Christmas

This year was a very quiet Christmas for us. We decided not to go anywhere...but enjoy our time at home. With the last two months being a blur with traveling and family visiting, I definitely wanted to stick around the house.

The morning was fun with sleeping in, eating a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon rolls, and then opening gifts. Here's a few fun pics of the girl's opening gifts:

Anna's motto, "Imagine"

Eliza still loves her Webkinz!

Where Julia wants to go to college

The latest Geronimo book

Seeing if Dad knows his Seinfeld trivia

Stocking Stuffers

Julia's new outfit

First Chair

Julia was so excited when she got first chair for the French horn section last month. Here she is at the Christmas concert this week.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we were blessed to have several family members visit. My mom was with us the whole month. I helped her close up her house in Maine and then on Nov 5th we drove back to Philly so she could be with us for the holiday before she made her big move to Florida.

Austin's sister and boys also came down to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with us and stay for a couple of days. Eliza and Anna loved the playful company!

Justin, Heather, & Logan

The meal was delicious...despite the fact that I hate to cook. Thank goodness my Mom was here to prep the turkey :). We also feasted on homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes with maple syrup, and rolls. Yum!!

Mom & Anna

Austin & Heather

On Friday, Austin actually agreed to do Black Friday with me. He saw this laptop for $200 and was gung-ho to stand in line at 3am. I wanted to go at my normal 6am, but he was in the spirit. So while he stood in his line, I headed over to several stores to return things and buy them for the cheaper price. Worked out well for me. I actually walked away with money :). It was perfect timing, because we both finished about the same time. I liked the divide and conquer thing!

To finish off the weekend, my sister Bev and her husband flew in Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a "turkey casserole" prepared by Julia. They flew in to help my mom drive the rest of the way to Florida and get her unpacked down there, before scooping her off to Idaho to enjoy Christmas with them. We loved having them, even though it was a very short visit!

When Mom's away, the cat will play!

Sometimes I find incriminating photos on my camera...such as these.

Our outdoor only cat, soaking up some r&r on the couch. You can tell he is thoroughly enjoying it. Definitely would not happen if I were home!

Raking leaves

I thought this was the cutest pic of Eliza helping me rake up the leaves. We have been so lucky so far this fall, to have such mild weather, as you notice by Eliza's shorts.

Halloween self potraits

I have been really bad this month about taking pictures, since I was going back and forth so much to my mom's house in Maine. So, the girls took matters into their own hands and took some hilarious self potraits of their halloween outfits they wore to school.

My Dad's passing

Richard Ellis Michaud

1932 - 2010

My Dad passed away last week at his home in Maine. I knew his health was declining, and that we were lucky to have him be around as long as he was, but it was still awful to get that phone call from my mom. I was more sad to think of my mom. They were planning on going to FL next week to move into their new home. We all feel it was a blessing though, that he died at home and not on the road, or in FL where they knew no one. Also that he died quickly and did not have to be in a hospital. He always hated doctors.

I was able to fly up to Maine the same day to be with my mom-also a blessing. There was much to do and I did not want her to be alone that first night. We spent the next couple of days going through years of paperwork, making lots of phone calls, and packing up some of Dad's things.

The rest of my siblings were able to come up a couple of days later. On Friday, we buried my Dad in the Clark's hill cemetary where his mother and grandmother were buried. Saturday, we had a very nice memorial service. There were many family members, fellow church members, and friends of my parents. It was nice to share our memories and our children's memories.

My mom plans now are to move to FL as planned and see how it goes. She has been so strong through this process and is getting through it. The gospel of Jesus Christ brings a certain amount of peace-she knows she will see him again. The hard part is getting through the rest of her life without him.

Homecoming

I wasn't home this year for homecoming :(; but, I was able to enjoy Julia's events through pictures. Thankfully cousin Christie was able to step in as "mom" for the day and get her ready. She looked beautiful as always.

Longwood gardens

I took Eliza and Anna to the gardens on Saturday because the weather has been so gorgeous and Eliza had been wanting to see the flowers. Well, we had been there for about an hour when I decided to sit on a bench while they took pictures over in the flower garden.

The next thing I know, Eliza runs up to me crying, saying her nose stings really bad, then her lip. I couldn't get her to stop crying, even with cold water. Apparently, she smelled a flower with a bee on it. Then she reports she can't walk either because she has a blister on her foot. Piggy back ride it was to the first aid station, all the way back at the entrance. She even refused ice cream, she was in so much pain. So a quick stop at WalMart and the application of "First Bite" cream saved the day.

