Update in Pictures

I really want to keep up with this because I really love family memories, but life is so full that it hasn't gone so well lately.  Let's see if I can hit the high points of the last 6 weeks...

Let's face it, this is a pretty high high point.  :)  Who doesn't love a toddler in 80's workout clothes?!  Allie rocked this costume and later even won a prize at the Halloween party she was decked out for.  

So much fun to do Halloween with friends!  We had some families over for dinner on this night and then all went to a party together.  Here are some of the girls doing makeup beforehand.

That's Joshua in there.  This costume lasted about as long as it took to take the picture.  Too little mobility for him.  

Allie wasn't the only one that went 80's.

 The boys finished up the cross country season with a county meet in which they were given the championship trophy in error.  Whoops.  They did win overall, though--just not this last meet.  

Joshua got his belated birthday party and began with a huge frisbee game on the big field in our neighborhood.  They played for hours, which worked out well because Matt was a little tied up with an uncooperative tree in our backyard.  But that's a whole other story.

Post-frisbee pizza dinner.  Yes, we let all these boys spend the night in our house.  Sooo thankful for that loft, where they were sequestered from 11 pm on and who knows what happened in there.  They cleaned up the next morning by downing dozens of leftover cans of pepsi with blatant disregard for sanitation.  Oh, teenage boys.

Halloween itself was a happy night, as each kid got to spend it with friends (and me too).  Matt was happy to hold down the fort at the end of the driveway and hand out candy, sometimes to unsuspecting nieces who thought he was just some "sketchy" guy.  And no, he was not in costume.  :)

Gray had his first Halloween out with no adults and he and his friends did a great job staying together, in spite of our worries.  

I stuck with these lovely ladies.  Julia was so psyched about her costume (Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy...which the boys would never have been allowed to see as young elementary kids, but that's what you get when you are a tough little sister with two big brothers) and loved trick or treating so much.  The big girls were good to wait for Allie, who went nonstop for quite awhile, not even want to be in the stroller....then hit a wall and zoned out.  The girls made up their own system of waving their glowsticks and getting a wave back from the moms to find their way in the dark after each house.  At one point I remember them laying down in the culdesac from exhaustion, but still protesting when we called it a night.  

Meanwhile, Joshua was creeping around the other side of the neighborhood, taking frequent breaks because T-Rex is not real fast.  :)  He had a great time with friends and even managed to cross to the other end of the neighborhood at the end of the night to see Nanny and Pa.

In November, I got to go with my dad to watch a State game.  It was cold, a little wet, and we lost.  But it was so nice to be in another world for a bit and just get to hang out with Daddy.

Gray has had lots of friend time this month, with several of his buddies-new and old- having birthday sleepovers.  I love that he's keeping the usual suspects around but also making several new friends with the influx of kids from other schools that happens in middle school.  

He and Matt got to go to a Duke game on a beautiful fall day.  They ended up with great seats, thanks to a family friend.

With the end of the fall sports season came the sports banquet.  We enjoyed watching the boys get several awards for their team's success and keeping up their grades.  I remembered that when Gray went to Joshua's banquet last year and saw him get a scholar-athlete award, he began to plan to get one for himself, asking me if organization counted in the awarding of this medal.  Well, buddy, it did and it didn't.  It's been tough at times for Gray to stay on top of the organization stuff, but somehow he managed to pull things off anyway.  

The girls cannot get enough of friend time.  When they get playdates, it tends to look like this...lots of pretending, dancing, performing, and happiness.

We spent Thanksgiving with Matt's family this year.  Matt was able to take off a few days and not have to go into work after we ate, so that was really nice for him.  Gray awoke Thanksgiving Eve feeling terrible with an ear infection, cough, etc.  He and I stayed home for Thanksgiving at first, but then he slept and was like a new man!  So we headed over to eat and before I knew it, he was out in the yard playing football in the cold.  Can't keep that boy down.  

