Catching Up

It has been a busy few weeks in the Mango household, so I'm a bit behind in posting some important events!

First of all, our little Ruby turned 2 at the end of October!

Birthday Girl!

Blowing out the candle.

Hooray for Cake!

Opening some presents.

Baby Ean, 8 days before his arrival! Please ignore the dark circles around my eyes and lack of make-up! Focus your attention instead on Ruby! She already loved to give her baby brother kisses! :)

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Next came Halloween. It seems so long ago!

Or maybe that is just because we're out of all the "good" candy already?

Ethan was Darth Vader again, cousin Isaiah was a pirate, Kibby was a princess, and Ruby was... well, we weren't sure. I got the costume at a used children's clothing store, and at first I thought it was a bunny, but we're now thinking it's really a lamb. What do you think? Either way, I think it's way adorable on her!

Lamb or bunny?


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Next up is some more recent pictures of Ean. Ean with his siblings, Ean by himself, Ean being held, Ean crying... you get the idea. :)

With his sisters.

Hungry enough to eat his own arm!


Ruby just can't get enough of him.

I may never get a nice picture of all 4 kids... Someone is always bound to have their thumb in their mouth or not be looking this way... I'll keep trying, though! My blog header needs a new photo, for one thing!

We have a hard time keeping Ruby's hands off Ean. Not for lack of trying. We are constantly reminding her! Hands off, please! Well, off his face and hands, at least. Since it's flu season and all, you know...

He's always hungry! :) Here he is trying to eat the pillow!

Not happy, but look how strong he is! Holding himself up.

Until next time!

More!

Since I've been so good about finding time to get pics on here lately (uh... yeah, that was a little sarcasm...) I decided to upload more right away lest the days and weeks get away from me once again.

Or I lose my USB cable again.

Which was, of all places, in the camera bag in our bedroom.

No wonder I couldn't find it!! Seth put it away where it belongs! ;)

When we returned from IKEA, Ruby decided this looked pretty cozy.

Not to be outdone by little sister... Love the cheesy grin.

This was the only shot I got of all 3 on Easter. Well, that's not true... it's the only one where you can see all their faces and nobody is crying buckets.

Ah, yes. The crying...

Looking for eggs! (This was before the crying!)

Happy again, post-crying, swinging with Daddy!

(See more pics in previous post!)

Christmas in WI

Finally, the post you've all been waiting for...

Ok, maybe not. :)

We were planning to go to my parents for Christmas on December 26th, but due to the weather we decided to pack quickly (ha) and leave Christmas afternoon. It was dark, cold and gusty when we hit the road and the snow was blowing across the interstate, making it hard to see. Once we crossed over into Wisconsin it was much better and we made it to Mom and Dad's without trouble.

We mainly spent the weekend hanging around at Mom's, but on Friday night we got to see my friends Jamie and Camee. I hadn't seen either of them since their wedding, and I'm guessing that was about 10 years ago. It was great to reconnect and get to know Camee a little better. (I miss them already! Ack!) Jamie and I go way back to High School. We didn't go to school together, but I saw him nearly every Sunday at church. Jamie, his two brothers, my best friend and her sister sat together just about every Sunday, and often passed notes back and forth. Seems like there was always somebody having a crush on someone else, too. Never a dull moment there...

We met up at Pizza Hut in my hometown and had some good laughs at the waitress who messed up our order. Some things never change even after 15 or so years. It worked out okay because Camee got her plain pepperoni and we ended up with two free pizzas due to their error...

We went back to Mom and Dad's and played some pool (word of the night - "scratch!") for another hour before they decided it was time for them to head home. It was a very foggy night, so I'm glad they made it home safely. I'm kicking myself because I didn't even get a single picture! How could I have let that happen?!?! Well, there is always next time. And hopefully it won't take 15 more years. ;)

We spent the remainder of the weekend hanging out at Mom and Dad's, shooting pool and taking pictures and playing games. Not all of the pictures were blog-worthy, but I'll post a few. Ethan really enjoyed playing pool with his cousin,

and was beginning to be a pretty good shot!

My sister and I got in a few games, too. When the boys let us. :)

Ruby playing peek-a-boo with her new blankie from my parents:

The guys didn't get to go out as they had planned, but that didn't stop Seth from acting like they had...



Kibby loves her new tea set from Nana and Bumpa...



...and Ruby loves the old shag carpeting on my parents' basement stairs!

We had a good trip, and uneventful travel home, too. Plus, I got to sleep in my own bed when we arrived home since I had asked for the night off work!

I hope all of you had a nice, peaceful Christmas season. I know that some of my bloggy friends had a rough Christmas this year, and if you're reading this, please know you've been in my thoughts and prayers!

Thanksgiving, Christmas Tree Decorating!

