Picard Family

Pops!!!

2010-12-11T15:05:00.003-05:00

Lucy is addicted to pops. We ran out and she asked me if I bought more every ten minutes for the next 24 hours until I decided to put some juice in a paper cup with a stick. Then she asked me if her pop was ready yet every ten minutes for the next 5-6 hours until it froze.
This is the reason I am entering this giveaway over at Kitchen Corners. http://www.kitchencorners.com/2010/12/zoku-quick-pop-maker-giveaway.html

When I Was a Kid

2010-12-02T11:04:00.003-05:00

I have no pictures to post because our computer is down and out. I will be devastated if it can't be fixed. The amount of stuff on there that I haven't backed-up is astounding. My Mother-in-Law is graciously letting us borrow her laptop until we can fix it. Somehow my life has become unmanageable without a computer. I'm not sure when or how this happened but it surely did and it makes me sad that it has come to this.
Remember when there was no Internet and we had to hand write papers for school? My Brother-in-Law, who is a high school teacher, says he won't accept handwritten papers and that is really the norm.
Cynthia (who is in 4Th grade) is learning cursive but I'm pretty sure that by the time Lucy is her age she will not have to learn it. That is sad to me. Mostly because it is a sign of what is happening in the world. Everything needs to be faster and "better". It also makes me feel old to even have the phrase, "When I was a kid...." enter my mind.

How much do you rely on your computer? Is it pretty much normal that I use my computer for EVERYTHING from facebook to kids homework to figuring out what to make for dinner? I think I am......

Why Do I Love Staying Home?

2010-05-12T12:49:00.005-04:00

It is the greatest thing in the world to be able to have a dancing/lip syncing party on a Friday morning with Lucy and Emma.

Fairy or Ferry?

2010-02-12T10:47:00.003-05:00

Emma came home from school so excited. "Mom! Mrs. H told us today that if you go to see the Statue of Liberty you have to take a fairy to get there!"

Young Love

2010-01-22T09:43:00.003-05:00

Jonathan is in 1st grade now. He has always had a soft heart but he has fallen hard for a girl named Charlotte. She is the "new girl" in class. He's talked about her a bit to me but I overheard him talking to his big sister the other day and got the real scoop. Their little conversation went like this......
Jonathan said something about Charlotte being so pretty, then Cynthia said,
"Who's Charlotte, is Charlotte your best friend?"

"No, I've never even talked to her, I just like to look at her all the time."
So sweet, just like his Daddy!

Toddlers

2009-12-03T13:31:00.002-05:00

Lucy really never wants to take a nap but some days are worse than others. Today was a worse day and I had no energy to be the kind of Mommy that just puts her foot down. After some bargaining and bartering come to find out.....all she needed to happily take a nap was, no pants, a princess fanny pack and a chef's hat. Who knew? Just when I think toddlers are impossible she makes me remember why they are also THE BEST!!!!!!!!

My Bed

2009-10-22T16:05:00.004-04:00

This is my attempt at making my front yard a pretty place. I don't know how well a succeeded but it makes me smile. Sometimes a even stop and just stare at it.

Especially this part. I love the little Fairy!

I'm Pretty Sure No One Reads This

2009-10-20T16:07:00.005-04:00

I'm pretty sure no one reads my blog but I like going back and looking at the pictures so I'm going to keep posting.

Here is the back of Lucy's head and the tick that I found attached to the back of her head is there too. I really couldn't get a good picture but you can sort of see it's legs if you look closely.

Here's is the nasty thing after I pulled it out.

Jonathan's Birthday and a Little Cuteness

2009-10-10T08:52:00.005-04:00

The Birthday boy!!

Jonathan's "Golden Snitch" pinata

Jonathan turned 7 and we had a great time. It was somewhat of a Harry Potter themed party. On his actual birthday we took him to see Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in 3D. He has loved these movies since he was just a year old so it was perfect that they were in theaters on his big day.

Now just a little dose of cuteness from the party!

School's Out

2009-07-11T09:28:00.002-04:00

It is finally starting to feel like summer. The weather is warming up and the garden is just starting to produce yummy stuff to eat. Emma turned five a few weeks ago. She is REALLY a five year old in a big way. She seems excited to start kindergarten, we'll see? I'm not very excited to let her go at all, but I will hide my feelings from her so she won't take on my anxiety.
My brother Greg visited from California and my sister Kathy is here now. It is so great to see them all. I wish we were closer so we could visit more often. It is so fun just hanging out at my parents house with everyone. I know this is a boring post but I just wanted to write a bit. I will post again soon.

SPRING!!!

