First Snow

The first snow of the season - it was 7:30pm and of course the kids had to go play in it! Dad took the kids on a walk and they rolled a GIANT snowball on the way. That led to the creation of the BIGGEST snowman. Grace wants you to know that we used raisins for the eyes and the mouth. Olivia wants you to know that she built the middle of the snowman. It took two tries because the first one broke. I'm sure Matthew would want you to know something too, but he was so tired, he already went to bed. Nicholas has been in bed so long, he didn't even know it snowed.

HAPPY FIRST SNOW!

Happy Halloween

I love Halloween. I love the whole month of October with it's crispiness and cooler weather. I love the amazing fall colors and falling leaves. I love visiting the pumpkin patch and watching Chris carve the pumpkins with the kids. I love the creative costumes and the giddy anticipation of the kids for trick-or-treating. I love all of it. Having just pledged that loving ode to October though, I could do without waking up on November 1st to the ridiculous mountain of candy procured the night before and my darling kids asking every 5 minutes for just one more piece of it :). Ahhh, opposition in all things.

Happy Halloween...

Nicholas and his pumpkin before...

and after...

Some of our favorite friends come over every year to eat, play and carve pumpkins. This year the kids created and ate mummy dogs while the adults feasted on Andrea's homemade chicken and dumplings. These are the carvings that came from the evening together...

The 1st grade Halloween party was fun - it was at 9 o'clock in the morning if you can believe it but still a lot of fun. The kids decorated sugar cookies (of course), played games, make jack-o-lanterns out of Satsuma oranges and made gak - which was the highlight of the party for both Grace and Olivia. What more could a 1st grader ask for?

And the costumes...Mocky and daddy spent many nights creating his car costume. Many coats of spray paint went into that creation and Mocks was thrilled with the result. Olivia was a darling witch and thanks to Mom, Grace was the cutest clown that ever was. Nicholas was sick on Halloween and went to bed early, but we put him in his sweet elephant costume for the pictures.





Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Patch

Our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch was a hit! The pumpkins were slim pickings this year due to the soggy spring planting conditions but we didn't let that stop us - we just declared this year the year of the GREEN PUMPKIN!

Matthew and his pumpkin. The Cirillo Family pumpkin rule is that you have to be able to lift it if you want to take it home with you. Usually that keeps the kids in check but they have been known to test their strength from time to time.

Olivia and her pumpkin.
Nick Nack gets a seat in the wheelbarrow.


We visited a new patch this year - The Farm. It's in Snohomish - just about 5 miles further north than the farm we usually visit. It was wet the day we went but even then we so enjoyed the farm animals, the corn kernal pit and the hay maze in the barn. Had it been a drier, perhaps sunnier day, we might've also enjoyed all the outside play areas they had created. As we were leaving, we decided The Farm was to be our new annual pumpkin patch destination.

Daddy and Nickleby.
One last photo in the hay maze before we made our mad dash to the car in the torrential downpour that had started while we were in the barn.

A Visit to Children's Hospital

Grace and Olivia had their semi-annual visit to Children's Hospital for x-rays and a visit with Dr. White to see how their scoliosis is progressing - or more hopefully, not progressing! We are so proud of Grace and Olivia and how willingly they wear their brace to their spine grow straight.

A typical visit to the orthopedic surgeon...

Simply put, it's a lot of waiting for a little bit of checking.

While taking a walk after checking in Grace discovered this silly frog.


Waiting in the waiting room...

x-ray time! The best part of the x-rays are the stickers afterward!

After the x-rays, we go back out to the waiting room and wait to be called back in for our visit with Dr. White, our Orthopedic Surgeon. And then of course once we are called back in we do a little more waiting for the dr. to arrive. Gratefully we were put in a room with working white board pens this time. Children's is the best.

When Dr. White arrives, he has Grace and Olivia do a few simple exercises like bend over and touch their toes, hop on one foot, etc. Usually they get to change into a Bugs Bunny gown but not today - what a bummer. Then Dr. White goes over the x-rays with me for a couple of minutes.

Some history/perspective...Back in April of 2007 Grace was diagnosed with a double curve making her spine look like an "S". Both curves measured 38 degrees. Shortly thereafter, Olivia was also diagnosed with a double curve that looked like a backward "S" (wierd huh?!). Both her curves measured 28 degrees. Curves under 20 degrees will usually be treated with a "wait and see," while curves over 25 degrees are usually braced. Once the curve is over 45-60 degrees (depending on the orthopedic surgeon) they start talking surgery. The purpose of the brace is not to "fix" the scoliosis, but rather to help the spine grow straight and prevent the curve from progressing. If the curve doesn't progress while in brace then it's working :) and bracing is continued.

