October

!!!!!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!!!!!
Before checking out our Halloween costumes, take a walk down Muppet Memory Lane...

Mahna Mahna himself & a Snowth... but where's the other Snowth you may ask!?

And no, we're not jaundiced. We're wearing yellow lipstick.

One tired little Muppet.
And a super smoochable one!
As you can tell by Nick's petite stature we clearly just don't feed them enough... so they started begging for food.
Doing crabs with Pop-Pop.
(in Adriennese, crabs = crafts)

Greg introduced her to proper potty reading material.

An afternoon at Jenk's Aquarium.

Nick couldn't figure out what happened to his feet.

Apparently my whole family is in the closet.

OK, this is actually a September picture (I'm just REALLY behind these days) but it's too cute not to put up - Nick & his chiquita Mya.

He has this thing for sitting backwards.

This doesn't have emergency room visit written ALL over it.

He does manage to turn himself around sometimes. But that seems even MORE
treacherous.

Ridin' with the Worm himself, the famous Lowly.
(although it plays the Charlie Brown song - that's just confusing)
After 'driving' for a few minutes she suddenly stopped and said, "Mommy, I need my phone." I better get her an earpiece.
Saturday eve with Samantha, Kaylee & Gabby. Nick discovered that an entire tub of Legos hitting hardwood floors is fabulously deafening.
Umm, Mya... it looks like the boy is 2-timin' ya! She might have made the first
move with her hand on his leg...
... but he went right in for the kiss.

Here's the deal: If you're going to feed my kid a cookie the size of her head right
before bedtime then we're going to stay for HOW-EV-ER long it takes for her to run
it off.

Tori's (our neice / soon-to-be-goddaughter) first Greeky-Greek ceremony - her 40
Day service was on Sunday.

For the occasion we got the kids all dudded up and with a little spit & polish - they
cleaned up real nice. If I don't get another good shot between now and the
holidays, you'll be seeing this one on your Christmas card.
Trying to get a head-to-toe shot sporting her fur bolero down to her leopard shoes -
I ask her to pose & get the sucked-on-a-lemon-kinked-her-back look.
And with Aunt Keri, Aund Tammy AND Aunt Linda there was MUCH modeling throughout the day. The newest move to her repetoire... sashaying around with her hands ON her hips.
It took 31 years of dealing with all the buffoonery that comes with raising 3 boys, but it finally paid off - Gayle got her 3 girls.
Some up close & personal time with Olivia.
It might have been Tori's day but Olivia was HAMMIN' IT UP for the camera all afternoon. From her big sleepy pout...
... to a TON of smiles for ME ME ME.
By the end of the day our 2 1/2 year old was rocking quite the look - a little bit dumb-dirty-stayout, a little bit crazy-old-lady.
We all have our demons to battle.

I went to pick them up at daycare on Monday - Teresa (Adrienne's teacher) snapped these 2 gems:
Nick in full dirt-eating mode.

And Eskimo Adrienne.

Nick's first sushi...

Adrienne busting out some moves with the chopsticks.
(When this didn't quite work out she would pick up the sushi with her other hand, hold it to the end of the chopsticks & then put both in her mouth. Hey, whatever works.)

While Yiayia & the Billows Boys' girls (Keri, Laurie & moi) were at the Philoptochos luncheon getting toasty and squandering said boys' hard earned money, the guys were back at the house - BABYSITTING all 4 kids! It's the first time 'the cousins' were all together.
Not only is this the first time all 10 of us were together but we actually got a halfway decent shot of it.
So Adrienne has decided she won't lie down for diaper changes. Anyone who watches this escapade always ends up chuckling. I got that it probably looked pretty funny until I saw this picture - even through the blur. It's not funny, it's hysterical.
The next Christian Louboutin? Jimmy Choo? Manolo Blahnik? While these happen to be particularly pimp kicks, Nick is obsessed with ALL of our footwear.
I tried to edit this down to a 'good parts' version. But it's ALL too good not to share the whole thing. The only bummer is that you can't see Aunt Keri acting it out as she instructed her little protege.



Adrienne ADORES her Yiayia Lou. Actually, I think it goes both ways.
Don't make me smile for the camera after you handed me a huge spoon of cookie dough to eat. That's just WRONG.
But they did go on to make a delish batch of 'clocklacke pocketbooks' as Adrienne told Keri.
We took the kids to the house-that-is-not-to-be-discussed-until-November-14th. So this is the first unofficial, 70's style, kids-in-front-of-the-fireplace shot. All we're missing is the plaid border & some clipart of holly - there you have your Christmas picture.
Nick LOVES his Nouna...
...because she's yummy.
Uncle Glenn (or Ahh-choo as Nick calls him) & the girls disappeared upstairs for a bit... and down came Belle! I think this may be her first official "dressed up as a Disney Princess" moment.
On to the main festivities of the eve - Rock Band Night Revisited.
Glenn channeling Angus Young during a particularly hard-edged riff while Corinne was rockin' out vocals on a Sponge Bob tune.
And back on drums once again, Adrienne Grohl. Well, at least she's back until the pedal springs back and almost knocks her over.


You have your famous nude masterpieces... but creating a masterpiece IN the nude... well that's an interesting take on it.
Yet another twist on crEATing art.
And this is just dandy. A great table for little tushies. Also the perfect height for climbing as I discovered when they were left alone in the den for 30 seconds and Nick was already mounting the summit.
"Yes, this is an EMERGENCY. There's a crazy girl here stalking me - she's trying to color my face with a pink marker. For the love of all that is holy, SEND REINFORCEMENTS!"
We officially moved in to Yiayia's on October 7th. The hurricane / tornado effect took less than 48hrs to overtake the poor woman's immaculately kept home.
A lots o' love hug or choke hold? Fine line...
Our last night on Almond Drive. Liz, Ryan & Mya came by to bid us farewell...
As it turns out Mya is already on board with our plan to marry her & Nick off. It
didn't matter where he was, what he was doing or whether or not he was paying ANY attention to her - she was ALL over him!

And the very last time the kids will walk out the front door. Adrienne met the occasion with poignancy & sentimental reflection on all the incredible memories she was leaving behind while Nick discovered that pumpkins make a wonderful thudding sound when throw against cement.

Adrienne & Nick got to meet Tori & showered her with kisses - even Nick, the little
kissing machine, came over to give her a smooch after seeing Adrienne share
the love. (of course none of us were camera-ready for that cuteness...)

Tori showed all the enthusiasm of a well-seasoned Jets' fan during the game.