Walk through Bethlehem

This year we were invited to a local church that takes you on a tour, walking to and through Bethlehem. My friends and sisters, Mary and Jeanne invited our family to join them in their annual tradition to walk through Bethlehem. Our photo below is at the end of the walk. They started us in the church singing Chrismas Carols. Then our small group was led outside by our tour guide. We were greeted by angles announcing a savior. We were then questioned by Roman soldiers about our business. We visited with some shepherds and their sheep (live animals) who told us about a new king. We journied/walked on to Bethlehem where we gave all our shackles to buy our papers for Caesers census. Roman soldiers greeted us again asking for us to prove we had papers. We passed through town (tents) with venders, listened to a profit who told us about the new baby king and then we finally followed a star that lead us to a stable. There we found baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, livestock and angles. It was very moving, a fantastic production and great tribute to all the volunteers who stayed in character and made the experience wonderful. Thank you God for such a beautiful story about the birth of your son, our savior!

2009 Photo with Santa

So this years photo with Santa is not the loving image I had hoped for but it does capture truth. Tommy has become very confident over the past year and he is truly developing into a nice and active young man. Sammie is always excited about fun things however she can be extremely cautious in new environments. Finally, Allie is a Momma's girl and wants nothing less as you can see below. (Note: We have an album of photos with Santa year after year, nothing fancy as you can tell by the outfits. We want to document the moment, the end of 2009, it has been a good year.)

Gymnastics Makeup

Tommy and Sammie typically attend gymnastics class on Thursdays. I explained to them that this week we would go to gymnastics on Monday in addition to Thursday so that we could make up for Thanksgiving day when we would not have class. So in the parking lot at gymnastics as Tommy changed into his workout cloths and Sammie waited patiently. Sammie then asked if Tommy was going to wear makeup with his outfit. I said no and then she asked if she was going to wear makeup for class and I again explained no. She then asked why this was 'makeup gymnastics' and I finally clued in to where these questions were coming from. My brain cells are clearly fried and my almost 4 year old is starting to out wit me.

Tooth is already gone!

Its alraedy gone, the tooth fell out somewhere at preschool! Tommy rushed to bed tonight looking forward to his gift from the Tooth Fairy. I love sharing their over the top excitement.

First Loose Tooth

Tommy bit into a banana at breakfast today and came up with a bleeding tooth. Tommy wiped the blood with the sleve of his shirt and came to show me. It was his new batman shirt so we had to wash the blood out, get it into the dryer and back on before school. Tommy did not care about his loose tooth but his new batman shirt now that was a big deal. I on the other hand was shocked with the realization that Tommy is starting to loose teeth. He just turned 5, this is all happening too fast. I remember as a kid that time dragged on and on and on so then why are my kids years going so fast?

Halloween

We had a great night of trick or treating. We started off with a neighborhood parade and then visited house after house with friends and neighbors. It was fun to watch the kids excitement, Tommy showed me every piece of candy and he was thrilled when I could tell him, "Great, you can eat that one!" Sammie's candy bag grew leaps and bounds after we reiviewed all the candy at home so I have felt compelled to snack on some of her candy to help even things out. (I am not sure she will even get one of the kit kats, she does not yet understand the value of chocolate.) Allie and Daddy stayed at home and passed out the candy, Allie loved opening and closing the door but she hated her pumpkin costume. Tommy has worn his Optimus Prime costume Saturday, Sunday and again today. We are getting great use out of the costumes, the kids love to dress up.

New Kitchen Backsplash

We have a new kitchen backsplash! A few too many splatters on the back wall behind the burners on the cook top so we added a nice backsplash to help save the wall. Next step is to finally pick paint colors. We moved in back in March and we are still looking at the builder's stock white wall paint. .

Tough weekend

It was a tough weekend for our house, Sammie had a temp. of 102.x both Friday night and Saturday, I came down with a sinus infection and bronchites, Allie has a cold and is still cutting her top two K-9s and Tommy came down with a fever on Sunday. Dispite all the illness we still had a good time. We picked up or pumpkins, apples and fresh cider from a local farm, took frequent naps and just hung out at the house for the weekend. Sammie's bandaid on her head is because she had a headach, amazing how powerful a bandaid can be.

Bees!

Tommy had a great day at his final soccer game of the season, I think he scored 8 goals and they were all for the right team. After the game everyone got trophies with their names on them and a great snack. Tommy was exhausted and took a 3 hour nap after the game. Whew.

