Happy New Year!!

We rang in the New Year around 8pm here tonight. The boys got to go outside in their jammies and snow boots and brought out some old pots and pans of mine. With a wooden spoon in one hand and a pot in the other, they banged and shouted and made lots of fun noise. As they get older and can stay awake longer, we might even make it close to midnight someday.

But this was the first time they acknowledged New Year's Eve, so it was lots of fun!! We had fondue for dinner (velveeta for the boys, the real stuff for Ron and me). They thought dinner was lots of fun and couldn't wait to go out to make noise for New Year's. You know it's high on the priority list when they'd rather go outside to bang pots and pans than finish watching Rudolph's Shiny New Year on TV!! Check out the video above of the banging and shouting. This one is my favorite since you can hear Robbie (who refused to put on a sweatshirt over his jammies) say, "Happy New Year!!......Can we go inside now?"

Tomorrow is a big day around here for us, too. Penn State plays USC in the Rose Bowl at 4:30pm. We have friends coming over to watch with us and cheer on Penn State. My old college roommate and her husband and their 3 kids will come over here. Four adults and six kids. Should be fun!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Our Virginia Visit

I joked I would do this, but really didn't intend to follow through. But now I've lost 4 versions of posts to this blog, so I'm going ahead before I lose it again.

Kate posted an update to her family's blog, which included some details and pics of our visit. Check it out here until I can get Comcast to do their job and fix our internet connection!

Kate's Blog

Christmas fun

Our Christmas was incredible! We had the best time on Christmas Eve with family at Nana and Poppy's house, then a blast opening Christmas gifts on Christmas morning at our house. Then more fun on Christmas night at Aunt Mare and Uncle Ted's house. These kids are spoiled with all the fun, family, food, presents and general craziness! I don't think anyone in our house went to bed before 9:30pm on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

The kids all loved opening all of their goodies the best, of course. Robbie's favorites seem to be anything that had a "Scottie" gift tag on it. ;) Scottie's favorite was my personal favorite, though. It seemed to be the only thing on any list that didn't come from a commercial. It was just something he thought up and asked Santa to bring: a drum. A simple, basic, old-fashioned tin drum. And Santa delivered. Scottie's enjoyment is obvious!
And Allie's favorite was just watching the chaos and being in the midst of all the pretty paper and bows.

There really is nothing that can compare to the wonder of Christmas through your children's eyes!!

Christmas Rejects

This was first printed in my column, "Because I Said So," on The Alternative Press.

My kids are so good. Every year, come December, they put up with my alter ego: Crazy Picture Lady. They suffer through about four clothes changes, some in sweaters, some in jammies, some with Santa hats, some without. They sit in front of the tree, on the steps, by the stockings, on a chair, on a stool, kneeling, standing, and sitting in laps. Crazy Picture Lady only comes around once a year, but can stick around for as many as three or four days, depending on how tough it is to get a shot good enough to be deemed "The Christmas Card Photo." One year, I counted and took 281 pictures of my kids to get one useable photo for our family Christmas cards. (This year may have come close to that. Good thing I didn't count!) Thank goodness for digital photography and the "continuous" option on my camera that just keeps the pictures snapping away while I hold down the button to try to get one shot of all three kids looking in the same direction with something resembling smiles on their faces.

As I shuffle through the hundreds of photos on my computer, trying to find the perfect one, I have a great time laughing at some of the rejects. In one, the baby's Santa hat was completely covering her eyes, so all you could see was her little nose and mouth. In another, my younger son had a wide open mouth full of cereal for the world to see. In yet another, my oldest son was holding up his pointer finger in the "I'm #1" pose. I laugh as I see them looking at each other and laughing at their crazy mommy. So I saved a few of the rejects to share this year, just because they're so much fun. In fact, a couple of the rejects are now on my computer desktop because they're my new favorites. They actually show my kids' true personalities. And they reflect the reality that is our family. Far from perfect, but much more fun.

Putting my album of rejects together made me think of all the misfit toys from my favorite Christmas show, the old-school Rankin-Bass production of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Those cute little misfits were the rejects of their lot, too. A train with square wheels, a Charlie-in-the-box, a bird fish, and a spotted elephant. All deemed too imperfect to be played with. But they've ended up as stars of the show now. Even Santa recognizes their value in the end.

