Saturday

Seans cousin, Chris, dropped two of his kids off at 6:30 this morning. Alyssa is 4 and Mikey is 11. We have been making Christmas crafts and shrinkeedinks! We walked to the park and got the stuff to do a hot dog dinner. They are going to stay the night and they are all excited about the sleepover!

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In Love with Thomas the Train

The girls new thing is to look up Thomas videos online and sing along. Sorry it is a little dark, they are usually shy so I didnt want to push to move them around too much! YES. This is a rap version of a song. And yes they say it reminds them of Daddy!

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walking man

Rusty has really been doing amazing walking and holding my hand. We just expanded this to holding on to the stroller. He's doing fantastic!!

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Alone...

Jo is at home with Rusty and a sleeping Bear. Im picking the girls up alone, its a very strange sensation. I feel a little panicky everytime I look in my rearview and no one is there. Its a gut reaction, just one second then I remember, oh yeah, I didn't forget anyone.

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Grandpa's Suprise Visit!

This is at the girls school, they didn't know he was coming and he suprised them when I picked them up.

so cute

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russell test

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Time Warner Internet service out across much of California

Time Warner Internet service out across much of California

yes its upside down

Hmmm...ok..the upside down thing, my mistake! These r the girls school pics!

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Grandpa here!

Posting from my phone! Ohhhhh....i think you guys will be seeing lots of posts! The downside is that u will c alot of grammer shortcuts :) after all i am typing with only my thumbs! Grandpa sullivan is here this afternoon, we had a great time and a yummy pizza dinner. I'm working on how to post videos...it seems doable!

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christmas pics in progress

Photos

Skillet Apple Pie


now THAT is turkey stock!

Stuffing, yes I took a bite out of the middle :)

On Monday Jo came over and made ornaments with the girls - fun!

The start of Thanksgiving....my house smells amazing.

So helpful

Lately even Rusty has been wanting to help feed Bear. I think he's really coming around!

DADADA

This past week he's been more quiet, but for a few days last week he was all into the DADADA!

awards!

The girls were each presented with an award for their outstanding achievement in school! We had conferences last week and each teacher told me that there are no other kids in their Kindergarten classes that can read like they do. Or understand math. Or pretty much everything. Anna's teacher said that often times parents say "my kid is bored in school" but the kids who are truly intelligent find interest in things, even things that are below their level. I was told my girls are the ones who find interest in things that even seem easy, they look beyond the obvious and are never bored. I'm SO beyond PROUD of them!! Note in the video..Anna's reaction when Madeline is called :)

Started Tap!

I took tap when I was a girl...along with Jazz and Gymnastics! As I recall Jazz was my favorite, but I still remember some tap, "shuffle ball change, step, shuffle ball change, step, shasay, reverse!" They did great! Here's some footage, keep in mind, the other kids started in Sept, we are coming in late....

tappin 2

HalloWEEN!

Good for a laugh

Anna got these as her prize out of the streamer bin-thing at the carnival. Wow. I was cracking up!

What can I say...it's the BearBear

"Hey, Hey"

Quoting the Rusty-B-B as we call him...., "Hey, hey"!

Carnival Video

The kids had a really good time! While we were there we encountered a set of identical twins - boys, 4 and a half years old. You could tell they had some pretty intense delays and/or developmental issues. I'm so grateful that all my children, even though we have some delays, are fully functional and emotionally healthy. That really is the best blessing and I feel incredibly lucky.

Saturday

Saturday was the carnival at the speech therapy place! So fun!

My artists

For Sean's Bday each kiddo drew Sean a birthday picture...Anna's is of a red 'butter bird' and Daddy on a ship with a moon and stars. Maddy drew a big sun and colorful jellyfish. Russell is into circles. So cute.

Halloween Weekend...Friday!

Friday evening the girls school had a carnival called Monster Mash. My former boss, Jo, joined us for the festivities! We made pizzas for dinner and walked to the school. Jo was very sweet and bought tickets for the girls to play games and do crafts - they even got ice cream! I'm sorry I don't have any video, my camera battery died and it got really dark, really fast and my video was lousy. Today Russell's speech clinic is having a little carnival too, so this afternoon we will check that out. I will try to take video! It is raining this morning so I think Russell might be a monkey instead of a pirate (it's a warmer costume). Anna is Snow White and Maddy is a fairy. For some reason they look a lot alike to me in these particular photos.

Watching Daddy

We often watch the movies Sean made for the kids in the morning before school. We originally thought they would watch them in the evening, but our evenings are pretty hectic and it doesn't always work out. I've found that in the morning we are all in the same room and it's a perfect time for DADDY!!

Now I know my ABC's...sort of.....

BLOGGER! AHHH! Scroll down to "Halloween time" for the blog that goes with this video.

Breakfast time!

