Smart Jillian

I know she's mine so I'm naturally bound by the oath of Motherhood to think she is one (of three) of the most brilliant creatures on the planet.  However even if this notion was not mandatory, I think I'd be amazed by her.  I'll assume you don't have 9 minutes to watch this video, and that's okay. But... if you do, prepare to be impressed.  -smile-   

She's getting so big!

It's not just the kids I attack with the camera...

Also, I just think this is so cute...  I told Jillian Evan could sit all by himself now, but she's "too nervous to let him do it" because...

"He might bump his precious little head."

Love this. 

Christmas, 2011

To see all the photos from our Christmas, click HERE!

The note we left for Jillian before going to bed.  She snuck out of bed in the night and read it but, "knew it was not true yet because the sun was still in Egypt."  Side story for Christmas this year- Jillian does not believe in Santa.  Long story, but the short version is that she asked me point blank, and I answered.  Ryan and I never had over the top Santa experiences as children so we're not heartbroken about this.  The only trouble is at the grocery store (or insert other errand here) where adults ask, "Are you excited about Santa?" and she nods politely or says things like, "yes, wouldn't that be a fun idea."  lol.  After this happens she always wants to have a conversation about how silly these people are and how they, "didn't know she already knew the secret that is for adults".  Oh... this kid...

Ryan was VERY excited to buy a telescope "mostly for Jillian but to share with the whole family".  He was however, unaware this gift would require him to get a serious education in astronomy.  We're getting there...

I ADORE how Liv is excited about anything anyone else is excited about.  She's such a sweet girl.

Liv's favorite gift:  Jillian's new rain boots.  And, candy.

Evan got a football & other fun baby items.  He looks less that enthusiastic in this photo because he was EXHAUSTED and his mother thought it was a good idea to make him push through his morning nap for the sake of Christmas morning photos.   That mother of his is obsessed with photos. 

Love her. 

Love him.

Love how our kids will "cheers" with any beverage they may be drinking.  Bonus if they are drinking out of glass cups.

Love how Jillian said her favorite thing I "made" for breakfast was a sliced strawberry.  She went on and on about how nice it was.  Of course using as many descriptive words as possible.  She was far less enthusiastic about the eggs, or hash browns. 

Liv was less verbal about how great our breakfast was... more visual, and more appreciative of hash browns. 

Evan checking out his new toys. 

Last one...  I love that these people are mine.  I love that even though sometimes I feel a little left out hardly being on the other side of the camera I feel better knowing that the photos I'm capturing are the things that MY eyes are seeing.  These are my memories in concrete form.  You can't beat that!  I love these people with all of my heart.  They are the most important things to me in the world.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Day!

Hope your day was as fabulous as ours was!

Wishing you and yours a fabulous New Year!

Christmas Eve- 3rd year to NYC!

To see all the photos from today, click HERE!


2011

2010

2009

This was our third year taking the train to and from NYC on Christmas Eve.  It's a BUSY day, but totally worth the effort.  It's getting to be more and more fun as the kids are getting older too.

I'm really REALLY big on traditions, so this is perfect for me.  Ryan's really into this one too, so that makes it easy.

We don't quite have our breakfast part of this tradition mailed down yet... last year we drove through somewhere on the way to the train (I think?) and this year we bought $17 worth of food from the cafe car on the Amtrak (which is just a coffee, muffin, yogurt, milk & 2 bagels).  Since we're usually in a hurry to get out the door, I'm thinking some kind of make-the-night-before breakfast casserole we can take with us might work well.  Suggestions?!?

Anyway- we were a little up in the air about where our NYC lunch favorite would be (Mr. Broadway would have been our pick but they are closed on Saturdays...) so today we went to Johns Pizzeria and holy cow, we're never turning back.  That's nothing against the awesome Shawarma you can get from Mr. Broadway but this pizza... and the pizza roll appetizers?  Oh. My.  So fresh, so tasty.  Must try if you are in NYC.  We watched the guys make our stuff and then shove it into the massive brick ovens.  Mmm!  And, it's a good sized place (HUGE in NYC standards) so there was plenty of room for us to all sit at a table and eat.  It was perfect.

After lunch we headed to the tree in a taxi.  Jillian looks forward to the taxi ride (and "pushing the TV") the whole year.  Seriously.  If you mention NYC she will always bring this up.  It's a (totally germ ridden) highlight for her.  Go figure.  Taxi without car seats= terrifying for parents.

The tree was a little sparse this year to be honest- there was a guy behind us critiquing it for about 5 straight minutes.  It made me want to defend this beautiful pine so here it goes: The tree in NYC was beautiful!  I always love to see how many lights they manage to squeeze onto it, and I love to read the story about where the tree came from.  This year it is a 75 year old 74 foot Norway Spruce from Middinville, PA.  There's a good article/photos about it HERE.

This year Jillian took ice skating lessons so I think the people ice skating were of particular interest to her.  It is always fun to watch all the people going around but we've yet to stand in that (very long) line to participate.  Once all the kids can do it, I think we will.  Liv barely looked at them because at this point she was exhausted.  She was a trooper though!

After the tree it's a little walk over to Carnegie Deli  to grab dinner to bring back on the train with us.  We've done this all three years and there's no going back- one sandwich feeds all of us (granted, it costs about $20) but it's always tender & delicious.  So yummy.  This year we tried a roast beef and while it was lovely, we'll go back to the pastrami with provolone next year I think.

