Sophia's Birthday

Sophia turned 6 on Nov. 18, it was a Sunday this year. Randy had to work so we postponed having her friend over to celebrate till the next Sun.  Then she got sick that morning and so finally in Jan. she got together with her friend, Julia.  On her birthday though Aunt Kathy came over and she opened presents with her and the rest of us.

Every birthday the kids have birthday signs hung around the house, there are as many as they are old.  Each year I reuse the signs from previous years, and so they get one new one. Sophia loved her new one and so we took some pictures with it. :) ( The sign tradition is one my mom did for my brother and I, it's fun to carry it on for my kids).

Opening presents.

Fingernail Polish!  From Aunt Kathy - so exciting !!!

My very own diary!!   Overall, she seemed to have a great day.

Aunt Eileen

Sadly on November 6, very late at night my Aunt Eileen passed away. Such an encourager, so full of love, she taught me so much about taking care of my kids, and loved me just for me.  She will be greatly missed by me and so many others. Much love to you Auntie. The world is a better place because of you.

Still Catching Up

On November 4, Randy's god daughter was baptized.  We were so glad we could be back for it. (R-L Eric, Sara, Julia, godmother, Amy and Randy)

Lucky us, after Julia's baptism Joe (Randy's little brother), Renee, and George came out to visit us and Kathy and her crew.  Here I am with George on the boat at the Erie Canal Museum. 

George playing at the museum.

We also went to the zoo.  It was a fun visit and fairly cold.  Here are the kids on the tiger.  (L-R) George, Timmy, Henry and Aunt Kathy.

The End of October

A side-ways picture of Lucas turned 1 month old, October 27.

Sophia , Henry, Max and Timmy at the school Halloween party. Their party was on a Saturday at school. There were crafts, goodies and lots of games. Everyone had a lot of fun.  Alex didn't go this year ,he felt he was too old.

Our pumpkins getting ready to carve their pumpkins at Aunt Kathy's.  You'll see Max isn't in the picture he didn't want to carve a pumpkin this year.

With the help of Aunt Kathy's patterns and electric pumpkin knife Alex carved his pumpkin all on his own!

Sophia and her Hello Kitty pumpkin.

Henry, very proud of his jack-o-lantern.

You'll notice Timmy's pumpkin isn't carved.  He decided he didn't want a face after the inside goop was out!!!

 Lucas as a monkey on his 1st Halloween.

Little Mermaid, a bat, a monkey, Spiderman and a skeleton.

Here we are at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dales', Alex passed out candy at their place instead of trick-or-treating.

More visitors

Aunt Wendy and Uncle Bob also came out for a visit Oct. 21-27. It was great having them here. A little girl power here,  Aunt Wendy and  Sophia together.

Lucas, Max, Uncle Bob, Timmy and Henry hanging out.

We were fortunate to have Grandma Steffen still visiting. We all loved having her here. She's patiently helping Sophia, Timmy and Henry play on her Kindle

While everyone was here Max had his Halloween party for cubscouts on the same night Alex had his first court of honor for boyscouts.  Randy and Bob took Sophia,Max, and Henry to the party.  While Wendy, Margaret, Kathy, Dale, Timmy and I went to Alex's award ceremony.  The two big award he received that night were his cycling merit badge and his rank advancement from scout to tenderfoot.  In boy scouts the mom also gets a pin when her son advances a rank. Congrats Alex!

While Bob, Wendy and Margaret were here Randy turned 38!  We went out for dinner, listened to the birthday song (by the Beatles), and had chocolate cake.  Aunt Wendy taught me how to me how to make chocolate frosting, - just add cocoa powder to vanilla frosting.  Wow! That was easy, and delicious.  The next day Wendy and Bob had their 25th wedding anniversary.  Somehow Wendy ended up cooking her very yummy meatballs for all of us.

We also went to the zoo.  The weather was perfect, we took our jackets off and even got warm.  Everyone who visits the zoo with us, must get their picture taken by the fake tiger.  Margaret, Henry, Bob, Timmy, Wendy, and somewhere in that stroller is Luke.  Alex, Max, and Sophia had school that day.

Rock climbing by the goats.

Luke's fist trip to the zoo. I'm not sure he even knows he was there.

Henry the Penguin

Lucas Had His First Bath

Lucas had his first sink bath on October 20, after his cord fell off.  Most of this bath he was ready to get out of the sink, as you can see.  But he's had many baths he's enjoyed since this one.