It's The Foleys

Dear Santa!

2009-12-10T08:38:00.002-06:00

Robert has been really starting to click with the whole Christmas and Santa thing this year. He has had the usual questions on the process and how it works. Bob has been answering question after question about Santa. I am so glad that he is handling the Q & A sessions, as I am not very good at thinking on my feet.

Robert was a little deflated that he couldn't write a letter to Santa (as he cannot write yet)? He also kept asking us what we asked Santa for when we were little. It seems that Robert was unsure of what he could and couldn't ask for! It was so cute.

We decided to grab all the newspaper adds out of the Sunday paper. We cut out all the pictures of things that Alastair and Robert wanted for Christmas and glued them down to construction paper. This was our letter to Santa.

We have to keep them safe so that we can put them by the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. I told Robert that Santa would read the letter when he stopped by and would leave them something from their list.

Took some pictures of the process. Hope you Enjoy!
Juanita

'Tis the season!!!

2009-11-21T10:12:00.002-06:00

We took the boys to a Seaworld last night. They were giving a VIP Sneak Peak of their Christmas Holiday Shows. I was a little nervous about going, as nothing was going right:
1. Bob was actually scheduled to work overnight that night. Luckily, he found someone to work his shift so that we could all go.
2. The day of the event, it rained buckets all day. Yes, this is an outdoor event. Seaworld assured us that they had moved the event indoors as much as they could.

We drove to the event in pouring rain and heavy traffic. When we arrived, the huge ominous black cloud hovering over my head started to drift away. As soon as we walked up, a WONDERFUL Seaworld employee was handing out Shamu ponchos for the rain. Alastair couldn't have cared if it was raining or not. He was now dressed up as a SHAMU!!!!! We walked to the reception and dined with Shamu, Dolly (the dolphin), and Santa on many a delicious appetizer and hot chocolate. YUMMY!!!

We left the reception, and on the way to our first show, we were all handed a rolled up T-shirt with an ornament inside. The biggest hit was the SHAMU Santa hat we were all given.

After passing the HUGE Christmas tree, we got to go see a 4-D presentation of Polar Express! It was so awesome. The boys loved it. It included the 30 minute version of the movie and even snow floating down from the ceiling.

After this movie, we got to see "Sesame Street Christmas Show" WOW, is all I can say.
The evening ended with a Holiday Presentation from Shamu. This was wonderful. The show was done to the music of a quartet singing Christmas carols.

Needless to say, the evening that started out so dismal, faded into a wonderful experience as soon as we walked into the gates.
I have added a few pictures for you. Enjoy.

November

2009-11-16T07:43:00.002-06:00

It has been a busy month for us so far. Robert, Alastair and I walked the 5 mile Children's Miracle Network Torch Relay on the 14th. I was so proud of my team at work. As a team we raised $1200 for Childrens Miracle Network!!!! Alastair was in his stroller and Robert jogged/walked next to me the ENTIRE way. I was so impressed that Robert did all 5 miles on his own two feet. The torch relay took us down the new section of the Riverwalk. It was beautiful! Robert and Alastair spent most of the 5 mile walk looking into the water for frogs. They saw many lilly pads, but no frogs.

On Sunday, we celebrated Alastair's 3rd Birthday. We did it in true Transformers style. We had granny, aunty and cousins come over as well as our next door neighbors. We had a great time. Alastair really has mastered tearing into those presents. He will have no trouble at Christmas.

October!

2009-10-23T20:24:00.002-05:00

Well it has been a great October, so far. My brother came down last weekend and we ended up going to Seaworld unexpectedly and very last minute. We had only a few hours there, but had so much fun. It is always precious when we can get the cousins together to play and enjoy eachothers company.

Robert enjoyed the shows so much more this year as his attention span is getting longer. Alastair, surprisingly enough, REALLY enjoyed Seaworld. Much more in fact than his brother did at that age.

Before this trip to Seaworld, I thought at the kids needed 2-3 more years before Disney, but after this trip to Seaworld, I think they might be ready for their first trip.

I took a few pictures of them at seaworld, playing with their cousins. There are some pictures also of Robert and Alastair playing around. Hope you all enjoy.

We are going to "Trunk or Treat" at our church tomorrow. More pictures to come.

I will post halloween pictures next weekend.
Love Juanita

August

2009-08-13T19:06:00.002-05:00

Well it has been a hot summer. I havent felt much like taking pictures lately and am starting to feel guilty about it. So here is our August update.

