short update

For those who comment on the blog here is the update.....Anna had a great time at the ball and she and Chris remain to be friends despite his many valiant efforts to woo her. The speaker only spoke for less than ten minutes, Anna danced for four hours on a tile floor, her shoes did not stay on her feet for much of the night, and her feet paid for it for days after!

P.S. - for my smart alec friends....there was A LOT of snow earlier in the day and the temperature didn't go above freezing! My pictures were taken late in the afternoon. :)

Anna's first formal

Anna is at her first formal dance this evening. Her friend Chris invited her to the Hickory High military ball. She spent the better part of the afternoon getting ready and looked beautiful this evening! I hope she is having fun. She was worried about being very bored during the guest speaker's speech (but really haven't all of us who have attended military balls dreaded that part). I am sure she will love dancing and I can't wait to hear all about it in the morning as I will more than likely be asleep when she comes home at 11ish!

This must be a Hollenack trait

As many of you may know I am a NEAT freak. Well much to my horror Matthew is not...ahhhhh!!! Joey followed in my ways with very little resistance and Ben is pretty clean as well. But Matthew..whew! This week I have seen a new side of him. We spent two afternoons at the park and I took him out of the stroller to let him explore and he just kept shoveling the sand in his face and digging in the dirt. I was quite surprised as Joey & Ben just didn't do these things. Then at dinner Matthew smashed blueberries on his cheek and used the chicken pie to make his hair into a mohawk. So now I just have decided that this is a Hollenack trait and I hope that he will come to the Greco side of life soon! :) - Just kidding Hollenacks!

Men with weapons

Since moving here we have lost our 'little' boy ways. We have an older neighbor who has lots of cool toys, guns, sword, daggers etc etc (of course all fake). The boys immediately decided that Ian was so cool because of these things and are now obsessed with them. We caved this summer and bought them light sabers which went surprisingly well. They also received Nerf guns for Christmas and after a few days of shooting at each other that stopped. Well today was a warm spring day and the kids were outside. They decided to play war and spent the afternoon chasing each other and fighting with sticks, guns and light sabers....wow....look at who they became...my babies are now boys...

We were snowed in..

Well like most of the East coast we spent today snowed into our house. Actually Paul made it to work around 9 and Anna went out with a friend in the late afternoon. But I refuse to drive in this type of weather unless necessary and Joey is sick (again!) so we were home.

I had a boy handsomification morning which consists of baths, hair trimming, nail clipping and other fun stuff (not really because they all hate it and fight me tooth and nail). We then lounged for awhile and then I pulled out Brad Paisley's album Fifth Gear. This is a family favorite. So we cranked it up and danced all around. Ben pulled out his guitar and then Matthew danced around with an inflatable one as well. It was a blast. The big boys then settled into playing with Legos and Playdoh while Matthew napped. I conquered a small mountain of laundry and ironing-yuck!!!!

While folding my mountain of clothes I spotted a hawk in our backyard. At least I think it was a hawk, this is the best picture I could take from inside the house. Paul is very into birds and his passion has rubbed off on me and the kids. So this was a HUGE thing for us. I hope he comes back!




Matthew and his guitar.




Perhaps they will start a band....do you catch that subtle reference?




Our new visitor. He is perched above and to the left of the slide. He is SO hard to pick out in the picture...sorry.




Ben making pizza and shrimp from playdoh.




Joey making a composter/trash/computer creation from legos.

Matthew's new look

during...


before...

Hurrah!!! Matthew is now walking. He is doing a great job of it and we are all so very excited for him. He is able to take about 10 steps more or less. We are in trouble now!

We took him for his first hair cut several weeks ago. I have always waited until the boys are one to have their hair cut. He did very well....not the screaming and flailing that Joey and Ben always did.

Snow Day

Our house.

Using our neighbors sled.

Joey bike riding in the back yard.

Joey and Ben getting ready to head out.
We had one nice day of snow a few weeks ago. The boys got out in it for a few hours but they didn't last long and nor did the snow. Luckily the neighbors have a sled and the boys were able to use it in the front yard!