We had a nice Thanksgiving, complete with guests, and we ate turkey with all the trimmings. The kids didn't eat much except the marshmallows off their sweet potatoes, some cranberry sauce, and olives. They didn't even want pie, because I served a "Southern Pecan" pie. Not sure how truly southern it was, since it was just a SaraLee:) But it was good! Of course I didn't have any until this morning for breakfast (healthy, huh?) because I stuffed myself so completely last night that I couldn't even eat pie before bed... you know, midnight snack?

Today was more low-key... Seth went to work, and for the first time in a few years, neither one of us went shopping at all today! We just didn't see any deals that we couldn't live without, I guess. Oh, wait, that's not entirely true... I did order a couple of gifts online tonight before we trimmed the tree. :)

Ethan was antsy all day to get the tree up. He has really been looking forward to it this year! He had been upset when I had told him last week that we were going to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas decorations.

So while we waited for Seth to get home, I brought up a few things to put up... a small, white pre-lit tree that I got on Target clearance last year, a pointsettia wreath, and a little snowman. I found the big box of decorations for the "big" tree but wanted to wait till Seth got home to put up the tree. I didn't know where to put it this year... With Ruby being 13 months... well, let's just say I knew THIS would happen! :)

Everyone helped out, and even Seth seemed to have fun. Must be because there were no mishaps with the lights for a change! :) Here are some more shots of the tree trimming process! I love how every year it seems the lower part of the tree receives the bulk of the bulbs!

See?

Good helpers!

Ethan helped for a while, and then let the girls keep on "perfecting" the tree (and by perfecting I mean Ruby taking the bulbs off, shrieking with happiness, and Kibby screaming and frantically grabbing them to put them back on.)

Ethan decided to ignore the girls and build a couple of towers instead. Smart boy. ;)

As for the tree, the end result looks pretty good (thanks to some sneaky re-dispersing by Seth!)

Here is just a peek:

Tomorrow I hope to post a few more pictures. I only took 184 tonight! :) One in particular I found really sweet and want to share, but I have reached the maximum for this post... So I guess you'll all have to wait. And considering it is nearly 1AM and some of you no doubt were up at the crack of dawn or earlier to shop... you are most likely sleeping and won't even read this until the other post is up anyway!

Costumes and Candy

Friday night was probably the warmest Halloween that my kids have ever experienced. Wow. They didn't need 2 sets of sweatpants, leggings, snowpants, sweaters, jeans, scarves... well you get the picture. They were able to go in their costumes with just regular clothes on underneath!

Seth took the kids around the neighborhood and they were back in about 45 minutes, with baskets full. Ethan really wanted to be Indiana Jones, but he settled for Darth Vader. Kibby was thrilled to be a fairy princess, and wanted to sleep with her wings on. We are still finding little pink feathers here and there from the dress.

And Ethan's little jack-o-lantern kept various members of my family company as they sat out in front of the garage and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

Pumpkins and Lies

Last night Seth picked the one surviving pumpkin from our garden and scooped out the insides so that Ethan could draw a face on it and Seth could help cut it out. This was Ethan's first year to do this! Every year we mean to, but something else comes up and then we never do. Last year we were going to, but the poor little pumpkin (from our neighbors) sat outside at the edge of our flower bed all season, and then through the next two seasons... Well, you get the picture. It was never carved, just left there all neglected. (Not like I wasn't busy with a newborn and two other - very active - kids... in my defense!) :)
In early Summer, I noticed that a new pumpkin plant was sprouting in my flower bed! I transplanted it to our garden area in the backyard and it produced two pumpkins. One was way too small to carve, really, but the other one now looks like this:




It's not the prettiest jack-o-lantern, but it's Ethan's first! Don't be surprised if it shows up, glowing, in some more pics tonight after trick-or-treating. :)

On to the other subject... Lies.

Grr.

Last night Seth saw that Ethan was playing with 2 small magnets. He asked where Ethan got them. Ethan told us that his teacher gave them to him to "practice math" with. Something about the way he said it made me question him. I asked him more about it, and he replied some more about it, and then I said, "I'm going to email your teacher and ask her." Ethan shrugged and said, "Go ahead, Mom, but she already knows all about it." However... he looked a teeny bit apprehensive when I looked him straight in the eye. I figured something was up. So I wrote the email. And this morning I got the reply I didn't want. His teacher did NOT send them home for him to practice with.

*sigh*

Let me just say that starting this school year, Ethan has picked up (no pun intended) this bad habit of pocketing small items that he finds interesting. Usually this is just rocks, or pieces of leather or concrete or junk that he finds on the playground or sidewalk. Annoying, yes. Bad for my washing machine, yes. Morally wrong? Well, no...

However, this is at least the third time that he has brought home objects that are NOT rocks, are NOT from outside, and are certainly NOT his. Beyond annoying? YES!!

So we are going to have another serious discussion tonight when he arrives home from school. Which will be so much fun, since his cousin, aunt, and grandma and grandpa will all be here, AND it's Halloween...

There are days when I wonder where my sweet little boy went, and if I'll ever get him back! :(


But then, he still is a sweetie. Here's proof. :)