It's that time of year

It is hard to believe that it is already December 4th. Christmas is 3 weeks away, and the house is getting ready! We kicked off the Holiday season with Thanksgiving with the Burke/Maring/Cribari families. Our entire house has been fighting sickness since October so we kept it relatively calm. Even with sickness we have been able to enjoy several fun events:

• Going to see Santa
• Decorating the tree
• The kids help Geema and Geepa decorate the tree
• Aunt Pam's 50th Birthday
• The lighting of the lights in Downtown Littleton
• Zoolights

We are looking forward to another weekend of fun with birthday celebrations, making Christmas cookies and snow football for Ben. Of course, since Denver hasn't really seen snow, it will be a dry event this year.

This was one of the only pictures John would willingly take!

Petting a snake at Zoolights - Daddy stayed in the hall

It was SO much warmer this year! Last year it was about 10 degrees, this year it was a balmy 40!

Going to see Santa with Poppie!

Cousin Lily having fun at zoolights

Guess who is 6!

Antonette Eileen turned 6 last week, and the weekend was FULL of celebration! Nettie wanted to have a skate city birthday party. It was more fun than I thought it would be, the idea of getting on roller skates was rather daunting to me, I have never been very coordinated (as most who know me know). There was lots of family time, and of course lots of cake and fun. Here are a few pics from the weekend!

Practicing out back with her new skates


Twinkle Toes - She is SO excited

Nettie and her Barbie cake
At her party
Skating with Daddy

End of Summer

It has been a great summer. The kids are loving playing outside, driving in the Barbie Jeep, swimming whenever possible, and the sun being up until 9:00 at night. Of course, with new schedules all that is starting to change. Nettie started at our local school a couple weeks ago. She is enjoying her kindergarten at her school, although it took some convincing that "Yes, you want to go to kindergarten again".
John has moved to the next classroom in the day care center, so he is now doing preschool all day, which is good for him. He is our artist and enjoys drawing, cutting, playing with play dough. All fun stuff when you are 3 years old.
Ben is doing well, ready for the summer to end so that he can stop mowing the lawn for a few months. While he enjoys the yard looking as wonderful as it does, it is a chore to cut the grass.
After being laid off in May, although I still had a job until October, I recently accepted a position with a new company. So after 9 years with Western Union, I am moving on. I am very excited for the new prospect and will be starting tomorrow morning.
Here are some recent pictures:

Nettie enjoying her new American Girl Dolls
Getting a pedicure with Mommie and Nonna
First Day of School
Daddy and John hanging out (check out the shoes, they are about 3 sizes too big)

Nettie playing dress up

 

Family Picture

 

We took this picture at my cousin Mel's wedding a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful day and the kids had fun.

Something to get your toes tapping

I found this on another blog today and thought it is good to share...(from Kottke)

You may have to click and view in You Tube to see the entire screen

Flying By.....

Can you believe that it is almost August already? I am having a hard time with the fact that this weekend is the last weekend of July (at least half of it). But the better part is that we get to celebrate Ben's birthday on Sunday, and that is always a highlight of the summer.

The summer is going so fast, as usual, but we are enjoying all we can. It has been warm, but not unbearable. We have been enjoying seeing Nettie thrive in swimming, and hopefully with a few more lessons will overcome her fear and take off in the pool. She is getting very good, but likes to make sure someone is close by at all times and the wall is easily attainable. John is starting to ride his bike more and loves playing outside whenever possible. It makes it nice to open the back door after work and let the kids run out for a bit before dinner.

Nettie is helping me with a garden that we have with our neighbors, I will attach pictures soon. It is a wonderful garden and we should have more food than we can handle in about a month. Right now we are starting to get lots of tomatoes, but the rest is coming:) I never thought I would say that I love to garden, I love picking the weeds, I love watching the plants grow and I love seeing the vegetables coming on, and knowing that it all started from a seed.

Here are a couple of recent pics from this month...The 4th of July parade, the family picnic, birthdays, some of the flowers in the backyard, and of course SuperDad, allowing both kids to help him mow the lawn..