So...after all that, the brace is working for both Grace and Olivia. Six months ago, Grace's curves were 29 degrees and 31 degrees. At this visit they were 30 degrees and 35 degrees.

Six months agao, Olivia's curves were 17 degrees and 21 degrees and then 16 degrees and 25 degrees at yesterday's visit.

And there you have it - Our trip to Children's! Of course the three of us stopped off at for pasta on the way home at University Village to avoid 5 o'clock traffic. Appointment days have always been validating so far. Olivia and Grace get kudos for wearing their brace and I'm reassured as the numbers stay below the initial diagnosis. This is such a long term experience that I know our visits might not always be so validating, but until then, I'll take what we have!

Books I Recommend

If you're interested...
Disease Proof Your Child and Eat to live by Joel Fuhrman
The China Study by T. Collin Campbell
Food for Life by Neal Barnard
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
Dr. Dean Ornish's books
The Omnivore's Dilema by Michael Pollan - a fascinating read on eating/food in America

My Journey to Health

I got something new in the mail yesterday for my kitchen. A brand new Cuisinart Pressure Cooker. It's so pretty I decided to take a picture of it and post it here on my blog.
You will notice it's sitting next to my beloved Vita-Mix - another purchase I made last spring as I journey to health. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

At the beginning of the year I went to an Enrichment night where a woman in my ward spoke about healthy living and the dietary changes they have made in their home since her husband had been diagnosed with cancer. It was a huge eye opener for me. I've always been interested in healthy eating/living but the information she shared was stuff I'd never heard before (or at least never listened to :)!). Most of her presentation came from D&C 89 and reading The China Study (a must read) and focused on the need to eat MORE vegetables, grains, fruits and legumes (beans) and LESS animal products.

I went home that night and immediately got online to check out The China Study from the local library. Apparantly I wasn't the only one interested in this as I was the 56th person waiting on hold for the book. She had recommended another book - Disease Proof Your Child by Joel Fuhrman. That one was in and a couple days later I picked it up. That's where my journey began. 15 or so books, a Vita Mix, a farm co-op membership and dozens of newly tried recipes later I'm still journeying :).

I began by just trying to eat more vegetables. Joel Fuhrman recommends eating a pound of raw and a pound of cooked vegetables a day. I did that for a couple of weeks at the beginning - that's A LOT of vegetables. I was eating all day just to get everything in! I'm still trying to eat more vegetables. I have a lot of green smoothies, try to put dark leafy veggies on the table at dinner, sneak them into muffins when baking, etc.

My attention this last month though has been on trying to include more grains. I never really cooked with grains before aside from white rice. Imagine my surprise when I found out there were dozens of other grains out there. Of course I new about wheat but I've also discovered Millet, quinoa, barley, and steel cut oats. And there are MORE!! I took a class this summer all about grains - hence the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker is going to revolutionize the way I cook :) - or at least make it easier. I just did a practice run with brown rice though and I'm not sure I'm convinced. As with everything this year in the kitchen, I'll keep trying. Some things are bound to stick.

A final thought about how my family is adjusting to my craziness...Chris is a good sport. He doesn't complain and listens attentively as I share some new alarmingly fascinating nugget of information from the latest book I'm reading. The kids - picky eaters to begin with - are, well, they're adjusting. Nicholas is clearly relishing in his healthy living - here he is slurping down one of my green smoothies and loving it. He loves brown rice mixed with milk (or soy milk) and the avacado/banana mash I feed him. Matthew is more willing than the girls to try something new but I don't know if that's saying much. We'll get there. If anything, we have a lot of good sharing moments about healthy bodies and the kinds of foods we need to eat so we can run and jump and skip and play. What more could I hope for?

It's been awhile hasn't it...

I've decided that blogging is a lot like scrapbooking for me. It's something I want to do, but keep putting off because I feel like I'm so behind. No more though! I declare today the first day of the rest of my blogging efforts :).