I'm kinda starting Barrett on solids. I thought they didn't need to start until 6 months but my Pediatrician says they like to have them start BY six months so I'm sort of trying to make it part of our daily routine. He doesn't hate it but he just doesn't seem to get it, kinda thinks it's funny, kinda thinks I'm crazy. Of course all he's had is rice cereal with water, pretty gross, I agree, I just haven't pumped. The Ped suggested I mix with formula...I'm considering it, I'm leaning towards mixing with a vegi that is kind of sweet - carrots? And then water along with pumped milk...I just have to sit down and pump, get into a routine with it. I'm sure big boy will get the hang of it soon!

Dancing Queens

This is the girls at "Heartlight" after school. My current plan is to try and enroll them in separate and different dance classes pretty soon. In an effort to dissuade the rampant competitiveness going on these days I want different disciplines, maybe one tap one ballet, so far that's the best I've been able to find. Then maybe they could switch next time?

The Pumpkin Project

The girls and I did the cat one, actually I did most of it. Then we all worked on the other one, a little more kid friendly!

Halloween pics

Halloween time!

Everyone is very excited for Halloween this year! The girls now fully understand what it is and they chose their own costumes - Anna is Snow White and Madeline is a fairy, she says she's Snow White's fairy! My good friend, Kim, gave me a pirate costume for Russell. When I ask him if he's going to be a pirate this year he says "AARRGGHH", in true pirate style! Barrett has some cute halloween clothes, including a onesie that says "I Love My Mummy!" I, being more festive than usual bought some orange and black striped tights to wear with a black skirt and black shirt, that's about as dressed up as I get these days, HA

Russell is talking more and really, really enjoying all the pumpkins around this time of year, he calls them "Pum-meems" and he's getting all the good Halloween gargon down, trick or treat, Happy Halloween, as you saw above. I do not like blogger.com right now very much, they keep screwing up my video!

Hi-YAH!

Anna is in all blue, Maddy, green and blue.

He's getting big!

Dancing

This dance thing is going to be performing at an SDSU halftime, but I just found out that the game doesn't start until 7:00pm, we have to stay for the whole game and I have to buy tickets. I don't think we will be doing it. There is about 1,500 students participating so I doubt I could even get them on video as families have to stay in their seats. Oh well! They have fun practicing!

From the mouth of Anna...

She says the funniest things!

Regarding the slow internet connection... "It's okay Mommy, the tempo of the game doesn't matter!"

"Can I make my bed please? (I said yes) Thanks Mommy!"

So tired! Will post video tomorrow!!!!

farmers market

Dinner tonight! Hamburgers!

I busted out Rusty's old bouncer

Barrett in his new carriet, taking a nap!

So much to post, so tired and hungry!

His new fav place, the Ergo baby carrier...

Yes, these are real tomatoes!

The cutest jalapeno ever.

After the haircut.

Before the haircut!!

A day at the Science Center

Wednesday is the day the girls get out of school early, at 1:00pm. Russell had a really rough day yesterday, but today seemed much better so I thought we would try and do something fun. My plan was to kind of let Rusty call the shots.
I thought we would go to the Children's Mueseum downtown and let him spend as much time as he wanted where he wanted. I pick the girls up and tell them our plan and they are very excited! We drive all the way downtown and....it's CLOSED on Wednesdays! ARGH! So I'm thinking of going to the zoo, but it's SO hot, I mean, really hot and I know being outside will not be fun. I decide to hit Balboa Park and maybe play in the fountain, just see what we can find. The drive there was really fun because we took Harbor Drive and passed by the Midway (carrier) and the Maritime Mueseum, which looks like a pirate ship, along with many other smaller ships. The kids all thought that was really cool, especially Russell, he kept saying, "boat!!!!" :) As I'm driving towards the fountain I see that the Fleet Science Center has some sort of "Kids Zone" banner on the building and I decide we will check it out. It was so fun! All the kids had a great time, the "zone" is for kids 5 and under (but I'll sure the girls will be okay for awhile). Russell did have a meltdown when an older (special needs) boy had brought toy cars and left them on the ground, Rusty picked it up and I could tell the boy and Dad were not okay sharing so I told Russell we had to give it back, he got mad and then bonked his head on a bench and got madder...I just kind of let it run it's course and then gave him a drink and put him back in the stroller and he was fine! I guess it's an understandable frustration, I just wish he wouldn't go from 0 to 60 SO fast.
I guess I had high hopes so we decided to become members of the Science Center (we also got 8 free IMAX passes!) so I'll be bringing the kids again. By the time we left it was very late so I decided to go to Chevy's restaurant for some Mexican eats. The kids did great! Everyone ate a ton and had fun. They did so good we actually went to Borders and Old Navy after dinner! Can you believe it? Such good kids!

More of our fun day!

Twice the Cuteness...

I have this one outfit that Russell used to wear that Barrett now fits in I can't believe how fast they grow...