Basketball Anyone

Basketball season began the first weekend in December and it has been so much fun. The teams are actually sponsored by the Celtics so their teams are named after current players and they authentic reversible jerseys. Connor plays for the Shaq Pack (Shaquille O'Neal) and Garrett plays for the Ray Rays (Ray Allen).

Stretch! While Connor was playing, Garrett was busy socializing - making friends and playing with the big boys. Then while Garrett was playing, Connor managed to organize a two on two game with boys that were several years older than him. Connor sprinting down the court after a basket.

Connor is great at dribbling...he has great concentration and control.

Garrett dribbled for the first time during his first game. It only took him a few minutes before he was dribbling halfway down the court with perfection.

Here comes the white team.

DEFENSE!

2-4-6-8 Who do we appreciate - go team!!!!

I am so proud of our basketball starts - you guys try so hard and I am so happy you are having fun. Keep up the good work.

Our November Happenings

1. The arrival of our winter wood supply. As usual, this coincided with a visit from Grandpa so all the men headed outdoors to stack the wood in the woodshed. Every year our boys become more capable - they really carried the wood into the shed. Of course, Grandpa pulled his weight too and must have made at least 50 wheelbarrow trips.
2. Mommy's Birthday - I was treated like a queen by my family which included dinner at Bickfords. (not sure if I am going to let Brian live that one down.)

3. Montauk Fishing Trip - Brian and Grandpa arrange a fishing trip every year from Montauk but unfortunately since I was not there I do not have photographic evidence of the rather large striped bass and cod that they caught. However, we have had the opportunity to eat some of the catches so mission completion.

The flip side of the fishing trip is that I get to visit Long Island so we took advantage and managed to see almost everyone. Of course, when we visit we turn the house upside down and boy does it get loud. Papa had a blast playing with the kids and loved holding Emily.

Jen had us all over for breakfast on Saturday and the kids had so much fun. No one could pass up a chance to hold Emily.

Allison is so tiny which makes Emily look so big.

The kids loved running around, playing wii and all the treats.

Garrett took great pride in being the big brother who got to hold Emily.

I let Garrett, Connor and Olivia take pictures with my camera because they honestly take some pretty good pictures. As you can see, Olivia is a natural photographer as well.

During our visit, we spent lots of time with Aunt Daph since she has moved back home. It was great to ride our bikes over and to simply run across the street. To think, I have been just running across the street for over 30 years to Aunt Daph and Uncle Eric's house for visits - my how we take the simple things in life for granted.

4. Thanksgiving Time - To all of you who know me too well, you obviously fear for the life of my family when I say I was preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I have found a great way to cheat and I recommend it to all. Buy a precooked turkey! This is my second year doing this and I have to admit that it is delicious and you wouldn't know the difference. Grandma will even attest to that.

Since I didn't have to worry about prepping the bird, I focused on appetizers and side dishes. The boys had made special candle holders at school so we dined by candlelight. I honestly can say I haven't seen that much food in ages and I must have done well because Brian looked full and happy.

5. Family Outing - We went bowling one cold and blustery Sunday. I convinced the kids to take a quick picture...are you wondering why Emily is looking away. The television was on in the room and she was hooked. Looks like she takes after her mommy in that department.

Here we come December - Santa we are already decorated for you at home.

Emily's 4 Month Check-Up

November 24th brought Emily's 4 month birthday and another visit to the doctor. She weighed in at 15 pounds 2 ounces measured to be 24 inches long and 17 1/2 inches head circumference.Unfortunately the visit also brought the need for two shots...the nurse gave Emily the shots and I was astonished because she didn't even cry. I was waiting and waiting but my tough cookie never made a sound.

Her toothy grin and hearty laugh makes everyone smile. You are growing up so fast...slow down! Please!!!!!

Happy Halloween

On the eve of Halloween, we set out to add some carved pumpkins to our little family of pumpkins. So I asked the boys to show me what they wanted their pumpkins to look like.

Connor's scary face

Garrett's Scary Face So maybe I made the jack-o-lanterns a little happier looking because my boys faces were too scary to duplicate. We had so much fun last year that we had to return to the Walsh household for some more trick or treating this year. Actually, we invited ourselves over and thank goodness they let us come because their neighborhood is awesome. Everyone got dressed up and below is our little Emily as a cupcake. Connor was the perfect firefighter and Garrett was supposed to be Luke Skywalker but at the last minute decided on becoming Bob the Builder instead. I personally think they looked great. Brotherly love...I cherish every moment.
We trick or treated for hours (including Emily) in the cold and you should have seen the amount of candy we brought home. There is one house which is decorated and so spooky that all the neighborhood kids run away from it. Well, the boys were so brave and we made it all the way up to the porch to get candy and then ran out of there. Candy is a very motivating factor.

