Christmas

The presents are all opened and the excitement is over. We had a good holiday this year. I love Christmas more now than I did as a kid I think, it's so fun to watch the kids. The only negative thing I can think of is Cynthia and Jonathan woke up at 3:30am and didn't go back to sleep until 5:30am then woke up again at 6:30am. Needless to say we were tired for the day but it was okay.

Halloween

We had a seriously candy filled Halloween weekend. It started at school for the kids with their parties, then we went trick or treating with our friends in Dana Woods in Belchertown. So fun and thanks to the Hydes for letting us have a "home base" at their house.
Then the next evening we had our church party. The kids all dressed in different costumes than the night before and Paul was nice enough to make Jonathan a Wall E costume just hours before we had to leave. Jonathan ended up winning the prize for best costume in his age group. He was SO excited!
Holidays are more fun as a parent than they were as a kid. I love watching them have so much fun!

Funny

Jonathan was lying in bed looking very puzzled and the following exchange took place.

Mom: "What's wrong Bud?"

Jonathan: "Mickey wears shoes, Goofy wears shoes, ClaraBelle wears shoes, Minnie wears shoes, Daisy wears shoes.....why doesn't Donald wear shoes?"

Mom (trying not to laugh): "I guess he needs his webbed feet for swimming."

Jonathan: "Oh yeah."

It's Fall!

The chill is in the air and I LOVE this time of year. I love the weather, it is perfect...not hot, not cold, just right. It is a bit harder to get out of bed in the morning though. We haven't really used our heat yet so in the morning it is chilly and I just want to stay under the covers snuggling all day. I usually can't do that though because my kids always want silly things like, "breakfast" and "clothes" to wear.

Jonathan turned six last week. We had a fun birthday filled week starting on Monday. The kids stayed home from school and Paul had the day off so we went out to birthday lunch and did presents at home. Tuesday Jonathan brought cookies to school and got to wear the "birthday crown" for the day. Thursday night Paul was working late so we went to Grandma and Grandpa's and had cake. Jonathan opened his presents from Grandma and the cake was Cynthia's first cake that she decorated all by herself. She was very proud!

Then on Saturday we had some friends and family over to play and have cake...again. We had a lot of fun!

School has Begun

I have gone through my mourning period as Cynthia goes back to school and Jonathan starts Kindergarten. Jonathan's school had a fire drill the second day. He has always been sensitive to loud noises. He came home and told me about it in detail then at the end told me he started crying when it went off at first. It makes me so sad that I wasn't there to comfort him but he is gaining confidence through experiencing things on his own. He is already a different boy than before he started.
Cynthia loves 2nd grade. She seems to enjoy her teacher and has made a friend that likes to play cowboy/cowgirl with her at recess.
Emma is a bit bored at home without her older siblings. She is glued to me and really cracks me up. Her imaginary friend Trixie is always having an opinion about what we're doing. "Mommy, Trixie wants to go shopping." or "Trixie doesn't want to have rest time." It is pretty funny. She also just told me recently that she has a '"bad" friend that knows where Belchertown is but she doesn't know where our house is." She does not like this bad friend because she is mean. She is really so funny!

More Summer Fun

Summer is almost over but we are pretending it's not. Cynthia learned to ride her bike and she LOVES it. She rides constantly and we have the perfect spot for her to do that. She makes Jonathan and Emma sit in lawn chairs and watch her from the driveway. I guess that's what big sisters do. Sometimes it seems as though they are her private personal "assistants"
Paul and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary next week and plan to spend the day at the Temple. It has been way to long since we've gone and we both are looking forward to it.
Jonathan is starting Kindergarten soon and he is mostly excited to ride the bus. I am going through my usual mourning period before school starts. I miss them so much when they're at school and it feels like it is all going by so fast. I guess all I can do is try to live in the moment and enjoy them as much as I can.

