a few Therese-isms :)

"White blood cells attack bacteria.  And if they're losin', your mom can give you medicine to help them win."

"I want to be Italian like you're Italian, Daddy.  Timmy doesn't want to be Italian, just American... because he doesn't want to twirl his spaghetti."

"If Timmy gets drafted by Philadelphia, that will just mean that God wants us to be Flyers fans."

"I'm allergic to toilet paper.  If I blow my nose in it before I go to bed, I have bad dreams."
(Timmy: "Therese... you don't know what you're talking about.")

"Does God know phonics? ... Well, why can't HE correct Timmy's phonics, and you can do this with me!"

"Mommy, can I have a treat?  You can say yes or no.  But if you say yes, I will love you."

While painting a Baby Jesus ornament with topcoat: "Mary used to do this, right? ...Put a topcoat on baby Jesus to keep Him warm?"

"The only weather I like is plain hot, super hot, and sweat." (Not related to her mother on that one. ;) )

Timmy: "Look at those two cows wrestling!"
Therese: "I think they're playing train."

Batt kids at Christmas

Mommy had some fun with the camera and the kiddos! :)

Birthday Party in Buffalo!

We went to Buffalo for Ryan's family birthday party a few days after his real birthday... some of his aunts and uncles, as well as his grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-aunts stopped by to celebrate. :) We'll be posting some really nice pictures on the Facebook album, but these are a few of Ryan having fun. :)

Thank you, Jesus, for our little Ryan!! May he have many, many more happy birthdays. :)

Had to have a Harold and the Purple Crayon theme.... Ryan looks so much like Harold! :)

Cake is SOOOO much fun!!!! :)

Ryan turns 1!

We had a double celebration for Ryan's 1st birthday, because it was also Daddy's promotion day! So we brought the cake to work and enjoyed it after the promotion ceremony. :) Congratulations Ryan and Daddy! :)

The reason they are laughing in this picture is because Mommy just slammed Daddy's new rank on, like an experienced Army wife. ;)

In the Leaves

A couple of days ago, I got some good shots of the kids out back. A good thing, too, because two days later the tree they were playing in lost most of its leaves. They had so much fun! H0pefully we'll get a few more good fall pics outside b/f the snow hits... several more maple trees are still in the process of turning colors. :)

For some reason, the blog looks funny today. The words are all along the sides of the old pics I posted, instead of beneath or above them as they were earlier. Weird.

Fun in the Garden

I took these pictures of Ryan yesterday, in and around our very own pumpkin patch. ;) It was the first time he's ever seen pumpkins (since he was a newborn, anyway) and he thought they were amazing. Then... he thought they were balls. ;)

The pictures probably look better if you click on them for full-size... these look kind of grainy, but they are quite clear full-size.








He found a baby-sized pumpkin and didn't want to put it down!



Ryan liked crawling around the pumpkin patch... the little prickers on them didn't seem to bother him at all. Many of the leaves were destroyed by a fungus, but the pumpkins themselves survived.

Happy to help with pumpkin picking! :)

A New Chapter

So... the blogging chapter of our lives begins. ;) We're probably behind the times on this whole blogging thing, but we thought it might be a nicer way of sharing family updates and photos than plain old email. I decided to go with a pumpkin theme (ok, as if those of you who know me well couldn't see that coming ;) ) since we are always calling the kids "punkins" -- which is oddly appropriate, considering they were all born in the fall... Oct, Nov, and Dec. (Yes... even Therese Marie managed to come with 5 days left in the official fall season. ;) )

Pretty new to all of this, but it should be fun...! God bless you, and thanks for tuning into our blog. :)