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!