2009-04-27T13:30:00.002-04:00

Okay folks, we have Spring!!!! I am really excited about it although right now we are having a weird heatwave. It has been close to 90 degrees for the past few days???? Normal high for this time of year is in the 60's. I am going to be upset if we go straight from cold to hot without being able to enjoy that perfect "in between" weather! Our plants are loving the sunshine and I am excited to get our veggie garden in the ground.
Jonathan has started soccer with Paul being one of the coaches. He doesn't like all the running. I think he may be more of a baseball type kid, we'll see?
Cynthia was baptized a few weeks ago and it was wonderful! A few days after that Lucy turned two. April had been busy. Emma is VERY excited to be turning five although it's not until June. Mostly she's happy that we found out she doesn't need any more shots until she's twelve.

Winter

2009-01-14T13:41:00.010-05:00

Okay so it is certainly cold and there is no doubt now that winter is here in a major way. We have had snow days and delays quite a bit and church was even cancelled once. We are doing well despite the lack of outdoor activity. I really love having the kids home with me. It's so much more fun around here with all of them underfoot. Paul's been home quite a bit lately too and I've realized that we get along better when we're together more. Not that we are at each others throats or anything like that but the bickering is definitely less the more time we have together.
There's not too much new in our family which is a good thing to me. Lucy has finally started walking at 21 months and it is so great! She can play and run around like she's wanted to now.
I totally intended to send out a Christmas letter this year but it didn't happen so I'll put up pictures that we took of the kids and tell you all that we hope you had a happy holiday.

We tried to take a picture of all of them together but this was the best of the bunch. They were done, mostly Lucy.

Christmas

2008-12-31T10:37:00.003-05:00

The presents are all opened and the excitement is over. We had a good holiday this year. I love Christmas more now than I did as a kid I think, it's so fun to watch the kids. The only negative thing I can think of is Cynthia and Jonathan woke up at 3:30am and didn't go back to sleep until 5:30am then woke up again at 6:30am. Needless to say we were tired for the day but it was okay.

Halloween

2008-11-04T08:37:00.003-05:00

We had a seriously candy filled Halloween weekend. It started at school for the kids with their parties, then we went trick or treating with our friends in Dana Woods in Belchertown. So fun and thanks to the Hydes for letting us have a "home base" at their house.
Then the next evening we had our church party. The kids all dressed in different costumes than the night before and Paul was nice enough to make Jonathan a Wall E costume just hours before we had to leave. Jonathan ended up winning the prize for best costume in his age group. He was SO excited!
Holidays are more fun as a parent than they were as a kid. I love watching them have so much fun!

Funny

2008-10-18T08:33:00.002-04:00

Jonathan was lying in bed looking very puzzled and the following exchange took place.

Mom: "What's wrong Bud?"

Jonathan: "Mickey wears shoes, Goofy wears shoes, ClaraBelle wears shoes, Minnie wears shoes, Daisy wears shoes.....why doesn't Donald wear shoes?"

Mom (trying not to laugh): "I guess he needs his webbed feet for swimming."

Jonathan: "Oh yeah."

It's Fall!

2008-10-16T09:44:00.007-04:00

The chill is in the air and I LOVE this time of year. I love the weather, it is perfect...not hot, not cold, just right. It is a bit harder to get out of bed in the morning though. We haven't really used our heat yet so in the morning it is chilly and I just want to stay under the covers snuggling all day. I usually can't do that though because my kids always want silly things like, "breakfast" and "clothes" to wear.

Jonathan turned six last week. We had a fun birthday filled week starting on Monday. The kids stayed home from school and Paul had the day off so we went out to birthday lunch and did presents at home. Tuesday Jonathan brought cookies to school and got to wear the "birthday crown" for the day. Thursday night Paul was working late so we went to Grandma and Grandpa's and had cake. Jonathan opened his presents from Grandma and the cake was Cynthia's first cake that she decorated all by herself. She was very proud!

Then on Saturday we had some friends and family over to play and have cake...again. We had a lot of fun!

School has Begun

2008-09-13T09:37:00.002-04:00

I have gone through my mourning period as Cynthia goes back to school and Jonathan starts Kindergarten. Jonathan's school had a fire drill the second day. He has always been sensitive to loud noises. He came home and told me about it in detail then at the end told me he started crying when it went off at first. It makes me so sad that I wasn't there to comfort him but he is gaining confidence through experiencing things on his own. He is already a different boy than before he started.
Cynthia loves 2nd grade. She seems to enjoy her teacher and has made a friend that likes to play cowboy/cowgirl with her at recess.
Emma is a bit bored at home without her older siblings. She is glued to me and really cracks me up. Her imaginary friend Trixie is always having an opinion about what we're doing. "Mommy, Trixie wants to go shopping." or "Trixie doesn't want to have rest time." It is pretty funny. She also just told me recently that she has a '"bad" friend that knows where Belchertown is but she doesn't know where our house is." She does not like this bad friend because she is mean. She is really so funny!

