Pizza Night!

Last week when I was grocery shopping I spotted a make your own pizza pack, which contained the ingredients for 2 pizzas for 8 bucks, so I bought it. I hadn't made pizza with the kids in quite a while & I figured they would get a kick out of it. LuLu helped a little but Braedon pretty much ended up being the only one who wanted to help. We made a cheese one & one with olives, tomatoes & onions. He loved it! He was so proud of the job he did!

Halloween Catch-up!

Life in the Melle house has been a little crazy to say the least! Yes still unpacking but also dealing with sick children! Lauren was out of school & dance since last Tuesday until this past Tues. She has pneumonia. The coughing is nuts, I feel so bad for her. She coughs so bad she gags half the time! They finally gave me an antibiotic Mon. LuLu had the pukes and now has the cough. And Rylan has had VERY high fevers for 2 nights! I have 4 kids & don't usually freik when my kids get fevers but one of the nights it was 104 under the arm! It did break pretty quickly once I gave him medicine though!

Last Wednesday night I took the 3 little ones to my mother's work,(Mt. Greylock Nursing Home) the residents were putting on trick or treating for the employees kids. It's nice to see the residents get excited to see all the children! It's also sad though because many of them have no family that visit them! I would never do that to my parents! Here's the whole gang, my kids minus Lauren, my brother's 2 kids & my sister's 2 kids.


Braedon holding up his prize he won for cutest!Last Friday we carved our pumpkins, here's LuLu with her crazy pumpkin face.Lauren did the Mickey Mouse one! It came out great! I did the other 3 but the kids picked out the designs.Braedon loved his pirate pumpkin!

Trick or Treat night this year was very different for us. It was only Colby, Isabella, Braedon & Rylan. LuLu had a fever so she couldn't go & Lauren went with 2 of her girlfriends. And my niece Alora & nephew Jacob were not there as well. Here's a couple pics.


Fun times even with the kids being sick. And lots of candy that won't last long in this house! We are all candy addicts. I'm going to have to hide some of it that's for sure!

Halloween Party at Kimmy's

OK, so I know I haven't posted much lately but I've been so busy w/the kids & still trying to unpack. Yes I still have boxes I need to unpack. Some days I am too lazy to even attempt it. What I really need is a good couple days w/no kids to get it all done. But that is obviously not gonna happen so I probably won't be done till next month!

Last weekend my good friend Kimmy had a Halloween party. It was fun, she had a skull hunting contest, whoever found the one w/a mark on the bottom of one of them won a prize. That was for the smaller kids. For the older kids/adults she had a donut eating contest, which is always hysterical! There was a guess how many candy corns jar. Crafts for the kids, pumpkin decorating & black glove decorating. And of course food & music!

Braedon on the hunt for sculls.
My little police officer.LuLu ballerinaLauren & KimmyKimmy's daughter, Gracie w/Braedon.Braedon working hard on his pumpkin.LuLu's proud of her glove!Lauren's glove she made to look like a spider.Kimmy's hubby, Jim w/Brae.Fun times! The kids had a great time & were all tuckered out from partying it up & passed out that night!

Girls Weekend in Maine!

Every year for the last 5 years my sister & I & our cousins have been going to Maine on Columbus Day weekend for a girls weekend. It's filled with shopping, drinks, great food & lots of laughs! Our mother's have been doing it for like 20 years. My cousin Colleen & I used to ask to join their group & they told us we should start one of our own so 5 years ago we did. We stay in a nice condo in Wells usually. We shop at the Kittery outlets, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit & Kennybunkport. At the end of the days we go out to some wonderful restaurants & have some drinks back at the room later. It's always a great time & the weekend always goes by way too fast!! Here in this pic we are one of our favorite restaurants Verano's. Great Italian place, highly recommend you go here if you ever have the chance!

My cousin, Bridget having a little fun!


Bridget & I being silly.The boats in Perkins Cove. Love this place!It was my cousins birthday the second day we were there. We celebrated at The Steakhouse. Another great place! They have the best house potato!All of us in Perkins Cove.We are thinking of extending our trip one more night for next year. We always leave early Sat. morning & come home Mon. but alot of times we feel rushed so we might start leaving on Friday's instead. It all depends if everyone will be able to get the day off from work. I'm hoping it will work out for all of us so we can have that extra night!

I'm Back.....