The Christmas season is filled with so much magic and wonder, but so many of us make ourselves crazy trying to get everything perfect. We want our table to look "just so" for our guests, our house decked to perfection in every room, even our landscape twinkling with perfectly-spaced lights on every tree or bush. Yes, it's a magical time, but I think the misfits and rejects are what make it so magical. Some of my favorite ornaments on my Christmas tree are old and faded and worn. There are threadbare hand-knit ornaments that my grandmother made for my parents' tree, paint-chipped toy soldiers and snowmen that were gifts to me as a kid, and one little bear ball that my Nana had bought the year she passed away. I collect Christmas angels as my favorite decorations and my three favorite angels are each broken or worn in some way. But I take them out of their boxes every year and remember the time, place and person who gave them to me with warmth and fondness. If I could find brand new versions of the same favorite angels, I wouldn't trade them for anything. It's their imperfections that give them character. I suppose I have my own misfit choir of Christmas angels. But I love them.

So I thought I'd send out a misfit version of a Christmas wish for all of you. Instead of wishing that your holiday season be filled with perfection, I actually am wishing that you're able to find the joy in all of the misfits and rejects you encounter. May your wreaths hang a little crooked, your cookies come out a little crumbly, and your Christmas card photos be crazy. I wish for you that all the imperfections of the season bring you nothing but joy and laughter and fodder for future Christmas stories worth retelling.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Our big boy, Scottie

This week saw two visits to the pediatrician for us. First was not good, for Allie's first fever (101.6). Second was a happier visit, for Scottie's 3 year well visit.

He continues to grow right on up those charts. He's between the 50th and 75th percentiles for both height and weight. He's 37.75 inches tall and 33 lbs even. Scottie and Robbie now weigh exactly the same amount, despite their 17 months difference in age! Definitely continuing the string bean and meatball categories.

The boys are getting into the Christmas spirit, as is our house. The halls are decked and kids all went to see Santa today. Fun stuff! We're loving our DVR right now, as we have so many fun Christmas specials to record (thank you ABC Family). It's a little before-bed indulgence for all of us these days. The boys love the Rankin-Bass claymation shows just as much as I did. I know I could buy them on DVD, but it's just not as special as when they're on TV once a year.

Here's hoping all of you are enjoying the season!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Scottie!!

Scottie turned 3 today!! I can't believe my baby boy is three years old!! He had a fantastic day, filled with lots of fun stuff.

Woke up this morning to all of his birthday goodies and lots of balloons. He wanted an animal themed birthday, so we went to Build-A-Bear in the morning. Scottie made a special stuffed elephant (his favorite animal), which he named "L. E." Robbie made a stuffed zebra named "Zoozer," and the boys made Allie a stuffed bunny, which they named "Bellie Bunagoo." They all had a blast!

After naps, we all headed out for a night of bowling. Nana and Poppy joined us and we all had lots of fun. They have a cool ramp thing you can put in front of the lane to help the kids get the ball rolling fast enough. That plus the gutter guards made for lots of fun for Scottie and Robbie! They both had such a great time!!

Wonderful day for my wonderful boy. Happy Birthday, kiddo! You will always be the absolute BEST surprise I ever got. I just can't imagine our lives without you. We love you!!

First Solid Food!

Big day over here yesterday. Allie got to try her first solid food! We skip the rice cereal at 4 months and just wait until 5 months to do the baby oatmeal. (We learned our lesson about the binding nature of the rice with Robbie.)

Allie did great and seemed to enjoy getting to eat off a spoon for a change! Of course, the tongue thrust reflex forces most of the food right back out of her mouth again anyway, but she managed to eat her entire first serving. Ron did a great job of the spoon swipe to get the food off her chin, and Robbie quipped that it looked like Daddy was shaving Allie's face! I had to include a little video of her experience below.

Then, last night, we took the kids into town for the annual Christmas Walk. Nothing like standing outside watching Santa arrive on a rooftop and parading down the street after the high school marching band to make you love living in a small town. It's all very Rockwellian with kids atop shoulders and carols being sung on the church lawn. I love that night in this town!

