easy bake!

clairely baked in her easybake oven for the first time today! she made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting - it was easybake delicious! haha! here's her very first solo baking attempt.

new house

ok, here are a few pictures of our new house! please keep in mind, that i have only painted the kitchen, and the bathroom in our room, so i'm sorry for all the stark white walls! also, the blue playroom is hideous, until i can figure out what to do in there! the boys desperately need bigger bunkbeds, or two separate twin beds, and matching dressers, as well.
we love the living room with the fireplace, but furniture is tricky in there - we either need a small sectional in there, as well as a new desk, or a loveseat, and a chair. Right now, all we have is my faithful green loveseat that has been with us for 10 yrs! my big green couch wouldn't fit. the border in the dining room will be coming down next week, and we have an ugly little bathroom on the first floor that needs wallpaper torn out, and a new vanity and toilet. some things you just can't paint! haha. so here's a peek:

Happy Birthday, Cameron!

our sweet young man turned 9 on Nov. 29 - i can't believe he will be a double-digit next year! cameron has matured so much, this past year, we are so proud of him. We had to celebrate the week we were moving to PA, so we did our best to make his day special - grammy and grampy's box came the day of his birthday, and so did nani and poppi's special card!! how lucky!
we love this boy of ours.

a really big mouse

i bought 3 1/2 lbs of grapes this week, and when tim went to the fridge to put some in the kids' lunches this morning, we found this. we have a really big mouse ... named caloway.

your story

claire has been asking lately for stories about how tim and i met, nani and poppi, grammy and grampy, and oma and opa - i must admit, my versions are a little fuzzy! so, just to make this blog a little interactive - tell me YOUR story in a nutshell! i'd love to hear it, and share it with claire.

what a boy

here is the latest installment in cameron's christmas lists - i gotta say, the boy's creative! after the long list of desired items, he closes with such a sweet sentiment! oh, how we love this boy!

catch up

internet!! what a beautiful thing, when you've been without for almost 2 weeks! so, to catch up a little, i will try to highlight the big stuff, and maybe a little funny here and there:

• moved to cranberry township, pennsylvania! God blessed, and clairely was the only one who got sick, and we were able to move without any problems.
  
• absolutely love, LOVE our new house - but now we're stuck with some extra furniture that doesn't necessarily fit THIS house, and need new furniture to replace it. ugh. one thing at a time.
• absolutely LOVE our new church - they've been so gracious and welcoming, and have made us all feel right at home!
  
• had thanksgiving at my house for the first time in 5 years! why haven't i done this sooner? dan, erica and the ava bean came, and we had such a sweet time together. i told erica, this needs to be our new thanksgiving tradition - go finnan family/holman family! :)
  
• since we didn't have any cable or internet hooked up for a week and a half, all the kids have been able to do is watch dvds. so clairely has completely worn out barbie diamond castle! well, on thanksgiving, she was watching and singing with it for the 15th time, and cameron came running into the kitchen, and grabbed my arm: "mom! you HAVE to turn off barbie diamond castle! it is hypnotizing claire to sing, and she won't stop!" HA.HA.HA!!!! no, cameron - sadly, that's not the problem, and we can't get her to stop singing! that seems to be the new fight topic between those two lately.
• caloway loves to sit next to cameron while he plays his ds, and cameron is becoming increasingly frustrated with how close cal sits to him. he comes to me, saying, "mom, tell caloway he's too close! and his breath stinks!" oh brother. now there's a kid whose breath really does smell like chips!
  
• we love where we live -have i mentioned that yet? we're only about 5 min. from the church, but we're outside of town, in a private wooded area, and can sit out on our back porch and watch deer in our backyard all day. seriously. or from my sink out my new KITCHEN WINDOW! i can't tell you how excited i am to have a kitchen window again!! you never know how nice those are, until you don't have one for 6 yrs.
  
• on a strange side note, my washer and dryer have never worked better - they, too, are over 6 yrs old, and my dryer used to take forever to dry stuff. now, even a huge load of towels dries in one 70-min. cycle! that used to take at least 2 cycles to get them dry. weird, but i am enjoying the efficiency and how much quicker my laundry gets done! must've had something to do with the 12-foot dryer vent we had to use in OH??
  