Julia's b-day

This year, a scheduled church dance made Julia's birthday party super easy to throw. She invited friends from school as well as had her friends from church there to share in her celebration.

Her friends from school came back to the house for a sleep over. I actually was not in the same car as them, and had to make an emergency trip to the hospital with one of the girls in my car. By the time I got home, they were all crashed. The next morning it was muffins and a movie. I'm happy Julia has so much fun with her friends. They've known each other since we moved here five years ago.

Happy birthday my beautiful girl!!

Soccer begins

Back to school means back to being a soccer mom. Eliza loves to play soccer and still loves being goalie. She is on a sweet team this year.

Disney!!

This year, Disney was giving away one day passes to anyone who did community service. Since we normally do family service on Martin Luther King day anyway, I signed us up to work at one of the "sponsoring" locations in our area, unbeknown to the girls. We worked at a church tying quilts, making cards and PB&J sandwiches. The fun part to me, was they had no idea about the disney passes.

Well, this summer we never did get the chance to go down there with everything going on. But, the girls had a 4 day weekend for Labor Day, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. There were only two issues: flying standby on a holiday weekend and the Category 5 hurricane sitting just off the eastern seaboard. We solved the standby issue by flying into Tampa instead of Orlando and driving the hour over. It was actually nice to have a car to pick up food items and not be at the mercy of Disney's overpriced food. It was quite stressful though, renting a car and hotel room literally while getting on the airplane. But it all worked out.

The other issue, the hurricane, actually worked to our advantage. It just barely skimmed the outer banks of North Carolina and sucked up all the moisture that normally would be in FL. So we had perfect weather the two days we were there. It also probably scared half the people away, so the lines were quite small for all the rides. Woo-hoo.

The girls loved the surprise. They had fun running around Downtown Disney and swimming the first day we were there.

The next day we hit the magic kingdom. We took a break at dinner time and enjoyed some more time in the pool. That night we went back to the park to see the electric parade and fireworks. Although in some ways I think they have outgrown some of the "magic" of Disney, the girls had a ball. I'm glad we could fit the trip in to our crazy schedule. It is wonderful sometimes to get away as a family!

Back to School

The end of August means back to school. After such a fun, hectic summer, it will be nice to have some routine back in our life. I guess it was unofficial stripe day. The girls were cute, as always:

Eliza

Julia & Anna

New glasses and new doo's

Kris comes to visit

A former college roommate of mine, Kris Dziendziel, and her daughters came to visit us this past weekend. It has been a few years since we've gotten together, so it was very fun to have them visit. Her girls are about the same ages as mine, so they had fun socializing. Games, movies, ice cream, and a visit to Longwood Gardens were part of the activities. Got some cute pics while we are Longwood:

At the waterfall (not sure if they should be doing this :))

Very cute of their shadows

Anna, the Parisian

Kris & I in the secret garden

All lined up!

We hope they come to visit again soon. This was a lot of fun.

ME & NY escape

It was that time again for our annual pilgrimage north. Although I so wanted to escape so badly from our hectic life, the thought of having to pack again, after only being home a couple of days from Trek made me tired thinking about it. So I did minimal packing and threw in a few pillows and we were off.

Friday night we stayed with Austin's mom and had a nice visit and a yummy French Toast breakfast the next morning before we headed up the coast to Maine. We already have return tickets to her house the next weekend. :)

We arrived to a rainy Maine that afternoon. My sister, Bev, was also visiting my parents that weekend so we were able to see her as well. It was nice to catch up since we see each other so little. We took little day trips to the lake in Camden and Uncle Al's pond. Austin also did a couple of repairs to help out while Bev painted the kitchen cabinets. The girls had fun watching Monk and running around the yard.

Hanging out on the couch

Anna in the back yard

Eliza pushing Grampy on the swing

Grammy taking a turn

Bev and I

Julia at Camden Lake

Eliza having fun in the lake

Cute as always!

Walking the stone wall

Down at Pemaquid Point

Fresh crab legs

Beach beauties

Hanging with the shades

One last dip before we head south

We stopped back in NY as we headed south. Saturday morning we had a nice visit with Mother and got in some blueberry picking with the cousins. In the afternoon, the girls had fun taking a dip in the pool and then we had a yummy steak dinner prepared by Meme. A fun day!

Mother with her great-grandchildren

Our family with Mother