Doctor Visits for Natalie

Natalie has had a number of doctor's appointments for various reasons these last two weeks. Last Monday she had an appointment with the orthodontist to get her braces removed. She's been eating lots of popcorn and chips since then. Her orthodontist noticed some drainage from one of her teeth, something the dentist noticed earlier this month during her dentist apointment. He didn't want to do anything at the time until her braces were off, so he could examine the area better.

Last Thursday, she went back to the dentist, who took some X-rays. He recommended waiting to do anything because this is a baby tooth that will fall out probably within a year. He did also say that he was going to consult her orthodontist and a pediatric dentist. Well, this week he called to say that they decided to give her antibiotics for now. She really hates the taste of the antibiotics, but she has been good about taking them. Her orthodontist doesn't want the tooth pulled because it could change the alignment of her teeth, so the next choice would be doing a sort of "root canal". The thought of her needing one of those scares me.

This past Tuesday, Natalie had another apointment with the orthodontist to get her retainer. She surprised me by cleaning her retainer (with denture cleanser) after one day--on her own. Patrick still has to remind Anthony to clean his retainer at least once a week. She talks a little funny with the retainer in and apparently she's had kids at school point that out as well. She appears to be taking it all in stride.

Finally, today she saw a dermatologist. She has had an eczema-type rash on her back side off and on for years. Sometimes it gets so bad and she scratches it so much that she breaks the skin, resulting in scabs. She sometimes laments about how her baby brother's bottom is smooth while hers is not. I worry because of her discomfort that causes this, and because she's a girl and any sort of scarring is not ideal, especially for this swimmer. The area affected can be seen when she wears a swimsuit. The dermatologist gave her a prescription for some cream to put on the area. He also recommended different soap to wash with, a different lotion to put on, and no dryer sheets for her clothing and bedsheets. He had also recommended a specific detergent, but we already use that one. She has a followup appointment in three weeks. I hope we see some improvement and I hope that will be all the doctor visits for Natalie for a while.

Better Pizza

This evening, on the way home from swim team, Natalie announced to me that Anthony has to stay home more because she hardly sees him. He often comes home after she's already in bed. Considering that she goes to bed as early as 7:15pm on her own, she really doesn't see Anthony that much. She also randomly stated that she loves Anthony because he makes pizza for her. I replied that Alex also makes pizza for her. She then said, "Anthony makes better pizza." Keep in mind that Anthony and Alex both use the same HEB brand pepperoni pizza when they "make" pizza. We told Anthony this when we got home and of course Anthony said, "But it's the same pizza." Natalie said, "I don't know why, but your pizza just tastes better." Anthony said, "It must be the placebo effect." :)

Eric came in after Natalie left the room. I asked him if he had hugged Anthony yet. Anthony said, "No he didn't." Eric promptly climbed up on Anthony's bed and gave him a hug. Then, Eric lay there all folded up on Anthony for a little while. I thought maybe that he was giving Anthony an extra long hug, but then Eric said, "Anthony is still holding me." I thought that was so sweet that Anthony gave his little brother such a big hug and Eric didn't try to squirm away.

It's so true that Natalie hardly sees Anthony. On Monday, I was on call, so Patrick went straight from Natalie's piano lesson to pick up Alex. He then fed that kids at the KFC near Anthony's school and then picked up Anthony after his soccer practice at 6pm. On Tuesday, Patrick picked Anthony up at 2:15pm from school so they could go to Anthony's friend's mother's funeral. From there they went back to school by around 5pm so Anthony could catch the team bus for the varsity soccer game. Yes, he actually played varsity on Tuesday and not junior varsity. Patrick came home briefly to change out of his suit and then went to the stadium where Anthony played his game. They didn't get home until 9:30pm. Natalie went to bed before 8pm after swim team practice. Anthony doesn't get home on most weekdays until around 6:30pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Natalie is already at swim team practice. Natalie will have a difficult time when Anthony goes off to college. She's already saying that she wishes that he could stay home.

I love that she feels close to Anthony. I love that Anthony is such a good big brother.

A Trip To The Mall

I've been playing around with the various photo apps on my iPhone lately. These two came from the Instagram app. I've also been using my iPhone a lot more than my big camera for photos. It's always with me and I can apply these cool filters/frames while on the go. The photos aren't as good but I love the emotion behind the photos I get, especially with Eric.

I spent most of the day resting from the past week. I really should get more sleep on a nightly basis. I finally left the house this afternoon because Anthony wanted to go to his friend Alejandro's soccer game at 4:30pm. Just after we left the house he learned that the game was actually at 2:30pm. I had planned on going to La Canterra Mall with Alex and Eric. Natalie was at home playing with a friend and Patrick was trying to avoid the allergy attacks he gets when he's outdoors. With the change in plans, Anthony went with us to the mall.

I had promised Eric that we were going to the outdoor playground at the mall. He had been cooped up in the house and he needed some outdoor time. In the first picture above, he was playing in the area made to look like hollowed out trees, complete with "knots" that were little windows to peep through. He was being goofy and hiding his head. In the second photo he was talking through the mounted megaphone. He kept turning it around and around as if to avoid me taking a picture of him. Most of the time he was waiting in line to go down one of the slides. There were a lot of kids there. I forgot what the mall is like on Saturday afternoons.

