Keeley is off to Kindergarten and absolutley loves it.  She loves taking the bus to school, and has tons of stories to tell us when she comes home (including what her beau "Jack" is wearing each day).  We couldn't have hoped for a better transition to school.  Clothes and what to wear to school is a big issue, she always wants to wear a dress, no more "play clothes" for her...She likes to model her outfits in the morning (as you can see from our pics...). Packing lunch for her lunchbox is a challenge and job in itself, two snacks, lunch, two drinks. Trying to be creative with food and with the daily note she likes in her lunchbox is time consuming and it's only the second week.   She has a couple thermos's - Nana's mini meatballs and Italian bread and butter are one of her favorites, along with a thermos of white rice or buttered pasta.  Sandwiches always come home with little more than one bite out of them (even the fluff sandwiches, which Daddy's calls "candy sandwiches")...Soccer started up again last weekend, after a rain out the first week. She's on an all girl's team this year, as opposed to last year when the teams were coed.  She scored three goals at her first game and is an awesome player.  At this age, some of the kids wait around for the ball to come to them, but she's really agressive (in a good way) and goes after and follows the ball.  Of course with Daddy as the coach, she needs to doubley impress!

Kaelin and Aidan have been continuing to enjoy their first weeks of school and have been learning a lot about the Earth.  They also take yoga class - "Lotus Children". It's taking a bit for Aidan to get use to the concept, and for some reason he has this thing where he doesn't like the word "yoga", he'd rather call it yogurt class :-)  and whether it's because he's a boy, or just three, he sometimes has a hard time sitting in a pose for too long.  They are really thriving at their new school. What an adventure it is every day. This past week they learned a lot about the Earth and continents, they learned about how everything made of wood was once part of tree (pencils, paper, chairs, tables) and about all the food that comes from trees.  They also were taught about recyling and have been making an effort to use both sides of the paper when coloring, asking not to use paper napkins, but rather cloth. Kaelin was very interested in learning about the cosmic nesting boxes that go from largest to smallest and are carved with the Milky Way, Solar System, Earth, North America, United States, Massachusetts, Mansfield, and then their very own school!

Somehow duiring the past week or so Keeley, Kaelin and Aidan have all decided to cut their hair on their own.  Scissors have never been an issue in the house before, all of them are great with them and super safe, but we don't particularly appreciate seeing locks of blond hair on the playroom floor. With no one admitting to who did what and us having to match up the locks with heads to see what shade of blond it is and where the hair came from!

Kaelin has animals on her mind day and night and still wants to work on a farm when she grows up. Daddy was talking to Aidan the other day and when he was holding a sharp object said "You better be careful or you'll poke your eye out".  Kaelin heard that and said, "if I got my eye poked out, then I could get a dog".  I hope she doesn't take drastic measures...

With Keeley in school full days and Aidan and Kaelin in preschool from 12:30-3:30pm, and Ainsley napping from 1-3pm, you can hear a pin drop at the house for a full two hours each day.  It's sort of eery!!  It's almost an empty nest feeling and kind of sad! Then we snap into reality again when all heck breaks loose from 5-7pm each day and the world feels like it's going to explode from chaos with the doorbell chiming, phones ringing off the hook, conference calls, urgent emails, fedex trucks, and somewhere in there a dinner being cooked (or microwaved as the case may be....gotta love those steam fresh frozen vegetables)!

We went to Septemberfest at St. Mary's last weekend.  The kids (and Mommy) enjoyed way to much fried dough. Aidan especially loved putting his own powdered sugar on his and then blowing it off. He was laughing hysterically over this.  They got to ride ponies and take a little train ride.  We also had our monthly trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant where Ainsley proceeded to eat/drink two bowls of salsa (see picks).  No bellyache afterwards either.  Yum on the fried ice-cream where one serving is big enough for all our six spoons.  Hey, friend dough, fried icecream, are we noticing a very bad trend? It's a good think the little ones get healthy snacks at school where they are getting a taste of real whole foods every day.  They were relucant the first week, but now enjoy such things as soy nut butter (as long as we call it peanut butter...).

House projects the past two weeks consisted of getting rid of our old mailbox and replacing it with a nice new one (the whole family took part in this project from digging the hole for a post to mixing cement) and fixing a septic issue (we think Daddy just likes to dig and Aidan just likes to get dirty, so it was an excuse for them).  The girls stayed away from the septic project.

Quickly catching a news clip, Kaelin and Keeley have decided on their presidential candidates.  Kaelin insisted she likes the "old man with the white hair" (now she calls him John McCain) and Keeley is rooting for Barack Obama (it's so cute to hear her say his name) "because he's African American" (her words).

Ballet for Kaelin and Keeley starts up again this week, so we're pretty much back to a full activity season. Schedules are crazy (example--Wednesday--Keeley schoolbus 8:30am, Kaelin and Aidan to school 12:20, Pick Up Kaelin and Aidan 3:20, rush home across town to meet the school bus for Keeley at 3:35, hope it comes on time because the second she steps off it we need to wisk her away to go back across town to piano and voice lessons at 4pm.  Most afternoons we have little more than 2-3 minutes of leeway on our schedules.

Keeley's end of summer song:
Learned my numbers A, B, C, A, B, C,
Learned my letters 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3,
I can even right my name with ease
Aren't you very proud of me, proud of me,
So long summer, it's been fun,
Kindergarten here I come, here I come!!

We can't believe it's coming to a close!  What a busy summer in the Pierzchalski household.  The kids spent the majority of the last two months submerged in water--they've been fish in the pool every day, except for around 4pm when they often hear the sweet songs of the ice-cream truck somewhere in the neighborhood slowly making it's way to our house where the driver is gauranteed to make an easy 20 bucks and spoil dinner!  We've had some nice weekends hanging out at Borderland Park, which even though it's practically a few steps from our door, we hadn't yet had the chance to visit.  What a great place for the kids (big and small!), tons of trails for hiking and biking (we're not quite there with biking with all 4 yet...), and ponds for fishing (they kids have been getting lots of practice casting from the rock wall in front of our house), and of course the girls love the "castle". 

