Christmas Cookies

We are planning to visit our families up north the day after Christmas, so I started packing a few days ago all of the "winter gear" we would need..... the boys had a great time with their skating/sledding/skiing helmets.  Seriously.... padded walls in our next house?  All of them put on their helmets and were running into each other, falling to the floor head first, wrestling, etc...... I just watched in horror as they were having a ball and I was fearing for our walls over the next 5 years... how do they know that helmets = more dangerous tricks??  Who will be our first ER visit..... shall we take a poll??  The up side to this, though, was that as soon as I got the helmet on Ben he stood up on the couch and fell back hitting his head on the coffee table... unscathed and laughing thanks to the helmet... maybe permanent helmeting??

Next on our Christmas preparation list was cookies for Santa.  Given the difficulty of baking from scratch with an active 15 month old in the house we opted for mix cookies this year (a mistake I probably won't repeat, but it worked fine). Mistake #2 was the frosting... I don't often buy canned frosting, so all I had in the pantry was orange halloween frosting... I thought I would have to use LOTS of red or green food coloring to compensate for the orange tint... I was wrong... just a little would have been enough:)  Even after baths everyone was stained for about 48 hours.... lesson learned, but the kids obviously very much enjoyed it!

Visit with Santa

Nanny and Grandpa came to visit this weekend and we tried to squeeze as much Christmas cheer and activity as we could into one short visit:)  Our first stop on Saturday was the mall... I wasn't super excited to be at the mall on a Saturday just before Christmas, but thankfully we didn't have any shopping to do.  The Maine Mall has a fantastic model train display run by some very enthusiastic older gentlemen.  This kept this kids very entertained while we waited in line to see Santa.  James and Noah were thrilled with their Santa visit... Benjamin had other feelings toward santa, which left us with a classic "picture with Santa".  After our Santa visit the kids purchased some reindeer antlers, that have been a surprising hit with everyone, and got to take a ride on the carousel in the mall.

There is a really neat parade of lights in Portland harbor each year at Christmastime, but we have never made it.  This year we had the opportunity, but the frigid temperatures and us running a bit late made it more of a driving by to see the boats in the parade instead;)  By the time we made it to Bug Light Park the boats were already on their way to Portland.  By the time we figured out the best place to watch from (which is the ferry terminal in the Old Port... FYI) we were able to drive down Commercial Street and see the fireworks display at the end.  The kids were very disappointed that there way not an actual parade with candy, but the fireworks made up for it;)  

Christmas 2012 Preparations

The kids have been talking about Christmas since before Halloween, so this has been a long wait for them;)  I tried to put off getting a tree as long as possible because I knew it would be a problem for Ben to not be able to leave it alone, but the kids kept insisting, so we went to get it.  James was so excited that he started decorating it before we even took the netting off.  We have far fewer decorations on the tree than ever before... only those that wouldn't get broken went on the tree this year;)  The kids have had an absolute ball going through all of the decorations and playing with all of the "new Christmas toys". We have done a little decorating each day, mainly while Ben is napping.  Grandpa sent down some of his special Chex Mix which we let the kids snack on... when it fell on the floor James and Ben immediately sat down and started shoving as much into their mouths as they could.... thankfully the floor was *relatively* clean... not much food gets wasted in this house;)

The bottom picture is from last Saturday when we took the kids to see the Sesame Street Live show at the Civic Center in an effort to take advantage of Portland's offerings while we are still here.  The kids loved it and were all quite entertained by all of the music.

Benjamin at 15 Months

This sweet guy has officially turned 15 months.  We took him to his check up today and he weighed in at 30 lbs. and 36 inches long.... he is now big enough to ride all of the kiddie amusement park rides... so much for his slowing growth.  His clothing is starting to be interchangeable with James's.... I hope he doesn't surpass him anytime soon.  Benjamin continues to be a very laid back and easy going kiddo.  He loves to read books and more than anything in the world he loves playing and doing anything his big brothers do... much to their dismay sometimes, but he is great at putting his and their dishes in the sink regardless if they are done or not.  His language is right on track with both brothers, so he should be saying some words by the time he is two;)  He is starting to be much more interested in communicating with us though and is really taking off with his baby signs which was fairly stagnant for a while.  He knows where his belly button and his nose are, and to Noah's delight Ben is also learning "to run".  He has started climbing on the couch, but seems to have good enough control to get back down again, so we have had minimal falls from that so far.  All four eye teeth have come in over the past 2 weeks, so he now has an almost complete set... only his 2 year molars left.  His personality really seems to be blossoming right now and we can't wait to see what the next 3 months will bring!