Marriage

Hello Everyone!! We just got back from a nice but short visit to NH where Paul's lifelong friend Andrew was married on Saturday. It was a very nice day and both the weather and ceremony went very well. Andrew married Miranda who is actually from Granby, MA just around the corner from us. It was fun and Dawn and I had a good time dancing and waving to each other across the dance floor (Paul was part of the wedding party and so was seated at the head table without Dawn :( Oh well. It was a great way to see how our own lives have been touched by one another and remember how we felt on our special day almost 8 years ago. It is great to see how much we have grown together through good and challenging times, and how Love truly is remarkable. There was one thing the Priest said that I took to heart, and that was not to take each other for granted. That happens often these days and is reflected by the divorce rate in this country. Let's all remember to care for and love each other every day. Enjoy the pictures!!

Tie Dye and Rock & Roll

Well, we are certainly trying to make the most of our "stay at home" vacation. Dawn and I have been working on the house like crazy unpacking and organizing etc. But since this is our "vacation" we still need breaks to have fun with the kids and each other. Today we took a long break to have a picnic in our yard and do some tie dye shirts. It was great and the shirts came out really awesome!! The kids had fun and also have been enjoying all the toys we have unpacked in our playroom. It was like Christmas for them to see all these toys they forgot about. The rock & roll part is when Jonathan asked to have a Mohawk hair cut. We saw a little boy at the mall the other night that had one and he asked if he could have one too. He is still so young and it was a simple way to make him happy so I did it. I hope you enjoy these pictures from our fun day.

Balloons!!!

We went to Trader Joe's yesterday. Of course the kids all got balloons as we were leaving. I don't know what it is about balloons but kids love them so much. We got home with minimal fighting thanks to Trader Joe's gift to the kids. The moment we got out of the car Jonathan went outside and let his balloon go. He said he likes watching them float away. His sisters were flabbergasted. "Jonathan, why did you do that? You could have given it to me!" They did not understand why he would ever want to give his balloon up on purpose. He simply told them, "I wanted to give my balloon to Jesus." Cynthia wasn't convinced it would make it there. She was pretty sure it would pop first. Emma just said, "Jesus doesn't like balloons." Jonathan simply replied, "Sure He does!" and that was the end of that. It was so precious, I didn't have the heart to explain how impossible it was for the balloon to reach Jesus. For now Jonathan believes he gave His balloon to Jesus and maybe he did, any thing's possible.

Summertime and the Living is Easy?

Okay, the kids have been out of school for a few weeks now and we are getting into the lazy summer groove. It is so nice to not have to rush out of the house every morning. Cynthia had a bit of a hard time getting used to no structure in her day. Now she's just as spontaneous and laid back as the rest of us.
One thing about summer that I could do without is the snakes. I've seen several Garter Snakes just walking around in the yard. It's easy for everyone to tell when I've spotted a snake by the scream. That's bad enough but on Saturday Paul and I were cleaning out the garage. I went across the street to dump out some water and there, curled up in the grass was a Water Moccasin. If you don't know what that is it's a big, fat, black, very scary looking poisonous snake. Now I don't want to go outside at all. Paul assures me that it won't come over to our yard though. (?)
Also on Saturday one of the puppies found a dead chipmunk. Paul and Cynthia were trying to catch the dog but she was not gonna give up that prize very easily. At one point she ran inside the house with it because Emma was watching through the open door. Every time she ran by me all I could do was run away and scream. I don't think Paul appreciated my lack of help. I told him after, for future reference I don't do small dead animals.
Those were our animal adventures for this weekend. I actually did do more than run around screaming on Saturday but I don't remember exactly what. In spite of all the critters that summer brings I do love it though.

No More School!!

Well, summer is officially here for the kids. School got out a week ago and Dawn is both adjusting and enjoying having all of them home. Bedtime has quickly gone from 7:30 to 9pm!! Dawn and I are still hoping that one day they will magically go to bed and fall asleep all on their own! LOL! Lucy slept through the night in her crib finally and i still woke up because I was nervous that she was still asleep!

