Christmas "Card" 2010

(Hmmmm, never posted this last Christmas, but thought it was worth doing, before I finish this year's update!  Sorry, went ahead with only a couple pictures, just to get it posted!)

It's official. I've decided to go digital with our Christmas card and send out a Christmas post instead. It seems that once again, Christmas is around the corner and there are no more white spaces left on the calendar for me to find the time to get a Christmas picture done & printed, or to sit, write, address, stamp, stuff and lick the envelopes. So my procrastinatingly, hectic life, basketball mom, chauffeur, toddler time apologies to all of you who will be receiving my cyber space Christmas post. The boxes of Christmas cards sit on the table nearby, (they were nice too) and perhaps I'll get to send them out next year! (Ha! Who am I kidding?! It's only gonna get busier...but the busier the better because it is full of blessings!)

Family at GCC!

Here's what we've been up to in 2010:

PHIL & DENISE

We have been thoroughly enjoying life with baby! It has been fun to watch her accomplish all her "firsts" and reminisce about Darla and Micah when they were her age. They have both been wonderful siblings to Clara and it is a joy to see them interact with and care for her!

We took a few family trips over the year. Two to Virginia. The first, sadly, to attend the funeral of Dave, our Best Man. It was a blessing that we could go, catch up with old friends and be reminded of the impact others have in our lives. It was amazing to see and hear about the testimony Dave had and the lives he touched. We are glad to have had the privilege of knowing him and praise the Lord that he is now in glory!

Our second trip to Virginia, was our annual vacation with Phil's folks at his brother Steve's house in Virginia Beach. We enjoyed the yearly trek to the water park down the street, the beach, and even a sunset cruise on a tall ship! It was a great time relaxing with family and enjoying watching as Clara learned to push her little walker around. On our return trip home we made several stops to visit some old friends from college and seminary before a brief stay in N. Wildwood for July 4th!

The rest of the summer was put on hold when I fell with Clara and ended up in the hospital for 10 days and 3 casts for 4-6 weeks! That was a rough time. Thanks to my Mom, who basically lived with us for 5 weeks (and Dad who let her!), and our amazing church family who provided meals and more, we all came through unscathed survived! I've got a nice huge scar to show for it and a couple "football" injuries that now ache when it rains, but that is all much better than living in the dining room with a hospital bed in place of the table! It is hard to believe that it all happened, but I've got pictures to prove it:) Clara and I had a race to see who would walk first without assistance...she won...what an overachiever!

My fall has been busy with weeks and weeks of physical therapy while juggling naptime and the kid's schedules. In addition, I've continued to co-teach our Ladies' Bible Study and started helping out with the Senior High Girl's Bible study too. Phil and I have also started to work with the young adults in our church. We've been attending the Sunday school where we've been viewing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace videos, which have been a timely study for us as well. In the evenings we've been organizing meals and activities with the group which has been a lot of fun!

The Kids

DARLA

Darla will be 15 in less than a month! Wow?! It seems like yesterday when she looked like Clara...sniff...sniff...sniff.... This past year she graduated from 8th grade with high honors and an impressive amount of awards! We are so proud of her accomplishments, but even more so of the Christian character she has demonstrated in school, church and at home. Over the summer she was awarded for memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism and she went on her first mission trip on her own with the senior high youth group to Georgia. There she was challenged in many areas of construction as their team helped restore several homes for needy families.

This past year Darla said good-bye to braces (round two!) and hello to contacts before starting high school!  She is the type of person who looks quite different in glasses, so much so, that several people have not recognized her!  She is growing up to become quite a beautiful young lady and enjoyed her first semi-formal dance at school just this week.  She continues to play piano and was approached to play saxophone for the school band, which she has been enjoying.  It has been a busy year for her with her involvement in community theater, school activities, church events, academics and athletics.  We enjoyed a trip to Grove City College for my 20th reunion over homecoming and Darla expressed interest in attending - with her resume thus far, she should be good to go!

MICAH

Micah has been having a great year of transition too as he started at a new school.  He graduated from Grace Christian school, which he loved immensely, and is now attending Plumstead too, which he seems to like just as much!  He has made immediate friends, helped start a ping-pong club, plays percussion in the band, and is looking forward to playing basketball and tennis - all in all a great 7th grade year!  He has been excelling academically, as well, which is good for him since he's having to follow in his sister's footsteps!

