Just a quickie... sorry we're so off in posting anything new, but I promised I'd at least get some new pictures up (though I know this barely fulfills the request... I'll get back SOON!). The kids are doing great, I just uploaded 150+ pics so I'll sort out some more good ones and post again soon. Thanks for your patience, blogfans!
:)
Sarah

Nora teaching Leopard Cat to dance

John... I'm not even sure what he's doing!

Overdue Christmas Greetings

So, we never did get around to sending out our Christmas card this year. Then we were going to scramble right after Christmas and package it as a New Year's card... if we had managed to pull that together, this is what it would have looked like:

Even though we didn't send our cards out, we were thinking of all of our friends and family, particularly those of you we weren't able to visit this year. We really do hope you had a nice Christmas (or Hanukkah, as the case may be!) and that 2009 is shaping up to be stellar.

Will try to post again soon w/ more pictures and updates. Take care, and stay warm! [if you're warm already, keep it to yourself... we don't want to hear about it. Seriously, it was -13°F here so I'm in no mood to hear about fabulous sun and sand! ;) ]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This is my first attempt at blogging on the "information superhighway" and I'm hoping this works. As most everyone reading this knows, Nora is turning the big 03 this Sunday. In honor of this milestone, I've whipped up a little video that some of you may enjoy.

- BRETT

Bedtime

The Bubzinator

We (Nora and I) took John for his four month checkup today, and got the green light to drop the hammer on his bad habit of waking up to eat every three hours at night. It should be ugly for a few nights but I'm told he'll get on board sooner rather than later! Wish us luck! He measured 26.5" long ("top of his class," according to Martha, our nurse practitioner) and weighed 18lb 14oz, which she said was off the chart (for reference, Nora weighed 18lb 12oz at six months). Oy, he's a hefty baby, and the nurse practitioner said we have no worries that he'll waste away while we try to help him consolidate his feedings! Earplugs at the ready... here we go.

John with his first bowl of rice cereal... he was not this enthused when I was trying to get it into his mouth!

Nora was great at the appointment, I just had to remind her once that I needed her to be quiet while I talked with Martha. As soon as we were done and Martha addressed her directly, it turned out that Nora had been absolutely bursting at the seams to tell her that "WE SAW THE LEAF SCOOPER TODAY and he scooped up the leaves and then 'beep beep beep' he backed up and then he went forward and he put the leaves in the GARBAGE TRUCK and we also saw a BLACK GARBAGE TRUCK!" >whew<

We've been calling John variations on Bubs for a while now, "the Bubzinator" being one that I didn't realize was as popular as it apparently has become. This afternoon, when John was waking up from his nap, Nora turned to me and stated very matter-of-factly, "Mom, the bubz'nator is awake." We might need to work on just calling him his regular old name for a while!

Zoo - Take 2

We tried to take Nora to the Zoo Saturday, (Nov 1) only to discover that they started their new, shorter hours that day. She took the blow surprisingly well, in part b/c Brett immediately promised we'd come back the next day. It was considerably chillier, but she didn't care.

just smile naturally... good!

John was unimpressed with his first visit, but he didn't have much of a view! Both days we were able to visit with my dad's family -- they'd come into town for Uncle Bob's surprise birthday dinner. I, of course, have no pictures, though the camera was in the diaper bag.

John at the zoo

Also, this fall I've just about finished what may be the longest furniture refinishing project ever. My Grandma Kenrick gave me this desk in 1996, when I was still in college. It was painted pink, and I decided I would refinish it. In the stripping process, I discovered that besides pink, it had also been canary yellow, lime green, teal, red, black, and maybe a couple of other colors too, before I spotted the original, but damaged, dark finish. The original top was damaged, so my Grandpa Yavello made me a new solid mahogany top in his workshop several years ago. That top was slightly damaged when we got water in our basement, but I was able to sand that out, and a few weeks ago, spent the weekend staining and sealing this sucker. I still have to attach the top to the base and decide on pulls for the drawers, but this project is pretty much done! Time to look for a new one! (just kidding... Brett will drop the hammer on me if I show up with another piece of furniture to refinish, unless it will somehow turn into a 52" flat screen tv when I'm done).

Halloweenies - updated

We took the risk and used our "good" weekend to go to the cider mill, so by the time we went to get pumpkins the next weekend, it was very chilly! They only had big pumpkins left, so we got two and did team carving. Brett and Nora went with the classic happy face, while John and I went for surprised. We also had a two-faced small pumpkin from a few weeks ago... I helped Nora make a happy face, but first she wanted Brett to help her make a sad face, complete with about a hundred tears -- the end result was actually more scary than any of our other halloween decorations!

Nora showing me the tears on her sad pumpkin

Nora was all about helping with the pumpkins. When we were cleaning them out, she would reach in, take out one seed, put it on her spoon, and carry it to the garbage can saying "I LIKE helping!" Then she fed the carved pieces and additional seeds to my pumpkin's mouth while I was working on the eyes because he was, apparently, hungry.

This is about as excited as John got about pumpkin carving!

In an effort to go green, we recycled Nora's black cat halloween costume from last year, and John wore her pumpkin sweatshirt from her first halloween. Nora was happily on board with the repeat costume, this year calling herself "Big Fil" as opposed to her favorite guy, Little Fil (who she has lately taken to calling her "old friend, Filly Boy.") (Little Fil, by the way, is named after a real cat, who is named for the street/ President Filmore... I'm not just consistently misspelling it!) Trick or treating was a huge hit, though she never quite got the hang of the lingo, yelling out "Take Your Treating!" at each house. After she and Brett made the rounds, she hung out on the porch helping me hand out candy, which may have been even more fun for her! She kept asking where the kids were, and if she saw a group on the corner she would call out "hey kids! Come over here! I have candy for you!"