Santa Claus

We had our church Christmas party last week, and Santa came to visit. The kids were so excited to see him.

Unfortunately I didn't get grate pictures, and I also forgot to get one with Sarah. I hope we have another chance for Sarah to see him, otherwise, we won't have one of those famous pictures with Santa where the kid is screaming, because I'm pretty sure that's what she would do.

On another note, here are our kids enjoying our "fire". We were so excited when we found out that the house we were going to rent here in Boston had a fireplace. We needed to get it cleaned before we could use it, and unfortunately we received bad news, it's not usable. This house is so old, and the fireplace is falling apart, so it could cause major problems, and even catch the house on fire if we used it, and we don't want that to happen.

So, we had to improvise with candles. My kids love it, and don't really know the difference. Clarissa keeps asking me to light the fire so we can keep our house warm. I'm sure it does just that, those candles put off so much heat!

Clayton is Three!

At 2:06 a.m. today Clayton turned 3! We waited until he woke up to celebrate and wish him a Happy Birthday. He has been looking forward to his birthday, his cake, and his party for a very long time. I'm glad the day finally arrived, I was tired of telling him that it wasn't his birthday just about every day.

We started the morning off with breakfast in bed. In Clayton's case, breakfast on the floor. Lately he has not been wanting to sleep in his bed, he just camps out on the floor every night. This made it a lot easier to sit by him. He had fun eating breakfast and opening his presents. He had so much fun playing with his new toys that it took him forever to eat. We tried to move him into the kitchen to eat, but he wanted to stay in his room. (When I was getting lunch ready, I told him to get up to the table, but he ran into his room. I went to get him, and he told me he wanted to eat in his room. I was afraid we had started a bad habit with him, but I did get him to come in and eat lunch. Luckily he didn't try that for dinner too.) He gladly shared his breakfast with Clarissa, but he didn't give her the first bite like she has with him on her birthdays. I try to make them their favorite breakfast on their birthdays, so, he got scrambled eggs, and hot chocolate. I was going to make pancakes too, but we were running short on time before we had to get Clarissa to school, so he got a Nutri-grain bar instead, maybe next year!

He was so excited for his train cake. I was going to wait until his party to show it to him, but he really wanted to see it. He loved it, and had fun putting more of his Diego's and animals on it. He and Clarissa had a lot of fun just looking at it. I was glad I didn't wait to show him, he was able to enjoy it a lot more. I wasn't very happy with how it turned out, but he loved it, and that's what matters. Unfortunately, the engine fell apart, I need to come up with a better design.

I had set the candles on the table next to the cake so they would be ready for the party. Clayton decided to put them in for me. According to the candles, he turned 10 this year. Luckily I didn't leave the lighter on the table, otherwise, knowing him, he would have figured out how to light them.

We had Uncle Randy and his kids over for cake, unfortunately Aunt Judianne couldn't make it.

I love Clayton's smile in this picture, he was just so excited.

He blew out all of the candles, but not in one breath. He also started to get a little slobbery toward the end, so we made sure he got the piece.

Enjoying the cake and ice cream!

Thanks to everyone who helped Clayton have a wonderful birthday. He is so excited to be 3. He tells me that since he is 3 now he will get potty trained, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

I can't believe our little guy is 3 already. He drives us crazy, but we are crazy about him. He brings so much joy and laughter into our home. It'll be fun to see what this next year brings!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

p.s. Happy Birthday to Q's sister Heidi, and our friend Heidi. We are happy that Clayton shares his birthday with you gals.

Diabetes Center Halloween Party

Clarissa's Endocronologist office had a Halloween party last Saturday. I realized I didn't get great pictures of the kids in their costumes. Clayton was Superman, and Clarissa was Sleeping Beauty. This was such a fun Halloween party for our kids. They painted pumpkins, played a bunch of games, got lots of prizes, made a few crafts, went through a spooky haunted house (very tame for our kids, they even went through a second time), watched a magician do card tricks, and had snacks.

Now that we have celebrated Halloween 3 times, (I'll have to post the other pictures later), we are ready to celebrate Clayton's birthday tomorrow.

The other day, I heard Clayton in his room yelling for me. I ran in there, and he had opened all the drawers in his dresser, which made it heavy enough to start tipping over, and he was standing there holding it up with his little body. I was glad I heard him, and it didn't fall over on him.

The picture below brings us to the next day. Since he learned how easy it was to tip over, he decided to try it again, at least that's what I can figure out. According to Clarissa, he had wrapped a long black ribbon through all of the handles of the drawers and stood back and pulled as hard as he could, until it came crashing down. Luckily no one was in the way, and everyone was ok. When I picked up all the drawers, the ribbon was wrapped several times through all of the handles.

The ribbon has been put away, and the dresser has been put back in the closet where it belongs. It was out because they had to run some water pipes through it from the upstairs apartment to the basement. In the closet it just barely fits underneath a lower bar that is in there for clothes, so there's no chance of it being tipped over again.

