Halloween fun

The boys had a fun Halloween this year. In the spirit of buying our new home and fixing it up all the time, we were a construction crew family. Mario and I used similar outfits when we went to his company's Halloween party. Our neighborhood has a block party in our cul de sac where parents hang out and several homes (I think it was about 9) brought bowls of candy for the kids to hit a bunch of places at once. They appearantly upped things a bit this year and added several blow up things included a haunted house thing. MJ wasn't so into the scary stuff but it was impressive. Some of the adults dressed up, so we did too (not that it was too difficult to throw that stuff on). It was nice getting to meet more of them.MJ was totally excited about trick or treating. Joey liked it well enough, but wanted to eat the candy as soon as he got it. Also noteworthy was the suprise that our parish priest answered the door once. I actually knew the rectory was down the street in our neighborhood, but kind of forgot about it until then. And yes, they gave out good candy. :-)

Joey was not very cooperative with his hat or belt, but I wanted to try to get another picture of them. Actually, he wouldn't hold still, but seems to like the flashing light of the self-timer, so I set it up on a chair and moved over to the side... yep, MJ is smiling at me and not the camera.

Update

About 10 days ago, a little voice in my head told me to try to put Joey to sleep in the other twin bed in the boys' room. Mario has been pushing for this move for awhile now since MJ was 15 months old when he climbed out of his crib and got a big boy bed. Joey is 20 months old, but such an amazingly good sleeper that I didn't want to tackle the difficult transition to a big boy bed yet. (This was a nightmare for us with MJ). I must have been feeling ambitious b/c I tried it one Saturday night, and wouldn't you know it, Joey stayed in his bed! I could go on and on about this amazing phenomenon... sharing personality differences and all sorts of things; but the bottom line is, Joey still sleeps just as well as before. He falls asleep fine at night, and still takes 2-3 hours naps and just sits in the bed waiting for someone to come get him once he wakes up. I anticipate this ending sometime soon when he realizes he can climb out of bed, but I think he's just one of those kids who just likes to sleep.

MJ hasn't had a bed rail for a long time now, but when he saw Joey had one, he wanted me to put the other one back on his bed. The crib is still there, just in case, and I think it provides nice separation for them and is still familiar.
This is just a random reminder of how sometimes the boys are very cooperative. I can be rushing around doing whatever it is that mommies do, and then come to see my kids quietly entertaining themselves. (It's harder to get pictures of them going crazy - but this does happen to them, and I'll try that next time).
Here is the beginning of our serious of pictures from our visit to Uncle Luke's seminary. It was a beautiful day, and we were so happy that he was able to host us and give us a tour of his life at Mt. Saint Mary's. We are lucky to be so close to him.

MJ with his new 3 favorite library books by Peter Sis.
My boys (before Joey tries to dip his arm in the water.)
They were so cute and adventurous, but I wished I could have had them sit still for more pictures.

Joey wasn't the most cooperative, but we did manage to get one picture with Godfather Luke.


I think it's funny how we separated by families mostly, except for Tommy and MJ. I think that would be a fair trade (maybe not for Tabitha & Babu).


.... in other news...

The punches keep coming with this house... we learned early on (but not early enough to ask the sellers to get of it as some buyers do) that we have a dreaded Bradford Pear tree in our front yard. These are known to grow like crazy, get very top-heavy and then crack. A "tree guy" who did some other work, mentioned we might need to do something about this tree soon. So, Mario and I began thinking about it, and had decided at some point we will be getting rid of this tree. The wind decided that timing for us today as it blew down half the tree. I guess it's nice that it landed in our front yard (definitely better than on our cars) though if it landed on our house, I think our homeowners insurance would have paid to have the tree removed. We moved our cars already, just in case the rest of the tree once to join the half on the ground.

Keppel grandparent visit

My parents also came for a visit last weekend. It was a bit impromtu, but we had fun. Right away, my mom helped me shop at the consignment sale, we had our gamewatch. Sunday they watched the boys so Mario and I could go out on a date. Monday morning we went to Cox farms, and we got busy working in the afternoon. My mom helped me around the house, we put another bed in the basement guest room and moved our awesome murphy bed, my dad did some great yard work outside... and then they left. They have to visit again b/c I end up getting so much done!

First here is a picture of our family in front of our "new" house. Can it be new after so long?


MJ and Joey got an early present from my parents, b/c Mario couldn't wait to give the boys these Duplo legos. They were very excited about them (bob the builder theme).


We went to Cox farms on Monday... the weather was gorgeous...it was a little crowded b/c of Columbus day, but we had fun.





The next time they visit, we will be having another baby!

Over 2 weeks!

Wow, it's been awhile. We've been busy. So here are many pictures and I'll quick recap the last 2 weeks.

I guess big highlights began on Tues 10/7 when my OB/Midwife measured me and I was smaller than the 31 weeks I was supposed to be. Being small for dates is not good for a baby, so the next day we got to see Little T again. I was very happy to hear that she is growing fine (in fact she measures at 32 weeks...big like her brothers). So perhaps she is just tucked in there really well... much better news than she is not growing properly.

Late Wed 10/8 Mario's brother Micheal and sister-in-law Sarah and our goddaughter Maria arrived for a visit. We all got together at the Kaza's house Thursday night. 4 sets of Suarez married couples with their kids. Tabitha and Babu +7 kids, Mario and I +2 kids, Michael and Sarah +1 kid, and Mary and Ryan.

