Maybe I should do better...

Whoa...Last time I blogged it was July. Sorry. Let's see what's new...

August: Went to see my sister Erin and her family in Indiana for a week. They just adopted a little girl from China. She is adorable. I am so happy for her and her family.

Had lots of fun in our pool in the backyard. Katelyn is a little fish. She is not scared of the water at all, so that keeps me on my toes watching her. She swims with a life jacket which is way more than my other kids did at her age. She is so cute to watch swim.

September: School started. Kiernan is now in 7th grade, Preston in 3rd, Ashlyn started Kindergarten, and Katelyn is still home with me. Ashlyn loves school and is doing well.

October: Had lots of fun running in leaves and of course going Trick or Treating. I'll post pics of our pumpkin carvings and the cuties in their costumes. Always so fun getting lots of candy and I always let them eat as much at they want...but only that night. After that, one or two a day.

November: So now I am up to date. The 1st quarter ended at school and everyone is doing well. Kiernan has a 93 in Math and his teacher says he has a good brain for it. Preston is progressing well. Ashlyn is doing well too. She still gets therapies and also has been given more Special Ed. She tends to get distracted in a large group, so working in small settings is good for her. We had Thanksgiving at our house with some of our close friends. We had so much fun playing Guesstures and watching everyone being silly. God has blessed us with great friends who are like family.

That's it for now. I'm all up to date. I'll have to post pictures later when I can get on my desktop. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and may your Christmas be blessed.

More pictures

Preston and Ashlyn in Karate.

Preston at his spring concert

Pictures

Ashlyn horse back riding

Pre-K graduation

We moved the boys to the room in the basement, and the girls got their old room. This is the finished product.

Sisters

Playing baseball. She loved it!

So much to catch up on

Ashlyn playing baseball
Todd and I hiking at Lake George

Karate white belt promotion test

Pretty girls

Wow! Have I been slacking in the blog department. Well, here is the latest in the Finn house.

Last month Todd and I went White Water Rafting on the upper Hudson River and we went hiking. It was the first time we had a few days away without the kids since, well, who knows when. We had such a great time. It was the first time we both have done rafting, but it won't be the last. Then we went hiking near Lake George.

Ashlyn started playing baseball. She absolutely loves it.

This summer Ashlyn will be going to summer school. She is slightly below where she should be and this will help her keep up the things she has learned so far. She will be starting kindergarten in the fall and will gone all day.

Preston has been struggling a little with his reading. He will also be going to summer school for reading.

Kiernan has been doing great in school and has earned the Merit award 2 marking periods so far. He is a smart kid and consistently gets grades in the 80s.

We recently put our pool up and the kids have been having a blast swimming. I'm so glad we have had a nice spring.

Todd, Me, Kiernan and Preston also are taking Karate. Good friends of ours opened their Karate School here in Ravena (Karate for Christ). The boys love it and Todd and I enjoy the workouts. I recently took my first promotion test and I am now a blue belt. Kiernan, Todd and Preston need more time to practice and will probably take the next promotion test and advance to a blue belt.

So far our spring has been busy and fun. Hope you all are enjoying your spring as well.

The 1980s and Easter Fun

Todd and I all dressed up 80s

Easter egg hunt

Finding an egg

Pretty girls

Todd and I recently went to a birthday party for our close friends. It was an 80s themed party. So funny seeing everyone dressed in their 80s outfits. Here are just a few pictures of Todd and I at the party.

Easter was also a fun day! Starting with church and then finishing with dinner with family.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Outside fun

Ready for school
Climb Kiernan, climb!

Say cheese!

You made it Kiernan!

It's been a while since I updated.

Things have been great in our household. Kiernan is consistently getting 80's on his report cards. He is a very smart boy and I am proud of him. Preston has made tremendous progress in his reading. He went from just below grade level 5 weeks ago, to at grade level reading independently. It just has finally clicked for him. He is also a very smart boy. Ashlyn is doing great as well. I have not got any updates on her progress from school, but I know she is really catching on to what she is learning. Even tonight she was telling me what certain words begin with by hearing the first sound. That is great! I am so delighted that she is really on track with her learning abilities. And who can forget cute little Katelyn. Katelyn is just a cutie pie who has a feisty personality. They are all such blessings to Todd and I.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Snowed In!

