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: