Erin's first football game

Erin is a cheerleader this year and today was her first official football game. It was cold and rainy, but it didn't dull her spirit at all. She's LOVING cheerleading.

Now for some videos :)

Em's first football game

Last night, Emali had her first ever perform in full uniform with the high school marching band. She was so nervous, but she nailed it. Their theme is Titanic. The play the song called Irish Jig in Third Class. (the song where Rose is downstairs dancing with Jack). They also play the opening theme song, and my heart will go on. It was a very good show. Especially for a band that's mostly made up of kids in the 8th and 9th grades.

I apologize, as this post will be photo and heavy. **Videos removed at request of band director because of a tattletale bully situation which is being rectified**

 The marching band

Hopefully, those of you that have gotten this far have enjoyed these as much as I do. Emali is doing so wonderfully in band this year.

Emali's Spring Concert

Monday was Emali's Spring Concert. This year, she did a duet with another flute player. She didn't tell us she was going to be doing this. It was quite a surprised to read in the program. I am so very proud of her.

Em's Winter Concert

Emali's winter concert was tonight. I'm completely impressed at how much they've improved since last year. They are playing multi-part songs, solos, etc. The band geek in me just LOVED it. So proud of Emali for sticking with the flute for almost 2 years. Especially when a good bit of her friends are dropping out.

 She's getting so big. I can hardly believe she'll be in junior high next year.

And now, I leave you with a video of the band playing Yuletide Spirit.

The power of words

So, as many already know, Alvin has apraxia of speech. This means he rarely speaks, and when he does, he's limited in what he can say. So, when he does say something knew, we take note. Well, today was a humongous 'awwww' moment.

For weeks, we'll randomly ask Alvin where hugs/kisses are. Normally, he'll stop whatever he's doing and come over and give whoever's asking a hug/kiss. About two weeks ago, he started answering "Where's Daddy's hugs/kisses?" with "Trash". This was funny, because we've always made jokes about wiping off kisses, etc. We're a fun-loving bunch. The game would go:

Eric - "Where's Daddy's kisses?"
Alvin - "Trash", as he giggled and ran.
Eric would then chase him, capture him and plant tons of kisses on him. Then someone would proceed to tickle Alvin and away we'd go.

Today, we did the same thing, only I decided to ask Alvin where -my- hugs/kisses were. His response?

"My heart".

OMG. I die. I started crying. I couldn't help it. Knowing he really does love us is amazing, but getting to HEAR it is even more amazing.

Em's Christmas Concert

Last night, Emali had her first ever concert for band. She was so excited to get to finally play the flute for people. I'm so proud of her for picking the flute. (Some of you might not know, but I played the flute when I was in school.) So, here are some pics and a video! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Soccer Weekend #4

Woo hoo! The sun was shining. It was a gorgeous day. However it was marred by a presence, well two to be exact. We won't go into that on here though. My FB on the other hand... Anyway, Emali was in a pretty lousy mood because of the other events going on this weekend, but she still gave it her all in the game. She attempted at least 4 shots on the goal. She missed, but she's doing so much better on her attempts. But, her team still won! 5-1!!! She was sooo excited! What made it even better was her Grammy Sammy and Grandpa Rich were there to see her!

 Em's cheering section this week!

I just thought this pic of Erin and Alvin was too cute!

I also want to share a really short video with you. Alvin's been pretending to be a zombie lately. This is his as a zombie 'eating' his sister's brains.

Wordless Wednesday

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Look Grandma!!

He figured out how to peddle!

Alvin playing the Wii

Halloween Lights

Eric and I got new Halloween lights. They remind us of PacMan so we just had to get them. I took a short video of them (since they light up) to share with everyone. Enjoy!

Steel Valley Super Nationals

So, yesterday I started out the morning by going to to the Homer Laughlin outlet for their awesome tent sale. I'm not gonna post about that because, well, it deserves it's own post. :) Then it was home to take a nap. Then it was off to Salem for the Steel Valley Super Nationals. We had a wonderful night. Looking at beautiful cars/trucks, watching awesome drag racing, and ending up watching a wonderful fireworks display.

top row, from right: Ford truck, Alvin watching the drags, drag race participants.

botton row, from right: Awesome car, Dodge truck, the girls watching the drags.

And here's a little video of Alvin. It's very short, but it's him watching the drags and shouting "Go!".

Vegetable Garden - Week Four

Yet again, I am a day late. I know this. Better late than never! I am sooo stoked with the garden this week. It's all growing quite well and we are starting to actually produce!!

The pumpkin plants
Our tomatoes

The broccoli

The corn plants


And just because I can, here are some pictures of Alvin. I dont remember what I said 'no' to, but this is the look I was treated to after telling him 'no'.

Then, this was him today. He was soooooo tired that he passed out laying with his sister. So cute! (Yes, I know he still has a bottle. Get over it.)

And because I thought it was cute. A video of Alvin on a rocking horse saying "Whee!"

He is crawling!!

That's right! He started to crawl. Woo hoo. Please watch the video to see for yourself. Just forgive my dirty house and half naked daughters.