Sotheby's here we come!!

Our friend Nicholas down the road has started painting awesome still lifes and selling them. We are the proud owner of a beautiful poppy painting. When Gabe heard that you could sell your art, he went right to work. This was his first and most expensive masterpiece yet. It is a "clay" painting and is wonderful. A few pieces have fallen off courtesy of Finn, but I have secured it in a safe place away from toddler fingers.

I will take the highest bidder!! He wants $40.00, but we will settle for more if we have to. In all seriousness, Gabe is an amazing artist. He comes home from school sometimes and sits and does art "projects" for hours. I save more of his schoolwork because it is so dang good. I need to get him back in lessons because he is really my creative genius at work.

Do I hear $50...? $50..?

Phineas John Martinis

Finn is 16, almost 17 months. It seems like yesterday that we brought our little angel home. We all adore him and he is such a blessing in each of our lives. I am so happy that my other darlings have been a part of "rearing" a baby and will have fond, strong memories of having a baby in the home. They all have a different, yet sweet relationship with Finn in which I am both touched and in awe. Phineas completes our family and we are so happy.

We have busy lives and I don't want miss or forget all the "good things". So, we sat down and started making a list of Finn's achievements. It was fun and the boys laughed a lot. Finn is quite a character already and has made a dent in all of our lives.

Enjoy because we do every day of our lives!!

Finn says,
Ball -first word, said at 12 months
Wa (water) -second word
Balloon (also his FAVORITE toy!!)
Ma ma
Da Da
Tate
Coleman
Gabe
Grandma
Cookie
Shoe
Spoon
Puppy
Baby
Thank you
Bye bye (and he waves... It is darling! He started waving around 4 months. It is a real show stopper!!)
Book
Boot
Ouch
Pretty
Truck
Happy
Car
Hot
Bagel
What (he says this when you call his name!)

He can blow kisses. Head butts are his main way of kissing, but he can give you a mean mouth kiss as well. Oh Yum!!......

He likes to blow raspberries on bare bellies, necks and anywhere else his cute, little mouth can reach.

He likes to dance and it is sooooo cute!!

He is a climber. His main place to hang out is on the table. We are trying to break him of this habit, but I think we all need to try a little more.

He is a very good eater and will eat almost anything! Impressive!!

He smacks, HARD. He hope to teach him better, but right now we just duck and bare it.

He can tell you what a kitty, doggy, cow and snake says.

We lose him several times a day because he is FAST!!

He can play patty cake like a pro!

He can easily go up and down the stairs.

He is known to pinch.

He steals, sucks and moves all the toothbrushes in the home.

He can associate sounds with people. This is an impressive quality.

He shakes his head yes and no.

He only lets Tate hold him willingly. It is sweet.

We call him Bubba.

He started crawling in April ( 8 months).

He started standing in July (11 months).

He then walked in October (14 months).

He likes to give high fives!

He claps and claps and claps at praise, music, performances... you name it!

He has 12 teeth and 4 more coming in. Ouch!!

He loves his blankies and is indifferent to what kind of binky he sucks. He just want something to suck and and will take what is given him. Funny!

He enjoys going down the slide.

He gets into everything, everything, EVERYTHING!

He loves the pantry and his favorite way to carry around food is by the box. Oh, he likes to dump the food in the box as well... I am not a fan of this.

He belly laughs all the time, both with company and with himself.

He LOVES books.

He growls at scary things. We LOVE this!! Halloween was a riot with him around!!

He breaks things because he is a chucker.... He can throw things and he can throw them long and hard. I miss my Spain plates....

Finn is not the star of this blog. I try to make it an equal opportunity blog, but sometimes he dominates and I don't think the boys mind. We are all crazy about him and know he will have the worst baby book so.... it only seems fair (right now!!)

We love you Finn!!

A Gabe-ism

Gabe is usually the one to wake up Finn if he is home. I know he can't help it. He is just a LOUD child. Yesterday I felt terrible (vertigo...ICK!!) and needed Finn to sleep. Of course, Gabe was LOUD. He walked LOUDLY down the hall. ("Please be quiet Gabe.") He LOUDLY jumped on Tate in my room. ("Please be quiet Gabe.") He crawled down the stairs (yes, our stairs that echo) LOUDLY ("Please be quiet Gabe.") AND....woke Finn up.

