A little bit of Christmas Part 1

I'm not much for News Years resolutions, but one thing is sure-I will be a better blogger in 2010!

We are still recovering from our trip home to Michigan, but for now, here are some highlights of our pre-Christmas festivities!

One of the great things about living in a major metro area, is there are so many things to do. We recently took advantage of this and headed into DC to see the National Christmas Tree, or as Ben now refers to it, The Obama Tree. It was a cold, cold night, on the eve of our huge storm (more on that later-we got 24 inches in 24 hours!), so we bundled ourselves and the kiddos up warmly and braved the elements.

Addie was one her usual 'best baby ever' self and barely made a peep the entire trip. She smiled so sweetly for the camera.



This next picture was taken at the end of our adventure, and is a bit out of order here. We finally let Sophie out of the stroller so she could get a better look at Baby Jesus. This was the highlight of the evening for her and a source of contention for the rest of us. She screamed most of the evening because she wanted her picture taken with Jesus. Since it was both freezing and crowed, we had initially refused to let her out of the stroller. Eventually, we had to pull her away, telling her that Jesus had to go to bed. She screamed all the way to the car, and most of the way home. (Note: this put a bit of a damper on the evening for the rest of us!) Still, she looks so sweet here.




Here is a rare family shot, you have to look closely for Addie in the corner!

This photo was taken early in the evening, and as you can see, Sophie is one unhappy camper! If you imagine, you can see her feet kicking the stroller in the photo. Quote: "I want my picture with Jesus, I want Baby Jesus!" Repeat about a thousand times...... Her love for Jesus may melt your heart, but anyone within earshot of her would disagree!

Here are Nick and Ben with The White House in the background.

And that's it for that adventure!

On a previous snowy Saturday, we braved the roads and took the kids to see Santa Claus. It was well worth the trip. Sophie and Ben both enjoyed Santa this year! The line wasn't too long, and had a Polar Express theme that the kids liked. When it was their turn to sit on Santa's lap, Sophie was a little hesitant at first, but then warmed up and told Santa she would like a princess doll. Ben was all business and asked Santa for some GI Joes. (Santa filled both requests!)

Decorating the Christmas tree was a lot of fun this year. Ben already has his favorite ornaments that he likes to hang, and Sophie is old enough to understand the concept. Well, she gets the general idea. As you can see from the picture below she chose to hang many ornaments on two very special branches. Over the next few days, she would move them around, but they always stayed very close to one another. We did have one ornament mishap this season-Sophie tried to eat a cinnamon ornament our friend Marie had made years back in Germany. Sophie came into the kitchen with a armless snowman and asked for her face to be washed. No harm done, and just a few days ago she pointed to some cinnamon ornaments (about 10 on one branch) and told me they were "gucky". Lesson learned!

More of our Christmas to come!

Cookies

Not so long ago, our friend Anna came to play. Her mommy, Marie and I did a commissary swap. Marie stayed with my kids while I went grocery shopping, the when I came home, she headed to the store while I watched the kids! It was great, and I hope we can do it again soon!

While I was shopping I picked up some sugar cookie dough. I thought the girls would enjoy decorating some cookies with our surplus of sprinkles. I gave each girl her own jelly roll pan to contain the mess. I swear I only turned my head for a second and this is what found! (Notice the red cookie and empty container nearby!)


Do you think Sophie used enough sugar and sprinkles?




Anna had a little more self control with her cookies, but still managed to cover every surface in sprinkles.

Aren't they beautiful?

Marathon Man

A few weekends back, Nick did what most people would think impossible. He ran a marathon! It was actually his third time running The Marine Corp Marathon. He last ran it 10 plus years ago when he was at West Point. I vividly remember him telling me years ago, that I must never let him be foolish enough to run it again. He didn't heed my warnings, but he still survived and did great!

He trained hard for the last few months, and was in pretty good shape for his run. His hip has been bothering him and is progressively getting worse, so he knew this was his last chance to run in a marathon.




We had to be awake earlier than I care to remember on race day. Thankfully, another mother from Ben's school offered her husband's assistance in giving Nick a ride to the race (he was running too) so that I didn't have to wake the kids up so early.