J & A's Birthday- CT visit 2012

We had a very fun overnight visit to Connecticut last weekend to visit with the Melman's and celebrate J & A's birthdays. This is it for pictures, but there was a bouncy house and the boys had a ball playing with all lots of other kids. This is James's first road trip since we broke down and took his diapers away last week... he did much better than we could have expected..... maybe he will be potty trained before he goes to kindergarten.  Thanks Melmans for such a nice visit, can't wait to see you all again soon!

Swimming Lessons- Fall 2012

The kids all continue to love swimming and are progressing each week.  Here are some pictures from a recent observation week were I made Gabe get in the cold water with Ben;) There is also a picture here of what James does while I am swimming with Ben and Noah is in his class... it keeps him out of trouble at least!

Thanksgiving and More 2012

I fully admit to being a poor blogger of late, I have not ever gotten this far behind, but I hope to get caught up during the next week.  We have had a busy and stressful November and now the holidays were in full swing.... moving on:)  

The first thing to share was the ultrasound of our newest little one.  Just a basic 18 week fetal survey which all looked great.  In sticking with the Civiello baby tradition we have developed he/she wouldn't cooperate for pictures, but they did get a good look at all of the important structures.  We have chosen, once again, not to find out the gender so we will all have to continue to wait patiently until the end of March;)  Noah still says that we have too many boys already, but is coming up with gender appropriate names for both boys and girls so I think he will be fine either way.  James is just excited to get to blow raspberries to the baby again, and Ben is in for a serious adjustment.... hopefully this jealousy/mommy phase will pass before March... fingers crossed!

The other big news this month was Gabe's job search.  Everything happened so much faster than we were prepared for which made things even more stressful... apparently Gabe is a desired commodity;)  Gabe spent most of October interviewing at various places amidst studying for and taking his boards.  Then the offers started coming.... Throughout the process we tried hard to be very thankful for having so many great options, but many times we really wished that only one place had offered him a job or that one was far better than the others so that the decision would be made for us.  After much perseveration we did finally make a decision that we are very excited about!  Next summer we will be moving to Farmington Maine. Gabe has accepted a job with Franklin Memorial Hospital to join a group of four other pediatricians.  We are thrilled to be getting back to a more rural area and serving in rural community pediatrics. More details to come on this in the next few months!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year and per usual there are no pictures.  On Thursday night we did brave the crowds for a black Friday midnight shopping trip to Target and Walmart.... We split up to be most efficient, but I am happy to say that we stuck to our game plan, were home by 1:15, I only got my foot run over by a cart once and my mom didn't fall;).  The weather was fairly warm and it was a fun time had by all.... I think my dad was glad to "have to" be the one to stay home with the kids and sleep....   Friday we all ventured downtown for Portland's Christmas tree lighting ceremony complete with a Rick Charette concert.  Saturday morning everyone dispersed and we headed to the Upper Valley to visit with the Yukica family and celebrate O & I's birthday.  It is always great to get back to VT, even if it is just for a quick overnight trip!

Bar Harbor Pajama Sale and Bed Races

We were able to enjoy a much needed break away last weekend on Gabe's first weekend off in what feels like forever.  We met up with Grammy Civiello, Nannie, Grandpa, Aunt Amy and Trey in Ellsworth and spent two nights at "the hotel with a pool".  Saturday morning we got up and headed to the pajama sale and bed races in downtown Bar Harbor. It was cold and windy on the coast, but sunny. The bed races were really neat to watch and the kids thought that the whole thing was so silly.  All of the kids enjoyed playing in the pool.... even Trey.... eventually... yes he does have all of his clothes on here, but it was the only way to get him in the pool. We only had one near/minor head injury when Noah got a little too excited jumping between the beds, but there appears to be no long term damage:)  Thanks everyone for coming down to meet us, we had a great time!!

First Snow

We had our first "snow" recently, if you can even call it that, but the kids were impossible to keep inside. They got bundled up, made a mini snowman from the inch on the ground, James got to eat the snow and they had a ball.  It wasn't worth the effort for me to get Ben dressed since it was almost dark, but he was very happy to watch the scene from the window:)