our little all-star

Hayden made it into the all-star team this year, and her team got 2nd place in one tournament, and 1st in another tournament. It was a lot of practices, a lot of games, but Hayden absolutely loved every minute.

I'm just so glad that soccer is finally over... only for softball to start for the girls in 3 weeks!

Final score: Girls 3 Boys 2

I love looking at those license plate holders that say "final score" with a boy/girl tie or whatever... if I did it, it would be girls 3 to boys 1... but with our new BOY puppy, Sammy, it's not as big of a blowout! Here are pics of Sammy on Christmas Day. Santa left a note in the tree, telling the kids to go look on the front porch-- where Sammy, a Labradoodle puppy was waiting there in a box! We brought Sammy on the airplane home with us from Atlana, as a carry-on, and he is a full-fledged family member now. He is actually a really clam, well-behaved little guy, but he does have quite the bladder!! We are all surviving well, except for Carmen who is incredibly JEALOUS over Sammy. She can't handle being in the same room with him, unless Dave or I are holding her, and then she keeps her eye on him the entire time. I didn't know that 7 month olds could experience jealousy, but Carmen is going to have to get used to sharing some of that attention! Oh, yes, and one pic of Alex with his light saber stuffed in the side of his pants. He LOVES to have light saber fights with Dave (though it's hard to tell which of them is having more fun!).

Tampa and the great grandparents

During our stay in Atlanta for Christmas, we travelled to Tampa, Florida to visit Dave's grandparents (his mom's parents) for a few days. During walks around their retirement community, we kept the kids interested by having a contest to see who could find the house with the most lawn ornaments!...We all loved being spoiled by Nana and her cooking. There were better pictures of the kids with Nana, Papa and Mumu... but I LOVED Anamarie's pose in this one, and couldn't pass it up. Reminds me of my poses in all of my pics growing up. :)

We went to Ybor City one afternoon for lunch, where Dave laid claim to his Cuban-Italian heritage and we tried to figure out which building Dave's grandfather (his Dad's father) rolled cigars in years ago. We loved our visit to Tampa!

Santa Tats

For Dave's Christmas business mailer this year, he created these really cool cards that centered around these tattoos he had made... and sent the cards to clients. The illustrator that he used for the tattoos, Kako, requested pictures of our kids wearing the tattoos as payment. Here the kiddos are, trying to look tough with their tats. Funniest thing was how Alex started crying during the photo shoot because he couldn't look mean enough. :)

Baby Jesus wants what?

Today Alex came home from the Presbyterian preschool that he goes to three days a week, and I looked through his lunch bag for papers from school. He had a piece of paper that was typed, "Alex T. - If I could give a present to baby Jesus I would give him..." and (no surprise here) the next part read, "Lightning". Never loved having a boy more. I'm sure baby Jesus would LOVE to have a Lightning McQueen car.

Turkey pee?

I've included some pictures of the past week: my parents and the babies (all born between March and July of 2008), the babies TRYING to stay still for a group shot, the boy cousins, another picture of Alex wtih narcolepsy (he REFUSES to take a nap but I knew he was exhausted after Thanksgiving weekend so I sent him to his room for quiet time. About 10 minutes later, I went up to check on him and this is what I found), and our little kiddos posing for a group shot in our family room.

But, my big question of the day is WHO was in my house and who taught Alex that dead, cooked turkeys pee? I guess I must have been upstairs when the subject began with Alex. So, the first I heard of it was today when Alex was telling me that at preschool he ate the cookie in his lunch and not his sandwich. When I asked why he didn't eat his sandwich, he said "it not jelly, mom". (Yea, I know, but he has a peanut-free classroom and his only option is meat sandwiches. This week it was turkey sandwich meat). He followed that with "the turkey is sticky. it has pee in it." I was completely confused, and kept asking what he meant... finally he said, "last day, mom, the turkey... it go pee in the sink".

I asked Dave about it, and he just laughed and said it was Lori (my sister) and my Dad's fault, that they told him that the turkey juice/marinade stuff was pee as my dad cut a little hole into the pan to let the juices drain into the sink after he took the turkey out of the oven. So, fess up, people. Because I don't think Alex will ever eat turkey again.

BTW- an overdue shout out to my brother-in-law, Chris, who is truely the wind beneath my wings and helped me more than my own husband with Thanksgiving. (I can say that because Dave never reads this blog) :)-

Few pics

Just thought I'd upload a few pictures from this week. Carmen has been so sweet lately after her naps. She just wakes up and rolls around and plays in her crib. She has figured out how to push the button to turn her mobile music on, and pull down a part of the bumper pad to suck on the tags. Tags and paper are her hands down favorite things.

Also, After FINALLY getting furniture in our front living room and dining room (it has been 2 1/2 years, after all!) Hayden has found her favorite nook of the house. She has claimed this particular chair as hers and will just hang out and read books in her chair, with a blanket. Here is a picture of her completely immersed in Katie Kazoo Switcharoo.

Now, if I can only get rid of this sore throat! It's 3:36 in the morning--I've been awake since 2, and just can't sleep because of my massacred throat. A popsicle, two cups of tea, 2 extra strength tylenol and 3 ibuprofen later, I'm gonna give it a shot again. I just can't justify being up in the middle of the night when I'm not nursing Carmen. Here's to sleep? :)

Down dog

Here's Carmen, just wiggling around on the floor after her bath a few night ago. She LOVES to be nude... and to answer your next question, yes the carpet stayed dry. :)

So I'm the youngest...

So, I'm the youngest of 7 kids in my family which, one would think, should get me out of ever having to host any holiday meal because there are plenty of other, older, more established siblings who don't have 4 little kids who would love to have Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever, at their house, right? Well, I'm not really sure how it happened BUT, Thanksgiving is at my house this year, which means I'm in charge of the turkey. I keep asking people about it, and everyone has opinions about whether to brine or not, whether to get a frozen turkey or a fresh organic one, etc. But no one can answer my most pressing question-- HOW does that bag get up the turkey with all of the turkey "parts". Who puts it there, and why would anyone want to keep a turkey neck? Most importantly, where can I go to get a turkey without that bag in it, because I am NOT pulling that thing out. Any ideas?

Rice cereal!

Carmen's growing up WAY too fast! She'll be six months old next week, so we decided it was probably time she start eating some rice cereal. After the first bite, we could tell that she's probably been ready for five months. She spent most of her time trying to grab the spoon out of my hand, and lurching forward to reach the spoon before it reached her. Carmen LOVES rice cereal... and thanked us by sleeping from 7 pm last night to 7 am this morning. Yahoo!

The other kids are convinced it must taste like ice cream or something for Carmen to like it this much. (Boy was Alex dumbfounded when I let him taste it tonight!! He said, "oh..." and just slowly backed away)

I've got to put on the video of her gut-laughing while Dave was throwing her onto our bed. (Don't judge... she's our fourth!!) Also, the video of her holding her favorite yoga position, down dog, for minutes on end. Soooo cute. Carmen we love you!