March Maddness

It has been a whirlwind of activity these past couple of months in the Patsch household. We had to say goodbye to Gracie at almost 13 years old, which was emotional for everyone. This is a great book, if you ever have to explain a dog passing to your kids. We then set off for New Paltz, New York to visit Oma and Opa and actually made it into the city with Hudson and Larkin! After that we had our first real snow of the season here in Crozet, complete with school cancelled, snowmen, and sledding. The next day it was 65 degrees and all the snow melted, but at least we had that day! Gracie's passing prompted a total redesign of our office. We painted the walls, ripped up our disgusting carpet, and Gregor installed wood floors (yes, he is sooo handy... he even managed to finish the floors after he had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled!). My mom and mikie came in for the weekend and helped us finish up the office (yay Designer Debi and Super Handy Mikie... you did a fantastic job!) just in time for Larkin's 6th Birthday Party (Cheerleaders and Cupcakes... yes, Larkin picked that theme herself). After all my stress and anxiety that the office wouldn't be done and the call for thunderstorms all day, Larkin's party was actually a great success. The girls were all sooo adorable! Click on the Patsch Videos Link to see some of the Cheer Videos from the party. Finally, we wrapped up the maddness with Gregor's 34th birthday yesterday, complete with a birthday breakfast at Cracker Barrel, throwing rocks at Sugar Hollow, and dinner out. All in all a success!

Larkin's story

Larkin is really loving writing stories right now. She is especially into "me and my family" stories... I love that she is writing these and I'm so proud of how far her letters and pictures have come BUT every time she reads them I correct her and say "my family and I" ...why can't I get over this and just enjoy her work! It should be my family and I like this or that right?!? She argues with me and says her teacher says me and my sister like ice cream (or whatever) is correct! That's not correct is it?Now I'm second guessing myself. Why can't they teach the correct english from the get go!

Happy 2nd Birthday Nellie!

Happy 2nd Birthday Nellie!!

(back on Jan. 15, 2012)

Nellie celebrated with her family and friends in a Caillou themed bash at our house last Sunday complete with homemade candles and cake pops made by Larkin and Brooke and chicken parmigiana from our local Mona Lisa pasta (super yummy). The party ended with an all out dance party (as many of our days do) with girls dancing on the island in the kitchen and some break dancers spinning on the floor.

Nellie had a blast as the center of attention and loved that Caillou was on everything from her plate to her shirt. She can't get enough of that little bald four year old. That shirt may have to mysteriously disappear as she wants to wear it every single day. Luckily (for me at least), her Caillou party might have marked the end of her caillou era... she's now on to angelina ballerina and curious george (thankfully). Nellie is getting so big! She's 24 pounds and I forget how tall... but she's continuing the trend of tall and lanky Patsch kids.

Nellie loves to laugh. She is a pro at knock knock jokes (ok... they don't make any sense but she has the back and forth right and knows that they are supposed to be funny), and she will walk around begging someone to "tickle me! tickle me!" She has so much to say... and has been talking about this party to anyone who will listen all week. Nellie is really into babies and dressing up like "princess nellie" complete with a big pink tutu and hudson or larkin's swim cap can goggles on top of her head. I keep trying to get a good picture of this one, but recently she's decided the camera is evil.

Happy Birthday Nellie!! You are seriously adorable, hilarious, stubborn, sweet, and makes everyday special. xoxoxoxo

Ahhh...peace for 10 minutes

Can you blame me for driving around our neighborhood for a few extra minutes of peace and quiet. Nellie didn't transfer into her crib for a nap and Brooke woke up as soon as I pulled into the driveway. My 10 minutes of peace for the day....it's just not enough these days.

Ballet Party!

Here are a few pics from Brooke's Ballet Party! Thanks Deirdre for the photos.... my camera was of course dead. There is something special about girls and ballet at this age... seriously cute.

Christmas Photos

Christmas photos!!

This year we decided to have a secret santa gift exchange before we left for Hilton Head to visit family for the holidays. We all drew names and had a big adventure at target with a $20 limit. It was so cute to see what everyone picked out for their person. Hudson won the best gift award with this giant teddy bear that he picked out for Brooke. I think it was her favorite gift of all! Her face when she opened it was priceless! All in all, I think it w

as really successful. I wanted the kids to get excited about giving gifts as well as getting gifts... and with so many of us in the family, I thought it was a good tradition to start and continue as they get older. We left for hilton head on thursday and got to see all my extended family. I think there are close to 30 of us in all now. I can't believe how all my cousins have grown. Brittany (the cute blond in the pictures) is now 25... hard to believe at

her age I had had 2 weddings and was pregnant with my first baby! A few of my cousins are now in college and high school... uggh... my kids are getting older, my cousins are now adults... I must be in denial that I'm getting older too!

Hilton Head was so fun. The little cousin bonding between my kids and my brother's kids (Ronan and Isla) was adorable to watch. It always makes me wish we lived closer to them. That picture with Hudson's arm around Ronan melts my heart. Hudson loved having someone to play Lego's with and bond over Star Wars. I wonder who Isla is going to gravitate to... she's right between Nellie and Brooke in age. Brandon and Cat had those adorable pj's (Ronan and Isla had matching ones as well) and looked like the perfect family with their 2 kids and one on the way.

The picture with everyone looking at the laptop is Christmas morning when we were watching the video we got of Santa Coming down the Chimney! Seriously... we captured him passing out all the presents! Watching this video was the BEST part of Hudson's Christmas. None of us can believe that we actually SAW SANTA! I will try to figure out a way to put it on here as well... I think this video was the highlight of my Christmas as well. There was so much holiday spirit involved in the setting up and anticipation of this video. Loved it. Thanks Brandon for making it so special. All in all, I think it was an unforgettable Christmas, totally worth the 11 hours it took to drive to and from Hilton Head. My family is so loud and funny... I hope all my kids stay as close as my mom and her siblings have. It really is a special group of people. I wonder if 50 years from now, it will be Gregor and me surrounded by all our kids, grandkids, and great grandkids... I sure hope so.

3 more

ok.. I can't help posting these... 2 more videos of Larkin when she was 3 yrs old (Hud would be 5) and one of hud when he was 4.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Birthdays

Hudson and Brooke had their birthdays yesterday, 8 and 4 years old respectively. I will get photos up soon of their fun parties (Tubing for Hudson and Ballet Party for Brooke) as well as christmas etc. In the mean time the kids and I were looking back through some of our old videos... they all wanted to see what they looked like at Nellie's age (she will be turning 2 on Sunday January 15th). I put a couple of them below. They are all so adorable at 2 (good think they are cute at this age... because they sure are punks in their attitudes)! I put one of baby nellie there too to remind me how tiny she used to be not even 2 years ago! I started to realize that hudson is going to be driving in 7 years and off to college in only 10 years, which these days doesn't seem long at all (of course that would make me 44 and that is just scary).



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo PrintingHudson turns 2 with a party at our house. We had no friends at the time... so it was only us. Oh how things were different for Hudson back then.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo PrintingLarkin seems so grown up already at 2 years old. Singing songs, talking to us, hiking on her own in sugar hollow. I think by this time we had a few friends to invite over to our house to celebrate her big day.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo PrintingI don't have a video of Brooke's 2nd birthday. I don't know how that happened (third child I guess). But this was taken just a day or two after her birthday. Look how long Larkin's hair is!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo PrintingIt seems like yesterday that nellie was this tiny little wiggle worm. I miss having a tiny baby around (although I don't miss waking up all through the night to feed her).