A highlight of Micah's year was performing as Edmund in the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with Theater & Kids.  What a thrill to land a lead right out of the gate and he did a great job with the part, we are so proud of him!  He's been bitten by the acting bug and is now rehearsing for his role as the professor in Little Women at PCS.

CLARA

At 16 months, Clara is quite an active toddler!  She is very friendly and sociable, which was quite obvious when her first word was "Hi!", accompanied with a very enthusiastic wave that has since morphed into a cute princess wave.  Her other favorite words are uh-oh, baby, ow (for meow), bye, baaallll, dada and when she gives kisses she makes a ma sound.  She loves toting her baby doll around, giving her hugs and kisses.  She is an avid "reader" - she just loves to sit and look at books.  Her stubborn streak comes out when we actually try to read the books to her, she likes to be in control of the pages!

Overall, Clara has really been an easygoing baby.  She is content in her crib, highchair, carseat, and play yard and she calms down easily with the magic CD (Sounds Like Fun from Discovery Toys...worked for all the kids!).    She goes down easily for naps and bedtime and usually doesn't mind being dropped off at the nursery for church or MOPS.

Happy Birthday Cupcake!

It has been an amazing year watching Clara grow and develop into this little person on the verge of walking! She is pretty much in full control of her walker as she zooms around the house, making course corrections as needed to turn corners and avoid furniture. Her favorite activity is taking laps pushing her walker or holding tightly to one finger as someone strolls with her. When confined to her play yard, she holds on with her left hand as she walks the perimeter, climbing over the toys she has strewn on the floor like a little obstacle course.

Her personality is so sweet and adorable too! She's gone from those accidental smiles that amuse us to belly laughs of delight when we amuse her. She is gaining in confidence as she tries out new things with this body of hers: attempting to stand up without pulling up on anything, shaking her head to make her self dizzy, or trying to look through her legs without tumbling over! She is curious about herself and the world around her: discovering her belly button and then watching her belly move in and out, picking up my shirt to see what's underneath (as well as any unsuspecting person with a loose T-shirt that sits her on their lap!), or pulling at her ears and wondering why there isn't anything in them when she looks at her hands!

Naturally, Clara seemed to thoroughly enjoy her birthday. She just loved the attention throughout the day. She even got to go swimming in her birthday suit...how appropriate! It was her first time in our pool and, though she seemed a bit hesitant at first, after donning her cute swimsuit and sitting in her ladybug raft with a sun canopy, she seemed to enjoy the water.

Tradition in our family is to go out to dinner on one's birthday, so we took Clara to Applebee's on our way down to the shore. Clara is a real meat and potatoes kinda girl, so she really enjoyed some of my grilled chicken and veggies. At present time, she delighted in peeking in the gift bags, tearing up the tissue paper and pulling out her toys! She was not sure why all the strangers gathered around her to sing, but she gave them a little smile when they were done. We let her try a few tastes of dessert for her birthday. After she got a fist full of whip cream, she examined it before giving her fingers a lick and delicately putting her pointer finger back in the sundae for more. She was a bit shocked at first when she got a taste of the cold ice cream, but she must have enjoyed all the new tastes and sensations since she cried when it was all done!

Our little cupcake is no longer a baby, but a toddler full of personality, adventure, independence and curiosity. We look forward to another year of growth and development as she learns and discovers new things each day!

**********UPDATE**********

On Saturday, the day after her birthday, while playing with all the cousins, she decided it was time to officially start walking. Within minutes, she went from taking a couple of steps to toddling clear across the room! Her siblings and cousins enjoyed tiring her out by seeing who she would walk to, how many steps she would take and having her toddle to each of them to give a cuddle! Later, she enjoyed her first taste of fish (yum!) and birthday cake (double yum!) This time 'round she throughly enjoyed our rendition of Happy Birthday!

Clara's One Year Portrait

Today we went to Target to have Clara's one year portrait done. For each child's 1st birthday we have gotten a special picture of them sitting in my Grandmother's antique rocker. My Great-Great-Grandfather made the rocker when he worked at Van Sciver's Furniture Co. in Camden, NJ in the late 1800's. In the mid 1900's Grandmom re-covered it with her needlepoint. Below are some of our favoites from todays sitting. Enjoy!