Finn was up at 5:30 AM so I knew he needed a good nap.... and now, he was up and I WAS MAD!!!

Gabe was in the dining room looking very guilty and a tad scared. I took off my slipper and whacked his bottom 2, maybe 3 times (please don't call Child Protective Services!!) It was just a flimsy slipper for heavens sake!!

Gabe cries LOUDLY and says even LOUDER,

"WHAT are your slippers made of?"

I couldn't help but wonder a little, what ARE my slippers made of? I whack my leg (outside of his vision...) OUCH!! NOT A GOOD IDEA!! I think there might be an invisible board inside my flimsy slipper. Lesson, don't spank..... with a slipper. It hurts!!

P.S. We snuggled a lot in the pm....to make up for the metal, oops flimsy slipper incident. (O:

Vertigo

This is how I felt when I woke up this morning....like the world was spinning. If you look at this long enough, you will feel nauseous and barf. And then I will welcome you to the club. I haven't had an "episode" in a long time so this morning made me feel very thankful for good health and a wonderful husband. I had a lot of plans today, but they got put on the burner for another day.... another time.

Eric got the tree up and then took the older boys sledding as he was going out of town later in the day. Here are a few fun pics of yesterday and today.

Finn checking out the snow through our privacy glass. He kind of looks like our own "elephant boy"!!

Venturing out... barefoot...

He melts our heart!! Love that drool!!

Look at the snow!!!

Eric took this pic at dusk. Beautiful!! The first snow 2009.

The boys sledding. Tate is wearing my rain boots... We need to get prepared!!

Fun!

Super fun!!

Oh no!!!


More sledding fun!! Sorry I missed it.....

Thanks Daddy, for a fun day! We will miss you!!! XOXOXO

No more vertigo PLEASE!!!

Look Out Below!!!

Today we went to a fun "play" with the Markoff Family for Christmas. We thought it would be fun to give them an activity instead of cluttering up their house. I once admitted on this very blog that I was CRAZY about a mime. Well, today we got to see him yet again and it was a real treat. His performance was a little different as he and his lovely partner were speaking instead of just miming. It was actually a darling story about how he became a mime and I just loved it. Before we went to the theater, we ventured to a new restaurant called Mia's Pizza. It was yummy. We had a very nice time together. Here are a few pics of "our favorite mime".

While we were waiting for Eric, I snapped a quick pic with the entire crew. We have seen Mark and Sabrina perform many times and it is always entertaining and fun!! We can't wait for the next performance.

A special thanks to our wonderful friends, Tiffany and Ben for rescuing us with our babysitting emergency! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

P.S. Did I mention that it snowed all day? Look for some winter wonderland posts soon!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Here comes the sun....

Here comes the sun
by The Beatles

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Oops! Maybe NOT!!! Why you ask?!! Finally after 2 1/2 years of "here comes the sun", we got some beautiful window treatments in our bedroom. No more sun at dawn... It is dreamy!! Literally!!

Open (cream chair in the corner is being moved OUT!!)

Closed

Oh yea, I got new bedding too! Pretty!!

I am a very lucky, HAPPY girl!!!

A Farmer's Mate

I'm a tractor, a farmer's friend,

plough through the field until day's end,
cut and rake and bale all day,
stack the big shed's full of hay.

Three point linkage at the back,
hook my tools on, hit the track,
ram in fence posts, straight and tall,
cart them on my carry all.

Spray the crops so weeds don't grow,
I can drive pumps, dig and sow,
see the smile on the farmer's face, (that would be Eric!!)
tractor helps him run the place.

Plough the paddocks, round and round,
watch the crows grow from the ground,
day is fading, close the gate,
good job tractor- farmer's mate!!

- King poetry 2007

We "city farmers" love our tractor and the boys can't live without it. Finn just wants to ride and ride!! It is just a matter of time before they learn to drive it and take over all the tractor duties!! We can hardly wait!!
Yipee!!