While we were at the playground, the big boys were shopping. We met them at the food court for dinner and then we went to Brindles for dessert. Alejandro is now spending the night here. I still can't get used to Anthony's friends driving themselves over to our house. Alejandro is like part of the family anyway, in fact, Alex said he should have his own key and Natalie considers him her fourth brother. :)

Spelling Bee and Game Night

Natalie was chosen to represent her class in her school Spelling Bee, which was scheduled for today at 1:15pm. I wasn't able to go because I was at work, but Patrick was there. She started telling me yesterday about how she was scared and nervous. We talked about how Patrick would be there and how seeing him should make her smile. She replied that seeing him would make her more nervous. All I could do was hug her and reassure her that she would be fine.

Patrick said that they tried to keep the Spelling Bee low-key to keep the kids from getting too nervous by having it in a small room with just the parents watching, instead of the big stage in the cafeteria. When I got home, she came up to me wearing this tag around her neck saying that she felt like wearing it. She then told me that she placed 17th out of 20 kids and that the winner was a third grader. She said that having the parents there made her more nervous. Still, she seemed proud of herself and happy about the Spelling Bee.

This afternoon, the boys and I came home after getting our hair cut, we ate dinner, then we had a family game night. I posted this photo of Alex because I actually caught him smiling. He usually covers his face so I can't get a good photo. He's got a beautiful smile. I also wanted to show how his hair barely looks like it's been cut, even though it was just cut this afternoon. Patrick gets a bit frustrated about that, but I want Alex to be happy with how he looks.

Apples to Apples is one of our favorite games. The game basically involves picking a card that has an adjective on it. Each player has cards on which are written people, places, and things. Each player picks a card that matches that adjective category and we take turns being the "judge" who decides which card has the best fit for that adjective.

We have so much fun just because sometimes it's clear that everyone was trying to get rid of one of their card because none of the cards seems to fit the category. There are additional problems depending on which player is the judge. We all know that Natalie will pick whatever card contains "sharks" or describes something that is red even if it has nothing to do with the category. Sometimes Alex will ask Eric to pick a card and of course Eric won't know what he's picking. I think he picks based on which one gets the most laughs from the rest of the family. Anthony seems to be the judge whenever we're all trying to get rid of our hard-to-get-rid-of cards.

Anthony has been feeling a bit down because he wasn't asked to go at all to this soccer tournament this weekend (Thursday through Saturday) with the Varsity team. That was why he was home with us instead of at soccer. On the plus side, he made plans with a couple of friends tomorrow since his weekend is now free. He was working on homework tonight and missed some of the game night as a result. He must have been desperate, because he even asked ME a Physics question. I realized that it's been 25 years since I took Physics!

Well, I'm rambling now, so I'll stop there. I'll try to post more photos tomorrow.

Midweek Update

It's been nice to get a little break recently. The boys have not had club soccer practice, so that's helped give them (and us) a little more free time, more or less. Of course tonight, Anthony had a scrimmage (meaning it was not a regular season game that counts towards standings) which meant that Patrick was gone to watch his 5pm game, while I stayed with the other kids. He played with the Junior Varsity team tonight at 5pm and stayed to watch the Varsity team at 7pm. His coach has said that he is on the Varsity team, but because there are so many seniors that he wants to play on the Varsity team, sometimes Anthony will also play with the JV team. He and his friend Chuck were the only juniors playing tonight with the JV team and they were the team captains. Anthony said that he was happy that he played well but disappointed that the game ended in a 2-2 tie. He didn't get home until after 9pm tonight and now (at 10:30pm) he's finishing up his homework.

Alex also had homework, so when we got home around 4:30pm, he started working on that. We left around 5:30pm to go to Target. The kids always love going to Target. Natalie wanted to use up some of the Target gift cards that she has received as gifts and she ended up buying a Nerf gun. I also bought her a sports bra because she is starting to develop in that area. When she put the Nerf gun in the shopping cart, I was struck by the irony of that sight. What a contrast between the Nerf gun (with the drop-down handle, laser sight, and extra bullets) and the sports bra. Yes, my little girl is a study in contrasts.

While Alex was doing his homework, I was helping Natalie review for a Spelling Bee that she has on Friday afternoon. I was trying to give her some tips on how to do well, like saying the word out loud before spelling it or asking for a definition to make sure it was the right word. We were using a word list that she received from her teacher. I never realized that "chickabiddy" was a word until I saw that list!

Alex has had some trouble again this week. He was home from school yesterday (Tuesday) because he was nauseous. We're not sure what was going on but with lots of rest that day, he felt and looked a lot better by the afternoon. Unfortunately, Patrick also checked his grades online that day. Alex had a 70 in PE, a 74 in English, and an 80 in Spanish. He wasn't dressing out again in PE. We've never demanded straight A's from the kids, but we have always demanded that they try their best. That is not Alex's best. We know he is capable of so much more. Patrick spent some time yesterday figuring out a point system where Alex has to keep all of his grades up in order to earn game time on the PS3. If he doesn't keep up his grades then we will pull him out of his magnet school. We don't want to put out the extra effort of transporting him to and from a school if he doesn't put out the effort to do well at that school.

Despite the trouble yesterday, we had a nice time tonight. Alex bought his little brother another car with his own money. He is such a sweet kid! We met Patrick for dinner at Chipotle, one of Alex's favorite places to eat. He was also very receptive to the suggestions Patrick made concerning his writing assignment homework that he was working on tonight. I hope things continue to keep going up with Alex and with his siblings.

