Close to Perfect!

This is where we spent our Christmas afternoon:


And this is how the Girls spent their Christmas:


What a perfect day we had! We spent the morning opening gifts from Santa with Megan, Izzy and Gracie! The kids LOVED all their gifts, Santa did great! We had a wonderful breakfast prepared by Happy, showers and then off to the beach!

We met some family friends and had some great food, great conversation and great weather! The kids played in the ocean and at the playground for hours! And we did it...Our goal for Christmas was to enjoy the Coast of Somewhere Beautiful and today we did!

Christmas 2009!

After a few crappy months, we have been enjoying a good family week. We mad it to Disney for two days of Family Fun, and are now at my parents spending the holidays with them and my sister's family. While I wish my brother and his family were here, I will settle for the very good news they delivered today. In all, Christmas Eve was the first really good day I have had in too long!

I hope the monsters like everything that Santa brings and that we can mange another good day tomorrow!

Merry Christmas from Me, Ben and The Monsters!

Christmaska!

Tonight, on this first night of Hanukkah, we celebrated Christmas with the Fallons. Because we will not be with them on Christmas Day, they decided to come visit this weekend for Christmas. As luck would have it, they were here for our Hanukkah feast.

My kids LOVE Hanukkah. No, we are not Jewish, it has just become a tradition over the past 3 years to celebrate. When Declan was in kindergarten, he learned about Hanukkah and instantly wanted to celebrate it. I, having no religious affiliation, was happy to expose them to something new. Tonight we lit our first candle on the menorah, had brisket for dinner and played dreidel. The kids had a blast! They even got some Christmas gifts! I am not sure they could have had a better Hanukkah:)

My little Killi!

My Killi is the truly one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She is so kind and caring. It hurts her to see any person, animal or pretty much anything hurt, broken or sad. If I cry in front of her, she cries, when someone gets hurt at the park, she runs to make sure they will be okay.

Now, I am not trying to make her out as a saint, because she does feel the need to hit,kick,punch her sister, but she feels bad about it after she does it and Maggie most often deserves it;-)

Anyway, Killi is a very easy kid to make happy and we got reminded of that at Lunch this week. While at lunch, Killi was reading the menu, all of the sudden she jumps out of her chair yelling that her name is in on the menu! She was soooo excited. She brought the menu over to Ben and I and pointed out to us where her name was(which in and of itself was a huge deal for Killi). We praised her for finding her name and she spent the remainder of Lunch telling anyone that walked by that HER NAME was in the menu:)

As good parents, we let her enjoy the moment and never explained to her that she was NOT the Killian in question and that she shares her name with a beer:) It was too awesome to see her excitement! Even through her excitement, she told her brother that she would ask them to use his name next time;-)

I love all three of my monsters the same amount, but each brings something very different into my life and Killi's is the kind innocence that only a truly kind soul can bring.

Turkey Trot!

They did it! They competed in their first 1m race! And Declan and Killi Finished! Maggie and Angie only made it about 1/2 a mile:)



The Girls before the race started!


Killi crossing the finish line! 11min! We are so proud of her for going out and trying! She did awesome!


Declan getting ready to race! He finished his mile in 9min and then ran with Marg and Angela for their mile...after the girls bailed-out, he continued on to finish his second mile! So proud of him for giving it his all and then going back to help his sister and cousin!

All the kids got a medal for participation and they were very happy and proud of themselves! We are also proud of Maggie and Ang for trying, we were worried we would not make it that far:)

Declan and Killi say that they cannot wait to race again! Yeah for Mr. Baker and Ms. Barr, You Guys Rock!!!

Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow morning the monsters and Angela will run in the Turkey Trot 1 miler! Heats start at 7:30am, post time at 7:00! That is early! I am sure Declan and Killi will do great, they run in PE and Declan enjoys it. Marg and Angie on the other hand may not make it to the end of the course:)

I think this may be the first of many races with Declan, I just hope he can find some that start later!

I will post pictures when we get home and let you know how everyone did! We do have to rush home after the races to get our 19lb turkey in the oven otherwise we will never eat dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

The Dentist

Today after taking Marg to the doctor for what appears to be croup again, Declan and Killi had dentist appointments. I am very sad to report that we have our first "kid" cavity. Declan is the culprit! Now he will have to have a filling! Otherwise, they have good teeth!

I also got Christmas stuff for the hall bathroom today! Best of all, it is Snowmen so it can really stay through February:) We also got almost all of the lights wired and on!