MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and is looking forward to a great New year in 2008! We are looking forward to 2008 with great hope for this year. We are expecting this to be the year we actually get to choose a place to settle down for a very long time, when Scott is finally done with any and all schooling he is going to do around September. This will be a wonderful time for us!!!! We love you all!

The Christmas Tree

We went out to cut down a Christmas tree today! We had a lot of fun. Dogs were welcome at this tree farm so we got to take Bella along with us, which made it even better. She had so much fun getting out of the house and meeting up with other dogs. The kids helped pick out the tree to cut down and Alex was a very big helper to Scott, watching him saw and helping drag the tree all the way to the car!

When we got home we had so much fun setting up the lights and decorations. We haven't actually seen our own decorations for several years since we have been flying home to Mom and Dad's every year lately, so it was interesting pulling out ornaments that we forgot we even had. The tree looks beautiful and we finally feel like we might be getting into the Christmas Spirit. We had a great weekend!

Where does time go?

Honestly, I cannot for the life of me figure out where time is going....it is breezing by so fast! Halloween whooshed by and it is already time for Thanksgiving. Wow! I remember the days and years going by so slowly when I was younger; counting down the days until each Holiday or break from school. Now it seems like every time I turn around Alex has a day off for some holiday or other. Especially when he gets off for EVERY holiday, including Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur and things like that. I actually found myself doing a little Christmas shopping yesterday! I guess it's good to start a little early, but I also know if I didn't start now Christmas would be here before I could blink and I would still have most of my shopping to do. But I often wonder if the days go by as slowly for my kids as they did for me when I was younger. I hope so.

On the other hand it does seem like forever ago that I actually gave birth to my kids...these crazy kids who have become my world, my everything. And other major events like ringing in the new millenium, 9/11, my wedding (there was a time when Scott and I weren't together?). They do seem like forever ago.

To update on our family.....Halloween was very busy and a lot of fun too. We started our day early, getting Alex off to school, then taking Analeigh to a friends house to play while I went on a field trip to the beach with Alex's class. We got to dig around in the salt marsh area while the tide was low to look for living things, which the kids were great at spotting and putting in our bucket. Unfortunately, I got a little too brave for myself and picked up a fairly large crab which reached right under himself and grabbed onto my thumb for dear life. I thought he might take my thumb with him if I pulled him off. One of the other adults that was chaperoning helped me pull it off and, thankfully, the crab left my thumb where he found it. Oh, it hurt though. And scared poor Alex to see his Mom with a crab clinging on to her hand! It was quite the story to go home with. After the field trip I picked Analeigh up from the friends we rushed to get some lunch then hurried back to Alex's school where they were having a "storybook character parade". Alex dressed up as one of the characters from his favorite book series- "Magic Tree House". After school we had a short break before getting on the Halloween costumes to go trick or treating with some friends. When we arrived at our friends house to start on the candy hunt, we realized that somehow Analeigh had made it there without any shoes! So Scott took her back home to get her princess slippers while Alex and I went ahead with our friends. We got home right before 8pm and the kids had even more fun giving out candy to the kids who were still out running door to door than I think they had doing the trick-or-treating. Next year maybe we'll just stay home and hand out candy!

Time has flown by since Halloween with playdates, soccer games, dance lessons, walking Bella, Doctors appointments, etc., etc., etc. Oh, and to add to all that I started working--teaching preschool at the YMCA. Analeigh gets to go too, which is fun for her, and good for me. Scott stays extremely busy at the hospital...I think they're going to owe these residents a few years of their lives back after this. But at the same time he loves what he does, which is not something everyone can say about their jobs.

I love bedtime...when time seems to slow down for a few minutes and we have family scripture time and prayers together. It is a great reminder of what is truly important. I am so grateful for the time I have with my kids and Scott and to be able to teach my children values and self-worth that are not found in the world very often.

Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I Recall Central Park in Fall...

However in our version, nobody tore their dress, at least. We did, however, take a train ride in to NYC. We strolled through Central Park and visited the Museum of Natural History. The occasion? Alex's 7th birthday!! It was a spontaneous trip that was taken mostly out of guilt that we weren't really having a birthday party for the poor kid, and he loved the museum the last time we visited it...2 years ago. We finished off the evening by dining at TGIFridays in Times Square. And to Alex's surprise our waiter announced to the whole dining room that it was Alex's birthday and everyone sang happy birthday to him while they presented him with a gigantic bowl of ice cream. He was very happy about that. Right now he is being the ever-entrepreneur that he is and setting up a table outside to sell some of his old toys to make money. Plan A was to sell lemonade, but alas we had none, so he created a plan B. Oh Boy!!

Our first post!

Hi everyone...thanks to the popularity of blogs and some of our friends just starting one, we decided to start a blog spot. Especially since we move around so much it is kinda hard to keep up with us. So, here goes....

Well, we are settled in our house in Norwalk, Connecticut for now. Well, as settled as you can get in, what, 3 weeks. We still have a few boxes here and there, but Scott has started his surgical residency, Alex is now in first grade and back to soccer, and Analeigh and I are having fun exploring around our new area and going to Yoga and dance lessons.

Oh, yes, it was a high priority to get Alex on a soccer team out here. His second day of school he came home with a flyer about the community soccer club and we got him signed up. He has had one practice and one game...it seems to be a really good soccer club so far. They really had them working out for their practice and then gave them really good guidance during the game. It was a lot of fun. He is really happy when he can get out there and play hard.

Analeigh got to start dance this year at 3 1/2 years old. She looked so adorable in her little tights and leotard and ballet and tap shoes!! Oh, now I'm excited. And she loved it! She has been practicing around the house since her first class. Yea! (Of course she'll get to try soccer next year too!)

Scott has been put right to work in this surgery rotation. He gets to go have his first class at Yale Univ. this Thursday. It still bothers him to have me tell everyone he is doing a surgical residency through Yale. He doesn't like to seem braggy. But I think it is wonderful.

The weather has fortunately changed to beautiful autumn this week (although I hear it is supposed to warm a bit again this weekend). I love the fall, especially here in the northeast. I am looking forward to the leaves changing and falling--that is the best time of the year, no?