I've been Tagged...

I've been tagged! I was tagged by Kate to share Eight Things About Me. Here are my replies:

8 Favorite TV Shows

• Grey's Anatomy
• Eli Stone
• Desperate Housewives
• Brothers & Sisters
• Lipstick Jungle
• House
• Army Wives
• Big Bang Theory

8 Things I Look Forward To

• Christmas
• Bank Holidays
• Naptime
• Tackle Hugs at preschool pickup
• Allie's face when she sees me first thing in the morning
• Ron getting home from work at night
• My April Girls' Weekend away
• Penn State Football Saturdays

8 Things on My Wish List

• Kitchen renovation
• Financial security
• Sushi everyday
• Losing weight
• Housekeeper
• The ability to get inside Scottie's head to understand him better
• More motivation
• More patience

8 Things I Did Yesterday

• Took the boys to preschool
• Vacuumed
• Did Laundry
• Played Elefun
• Cooked dinner
• Changed diapers
• Sat on the bathroom floor while attempting to get Scottie to use the potty
• Finished a batch of hairbows for Allie

8 Favorite Restaurants

• East
• Midori
• Arthur's
• Tony's Pizza
• Texas Roadhouse
• Wild Wings
• Monster Sushi
• Black Horse Pub

8 People to Tag
I am supposed to tag eight bloggers here, but I can only come up with four bloggers I know well enough to pester to update their blogs (hint, hint). Copy what's here and do the same on your blog if you can. I totally understand if you don't want to join in, but let me know if you do!
Robin
Marla
Kelly
Jen
Rules, Rules - here are the rules:'
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Answer all 8 of the six items listed.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog or emailing.

November in NJ

November seems to have flown by so far. I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving week and Scottie's birthday and Christmas is just around the corner!

We've spent most weekends this month tackling the never-ending flood of leaves. We laugh at how all we wanted in Charlotte were some mature trees on our property and here in NJ we talk about cutting off limbs and contemplate chopping down trees to reduce the leaves, acorns, twigs and other yard debris that drops in the fall!

At least the kids have enjoyed the leaf cleanup. Even Allie got into the act when we brought her jolly jumper outside and hung it on a tree limb (so those trees ARE good for something)!.

Robbie likes to pretend he's Daddy with his own leaf blower.

Scottie likes to run under the blowing leaves and collect them in his bucket.

And both boys love to jump in the piles. Fun stuff!

Daddy's Birthday

Well, at least we celebrated Daddy's birthday on time! Better late than never for posting about it on the blog, I suppose! (We'll just say that Kate's birthday post to Ron counts for us, too!) We celebrated Ron's birthday with a yummy lobster dinner (even Scottie ate some lobster!) followed by a special cake that the boys helped "design" and make for Daddy. We had been talking about what kind of birthdays Robbie and Scottie have had in the past and want in the future, and the boys decided that Daddy should have a "Football Birthday." And for this football birthday, Daddy would need a football cake. (Imagine my relief that they settled on the football theme instead of the tool theme -- don't know how I would have done that one!)

So the boys helped me bake the cake and Robbie helped me decorate it to make it look like a football. I'm proud to say that this cake showed marked improvement over the last homemade cake I baked for Ron the year we moved to Charlotte. I didn't know you were supposed to let the cake cool before icing it, or even out the layers so they don't slide off each other. It was the funniest, most lopsided cake ever, but at least it tasted good! Thanks to the Food Network and Martha Stewart show, I actually made something that resembled a football and was tasty to eat, too!

We celebrated his birthday again at my parents' house on Sunday with more family. Happy non-birthday to Aunt Kate and thanks again for her much-more-timely birthday post!!

