Naptime with Daddy

So sweet:)

It's Beginning to Look alot like Christmas

 The beginning of the decorating

 The Real Tree.  We only had one meltdown at the tree farm so I say...SUCCESS!!!

 Ready for Santa Claus!

 The wine bar at our party.  Like I said, I still stink at my new camera so the rest of the pictures (like the table full of food I made, the people there, etc.) somehow got erased. Oh well...

My super cute wine glass name cards:)  I am SO clever!

Slacker Mom

OK, I am a complete slacker and realize that I haven't updated in over a month.  I thought I would fill in on all of the going ons in the Lane House since then to keep everyone in the loop.

First of all, I got a new camera for an early Christmas present.  It took me three weeks to have enough time to load all of the software to upload the pictures.  I know there aren't many pictures to see, but I didn't know how to use the camera!  I am much more capable now:)

Alison and Brody have just gotten over a nasty Upper Respiratory Infection and Ali had a double ear infection to boot.  All of this of course happened while Jon was recovering from his knee surgery.  Thank Goodness Mimi was her to help out.  However, she got Bronchitis as a departing gift.  Jon and I are just waiting to see when we will get it.

We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in Rhode Island and had a great time with family and friends.  I took pictures of the kiddos, but those pictures are on the other camera and it may be a while before I can get the pictures off of that relic!

Ali is still as sassy as ever.  She never wants to wear what I put out and her favorite phrase is "No!" and "I don't like/want it".  Great, exactly what we need, another opinion!  She continues to love learning and currently knows all of her letters (uppercase and lowercase), most of their sounds, numbers to 15, colors, shapes and pretty much everything else she can get her hands on.  It's pretty hilarious to practice letter flashcards with Brody and have Alison screaming the answer from the other side of the room before him.  He gets super mad!

Brody has a love/hate relationship with school.  He hates waking up in the morning and getting ready, but loves to go to school and play "activities" with his friends.  His teacher tells me that he is excelling in math, but needs to work on his letters.  His attention span is as big as an ant's unless he is super interested in it.  Can't wait for kindergarten.  He did pay attention yesterday for an hour to correctly put together a Lego tanker truck he bought with his allowance though...go figure!

All in all, I vow to update more often, take more pictures, and write more reports for everyone.  Everyone can have a new year's resolution right?  Hopefully this one will last longer than usual!

Halloween 2012

 Minnie!

 Notice the M&Ms as a distraction

 Spiderman...the mask didn't last very long

 CHEESE!!!

 Brody stood up when he realized the candy bowl was on the banister!

 Muscles!!

 Running away next door with Brody (which is where Brody spent most of his evening-handing out candy with the Wallaces and telling them that we put him in time out too much!)

 They DO love each other:)

 

More evidence of my bribery.

 

Since we had the power on, we were able to genuinely enjoy Halloween.  The kids were so excited to go Trick or Treating.  Brody had to be bribed with candy to put on his muscle Spiderman (HIS choice by the way) because he thought that the costume made him look "like a girl in the chest" (if you know what I mean!!).  Alison was a whole different story.  She liked the idea of Minnie mouse and she liked to hold the costume, but when it was time to get dressed...it was like trying to dress a wild chimpanzee!  The only part she didn't hate was putting her whiskers and nose on or "my mape-up" which I had to do in the mirror so she could admire herself.  I then had to bribe her with M&Ms to put on the rest.  No, I am not proud, but it got the job done.  Once she was completely dressed I took as many pictures as I could because who knew when she would decide to rip them off!  All in all, a fabulous night and we gave away all 550 pieces of candy!  Thank Goodness we don't have any leftovers!

Hurricane Sandy

 Getting cozy before the power went off...

 ...and enjoying the the power while we had it.  Go G.I. Joe!

 Apparently Jon thinks our house was going to turn into a boat.  Everything about this picture is horrible!

 POWER OUT!!  Brody and Dad starting a fire to keep us warm (day 1)

 Our shelter in place

Hooked up to the generator and destroying the family room

 

We were so fortunate to not have any damage to our house or property from Sandy.  We did however, lose power Monday into early Wednesday morning.  THANK GOODNESS we have a generator and a fireplace because it was VERY chilly out and the lack of heat, sleep, and entertainment for the kids was wearing very thing on my nerves!  As you can see we had to set up camp downstairs because 1. I thought that a tree was going to fall into the house, and 2. it was much warmer near the fire.  By Wednesday, the house looked and smelled like a shelter.  We are much happier now that we are clean and warm!  Now if only their school would get power so I can go back to work...

Nana's Visit

 Making brownie cupcakes (mostly eating the batter)

 Stir it up!

