The past few months…

Wow so I haven’t posted in a while.  I have thought about it but to say things have been busy around here is an understatement.  We have had three solid months of visitors and travels.  While I would love to say that I will go back and give you a detailed account of all of the fun things we have done, it probably won’t happen.  I’m going to try to sum up the past three very eventful three months in one post. Get comfortable. This could take a while.

In October,  Jim’s parents came to visit.  We did a lot of sightseeing and they did a lot of playing with the kids.  We went to Lousia May Alcott’s orchard house, the Museum of Science and saw the Harry Potter exhibit, and to Sturbridge Village.  Jim and Cole also took Grandmother and PeePaw to a Bruins game on Halloween day.  The kids dressed up as Commander Cody, Princess Ariel, and Nemo and had a wonderful time trick-or-treating.

 

Shortly after Jim’s parents left, we decided to tell the rest of the world that we are expecting Baby #4.  We were hoping to wait a little bit longer but I had to start rubber banding my jeans and wearing yoga pants around week six.  Several people have told me that after your third, you just start looking pregnant REALLY early but I was totally unprepared for quite that soon.  So just after 7 weeks along, we sent out our photo message to our family and friends.

9 weeks!

SO far the pregnancy is going really well.  I was sick from about week 3 to 13 but that’s pretty normal for me.  I think the hardest part is keeping up with the other kids.  Avery is the only one who still naps so they are pretty nonstop all day.  I thank God each day for a husband who picks up my slack and forces me to rest when he is home.  The hardest part so far was when I got H1N1. (Alli got it first).  Jim happened to be out of town at the time.  I don’t know if I have ever felt so bad in my life and the kids were more than I could handle.  My neighbor came to the rescue and stayed with me most of the day and even gave my kids dinner and baths while I laid on the couch moaning. 

Cole had a very fun homeschool Thanksgiving party.  All the kids dressed up.  They made Stone Soup, played a bunch of games, did some crafts, ate lunch, and then ended the party with a turkey pinata.  

These are some of the kids- minus a few families who were sick.

Our next visitors were Dallas and Sutton.  We were so excited to have them for 10 days over Thanksgiving!  It would have only been more perfect if Jay had been with us too.  His presence was sorely missed but we are thrilled that the Moore family will be reunited in the next few weeks.  We had a wonderful visit.  Dallas and I had a great time catching up and the kids acted like no time had passed at all. 

Outside the Aquarium

We all went to Alli’s Thanksgiving party at her preschool

Me and my sweetheart

Christmas tree in downtown Boston

I just love this picture of Avery in her “My Daddy is a Rock Star” t-shirt

The Spouses Club here puts on a great Breakfast With Santa event.  Cole was the only one who wasn’t afraid to meet Santa.

FISRT SNOW!!

Well, I thought I could catch you up in one post but I’ve been at this for an hour now and the kids are coming in from outside,  I hope to get back to it soon!

Circus and Snow Day

A few weeks ago we surprised the kids with a trip to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus.  We took them to Friendly’s for dinner first and told them where we were going next.  We were a little worried that Avery wouldn’t sit through the whole thing but she loved it just as much as the big kids.  I remember liking the circus too but I think it has gotten even cooler over the past 20 years.  Alli’s favorite was the ponies, Avery liked the dogs, and Cole liked the seven motorcycles in the giant ball.  It was a great show!

The next day, we needed to go to Loews so we left around 3 to pick up a couple of things wearing pants and jackets.  By the time we left the store, it was snowing!!  It was pretty crazy to see that much snow in early October.  Cole kept asking in the car if it was winter already.  Jim just replied, “No Cole, it’s Boston.”  I took a few pictures of the fall flowers and Halloween decorations covered in snow.  Such an unusual sight.

My snow covered mums

View from our backyard

September and October

This past month has been filled with soccer, ballet, and a whole lot of apple picking. We are very much enjoying the fall. You all know we are now homeschooling and that is going very very well. I am loving the extra time I get with the kids and everyone is learning a lot and having fun. The homeschool group on base is fantastic and we have had a great time on the apple picking and fire station field trips. Cole’s soccer team is called the wolves. Jim thought it would be funny to howl loudly after the team huddle and “Go Wolves” cheer. Cole gets so embarrassed and rolls his eyes. After 4 games, the howl is now part of the team cheer. Cole is still embarrassed. Very cute.

