Heading North....

We are heading to New York and New Jersey for the Holiday weekend. Last year it took us 7 hours on what should be called "Black Wendesday", where travel is concerned. So today we will leave late (8 or 9 pm) to hopefully miss some of the traffic. Of course it is pouring rain here right now, and expected to rain all evening, so it should be a fun drive - although it has been a beautiful day to spend indoors and make some desserts to bring with us. Don and I will split the driving as he is feeling a little under the weather (home from work yesterday with a bug of some sort), and hopefully the kids will sleep most of the ride!
We are looking forward to seeing everyone, and as usually have a busy weekend planned, trying to fit in both family and friends. As well, as usual at Thanksgiving, Aunt Terry and Uncle John will be down from Boston, so it will be wonderful to spend some time with them as well!
Sorry no new pictures, I need to recharge the batteries for the camera, better go do that now so I can bring it along!!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
Karen

The fine art of eating...

Some birthday cake pics (from Delaware party).

Also, took this video tonight of Bell eating her applesauce. She is getting the hang of a spoon, and you will notice she is better at using it in her LEFT hand!!
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/handsfreebaby/?action=view&current=Belleatingwithspoonvideo11-06.flv
Karen

School delay and a house full of boys...

So, in New York we were used to the occasional Snow delay. Buses would be delayed an hour or two due to snowfall. Kids woke up and watched the local TV station to see if "their school" showed up across the bottom of the screen.
But in Delaware we have encountered a new type of school delay, the FOG delay!!! It really does get foggy down here sometimes, and 4 or 5 times last year school was delayed due to fog. Somedays early in the morning we can not see the houses across the street, but two hours is enough for the fog to lift enough for the buses to get through. This morning Austin went out to the bus (it was foggy, but not to bad, at least by us), and 15 minutes later came home, with two friends in tow, all excited of course!!! What a great way to start the school day, two hours of video games with your friends before going to school!!
We need to get back into the habit this year of checking the website if it is at all foggy. No watching the TV and waiting to see your school. The state of Delaware has a school closing site that can be accessed through your districts website, which lists all delays and closings by 4AM - very cool!!!

Our Little Walker

Bell is walking like a pro!! She spends most of her time on her feet now and very little crawling. She took her first few steps right around her first birthday, and now three weeks later she is walking up a storm!! I took her to Austin's dentist appt today and boy did she tire me out!!
Here is some video of her walking - it has sound, so turn up your speakers. What she is carrying at first is a can of Tomoato soup! She got into our donation bag of food for church for Thanksgiving and just had a great time with the cans.
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/handsfreebaby/?action=view&current=1stbirthdaypics.flv

More later,
Karen

This is why they keep the bathroom door closed!!

I admit it, I am a closet toilet paper junkie. Leave me alone for one minute and I can unroll half a roll quicker than you can imagine!! After my bath on Sunday mom got distracted for one minute and I went to town!! It is such a bummer, now mom keeps the roll up on the counter where I can't play with it!
Bell

Pictures !!

The original cake thanks to a power outage!!
My knight and his daughter!!
A beautiful October day in the back yard!
Bell loves to sit on her brother!
Austin and JD carving pumpkins (nice shorts weather!)
Lots of pumpkins for Bell.
Hey, I want to do that too!! Guess I will just throw Lucky his ball instead.
Some daddy LOVE!!

Finally a new post !!!!!

Wow, sorry all that it has been so long!! Time has just gotten away and we have been busy!! So I will start from the birthday and move forward...
Bell had a great 1st birthday!! We went to NY and had a party at mom and dads house. Bell had a fun time, but of course by the time cake came around she was TIRED!! So she cried through the Happy Birthday singing, but as soon as she was in her chair with a piece of Chocolate cake in front of her she was happy as can be. I was holding her, so I didn't get pics of it, hopefully someone will send me some. The kids, and some of the adults dressed in Halloween costumes for the party, which was a blast. Emily was such a cute devil, while "Uncle Nick" made a great pirate. Even Danielle worn a costume, we dubbed modern cowgirl.