On the 4th of July, we got to celebrate by watching the fireworks from the beach on Massapoag lake.  Uncle Sean and cousings Falyn and Ryan watched with us too!  We've let the kids pick a lot of the activities the past few weeks.  We had a "kids pick" Saturday and they all got to pick something fun to do. Aidan wanted to go to a local small airplane show where he got to sit in a brand new plane, wanting to buy it, but we were short about 600k that day!  Keeley has been wanting to get her ears pierced and we happened to be heading towards the mall, so we let her take the plunge. Two quick shots in the ear and it's done! Sadly it makes her seem a bit older now (which she loves and we hate).  Our animal lover Kaelin convinced us to buy her a pet.  We got out easy with a guinea pig.  We went to three different stores to find the perfect female, which Kaelin named "Love", "because I love her and she loves me" she says.  Ainsely, being too small to actually pick something for the whole family to do, decided she just wanted to spend the rest of the night dancing to Hannah Montana (yes, we said Hannah Montana...). She goes crazy over "Rockstar" (which she says nearly perfectly) and "Best of Both Worlds".  She'll grab the egg beater from the kitchen for her microphone and when the drums play she plays air drums.  Her stage is our table ottoman and she is the craziest baby dancer we've ever seen shaking her hips. We have no doubt that she'll be some kind of performer some day!   Kaelin also had the idea of us having a family awards ceremony, so Mommy had trophies for all the kids made and they each got to choose their award, Kaelin wanted to be the "best horse girl", Aidan "the best car racer", Keeley "the best singer/dancer/performer" and we chose "sweetest baby" for Ainsley.

Ainsely has been such a little character this summer.  The words coming out of her mouth are hysterical and not your typical baby words.  She's begun to speak using more than one word (the cutest being "hey guys!").  She's starting to learn her colors too -- geen (green), pik (pink), boo (blue), lello (yellow), yuck (black or brown), purple (perfectly!), and owng (or something like that....for orange).  She knows how to manipulate us and is great at it!  She loves saying something is hers "mia" or "mine!".  She can now say "Aidan" perfectly and it's so funny with the two of them get to arguing how she uses his name and screams it over and over "AIDAN!".  Keeley is "Kee-ee", and Kaelin is "Kay-in" although their old nicknames of Kiki and Coco are coming back too.  She loves to be the center of attention, unfortunately this is at the dinner table too, where she is often the first one to start the trouble whether it's squishing mashed potatoes through her teeth to make the other kids laugh or slurping spaghetti, or leaning over to steal the other kids foods although she still has plenty of her own.  We've had some trouble at the table with seating (everyone wanting to sit near the baby!), and now have to have assigned seating at all times...As much as she is a little rascal, she's an angel too!  So loving she is!  Ainsley also loves to clean (of course, with three other before her we realize this is just a novelty and will wear off as quickly as it's appeared).  She's very into what she wears each day and will always start off with a dress pulled down from her closet, she often goes into the girls' room and tries to grab their dresses too. By the end of the day she ends up changed about 5 times (thanks Auntie Kelly :-)  Ainsley has accumlated three "stinky blankies" over the past 6 months (pink, green, and blue). She used to have one favorite blankie (like Aidan), but has found and latched on to three and drags them around at bedtime. 

Aidan and Kaelin started school this week and can not stop talking about how much fun they are having and learning about the three Bee's....Be Kind, Be Gentle, Be Safe. We've enrolled them at a Montessori School and they attend three hours a day. Aidan hasn't been in any real group setting with other kids/friends since we left daycare at UCLA when he was almost a year old. He's really looking forward to meeting some of his own friends.  Kaelin's been such an eager learner this summer, really loves to count--to 100 now without skipping a beat. She's amazing to us because we've always felt badly that we haven't spent as much time with her as with Keeley doing "schoolwork", but she's picked it all up and then some!!   She suprises us with writing words on her own and constantly asking how to spell things. Kaelin has grown-up quite a bit this summer and is such a little lady, she's been the first with the "may I's" and "thank-you's" and manners, setting a real example for the rest of the gang. Aidan's been working on his manners too and always has a funny twist on them "Mommy, may I be full?" (instead of "may I be excused" when he's clearin his plate, we think it's too funny to correct him!).   Kaelin had the most fun this summer exploring outdoors and finding new creatures big and small whether it be worms, frogs, insects, baby birds, dragonflies - she took them in!  And, Aidan certainly didn't have a lack of "projects" to help Daddy with around the house.

Keeley starts kindergarten next week.  Big girl, big bus, big tears (Mommy's not Keeley's who has been looking forward to riding the bus for the past two years after seeing other kids being picked up in the neighborhood). She took a few fun art classes this summer and really enjoyed those.  She wroter her first fan letter two weeks ago, not even sure how she knew about fan letters, but she wanted to write one to Hannah Montana. She started it out writing "You live in California, I used to live in California"...it's really cute. Keeley has been showing some of Daddy's engineering skills and has begun to collect (clean) garbage and make anything and everything out of it. She gets mad if she sees something in the trash that can be recycled into an art project (buildings, pinata's, books, you name it).   She kept busy this summer with piano and voice lessons.  She's a huge clothes horse and will spend a great deal of time picking out just the right girly clothes each morning, and is very critical of what others wear "Mommy, you're not wearing that out are you?"  or "Why do you always wear that same shirt when you go out someplace nice?" (to which I respond, because I spend all my free time buying clothes for you and not me!!).   Our one regret about declining acceptance to the Charter School for her....uniforms!!

On a sad note, Aunt Sandy passed away two weeks ago and Daddy visited Wisconsin to be with the family.  She and Bernie attended our wedding and Sandy always kept up with our little ones. Kaelin had been wanting to call her when she was ill, but we never were able to make the call and Kaelin was upset about it.

Funny question from Keeley recently--Mommy, does anyone have God's telephone number? I actually forget how I responded, but am still wondering what she would have said to him if she called him...I'll have to ask her soon. 

We've had a lot of family time the past few weeks spent with cousins coming over and family cookouts.   Now we are gearing up for a busy fall with school, soccer games, and all the other activities (like our annual apple & pear picking). Hopefully these posts won't be so few and far between...

