Santa letters

Ok, I am stealing an idea from Holly...here are the boys letters to Santa....and yes, they will be VERY happy on Christmas morning! So sorry that I can't figure out how to flip them.....I am simply not very computer savvy....so bend your head to the right!

Ok, I am going to try tagging.....

I have been tagged before but never done anything about it...so here it goes....

Go into your photo file folder.
Choose the 4th photo file within that folder.
And from that 4th file, choose your 4th photo.
Then share the photo and the memory that goes along with it.
Tag 4 more people.




this picture was taken in our backyard in Albuquerque on Easter morning. The boys were having a great time hunting for eggs....

so now I am going to tag Susan, Heidi, Becky and well that is it....

Getting ready for the holidays...

Well I think we are 100% ready for the holidays. I have finished all my shopping (knock on wood) and nearly all my wrapping!!! We have decided to have an Italian Christmas and I am really looking forward to the feast. We bought a beautiful tree last weekend and had a nice time decorating it all together. The kids also decorated a gingerbread house. I have caught Ben eating the candies off of the house several times so hopefully the house will still be standing in a few more days! The kids wrote letters to Santa and I sent them into our local paper. They were published last weekend, we all got quite a kick out of reading their letters in the Sunday paper.

Matthew in December

Matthew is nearly a year old now, WOW! He is such a cute baby, I really can hardly believe it. Here is a picture of him with Santa and another adorable shot of him. He is still crawling and cruising but isn't interested in standing alone or trying to walk, whew!!!

My soldiers

We went to Charlotte a few weeks ago to attend Paul's unit's holiday lunch. We had a great time seeing where Paul works and meeting some of his coworkers. Of course the boys went in their Army uniforms. There were a few other kids with uniforms as well, of course none as decked out as Joey and Ben. The soldiers got a kick out of seeing them and they loved being with Dad!

Paul's coastal sunrise pics

Paul spent a week at Fort Fisher, NC doing some training with the NG. He snapped these pictures from his balcony at the hotel. Enjoy!!!! I wish I were there now, of course without any kids, in a hammock with a large fruity drink!!! :)

Our fall weekend

We are in love with our house and we knew that it would be a lot of work, especially in the yard. We have nearly an acre of land and a lot of grass and several HUGE trees. We have been watching the leaves fall for several weeks and honestly I just couldn't get my head wrapped around how we could rake this many leaves. But somehow we have. We spent the better part of the last two days raking and hauling leaves to the curb. Whew, now we have a 3 foot mountain of leaves that stretches for about 30 feet. We are exhausted. Plus Paul and his Dad cut down two crape myrtles in the front that have been allowed to grow too large and did not bloom this year. Here are a few pictures from this weekend. Thanks Bill & Judy for helping us clean up our yard.

Our three pea pods!

The boys have all worn the same Halloween costume for their first Halloween. I am so glad that I held onto the costume as I love that they all have the same picture on the couch. This year I pulled out the costume a few hours before we left. I am glad that I did because someone (a big brother) had pulled off the peas. So out came the hot glue gun and now the costume looks just as it did 6 years ago! Whew!

Joey was only 7 weeks old for his first Halloween. He screamed the entire time while wearing this costume. Check out Anna as a cheerleader!!!



Ben's first Halloween was in Albuquerque. He was 6 months old and enjoyed the costume far more than Joey.



And here are a few shots of Matthew. He definitely filled out the costume better than either of his brothers! Of course he is now 10 months old so that helps quite a bit!

Trick or Treat

We had a great time trick or treating last night. We didn't hit too many houses which is good because we already have plenty of candy. Plus Paul and I don't need any more to have to eat. ;)

Paul and Anna pulled off Miley Cyrus & Billy Ray. Anna was referred to as Paul's wife several times during the evening. This really freaked her out and insulted me to be quite honest! We started calling her Miley Lynn Spears when she was pushing Matthew around in the stroller.





The boys were Power Rangers with light sabers. Matthew was a pea in the pod, and to be quite honest he was the cutest pea in the pod ever on the face of the Earth!

Happy Halloween

We are still undecided in our house as to what everyone will be on Friday. Anna and Paul hope to pull off Hannah Montana and Billy Ray. Matthew will be a pea in the pod, like everyone other brother on their first Halloween. Joey is waffling between a Power Ranger, pirate or ninja. Ben is deciding between and Power Ranger or Buzz. So, we shall see, every day the boys change their mind. But here is a cute pic from my Mom's house recently.



Construction has started in the basement and we are all very happy about it. Hopefully it will be finished in less than a month. We essentially lost all the flooring and a lot of the walls due to a flood we had in July (our fridge leaked while we were at the beach).

Matthew is now standing and is very proud of himself. He cruises around so fast it is amazing!

Paul's Reunion

Paul had a great time this weekend at West Point for his 10 year reunion. I wish I could have gone with him but Matthew and I aren't ready for a weekend apart yet. So, hopefully we will go up together for his 15 or 20. Here are just a few shots from the football stadium and around the campus.

Catawba Science Center

This morning we worked on some school work. Joey has just started to read and so I am trying to work with him quite a bit. He has read a Bob book and another similar type book on his own.

We of course had to get out of the house because I am no good at staying home. So we went to our awesome science center to check out a new construction exhibit. Well that was right up the boys alley. We spent three hours there and finally were kicked out at closing. The centrifuge machine and conveyor belt were the boys favorite things to do.

Hurrah, Paul will be home later tonight, we can't wait!

Matthew the vacuum cleaner

Paul is out of town this weekend (he is at his 10 year reunion at West Point). So the kids and I are on our own. I spent a few hours yesterday trying to finish cleaning up our yard. So, I had Matthew in the jogging stroller and had just finished raking out a flower bed on the side of our house when of course Matthew started to fuss and I wasn't able to calm him down. So Joey and Ben to the rescue! They began to push him in the driveway. Well that quickly turned into the 'vacuum cleaner' game. They popped Matthew up on two wheels and chased the other brother all over the backyard! Matthew (who was of course securely buckled in) LOVED it! He was laughing and having a great time. I was able to work for another 1/2 hour uninterrupted, thanks Joey and Ben! We had a great day together, it was one of those days when I wish time would just stop and that I would be able to recall every moment, all the smells and the thing we laughed about. The best thing to happen was that Ben swam underwater at swim lessons for quite a distance, Joey swam the backstroke briefly without any assistance and they both dove off of the diving board without being thrown in!

So, all in all Saturday without Dad was great!

No more pets!

Well now, I am certainly stunned to have animals myself but there is NO way that I am every getting a dog or any other type of 'high maintenance' animal. Thanks to my friends for giving me such a hard time. Poor Simba is losing his limbs and I feel so sad for him, I just am not good at this animal stuff. Plus, the boys have lost a lot of interest in them so I am glad that we didn't invest in anything any larger or harder to take care of. So, sorry Dena and Trish, this is the end of the road for pets for us!

Our newest additions! :)

Bill and Judy bought hermit crabs for the boys while they were in NJ. So our family is now even larger! Yes, I know so many of you are surprised that I even allowed a pet in the house. But, in all reality this is all that I am going to be able to handle and I do love seeing how excited the boys are about them. I had been promising Joey for 6 months that he could have crabs and was hoping that he would forget, of course he never did! So Simba and Nala are now here to stay, hurrah!

Cute Matthew pictures

Bill and Judy visited on Sunday and we had a great time just being lazy around the house. Bill has always been so calming for all the boys as babies and he of course mesmerized Matthew. They had a great time 'playing' the guitar together. The picture of him sleeping was taken that night I believe. He is simply so perfect.