Back in the swing of things.....

Okay after way too long, and impending christmas cards to go out with this link I have decided to try and catch up from where I left off and then continue forward....

Since May we have had at least one major event each month here's the play by play:

May - Eme turns 3 we celebrate Disney style as the kids are in a Donald Duck phase. We make a weekend trip to Disney, and discover at 3 and 4 the kids were way more interested in the hotel pool and shopping for a toy at downtown Disney than actually going to the park - which was insanely crowded!!

June - Anna turns one, and after recovering from Eme's big bash and Paul's coming up in the future, I am afraid in true third child fashion we blew off having a party and staged a "candle blowing" on her big day for her baby book. Complete with many tears as Anna learned first hand that candles are HOT! Bad mommy was too busy trying to get the perfect photo.

July - Paul turns 40. Huge celebration, many of you were there. We filled the house with guests including the Dawes boys (as Paul refers to them in stories to the kids) and Paul's parents. It was a great time and helped Paul feel not so melancholy about such a huge milestone.

August - First big vacation. 15 days in Hawaii with the Rosses. We all stayed under one roof (on the water across from Diamond Head, Oahu). We had 5 adults and 6 kids 5 and under and a house full of priceless museum quality sculptures (one day they even had staff come over to polish them, while we pretended we didn't know how miniature hand prints that looks suspiciously like Mac and cheese got on them).

September - Second vacation, Rosie goes on maternity leave - we decide to "rough it" and not bring in temporary help. Off to Florida to celebrate Paul's parents turning 70. It was a fantastic affair where we were able to take credit without having to actually do any work - Thank you Chris and Barb (okay really just Barb) Dawes. Grayson and Eme lavished in all the cousin time, and were introduced to the Ninja Turtles for the first time.

October - Vacation #3 (boy isn't it great that Paul is still unemployed??) This time we were off to Cabo to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa Houser (my parents). The kids had a blast, Eme won 2nd place in the Halloween costume contest (she was Capt'n Hook to Grayson's Peter Pan). Grayson discovered snorkeling and is now at an ability to do so where the water depth was 20 feet (including diving down to closer inspect stuff)!! The especially enjoyed being able to eat rice and beans and burritos at every meal and the luxury of being able to shop from the beach chairs as the vendors walked by hawking their wares.

November - Anna is weaned (finally!). This must hardly seem like a note worthy event, and might have been in just about any other of our kids. However Anna "queen of the milk" Dawes thought life couldn't get any better when you have access to milk 24/7 including hourly pagings through the night. I finally had an epiphany in Mexico and decided 17 months was long enough and her weight/height in the upper growth percentiles meant she was probably not starving nor needing nutrition round the clock. And the biggest challenge of all I decided that I wanted to do this in a way that Anna wouldn't cry. Long story short it worked, and one of the biggest mothering challenges I feel I have accomplished (at least for now) and she now sleep beautifully through the night and eats the rest of us under the table during the day - favs being "uvas" - grapes and mom's lasagna.

December - is it December already! Rosie is back from maternity leave (yay!!) with baby Dara in tow. The kids adore her (well okay maybe only Grayson and Anna do). Big event (besides xmas) is Grayson turns 5 (holy cow I can't believe he's 5!!!) In contrast to last years party (where Santa visited) this year was all about Spooky. And how convienient for mom as I was able to pick up all the decorations, party favors, etc at a great discount now that Halloween was over. The biggest highlight being the "Haunted Playroom". Grandma Houser deserves much credit here, though it wouldn't have been the same without Great Aunt Jill playing the witch and Grayson patiently waiting behind a stack of boxes to jump out and scare the pants off everyone. My favorite was the bobbing for apples. Who knew that the kids would be so determined to get an apple (and all at the same time) and why didn't I have the foresight to think about how unsanitary bobbing for apples is??

Christmas is going to be here, but that's not for a whole nother 11 days!

okay now at least I feel things are up to date if you are only here to read this one posting Happy Holidays!