Super Hero Day

For Christmas this year Alex got a superhero kit from his Uncle Rodney and Aunt Andrea. The kids had so much fun today making each other into different superheros. I think the part of the book that they liked best was when it tells a superhero never to sneeze or wipe your nose in your cape. Why? Because it is just gross!! So may I introduce to you The Terrific Metal Man and his sidekick The Amazing Eagle. Then we also have The Amazing Guitar!! It was an interesting start to vacation week is all I can say.....

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!! We had a wonderful holiday weekend. It started with a family Christmas party on Saturday. We all had a wonderful evening. The children were very excited when we had a visit from Santa with a big red sack and a toy for all the children. Then the adults had a swap with 27 people. The gifts were yet again very interesting this year, though the men were happy because there was a lot of sports stuff this year.

The boys then went shopping with Todd on Sunday for me. Eric took them all over looking for the perfect gift. He knew what he wanted and was not going to settle. Elizabeth and I had a wonderful quiet time at home for the afternoon.

Christmas Eve was very relaxing. We were able to relax and enjoy being home with eachother. We went to church with my parents at four thirty and then spent a wonderful evening at their house. My mom cooked so much food that I did not have to cook anything on Christmas we just had leftovers from the night before. Some of their neighbors came over and it was a very relaxing evening socializing and spending time together. The kids were very happy to get back to their house and have a new webkinz waiting for them. I think that it made their night. When we got home we put out our cookies and milk for santa and then sprinkled the reindeer dust on our lawn(snow banks). They all went to bed and right to sleep, I think they were wanting for Santa to hurry up and come to our house. On Christmas day the kids woke up to hear bells ringing and Nana and Papa seeing Santa taking off from our house. It was very exciting. The gifts were overwhelming again this year. We need to learn how to cut back. It was a calm day with the kids opening gifts and taking breaks to play with the toys that they got. Elizabeth quit after the fifth gift. She did not want to open another present after that. She got her blanket and pillow and told us "I watch tv now!" I think that it was a little too much for her. The kids played all day with all their presents. The adults ate, played skippo, and even had a lot of fun scratching scratch tickets from Todd. We all won something this time which made it even more fun. It was nice to spend the day with family and enjoy being with those that you love and care about. All the kids were excited to give their gifts to Todd and I that they had picked out. You could tell that they had spent a lot of time thinking about what they wanted to give us. I did get a beautiful necklace from Eric ( the one that took three jewlery stores to find) , a sweatshirt from Elizabeth, a pair of bright pink fluffy slippers from Alex, and an electric griddle from Tyler. I loved it all!! I could not have asked for a better day. I hope that everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas as well. Teea was so overwhelmed as well. Can you tell which one is the dog in the picture? I think that she spent the better part of the day curled up beside my mom or dad!

Snowy Day

Well it has officially begun...the snow season. Today was our first real snow fall with about 4-6 inches on the ground. Eric and Alex were out of the house by 7am and in the snow and helping daddy shovel. (Of course we do have a snow blower but Todd did not check it out yesterday and could not get it started this morning) Elizabeth and Tyler were soon to follow out side. Todd took Teea out at 6:30 and we were a little nervous that she would not like the cold weather. Well that was not the case. We actually have a hard time getting her in the house. She loves the snow and runs all around the house and in and out of snowbanks. You have to watch her though because she is white and will blend in. After a breakfast and hot chocolate break Eric, Alex, Elizabeth, and our neighbor Ian were back outside. This time I joined them and we made snowman. It is perfect weather for a snowman and snowball fights. Our neighbor Ian rolled this giant snowball and we were going to make another snowman but he decided that it looked like a marshmallow. So we decided to put a long enough stick on the snowman to reach the marshmallow and put a red fire under it so that it looks like the snowman is roasting the marshmallow. After the pictures the children attacked Cammie and I with snowballs. We had a snowball fight all around the yard and we adults came out victoriously with causing the kids to retreat to the woods. This is what snow days are all about!!


