Graduations and birthdays!

 Tori finished Pre-K this year.  There was a packed house for her moving up ceremony.

She was super excited to see us, but a little shy and nervous during the songs.



 

 Tommy was excited to visit the school, as he will be right behind her this fall, headed to Pre-K.

 And in August, little dude turned 4.  He requested a Hot Wheels cake, and daddy did not disappoint.

 I think he was a little excited about his cake.

Happy birthday, Tommy!

December!

We, of course, had a home celebration for Dani's 6th birthday.  So much fun.

 School Christmas concert...our fearless Tori had a case of stage fright!

 Not Dani!  She had a blast!

 For the first time we went to the Schenectady PBA Breakfast with Santa.  (Wes never mentioned it before this year, but it is, apparently an annual event.)  Dani meets an elf.

 Tommy was in awe of Santa!

 Another Tori oddity...she wanted no part of Santa.

 Until she got a present, then he got a hug.

 Celebrating Great-Aunt Virginia's 99th birthday at Teresian House.

 Tori had a haircut and asked for a blowout.  She loved it!

 And CHRISTMAS!

Of course, Grandma and Grandpa came!

We hosted a Christmas Eve party and the kids wanted to dress up!

 Posing with Grandma.

 Christmas morning! 

What a smart Santa!  He wrapped each kid's present in different wrapping paper!  Way to go Santa!

 Santa is apparently unfazed by the term "some assembly required".  It took Grandpa and Mommy about 45 minutes to put the trampoline together!  (So worth it, though!)

 No, it's  not KISS or the Insane Clown Posse, Grandma bought facepaints for the kids.  All Grandpa needs is a black star on his eye, and we'd have KISS.

 A balloon animal kit from Grandma.  (She didn't realize we were already pros at these types of balloons!  She tried to get Grandpa to blow them up, and then I broke out the pump!)

 New Years!  We rang the new year in at 8:00pm so the kiddos could participate!  (We also did it at midnight too!)

What a super fun December!

10 years!

 Wes and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this October!  We had a (kid-free) overnight trip to Connecticut the weekend before our anniversary, which was awesome!  He surprised me with a ten diamond anniversary band that night.  I told him his gift would be late.

The cool news is that he was getting inducted into the University of Chicago Athletic Hall of Fame at the end of October.  He was an amazing college athlete--football and track.  He still holds the University records for the Hammer throw and the 35 pound weight throw.  He went to nationals every year of college (and would always bring me back a shot glass from the cities he went to!).

My plan was to do an extreme living room makeover while he was away. We had a rather sterile living room, with furniture that was way too small for him to get comfy in.  Here are the before pics:

 He left for work on Thursday night at 10:30pm.  He had a Friday morning flight and was returning at about 2pm Sunday.  Thursday night, I moved all of the furniture out of the room, washed the walls, and prepared for the makeover.

I wanted a Chicago Bears theme, but a subtle one--one that would not require repainting before we sold the house!  Deep colors are to be expected in a historic Victorian home such as ours, so it was perfect.  So, we started; one of my legal assistants spent the day painting while I assembled the new TV stand and made other preparations.  I needed to spray paint picture frames orange, and frame pictures of Wes and the kids wearing their Bears gear.  My other legal assistant held down the fort at the office, but had made awesome pillow covers in orange to add some color to the room!

 The furniture arrived on Saturday morning.  We painted, framed, hung art and new curtains, placed furniture, and it was done...almost!

 I needed the TV to be hooked up!  There was a Bears game to watch when he came home!  With some help from a friend, we extended cable and he managed to set everything up so that when Wes walked in the Bears game was on!  (Too bad they were losing.)

 He was pleasantly surprised by the finished product.

 I think it turned out pretty well!

 There's a huge sofa, but if Daddy's on the loveseat, the kids want to be too!

Mission accomplished.

Wes was surprised.

He loved the room.

I love him.

It all works.

 

I cannot top my written anniversary tribute to him from last year.  It's all been said.

