Happy Boxing Day!

It's been a very nice Christmas. We continued with our streak of not going to Mass on Christmas Eve, this year it was the twins who both had a sinus infection. (The streak stands at 6 yrs now) No reason to take them to Mass, and even though Nana was with us to babysit, we came home after Marilyn's. When kids are sick, Mom can't be gone too long. But, we did have a very spiritual sing along at Marilyn's, so I am counting that as our Mass!

On Christmas Day we had all the grandparents with us, which was a lot of fun. Today is the catch up day, we are playing with all the new toys and trying to put the house back together. Hope your Christmas was wonderful as well!

Santa Terry putting together the construction set.

The finished product, only took an hour and no swearing!

On the back steps ready to come down and put Baby Jesus in his crib.

Emily gets her first Barbie.

Diego, meet Dora. Dora, meet Diego.

Mom's favorite snack food...Popcorn!

Really enjoying the new playset.

Emily, all dressed up and coming at ya

Grandpa Maier gives Sophie her very own bottle of chocolate syrup. Now he won't have to share his!

Enjoying Grandma's trifle.

Grandma and Grandpa Gould and Grandpa Maier.

Emily and Dad.

Remiss

I haven't updated in awhile. Not that there's not been a lot going on, let's see, the kids all had their yearly checkups, I got the shingles, Sophie is being tested for Target, Terry spent 5 hours putting up our outside lights. See, all sorts of exciting things going on here in Gouldie-land!


The main reason I haven't updated is that my wonderful brother Mike suggested I join Facebook. As my nephew Frank wrote in a welcome comment to me,
"Welcome to the time waster known as Facebook, Aunt Dor." Oh, how right you were Francis! But there's something so satisfying, or let's be honest and call it what it is: sheer curiosity, about seeing old friends (Jeannie Buddenbohn anyone!) that you haven't seen in years, and by years I mean some of these people I lost touch with after 8th grade. Almost 30 years ago. Yikes.


So, in case you forgot what they look like, here's a picture of Michael and Emily that their teacher sent me today. As they informed me when I came to the door to pick them up, they were playing "Plincess". Michael loves a good plincess costume!

We brought our tree home tonight as well, so hopefully I will get some pics of the decorating, which is sure to be an event posted this weekend. Remember, only 13 days to go!

Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving with our family. I think my favorite part was when Michael said, with no prompting I might add, "I'm fankful for all of you!" You just never know what they are absorbing, do you? Here are some pics of the festivites. Thanks to Mary and Ray (People's SMA for '08) for making the trip down. We enjoyed seeing you and the boys, I mean, young men!

Mike and favorite cousin Dave

The ladies in the kitchen

Emily and her godfather, Uncle Way

Mary and Alex get cozy with the sink

New favorite roasted onion recipe, very delicious

Learning how to carve from the master

Sophie and Emily

Waiting for mince pie

There's no such thing as too much whipped cream, is there?

Technical Difficulties

We are still here, but I am having problems downloading from my camera. I am a visual person, and a post without pictures is boring to me. My photo software was upgraded, which has turned out to be a downgrade in my case. I'll try to do justice with words alone.

Sophie and I scored free tickets to HSM2-Live at the Fox Theatre. It was her first time seeing anything at the Fox, and she was understandably impressed. The show was cute, although no Zac Efron=no true entertainment for Mom! We stopped at the Varsity afterward, and she really enjoyed that. I cannot remember if I have ever been to the downtown Varsity, what a sheltered life I have led.

Peg and Brendan (aka Blendan) are in town this week, and we have enjoyed that. They came over early yesterday morning to stay with Michael while I took Emily to PT. When I got home Peg was reading People magazine in the family room, uninterrupted, while the boys totally entertained each other. Our Thomas set was such a big hit, we let Brendan take it home to Grandma's, where I've heard he's had some competition for it from Grandpa.

Today was the twins Thanksgiving Party at school. The kids stood on risers in the gym to sing a song...all except for Michael, who ran crying to me. His teacher told me he was distressed about the pilgrim hat, and it went downhill from there. Emily sang all the songs, complete with arm movments like a champ. Sophie's Thanksgiving Feast is tomorrow, and she has the first line in the little play they perform in the classroom beforehand. She's got it all memorized, so she rejected my offer to make her cue cards.

That's about all for now....this weekend we will be resting up and getting ready for the Liotta's. Should be a fun Thanksgiving week!

By Myself

Michael and Emily are in the "I do it all by myself" phase, which is time consuming, but necessary. Sophie is in a different search for independence; last evening at the neighborhood pizza party she informed me that she, Maeghan, Bella and Lily would be trick or treating all by themselves. I tried hard not to laugh outright, as I knew none of their mothers would allow this either. This was an ironic turn of events, as just an hour before Sophie asked to speak with me privately, guess she didn't want Terry to hear her angst. Maeghan had asked her to trick or treat on the bus ride home, but so did Lily and Bella. Sophie informed Maeghan she couldn't be just her friend all the time and that she was going to choose L and B. So Maeghan was miffed and Sophie was worried. Turns out they all hung out at the party, as I told her they would, and the three other girls ended up running off without Sophie. Sophie happily went trick or treating with Sara, another neighborhood friend, and her mother. She didn't want to stick with me and the twins, our pace was certainly turtle-like. Terry was on candy duty at our house, he enjoyed dressing like the Grim Reaper and scaring the little ones. She ended up going to more houses than she ever has and collected a huge haul of candy.

