Walking with the dinosaurs!

Today we went to a show called Walking with the Dinosaurs. It is based on the BBC series Chased by Dinosaurs, which takes you back in time to the dinosaurs. It is pretty educational (although, I really wonder how accurate this stuff is. I mean how much info can you get from bones and tracks?) and the boys love it. The live show has a narrator which walks you through the different periods. I kept waiting for Ross from the tv show Friends to pop in. The dinosaurs are life sized figures which sound and move the way you would guess dinosaurs sounded like. The tickets were expensive, it was loud, but I LOVED it!! Pete actually fell asleep at one point. I can not fathom how. Christopher even liked it, but also fell asleep towards the end. He slept through the meteor blast, which is amazing, because at home he will wake up if you flush the toilet in the bathroom beneath his room. Maybe we can get a dinosaur soundtrack to play while he sleeps. The pictures I took were from far away so came out a bit blurry. The video sort of came out.

My five guys waiting for the show to start:

Grandma Liz and Vincent:

Christopher and I:
It really did look life-like in person!

Hanging with cousins Peter and Gian afterwards. Impossible to get 6 kids to look at the camera! Actually, it looks like Zach is the only one looking at the camera. Oh well.

Fantasy of Lights--round 2

One of our Holiday traditions is to go to the Fantasy of Lights. It is a large light display in one our local parks that you drive through while listening to Christmas music. We usually go early in the season, but time go away from us this year. I decided I wanted to do it the Sunday night before Christmas. Pete said No, the line would be too backed up, that would be a popular night. I insisted and off we went. Traffic was backed up down a side street, so in line we got, figuring it was probably a 30 minute wait. Ten minutes into our wait we realized we were low on gas and made the mistake of mentioning it out loud where Zach heard it. Zach started to freak out. Well, after we had been in line for 30 minute we passed a sign that said 30 more minutes wait! So much for that. We pulled out of line, went to the gas station, then went home. Pete was right, too crowded. I hate it when he is right!! So, we went again last night, a Thursday. We waited about 5 minutes before getting in! It was great! These pictures don't do it justice, but here are some.
The dinosaurs were very cool and roared!
Nothing says the holidays like a tooth with a Santa hat!

Loved the pirate ship!
Next year we will definietly go earlier!!

We have a full table!

Tonight Christopher sat at the dinner table (instead of his high chair) for the first time! He was thrilled to be closer to the action, and we now officially have a full table. I guess Grandma Liz will have to sit in the high chair when she visits!

Such a big boy!

Another milestone reached tonight--Joey learned how to unbuckle his car seat! He is thrilled! Almost as thrilled as Zach who was in charge of setting Joey free after every car trip.

Merry Christmas!!

I can't believe Christmas is almost over. Wasn't it just Thanksgiving? We had a great day. Vincent and Joey slept until 6 am, an improvement over last year. They woke up Zach at 6:30. Christopher, who usually is up by 6 at the latest, slept until 7 am!! Why can't he always do that!? Santa was very generous at the Contini household.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there!

The carnage after. This probably took less than an hour. I wanted to do our family Christmas photo in matching pj's. Pete put his foot down on the idea, despite agreeing to it last year. Why? I think this looks adorable! So there Pete! I am posting it here!

Christmas carols with the Contini boys!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Joey's "Winter Program"

Today was Joey's Winter Program. It was adorable and he did great. Zach's teacher let him come over and watch.

Joey at the program:

He said his line loud and clear!!
Here is a video clip of the "Shoemakers Dance"

Zach and Joey

Joey with his teacher, Mrs. Jung, who he loves!

Happy Birthday Zachary!

Today is Zachary's 9th birthday! I can't believe I have a 9 year old. Here are some things about Zachary.

--Zachary was my earliest baby (5 weeks early), but my biggest baby at 6# 13 oz.
--He is the best big brother ever! He can be a big help, especially with Christopher.
--He has the most beautiful, full lips-women pay money to get lips like his.
--He loves to read. He is currently reading the 3rd Harry Potter.
--He gets very concerned when someone gets hurt and always runs over to help
--He is great at karate- he will be getting his black belt this spring
--He loves to learn and is interested in so many different things.
--He gets so worked up watching sports on TV, we sometimes have to turn off the game.
--He has an incredible memory. We watch reality shows on TV like Amazing Race, and he can always keep straight all the people and what order they were eliminated.
--Although he loves to read, he does not like to write much and has pretty bad penmanship. Perhaps he will be a doctor!
--He is very observant. He frequently notices if I am wearing something new.
--He is a great all around kid!!



