Brothers Update

My baby brother Aaron just made his first major purchase....A CONDO!!!! When I told Elisabeth she said, "A condom?? Doesn't he already have one of those??" Probably, but that isn't any of his niece's business. All I have to say is, "MOVE OVER, AARON!! The girls and I are coming for a visit!! Your days of saying you have no room are OVER!"








While Aaron was spending all of his money, Shane and Jen were having their family pictures taken. Are they cute or what????!!!! Makes me want to throw Todd, Elisabeth, and Isabella into a pile of leaves and shoot away (with the camera, not a gun)!!!

The Finger

We went to Applebees (bad idea) tonight for dinner. We had to run to the Halloween store for some fake fangs and were too tired to go home and think about what we wanted for dinner. Bella was over tired (another bad idea) and was quite testy. At one point, she shoved her hand down the back of her pants and yelled, "My butt itches!" I am glad she didn't use the term "J J" but still.... Anyway, our food soon arrived and the itchy butt problem disappeared. Elisabeth, who had told me she 'had enough of Bella' about 20 times in 20 minutes, decided to make a river out of her ketchup and line it with fries on either side. She HAD to point this out to Bella, who just HAD to take her itchy butt finger and drag it down the entire length of the ketchup river. Elisabeth cried and threatened to take her dinner, minus the river, to the car to eat. Dinner went down hill from there.

From ballet shoes to ice skates....

Trying to get up...
Falling down...
UP again
Down...
And again...
Up
Down
Up...but going down as you can see how far apart her skates are!
Down...times 3


First time getting up all by herself!!!





and loving it!!! Isabella tried ice skating last night-lessons, that is. She LOVES to skate but it breaks our backs trying to hold her upright. Penn State offers 4 sessions/year of ice skating. She is in the Snow Plow Sam group. It should be called the "I never get up off the ice" group. The kid must have fallen 30 times in 20 minutes. She learned how to stand back up on her own and had a smile on her face the entire time:)

Sorry for the lighting on the pictures....the lights in the arena are really weird.

The end....

of soccer and ballet. Soccer is over for the season; ballet wasn't but is now. I don't think Bella is ballerina material. After paying $60.00 for the tap shoes, ballet shoes, tights, and leotard, $120.00 for 2 months of classes, $50.00 for the deposit for costumes, and $86.00 for Nutcracker tickets...we decided that she is too young and not having fun. I was looking forward to her 30 second performance at Christmas time but who am I kidding?? Did I honestly think she was going to actually get on stage and perform??? I think not. I sold the tickets and will chalk the rest of the money spent up to the experience we don't want to experience again:)

As for soccer, Elisabeth was a real trooper on Saturday. It had POURED rain all night and the field was soaking wet. I told her she could skip but she went and played anyway and SCORED A GOAL!!!!! Way to go, Elisabeth!!!!

Still terrified.

Is the lion coming???
I am pretty sure the lion is coming!!
GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!

No matter how many times we attempt a friendship between Isabella and the Little Lion (the mascot for the State High sports teams), she just freaks. I mean, she climbs up over Todd's head and screams bloody murder. I thought it might help that I know who the mascot actually is (a teacher/friend whom I work with) and I have brought her into the classroom to meet her and see her with the lion head. Anytime we even go near a parade or a game, she states the she does not want to see the lion. I am not quite sure how she will do this Halloween. She'll probably want to trick-or-treat in the house-going from bedroom to bedroom-just so she doesn't take the chance of running into the lion.

One of my brilliant ideas....

Next time I even consider climbing Mt. Nittany, I'll think twice, get myself a big bowl of ice cream and then have a nap. I don't know what got into me-I think it was the nice day and the fact that I forgot how frickin' steep the damn mountain was. I honestly thought I was going to die of exhaustion 1/10th of the way up. I hugged every tree I could find and couldn't stop myself from asking the people who were coming down how much further we had. I thought I would cry when someone said we weren't even half way. I believe I sat down on a log and refused to move. Isabella, on the other hand, walked the entire way with a backpack, which she refused to take off. Elisabeth ran up the hill and Todd didn't even break a sweat.

And just to let you know, going down wasn't any easier. Isabella jumped down the mountain, Elisabeth ran, and Todd complained about his arches hurting. (I tried to convince him to say it was his ankles for the blog post but he wanted it to be correct....). I have never been so happy to see flat land in my whole life. I remember asking Todd to go get the car when we reached the summit/top. He thought I was kidding.