He's home!!!!!!

Why do they always come in late at night.This one was about 9:30 pm, earlier than usual.  I wanted better pictures but I myself was not going to wait long to hug him either. 5 1/2 months is a long time. Welcome home, we seriously missed you!!

Gag reel

Ed was smitten with Lydia, they spent as much time together as they possibly could.

Wendell, taking pictures.I wish I weren't making a funny face, this could be an awesome picture.

Mal and Taffy

My kids got Just Dance Kids, for Wii, of course the adults HAD to try it! Pat was by far the funniest!! I felt like I was watching a Nintendo commercial that day.

Christmas morning

Grandma and the kids, except Heidi who was napping! (It is very hard to get that many little kids to cooperate for a picture)

We were all together and it was lovely. Kevin got his Santa gift and all other gifts besides ones from Grandma and Cousins, were waiting at home. Santa came while we were gone. Anya's gift is another post.

Here is Christmas morning. Note: The only rule of Christmas morning is you must brush your teeth, other than that come as you are..... (sorry family)
Grandma came in full force this year! Thanks Fed Ex and Grandma!!Hans and Heidi- Pat's brother was our honorary family member for the week. (he is our Maria)

The only gift Lydia opened - it was all just too much!

Taffy opening her first gift on her first Christmas.A whole box of Anya's favorite food! Annie's macaroni and cheese!
Nolan and MarleneKevin asked Santa for one thing, a big Buzz! He was so excited that all his Christmas dreams came true! (and Santa only had to fork out $30.00)

After presents we taught Hans the fine art of cleaning and eating a lobster, had sugar cereal, scones and eggstrata, all the normal fare, then played Wii and hung out the rest of the day! It really was quite heavenly!!

Christmas in CO

We went to Colorado over Christmas vacation to visit my sister Ashley and the rest of the Webster family. It is the first time ever, we have all been together, children, husbands, and Mom. It was A LOT of fun.

Lots of bonding, fight control, bro-in-law ski/snowboarding trip, and lots of laughter.

And I have realized I do not miss having a baby in my house!!!

MalMarlene
(she is doing TONS better than the last time I saw her! For full updates see websterlife.com)


Me

I don't have any of Ash, sorry!
Mallory took on the daring task of building a gingerbread house. The kids all volunteered to help and Mal so graciously accepted. I am amazed how well she wrangled them all with all that candy. The babies were all sleeping.
Christmas Eve we Skyped the CT crew! It was so nice to see everyone!! This is the 1st year I haven't been there.
Christmas Eve is not complete in the Florian family without lobsters, we eat them for brunch on Christmas morning. We found them in CO and they were unbelievably expensive so we got 2 to share with everyone. Side note: Mal is TERRIFIED of lobsters. Tegan was quite curious, I think it took everything Mal had to let her touch it. We all got a good laugh.

It was a balmy 45-50 degrees out the whole time we were there. With a house crowded with 10 adults and 6 children, the backyard was a nice escape. Lydia and Anya were fast friends, Kevin, ummm, not so much.

"Cousins are cool.........

even if they are only babies." - Kevin Lonegan



Couldn't you just eat those cheeks, and that hair just too much!


The happiest baby alive!! For real. one night she slept 14 hrs and woke up smiling and laughing and waited another 1/2 hr to eat without fussing once. I would have a million if they all had her disposition.



Anya and L. So cute, they did so much together you'll see in more pictures.

My family

This is what we looked like at the beginning of 2008





This is what we look like at the end of 2008

Aren't we much better looking now?!

She did it! She did it! Do do do do do do do do

That is my interpretation of the Dora song!


Yeah Ashley! Yesterday her little baby girl came into the world at 4:40 am MST. She was in labor for 36 hours and she went totally natural! Wow! I know that was something she really wanted to do and I'm glad she was able to.

Lydia Eve Crummett
7lbs 13oz
18 in long

Hooray! We can't wait to see her pictures and scrunch her face and kiss her in July! Congrats Ash and Pat hope she is wonderful!

