Merry (late) Christams!

We had quite the crazy Christmas and I know that I'm a little late in blogging about it, but better late than never....right?

Well, our original plan was to stay here and have our own little Christmas in Buffalo, but to all of our surprise (yeah right), T.J. changed his mind and decided to go back to AZ at the last minute. So, we called in a favor to Santa and had Christmas here a little early. It was fun to have our little Christmas together which was peaceful and nice. While the kids were opening their toys, TJ was trying to open a tough one with his leatherman. All of a sudden I hear Timmy say "Mom, Daddy cut himself!" I looked over at T.J. and he had this stunned look on his face. I went to see what was going on, the cut was pretty darn deep so we loaded up into the truck, dropped the kids off at the Muglestons (thanks guys) and headed to the ER. I had to giggle to myself on the way there because we were in the ER on Easter too because of TJ. I was just hoping he wasn't going to make a habit out of holiday ER visits. He turned out to be fine and they glued him up. (Sorry no pics of the stab wound!)

The next morning we awoke to a huge snow storm, we got stuck in our driveway, in our truck, in 4-wheel drive, but we made it to the airport. We were very luck to make it out because we were the last flight out of Buffalo airport. The kids were wonderful on the plane, so it was a good trip. We spent the night in Globe and then made our way to Snowflake. All of my brothers and sisters were so thoughtful and bought small little gifts for my kids to open on Christmas morning because all of their gifts were in Buffalo. It meant a lot to us and them. We had a good Christmas and and headed to Globe to spend it with T.J.'s mom and dad.

T.J.'s mom and dad also got our kids a stocking full of goodies, which was really exciting for them. We ate tamales and menudo, and visited, played games and ate more etc. We had such a good time, but we had to leave on the 30th. Cassie took us to the airport the next day and we made it home. It was quite the shock to go from 70 degree weather to 14 degrees, but we were so excited to be home. What an adventure!

Funny conversations

The other day TJ and Maura had this conversation:

T.J.: Maura, who is the best dad ever?
Maura: You and Barack Obama because he winned!
(Go figure!)

We decided to have Christmas early at our house (the 20th) because we got tickets for AZ and we couldn't take and bring back presents. The other day we told Timmy that Christmas was in 2 days.

Then TJ and Timmy had this conversation the other day:
Timmy: Dad you must be confused. Christmas is not in two days its in seven.
TJ: No buddy, Christmas is in 2 days.
Timmy: My teacher told me that it can't be in 2 days because she's not done with her Christmas shopping yet. You're really confused.

Topher is 10 months...

Topher is 10 months old. He is pulling himself up onto the furniture, trying to crawl up the stairs, and ripping all of the ornaments off the tree. He weighs 20 lbs and he loves to eat whatever we are having for dinner and anything else he can find on the floor (yuck). He's also really into pulling hair and pinching. We love him so much and have so much fun with him.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade part 2

After a little nap we were refreshed and ready for some sight seeing. First we hit the vendor on the sidewalk. Timmy had to have a pretzel and Maura wanted a hot dog. A little farther down we got some candied nuts. We walked to Rockefeller plaza and saw the huge Christmas tree and the ice skating rink. Next we walked to Time Square, took a bunch of pictures, and found a place to eat lunch. The kids started get really tired, so we headed back and caught a picture of the Empire State Building. T.J. and Anthony went and got some cannoli and cheesecake for us and we vegged and visited in Anthony and Camille's room.

That night Topher cried all night and was inconsolable. We had planned on going to ground zero the next morning, but we knew we had to try to get him to the doctor. We dosed him with Tylenol and headed out. He slept most of the way, but we could tell he didn't feel good at all. As soon as we got home I took him to urgent care and I found out that he had a double ear infection. Despite the crying we had a great weekend full of fun and good memories. It was a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC part 1

We had a big weekend with our friends the Muglestons. We left snowy Buffalo on Wednesday. We stopped about 3 hrs into the trip to eat lunch and stretch. We got back into the car and headed for the city. We got to the Lincoln Tunnel at about 4:00 and before we got out of it, it was 5:00. Rush hour traffic was horrific. I have never seen traffic like that in my life! There were people and cars in the middle of every intersection, not to mention the buses that would just move into your lane whether you wanted to move or not. In the mean time Topher was screaming because he was tired and hungry and the kids were wanting me to change movies in their DVD players. This was not the happiest part of our trip. We drove all the way down 42nd street until we reached our hotel the Grand Hyatt. It was valet parking only so amid all of the cars zooming down the street, we had to unload all of the kids and all of our luggage. When we walked into the lobby though, it made it all worth it. It was gorgeous!

Once we got settled in our rooms, we ordered some pizza and wings, which Timmy absolutely loved. I bathed the kids and got them to bed because Thursday was going to be a big and early day.

The next morning we all got up, put on our long johns and headed out for the parade at about 6:15 a.m. We were so pumped to be walking down the streets of NYC. Camille and I were taking pictures like crazy tourists. We walked down Broadway and finally found a spot where were right up front. Then it was time to just wait....and wait ....and wait. When the parade started we were so excited. We were really enjoying it...then people started pushing us up closer and closer to the blockade and before long we had people pushing their kids in front of us. As Anthony said, "We had been infiltrated". Topher and Miles started to get a little fussy, so we decided to head back before we had fight crazy crowds.

Early Thanksgiving

While I'm not early in posting about Thanksgiving, I wanted to post about our early Thanksgiving dinner. We had our dinner the Friday before Thanksgiving because of our plans to go to the Macy's parade(look for a coming post on our awesome weekend). So, we split up the dinner with our friends the Muglestons and we ended up with a "Thanksgiving Feast" (as Timmy would put it). We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green bean casserole, stuffing, fruit salad, green salad, carrot cake (or "carrot pie" as Maura would put it), pumpkin pie and cherry pie. Needless to say, we ate so much food that we were sick. We had a good time with good company. We are very grateful for all that we have been blessed with!

Last week was parent-teacher conferences for Timmy. It turned out really well. His teacher had nothing but nice things to say about him. Some of those things were:

• His fine motor skills are great.
• He is one of the best handwriters in the class.
• Everybody likes him (especially the girls).
• He plays well with everybody.
• He picks up on new concepts very quickly.
• He has made huge progress since the start of the year.
• When he has free time, he spends it at the writing center.

His teacher also thanked me for helping him be such a good, polite, and kind boy because not everyone in his class it like that. It made me feels so good that he is being such a good boy at school and that he is doing so well. Good job Timmy!