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The last few days of October and into November we had three house guests, James' cousins Shannon & Hillary and their dad, Brian. They stayed at our home the first few days of their trip, then went out on their own exploring various locations in Europe, and then came back and spent their last night with us before flying out of Frankfurt on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, the first part of their trip was also the exact time when Thomas and Toby and myself were really ill. This was when Thomas & I were diagnosed with Strep Throat, and it took 48 hours once we started antibiotic treatment until we were no longer contagious. Unfortunately, we were diagnosed one day apart, so we were contagious Thursday, Friday and Saturday--the same days that the S family were visiting us!

So, plans were changed a bit, the kids and I stayed home during the day rather than going out with them but James was able to spend time with them. We had our evenings together and that was fun. This pic was taken on Halloween night, after the kids were in bed and all the Halloween festivities were over. We were quite the bunch with our Macbooks! Wild & Crazy!

Until later,

Emily

Halloween 2009

Thomas and Toby were both pirates this year for Halloween. Some of you might recognize Thomas' costume from last year, he wore it last Halloween and last winter for Fasching. When asked in September what he wanted to dress up as, he said, "Why can't I be a pirate again, it still fits doesn't it?" I didn't argue too much with that. About a week before Halloween, he did try to change his mind but I told him it was too late.

We almost missed Halloween this year. Toby had a very bad virus for about 10-14 days. During that same time, Thomas and I both came down with Strep Throat. Thomas and I were both able to get on antibiotics and felt pretty good by Halloween night, Toby still felt pretty miserable and you can kind of tell in his pictures...he's really pale.

James and I took the kids out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with some of our neighbor friends. This was our third and last year together. That seems strange. We let Toby trick-or-treat with the big kids and he had a blast. The Germans loved the 2 almost 3 year old pirate...they were always talking to him for extra long and it was quite common for him to come back with double the candy!

Back at home, James' cousins, Shannon and Hillary and their dad, Brian (sorry guys I couldn't think of any clever alias names either) were handing out the candy. Once we got home, we ordered asian food from our local restaurant and relaxed the rest of the night.

Until later,

Emily

Pumpkin Carving 2009

Tonight, we carved pumpkins. As in five days before Halloween we carved pumpkins and James is quite certain that they will all rot before that night! Nevertheless, I stuck to my guns and we carved them tonight! After all, he is working late tomorrow night and Wednesday night is the night before our house guests arrive so I nixed that suggestion. I also didn't like the idea of carving them while they were here, although I know they would have gone for it, but to tell you the truth I feared that we'd have too much going on Thursday and Friday night and the pumpkins wouldn't end up getting carved at all.

So these were some rather fond memories of our night tonight:

James: "Why did you have to buy four pumpkins?" "Couldn't you just buy one and call it 'good'?"

Thomas: Thomas whined for about 6-7 minutes about how slimy his hands were and he wanted to go wash them. I was adamant that he was not going to go in and out of the bathroom every minute just for the sake of having clean hands. Eventually he got used to it, and did a good job at cleaning out his pumpkin.

Toby: I cleaned out a lot of Toby's pumpkin ahead of time. He didn't quite get the concept of cleaning out pumpkins so he took the "I will spoon some of those seeds in that big bowl, back IN my pumpkin" approach. At least this year, he wasn't trying to eat the pumpkin "guts".

Emily: I ended up getting the tough pumpkin. James carved faces into his and the boys' pumpkins before I could finish mine. Mine was literally like carving a gourd! My arms will be sore tomorrow from my carving--and it didn't even turn out that great!

Until later,

Emily

Thomas' 7th Birthday!

We started celebrating Thomas' birthday a little early. Since his birthday is on Saturday, he got to celebrate it at school on the 23rd. The great thing about living here, is that we still get to send in cupcakes. Then, last night, we had a birthday "late-over" with two of Thomas' friends. We took them out to dinner, then to see "Where the Wild Things Are" (which I don't recommend), then we came home and let Thomas open their presents to him. We had cupcakes and took the friends home at 9:45 PM. Today, it is a dark and rainy day, the kids actually slept in until a little after 8 AM. Thomas opened up his presents and has been perfectly happy playing with all of his toys and watching movies (he got Transformers the cartoons and the set of older Star Wars movies) all day. Tonight, we'll order pizza from the neighborhood joint (if only they delivered!)