Well, we are all moved in! We moved in on the 30th of Sept. in the pouring rain that day! It sucked! I've gotten alot done but still have alot left! You don't realize how much stuff you accumulate until you move. The computer was just turned on Tuesday, thank god! I was going nuts without it! I took a picture of our new house to show because I'm so excited & happy that we FINALLY have one of our own! Love my front porch, always wanted one & I am glad we were able to get a house with one! There is also a fenced in backyard, not a huge yard but a nice size.

I am absolutely in love with our new fridge! So much room in this thing!The pellet stove is great! We already tested it out & it's just lovely!Another big selling point to this house were these built-ins in the living room. Yup, Braedon's on the computer, what a suprise!My kids all seem much happier now as well. Of course being across the street from the park helps too! Now I just have to decide whether to change the kids schools yet or wait ill next year. The only thing I'm not to happy about being in Dalton is that Braedon won't be able to go into Kindergarten next year because of when his birthday is(11 days after the cut off). That's why I'm not sure whether to change Laci or leave her so I can try to start Braedon next year in Pittsfield then transfer him after.

On another note, my baby brother had his first child on Sept. 15th. A boy, Gabriel. His poor girlfriend pushed for 3 hours before they finally decided on a c-section. Everything was okay until his 2 week check-up. The doctor noticed a swooshing sound in his chest, thinking it was a hole in his heart, they sent them to Bay State Hospital that day. We found out later that day that there is this tube in/near the heart that we are all born with that splits & one side is for oxygenated blood & the other side is for de-oxygenated blood. Well, Gabriel's started to split but fused back together so his blood flow was way off! He was sent to Children's Hospital in Bosten right away! They did open heart surgery on him & put a new tube in him. The surgery went well but a couple hours after he started bleeding profusely thru one of the tubes & the doctors had to chest compressions right on his open heart!! And my brother & our father were in the room when all this went down! I can't even imagine what was going thru their minds! I would have been going nuts!! But it's been a week since the surgery & he is doing well. He was on many machines but has been taken off everything as of yesterday. Now when my sister, cousin & I went to see him on Monday he still had the feeding tube in so that's what you will see in the pictures. He is quite a cutie though! Snuggling with his doggy Grandma got him.

Looking at auntie!You gave all of us quite a scare little munchkin! Thank god you are doing good! We all love you lots! Situations like these really make you sit back & realize how blessed & lucky you are!!

8 Years Together...Moving Day....

8 years ago on Monday Mickey & I were married. It was a small, intimate ceremony at the Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA. Only about 25 of us, pretty much just our parents & siblings. We had just decided one day about a month before to get married. We wanted another baby & but felt we should get married first. We were going to have our "big" family wedding on our first anniversary but life happens, didn't have the money etc... I've told him though in 2 years for our 10th I would like to renew our vows & have the wedding we didn't have back then. And also go on a honeymoon which we also never had! We figure the kids will be15, 9, 6 & 3 & we will have definitely earned it by then!! Happy Anniversary babe! Luv You!

Ok so a while ago I posted how we had purchased a house & would be moving to Dalton. Well tomorrow is moving day! Can't wait, well not really thrilled on the actual moving furniture, heavy boxes, unpacking, etc but once that's all done it will be great! I can't believe the day is finally here! We have waited soooo long to have a house of our own. I gotta say though what they say is true about buying a house it is VERY stressful!! We had a few unexpected issues arise & it was not easy! Thank god for my mom, my father-in-law & step-mother-in-law!! I don't know what we would have done if it wasn't for their help w/one of the issues w/the house. We are extremely grateful!! And it wasn't easy to ask for their help, I'm a very stubborn, proud person but sometimes you have to give in & ask. Anyway I probably won't be able to post for a bit, but I'm going to try not to be away for too long! Wish us luck!!

Apple Picking

My mom & I took the kids apple picking today at Lakeview Orchards. It was a really nice day for it, not to hot, not to cold. The kids had fun. Lauren took off on us to taste all the different apples, she wasn't really into the "apple picking" thing. Rylan was old enough this year to enjoy it. He was funny, going from apple to apple. At one point he was eating one & dropped it & it got dirt all over it, he picked it back up & started to eat it again. I tried to take it away & give him a new one & he freiked so I handed it back to him. Oh well, what's a little dirt right?! You will notice there is no pics of Lauren because she wouldn't let me take any of course! What a pain sometimes.










Think we got enough!? Carmel apples, apple pie & apple sauce to be made!


Of course when we were done picking we had to go in the shop & buy some goodies! We got cookies, donuts, a whoopie pie & the carmel apple kit. The kids can't wait to make those! Maybe we will do it tomorrow. A nice day spent with my mom & kids!!