Our vacation is only a week away now and we are looking forward to it. We are going to Bushkill, PA and using our timeshare for the first time. If anyone is familiar with that area we would love to hear suggestions on what to do and where to go. The puppies are growing fast and getting into trouble too. They are becoming escape artists. We love them though. We hope all of you are doin well and hope to see you soon.

Storms

Well, we had some amazing thunderstorms Tuesday night that kept us awake with non-stop lightning, and howling winds. It was fun to watch, but I was glad we were inside and safe. They did make the next couple of days much more comfortable though. We finally planted our garden last night and we shall see what the outcome will be. The kids liked helping to put the plants in the ground that Dawn had started earlier this spring. She was so excited to have a garden this year, I hope it turns out good.

Well Paul ended up getting first place in his sales contest at work, and we are so happy because we need that money!!! LOL! It was a good feeling for him though, and he loves his job. Dawn is looking forward to summer with the kids and having fun with all of them at home amd where ever else they may go. We hope to see many of you in the upcoming months!

Heat Wave!!

Well, it certainly feels like summer now!! I put all the AC units in this weekend, and learned that only one 15 amp circuit runs almost half the house!! Needless to say we can't have all 3 AC's running at once. Oh well, we will survive!!! The dogs are feeling it too. We try to keep them in the basement as much as possible since it is a lot cooler down there. We are still awaiting the results of Paul's sales contest to see if he won anything. He was supposed to find out this Tuesday, but the meeting has now been postponed until Thursday. His boss still will not tell anyone the outcome! Oh well, patience is a virtue right? And Paul needs to be reminded of that everyday!!!! LOL!!

My Little Man

I have to share this with y'all because I think it is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. When I got up for work yesterday Jonathan was already awake. He was on the couch and trying to tell me something, but I'm not always very alert in the morning. Then he told me again and walked me over to the kitchen "I made toast for mommy dad". And he really had!! After I left he later told Dawn "I made you toast mom, but it's cold now. I was going to get cereal for the kids but I couldn't find any". He has been so amazingly helpful lately. For those of you that know him, he is a very caring boy and I hope he stays that way. He has been trying to help with many things lately and enjoys feeding the puppies. I just thought this was a great story to tell. We must be doing something right as parents!!

As for the girls, the recently moved into their new room that Dawn and I worked so hard on only to find out they don't seem to like it very much!! Emma says she is scared and Cynthia doesn't want to be in there alone. All the girls slept in Jonathan's room last night! Lucy in her crib of course, and Emma and Cynthia slept on the floor. Kids are so funny. Cynthia said she will stay in her room if Lucy is in there, so we will have to try that and see how it goes. Just another day at the Picards!!

Day 1 of Blog

Well hello there! I tried doing this a while back with a family website but it did not seem to work so well, so I am trying this again. Many friends have done this and it is a great way to see what everyone is up to. We have been very busy lately and as usual 3 out of the 6 of us are sick with another round of strep throat. It just keeps coming back!!

Sales have not been what we had hoped for this year but it seems to be getting better. It is just very nerve racking for us since we bought our house back in February. We love it, but it is more costly than we had imagined. Everyone has told us the first year is the hardest and I hope this is true!

On the other hand we are so blessed to have each other. Dawn and I still make each other laugh like no one else can. We have the same sense of humor and can make the other laugh with a single word sometimes. She is such an amazing Mom and works so hard with our kids. She teaches me patience on a daily basis.

It is hard to be away from home so much with work related things, but that's my job, to provide for my family and I am doing the best that I know how to do just that. I still love my job and I know that sales is the perfect fit for me. It makes me feel good knowing that I am an honest trustworthy salesperson and I think people can really see that when I am in their homes.

The kids "activities" have slowed down a little and we are looking forward to summer. They only have a couple of weeks left and I know they are excited too. We plan on taking a few trips to New Hampshire to visit family and probably the beach while we are there. We are supposed to go to Pennsylvania as well this year for our big vacation. Hopefully we can save enough to pay for the gas!!

Anyway, please feel free to write us and let us know how you are doing too. We hope to see all of you soon!

-Paul