Newport - October 23-24, 2010

For Grandma's birthday, we asked her if she would come with us on a little trip to Newport, RI and babysit the kids for us while we went to a party. Of course, Grandma being as generous, giving and selfless as always agreed to come. Papa was happy to oblige when I asked him to join us, to try to make Grandma's birthday a little special. After checking into the hotel, we headed off to have some lunch. As you can see, Emily found Grandma and Papa to be hysterical.

Newport is a great town to walk around with so many fun little shops, piers and historical buildings. Of course, Dad ran across a street to get his picture taken in front of the "Best of British" store. Anything to rub it in to Brian...

This was the crew walking the streets of Newport.

So we went to Kristen & Chris's Anniversary party on Saturday night which was spectacularly planned and executed. It was a beautiful evening and so much fun. Of course, Kristen thought of everything and even had an after party planned. One of my favorite moments was when Brian went to look at something on the dance floor - there were a bunch of girls celebrating a bachelorette party at the time. As he went over to the dance floor, one of the girls came dancing up to him and the picture below is his face as it happened. Unfortunately, the girl was just to the right of my picture. Brian got so nervous he ran back to our table laughing.

The next day we decided to walk around and enjoy the Newport piers. We saw a lobster the size of Garrett, went into all the cute shops and enjoyed the views. At the end of one of the piers, there were white reclining chairs to relax on. As we were all enjoying the moment, Garrett asked Brian if he could run down a ramp. Brian explained to Garrett that there was a sign saying "private" and we were not allowed to use the ramp. Garrett turned to Brian and said "but Daddy I have privates." Enough said.

Grandma bought the boys a football and they were hysterical playing down the streets of Newport. Of course, Papa was in on the action and at one point they all managed to get a crowd to applaud their most recent pass play.

It was a fun weekend and we were happy that Papa even came back home with us to spend another day with Grandma and the kids. Since all my pictures seem to be us walking around, you never get to see Emily. You couldn't ask for a better little girl. She never makes a fuss and goes along with the program no matter what we do. Thank you for being our little angel. Here you are one day hanging out with Grandma while the boys were sleeping.

Beautiful!

Weekend before heading back to work

Brian is away at Kung Fu camp and Nana came for a visit to keep me occupied. I had to keep myself very busy during my last weekend on maternity leave because I just didn't want to think of having to go to work instead of being home with the kids. We decided to head to the local farm to pick some pumpkins and apples. Those are some cute apples in that tree.
The boys were quick to climb the hay stacks and pose for a picture.

Connor insisted on getting his face painted - How do you like my pumpkin?

Garrett was drawn to the ponies and couldn't wait to go for a ride. He looked like a natural during his ride. As you can see, Emily went for a walk next to the pony.

A funny thing happened on the way to pick our pumpkins. We decided to walk around the pumpkin patch to find the very best pumpkins. We were all doing fine and I was following the boys around with Emily in the sling when all of a sudden my foot sunk into the ground. I quickly pulled my foot up and all I see is my sock on my foot. I call Nana over since I can't bend over because of the sling. She comes running over and I explain that my shoe is in the ground. Nana looks at me like I am crazy because exactly where I am pointing there is absolutely no shoe just mud. Basically, when I pulled my foot out, the mud acted like quicksand and covered over the shoe. Nana thinks I am kidding around until she realizes I am not wearing a shoe. As always, we hatch a crazy plan. We grab a Ziploc bag out of the diaper bag and Nana puts it on her hand. Believe it or not Nana reached in and pulled out my shoe. Obviously, I didn't put the shoe back on - I was the only one that left the farm with an apple picking bag wrapped around her foot. Every time I think about this I start to laugh. We had to take a picture of Nana with her new found treasure.

We had a blast all weekend and then the sad day of returning to work arrived!

Garrett is 3!

In the blink of an eye, time has passed and our munchkin Garrett is turning 3. Seriously...how is that possible. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise since he can tell stories, sing full songs and has the coordination of a professional athlete. As you can imagine, with three kids you definitely have your hands full but no one is better at multi-tasking than Grandma. She is the ultimate wonder woman. Here they are after lunch enjoying a book. Take a look and you will see how Garrett has his arm wrapped around Emily.
I guess we have to admit there are a few perks of not living close to everyone and at birthday time the kids love that every day is like Christmas. You open the front door and another present has arrived. Garrett was so excited.

He also found it helpful to have an older brother who can power through the wrapping paper when the presents have been taped up nice and tight.

Here is a little fact about Garrett - he loves sweets (and butter but that is for another topic). Anything that contains chocolate or sugar he will eat and savor. Of course, other foods we have to play games with to get him to eat. So when he hears it is Birthday time, his only concern is will he get the first piece or the second piece of cake when it is cut. As you can see from his grin, he couldn't wait to dig into his very own ice cream cake.

Emily as always loves watching her brothers and they can even make her laugh now. I mean a full belly laugh which then makes us giggle. Our little girl has the best personality - smiling all the time and the giggles are priceless. The funniest part is when the boys are napping we think Emily is constantly looking around for them because it is too quiet. Look at how much she has grown. I love kissing those cheeks and thighs.