What a great Christmas we had with all the family! We spent Saturday through Monday with the Ghys family in Geneseo. The ride down was brutal with horrible fog and screaming from Morgan- luckily the way back was much better! When we first got there, Carson said "Grandma, you need to move closer because Morgan just screams the whole ride here". Carson and Gavin had so much fun playing with their cousins for 2 days. The white elephant with the Henderson's was funny again this year. Looks like Junior lucked out with the good stuff. We drove home on Christmas Eve and went to the annual Kalinowski party that evening which was fun. Christmas morning was great at our house for Morgan's first xmas! The kids slept until 8am and then couldn't wait any longer to open the presents. Carson's favorite gifts are the Spiderman 3 DVD, and his Shark Park hotwheels. Gavin's favorite toys are his Thomas the train plug and play TV game and all the lightning McQueen Cars stuff. Morgan got some books, and baby dolls and even a "My first elmo purse".
The day after Christmas the snow was all melted and Gavin looked outside and said "Look Mom, the grass is showing- It's almost Easter time". Guess he is ready for more presents! Kids will be kids!

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Christmas Parties

We had 2 holiday parties this past weekend which the kids had a blast at. The first party was at Polly's house (Morgan's Day Care). It was great to spend time at the home where our little princess spends her days. The second party was Taryn and Dan's annual holiday party with Santa! The kids were so excited to see Santa even though they knew this wasn't the "real" Santa. When we put Morgan on Santa's lap, she just looked at him for a minute and then of course tried pulling his beard. We called her name and finally got her to look at us for the picture and she smiled right after we took it. She never cried on Santa which was nice. I am sure next year will be a lot different. On Saturday, we will be making the trip to Geneseo to spend xmas with the Ghys family. On Xmas Eve, we will be at the Kalinowski party and then on Xmas day my family will be spending the afternoon/ evening with us. It's going to be a whirlwind weekend- as always. I hope we will be able to take the time to enjoy ourselves with the kids and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family!

Dancing kids

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1327051924

Hopefully this works! Click on the link to see our little elves boogie! Soon I hope to upload a video of the boys truly dancing. Their skills are amazing. Keep an eye out for it soon.

December Greetings!

It is hard to believe it's December 5th already. There is about six inches of snow on the ground this morning and it looks beautiful. Carson and Gavin were so excited to wake up and see all the snow and they are looking forward to playing in it at day care today. The boys are also getting so excited for xmas and have been on their best behavior (most of the time). Morgan is getting better at sleeping and eating. We had a few more nights that she has slept through the night so hopefully it will continue. She has started eating green beans, sweet potatoes, pears and cheerios. Her new trick is to take a bite of food and then blow bubbles with her mouth. Huge mess! I don't know who was worse off, Morgan or my face from getting spit on. :)

Visit to the Farm

I am a little late in writing this but its been a heck of a busy week! We went to Geneseo on 11/3 for the Ghys hayride at the farm- where Grandpa Dick grew up. The kids had such a blast running all around the farm with their cousins and looking at the pigs, the donkey and cats all over! Gavin was in heaven playing with all the kittens! Carson was scratched by one right away so then he refused to pick any more up. I love Morgan's face in the picture of her looking at the kitten. At one point in the night, Gavin walked inside and said" I like the kitty's but the donkey is freaking me out!". It was hilarious. The hayride was alot of fun too- except of course for the neverending story from Bill. What the hell was he talking about? At least the story ended up putting Morgan to sleep on the hayride so we got something good out of it. Al and Chuck had a good time drinking the tub of captain and 7's with the cousins. Carson ended up falling asleep around 11pm in cousin Carrie's arms by the bonfire. We left around midnight and all 3 kids were passed out in the car instantly. Fun weekend with the family.
P.S.- Morgan slept through the night from 8:30pm until 7am on Monday night for the first time ever! Unfortunately, last night she was up 2ce again so we must have just gotten lucky the first night.

Happy Halloween!

Carson, Gavin and Morgan were so cute on Sunday for trick or treating. Carson was the brave Knight, Gavin the Dragon, and Morgan of course was the Princess. We had a beautiful day for trick or treating and the kids had so much fun.

One more thing- Morgans bottom two teeth have just started to pop through! She has started up again on cereal the past 2 nights and actually did really well!

