{our backyard winter wonderland}

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy Festivus to all.

Big Gerard has been working on our ice rink in the backyard. It's 24 feet by 40 feet. That ain't no little ice rink! Check out the boys skating today:

{my snow princess}

Snow DIVA is more like it..... You've heard of the lady in red? Meet the lady in purple....

{one month!?}

Yikes, I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted! We've been busy, as you might have guessed. My parents and sister came for Thanksgiving and of course that was nice, although the kids had colds and were kind enough to share their germs with the entire family. With everyone sick, I didn't take any pictures while they were here except for these:

And here are some from yesterday....

That's about it for now. I promise to try to post more often!

{forgive me for gushing}

We had Gerard's parent-teacher conference this afternoon and his teacher had only wonderful things to say about him. My first thought was, "Are we talking about the same kid? The one who comes home from school like a madman and can't sit still? The one who has to be asked eighty-seven times to do a simple task?" Well, apparently she was talking about our son, and he is an angel in school.

Mrs. S's first comment was "Gerard is a very special boy. You must be very proud."

Indeed we are....

She went on to say that he's at the top of his class, he's "like a sponge," he is well behaved, he pays attention and participates in class.

Way to go Gerard!

Now if he could only be that perfect at home!!!!

I thought this would be a good opportunity to post his school picture since I haven't done it yet. Doesn't he look handsome?

{two videos}

Here's a glimpse of our Halloween. Notice how Gerard can't stand it when I'm giving Morgan my attention!

And here's a little bit of hockey practice. He's got a ways to go, but he is improving and he loves it!

{woo hoo!!!}

photo from msnbc.com

{don't forget to vote!}

Debbie reminded me that I ought to re-post this video of Gerard signing the presidents FROM NEARLY 2 YEARS AGO! He was just over 3 years old, and his voice was so cute! Let's see if his prediction (at the end of the song) comes true on Tuesday. Here's hoping!

{halloween}

I went to Gerard's Halloween party at school and then they paraded through the middle school. It was really cute.

While Mrs. S. helped kids get their costumes on, she put on a book-on-tape and asked Gerard to turn the pages:

His whole class:

Here's Spiderman showing off his muscles (with the fog machine blowing behind him.)

We went trick-or-treating with Maddie and Abby and the rest of their crew:

Here are pictures of our pumpkins. Gerard goes all out with his carving each year. Impressive!

And here are a few cute ones of Dorothy. Aren't her ruby slippers from Mima and Granpa G so cute!?

{halloween sneak peak}

I'm tired and I have a lot of pictures to go through from tonight, but I thought I'd post one of the kids in their costumes. Gerard was Spiderman and Morgan was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz:

{our little pumpkins}

Just thought I'd share two cute little videos of the kiddos....

{making ryan miller proud}

Gerard had hockey again on Saturday and Sunday. It is absolutely amazing how quickly he is learning. He's a pro at falling down and getting back up. (You think I'm joking, but that's an important skill to master!) He's also getting much better at skating without falling down and he's starting to work on stopping and changing directions. It's just too cute!

Here he is all suited up:



practicing falling down:

listening intently:




Morgan and Daddy watching with the other spectators:



Ka-boom:




at least he's not alone!