I dropped off sweet Mocky an hour ago for his first day of preschool. Chris just called and asked how it went and if I was sad. Heck no! And not for the selfish reasons you're all thinking. Mocky has wanted so badly to go to school and have his "own thing." Dropping the girls off for Kindergarten every day last year (and then again for 1st grade this year) was so sad. 4 out of the 5 days he asked why he couldn't go to kindergarten too. Sometime in the spring of last year, we dropped Grace and Olivia off as usual and I watched in the rear view mirror as Mocks looked longingly at them as they ran off to their classroom. After a moment he said, "Mom, I just really want to go to school too." I felt his sadness and went into the story of when I was little like him I had to watch my 5 brothers and sisters leave me behind and I wanted to go so badly also. He thought about that for less than a second and then said, "well Mom, when I'M a mom, I will let you to Kindergarten before you're 5 years old even if you won't let me."

So, was I sad to see Mocky run into his preschool room today without so much as a backward glance? Nope. He's finally like the big kids and I hope he's having a marvelous time.

Old MacDonald

"Old MacDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a Mom. E-I-E-I-O
With a Work Work here and a Work Work there
Here a Work, there a Work, everywhere a Work Work
Old MacDonald had a farm. E-I-E-I-O"

Sung by sweet Olivia this afternoon in the living room.

I'd say she hit the nail on the head didn't she?!

Sleepers....how does it happen?

I was talking with my Mom tonight discussing what great sleepers the kids are... Jenni had an activity and asked me to put the kids to bed early, like 6:30pm and they all went to bed so easily. That even included Matthew messing around while brushing his teeth. WHICH is another post just in itself.

Anyway, I was commenting to my Mom how well all the kids go down and I wanted to post my usual experience with Nicholas. I would venture to say this is my normal experience with him and tonight was no exception. I got the other kids down roughly around 6:30ish (that is not the normal time), probably 6:35 and Nicholas was quite grumpy. Baby whining... Cries if he is left out of the crowd, cries if he thinks that I might leave him.

Anyway, I put him down to grab a bottle for him and of course.. he freaked out and started the baby whining.. Its kinda cute, but I was pretty motivated to take care of him so I got the bottle ready quick like. I went and picked him up and he saw the bottle and immediately knew that he was going to be fed and like the good kid he is, stopped crying. Anyway, I started feeding him and he immediatley starts to fall asleep. I have to admit, he is super cute and I felt bad for him, becuase he is obviously exhausted, you know... doing all those BABY things that wear kids out I guess. Whatever those are...hmmph, he should try being an adult sometime.

The feeding goes as planned and he eats well and is practically sleeping. I stand up and start to walk him/carry him to his bed and his eyes open and drift back to sleep. This happens two or three times as I walk upstairs to his room. As I get him into his room and he senses his bed, his eyes pop open and I big ole smile comes across his face. Its almost like he is saying, 'finally, this is what I really want'. I then put him down and this is what is funny, he gets all excited and starts flailing his arms and kicking his feet, with a HUGE smile on his face. Its so funny and cute at the same time. I put the blanket over him and give him a kiss, and he rolls his head to one side or the other and goes to sleep.

My question is, how does a kid that is half way asleep get so flippin' excited about bring in a crib and going to sleep? How does a parent create sleepers that we have? Trust me when I say that I am not complaining. The fact that my kids do sleep has made mine and my wife's life exponentially easier and its been a huge blessing. I just wonder how it is done. Is there a magic formula? We are huge proponents of schedules, especially with young children, but do some kids just come out of the womb tired? Anyway, I certainly dont have any infinite wisdom to share on how or why sleepers are made the way that they are, maybe its just luck, but feel free to comment and share your wisdom!

Have a great evening...

She said what?

I'm sitting here waiting for the Dino Buddies to cook wondering what to make of the experience I just had at the grocery store.

I picked the girls up from school and ran to Top Foods to pick up a prescription. It was a quick errand - just an in and out. I pulled Nicholas out of his car seat and carried him because at 7 months and 20 pounds carrying him in the bucket is ridiculous. So there I am carrying a baby walking down the parking lot with the three bigger kids in tow (and I guess bigger is a stretch since they are all 5 and under). We go to cross the street into the store and a woman rolls down her window and shouts, "My gosh, are you having fun yet?" huh?! I smile and cross the street wondering why people have to open their mouths sometimes.

Getting looks, stares, smiles, etc. is not unusual when I go out with my kids and I always want to shout, "it's only 4 kids people!!" Getting comments though are not as common. This is what happened next...

