Pre-Halloween fun

The weekend before Halloween our church had a party and 'trunk or treat' (which is just that--the kids go from car truck to car truck and get candy). They had yummy treats and fun games. Katie got right into it, Addy just had fun walking around being cute and Marcus crawled around which made his costume so much more effective.

Talia-the princess, Addy the bear, Katie the angel and Marcus the tiger

Addy

Talia and Katie

For family night this week we carved pumpkins.

Scoping out the seeds--Katie would not touch them "because they were dirty", but she tried to help with her spoon.

Making the cut


Addy and Marcus colored while we did the pumpkins

*brag alert* Check out his shirt--I designed/made it.

The final result

Missin' Mark

So, we all got a little to used to having Mark around. We miss him when he is at work. Addy looks for him to come home. If I do something that Katie doesn't like she always says she "wants Daddy to come home." Marcus just says "Dada, Dada" all day, little stinker.

We are surviving amazingly well with just me, my job and three little monsters.

Here is a little of what we have been up to...

Katie is in preschool four days a week and loves every bit of it--she is learning so much. When she is home she is usually very happy and helpful. The other day she was playing with her babydolls and I overheard her praying. She said one of the longest prayers I had ever heard; thanking Heavenly Father for everything and blessing everyone. She does not pray like this when she says our family prayer. I had a proud mom moment.

Katie pushing Addy in her hippo walker

Addy is the cutest little thing ever. She is running all over the place. She loves to play "where's Addy?". She keeps poor Marcus awake during nap time talking (I would be surprised if they get more then an hour of sleep during the day). She in not afraid to throw a monster fit if someone takes a toy from her or does something she doesn't like. She can scream really loud. She still isn't talking regularly (or saying 'mama'), but we have heard 'cock a doddle do', 'Dada' and 'Jesus' come out of her month. My favorite thing about Addy is that she will climb on my lap and cuddle for endless amounts of time.

I am in love with Marcus--I mean who wouldn't be. He gets scared when we go into new places and it takes him a while to warm up. We were at Costco this week and someone came up to the twins and started talking to them. Marcus got his mean scared look on his face. He reached his hand out of the cart and took hold of mine and then turned back to the stranger and smiled. He likes to climb the stairs as fast as he can--he thinks he is escaping. He folds his arms when we pray--something that we never taught him. He has added more to his list of words and has taken one step.

Coming out of the box we brought down from Pittsburgh--this is their little playhouse. Who would have thought a dishwasher box would be so much fun. It will be a sad day when it is to beat up to continue.


Our life

Funny story, I went to Costco with all three of my kids this week. I picked Costco because their carts have double seats. I had it all planned out. I would park by a cart return, load up all the kids (Marcus and Addy in the front and Katie in the bucket or walking) and make my merry way into the store. But, of course it had to start raining, no pouring, on the way there. I thought about turning around, but we were all actually dressed so I pressed on. I parked as close as I could to the store and ran Katie and my purse to the front. I sat her on a cart and told her to scream if anyone tried to take her. I then went back for Addy and Marcus, and ran with both of them. I was drenched. When I got back Katie happily and loudly reported that no one had tried to take her. A lady nearby who had been watching the whole thing just started laughing.

"It was sooo sooo sooo much fun!"

Yesterday we had a little family activity at the pumpkin patch. Katie loved everything about it. Addy had fun trying to walk on the rough ground and Marcus has a scowl on his face for the first 45 mins--but then he loosened up.


Here are some of the highlights.

The corn maze

Feeding the animals

Addy was fine as long as they didn't get to close

The swing

My three with their friends Jaden and Sydney

For some reason the swing was the highlight of the trip, it is what brought Marcus out of his stone cold mood--the kids would have sat there all day

The pumpkin picking

Love the look on Addy's face. After much deliberation Katie found the smallest pumpkin of the group and decided that was the one for her.

We also went on a wagon ride and played in a clubhouse with a really badly constructed home-made slide. There was hay to jump in and miniature forts to explore; the fun only ended because it got so cold that all of our hands were freezing (I thought this was Charlotte--where is the warm weather!).