More Summer Fun

2008-08-18T09:38:00.002-04:00

Summer is almost over but we are pretending it's not. Cynthia learned to ride her bike and she LOVES it. She rides constantly and we have the perfect spot for her to do that. She makes Jonathan and Emma sit in lawn chairs and watch her from the driveway. I guess that's what big sisters do. Sometimes it seems as though they are her private personal "assistants"
Paul and I will be celebrating our 8th anniversary next week and plan to spend the day at the Temple. It has been way to long since we've gone and we both are looking forward to it.
Jonathan is starting Kindergarten soon and he is mostly excited to ride the bus. I am going through my usual mourning period before school starts. I miss them so much when they're at school and it feels like it is all going by so fast. I guess all I can do is try to live in the moment and enjoy them as much as I can.

Marriage

2008-07-27T20:11:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone!! We just got back from a nice but short visit to NH where Paul's lifelong friend Andrew was married on Saturday. It was a very nice day and both the weather and ceremony went very well. Andrew married Miranda who is actually from Granby, MA just around the corner from us. It was fun and Dawn and I had a good time dancing and waving to each other across the dance floor (Paul was part of the wedding party and so was seated at the head table without Dawn :( Oh well. It was a great way to see how our own lives have been touched by one another and remember how we felt on our special day almost 8 years ago. It is great to see how much we have grown together through good and challenging times, and how Love truly is remarkable. There was one thing the Priest said that I took to heart, and that was not to take each other for granted. That happens often these days and is reflected by the divorce rate in this country. Let's all remember to care for and love each other every day. Enjoy the pictures!!

Tie Dye and Rock & Roll

2008-07-15T17:45:00.002-04:00

Well, we are certainly trying to make the most of our "stay at home" vacation. Dawn and I have been working on the house like crazy unpacking and organizing etc. But since this is our "vacation" we still need breaks to have fun with the kids and each other. Today we took a long break to have a picnic in our yard and do some tie dye shirts. It was great and the shirts came out really awesome!! The kids had fun and also have been enjoying all the toys we have unpacked in our playroom. It was like Christmas for them to see all these toys they forgot about. The rock & roll part is when Jonathan asked to have a Mohawk hair cut. We saw a little boy at the mall the other night that had one and he asked if he could have one too. He is still so young and it was a simple way to make him happy so I did it. I hope you enjoy these pictures from our fun day.

Balloons!!!

2008-07-10T11:30:00.002-04:00

We went to Trader Joe's yesterday. Of course the kids all got balloons as we were leaving. I don't know what it is about balloons but kids love them so much. We got home with minimal fighting thanks to Trader Joe's gift to the kids. The moment we got out of the car Jonathan went outside and let his balloon go. He said he likes watching them float away. His sisters were flabbergasted. "Jonathan, why did you do that? You could have given it to me!" They did not understand why he would ever want to give his balloon up on purpose. He simply told them, "I wanted to give my balloon to Jesus." Cynthia wasn't convinced it would make it there. She was pretty sure it would pop first. Emma just said, "Jesus doesn't like balloons." Jonathan simply replied, "Sure He does!" and that was the end of that. It was so precious, I didn't have the heart to explain how impossible it was for the balloon to reach Jesus. For now Jonathan believes he gave His balloon to Jesus and maybe he did, any thing's possible.

Summertime and the Living is Easy?

2008-07-07T10:56:00.002-04:00

Okay, the kids have been out of school for a few weeks now and we are getting into the lazy summer groove. It is so nice to not have to rush out of the house every morning. Cynthia had a bit of a hard time getting used to no structure in her day. Now she's just as spontaneous and laid back as the rest of us.
One thing about summer that I could do without is the snakes. I've seen several Garter Snakes just walking around in the yard. It's easy for everyone to tell when I've spotted a snake by the scream. That's bad enough but on Saturday Paul and I were cleaning out the garage. I went across the street to dump out some water and there, curled up in the grass was a Water Moccasin. If you don't know what that is it's a big, fat, black, very scary looking poisonous snake. Now I don't want to go outside at all. Paul assures me that it won't come over to our yard though. (?)
Also on Saturday one of the puppies found a dead chipmunk. Paul and Cynthia were trying to catch the dog but she was not gonna give up that prize very easily. At one point she ran inside the house with it because Emma was watching through the open door. Every time she ran by me all I could do was run away and scream. I don't think Paul appreciated my lack of help. I told him after, for future reference I don't do small dead animals.
Those were our animal adventures for this weekend. I actually did do more than run around screaming on Saturday but I don't remember exactly what. In spite of all the critters that summer brings I do love it though.