Until later,

Emily

Seven Years Ago...

Seven years ago tonight I was trying to go to sleep. It was the first day in about a month that I hadn't taken a nap in the afternoon (I quit work 1 month before my due date), and I was exhausted. It was also the first day in a month that I went to bed with a messy house (or what I used to call a messy house--I'd kill to have that as my standard now!). But, I just could not settle down, I thought I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me and kept having to spend time in the bathroom. A little before 10 it occurred to me that I may have been in labor...so I started timing the cramps and they were 3-4 minutes apart. But, for some reason (maybe because this is what the doctors hammer in your heads), I stayed at home for one hour before I picked up the phone and called my doctor's office. The contractions were mostly 3-4 minutes apart, although there were some that were 2 minutes apart. At exactly 60 minutes, I picked up the phone. I managed to make that call in between contractions and I sounded calm. Nevertheless, the mid-wife told me to meet her at the hospital (or rather, once the nurses checked me then they would call her if I was really in labor). James and I left and made our way to the hospital which is about an 8 minute drive from our house. I didn't make it through the brief check-in process (although I had already pre-registered), the lady at the front desk seemed to recognize the urgency in my breathing. So, I was wheeled up (while James was trying to find parking), quickly undressed and discovered that I was dilated to an 8! Then things were very hectic and I discovered that there would be no epidural and that my mid-wife had been called and lived only one exit away from the hospital (she later told me that night that "it was a good thing that she lived so close". James arrived. I quickly went through transition, which was really scary to me. Jeannie (my mid-wife) arrived, I was dilated to a 9 1/2, she broke my water and I immediately dilated to a 10. That was somewhere around 1:10 AM, I had Thomas at 1:23 AM. On his due date, no less.

So, I will say one thing for myself, I may not have a body that likes to get pregnant, or be pregnant but my body is fantastic at having fast babies! (I was even faster the 2nd time around).

Until later,

Emily

Funny Faces

"I told you, I don't want my picture taken!"

"Wow, my mom gave me my own ice cream cone (and I kind of don't know what to do now)."

"But italian ice cream is YUMMY!"

(Note: This was on my birthday, and while James and his mom & dad were trying to find a bathroom, the boys and I stayed behind to finish our ice cream, but the ice cream was SOOO good and since it was MY birthday, I went back in and bought the three of us each another cone!)

"Hee-hee, I'm riding on the top of a double-decker bus, without a car seat or even a seatbelt!" "Rome is cool!"

"Why does my mom keep following me around?" "I'm NOT going to smile!"

"Seriously?"

Until later,

Emily

Like Father, Like Son!

Thomas and James sitting on ancient toliets in Ostia, Italy--October 8, 2009.

Until later,

Emily

Ostia, Italy--Oct 8, 2009

By some miracle I actually caught Toby smiling last week AND my camera took the pic at exactly the right millisecond! Thomas is a smiler but he can also have an attitude or be silly about his smile. It's always something. At least I think they both have clean faces and clothing. And this is what they really look like. I think these two pics will be my 2009 pics in my frames at home--good enough!

Until later,

Emily

One by One

The whole Snow family has managed to get sick to one degree or another this week. Toby was first, and now he is definitely on the mend. I was next, and while I wouldn't say I feel good now, I can honestly say I feel better than Sunday/Monday. The body aches I experienced were awful! Now, I'm just dealing with major sinus pressure and a nasty sore throat. How sad is that when that is relief? Some where in there James said he wasn't feeling well, either but I would say his symptoms are the mildest. He's a big baby when he's sick and he hasn't been too bad. Thomas came home yesterday from school fevered at 102℉, spent the entire evening on the couch but was back to normal this morning, all except for a nasty cough. So, I think we've successfully been sick and now today I will clean and sanitize everything because tomorrow Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Sherry are coming to visit us for 10 days!

Until later,

Emily