As you can see, we are in the middle of updating our website (finally getting around to this after saying we were going to for the past four years!).  So, it's still a work in progress...hopefully it's a little quicker and you can navigate around without too much trouble until it's finally complete.  We've just uploaded seven folders since our last update in May, so you have a lot of Pierzchalski kid stuff to catch up on--Aidan's 3rd Bday, Storyland Trip, Grandma and Grandpa's visit, Keeley's Piano Recital, Keeley and Kaelin's Dance Recital, Soccer Games, Gymnastics Show and pics from Early June....(whew, I'm getting tired just remembering the past month of activities!).  We still have to restore the folder order in the photo galleries within each year, so it is a little jumbled and you'll need to look through to see which ones you haven't checked out yet.  Hope the cute pics of the kids makes up for any frustration in trying out our new site during this construction phase!

Ainsley Marin is 1 year and almost 6 months old. Expanding her vocabulary each day and loves to sing too (la, la, la, la) for long periods at a time, and starting to tack on two words in a row.  Also liking "no" (too much!) and shaking her head to make and pointing he finger to make her point well known.  She loves freezer pops and is nearly strong enough to pull open the freezer door as she screams " more pop-pickle!".  Her language is really coming along, new words include "bebe" for her baby doll, "water" and "purple" (she says those perfectly!), but the sweetest sounds of all are still "mama" and "dada".  She's just starting to connect two words together "bya mama".  She's always going to the kid's closet in the foyer and grabbing her shoes, then taking them to one of us and pointing outside. She loves being outside these days, especially with the weather getting up to nearly 90 last week. But, she has a little aversion to grass and freaks out when she has to walk on it barefoot--while all three of the other kids love going barefoot (they always start out with their shoes on...but five minutes outside, then they're off).  She's picking flowers, especially the yellow dandelions (and we have a lot of those!) and giving them to Mommy.  Of course, now that spring has sprung, the kitchen is covered with cups of water and a variety of different flowers, weeds, grasses, etc. in those "vases".  She loves riding the scooter down the driveway and really speeds.  She's also a really quick runner and catches up to the others very quickly.  Ainsley definitely knows how to get attention. She's sweet as you can imagine, but when she wants you, she'll go up to one of the other kids and give them an oh so gentle push, then turn and smile.  She still targets Aidan and has been known to sneak up behind him when he's drawing and make her own mark or two on his artwork.  But, you can't stay mad at the little girl who gives the best kisses and hugs in the whole world!

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 11 months old going on 5.  He enjoyed the one very short morning we got to go to the lake down the road to fish and can't wait to go back. Now that the weather is nice, he's been outside with Daddy a lot continuing the fixin' on the house. Finally starting to get some paint up and get rid of that yucky yellow color and Aidan has been there every step of the way, with his tools, climbing ladders, nailing, etc.  The past few weeks Aidan has had this idea in his head that he's going to marry Mommy and several times a day, just out to the blue, he'll say to Mommy "will you marry me" and to Daddy "I'm goin' marry Mommy" and then proceeds to put up his dukes (like he's a fighting man).  He made a wedding ring out of tin foil (and a rocket ship and other crazy items as you'll see from the latest pics), and wears it around the house. It's very, very, cute (well Mommy thinks so anyway!), except when he gets mad at her (oh say...in he middle of a store when he's acting up...) and yells "Mommy, I'm not going to marry you!" and a number of on-lookers either look confused or burst burst out laughing.  Star Wars, Rockets, Space Ships, Outer Space...he's our little astronaut and continues to be very interested in space. His small area of the play room is beginning to grow larger and larger as he begins to get want to go from the unisex toys to the really boy toys.  He's very opinionated these days and will clearly let you know..."that's not fair!" and "Keeley and Kaelin did it....". He's got a great memory and will recall things from

Kaelin Avery is 4 years and 1 month old!  Horses, animals, horses, animals, horses, horses, horses.  What else can we say.  She is a crazy animal lover. We went to a wild animal farm for her birthday and she got to ride the ponies and a camel too, Nana made her a pony cake and our party hats were ponies.  We found another horse show on TV and now "Horseland" in addition to "Saddleclub" are her favorites. We've been stopping in pet stores almost on a weekly basis lately. Partly just to view, but also to let Kaelin play and to think about whether it's actually a road we want to go down (with any animal at this point in our hectic lives. She's cared for a nest of a few baby birds that fell out of a tree and a couple baby bunnies whose mommy dug a hole by the pool house and covered it with bunny fur. Kaelin was leaving carrots next to the babies every day and they would disappear (maybe from the chipmunks...).  Now that the warm weather is hear, she loves exploring nature outside, and catching lighting bugs and dragon flies (she recently rescued one that landed in the pool and couldn't get out--she lifted it up and kept it in her hand blowing on it until it's wings dried and it flew away).   Kaelin has always loved doing craft projects, but was never really into drawing until recently---just overnight she's gone from drawing things that weren't totally recognizable to creating mini-masterpieces and pages that come together as stories.  She's now interested in writing words and is constantly asking "how do you spell....".  She's not much of a "public" singer, but we often catch her signing tunes with such a pretty little voice.

Keeley Shea is 5 years and 5 months old.  Sorry to say that we are officially in Hannah Montana land with Keeley. One 23 minute show is what she's limited to, but we're not really sure she can understand even half of it at this age--too old for her, but she's convinced us since all of her other friends are watching and talking about it. Peer pressure has officially begun.  She wants to be a singer when she grows up but we keep reminding her that she should learn the music first and practice, practice, practice piano.  We often find her sitting at the keyboard with a pen and music pad, writing down the notes to songs she's made up (her favorites are what she's entitled "Bee", "Balloon", "Soft", and "Pretty").  She's even got Kaelin singing them with her when she plays them.  Every time we take a picture of one of the other kids, she tends to get upset and wants her picture taken more (you can see her model in the photos, that's her wanting to strike a pose, not us instructing!).   Soccer started again a few weeks ago and although it was off to a slow start with all the kids on the team being pretty lazy from a long winter, the last few games have been great. Keeley gets at least two goals a game and got 4 the last two games!  It's a coed team at this age, but she can still hold her own.  Keeley is really enjoying learning to read, has a couple favorite early reader books she can read from start to finish and now it takes three times as long to get through every other book because she insists on us pointing to each word as we go along (no more skimming or skipping to make a quick read at bedtime!).  Clothes are a big issue every morning with her as well (despite Mommy using the Mon-Friday closet organizer to put outfits in that everyone agrees to on Sunday night...). Keeley is a clothes horse and has a better sense of fashion than Mommy or Daddy, she hates wearing pants, so that will be a problem come winter again...