Star Wars Movie Party

This past Saturday our family got decked out in our Star Wars regalia to attend Micah's 12th birthday party! We had rented an old, 1924, beautifully refurbished theater about 20 minutes away. The Grand Theater was the perfect spot to have a gathering of many Jedi, Sith, Padme, Clones, Darth Vader, Captain Rex, Han Solo, Princess Leahs and even an ear muff coiffed MomMom!
With light saber in hand Micah greeted his guests dressed in his tan Snuggie, which should of won an Oscar for its portrayal of a Jedi robe. I must say he looked the part and lived up to his Star Wars Jedi name, Moomi. One of the other mothers thought her son had spelled Mooney wrong when he corrected her by informing his mom that Moomi was Micah's Jedi name!

Goes to show ya that this was the perfect year to pull off a party like this. I was skeptical that 11, 12 and 13 year old boys would be interested in coming in costume, but they proved me wrong as they paraded around the theater, some in full costume and face paint!

The theater was quite accommodating to a party of nutty Star Wars fans, a frazzled mom and baby Clara who refused to nap because she was so intent on watching the movie! If you live in the area I would highly recommend such an event. We hardly filled a few rows, so it would be a great venue for a fundraiser or bigger showing. Check out The Grand Theater for your next party! The prices are so much nicer than the huge complexes. When's the last time you paid $2.75 for a reasonably sized bucket of popcorn?! Their regular showings, which are usually a bit behind the complexes, run $3 for matinees and $5 for the evening shows! I do believe we will be returning in the future:)

As many of you may know, every year I attempt some sort of themed birthday cake. Last year we had a Star Wars: The Clone Wars game party, so I combined two of Micah's loves for the cake: Star Wars & Monopoly. I made a cake that looked like a pair of dice and set it in the middle of our Star Wars Monopoly game board.

This year, Micah requested the Millennium Falcon. Uh, I don't think so! I knew that, with the baby, my fingers and back would not hold up to that task. When I mentioned that the Millennium Falcon might be out of my league this year, Micah readily offered his next idea: crossed light sabers. Now we're talkin' - that I could do! Apparently, so could he as you can see Micah's handiwork on the birthday cupcakes below.

Naturally, things couldn't go that easily! When big sis heard that I was only making cupcakes, she was shocked that I wasn't making a cake for her brother's 12th birthday. Feeling slightly guilty for not living up to traditional birthday expectations, I attempted to determine where Micah stood on the issue. He tried to make me feel okay with the cupcake decision (what a sweet boy!), but I could tell he would have rather had a more special dessert.

Having purchased everything I needed to do the cupcakes and running out of time before the event to come up with a replacement cake, I decided to be a little adventurous with what I had. Micah helped create the light sabers, while I worked on R2-D2!

This little guy was worth the effort when Micah gave me a huge hug and exclaimed how cool R2 looked. He was so excited about the outcome, that I was thrilled I had taken a little more time to make something for which he was so proud and thankful. Hey, I'm no Cake Boss, and given more time and the correct supplies, I could have done a much better job, but I sure felt like I had created the ultimate masterpiece for Micah!

Micah was so excited about R2 that he wanted to save him for a special treat after the party. He was quite downhearted when I had to break the news to him that R2-D2 had survived many battles in Star Wars, but he had not survived the trek home from the party.

Poor R2

Micah was a good sport and enjoyed eating R2 just the same!

(What a good actor - he really looks sad!)

Although the loss of R2-D2 was hard to . . . swallow, this ranks as one of our family's favorite birthday events!

Micah's 12th Birthday

Today was Micah's 12th birthday! It is hard to believe that he is almost a teenager. Each year we let the kids pick where they want to go to dinner on their birthday. Every year Micah has chosen Chuck E. Cheeses. This is a truly monumental birthday as we celebrated the event at Olive Garden this evening. He really is growing up . . . sniff . . . sniff.

Micah enjoying his birthday shake.

Cuddling with Clara:)

She's not getting big bro's instructions for Mario Cart!

Sportin' a bib plus a silly grin for Micah.

So proud of each other!

Clara's Baptism

Clara Faye Mooney was baptized on Sunday, November 29, 2009

She did very well during the service. She was looking around at everyone wondering what was going on. No tears, just smiles:) She also behaved very nicely at her luncheon...she slept the whole time while the rest of us enjoyed the Chinese buffet! We had her baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving so all of her Grandparents could be present for the sacrament and festivities!

Enjoying her post Baptism photo shoot sans bonnet.

Awwwww!

The Girls

The McNulty Clan

The Mooney Clan

Life Between Nursing has been busy. Clara is now 6 months old and if I can figure out how to use my camera with the new laptop, then I'll be able to post some current pictures. Oh well, such is life. I'll have to wait to Mr. Computer-Geek-Hubby is home to show me how:) Clara is calling for me...