The kids were able to sleep a bit longer, and when they awoke I loaded them in the car and headed to the Metro. I am proud to say that I successfully managed to get all three kids safely into DC on my own, on the train. They loved the ride!

We knew that it would be nearly impossible to see Nick start the race, or even to spot him along the race route (30,000 runners!!!). So instead we headed to Crystal City where they had bouncy houses, face painting, crafts, balloon animals, music and more. Needless to say, the kids had a blast! It was especially fun because we met our friend Anna and her mommy Marie. They had a runner also, John ran the Marine Corp 10k earlier in the morning.



Ben sporting his marathon shirt-My Dad runs faster than your Dad!

Sophie enjoyed some free cotton candy. It was the first time she had it, and of course she loved it. Her marathon shirt-Marathoner in Training, Catch Me If You Can!

The kids were all given cow bells to ring as the runners passed by the festival. It was incredibly noisy! Here are Sophie and Anna hoping to catch a glimpse of Nick running by.

After a few hours of fun, we faced the crowds, hopped on the Metro again and headed to the finish line. It took us awhile to find Nick, but eventually we did. He finished a little later than he had hoped. He took an Army PT test just two days before the Marathon. He didn't think it was going to be a problem, but the sit-up portion really wore his legs down. He was on track at the halfway point, but really slowed down after that.

Here are Nick and John post race.

After some healthy snacks and sports drinks, we headed to the Finish Festival. There Nick quickly replenished lost carbs by consuming two free beers!

We enjoyed the festivities for a bit, then headed home. We had all had a long day-Nick's longer than ours, of course! Nick was a trooper and posed for a picture with the kids. Addie's shirt said-Hurry Back For a Kiss Daddy!

Finally, here are the numbers:

Time: 3hours 53 minutes 16 seconds

Overall: 3714 out of 21,404 (8,500 didn't finish)

Sex: 2934 out of 12,972

Age (30-34 male): 472 of 1871

We are so very proud of our Marathon Man! We are looking forward to more racing in the future-just not 26.2 miles!

Pumpkin Playground

Monday was Columbus Day, and Benny did not have school, so we headed to the pumpkin patch! When we arrived it wasn't so much a pumpkin patch-there were no actual pumpkins in patches, but there was a super cool playground. (I guess that's why it's called the Pumpkin Playground!) We had been expecting a farm with a real hayride, pumpkin picking, yummy fall treats and lots of fun. We managed to get most of those-the kids played and played at the playground while Nick and I enjoyed hot apple cider. Plus we had a super fun time!

There were countless things for the kids to climb and play on-Monster Trucks included!




Addie wore here sweet little pumpkin sweatshirt coat for the occasion. If you couldn't tell, it was a very chili day!



Benny went down the slide more times than I could count! He even realized that if you flipped the rug over, you would go down faster!

The pirate ship was Benny's favorite. He must have played on it for over an hour. We would go try other activities, but we always wound back at the pirate ship. Wish we had one in our backyard!

After trying the slide several times on our laps, Sophie exclaimed "I do it myself!"-and that she did!

Addie and Mommy waiting while the kids played.

Ben enjoyed some good old fashioned tube rolling!

On our way out we helped ourselves to mini pumpkins! We plan on heading to the farmer's market soon to pick out our carving pumpkins!

A fun day was had by all at the Pumpkin Playground!

Sweet Addie

I've realized that the newest member of our family may not get the blogging attention that is rightfully hers. Poor Addie is often a spectator to the circus that goes on around here. I've only recently discovered this when I couldn't find a recent picture of her! So, the other day she was looking rather cute, and I decided to snap a few.

Occasionally she wears one of Sophie's 'pretty's' in her hair. She leaves them in much better than her older sister!

We've just finished our first round of teething with Addie, and it went pretty well. We had some night waking and a little bit of fussiness, but all in all it wasn't so bad. She has two new bottom front teeth to show for it! I'm sure she is working on some more already!

We've also discovered that she is becoming quite mobile. It won't be too long before the baby gates will always be up by the stairs. We used to lay her down on a nice big blanket in the living room. Now she gets tangled up in it, that is if she even stays on it! We recently left the room for a moment to come back and find her underneath the desk. She also likes to try to reach the curtains to chew on them. Baby proofing is in our near future! She isn't crawling yet, but she is a master roller, and does some schooching on her belly. As for sitting, that is coming soon too. We are very close!