Nerf Gun Bullets and Braces Off

Mom and Dad left this morning. :( We had a fairly low key federal holiday after that.

Eric played all over the house as is his usual fashion. There are cars all over the gameroom upstairs and the living room downstairs. Those cars can crash over and over again all day. He also played "Nerf Wars" with Alex and Natalie. That meant that they built "forts" all over the upstairs hallway, making it difficult even to go up and down the stairs. As I came downstairs, I found him with a new use for the Nerf gun "bullets". He was climbing up on the windowsill and sticking the suction cup part of the "bullets" on the window glass and really enjoying himself in the process. We all had to smile at his creativity.

Both of the big boys did their own playing, except that they played on the PS3 instead. Anthony's choice today was Skyrim and Alex's choice was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. Anthony was making up for lost time when he was in Austin this weekend. He did, however, do some leftover homework as well.

Natalie is the one that had the "big" day today. This morning she got her braces off. Yay! She "celebrated" by joining me at a baby shower for a co-worker at a local Mexican restaurant where she had lots of chips and queso dip. Here she is having having popcorn after dinner. Patrick popped one bag just for her and one for the rest of the family. She ate most of that bag by herself, although Alex helped a little. We were telling everyone at the baby shower about her braces coming off. She also went to her piano lesson today and told her teacher. I'm sure that tomorrow, everyone at school will know about her braces coming off!

We watched some shows on the DVR tonight--Grimm, The Finder, and Person of Interest. We didn't do anything too productive, partly because we're resting for the rest of the week. Tomorrow we'll be back to our busy schedule. Alex starts club soccer practice again. Anthony has a varsity soccer game. Natalie has swim team class. It's a good thing it'll be a short week.

Kids' Cafe

Natalie was picked to be in the Kids' Cafe this past Friday (the 13th). There's a stage in their cafeteria. The kids who have behaved in class get to sit on the stage to eat lunch one Friday each month. Each child only gets picked once a year. They can pick someone to eat with them, either someone outside the school (like a relative) or a classmate. Natalie asked Lola one time last year and she's asked me to go before, so she wanted to pick Papa this time. She knew Lola would be here in town though, so she was hoping that Papa would come and bring food that Lola made. :) Patrick had a talk with her and since Lola was visiting, they decided together that Natalie would ask Lola to eat with her.

Lola brought some of this shredded fish that she makes the Natalie loves (and all the other grandkids too, except for Nick). She also brought her some sweet bread, brownies, and juice. Papa was nice enough to get some pictures with his camera phone for me, and Natalie looked so excited when she opened up the lunchbox. These are the little things that the kids really love and I love seeing that excitement.

By the way, doesn't my Mom just look fantastic? She is 72 and I want to be like her when I grow up. Love you, Mom! :)

Show And Tell Pajamas

My Mom and Dad have been here since Wednesday. The kids have been really enjoying their time with us. They're so lucky! Both sets of grandparents have been here this year already! :) I snapped this photo of Mom looking at photos on Facebook. She doesn't have an account (yet), so she was looking at photos that one of my aunts posted of my maternal grandmother's birthday party in the Philippines. Eric loves to look at pictures on the computer so he climbed onto her lap. She loves how cuddly he can be and I love watching them interact.

I was on call last night so this is the sight that greeted me when I got home this morning. Today was "Wear Your Pajamas" Day at Eric's school and he was so excited that he didn't have to change clothes this morning. I reminded him that he still needed to comb his hair (notice the hair sticking up in the front). He asked "Why?" I replied, "Just because you're wearing your pajamas to school doesn't mean you don't have to comb your hair!" I tried to wet down the hair but it was quite resistant, so I decided that it didn't matter that much that it was sticking up, because I didn't want him to go outside in the cold weather with wet hair.

Of course it was also Show and Tell day and he brought Nigel Gearsley and Carla Veloso. Mom just gave him Nigel yesterday and he's been super excited ever since! He was literally bouncing around the house, which made it hard to get him to put on his shoes and coat so he could go to school. He was only at school for about an hour and a half because then I picked him up for his make-up swim lesson. He was supposed to have a swim lesson last Wednesday, but his regular teacher was on vacation and no one else showed up.

I have lots more pictures, but I'll have to share them another time. I'll try to post again tomorrow.

Waffle Saturday

On Saturday, I used my new waffle iron for the first time, a birthday gift from my parents. There were only three recipes included in the instruction booklet, and two of them involved bacon drippings, so I looked online for recipes and found a good one at Food.com. I goofed at one point. I wasn't thinking of anything but trying to cut down on the cleanup by using less containers, so I inadvertently added the cold milk into the same measuring cup as the melted butter. Of course the melted butter started congealing and I had tons of little lumps in my batter that I couldn't get out. No matter, it still tasted great! Unfortunately, the recipe only made five waffles--one waffle short for my six-person family. I was the last to eat, of course, so I ended up eating half of Eric and one fourth of Natalie's waffle.

Oh, and before I started making the batter, I found out I didn't have any more baking powder. Patrick willingly went to the store. While there he picked up some mini chocolate chips and Cool Whip whipped topping because he thought those would taste good on his waffles. Great idea! I went ahead and also made some turkey bacon because I wanted to make sure the kiddos had enough to eat.