We walk over to the pharmacy and of course there is a line. My kids are usually pretty good on errands but Matthew has been having a hard time with everything lately. Today he really let loose. He put on a display that would make any 3 year old proud. It was a tantrum of gargantuan proportions. Laying on the floor, kicking, screaming, shouting "NO" - you get the picture. Like any good Love and Logic parent I tried to be calm as a cucumber (though I must admit I was dying inside), stepping over him and let him carry on. I had a prescription to get and then we'd be out of there. Several people had already walked by giving me the sympathy look - you know, the "I"m so glad it's you and not me look." But one lady didn't have her filter on. She walked by, turned to me and said, "He needs a good spanking...right now. What a brat. He's acting so bratty." My brain doesn't work that fast so I was still trying to process what she just said to me instead of coming up with an appropriate 'mind your own business lady' response. While my head is still whirling, she backs up, comes right over to Matthew and says, "You are being such a brat. Bratty Bratty Bratty." Then stands up and walks away.

What?!

The kicker is, me prescription wasn't even ready. The pharmacist said it would be 10 more minutes. I smiled kindly, gathered my kids and left empty handed.

President Hinckley Passes

Jenni and I attended a wonderful multi stake fireside on Marriage last night and at the very end of the evening, President Baxter announced that President Hinckley had passed away. We were deeply saddened by the news, but happy for him that he will now be with his wonderful wife. We were sure that a party was going on in the heavens. I have to admit, what I was really amazed about was the speed in which this was reported on CNN and even locally. Today, I stumbled across a link from MSNBC to Newsweek. I never doubted how fast news can and will travel in our day and age, but this was simply amazing. Have a great week..

View from the Top... Or in my Head...

Thoughts that ran through my head today...

Just wanted to pass a long a few of the thoughts that ran though my brain today, most of them are insignificant in the world that we live in, but in my world, well let's just say that I literary have to much on my mind...

1. Why is it so freakin' cold in Seattle right now, although the sunrises and sunsets are to die for... absolutely amazing...Every color in the spectrum.
2. I often wonder throughout the day how my family is doing, How my wonderful wife is surviving 4 kids at home. Actually, I am not sure how a lot of mothers do it. It’s simply amazing... I thought tonight while Jenni was out, how I lack the patience sometimes to be a good parent. At least my wife sets a good example for me. J
3. Who is going to be the next president, or better yet, who will I vote for. Is anyone as confused as I am about this election and who will do a good job as the Commander in Chief. What a wide open field with way to many players. I don’t know if any have the experience to run the country, or help it run for that matter.
4. Who determines the news or what is newsworthy? I mean, I liked Heath Ledger too, but does a story about him have to be on CNN's front page every time I go to the site. Jenni volunteered tonight with the youth, handing out snacks and blankets to the homeless, some of which might perish in this cold, and CNN is telling us that Heath Autopsy was inconclusive. I don’t get it...
5. My job is killing me off. I am strugglin’ to appreciate large corporations like I used to. Now it feels like a spring board, but the unknown worries also, what does one do??? I feel like I have a plan, but with no light yet at the end of the tunnel, the winter days are long. I really want to see the light soon, not because it will be easier, but to have closure and begin a new chapter.
6. How do other people keep up on life's demands, or do they?? I know that we (humans) compare ourselves constantly to others for everything. I look at people and wonder if they do things like me, or are they more efficient and can I copy the way that they are efficiently successful? Some days I feel like I am swimming and other days I feel like I am floating. What is the best way? The pace that I am going right now cannot be sustained forever, HA... I mean, I will be lucky if I can do it for 6 more months. At least, that is what I thought today.
7. What is the right way to do things? Right now I jumble and prioritize based on what is needed for that particular day. Today it was Kirkland. Is that because I have to many projects, what is the way to go? I think that the pro-active approach is more my style, but darn it, sometimes I just cant find the time to make that work for me. I hope that I can get back into the habit once I have the time, or will I ever have it? Does it even matter, I dunno, but it crossed my mind.
8. My Girls are amazing... Olivia can read.. like really read. She read us Green eggs and ham the other night. it was amazing. Grace is writing notes and stories like they are going out of style. They are still not even 6 yet. How does this happen. 1/3 of my time to teach the kids is almost over. It is certainly a good thing that Jenni is such a good teacher...
9. I look forward to the best part of my day... walking though the door and getting a kiss and hug from my wife and all the kids. Sometimes its 3:30pm, sometimes its 6:30, but the smiles make it all real. I was pondering the title of this blog, and I thought it might be a little bragging, or presumptuous to list it as such, but its not because each of can have a great family. Our family is not perfect, but its sure is fun to have the highs and lows together.