Robert started riding his first bicycle yesterday. It has training wheels and Daddy has to push him around as he hasnt quite realized the power he need to peddle, but he is getting it. Alastair, as he has to be just like his brother, is riding a little version of a go cart. Very cute to watch. Alastair of course has no idea how to peddle so there is a handle on the back of the go cart for Mommy and Daddy to push. So much fun for Mommy and Daddy in AUGUST.

Granny bought the boys some "plastic balloon" stuff. I remember playing with it when I was young. I LOVED it. Except ours was pink. We went outside and played making balloons out of the stuff. Loads of fun!!!

Boys are doing well. We just switched their Pediatrician and we really love the new doctor. She is great.

Bob is getting ready to start school again. Taking Economics and Accounting. I actually got excited to hear about his accounting class. How much of a nerd am I.

Its about time to hear from the Medical Examiner on Dad's Toxicology report. Mom went down to fill out the request for a copy of the autopsy. So we just have to wait for it to arrive in the mail now. Not sure when it is coming, but should be anywhere from today to 3 weeks. So no real way to know.

We are going to the beach on Monday and Tuesday this next week and cant wait. We havent told the boys yet, its a surprise. Funny thing is, I dont know that the boys would be more excited then their dad. Bob may have the car packed by Tomorrow. He is like a kid when it comes to the beach. I didnt ever expect that he would enjoy it that much. We have lived here 7 years and have only been to the beach twice. I think part of the reason that Bob loves going to the beach so much is that he never expected the boys to LOVE the beach,waves and salt water as much as they do. He loves to see their enjoyment.

So ready to go to Arizona for our Holiday Vacation in December. I know it is still months away, but I cant wait. We havent seen our family in AZ since March I think, and we miss them so much.
So that is my update for now. Please enjoy the pictures.

June 09

2009-06-08T07:54:00.003-05:00

June has been a tough month for us so far. Dad passed away unexpectedly on June 2nd. As you can imagine the following week has been extremely hard on the entire family. Mom is heading back to Houston with Warren to spend a week with him. Warren is being promoted to Leuitenant-low grade or first grade so Mom wants to be there to be a part of that ceremony. Bob, myelf and the boys are taking a much needed break and heading to the coast for a little family time.

Day 1: We arrived in Corpus Christi and checked into our hotel and then headed straight for the Port Aransas beach. We took the ferry onto the island, which the boys loved. We spent the next 4 or so hours playing in the ocean. Robert had a blast and took right to the waves, shouting "I will not be pushed back, Onward" into the waves.

Alastair took a little more adjusting to the bigger waves as he was more afraid of where the sharks were. So we played more in the shallow water.

I know Poppie would have loved to have seen their first experience on the beach and in the ocean. He would have loved to hear Robert's squeals of laughter and excitement. I know that somewhere Poppie was watching us and enjoying the salt air as well. We miss you so much Poppie.

Day 2:
We went to the Texas State Aquarium today. The boys had fun touching stingrays, seeing otters, dolphins, birds, ect. We had lunch outside looking over the bay. It was a beautiful day.

On to Day 3

Update

2009-03-11T21:27:00.003-05:00

Well, I know its been a while. I have been really bad this year of uploading and posting news and pictures.

So, lets see:
Robert has lived to see 4 years old!!! So has Dad!!! HEHE

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to see the Grandparents in Arizona. We went for 10 days. All too short as always.

I have included a BUNCH of pictures of our new playground we bought the boys, Robert's 4th birthday, and our vacation to Arizona.

We hope you enjoy them.
Love Juanita

Happy Holidays

2008-12-22T16:47:00.000-06:00

Today the boys decorated their first Gingerbread house. Dad took the pictures, we hope you enjoy.
Love Juanita

Happy Birthday Alastair!!

2008-11-30T19:02:00.002-06:00

I know, I know. This post is really late, Alastair's birthday was Nov 12th. I am just a little behind these days. We had Granny and Poppie over for his 2nd birthday party. Granny made the marvelous Mickey cake. Robert even scored a birthday gift too!! Go Figure!!! We hope you enjoy the pictures.

