Our Blurry House

Here is our house all decorated with lights. I promised I would send you a picture, but the night I took it it was really windy and cold and I couldnt hold the camera still enough. Enjoy anyway!!

HO HO HO

On Tuesday (12-23-08) we went to Children's Wonderland....or also known as "Santa's Workshop" by Luke. We saw Santa and the kids put in their last minute requests. Jake was very impressed that Santa knew the difference between Lego Star Wars games and Star Wars Clone Wars game. Luke was literally giddy in his effort to get all of his requests in to the Big Guy. Sam has begun to be very skeptical about the whole Santa thing as the facts are just not adding up right and he is asking a lot of questions. The big talk may be coming.
This is the kids waiting in line to see Santa. We had Colin with us because he had spent the night with us the night before. As I was taking this picture, The Toledo Blade photographer was behind me snapping a million pictures of the boys. He then took our names and ages and where we were from and said the picture may be in the paper the next day. There werent any pictures in the paper the next day or on Christmas Day....so not sure what is up with that?? Stefanie has accused me of allowing some pervert to take pictures of her son.....lol. He showed me his ID, I swear!!

This is the boys standing in front of the alien display...their fav! Notice that Luke is always looking away during all the pictures....the reason is that there was a reindeer in costume walking around and he was a nervous wreck trying so hard not to be bothered by it.

Here is Luke, Colin, Jake and some other girl in the engine of the train. They got to ring the bell the whole three trips around the track. Sam couldnt ride because he was about 10 inches too tall for the ride. I think he was really bummed.....poor thing he never asked to be so tall.

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeff!!

On Thursday, December 11, 2008, Jacob lost his first tooth!! Both of his front bottom teeth have been very loose for quite a while. The one was bothering him so granny took and tissue and went to wiggle it and out it came. Jake didnt cry or anything....he was so brave!! He put his tooth under his pillow and the toothfairy left him three dollars. He is hoping the other one comes out soon so he can have plenty of money to go buy a toy after Christmas.

OASIS Children's Christmas Musical

On Sunday, December 7th at 6:30pm was OASIS's musical "The Christmas Checklist". This is Sam all dressed up for the part of "Narrator". He had four long lines that was all scripture telling the story of Jesus' birth. He insisted on buying a tuxedo to wear and we had to compromise on just a tie! He thought dressing up and the cookies at the end were the best part of the whole deal. My baby might be getting too old now for me to insist he be a part of these things??!!
The preschool class were all dressed up as sheep and made their debute at the end of the show. They were way too cute. Some wanted to stand up and dance and others wanted to lay down and sleep and others just wanted to talk when they werent supposed to talk.

Here is Sam sitting with Jessica the other narrator while they wait for their cue to talk.

Japanese if You Please

The boys got the hat you sent in the package we got from you today. So, I decided to get our the outfit you had sent them awhile ago and have them try it on. They looked so cute!! I thought you would enjoy seeing them looking like little samuri's. They loved it as you can see. Jake added the ironman glasses in his picture because he was trying to look at fierce as possible.

Luke looks good in a braid, don't ya think??

Sam the Drama Man

On December 4th, 2008, Sam showed his true talent by playing the part of Toy Soldier in the 4th grade musical titled "Santa Goes Green". He was responsible for a whole two lines...."Yeah, even Christmas trees can be recycled!" and then later "We can chop them up and make mulch or compost with them". He was sick to his stomach all week and even told me he was "nervous as CRAP"!! He got through it just fine and the whole musical was really cute. Above is a picture of him saying his lines at the mic.

This is a picture of Sam daincing with a girl in his class who is dressed up like a rag doll. Crappy pictures, I know, but my camera never works in dark auditoriums when I have to use zoom.

Here is Sam singing in the openning number. He is on the top row in the middle. His head is turned towards the girl next to him.

3...2...1....BLAST OFF!!!

Sam and Colin and Dad getting the launching pad ready for the big blast off at Delta Park. Colin and Sam have been secretly keeping a "rocket journal" at school where they draw pictures of rockets and write about how to build them and so on. The teacher recently took it from them because I think they were working on it more than just at free time!!?? Anyway, we couldnt hardly hold an official launch without Colin there to help.
Here she stood prior to launching. We had two "engines" so we launched it two times and the rocket is still in good shape. It was very fun. The video of the whole thing is really funny. I am still working on making the videos post....arrgg!

Sammy is 10!!

Sam with his Lego Batman PSP game

Sam got a real rocket to launch.

10 candles this year....man time flies!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY J.!! We sure missed having you with us this year but it wont be long before you will be home to enjoy the next 50 years of holidays together. I have great video of Sam openning your present but I am still unable to get the program to work right. I have been working on it now for 2 hours and am really frustrated. I will keep trying! We also have video of the rocket that we shot off at the ball diamond today, too. It was really cool. I guess you will just have to be teased until I get it figured out. We LOVE you tough girl.

