Guinea Pig babies!

Here is the latest picture of the guinea pig babies. Man, they are growing so fast! They will be going to new homes soon and I will miss them :( They are all so cute and cuddly and love being held!
Here is the gray and white one. The next two are black and white and looks like twins.Here is a picture of them together to prove that they are two different guinea pigs.

Happy fall ya'll!!!!!

One of my favorite things about fall is all the leaves turning colors and falling down. I know this is really crazy, but I love the days we rake up the leaves. So today we began the leave raking process. But the kids don't get away easy......we put them to work too! Who pays attention to those child labor laws anyway ;-) So here is the kids hard at work raking up leaves..... Wait!!!! You just raked up Adriana in the pile of leaves!Alright kids......put all the leaves you raked up into the bags now! Good job!!!! Man these kids are working hard!
But don't worry, they did have some fun!

So here's to my favorite time of year......FALL!!!!

Fat cat, fat cat.......what are they feeding you?

This is our very fat cat, buddy! He thinks he is a dog and will greet you at the door and follow you around all day. He is so fat that he has to sit on his butt on the couch to even attempt to clean his belly. But we sure do love him so much!!!!

Lovin school!

When Adriana finished preschool last year I was rather sad, not just because she would be starting kindergarten but also because I was loosing a lot of good friends I had met. The moms of the kids in her preschool class had become friends of mine as we all waited for class to get over (which always ran late) and also because we were all there for the parties. I was really going to miss being friends with Adriana's friend's parents. I knew every student and almost every mother.
Adriana was now off to a big school and I was afraid of how I would fit in. This is a huge luxury for us to be able to send our kids to Catholic School. I have to continue to work instead of staying home along with cutting many things I would love to have. I thought when we had signed her up that we would be looked down upon because we don't have a lot of money or be snubbed away. Well let me tell you that I am so happy about our decision. I have met so many wonderful parents already and most of them are in the same situation we are in and its a struggle to be able to send their kids there as well. I now stand outside of school waiting to pick up Adriana with all the other parents just as I had done for preschool and I have many great conversations. Adriana also plays soccer with the girls from her class so I get plenty of opportunities to meet and talk with more parents that I might not see after school. I also get to volunteer in Adriana's class every Monday morning for accelerated reading and have really gotten to know most of the kids in her class. Not only have I felt very comfortable here, I have had so many families help hold my hand as I'm learning all the new things about this school. The families here are so wonderful and so full of love that it makes me so happy to be a part of this school. I now walk into school to volunteer or to drop something off and I'm greated by first name by the secretary as well as the principal. I'm so happy that I'm not just another face at the school, but I am someone important to everyone there!

Haircut fix!

We just got back from a trip to The Hairy Elephant for a haircut fix. It didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would and we didn't have to buzz it! So here is a picture of the haircut fix. Not the best picture but it looks really good. So he should be fine by the time the picture day is here!

Andrew's haircut!

Last night I was giving Chris a haircut and had set out our haircut kit on the kitchen island thinking this was away from the kids (more Joey than the other two who I thought would leave it alone). While I was cutting Chris' hair, Andrew got into the kit and grabbed the small trimmer. He went into the bathroom and gave himself a skunk head. Yes, he buzzed right down the middle of his head. Thank God it was my boy and not Adriana or I would have been in tears. But for today this is how he is going to school until my friend Kim can come over and help me fix it. Now I learn from another bad momma moment to keep the kit away from all the kids!

Adriana's birthday party!

On Saturday we had Adriana's birthday party at Great Skate Skating Rink. It was a great place to have a party as big as she had. We had the whole place to ourselves for 2 hours with over 40 kids ranging in ages of babies to teenagers plus another 20 adults. It was such a great turnout for her. She had wanted to invite all of her friends from school and soccer plus all of her other friends so we definitely needed a big place. The kids spent the first hour roller skating around the rink. Adriana was skating like a pro and was swirling around the rink on roller blades. Mommy and Daddy even got out to skate for a bit, which was the comedy act of the night ;) Too bad no pictures of that!
Here is Adriana out skating.

Andrew skating with Daddy and MeMaw
Then was the limbo game. Adriana did pretty good! I'm not sure who actually won though.Adriana even got a turn in the prize tunnel. She won over 100 tickets and got lots of prizes. Even though Adriana is no longer into princesses (at Mommy's disappointment) she still chose a Tinker Bell cake. It was really cute!Singing happy birthday to Adriana!The kids eating cake and ice cream. We had several tables full of kids but I forgot to get pictures of the other tables.Adriana was overwhelmed (as well as her parents) with how many great gifts she got. She really has so many great friends! Here she is opening up her gifts.Adriana had a great birthday and I think most of the kids did from what I was hearing from everyone! So another birthday gone but the memories will last a lifetime!!!

Happy 6th birthday Adriana!

