Sheldon Christmas 2012

Last weekend we finally got together with our friends that we hadn't seen since Joey's birthday! It was way overdue, and the kids had a blast together while we were able to catch up as well. Joey and Jillian loved their gifts and play with everything! Thank you for hosting us, and for catering to our vegan ways! ;)

Our Gingerbread House

Total Hockey!

Our great neighbor, Mr. Sole aka Mr. Hockey himself was kind enough to set Joey up with his first set of hockey equipment! This is a pretty penny if you couldn't gather from all the equipment you see Joey wearing here, so a huge thank you to Mr. Sole for going with Joey to make sure he was sized correctly, Mrs. Sole for offering some great tips that I will probably ask her about again, and for being patient with our shy guy. He was and still is ecstatic! He puts his equipment on daily and takes his stick around the house...we've limited him to the kitchen and outside of a foam puck going under the stove which was quickly retrieved we've only had one casualty- a candy dish that was on the counter- No High Sticking! Thank you so much!

Lots of updates

So I fell behind in blogging right before Thanksgiving, and with the Christmas around the corner we have been very busy. So here is an update in pictures (or at least some of what I took when I remembered!). Last night was Jill's first dance "Holiday Showcase." She did terrific, she was hilariously adorable. If you are interested in seeing the 1 minute clip of her dance we have it! Bravo, Jillian! A week ago Phil had off of work on a Monday when Nonna and Grandpa are here, so after school Grandpa and Joey went skating. You can tell by the look on Joey's face he loves the ice and Grandpa out there with him was a treat! Last weekend we had Christmas party with friends from high school and their kids. Since we don't see everyone as often as we'd like we spent more time catching up than taking pictures. So here is the before shots... The first Sat. of December we had Breakfast with Santa at Joey and Jill's school. We had our usual routine of hockey then dance, but after eating as fast as they could get away with (meaning not eating much anyways) they ran to Santa to sit and tell them their wishes. Thanksgiving was spent at Nonna and Grandpa's. A yummy meal and lots of family fun, but of course the camera was thrown aside and forgotten again! Just before Thanksgiving Joey went in for his fitting. Joey will be in Uncle Kevin and Auntie Nicole's wedding in February. Joey has the lucky job of walking the little lady Amelia down the aisle. As you can tell he is very excited about this job and adores Amelia. We were very early in putting up our Christmas tree, the weekend before Thanksgiving, but we were very excited and wanted to enjoy it since we usually take it down before Jill's birthday much to some people's dismay! Here are the kids helping with the tree decorating. The following day Andrew and Emma were over so we had all 4 kids help decorate the living tree for Josh. And finally some random November and December shots, mostly of hockey and dance. Ok, I'll try to stay a bit more on top of things, but I'm not sure I can make any promises!

World Prematurity Day

Tomorrow is officially World Prematurity Day, but since today is a week day, Phil and I worked a booth at the hospital and handed out purple ribbons and displayed pictures of our preemies: Josh and Joey. After our clean up we were able to go into the NICU to see the construction that has been going on and say hi to some old friends, which also meant a super big hug from one of my favorite speech therapists! The last pic is of the display, pics of Joey and Josh as babies, and then Joey healthy and happy today. I also decided to put some pics of their first few days and just how tiny they were. I remember hearing that you should put a kleenex box or a 2 liter bottle of pop next to your preemie to give some perspective in pictures as to how tiny a 3 pound baby can be, but I think when you see all of Joey's head in Phil's hand, or Josh's fingers wrapped around one of Phil's, and those tiny little feet you can remember a bit!

Circus Circus

Children of all ages, that means us, come see the greatest show on earth! Saturday we splurged and went to Ringling Bros. Circus! It was awesome! It was almost 3 hours long, the average child's age was probably under 5, and it was really amazing. The kids took in all that they could, and we spent all that we could! I just have to tell anyone who may go to the circus that the $33 tickets are worth it (we don't go to the movies much at all--maybe once or twice a year, so I thought that was my year's worth of movies) but a box of popcorn...$15! The programs, light spinners, don't even ask, it was a good two bill day, but totally worth it! The theme for the circus was Dragons! The performers came from all over to show us the strength, courage, wisdom, and heart of the dragon in them, and asked if we have the spirit of the dragon in us...Joey and Jill definitely do! They loved it! Jill's favorite was the dragon that we saw at the very end blowing smoke and all. Joey says his favorite was seeing the "king of the jungle lion, and tigers" but he was also in awe of the ninjas jumping through fire and knives, and the motorcycles spinning in the cage. The tightrope, trapeze artists, acrobats, really all of it was quite amazing.

Halloween 2012!

To start off the Halloween festivities we went to Joey's school for a parade and party! Joey elected to be Superman for school since he could not wear a mask or have any handheld props. So it was Superman for school followed by a change after lunch into Captain America! We went to the library with Nonna for another parade, this time both could participate together, and we can never go to the library for just a program! Both Joey and Jillian love the library, checking out books, playing on the computer, doing some puzzles, and playing with the stuff they have all around. Thanks Nonna for letting them show you what they love to do there! After spending naptime at the library instead of in bed, we came home and got ready for Andrew, Emma, Auntie, Uncle Chris, and Grandma to show up so we could go trick or treating!