2013 Anniversary Post

 

The sentiments are still the same, the love only stronger.

Happy anniversary, my love.



To Tori, as you turn 4.

 They say the middle child is always the complicated one. 

I don't know if that's true.

But it must be hard to find your place in the family when someone is always older, and doing things before you, and someone is always younger and needing more attention.

But you handle it with grace, usually.

Little Tori, you are suddenly not-so-little.  You're at that point in your childhood where your pendulum swings from desperately wanting to be a big girl, doing things for yourself without help, to desperately wanting to be the baby, snuggly and dependent on us for the simplest things.

You're brave.  And loud.  And my, you are funny.

You can get away with murder because you are so damn adorable.  The kind of adorable that strangers remark about when we go out.

And like the nursery rhyme, you are the little girl, with the little curl, right in the middle of your forehead...and when you are good, you are very, very good, and when you are bad, well, we all know the rest.

You thought that you would get to go to school as soon as you turned four.  I know you're excited to ride the bus like your big sister, but you've got to be patient....patience doesn't come easy at your age.

As you've carved your niche in the family, you are excelling in being in the kitchen with me.  We baked your birthday cake together--you picked it out, and all the toppings.  You decorated it yourself (and it was beautiful!).  You're my expert egg cracker, batter mixer, and dinner helper.

You are a bolt of lightning when I walk through the door after work..."Mommeeeeeeeeeeeee's home!" followed by a full-on sprint to give me a hug.  (Unless there is something really good on TV, in which case I am invisible.)

If our family were a class, you'd be the class clown.  And you'd win best smile.

 You're the catalyst for chaos in the house...so full of energy and silliness that Dani and Tommy can't help but follow you.  From your inexplicable and silly phrases, "I got a fruita in my toota" as you dance around shaking your booty, to your unparalleled couch bouncing ability, Daddy and I often have to turn our heads so the other kids don't see us giggling at your antics. 

In the middle of a tantrum, you demand "a hug and a kiss".  And you wrap your arms around me and hold me tight, as inside the toddler and big girl battle for dominance...sometimes it works and you calm down, other times, the toddler in you is stronger and the tantrum continues.

You, Tori are our brightest light, and our biggest challenge.

Keep diving in head first.

 And keep snuggling with me.

Happy birthday my sweet Tori.

40 is the new, well 40.

I turned 40 a few days ago.  We had a rocking party, with lots of friends, and it was awesome.  There's an overdue retrospective of how I got here, and where I'm headed, but tonight's not the night.

 

It's been hard to make time for blogging lately.  Work has been crushing me, and things have been downright chaotic at home.  Not in a bad way, but certainly, I could and should be making more time for the things that are important.

Like this little dude.

 

 Our house is now officially high chair free.  Everyone sits at the dining room table, like big kids.  It blows my mind that my three children are pretty much conversational.

 Working so much means that I try to pack as much fun into the limited time I have with the kiddos.  Tori's always up for a fashion show.

Dani rocks her school uniform.

 We went apple picking.  I'd never been before.  There was a wagon ride, and a hay maze.  There was also a huge corn maze that I didn't dare take the kids into, lest the state police helicopters have to rescue us when three kids decided to run in three different directions into the corn.

 Every one in one hundred pics results in near smiles from everyone.

 I was pleasantly surprised at how low to the ground the apple trees were.  The kids had no trouble picking them.

 And nothing tastes as good as a minutes-ago picked apple.

 

 I love this picture.  Its the kids walking back to the apple farm, each following their own path, but sticking together, keeping pace with each other.

 We made masks this week, and tons of Halloween decorations--pumpkins and bats are all over our house, we're working on the Halloween costumes, which should be pretty darn cool this year.

 Tommy wasn't so keen on wearing his mask.

See his curls?  Gone.  Big Man gave the little guy a buzz cut while I was at work on Friday.  He went from looking like my little baby boy, to a kid.  A KID!  Where'd my baby go?