom that far.

Happy Birthday Take 2

After his friends helped Ryan blow out the candles, it was time for the family to get in on the fun! We had a great time at Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop's celebrating with our Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! Thanks everyone for sharing in Ryan's special day at such a crazy time of year, and thanks to MM & PP for hosting us at their house this year to make it easier for everyone to attend. And, of course, thank you for all of the great presents - what a lucky little boy!

Ryan opening his loot! In true family fashion, here he is sporting his Pop-Pop t-shirt.

It's an Ipod!!!

Ready to blow out the candles but needing some help...

...ahh, that's better!

Mom-Mom sneaking some time with Caroline

Emma practicing her Big Sister skills

Mom-Mom and the young grandkids. The cool one has the Ipod which, as it turns out, was the greatest gift ever because he stayed plugged in for days, jamming to tunes and watching Zach & Cody and Elf!

The Boy who turned 6

Just before Thanksgiving, Ryan celebrated his 6th birthday. Sometimes I find it hard to believe he is 6 already. Other times I think of him as older - his friends are all older than he is and because of that, he does things (and says things!) at an advanced level. But then he will do something silly or come ask me to cuddle with him and I'm reminded of my sweet, innocent and young little boy!

This year he had his friend party at a local sports arena and for the first time, it was an all boys event. With the exception of Emma Grace, of course! He invited some friends from the neighborhood, school and football and they all had a great time running around and climbing the walls - literally! This years theme was, what else, football!

If only I could get one of these in my house...



Emma is used to all the boys and does her best to keep up. No wonder she was hoping for a little sister!
A girl and her Daddy - the best kind of of boy

Happy Birthday Hooligans

He's full of hot air

He literally flew out of the tunnel (huge slide and very fast!) and went face first into the net. Is it any wonder that he is covered in scrapes, scratches and scars?

Cousins Visit

A few weeks ago (that seems to be a recurring theme, apparently I haven't been blogging much), we took the kids up to visit with the Wards and see their new cousin, Caroline, for the first time. We had a great time hanging out with them and Emma was very interested in her new baby cousin. Ryan thought she was pretty cool too but he was really into playing with his big cousin Natalie this time around. Neither one liked it much when Caroline would cry... guess they are in for a rude awakening come Spring time!

Ryan and Caroline

Uncle Jeff, Emma and Caroline

Girls Night Out

A few weeks ago, Emma and I went out for a little "Date Night" - just the girls, even tho she desperately wanted her brother to tag along. We went to a yummy dinner at Wendy's (her choice), followed by a local Children's Theater production of Aladdin. It seemed only fitting that she wear her Princess Jasmine costume to the show, right? She had a blast and it was the perfect length of time to hold her attention. I can't wait until we can do more fun things like that! Next year my hope is to take her to NYC for the Christmas Show and to the American Girl Store!

2 Weddings!!!

That's just another way of saying.... It's A GIRL!!!! Byron had alot going on at work and was unable to make the U/S yesterday, so like the good wife, I asked them to seal the baby's gender in an envelope so we could open it together. You may pat me on the back and congratulate my superior will now... I'll wait... Thank you!

Back to the u/s... I thought girl for sure up until the actual scan and then I switched over to boy. That 4D u/s is pretty cool and I just thought it "looked" like a boy. Plus I swear I saw the boy parts but guess it's good I am not a u/s tech because clearly I have no idea what I was looking at! So I came home with a slew of pictures and an envelope that was padded more than a pre-teens bra. You know, so I couldn't peek. After many hours, Byron came home and we opened the envelope all together. He immediately started laughing and announced it's a girl. Ryan threw himself to the floor, fists pounding, and screamed Noooooooo! over and over. Emma, jumped up and down, shrieking It's a Girl! I have a Girl! over and over and man, I wish I had the camera because it was the funniest thing we have seen in a while.

So that being said, we will have 2 divas and 2 weddings and a whole lot of hormones in the next 10-15 years! Baby Girl got a fab report and looks great... see for yourself!

here she is lounging, arms up by her head

A new Cousin to love!