Sooo glad spring is really here! What a long winter.  We took the pool cover off last week and the kids have been averaging 4 hours in the pool daily. Thankfully the solar cover brought the water temp from a winter 61 degrees to a warm 80).  Jeff and Uncle Tony have been working on the house every weekend. Mommy's hoping that the painting will be done soon (or at least the three sides that the people can see!). We've been out and about a lot lately with tons of the kid's activities--preschool and pre-k graduations, class trips, soccer games, piano recital, and have Grandma and Grandpa's visit coming up and also Keeley and Kaelin's Ballet Recital and Gymnastics Show, and Aidan's 3rd Birthday.

Just for kicks....we are now paying about $84 dollars to fill up our minivan gas tank, our average weekly food bill is about $400 (of which we are paying $3.29 for a gallon of milk and we now go through 6 gallons a week!  That's two full shopping carts and two full refrigerators and freezers at home.  Stamps just went up to 42 cents, luckily we do everything on-line and rarely send mail...then again, with the cost of what the kids eat, who's worried about a 42 cent stamp!), $39 for a box of pampers diapers, luckily there's only one of you still in those because we go through those quickly, uh hem, Ainsley...), dinner out with the family at our favorite mexican restaurant - a very reasonable $80 (including a margarita or two for Daddy and fried ice-cream for the kiddos...okay and Mommy too).  Also, gotta love our monthly trip to Target for "just a few things" that turns into $400 of stuff ($350 of which we didn't really need!).

Ainsley Marin is 1 year and 3 months old. Nickname this month--"little stinker"  Boy has she been an instigator, especially with Aidan the past couple of weeks. He's still her favorite target when it comes to chasing, and picking on. She loves to pull his hair (he's even said he wants to get it cut so she won't have anything to pull!).  She's also been miss smarty pants, doing things and listening to instructions like she's two years old already.  She's right in there with the rest of the gang when it comes to playing, chasing, keeping away, etc.  She also truly enjoys cleaning and will help clean up more than the rest of the gang, putting away toys, using the small vacuum to pick up teeny pieces of paper someone else had cut up, washing the floor, putting away laundry (in the correct places too, without being told!)  She loves to dance and has created some of her own really cool moves :-).  Ainsley got her first haircut a couple of weeks ago and sat through it great, not thrilled, but not miserable either.  She's still crazy about ducks, anything ducky. She also loves strawberry shortcake, we read a couple short stories to her and she just become really attracted to the character. The Easter Bunny brought her Strawberry Shortcake doll and short movie too (and of course, some duck stuff too!).  She's got a number of words, odd ones, in addition to the typical Mama and Dada's at this stage. She knows all of her animal sounds, the few signs that we've taught her (of course the "more" sign is the favorite).  "Yuck!" is a frequent word, as is "Up", especially when she wants Daddy to throw her high in the air and catch her....and "This" when she points and wants something.  Whenever she hears others laugh, she starts to laugh this hysterical fake howl, very cute, she's becoming quite an actress.
    Question of the month--Her favorite song to be sung to her - Carpenters "I'm on top of the world" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq5pLi0huhw

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 8 months old.  Our little man. Loves to tag along on errands, even if it's just dropping the girls off at school, or taking them to gymnastics, ballet or piano.  He hangs out and makes friends with whoever is about, young, old, in-between, especially the ladies :-).  He's talking like a grown-up these days, using expressions like "of course, I'd like..." or "I'm not quite sure ..."  He also has started to love telling stories "Once upon a time", then really uses his imagination to not just recall, but create new stories.  Loves, loves, loves computer games, probably too much at this point, we're trying to direct him away from it more frequently! Also, is very into Star Wars still, and Darth Vader (you'll see some masks and gear in the pictures...the whole house seems to be into it these days, except Mommy that is).
    Question of the month-Favorite song to fall asleep to "Danny Boy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaPFCvzzcFM&hl

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 10 months.  What a great Mommy and Daddy helper this past month, such a sweetheart. Without even being asked, she'll volunteer to fold laundry, put away groceries, etc.  She's really excited this weekend because she got to take "Preschool Bear" home with her.  She's fallen back in love with a song Mommy use to sing to her when she was a baby and insists on sitting at the computer and listening to the real version (when Mommy has lost her voice!).  "Her" song was Bobby Vinton's "Roses are Red my Love" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6_9WVvbWQM)  but she wants to "change her baby song to Ainsley's song".  I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out without buying her some kind of pet, any kind will probably do (except fish because Aidan has that covered...). She absolutely adores creatures and her mind is constantly on anything related to horses.  The Easter Bunny brought her a lot of themed horse stuff...puzzles, books, etc.  She's got her 4th birthday coming up on the 13th of April and is getting excited for a trip to the Zoo (her choice of anything she wants to do and it opens for the season on her birthday).
    Question of the month--favorite Baby Lullaby "I'm on top of the world" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq5pLi0huhw

Keeley Shea is 5 years and 2 months old.  She's getting to be such a little lady, seeming more like an 8 year old these days than a 5 year old. She's been asking to get her ears pierced and we may do that some time soon. She's also hearing about Hannah Montana and other Disney shows that we thought were for older kids, but she's been asking to watch them (without us even having ever let her before!).  Can we keep her small forever and stick to Reading Rainbow, please??  The Easter Bunny brought her a radio/cd player and her own cds and she's loving playing and singing to them over and over. She's also been really interested in maps lately and asked the Easter Bunny to bring her a globe, which he did, although it was really difficult for him to find just a regular ol' globe so she could really learn, and not one with lights, whistles and sounds...Keeley has also started to read some beginning books, it's really cool to watch her develop reading skills.
    Question of the month--favorite Baby Lullaby "Close to you" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKh86kOoiWQ

It's been relatively warm (40's) lately, so we hope we've seen the last of the snow.   The past month has been extremely busy with lots of parties and functions, and off course the Easter Bunny visiting last weekend. It doesn't look like it's slowing down anytime soon either, lots of April activities and Spring Soccer starts up in a couple of weeks, so our Saturday mornings will be booked again.