Happy Birthday Zachary!! We love you!

Octopus don't fit down the drain!

Christopher likes to pull off the drain cover while he is in the shower. Most recently he has taken to trying to shove things down the drain. A few days ago he put a pirate down the drain, never to be seen again. This morning he shoved an octopus down the drain. He was stuck there just out of reach. Pete brought some clamp home from the office and we were able to reach and get it out. We have now cleaned all the toys out of the shower that have any chance of fitting!

Octopus in the drain:


Who me? I didn't do it!


On a side note, we have been having a problem with static electricity lately:

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 63. He passed away less then 2 months ago after being ill for long time with heart failure. I thought about him alot today and wanted to post some pictures. This is the last time we saw him in September, with all 6 of his grandsons for the first time: With my sister and I:

This is my dad with Joey back in 2002. I love this picture of them both. I want to remember him looking like this.
Tonight we lit some candles for his birthday. The boys each talked about what they remember about Grandpa George. We then sang happy birthday and blew out the candles.

Happy Birthday Daddy. I love you and miss you.

Rite of Acceptance

This fall I have been participating in RCIA- Right of Christian Initiation of Adults. It is the process to convert to Cathloicism. Today was the Right of Acceptance. I had no idea what to expect, which was very difficult for me. I don't like surprises and I especially do not like to be the center of attention. All I was told was to make sure I had a jacket because part of the cermony would be outside. The ceremony started with us outside while mass staryed. Then the entire church came outside and surrounded us. We had to lay on our hand on a cross and declare our intentions. Fr Larry spoke and involved the entire parish in the ceremony. Christopher started to pitch a fit because he could see me and wanted me to hold him. Fr. Larry had him come up and I ended up holding him the entire time. We then went inside the church and the ceremony continued. My sponsors ( my bil and sil Mike and Lisa) were up there with me. It was really stepping outside my comfort zone to be in front of the entre church for such an extended period of time, but it was a beautiful and touching ceremony. Peter tried to take pictures, but didn't really get any good shots. This is pretty much it:

This is outside the church

Laying my hand on the cross.

Can't really see me though.

Random pictures

This is what I found on our gingerwood house:

The cholcolate kisses are dissapearing from their wrappers. I have questioned the kids. Turns out the chocolate thief is my biggest kid, my husband Pete. One was missing before he started to pilfer, but no one else will fess up!

Here is a picture of Vinnie who fell asleep while playing with his cars.

At times I am so desperate to get things done, I let Christopher tear apart my tupperware cupboard:

This is at 5:30 am. He has taken to

getting up early now. Ughh!

We have had a breakthough!!

We have been having sleeping problems with Vinnie the last few months. Lack of sleeping problems, actually. He has taken to waking up at 4:30 am, hungry and ready to eat breakfast. This started before the time change so we can't completely blame it on that. We have tried bringing him in bed with us, begging, and losing tempers ( well, mine). Nothing has worked. We finally decided that maybe he needed to stop napping during the day, so stopped those a few weeks ago. This has left us with one exhausted boy by 6 pm! He falls asleep early, but we poke him and feed him in an attempt to keep him up. We desperately try to keep him up until close to 8 pm. Pete says this is bordering on child abuse. I think if continues waking up so early there will be some real child abuse happening!! Here is Vinnie falling asleep.



He fell asleep on our couch during a very noisy
end-of-the-year soccer party. We had 8 screaming 5 year olds in the house at the time.
















Minutes before the Disneyland Parade. I spent half the parade shaking him in a desperate attempt to wake him up.















This happened while he was rolling around on the floor with Christopher. We just left him here until we were ready to take him up to bed. The kids were just playing around him like he was an inanimate object.






But we have had a breakthrough!! He slept until 6:30am the last 2 mornings! Woo Hoo!! Tonight he actually stayed up until 8 pm. I hope this means his whacked out clock has been reset. Now if we could just straighten out Christopher's sleeping habits!

Our Gingerwood House

The kids and I decorated our gingerwood house over Thanksgiving weekend. A gingerwood house is like a gingerbread house, but made of wood and is permanent. It is pretty cool. I learned you really do have to make the frosting stiff or it slides off the house taking all the candy with it. Other then that, the kids had a blast and so did I!

Here it is before frosting.

Frosting sliding off

Christopher eating the candy

Our finished product!!

( I took several pictures of all the boys with the house. This was actually the best one of the bunch. Oh well)