Halloween Fun

Well, the boys definitely LOVED Halloween this year! Sadly, I think my years of coordinated Halloween costumes with a theme are over. Sniff, sniff. I loved the Buzz and Woody combo from last year, complete with them singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" to each other. But this year, accessories won over costumes. Instead of going as Captain America (Robbie) and Batman (Scottie), they both saw plastic swords and changed their minds at the last minute. Scottie went as a knight and Robbie ended up being a ninja. Or, as Ron coined it, our little Mujahedin warrior when he wore his hood and mask. He was all about being a "bad guy", sneaking around in all black

Allie went along for the ride and looked adorable as a little baby bunny, although she had no clue what was going on. She made it until the last 2 houses and started to cry and just wanted to be home in her jammies and drinking her last nighttime feeding.

I did have to do a little experiment with her earlier in the day, though. I still had the Tom Arma skunk costume that Robbie wore for his first Halloween. Since they're both June babies, and so many have commented on how much they look alike, I had to try to stage a similar photo of Allie in the skunk costume. There is definitely NO denying that these kids are all related!

And one final update on Allie. We had her 4 month doctor's appointment last week. She weighed in at 13lb 12oz (50th percentile) and measured 25" (75th percentile) with her head maintaining the 25th percentile measurement. She had her shots and cried for all of 15 seconds before I had to pass her off to one of the 4 doctors and nurses in the room so we could give the boys their flu shots. Three kids and four shots at the same time. There was hot chocolate, a movie on DVD, and pumpkin carving when we got home to make up for the needle pokes!

Nittany Lion Pride!!

Ron and I went away this weekend to Penn State by ourselves and left all three kids with my parents. We dropped them off Sat morning and drove out the 3 hrs to get there. We even managed to score a room at the Nittany Lion Inn, right on campus. We parked when we got there and didn't drive again till we left Sunday afternoon to go home. We walked all over the entire campus, visited our favorite bars from when we were students there, shopped for lots of PSU gear for gifts, and just had a great time. No wonder I was so skinny in college -- the campus was huge when we went there, but it's gotten even bigger in the last 10 years since we've been back!

It was cool to see the same old stuff we remembered, but weird to turn a corner or go up a path and be confronted with a huge new building that had just sprung up out of nowhere! The downtown area is just a quaint as ever and we went by our old dorm buildings, apartments, and Ron's fraternity house (there are no sorority houses at Penn State -- my sorority was in a dorm suite). We had lunch at Cafe 210, which was famous for cheap pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas. They still had them on the menu and Ron convinced me to split a pitcher with him. Whew! They don't taste like alcohol at all, but do pack a punch!

Sat night we pulled off an unbelievable feat. The most popular bar in town is the Gingerbread Man (aka "The G Man") and there is ALWAYS a wait outside. It was a HUGE game for us: Penn State (ranked 3rd) vs Ohio State (ranked 13th). Whoever won would pretty much take the Big Ten title. The game started at 8pm,. so we took our chances and tried to get in around 6:45 for dinner so we could just have a table for during the game. We go there and, of course, there's a line. We tell the hostess that we'll stand at the bar, but to put our name down for a table anyway on the off chance we could get one. Then she says, "Wait, just two of you? I can't believe it. We don't have anyone waiting for a table for just 2 and a table for 2 is leaving right now." The owner came by and laughed and told us, "You two should go out and buy a lottery ticket. I can't believe your luck!"

So we got in, had dinner and were in THE BEST place for the game! The entire bar is packed with PSU college students and every single TV has the game on. Even the bartenders, wait staff, managers and owners were all in Penn State gear and shouting along with the students. Everytime something happened, the place would erupt in cheers and fight songs. We were high-fiving tables near us and just had an absolute BLAST. Many, many, too many beers later, Penn State won and it was CRAZY!!

We left the bar and students were flooding out of buildings into the street shouting cheers of "WE ARE..." from one side and answering with "...PENN STATE!!" from across the street. Then, without a band or music anywhere, the crowd just started erupting in chants and singing the Penn State fight songs. The streets were filled, students were crowd surfing and everyone was just jumping, laughing, cheering and having a ball. And we were right there in the midst of it! We decided to walk back to the hotel when we saw the riot police come out (nothing bad, just some kids climbing light posts to try to take pictures and kids throwing stuff into the crowd from the apt balconies). We walked back and got to our room around 1am. I can't remember the last time we were out so late and we had just THE BEST time EVER!!!!!