Grandma Webster

We just found out the other day the Grandma Webster( Dad's Mom) has pancreatic cancer. I just wanted to say that our thought and prayers are with you and the family close to you. Be strong and anything can happen. We love you.

It's always fun when Grandma comes

My Mom came down last weekend.
We used to go up to CT once a month but we are trying to save some money so we are only going every other month now. So Grandma came last weekend to see us. It was great. Keona came too. It was nice to see her too. Although we did not miss her barking.(more on this later)
On Sat. we went to the REI garage sale and got some fabulous stuff and then we stopped at LL Bean where I found some fabulous sandals. Mom said she would get them for my b-day(in Sept) and she bought them for me. They are also made from recycled materials! Then we went to PF Chengs for a fabulous Mother's day dinner, I know we were early but this is when she came. And then we went home put the kids to bed and Ms. Alice came to give Mom a reflexology treatment. If you have never had one you should, it is fantastic. Sunday we went to church, it was great having an extra set of hands. She left that afternoon. We miss you Grandma thanks for coming!

Happy Easter

We went to CT for easter and had a great time. Anya is finally old enough to really enjoy an egg hunt. Kevin is old enough to enjoy the plastic eggs, and Mallory. Keona enjoyed whipped cream on her nose, and we all had fun dressing up. Thanks Grammy Grammy!

Great Grandma Lonegan

While in CT we stopped an had a visit with Ed's Grandma, Isabelle Lonegan. Anya's middle name is Isabelle. She is a wonderful woman and will be 92 on Feb. 28th. It was so nice to have a visit with her to have the kids play. Ed's Parents live downstairs in the same house and everytime we go up to Great Grandma's house Anya gets excited to play dolls with her. Grandma can't get on the floor and play but her house is full of wonderful little figurines and treasures that Anya just loves. The dolls that Grandma got just for her house are one of her favorites. It is so nice to spend time with her. I am in awe of the strength and will of Grandma. Not many people are still living on their own at 92. Her sight and hearing and strength are begining to weaken but I still view her as a strong woman. I am very grateful we took the time to stay and visit with her and her cat. Anya and Kevin had a great time hearing her sing and playing with her. It was a very nice visit. This is an old photo of when Kevin was just new.

Week at Grandma's

This past week we went up to CT to visit Grandma. It was a great visit. On Sat. morning Ed got up to take Mom to the airport, she had to go to Miami. We stayed at her house and visited Grandma and Grandpop over the weekend. The kids had a blast. Then when Mom came home she helped me sew and played with the kids. I love having extra hands! After fantastic chinese, cleaning Mom's house and spending lots of time with family we are home. Until next time thanks for having us!

Anya and Grandma playing "Ride a cock horse"

Merry Christmas

Stunning aren't we?!
Wow I am so far behind in my blogging. Merry Christmas everyone. We went to CT to be with our family for Christmas. Ed got a week off of work and up we went. Christmas eve was the typical shindig at Grandma and Grandpa Florian's house. We had the big ham dinner, complete with hand cut pasta and a saurkraut fued. We then sung Christmas carols, opened presents and ate Grandma's famous cheesecake;super rich and creamy! We went back to Mom's house, put the kids to bed and Santa came. Mallory and Wendell came up for Christmas. It was noce to have almost everyone there. All weekend Mallory had Kevin almost the whole time. Everyone kept thinking that he was hers. Hello people they only got married in July and her dress would not have hid a belly that well!
Christmas morning we got together with Auntie Rachie, Grandma and Grandpa Florian and had a big brunch at Mom's house. Eggstrata, strawberry scones, melon, raspberry danish ring, and lobster. Lobster is a Christmas brunch tradition for our family. My Uncle Aaron moved to Califorina this year and was not able to chase all the kids around with a lobster on Christmas eve. It just wasn't the same. After breakfast we went to Grandma and Grandpop's house. (Ed's parents) More presents, more food. It was a great relaxing day. It is a good thing we go once a month because we had to leave a lot of the kids presents there for us to bring back. We had to take Keona back so we didn't have a lot of room. (More on that later) We hope your Christmas was splendid. Ours was. It is good to be home and back in the normal day to day lifestlye.

