To Infinity and Beyond!

Why our kids are so excited

Our new night prayers with the kids:

"God bless Mommy, Daddy, Patrick, Emma, William and the baby."



Coming in June!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a full week at the school with a visit from the Pilgrims and Indians.

The show was followed by a Thanksgiving lunch. It was so neat to see all the parents and grandparents come and be with their kids, and all the Parish priests were serving at each lunch (there were at least 4 lunches, and I attended 2!).

Papa and Mani came for Patrick's. We discovered that Patrick LOVES pumpkin pie, but turkey, not so much.

William was a trooper for both lunches, and enjoyed plenty of cookies and PBJ.

Patrick's buddy from scouts and school. (If you look over Patrick's right shoulder, his teacher is sitting right there.)

Emma and her BFF. My daughter is the social butterfly and knows everyone's names and is very sweet and says hello to them all!

Papa had to go to court, but Mani was able to stay for Emma's lunch.
We are so blessed with family, friends, faith and our parish. It's such a joy to have you all in our life, and we are so grateful for the prayers, support and love.

I love it when I drop the kids off at school and they tell me that the "life guards" are out. After a giggle, I do tell them they are called "crossing guards."

The Writer

"Mommy, how do you spell....." is the beginning of most things asked by Emma. She LOVES to write. I am so impressed with how well she is doing. You won't see her going many places without a pencil and paper.
We met with her teacher and she told us that Emma is totally prepared for this year, and she is doing great. She also told us of how she is working to challenge her in higher levels (YAY!). It felt soo good hearing that, since we did Kindergarten with her last year (and she is reading some words at 6th grade level!) and I hoped she would be excelling.

Emma enjoys writing, and we have given her this book to be the author and the illustrator for her stories (which remind me of Twitter postings - "I am at Miss Susan's house"). The only downside is that she is so eager to write, that if she has a desire, she will write on ANYTHING. Paper, mail, floor, fridge....oh yes. I did say fridge. In a RED SHARPIE. I was so worried it wouldn't come off, but with a LOT of scrubbing, it rubbed off. Otherwise, we would have had Emma's name on there as a reminder to all of us when she was in her writing stage. Yes, I know. This too shall pass. But right now I am going to channel that energy to keep her skills up.

The Stinker

I just had to share these photos of William, who is the funniest little kid. If you ask him his name, he says "My name is Buzz" and declares that he is "the real Buzz."
He is NEVER without a Buzz Lightyear toy in his hand, and absolutely loves anything with Toy Story charactors on it.

He is also a good sport when it comes to dressing up in a costume find at Grandma's house. So cute.

This is the newest Reynolds grandchild, Hayden Chase, born in August, and William asked to hold him. I don't think Hayden was thrilled.

William didn't get any cake at Grandpa's party. :) His latest thing, which I haven't caught on camera yet, is to "fly like Buzz." Tommy puts him over one shoulder, and with arms outstretched he says "to infinity and beyond!" and Tommy runs around the room with him. It makes me giggle every time.

November Rambles

• There's nothing like working in a new office to give you a slice of humble pie. My work added a second location and it was my first time there last week. I opened every.single.drawer in that office at least 100 times that day. I turned the corner, and turned OFF the lights in the operatory, while my boss was working on a patient and in the process of trying to turn them back ON, turned more off. I went in the wrong door too many times to count, and had to ask more questions than this 13 year veteran should be asking. Needless to say, I came home exhausted, embarrassed and sheepish. I felt like it was my first 3 months of work again, except for the fact that I KNEW what I was doing, but just didn't feel like it.
  
  
• Did I mention that Thanksgiving is at MY house this year? We have family coming in from DH's side, and I am so happy that we get to have us together again. One of Tommy's brothers is being deployed again (3rd time!) so we are so happy to see him before he goes again. It is actually one of the first years (that I can remember) that all the Reynolds are in the states for a holiday. I'm sure I'm wrong. LOL


• So, Patrick. Strep. AGAIN. Sigh. Not sure what to say about it, but that poor little guy. When he gets it, it makes him vomit. I am ALWAYS sure that it's a stomach bug, so I give him the whole BRAT diet, limit food, fluids, etc. You would think I would figure it out, but nooo, I am a dunce and keep expecting that it's NOT strep. The doctor says that it takes 7 times in one year to talk about a tonsillectomy, and we are on 3 (or 4) this year. Maybe one of us in the house is a carrier? We can test that at the doctor's so I am ON that! Not sure what happens if we are, but we'll keep taking it one step at a time. What am I doing wrong? How can I get rid of this in my home?? If I'm not careful, I'm going to start thinking I'm a bad mommy.......oh wait. I've already gone there.


• I thought that having uniforms for the kids would slow down my laundry duties. The mount Neverest has seemed to grow exponentially lately. Anybody want to come help for a couple days, see if I can catch up? I can promise you......um, my undying gratitude! Seriously, I am not sure how I could thank a person willing to help me with something they already have to do for themselves.
• I am so happy! My kids got their first report cards today, and they are doing so well! I am sooo relieved, proud and grateful for this school year. Thank you, Lord!

While voting today, I had Patrick and William with me. While reading all the signs for the candidates, Patrick asked "Hey Mommy, who are you rooting for?" I told him I'm rooting for the home team. :)

Toy Story Mania!

Happy Halloween!
Woody, Jessie and Buzz Lightyear all came to visit. They came pretty early, before we had dinner even.

Jessie was feeling especially happy, and eager to pose.

William kept declaring that he was "the real Buzz!"

This is our neighbor's amazing carved pumpkin.

And this is our pumpkin, which we did not carve. My boss told me to take it home from a work party, and as it turns out, it was very welcomed by our children.

Patrick, who was feeling sick this weekend (strep, again. That's another post by itself. grr.) so he didn't last very long with the other kids. He was happy to help me with the candy, and play with the new games he received. I think William got the hang of it this year, and it was adorable to see him say "trick or treat" to all the houses. Tommy said as they went to put candy in his bucket, he was reaching into their bowls and pulling out his own candy. What a nut. We had some pencils and erasers to give out, and my kids were so excited to help give those out. The big kids would look with disdain at that bucket, and demand, er, ASK me for the candy instead.

Time to check out the loot! We had some toothbrushes, play doh, card games, pencils and stickers this year. I kind of enjoyed the variety. Although this Mommy gets first dibs on Rolos and milk duds.