And to make it that much better, all three kids were great for my parents. I'm so glad we went through what we did last week breaking Allie of her paci habit cause my parents said she was an absolute angel for them. She's giving me a hard time this week in payback, but that's to be expected. I'm just so psyched that we had so much fun! It was sorely needed and it was the best way to spend our anniversary. I'm so glad we went!

Family Fun This Fall

Well, I've been a bad blogger. I just realized how long it's been since my last post and I can't believe I let it lapse so long. We certainly haven't had a shortage of activity!

A quick recap to catch you all up:

October began with my cousin, Barbie's, wedding. We had Ron's parents come up to stay with us to help out with the kids so Ron and I could enjoy the festivities. The kids all enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa "sleep over" at their house and Ron and I loved getting away for a night!

The following week we went apple picking. Allie is now the youngest member of the Maisch family to go to Riamede, where our family has gone apple picking for over 20 years! The boys had a blast picking apples from the tree, and Robbie probably devoured about five apples while we were there. No matter how hard we tried, or how much fun he was having, Scottie still refuses to eat fruit. He did, however, eat every last bite of the apple crisp I made with the apples we picked, so there's some progress!

Last weekend we had a visit from our good friends from Charlotte, Sarah and Dave and their two boys, Grant and Drew. All four boys had a blast playing together and made me miss our friends from when we lived there. Allie just got a kick out of watching all the craziness from having four boys ages 4 and under in our playroom and backyard!

This weekend, we took the boys to a nursery in Westfield to go pumpkin picking. The nursery went all out for Halloween and had a haunted house backdrop for pictures, a hayride, pony rides, cut outs for posing, and a maze. We spent a couple of hours there and all had a great time. This week, we'll help the boys paint faces on their pumpkins and carve the big family Jack-O-Lantern.

And, to top it all off, yesterday Penn State broke our losing streak and beat Michigan! Penn State is now 7-0 for the season and 3-0 in the Big Ten. We couldn't be prouder to be Nittany Lions and Ron and I can't wait to head out to State College for our anniversary next weekend!

And, at some point in the past two weeks, both Robbie and Scottie became video gamers. Scottie has mastered a number of games on the Thomas laptop computer toy we have and Robbie has moved on to online games on Nick Jr and PBS Kids websites. It's been a while since our last attempt at these and I'm just amazed at the progress of his fine motor skills with the mouse, not to mention "getting" the games. He asks to play computer games nonstop now. We've created a monster!

We're gearing up for Halloween here. It's a beautiful fall so far in New Jersey!

Allie's Baptism

We had Allie baptised in the church today. It only took us three tries to finally get one of our children baptised as an actual infant! (Robbie was almost a year old, and Scottie was 2 when he was baptised.) My cousin, Barbie, and her fiance, Greg, are Allie's Godparents. Allie was lucky enough to wear the same gown for her special day that Barbie wore many years ago when she was baptised, too. So a very special hand-me-down for Allie and me this morning (thanks, Aunt Mare)!

After many comments from Ron and Poppy about the "Little House on the Prairie" bonnet that she wore, we left the house to head to the church. My mom and I simply LOVED Allie in this adorable hat, no matter what the boys all said! (Thank you again, Aunt Bev!)

She was simply an angel in the church. Pastor Ian Rankine baptised her and she went to him, all smiles, as he spoke of what baptism means. At one point, she turned her head as if she was actually listening to what he was saying. That expression of rapt attention was then quickly replaced by a huge baby yawn. The whole congregation laughed! Ian even asked Robbie and Scottie if they would play their part in helping Allie to understand that God loves her very much and they both responded with an enthusiastic high five to the pastor!

We then came back to the house for a small brunch with Ron's awesome egg, cheese, sausage, ham, and hash brown casserole. (Simply the best breakfast ever! There was almost some fighting over it!) And Allie got her very special hand-knit blanket from Nana today, too. This has become a tradition borne out of necessity since our children have all become so attached to these very special blankets that Nana has had to knit backups for them when they get worn out!

Allie must have known that the party was all about her because she refused to take her morning nap. Instead, she wanted to be held so she could be part of the party. We all had a great day!