Ainsley Marin is 1 year and 2 months old. She's growing up into a toddler so quickly.  She is great at listening to and then following instructions (bring this to so and so, clean-up your toys, etc.). She's learned how to turn not only the radio on, but find the CD button and press that as well, then proceeds to dance.  One of her favorite things to do these days seems to be throwing things away... She'll walk entirely across the house with something in her hand, go into the kitchen and throw an item in the garbage (whether it should be thrown away or not!). During the course of the day we periodically have to check the garbage to see what might have made it's way in there!  There are a few things that we haven't been able to find and we'll give you one guess where they might be.  She's continuing to be a little rascal with Aidan, stealing his things and bopping him once in a while when he doesn't give in to her.  With that being said, she's still the sweetest little bugger ever.  Amazing that in her whole life she's never cried when waking up in the morning, just simple wakes up with a smile and plays in her crib until we are ready to get her. We're sure lucky. Whenever Ainsley gets up from a nap or enters a room, Mommy or Daddy say "look who's up" and the rest of the kids all yell in unison "Ainz-a-lee!" (sort of like "Norm!" from Cheers), and Ainsley responds with an open-mouth "Aaaaaaaaa!" and a wave.  She's a little monkey and will climb on just about everything, but for some reason the computer table is still her target of choice.  Plopping her bum right down on the keyboard and laughing.  She joins the rest of the gang with chores (love's to play "clean up") and has the job of opening up the family room shades in the morning (of course she can only push them up about 10 inches), but at night, when we want them down, she'll play a game and go around opening all six of them in a row, over and over again as the other kids close them.
    Question of the Month--what's her favorite food:  Cheese, cheese, any kind of cheese

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 8 months old.  Same old, same old, working with his tools, playing with his trucks, being a boy and getting into what little trouble he can around the house with the girls.  He also wants to play on the computer a few times every day lately.  He's getting really good at controlling the keys and the mouse. Might we have another Engi-nerd in the making (sorry, Daddy!)?  Aidan has also had a huge appetite lately and eats almost anything in site (except chocolate, he hates chocolate--good thing, more for Mommy).  He'll wake up in the morning and say "I want Eggies" and helps to make himself 4 scrambled eggs, this along with eating 4 sausages, a clementine, a huge cup of milk and once in a while some o.j.  At dinner last night, he not only ate his huge sloppy joe sandwich, but half of Keeley's and half of Kaelin's, and about 3 cups worth of broccoli.  He's still as slim as ever, and must also have Daddy's metabolism to stay thin even though he could eat a house.
    Question of the month--what's your favorite food:  Fruit (especially, clementine's!)

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 10 months.  She's been a big bookworm this month and can't get enough of reading.  She always want to sit on your lap though, and sometimes that's tough when you're reading to four kids in a circle and attempting to have them all see the pictures!  It's been painful for us to hear her talk incessantly about wanting a pet animal and knowing that we can't possibly fit it into our schedules right now - kitty, puppy, bunny, guinea pig, on and on!  She's so loving when it comes to her stuffed animals and keeps asking if she's old enough to take horseback riding lessons. The closest we've gotten recently to pony rides is the big Merry-Go-Round at the mall - which we did today, after treating Keeley and Kaelin to their favorite Mexican Restaurant a few towns away (which happens to be decorated with horses along with the other Mexican decor). 
    Question of the month--what's your favorite food: cookies (a girl after momma's heart!)

Keeley Shea is 5 years old!  She had her birthday princess party last weekend and had a blast.  All of her friends from school were able to come and the party was packed with everything princess!  It's been like Christmas all over again with all the cool stuff she got as presents.  She's started to talk about her 6th birthday party, and we've had to slow her down (especially because she says she wants an E.T. birthday (now what would that look like!)...we borrowed the movie from the local library a couple weeks ago and she fell in love with it).  Keeley has been practicing learning how to read and is really enjoying reading books while attempting the words. Keeley has had about 6 piano lessons already and really, really loves them.  She loves to practice and is disappointed if we forget to practice that day. Keeley's bond with Ainsley grows greater every day, she's a mini-mom, especially when Mommy is away which has been a lot --too much :-(  lately!  Keeley had a temperature over the weekend and barely moved from the couch - except when her greatest love - Ainsley - would come over to say hi.  Keeley would light up with the biggest smile.  We've caught her whispering softly in Ainsley's ear "Ainsley, I love you the best of all."  It's so cute.
    Question of the month--what's your favorite food: white rice and mashed potatoes (she's politically correct and refuses to say whether mommy or nana's are better!)

Everyone has been fighting a bit of a bug over the past few days.  Keeley, Kaelin and Aidan have had it the worst so far, with temps up in the 104 mark and not wanting to do anything but sleep.  We're all really itching for the good weather to come sooner rather than later. We can't complain about the snow, we've really just been having dustings lately (knock on wood). Keeley and Kaelin tell us that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this week, so we'll have  more weeks of winter...Ugh!  Jeff got two more new windows in this month and we think, we'll be taking a break from house stuff for a while. It's tired us out. Except for painting, that will get done as soon as it warms up outside!