No More School!!

2008-06-27T15:51:00.000-04:00

Well, summer is officially here for the kids. School got out a week ago and Dawn is both adjusting and enjoying having all of them home. Bedtime has quickly gone from 7:30 to 9pm!! Dawn and I are still hoping that one day they will magically go to bed and fall asleep all on their own! LOL! Lucy slept through the night in her crib finally and i still woke up because I was nervous that she was still asleep!

Our vacation is only a week away now and we are looking forward to it. We are going to Bushkill, PA and using our timeshare for the first time. If anyone is familiar with that area we would love to hear suggestions on what to do and where to go. The puppies are growing fast and getting into trouble too. They are becoming escape artists. We love them though. We hope all of you are doin well and hope to see you soon.

Storms

2008-06-12T15:57:00.000-04:00

Well, we had some amazing thunderstorms Tuesday night that kept us awake with non-stop lightning, and howling winds. It was fun to watch, but I was glad we were inside and safe. They did make the next couple of days much more comfortable though. We finally planted our garden last night and we shall see what the outcome will be. The kids liked helping to put the plants in the ground that Dawn had started earlier this spring. She was so excited to have a garden this year, I hope it turns out good.

Well Paul ended up getting first place in his sales contest at work, and we are so happy because we need that money!!! LOL! It was a good feeling for him though, and he loves his job. Dawn is looking forward to summer with the kids and having fun with all of them at home amd where ever else they may go. We hope to see many of you in the upcoming months!

Heat Wave!!

2008-06-09T14:56:00.001-04:00

Well, it certainly feels like summer now!! I put all the AC units in this weekend, and learned that only one 15 amp circuit runs almost half the house!! Needless to say we can't have all 3 AC's running at once. Oh well, we will survive!!! The dogs are feeling it too. We try to keep them in the basement as much as possible since it is a lot cooler down there. We are still awaiting the results of Paul's sales contest to see if he won anything. He was supposed to find out this Tuesday, but the meeting has now been postponed until Thursday. His boss still will not tell anyone the outcome! Oh well, patience is a virtue right? And Paul needs to be reminded of that everyday!!!! LOL!!

My Little Man

2008-06-06T11:13:00.000-04:00

I have to share this with y'all because I think it is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. When I got up for work yesterday Jonathan was already awake. He was on the couch and trying to tell me something, but I'm not always very alert in the morning. Then he told me again and walked me over to the kitchen "I made toast for mommy dad". And he really had!! After I left he later told Dawn "I made you toast mom, but it's cold now. I was going to get cereal for the kids but I couldn't find any". He has been so amazingly helpful lately. For those of you that know him, he is a very caring boy and I hope he stays that way. He has been trying to help with many things lately and enjoys feeding the puppies. I just thought this was a great story to tell. We must be doing something right as parents!!

As for the girls, the recently moved into their new room that Dawn and I worked so hard on only to find out they don't seem to like it very much!! Emma says she is scared and Cynthia doesn't want to be in there alone. All the girls slept in Jonathan's room last night! Lucy in her crib of course, and Emma and Cynthia slept on the floor. Kids are so funny. Cynthia said she will stay in her room if Lucy is in there, so we will have to try that and see how it goes. Just another day at the Picards!!

Day 1 of Blog

2008-06-05T17:08:00.000-04:00

Well hello there! I tried doing this a while back with a family website but it did not seem to work so well, so I am trying this again. Many friends have done this and it is a great way to see what everyone is up to. We have been very busy lately and as usual 3 out of the 6 of us are sick with another round of strep throat. It just keeps coming back!!

Sales have not been what we had hoped for this year but it seems to be getting better. It is just very nerve racking for us since we bought our house back in February. We love it, but it is more costly than we had imagined. Everyone has told us the first year is the hardest and I hope this is true!

On the other hand we are so blessed to have each other. Dawn and I still make each other laugh like no one else can. We have the same sense of humor and can make the other laugh with a single word sometimes. She is such an amazing Mom and works so hard with our kids. She teaches me patience on a daily basis.

It is hard to be away from home so much with work related things, but that's my job, to provide for my family and I am doing the best that I know how to do just that. I still love my job and I know that sales is the perfect fit for me. It makes me feel good knowing that I am an honest trustworthy salesperson and I think people can really see that when I am in their homes.

The kids "activities" have slowed down a little and we are looking forward to summer. They only have a couple of weeks left and I know they are excited too. We plan on taking a few trips to New Hampshire to visit family and probably the beach while we are there. We are supposed to go to Pennsylvania as well this year for our big vacation. Hopefully we can save enough to pay for the gas!!

Anyway, please feel free to write us and let us know how you are doing too. We hope to see all of you soon!

-Paul