We had a fun visit from Jeannie and the boys to finish off our Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids have so much fun together.  Julia gets right in there with the boys and my big boys get a little more "little kid" to hang with their younger cousins.  

We got our Christmas tree December 1st (Julia is not happy with having to bend down to fit into the shorter face here) and the kids had it decorated in no time.  We also did our shopping trip to the thrift store, where the kids all bought each other gifts for about $20 total.  

We also kicked off the Christmas season with a party for Joshua and some friends.  It was the first mixed gender party we've had and even though these kids play frisbee together all the time, they aren't so comfortable with this kind of socializing.  They warmed up from their segregated circle here and all had a good time and Joshua can't wait to do it again.  

We finished our weekend with the Hillsborough Christmas parade.  We were so bummed that the bands all canceled due to threat of bad weather, but we had fun hanging out with lots of friends anyway and it was very mild out, which made it even more enjoyable.  

Julia had a trial gymnastics class and loved it.  She'll start after the holidays and cannot wait!

If the weather cooperates, we have a whole lot coming up this month and it's all so fun!  We have three concerts next week, several frisbee and basketball games (the boys had their first frisbee game last night and Joshua was thrilled to get a score), some service events, parties, a visit home, and some special guests.  So many blessings in this special time of year!!

Settling in to normal days...with a little weird on the side

Life is full.  I have started back up my 4:30 a.m. mornings so I can teach more and it's going okay but I'm a needs-a-lot-of-sleep kind of person so I am tired.  Also, it's weird because this time last year I was doing my mock classes to interview for this job.  It feels strangely familiar when my early alarm comes on and I stumble past our pumpkin decorations to the office.  Can't believe it's been a year!  the other weird thing this month was yet another hurricane coming through our town.  We had anticipated the first for so long and got all geared up, but this one took most of us by surprise.  Not that it was anything terrible, but many of our friends lost power for a day or two and we missed two days of school again!  Such a strange start to the year.

(walking in the hurricane rain around the neighborhood)

Last month we had a fun visit from Mimi and GrandGene.  They took the girls to the boys' cross country meet while Matt and I got to go to a concert and then Mama and I got to have a loooonnng shopping trip just the two of us, while Daddy and Matt took Allie to the Wooden Nickel for a loooonnng lunch.  :)  We ended the night with some Whitt's frozen custard and a showing of our new family fav: Ultimate Beastmaster.

We have spent a lot of time watching the boys run this fall.  They have really enjoyed it and done well.  They have many friends running so it's lots of fun to cheer everyone on.  The boys still don't have that "best friend" bond I've always longed for them to have, but they are generally pretty civil and are having more and more times of just talking together or going out and playing outside together.  Their newest fav game is holding big bouncy balls and running into each other on the trampoline so one or both falls down.  I forget what they call it.  There's really not much I'd like more than to see them showing they care about each other, but I know from experience, sometimes these things take a lot of time, humility, and maturity.  

(I snapped this after church one Sunday when I made the boys run in to Food Lion for groceries.  They were successful, though notice they aren't the most cohesive team!)

 This pic below is my fav.  I love Gray's spirit, out front, giving his all. He's had his ups and downs starting school and I'm desperately trying to figure out how to parent his tween, ADHD, unique self.  We had a few rough weeks, but I think we're getting to a good-ish place and he's even showing some maturity.  He's starting to take responsibility for his schoolwork and he told me the other day after a party that he stopped himself from eating too much candy because he didn't want to feel sick later.  I about fainted.  Sometimes I just see the little boy because he can't keep track of his stuff, neglects his jobs, and forgets the things I ask him to do, but he is really growing up.  Like for real.

 And don't even get me started on Joshua.  He's just about as tall as me now and so mature.  Several times lately I've caught him with a little kid storybook he used love years ago and I wonder if he realizes he is leaving childhood behind and if he even knows how he feels about that.  He wouldn't say if he did.
He was reluctant to try cross country but has really enjoyed it too.  He's doing well in school, keeping his old friends and making new ones, just chugging along being pretty good at about everything he does.  He gets that sullen teenager mood every now and then, but he rarely has a sharp word for anyone but his two middle siblings...and he's willing to work on that.  Love my biggest boy.