Ainsley Marin is 1 year and 1 month old. New words, or what sounds like new words...are coming from her every day.  She loves to find and then scream "DUCK!".  She has her own language and loves to "talk" to barbie dolls and her little kitty (this 2 inch plastic kitty she's found among the other kids toys).  She goes nuts when we can't find it, just our luck that her favorite toy is only 2 inches in a house full of a million toys!  She just had her 12 month doctors visit and is doing great.  Weighing in and measuring above the 100% for her age group didn't surprise us given how quickly she's been growing out of her clothes these past couple of months. We thought she'd drop a couple pounds from all her running around, but she's still chunking out on us!  She knows which cabinets contain all her favorite snacks and will go right to them and point until she gets what she wants.  Her favorite foods are cheeses and meats like summer sausage (hmmm, the Wisconsin influence, ya think der hey?), she loves clementines and has been known to eat two in one sitting. Other favorites include bananas and asparagus.  Ainsley's been "targeting" Aidan these days as far as chasing him, wanting to "steal" his toys and just all around bugging him...It's cute that she's so attracted to him, but at the same time, we feel bad for Aidan because he gets the brunt of her exploring, pulling, grabbing, etc.  She fits right in with the rest of the gang when they play tag, she's great at finding hiding spots, but unfortunately has learned how to open and close doors and we've had a couple minor injuries (not hers, but the other kids...).
    Question of the Month--what's her favorite song:  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 7 months old.  Santa brought him his very own tool bench and he's been using it non-stop.  Daddy was working on a project the other day and Aidan left for a minute and comes back with his hard hat on, hammer, pliers and screwdriver to help.  Every time he hears the basement door open, it's his signal that Daddy is doing something...whether it's heading for the workshop or taking out the garbage, he wants to be by his side.  FINALLY, we've got him to expand his color choices...he no longer has to only use the blue legos, but will accept building with other colors too.  Aidan is a fruit maniac, we have to pace him through the day because he constantly wants to climb up on the counter for bananas or go in the frig and grab a cantaloupe, pear, apple, clementine, etc.
    Question of the month--what's your favorite song:  The theme from Star Wars (yeah, try singing him to bed at night and then having that stuck in your head for hours and hours after he's long asleep!)

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 9 months.  So...she got her horsey for Christmas from Santa, a huge riding spring horse she's named Christie, or is it Belle, no Christie...(she's changed the name a couple of times so far.).  She's starting to talk a lot about friends she makes at school. A boy name Willy keeps coming up. Apparently he makes her laugh and "tells funny jokes"...She's so cute when she talks about him and her other friends.  Kaelin really loved going to the Disney Princess on Ice show after Christmas.  She and Keeley got dressed up like princesses and got a special day with Mommy. 
    Question of the month--what's your favorite song: still Hey There Delilah (by The Plain White T's).

Keeley Shea is 5 years old!  She started piano lessons and really loves them. She and Daddy practice every day and she always looks forward to it.  She gets really into songs on the radio and will just sit and listen to them to try to learn the words.  We celebrated her 5th birthday with a small cake but we'll be having a princess tea party for her in a couple weeks with all of her friends. She's really looking forward to that.  It's amazing how quickly five years has gone by and how big our baby girl has gotten.  We've spent a lot of time over the past week looking back at old pictures on the website from 2003 when she was a baby, our only baby (as short of a time that was!) and it seems like it was just yesterday.
    Question of the month--what's your favorite song:  Bubbly (by Colbie Caillat)

As you can tell from the Christmas pictures, everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was very good to the kids, although he didn't quite think about space issues when filling up his sled for us!  The kids have been enjoying the snow we've been getting here in MA. We've been ice skating at the local rink, and Keeley, Kaelin and Aidan did great their first time out!  After 20+ years not having been on blades, Mommy and Daddy weren't so bad either.  The past month has been incredibly busy, pre-Christmas rush, Christmas chaos, and post-Christmas clean-up, finishing up the windows in the family room, finally getting new furniture and installing new carpet, continuing scraping and painting the outside of the house (on those rare days when the temperature gets above 40 degrees).  Little by little chipping away at the project list.  The kids are back into the swing of their activities, ballet, gymnastics, etc.  We've got some interviews coming up for schools for next year (pre-school for Aidan, pre-k for Kaelin, and kindergarten for Keeley), so the next couple of weeks will be busy. 

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• February 4th Auntie Jenn's 32nd Birthday
• February 15th Cousin Conor's 11th Birthday
• March 5th Auntie Kelly's 39th Birthday
• March 5th Auntie Erin's 39th Birthday
• March 26th Uncle Brady's 34th Birthday
• March 28th Cousin Sadie's 1st Birthday

Current Clothing/Shoe Sizes:

Ainsley Marin turned 1 yesterday! She's walking like crazy these days, still climbing up on everything, especially Daddy's ladders which are all through the house from the window projects.  We moved her to her own bedroom recently and the move was seamless for her--not so much for Mommy because she misses her terribly from not being in their room any more!  There's no more early morning peek-a-boo from across the bedroom :-(.  She still wakes up pleasantly in the morning and will play in her crib by herself listening to her ocean wonders aquarium until one of us goes in to get her.  Putting her down at naptime and nighttime is still a breeze as well.  Her language is starting to develop. Of course, DaDa is her favorite word...as it was with the other two daddy's girls that preceded her!  She points at things and says "dat" and "dis" and waves and says "baba" for bye!  She's starting to get pickier about her food and will immediately tell you so (by spitting it out or throwing it on the floor and saying "oh, oh!" if she doesn't like something.  We just put up our Christmas tree and of course, she loves picking the ornaments off. We've made sure to put the expensive ones way beyond her reach.  Ainsley was a little princess at her first birthday party, although she had a bit of the same cold she's been trying to fight off for two months.  She loves dancing and has a cute move of wiggling her butt, and swinging her arm (just one arm...).  Our little baby girl is growing up too fast.  It's been sad for us to start packing away (for the last time) infant toys and gear!
    Question of the Month--what's in her crib these days:  Her new baby doll (currently unnamed), her LeapFrog musical froggy, a set of play car keys, a couple of her favorite blankies, a small squishy elmo doll, a set of plastic play rings, a baby animal book, and usually a few pairs of odd socks, hair ties and barrettes that she's pulled off and stashed away somewhere between the toys and crib bumper!