Taxi back to Penn Station and 3 hours back home.  Long day?  Yes.  Worth it?  TOTALLY.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!  Hope you day tomorrow is WONDERFUL!  We're so looking forward to our little sweeties opening their gifts!

Nancy

Yup, we're still here!

Lots to do, lots to post, little time to do it all.  So, I'm still taking pictures but I'll have to share them another time.  Just a tiny effort to live in the moment during this crazy season and hang onto my sanity at the same time!

Hope all is well!  Only 12 days to go!!!

Happy Fall!

The leaves are changing, the air is crisp...  Ah!  My favorite time of year!  Except maybe Spring... that's pretty awesome too :)

Hope you're out there enjoying it!

Back on Aug. 22nd...

Jillian started Pre-K.

Before that, we went back to school shopping and Jillian was quite excited to purchase the things she needed for her class.  Particularly scissors.  She's really excited about using scissors as much as possible. -smile-

We had a great time picking everything out:

Sweet Jilli:

And even made a guy at Office Max take our picture:

Jillian carried the bag herself and was very excited to show it to Daddy, Liv & Evan:

Before the first day, we picked out her outfit (a new dress!) and talked a lot about how things would go on the big day:

After she went to sleep I added this little note and necklace to the top of her clothing.  The necklace was special because I wore it just a few days before in my friend Natalie's wedding.  I let Jillian wear it and Ryan and I 'filled it with kisses' in case she missed us while she was at school.  We told her she could touch the necklace and think about how much we loved her and how we would be back at noon to pick her up:

Here she is in the morning on the way to school eating some bagel in Ryan's truck.  Our whole family went to drop her off together:

She RAN to the door and opened it:

Sniff, sniff... really?  Our baby in Pre-K?!

Here's Jillian with her teacher, 'Miss Kelly'.  She also has Miss Laurie & Miss Linda.

This photo was posted on the school website after the first day.  Doesn't Jillian look tiny?!  She did great at drop off without a single hesitation or tear- although we did not keep that streak alive and had a bit of a hard time for about 3-4 mornings toward the beginning... all better now though!)

Afterwards, our whole family picked her up and asked where she wanted to go for a special family lunch.  Chipolte:

Usually she just shares food with me, but our school girl got her VERY OWN kids meal that day.  Oh la la!

One more set of photos...  After pick up she happily posed for a few photos outside of the school:

Silly Sassy Girl:

Love this kid:

And there you go- LOTS of photos to document her first preschool experience.  We've been at it for about 8 weeks now and she is really enjoying the school, teachers, and new friends.  It's interesting for me to have her away from the house from 8-noon three days a week.  I gotta say, I miss her while she's gone!  However, even though I do miss her, this whole preschool thing has not been as hard for me as I thought it might be...  (I didn't even cry the first day when we dropped her off!!) I love watching Jillian reach milestones like this!  We could not be more proud of her!

Nancy

We're still here!

Has it really been this long since I've posted something on here?  Sorry.  We're crazy busy.

You might say we're up to our knees in....

MUD.

I'm looking forward to our marathon house project wrapping up so I can tell the whole story backwards and fill you in on the last months here at the Kules house.

For now, I'll simply say when digging our addition in the backyard it seems we ran into a little underground river.  And that river was not so happy about our new master bedroom.

So a little more of this:

And a little bit of this:

In short: When life gives you an underground river, take a mud bath.

Liv's birthday party... x3!

Sweet Liv turned two on August 20th.    and.... August 28th, AND September 4th.  lol  Why?

Because:

• on the 20th I was in California celebrating the marriage of one of my best friends and although I was sad to miss Liv's official birthday, I'm happy to share this date with an amazing couple and happy I'll never forget their anniversary!  So, celebration #1- ice cream with Daddy and Jillian and out to dinner!
• on the 28th we had a lunch planned for a big group of people, and then hurricane Irene changed things a bit- the restaurant we chose lost power and so we called it off.  Celebration #2- Some friends of ours near our new house didn't want to leave the birthday girl stranded without a celebration so I ran to the only open supermarket I could find, grabbed some ready made subs, a cake, and some sherbet ice cream and had a little party at their house.  Since we have 3 kids, and they have 4 it was basically a full on party.  haha!
• on the 4th we re-invited all of our friends to lunch and although we had a smaller group due to the holiday weekend, it was a great time and most important- Liv loved it!

At our friends house:

Liv's favorite part of any celebration- ice cream:

Posing behind her cake:

Opening a present from our sweet friends:

It's my party and I'll pout if I want to:

Take 2 on our lunch out- I made a brownie "cake" instead of cupcakes because it occurred to me (after celebration #1) that Liv does not really care for cake.  I asked her if she would rather have cupcakes or brownies and she said, "BNEEEES!" so, brownies it is:

Here's Ryan standing at the register waiting to treat our friends to lunch:

Here's a shot where you can see most of the kids.  The table in the middle is 6 highchairs.  Aw.  All the kids really enjoyed their food and looked so cute sitting under all the balloons:

More kids:

Liv eating her favorite BBQ, smoked turkey:

Getting ready to sing to the birthday girl:

Some help blowing out the candles:

Ryan and I:

Daddy, Mommy & the birthday girl:

Our whole family:

The birthday girl with her favorite treat:

At home after a nap enjoying some present opening:

That's it!  Liv's birthday is officially celebrated!

To see more photos, click HERE!

Nancy