Thankful Days

Thanksgiving was nice this year! It was quiet. I got a break from my usual job as hostess. This year my mom cooked and I was a guest. Of course, I traded for Christmas Eve, which will have lots more people! Above...Zoey and Stef. Below...Zoey and Grandpa.

Zoey and daddy.

The annual Wishbone tradition. Matt wanted a piece of the action, but Stef would not let him break the tradition. She and I have battled over the wishbone for many years now. And I almost always lose!!!

Matt and Great Grandpa Fries.

Lily and Stef

This year instead of gingerbread houses, we decided to make Rice Krispie houses. It was much easier and came with a mold for a house, that we used twice. We also had enough krispies left over to make two people and a couple of wreaths.

This was Lily's finished house and krispie girl.

This was Matt's house and boy!

They look like professionals in those aprons. Don't they?

Now...on to the Christmas baking and celebrations! The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year!

Halloween and Zoey's First Birthday

Just realized today that I hadn't posted any Halloween pics...so without further ado...

The kids were most uncooperative with the camera on Halloween. It was a blustery, cold day and we had to take the pics inside because the kids had their coats on outside. Trying to get three wiggly kids to sit still and smile for a pic with their costumes on is next to impossible, but this is what I got...
Mr. Indiana Jones at your service. (I had to confiscate that whip a few times as you very well could imagine!)



The gorgeous Snow White does NOT wear glasses, so she couldn't possible adorn those with her costume on!

And finally...my sweet little Piglet may look familiar to some of you because, Yes, this is the third time one of my children has worn this costume! LOL....Zoey looks exactly like Matt did in this costume. It will be hard to tell the pics apart!

These park pics were taken on Zoey's birthday. I took her to the park and she was all smiles!

I love this one...I'll definitely have it blown up for scrapping...

I really wanted to get her a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake, but the choices were ugly, so she got her second favorite, Elmo. She was getting an Elmo present, so I wanted to get a Mickey cake, but no luck.

Here are the kids playing with the adorable Elmo Live. He tells so many different jokes and stories. It's a great toy!

Who liked it more? The one year old or the 5 and 7 year olds? Hmmmmm....

At her party...she was not a happy camper. I think she was mad about the cake. LOL

Eating presents is just as fun as unwrapping them!

Not a fan of cake!

It was more fun to squish it between her fingers than to eat it!

Happy 1st birthday, Sweet Angel Baby! 11-9-09

A Whole New World

This video is so cute! Matt and Lily rehearsed for hours before calling me in to see their "Performance!" Hope you enjoy it! My favorite part is the ending!!!
A funny side note about their costumes...Matt's pants are from a Pirate Costume, but his jacket was his christening jacket when he was 6 months old!!!!!! LOL Lily's dress is her flower girl dress from her aunt's wedding that was almost 3 years ago! My kids know how to stretch their wardrobe to the limit!

Lily's New Room

Days of painting and adding glittery Pixie Dust to the walls paid off...Lily loves her new room!!!

Apples and Pumpkins...Oh My!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Garden Patch Orchard in Homer Glen, IL to pick some apples and pumpkins. It started out as a beautiful sunny fall-weather day, but by the time we got to the orchard, it started to sprinkle. It didn't stop us...just made our shoes muddy. But we all had a good time.

Lily's glasses

So, I took Lily for her Kindergarten eye exam and we certainly got a huge shock! The doctor informed me that Lily's right eye is very blurry and it has been sending messages to her brain to stop using that eye. It's called Amblyopia. She is also far-sighted and has been dealing with this forever! How could we NOT have known?

So, the solution is that she will have to wear glasses for 6 months to try fix the blurriness in the right eye and hopefully get it used again. If it doesn't work, she will have to wear a patch (Yes! Like a pirate!) for about a year. The patch would cover the good eye and force the bad eye to be used. How awful!!

In the meantime, we have been seeing a Neuro-Psychologist because of Lily's behavior issues. We are pretty certain that she has Sensory Integration Disorder or Sensory Processing Dysfunction. Basically, she has hypo- and hyper- sensitivities that are causing her to have melt-downs, tantrums and other bizzare issues. She is going for a complete Neuro-Psychological and Occupational Therapy evaluation at the beginning of October, which means she won't officially be getting help until then.

Of course, the issue with her eyes/glasses have been adding to this sensory problem, and hopefully the glasses will help a little bit.

Despite these issues, she is still my baby; she still has sweet, gentle, tender moments, and of course, I still love her!!

We all just want Lily to get the help she needs and deserves!!

Random Post about the past month

So I just realized today that I haven't blogged in about a month, so I have all of these random pics to share. This first bunch is from the White Water Canyon Water Park. I took the three kids there right before school started back, as a last hurrah! It was really a lot of fun and we had perfect weather. The pic below is Matt and Lily on the lazy river, going under the buckets of spilling water!

This is the zero depth pool and the slides in the background. This water park is about a mile from my house. Very convenient and fun!

Matt liked these big slides the best!!!

Then, of course, was the highlight of my summer....the PEARL JAM concert at the United Center! I know PJ is a band from the 90's, but they have always been my favorite and I just adore the lead singer, Eddie Vedder. He has such a great, deep voice. They RAWK!!!

Jackie and I...being dorks.

This was before we left for the show...

Later in the month, Jack went to meet his sister, her husband and his cousin for lunch (with the three kids and without me...can you believe he managed?) Anyway, it was a going away lunch for Ela who is moving to Italy soon. Zoey doesn't look cooperative, does she? She was missing her mommy. (I couldn't attend because we were having a dinner party at our house later that evening and I was busy preparing food and cleaning the house!)

The next pic is from the outdoor birthday party for our library. They had a petting zoo, which Lily just loved. That's her petting the giant black hog.

Next you'll see Lily and grandma one day this summer at the park. I told you these were totally random pics from the past month...

Another pic from the library birthday party. We are sitting in front of the Bookmobile. Why am I the only person who appears to be having fun? LOL It was super hot this day!! I think we were all sweaty and ready to go back home.

We had a wonderful August!! I'm glad for the cooler September weather. I'm glad for the kids to be back at school and I'm glad for the wonderful things that fall brings!