I must have eaten enough because I took a nap right around lunchtime and I didn't eat until mid-afternoon. It must have been a good nap, because I didn't get to bed until around midnight after Patrick and I went to see Les Miserables at the Majestic. That was a fantastic show! I remember my parents taking me quite a long time ago, but I didn't remember the story. I also don't remember enjoying it as much then, but I have to say, reading the synopsis before the show helped me follow the story line a lot better. The singing, the staging, and the music were all fabulous.


Patrick and Natalie have been suffering a lot lately from allergies, almost to the point that they aren't able to function. Apparently the Mountain Cedar is high right now. Last week I was okay, although I felt very tired and I went to bed early (like 8:30ish) a few nights in a row, but today it hit me. I'm feeling better after the Benadryl, but now I'm really sleepy (because of the Benadryl). Tonight will be another very early night for me. I worked on my first week of Project Life today. I couldn't get a good picture this evening, so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Report Cards

The kids got their report cards today. I clumped the kids' report cards together in this picture so I wouldn't have to open up Photoshop to blur our last name and address. The top one is Anthony's, then Alex's, and Natalie's down at the bottom.

Anthony has some very challenging classes but I found it interesting that his lowest grade is in Spanish. He says that all his teachers love him, except for his Spanish teacher. He also has an extra "comment code" next to AP Physics which means "achievement is outstanding". I found this interesting since he has his second lowest grade in that class. That teacher has a reputation for being tough and I know that Anthony is able to rise to that challenge.

Alex did a great job pulling up all his grades in the second part of the semester. He even pulled up his grade in English despite a teacher he doesn't get along with. I'm proud of him for that. He still complains about her, but he tolerates her now and he doesn't let it affect his work. He has extra comment codes in Science which stand for "achievement is outstanding", "effort is commendable", and "exhibits positive attitude". He also got awards for the highest grade in Math and one of the top grades in Texas History.

Natalie is doing well too, but Patrick and I had to make a comment to her about how she got "satisfactory" in Music and Conduct whereas she got "excellent" grades in the others. She told us that she's been trying not to talk so much. ;)

Anthony had his first soccer game this year on Thursday when his high school team had some scrimmages with another school. That basically means that the teams were practicing against another team and that the score doesn't count. Patrick was there since I was with the little ones at the gym for Natalie's swim team. He said that he thought Anthony did very well. We weren't completely sure whether or not Anthony would be on the Varsity team this year, but so far it looks good. That means that on most Tuesdays and Fridays for the next two months, he'll have soccer games (at 7pm). That should be "fun" for us to work into our schedule of taking Natalie to swim team practice at 5:30 and Alex to soccer practice at 7:30. Luckily, Anthony's club soccer won't have practices yet since most of the boys will be playing high school soccer also.

Yesterday I took Eric swimming at the gym instead of leaving him at home with Alex. He missed his swimming lesson on Wednesday because his teacher was on vacation and the substitute didn't show up. He was a very disappointed boy but he consoled himself with some Spicy Chicken Nuggets and a Vanilla Frosty at Wendy's with Papa. We only got to swim for about half an hour until they called an "adult swim" period. I didn't realize they were going to do that. When I tried to distract him by asking him if he had fun swimming he replied, "I didn't have fun only swimming for a short time." I told him that he could have an ice cream bar when we got home and he liked that idea. I gave him a shower there and dressed him in his pajamas already so it was much easier when we got home.

Tomorrow is a "free" day but Patrick plans for us to do our yearly cleanup at home. We have tickets to see "Les Miserables" at the Majestic tomorrow night so that part should be fun.

Back to School After the New Year

Yesterday was the first day back to school for the kiddos. Natalie took the bus, Patrick took the boys (with the carpool), and I took Eric. Before I took Eric to school though, I took him to "Starbox" (I love the way he pronounces "Starbucks").

On New Year's Eve, when we told him that Grandma wanted to go to the Magnolia Pancake Haus, he said he wanted to go to "Starbox". He got very upset when we said that we weren't going to Starbucks. I promised him that I would take him some other time. It was an excuse for me to go, but he loves it so much that I enjoy taking him. He had his usual blueberry scone and Strawberries and Creme Frappucino with whipped cream on top. He seems to enjoy the whipped cream, even though he tends to tire of the drink before he gets anywhere close to eating the whipped cream. It was a cold morning (30s) so his hands got cold as he held his cold drink. He had the rest of his drink during his snack yesterday afternoon.

 The rest of the day, Patrick and I ran some errands, had lunch at Panera Bread, and I made brownies for the kiddos. We settled into our Tuesday routine minus the club soccer practices which start next week. Alex only had a little bit of homework followed by iPod Touch time. Anthony had high school soccer practice until 6pm. Natalie had swim team at 5:30pm. We went to Dollar Scoop Tuesday after swim team. This time Anthony had enough of the brownies that he didn't feel like getting ice cream too, so Alex, Eric, Natalie, and I went for ice cream.

 Today was my first day back at work. I really enjoyed spending lots of time with the family these last two weeks. As one colleague described going back to work, I spent enough time with them that I really missed them today, especially that nice little breakfast with Eric.

