Pictures out at Fosters Pond, me at 36.5 weeks with baby #3.

Happy 60th birthday to my dad today! We got to enjoy some yummy mexican food together and some sweet potato pecan pie that the poor birthday boy had to make himself. It was yummy. Next year hopefully I can be more on the ball with that, but I’m fairly out of commission for complicated cooking these days. This is going to count as my pic of me at 35 weeks too.

We weren’t quite sure how to get the candles into the pie, so we went with sticking them into some ice cream for stability to go along with the pie!

We were supposed to go to Miami to see Jordi’s family right in the beginning of April but Celia was too sick to travel that weekend so we rescheduled for a month later with just a bit of time to see everyone. It was a little crazy with Tere and Gilbert returning from Europe just a few hours before we arrived and then Javi was leaving two days later for vacation to Brazil. But it was the only time we could fit it in and see everyone before the baby arrives!

We didn’t have a big schedule, a birthday party for Josie and Gilbert on Sunday, and hanging out and enjoying the good weather.

We went to the pool, the playground and the beach. Lots of time hanging around in the backyard and doing art projects while Celia napped. We went to south point beach in Miami Beach for the first time and it was gorgeous and very warm for swimming. Celia learned that she really does not like sunblock, she’s going to have to work on getting over that one for this summer up here in Boston. I spent a lot of time practicing with the different kinds of light while the girls playing and visited.

And of course we got to meet the third great-grandchild on Jordi’s maternal grandmother’s side, Benjamin!

Plus all the other moms out there 🙂

The girls and Jordi went along with my dad ice skating quite a few weekends this year, enough to go through a whole pass of tickets and some more. The difference from the first try to now has been amazing. We got Celia some single blade skates and she’s determined to move herself across the ice. Josie likes to hang out, but when we found her a friend at the last session, she just went around and around holding that little girls hand in friendship and moving herself along. Nothing like a new friend for some motivation! Celia is mostly walking but she just goes where she wants, when she wants. Here’s a rare photo of her holding on to one finger as she watches the action around her. My dad’s facebook page has some video of them actually moving to get the real effect. Can’t wait to join them next year zipping around the ice.

In the beginning of February, we took our annual pilgrimage over Jordi’s birthday weekend with our lovely neighbors Christina, Chanh and kids to the cape codder resort in Hyannis. We got down there Friday afternoon and got our first dip in the pool after setting up the beds and clothes. Josie and Celia jumped right in this year, Josie was even brave enough to walk herself under the umbrella/mushroom/water-spraying thing.

We enjoyed many nice dinners including a thai restaurant that was tiny but the food was oh so yummy. It’s basically a weekend of good clean fun in the water, and eating three meals a day where I don’t have to clean or cook! We also celebrated the dad’s birthdays with a yummy cake.

We didn’t make it to the outdoor pool this year (yes we went last year!) as the time just flies by. Celia jumped right into the water, not quite understanding it’s power the first time. It took her a few times of getting knocked under the water to understand just how strong the waves were and why she needed to stay close to us. Both Josie and Celia preferred when the water was calm.

Looking forward to taking the new little one next year as part of our  traditions!

I knew it had been a while since I posted, but I hadn’t realized quite how long. We’ve had a bunch of busy weekends of snow storms and logistical hassles like buying a new TV and a new car. We also had a week of sickness, but mostly healthy otherwise. A few other kids birthday parties, some doctors appointments and trying to keep food on the table and bam the weeks are over short and sweet.

I have been enjoying Downton Abbey on DVD and reading and then watching the Twilight series of books and movies. I finished Celia’s quilt, which I will post a picture of later. I registered Josie for kindergarden in the fall. But mostly I’ve been tired, cranky and unable to do much of anything at night because we are expecting baby number three! Hence my enjoyment of some good entertainment from the couch in the evenings. My hips have decided loosen up really early this time and so I’ve been struggling with that for a few weeks which makes walking, standing and bending difficult and by the end of some days I can’t walk without a lot of pain. I’ve been doing some stretching and exercising to help get them back in line. The baby is due in middle of July, I’d put my money on the 16th or 17th if I were an odds maker given my previous births. Hence why we needed to buy a new tv car.

It’s a new honda minivan, so we can fit all the car seats and even shove my parents in there too. It just barely fits behind our house and in the driveway – we’re getting better at parking it every day. See all that snow above? This picture is from Sunday, now it’s all been long gone with a few warm days. I can’t wait for spring and getting more fresh air and out of the house more often. Hopefully less time in the car too!

[This post officially counts as my “We are Family – March 2013” picture in case I don’t get another one done, I’ve barely been picking up the camera lately.]

If anyone is interested in buying a 2005 Toyota Matrix XR, let us know, we’re selling it, we don’t need two cars and it can’t fit three car seats. Low mileage.

oops missed January.

And for the finale of December, here in February, we went to Pennsylvania to see my dad’s side of the family. Celia unfortunately got sick and on the trip down was actually asking to get back into her car seat and rest which is very unlike her, but very convenient for having an easy trip for the rest of us. Christmas Eve she was unfortunately running a low fever, but we gave her some medicine and tried to take it easy with her as we celebrated at my cousins Sue and Jeff house and went to church. The girls were great at church and even went up to the front to hear the children’s part of the story. Zeke, Sue and Jeff’s gigantic dog was a big attraction for the girls although they were wary at first and all had to learn how to get along with each other.

We all enjoyed some yummy food, and exchanging gifts. We got the girls home a bit earlier this year and they crashed into sleepiness quickly and we joined them soon too. We couldn’t fit all the presents with us in the car for Christmas morning so we left our own presents at home and just exchanged with the Graybills that morning so it was a short and sweet time to appreciate our gifts one at a time.

Look how nicely those two hold up their stockings and pose! Maybe in 15 years I’ll get that too, instead I got this:

But Josie was feeling magnanimous and posed for me in front of the big glass windows.

After presents we had a delicious Christmas brunch.

And we otherwise had a lot of time to hang out, visit, play with our new presents and eat cookies for the rest of the day and the next. We had snow on Christmas Eve and so it was a pretty white Christmas. We also had another storm the following day which prevented us from doing as much visiting as we might have done with other people, but Josie and I got to build a snowman. The kids next door had been out sledding and made some ‘sleigh tracks’ down the backyard and there actually are some deer around too behind the house so we had some cool tracks in the snow for a Christmas morning story.

We spent a lot of time, grownups included, playing with the magnatiles we had brought with us. They built a tower up to the ceiling after going through many different design options to get enough stability and reach. Todd asked why he didn’t get these toys for Christmas.

All too soon it was time to go home and we had a pretty good trip home again, although my mom flew and it took her as long to get home as it did us because of delayed flights. The girls were quite patient and enjoyed the toys and the attempts of me and my dad to entertain them.

Once we had gotten home, we took a day to recover and then had our third Christmas present opening at our house again under the tree. This is the big stash of loot Josie had definitely been waiting for. Somehow it does all fit into the house though.

Jordi and I got some wonderful new warm blankets that are huge for our bed which we’ve been really enjoying. Plus new luggage for our fairly frequent trips. The girls got way too many things and we’ve been doing a lot of art with the supplies we got as well. But of course, they also just played in the giant boxes we got too.

My dad’s side of the family, partially blinded by the sun.