Sammie unfortunatly did not have as good of a time. Typically she will cheer on the sidelines, follow baby Allie around, do flips with Daddy and sometimes color. Soon after we arrived at the game today Sammie got stung by a bee on her cheek. She yelled/chanted, "Owie, Owie, Owie...." I immediately knew she was stung b/c it was about that same time I was commenting to myself, "wow there are a lot of bees out here today." Well we had the Benadryl handy and we got ice from the concessions stand and she was moaning in pain for much of the game. On the way out to the car after the game a yellow jacket landed on the back of Sammie's neck and stung her twice! Wow, what a day. More ice and a lot of TLC later she is doing ok but she is now afraid to go outside. She went out after dinner only to come right back in to say she was too scard of the bees outside. Poor thing.

Sammie wanted a Princess to play with

Sammie wanted to get into her Halloween Princess outfit and have someone to play 'princess' with. Tommy was in his Optimus Prime outfit and she asked him if he would dance with her. He was reluctant but after some coaching the two got to dance. Sammie still wanted to play 'princess' so we dressed Allie up and had her participate. Only a true expert will know which Disney princess Sammie was dressed as and who Allie was, you can tell by the color of their dress.......

Chicago Half Marathon

I set a goal to run a half marathon before I turned 40 and I did it. My friend Gretchen set me up on the challange and then once I registered for the run in Chicago there was no turning back. (I am not one to let a registration fee go to waste :) Tommy Jr. and I traveled to WI to see baby Lincoln, celebrate Tommy turning 5 and to have a day of fun at Dozer Days. Then we left for Chicago and visited with my friend Mary. Her neighbor, a professional chef, made us a fantastic dinner and then by 6 a.m. we were out the door headed to the race on Lake Shore Ave. There were over 14,000 people racing with me and my friend Rachel, wow it was alive with energy. It was more of a challange to run in a crowded street than it was when I trained where typically I only shared pavement for brief encounters where someone was passing me. I broke my running time of a 10 minute mile and came in at a 9:48 minute mile pace. I finished 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Tommy and Mary cheered for me at mile 4 and again at the finish line. How fantastic it was to have Tommy present me with a flower, a dandaline, at the end of the race, it truly touched my heart. Mary loaded me up with some devine dark chocolate treats for the ride home and Tommy slept most of the drive back to Indy. Once home, Sammie, baby Allie and Tom had a huge celebration display to congratulate me. Balloons, and ice cream cake, cards, medals, trophies, garland and a spa gift certificate were some of the many goodies I received. Thanks to everyone who helped me make this goal, called with encouragement, asked me how my running was going, prayed for my aches and pains and cheered for me, it really made me feel special. A big thanks to Tom Sr. who put the kids to bed by himself night after night while I was out running. A final note to Brooke, Tommy, Sammie and Clayton, I did not offically win but in my heart and mind I did. :)

My actual running photos are posted here if you are interested:

www.marathonfoto.com

You will need my last name, the race name: Chicago Half 2009, and my bib number: 11878

Dozer Days

Dozer Days was hot but a lot of fun. Brooke and Tommy were able to drive a Front End Loader by themselves and the trained professional and then jointly rode a large bulldozer with Clayton and Mr. Mike on the opposite side.

Visit with the Stanleys

Tommy and I arrived on Friday night at the Stanleys. I got to meet and hold baby Lincoln and got to play with Clayton whom I call 'Cutie' and Brooke. It was like old times, they just started running around together like no time had passed. Saturday morning came the Diego cupcakes to celebrate Tommy's 5th birthday one final time. Clayton smiles below as he knows the cupcake are next. Brooke is concerned about the process of blowing out the candle.

Here we got to see baby Lincoln and Mr. Mike

My words are repeated again.

Tommy got two new books from his friend Blake for his birthday. One was a superhero book. Sammie, who had been practicing writing her letters all day wrote her name on the inside of Tommy's new book along with three library books. I was able to clean up two of the library books b/c she wrote her name on the shinny cover. The other two books she wrote her name on the inside flap. Tommy was crushed. Sammie and I had a talk and she was truly sad for Tommy and apologized. The next morning during the car ride to gymnastics Tommy opened his new book to read. Upon opening it he remembered that Sammie wrote in his book and replied to her, "Do you think this makes me happy Sammie?" Ouch those have been my words from time to time when Tommy has deliberately disobeyed me. Sammie broke into tears and explained that she had already apologized. I was sad; my own words repeated back were crushing. God has taught me a lesson on how badly words can hurt.