This weekend we had our Russell Family Christmas party. It was a great night and the children had a lot of fun with Santa making a surprise appearance with a gift for all the children. I guess the holidays are approaching quickly. I still do not feel ready!!

Happy Thanksgiving

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had again this year. We headed to my parents house around noon for a relaxing afternoon. My mom makes the best turkey dinner and we all had plenty to eat and stuff ourselves with, even a whole apple pie for Todd. We threatened not to have one this year. Todd whinned enough that he got his way and my mom made him one. He was very happy. My neice and Todd have a compition every year on who can eat more. Now I know that all of you are thinking that Todd can win this hands down to a 14 year old girl, but he did lose this year. My neice consumed more food then he did. He did lose nicely though, I think he was too stuffed to argue. We then finished the night with our annual Thanksgiving game of Skat (which I won for the first time this year) We headed home around seven and all the children went to bed. I wanted to go to bed early (I had to be up at 3am to start the annual black Friday shopping spree with my neighbors) but I had to stay up and watch Gray's Anatomy first. I was so glad that I stayed up. For those of you who watch it I am sure that you understand.

During the night I looked around at all that we have and realized that we have so much to be thankful for. I am so blessed to have four beautiful children who are really fantastic, a wonderful husband that is so thoughtful and caring that I am sure that I don't tell him enough how much I appreciate him, a wonderful set of parents who I wouldn't be who I am today without them, a great extended family who we cannot always be with but are always thinking about, and great friends that are always there to listen and help out. I realized that we are so lucky to have a house over our heads, food on our table, and the love of family and friends. I have to say that I feel that there is so much to be thankful for and that I may not always express to everyone what they mean to us, but that we appreciate each and every one of you and are greatful to have you in our lives. I hope that you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.

What A Weekend

For my birthday this year Todd gave me tickets to go and see Wicked the Musical in Boston. Saturday was the evening of the performance. We had a babysitter and my parents were taking Tyler and Eric to soccer, we were all set for a great night out in the city. Well needless to say 40mph winds and pouring rain can put a little damper on the evening. Instead of going into the city to walk around, we settled to have dinner around here (no not McDonalds remember there were no kids) and then drive in to the show. The drive in was pretty slow and after we saw an SUV laying on its hood in the opposite lane we went very slow. However, after we got into the theater and dried off the play was fabulous. We had such a great time and I would recommend it to anyone.


Then Sunday morning came....no it was a great day. The weather was beautiful and we had an extra hour sleep because of the time change. We decided to carve a pumpkin since we did not do one on Halloween. Alex really enjoyed getting his hands dirty and then my niece, Brianna, did a great job carving out the face. Eric had a birthday party to go to. This was the first one that he was invited to without Tyler from someone in his class. Needless to say when we got the invitation it was a little hard for Tyler to handle the fact that Eric was doing something that he wasn't, until he came home two days later with an invitation to a party by himself. Amazing how things always work themselves out. As we were getting ready to leave for the party Alex wanted to show me how he was practicing riding his bike with no training wheels. He ends up riding right down the driveway and across the lawn. By golly he's got it. He is so excited he can ride a two wheeler. Well Tyler sees this and decides that he is going to practice as well. This is the child that did not want to try riding his bike all summer. He gets on and loses his balance. He gets back on and rides across the lawn. Now we have two little boys so excited because they can ride two wheelers. I have not been able to keep them off ever since. Alex even ventured off for a bike ride around the neighborhood with our neighbor and the other kids. He did a great job. We have a video of him riding that I have included at the bottom of the blog.


Then to end the great day we had my parents over to celebrate my dad's birthday and watch the Patriots game. I even had a Red Sox cupcake cake for him. No Todd did not disown me. It was an exciting game to watch, especially the last ten minutes. I have to say it was a perfect ending to the weekend.....well it would have been better if the Patriots could have won by 51/2 to cover the spread so Todd could have won his football pool this week again. It was a great weekend!!!!