2012 Title Page

Here's the page with all of their handprints that we completed today. You can click on the picture to make it bigger but in case you still can't see the numbers, here are the vital stats or each child: Anthony 71 in. 138 lbs., Alex 66 1/4 in. 121 lbs., Natalie 53 1/4 in., 65 lbs., Eric 40 1/2 in. 33.5 lbs. Alex has grown the most this past year at about 4 inches and 25 pounds. Anthony basically stayed the same height and weight. It was funny but they boys insisted on measuring Patrick also. He is only 67 inches instead of the 68 inches that he has always said he measured at in high school. I don't think he's shrinking yet, so I'm sure they measured wrong before. One thing is for sure, Alex will make up that inch sometime soon--but not soon enough for him. ;)

I did a little more crafting today too. I got this idea from the eighteen25 blog to make books out of my Christmas cards. They even included a free download for the cover. All I did was print that out, adhere it to some chipboard, punch holes, and then put everything on some binder rings. I did also put some pretty Christmas patterned paper inside the covers. When I'm sure we aren't getting any more cards, I'll switch out the binder rings to ribbon. I love this idea because I love all the Christmas cards that I get and I want to keep them. I tried cutting them up and saving the pictures one year, but I that excluded all the ones without pictures, plus I like to keep the Christmas letters that come with them too. Yes, I love reading all of those and keeping up with friends and family that I never get to see. I included our Christmas card as the first one in the stack.

No I need to include a paragraph on our comings and goings today for the benefit of the grandparents. We started out the morning with dentist appointments for the whole family. Patrick left first with the two youngest for an 8:30am appointment. It was tough getting Alex up at that time, so we went later. Anthony had gotten up on his own already. With all of us we didn't finish until about 10:30am. We went to lunch at Chipotle, one of the boys' favorite places, and the rest of the afternoon the kiddos played at home--the big boys on the PS3, Natalie outside, and Eric with his cars. It's been nice spending so much time with the family these last couple of weeks. It's back to school tomorrow. I go back to work on Wednesday.

Welcome 2012!

I took this picture today with a lot of complaints from the kiddos. I've taken a picture like this for the past few years on and around the new year and we weigh and measure the kids also. I plan on putting this on a page with their handprints again, as in previous years. It's nice to see how they're growing, especially the little ones that seem to be so small. Hopefully I'll be posting that page in the next few days.

We had a low key New Year's Day just like our New Year's Eve, mostly spent at home. Patrick took Anthony to exchange the laptop he received for Christmas because of a defect in the screen that just popped up yesterday. Apparently the return lines were super long at Best Buy.

I took Alex to North Star Mall to get some jeans. The size 14s at Gap Kids(the size of his current pair) were too small so we went to the "regular" Gap. I bought him men's jeans for the first time. Gasp! At least we found some jeans that fit, but men's jeans are more expensive than boy's jeans. Luckily I found two pairs that were on sale for $35, down from $70.

After our respective shopping trips, we went out for ice cream at Brindles. We don't get to go there much anymore. After Brindles, we went to the Half-Price Books next door. The rest of the evening we spent at home either playing video games, watching the TV show "Grimm" as a family, or watching football. We had frozen pizza for dinner. It felt like we were back to our old routine.

We have one more day of vacation for the kiddos and then it's back to all their activities.

Happy New Year!

We had breakfast this morning at the Magnolia Pancake Haus. Mom remembered eating there on a previous visit and she wanted to go again. The wait was an hour, but the time passed quickly for those of us with electronic devices. :)

Grandma and Grandpa split the "

Authentic Munchener Apfel Pfannekuchen. The description in the menu states the following:

Granny Smith Apples, zesty cinnamon and secret spices all combine to create a puffed pancake that is an authentic taste of Bavaria. Served with powdered sugar and European style whipped cream.

Patrick and Natalie had the chocolate chip pancakes (with Ghirardelli chocolate chips). I tried their Bananas Foster pancakes with scrambled egg and sausage. Eric had a good portion of Natalie's pancakes with one whole sausage from me. Anthony had a huge bacon and cheese omelet that even he couldn't finish. Grandma felt his forehead and asked if he was feeling okay. Alex decided not to join us. He said he didn't feel like leaving the house. That was his loss!

Instead of breakfast, it ended up being more of a brunch because of the long wait to get in. We left there probably around 11:30am. Grandma, the little ones, and I went to the mall for a bit. I got more Cars stuff for the little man. I couldn't resist! In the afternoon some of us napped and then we went to the 5pm mass.

After mass, Patrick cooked a delicious, gourmet New Year's Eve meal. We had grilled lamb kebobs with vegetables and creme brulee for dessert. They had the creme brulee at Costco, already made in little glass ramekins with the sweet topping included that he put on top and put in the broiler. I think this is an excuse to get one of those torches in the future so we can make our own creme brulee. ;)

The kids had dinner first and then spent some time outside playing with the neighbors. Patrick bought a package of snappers and poppers to share with the neighbors. The neighbors also had some small sparkler-type fireworks. We ended up watching New Year's Rockin' Eve with the grandparents. Grandpa took a little nap waiting for the ball to drop in New York, after which Grandma and Grandpa went to bed. The boys and I played our electronics while the TV was on in the background. Eric asked to go to bed around 9pm after dancing to some of the music on TV. Natalie spent most of the night outside playing with friends. She only came in at around 11:30pm. The boys played a little on the PS3 and lights are going off here around midnight.

I hope everyone has a fun, safe New Year filled with many blessings. Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

I was on call last tonight, so today was a blur. We opened more gifts from Grandma and Grandpa yesterday, and this was one of them. Eric got an Cars Aquadoodle set. The included Lightning McQueen makes tracks on the mat when his gas tank is filled with water. He also got a Cars Play-Doh and puzzle toys. That boy is Cars crazy and he loves all of his Cars gifts!