 Taking turns

 And now, shirts off...time to eat!

Yum!

Well, October has come and gone and I think it may be the first month in 4 years I haven't posted a picture!  We had soccer games, pumpkin patches, visitors, and survived Daddy being gone to Texas for a whole week!  I will attempt to "recapture" October in November!

Oktoberfest 2012

Brody and Ali had a ball at the West Annapolis Oktoberfest/Children's festival (don't you love when they combine two great things?)  They had a bunch of inflateable slides, houses, activites for the kids to enjoy and this was by far the most entertaining for us.  Brody and another boy were tethered to each other and had to run as fast as they could to try and shoot the basketball.  Brody was about 4 years younger than the other kid so you can see where he ended up most of the time!  We had a great time enjoying the wonderful fall weather, eating awesome German food, and playing games.  So glad we were able to go!

Happy Birthday Daddy

Daddy had a great day off to celebrate his 32nd birthday with us and Papa.  What a lucky guy:)

Silly Girl

 She wore the McDonald's Happy Meal box on her head the whole way home (10 minutes!).

Sooooooooooo happy to get yogurt (She even squeals "I'm so HAPPY!")

Don't let her sweet face fool you...

...she is loading a nerf gun to shoot Brody

Soccer 2012

 Listening intently to Coach Ross

 Working on his skills

 Ali's idea of soccer practice

Making sure that every parent is looking at her and laughing

 

Soccer is going very well this season so far.  Brody is playing for the Broadneck UK Elite league now which is fantastic because the coaches are professional kids' coaches and its so much closer to our house.  He absolutely loves Coach Ross (who talks like Shrek as Brody put it...English accent) and will basically do whatever he says (I asked him to live with us but unfortunately, that wasn't an option:).  He even practices playing Coach in the front yard with Ali using the cones and soccer balls we have.  It's kind of hilarious.  I'm glad that this season he is much more interested in playing than digging in the dirt.  He even scores most practices during their scrimmages!  Alison on the otherhand, is a huge hassle to bring to practice (especially on Thursday nights when Jon isn't there).  At least there is two of us to wrangle on Saturday mornings!

The Tent

 I have assembled/disassembled this tent more times than I care to admit

 Enjoying a show from the comfort of the tent ALONE

 So Ali has to set up shop on the floor (Because she constantly bothers him in the tent)

 Did I mention that my kids hate clothes and disrobe as soon as they enter the threshold of the house?

Alison's pose when I said, "say Cheese!" Perfect pilates V sit!

We were just trying to have a nice outting...

Last weekend, we all went to City Dock in Annapolis to have our picnic dinner, feed the ducks, and walk around to enjoy the fabulous weather.  It started going downhill when Jon and I decided to stop at Ram's Head to grab a quick appetizer and drink with the kids outside.  Two meltdowns shortly ensued (and a third was pending if we didn't leave immediately) and we promptly left.  All was better on the walk back to car.  As we left downtown Annapolis, traffic halted on the tiny Weem's Creek Bridge because of Navy Football traffic (epic fail #2).  We calmly waited until we suddenly discovered that the tiniest member of the family had puked chocolate milk all over her white capri pants, carseat, and coat.  There was no place to pull over, no supplies in the front seat (not even wipes) and she was screaming bloody murder.  Brody wasn't helping as he kept announcing how gross the whole thing was and smelled and instructed me to clean it up.  After TWENTY minutes (yes really), we were able to move and get her cleaned up with the vomit kit I have in the trunk (I never leave home without it).  Needless to say, we will not be taking any evening trips out for a while!

Just your Typical Friday Night

 Brody pretending to be a Dragon and headbutting Alison

 Loving the dinosaur costume she found in Brody's closet

...and his new SpiderMan costume.  Notice the backwards mask and lady like pose

 

Friday nights have recently become movie and stay up late night since the pool closed.  We eat popcorn and usually build a fort to enjoy a movie from.  Alison on the other hand, terrorizes Brody while he is trying to watch the movie and ticks him right off.  I have to admit it is pretty funny.  Brody is still on the fence with his Halloween costume.  He said the muscles in the chest make him look like he has "pumpolopes" (a word he made up some where along the way meaning boobs!).  He is too much!  At least Alison likes it!

My Big Guy

Brody is in LOVE with school!  He comes home and tells me all of the gossip from class.  He then insists to do homework when we get home.  Today he even told me that he can only carry his backpack on one shoulder because he is not a baby, but a big guy now.  He even only wants to wear jerseys and Under Armour.  Oh boy...

Fancy Nancy

Someone finally let me do her hair!!!