It was a quick trip as we left NY EARLY Sunday to get home in time for the Saints game (which we could have just missed with the way they played!).

Halloween was fun. Early in the day Bell and I joined others from the Mothers and More group for a halloween parade and trick or treating at State Street Assisted Living here in Dover. We met a woman named Isabella who was 99 years old!! The seniors had a great time with all of the kids, and the kids had a really fun time as well. Then when dad came home, he and Austin took Bell out trick or treating to the neighbors houses. Austin of course loved this as he is "too old" to trick or treat it was a great way for him to get some candy! Austin and his friend JD carved out our pumpkins on halloween afternoon on the back deck, as the weather here was just beautiful!! Bell was so cute in her Bee costume, more pics...

I have mentioned this before, our neighbors and good friends Brett and Stephanie are moving. Actually they are on a layover in Houston as we speak, on their way to Guam. We have been busy in the past week helping them out and just spending time with them before they left. Friday Austin and I went over and took some video of all of our dogs together before the dogs went to the airport for their flights. We had about 25 people over our house on Saturday for a going away party for them. Actually they threw the party themselves, we just provided the space, as their house was empty already, as well as the blender for smoothies!! Austin and the two girls who live on the other side of Brett's house (Jess and Lindsay) came over and made up signs to hang all over the house. One we hung over the globe said "Where the HECK is Guam?", and we made everyone at the party try and find it on the globe. Brett laughed and said Steph would take the longest to find it, and he was right, she did!!! Then we all went down to the Ice Skating rink for Jessie's 13th birthday party. Yesterday they came over in the evening to watch Sunday night football, and were off to pack up their bags to leave at 1 AM for the airport. We are SO sad to see them go. Since their house has not sold yet, we are still waiting to see who are new neighbors are.

I thought Bell might have outgrown her "get an ear infection every time she gets a tooth" thing when the two bottom ones (to make 4 on bottom) started to pop through, but apparently combined with the one also coming in on top, it was just to much. On Wednesday night she had 103.5 temp, and sure enough we went to the doctor and she has fluid in her left ear. She had a grumpy two days, but after a few days on the antibiotics, she is feeling much better now!Austin got his report card this past week and (as usual) did great and got honors!! We are so proud of him. He is swimming three evening a week, and seems to be enjoying that.

Our church has a annual Spagetti dinner fund raiser each year, which was held yesterday. Don had volunteered to work it with the Knights of Columbus, without really knowing what time it was. So when it turned out it was from 12:00 noon to 5:00 Pm (which is of course when the Saints always play on Sunday), I volunteered to go in his place while he watched the baby. The job was to help the kids clear off the plates before they went into the kitchen to be washed in the "back room". Well he neglected to mention the "back room" was the boiler room where the slop sink was!!! I had two fun kids working with me, so we had a good time, and then Don brought the kids to eat after the Saints KICKED BUT!!! Of course, I then made him chip in and help finish up the clean up at the end. But really, we enjoy the Church and community there, so it was all worthwhile, even though I did not win the $1,200 prize for the 50/50 - bummer!!

And last, but certainly not least on the info update. For anyone who has not heard....... we are expecting again - yeah!! I am about 11 weeks now and our Due date is June 5th. We had a Sonogram last week, and we are having.....

a BABY!!!! (And that is all any of us will know except God until the baby comes!) I am feeling better in the last week, less nausea. Not that I have been feeling really bad at all, just a little more so than with the last two. But I am almost at the end of my 1st trimester, and am feeling less tired and nauseous. We are praying for a heathly pregnancy, like the others have been!!

I am going to try another post to get some pics up, as I seem to be having problems again doing that - Ugh!! That's all for now, I promise to be better about posting more often!!

Karen