Thanksgiving

Damien enjoying the drumstick
The table full of goodies!

Granny washing dishes.

Daddy carving the ham.

DISNEY, cont.

This is the parade that we watch at Animal Kingdom. This a picture of Minnie Mouses's float. The back end of her float had a bathtub that sprayed bubbles all over the crowd so we were all literally surrounded by bubbles. It was really cool!!
This the playland in Dinoland at Animal Kingdom. The boys played here three times and would have stayed here all day if they could have. There were dinosaur bones and footprints that if you stepped on them you would hear a dino roar. There were all kinds of slides and things to climb on but it all looked like an archelogical dig.

This is us standing by "Princess Minnie" statue in one of the many gardens at Magic Kingdom. It was the end of the day and we were tired. Notice the sweatpants and sweatshirts on us....it was only 63 degrees this day.

This was our first stop when we got to Magic Kingdom. In Adventureland was the jungle river ride and the very favorite of all the Pirate of the Carribean ride!!

This is how Sam spent the whole time at the beach....on his belly body surfing!! We got him a boogie board at the Ron Jon shop and he really got the hang of it. Remember how afraid he was of the ocean when we went to Virginia Beach!!?? He reminded me so much of Damien!

DISNEY!!!

This is a picture of the two boys digging in the sand which is what they did all afternoon when we were at the beach. Jacob met a nice 6 year old boy named Joshua at the beach. Joshua was from Fairfield, England and played with Jacob for two hours. They ended up digging up a large sand flea and played with it for quite a while. Gross, I know, but completely harmless.

This is our hotel's hot tub....which was hot but not bubbly enough. We really enjoyed it though because the night air was a little chilly. Notice the drink on the edge of the hot tub by dad's head. That came from the cabanna bar that was poolside. I think we freaked Sam out with the drinks we had that night because every dinner after that he kept asking us if we were ordering drinks with dinner or not??!!

The "boys" in the pool.

Shamoo, of course!! At the beginning of the show they had the most moving tribute to our soldiers and their families and then had all active ot inactive soldiers and their families stand up to be recognized. We all stood up and dad and I were in tears the whole show after that. The show itself is so moving and incredible. We all felt so blessed to be there.

This is the three boys at Sea World. Jacob is looking a little grumpy because all he wanted to do was see the sharks and we were in route there when I made them sit and take a picture. Nice picture of them none the less!!

Our vacation to Orlando was really really fun. We went to Sea World, Cocoa Beach, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and enjoyed our hotel pool. Here are some of the pictures of our trip. I made you copies of most of these and they will be coming in your birthday package. We all wish you could have traveled with us to Orlando and we hope that the next time we go we can all go together!!

The Final Game

Here are pictures from Sam's football team's final game at the big Panther Stadium. It ended up being a very exciting game as they lost only by one touchdown. Sam even was able to sack the quarterback on one play. It was the first really cold night of the season so we really froze our butts off during the game. Jake and Luke did really well sitting there in the cold and when we got home we all enjoyed some hot chocolate!!

Go Steelers!!

This is a picture of Sam playing flag football. His team name is the Steelers and they won their first game this Saturday. Sam plays center and defensive tackle and he loves playing very much. This week will be the last week for the season. On Saturday (10-18), he will compete in a round robin tournament where they will play at night in the big Panther Stadium!! We will post more pictures next week of that big event.

Luke's Film Debut

Luke was the first to have a chance to say "hi" to you through video. I will get the others involved soon...or at least when Jake is in a better mood and not arguing with everyone. We went to Debbie's mom and dad's woods last night for a weenie roast. It was just us and her and her girls. The kids played in the woods and climbed trees and played in the tree fort that Briley has started. We had a campfire going and cooked hot dogs and smores. The kids just had a fabulous time. Jake was allowed to cook his own hot dog and marshmellow. He was so paranoid and cautious he would have never even warmed the things without help. After it got really dark, the kids all took about 5 turns each standing in front of the fire and telling their made up ghost stories. It was too cute!!

12 days to go

Hi all! All?? Well, probably just Sheila because she is the only one we are going to tell about this blog site. I set this up the best I could and hopefully this will be easier to post videos and pictures ect. 12 days to go before we leave for Florida. The kids are getting really excited and we talk about it daily. Of course we wish Sheila and Damien could go with us but maybe they can find their way there some other time soon. We love you Sheila and we will be posting more pictures and videos soon. Oh, by the way, Luke and Jake watched Mulinex's video for them about 4 times.....they loved it! ...especially the part for Willie!!