11th Annual Halloween Bash

Well we survived another Halloween party- amazingly! It was so much fun to see all the creative and hilarious costumes! We loved the Don Imus and the "Nappy Headed Ho", the Girls gone wild, the Geiko Caveman and so many more. Al was a Blue Man Group Guy (and looked pretty real if I might say so) and I was the Blue Man Group- Groupie! If you don't know what the ring around my mouth means...... ask someone else. :)

Everyone had a good time playing the OJ game, sitting by the bonfire and watching the Burger King guy (Terry) and Craig dance. I guess we know the party was a success because the cops showed up at our house at 1:30am asking us to keep it down. Click on the link below to see some of the pictures! Now we have to start thinking of costumes for next year!

Thanks everyone who brought toys for the "toys for tots" collection. Our dining room table is full of great surprises for the children. Thanks again!

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Almost Halloween!

We hope everyone is set for the 11th annual Ghys Halloween bash this Saturday. Al and I finally have our costumes finished and are ready for the laughs! We are looking forward to seeing all of the great costumes again this year from everyone else too! And luckily, the weather for Saturday looks cool but comfortable- perfect for the bonfire!
Somehow, I will pick out a few of the best pictures after the party to post here but I know that is going to be very tough!
Carson, Gavin and Morgan are going to be so cute in their costumes! I will definitely add a photo from trick or treating this Sunday.
Happy Birthday this week to Mom, Joe and Kris!

Family Updates

Morgan is 5 months old!!!! We started her on rice cereal on 10/11 and she did really well with it the first day. She was actually leaning towards the spoon and moaning for more if we fed her too slow. However, the following couple days she had no interest in the cereal so we may hold off for a week before trying again. She is still drinking mommy's milk really well and VERY often! I think she may be going through a growth spurt this week.

Al is out of town in Norfolk until Thursday so its going to be a long week. Thank God all kids are healthy- and hopefully they will remain that way.

Carson came home from kindergarten last week saying 2 girls kissed him on the cheek. What a little stud already! :)

Gavin is such a sweetheart! Whenever I yell at him for doing something wrong- he turns to me immediately and says "I love you Mom". He knows it just melts my heart and I simply can't be mad at him. Smart kid!

We are so blessed to have our three healthy, beautiful children. I thank God everyday for them.

They Did It!

Tara and Craig got married on Fri. 9/28 & I was lucky enough to be Matron of Honor. I had to include the picture of my hair- thanks honey for taking that photo. Hairspray can do amazing things!

The wedding was a blast and I made it through the speech much better than I anticipated. We can't wait to see the professional pictures and the honeymoon pics!

Door County Getaway

We went on a family trip to Wisconsin this past weekend which was wonderful! We stayed the first night in Appleton, WI and surprised cousin Kelly for a visit at their restaurant. Thanks Kelly and Rick for the delicious pizza at Pizano's in Appleton! We highly recommend it for any of you traveling through Appleton soon. Carson and Gavin were terrors that night at dinner- luckily we were the only ones left in the restaurant at that point. The boys had fun swimming at the Residence Inn after dinner that night and passed out within minutes at bedtime.

On Friday, we made our way through Packer country to Door County. It was beautiful weather- mid to high 70's most of the weekend with exception of rain on Saturday morning for a couple hours. We checked into our cabin in Bailey's Harbor around 11am on Friday and then went to lunch at Diggers before heading to Peninsula State Park. We started off at the lookout tower where Gavin made it to the 3rd step up before crashing down and cutting his chin on the step. We did finally manage to climb up the tower and get a beautiful view of Door County. Al and I had been there before 10 years ago! Man how time flies. After climbing the tower we went on a 2 mile hike through the woods and near the water. Carson and Gavin loved hiking past all of the caves and Morgan took a nap in the backpack carrier on Daddy for most of the hike.

On Saturday morning we went to the Pumpkin Festival in Egg Harbor. It was raining for the first couple of hours but it quickly cleared up and actually became hot! Carson and Gavin got their faces painted and spent at least 2 hours jumping on a bouncy house and a tornado bouncy slide at the festival. Al and I had a great time sitting on the grass with Morgan, Al with his Honeyweiss and me with the Door County Chardonnay. Not a bad Saturday! For dinner Saturday night we went to PC Junction which was a restaurant where a train dropped off your food in front of you. The kids were all in heaven! The restaurant also had bikes you could ride outside, multiple swing sets, and wood and paints for families to decorate and hang up on their barn. We ran out of time to make our sign on Saturday so we stopped back on Sunday to paint one. Hopefully sometime in the future we can go back to see where our "Carson, Gavin, & Morgan Ghys, 10/07" sign is hung.

