Better Late Than Never: Buddy Walk '08!

I promised to put up pictures from the Buddy Walk 3 months ago, but my camera got dropped and met its maker, somehow in the process corrupting a file on the card, so we couldn't download them. No reader could find the pics. My awesome super genius hunny figured out a way to get them onto his work computer, so now we finally have them YAYYY! To recap - this year's Buddy Walk was a success in terms of turnout, despite the downpours of rain - which I actually quite enjoyed, as opposed to the heat of years past. Fundraising was down, but that was to be expected. The best part was having Sharkie , the San Jose Sharks mascot there! Gabriel and Nicholas even made it onto the local news!!! (Not sure if the link is still good, but if it is, you can see the segment here. Gabriel and Robert are at 1:42, and Nick is at 2:20 into the video.)Sharkie helped our team lead off the walk, and both Nick and Gabe loved him! Elijah was a bit timid, what with him being terrified of his own shadow and all. So, I'll stop blathering now, as I know all you really care about are the pictures. Enjoy!

Here is Gabriel with Sharkie:

Getting ready to start the walk, with storm clouds looming in the not-so-distant distance:

The Firefighters came and brought an engine for the kids to explore. The kids loved this more than the bounce houses!

He make look like he's all cuteness and light, but behind the precocious smile lies the heart of a true troublemaker. I can't fathom where he gets it!

My Sweet Peanut. Dontcha just want to eat him up? This kid melts my heart daily.This is my amazing wonder woman friend, Marcie, and her beautiful daughter Maddie. We're hoping to be related by marriage someday. =)

Life with Boys

I get asked every so often what's it like to live with all boys. I think daily life is best described by these handful of words that constitute 90% of my daily conversation:

NO! Get your hands out of your pants! Get your finger out of your nose! Don't put that there! Get off your brother's head! I said NO! Why is your (jacket/shirt/shoes/jammies) on the floor and what are you going to do about it? Ewwww. If you'd listened the first three times, I wouldn't be yelling. Your shirt is not a napkin. Don't pester your brother. Don't hit your brother. Don't bite your brother. Don't touch. Give that back. Share or I'll take it away. Don't put that in your mouth! Don't put that in your ear! Dont' use that tone of voice with me. Get off the table. Get off the counter. Get off me! Stop running. Stop yelling. Just stop. Be nice to your brother. Go to your room. Go outside. Go jump on Dad. Go to bed. I love you. I love you more. I love to the end of the universe and back. Sweet dreams, I'll see you in the morning.

Another Christmas Has Come and Gone

It came so suddenly this year, it seems. Here we are in January, and I still have Christmas cards I haven't mailed. Or maybe I'm just that disorganized.

Nick was sick so we started Christmas Eve rather slowly, just hanging out in our PJs, and tracking Santa on NORAD. I LOVE that site! I also love that my 8 year old still wholeheartedly believes in Santa. I'm not sure how many years of that magic we have left, but thanks to NORAD, I think we can make it last a wee bit longer. We had to scrap our plans to attend church together, because Nick' fever hit 103 in the afternoon. I told him we'd have to stay home, and he was quite distressed at the thought of not going to Grammy and Papa's, which is our tradition. We gave him some medicine and told him to sleep. His fever came down so we decided to go. This is a picture of them getting ready to go, in their matching outfits. I'm thinking I won't have too many more opportunities to do that either. At some point Nick is bound to balk at the thought of dressing just like his two pesty little brothers. I couldn't get them to all smile so I said "Say Santa!" and this is what I got:






Here they are patiently (or in Gabey's case, NOT so patiently) waiting for their one Christmas Eve gift before bed. Could Gabe possibly look more disinterested? Had to throw in a pic of Robert and me. I don't ever get any good pictures of me, not that I would say this is a "good" picture, but at least it is photographic evidence of my presence at Christmas.

Gabey in his Troy Bolton shirt. I am quite disappointed to report that I didn't get any good pictures of Gabey's Winter Recital this year. He was amazing. Seriously. The kid kicked ass and took names. He had memorized the entire dance from the end of High School Musical to the song "We're All In This Together", but then got up there and decided to just improvise - he was AWESOME! He was throwing together moves from Grease, HSM, Wiggles, and then he struck a couple of poses. He was just so exuberate and happy! Several parents stopped us afterward to tell us they thought he stole the show. He does so love to perform, and it shows. Maybe he's got a future in it? Who knows.

I'll post more photos later. I am having all manner of issue with the upload on this, so you'll just have to suffer with these few. Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year!