Thanksgiving 2014

Turkey Day this year was all about family and relaxation.  We stayed local and went to Nana's and stuffed our faces.  She had tons of crafts for the kiddos and made an awesome turkey out of fruit and of course topped it with whipped cream so the kids went nuts.  On our way home from Nana and Nonno's we made our first trip to see our favorite Christmas lights in town.  This house is the kids favorite as they have every single Disney character outside and they have "eye spy" games for the kids to play along with.  This year of course, they included all the Frozen characters:)

Preston's last baseball game of the season!

One of our most favorite things to do these past few months was to watch Preston play baseball.  It's helped so much with his confidence and concentration.  He got to be umpire a few times which he loved but he most loved being up to bat of course.  At first he couldn't even stand still in the outfield and by the end he was "baseball ready" nearly all the time.  He has an amazing swing which doesn't surprise us since he's super coordinated and athletic already.  Such a fun season and he's already talking about Spring ball...can't wait!! He's our little baseball stud:):)

Preston got his yellow belt!

Today was a very big day for Preston! He received his yellow belt and a trophy at taekwondo.  He was so very proud and so are we! He knew his form perfectly and was beaming when they handed him the trophy:)

Sophia's art/reading/writing!

Phia called this a "Letter storm" which we thought was so cleaver.  She's blossomed so much since she started Kinder.  She spends so much time coloring and writing and reading. We find spontaneous notes all over the house like "It is a Wundrful day"!  She loves to read! She will take any book and try sounding out each word until she gets it.  Each Friday is share day for her at school and they have to bring in an item that corresponds with the letter they're learning that week.  The item needs to be in a brown paper bag with 3 clues written on it.  The objective it so "stump" the classroom so she's been having a blast coming up with and writing her own clues each week.  She's had "stumpers" each week except 2 and one was a technicality...ha!  We are truly amazed at her progress and love seeing her excitement to learn.  She keeps saying "Mommy I love Kindergarten"! Her parent/teacher conference went perfectly.  She's very eager to learn and her teachers see and appreciate that! She's become so independent, confident, and nurturing.  She's constantly coming up with games and just yesterday she wrote down "jobs" for her and her brothers.  Her job was to "help mommy with whatever she needs", Preston's job was to "get all the silverware at meals" and Bentley's job was to "close all the doors when we leave the house".  She wrote on colored paper and handed the papers to her brother's when they woke up.  The boys loved it! Last Casino Night we were the highest bidder for the "Parent Handbook Artist" so Sophia's art was on the cover of all the Parent Handbooks sent home with each family.  She was so so proud and so many parents told us how much they loved her art(especially since she sees herself as "big" as mommy and daddy!). We are getting a KICK out of all of her kid friendly spelling and she's so proud of it! Kinder is so fun for the whole family!!!

Holiday Photo Shoot as a family of 6!

We always look forward to these photo shoots each year...just kidding...we all dread them but they are SO worth it.  I'll never forget the moment Brian turned to me a few years ago and said "thank you" for torturing me through these photo shoots.  He proceeded to explain how amazing it is to capture these moments and see our kids through the eyes of our amazing photographer and he's 100% right.  We first used Jen to photograph our family of 5(with Olivia in my tummy) and she's now our family photographer.  This shoot was right around the corner at Corriganville Park which is a very cool park where they used to film all the old Western movies back in the day.  There are signs everywhere explaining the different spots and where exactly they were in different films.  Libby Lou had no appreciation for the art of it all...she hardly wanted anything to do with photo taking(no 18 month old does).  In these photos Preston is 4.5, Phia 6, Bentley just 3, and Olivia 17 months.

Class project and Kinder field trip!

So this year on top of being VP of Fundraising at our kiddos school, I'm Room Mom in Bentley's room.  One of my responsibilities as room mom is to conceptualize and execute a class project to be auctioned at our annual Casino Night Fundraiser.  I came up with the idea of photographing the kids in letter shapes to form the words "Love, Laugh, Pray".  It took a few days to perfect it but I think it turned out amazing.  The kids were super fun to photograph. I got up on a super high ladder(mistakenly I drank a ton of coffee so was a bit shakey) and shot them from high up.  Lets hope it sells for a ton of money at the Auction!! Also, I was able to be a driver on Phia's field trip to Underwood Farm.  Each child and parent got to pick a pumpkin to take home, we learned all about pumpkins, we went through the maze, had a tractor ride, and headed home.  I loved hanging out with Phia and her friends...God knows she won't want me to be around forever so I'm cherishing all the moments I can. Such a fun day!!