Ryan and Emma are so excited to meet their newest cousin, Caroline Elizabeth! Caroline was welcomed into the world on November 5th, weighing in at 8lbs, 4 oz and stretching out to 20"! I can't wait to meet her and hold her and post lots of great pictures! Emma put the kabash in our visiting plans that day by coming down with another stomach virus, so we have been staying away but I'm crossing my fingers for some snuggling time tomorrow. And pictures, of course - lots of pictures! So stay tuned.... Congratulations Pam, Jeff and BIG SISTER Natalie!!

UPDATE... a few pics from the hospital!

World Champions!!!

Congratulations to the WORLD CHAMPION Philadelphia Phillies!!! I knew they were the good luck charm...

Thriller!

Halloween was a little hectic this year! Byron was at the Phillies Championship Parade, I was nursing a wounded ankle and the kids were, well, their typical hyper selves... times twelve! Thankfully we had excellent weather once again and this year we had lots of visitors come to ToT with us... Grandmom, Pop, Uncle Adam, Aunt Janet, Uncle Jay, Aunt Jen and cousins Tyler and Baby Kylie. Oh, and at some point, Uncle Eric and Daddy stumbled in from the parade. And as mentioned in a later post, my camera was at the parade!

Aunt Janet and Mrs. Callan were kind enough to paint Ryan's face for the big night. We figured it was easier for him to see that way (a.k.a safer without the mask). Here is a picture of them sitting in front of their carving masterpieces, with the lone "never to be carved because the World Series got in the way" pumpkin in the back. The bottom pumpkin is Emma's. Ryan carved that also. The gaping holes on the sides are the ears, requested by Emma. Secretly tho, Ryan just got a little carving happy. Scary.

Posing with the lawn decor - we opted for the skeleton rather than the fly-infested, rotting pumpkins back by the tree. BLEEP BLEEP Squirrels!

Baby Kylie making her 1st Halloween appearance as Tinkerbell. A year earlier and she and Emma would have been twins!

And Tyler as Peter Pan!

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Here's the Gruesome Twosome posing with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop and getting ready for Safe Trick-or-Treat. It's a program our health center has every year where they decorate the inside of the building and all of the Dr's offices, and the kids are invited in to ToT in a warm, safe place. They all do a great job - some even have haunted offices - and the kids look forward to it every year. I love that it's one more step towards getting my money's worth from their costumes!

He truly is a bag of bones!

Ghouls in School

Well, I really only captured the Princess at school seeing as how the Phillies Parade was a higher priority for some parent, ahem, and I didn't have a camera on Halloween. The Ghoul in School had a parade too but until Stacey sends me her pictures (hint, hint), you'll just have to picture a skeleton walking in a line of other costumed kids. Fascinating, I know.

Princess Jasmine posing with her teacher, Mrs. Wright...


...and with Mrs. K...
...and with the class

It's the Great Pumpkin!

The kids were begging to carve pumpkins and I was jonesing for some roasted pumpkin seeds so we gave it the ole' college try. Emma was fresh from a nap & not digging the pumpkin guts. Ryan couldn't get enough so he gutted hers as well. But what he really wanted was to possess a sharp instrument and slash away like Freddy Kruger. I kept warning Emma to back up... her face was dangerously close to his little carving saw. That would have left a mark for sure!

Here she is posing and looking like she was actually going to put her hand IN the pumpkin - as if!

He was a sticky mess up to his ears by the time he was done. Need to re-think the white shirt next time around.
He has the concentration down pat but if he's going to be a surgeon, we need to practice our technique a bit.

Dance Ballerina, Dance

Em's dance school held their annual observation day where the parents got to be in the room to observe and take a crap load of pictures. Video taping was forbidden and we were reprimanded more than once. Really, try telling a room full of camera-wielding mom's that they can't take 20 second clips of their Prima Ballerinas... it's just not possible!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

... Fall, people, and do you know why? Because it IS fall! It's not winter. It's not Christmas. Which means there is no reason I should have been subject to Christmas Carols on the radio tonight. For cripes sake, I still have a Halloween Hangover! It was 60 degrees this weekend. So we had some cold weather - and a fluke snow shower due North. It is still fall. I have trees full of leaves which will eventually fall down to the yard and need to be raked. You know, for FALL! There is no Winter Wonderland and there are no Snow Bells. I don't mean to be Scrooge, because I love me some good Christmas Carols. But.not.when.it's.fall. Got me?