Todd's Time Off

Well Todd was home last week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. His goal while he was off was to get all the leaves cleaned up in the yard. Not that you can tell now, because so many more have fallen down, he did a great job. All of the kids enjoyed helping him each day and loved to jump and play in the piles that he made all around the house. We had to keep reminding them to keep the leaves in the piles as you can see they enjoyed throwing them at Todd and I whenever they had the chance. It was so nice to have him home for a few days. I think Alex really enjoyed playing games with him every morning.

Happy Halloween!!

Well Halloween is upon us again. In our little town we did not trick-or-treat on Halloween we went the night before. It does not seem to make much sense but we had fun anyway. This year we had 10 children in our group to set off and conquer the neighborhood. It took us about an hour and a half and we ended up finishing with 7 children. A few were tired and headed home early. We had a ninja turtle, a stormtrooper, a mad scientist, and a frog with pink glasses in our family!! With all the children we had two ninja turtles, two scientist, a stormtrooper, a vampire, a spider man, a cow girl, a monkey and still a froggy with pink glasses. We were quite a sight walking down the street. It was a really nice night and the weather was actually great for us this year. Nana is always nice enough to stay at our house and pass out the candy, this way Todd and I are able to take the kids around. Well another Halloween down and now off to the holiday season.......

Root Beer Floats

This summer the boys discovered rootbeer floats when we were outin New York. Eric and Alex love them along with daddy. Tyler does not care for soda, so he passes. Eric has been bugging me to make them at home ever since August. This past weekend we decided to have a little fun for Football day and I think that we have started a new tradition. Eric now wants floats everytime there is football on. I think that we may have to nogotiate the contract on that one.

Fall Time

Well fall is finally here. We now are getting the cool weather. It was very hot last week for this time of year. The weather is very nice now. We have enjoyed going Apple picking and getting our pumpkins. I can't get the pictures from my phone to the computer yet so we don't have any pictures of the kids in the orchid. The place that we went to this year has the best cider donuts. They are truely the best I have ever tasted. They had a hay maze there and a hay ride. It was a great day. Elizabeth has enjoyed playing in the leaves every day when we are outside and she says "Yeah Fall" Teea likes to jump in the leaves with her as well. The boys are all in school and are doing well. Tyler and Eric are starting an indoor soccer league this weekend and finishing up our outdoor soccer. They will do this until basketball starts in a couple of months. It was a crazy week with Todd gone last week. Not only did we get a puppy, but the kids had a bomb scare at school (yes I am serious) and Tyler's teacher left suddenly on Friday and will no longer be his teacher. To say the least it was a little stressful. We are all adjusting to these things it is just taking some time. We all know how Tyler likes change!!! Well I just wanted to update you all on what has been happening here. I will try to update more frequently.

Yes We Are Crazy!!

Well we finally have a new addition to our family. It has been two and half years since the last new addition we thought it was time. Her name is Teea (Tyler, Eric, Elizabeth, Alex) and she is an 81/2 week bigion frize puppy. We picked her up yesterday and spent the afternoon at Nana's house. She was a gift to the kids from Nana. Mind you that Todd is away for the week at his national convention in Las Vegas and now I am home with the four kids and the puppy for the rest of the week by myself. Thank goodness for Nana and Papa being a mile down the road. I guess since Elizabeth is potty trained and in a big girl bed it was time for a new challenge. We had been looking on line and this dog has real hair and does not shed. I have been holding her alot and I do not have one dog hair on me, it is so nice.

Getting Started

My neighbor has had a blog for a while now and I enjoy being able to go and read it almost every day. I have decided to start my own so that I can update everyone on what is going on in our lives without having to be on the phone. It is also a way that we can post pictures and videos so everyone can watch how the kids are growing and how crazy they are. I am new at this so please be patient while I try to figure out how to do everything on here.