 This one is having a pretty great year herself.  I was probably most concerned about her because of her newly diagnosed ADHD and math learning issue, but her teacher is sooo good and she is really thriving.  She told us the other day that they had a big math problem that they had to work on and she was the first in the class to figure it out.  For someone with her processing speed difficulties I was so impressed!  She also recently shared with the family how much she enjoys long tests like the EOGs.  Who knew?  She is something else and continues to amaze us with her outfits, drama, and just Julia-ness.

 Speaking of Julia, Allie wants to be just like her.  They do have conflict, but most of the time it's Allie annoying Julia because she feels rejected.  Usually they get along great though and have a lot of fun dancing, doing gymnastics, playing school, etc.

Hands down, their favorite thing is playing with friends--which usually means their newest neighbors and most available friends Addie and Ava.  Not a day (or sometimes hour) passes that they don't ask to play with their friends.  This pic below was one morning before school.  We asked her what was wrong and she said, "Addie Ava".

 (how we spent our hurricane days...)

 Allie loves school and is surprising us with how much she picks up on.  She can count some in Chinese now after I learned in my class from "Miss Jenny" and passed it along to her.  She also can tell us what days of the week she goes to preschool.  She notices everything and is often the one to find things that people are searching for.  She picks up on things we say too.  Gray hugged her and she said, "I love you but you need take shower."  We were eating breakfast this morning when she announced, "Mama, Julia loungin'!!" because Julia was laying on the couch instead of getting ready.  She was sitting on the potty and I was brushing my teeth.  She was chatting away and then stopped and said, "Stop bein' 'ruptin'!  I tryin' talk at you!"  Well then.

She loves to point out Chinese people that she sees and to talk about China.  "Jesus made sun and Julia and me....and Chinese kids...and I Chinese kid!"  Lately I keep being struck again by the fact that she's ours.  I look at Matt holding her and think- he is really Daddy to her and she remembers no other.  Wow.  When I go to pick her up from her class, she runs to me and calls me Mommy.  I mean, duh, but still--kinda crazy when you think about it.  I told her I loved her the other day and she responded, "I you best friend."

 Joshua is in the midst of the birthday that never ends.  He started the night before with sushi dinner out with Matt.

 On his birthday, a Monday, he got a special breakfast and gifts, then we had his XC meet after school followed by pizza and his requested trifle for dessert.  We ended the day watching some reality show with a guy who likes to catch and tag prehistoric-like alligator fish.  Or something like that.  Then a few days later he got to birthday shop for a few outfits with Nanny.  Then he will have his sleepover birthday party in a few days.  Must be nice turning 13! :)

 What else has been going on these days...

Julia walking to school with Matt and the rest of her school.  Each year they meet downtown and walk in together.  They had to drive to get to the meeting place of course, but whatever.

 Julia's mile run.  About a minute slower than the spring, due to her checking on a sick friend along the way and stopping to chat a few times.  I think she's got some natural ability in there if she wants to put her mind to it when she is older.  She is the social butterfly of the family for sure and that's not a bad thing.

 Gray went to the school Halloween dance with a few friends.  He did not dance, but ate and ran around and had a good time.  He was going to go as a "Dunkin' Donut", but ditched the donut part before he left.

 While Gray was at the dance and the other two had birthday sleepovers, Allie, Matt, and I went out to eat at a restaurant in our neighborhood area.  Allie was particularly fond of Matt's vodka pasta and snuggling with her daddy. :)

 We had a unique pumpkin party at school that also involved making bags to give out to homeless.

Next up, lots of Halloween activities this weekend, a visit from Mimi, Joshua's bday party, XC county meet, days off of school, and probably more that I can't remember!! And that's just October...it may be another month before I get back on here again.  :)