Love Juanita

Halloween

2008-11-01T11:58:00.002-05:00

Well, it seems that I am great about taking pictures and not so good at getting them uploaded in a timely fashion.
We have three sets of pictures to share with you!!!
1. The boys wrestle with dad on a very routine basis (much more often than Bob is prepared for). I really enjoy watching the boys tag team their dad. I took some pictures so you can share the fun.
2. The boys went to pick out their pumpkins and decorate and carve them with dad. Hope you enjoy.
3. Robert (the Red Power Ranger-as if there is any other color power ranger worth mentioning) and Alastair (the knight) went trick or treating with our two sets of neighbors with kids of similar ages. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Library Outing

2008-10-22T16:40:00.002-05:00

Today the weather was so beautiful, so we decided to take the boys to the local playground at the library down the street. The boys had so much fun just running around and climbing everything. After a while, we decided to retreat into the library for some much needed water. Of course the library was crowed with early voters. We spent a little time investigating the library and of course the kids section. Robert found the interactive computer for kids and had a blast listening on the headset. This was such a fun way for us to get out of the house and spend a little time together. Robert even fell asleep on the way home in the car. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

Seaworld

2008-10-21T16:31:00.002-05:00

This last weekend, my brother and his familly came up from Houston. We all went to Seaworld for the day. Grandma and Poppie got to go to Seaworld for the first time. We took my brothers camper and came out of seaworld for lunch in the camper and then went back in. That was a smart idea. We had a cool,comfortable place to go for lunch. No lines, and no high prices. Robert and Alastair enjoyed the shows. Of course Shamu was the hit. Enjoy the photos.

And thanks to Grandma for the Halloween Gift box. There are some pictures of the boys eating their candy necklaces and scaring mom with the spider.

October

2008-10-12T18:25:00.002-05:00

October is such a nice month for playing outside. We took some pictures of the boys outside today. Hope you enjoy.

Magic Sand?

2008-10-05T20:22:00.002-05:00

Well we have some interesting tales to tell today.

Tale 1:
Bob went up to get the boys after nap time and found Alastair in "jail" as the crib day bed was pushed into the closet along with Alastair. Robert then used his bed to climb up onto the top shelf of the closet. Once up there, he didnt know how to get down. When Bob found him, you could tell that Robert had been up there for quite some time and was having a hard time deciding if it was worth it to call Dad for help to get down (and then have to face punishment for climbing up) or sit there until he could figure out how to get back down. Bob took some time to take the pictures as proof for Mom as to what her boys were doing while she was at work!!!

Tale 2:
Not so funny. Robert , for some unknown reason, started having panic attacks at bedtime about fire coming in his bedroom window and burning his skin. As horrified as I was about this anxiety, I cannot for the life of me figure out why. We are very careful about what he watches. Sprout and Disney channel. He doesnt even watch Nickolodeon as we find the cartoons to adult in content. We dont even watch our TV series shows while they are awake EXCEPT FOOTBALL. So where this fear came from we dont know. We tried everything to calm his fears. Bob and Robert practiced crawling around the carpet and going over the fire detector's responsibilites so that Robert would understand that we would be fine in the event of a fire. We explained that we were right next door and would come get him if ever there was a fire. We explained that we would never let anything happen to him. We even talked about the firemen and firewomen. We finally settled on MAGIC!!!!! We sprinkled MAGIC SAND in the back yard (kids colored play sand from Walmart) to ward off any fire in the back yard. And we sprinkled MAGIC SAND (carpet sprinkles-febreze from Walmart) in his bedroom. We told him if he could see the blue MAGIC SAND out of his window and could smell the MAGIC SAND in the air in his room, then no fire could get in. As I hold my breath, this seems to have worked. He still checks for the sand in the back yard, but doesnt seem to have any anxiety anymore. THANK GOODNESS. Amidst all this tension, I did see some of the "you will look back on this and laugh" and took some pictures to remember this event.

Hurricane Robert!!

2008-09-20T17:22:00.001-05:00

I love my children, but sometimes........

My son's got bored in their room after bedtime and this is what I found the next morning! They both had destroyed one of their mattresses. We have had them sleeping on the floor in their room (hopefully to teach them some respect for their things) but we just purchased a second mattress for Robert and have reset up their rooms. Pray that all goes well. We have now had to strap down their mattresses so that this may not happen again. :) We have included pictures on our site for you to see the destruction left in Hurricane Robert's ( and mini me, alastair's) path.

August!!!

2008-08-05T16:29:00.002-05:00

We took the kids to spend a night at a local hotel two weekends ago. The kids and Bob spent a good deal of time in the pool. I do think that Alastair may be part fish. He loves the water and keeps trying to get you to let him go so that he can go under. He wants to jump in, and loves going under water. Robert on the other hand, does not like to get his face or ears wet. Which Bob likes to blame on me as I am that way too. We included a picture of Alastair's "pickled" feet from being in the pool too long. We also tried to capture Alastair's new eye teeth in one of the pictures.

