4 years ago...

i gave birth to this little man. he since has brightened each of my days. i love you, sweet gryffie. you are the best!









for gryffie's b-day, he wanted to go to rockin' robin and gma and gpa came along. he also insisted on a cake from the oakmont bakery.

birthday celebration

yesterday night, we had a mini b-day celebration. we are blessed to live close to our extended family, but i cherish our time together, just the 5 of us. i slept after church as i am on nights again this week, and my cold came back. so i woke up at 5:30 pm and we had some ice cream cake and played twister. jonas was the referee, and gryffie really wasn't into it, so he just sat on the mat and would occassionally move a foot or hand. porter just rolled all over the mat, which was quite amusing. then we read some stories together. it was a great b-day celebration!

this isn't the best lighting, but i wanted to post a picture of me with my boys.

our christmas miracle

ahh, christmas started off a little rough, but has been altogether lovely. shortly after i wrote my earlier christmas post, re: my b-day dinner and festivities of the season, ben came home and told me that our car's emission light had turned on. the car started jerking and began smelling like burnt clutch. ben sat in the driveway when he got home and read the manual. it said it could be 2 things- one, the gas cap wasn't on all the way, or two, it needed serious help and should not be driven or the warranty would be null and void. well, the gas cap was fine, so, yeah, christmas eve, we had a broken car and of course, our mechanic brunos, and the honda dealership were closed, so no luck there. then we called 2 car rental places and both had no cars available until at least saturday. we were supposed to go to ambridge for the evening to see family as well as ben's family during the day and we had no car. then our home teacher, sam eskelson, stopped by to drop off a gift. ben told him about the car, and about 1/2 hour later, sam brought us his car. one big enough to fit our family and my brother. it was our christmas miracle. we are blessed. after sam's call, we had all the boys come into the living room and said a prayer of thanksgiving. we are so thankful for a good home teacher, a loving heavenly father, our divine saviour, and all those that bless our lives each day. merry christmas to all and to all, a good night.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!!!

i love christmas time! it's just so festive! this past week has been wonderful! we had a ton of snow in the pittsburgh area! i wrapped all my christmas gifts for the boys! we had a party at work. we had sunday dinner with great friends and then went to see the beautiful lights at hartwood. also, last weekend, we had a christmas breakfast with santa. this is pre haircuts but alas, my boys are adorable! notice how gryffie will not get close to santa. he would only give santa a high five with much coaxing.



oh, and tonight, i had a wonderful early b-day dinner with 4 of my favorite girls- carrie, marie, rachel, and marrilee! i love you ladies! thanks for celebrating with me!

christmas cookies

each year we decorate cookies together. ben had finals this week, so he missed out on the fun. i think the boys eat more icing than they put on the cookies and i had to cut gryffie off...

pictures- you can see the boys' new do's.

ahh, feeling better

i finally went to the doctor last thursday and found out i had pneumonia. i had been sick for like 3 weeks and now, after antibiotics and an inhaler, i feels so much better. today was my first day back to work. i actually enjoyed being lazy and being home with my boys so much. and i slept, a lot! some random things:

port is a walking machine. i was trying to download a video, but it would not work. i will try later.

we finally went to beth-beth and all three boys got awesome new haircuts. pictures to follow.

i love glee. i love community. and 30 rock. and the office. and chuck starts in january.

christmas is in only 10 days! crazy! this year has flown. and my birthday...

on the move...

i have been trying to post these videos for a while, but couldn't. my little portie is movin! non-stop! please don't mind my voice... he, he. love this boy! i especially love how he tries to talk back! i can't believe he is 14 months old now!

something's missing...

jomi lost his first tooth today!!!

portie's bad hair cut...

so, i cut baby's hair and haven't had a chance to take him to aunt beth-beth to get it fixed. i thought he looked adorable that day. but then, haha, it is sooo badly cut. see picture #2. poor portie.





and a picture of our finished christmas tree- we still need to move the storage bins out of the way... notice that the ornaments are mostly on the top as we had to move them out of portie's clutches.

more on jonas

he seems to be the topic of numerous blog postings recently. i love that kid. he asked me today if he could marry me. i explained why that would not work, but anyway... we had an awesome dance party in the living room tonight (gryffie was at a sleepover) and ate pizza and wings together.

jonas told me that jenna kissed him today. on the cheek, but still. they held hands the week before thanksgiving and now she is kissing him on the cheek. really? he's 5.

jomi has his first loose tooth. and you can see the other tooth growing in behind it. he was watching noddy tonight after his bath, and i found him laying on the couch, wiggling his little tooth. it won't be long until the tooth fairy makes her first visit! fun times.

o christmas tree

each year we go to lake forest gardens in fombell, pa, to cut down our christmas tree. this is one of my favorite traditions of the year. it's so much fun. and the weather was perfect this year. basically, you pick what type of tree you would like (we usually pick canaan fir as the needles are softer) and you take a hay ride out to that type of tree. they drop you off and the search begins. after finding a tree that is perfect for your family, you cut it down yourselves. so much fun!

this year's choice, not yet decorated completely:



we have some crazy times together- singing christmas carols, trying to take family photos, and this year, the trees kept falling on uncle chris and all the boys! they loved it. we went to the chinese buffet in cranberry after for lunch. here are some more pics of our family fun!