In the morning, Anthony had soccer practice at school and I took the other three to Best Buy and Target. Alex had a gift certificate burning a hole in his pocket and he wanted some portable headphones (in-ear). He ended up buying a couple pairs and Natalie bought one pair with the money she got from Lolo and Lola. We also went out for lunch at The Lodge.

The Lodge is closing at the end of this year, so we wanted to give Anthony the experience of going there plus Grandma and Grandpa wanted to try it out too. Alex wasn't interested and the little ones weren't either. We all had the salad while Anthony (who doesn't like salad) had the potato bisque. Grandma, Grandpa, and Patrick had the steak tenderloin while Anthony and I had the salmon. We all had the Nutella souffle while Grandpa had the citrus cheesecake. Let's just say that we all enjoyed ourselves.

My night on call wasn't too bad but due to my own fault, I didn't get more than about 4 to 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I was up for a bit when I got home but then I had to take a nap. I ended up missing lunch. We were planning to go out for dinner for Grandma's birthday so when I got hungry after my nap, I just had a snack of chips with cheese dip. Of course my two chips and cheese-loving boys helped me out. Natalie was lamenting about how she can't have chips while she has braces on, so we compromised by eating at the kitchen counter so she wouldn't be able to "see" us. Alex didn't want to stand, so he brought over chairs from the dining table. He didn't want to be in this picture, of course, but I love seeing my kids doing things together, even if it's just eating a shared favorite.

Grandma wanted to go to El Mirasol for her birthday dinner. She made us promise not to tell the restaurant, though, because she didn't want to be fussed over. Hmmm, that sounds just like Patrick! In any case, we all had our usual meals. Natalie shared a Tampiquena with Alex for the first time. She loves steak! For dessert, we got two Tres Leches cakes to share while Grandpa got the fruit empanada with vanilla ice cream.

It was nice to be able to spend Grandma's birthday with her. The kids got to give her birthday hugs and kisses. Tomorrow we're planning a low-key New Year's Eve celebration.

After Christmas

We've just been chilling at home. Cynthia and her family arrived on Monday afternoon. Natalie and Aly immediately holed themselves up in Natalie's room and started playing games. The kids received even more presents from my sisters and my parents. Nick mostly played on his new iPhone but he also played on the PS3 with the boys. Eric had lots of people to pay attention to him, as usual.

I had to go back to work yesterday. I was so sad to be going to work before dawn when everyone else was still safely and cozily tucked into their beds. The weather has been beautiful here with temps from 40s to 60s and sunny. At least Cynthia and John went out to the Quarry Market shopping area with Anthony and Nick yesterday. Natalie and Aly did play outside for a little bit, and Patrick took Eric to the neighborhood park. Alex hasn't ventured outside except for our Dollar Scoop Tuesday outing last night.

Cynthia and her family left this morning, and Patrick's parents arrived this afternoon. They haven't seen the kiddos since last March, when we visited them in Colorado--except for Natalie who they saw for Patrick's sister's wedding in November. The kids have all grown since then, so they decided to compare heights tonight.

I had asked Patrick and the boys to move to the center of the living room where there was more light. We had just finished watching the movie "Despicable Me", so Eric decided to do something similar to the characters in the movie and hold onto Patrick's leg. Patrick had a hard time walking to the center of the room with Eric holding onto his leg. Anthony decided to be funny and hold onto Patrick's other leg. That just made Eric laugh even harder!

The second photo is of the males comparing heights. Grandpa doesn't seem to be standing up straight, in fact he had just been picking Eric up off the floor. He was (is?) taller than Patrick. Anthony is of course the tallest one, and Alex is quickly approaching Patrick in height. Patrick appears to be standing as tall as humanly possible. Eric is on his tiptoes, as if that would even make him tall enough to reach the other males.

We opened even more presents from Grandma and Grandpa, and they opened presents that their other children mailed here for them. Eric got even more Cars stuff, including a Cars bath book, Cars Play-doh, and a Cars Aquadoodle toy. That boy is all about Cars this Christmas!

Tomorrow we're planning on taking them to lunch at The Lodge before it closes at the end of the year. Anthony has soccer practice (as he did today), and I'm on call tomorrow evening. I can't wait for the weekend!

Merry Christmas 2011!

Merry Christmas again! Last night we decided to go ahead and go to the midnight mass at church. That meant that Santa had to arrive and drop off presents while we were at church. This is a picture of what he left behind.

I tried to take a nap before going to church, but it was difficult. Eric seemed more awake than anyone else. Natalie openly admitted that she was tired but her mood held up. Eric got a little mellow on the car trip to church and when we got there, he complained about being tired and tried to go to sleep. He refused to sit on my lap, though. Instead he contorted his body so he could put his head on my lap. He awakened when we got home and he got upset that we wouldn't let him open presents. We used to go to midnight mass growing up and then open presents when we got home, but opening presents would have meant that the little ones would be up way too late and then they would make us "pay for it" the next day when they're cranky and tired. We'll probably do that when they get older.

I'm not sure when the little ones got up this morning, but they found their stockings and opened them in the downstairs bathroom. They were afraid of waking everyone up, for once. Their stockings included cereal, which they didn't start eating until Patrick found them in the bathroom and got them to go ahead and eat breakfast. They were quite busy playing with their Lego figure stocking stuffers for quite a while.

By the time the big boys got up, after 9am, I was already making chocolate and cinnamon sugar crescent rolls, and turkey bacon, so we waited until after everyone ate before we opened gifts. We didn't open gifts until after 10am!

