20110811

I know now why I couldn't upload pictures yesterday... I wasn't supposed to blog until today so that I could wish you all a great Feast of Sts. Clare and Philomena!  Clare is my confirmation saint, and Philomena is very dear to my heart!  This is pretty much the best day of the year!

But as for the week that led up to today:

We had lots of great fun here... despite our sicknesses.  At first  I thought that David just had a bad teething fever, since it came along with tons of drooling and him pointing in his mouth and saying "ouch".  But, Therese got the same fever for 36 hours 2 days later.  It remains a mystery what it was, but they are fine now, and we enjoyed our secluded time here, despite our great desires for a play date!

Here are some shots of "block-building at the Librandis"

Quick, mom, get a picture before my tower falls! 

Oh, same for me, mom!

And as a finale, mom had to find out how many she could stack without the tower falling:

Then David got a hold of the camera: 

We've started a pretty great Saturday morning routine here:  The gals get up a bit early and let the men-folk have the airbed for a bit longer...

Behold:  David the Duck!

And another camera-thievery by David!

David is a bit of a ham.  In all sincerity, David ended up with Therese' shorts on his head without aid or encouragement from anyone else!

Ahhh... the joy of the Sunday movie!  Showing this week - the new Horton Hears a Who  (quite enjoyable!) 

Behold:  David Cousteau Librandi

I caught the two of them in the midst of a "horsie ride" in the middle of the living room.  

I don't know if I've mentioned how much David absolutely LOVES balloons.  Actually, he just jumped up on my lap just to get a closer look of these pictures and point and say "Boon Boon Boon" over and over.  I must admit, that is my current favorite word of his.  It is VERY cute!  So... when you want to do something special for David, buy a $2 bag of balloons, get your cheeks and lips really tired from blowing them up, and fill the living room with them!

Behold:  David the most frequent customer at the much-awarded establishment of "Tea by Therese"

Oh... and to show you another detail of the imaginative play, here is the spicket from which Therese gets her Tea, Milk, or (as in this shot) Pop for her faithful customers.

More pretend time:  the kids decided to "go to the beach" with their babies.  Their preparations were quite elaborate, and both of them really get in to it.

The final pretend for the day, and this was also totally her idea - I didn't even help her with her veil:  

Behold - Therese, AKA Sister Maria  (note that she is still holding her baby doll, however.  Joe and I have decided that she is just going to enter an order that cares for orphaned children!) 

We continued the theme in the evening, but with more of a "babushka" feel than a religious feel!

Oh... big news!  Joe has officially changed his next station from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (a 12 month hardship tour) to Fort Bliss, TX (with his family, but may include a deployment).  Ranger School is still up in the air and may affect plans as well.  We will try to keep you as up to date as we are!

Love, Us.

20110810

For some reason I am currently unable to upload any other photos to the blog, so you'll have to be content for the moment with a few stills I took out of a bubble-blowing video Joe took of the kids and I this week.  Hopefully I'll be able to give you the full week's story and pictures soon.

Love, Maria

20110803

First of all... Happy 33rd Anniversary on the 3rd (if that isn't a Golden one, I don't know what is!) to my folks!  I love you!

To start this week's pics, Therese was a bargain shopper at the thrift shop, and even used her sweet voice, nice manners, and puppy dog eyes to get a deal on some little baby dolls and a sweet baby basinette/bathtub thing.  So... here she is showing off her purchases!  She was super excited to find random objects that were their sizes, which could now be their "homes".

And here is Dave man... 

just before he got the camera and had a shoot of his own...

The kids have REALLY gotten in to water coloring this week.  Actually, about a third of the colors are already nearly done!  Here are their masterpieces from one morning session on the kitchen table.

And when you have a dad in the army, you HAVE to have some sweet dress-up time!  And David LOVES hats, so this was double fun!

Daddy had more time off last weekend that usual, so we got all dressed up and got to have some family time!

 Waynesville had a carnival of sorts, and one of the main events were "duck races" on the river.  Different groups from the Fort and several local businesses dressed up ducks in cool and ridiculous outfits and then they raced them down the river in heats.  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the ducks.  Here the kids are waiting for the next heat to start... and it was HOT!  The whole event had a great "small-town feel" and was very enjoyable.

I don't have any pictures to show for it, but we had Joe's Platoon over for lunch on Sunday, and it went very well.  The kids did a great job of entertaining the crowd, and we weren't left with a ton of left-overs!

I failed AGAIN this week with pictures on another event.  We found out that the pool at the Fort is free to military families, so the kids and I checked it out on both Monday and Tuesday.  They love it, and we spend most of our time in the kiddie pool under the canopy.  I'll get pics some time, I promise.

However, I DID get pictures of our little sick boy today.   A fever came on at about midnight last night, and it was 102.5 at breakfast.  Motrin helped momentarily, but then he basically slept on and off from 8 until 12:30 (as can be seen in his varying positions in these pictures).  It was up to 103.7 at 1pm, so we caught a 2:40 appointment.  But, OF COURSE, his fever was completely broken and he was chipper at the office!  As always!  So... hopefully the fever stays away or we figure out what caused it.  Poor little guy!

(Note the background)

Hope you are all feeling better than David was when these pictures were taken, and I hope that your kids are all being a good and quiet as Therese was while these pictures were being taken!

Love You!