Building a snow fort.

Since everyone had off today we decided to all go out and play in the snow. Here are some fun pictures of our outside adventures!

Happy 8th Birthday Preston

Look how grown up he looks.
#8 cupcake cake.

Kiernan, Preston and Ashlyn.

His puffy eye from hitting the ice.

Preston turned 8 a few weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting the pictures.

He had a great party. We basically had just a kid party. He invited 6 kids from school and also had his cousins here. Wow! Nine boys together makes for a lot of noise and commotion. We had pizza and cupcakes (that they decorated). At one point some of them went outside to sleigh ride with whatever snow/ice that was on the hill. While outside, Preston fell and hit his head on the ice and ended up with a puffy black eye.

All in all he has a great time! We are so blessed to have him part of our family. He is a wonderful son!

Some fun pictures

Weeeeee!!!

Preston doing his best hand stand.

Cute girls.

Time for bed.

Oopps! I forgot to mention...

As my wonderful sister-in-law pointed out. I forgot to mention that we were able to spend one night with my brother Beau and his wife Lenette and their three adorable girls. They live about 2 hours from Todd's family in NC. We got there at lunch time and the kids quickly started playing with their cousins. That night after a yummy lasagna dinner that Lenette made. We (the adults) played some games. Oh my gosh, did we laugh. If you have never played Cranium, I suggest you do. I laughed so hard that I had tears coming down my face. Cranium is on the list of things I would like to get. The next morning Beau and Lenette took us to this cute restaurant/ bakery. We had the best breakfast of French Toast I have ever had. After breakfast we took a little stroll through downtown New Bern. It is a cute little town with lots of history. I would have loved to see more of the historic sites. One place we did go in was the store that was the birthplace of Pepsi-Cola. After our stroll we went back to their place and played some more games. We had so much fun on our visit with them. I wish we could have stayed longer.

Season Happenings

The kids checking out the fish at the Childrens Museum
Having fun with GanGan and PawPaw

Playing Wii on Christmas morning

Ashlyn and Katelyn singing the Good bye song with Ashlyn's teacher.

Baking cookies with my friends

We had a wonderful Christmas season. I will start with the school parties.

The Tuesday before Christmas Ashlyn had a party at school. She gets so excited when Katelyn and I some a visit her. The kids all had their snacks and then a special visitor came. It was Santa with gifts for all the kids. Santa called their names and they went up and got their gift. Ashlyn was the only one who didn't want to go up and get it and she cried. Katelyn cried when she first saw Santa, but that quickly changed when she saw that Santa was giving out stuffed animals.

Later that day Preston had his party. I was able to bring Ashlyn and Katelyn. Ashlyn was eager to play the games and sit in on circle time with Preston. They also made a Hot Cocoa project. The girls were so cute participating and loved seeing Preston in school.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to spend it with my Dad and Ginger. Ginger makes a wonderful fish dinner complete with shrimp cocktail, stuffed clams, linguine with clam sauce, fried shrimp and fish, and lobsters at midnight. As always, it was a fun night.

Christmas Day the kids opened all the gifts from Santa. The boys got a Wii compliments of Mom, Dad and Grandparents. They were thrilled and played all day. Later that day my Mom and Bob came over for dinner. We had stuffed pork loin, mashed potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, and pear pie for desert.

A few weeks prior to Christmas, Todd decided he wanted to go see his Dad in North Carolina. So Christmas night at around 6:30pm. we took off for NC. We arrived at about 3:30am. The kids slept most of the way and Todd and I were tired. We had a great week with them and as always they spoiled us and the kids. We came home early Sunday morning after driving through the night.

So that was our Christmas season. Hope you all had a wonderful season as well. And may you have many blessings in 2010.