Cole got an Air Force tattoo at the Base Fall Festival. Jim was so disappointed and pretended to fake cry. Cole thought this was hilarious and told Jim all night that he s going to join the Air Force one day.

Cole’s apple graph. Thanks for all of your help!

Our neighbor is a former art teacher. Now she has triplets so that is on hold for a bit but she teaches a weekly art class to Cole and another homeschool neighbor. Cole is LOVING it.

Cole and Sparky at the Fire Prevention festival.

The grease fire demonstration

I love this picture of the two of them laughing.

Cole and Alli covered themselves in googly eyes and called themselves aliens for a day.

Jim has been doing a Science club with some of the neighborhood kids on Sunday afternoon. He likes to do explosions.

This is the soccer team in their coats this past weekend. It actually snowed the day after this was taken. The kids took their coats off to play and then bundled up as soon as they got on the sidelines.

Science club this past weekend.

Alli really likes preschool. I had her parent teacher conference the other day. The teacher had wonderful things to say about her and said that she was such a sweet and caring girl but she also told me a funny story. Every day she rings the bell and the students are supposed to clean up their choice time toys and go to the bathroom to wash hands before snack. Every day the teacher rings the bell and Alli is suddenly missing. She continues to find her in the bathroom already washing her hands. Last week the teacher finally told her, “Alli, we clean up our toys first and then wash our hands. Alli replied, “Oh that’s okay, I don’t really like cleaning up. I’ll just wash my hands instead.” I told the teacher that she should definitely keep working on Alli following directions and not thinking she is queen of the world.

We made Dora cupcakes with Alli and her friend

Alli and I put together the dinosaur puzzle one afternoon and she decided she wanted to pretend to live with them. She played on top of this puzzle for about 45 minutes.

She is a great big sister

The “biggest, giantest leaf ever”

Alli has also been playing soccer. Her season just ended and she was thrilled to get a medal.

Avery seems to be changing overnight. She is determined to be one of the big kids now. She wants to do everything they do. She is saying more and more words all of the time. She also has a newfound love for Elmo. She carries an Elmo doll around with her all of the time and gives him hugs and kisses. She also likes to put him on the potty. Her favorite words right now are “snack” and “Mine.” Alli’s dance studio is offering a six week mommy and me ballet class during Alli’s regular class time. Since all Avery and I are doing is hanging out is the waiting area with the other moms, I decided to sign her up. I also decided that she needed a matching dance outfit for this 6 week class and that $15 was a small price to pay for this picture perfect preciousness.

She loves to pull out everything in the cabinets and drawers while I cook.

We took the preschoolers and Avery on a separate trip to the fire station. Alli and Avery weren’t all that into it but the boys we went with loved it and I found it interesting.

Jim showed Avery the dancing Evian babies on youtube. Now every time she sees the computer she starts screaming, “Babies!” She can watch it over and over again and she laughs every time.

We have also been apple picking like crazy. We have gone with the homeschool group, our neighborhood friends, and a couple of times with our family. We have visited several different farms/orchards but our favorite has several animals you can feed. Alli absolutely LOVES this. She spent a better portion of the trip running around from goat to goat feeding them. She talked to every rabbit, every sheep, and every chicken. She was memorized. She has now decided that she wants to be an animal doctor when she grows up. We are really going to encourage this since this is the first time she has said she wants to be anything other than a princess. We are trying to find all kinds of animal pictures to hang up in her room. Avery loves eating the apples when we go and Cole pretty much likes everything although he thoroughly enjoys the hay mazes.

With the neighbors

Picking her first apple

I bought corn at the farm and Cole didn’t know what it was! He did not remember ever having seen corn in its natural form. He learned all about growing corn that night along with how to shuck it. Avery was scared of the corn husks. She kept coming into the kitchen and then running away screaming. Cole and I couldn’t help but find this sort of funny.

Crazy amount of apples

No more corn!!