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.