On Sunday morning we went on a row boat on Kangaroo Lake with the 3 kids. Then we spent the day driving to the northern part of Door County and doing a lot of "treasure hunts" as the kids like to call them. (GeoCaching with a handheld GPS). For those of you not familiar with this- visit the website at http://www.geocaching.com/. It is great outdoor fun for all ages and its free! We found 17 "treasures" over the course of the weekend all over Door County. Carson and Gavin loved taking turns finding them and trading out their toys and trinkets each time.

The cabins surrounding ours were all full of kids and Carson and Gavin had a blast running around and playing with them all at the playground. Carson even was part of the flag football game with all the kids!



Check out our video to see some of our favorite pictures from Door County. It was a wonderful family weekend getaway!

Apple Picking Outing

On Sunday, 9/23 we went with the family to Apple Holler for our annual apple pickin' day of fun. The weather was perfect- the mosquito's were horrible! But, we had a great time as always. Carson and Gavin loved playing on all the kids stuff like the maze, climbing on the train and the playground. They also fed the goats again this year. Morgan was really good the whole time. She loved being outside and even took a snooze in the backpack carrier on Mommy. We had to keep her covered with the mosquito netting since they were so bad, but she handled it fine. After Apple Holler, we went to lunch at Texas Roadhouse with 17 of us which was fun too.

Its hard to believe it was a year ago that we announced at Apple Holler that we were expecting baby #3. Carson and Gavin handed Grandma Debbie and Grandma Mary apples that said "We are the big/biggest brothers in May!". And here we are, Morgan is already 4 1/2 months old. I feel so blessed to have these kids! I love them so much.

Morgan's Baptism

Well we made it through the baptism weekend. Morgan did so well at the church and looked like a little angel. We have some great pictures of Morgan and her Godmother Julie and of course Grandparents. Unfortunately, Morgan got attacked by a giant mosquito on Saturday at Great America so she had a pretty swollen dot on her cheek for the baptism. Oh well, she is still a beauty! It was so much fun to spend the weekend with the entire family. The kids had a great time together and managed to get by with only a few injuries. (Sorry Kristin!) Actually, I think Jacob is the only one who didnt get hurt at some point. Silly kids!

Recent Pictures of the kids

Here are a few recent favorites!

The Beginning......

Since blogging is almost 9 years old, I thought it was time we joined in on all the hype. In Al's defense, he basically sees no reason for this. I on the other hand thought it would be a nice, easy and fast way to communicate with our family and friends on a weekly or monthly basis. (We'll see how long it lasts!)

Present day update:

Carson is 5 now and just finished his second week in Kindergarten! He loves it but has a complaint about gym class. He said "All we do is dance and sing a dumb tree song and its boring! We should play basketball. The stupid dance is not excersize!" Yep- he is all boy!

Gavin- is almost 3 1/2 years old. Gavin made it through his first day of preschool this week with flying colors. He was one of the only kids that didn't cry. In fact, he couldn't get rid of me fast enough. He basically hugged me on the fly and was off to play with the cars! Thank goodness for such brave kids. Although I think it boils down to the boys being used to home day care as well as at the gym day care all their lives.

Morgan is 4 months old now. Man time flies! She is such a cutie. I just can't get enough of her little chin, her tongue/smile, and her chubby little thighs. I take her to the Dr. next week to see how much she weighs. At her 2 month appointment, she was 12lbs, 2 ounces. She is getting better at tummy time and holding her head up, but still has not rolled over yet. I still have her sleeping in the cradle next to me because I can't bare the thought of my last baby leaving my side. (Yes, per my husband- this is the last one!) :(

I am sure you will all get bored at reading the updates about the kids, but they are my pride and joy and what I love to talk about most. Maybe Al will take time to add input sometime, although that will most likely be only about the Cardinals so which would you prefer?

Al- his life is the same as always. Golf, baseball games, short work weeks, business trips, Monday night football, nights in the city with Senor and Junior, sleeping through the night (unlike me and Morgan) .... I can go on and on. But, I love him more than anything and appreciate all he does for our family. See honey, I can give compliments!

Our family is looking forward to a 3 day trip to Door County the first weekend in October. But first, we are spending this weekend with all the family to celebrate Morgans baptism, with Aunt Julie as the Godmother. I pray that her guardian Angel (Grandpa Bill- my Dad) will be watching over her on Sunday and everyday.

More to come on the Alibaba family updates.