WW II Tiger fighters

Tommy was reading a new book from the library and the conversation went as follows: "Mommy, some airplanes are like animals." I responded, "Oh really, what do you mean Tommy?" Tommy opens his book and shows Sammie and I a picture of a WWII fighting plane as pictured below.
I replied, "Yes Tommy, sometimes planes were painted just like a shark back in World War II." Sammie asks, "Is there one painted like a giraffe?" I just had to laugh at the thought of that, can you imagine a war jet painted with a giraffe face? I don't think anyone would be afraid of that. I explained to Sammie that maybe Southwest Airlines, a commercial airline might have a giraffe plane. I guess I will look that up on google next.

Food and Allergy Walk

We participated in the Indy FAAN Food and Allergy walk this year. We were able to raise money to support research to cure food allergies. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to meet others who are managing food allergies for their children who have many more allergies than our crew. Our team name was team Goose. Tom Sr. has nick named baby Allie, "Goose" and has many times called all of us goose. So we went on a two mile walk in downtown Indy and the kids had a blast. They each got a 1.5 ' pixie stick and they waved during the walk that were surprisingly lost as soon as we got home. Can you imagine how much sugar would of been in just one of those? Maybe if they were teenagers on the track team or something, but wow the kids would of been up all night!

Sammie takes a crash

Sammie is having a hard time falling asleep. She refuses to take naps and at night she will sneak out of her room and rest on the floor at the top of the stairs to try and hear what we are doing. A few times over the past two weeks we have found her asleep at the landing at the top of the stairs. Well the other night we found her fast asleep on the stairs. She was in a hard sleep and did not wake up when we transported her back to bed. Good thing she does not wiggle too much when she sleeps or she would of rolled down the stairs!

Birthday Boy!

Tommy was counting down the days until he turned 5. He still likes to repeat, "I am 5." Tommy announced it was his birthday all day and told everyone he could that he was 5. He was extremely proud to be another year older and his excitement was bubbling over. We had a lot of fun celebrating with Tommy. We opened presents before we got dressed, and after Daddy was home from work. Grandpa Francis then came in town and we celebrated with a Batman cake and more presents. (Sammie told me that I did not make the batman cake correctly because he only had one eye, we then had a discussion about side profiles.) Tommy got a scooter from Grandma Alman & Gordy, a Pirate ship from Aunt Sue & Uncle David, a Star Wars jet wing fighter that transforms into a Jedi from Grandpa Francis and more toys. Tom and I liked the Bond and money received for his college fund. Thanks everyone, Tommy loves being 5!

First Day of School

Tommy and Sammie are at their first day of preschool today. On Tuesdays/Fridays they are at preschool from 9 a.m. - 2:20, so they even do lunch at preschool! I am so excited for them. I know what will happen, I will want to hear all about it, everything they did and they won't remember enough to tell me much of anything. So we captured some fun photos and hopefully we get some good stories from their respective teachers. In the mean time Allie is loving having the house, car and her momma all to herself.

One week away

I have been full of excitement for this Labor Day weekend and upcoming week. It is a nice long weekend with Tom home. We get to celebrate Tommy's birthday day after day with lots of cake and presents and Grandpa Seiler visiting. Tommy and Sammie start preschool next week. This coming Friday Tommy and I will travel to WI to meet Lincoln Stanley and stay with our friends that I dearly miss. On Saturday Brooke, Tommy, Clayton and Mr. Mike and I get to bring the kids to the Dozer Days in Sussix. I can't wait to see Clayton's excitement! Then Tommy and I will travel to Chicago to visit my friend Mary. On Sunday I will run 13.1 miles in the Chicago 1/2 marathon with Tommy and Mary cheering on. Then we drive home to see Tom and the girls. I am going to love this week!

Allergy Success!

Tommy and I arrived at the Dr.'s office at 7:45 a.m. this morning to begin his food challenge. We started with a waffle, he ate 1/4 of it and then we waited for 20 minutes to see if his body recognized the milk in those pieces of waffle We continue on to complete the waffle with no reaction. We then waited an hour to be sure that his body was not going to react. Next was the muffin. Tommy will tell you that the muffin tasted much better than the waffle. We broke it down to 4 sections with corresponding 20 minute wait intervals. After no reaction we then waited for another hour to be sure that his body did not have a delayed reaction. Finally at 1:20 p.m. we were discharged with great success. Tommy can now begin to introduce milk in baked goods into his diet. He is still allergic to raw milk and he cannot eat any cheese, sour cream, cream based soups and other products where milk is listed as one of the first 3 ingredients on the label. However this is huge progress and the Dr. believes that if we begin to introduce milk inside a baked good 3 times a day that his body will begin to outgrow the milk allergy! Healing from God, THANK HIM!

