"fall"

we do get brown leaves in "fall" which is usually the end of december.

our neighbor on the corner, jim, faithfully rakes his pecan leaves (we don't have any trees that lose their leaves all at once) so that the kids can jump in them. this year only olivia, jack and mike wanted to. pete probably would've, but he was taking a nap at the time.

Go Timberwolves

nick played on the freshmen basketball team for chiles this year

they were moving so quickly! sorry for the blur

we love number 15 the best. he looks so short in these pictures (he stands a bit above me around 5'7") and his best friend on the team, brad hill, is to his right, #13.

HPU

more pictures from thanksgiving.

game face on.


father/son moment before the game
too cool cousins moment
billy said he knew they were in trouble when he saw the flags. apparently, any time there are flags on the light posts, they know they'll lose big time. at least the pay off was worth it. i hope.
it's always fun to be with cousins, win or lose. this was before the game (we were SO early)!

Thanksgiving

thanks again Bill and Barb---we had a great time, as always!

no decorating for Christmas....

yet. we have to finish getting the house on the market (with realtor pictures) before we decorate. but with only 2 weeks left, and this being the latest we've ever gotten a tree and decorated (the one exception being 13 years ago when we forewent ALL decorating in favor of moving into the NY house on the 22nd and immediately leaving for Sherry's in MI), I couldn't stand not having something in the house that brought meaning to the season. so...i got this nativity scene by Fisher Price at walmart. besides the fact that bedlam broke out between the 2 youngest boys (it coulda been filmed for an episode of COPS it was that bad) they have enjoyed playing with it a lot! when you push the angel at the top it plays "away in a manger". i taught them the words to the first 2 verses last night as they were falling asleep. i love christmas through young eyes....

some of *my* favorite senior pics

this was a playful one, but it shows a side of her that i love...subtle, sweet and sarcastic all at the same time.

















she thinks this reflection pool is a big waste, so it's funny to have a pose of her in front of it. i imagine when she's older and has more on which to reflect, she won't remember thinking a reflection pool was dumb. i reminded her that back in the earliest 20th century when this was a vacation spot for the couple who built it, they didn't have wii video games or season 4 of the office to relax to.






i love the color of the one on the left--taken at the gazebo on the lake, but the one below is my absolute favorite. we don't know what that big, black urn-like think was exactly, but it adds a great architectural element to our beautiful first born girl. i can't believe she'll be 18 in 2 months.

boys

no matter what i do, it seems mike's hair is always messed up. but he's always smiling...which distracts from the messy hair--











pete adores all his big brothers--













this was pete's halloween costume this year, borrowed from a friend. they were soft, so he thought they would make good pajamas...










thanks, pop pop for giving us this growth chart--we love the philly phanatic. maybe someday we'll be as tall as he is (there is no carpeting on the floor because they spilled so much stuff on it it was gross and starting to smell. at least to my sensitive nose).

so long, farewell.

we sold the piano. i didn't necessarily want to, but knew it was necessary (does that make sense?). we put it on craigslist and it sold within a week. it's a nice young family with 2 daughters, the oldest plays and was ready for more than a keyboard, and her younger sister is following behind. i'm glad someone will love it. i didn't realize the habit i had of walking around the corner and playing a song or two and then moving on. especially since the bigs are all in school.