This last weekend, we were lucky enough to have Warren, Sarah, Kenzie, Jackson, and Brendan come down and visit us. It was the first time for us to meet baby Brendan. We had so much fun. We spent the weekend at mom and dad's house. We bbq'd, went swimming, and just plain had a ball. It was amazing seeing all 6 grandkids together in one house. WOW!!! It ended all too soon as Warren got called back to Houston for Tropical Storm Eduardo. We definately do not get together enough.

Enjoy the picturse.

An American Citizen...Finally!!!!!

2008-06-22T18:43:00.003-05:00

Hello All,
I am proud to announce that on June 19, 2008 at 2:00 P.M. I became an American Citizen. I am so excited as this is a goal that I have had for myself for a very long time. It really was a very specail event. All the associates at my work surprised me with flowers, a "Congrats" balloon, mini red,white, and blue cupcakes and a card. My husband, kids and my parents joined me for the ceremony at the Insititute of Texas Culture for the offical ceremony. They Judge preformed the ceremony. It was quite an event. There was an Army band that played, a recorded speach from The President, and three life testimonials from fellow applicants. I was lucky enough to get my name changed during this process, so now I can say that---after 4 years--- I am offically Juanita Foley. So I am proud to say that I now call America my country and my home.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-11T18:43:00.002-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers and expectant Mothers, Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers out there.

We had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. We went out to the lake with my folks and my sister. We had a full afternoon of barbeques, fishing, and swiming. Robert caught another fish with Poppie. This one he did not want to put in the fish tank at home, but wanted to cook it and eat it???? Then he decided to throw it back. Thank goodness. If anyone out there thinks that I am going to clean a fish..... Well, I am not.

Anyways, we have a bunch of pictures from the day at the lake for you all. Hope you enjoy.

May

2008-05-03T18:32:00.002-05:00

The boys have been having a blast already swimming in their kiddie pool at both grandma and poppies house and at home. Robert and Alastair went fishing and duck feeding with grandma and poppie on Friday. Robert didn't only catch his first fish, but caught his first 8 fish. He has his own "transformers" fishing rod and tackle box. Alastair was more interested in feeding the ducks than worring about fishes. We added some pictures of this event on this web site. We hope you enjoy.

Strawberrries

2008-04-12T20:33:00.002-05:00

Hello All,
We went to the Strawberry Festival in Poteet today. Poteet is a town about an hour from our house. It is basically a big fair centered around the cities livlihood of strawberries. Robert had a blast. He rode his first carnival rides today. He was on a carosel and two other rides. He saw bears and tigers (his daddy would not let us take a picture with these animals). Robert went to the petting zoo. Robert and Alastair saw a cowboy gun fight and got there pictures taken with the cowboys. Alastair is recovering from being sick, so he wasnt at all too interested in the festival. We came home exhausted and now the kids are in bed. Fhew!!!!!!!!!!!
Our love to all
Juanita

March

2008-03-21T20:29:00.002-05:00

Well, I have been a bad mom. It is almost a month since Robert's 3rd Birthday and this is the first time I have sat down at my computer to load in pictures of the party. Robert had a great birthday and enjoyed a lot of cake. His favorite toys were is bubble sword, his shooters and his football.

Robert is now potty training, I am proud to say. We got off to a rough start but he is doing very well now, thanks to the help of SUGAR bribes. YEAH no more diapers for that one.

Alastair is growing fast. He is saying so many new words and every once in a while will string a few words together. Among his favorites are: book, baxter (our dog), give me, OUCH, no, nite nite, bye bye, down, and uppie.

We are going easter egg hunting at a local church tomorrow, so I will be sure to download those pictures before may. HAHA!!!
Our love to everyone.

Hello February

2008-02-10T16:37:00.001-06:00

Well February has been great to us so far. I am pleased to say that everyone is healthy, knock on wood. We also just celebrated my sweet husband's birthday this week. Winter is finally on the way out and spring is in the air. I may be a little ahead of myself, but my rose bushes are starting to sprout new leaves and so are my two trees that I planted last year. As long as I can avoid another frost or freeze, I think they are well on their way to blooming. And for those of you who don't know this yet about me...... I planted four rose bushes last spring and they have been my babies for the last year. I have been mothering them all year and been pretty proud of their progress, as I do not have a green thumb. In fact, I think my thumb is black. But you can't tell that by my roses, they are going strong. Maybe I only have a rose thumb. HeeeHeee. So I am excited to see how they will do this spring, as I just did some agressive pruning about 1 month ago.