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 6 months old.  The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a challenge with Aidan. He's exhibiting the first real signs of his terrible twos and we are hearing the phrase "I don't like that...." way too much!  He also refuses to take part in anything that isn't clearly "boy" stuff or blue--just this morning refusing to drink his milk because it came from a gallon of milk which just happened to have a pink cap on it!  And then refusing to blow his nose with a tissue that came from a purple tissue box.  Apparently, it was "girl milk" and "girl tissues".  Sometimes we just have to hold back our laughter to attempt to discipline.  It's bad enough we have to buy 6 gallons of milk a week and a variety of skim, full and 2%, but now we have to worry about the color of the jug!  Aidan has somehow been allowed to watch Star Wars (ah-hem...Daddy?) without Mommy's approval and is now is turning everything possibly imaginable into a lightsaber.  There's a continuous list of house projects Daddy is working on and Aidan is always right there working along side him with his own tools. 
    Question of the month--What do you take to bed with you:  My rocket torpedoes, my scuba man, my "stinky blankie", my dolphins, killer whale and sharks.

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 8 months.  She has been talking non stop about getting an animal for Christmas....Santa might bring her a big spring horse which is the closest thing to a real one that we can get right now!  She loves playing with Legos every day and makes some nifty farms and castles - for her horses and princesses.  Since Mommy and Daddy's bedroom is now baby-free, we have more visits in the middle of the night now...by Kaelin.  She comes in with her favorite purple pillow, climbs up onto Mommy and Daddy's bed and says she's "scared" (who can resist snuggling with her after that!).  Keeley, who has never done that in all of her almost 5 years has caught on as she pulled the same story last night!
    Question of the month--What do you take to bed with you: My Darlene and Stella dolls, my unicorns and horseys, my monkey, my bugs, my cup of water.

Keeley Shea is 4 years and 11 months old. She's an expert snowflake maker these days.  Just give her a pile of paper and a pair of scissors and five minutes later, you have 10 beautiful snowflakes (and a whole lot of little tiny pieces of paper to clean up off the floor!).  She truly needs her own art room in the house.  She is constantly creating projects made from just about any material. Our struggle the past month has been to try to convince her to wear pants. She insists on wearing dresses and tights all the time, as soon as she wakes up in the morning, even on snowy days.
    Question of the month--What do you take to bed with you:  My Darlene and Stella dolls, my Goldie, my hairbrush, my Disney princess purse, two princess barbie dolls, my little doggy, bottles for my dolls, my cup of water.

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• January 7th Keeley's 5th Birthday
• January 13th Uncle Sean's 38th Birthday
• February 4th Auntie Jenn's 32nd Birthday
• February 15th Cousin Conor's 11th Birthday

Ainsley Marin is 11 months old!  She's standing alone for long periods of time and took her first two steps last week, then slowly lowered herself to sitting down and hasn't taken a step this week again.  We're not in any rush for her to walk though, we're still getting use to her crawling and that's hectic enough!  This will be a big month for her--we'll be moving her into her own bedroom sometime in the next couple of weeks and she's switching from nursing to formula full-time.  She still only has four teeth but several more seem to be starting to pop through.  She's great a manipulating toys, taking things out of containers and putting them back in and she has a terrific memory when it comes to anticipating what's coming up. She still loves playing peek a boo and getting chased around.  She is into EVERYTHING, especially bathrooms (the toilet paper roll of course) and kitchen cabinets (pots and pans banging). She loves playing ball and throws on command (but also throws her food very well, which isn't so fun!). She now knows what "no" means, but usually doesn't listen (not unlike every baby!) and she is now objecting (definitively!) when one of the other kids takes something from her.  She loves catching her reflection in mirrors or windows and doors and really just thinks she's hysterical!  Ainsley is also loving music, especially the kazoo and flute!  She's had a cold for the past three weeks and can't seem to kick it (she got it two days after her 9 month visit to the doctors office...), the other kids have caught her sniffles too.  At bedtime she hums along with Mommy during bedtime songs, then quietly goes into her crib and continues to hum herself to sleep. In the morning, she still wakes up and plays by herself in the crib before peeking out to wake us up (she's such a darling, that's why we're having a hard time thinking about moving her own room!).

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 4 months old.  He's become quite the story teller and has a wonderfully full imagination.  He'll go on and on to make up stories about exciting adventures "I put on my helmet, an went on rocket ship, 3-2-1 blast off! an I go to moon, an see blue monter, and den climb on rocks and..."  He quickly became a Red Sox fan these past few weeks, staying up way to late each night sneaking out of bed to watch "bayball".   Now that they've won the World Series, he has to think of new excuses to get out of bed like "I have to go poop", so we end up entertaining him as he sits on the potty.  Aidan has a great arm and has been wanting to play catch with his mitt every day.  He's also enthralled with football too, the Packers and Patriots of course.  We continue to be amazed at how he exhibits such strong masculine behaviors with all the girls around here.  Nature and not nurture we suppose!  He loves singing the oldies with the girls and runs around the house singing Miss American Pie, but sings "Bye, Bye, Miss A Mexican Pie, drove bevy, levy, baby dry".  If only we had the video tape rolling all day long, we think we'd have a hit t.v. show with his ability to make everyone laugh all day.
QUESTION:  Aidan, what's your favorite thing about our family?  "When we silly dilly, we funny so much"
What's your favorite thing about Daddy? "I love Daddy, I love fixin' the window with Daddy" about Kaelin "I love Kaelin, she tickle me in bed", about Keeley "I love Keeley, she tickle me", about Ainsley "I like kissin' her, she a baby", about Mommy "I love you kissin' me an I love you too much"

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 7 months.  She said she wants Daddy to build a farm for her for Christmas so we can buy a real horsey.  We had (yet another) recent trip to the local farm for some pony rides.   A highlight for her this past week was Aidan's finding a praying mantis.  She adores all creatures big and small and couldn't get enough of it.  Daddy found a ladybug and we were trying to see if the mantis would eat it, and Kaelin was not to thrilled about that.  Kaelin has finally opened up to ballet class, it was a slow start, but now she really enjoys it and wants impress Miss Lisa.   She has been enjoying preschool but gymnastics is still her favorite activity during the week.  She also loves getting outside to ride her bike whenever she can she's great at her two wheeler with training wheels and speeds up and down the driveway, but she also still enjoys the tricycle too.  Kaelin, like Keeley, has become such a great caretaker of Ainsley, always watching out for her and making sure she keeps out of trouble. She's very loving with her baby sister and wants to know when we are having another baby she can take care of.  (Sorry, Kaelin, but NOT!)
QUESTION: Kaelin, what's your favorite thing about our family?  "Ainsley", What's your favorite thing about Aidan "his funny jokes", about Keeley "when she helps me with my jacket", about Daddy "the way he drives" (we're not quite sure what that means...), about Mommy "when you rub me before I fall asleep", about Ainsley "when she plays peek a boo with me". 