Katie told us again today, "It was sooo sooo sooo much fun!"

My plug for the orphanage

After Mark got home from Florida, I flew to San Fransisco area with my little sister Hannah. The purpose of the trip was to be a guest speaker for a group doing fund raising for the orphanage. The function was put on by Pan en la Boca, who had been helping us out for the past few years. We had a pretty good turn out, and despite some tecnical difficulties, lots of fun.

I heard on the radio today that Guatemala has the highest number of people suffering from hunger. In an effort to help minimize the starvation, we have 3 different feeding programs for the children in the community the orphanage is located in; 1. for seventy 5-12 yr olds, we feed them lunch 3 days a week; 2. for twenty 1-4 yr olds, we feed them protein fortified milk shakes and fruit and 3. for twenty infants-we provide formula for babies whose mothers have no breast milk from malnutrition (read more at http://casadesion.blogspot.com/). My parents are headed down for a month over Christmas, they will be taking down suitcases of formula for the infant feeding program. (We started this one after an employee's nephew died because his mother had not breast milk). So if anyone is looking for a place to spend their Christmas charity--here it is. Or anyone (EVERYONE) who wants to mail me a can or two of formula--WalMart or Target brands are great--I will get it to my parents. Send me a comment if you need my address.

One of the babies in the program

Hannah and I spent an extra day in not so sunny California so that we could see Kristin. It's funny how you can be a mom and be married for so many years (5 is a lot, right) and still act like a crazy college girl when you get together with your old roommates. Kristin and I even stayed up to 2 am one night talking--something I would never pull these days.


We spent a day seeing San Fransisco, eating yummy Chinese and visiting Alcatraz--it was pretty cool.

Me and Hannah

Hannah and the Golden Gate in the background--
which we never got to see close up because by the time we got there it was to foggy

love the sign

The Fall of Mark

Since Mark took, and now passed the bar our lives have consisted of him being around...playing with the kids, hiking, buying flat screens, exercising, watching ESPN/sports for hours at a time, playing Playstation, etc. All the fun things that guys dream of doing while their wives work. But to give him some credit he has been helping with the cleaning, and I haven't touched our new vacuum--at all--even though we bought it back in June. This dream we have been living comes to an end on Monday. As many of you know, Mark's law job has been pushed back for a year and the firm is paying him to do pro-bono work, so he will be working for the Children's Defense Project for the time being.

The last couple weeks have been a little crazy for us. The end of September my parents went to Guatemala to check on the orphanage and start the toddler feeding program (more on this in the next blog). Mark and I went to my parents house and babysat my younger siblings for 5 days. It would have been fun if it hadn't been so dang cold.
We did get the chance to watch Johnny (or BIG John Dalia, as the announcer liked to say every few mins) play football. It was raining off and on and we were up late, but my kids were in heaven. Every time someone got in front of Marcus he would move so he could see the field.

Johnny in all his glory

The day after we got back Mark flew to Florida to hang out with his grandparents. The way I heard it was they spoiled him like he was a teenager and I think he played 79 holes of golf in the 4 full days he had there. He had so much fun.

Mark with his grandparents

Being home alone with my three little monsters wouldn't have been too bad if they hadn't all gotten sick at the same time. Luckily, I didn't get what they had until Saturday, and Mark flew home that night.

Katie giving Little Girl (our neighbor's dog) kisses. We dogsat her for a couple days. Katie wants a little dog so bad.

Olivia

Katie's favorite book at the moment is 'Olivia', I think it is because they are so much alike. Katie and Olivia both wear people out, negotiate and have to try on all the clothes in their closets! Katie had been bugging me for a tutu forever "just like Olivia's". She started ballet class a few weeks ago and finally got her tutu.

She is so dang cute to watch dance.

"Mama can we...

just go for a little walk", Katie asked innocently, trying to get me out of the doorway and onto the sidewalk where she was. As I looked out into the downpour, trying to decide if I really wanted to get wet, I remembered my childhood memories of dancing in the rain.

I gave in and we splashed in the gutter up and down the street.
It was a lot of fun to watch her getting drenched, but it was way more fun to join her.