We've just started to work on some rice and oatmeal cereals. Our doctor preferred for her to wait until six months. This past week, I think she may have actually eaten some of the cereal instead of spreading it all over her face! I'm sure some yummy fruits and veggies will be coming her way soon.

She seems to be putting on weight still and is fitting into her clothes a little better. All good signs that she is growing. Can't wait until her next checkup to see if she has made it on the growth chart!

Soccer Saturdays!

Our Saturdays have been jam packed the last few weekends-Ben started Soccer! In addition, Nick is preparing to run a marathon in late October, so he has run in local races the last two Saturdays. This means we are one busy family! We leave the house very early, Nick runs his race, then we rush to Ben's Soccer game. We are a one car family right now, so we have no option but to do this all together. The kids love watching Nick start and finish his races, and there is always something there for them to do-maybe I will do a blog post on that later!

Back to Soccer-Ben loves it! He practices on Wednesday night, and then has a game every Saturday morning. He was super excited when the coach pulled out jerseys and matching socks for all the players. We had no idea he would be issued a uniform. The kids decided to name their team the 'Blue Marlins'-of course at Benny's suggestion! The other mothers were laughing at the name, joking that the kids had no idea what a marlin was, so surely the coach suggested the name. I new immediately that it had to be the brain child of Ben. He had just been to a Washington Nationals game, and they played the Florida Marlins. When we were in the car I asked Ben if it was his idea, and yes, of course it was! Such a funny boy!

Two Saturdays ago, the Blue Marlins had their first game. They play 3 on 3 with two simultaneous games going on. The team has ten players so this means that only 4 children sit out at a time. 3 on 3 is more manageable for the players since they all chase the ball at once! This Saturdays game showed a remarkable improvement over last Saturdays. The basics of soccer are finally starting to click.





Here are the Blue Marlins chasing the ball towards the goal. It's doubtful that it went in, they have lots of room to grow!

Benny loves his Blue Marlins jersey and proudly poses for a picture before the game!

And finally, here are the Blue Marlins lining up to shake hands after the game. It's so fun to watch these boys. They are having a blast chasing the soccer ball around and learning the basics of soccer. Benny spent most of the first game cheering on his teammates. The only problem was that Benny was on the field too! It was incredibly sweet, but he wasn't paying attention to the game. The other team seemed a little bit more together than ours. They don't keep score at this age, but Benny is sure they lost the game. Now he's motivated to improve his skills!

The girls and I enjoy watching Benny play. Sophie plays with an extra soccer ball on the sidelines, and has even found another little sister to play with. And Nick? He has found himself as the assistant coach! Since they play two games at once, the coach needed a parent to be in charge of the other field. Nick gladly volunteered and is having lots of fun helping these little guys, even if his own knowledge of the sport is minimal! We look forward to lots more soccer fun!

First Day of School

Tuesday marked a big day for the Cook Family. It was Ben's first day of kindergarten! He has been anxiously awaiting the first day of school for sometime now. I guess anxious wouldn't be the right word since he wasn't nervous one bit. He was so excited! Nick woke him a little before 8 and Ben asked right away if it was finally time for school. He showered and then had a good breakfast before we walked him the half mile down the road. It's so great having Nick home this fall. It really takes the chaos out of our morning routine.

Here Ben is enjoying a big bowl of Cheerios before school

All ready to go with a new backpack, new lunchbox and new shoes!

In his classroom with his new friend Delaney

And finally sitting at his table wearing his name tag!

We are really happy with the school so far. We absolutely love the school hours. They work so well for our family. We don't have to leave until 8:50, and I pick him up at 4 (except on Monday's when he is done at 1)! This allows our girls to sleep in and get good naps in the afternoon. We are really thankful for that!

So far, Ben is having a great time at school and seems to be adjusting well. He is excited to go every morning, so I guess that is a good sign! Last night also marked his first soccer practice, and he was bubbling with excitement all night. We are so thankful that he is so happy and starting to meet some new friends!