I have taken more pictures of the boys. We hope you enjoy them.
Juanita

Is January Over Yet????

2008-01-26T12:20:00.000-06:00

Oh my Gosh, it's been a long January!!!! Well lets see if I can run down the events of January for you. Robert gets croup and then about a week later Alastair gets croup. Alastair doesn't get over it as easy as his brother, iin fact it only gets worse. Finally we take Alastair to the doctor because mommy says he has bronchitis or pneumonia or something worse now. The doctor says, Yes he has a bad case of croup. A week later the croup is still not gone, so we go back. One set of x-rays later, Alastair has pneumonia. We finally get over the pneumonia and Robert gets a stomach virus of some kind and spends the next 12 hours throwing up. Mommy stays home to help and keeps Robert in bed upstairs and Daddy keeps Alastair downstairs. Yeah!!! We all know how well mommy handles throw up. And then, you guested it. Mommy gets the stomach virus and spends 12 hours throwing up. FUN!!!. Well as true family viruses go, Alastair, who is just over pneumonia gets the virus.

So now we are just coming out of Alastair being sick today (i think). Is Daddy next????? We will see. I am just waiting for this hexed month to be over. NO MORE SICKNESS!!!!!!!

Bye the way, we got together with my brother, sister and their families in between the quarantine weeks. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Back to Reality

2007-12-30T22:43:00.000-06:00

Well the vacation is over, and I return to work tomorrow!!!! :( We went to Arizona to spend Christmas with Bob's family in Tucson. We were lucky enough to take about 10 days off for our vacation. While in Arizona we visited the Tucson Zoo and the Children's Musuem, and of course, Santa. I was also lucky enough to be able to visit with my long time friend Kristen and her boyfriend Phil and their daughter Hayley. I got to visit with a long lost friend as well. A good friend of mine, Courtney, was able to stop by as well. I havent seen her since....well at least 5 years. We all went to the Zoo together.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were perfect. We got to see the family, decorate ornaments, and relax.

We returned home and had a second Christmas with my family here in San Antonio. My brother and his family were able to make it for the holidays and we got to spend a little time with them as well.

So as you can see, we were truely blessed this season. I have posted some pictures of our vacation in Arizona and will post more later for the Zoo, Children's Museum and our San Antonio Christmas.

I hope everyone was as fortunate as we were to have the Perfect Holiday Season. Our love to all and more pictures to follow.

Merry Christmas To All......

2007-11-29T21:18:00.001-06:00

Its Finally Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christmas is my favorite time of year. I look forward to this all year long.

Holiday Music in all the stores
Christmas trees and decorations in every building you go into
All the lights displays on the homes
Shopping for that PERFECT gift for a special person
Christmas would not be complete with out the great christmas commercials "They do exist! He does exist" If you are a true Christmas fan, you will recognize this a the seasonal M&M's commercial.
"Its a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street", "The Santa Clause", "A Christmas Carol" - I could go on and on, and YES, I do have to watch them all.
Hearing Robert say each and every time we go into Walmart, "Mommy, I want to go see Christmas!" - Translation: he wants to go see the seasonal section with the tree and yard decoration displays.
Getting all the family together that we havent seen in a while! This is our year to go to Arizona to see our family there. We only get to see them twice a year, and only every second year for Christmas.
Pictures with Santa!!!

There are so reasons, I could list.

On Sunday, my work is hosting our anual holiday party. This year we are inviting all our staff's families. We will have our special guest, Santa, there. I will post pictures as soon as we get back.

Happy Birthday Alastair!!!

2007-11-13T20:16:00.000-06:00

Monday was Alastair's first birthday. We had a small gathering of family on Sunday to celebrate. Although it was Alastair's party, Robert kept referring to it as "my party". We could not convince him that it was not his party, but his brothers. Alastair demolished his little cake in true One Year Old Fashion. Alastair got a cool keyboard (which we now hear ALL the time), and Robert got a new guitar. Mommy broke his last guitar and he has been asking for a new one ever since. So both boys got what they wanted and the party was fun. I have included some pictures of this wonderful event for you.

After cake, bath, and presents- Bob cooked dinner for our clan. We then took a bunch of family pictures for two reasons. One- Yes, I do have a new camera that I am still learning. Two- I realized that we do not have any recent family pictures. We do not have any pictures at all of Ursula, Jason and Kelsie. And we do not have any pictures of mom becuase she makes like a ghost and disappears when a camera comes out. So I forced everyone to a painful evening of photos, which I hope you all enjoy.