Happy Birthday Old Man

On Oct. 27th Ed turned 28. He is officially almost 30! I still have a few years. He wanted chocolate pie instead of cake, so that is what he got. He also go the Transformers movie and a cute book from Anya and his all time favorite XBox 360. I am now a video game widow. Happy Birthday Ed.

Leah the late bloomer

My Mother practically died when I told her I wanted to borrow her canning stuff. I canned tomatoes this summer, only 4 quarts. I am now canning applesauce. I love homemade applesauce and Ed was convinced he didn't like it, so a challenge was issued. I made zucchini bread and then proceed to make applesauce out of 9 lbs. of apples, Empire and Fuji to be exact. May I add it does not even contain sugar, a little cinnamon yes but no sugar. Ed tried it and liked it so much he decided to join in.

I must say I am quite proud of the finished product. And it is delicious.

I talked to my Mom on the phone today and asked if I could borrow her sewing machine until Christmas. I am making most of my presents this year.Again she almost died. I could hear her picking herself up off the floor, almost as good as the time I called home and told her I got my bellybutton pierced when I was 15.(It was a joke) I always thought I was the black sheep of the family, not a domestic bone in my body, but I guess I was just Leah the late bloomer. I may have found a new hobby. It goes great with our new eating style. Organic and natural. I never thought I would turn into this.

Feeling fall

This past weekend we went pumpkin picking at Johnson's Farm. It was a lot of fun. We did the hayride out to the field and picked pumpkins and gourds. Anya had a blast picking the gourds, just her size.

Then we went into the store to get some butternut squash, spaghetti squash and apples and of course apple cider donuts. They had this great antique tractor that you could sit on and of course Anya and her Papa wanted a turn.

Then we had to have a carving party. We invited our friends the Hames family over for shrimp scampi and pumpkin carving.


Friends and fall, it doesn't get much better than that.

Weekends in CT

This month, by the end of the month we will have made 3 trips to CT. Talk about lots of driving, it is 3 hours away and that is with minimal traffic. It is a hassle but it is usually fun. Here are some of the things we have done this month up there.

We helped Auntie Rachie do yard work at Grandma and Grandpa Florians house.

We also went cosmic bowling at the duck pin bowling lanes. So my 26 lb. 3 yr old could lift the balls!

And finally, learned that Anya has a future in the circus. Yes that is a Bumbo box. She thought she was a baby bird. She was supposed to be going to bed. It was about 10:00 p.m. Overall it was lots of fun.

This weekend

This weekend I went to Time Out for Women and saw a friend that I haven't seen in a while. She told me if I want to join the blogging club, I have to pay my dues. Then I realized I hadn't written in a month. Wow am I lousy at this. An update on the kids. Kevin is huge he will be 3 months on the 20th and weighs a whopping 14 lbs. I say whopping because at 3 months Anya was 10.5 lbs. I call him my chubba chubba burning love. Kevin was blessed this weekend. I didn't take any pictures. I am an awsome Mom. I will take some next week and then you can see him in his little tux. Thanks Grandma! We went cosmic duckpin bowling on Sat. with Anya, I recommend it as a fun night. Marlene has a slideshow on www.websterlife.com. That is what happened this weekend. Besides the fact it is cold and lovely and I am loving fall that is what we are up to lately.

Sunday night playing with Papa

When Ed leaves I get super sick of entertaining Anya all day. By the time dinner is over I have had it. Today we solved that problem. Anya got to play with her Papa.

Tonight they played in the pool (actually a dog bed), jumped on the trampoline and even played puppets, Ed was a rooster. I am so glad my daughter has a great imagination.