IN State Fair

3 kids at the IN state fair and full of wonderful memories. Allie does not like Pigs, Sammie loved riding the pink horse on the Merry Go Round and Tommy rode rides that would of made is mama ill. We got to see the worlds largest Bore, 1,176 lbs, not very pretty and who knew Donkeys were so soft?

Bike Ride

Tommy has learned to ride a bike with out training wheels! I am not skilled enough to video this talent and then upload it so you all will just have to take my word for it. After 4 tries we got a tip from a neighbor that the faster you ride the easier it is to learn to balance. He has been riding solo ever since. Today he even learned to slow down, speed up, turn back and forth and even turn around with out loosing balance. Now he can't get enough of his bike. We will have to invest into a new bike, the chain falls of every few minutes and I am tired of trying to scrub greese off my fingers. I love to see how proud he is, we are all very proud of Tommy!

Raindrops fallin' on our heads

Today we went to the Library; it is a weekly trip for us. It was sprinkling all morning so it was a perfect day to stay inside. We had a great trip, Allie was less than thrilled but all in all we had a good time. Just as we were leaving the sky had turned black. It was not raining and I remember saying to myself, this must be the calm before the storm. We hurried to the minivan, opened the side doors, Sammie jumped in, we tossed the books in, Allie was set into her chair and then the sky let loose. Tommy and I got drenched. Sammie was scared so she had closed the car door before her brother could get in. My remote was jammed because of the rain and so I could not open the door for Tommy. Sammie yelled through tears of fear, "Mommy, get in!" Tommy came around the front of the car in tears and with fear to find me for help. Tommy and I made it in however we were soaked. We talked about how the rain drops are just water and we were wet but we were safe. I really hope I don't see the fear in their eyes too many times; it really broke my heart to see that.

Silly Sammie

It was another hot day here and so the kids wanted to play catch inside. So I agreed, getting 3 kids covered in suntan lotion can be difficult. We had a total of 4 tennis balls and 2 mini plastic balls about 1.5" round. Everyone was having fun, even baby Allison who loved just tossing the ball and watching her older siblings fetch it for her. Sammie placed the two smaller balls into her front pockets of her daisy duke shorts. She somehow forgot about them and about 5 minutes later she yelled at me, "Mom, I don't have a ball!!!" Tommy and I burst out laughing as she stood there with her pockets buldging from the balls stuffed into them. Silly Sammie, she just smiled and said, "Oh."

God's power

Well we have one more day of vacation bible school and they kids are lovin' it. During our drive this morning to VBS Sammie commented on how big the trees were on the side of the road. I asked her who made those tress and she told me God did. She then carried on as follows: "God made everything, the trees, they sky, the clouds..... that is a lot of blue sky over there....God must of been tired." I replied, "Yes God was tired Sammie that was why when he was done he took a nap, a rest, are you going to take nap today too?" "Nope" was the response without even thinking twice. (Well she ended up taking a 3 hour nap today! As Barney says, "Everybody need a nap.")

Wow what a treat

While in NY we were able to go bowling for the first time with the kids. It was a blast to see all the excitement over watching the ball bounce off bumpers and striking pins down. We will be back. We also went to the Rochester zoo where we were able to see the visiting white Tiger. Wow she was huge and we were very close to her. Tommy was in awe, Tigers are his favorite play toys and activity.

July 4th

The neighborhood where I was raised has an annual July 4th kids parade. I was privledged to have been home for it and to have my own children participate in it.

Here are all the kids and to the right are all the moms that I grew up with who now live in our old neighborhood with their children.

Baby Allie is sporting a July 4th wig and Tommy was taking his tigers and wolf along for the ride.

Ahhhh, Vacation

On vacation it is all about relaxing. The weather in NY was really nice, in the mid 70s with a breeze, we had all the windows open, you could hear the frogs at the pond and it was just peace and quiet, God's gift. We all took naps.

Trip to NY to visit Aunt Glady, Mom and Gordy

We traveled 12 hours to NY by car with 3 kids and a lot of library books, toys and movies to visit Great Aunt Gladys (86 yrs young), Grandma Alman and Gordy. We had a great time and the kids loved the extra attention. The 11 hour drive back was a nice treat too. It was a great vacation.