visit to COSI

mikey loved the blocks

carmen and maria make an ice sculpture

isabel making giant bubbles

















went to cosi today. only had an hour or so as we had to get back for a party maria was invited to, but it was a fun, short trip. miraculously mikey was an ANGEL in the car on the way there. it was a thing of beauty i tell you. we played with huge bubbles, made ice sculptures, made some clouds, played in the kid area (which mikey loved, he could have stayed all day!) and daddy took the girls to the distorted gravity room (oooh, mommy gets sick just thinking about it) and to play the giant piano with their feet. that was pretty much it and then off to ann arbor to drop maria off at a friends so she could go to another pre-new-years party at another friend's home in brighton. they had a scavenger hunt and played bingo and watched a movie...a good time was had by all!

on the car ride home her classmate sat in the back with carmen and they acted crazy. maria was in a sulk b/c "everyone in my class likes carmen. they all think she's funny and cute." uh oh, the rivalry begins! so we talked about why they like maria and why they like carmen and how being different is good...yeah fine and dandy except it ended with maria's assertation that carmen is just a bozo (i used the word "clown")...ah well. i think it's nice that they all get along and don't just think carmen is a kindergarten baby, yk?

maria also said to me that her friend's bedroom "wasn't at all how I imagined it." I don't know why but that just struck me. always neat to get an idea of how their minds work, yk?

well, i'm sure there's more cuteness to recount, but i'm pooped. mikey has been on my lap for the last hour and my legs are asleep and so i'm off.

here's to a great 2007! cheers!

i taught maria and carmen to play the piano...here's your Christmas gift of music!

we had a lovely Christmas with the Redmonds over the weekend. Got up to TC on Friday afternoon and had three days of opening gifts and spending time with family and eating goodies!! highlights were:

maria putting together a lego dragon with uncle aaron

isabel getting a baby doll from grandma alice and exclaiming "this is exactly what i always wanted! i love it so much!" (not bad for a dollar store purchase!)

swimming in the pool where grandma rose's works

building a gingerbread house

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...without snow that is...

you'll see the results of our attempted nativity photo shoot when you receive our christmas letter, but this is just one failed attempt. did the real baby Jesus arch his back like that? and set the Blessed Mother's veil askew? hmmm...Mikey seems to think so.

on Thursday we went caroling with Little Flowers. This was the service project I arranged for my troop to finish their badge on "Love of Neighbor" - it was so lovely. One of the moms brought along her guitar and one of the little girl's grandparents reside there so it was nice all around. We made three trips through the hallways and sang in the cafeteria/great room twice. I should make an effort to go back regularly with our kids, it's such fun. They have these beautiful birds and of course all the residents appreciate a visit from the "cherubim" - I tried to pass Mikey off to the little old ladies more than once but he wasn't having it... tired and wanted to nurse, so we'll have to try again when he's in a better mood.


yesterday we went to the Henry Ford to see the Christmas decorations. They had a really nice Tasha Tudor exhibit, but you can't take pics in there. Of course we visited the huge model train they have set up and then the Christmas tree we're in front of here.

okay, poor thing, he had to be crying for me to do it, but i did manage a photo of the "fangs" coming in from the top. just like maria he is getting his side top teeth first. he's been quite a trooper too b/c i gotta admit it looks painful! but other than being up every hour to nurse (which of course *I* notice) you wouldn't be the wiser that he's getting teeth. he's still a pretty pleasant baby (for the most part, trust me, he's got his moments!)

well, lots of sewing to do this week. i have a few gifts that i need to get done by the end of the week. trying to spend as little as possible this holiday so there may not be a whole lot of posting going on until after our visit up north. i'm so excited that we'll be in traverse city in just 5 days with my mom, dad and sisters! and so bummed that we'll only be able to spend 3 days with them. ah well, that's plenty of time to stuff ourselves with goodies and have plenty of meltdowns/ breakdowns - mom and kids alike :)

hope that everyone laying eyes on this is having a blessed Advent. there's nothing like the anticipation of Christmas! (except where's the dang snow this year!?!?!?)

come on everybody! do the porpoise!

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Isabel's Slideshow

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Seven Years of Maria

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Now this is a slide show - I can't believe she was ever that small!

Five Month Slideshow

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A quick look at how fast I'm growing...can you believe it?

happy belated anniversary to us!

carmen took this pic for us on our anniversary - which was quite uneventful, but hey what's 9 years? LOL i ended up in bed early with mikey but hopefully, mike and i can get out to a nice dinner this weekend - here's hoping! we have a GC from tita tina to a yummy fish place :)

this is our gift from grandma paula - isn't she beautiful? we put her in the backyard





well, my cough seemed on the way out but has now turned into a full fledged icky sickness...i wanted to take the girls to the symphony/ballet tonight at EMU but i just felt worse and worse all day, so now we're at home watching finding nemo. maria is spending the night with a friend and tomorrow afternoon we're going to see the nativity - i can't wait, it's supposed to be really good.