I asked her later how it happened that she ended up with Sara, and she said "It's ok Mom, I really liked trick or treating with her. Those other girls were running crazy from house to house, but me and Sara took our time and we always said thank you." Does a mother's heart proud to hear that!

Sophie and the witches, from left to right, Maeghan, Bella and Lily

Princess Emily, or as she called herself, "A bootifull balaweena"


Mike trying on Daddy's mask

Ahoy mateys!

Trying to be scary like the pumpkins

We are 3!!

Here are a couple of videos and pics from Michael and Emily's bday celebration this past Saturday. We had the Peachtree City Goulds up for dinner, and had a really nice time. Great Grandma Yoko gave Michael a dinosaur that was the hit of the evening. At first he wasn't too sure about it, but pretty much followed it around the rest of the night.









The cupcakes were a big hit, Sophie helped me frost them, and chose the pink(girl), blue(boy) and green (either) colors. She is getting very good at frosting cupcakes, I didn't have to touch hers up at all.




An apology to Nana and Grandpa and Grandma Maier. There are no pcitures of their birthday dinner with the twins from Monday. That is because they decided not to nap (Michael and Emily, that is, not the grandparents) and were in a horrible state by 6pm. They were in bed by 6:45, and never even saw the lovely cake Grandma made and Grandpa decorated. But it does deserve a spot on the blog.


And this also deserves a spot....the rice krispy treats I made for their birthday at school. I did try to dye them orange, but after adding way more than I thought healthy, I gave up. They had a bit of an orange hue, and the kids knew what they were supposed to be, so mission accomplished.


And last, but certainly not least, Emily sleeping with her new Sleepytime Care Bear,courtesy of Grandma Gould.

Pumpkin Time

It's no secret that Fall is my favorite season. Maybe it's because of all the memories associated with growing up in the Northeast, but that first hint of Fall in the air makes me terribly nostalgic. We have had a very pleasant Fall so far, and now the mornings and evenings are chilly, which is so nice.

When you have your own family, you get to make your own traditions. One of ours is going to Mt Zion's pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. It's really nothing special, no drive up to the mountains, no hay ride or farm animals. Just a 5 minute ride in the car to the kids' preschool, where they Youth Group sells pumpkins every year.
There's something to be said for the familiar. And maybe I am just a creature of habit. It really hit me how long we have been doing this little pumpkin thing when the lady asked us if we needed any help. "Oh no", we said, "we've been coming here since our oldest was a baby, and she just turned 7." 7! How did that happen? Wasn't this her, just yesterday?

No, that's her at age 3, the same age Michael and Emily will be in 2 weeks. That also seems hard to believe. Maybe all our Fall birthdays contribute to my nostalgia as well.

So, we carefully pick our pumpkins and gourds, then go home to arrange them. Not like we used to, with bales of haystraw and a new scarecrow every year. That was easy when Sophie was the only one around. Now with three those big displays don't seem that important. Just a few pumpkins on the front steps is fine with me. They'll get moved and dropped a bunch before Halloween actually arrives anyway.

I really do like the Fall. It seems to scream "Home" to me. And this year,our home is a much better place for all of us. For that, I am eternally grateful.

Birthdays Galore

The fall/winter is birthday season in our family. Grandpa Gould and Nana in September, Sophie, Michael and Emily in October. Grandma Maier in November, Grandma Gould and me in December, and Grandpa Maier and Terry in January. Throw in Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and we are done!

We celebrated Grandpa Gould's birthday a couple of weeks ago in PTC. The golf cart was enjoyed by all, and luckily Jack's parents were visiting and were able to get a Gould family shot.

This past weekend Nana came to visit and got to enjoy her birthday dinner with us. The kids really enjoyed helping her blow out her candles.

On Saturday morning, Sophie had her birthday party (a week before the actual day) at Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, that is correct. One of those places that before you have kids you swear you will never set foot in. One of the greatest lessons I have learned since becoming a mother: never say never.

Here's Michael all confused by the strange phone with a cord attached to it.

Terry and Emily take a spin on the racetrack.

Sophie and her friends Katie and Sarah Kate give it a big thumbs up. Notice who the only one with their two front teeth intact is.....

The horse was a big hit. Pulling on the reins made it go faster, and helped steer it around the video screen track that was the course. Mike was content to ride it token-less.
Noah and Sophie have shared a bday party since they were 4, but this year each had too many of their own school friends to combine. But he was right there next to her, and at one point I heard her telling her other friends that Noah and she have been friends since they were 2. Then I heard Noah ask her friends Lilly and Bella, "So, how long have you known Sophie, when did you meet her?" It's like they were at a cocktail party.

My absolute favorite thing about the party was the cake, provided by Tom Carvel. What's not to love about ice cream with that layer of chocolate crunchies in the middle. Of course, it's a big joke among parents everywhere that even though you might claim to not like it, the pizza at Chuck E. Cheese is actually pretty good. Terry and Rebekah are all smiles eating theirs.

All in all, a very fun morning.