Presents and More!

Here they are dressed as Rapunzel.

The new bouncy house.

Baby Alive Dolls from Grandma Mandel and Aunt Bridget.

These are the photos from Christmas Day present opening.  We had a great time.  The kids got all they ever wanted and more!

Mike and I

Here's a photo of Mike and I, taken by Noah today.

Santa Baby

Nathan dressed in only his Santa Hat.  I hadn't taken any Christmas photos of him.  I figured since it's Christmas today, there's still time! I took this today in the basement. Pretty cute, even if I do say so myself!

Merry Christmas Photos

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas friends and family!
We have had a busy and exciting 2010. 

Here's the quick summary...



Last Christmas we had just found out that we were expecting a little boy. We were still living in Monterey, CA.

We spent the time leading up to Nathan's arrival in various ways.

1. preparing for our move to Virginia

2. homeschooling the kids

3. I was busy with my photography business

4. Mike was busy working on his Masters.

I planned the kids homeschooling schedule in such a way as to finish them up before baby Nathan was born.  Mike finished up work on his masters program.  Grace received the sacrament of reconciliation and received her first Communion.

On May 14th we welcomed Nathan into the world! We baptized him on Pentecost Sunday when my mom and dad were in town. Nathan is an amazing little boy!  The kids love him so much.  We all do! We thank God for the gift he's given us.  Another baby is such a blessing.



We moved to Virginia in June and settled into our old house.  We made a few upgrades... we finished the basement and added a granite countertop in our kitchen.  We even added a few more cabinets and bar seating.  It's really nice and so functional!



Mike is working at Quantico Marine Corps Base. He seems to like the job so far, it's pretty different from anything he's done before, but it is a good job to transition to after he retires from the Marine Corps. He's a program analyst.  He crunches a lot of numbers!  He's good at it, but I on the other hand would not be.



We found a nice Catholic school for Noah and Grace to attend, St. Patrick.  Noah is 11 and in the 5th grade, Grace is 8 and in the 2nd grade.  They both seem to enjoy school and are doing very well!  Noah even made the honor roll! He is also in a battle of the books group, so he has been reading constantly. Grace has enjoyed making new friends.  She has been doing well in school!  She writes beautifully now and is a pretty good speller. Noah and Grace both started Tae Kwon Do this summer and are now yellow belts!



Madison stays home with me and Nathan and  is a big help with Nathan. He loves her and finds most things she does to be pretty funny!  She can't wait to start Kindergarten next year. I will miss her, I'm still on the fence when it comes to home schooling her. She really wants to go to St. Patrick though.



Nathan is 7 months old and he is crawling, sitting up on his own and pulling up on things.  He has one tooth poking through and is so full of energy and curiosity.  He is a joy to have around.  He is going to keep me on my toes!



I am busy with the day to day stuff of life.  I drive kids to school and pick them up, I feed and cloth kids, I wash the clothes and the kids,  I clean the house, feed the dog, take the dog out, shop for groceries, make lunch, make dinner, nurse the baby...you get the point.  I have managed to take photos for a few people here and there, but it's pretty hard to do right now when Nathan is so young.



Well, that's our summary...



Merry Christmas!

I hope your family has a very happy new year!!

Our First Snow of The Winter!

It's our first snow here in Fredericksburg. The kids were thrilled to wake up and see a thin layer of snow on the ground. They had a two hour delay of school this morning so they were able to go out and play in it for a little while. I feed them breakfast bundled them up and let them play! We then came in and had some hot chocolate got ready for school and headed out! The snow is already melting away. They won't know what to do with themselves when they see a really big snowfall! We hope we have a bunch of snow for Christmas!

Oh, and in case you were wondering...Nathan did laugh a little at the snow, he touched it with his mitten a few times, but wasn't super excited about it. I think mostly due to the fact that he was bundled up to the size of a swollen tick! He was very warm. I put him on the playset swing and he enjoyed that.

Maddie, Grace and Noah enjoyed sledding down the hill and making snowballs. I am now in the process of cleaning up all the mess tracked in the house, and cleaning the wet clothes.

Noah and Grace's Christmas Concert

St. Patrick's School had their Christmas concert on November 30th. The kids were very excited. They did a great job! Noah had a small solo. He was thrilled to have a solo. He did very well and sang perfectly. He looked sharp. I loved his new sweater. Grace got a sparkly new dress for the event too.

This is Grace D., Grace, Kate, Madison and Hannah, they are all good friends.

The 5th grade on stage.

Noah preparing to sing.

The 2nd grade class on stage.

The whole school on stage, yes I said the WHOLE school on stage. It's a small school of only about 200 kids.

Nathan is Crawling and Sitting Up!

Nathan is on the fast track to walking. I'm thinking he could be an early walker like Noah was. Noah walked at 9 months. Nathan began crawling at 5 months and now at 6 months he crawls and can sit up from a crawl. He sits on the floor and plays with his toys. He has an exersaucer which he stands in and stays fairly well entertained in for 10 minutes or so. He is eating baby food now, he's had peas, bananas, and squash. I got him one of those mesh bags with a handle that you can put food inside, and they can suck on it. I put a banana in it this morning and he loved it! We have introduced the sippy cup, but he's not too interested right now. He sees it more as a chew toy than anything else.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!! We are so thankful!! We are about to sit down to eat. Here are a few photos of Nathan in his gobble, gobble shirt today. It's his first Thanksgiving!
Hope you have a great one!!

What's Under My Tree...

Look what's under my Christmas tree!! I was putting up another Christmas tree in the house, this one is in my office. It's got the red and green bulbs on it. The living room has browns, golds, and greens. I like being able to decorate with different colors.

Nathan took an interest in the tree and crawled under it. I had to take a few pictures. He is really crawling well these days.

Gettysburg Trip

We drove to Gettsyburg in October. We went with Mike's sister Bridget. We had a great time touring the battlefield and visitor's center. We ate mexican food in the town of Gettysburg before heading out. The food was surprisingly good! I couldn't pass up the chance to get a good photo for Christmas cards this year. I think this one of the 4 kids may be the one you get on your card this year.

Madison in her red sweater

St. Patrick's School Uniforms (Lot's of Posts-scroll down)

These aren't the best quality photos, I've shrunk them down for quick upload speeds. I just wanted you to be able to see the kids school uniforms. These are their school uniforms for everyday wear and for PE. They have PE once a week.

School starts August 30th!

Cloth Diapers

I haven't had time to blog, yet alone blog about cloth diapers, but I wanted to write a quick something about it. I have been cloth diapering Nathan since about two weeks after he was born. I waited until his cord fell off, so it wouldn't catch on his diaper. I have found it to be really easy. I even use my own made cloth wet wipes. I through the wipes in the wash with the diapers. I keep the wipes in a cloth wipe warmer, so they are always wet and warm. I have been using Bum Genius all in one diapers in the XS size. Since Nathan is small he is still in them at 3 months of age. It's a good thing I got the XS. He is only now able to wear the Small, but it's big. I feel good about the money I'm saving and the diapers I'm not filling the land fill with. I'm also excited to reuse them if I have another one. Maddie has already placed her order for a little girl!

They are such cute diapers. Here's two photos.