I have a whole bunch or other things that I would like to write, but this is getting too long and I am probably boring you... Have a tremendous week, may you play a little harder and work a little less, good advice, now if I could just follow it.. :)

A Horribly Misinterpreted Kindergarten Civics Lesson

I was playing "birthday party" with the Girls today. G ceremoniously presented a blanket wrapped bulletin board to Lulu. After it was unwrapped, Lulu looked at the paper pinned on it and the following conversations ensued...

LuLu: This is our sign for the door Mom, it says 'White People Only'.
Mom: It says what?
Lulu: White People only Mom.
Mom: White people only? Why only white people?

Then in a moment of brilliant clarity (I have those moments occasionally) I remembered that Monday is Martin Luther King Day and they must have had some sort of discussion/lesson about it at school. A lesson that was obviously and horribly misinterpreted by my sweet daughter :)!

Lulu: Yah, you know only white people, not black people. Like the signs that they have on McDonalds and on the bathrooms.
Mom: But that doesn't seem very fair does it? What if it said "boys only?" How would you feel then?

And then I went on to clarify what I'm sure was a lovely and age appropriate lesson on civil rights/Dr. Martin Luther King that my Kindergarten-age daughter clearly only got pieces of! I have to say, it makes me wonder how many other conversations have they only gotten pieces of?!

Blogging...Eh...

I have to say that blogging might be very trendy and it might certainly wear off, but right now its rather fun. I am finding many ways to waste time and add stuff to the blog. I thought that I might share a quick excerpt of my evening tonight..

Jenni as she walks out the door - "Tuna noodle casserole is in the oven"
Chris - "Thanks Honey, Have fun tonight"

A few minutes pass by and I am getting dinner on the table. I know that the kids don’t like Tuna noodle and little do they know that Jenni has made some noodles for them separately. So I set the casserole on the table and call in everyone to eat.

G- An Emphatic "What is that?"
Mocky- "Dad, I don’t want that... nope, don’t want that. Dad, I don’t want that."
Lulu- No Words, just scowling at it and then looking at me like, are you really going to feed us that crap?
Dad (me) - "Come on Kids, its just a little tuna noodle, your up for the challenge right?"
Mocky- "No.. I don’t want it"
G- "No, thanks, aren’t there any noodles?"
Lulu- "What else are we having for dinner?"

Of course I fill them in that they don’t have to have any unless they want to try it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any takers.

We then start to eat dinner and I ask G and Lulu how school was today, the both looked at me and said "fine". I figure that to get them to talk, I need to ask them about something they like, so I ask, "Who did you play with at Recess?"

Here was the response from Lulu "The same people we told you yesterday Dad."

Good Grief - Needless the say the rest of the evening went along uneventfully. No accidents, unnecessary chaos, and everyone was in bed on time.. Mostly...

Have a great evening..

You Want me to Eat What?

This is a First

There is a first for everything isn't there?! And today for me, it was parking my car in the garage. Our garage was in a sorry state - clearly a dumping ground for all things construction. With the all enthusiasm he could muster (and the not so secret hope that I would finally quit bugging him about it) Chris rearranged, reorganized, and threw out so I could have my very own spot in the garage. In all my life, I have never parked my car inside the garage. Our first house didn't have a garage, but that's beside the point :)! I'm so excited. No more running in groceries in the rain. No more scraping ice off the windshield when I'm already clearly late to drop the kids off at school. No more frozen back door. No more wet hair, wet feet, wet everything! I could go on but I won't. Yippee!! I can park my car in the garage. Thanks honey -Life is good...

Merry Christmas...some of our favorite things!

These are a few of our favorite things about the Christmas Season...

Waiting in line to take pictures with Santa...and then if I'm lucky, a great Santa Picture!

Going Downtown to ride the Carousel, visit the Teddy Bear Suite and see the amazing Gingerbread "house" contructions at the Sheraton

Decorating our own Gingerbread Houses - thanks Mom!

New Christmas Jammies from Gramma

Merry Christmas! This is my darling family with Santa. What a cute group! What a lucky mommy...