On Wednesday was my baby girl's 6th birthday. We started the morning off with some yummy birthday doughnuts full of icing and sprinkles. Then for school she got to have a dress down day for her birthday, so she picked out a pretty dress to wear that day. We got to school and right away all the happy birthday's began. When you have a dress down day when no one else does then obviously everyone else knows its your birthday. So needless to say that when I picked her up from school that day she was beaming from ear to ear from all her birthday wishes all day. When we got home from school we made a special birthday cake for her (its always special when momma lets you help with all the cooking!). Then we had a special birthday dinner and sang happy birthday to her afterwards. I think she had a wonderful day!
I was very mad at myself for not taking more pictures, but here is what I did get. A picture of her blowing out her candles and pushing her brother away to make sure he didn't help blow them out. Oh and her birthday candles were a math equation since I obviously forgot to buy a number 6 candle, so it was 7-1 ;)

Andrew playing soccer

Yesterday Andrew started playing soccer at Vetta indoor soccer. He was wanting to play so bad since Adriana has started playing. He was doing really well witht he dribbling and even listening to what his teacher had to say. It was really neat because he had his friend Grant on his team and another friend of ours, Jackson, was playing on the other team. Andrew had a great time and can't wait to go back next week. Here are a couple of pictures of him playing. They aren't the greatest because I forgot my good camera :( Andrew and Grant running together.

Half marathon run!

Today I ran my first half marathon run for the Lewis and Clark run in St. Charles. I'm not sure of my exact time yet but I think it was somewhere around 2:30 (not bad for a first time run). The weather was perfect and it was a great run. I think they said they had record attendance for this race and it was really crowded.
Here are a couple of pictures after the race. Here I am full of sweat and about to fall over ;pHere is an upclose picture of my first medal. My kids think I won the race because I got the medal ;pI'm planning on doing the St. Louis half marathon race in April where I will get a second medal plus a third medal for completing these two races. I'm so excited to have done this and I can't wait for the next one.

Update on the guinea pig babies!

Here are some updated pictures of the babies. They are now two days old and growing fast. I think they are all girls and will make sure again later.
Here is the gray and white baby. The next two are the black and white ones. They look very much alike so its really hard to tell them apart. But here is a couple of pictures of them.The are doing wonderful and eating on their own and playing like crazy. They are do darn cute to watch!

Kindergarten welcome mass

To help the kindergartens get used to going to Mass and understanding what they are to do, they are each assigned a 7th grader buddy that they attend mass with their kindergarten year. Adriana's buddy is named Kaitlyn and Adriana really likes her.
On Friday, the Church had a welcome Mass for all the kindergarteners to welcome them into the Church and it also gives me an opportunity to meet Kaitlyn.
I can tell this was my first child because I had to hold tears back as I'm watching my BIG girl standing in front of the Church!
Here is a few pictures: This is Adriana and her buddy, Kaitlyn.

Adriana and her Priest, Father John.After Church they had a reception with doughnuts and milk. We had a great time and I really hate watching my baby girl grow up so fast!

Andrew's 1st day of preschool!

On Tuesday Andrew had his first day of Preschool! He was going to sissy's old school so he was super excited, especially after we spent the last two years fighting to get him to come home with me after we would drop her off. So it is his first year at Curiosity Corner and he has the same teachers too, Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Zerbolio.
So here are a few pictures of his first day. If you are wondering what he is holding, it is a picture of him and daddy fishing. He has an obsession with carrying around this picture (the boy does love fishing with daddy!) Here he is with his super hero backpack.A picture in front of his new school.Here he is at circle time waiting for class to begin.He had a great first week and can't wait to go back. Although when the teacher stops you the first week, you know its never a good sign. She informed me that Andrew has a hard time sitting at circle time and he is really funny! Great, another year of being the class clown. Hopefully this year will be better and we can get this out of his system before Kindergarten! Well at least he isn't a class bully and would just rather make everyone laugh!!!!

Lily's babies!

Adriana's guinea pig, Lily, finally had her babies. We have been waiting and waiting for them to get here. I just checked on her this morning then went off to the store and came back and they were already born. They are big babies too for all being in her belly. So here is a picture of the fresh babies, all alive and breathing. I will get some more pictures when she cleans them up and hoping someone will want to adopt one or three of them ;)

Apple, peach, and blackberry picking

On Saturday we took the kids to Eckerts to go apple, peach, and blackberry picking. It was a great day considering we almost had to cancel because it was supposed to rain all day.
Our first trip was the apple picking. Here is the kids on the wagon ready to go.

Andrew trying out one of the apples to make sure they were good.
Joey taking a break from eating his apple to pick one.

Next we headed out to do some peach picking. Since it was close to the end of peach season there wasn't a lot to choose from.

Adriana walking the rows to find the perfect tree to pick from.

Joey, of course, doing more eating than picking (They should probably weigh him when we come in and again when we come out to see how much he actually eats!)
Most of the good peaches were up high on the trees, so the girls came up with their own plan to pick them.Finally we came to blackberry picking. And just a side note that blackberries do stain very bad!!!!
Adriana picking some blackberries.Adriana running up the aisle as it started to sprinkle on us.Andrew also heading out before the rain.And, of course, Joey eating some blackberries. There really isn't much this boy doesn't eat!This is my very favorite picture of Andrew while blackberry picking.

And the five kids showing off their loot of goods!And we can't forget the picture with the pumpkinator!

Thank you for another great time Eckerts! We can't wait to come back again next year!