Martino Mojo

Family Pictures

Over Thanksgiving, Mike's cousin Heather came into town and did a family photo session with us. She was so laid-back and made the whole thing so fun that my kids actually enjoyed getting our pictures done! That is a miracle to say the least. Check out Heather's site sometime... www.heatherannette.com

Michael and Katie having an afternoon tea party...

Hot Date! (with my 5-yr-old)

1 comments Posted by Kristie at 8:09 PM

Austin in the car today: I wish I were 16 so I could take a girl on a date.
Me: What girl would you take?
Austin: A cute one.
Me: Hmm...good choice.
Austin: You're the girl I wanna take, Mom. (you can see why I'm a sucker for this one)
Me: Aaaww, really? Where would we go?
Austin: To the North Pole. We'd visit Santa's house & play with the penguins.

Wow. I'm thinkin' that might trump my first date with Mike ;)

Thanksgiving with "Hobby Robbie"

4 comments Posted by Kristie at 8:36 PM

My little brother Rob came into town for a week over Thanksgiving, and we all had so much fun with him. Katie gets the words "Uncle Robbie" mixed up with a store we often shop at called "Hobby Lobby." So she called him Hobby Robbie all week long :) She had him wrapped around her little finger, just as she does all of us. She followed him everywhere, gave him lots of kisses and snuggles, and wouldn't go to sleep until he went into her room to give her "ni-night kisses." When Rob left, all 3 of the kids started crying! Ethan sobbed silently with his head down, Katie wailed and dramatically called out, "I miss you, Hobby Robbie! I miss you!" and Austin started crying because Katie and Ethan were crying. Rob said he'd never had a farewell like that before ;) Now the kids are constantly talking about when we can go visit him in Santa Monica. They're thinking we have to go around Christmas time since the place must have something to do with Santa himself!

He's Officially "Big Enough"

6 comments Posted by Kristie at 2:31 PM

Ethan started 2nd grade today, so of course I drove him to school, camera in hand as a faithful scrapbooker does. About a minute from his school, he said to himself, "I think I can remember where my new classroom is..." I quickly replied, "Oh, don't worry, buddy; I'll walk you in today, and I remember where it is." Then he said so innocently, "Oh, it's okay, Mom. You don't have to take me in. I'm big enough." Silence, as my baffled heart breaks during the inevitable moment that I wasn't expecting till at least 5th grade. My 7-yr-old is officially "big enough." So I dropped him off at the school curb and, still in shock, drove home without any "First Day of School" pictures.

Proud Mom Moment

5 comments Posted by Kristie at 8:59 AM

I know it's a month after school ended, but since I use this blog as a way to journal for our family, I figure it's better late than never. Ethan has had a great year in Mrs. Dunning's first grade class. She is way into marine animals, as is Ethan, so he became very inquisitive about lots of different animals and has done lots of research about orcas and dolphins.
At his First Grade Awards Ceremony, he received several different awards for reading, good citizenship, etc., but his Environmentalist of the Year Award stands out to his proud mother. The story behind it: Throughout the school year, Ethan would take a few minutes at the beginning of recess and go around the playground picking up trash. He would often bring armfuls of trash to his teacher b/c there were no trash cans around. One day he brought up the idea of writing a letter to the principal to get trash cans on the playground. His friends signed a petition and his teacher tried to give them an experience similar to petitioning local government officials for change. Because of his efforts, they now have 5 trash cans on the playground and his friends help him pick up trash each day. To me, the coolest thing about this is that it was all his doing. I didn't even know about all of this until a few days before school ended. I'm proud of him for being conscientious of the environment and taking the initiative to make it better.

A Day Out with Thomas the Train

2 comments Posted by Michael at 4:38 PM

A couple weeks ago, I surprised Austin with a trip to Grapevine to see (in his words) "the real Thomas!" The smile never left his face.

With the Conductor...

One of the more colorful animals at the petting zoo...

With Sir Topham Hat...

There were all kinds of things for the kids to do, from a train display to bounce houses, storytime to a big sandbox, then the hilight of the day- a 30 minute train ride on Thomas. It was so nice to have a special date with just the two of us.