Where Did 2012 Go???

There are only 2 days left in 2012.  Honestly, I don't much care for how the year went.  Seems like all of 2012 was a blur, I spent it playing catch up at work and at home, and I lacked a lot of motivation...

But anywho, here is what we've been up to:

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year at our house after taking a two-year hiatus. I enjoy having it at our house.

My FB post: This morning I'm thankful that the children who were driving me nuts yesterday, are quietly playing together with a cardboard box (turning it into a spaceship). I'm thankful for a hardworking husband that is just as good at kissing boo-boos and caregiving as he is at building rooms and fixing just about anything. I'm particularly thankful today to feel healthy again. I'll be standing by in a Hazmat suit as Justin prepares the turkey. 
For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.
 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Mason had his Senior pictures taken by on of our extremely talented photography neighbors. I procrastinated to the point where we finally HAD to get the year book picture in and she very kindly squeezed him in! I thought they turned out awesome - very "him".

Here is what Lori said about Mason:
Mason - Hilliard Bradley Class of 2013
What a great way to end my Fall senior sessions tonight with this equally handsome and charismatic senior. I was very impressed how comfortable Mason was not just having his photos taken, but how well he kept up a conversation with me. I don't remember being able to talk this well to adults when I was in High School. 

I know the next 5 months are going to go crazy fast as we try to prepare for Mason's May graduation, figuring out college and his 18th birthday in July...phew...scary!!

Sadly, 3 days before Christmas:
FB - We were very blessed to have Zoe as our family companion for 15 years. Today we said good-bye. We will miss our sweet Zoe girl. She'll always be with us though...there's not a chance in hell we'll ever get rid of all the dog hair in this house.

Fifteen years with a pet in your house is a long time.  My kids don't remember a time when she was not with us.  I was looking back at old blog posts and pictures of Zoe and saw this post from 2009.  We will miss her so much :(

With that all going on, I was feeling very unprepared and not much in the mood for Christmas and birthdays.  Christmas Eve morning I was still out finishing up my shopping and hadn't wrapped a thing.
It managed to get all pulled together (by 3am)...

And we had a very nice Christmas morning

The only bummer was that Mason had to work at noon, so he missed the Christmas dinner and festivities at Mom and Dad's. He was less than happy about that...

And on the 26th, we celebrated Silas' 7th birthday!
This boy is growing up way faster than I can keep up with.  My Smiley Siley isn't a baby anymore.

And now it's time to try to recover, clean up, get organized and prepare for a 2013 that doesn't get away from me quite like 2012 did.  It will be a challenge!!

Happy Birthday Mason!

Our first baby is 17 today!!! Old enough to see an R rated movie without an adult. Old enough to take the car to the midnight showing of Spiderman (which is what he did last night).

There is no doubt that I miss...

this baby face.  The thumb sucking that took until 7? to break (actually, probably longer...)

...the crazy mashed potato tousled haired kid.

...those chubby dimpled cheeks.

...his belief that he really WAS Batman!

...that huge goofy grin (thank God those teeth evened out!)

...pirate Mason and his pirate cousins.

I miss those days and wish I could flashback and remember them all in more detail.

But more than I miss the boy, I love this young man...

...this teenager who still loves to hang out with his pap-pa and cousins

...who is very often annoyed by his younger brother and sister (but also finds it difficult to not be amused by them and their silliness)

...this handsome, smart guy that is growing into his own.  Every, every day he makes us so proud.


In the blink of an eye - ever so true!

Happy Birthday Mason!  We love you!

School Pictures

2009 school pictures are in...

Miss Ella - 1st grade

Silas James - preschool

I'm happy with the pictures, though Ella forgot to take her jacket off and Silas appears to have some chocolate or something on his lower lip...and he looks a bit like it's painful to smile.
No picture of Mason yet. They had them taken before school started (at Freshman orientation) and I didn't know and didn't send money so we have to do a reorder...

He looks like this 99% of the time...always wearing the striped jacket and hat on his head.

Mason - 9th grade

Looking Spiffy!

My oldest "baby" went to his first semi-formal dance at school last night. I dropped him and his friend Kyle off - there were some really decked out girls there!

These are some sharp - dressed - boys!

Mason has spent all morning texting a girl name Alexis that he met last night...so apparently they all had a fun time!

Freaky Friday

Okay, cheesy title ;)

We've got some pictures - and artwork to show off...

This is Ella's self portrait for the wall at school. They were instructed to make the picture look like them. She picked the paper for the shirt and skirt out of my scrapbooking paper and then we cut hair and glued on the flower buttons and she colored her boots and jewelry.

This is Mason's 8th grade picture - quite handsome I must say

This is Silas' first masterpiece - he told me he made a cat...After looking at it, I thought that Aunt Margie had made it. Given my VERY limited artistic ability, I was highly impressed that a 2 year old could draw a cat that resembled a cat.

Tonight I panicked for a minute when we couldn't find Ella outside where she had been a few minutes earlier. After yelling inside and out, I went into my room and found her sound asleep in our bed with her snuggle bunny.

Siley J. - before a haircut and after - my little gap-tooth monster!

We are having fun with Uncle Shawn in town from Rhode Island. He and Justin have been golfing the last 2 mornings. The kids have also been having fun getting him to play outside with them. Tonight he pushed them on the swings and did under dogs - and then chased them around the house while they screamed bloody murder. I've yet to check for scratches on the hardwood floors.

FYI - I was looking on a photo blog and found this:
Simplify Your Life: Send Photos to Different Sites at the Same Time where you can upload your web photos to different sites at the same time (duh, as the title says). Pretty cool. In the process, I upgraded to Picasa 3 which has more features and is still easy to use.

Turn to the RIGHT!

Today is Mason's first day of school - I wanted to get a couple pictures of the big day - 8th grade! He was less than cooperative of course.

This first one isn't bad...

This one reminded me of a mug shot...

Ever seen the movie Raising Arizona? When Hi is getting his mug shots? Edwina yells at him "Turn to the Right!"

Back to the Grind...and Opening Day - woo hoo!

or I should say, Wahoo!The Indians had opening day in Cleveland. Great game and Casey Blake was the man - we beat the Chi White Sox 10-8 (but I have to admit it was great to see Thome - even if he did get a home run - man I miss him!). Silly, but it makes me giddy that it's baseball season again! It's my version of reality TV.

Speaking of baseball, we are going on a family trip to see the Indians vs. Yankees in May - at YANKEE stadium! This is the last year at the stadium and Justin really wants the kids to experience it - as he remembers doing as a kid growing up in NY. So we'll be packing up the minivan and heading to the Bronx for a 5-day trip. I really wish Joe Torre was still coaching for the last year there...it would have been cool to have him finish out the stadium.
Today was also back to school, work, sitter, etc. It was nice to get back into the groove of things but I really could have taken another week of just doing whatever. Though it was nice to have Si taking a nap again. He's a bear to get down for a nap at home. Last Tuesday or so, we told him

"nap time, Si"
"no nap" he says
"when will you be ready for a nap?" - dumb parent asks.
"when I go to Kelly's" he replies.

We batted around a .500 for naptime - great if we were still talking baseball - but not so great for nap stats!

Mason has to take some baby pics into school tomorrow for one of his classes. Here are a few we dug up:

This one looks SO much like Silas

A fall Upstate NY trip
Love the dimple :)
Many of you will remember BATMAN!
First Day of Preschool
By the way, Mason DID get a haircut tonight - still longer than his norm but looks MUCH better!