Triathlon 2011

Back in June Quinn and I decided we were going to do a Triathlon in Boston this year, and be a team. Quinn's brother's family that also lives here in Boston does it every year. We decided that Quinn was going to do the quarter mile swim and the 10 mile bike, and I would do the 3.5 mile run. I started training back in June, although my training wasn't very religious since we were busy getting ready to move. I did at least accomplish a new first in my life time, and that was to run a mile without stopping. I know that sounds pathetic that I didn't even do it in highschool, but glad I finally did it. I realized that a big part of running is a mental thing, and I just kept pushing myself to run, and it wasn't that bad. Anyways, on to the day of the triathlon.


(Clarissa and cousin Nichole)
The triathlon was on September 10, at Cape Cod. We went down the night before and had a pasta dinner at Olive Garden, and then rested up for the big day, at least that was the hope. Clayton and Sarah woke up several times in the night, sleeping in a new place does not work well with my children. Plus, we had to wake up at 5:30 am, and leave by 6 so we could register, and start the race at 7:30. Everyone looked at our kids funny because we dragged them to the beach still in their pjs, but I wasn't going to wake up earlier than we had to.

Clarissa and Clayton were also given swim caps, which they just thought was fun to put on Sarah's head. The kids had a great time playing at the beach while Quinn and I did the race.

Quinn did a great job with the swim and the bike. I survived the run, and actually shaved 3 minutes off my time from when we did this 6 years ago when we lived here before. It's not hard to shave off 3 minutes when you are running very slow and averaging a 14 minute mile. My goal was to run the entire thing, even if it was slow. I only walked for a couple of blocks for a water break. I was glad I ran the whole thing, but at the same time, after the fact, felt like I could have and should have run faster. I guess that's what next year is for!

We took a few pictures after the race. We took this one, and realized we were standing right in front of an ambulance, luckily we didn't have to ride in it.

Much better background.

Not a great family shot, the sun was in our eyes.

Sarah was also extremely tired and hungry, so she was happy that we were done.

We had such a fun time doing the triathlon, and were glad that lots of family and friends did it. Quinn and I realized we are out of shape. We totally got wasted by all the other individuals and teams in our group, we came in last place of our group, but 2nd to last place of all the teams in the triathlon. Like I said, we are already looking forward to next year, and hopefully we can train a little better.

Creative Clayton

Clayton loves playing with these instruments, and building different ones, I think this is one of the biggest ones he made. This is actally a set I had when I was a kid, I'm glad my mom kept it, all my kids love it, even Sarah.

Clayton always climbs over our couch, even though he's not supposed to. This time he got stuck, and I was tempted to leave him! I rescued him just after I took the picture.

I don't remember why this picture was taken, but I think he looks like he's up to something!

This was on our move to Boston. I was driving alone with Clayton and Sarah, and I heard a little voice from the back saying "me draw, me draw". Not much you can do about a boy with a pen when you have hundreds of miles to drive and you don't want to stop. Luckily he didn't draw on his clothes, or anything else that couldn't be washed off.

Couple of House Pictures

I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of our house, more to come, once I get it clean enough (and keep it clean) to take a picture, so who knows when that will be!

Couple different views of our kitchen, however, we now have a new white stove.

The kids bedroom.

We really like the house we live in, and feel so lucky to have found it. My kids especially love the fact that we have lots of friends that live right upstairs from us. We live in a two-family home, we are on the bottom level, and our land lords live upstairs and have 6 kids, ranging from age 13 down to 3, so it's perfect for Clarissa and Clayton. We also love that we are a 2 minute walk from Clarissa's elementary school, and Quinn is also a 2 minute walk, in the other direction, to the bus stop. We can't believe we have already been in Boston 2 months now, we are starting to feel a little more settled.

Wagon picture

I found the picture of Clarissa in the wagon, I think she was about 7 months old. It's fun to look at both her and Sarah doing the same thing and compare them at the same stage.

Creative Clayton

Clayton outside with the bright sun!

Clayton wishes he could go to school with Clarissa, and was very sad every day that we took her to school for about the first week. There are times that I think he is ready. Like when he packs his own snack.

The first time I had to pack Clarissa a snack for school, Clayton insisted on packing a snack too. I gave him some pieces of cheese, but he packed the rest. I love how the fruit snacks and especially the gatorade got put in a baggy! Oh, how I love this kid!

He is finally ok with not going to school, he's stopped asking every morning, but he still packs himself a lunch or snack most mornings as I'm getting Clarissa's ready, and carries it around in his little back pack.

Smiley Sarah

I tried to recreate a picture with Sarah that I have of Clarissa when she was a baby. I don't have time to try to find the one of Clarissa, but I wanted to post this of Sarah.

The picture I have of Clarissa is one of my Mom's favorite of her, because of the expression on her face. Sometime I'll have to find the other one to compare, but for now, here is Smiley Sarah!

Sarah loves to eat black beans, and loves to give herself a facial with them.

And for those of you who have not met Sarah, she is "smiley" like this all of the time!