Impromtu Visit From Amanda, Philip, And Andrew

Friday evening Andrew called and asked if he could come for a weekend visit. We had a lot of fun with the three or them. Dan and Regina spent a lot of time with us as well. Here are some pictures and a video of Philip on the Zip Line. (now what does that remind you of???)

Follow Up on My Traffic Violation

I wanted to let you know that the situation with my traffic citation had a happy resolution. I hired a lawyer, an attorney who lives in that county and specializes in this type of thing, and he represented me at court. I did not have to appear myself (thank goodness, since it's 3 1/2 hours away) and he was able to get my charges reduced from "wreckless driving" to "defective equipment", a non-moving violation. What a relief!

But you can bet I will be keeping a close eye on my speedometer from now on! I ended up spending in excess of $500 after the fines, court fees, and the lawyer. I am just grateful that I will not have any negative points on my license or a misdemeanor on my permanent record. Hiring a lawyer was definitely the way to go!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, and be careful not to speed ;)

The Ermine Castle

Hi Everyone,

This is an old post from Heather, from early January, that she tried to post and then lost. She didn't realize a draft had been saved. Thank goodness for Google Blogger :)

Dear Family,

As I have been completly negligent in posting to this dear blog, here is my first contribution. The children and I have been constructing a snow castle in the bach yard with a brick maker our neighbor Tammie gave us as a gift. It is really fun, although the result is a lot of contractions for me and poor baby Edward.

I am the one doing the constructing, and the children like to sit and eat snow. It is fun though.

- Heather

A Winter Day

Hi Everyone,

I hope Anna had a wonderful birthday yesterday! Anna we love you! It's so hard to believe you are 10! Anna sure likes her stuffed animals. Paul and I were talking last night about how she used to come over to our duplex in Orlando and play with all the beanie babies we had. She would put each one into its own hole in the back of those old rattan chairs. It was so cute and we took a picture of it. I am going to try to find that picture and post it later.

We had what might be our last snow of the season last night; it started out as rain, turned to hail (or a "light wintry mix" as they call it here), and finally to snow. The boys were distracted and so was I so we didn't do any school work.

There is a creek behind our townhouse and some woods. We play in the woods all seasons except for summer when there is poison ivy growing everywhere. The creek is especially fun in the winter when it is frozen. Unfortunately, it hasn't been frozen much this winter, and it isn't frozen now as you can see in these pictures, but the woods are always great for exploring.

Anna's 10

Well it's actually tomorrow, but we had Dan and Regina over tonight for steak and cake. Anna had ALL her stuffed animals lined up on the couch. She won't believe me that she has too many. Some of them actually belong to you older children

God Bless you all.

Grandpa

Please PRAY for this woman Tara.

Dear Family,

I meet this woman on Valentine's Day at a candle shop in the mall. She told me, within the first few moment of speaking with her, that she was going on Friday to have an abortion.

I am venturing back into the mall today to see if she is working. I want to talk to her more, so that perhaps she will be persuaded to keep her child.

Please pray for her and me!

Love, Heather

Happy St. Valentines Day

Dear Family,

Happy St. Valentine's Day. We managed to get in a few homemade valentines. The top one is from Amelia to Jesus. She actually said that all of her valentines were for Jesus. Maybe she is his alone! We will see.

Love, Heather

January Birthdays and February Blues...

Thanks everyone for all the great posts and pictures. I feel I have the February Blues lately. Paul is working on a proposal at work which means he is not here very much. The weather hasn't been too cold, usually mid-30's, but it's still hard to get outside. Am I complaining?

I want to think of something interesting to write about; let me search my pictures and see if I can come up with anything...

Here is a very sad picture of Thomas after being hit with an icy snowball by an undiscerning older brother.



I could post some pictures from our trip to Florida in January but I will save that for another post.

We had a great time with the Ermines, when they came down for my and Dominic's birthday. No birthday here is complete without Auntie Heather and family... I think the boys will always ask now if they are going to come. Thomas was asking me today if Auntie Heather and David were going to come to his birthday and I pointed out that they did come to his last birthday. But I told him that I wasn't sure if they would always be able to come to his birthday; we would just have to wait and see.

The Ermines got to our house some time in the early afternoon on Saturday. I think we just hung out and focused on making dinner - that's right - I made pizza. And the kids all watched Cinderella (which Dominic and Thomas had never seen before and loved - all the little boys were laughing the whole time).

Sunday we went to the 10:30 Mass and came back home and David (the father) worked putting together his Irish Stew for dinner (which was delicious by the way - thank you David!) Heather and the kids worked on the cake. Dominic had requested a tractor cake (similar to the one he and Heather had made for his 4th birthday party) so that is what they made. Heather wanted to make Chocolate ganache frosting and boy was that good! Notice the little cow on the cake, eating the chocolate ganache out of the trailer.


After looking through my photos, I am lacking in many pictures of the weekend (maybe Heather can post some, hint, hint) but here is one of Heather fixing the cake after one of the kids stuck their finger into the frosting.


The afternoon passed in a relaxed manner... Heather, Paul and all the kids but Andre went out sledding. We had a very nice birthday dinner. After dinner, Dominic opened his gifts, and the Ermines departed.

This is a great picture capturing Dominic's excitement upon opening his cap gun (which I purchased at Cracker Barrel).


I hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all and look forward to more of your posts.

The boys are playing so nicely!

It was a beautiful sunny day today and my little boys spend most of the day in the back yard. They were paying so nicely that I wanted to share a few pictures.

Pictures

Grandma got a new pair of spectacles, here's is a picture so you recognize her the next time you see her


Here is a picture of a paper doll Maria made, she is becoming quite the artist.



Here is a link to a video of my new metal shaper cutting metal. I got it last year but just got around to getting it all cleaned up and running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDJRqrLR1fo

Piano Federation

Dear Family,

Today Maria and Anna were very nervous about performing their piano pieces before the Piano Federation judges. Anna was disappointed with herself thinking she did poorly, but tonight we were informed that both Maria and Anna received a superior rating. Perhaps sometime they can play these pieces for you.

Love, Mom

The Ball

A few pictures from our Brigade Ball. It was WWII themed, so I tried to do an authentic hairdo with pin curls and all =)

Our big snow

This January we had the biggest snow since we've moved here. I know it's not much for some of you, but it was a big deal here. The schools closed for a week, and GE let their employees work from home. Matt got to enjoy conference calls with his kids clammering at the door. Anthony got to play in his first snow. He loved to eat it, and wasn't to discriminating about what snow he ate.
Joseph and Blake loved to throw snowballs and were only slightly less picky about the snow they ate. And Ellie spend most of the day playing outdoors with the dogs.

Ellie's Update

Ellie passed Level 1 Obedience Last week. She wanted to share this video demonstrating what she and Nava are working on. If you can't tell from the video, she's learning clicker training,