It's Finally Fall!!

2007-11-10T11:17:00.000-06:00

Well Fall is finally here. We got to put our clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep, although the boys did not seem to realize that. Bob was sweet enough to buy me a new camera as an early Christmas present, so as you can tell I have been taking a lot of new pictures. I bought a computer program for photo editing, so I am hoping to fancy up our pictures too.

We took the boys to the park for a picnic last weekend. Robert and Bob went for a walk in the "woods" while Robert and I ate snacks. We also spent quite a bit of time on the playard and swings.

Bob decided to try using my camera the other day (as I usally take most of our pictures), and took a bunch of pictures of the boys. I have put some of them up for you to see. We hope you enjoy.

Today, the boys and I are going downtown to do a fundraiser walk for Children's Miracle Network. It is a 2.5 mile walk downtown to raise money for our local children's hospital. We do it every year. Last year, we were scheduled to go, but I went into labor. Yes, this is my baby's 1st birthday this weekend. We are going to do a small party tomorrow. Robert keeps telling me that the party is for him, :) of course.

So this season is full of things going on and fun to be had. Soon it will be time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yeah!!!

Trick or Treat!!!

2007-11-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween Everyone,
I hope everyone had a great Halloween. This was a good year for us, as Robert is getting old enough now to really enjoy the season. We took the boys to a local landscaping company that was doing a Halloween Maze. Robert got to run around the maze and look at all the "cool" scary things. Of course his favorite was the skeleton leg bone that he used as a sword. This child will find a sword anywhere.

Then on Sunday night, Bob and Robert carved the two pumpkins. One for Daddy and one for Robert. I cannot believe the amount of patience that Bob has. Anyways, the pumpkins turned out amazing. Robert had a wonderful time doing the pumpkins with this dad. I am not sure how much fun Bob had. :(

We took both boys trick or treating. Alastair in the stroller as it was past bedtime. Robert really enjoyed himself this year. He got the "trick or treat" part down some of the time, and the rest of the time he just said "thank you" when someone opened the door. My favorite part was- as we would walk up the driveways to each house, Robert would be whispering "please, please, please" like a little chant. He was hoping that the homeowner would open the door. It was really cute. After about an hour, Robert got tired and told Bob that he wanted to go home. Bob carried him the rest of the way. Believe it or not, that child slept like a log.

So that is our Halloween experience this year. I have added a bunch of pictures of the Pumpkin Maze and the Pumpkin Carving and Trick or Treating. We hope you enjoy them.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

2007-10-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well Fall is here and thus the door closes on all the fun of summer but opens to so much more. Fall brings beautiful weather with warm afternoons and cool peaceful evenings. Lets not forget Halloween and Thanksgiving will soon be here as well. This is the time of year of delicious food and many family gatherings.

Today we took Robert and Alastair to the "Pumpkin Patch" to pick out their pumpkins and to take some seasonal pictures. It was a beautiful cloudless day, with a slight breeze. Who could ask for more! The boys had a good time raising havoc and choosing their "perfect" pumpkins. Robert was really excited that Daddy got a BIG pumpkin one too. We have to have one to carve of course, and as luck would have it, the boys picked out little bitty ones. So after about an hour we came home with 75 pictures, 3 pumpkins, and a loaf of pumpkin bread. I think we did pretty well.

We hope you enjoy the pictures from the pumpkin patch. We will soon be sharing our Halloween pictures and experiences.

Maya Angelou

2007-10-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love this poem and wish this for all of you ladies.

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of
her own even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her dreams
wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in
her old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who
lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone
else in her family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a
recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a feeling of control over her destiny...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
HOW TO QUIT A JOB, BREAK UP WITH A LOVER,
AND CONFRONT A FRIEND WITHOUT RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but its
over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

Maya Angelou

The End of Summer

2007-10-12T11:25:00.000-05:00

Well summer is finally over. Work is starting to settle down now that the major tourist season is over. I am finally getting home on time each night to have dinner with the family. Bob has dinner ready at 5:30 each night. How spoiled am I?

The boys are doing well. Robert has more energy than I know what to do with. He is learning so much every day. Alastair is starting to walk and is learning as much as he can from his brother. At this point, I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. :) We are starting to look at our plans for Christmas and set out some dates for going to Arizona for the holidays.

So all is great in the Foley world as our boys continue to grow and learn.