Paoletti Family: January 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Wonderscope

It has been a few years since we have been to Wonderscope, Children's Museum. The kids had a great time practicing their skills as physician's and vets.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Jedi Wars

Good thing Obi Wan can regenerate his head because Darth was really hard on him. The Jedi Wars of 2012 begin.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Sweet Stella

This cat is amazing. She tolerates a lot of "love" from the kids. Dominic never tires of holding and playing with her. 1.2012

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Welcoming Ava Irina

My brother had his first baby, a sweet little girl: Ava Irina. The kids are so excited to have a cousin to play with. 1.19.12

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Emily's first day of School

Isabella got her first American Girl doll for Christmas and she wasted no time getting her enrolled in school. They even have matching school uniforms. 1.2012

Sunday, January 8, 2012

We did a kid swap with my aunt. They had a weekend away and we watched their kids then they watched our kids for a weekend so we could have a weekend without the kids. The kids saw this as a win-win situation since they got to have 2 weekends this winter with their cousins. Here is a couple pictures from the weekend at our house. This most likely will be an annual event. 1.8.12

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Festive decorations

Every year I mean to take pictures of our decorations for Christmas. The house wasn't the cleanest when I finally got around to taking them but....at least I finally did it. 1.4.12

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Favorite Christmas Books

For several years we have been doing a book study for advent called Christmas Mosaic by Cay Gibson. We throughly enjoy reading 80-100 books in the 4 weeks before Christmas (ok sometimes we don't finish until closer to the Epiphany). I feel so Blessed to have such a great book list to pick from each year. After doing this for many years the kids and I have put together our favorites out of the many that we read. Some we all love. Some the kids love. I am sure the list will change each year. I hope to update it and repost it before Advent so that others can share some of the greatest Christmas books we have found. Please share if you have a favorite.

Family Favorites
Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco
The Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
The Little Fir Tree by Margret Wise Brown
The Christmas Candle by Richard Paul Evans
The First Christmas Stocking by Elizabeth Winthrop
The Light of Christmas by Richard Paul Evans
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
Josie's Gift by Kathleen Bostrom
Candy Maker's Gift by David & Helen Haidle
The Baker's Dozen: A St. Nicholas Tale by Aaron Shepard
One Candle by Eve Bunting
Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell
The Last Straw by Fredrick H. Thury
Marta and the Manger Straw by Virginia Kroll
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Jonathan's Gifts by Louise Mandrell

Kids Favorites
Cobweb Christmas by Shirley Climo
Allie the Christmas Spider by Shirley Menendez
The Attic Christmas by B.G. Hennessy
A Small Miracle by Peter Collington
Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson
The Grinch that Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess

Why do I Blog?

There have been some questions as to why in the world I would want to waste my time blogging. To those questions here is my response: First off....let's face it I am not a blogger. Blogging requires thought, opinions, issues and I just don't have time to type about those kinds of things when I could be posting pictures of my incredibly funny kids. Besides who wants to hear my opinions anyway? Probably no one and frankly I don't blame them. So the real reason why I blog...I know you are thinking I am going to say "for you" but to be really honest that isn't it either. I mean, I am happy that people can log on and keep up to date with what is going on in our life and see the kids grow up. But the real reason I blog is for my kids. This is their online scrapbook. I would consider myself to be a pretty creative and crafty person. I aspire to scrapbook but I just don't have the time or the space to do it. So instead I try to capture their childhood in pictures and words: the funny things they say and crazy things that they do. Someday they will get online and read about what they were like and know why we are so crazy about them. The best part is that I don't have to deal with glue or archival paper and the internet scrapbook can last forever.

What we are up to now:

Dominic is a big 6 year old now. He continues to be filled with joy and enthusiam everyday. He still loves super heros and celebrated his birthday with a Justice League birthday cake. He adores our two cats, Stella & Krypto. Every free minute he spends "loving" on them. I am amazed at what the cats will tolerate. He is really enjoying his first year of Kindergarten and is becoming a good reader. He gets to take art classes and piano and is doing great in both. When he isn't playing with cats he is building with Legos or playing super heros.
Christina continues to work one night a week teaching and is now homeschooling a 3rd grader and a kindergartener. She is also is teaching kindergarten phonics and 2nd & 3rd grade book club at the homeschool co-op. Her life is pretty scheduled with children's activities, class planning and all the fun that comes with taking care of a family. This year the whole family started taking piano lessons. Who would have thought she would start learning piano at her age! Also this year they started teaching Natural Family Planning as a couple for the church. Bringing God's plan for love and marriage to those who will embrace it. In September she got to go for 3 days to Colorado to visit her friend Gina. It was an amazing weekend of relaxation and fun adventure. She is hoping it will be an annual event.
Michael's continues to work hard to support our family fun. He is now a Creative Director at his company Salva O'Renick and is enjoying the challeges that come with his new role. This year he was the 8 & under coach for the Metro Lazers track team and really enjoyed working with the kids. In his free time he love to play superheros with Dominic and draw with Isabella. He has also enjoyed teaching NFP for the church and is so grateful for the graces that have come from teaching.
Isabella is growing into quite the little lady. She turned 8 over the summer and continues to be a voracious reader. She is currently loving the Classic Starts series and American Girl Mysteries. Her favorite 3rd grade subjects are history and spelling. She was in a constant battle with long division but there seems to be somewhat of a truce lately between the two. She continues to love her art class and is really enjoying our new family music lessons. She has an amazing ear for music and a natural talent for playing. She loves all her book clubs that she is currently in...there are 3! In her free time she loves to be creating something, playing with her dolls or reading.
Family: this year has been a wonderful year of joy in our family. We got to take a few vacations. In June we had a few days in St. Louis and in August we got to have 5 days in a cabin in Southern Missouri.