• tim absolutely loves his new job - we are so excited to get back into student ministry, and tim is really enjoying the people he works with, and the opportunities that are awaiting us here - the church is growing like crazy, and it's just phenomenal to see such excitement and growth. we've never seen anything like it!
  
• our school situation is still simmering - we don't get the luxury of picking our elementary schools here - you simply go to the one in the area where you live. we toured it today, but it hasn't necessarily clicked with me yet. we toured a christian school that i absolutely loved yesterday, and were it not for the price tag, would put them in yesterday! so pray that we'll make the right decision by tomorrow. this is pretty stressful.
• cameron celebrated his 9th birthday on nov. 29! i am saving a post for that, because i have a few pictures to share, and i want to give him his due space here on the blog. hehe.

well, hopefully that kinda caught everyone up briefly, and i'll try to get some more pictures up of the house and stuff - but there's still so much left to do! more later ...

i knew it was coming ...

so clairely was up all night throwing up. 12 hours. no sleep for her, me or tim. need to pack up the rest of the house tomorrow. need to move to pennsylvania on friday. who's next and when do i have the time to nurse a sick child back to health, much less tim or myself? the stress continues to mount.

funny things

cameron to caloway - "don't say I told you so - that's called bloating!"

claire - "mom, what year were you born?"
me - "1978"
claire - "whooa, you are soo lucky! you got to wear bonnets!"

caloway and me at bedime - "cally, can i give you a kiss?"
caloway - "oh, all right - just one!"
me - "I love you, cally!"
caloway - "I love you mom - okay, you can get out now!"

new book!

i picked this book up at the bookery last night. i thumbed through it at the store, and couldn't put it down, and now i can't wait to get all the way through. it is an excellent resource on steering our girls through the crazy, mixed-up culture that is surrounding them today. the conversations are designed for little girls all the way up through teenage years. Invaluable! you can find it on amazon.

trunk or treat

we froze ourselves out at trunk or treat last night! it was 30 degrees, and no hayride was worth frost-bitten fingers or toes ... so here are a few pictures - some of these were from sunday, when it was WARMER! (just so you didn't think i sent my babies out without coats, hats, scarves and gloves!!)

some things never change ...

my new favorite shoe

need i say more? this is the comfiest shoe i've ever worn, and looks simply lovely with jeans. you need a pair, too.

walk, don't run!

so i was just thinking the other day, about how it's been some time since our last ER visit with the kids! don't ever start thinking about that. as luck would have it, tim, caloway and i were at church, making some copies, and pastor came in to say hi. caloway ran over toward him, and he tripped, falling head-first onto the side of the desk. he fell to the ground, with blood spurting through his fingers. AHH! so off we go to the ER, where he got 3 stitches. poor baby! he was such a trooper, though, and was very brave. unfortunately, the incident didn't seem to get past his boyish sensibilities, as i later observed him climbing up the couch, and leaping head first into the cushions. we settled down for a movie after that ;)

bursting

there is always love in our house, but sometimes it seems like there is so much love in my heart, it wants to burst. today is one of those days. i sit here, drinking a delicious smoothie made by my honey, and i just want to shout how much i love my husband and my kids!
I LOVE YOU,
TIM.
CAMERON.
CLAIRE.
CALOWAY.

my life has been so blessed, enriched and enlarged because of you. we were made for each other.

firemen's helmets NOT for kids!

claire came home yesterday, all excited about fire safety week. she told me all about the fire trucks, and firemen that came, and showed off all their equipment and the cool trucks. "We all tried on the fireman's helmet!" she giggled, twirling around. Um, say what?! ALL of you? I asked worriedly. she gladly affirmed yes. oh GREAT. what if one of those kids had lice?!?! i picked her up, and hauled her over to aunt erica's to check for lice. now, i am going to sweat out the next 2 weeks to make sure that nothing infests my daughter's head. this is just my WORST fear ... why in the world would the teachers let the kids try on a helmet? i checked with her teacher this morning, and she told me that the kids in claire's class had been checked, and don't have lice. but STILL! ohh, here i go .. probably overreacting, but i can't begin to express how the thought of a lice infestation sends me into fetal position. so please pray that no bugs show up! :(

Go Eagles!

