This week has been an interesting one, to say the least. On Tuesday night, we discovered that Paul needed to be admitted to the hospital and have surgery to remove a bone infection in his foot. Paul called one of his brothers to lament about his surgery and discovered that his brother, Earl, was being lifeflighted on life support to a trauma center with a brain aneurysm. This put everything in perspective. Earl has a beautiful family. He and his wife Nena have five daughters. Lexie, their youngest, is the same age as Rachel and they are very close cousins.

Wednesday morning, after getting Rachel and Spencer on the bus, I took Caitlin and Courtney to their parent-child workshop at school where we assembled gingerbread houses. The girls had a wonderful time and did a great job. They were very pleased with themselves. When I returned home, we took Paul to the hospital so he could be on IV antibiotics for 24 hours before his surgery.

Thursday, Paul went through surgery and everything went extremely well. Thanks to my friend, Katherine, who watched my kids, I was able to spend the day with him at the hospital. That evening, our beloved brother, Earl, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his eternal family.

We were hoping Paul would be able to come home on Friday because it was Rachel's birthday. Unfortunately, that was not the case so we took her party to his hospital room. With all that was happening, I didn't think I would have time to make a cake so I bought one. But Rachel was disappointed because she likes my homemade cakes so much more and wanted an orange flavored cake so I broke down and made her one as well. We took the store bought one to the hospital (easiest to transport) and kept the other one for the surprise that came later. When she got home from school, Rachel asked me if her grandparents' present had arrived because her Grandma promised it would be there on her birthday. I told her packages could come as late as 9 p.m. so she shouldn't worry. After we got home from the hospital that evening, the package arrived. . . but it was actually my parents who flew in to surprise Rachel for her birthday. None of the kids had any idea they were coming and they were all so excited! About ten minutes later, we saw flames coming from the dishwasher and discovered that it was on fire. After multiple attempts to stop the fire, I finally called the police department and they were able to safely remove the dishwasher. What an exciting end to a very crazy week. When I asked Rachel what she thought about her birthday, she said, "This will be a VERY long journal entry."


Courtney proudly displays her gingerbread house


Caitlin's is sure adorable!


Celebrating Rachel's birthday at the hospital with Daddy

There's our birthday girl! I can't believe she's 12 years old!

Now she's officially old enough to babysit her little sisters! Yes!

Opening her presents!


Grandma and Grandpa surprise Rachel with a visit on her birthday!

\ Blowing out her candles on her birthday cake

Her wishes will come true!

The next surprise brings the firetruck--the dishwasher is on fire!

Here they are, our heroes who save the day!

Let's get this burning dishwasher out of here!

From green grass to a winter wonderland!

The morning started with green grass and our trampoline in the neighbor's yard after it knocked down part of our fence and the fence around their pool equipment.


We had some friends help us remove it from their yard. And it's a good thing we got it done because by the afternoon, the yard looked a bit different!


Welcome to our winter wonderland!


The girls ran outside to savor the first packing snow of the season. Courtney seems to be enjoying herself.


Caitlin looks like a little snow bunny.


Rachel looks lovely in white!


Spencer didn't get home from his friend's birthday party until late but he was a huge help shoveling the driveway. I love it when my kids are old enough to actually help me with the chores! We also got in a little snowball fight once we were done!

I am not as spry as I was when I was Rachel's age. . .

On Friday, we spent the day with Aaron and Camille playing cards and watching the final Dancing with the Stars competition (a little late but it was the first time we had a chance to do it.) That afternoon, Spencer was invited to go ice skating for the first time with his friend, Liam. He fell a bunch of times but overall, had a great time and wants to go again really soon. When I told Rachel that Spencer was going ice skating, she pestered me until I finally agreed to take her that evening. We invited my friend, Laura, and her two girls to go with us. It took a few minutes to get used to skating again but it was as exhilarating as it always is. I fell down a couple of times on the rough ice (of course, it has nothing to do with my skating.) The last time, I hurt my shoulder a bit. My body doesn't recover as well as it used to these days. Oh well! We had a great time, despite our slips and slides!

Looking like a little ice princess

Getting used to the ice

Now she's skating!

Posing with best friend, Lauren

They're gliding around easily now!

I'm not the only one who fell down! Oops-a-daisy!

Thanksgiving Fun!

We enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with our niece, Camille, and her fiance, Aaron, along with my cousin James and his cute wife Amy and their darling three kids. It was a wonderful day.

All All ready for our guests! I meant to take a picture with everyone at the table but I forgot!


Spencer and Tyler play together after dinner


Levi enjoys running around the house with the other kids


Courtney dishes up her dessert!


Amy samples some pumpkin pie


James joins the other men in their annual Thanksgiving ritual: watching football games after the big meal.

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Paul adds color commentary to the football game.


Camille and Aaron--the cute couple soon to be married!


Check out the size of Courtney's fork! She must really love the pie!



Rachel and Emma relax after dinner.

Breathing a sigh of relief. . .

Friday, I went to Spencer's first grade parent teacher conference. Honestly, I was a little nervous. After all, Spencer is the only boy in our family and has A LOT of energy and has often come home from school unhappy because school was soooooooooooooo long. Therefore, I wondered how he was behaving and how he was doing academically. Guess what? Just like in kindergarten, he received rave reviews! He scored the best marks in all the behavioral categories and is performing well in all his academic pursuits. The teachers (the substitute he had for the first 2 1/2 months of school and his real teacher) had nothing but good things to say to me about him. Whew! What a relief! I'm very pleased with my little man.

Soccer Tournament

On Saturday, Rachel's soccer team began their final tournament of the season. It was a cold but sunny day and they played very well. They defeated Nazareth 3-0 and then played Moore Township and tied 1-1. I was hoping Rachel would score a goal in her final game of the season and she did! Her team continued in the tournament on Sunday (without Rachel--our family doesn't play on Sunday) and they placed 3rd. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day on the field. Rachel's done a terrific job this season. She is a talented soccer player and we're proud of her and her accomplishments in the sport. But if you think Rachel's sporting days are over, think again! She started basketball practices on Monday. Here we go again!

Rachel and her friend, Nicole

The triumphant team walks off the field to a standing ovation from the parents

Rachel just kicked that ball (This was zoomed 48x) Sorry about the bluriness.

Running to get the ball!

Fall Fun

So these first three pictures are cell phone pictures (thus poor quality) but you can see how much fun my kids have playing in the leaves. In our township, everyone rakes their leaves to the street and then township employees come around with a giant vacuum thingy and suck them up. Then they make mulch out of it. The awesome thing is that the mulch is free to township residents!