I ususlly start out with getting photos of the kids with their unopened presents. Eric had the most gifts and they were all big. He said, "I have more presents than you!" He was pretty excited. He gave out the best giggles while he was opening each gift. This is a picture of the Lightning McQueen chair he received from his godfather. He got lots of Lightning McQueen stuff and he loved each and every one.

We were pretty relaxed the rest of the day. We snacked on those crescent rolls all day. Anthony was setting up his new laptop. Patrick tried to set up his new Apple TV. Alex was busy loading up his new iPod touch with apps and music and then playing with everything on it. Eric stayed in his pajamas all day, playing quietly with all of his new toys. Natalie was the only one who went outside, and that was around 11am when her neighborhood friend L.L. came by to play. I played Words With Friends and Bejeweled Blitz all day and I also went through some photos from the trip.

Tomorrow I'm planning on making some thank-you notes for the kids to fill out. We're expecting my sister Cynthia and her family to visit tomorrow afternoon. I hope everyone had a relaxed day filled with family, faith, and friends. Merry Christmas!

Last Day

Merry Christmas! I'll post a bit about our Christmas later. For now I'll recap our last day at Disney yesterday. We had a very relaxed morning. We packed first since we had to check out by 11am, so we didn't get to the Magic Kingdom until after 10am.

We wanted to ride on the Buzz Lightyear ride at least one more time. When we got there, the wait was only 30 minutes. Score! We went ahead and got fast passes too so we could ride again. When Anthony got the fast passes for us, they gave us "surprise" fast passes for the Carousel of Progress, so we rode on Buzz Lightyear, then the Carousel of Progress, then Buzz Lightyear one last time.

The first time, Anthony got the highest score pretty easily with almost 300,000. The second time, there were several delays in the ride but there was also some sort of malfunction in Anthony and Natalie's car. After just the first section, Anthony had already gotten close to 300,000 and soon after, Natalie maxed out at 999.999! They were both amazed and I think Natalie was a little excited.

After that we didn't try to do any other rides. Anthony and Alex would have wanted to ride Space Mountain, but the wait time was a couple of hours, which they didn't think was worth it. Instead we had lunch and then walked around for a bit. We came upon these stocks. Patrick and Anthony both wanted pictures. I would have wanted the others to take a turn too, but they weren't interested and there were a lot of people vying for a chance to take pictures too.

We used the monorail to get back to the hotel. They had a gigantic wreath on the side of the Contemporary Resort and I didn't get a chance to take a picture the last time we were traveling this way. I got my picture this time. I tried to take pictures of a lot of the Christmas decorations at Disney during this trip, but it wasn't the same as actually being there. Next time I think I would want to go during a less busy time of year, but it was really cool to be there during the holidays this time around.

We had an uneventful trip back home. We got home, began unpacking, and Patrick started doing laundry. Back to the usual routine...

Day 6

We had a change in plans early this morning. We originally made reservations for the Ohana Breakfast here at the Polyesian Resort. This is the character breakfast where Lilo and Stitch and friends visit and everyone marches around in a musical parade during breakfast. We've gone to this a couple of times before and the kids always have fun. We thought the reservations were for 8:30am since that's what it said in our iPhone calendars. Patrick had entered the time in at 7:30am and the phone automatically converted the time to 8:30am when we switched time zones. That meant that when we were getting ready at 8am, we had already missed the breakfast. On the plus side, we hadn't already prepaid for this meal so we didn't lose any money. If anything, we saved money from not going to a character breakfast. The kids didn't seem too disappointed at least, although Emily did express some disappointment and so did Natalie. At least that meant that we could go to the Animal Kingdom a little earlier and Anthony would get to go on the Expedition Everest ride that he really wanted to go on.

Despite the early start, we didn't get to the Animal Kingdom theme park until 10am. Even then, Anthony, Alex, and Natalie got to ride Expedition Everest three times. They got fast passes and then the wait times were 25 minutes and 30 minutes. After that they went on the Dinosaur ride.

Meanwhile Patrick, Eric and I managed to sit on the third row for the Festival of the Lion King show. Eric loved all the singing and dancing and he seemed especially fond of the acrobatic "monkeys". He also rode the TriceraTop Spin, which is a spinning ride with dinosaur shaped carriages. Then Patrick rode the Dinosaur ride with Anthony. Eric didn't want to go until Alex convinced him to. He ended up loving it.

We had originally planned on taking Eric to see the Finding Nemo musical, but the other kids didn't really want to do anything else at Animal Kingdom so we went back to the hotel to have lunch. After lunch, Eric and Alex hung out in the concierge lounge having goldfish and gummi bears.

Alex told Eric to bite the heads off the gummi bears because then "they can't fight back". Eric expressed his doubt saying "They won't fight back" to which Alex replied, "Just bite the heads off first anyway." They ended up biting the heads off 109 gummi bears, according to Alex and an unknown number of goldfish. Alex piled them all up on the table and wanted me to take a picture of the "carnage". This is just the "before" picture. Alex just cracks me up sometimes.

Eric wanted to ride on the train at the Magic Kingdom so Patrick and I took him there via boat. We just had to laugh because once we were on the train, Eric wanted to lie down on us because he was tired. He barely even looked around as the train traveled around the park. The afternoon parade was going on just as we got off the train and at least he paid attention to that.

