Pumpkin Pie

Here is the kid's Thanksgiving table. We're running out of room at my parents house.

Daniel ate his pie out of the middle, like it was soup. Darian was only interested in the whipped cream.

Vincent, of course, devoured the whole piece in 3 seconds flat.


Gavin has good reflexes on those little toothpick legs.

Trade As One

Live Simply. Give Generously. Buy Ethically.

I copied this post from a friends blog. This organization is doing good things and here is my effort to support that.

Declaring War on Black Friday

This year you have two options.

1. You can be like 150 million other Americans, get up before it’s even light out to fight crowds all day and be a part of the consumerist machine that will spend around $500 Billion dollars on a single day. The vast majority of that $500B will be spent on products for which there is no transparency in the supply chain, and for all you know, the reason it’s so cheap is because someone is paid less than $1/day to make it.

2. You can be a part of the solution. You can join us at Trade as One in the fight against Black Friday and all that it represents.

Fair Trade is how we as consumers fight back.

Trade as One is proposing something beautifully simple this holiday season.

Live Simply. Give Generously. Buy Ethically.

These are the precepts we live by. We know it sounds crazy for a retail company to advocate living simply, but we don’t know any other way. We carry a variety of products most of which are practical things like olive oil, sugar, coffee, soccer balls, handbags and chocolate. And a lot more.

This year, on Black Friday, instead of getting up before dawn to brave the crowds, get up at a reasonable hour, spend some time with your family, and then go to www.tradeasone.com and buy Christmas gifts that come with stories of lives redeemed and hope restored. Buy Fair Trade and fight injustice.

Your purchases can bring hope and stability into some of the darkest corners of our world. In buying gifts from Trade as One, your supporting women rescued from human trafficking and the sex trade, those valiantly fighting HIV/AIDS, and people living on less than $1/day.

So here’s our goal. We want Black Friday 2008 to mark the beginning of a movement. We want to see Americans from all 50 states spending in solidarity with the poor.

Fifty on Friday. That’s what we want. So represent your state and shop at www.tradeasone.com on Black Friday. Know someone in another state? Forward them this link and give them the chance to be a part of the beginning of a movement.

We know we won’t fix this overnight, but this is the start of something big.

Make your voice heard at www.tradeasone.com.

Another good site to visit is my friend Amy's who is raising money to fight injustice. Visit www.callingforjustice.blogspot.com

Sweet and Stinky

Gavin is a week old now. He's eating great and sleeping like a champ. Last night he slept all night waking only to eat at 4 hour stretches, he would have slept longer but I woke him up to eat both times. What a great kid!


Daniel and Vincent have a new jungle gym. They love swinging on the treadmill...at least it's getting used for something. Notice the one sock on Vincent, this is a common occurance. Below he's wearing his favorite snowboots.

We were enjoying a wonderful dinner of Honeybaked ham the other night, compliments of George's parents. Towards the end of the meal, George and I saw Vincent scraping his tongue with his fingers, like he was trying to get the food off. We couldn't figure out what he was doing. Were his teeth bothering him? He seemed to like dinner okay. A few minutes later, George sees something he doesn't recognize from dinner on Vincent's tray. "Is it a mushroom?" I ask. He smells it. "It's poo." he says. I don't believe him. I smell it. It's poo. Our young son brought a little something extra to the table that night after a silent explosion down below. At least he didn't like the taste.

Both Daniel and Vincent have been very sweet with Gavin. Daniel asks to hold him and just admires how small and cute he is. Vincent likes to give him kisses and puts his face right up to Gavin's face to nuzzle him.

Gavin's Family

The New Guy

Gavin George was born 11-20-08 at 12:28pm. 7 lb, 12 oz. 20 1/2" long. He is a happy, healthy little boy, eating well and sleeping great...during the day, not so much at night.

Megan's Baby Shower

Megan's baby shower was this weekend. We had fun celebrating and getting her ready for the new little guy due Dec. 23.
Here we are- Megan's 34 weeks, I'm 37. It will be fun having a cousin growing up so close to the boys and so close in age. So far, Daniel and Vincent have 5 girl cousins, this will be the first boy...and my first nephew.






Daniel and Vincent were there at the beginning of the shower. They were eating lunch in the kitchen while I was in the other room. Robyn brought in Jody's 12-day-old baby, Andrew to show the boys and Daniel get's this surprised/serious/inquisitive look on his face and says "Did he come out?" Thinking that was his new little brother. I wish I saw it. I guess he knows what's coming.






This isn't the greatest photo, but I wanted to point out some things. Daniel and Vincent were playing in the garage the other day and having the greatest time. It's funny how they pick their favorite toys which sometimes aren't toys at all. Daniel has in his hand a flashlight which has turned out to be very popular this week, making for hours of entertainment. Vincent walks up and asks for this helmet to be put on his head constantly, or he puts it on himself (often sideways or backward which is even better.) In Vincent's hand is a tin that used to have mints in it. This is a favorite toy for both boys since the mint residue is still in the tin, they open it up, lick it, then close it again, over and over.
I'm very glad and thankful that the boys entertain themselves and each other with such simple things. It makes life much easier on this tired pregnant lady who can barely walk around the house these days.
Another favorite of Vincent's are these Spiderman snow boots. It doesn't really matter to him if he's got both on.