Keeley Shea is almost 4 years and 10 months old. She's been very busy with school functions and attending friend's birthday parties, looking forward to her own blast in a couple months. She is really interested in academics and is learning how to spell and write more complicated words (banana, apple, etc. and even one the most difficult words of all - her last name).  She'll also quiz the other kids during the day "Kaelin, if I have 7 and take away 3, what do I have left" and she also makes school games for them, like drawing a set of 6 pumpkins (making one slightly different from the rest), then asking the gang "which pumpkin is different than all the others?" It's very cute. Maybe she'll be a teacher like Grandma!
QUESTION:  Keeley, what's your favorite thing about our family?  "When we play rock and roll and dance."
What's your favorite thing about Daddy? "when he gives me rides on his tractor" about Kaelin "when she colors with me", about Ainsley "when I kiss her", about Mommy "when I go fun places with you like shopping"  about Aidan "when he asks me "what" all the time" (Aidan has a habit, even if he hears you, of saying "what you say?"  he thinks it's funny for people to repeat themselves over and over again). 

Halloween:  All the kids loved trick or treating last week (but Ainsley only made the rounds to 6 houses before getting bored).  They were dressed as some characters from the Wizard of Oz and were a neighborhood hit.  Aidan was the most polite lion ever...he would tag along with Keeley and Kaelin who would ring door bells and say "trick or treat" and Aidan would follow-up with a "cuse me, may I please have some candy" and he was always the first to say a very cute "tank you."  Although if people would put the bowl in front of him and tell him to take some candy, he would spend a few minutes looking for some candy with the color blue on it "you have blue candy?".  It was a very fun night.  But, now we have three huge bowls of candy to deal with...can't waste it and throw it out, can't bring to Mommy's office like in past years (unless we FedEx it to LA!)..., can't let the kids eat it all or their teeth will rot, Daddy won't eat because he doesn't like much candy, so....guess where it ends up??  In Mommy's belly...it's a good thing it's big sweater time of the year :-)

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• November 5th Auntie Amy's 38th Birthday
• November 12th Grandma's Birthday
• November 23rd Grandma and Grandpa's 39th Wedding Anniversary
• November 30th Uncle Mikey's 34th Birthday
• December 4th Ainsley's 1st Birthday
• January 7th Keeley's 4th Birthday
• January 13th Uncle Sean's 37th Birthday

Ainsley Marin is 10 months old!

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 4onth old. 

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 6 months.

Keeley Shea is 4 years and 9 months old.  

We just got back from our vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine.  We rented a house on the beach which was part of a resort that was originally built in the mid 1600's. The house we stayed at was built circa 1725!  It was a nice size rental with four bedrooms and modern kitchen and bath, but the ceilings were so low and the doorways and hallways were so thin (since people were much smaller hundreds of years ago).  Grandma and Grandpa from Wisconsin joined us on vacation and were a few steps away at the Inn.  The kids loved being so close to the ocean and didn't care when for the first three days we were there it was rainy and cold (as you can tell from the pictures, they went in the water fully dressed every day!).  Grandma got a lot of knitting done!  Everyone had fun collecting shells at the beach.  We went out for a couple big meals (barely surviving the chaos!) and Kaelin and Aidan loved the shrimp meals they got at Mabel's and Aidan loved his first taste of lobster at Allison's (Grandpa liked his lobster during vacation too, and got it for three meals!), Keeley's favorite was her spaghetti and meatball dinner (takes after Mommy!).  Ainsley, is on the move constantly and we had to keep he away from some the walls of the house which undoubtedly had lead in the paint, she loves to pick at things and put everything in her mouth still!  One day, when it was too quiet at the house, we called for the kids and when no one answered, we discovered that they snuck out the door.  Aidan was already down the end of the dirt driveway standing knee high in a puddle of mud.  Kaelin was around the corner talking to the Inn-Keeper asking if she's seen Aidan.  Scary and Dirty....Speaking of dirty, we had to do four sandy loads of laundry while there (even though we packed 2 outfits a day for each kid for a total of 48 outfits....there's no traveling light for us anymore!)

When the weekend came, the O'Shea clan arrived in Kennebunkport for Uncle Mikey and Auntie Tracey's wedding.  Festivities started Friday night, with the wedding on Saturday and a big breakfast on Sunday.  After a week of rain, Saturday turned out to be a spectacular day and Mikey and Tracey had a perfect outdoor wedding.  The kids only stayed for the ceremony (so Mommy and Daddy could enjoy the rest of the night without chasing them!).  Mikey and Tracey are now off to another travel adventure, this time to Costa Rica. 

Upon returning from vacation and as we pulled in the driveway, Aidan started to scream "I no like yellow house, I like ocean house!, I want ocean house!".  He says his favorite thing about our trip was "when I marry Uncle Mikey an when I fine the crab at ocean".  He can't stop talking about the lobsters and crabs.  Although Ainsley can't tell us, were sure her favorite thing was getting lots more attention, hugs and kisses from everyone.  One of Kaelin's favorite things was making mud pies at the beach and Keeley's was collecting cool shells and beach rocks.  All of them had a blast jumping in the freezing cold Atlantic water.

Our two new picture windows were delivered the day we after we returned from our trip, so Daddy, with Papa's help, will be busy installing those this week!  The house projects never end....