When we got back, we saw the other kiddos playing in the sand. Of course they were all wearing their regular clothes and not their swimsuits. Alex had buried himself in the sand. For some reason, they decided to leave little holes for Alex's big toes to peek through and Anthony drew a smiley face on the sand with Alex's toes being the eyes. Later they changed into their swimsuits and made a big sand castle.

Natalie and Eric were playing in the sand for probably a good hour and a half before coming in for dinner. Eric even played in the pool and apparently chased his Papa around as a robot, a zombie who wanted brains, and then a zombie fish (since they were in the pool). He decided that Papa's brains were in his leg (that Eric could reach more easily) so he "ate" Papa's brains from his leg. I love it when they use their imagination like that. :)

Eric didn't want to stop playing in the sand. The only thing that enticed him was that he wanted to roast marshmallows, one of the nightly activities at this resort, and we wouldn't let him do that until he ate dinner.

We finished off the night by watching the movie they had on the big screen down on the beach at 7pm. The feature film was "Cars 2", Eric's favorite movie. Even though he has seen that movie a million times already, he was so excited when it came on. The movie had a few technical difficulties, as in it kept stopping, so after an hour, we convinced Eric to get his bath and watch the rest of the movie on the iPad.

We saw the night parade on the lake and the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom for the last time. We've enjoyed this trip immensely, but it'll be good to get back home tomorrow.

Day 5

We didn't arrive at Hollywood Studios until about 9:30am this morning. We immediately headed to the Toy Story Midway Mania. The waiting time was already 60 minutes. The park had just opened at 9am and the fast passes were already not available until after 6pm! We would have gotten fast passes, but at the time we wanted to go to the Fantasmic show at 6:30pm and the fast passes were going to be good for that period of time. By the time we finished the ride, the fast passes were gone. That was definitely the most popular ride in that park.

The Toy Story Mania ride is definitely everyone's favorite. Melissa and Emily really only wanted to go on that one ride. Everyone in my family also named that ride specifically as the one they didn't want to miss. We also get a little competitive. After we finished the ride, we met outside and compared scores. Anthony "won" with his score of 185,900. Alex and I both got around 131,000 while Patrick got around 128,000. Natalie got 68,000, I think. I have to give Patrick a few points because he rode with Eric and every so often he had to help him direct his shooter. Eric got 20,000. Alex was pretty happy to beat his Papa's score. I was surprised because he is much better at these shooting games than I am. Anthony and Patrick usually both do pretty well.

Our next stop was the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at 11:30am. We thought that Eric especially would enjoy all the explosions. There's even an exploding airplane in that one. Next we had lunch and then we separated. We thought Eric (and the boys) would enjoy the Lights, Motors, and Action Extreme Stunt Show (at 1:20pm) because of all of the cars AND the explosions. We also got fast passes for Star Tours for later (at 3:50pm). Melissa and the girls decided to head to The American Idol Experience instead. That's a relatively new attraction where the audience watches some auditions, just like on the TV show, and vote for their favorite. Apparently the favorite for the day gets to be at the front of the line for the actual American Idol auditions.

They incorporated a few minutes to Lightning McQueen during the Lights, Motors, and Action Extreme Stunt Show. They had a car that looked like Lightning McQueen drive around as if he was looking for a spy car. Tow Mater was only shown on a big TV screen. That was enough to really get Eric excited about the show. Apparently he was telling his Aunt Melissa all about the show and the "explosions" later at dinner.

We had to kill some time after the show and before our Star Tours fast passes. We saw a line where you could get your photo taken with Lightning McQueen, so of course we got in that line. Anthony was with us and really helped entertain his brother to make the wait shorter. Patrick and Alex ran off to explore and to have a snack. Several times during this trip Eric has refused to have his picture taken. That wasn't the case this time.

We killed some more time having ice cream snacks, watching some live music, and watching the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun parade. Anthony said that he was tall but that he wasn't tall enough to see over the "parent-child combos" that were watching the parade. In other words, there were several parents who had their children up on their shoulders so the kids could see the parade. Anthony couldn't see over them so the next best thing was to put his brother on his shoulders so Eric could also watch the parade. It was nice to see that interaction. Eric kept pointing to the Pixar characters that he knew and so he seemed to really enjoy the parade.

I took this second picture while we were waiting for our Star Tours show to start. Eric was being a little goofy. It was a 4-D experience complete with 3-D glasses and the feeling like you were in an actual space shuttle. Patrick and the boys enjoyed the show because it was a different story from the last time we were here.

We were getting tired at this point. Even Melissa and the girls had left the park to go back to the hotel to chill. Even though we had planned on seeing Fantasmic, we all decided that we didn't want to wait around at the Hollywood Studios park until 6:30pm just to see that show. Instead, we all headed to Downtown Disney. Melissa and the girls met us there and we ended up eating dinner at Cap'n Jack's Restaurant.

After dinner we went to the Lego Imagination Center. Eric and Natalie were there building their Lego creations for quite a while. I loved watching the concentration on Eric's face. I could tell he was enjoying himself because he didn't want to leave. The only thing that convinced him to leave was the rest of us going off to Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop for dessert. There we had the most decadent desserts. Alex had the "Domingo" or basically a sundae. Anthony had the Warm Brownie Sundae. No dieting during vacation, that's for sure! We all headed home after dessert and again we watching fireworks from our room. I'll never get tired of that.

Tomorrow we're heading to Animal Kingdom and we'll also be saying goodbye to Melissa and Emily.