Michael with Maria (14 months) and Joey (21 months)

Actually, 3 of us were pregnant (Tabitha's baby Simon is about 1 month old now). So, here are 3 sisters-in-law all pregnant. Mary 5 weeks, Sarah 27 weeks, me 31 weeks (we took this while rushing out the door to the ER....more on that later).

Joey kissing Maria. We had a fabulous dinner and a little bit of fun, it seems Joey had too much fun. Uncle Ryan was swinging him around, as many uncles and dads do, but it caught Joey the wrong way and he dislocated his right elbow. This is called nursemaid's elbow, it happened to me by an uncle when I was about Joey's age. Sarah and Michael watched MJ while Mario and I went to the ER (again!) I was a little embarrassed to have to bring Joey back after his recent stitches. But everything is fine, it is an easy fix. I hope it doesn't happen again so I won't have to pop it back in.

Cousins at our house.
Friday Tabitha brought her crew of 7 up our way to play at the park. (She is really amazing). It was a gorgeous day!

This is so cute of MJ and Joey and they got in this position on their own.

Friday night, my mom and dad arrived for their visit (more on that later). Saturday morning, Sarah, my mom and I hit up the Catholic consignment sale. Mario was worried that we were gone for 3 hours, but we go some good stuff. Then we had an ND football game watch at our house (the Kaza's joined us as well).

Sarah and I had a picture like this with our little ones last year.

Joey and Catherine look pretty cool! Joey is actually 2 1/2 months younger than Catherine.

Maria was a trooper all day, and we asked her to take some pictures before she left. I was happy she got cozy with me.


The whole gang. Next time we are together, there will be 2 more kids!

Financial news

This is on my rare, boring posts. My company's CEO wrote a short paper on his view of the financial crisis. I think it's pretty good - didn't know if you'd find it interesting.

Dear Colleagues,

Last week as I was flying back from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Tianjin, China, I wrote down my reflections on the current state of the financial markets. This 'white paper' reflects information and views which I formed following a series of more than 40 recent meetings with clients around the world, and discussions with a number of senior business leaders at the WEF meeting. I shared my thoughts initially with partners, and many within the firm may also have seen the note. However, if you have not had the opportunity to read it, the note has been posted on the firm website. Here is a link to the white paper:

http://www.booz.com/global/home/what_we_think/reports_and_white_papers/article/42506281

Please feel free to share this with clients and contacts.

Kind regards,

Shumeet

Staying Busy

We've been in our new house for 1 month now, and have already done a bunch of fixing up. The boys have been very helpful through the whole thing. We think they are quite happy with their bigger house, yard, and playground close by. The work that Mario and I have started seems to encourage "fixing up" games by MJ and Joey. They really love working with their tools. We've tried to maintain some sort of balance between work and play.

A picture of the boys after a trip to the church playground behind our house. (Their shirts are off to protect them from getting ice cream on them). Oh, and you can't tell in this picture, but for those who were wondering, his stitches came out last Tuesday and everything is healing just fine.

The boys can now add Home Depot and Lowes to the stores that they recognize by sight. It seems that on Saturdays we attempt to go out and shop in the morning to get all we will need for house projects before the ND game starts. Then the boys take late naps while we work and then watch the game a bit. Joey was a trooper for this long shopping experience, but just couldn't make it through Bed Bath and Beyond. (I'm impressed he could fall asleep like that).

MJ was really into the ND game this Saturday... well football in general. He begged us to play catch with him. It was a rainy day, so we had to play in our basement. First, I tried to see if he could catch a ball on the run (he basically ran the same route in front of me and caught the ball, but did it pretty well). When Mario saw his son could do this, he then had to have MJ run real routes. They took turns being the QB and receiver (and of course Mario taught MJ the approriate terms for everything). Whoever was the QB got to make the play and say hike. (I don't see how Mario can stop himself from coaching his boys to play football). After taking pictures and video, I hopped in the rotation so we could also have someone on defense.

This weekend we began our kitchen makeover which involved a new light fixture, pulls for the cabinets, new paint (trim and walls), new outlets, and window treatments. Mario did most of the work (someone had to keep the house in order) but we find that painting together gets the job done much faster. We still aren't finished with the hinges on the cabinets and we are having trouble finding the way to get the window treatments the way we want them. When I get a good before and after picture, I'll post it.

Meanwhile, today MJ tried out some of his photography skills. He took a couple dozen pictures (many of which were pretty cool). He seems to like to take pictures of his feet(?) Anyway, I liked this one, plus it shows off the new ceiling fan that Mario put in our livingroom.

Our first stitches

and hopefully our last. I'll try to make a long story short - basically I got a call from the water company this morning about our leak and was working on that while trying to keep Joey away from his nebulizer full of medicine. He fell, and I guess bumped the table nearby. Mario took him so I could finish my call, and when I was finally finished, Mario said he might need stitches. After a quick trip to the pediatrician, we learned he needed them. We were the only people in the pediatric side of the ER at 9:30am, and yet it still took forever. The boys were great (poor Joey did have to be strapped down for the 4 stitches under his lip) and we finally made it back home at 12:15. With all of the crazy things this daredevil does, he gets stitches for tripping in the family room? I can't believe it! It was just 2 days ago I saw him smash his tricycle into our minivan (all parties walked away fine). Joey's other favorite thing to do is walk around the house with a blanket over his head... no severe damage from that yet. I'm hoping this is our last experience with stitches, but I'm thinking it probably won't be.