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January 14, 2011

Who we are this week--the 10 family member version

Bill's quiet and thorough personality have made our new house hunting adventure much less stressful than it otherwise would be.  In a few weeks we hope to be homeowners.  To increase his personal fitness, his new workout plan involves lots of push ups.  He has all the kids participating too, so anytime one of them crosses from the carpet to the hardwood in the kitchen, he/she falls to the floor to do a few.  It's been pretty funny watching Joseph rock on his stomach trying to get it off the floor.

Rachel usual scattered approach to doing all things necessary is getting an overhaul by the Mother's Rule of Life.  She's hoping that in a short time she will have learned to keep the house clean, the kids schooled, the aprons sewed, and the Christmas cards done in a timely and orderly manner.

We have Thomas (11) who is fairly outgoing and friendly and in that preteen stage where he takes things seriously.  He loves legos and reading and taking pictures.  He is a little shorter than Anthony which helps telling them apart if they are together.  

Anthony (11) is the compliment to Thomas so he is a little more serious and introverted and contrariwise.  He is also the one who talks about his faith more and tries to tell a lot of jokes.  He often has two problems with whatever you say and loves to tell you what they are.  He's also very gentle with small kids and seeks out the child that everyone else ignores.  

Maria (10) LOVES babies and will ask about a billion times to hold any baby she meets.  She's artsy and enjoys sewing and singing.  She and Cecilia are involved in an American Heritage Girls group at our parish which is her one activity.  She and Thomas and Anthony look and act like triplets a lot of the time.  They are the "big kids".  

Charles (8) is quiet and social, however those two things work together.  Everyone plays legos  here, and he's probably there in the Lego zone if he isn't wrestling someone on the living room floor and driving his mother crazy.  Charles, Anthony and Thomas are all Scouts.  

Cecilia (6) is sunshine.  Or she is a golden retriever bounding up to you with her tongue hanging out.  When she is tired or asked to do what she thinks is an insurmountable task, say, sweeping the kitchen, she is a very rainy rain cloud.  She's also quite "sporty" and used to take me running when I was 9 months pregnant with Joseph.

James (4) looks either like he thinks the world is going to end or like he just won the lottery.  This week we've had a lot more of the lottery winning face which has been nice.

Joseph (2) compares well with a  butterball turkey.  He and James both wear 4T clothes and play together a lot, often with Joseph as lead trouble maker.  He's also my very cuddly guy, and I love to sit with him on my lap and just hold him.  He has just started to talk more, so if you speak monkey, you will understand everything he says.

and the new baby:
 pregnancy week by week

January 8, 2011

Real life

I think I'm done experimenting with the slideshow for a while.  That was a project for the girls' American Heritage Girls troop blog.

In real life my experiment is baking bread.  I've made different breads over the years, but I recently decided to try again in the hopes that we could make a tasty sandwich bread which doesn't mold between the day we bring it home and then next day when we finish the loaf.  If we save money, great.  If the nutrition is better, fabulous. I'll look into those points once I've finished deciding which recipe I like best.

Tonight I'm experimenting with a whole-wheat sandwich bread recipe which yields 4 loaves.  The yield is what I needed since I've making a 2 loaf recipe every two days for the past few weeks.  In addition to French Bread, hamburger buns, banana muffins, and healthy whole wheat dinner bread, that adds up to a lot of baking.  But, hey, with the oven on so much, we can keep the thermostat lower!

American Heritage Girls earning their Aviation badge
I don't have any great bread pics to share, and this is better anyway.

December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Maria then wore her pjs outside to try out her new stilts before Mass.

Pop gave a serious and glowing art review on Maria's special gift for him.

Thomas is displaying a camp contributions.  All the boys were very excited for the increase in the camp fund today.

Charles helped Joseph build a Lego motorcycle set with 2 "guys".   It didn't leave Joseph's hand all day.
Cecilia's fireboat was a huge hit.

Despite the fact that it wasn't the historic gas mask he wanted, Anthony was ecstatic about this gift.  His adjustment to the region where King Tobacco reigns is now complete.  I just wish I had gotten a picture of him trying to eat his chocolate cigar and wear the gas mask at the same time.


December 18, 2010

You know your dad's in the Army if...





















You ask if the "Kool-Aid" jody is on iTunes.


You wrap Christmas presents with duct tape.

(Please note we used festive red rather than our preferred OD green tape)






















Any time you jump from something higher to something lower you yell, "AIRBORNE!"

December 7, 2010

My Brother is a Superstar!



He's the one celebrating Mass.  (You know how big sisters love to brag.)

December 5, 2010

Jingle Bell Fun

We are officially a road racing family. Yesterday all of us ran some version of the Southern Pines Jingle Bell Run/Egg Nog Jog in frigidly cold weather.  With snow flakes drifting over the runners at the 9am start, Maria, Anthony, Thomas and Bill took off while the other kids and I cheered them on.  Out of our family, Anthony finished the 5K first in 30 min, and Maria was only about 7 min behind him.  Maria especially worked hard for the race because Bill told her that if she didn't walk at all, she could have a banana split.  Our friend ran with her and encouraged her by saying, "C'mon Banana Split, you can do it!"

Thomas and Bill took longer because they ran the 10K (6.2 miles).  Thomas was one of only 6 kids between 1 and 15 to run it, and his training helped him keep a 10 min mile pace so he finished in just over an hour.  The best part was watching him sprint to the finish line so he could pass the runner ahead of him.

After our hardcore runners had finished their races, it was time for Charles, Cecilia, James and I to line up at the Egg Nog Jog start with our friends.  Sporting adjustable antlers and red noses from the cold, the little kids ran a quick lap and a half around the block--1/2 mile.  James got a sudden fit of nerves once we started, so he dragged his feet, looked worried, and helped me push Joseph in the baby jogger until he saw Bill on the sidelines.  Then his face lit up and he let go and ran as fast as he could to him.  Unfortunately, we were a half a block from the finish line (where I realized that a snow maker was contributing the snowflakes I had seen earlier) so he had a way to go before he was finally done and could slap hands (hooves?) with the Chick-fil-A cow.




December 1, 2010

Hair DO!


"Queen Crayola"