Claire took a mini cheerleading clinic this week at school, and got to cheer at the football game friday night! There were over 100 girls that participated, and claire's group got to cheer first. It was so exciting! All the girls lined up on the football field, and formed a tunnel for the football players to run through as the game began. Claire told me later, she got embarrassed, because all the players gave them high fives as they ran through! :) Then they all ran back to the track, and formed their lines to cheer. Claire did such a great job cheering - she is such a natural! We love friday night football!

it's 3 years old all over again

the past few weeks have been difficult with cameron in school. he has tested so poorly we're getting concerned. the issues of paying attention, listening and following directions have always been things we've had to keep an eye on, but this is the first time he's gotten such awful grades this early in the year. i am really struggling with drawing the line between stubbornness and learning disability! some days it seems like he just can't help being distracted, and other days it really feels like he's just not trying hard enough. i have set up an assessment for language processing delay, which is something he might struggle with, so we'll have to wait to see the results from that, and then take the next step. i know he can do so much better than this! he is such a smart, bright, creative kid! we've gone the route of the IEP, which he tested OUT of in the spring, after 2 1/2 years. i just need to know what the next step is!
if there are any suggestions or advice on dealing with this, i'm all ears. i just don't know how to help him!!

spectacular spiderman!

i'd gotten caloway a spiderman lunch bag at target last night - they were 75% off! anyway, i pulled it out of the car for him tonight, and he was so excited, he kept saying, "mom! thanks for my pe-taccalar spiderman bag!" over and over ... i couldn't figure out what he was saying, so I asked him,

"what is it again?"
"Mom! Thanks for my petacular spiderman bag!"
Oh! Your "spectacular" spiderman bag?
"Yeah, my pectaccalar spiderman bag!"

Since when does he use the word Spectacular?! it was just so cute, i could eat him up! love that boy!

blast from the past

thought i'd share a few old yearbook photos of tim and me!

discovering vocabulary

this is a test that cameron brought home yesterday. they are learning new vocabulary words, and how to describe them. cameron made good use of the word "plunged". isn't this a great fact for all his classmates and teachers to know? hehe.

tender heart

we went to see kit kittredge over the weekend! claire was ecstatic, because she has the kit doll now, and was thrilled to see some of her doll's outfits on the real kit in the movie! it was a very sweet movie, about a young girl and her family surviving during the Depression in Cincinnati. we loved that it was set so close to home! There were a few scenes involving Kit and her dad that were emotional, with her dad having to leave to find work in chicago. kit was so upset to see her dad go, and was hugging him, and making him promise to write her every week. i happened to glance over at cameron, and his big, shimmery eyes were glued to the screen, as he wiped a few tears from his cheeks. there were a few other moments that were tear-worthy, and little cammy was so into the movie, you could see him struggling with his emotions as he took it all in. i tapped his arm, and told him i loved him, and he answered in return, trying to hide his tears, being a big boy. what a sweet, tender heart my boy has - his empathy is something that will greatly serve him as he grows up to be a man. it is one of many things that i love and admire in his daddy! i am very proud of my son.

baking anyone?

i got this fabulous cookbook recently - A Passion for Baking, by Marcy Goldman. fall is just around the corner, with crisp evenings, apple picking, pumpkin carving ... no wonder it's one of my favorite seasons! if you've got a few afternoons with a couple of hours available for creating some fabulous doughs, get this book! pizzas, muffins, scones, breads, rolls, cookies, cakes - it's simply divine! one in particular - garlic slathered stretch bread - takes your breath away!! invest in some good quality baking pans, stock up on parchment paper, pure vanilla, real butter, unbleached flour, and extra-virgin olive oil, and discover the difference it makes! i got mine at amazon. happy baking!

first day of school!

it's finally here! cameron started 3rd grade, and claire's in 1st grade! MY BABIES!! it was a bit stressful getting everyone ready, with tim at starbucks today, but we managed! poor caloway - he kept asking, "where's my class?" he wanted to go to school so bad, but he's got another year 'til preschool. i'll probably just keep him home for that, like i did for claire. it was exciting starting another year, though, and both kids were happy to begin again. for the first week, at least. ;)